Richelle Mead - The Golden Lily

“Did you try calling her cell?” I knew it was a foolish question, but I had to begin logically.

“Yes,” Dimitri said. “No answer. Then I double-checked to make sure her flight hadn’t changed, and then I talked to Mikhail to see if he knew anything. He didn’t. All I succeeded at doing there was making him worry.”

“He should,” I murmured, sitting on the edge of the couch. Nothing good could come of this. We knew the Warriors were obsessed with Sonya, and now she’d disappeared after going out alone.

“I only just found out she came to see you two,” added Dimitri. He stopped pacing and glanced between us. “Did she say anything at all about where she was going?”

“No,” I said. “Things didn’t exactly… end well between us.”

Dimitri nodded. “Adrian implied the same thing.”

I looked up at Adrian and could tell he didn’t want to get into it any more than I did. “We had an argument,” he admitted. “She was trying to push Sydney into some experiments, and Sydney refused. I jumped in when Sonya kept pushing, and finally she just took off. Never said anything about where she was going.”

Dimitri’s face grew darker. “So, anything could’ve happened. She could’ve been taken right outside on the street. Or she could have gone somewhere and been abducted there.”

Or she could be dead . Dimitri was speaking in terms of her still being alive, but I wasn’t so sure. The hunters who had jumped us in the alley had seemed pretty intent on killing her then and there. If she hadn’t come home last night, the odds seemed good they’d found her then. Twenty-four hours was an awfully long time to keep a “creature of darkness” alive. Studying Dimitri’s face again, I knew he was well aware of all of this. He was simply operating on the hope that we had a chance to do something, that we weren’t powerless.

Resolved, Dimitri strode for the door. “I have to go talk to the police.”

“Missing person report?” asked Adrian.

“That, and more importantly, to get a search out on that car. If she was taken…” He hesitated, driving home the fear that lurked in all of us. “Well. If she’s hidden away somewhere, she’s going to be very difficult to locate. But it’s a lot harder to hide a car than one woman. If the police can get its description out there, we might get a clue if it turns up.” He started to open the door and then glanced back at us. “You’re sure you don’t remember anything else she said that could help?”

Adrian and I reiterated that we didn’t. Dimitri left, giving us unnecessary instructions to alert him immediately if we thought of anything or-if by a miracle-Sonya showed up. I groaned once he was gone.

“This is my fault,” I said.

Adrian looked at me in surprise. “Why on earth would you say that?”

“Sonya came here-left when she wasn’t supposed to-because of me . Because of my blood. Who knows what would’ve happened if I hadn’t refused? Maybe a few minutes difference, and the hunters wouldn’t have been around. Or maybe if she hadn’t been so upset, she would’ve been able to defend herself more.” A million memories tumbled through my head. Sonya making the lily grow for me. Sonya talking to the queen on Adrian’s behalf. Sonya showing me pictures of bridesmaid dresses. Sonya working diligently to stop Strigoi and redeem herself. All of that could be lost now.

“Maybe, maybe, maybe.” Adrian sat down near me on the couch. “You can’t think like that, and you sure as hell can’t blame yourself for the actions of some crazy paranoid fringe group.”

I knew he was right, but it didn’t make me feel any better. “I should call the Alchemists. We’ve got ties to law enforcement too.”

“Probably a good idea,” he said, though his words were a little halfhearted. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about those guys. Even if… well, even if she’s alive, I really don’t know how we’re going to find her. Short of some miraculous, magical solution.”

I froze.

“Oh my God.”

“What is it?” he asked, looking at me in concern. “Did you remember something?”

“Yes… but not what you’re thinking.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. No, no, no . The thought in my head was crazy. I had no business even considering it. Dimitri had the right idea. We needed to focus on normal, concrete methods of locating Sonya.

“Sage?” Adrian lightly touched my arm, and I jumped at the feel of his fingertips against my skin. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” I said softly. “I just thought of something crazy.”

“Welcome to my world.”

I looked away, conflicted about the decision before me. What I was contemplating… well, some might argue it wasn’t so different than what I’d done before. And yet, it all came down to the fine line between doing something by choice and doing something because I had to. There was no question here. This would be a choice. An exercising of free will.

“Adrian… what if I had a way to find Sonya, but it went against everything I believe in?”

He took several moments to answer. “Do you believe in getting Sonya back? If so, you wouldn’t be going against everything you believe in.”

It was odd logic, but it gave me the nudge I needed. I took out my cell phone and dialed a number I almost never called-though I certainly received texts and calls from it all the time. An answer came after two rings. “Ms. Terwilliger? This is Sydney.”

“Miss Melbourne. What I can do for you?”

“I need to see you. It’s kind of urg-no, no ‘kind of’ about it. It’s urgent. Are you at the school?”

“No. As shocking as it is, I do go home on occasion.” She paused for a moment. “However… you are certainly welcome to come to my house.”

I don’t know why that made me uneasy. After all, I spent plenty of time at Clarence’s. Surely a vampire’s sprawling estate was much worse than a high school teacher’s home. Of course, said teacher was also a witch, so I wasn’t certain if I could expect a boring suburban flat or a house made of candy.

I swallowed. “Do you keep a lot of the same spell books at home that you do at school?” Adrian arched an eyebrow at the word spell .

Ms. Terwilliger hesitated for much longer this time. “Yes,” she said. “And more.”

She gave me her address, and before I could even hang up, Adrian said, “I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t even know where I’m going.”

“True,” he said. “But lack of information’s never stopped me before. Besides, I know it has something to do with Sonya, which is good enough for me. That, and you looked scared to death. There’s no way I can let you go alone.”

I crossed my arms. “I’ve faced scarier things, and last I checked, it’s not your place to ‘let’ me do anything.” There was such concern in his face, however, that I knew I wouldn’t be able to refuse… especially since I was kind of scared. “You have to promise not to tell anyone what we’re going to do. Or talk about what you see.”

“Damn. What’s going on, Sage?” he asked. “Are we talking animal sacrifice or something?”

“Adrian,” I said quietly.

He grew serious again. “I promise. Not a word, unless you say otherwise.”

I didn’t have to study him to know I could trust him. “Okay, then. But before we go, I need your hairbrush…”

Ms. Terwilliger lived in Vista Azul, the same suburb Amberwood was in. To my surprise, the house really did look quite ordinary. It was small but otherwise blended in well to its older neighborhood. The sun had long since set when we arrived, and I was conscious of the school’s approaching curfew. When she let us into her house, I found the interior a bit more in line with what I’d been expecting. Sure, there was a TV and modern furniture, but the décor also featured a lot of candles and statuary of various gods and goddesses. The scent of Nag Champa hung in the air. I counted at least three cats in the first five minutes and didn’t doubt there were more.