Sydney's POV

I took a deep breath as I walked into the house. This safe-house that I had once found welcoming and place to get away from school, even if it was usually filled with vampires. I used to rather enjoy coming here, but now it was just uncomfortable.

3 weeks ago Adrian confessed his feelings for me and kissed me. Despite the kiss sending me into pure bliss, I couldn't like Adrian that way. And I didn't. Did I? No, I didn't.

I'm lucky the Alchemists didn't find out about it or I'd be worse off than Keith.

So ever since I walked away from him we never talked and the only communication between us was through awkward glances.

Since then, the first and only time he pretended to acknowledge my existence was when he gave Jill my cross to give back to me. As Jill handed it to me, it stung as much as if he had just slapped me across the face.

Thinking of Jill pained me. She finally admitted to me that she had feelings for Eddie just as he started dating Angeline. So things between the three of them had been tense. Plus Dimitri and Sonya had left a few weeks ago, leaving things uncomfortable between everyone.

So this is why I wasn't looking forward to going inside.

I walked in and felt the sudden temperature change and was thankful the air-conditioner was on.

As I walked in the room I saw Clarence sitting on one couch and Adrian sat on another. Adrian ignored my presence and continued drawing in his sketch book.

I saw Eddie was sitting on the bigger couch on the other side of the room. I was still surprised everytime I saw Angeline sitting beside him, her head on his shoulder and their fingers laced.

"Where's Jill?" I asked and everyone but Adrian looked up at me.

"She's feeding" Angeline said.

Thinking of how Moroi's fed made my skin crawl sickeningly and I felt like going to have a shower and scrub myself clean. I shuddered at the thought, it was unnatural, not right and was against everything I believed in.

"Now I think about it she has been in there for a while" Eddie frowned.

"We should go get her" Angeline said about to get up.

"I'll get her" I said and everyone froze.

Even Adrian turned from his book and looked up at me. His green eyes looked at me with surprise and pain and I had to look away or I would have to reach out to him and comfort him.

Before I had to explain myself to everyone I quickly left and headed down the hall to their improvised 'feeding room'. I actually felt a little sick at the thought of going into that room.

I couldn't believe I said I'd go get her, I knew I had automatically said it so she wouldn't have to see Eddie and Angeline though. I don't think she was handling it so well.

I put my hand on the door handle and took a deep breath. I tried not to think about what I might see in there as I opened the door.

I closed it behind me and scanned the room. At a first glance it looked as though the room was empty, but I caught sight of Jill sitting in the corner with her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Jill?" I asked, walking over to her.

"It's not fair" she whispered.

"What?" I asked sitting down beside her.

"It's not fair. It's not fair my parents lied to me about who I am. It's not fair I was taken away from them. It's not fair everyone calls me the 'bastard sister' when I did nothing wrong but be born. It's not fair I was dragged away to some stupid deserted human town. It's not fair I'm never allowed to do anything in case I'm hurt or someone is hiding in a bush ready to kill me. It's not fair the one descent guy I really like is dating her" she spat the word 'her' like it was diseased.

"No. It's not fair" I agreed.

Jill was a 17 year old girl and it's not fair this had happened to her.

"I promise you I'll try to help you no matter what, we'll make this better" I said.

All of a sudden she threw her arms around me and hugged me.

"I'm glad you're here" she whispered and I hugged her back.

"So uhh, where's your feeder?" I asked as we stood up and left the room.

"I sent him away" she said and I looked at her confused.

"I wasn't hungry" she shrugged.

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure she should have been starving after a week of no blood. But I didn't ask, the topic wasn't my favourite thing to talk about.

We head back into the lounge room and I sat down next to Eddie. I saw Jill had sat down next to Adrian which was pretty much as far away from Adrian as possible. We all sat around for the next few minutes in an awkward silence.

"So uhh, Angeline and I are going to the movies tonight. Does anyone want to come? Eddie asked and my eyes opened wide. It wasn't like Eddie to slack off on his job, even though he did have nights off, he just usually took everything too seriously to actually leave.

"No thanks" I said.

"Jill?" Eddie asked.

"No. I would not like to join you and Angeline on your date" she snapped.

"I thought I feed would make her less grumpy" Angeline whispered to Eddie and he nodded in agreement.

"Adrian?" Eddie asked.

"No thanks. I actually have to go now" he said shutting his sketch book and standing up.

"Where to?" Angeline asked.

"I'm just meeting a girl" he said packing his book and pencils into a shoulder bag.

"Who?" I asked and everyone looked at me.

I quickly looked down at my blouse, pretending to be more interested in it and trying not to blush.

"Just some girl I met in Art class, we're studying together" he said more to the others.

He turned and left, leaving me in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

I wasn't jealous. Was I?