Bloodlines

Jill and Eddie exchanged looks. "We, um, were going to meet Micah for lunch," Jill said.

"Bring him along," said Adrian. "He can meet the family."

Micah showed up shortly thereafter and was happy to meet our other "brother." He shook Adrian's hand and smiled. "Now I see some family resemblance. I was starting to wonder if Jill was adopted, but you two kind of look like each other."

"So does our mailman back in North Dakota," said Adrian.

"South," I corrected. Fortunately, Micah didn't seem to think there was anything weird about the slip.

"Right," said Adrian. He studied Micah thoughtfully. "There's something familiar about you. Have we met?"

Micah shook his head. "I've never been to South Dakota."

I was pretty sure I heard Adrian murmur, "That makes two of us."

"We should go," said Eddie hastily, moving toward our dorm's door. "I've got some homework to catch up on later."

I frowned, puzzled by the attitude change. Eddie wasn't a bad student by any means, but it had been obvious to me since coming to Amberwood that he didn't take the same interest in the school that I did. This was a repeated year for him, and he was content to just play along and only do what was necessary to stay in good standing.

If anyone else thought his behavior was odd, they didn't show it. Micah was already talking to Jill about something, and Adrian still looked like he was trying to place Micah. Adrian's generous offer to buy lunch only extended to fast food, so our meal was quick. After a week of dorm food, though, I appreciated the change, and Adrian had long since made his views clear on Dorothy's "healthy" cooking.

"You should've just gotten a kids' meal," Adrian told me, pointing to my half-eaten burger and fries. "You could have saved me a lot of money. And gotten a toy."

'"A lot' is kind of an exaggeration," I said. "Besides, now you have leftovers to help get you by."

He rolled his eyes and stole a fry off my plate. "You're the one who should take the leftovers home. How do you even function on so little food?" he demanded. "One of these days, you're just going to blow away."

"Stop it," I said.

"Just telling it like it is," he said with a shrug. "You could stand to gain about ten pounds."

I stared at him incredulously, too shocked to even come up with a response. What did a Moroi know about weight gain? They had perfect figures. They didn't know what it was like to look in the mirror and see inadequacy, to never feel good enough. It was effortless for them, whereas no matter how hard I worked, I never seemed to match their inhuman perfection.

Adrian's eyes drifted over to where Jill, Eddie, and Micah were animatedly talking about practicing more self-defense together.

"They're kind of cute," said Adrian in a voice pitched just for my ears. He played with his straw as he studied the group. "Maybe Castile was on to something about letting her date at the school."

"Adrian," I groaned.

"Kidding," he said. "Lee would probably challenge him to a duel. He couldn't stop talking about her, you know. When we got back from mini-golfing, Lee just kept going on with, 'When can we all go out again?' And yet, he dropped off the face of the earth when he was in LA and I needed him."

"Had you made plans to meet up?" I asked. "Had he agreed to take you home?"

"No," Adrian admitted. "But what else was he really doing?"

Just then, a gray-haired man passed by, bumping into Jill's chair as he balanced a tray of burgers and sodas. Nothing spilled, but Eddie jumped to his feet with lightning speed, ready to fly across the table and defend her. The man backed up and mumbled an apology.

Adrian shook his head in amazement. "Just send him as a chaperone with whoever she goes out with, and we'll never have to worry."

Knowing what I knew now about Adrian and Jill's bond, I was able to regard Eddie's protectiveness in a different light. Oh, sure, I knew his guardian training had instilled that nature into him, but there always seemed to be something a little stronger there. Something almost... personal. At first, I'd wondered if maybe it was because Jill was just part of his larger circle of friends, like Rose. Now, I kept thinking it might go further than that. Jill had said Eddie had been the only one to try to protect her the night of the attack. He'd failed, most likely through timing and not because of a lack of skill.

But what kind of mark must that have left on him? He was someone whose sole purpose in life was to defend others - and he'd had to watch someone die on his watch. Now that Adrian had brought her back to life, was it almost like a second chance for Eddie? An opportunity to redeem himself? Maybe that's why he was so vigilant.

"You look confused," said Adrian.

I shook my head and sighed. "I think I'm just overthinking things."

He nodded solemnly. "That's why I try to never do it."

An earlier question popped into my head. "Hey, how come you told those girls your name was Jet?"

"Standard practice if you don't want chicks to find you later, Sage. Besides, I figured I was protecting our operation here."

"Yeah, but why Jet? Why not... I don't know... Travis or John?"

Adrian gave me a look that said I was wasting his time. "Because Jet sounds badass."

After lunch, we returned Adrian to Clarence's, and the rest of us went back to Amberwood. Jill and Micah went off to do their own thing, and I convinced Eddie to go to the library with me. There, we staked out a table, and I brought out my laptop.

"So, we found out something interesting when I picked up Adrian today," I told Eddie, keeping my voice library soft.

Eddie gave me a wry look. "I'm guessing the whole experience of picking up Adrian was interesting - at least from what Jill told me."

"It could've been worse," I speculated. "At least he was dressed when I got there. And there were only two other Moroi there. I didn't stumble into a sorority house full of them or anything."

That made him laugh. "You might have had a harder time getting Adrian out of there if that was the case."

My laptop screen flared to life, and I began the complicated process of logging into the Alchemists' mega-secure database.

"Well, as we were leaving, the girls he was with found out that a friend of theirs was killed by Strigoi the other night."

All humor vanished from Eddie's face. His eyes went hard. "Where?"

"In LA, not here," I added. I should've known better than to open up the conversation like that without clearly stating beforehand that he didn't need to be on the lookout for Strigoi on campus. "As far as we know, everyone's right - Strigoi don't want to hang out in Palm Springs."