Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

In Chapter 1, Sydney Sage is woken in the middle of the night by her father. Her father requests that she make herself presentable, be quiet so she doesn't wake her mother and then come downstairs. Sydney and her father are Alchemists, which are people with superhuman powers that protect the rest of the world from vampires and other catastrophes. When Sydney arrives in her father's study, she finds several other Alchemists present. Sydney finds out that they are sending her out on an assignment to Palm Springs to protect a member of the Moroi, which is one of the vampire tribes.

In Chapter 2, when Keith refuses to allow Sydney to go on the assignment and calls her a "vamp lover," everyone is the study gasps. A discussion ensues as to who has the power to make the decision on who will...