The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2)

by Richelle Mead

That it was me and a roomful of vampires and dhampirs. Unnatural creatures. Unnatural creatures who wanted my blood… Dimitri studied me curiously. “It won’t hurt, if that’s what you’re afraid of. We don’t need any more than what a doctor would take.” I shook my head adamantly. “No.” “Both Sonya and I have training in this sort of thing,” he added, trying to reassure me. “You don’t have to worry about—” “She said no, okay?” All the eyes that had been on me suddenly jerked toward Adrian. He leaned forward, fixing his gaze on Sonya and Dimitri, and I saw something in those pretty eyes I’d never seen before: anger. They were like emerald fire. “How many times does she have to refuse?” Adrian demanded. “If she doesn’t want to, then that’s all there is to it. This has nothing to do with her. This is our science project. She’s here to protect Jill and has plenty to do there. So stop harassing her already!” “‘Harassing’ is kind of a strong word,” Dimitri said, calm in the face of Adrian’s outburst. “Not when you keep pushing someone who wants to be left alone,” countered Adrian. He shot me a concerned look before fixing his anger back on Sonya and Dimitri. “Stop ganging up on her.” Sonya glanced uncertainly between us. She looked legitimately hurt. As astute as she was, I don’t think she’d realized how much this bothered me. “Adrian… Sydney… we aren’t trying to upset anyone. We just really want to get to the bottom of this. I thought all of you did too. Sydney’s always been so sup...