“She studied him for a few more seconds. “Youlook too pretty to be useful.”I gasped in spite of myself. Adrian chuckled andshook her hand.“Truer words were never spoken,” he said.”

“Happy Birthday."Adrian came to a sudden halt. The words were soft and small, spoken tentatively, but easily discerned by vampire ears. Slowly, he turned around and found Jill Mastrano standing shyly before him.”

“She said no, okay?"All the eyes that had been on me suddenly jerked toward Adrian. He leaned forward, fixing his gaze on Sonya and Dimitri, and I saw something in those pretty eyes I'd never seen before: anger. They were like emerald fire."How many times does she have to refuse?" Adrian demanded. "If she doesn't want to, then that's all there's to it. This has nothing to do with her. This is our science project. She's here to protect Jill and has plenty to do there. So stop harassing her already!"""Harassing is kind of a strong word," Dimitri said, calm in the face of Adrian's outburst."Not when you keep pushing someone who wants to be left alone," countered Adrian. He shot me a concerned look before fixing his anger back on Sonya and Dimitri. "Stop ganging up on her."Sonya glanced uncertainly between us. She looked legitimately hurt. As astute as she was, I don't think she'd realized how much this bothered me. "Adrian... Sydney... we aren't trying to upset anyone. We just really want to get to the bottom of this. I thought all of you did too. Sydney's always been so supportive."It doesn't matter," growled Adrian. "Take Eddie's blood. Take Belikov's blood. Take your own for all I care. But if she doesn't want to give hers, then that's all there is to it. She said no. This conversation is done.”

“Aw you'd never hurt me. My face is too pretty. -Adrian Ivashkov”

“Adrian gave the picture a nod of approval before handing me the phone. "Okay, even I can admit that's pretty cute."I found myself overanalyzing the comment. What had he meant in saying 'even he' could admit it? That I was cute for a human? Or that I had just met some kind of Adrian hot-girl criteria?”

“Micah showed up shortly thereafter and was happy to meet our other “brother.” He shook Adrian’s hand and smiled. “Now I see some family resemblance. I was starting to wonder if Jill was adopted, but you two kind of look like each other.”“So does our mailman back in North Dakota,” said Adrian.“South,” I corrected. Fortunately, Micah didn’t seem to think there was anything weird about the slip.“Right,” said Adrian. He studied Micah thoughtfully. “There’s something familiar about you. Have we met?”Micah shook his head. “I’ve never been to South Dakota.”I was pretty sure I heard Adrian murmur, “That makes two of us.”

“Against all odds, we made it to the top of the fence. Getting over to the other side was much more difficult, and I had to do a fair amount of acrobatics to help Adrian make the transition while keeping myself steady. Finally, I wrangled him into the correct position to climb down."Good," I said. "Now just reverse what you did before, one hand down in front of the-"Something slipped, either his hand or foot, and Adrian plummeted to the ground. It wasn't that long of a drop, and his height helped a little- not that he was in any shape to actually use his legs and land on his feet. I winced."Or you can just take the short way down," I said.”