Apprentice (The Gentlemens' Society for Alchemy, #1)

Chapter 16 - Stay With Me

When I step out of the black Rolls, the door shuts swiftly behind me and it screeches away from my building

All I can think about is Ezra Roman. Roman Corp. LLC. The Identity Thief. Cam mad at me. Emily mad at me. My dad probably mad at me. My whole world is crumbling and the reason behind it is sitting in the back of his $500,000 car, offering me the chance to become one of his minions.

No! Worse than his minion! His Apprentice. His slave. I would have to do everything he told me to do. I would have to give him some of my blood. I don't even know what kind of power that would give him over me, but I know that I'm not comfortable accepting anything until I know every last detail about what being a blood dealer really means. And in turn he would make me a weapon. A weapon he could choose to yield in whichever way he chose until one of us died, or I became a Master Alchemist myself - which according to Ezra Roman, might as well be impossible.

There's still so much I don't know about him. How could I in-debt and enslave myself to someone like that, to someone who lives to hold power and leverage over people with the very blood in their veins?

And how powerful am I, exactly? How much potential is lurking in my blood the way it lurks in Ezra Roman's? He has so much raw, terrifying power – yet I've only seen the smallest bits of it. Each time it scared me, and thrilled me, and he has let me know in no uncertain terms exactly what he is capable of. 

I don't think I could ever be capable of that - cold blooded murder - regardless of what I could do. He tells me I'm in alchemist. I don't even know what that means. He says that females can control air or water, but I've never felt so much as an inkling of control over either. Is that my fault? Have I been ignoring something that should have been innate to me all along? Or is there something else I don't know? 

And if I didn't accept his offer? How long until men like Worthington and Escobarez come after me, wanting to draw out the secrets in my blood? Could I fight them off? Could I ever become that powerful?

Even if I was stupid enough to do it - become his Apprentice - what would become of my life? How could I work and live and keep all of the people around me that I love without telling them this enormous, horrible secret that would follow me until the day I or Ezra died.

When would that even be? Ezra is over two hundred years old, at least. Will that happen to me? Can I live forever? There are so many questions that are yet unanswered, and only another Alchemist could help me. And I'm expected to make the biggest decision of my life based on only the little information I do have. It's not fair. 

There is no easy way out of this. No way out of this at all, that I can see. And yet I have only three days to decide before I lose any semblance of normalcy in my life. 

When I step in the door to my apartment, everything looks the same as before I'd left for Ezra's party Friday night. There's no sign of the brutal struggle in my hallway, and my lock is back to the way it was before Ezra had made it disappear into thin air. Finchy looks well fed and content, sleeping on the living room rug. I take one step inside and realize that there's something else I have to do before I can sleep for the night.

Thirty minutes later, I'm standing outside of Cameron Cardelloni's door in a red dress and Louboutins, trying to figure out how to break into a cop's apartment.

"This is not your brightest idea, Golden," I say to myself, holding my hand against the knob and gently commanding it to open. The lock clicks almost effortlessly, and I walk inside, knowing he's not home, but still feeling disappointed. He always works late shifts on Saturday nights.

I don't even bother undressing. I kick off my shoes and head straight for his bed, getting under the covers and inhaling his clean, familiar smell. He washes his sheets with the same lavender fabric softener his mom used when he lived at home, and his bed reminds me of summer nights spent cuddling under the blankets, watching scary movies. I take in one more breath, sigh, and promptly fall asleep.