Chapter Three

I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid Ryker and his concerned looks. I didn't want his pity, nor did I need it. I was beginning to regret saying anything at all about Zayne, even though all I did was give him a brief hint as to what happened. I had this feeling that Ryker wanted to ask more about it, but he got the point that his questions were unwelcome right now after the fifth time that day I had immediately left the room he was in. I just wanted to spend my time before the meeting in peace so I would be prepared.

A few hours after a tense lunch, I got the text I was waiting for, telling me that I was to be waiting at the Chrysler Building at midnight and to come alone. I thought that last part was odd since I had never done anything before to suggest I hadn't been alone. Then I realized that he might be thinking Ryker would follow me if he knew I was going to leave that night. Luckily, Ryker told me at 11 p.m. that he had a meeting with a group of vampires, something about how there was a rogue running amok. At 11:30, I was in my thief outfit, the scales twitching slightly as they moved into place to look like leather and my two new weapons glinting from the moonlight outside my window. I let the concealment on my eyes and tattoos fall and I felt free for the first time in a while.

I opened it up and jumped out, my wings snapping open and I flew off in the direction of the meeting place. I decided to play around in the sky since I had plenty of time to get to the Chrysler Building. I flew up past a large building, brushing the tip of my right wing against the glass before gaining altitude. I caught a few updrafts and dived back down again. By 12, I was circling the Chrysler Building and spotted a pair of white wings standing on one of the ledges near the top. I swooped downwards with a vague plan in my head about what I would do when I reached him.

Xavier took a couple steps back as my wings snapped open to slow my descent and I was on him within seconds. I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up into the air, slamming his back into the wall. His bright wings were splayed against the wall, mine stretched out behind me to keep my balance. He grabbed my wrist and tried to pull it away, but I was strong now and wasn't going to take things as they were.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?!" I shrieked, my eyes turning blood red and I slammed his head into the wall hard. "Why the hell are you being an informant?"

He leaned his face close to mine and glared, reaching into his coat pocket to pull out a cell phone. "We can either do this in a civilized fashion with you letting me go and we have an actual conversation. Or I can press a button on speed dial and have those vampires that Ryker is with tear out his throat. Your choice."

I glared back at him as he did the same, neither one of us breaking eye contact. I saw his finger hovering over one of the buttons and I growled, letting go quickly so that he fell to the floor. He stood up with a triumphant grin on his face until he looked up a little. I saw his head tilt to the side as he assessed whatever he was seeing, then looked back down at me. His expression turned pensive before he went on to answer my questions.

"What I'm doing is shaking things up a bit," he told me. "For years you've been able to breeze through every task I've given you. Not once did you have any problems with stealing what I wanted or even had any qualms about having to take drastic measures. You needed a challenge and this is the perfect one."

"If you're not careful, I'm going to end up accidentally showing him that I'm an angel!"

"I have faith that you won't," he said, his grin plastered to his face once more. "Remember, he'll be dead if you do. That's incentive enough." When I didn't say anything because I was too busy plotting his murder, he held out his hand. "The rings, please."

I handed them over to him and then asked, "What about the whip?"

"Oh, I just wanted you to steal that because I thought you'd look hot with it."

"You're a pig," I muttered.

"Nope, I'm an angel. You're dismissed now. And one more thing before I forget…" He turned and walked over to a ledge with his wings outstretched, about to jump off when he turned back to me with a cocky grin. "You can whip me with that thing whenever you like."

Before he could take off, I had the whip in my hand and snapped the whip at him so fast it was a blur, leaving a shallow scratch on his cheekbone and the crack of the electrum whip sounding like thunder. He touched a fingertip to his cheek and saw the blood, so I gave him a sarcastic smile before running off the building. I flew back to the Institute and landed on the roof, crouching down theatrically when I touched down with my wings curled loosely around me. It was then that I saw something that surprised me.

I stood up straight and curled my wings so I could see the tips of them. The large feather at the tip of both wings were translucent gold, the first time I'd seen any kind of change since before Zayne's death. Those two feathers could almost be compared to an amber colored bottle. I touched one of the tips, feeling that it was hot like a fire was burning. I'd never seen another angel's wings have feathers like this, but I remembered that Zayne had said something about his gold feathers. His changed to gold with every battle that he kept humans safe and proved that he knew the value of a life. I remembered again about how I told Zayne I wanted to be a fighter. My wish came true, I thought to myself sadly, too bad that all this had to occur before that could happen.

I slid my wings beneath my skin, feeling a slight burning sensation under my skin whenever the tips of my wings touched it. I concealed my blue tattoos and changed my gold cat eyes back to black, even having enough time to shift my thief outfit into a simple white dress that stopped at my knees when the roof's door was flung open. A disheveled Ryker ran out and seeing me must have calmed him down because he sighed before leaning back against the closed door.

"Oh, good, you're ok," he said, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I laughed, walking over to him to distract myself from feeling like I was slowly burning a hole through my skin.

"I told you about the meeting I had with a group of vampires about the rogue, didn't I?" When I nodded, he continued on. "Well, they said that he was last seen in Central Park where he tried to snack on some tourists, so we all went there. The rogue was there again tonight, so he must have thought it was his hunting grounds. As we were about to kill him since he refused to comply with any rules, he said that the moment his boss found out he was dead that he would track down the people I care about with his horde. And vampire leaders, even the rogue ones, can tell when one of their number dies. I thought maybe they might come for you while I was gone."

"I'd like to see them try," I said with an evil little smile. When he was about to start arguing, I told him, "Did you forget? This is sacred ground."

"He could send familiars to drag you out. They can walk on sacred ground."

Well, there went my excuse and I surely couldn't say that I could fight them off very easily because he would get suspicious. I watched as it looked like he had a brilliant idea and before I knew it I was being dragged towards the door. He pulled out a key to unlock the door before dragging me inside and to the elevator. He hit a button that took us to the basement and a few corridors later, we reached a large room the size of a gymnasium. It had large metal beams in the ceiling that were mazelike and a platform in the middle that had a pulley above it with a rope that stretched down to the floor. There were targets at one end of the room and a rack of training weapons at the other.

"Your training starts now," he told me, turning around to face me. "That way I won't have to worry about your safety if I have to leave you alone here."

I just shook my head and let him think I was going to go through with this. "How about we do this in the morning? It is kind of late."

"Oh, you're right. Alright, we can start your training tomorrow."

I looped my arm through his and he led me back to the elevator. We went up a floor and found our way back to our rooms. Like the night before, he stood there awkwardly without saying a word. I pulled my arm from his and walked to my door, about to open it when I heard him walk up behind me and hug me again like this morning. I felt a tiny fear that he might feel a burn from the tips of my wings, but I knew it was silly to be afraid of that. I heard him make a sniffing noise and it took me a little while to realize that he was inhaling my scent for comfort. He felt so much like Zayne that I leaned into his embrace, sighing and closing my eyes.

"I'm so glad that you're safe," he whispered. "I was really worried for a while that he might come after you before I could get here."

"Either way, I would have been fine," I told him calmly. "I'm a fighter and I can hold my own when I need to."

"We'll see about that tomorrow," he said, and I knew he meant it sincerely since he wouldn't know my fighting style anyway. I heard a hesitation in what he wanted to say next, like he thought it was important. "I was wondering if I could stay with you in your room tonight. That way I can protect you in the night if he makes good on his threat."

"No, Ryker. Get some rest in your room. You need it."

I felt his arms get a little tighter around my waist as he said, "Dey, I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep peacefully if I sleep in a room away from you right now. I'll be hyper vigilant to make sure no one gets to you."

I turned around and saw the worry was plainly on his face, so I gave him a reassuring smile and started to push him towards his door. "My answer remains the same. You have nothing to worry about. Nothing will happen that I can't handle."

He still looked upset, but he nodded before entering his room. I walked into mine and crawled into bed, shifting the dress to the tank top and shorts I wore to bed last night. I pulled from the invisible pocket of space a rainbow spectrum stiletto, the blade so thin it looked like it could snap easily but was very durable. I placed it under my pillow just in case and pulled the covers up around me, falling asleep relatively easy.

A couple hours later, I was awoken by the feeling that my skin was on fire and figured that the tips of my wings were too close to the surface. When I pulled them closer to my spine, the feeling didn't go away and I somehow knew instinctively that this was a new danger sensor as I grabbed the stiletto. I lashed out and heard a screech, so I turned to see six male vampires moving towards me, one of which holding his arm as it burned.

I was on my feet faster than any of them could so much as take a step, sticking my blade between the ribs of the nearest vampire and watching as he turned to ash before turning to the next. I gave them an evil grin and beckoned them to hurry, making them falter just enough so that I could stab another in the heart. I had a hold of another one and was about to sink the blade into him when Ryker burst in with his seraph blade in hand. The vampire hissed at me and I stabbed him in the heart as well for being so rude. I jumped at one of the vampires that managed to sneak up on Ryker as he fought two at once, taking the creature down and killing him. As it turned to ash, I looked back to see that Ryker stabbed the last one through the heart and it turned to ash as well. I was going to say something along the lines of good job when I saw him turn to me, looking absolutely livid with me.

"You knew that they were going to come after you tonight. I don't know how, but you did," he said, gritting his teeth.

"What, you're not going to compliment me or even take notice that I took down a majority of them rather easily?" I asked, beaming at him and noticing that the veins in his neck were sticking out.

"Alright, that's it!" he yelled.

He walked over to me and grabbed me by the waist so he could throw me over his shoulder. I screamed in anger, kicking my feet wildly and smacking my fists into his back. Could I get out of this if I wanted to? Yes, I could. I just wanted to see what he thought he was going to do. He grunted as I landed a kick into his stomach before he opened my door, then walked over to his room and entering. Ryker walked over to his bed and threw me onto my back on top of the comforter. I sat up fast and was going to get up when he gave me a withering look.

"You're staying with me in my room from now on until the threat from the rogue's boss is neutralized," he said, his eyes blazing angrily. "Not only that, but I'm moving you up to advanced training. The beginner's kind would obviously be a waste of time on both our parts."

I watched him as he walked over to the other side of the bed, pulling off his shirt as he went. He was as wiry and fit as Zayne was, and I stared openly for a few seconds before I snapped out of it. At least until he pulled back the covers and got under them with me.

"I'm sorry, what do you think you're doing?" I asked, feeling a bit nervous.

"I'm sleeping here. Then I'll know if anything bad happens, like if you sneak off or if someone tries to attack you again."

I growled quietly in irritation, but rolled over onto my side so I wouldn't have to look at the frustrating male. I listened to his breathing again, waiting for the moment that he'd fall asleep so that I could go back to my room but he never did. That was when I figured out that he was going to wait until I slept before he did. I yawned and closed my eyes, letting exhaustion wash over me from the activities of the day.

When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I noticed was that I was warm and happy. I stretched out and was about to let my wings out to stretch them as well when I noticed the arm around my waist and the body lying behind me. I'd only let this happen once with Zayne, back when he had to leave on a mission right before his death. If I let myself imagine it, I felt like Zayne was still with me. But I knew that would be wrong of me to think that way while sleeping next to another person that I was slowly growing to care about.

"I see that you're finally awake," Ryker whispered, and I could feel his body shake a little as he yawned. "I was wondering if you'd sleep in all day. Also, you didn't try to leave. That's impressive for you."

"I think the only reason you woke up at all is because I stretched," I protested, sounding whiny on purpose to be funny. "Besides, I didn't have anywhere to be so early this morning. I think I'm allowed to sleep in every once in a while."

I pulled his arm off of me and got out of bed. "Hey, don't forget to dress for training," he told me as I walked to his door. I rolled my eyes as I walked to my room, getting inside and shifting into a black tank top and black shorts. I reached into my pockets and found a hair tie, then put my hair up in a ponytail to keep my hair out of the way. I walked out of the room and saw Ryker in training clothes, a t-shirt and shorts. We opted to go to breakfast so that we'd have the fuel in our bodies to train. I had a pile of toast while he had everything that was set out on the table.

By the time we made it to the training room, I was pumped and ready to go. I figured that I'd find a way to get this over with now so that he wouldn't have to keep doing this. So when he told me to try and knock him down, I just laughed. I'd learned quite a few tricks from Zayne for self-defense that this would be easy to do with a human.

"You should be taking this seriously, not thinking that this is just a game!" he grumbled. "Give me your best shot then, missy!"

Way faster than he expected, I had a hold of his arm at a painful angle so that he couldn't get away. Then before he could so much as move to stop me, I spun just right and swept his feet from under him. He hit the ground with a thud and stared up at me in surprise as I placed on foot on top of his chest to keep him down.

"I'm pretty sure I won this round," I sneered playfully, grinning down at him.

"Oh, shut up and fight me," he growled, trying to sweep my feet from under me while he was on the ground, but I jumped up and ran a few feet away with a laugh.

Once he was up, he ran at me angrily and tried his best to punch me, but I was much faster than him. I blocked every punch he threw because I'm much faster than a mortal before deciding to go on the offensive. I started punching him, landing two good ones on his ribs but pulling my punches so that I wouldn't hurt him seriously. He just grimaced whenever a punch hit him and tried to block the rest the best he could. After toying with him for a while, I hit him hard enough to knock him on his back again, which was when he decided to call the match.

"Maybe you are safe to be on your own," he said pensively. "I think weapons training would be a waste today as well. I saw the way you handled the vampires with that tiny blade of yours."

"Hey, I have more where that comes from, so don't complain."

He then looked up at the beams near the ceiling and said, "I'm especially not going to bother with making you do that. You made it up to that windowsill in the library, so I think you're good. What I'm wondering now is how you're so good at all this."

Uh-oh, I thought to myself and gulped. Instead, I came up with a good excuse. "I had a bodyguard for a while that taught me quite a few things I needed to know back when I had a stalker."

"He must have been really good."

"You don't know the half of it."

We both figured that it was as good a time as any to just go our separate ways until lunch. I decided on a whim to go back to the library and read some more books, so I headed back to my room quickly, grabbed the book I had been reading before I finally got tired of it, then ran to the library to put the book away. I looked around to see if there were any books that were just about angels and knew that it would take a very long time to sift through them all. So I went around the room, reading title after title until I found a book that I suspected could be a book about angels and set it down on a desk in the middle of the room. An hour into my search, I had a stack of books in one sketchy pile that I thought might topple over if there was a strong gust of wind or a strong vibration. I went through the stacks of books one by one, hoping that there would be anything on angels and only finding things out about Raziel. I was getting extremely frustrated and was contemplating heading straight for Lake Lyn to inform Raziel that he was also an egotistical jerk and that should be added to any book that mentions him.

Lunchtime rolled around and Ryker came in to tell me so, only to see me pacing back and forth behind an even bigger stack of books and looking as mad as a cornered snake. "Is this what you've been doing? Playing the world's largest game of Jenga?"

"No, I'm training to be an architect," I said sarcastically. To say that I was frustrated with my outcome of knowledge was quite the understatement.

"Remind me to never enter a building you have constructed then. It looks like one tiny tap could send it over the edge."

"Same thing with my sanity. Anyway, what did you come in here for?"

"I was told that lunch was now ready and to come get you. Are you going to pause whatever you were just doing long enough to eat?"

I nodded and walked over to him, waiting for him to move while he assessed my mood. Lunch was a hurried affair, one that I ended up scarfing down large quantities of food just to be done faster so I could go back to my research. In my head, I was still plotting 500 different ways to show my intense disapproval to Raziel and trying to decide which one was my favorite. By the time I was done eating, I was quite fond of the method of Chinese Water Torture. He'd never want to go near that lake of his again after I was done with him. I practically ran from the dining room and back into the library where I tackled that pile of books as fast as I could, coming up with the same results and plotting how to make it to Idris to put my plan against Raziel in motion. It was as I was searching for new books that Ryker came back in to watch me. He just leaned up against the door as I went back and forth between the desk and the bookshelves, grabbing books and depositing them on the desk to create an even bigger pile.

"I feel as if you've somehow managed to go far beyond obsessive and created a whole new level of craziness," he said as I sat down to read the books I now had stacked together. "What in the world are you trying to find out about?"

"I read about angels in the book about magical creatures that I had for a while," I said calmly. "I wanted to find out more about them since the book glossed over them and only talked about one angel specifically."

"Why didn't you just ask me for help?" he asked exasperatedly. "I could have pointed you in the direction of a book with all sorts of angel information in it!"

Standing up quickly with excitement, I practically yelled, "So where is it?"

"A warlock here in Manhattan has it," he said, and I felt my excitement drain away. "Oh, don't worry. He'll give it up to you. You just have to ask nice and hope he doesn't ask for anything in return."

"Which warlock is it?" I asked, feeling dread course through my veins as I strongly hoped it wasn't the one I was thinking of.

"Magnus Bane." When I groaned loudly, he gave me a weird look. "Do you know Magnus somehow?"

"I've met Magnus before, but at the time I didn't know he was a warlock," I lied, thinking back to the time I'd almost had to kill him just to steal something for Xavier. "I don't think he'd let me have the book to borrow."

"Actually, you'd just be taking it back. The book belongs in this library. He came in not that long ago and took it for new reading material."

Yet another person added to my torture list, I thought to myself angrily. It was then settled by Ryker that we'd go now to see Magnus and get the book back. He figured that by going along, Magnus would be a little more cooperative with me since he didn't like me much now. The fun part was going to be the fact that Magnus was holding a party at his place, so I get to dress up and party some as well.

"He never usually has a party this early. It's usually only at night that he throws these things," he grumbled.

I practically ran to my room, startling Ryker with my enthusiasm as I made it to my room in record time. I thought about what to wear, then settled on a skintight one shoulder black dress. It had a lattice sleeve and a diamond strap on the other shoulder. I loved it because it revealed my back just enough so that I could let my wings out if I needed to. The heels I chose to match it were tall cut out gladiator high heels. I took my hair out of the ponytail and ran my fingers through it, making it fall in loose waves. Out of my pocket, I pulled out eyeliner and mascara and put it on. When I was done, I walked out to see Ryker standing there and waiting rather impatiently until he saw me. I saw his mouth drop open in shock before he caught himself. He looked speechless and I smiled a little.

"You look… amazing," he said, still looking stunned.

"Thank you," I told him, blushing slightly. "By the way, you're not leaving looking like that."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's training clothes! You can't go to this kind of party in something like that!"

I barged into his room, Ryker following me in exasperation to keep an eye on me so I wouldn't get out of control. As I joke, I pulled a suit out of his closet and he flipped out, saying there was no way he was wearing that unless it was a black tie event. I laughed and threw a pair of jeans onto his bed and found a long sleeve black shirt that had a v collar.

"There is the compromise," I informed him. Not even waiting for me to leave the room to provide him with privacy, he immediately got to work on getting dressed. When he was done, I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of his room.

When we got out of the front door, he looped his arm through mine in a silly attempt to keep me steady. My protests that I was perfectly capable of walking in these heels on my own fell upon deaf ears as he walked me over to a cab that was parked out front. We got in and Ryker gave him the address to Magnus' place. I guess this party was being held on the other side of Central Park and Magnus had all of his stuff moved there for now. The cab pulled up to a large building with music pouring out of it and we both got out, Ryker once again had ahold of my arm as we walked up the steps.

Ryker opened the door and we both walked in to see lights going off and music blaring loudly, a crowd of bodies moving to the beat. When the door slammed shut, all heads turned to look at us. No one moved a muscle and all eyes were focused on me. Ryker seemed a bit nervous and I had a feeling that he thought that they were staring at him because he was a Shadowhunter. In any other situation, he would be right but since he was with me, it was different.

"Well, well, well. Look who has arrived to crash my party," a voice said and Magnus stepped out from a crowd at the top of the stairs, a blank expression on his face. "A crazy Shadowhunter and his—"

"I just need to get a book from you and then we can get out of your… rather spiky hair," I yelled up at him.

"Just as impatient as I last remember you," he said, walking away and beckoning us to follow him.

Ryker led me over to the stairs, keeping his other hand on the seraph blade in his pocket to keep me safe just in case. Everyone watched me as I went along, a few even gave me an almost imperceptible nod of respect so Ryker couldn't see it. I extended the same courtesy, making it so he couldn't see my nod as well. Everyone on the stairs gave us a respectful distance as we walked up them. Magnus was waiting for us a small distance down the hallway, then led us both to the last door on the right.

"Stay here, Shadowhunter," Magnus told him, letting me inside the room. "She and I have some unfinished business to attend to that doesn't involve you."

With that, Magnus shut the door loudly and turned back to me. "You know that's technically not true, right?" I told him, giving him a small smile.

"I wasn't kidding when I said we had unfinished business," he said, and I saw his blue cat eyes were blazing with anger. "You think you can just waltz in here after nearly killing me and stealing some things from me?"

"Oh, so that rainbow stiletto and an old lady's ring was something you disapproved of?"

He paused for a minute, then said, "Ok, that didn't bother me half as much as the nearly dying part."

"Look, you know I didn't have much of a choice," I said exasperatedly. "You know what my deal consists of and I asked you if I could buy or barter for them. I had to do what I did because you left me with no other option. I'm sorry it turned out the way it did."

"An apology from an angel. I think that's a first. Did it hurt to say that?"

"Yes, now I need some help," I told him. "You borrowed a book from the Institute and I need it back. There are some things about angels in there that I need to find out."

"Why do you think I borrowed the book in the first place? I remembered your plight and became curious as to if there was a way to make a human back into an angel. There isn't one in there at all." I looked at him with disappointment and anger, but he piped up with some more words of knowledge. "However, I could just tell that Ryker is the newest reincarnation of Zayne, and turning a Shadowhunter into an angel is very possible."

"How do you do it?!" I practically yelled, wanting to fling myself at him and shake the answer out of him.

"Calm down! Ryker is outside the door, remember?" he reminded me, so I calmed down a bit and waited for him to continue talking some more. "Ok, the best way to do it is to gather the Mortal Instruments and call Raziel. He can grant wishes to Shadowhunters that should be impossible altogether."

"Magnus, I'm an angel, too. Shouldn't I be able to do that if he can?"

"I don't think so. Raziel was the one to create Shadowhunters. You'd need to know about their race to do so."

"If I have to make him do it, then I have a better and quicker way to get it over with. I'll go up to the heavens and ask him to, using force and torture if necessary."

"I thought you weren't allowed to go back until your wings changed back?" Magnus asked curiously.

Without a thought, my wings snapped out from my back and stretched out. I saw that the big feathers on the edges of my wings were now that translucent gold. Magnus stared in awe and came over to look at them. He touched one feather quickly and I heard a sizzle as he did, so I definitely knew that they were giving off heat.

"Don't those feathers burn the inside of your skin?" he asked me.

"They feel like I'm slowly going to burn a hole through them."

"What if you're forced to keep them out one day because the heat got too strong?"

"Then I'll have to conceal them from others by making them invisible or something."

Magnus just shook his head, but he told me that he'd return the book for me to read tomorrow once he was done reading the last 50 pages. I slid my wings back into place and walked back out to see Ryker standing against the door opposite of the room I was in. He looked happy to see me and I soon realized why. There were a few nymphs staring at him, occasionally giggling amongst them. Once I glared over at them, they all paled their respective colors and walked away as fast as they could.

"Thanks," he said happily.

As we came back into the main room, everyone turned around once more to stare at us and I groaned. "Looks like I wore this for nothing," I told him sadly as we made it down the steps.

"I know you're thinking about clubbing tonight already," he said to me. "And you're not going to."

"Hey, I think we've already proved that I'm much more skilled than you. I'll be ok on my own."

He grumbled something under his breath about stubborn women and I just laughed as we walked outside. As he hailed a cab for us, I looked up at the sky and saw that it was the sun was going to set soon. So I did what any self-respecting angel who wanted to go clubbing would do… I ran off down the road, turned a corner, and tried to find the nearest club that was open. I giggled to myself as I walked, mixing in with a crowd of people that seemed to watch me as I went along. I knew that Ryker wouldn't be able to find me now and that made it funnier.

Night had fallen by the time I found the nearest club, this one didn't have many Downworlders and was mostly human. I was ok with that because it seems that the Downworlders want to just watch me. I entered the club and every head turned to me again. I was very confused about what was going on, but I ignored them and headed to the bar. I got a strawberry daiquiri and even took an umbrella to put in it. Still, heads were turned to stare at me. I was left with no choice.

"Dance," I said, using angelic compulsion.

Immediately, the club went back to its hectic way and I was happy once more. Until I was approached by Ryker. I felt rather than saw him walk in, my soul doing a fluttering motion as he got closer. When he was leaning against the bar next to me, I just kept sipping from my drink and watching everyone dance.

"You left my side very quickly," he said calmly, but I could feel how angry he was.

"You didn't want me to do this. So I did!"

"No, I didn't want you to do it alone. And you look bored here."

"That's true," I said, slurping down the rest of my drink. "Let's go."

Ryker escorted me out to the cab that was conveniently waiting for us and we headed back to the Institute. I told him that I had to be somewhere tomorrow and it would take the whole day. He offered to come with me, but I told him it wasn't necessary. When we got back, we headed straight to his room and fell asleep. I even forgot to change out of my clothes because I was so exhausted.