A/N: So this fic is a little different. It's a Sydney x Adrian fic told from Sydney's point of view in alternating past and present tenses. It was originally supposed to be for my Wicked Deeds collection but it seemed like it would make more sense as it's own thing. It was an absolute pain in the ass to write (can you believe I've been working on this since last June?). There's only four chapters planned, but there's always the possibility of more to come afterwards. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Richelle Mead. I just play with them.

This story contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

Warning: There are spoilers from Bloodlines. If you haven't read it yet and don't want anything to be spoiled, I suggest you don't read this story.

Your Blood Like Wine

Part I – Truth

I was always such a good girl. I did my chores, said my prayers, and went to sleep each night knowing God had a plan for me...

I'm not so good anymore.

"You can trust me, Sydney. Don't be afraid," he murmurs, his breath warm against my lips. He leans in close and the only thing going through my mind is how could I not be?

When everything you've ever believed is being challenged, it's hard not to feel a devastating collision with reality. When you're no longer sure of the world around you, everything becomes a million times scarier. And when you've come face-to-face with your greatest fear… you either run the hell away or fall into it with open arms.

This is the shocking truth: I am in bed with a vampire.

How could I let myself be seduced by evil, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

It started with a kiss…

THEN

I thought I'd gotten over my fear of fangs – Jill was so skilled at concealing hers it was hardly a concern for me. But Adrian. He just couldn't be bothered, exposing those sharp incisors for all the humans to see now that he was publicly intoxicated. I shuddered at just the sight, knowing what those sharp canines are used for: snacking on human necks.

When we made it onto the sidewalk, I constantly had to remind him to cover his biters up. Human women kept doing double takes. He was easy on the eyes, maybe even sort of cute if you're into evil and unnatural. Eventually some human would discover what didn't belong, and then all hell would break loose once it got out that there were Moroi in Palm Springs.

Where would we shelter Jill then? Morocco?

Eddie, noticing as I shrank back behind the group, nudged the Moroi in the side. "Adrian, man, you gotta be more inconspicuous," he said, gesturing at his own teeth.

Adrian shrugged his shoulders in that lazy way of his and slung an arm around Jill, who beamed up at him in that silly school girl crush sort of way. I knew she harbored no romantic affections toward him and was happily dating, albeit casually, Micah. But she still held Adrian up on some kind of pedestal as the ideal, yet unobtainable. Godlike. Which was completely absurd. There was nothing desirable about a chain-smoking, alcoholic vampire who tiptoed the border between sane and batshitcrazy.

My positive opinion of him had lessened in the weeks since Dimitri Belikov had been in town to assist with spirit research. Every little bit of progress he'd accrued towards bettering himself had been unraveled and he'd sunk back into his sloppy, party-boy ways. If he didn't buck up and start taking some initiative in this research, he'd lose his apartment and everything else he'd worked so hard to obtain over the months.

We piled into Latte and I drove Adrian back to his apartment. He stumbled out of the car and nearly face-planted onto the cement, scraping up his palms. Jill hissed at Adrian's pain, no doubt feeling it herself through the bond. Adrian turned and saluted us, probably thinking we were going to head back to Amberwood. In fact, that was our next destination, but there were a couple of things I wanted to tell him first.

I glanced back at Jill, Eddie and Angeline in the backseat. Eddie had his arm around Jill, who rested her head on Eddie's shoulder. She looked pale. Well, paler. All because Adrian hadn't been able to hold back on the liquor tonight after overhearing a phone call between Dimitri and Rose. Then he'd split from the group to hook up with some random girls he'd never see again.

Despite what he claimed, he'd never gotten over Rose. I sometimes doubted he ever would.

He was still fumbling for his keys when I approached. "Adrian," I sighed.

"Sage," he said, narrowing his eyes on the jumble of keys in his hand trying to figure out through the haze of intoxication which was the one that unlocked the door. I snatched them from him and pulled out the correct key, unlocking the door for him. "How would I survive without you?" he slurred.

"You wouldn't," I grunted.

Instead of outrage, he simply shrugged his shoulders and pushed open the door with his foot. That wasn't quite the reaction I'd expected. "What do you need, Sage? I thought the kids had to go back to daycare?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Go ahead, then," he prompted, gesturing toward the plaid sofa, the one he'd bought secondhand with his own money. It was ghastly with the goldenrod walls, but he'd been so pleased with the purchase I couldn't bring myself to criticize, it having been the only possession he'd ever had to work for.

I wrung my hands together, nervous about having to confront him. But someone had to do it.

"You said you were going to stop this… alcoholism."

He frowned, actually looking guilty for once. "I'm sor-"

"No! There's no excuse!"

I'd shocked myself more than him with that outburst. But it got his attention and his frown deepened.

He ran a hand through his brown hair, making it stand on end. "I know," he said.

"Adrian," I sighed, exhausted from searching for him after he'd wandered off to comfort himself with booze and casual hookups. "We've been through this. You know it's harder for Jill to keep you out of her head when you're intoxicated. You have to stop. For Jill's sake, please."

"You think I put myself through this for the hell of it?" he hissed, suddenly glaring at me with those otherworldly eyes. I'd only seen him this angry once before, when I'd brought his mother into an argument. But I was angry too, and as long as I had his attention, I didn't care if he self-combust out of rage.

"You have a choice! Nobody forced you to guzzle martinis tonight!"

"Yeah, and nobody tried to stop me either."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm far outnumbered by you vampire hellspawn! I can't hold your hand and console you whenever you're feeling sorry for yourself!"

He winced as if I'd backhanded him, but recovered quickly, as if my cutting words hadn't bothered him in the slightest. A dangerous curve spread over his lips. "Please, tell me how you really feel."

I wanted to scream. My fists clenched at my sides and I felt my face get hot, he made me so frustrated. "It's bad enough Jill gets sucked into your x-rated shenanigans through the bond. I don't need you intoxicating her as well, virtually or otherwise."

There. I'd said it. I folded my arms over my chest and gave him a contemptuous look.

"Ah, Sage's spine? How nice to see you again. It's been too long." He leaned so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I backed up as he crossed that invisible perimeter surrounding me, the space that nobody entered without my permission, and flinched as my back met the wall.

Nowhere else to go, with him barring the only way out.

"I'm here to protect Jill and make sure she's taken care of! You, of all people, should be helping me, and yet you go off partying, give her virtual hangovers and subject her to things she's too young to experience, you selfish a-hole! You can go stake yourself for all I care!"

Just then I felt an almighty surge of… I don't know what. It was like heat and power, electric as it radiated off of Adrian in a flame of energy. I thought the vampires were the only ones with heightened senses. I guess my alchemist tattoo heightened mine as well.

Or maybe his anger was that substantial any normal person could feel it.

After all, what sort of idiot would risk pissing off a vampire?

NOW

Adrian thoughtfully fingers the gold cross hanging from a chain around my neck. He speaks without sound, and I try to read the hidden meaning off his lips without success.

"What was that?" I ask.

He shrugs his naked shoulders. "Nothing." He lets go of the pendant, and the flesh-warmed metal plunges back, settling just beneath my collarbone.

Funny, it looked as if he'd been saying a prayer.

"I never took you for the religious kind," I say, palming the cross and wondering why I even bother with it anymore. After the incident with the Strigoi and Ms. Terwilliger's fire amulet, I've begun to wonder what supernatural power is in my blood to be able to wield magic…

What evil is in me…

Adrian's eyes slide down to where I grasp the cross just above my breasts. "I go to Church," he claims. He must see the skepticism on my face because then he adds, "Well, I've gone once or twice. Don't tell anyone."

"Wouldn't want to tarnish that immaculate reputation of yours," I say with a roll of my eyes.

THEN

I didn't even see him move. Suddenly I was trapped against a wall, assaulted by every well-formed inch of his lean body – which looking back now, was so much more powerful than it appeared. My hands shot out to push him away, but he easily gripped them both and pinned them to the wall by my head. My heart beat furiously and I was certain he could hear it with those unnatural vampire senses. Probably salivated from the blood throbbing at my jugular as well, with every fast paced drum of my heart. He stared down at me with such a crazed passion in his unearthly emerald green eyes that I believed he was going to kill me right then and there for the things I'd said. I whimpered slightly, reminded of the way I'd recently been bitten and nearly killed by Strigoi. Adrian had unsuccessfully attempted to rescue me then, but he'd still tried. He'd still protected me.

I wondered where that Adrian – Hero Adrian – was now.

Despite everything I knew about Moroi, I expected him to be cold, undead and unfeeling… but his body emitted a predatory heat that made me shiver and break out in goose bumps. I caught a glimpse of those deadly slashes of emerald as he revealed gleaming white fangs and lowered his mouth to my neck.

As much as I was prepared to call for help, no sound escaped me. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Lord, anticipating a swift, lethal bite to end my miserable existence. But instead of a sudden death, thin hard lips pressed tenderly into mine. The razor sharpness of fanged teeth scraped gently against the flesh of my bottom lip and I finally screamed and pushed him away with all my strength. The point of a fang stabbed into my lip as he moved away.

If he'd truly been evil, he might not have budged at all. But rather than tearing into me like an evil creature of the night, he left me there with both hands covering my mouth and the sting of blood on my lips.

To be continued...