“A very difficult one to find,” said Marcus. He leaned back against the couch and sighed. “Admittedly, I was only able to make a couple of calls, but he’s even better hidden than usual for Alchemists. They watch their ‘reformed’ agents pretty closely and don’t want him exposed to much yet. He’s probably locked away behind a desk.”
A dark cloud of dismay started to sweep over me, and I pushed it aside. “But you can keep looking.”
Marcus nodded. “Of course. I’ve also asked some of my other contacts who were in re-education if they remember any details about when they got out, but so far, no hits. Most of them were in there a long time ago. Keith’s the most recent one we know of, so hopefully his memory is the best. I’m asking my sources to look for him. Something may turn up in a few days. But . . . in the meantime, I’ve got a farfetched lead that might give us results sooner. I know where Carly Sage is.”
Eddie frowned. “You think she’d know where Sydney is? I mean, I don’t know much about her, but I thought she was pretty removed from Alchemist affairs.”
“She is,” I said, guessing where Marcus was headed. “But Keith has a, uh, connection to her.” I’d told Marcus about the note Sydney had seen, about Keith telling Carly he was sorry. I hadn’t elaborated on the sordid details of their past, only that he’d done something pretty terrible to her. “You think he might have gotten in touch with her?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” said Marcus. “I’ve never met either of them. But I do know that place plays on guilt and self-worth. If Keith feels like he wronged her, maybe he reached out when he was free.”
“It’d be the first decent thing he’s ever done,” muttered Jill darkly. From her bond with me, she knew what he’d done to Carly.
“I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out,” said Marcus. “Especially since we’ve got to wait on any more hits with Keith. She’s pretty close. She’s a student at Arizona State University.” He shot me a wry smile. “Up for a road trip?”
“Absolutely. We can leave right now.” I nearly stood then and there, but he waved me down.
“I’d rather we go in the morning—both for the daylight and so you can talk to Sydney again tonight. See if you can get something from her that we can use to get Carly to trust us. I have to imagine if a couple of strange guys showed up asking about your sister and the organization your family’s sworn you to secrecy about, you might not be that forthcoming.”
I relaxed a little. “That’s a good plan. And so long as there’s no more gas drugging her, we should be in sync now. Based on when she was woken up, I think she was in this time zone. I might be wrong, though. Who knows what schedule those freaks have her on?”
“Probably a typical human one, even if they’re underground.” Marcus rolled his eyes. “Heaven forbid they get on anything that might seem remotely vampiric.”
Neil leaned forward. “Back up a moment. Did you say gas?”
Now that there was a tentative plan in place to find Carly Sage, I was able to calm down a little and tell the others exactly what I knew. My dream with Sydney had been short, but I gave what details I could, including how she’d been drugged and her vague references to punishment.
Angeline rested her head on Trey’s shoulder. “They better not be hurting her. Otherwise, I’m going to hurt them when we all go in and bust her out.”
“‘We all?’” asked Marcus with amusement.
Eddie had on his fiercest mini-Dimitri expression. “You don’t think we’re letting you two do all this alone, do you?”
I tried not to smile. “I think school’s still in session and that your first priority is to Jailbait.”
“Only for another week or so,” said Jill. “And we’re just doing finals now. You should take one of the dhampirs. Two of them, actually. Angeline can stay with me.”
“Hey,” Angeline exclaimed. “How come I don’t get to go kick Alchemist ass?”
“Because you’re the only one of us who hasn’t actually finished high school,” Eddie told her.
“But all of you are assigned to protect Jill,” I warned. “And you’re staying with her, at least for now. Marcus and I don’t need bodyguards to go visit some partying kids at ASU.”
Conflict warred over Eddie’s features. “But what happens after that? What about when you find where Sydney is?” I could guess his worries. He was torn. His assignment—and his heart—bound him to Jill. But Sydney was his friend too, and he still felt guilty for her loss in the first place.
“We don’t know when that’ll be. School might be done then, and we’ll all be back at Court.” I patted his shoulder. “Let us worry about Carly and even Keith. When we get to the next phase . . . well, we’ll figure it out.”
Eddie didn’t look happy about that, but really, there was no outcome that he would’ve been okay with. If he came with us tomorrow, he would be eaten with guilt for abandoning Jill. No part of this situation was going to be easy on him.
Marcus left early, once he and I had our arrangements in place for the trip to Tempe. The others lingered, wanting to catch up and share what had happened over the last few weeks. I blurred the details on my descent into decadence at Court, too ashamed to let them know I’d nearly lost Sydney. Only Jill knew the truth, and she’d never give me up. She did, however, give up something else.
“Hey, Trey,” she said, eyes full of mischief. “Maybe you should give Adrian that very important piece of mail.”
A matching grin lit Trey’s face as he jumped up and hurried to the kitchen. When he returned, he handed over a business-sized envelope that had been opened. It was from Carlton College, addressed to me.
“You opened my mail?” I exclaimed.
“I told him to,” Jill said, as though she had some kind of authorization. “Check it out.”
Puzzled, I lifted a single piece of paper and found myself staring at my first college report card. Even more amazing than that, I saw that I had passed all my classes. C, C-, and B-. That last one made me raise an eyebrow.
“How the hell did I pull off a B- in oils? What did you turn in for my final project?” I asked them incredulously.
“I picked it,” Trey said proudly. “It was that tall one you had leaning in the corner, the kind of weird yellow-and-purple-cloud thing.”