Only Him

Chapter 8

"Oh my God! Jill, look at you!" I darted forward from the ranks of guardians waiting to receive the Dragomir princess and grabbed my friend in a hug. I hadn't seen her since she'd graduated from high school last June. She'd started up college in California, both because her school of choice had a good fashion program and because it kept her close to Adrian Ivashkov, her bond mate, and his wife and their friends.

Jill looked beautiful today, her once frizzy and unruly hair smoothed back to perfection—I sensed both Adrian and Sydney's hands in that matter. She looked like a supermodel and I felt the few extra pounds I'd noticed the week before grow subconsciously heavier.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" said a deep voice behind Jill. I released Jill from the hug to see Eddie exiting the plane behind her.

"Hey Castile!" I laughed, turning my affection on him. "Yes she is," I agreed. "You better hold on tight to this one."

"He doesn't have to worry about me going anywhere," Jill assured me and I was momentarily stunned by the level of attraction between the two. Sometimes I had a hard time reconciling the goofy eighth grader I'd met back at St. Vlad's with this poised and mature woman. She really did look like a princess. I was slightly gratified to see that I had been right all those years ago, she did look a lot like her mother. But I also saw Eric Dragomir in her eyes and her facial expressions. Shadows of Lissa.

"Yes, yes," came Adrian's patronizing voice from above us. "They're in love and everyone knows it. Can you please move, little dhampir, so we may all get off this cursed plane?"

"'Cursed plane'?" I asked Eddie as we moved aside and Adrian, Sydney and Angeline joined us.

"Adrian has decided that the plane oppresses his creative ability," Sydney answered before Eddie got the chance to.

"Can a plane do that?" I asked, hugging her.

"Yes, it can," Adrian said in a matter-of-fact tone, joining in on the hug and capturing me between him and his wife. "It's so...beige. No color, no creativity."

I nodded like I understood that and let the topic drop, glaring at a giggling Jill over Sydney's shoulder. Yes, I'm sure she understood what he was talking about. Adrian was taking mood stabilizers, he had been since he and Sydney had gotten serious, and it cut off the psychic link between the two of them along with Adrian's spirit magic. But he and Jill had shared a mind long enough for her to understand him and all his like quirks.

The group was escorted to the main grounds where they split up, Adrian and Sydney heading to his family's townhouse, Angeline to guardian housing, and Eddie and Jill to her apartment in royal housing. We promised to meet up later at Lissa's for dinner and I found myself walking to guardian housing beside Angeline.

"How have things been?" I asked her as we walked. I still wasn't sure how I felt about the girl sometimes. I never could quite get over our first meeting where she'd attacked me for making a move on her brother. She'd changed a lot since then, though. She'd honed her skills and was a great guardian...or so Eddie and Adrian assured me. She definitely fit in more now. She'd lost a lot of her rougher personality though I knew some things about the modern world could still surprise her.

"Good," she answered in her backwoods West Virginia drawl. "Jill is loving school, which I find weird because she just looks at fabrics all day and discusses what's 'in' this season. Adrian actually likes teaching art to kids, and Sydney loves her curator job and participating in the coven with Mrs. Terwilliger." She gave me a wry smile. "I'm surrounded by weirdo's. The only normal one is Eddie and he's so smitten with Jill that I can hardly consider him normal at all."

I laughed though inside I was a bit jealous. She was having the guardian experience I'd pictured for myself once upon at time—sans the crazy human ex-alchemist witch thing.