The Golden Lily Page 0,101

but I also just wanted a dose of normality - well, at least the kind of normality Brayden and I had together.

Plus, things with Adrian were feeling really weird...

"Oh." Adrian's smile fell. "Well. I understand. I mean, love and romance and all that."

"We're going to the textile museum," I said. "It's cool, though I'm not sure how much love and romance there'll really be there."

Adrian nearly came to a halt. "There's a textile museum here? What do people do there?"

"Well, they look at... um, textiles. There's actually a great exhibit on - " I stopped as we reached the front of the building. There, behind Latte, was a familiar car, the rental that Sonya and Dimitri were using. I looked questioningly at Adrian.

"Were you expecting them tonight?"

"No," he said, resuming his walk to the door. "They've got a key, though, so I suppose they can make themselves at home anytime. They do it a lot, actually. He eats my food, and she uses my hair stuff."

I followed him. "Hopefully it's just Dimitri."

After our recent revelations about the hunters, Sonya was pretty much under house arrest.

Or so I thought. When we walked into the apartment, she was sitting on the couch. No Dimitri in sight. She glanced up at us from her laptop.

"Thank goodness you're here," she said, directing her words to me. "Jill said you two were out and I was hoping to catch you."

Something told me no good would come out of her wanting to "catch" me, but I had greater concerns. "What are you doing here?" I asked, half-expecting hunters to come through the door. "You're supposed to be at Clarence's until you leave town."

"Day after tomorrow," she confirmed. She stood; eyes alight with whatever had driven her here. "But I needed to talk to you now - face-to-face."

"I would've come to you," I protested. "It's not safe for you to be out."

"I'm fine," she said. "I made sure I wasn't followed. This was too important." She was breathless and excited.

More important than being caught by wannabe vampire hunters? Debatable.

Adrian crossed his arms and looked surprisingly disapproving. "Well, it's too late now.

What's going on?"

"We got the results back from Sydney's blood," explained Sonya.

My heart stopped. No, I thought. No, no, no.

"Just like with Dimitri's blood, nothing physiological showed up," she said. "Nothing unusual with proteins, antibodies, or anything like that."

Relief poured through me. I'd been right. Nothing special about me, no inexplicable properties.

And yet... at the same time, I felt a tiny pang of regret. I wasn't the one who would fix everything.

"We sent it to a Moroi lab this time, not an Alchemist one," Sonya continued. "One of the researchers - an earth user - felt a hum of earth magic. Just like how Adrian and I felt spirit in Dimitri's blood. The technician had other types of magic users examine your sample, and all four basic elements were detected."

That panic returned. She had me on an emotional roller coaster, one that left me nauseous.

"Magic... in my blood?" A moment later, I understood. "Of course there is," I said slowly.

I touched my cheek. "The tattoo has vampire blood and magic in it. That's what it is. There are different degrees of charms in it from different users. That would show up in my blood." I shivered. Even with a logical explanation, it was a scary thing accepting that there was magic in my blood. Ms. Terwilliger's spells were still anathema to me, but at least there was some comfort in knowing they drew magic from outside of me. But knowing I had something internal? That was terrifying. And yet, I couldn't be surprised at this finding, not with the tattoo.

Sonya nodded along. "Yes, of course. But there must be something about that combination that's repulsive to Strigoi. It may be the key to all of our work!" To my surprise, Adrian took a few steps toward me, and there was a tension in his stance that was fiercely protective.

"So you know Alchemist blood has magic in it," he said. "That's no surprise. Case closed.

What do you want from her now?"

"Another sample to start," said Sonya eagerly. "There's none left in the original vial I took, once all the testing was done. I know this sounds strange, but it'd also be useful if a Moroi could... well, taste your blood and see if it has the same repulsive quality as it did to Strigoi.

Fresh blood would be ideal, but even I'm not deluded enough to ask you to