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Chapter 1
ADRIAN
I WON’T LIE Walking into a roo a baby-name book can kind of make your heart stop
“I’ my words carefully “Well—actually, I as we have to do before you need to be reading that”
Sydney Sage, the aforeht of h a hint of a smile played at her lips “It’s for the initiation,” she saidher nails done or picking up groceries instead of joining a coven of witches “I have to have a ‘s”
“Right Magical name, initiation Just another day in the life, huh?” Not that I was one to talk, seeing as I was a vampire with the fantastic yet complicated abilities to heal and compel people
This tiaze Afternoon sunlight filtering through lints within them They widened in surprise when she noticed the three stacked boxes I was carrying “What are those?”
“A revolution inthem on the floor I opened the top one and unveiled a record player “I saw a sign that so them on campus” I opened a box full of records and lifted out Rumours by Fleetwood Mac “Now I can listen to music in its purest form”
She didn’t look i—which she’d named the Ivashkinator—was soital ets That was a waste of s in those boxes on my phone”
“Can you fit the other six boxes that are in my car on your phone?”
She blinked in astonishment and then turned wary “Adrian, how much did you pay for all that?”
I waved off the question “Hey, I can still make the car payment Barely” I at least didn’t have to pay rent, since the place was prepaid, but I had plenty of other bills “Besides, I’ve got a bigger budget for this kind of stuff now that so and cut back on happy hour”
“More like happy day,” she said archly “I’ out for your health”
I sat down beside her on the bed “Just like I’ out for you and your caffeine addiction” It was a deal we’dand cut back to one drink a day She’d ousted her obsessive dieting for a healthy number of calories and was down to only one cup of coffee a day Surprisingly, she’d had a harder time with that than I’d had with alcohol In those first few days, I thought I’d have to check her into caffeine rehab
“It wasn’t an addiction,” she grumbled, still bitter “More of alifestyle choice”
I laughed and drew her face to mine in a kiss, and just like that, the rest of the world vanished There were no name books, no records, no habits There was just her and the feel of her lips, the exquisite way they ed to be soft and fierce at the saht she was stiff and cold Only I knew the truth about the passion and hunger that was locked up within her—well, irl who could see inside my mind because of a psychic bond we shared
As I laid Sydney back on the bed, I had that faint, fleeting thought I always had, of how taboo ere doing was Hu when es We’d done it for safety, deciding it was best if humans didn’t know of our existence Now, my people and hers (the ones who knew about Moroi) considered relationships like this wrong and, a some circles, dark and twisted But I didn’t care I didn’t care about anything except her and the way touching her drove me wild, even as her caled within me
That didn’t htly guarded secret, one that required a lot of sneaking around and carefully calculated planning Even now, the clock was ticking This was our weekday pattern She had an independent study for her last period of the day at school, one ed by a lenient teacher who let her take off early and race over here We’d get one precious hour ofout,down on us—and then she was back to her private school, just as her clingy and vaot out of class
Somehow, Sydney had an internal clock that told her when time was up I think it was part of her inherent ability to keep track of a hundred things at once Not etting her shirt off and whether I’d get past the bra this time So far, I hadn’t
She sat up, cheeks flushed and golden hair tousled She was so beautiful that it made my soul ache I alished desperately that I could paint her in these moments and immortalize that look in her eyes There was a softness in them that I rarely saw at other times, a total and couarded and analytical in the rest of her life But although I was a decent painter, capturing her on canvas was beyond my skill
She collected her brown blouse and buttoned it up, hiding the brightness of turquoise lace with the conservative attire she liked to armor herself in She’d done an overhaul of her bras in the last h I was always sad to see them disappear, it made me happy to know they were there, those secret spots of color in her life
As she walked over to the ic within y that surrounded all living things The e of pleasure inside ht around her It was its typical self, a scholar’s yellow balanced with the richer purple of passion and spirituality A blink of the eye, and her aura faded away, as did the deadly exhilaration of spirit
She finished s her hair and looked down “What’s this?”
“Hmm?” I came to stand behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist Then, I sahat she’d picked up and stiffened: sparkling cuff links set with rubies and diamonds And just like that, the warmth and joy I’d just felt were replaced by a cold but familiar darkness “They were a birthday present froo”
Sydney held one up and studied it with an expert eye She grinned “You’ve got a fortune here This is platinum Sell these and you’d have allowance for life And all the records you want”
“I’d sleep in a cardboard box before I sold those”
She noticed the change in me and turned around, her expression filled with concern “Hey, I was just joking” Her hand gently touched ’s okay”