The Golden Lily Page 0,98

the car?" I asked, panicked. "No one could have stolen it that fast."

"Oh," said Jill from the backseat, sounding slightly nervous. "I saw through the bond. He, um, moved it."

It was handy having the bond as a source of information, but her words made me panic more than if the car actually had been stolen. "He what?"

"Not far," she said quickly. "Just behind the building. This street's got weird overnight parking rules."

I grimaced. "Well, I'm glad it won't get towed, but he should've had me move it! Even if it's not far, he could ruin the transmission."

"I'm sure it's fine," said Jill. There was a strange note to her voice.

I didn't respond. Jill was no car expert. None of them were. "It's like letting a toddler loose in a room full of china," I muttered. "What was he thinking? About any of this?" No one had an answer for that. I got us back to Amberwood in time for Angeline's curfew and retreated to the sanity and calm of my room. As soon as I was satisfied my friends were safe and secure for the night, I e-mailed Donna Stanton - a high-up Alchemist whom I'd inexplicably developed a good relationship with - about the hunters and what we'd learned. I even took pictures of the pamphlet and e-mailed those as well. Once that was done, I sat back and tried to think if there was anything else at all I could provide her with that might help.

It was only when I'd exhausted all options (and refreshed my inbox a few times to see if she'd responded already) that I finally moved on to homework. As usual, I was pretty much caught up on every assignment - save one.

Ms. Terwilliger's.

That stupid book was on my desk, staring back at me, daring me to open it. I still had a number of days before her spell was due, time during which I could continue to procrastinate.

I was beginning to accept, however, that this assignment wasn't going to go away. Considering how long some of the prep on these took, maybe it'd be best to bite the bullet and get it out of the way.

Resolved, I brought the book over to my bed and opened it to the table of contents, scanning some of the spells she'd gone over with me. My stomach twisted at most of them, every instinct telling me how wrong it was to even be attempting these. Magic is for vampires, not humans.

I still believed that to be true, but the analytical part of my mind couldn't help but apply some of the defensive spells to various situations. Much like my decision to give blood, recent events had made me look at the world differently. Was magic wrong? Yes. But that blindness spell would have certainly been useful in the alley. Another spell, one that temporarily immobilized people, could've been used if I'd wanted to flee from the hunters at the cafe. Sure, it only lasted thirty seconds, but that was more than enough time for me to have escaped.

On and on, I went down the list. They were all so wrong and yet... so useful. If I hadn't seen the fire charm I'd made ignite a Strigoi, I wouldn't have believed any of these were possible.

But by all accounts, they were.

So much power... the ability to protect myself...

Immediately, I rebuked myself for such a thought. I had no need for power. That kind of thinking was what led freaks like Liam to want to be Strigoi. Although... was it really the same? I didn't want immortality. I didn't want to hurt others. I just wanted to protect myself and those I cared about. Wolfe had a lot to teach me, but his preventative techniques wouldn't help if determined vampire hunters cornered Sonya and me again. As time went on, it was becoming clear that the hunters were very determined.

I returned to the table of contents, finding several that would be useful and well within my capabilities to make. According to Ms. Terwilliger, someone like me had excellent potential for magic because of inborn talent (which I didn't entirely believe) and the rigorous Alchemist training in measurement and attention to detail. It wasn't difficult to figure out how long it would take me to produce any of these likely candidates.

The question was which spell did I make? Which did I have time to make?

The answer was eerily simple.

I had time to make all of them.

Chapter 17

ADRIAN'S CAR