Bloodlines Chapter Thirteen

MY cell PHONE RANG at the crack of dawn the next morning. I was already up, being an early riser, but Jill rolled over in eff and put her pillow over her head.Make it stop, she groaned.I answered and found Eddie on the other demolition of the line.Im downstairs, he said. Ready to practice almostwhat self-protection before it annoys a identical hot.Youre going to give to do it without me, I said. I had a feeling Eddie was taking his promise to Clarence rough training us truly seriously. I felt no such obligation. Ive got a long ton of homework to do. That, and Im sure as shooting Ms. Terwilligers going to make me do a deep brown run to mean solar day.Well, then send Jill down, said Eddie.I glanced over to the retreat of blankets on her bed. That might be easier said than dvirtuoso.Surprisingly, she managed to ro social occasion herself tolerable to swing out her teeth, shine aspirin for a headache, and throw on some utilization clothes. She bid me farewell, and I pr omised to check on them latishr. Not long aft(prenominal) that, Ms. Terwilliger c onlyed with her c reachee demand, and I prepared myself for another day of trying to jeer in my own work with hers.I drove over to Spencers and didnt plane notice ternarysome until I was standing right in antecedent of him.Ms. Terwilligers? he asked, pointing to the caramel sauce cappuccino.Huh? I learned up. Trey was my cashier. You work hither?He nodded. Gotta make spending m hotshoty somehow.I reach him some cash, noting that hed charged me half price. Dont command this the wrong way, but you dont look so great, I told him. He looked tired and worn out around the edges. side by side(predicate) inspection showed bruises and cuts as well.Yeah, well, I had physique of a rough day yesterday.I hesitated. That was a leading comment, but there was no one in line behind me. What happened? I asked, go to beding it was expected. Trey scowled. That tinkers damn Greg Slade wreaked havoc in footbal l tryouts yesterday. I mean, the results arent up yet, but its attractive obvious hes going to get quarterback. He was homogeneous a machine, scarce plowing guys over. He extended his left return, which had some bandage-wrapped fingers. He stepped on my hand too.I winced, remembering Slades out-of-control athleticism in PE. The politics of lofty school football and who was quarterback werent that important to me. True, I felt distressful for Trey, but it was the source behind the tattoos that intrigued me. Keiths warnings astir(predicate) not causing commove rang back to me, but I was unable to stop myself.I know about the tattoos, I said. Julia and Kristin told me about them. And I get now why you were suspicious of mine but its not what you think. Really.Thats not what Ive heard. Most mickle think youre just saying that because you dont want to tell where you got it.I was a little taken aback by that. I was moderately sure Julia and Kristin had believed me. Were they ac tually spreading around the opposite? I had no idea. He shrugged, a small smile on his lips. Dont worry. I believe you. Theres something kind of naively charming about you. You dont seem like the cheating type.Hey, I scolded. Im not naive.It was a compliment.How long have these tattoos been around? I asked, decision making it was best to move in. I heard since last year.He handed me my c mutilateee, thinking. Yeah, but it was the end of last year. School year, I mean.And they come from a placed called Never more than?As far as I know. Trey eyed me suspiciously. Why?Just curious, I said sweetly.A coupling of college kids dressed like rich hobos got in line behind me and regarded us impatiently. Can we get some service here? Trey gave them a stiff smile and then rolled his eyes at me as I moved away. See you around, Melbourne.I headed back to Amberwood and delivered Ms. Terwilligers coffee. I wasnt in the predilection to stay leashed to her all day, so I asked if I could go elsewhe re if I kept my cell phone handy. She agreed. The library had too much activity and ironically noise for me today. I wanted the sex segregation of my room.As I was cutting across the lawn to catch the shuttle, I spotty some familiar figures behind a cluster of trees. I changed watchfulness and found Jill and Eddie squaring off in a small clearing. Micah sat cross-legged on the ground, watching avidly. He waved at me as I approached.I didnt realize your brother was a kung-fu master, he remarked.Its not kung fu, said Eddie gruffly, neer taking his eyes off Jill.Same difference, said Micah. Its however pretty badass.Eddie feinted, like he was going to strike at Jills side. She responded fairly quickly with a block, though not quite fast enough to represent him. Had he been serious, he would have hit her. Still, he seemed pleased with her rejoinder time. Good. That would deflect part of a hit, though youd quiesce feel it. ruff is if you can duck and dodge altogether, but th at takes a little more work. Jill nodded obediently. When can we work on that?Eddie regarded her with pride. That expression softened after a few moments of study. Not today. Too much sun.Jill started to dissent and then stop herself. She had that worn-out-from-the-light look once more and was sweating heavily. She glanced up at the sky for a moment, as though begging it to give us some overcast cover. It remained unresponsive, so she nodded at Eddie.All right. But were doing this tomorrow at the comparable time? Or earlier maybe. Or maybe tonight Could we do both? Practice tonight when the suns going down and then again in the morning? Would you mind?Eddie grinned, amused at her enthusiasm. Whatever you want. felicitous back, Jill sat down beside me, getting into as much shade as possible. Eddie regarded me expectantly. What? I asked.Arent you supposed to learn to throw a punch?I scoffed. No. When would I ever need to do that?Jill nudged me. Do it, SydneyReluctantly, I allowed E ddie to give me a quick lesson on throwing a punch without injuring my hand in the process. I barely paid attention and felt like I was mostly providing entertainment for the others. When Eddie finished with me, Micah asked, Hey, would you mind showing me some ninja moves too?They have nothing to do with ninjas, protested Eddie, still smiling. Come on up.Micah leapt to his feet, and Eddie walked him through some rudimentary steps. More than anything, it seemed like Eddie was sizing up Micah and his capabilities. After a while, Eddie grew comfortable and let Micah practice some offence moves to get rid of an fervidnesser.Hey, protested Jill when Eddie landed a kick on Micah. Micah shrugged it off in a guy kind of way. No fair. You wouldnt hit me when we were practicing.Eddie was caught off guard enough that Micah actually got a hit in. Eddie gave him a look of grudging respect and then said to Jill, That was different.Because Im a girl? she demanded. You never held back with Rose.W hos Rose? asked Micah.Another friend, explained Eddie. To Jill, he said And Rose has had days more experience than you.Shes had more than Micah too. You were going elementary on me.Eddie blush and kept his eyes on Micah. Was not, he said.Were too, she muttered. As the boys sparred again, she said gently to me, How am I ever going to learn if hes afraid of pause me?I watched the guys, analyzing what I knew of Eddie so far. I think its more modify than that. I think he also just believes you shouldnt have to take the risk that if hes doing a good enough job, you shouldnt have to defend yourself.Hes doing a great job. You should have seen him at the try. Her face got that haunted look it did whenever the attack that had driven her into hiding was mentioned. But I still need to learn. She lower her voice even more. I really want to learn to use my magic to fight too, not that Ill get much practice in this desert.I shuddered, recalling her display from the night before. Therell be time, I said vaguely.I stood up, saying I had to go get some work done. Micah asked Eddie and Jill if they wanted to get lunch. Eddie said yes immediately. Jill looked to me for help.Its just lunch, said Eddie meaningfully. I knew he still judgment Micah was harmless. I didnt know, but after seeing how infatuated Jill was with Lee, I figured Micah would have to make some pretty aggressive moves to get anywhere.Im sure its fine, I said.Jill looked relieved, and the group headed off. I spent the day finale off that miserable book for Ms. Terwilliger. I still thought having to reproduction the archaic spells and rituals verbatim was a waste of time. The only point I could see for it was that if she ever did need to reference them for her research, she would have an easy data processor file to check and not risk damage to the ancient book.It was evening by the time I finished that and my other homework. Jill still wasnt back, and I decided to use the opportunity to check on someth ing that had been bothering me. Earlier in the day, Jill had mentioned Eddie defending her in the attack. Id felt from the beginning that there was something strange about that initial attack, something that they werent telling me. So, I logged onto the Alchemists network and pulled up everything we had on the Moroi rebels.Naturally, it was all documented. We had to keep track of important events among the Moroi, and this ranked pretty high. Somehow, the Alchemists had gotten pictures of the Moroi Court, with protesters lined up outside one of the administrative buildings. Dhampir guardians were easy to pick out as they mingled and kept order. To my surprise, I recognized Dimitri Belikov Roses boyfriend among those doing crowd control. He was easy to spot since he was almost always taller than everyone around him. Dhampirs look very human, and even I could admit that he was pretty good-looking. There was a rugged handsomeness to him, and even in a still photograph, I could see a fierceness as he watched the crowd.Other protest pictures confirmed what I knew. By far, most people supported the unseasoned queen. Those against her were a minority but a loud and dangerous one. A video from a human news show in capital of Colorado showed two Moroi guys nearly getting in a bar fight. They were shouting about queens and justice, most of which wouldnt make sense to a human observer. What made this video special was that the guy whod filmed it some hit-or-miss human with a cell phone camera claimed hed seen fangs on both men in the argument. The videographer had submitted his recording claiming hed witnessed a vampire fight, but no one gave it much credibility. It was too grainy for anything to show up. Still, it was a monitor lizard of what could happen if the Moroi situation spun out of control.A status check showed me that fay Vasilisa was indeed trying to get a law passed so that her discover was no longer dependent on there being at least one other pers on in her royal family. Alchemist experts guessed it would take three months, which was about what Rose had said. The number loomed in my head like a ticking time bomb. We needed to keep Jill safe for three months. And for three months, Vasilisas enemies would be trying harder than ever to get to Jill. If Jill died, Vasilisas rule would end along with her attempts to fix the system.Yet none of this was what had really driven me to research. I wanted to know about Jills initial attack, the one that no one talked about. What I found wasnt much help. No Alchemists had been there at the time, of course, so our information was based on what Moroi sources had reported. All we knew was that the queens sister had been viciously and staidly attacked but had made a full recovery. From what Id observed, that was certainly true. Jill showed no signs of injury, and the attack had occurred a week before she came to Palm Springs. Was that enough time to furbish up from a vicious and severe att ack? And was an attack like that enough to make her wake screaming?I didnt know but still couldnt shake my suspicions. When Jill came home later, she was in such a good mood that I couldnt bear to interrogate her. I also remembered too late that Id meant to research the case of Clarences niece and her bizarre death by throat-slitting. Jills situation had flurry me. I let the matter go and called it an early night.Tomorrow, I thought drowsily. Ill do it all tomorrow.Tomorrow came much more quickly than I expected. I was woken out of a heavy sleep by psyche shaking me, and for a split second, the old nightmare was there, the one about Alchemists carrying me away in the night. Recognizing Jill, I just barely stopped myself from screaming. Hey, hey, I scolded. There was light outside, but it was purplish. Barely after sunrise. Whats going on? Whats the matter?Jill looked at me, face grim and eyes wide with fear. Its Adrian. You have to rescue him.