Maybe someday, I thought. Someday when all of Jill's problems are gone. Something told me that day was far away, however.
Although my loyalty to Spencer's was steadfast, a small French cafe caught my attention as I walked back to my car. Or rather, the scent of their coffee caught my attention. I had no obligations at school and stopped into the cafe for a cup. I had a book for English class on me and decided to do some reading at one of the cafe's small tables. Half of that time was spent texting back and forth with Brayden. He'd wanted to know what I was reading, and we were swapping our favorite Tennessee Williams quotes.
I'd barely been there for ten minutes when shadows fell over me, blocking the late afternoon sun. Two guys stood there, neither of whom I knew. They were a little older than me, one blond haired and blue eyed while the other was dark haired and deeply tanned. Their expressions weren't hostile, but they weren't friendly either. Both were well built, like those who trained regularly. And then, after a double-take, I realized I did recognize one of them. The dark-haired guy was the one who'd approached Sonya and me a while ago, claiming to know her from Kentucky.
Immediately, all the panic I'd been trying to suppress this last week came back to me, that sense of being trapped and helpless. It was only the realization that I was in a public place, surrounded by people, which allowed me to regard these two with astonishing calm.
"Yes?" I asked.
"We need to talk to you, Alchemist," said the blond guy.
I didn't twitch a muscle in my face. "I think you've got me mixed up with someone else."
"No one else around here has a lily tattoo," said the other guy. He'd said his name was Jeff, but I wondered if he'd told the truth. "It'd be great if you could take a walk with us." My tattoo was covered up today, but something told me these guys had been following me for a while and didn't need to see the lily to know it was there.
"Absolutely not," I said. I didn't even need Wolfe's reminders to know that was a terrible idea. I was staying here in the safety of the crowd. "If you want to talk, you'd best take a seat.
Otherwise, go away."
I looked back down at my book, like I didn't have a care in the world. Meanwhile, my heart was pounding, and it took every ounce of control I had to keep my hands from shaking. A few moments later, I heard the sounds of metal scraping on concrete, and the two guys sat down opposite me. I looked back up at their impassive faces.
"You've got to go inside if you want coffee," I remarked. "They don't have service out here."
"We're not here to talk about the coffee," said Jeff. "We're here to talk about vampires."
"Why? Are you filming a movie or something?" I asked.
"We know you hang out with them," said Blond Hair. "Including that Strigoi, Sonya Karp." Part of my tattoo's magic was to prevent Alchemists from revealing information about the vampire world to outsiders. We literally couldn't do it. The magic would kick in and prevent it if we tried. Since these guys seemed to already know about vampires, the tattoo wasn't going to censor my words. Instead, I chose to censor myself of my own free will. Something told me ignorance was the best tactic here.
"Vampires aren't real," I said. "Look, if this is some kind of a joke - "
"We know what you do," continued Blond Hair. "You don't like them any more than we do.
So why are you helping them? How could your group have gotten so muddled and lost sight of our original vision? Centuries ago, we were one united group, determined to see all vampires wiped from the face of the earth in the name of the light. Your brethren betrayed that goal."
I had another protest ready, and then I noticed a glint of gold in Jeff's ear. He was wearing a tiny earring, a small golden sphere with a dark dot in the middle. I couldn't help myself.
"Your earring," I said. "It's the sun symbol - the symbol for gold." And, I realized, it was exactly the same symbol that had been on the hilt of the sword we'd retrieved from the alley.
He touched his earring and nodded. "We haven't forgotten the mission - or our