royalunderachiever | debut - locked to Bella

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debut - locked to Bella

“So, where are you, Sage?”

Adrian had lost track of how many days he had been in the hotel, enjoying his newfound freedom to binge on every vice known to man or Moroi. A nagging voice in the back of his head that sounded an awful lot like a hot blonde Alchemist reminded him that he had responsibilities in Palm Springs that shouldn’t be taken lightly but Adrian wasn’t listening to it, not now. He had just been turned down by said blonde Alchemist and needed to feel numb for a little while so the dark didn’t creep in. As hazy as he was right now at least two days into a binge, Spirit was barely there. Oh, sure, it lingered around the edges and little fingers of power seeped in every once in a while but for the most part the only thing he could manage was alcohol-laced thoughts about how everyone was probably better off without him.

When did he get so depressing? Just a year or so ago, he’d still been the life of every party and now he was laying in a hotel God knows where feeling sorry for himself. Thoughts of what Sydney or Jill might think started to crowd in and harsh his buzz and that’s when Adrian decided he’d had enough of moping for the moment. He’d just get dressed and head back to Palm Springs, maybe work on the next in a series of abstract paintings that were more or less about Sydney. There’d been a triumphant red lily and a haunting golden eye. He thought his next might be a moody abstract in shades of khaki and earth-brown and if that wasn’t a sign of madness, he didn’t know what was; only he could be in love with a woman who found color to be obnoxious.

Adrian? He was all color. He was muddy brown and bright green, deep purple and violent, vibrant blue. He was everything all swirled together, chaotic and resistant to any semblance of order. He was every stereotype of an artist and then some, right down to the cling of stale smoke and expensive gin lingering on his breath.

You’re ridiculous, Ivashkov, he thought to himself, pulling on clothes that were impossibly wrinkled from spending days crumpled on the floor. He tousled his hair lightly and gave his reflection and irrepressible smile, trying to look every inch the charming playboy that he desperately pretended to be. Very few people saw past that but those who did? Well. They were the ones who mattered.

He tugged at the closet door that he’d come through originally and pulled it open, surprised to see it was just an ordinary closet. A big closet, to be sure, but there was no secret world lurking beyond this wardrobe. Adrian walked inside and pressed his hands against the wall, hoping to find some catch or some way back to his own world. His hands got more desperate, beating the wall instead of tapping it, and he finally kicked the damn thing in frustration.

“What the fuck? I just came through here...it was just a few days ago! I just came through here.”

He kicked it one last time for good measure and stormed out. On the way, he grabbed his rapidly-dwindling pack of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth, lit it and took a drag, needing the nicotine before he had to go face people. It was daylight, which meant humans would be out and about and he needed himself as numb as possible if he was going to try to find a way back home. Dulling Spirit meant actually being able to conduct a conversation without checking auras and that was something he desperately needed to be able to do.

He found the first person walking the halls and reached out, touching the inside of their elbow. He put on his best, cocksure grin and tilted his head.

“So, which one of these doors leads to Palm Springs? If I don’t get back, some crazy girl is going to organize my closet by color and I’m never going to survive that much organization. Help me? I’m desperate.”

It was a little over the top, sure, but Adrian thought it couldn’t hurt. He was, after all, actually telling the truth.

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Bella went to complete statue when she heard the voice and felt a touch to the inside of her arm. She'd known someone was behind her, of course. She'd heard the heartbeat and breathing, sensed the new scent approach (along with a nose-wrinkle for the acrid smell of cigarette smoke.)

All of that sensory information left her, however, when she turned around to address the owner of them all.

Because, somehow, someway, it was Edward. And her arms were around him before half a second passed from his touch to her realization and she nearly tackled him to the ground.

"Edward!"

Adrian wasn't sure who this girl was or why she hit with the strength of a Strigoi but he was reasonably sure she wasn't a hallucination. "Edward? I haven't ever gone by that one before." Jet Steele was his alias of choice because what sounded more badass than that? Answer: nothing. Nothing was more badass than Jet Steele.

"Are you sure you don't know me as Jet Steele, International Man of Mystery?"

"You're not him," Bella said in response, releasing him and moving a good ten feet away seconds after he spoke. It might have been months since she'd seen Edward, but despite that initial shock, she knew this wasn't him. For starters, he was warm...not quite Jacob warm, but he didn't match her temperature.

"No, I'm sure I've never met anyone named that. You just...you look like someone I know."

"Do I? I just have one of those faces," Adrian said, raking his hand through his hair to muss it up a little more than usual. He flashed her a winning smile but was sure to keep his fangs hidden. He didn't think this girl was human but he didn't know exactly what she was and he didn't want to take any chances. For all he knew, she was some kind of new Strigoi soldier.

"So, to whom do I owe the pleasure?"

Bella had to stifle a gasp when he smiled at her and she saw his eyes clearly...his very green eyes. Could it be posslble? Could this be an Edward from some other timeline? One where he maybe went by his middle name instead? One where he'd never become a vampire?

She didn't think so, but the idea took hold and she couldn't shake it loose, even though he didn't smell human.

"Bella. My name is Bella Cullen. And you are?"

"I guess Jet Steele is out," Adrian said, giving her the most winning smile he can summon. He was just drunk enough now that spirit wasn't really accessible and he had to rely on his considerable natural charms.

"My name's Adrian. Adrian Ivashkov."

"Ivashkov?" She looked at him closely. "You don't look Russian. Don't sound it either."

And Adrian was nothing like Anthony, so the last of the thoughts that she was seeing an alternate version of her husband. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes went from his face to the ground. "Never mind. It's not important. You're new here?"

"Yeah, my family's from the old country," Adrian said, narrowing his eyes a little. "I was born in the US, so were my parents, but further back we were in Russia. What, I don't look Russian? Come on. I could totally be Russian."

Then again, if being Russian meant being stone-faced like Belikov all the time, maybe it was better he wasn't. "Actually, you're right. I smile too much to be Russian."

Something in the way he talked cracked the stone expression on her face just a little. As her face eased, so did the rest of her and she went back to looking almost human. "Is that a natural smile, or do you only get that way when you're buzzed?"

"You wouldn't know the half of it." Moroi learned from early on to mask their fangs when they smiled but sometimes Adrian got lazy about it when he was drinking. He guessed he'd better straighten up and fly right.

"So, where is this place? I never thought to ask before getting trashed."

Considering the fact that he didn't smell like a human, Bella wasn't too sure about that. She wasn't about to blurt out a question about what he was, though. Not yet anyway.

"Near as I can tell its like some sort of gathering place for people from all over the place, other universes, other worlds, just about everywhere and we're all stuck here to varying degrees. Some can come and go to their home worlds, others, like me, are stuck here with no way home."

She let that information settle before laughing a little. "Probably makes more sense with a little alcohol on board, huh?"

It sounded like something that spirit cooked up if Adrian was perfectly honest but that wasn't something he was going to reveal to some girl he didn't know. He was just sobering up enough that he could start to see her aura which was...strange. It wasn't like a normal human aura but it wasn't dead like a Strigoi either. It was more similar to a Moroi aura if anything.

"Yeah, alcohol tends to make everything better. You're not a drinker, I take it?"

Bella's mouth twisted into a wry sort of smile that actually reached her reddish brown eyes. "Not much of one, no. Alcohol wasn't ever really a strong draw for me, probably because I didn't really hang around with the people who were all into partying and that scene."

"Straight arrow, then. I know someone like you."

Someone who wouldn't want to be tied down to a half drunk vampire given her...control issues but that didn't stop Adrian for wanting it in spite of himself.

That startled a laugh from her. "I guess you've already figured out that I know someone sort of like you. I mean, it's uncanny. You're almost a mirror image of, well, what he loo long before I met him."

The human Edward she'd never met with skin that didn't throw prisms and green eyes untouched by the blood of animals and humans. Bella had that weird prickling in her eyes again, the one she'd felt when they were in constant danger of losing Ness. When her eyes wanted to cry but no longer could.

The only outward sign was a slight whimper.

Adrian frowned a little. "I am? I never knew I had a twin or anything." Some members of Moroi families tended to favor one another so well that you couldn't tell one from the other - Ozeras all had similar eyes - but Adrian wasn't aware of anyone who really favored him.

"Who was he?"

"He was my husband," Bella said, the same soft whimper before she straightened her shoulders. "But I've left that life behind me. It's the only way I can keep going day to day and after six months, I've given up that I'll ever find my way back there."

Oh, oh no. Adrian sort of wished he hadn't asked and he wished even more that he had access to spirit so he could use it to help soothe her. It wasn't exactly a fair use of it, no, but in this sense he felt like it might be all right.

"I'm sorry," he said, thinking that probably couldn't cover the half of it. What would he do if he saw someone not-Sydney? Yeah.

"For what it's worth, even if it's not worth anything, I'm really sorry."

"It means a lot, Adrian, thank you." Bella offered him a soft smile and raised her reddish eyes to his, then reached a hand over to squeeze his. She made sure to keep the pressure light. "Don't worry about it, all right? Sometimes it just hits me harder than others. Usually, I'm almost ridiculously upbeat. For a vampire anyway."

Adrian arched a brow. He knew there was something strange about her but she hadn't pinged him as a Moroi, not the way she smelled and the way her aura read. It was like some kind of hybrid of Moroi and Strigoi.

"I knew there was something off. You're not Moroi like me, though," he said, flashing his fangs quickly.

"Yeah, you smelled different than a human, too, I just couldn't place it because you don't smell like Eric, either," Bella said with a smile.

All the while her vampire mind was searching for the hazy memories of that day long ago when she researched vampires back in Forks. There wasn't much more than a mental image of herself at a computer, though. Nothing concrete.

"I don't know what a Moroi is, though. I've never heard that word before. But," she paused to tap her own straight teeth, "I'm going to guess it's a type of vampire?"

"Living vampire," Adrian explained. "We age, we eat food and blood, we do magic and we can walk in the sun as long as we don't try to go tanning. Not the scary kind of vampire, that's a Strigoi."

"Well, except for the sun part, I guess that makes me a scary vampire?" Bella guessed, unsure about how that made her feel. "I'm not technically alive, I won't age, I can't eat human food, and don't have any real magic other than an ability to shield my mind and the minds of others against attack. I can walk around in sunlight, though. I just look really weird when I do it."

Her curiosity was piqued about one point, though. "What kind of magic can you do?"

Of course she was going to ask that question and now he was drunk so there was no real chance of showing anything interesting with spirit. Great.

"Uh, well, I can heal and walk into dreams...say you were human and you were asleep? I could come into your dream and have a conversation with you that you would remember when you woke up. My friend Lissa can make you see things that aren't there but I haven't ever done that before."

"That's really cool," Bella answered, truly meaning it. "I know another vampire who can make people see things that aren't there. Didn't work on me, of course, but I've heard its amazing."

Then she sighed, just a little. "I miss dreams. Kind of stupid when you think about it. Of all the things I to miss about being human, and I miss sleeping."

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