“They’re retractable,” he says and slides his tongue along his lips. “And I only bring them out when I want to.”
I think about my dream and how he bit me. Curiosity sparks inside me. “And when do you want to?”
His body goes rigid. “Let’s hope you don’t have to find out.”
I want to find out, though. In fact, I crave it, like a dying plant craves water. Not because I want him to drink my blood and kill me, but because I want to see if it feels the same as it did in my dream; intoxicating and potent. “What else can you do?”
He bites back a smile and shakes his head. “You’re a curious thing, aren’t you?” He analyzes me with a tilt of his head and then his eyes shade to a dark blue. “You really want to know?”
I nod because curiosity is spilling through my veins like a drug. “I do.”
His gaze lingers on me for a brief second longer and then he glances at the door before scooting closer to me. He tucks a strand of my hair out of my face and then traces a line below my eye. “Shut your eyes.”
I’m thrown off a little by his touch. “What?”
He draws back his hand, sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and his lip ring slips between his teeth. “Shut your eyes and I’ll show you what I can do.”
I glance at the desert and then at the house. Do I trust him? Even though I hardly know him, I do trust him, but I don’t understand why. Leaning back against the step, I inhale a breath of the warm air and then let my eyelids slip shut.
There is no movement, no softness of his voice, and no sounds of a dying animal he might be devouring. I almost open my eyes to see if he’s left, but then I feel him shift closer and the temperature of my body begins to dwindle as his body hovers over mine, barely touching, yet each one of my nerves attach to him.
“I feel guilty doing this to you,” he whispers against my neck. “I feel guilty doing it to anyone really, but you have this really curious, naïve look in your eyes that makes it really hard to say no.” I feel his lips brush my neck, soft and moist, and the sensation seeps down into my skin, spilling into my body like liquid ecstasy. Under no control of my own, I fall back against the steps. An arm quickly winds around my waist, his hand cups the back of my head and he holds me up. I want to open my eyes and look at him, but my eyelids are sealed shut.
“There’s this thing,” his lips graze my collar bone and warmth centers to my heart and stills it, “that not all vampires can do that’s called venenatorum osculum.” The way the words roll off his tongue sounds sexy. It makes my thighs tingle and my body arch up against his chest. “I can manipulate things inside you.” He kisses the hollow of my neck and my entire body stills; paralyzed with a yearning for him to fill the massive hole in my heart, which seems to have enlarged severely over the last few seconds.
“I can put feelings in there; make you feel things you never knew existed,” he whispers and his mouth lingers above my chest. I want it on my chest. I want him on me. I want so much at the moment. His voice lowers and grows ragged. “Or I can take it away.”
“Please don’t take it away,” I nearly beg as he pulls the collar of my shirt aside. I curl my toes preparing for whatever he’s going to do, hoping it will fill up the void inside me.
But then I feel him tense, his fingers and mouth move away from me, along with his body. My eyes open as he guides me upright. He isn’t looking at me, but at the front door, which is wide open and Alex is standing just outside of it.
He looks pissed. Well, pissed is kind of an understatement. He looks infuriated; his face red, his fists clenched, his eyes dark and his arms crossed so tightly in front of his chest that the lines of his muscles are showing. “Are you two having fun out here?”
It’s one of those moments where I know it’s best to lie. “Not really. We were just—”
“Oh, I know what you were doing.” He jogs down a few steps and Laylen rises to his feet. “Having fun teaching her about vampirism? I guess you two skipped right past the introductions.”
“Technically, we already know each other.” Laylen is a little taller than Alex and his legs and arms are lankier. “And maybe, if you would have explained it to her, then I wouldn’t have had to. She doesn’t seem to know anything about our world.”
“You know why that is.” Alex shuffles forward and I can feel the tension in the air like a viral disease; I feel bad for putting it there. “She’s not supposed to know.”
“She knew I was a vampire,” Laylen points out. “And she had questions, so I answered them.”
Alex’s fists tighten and his jaw twitches. “More like showed her and broke a ton of rules.”
Laylen leans forward and anger flashes across his face, which is mixed with pain and anguish. “Those are the Keepers’ rules and, since I’m not a Keeper anymore, I don’t have to follow them.”
Alex grits his teeth and Laylen steps around him, his long legs skipping over a few steps as he heads for the house. I remain on the steps, unsure of what to do. Should I follow Laylen? Go inside? Stay here?
I start to move for the house when Alex turns and looks at me, or looks through me anyway.
“Go inside,” he says quietly and even though I’m not a fan of his bossiness, I obey because it looks like he’ll crumble if I so much as utter a word.
Chapter 11
No one speaks as we make our way down the hall. Alex lollygags at the rear and Laylen towers in front. Alex is clearly irritated about the incident he walked into on the porch. I’m still unsure what happened. Now that I’ve gotten some space from Laylen, I realize how foggy my head had been when I was close to him. Not to mention, how much my hormones are bonding with my thoughts. Is that what Laylen can do? Make me horny?
Laylen heads into the room I left earlier. I’m about to walk in when Alex grabs my sleeve. He doesn’t give me time to turn around as he drags me back down the hall and around the corner into a foyer with black tile floors and a mirror hanging on the wall. There is also a small table that has pictures of Laylen and Aislin together at various different places. Are they a couple?
Alex steers me around by the shoulders so I’m facing him and then he backs me up against the wall.
“What are you doing?” I protest as I step forward.
His hands come down on the wall and he restricts me between his arms. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” I state as his hands slide down the wall and stop just above my shoulders. “Just talking.”
“You do know what he was doing to you, right?”
“I asked him to do it.”
He arcs an eyebrow and bends his elbows so he can move in closer and it galvanizes my body. “You asked him to manipulate your feelings? Considering what you’ve went through, I would assume that’d be the last thing you’d ever want.”
“I just wanted to see what a vampire could do. It isn’t that big of a deal.” I pause. “And why does it bother you so much?”
“Because…” He locks his elbows to give us distance. “Look, you’re new to this whole aspect of life and I don’t want your curiosity to get you into trouble. Because it can. Trust me.”
“You keep saying that… trust me.” I lean forward, lessening the space between our faces. “Yet, I know nothing about you. How can I trust someone I don’t know? I mean, I’ve known Laylen for like twenty minutes and I already feel like I know more about him than I do about you and I’ve known you for a few weeks.”
He isn’t intimidated by my take-charge attitude. He welcomes it, moving in even closer so our foreheads are converging. “That’s bullshit. I’ve told you things about me.”
“And how do I know any of that’s true?” I ask. “After everything, after the sheer fact that you were around me for days upon days acting like everything was normal. Being able to act like that and omit the truth can only come from practice.”
He pushes back from the wall and shakes his head. “Believe whatever you want, Gemma. See ho
w far it gets you.”
With that, he leaves and I have no idea what he means. I have no idea what anything means anymore. I’m a mess. A giant, erratic, emotionally driven mess that is supposed to save the world.
***
It turns out that Alex and Aislin still can’t get ahold of anyone, so there is a heavy amount of friction in the room. I sit at the table and watch Alex pace the floor with his hands crossed behind his back. He does it for so long I think he is going to wear a whole in the floor.
Aislin is in the end chair messing around with her phone while Laylen searches the bookshelves as a way to busy himself. I think there may have once been something going on between Laylen and Aislin because they haven’t once looked each other in the eye.
Aislin drops her cell phone on the table and slumps back in the chair. “Maybe we should just go looking for them.”
Alex halts and unfolds his hands from his back. “That’s easier said than done, Aislin, since we have no idea where to look for them.”
“I’m just trying to help.” She frowns and scoops up her phone. “You don’t need to be rude.”
“Did you guys ever consider that maybe they don’t want you to get ahold of them?” Laylen slides a book onto the shelf and walks over to the table. He hasn’t spoken in an extent amount of time and his voice seems to make Aislin and Alex edgy, but I like the sound of his voice. He grips at the back of the chair next to mine. “That maybe they’re hiding from you.”
Alex shoves up his sleeves and tosses his phone aside. “Why the fuck would they be hiding from us?”
Laylen lets go of the chair and stands upright. “You tell me. I’ve been out of the loop for a few years now.”
“Yet, there’s an underlying meaning,” Alex retorts, striding to the table, “written all over your face.”
Laylen crosses his arms and so does Alex. They stare at each other like two dogs ready to rip each other’s throats apart. Aislin and I trade an uneasy glance, but we’re both afraid to intervene.
“You want to know what I think?” Stretching his long legs, Laylen makes a path around the table toward Alex. “That it’s not just a coincidence that Stephan, Marco, and Sophia are all unreachable when hell breaks loose. I mean, for all we know, they could be working with Demetrius and the Death Walkers.”
“Why would you think that?” I interrupt. “I thought the Keepers were good.”
“Gemma, just ignore him.” Alex prowls toward Laylen with a cocky sway in his walk. They’re closing in on each other and their chests are heaving with their rage. “He’s full of shit.”
As the two of them reach each other, I scoot the chair back from the table and stand up. “All of you are strangers to me, so I’m not sure who or what to believe.”
Laylen cinches his lips together, holding back a grin as he looks at me. “Smart girl.”
I want to say thank you, but the look on Alex’s face shuts me up. His eyes are flaring and his fists are balled so firmly his knuckles are chalk white. It’s like he thinks I’m supposed to straight up trust him. For the last few weeks, I’ve thought he was just a normal guy, who I happened to share some electrical bond with, and I thought that was because I was going insane.
“I’m sorry, but I’m confused and I don’t want to trust anyone at this point.” I lower myself into the chair. He keeps his eyes on me and it makes me want to cower under the table. There is too much power and control in those eyes; it melts my inhibitions.
“Maybe we should go back to Laramie and check up on things,” Aislin speaks and cuts through the tension in the air. “There might be something back at the house that could help us figure this out.”
“Are you crazy?” Alex asks, tearing his gaze away from me and focusing on her. “There’s no way we’re taking Gemma back to Wyoming. You saw how many Death Walkers showed up at the cabin. It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m never going back? Wait. Why? I have a home there and a…” I stop because what else do I have there? A bed. Classes. Emptiness. Nothingness. Pieces of meaningless memories that are more weightless than dust.
“You can’t go back when the Death Walkers know where you are.” His brow arches upward. “Does that upset you or something?”
“No,” I admit, “but where am I going to live? And what about my stuff?”
Alex puts his hand to his neck and pops his neck. “That’s a question only Stephan can answer because, right now, I have no fucking clue what the hell’s going on or what the next move is. No one prepared us for this.”
“Prepared you for a Death Walker invasion,” I joke and then choose to keep quiet after Alex’s gives me a death glare.
“I think sometimes, your moods get a little confused,” he says. “Because a lot of them don’t fit the situations.”
“Yeah, but at least I have an excuse,” I retaliate. “You’re just moody for unknown reasons.”
“Oh, he has reasons.” Laylen slaps Alex’s shoulder roughly and Alex winces. “He just won’t admit them.”
Alex glares at Laylen’s hand. “That’s not what this is about.”
Laylen steps back, shaking his head. “Yes, it is. All this,” his eyes flit to me, “is about wanting what you can’t have.”
Alex raises his fist and targets it at Laylen’s jaw. Laylen does nothing but stand there, embracing it, as if he wants to feel the pain. I start to jump from my chair, but Aislin beats me to the punch, literally. She’s in between them before Alex can sling his fist forward.
She thrusts her hands out to the side of her and pushes both of them back. “Stop fighting. Fighting has never done any of us any good. In fact, it’s the main reason why we haven’t talked to each other in the last few years.” She looks at Alex, then at Laylen, and then her hands fall to her sides. “Now, we need to focus on the problem and come up with a plan.” Her shoulders rise and fall as she lets out a deep breath. “What we could do is leave Gemma with Laylen while you and I go back to Laramie and see what’s up. Check their houses, see if anyone is there or if anything gives us a clue to where the hell they disappeared to.”
Alex’s eyes narrow at her. “There’s no way in hell I’m leaving Gemma alone with him.”
Laylen laughs, but it was underlined with hurt. “Am I not even considered a person anymore?” Alex doesn’t respond and Laylen shakes his head.
“Here’s a thought,” I chime in. “It’s my life, so I think I should have some say in this. And I say I’m comfortable with staying here alone with him.”
Alex snorts a sharp, derisive laugh. “I’m sure you are. I got a full view of how comfortable you two are with each other when I walked out onto the porch.”
Aislin’s forehead furrows and she looks at Laylen for an explanation. “Wait, what happened out on the porch?”
Laylen looks guilty and starts to open his mouth, but Alex cuts him off.
“Don’t worry about it.” Alex pulls out a chair to sit down. He looks tired; there are bags under his eyes and they’re bloodshot. Positioning his elbows on the table, he lowers his head into his hands, looking defeated. “Aislin, how quickly can you get us to Laramie and back?”
She poises her chin up as she rounds the table and collects her phone. “As quick as you need me to. You know that. I’m good to go if there are only two people. It’s when there are too many that things get complicated.”
“Then we’ll leave Gemma here.” Alex raises his head and stabs a finger in Laylen’s direction. “But if anything happens to her, it’s on you.”
He rolls his eyes and sits down at the table. “Nothing’s going to happen to her. As much as you hate me, you know I’m perfectly capable of fighting off some Death Walkers.”
“Not in large numbers,” Alex says. “No one’s capable of that unless they have the Sword of Immortality, and no one’s seen it for a few years.”
“I have to go back into the library and grab my candle and crystal first,” Aislin announces as she heads for the door. “Then we can go. The sooner we get
out, the sooner all this will be over. I don’t like not knowing what’s going on. I’m a very structured person.”
Laylen and Alex trade a glance and there is laughter in their eyes. For a second, they look like friends.
“Yeah, that’s you,” Laylen comments sarcastically as he turns a chair backwards and sits down in it; letting his lanky arms dangle over the top. “Miss Organized and Structured.”
She turns around. “Hey, don’t be mean!”
Alex is tracing his finger along his palm absentmindedly. “He’s not being mean. He’s just stating a fact everyone knows.” His eyes flicker in my direction. “Even Gemma probably has caught on to how disorganized you are.”
I shake my head because I don’t know enough about her to pass that judgment. “I don’t know that.”
“Well, you should,” Alex says. Aislin whisks forward and smacks him on the back of the head. His shoulders constrict and move upward. “Hey, I wasn’t the only one who said it.”
“Well, you were the first one in my reach.” She rolls her shoulders back to straighten her posture. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get my Wicca stuff so I can use my awesome magic gift—which none of you have—to take us back to Wyoming.” She starts toward the exit, but slams to a stop and smacks her hand against her forehead. “Shit! Shit. Shit. Shit.”
I’m starting to realize that maybe I’m not as crazy as I’ve always thought. Maybe everyone is crazy. Maybe crazy is actually normal.
Laylen nibbles on his lip ring as he works to restrain a smile. “What’s wrong?”
She turns around and pouts out her lip. “The Death Walkers’ ice ruined my crystal. We were lucky we even made it here.” She makes her way back to an empty chair. “This sucks. Now what are we going to do?”
It gets so quiet I can hear everyone’s hearts beating. Thump, thump, thump, thump. They sound like tiny drums.
“What kind of a crystal was it?” Laylen inquires. “The gold-leaf one?”
“No, it’s the one made of amethyst.” She props her elbow on the table and lets her chin fall into her hand.
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