He did a quick scan of our surroundings. “We need to find a place to hide.”
“A place to hide?” I repeated, glancing around like there actually might be a possibility of a secret door lurking beside us or something.
There wasn’t.
“Yeah, a place to hide.” He let go of my hand and grabbed hold of the handle on a nearby shoji door.
I hadn’t realized how bad my palms were sweating. I wiped them on the front of my skirt as Alex jerked the door open. Behind it was a man lying on a bed. His eyes were shut, and a woman wearing an old fashion corset dress was kneeling over him. Her blond hair curled down her back and tracing her neck was a tattoo, which I now knew was the mark of immortality.
Noticing us, the woman rose up and bared her fangs.
A vampire. My mouth dropped open. “Holy—”
Alex slammed the door shut.
I stared at him with wide eyes. “Wh-what the heck was that?”
Alex brushed me off, already rushing to the next shoji door.
I dared a glance back down the hall, wondering if I’d find a Death Walker charging at us. Surprisingly, I found it empty. But that brought no comfort to me. In fact, it made me worry more. At least if I’d been able to see it than I’d know where it was.
Alex slid open another door, and thankfully, no one was inside. He pushed me through the doorway and slammed the door shut behind us. The room was dark, only a trickle of light seeped through the screen of the door.
“Now what?” I breathed.
I heard a soft click as he locked the door. “I need to find a place to hide you.”
“Hide me. What are you going to do?”
He felt his way around in the dark, moving across what I could make out as a bed, a dresser, and then came to a stop at what looked like a room divider.
“Over here,” he whispered. “Get behind the screen.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to kill the Death Walker,” he hissed. “Now get over here.”
“Kill the Death Walker.” I inched my way toward him. “But you said they couldn’t be killed. Not without the sword, which you don’t have.”
He took me by the arm and gently shoved me behind the divider. I couldn’t see his face, but I sensed he was afraid. “I know that,” he said softly.
I pressed my quivering lips together, feeling like I might cry.
“Look.” His voice was gentler than I’d ever heard it be. “I promise everything will be okay, just as long as you stay behind here.” Then he did the strangest thing ever. He brushed his finger across my cheek. The touch was as light as a feather, but the electricity still tickle down my cheek. “Promise me you won’t come out until you know everything is okay.”
My thoughts were fluttering all over the place, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. “Okay.”
And then he was gone. Just like that. And I was alone. That’s when I realized what I’d done.
Chapter 19
I stayed behind the divider for what felt like an eternity. I swear the world could have been ending and I would have been completely unaware, the room was too dark and quiet—I swear the walls had to be sound proof or something, with how quiet it was—to get any kind of sense of what was going on.
All I had were my thoughts to pass the time. They brought me no sense of comfort whatsoever. All I kept thinking about was how Alex had said to wait here until I knew it was safe, but he’d never mentioned anything about him coming back. So what did that mean…that he wasn’t coming back?
I was so going to throw up.
Plus, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to know when it was safe enough for me to come out. So I did the only thing I could think of. I waited until I felt like I was going to burst—until I couldn’t take it any longer—and then I made up my mind that it was time to step out from behind that divider.
I crept to the edge of it, my adrenaline hounding at such a rate that it just about knocked me to the ground. I paused, taking a deep breath, and…1…2…Bam! The lights flipped on. And before I even had time to react, fog was swirling all around me. I panicked. What was I supposed to do?
Holding my breath, I backed away from the edge of the divider. Logically, the best thing to do would be to stay calm, analyze the situation, and make a plan. But how the heck was I supposed to stay calm when there was fog everywhere, clouding everything, including the rational part of my brain. So instead, I freaked and jumped out from behind the divider, preparing to run. I quickly realized, though, just how big of a mistake I’d made. I couldn’t see anything but fog. It was like being in a haunted house on Halloween. The only thing missing was the strobe lights.
Okay, okay, think. I searched the room for any sign of yellow eyes. In my nightmares and on the bus, even through the fog, I’d been able to see the piercing glow of the Death Walkers’ eyes. When I didn’t see any sign of them, it opened up a tiny glimpse of hope, and I bolted in the direction of what I prayed was the door. Bumping my knee on the dresser and catching the tip of my shoe on the leg of the bed, I at last touched the wall with the palm of hand. I felt around for the door, the chill of the fog seeping into my bones.
I found the bulge of the board trimming the doorway, and a rush of excitement charged through me. I reached for where I thought the doorknob should be, but instead of touching metal, my fingers touched fabric. Ice-cold fabric. I looked up and found a pair of glowing, soulless eyes staring down at me.
I was so dead.
I gaped at the murderously hungry monster, frozen with terror, unable to move. Its eyes burned into me like they were trying to burn into my soul. I needed to go. I needed to move away from it. I willed my legs to move and staggered backward until the backs of my legs pressed into the side of the bed. I skittered around it and inched back into farthest corner, putting as much distance as I could between me and the Death Walker.
The fog opened up, creating a hollow tunnel between the Death Walker and me. I waited for it to charge, but it didn’t move, instead towering in the doorway, its eyes blazing yellow from beneath its black hooded, ankle-length cloak. It was the first time I’d ever seen one up close, and I instantly wished I could erase the sight from my mind. It’s long, bony fingers stuck out from the sleeves of its cloak. The corpse-like skin that covered its hands almost made me gag. Its face looked like it was rotting; the flesh peeling away, revealing bits of raw muscles and jagged bones.
I pressed my back against the wall, wanting to get as far away as I could from the hideous thing. I let out a shiver, longing to disappear, wishing to be anywhere else but here.
The Death Walker’s eyes fired up to a bright gold, and it opened its mouth and let out a screech that sounded like a dying animal.
Then it charged.
I screamed as I realized I should’ve never trapped myself in a corner. What had I been thinking? There was no place for me to run. I was such a goner. There was nothing I could do but wait for it to kill me.
Trembling with fear, I sank to the floor, catching one last glimpse of those haunting yellow eyes before I closed my own. I hugged my knees to my chest and waited for the cold to suck the life out of me. This was it. This was the end of me.
I wished I’d been able to live a less lonely life.
A loud bang, followed by a shriek, and then something fell, hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
Buzzing filled my head as I cracked open my eyelids. I let out a gasp. Sprawled out on the floor, just in front of my feet, was the Death Walker, either unconscious or dead. I couldn’t tell for sure since it looked dead even when it was alive.
“Gemma, are you okay?”
I raised my chin up and met Alex’s bright green eyes. I nodded. My throat felt as dry as the desert air, and I swallowed hard, trying to hydrate it enough so I could form some sort of words. “Yeah.”
Alex hopped over the body of the Death Walker and extended his hand out to me. I took it, catching my breath at the sight of the bluish
-purple shade my skin had taken on.
“Don’t panic.” Alex wrapped his hand around mine and pulled me to my feet. His skin was so warm it practically burned against my overly chilled skin. He kept a hold of my hand and began rubbing it in attempt to create friction and bring warmth. Then he took my other hand, pressed my palms together, and cupped his hands around mine.
“It’ll be okay,” he said and breathed on my hands, deluging my skin with warmth.
“Why does it always happen to my hands?” I asked, my body shaking from the cold that still lingered in the air. Or maybe it was from my nerves.
“It’s where you lose your circulation first,” Alex explained with another breath. “The Death Walkers cold works the same way as the normal cold air does. It starts at your fingers and toes, and works its way up. The only difference is theirs works much quicker.”
“Toes?” I flitted a glance down at my DC’s, frightened at the idea of what was in them. Purple and blue toes? Toes that would need to be amputated? I’d heard about people losing their toes from the cold back in Afton, after they’d gotten lost somewhere while snowmobiling or snowboarding.
I really wanted to keep my toes.
“You’ll be fine,” Alex assured me. “Let’s just get you to the car.” He breathed one last breath on my hands, and then let them go. Then he yanked out something that was stuck in the Death Walkers back. It was the Sword of Immortality. The jagged blade was covered in sticky black goo—the Death Walkers blood, I assumed.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“Laylen and Aislin. Their pulling the car around right now so we can get out of here.” He wiped the blade on the cloak of the Death Walker, cleaning off the goo. Then he held out his hand to me. “Come on.”
I took his hand, trying to ignore the flutter his touch caused my heart to do. “What about the other Death Walkers?”
“They’re dead.”
I tried my best not to look at the foul creature as I stepped over its body, but I still caught a hint of its rotting face and felt my stomach churn. “You killed all of them?”
“There were only two.” He pulled me toward the door. “And this,” he lifted the sword into the air, “makes killing them easy.”
I followed Alex down the hall, my legs shaking the whole time. I think I’d enter some kind of state of shock or something. My body felt numb and strange, and the way the world swayed in beautiful bright colors and shapes couldn’t have been normal. To be honest, I barely remember making it to the car. But somehow, a little while later, I was sitting in the back seat of Laylen’s GTO with the warmth of the heater blasting across my skin, and the sound of tires screeching as we peeled away from the Black Dungeon.
Chapter 20
There was something wrong with my head. It wasn’t like anything had physically broken, more like I’d mentally cracked. Whether it was from the shock of barely escaping my death, or the last few hours finally catching up with me, I didn’t know. But for whatever reason, I couldn’t seem to focus. Everything kept spinning and spinning, like I was trapped on an out-of-control merry-go-round. I was starting to get nauseous when Alex had me lie down and elevate my legs, mumbling something about how it would keep me from going into shock.
So there I was, lying down in the back seat of the GTO, with my legs resting on Alex’s lap. It didn’t occur to me until later that lying down in a skirt and putting my feet on a guys lap may not have been the greatest of ideas. When I started to grasp a hold of reality again, I realized that, if he really wanted to, Alex could see straight up my skirt. Luckily, he seemed fixated on staring out the window. And really, who was I kidding? There was no way Alex wanted to look up my skirt.
I sighed, tugging down the hem of it.
Alex turned his head and looked down at me. “Oh good, you’re awake.”
“Was I asleep?” I asked. I couldn’t remember drifting off.
His eyes skimmed over my face like he was checking for visible signs of my head being broken. “Are you sure you didn’t bump your head?”
I thought back to when I’d just about been killed. “No…I’m pretty sure there was no head bumping.”
He glanced at Aislin. They both exchanged a look I couldn’t interpret.
“What?” I asked, starting to sit up. Whoa. Can you say head rush? I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead. “Ouch.”
“Gemma, you need to lie back down,” Alex insisted.
I slid my legs off his lap and sat up straight. “What’s going on?”
They exchanged another look, and this time I thought I saw a hint of disappointment in Alex’s expression.
“Why do you two keep giving each other weird looks?” My head had stopped spinning now, and I realized not only had the car stopped, but Laylen wasn’t in it. “And where’s Laylen?”
“He’s inside.” Aislin pointed out the window at a redbrick building with the words Adessa’s Herbs and Spices printed across the door. “He went in to check things out and make sure everything was okay before we all went inside.”
“Oh…well, why do you guys keep looking at each other like that?” I asked.
“Like what?” Alex asked so casually I knew he was playing dumb.
I looked back and forth between the two of them. Neither of their expressions gave anything away. But still, I could sense something was up.
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?” Alex wondered. “You’re acting kind of funny. Are you feeling okay?”
Hmm…Am I feeling okay? Suddenly, I had an epiphany. “Wait just a second,” I held my hands up in front of me exasperatedly. “Did you guys think I’d gone back to not being able to feel again or something?” Aislin shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and I could tell I’d guessed what they were thinking. “Why would you think that?”
“Because you were acting weird,” Alex replied in a laidback tone that would have made you think we’d been discussing the weather, not my emotions disappearing again.
“You were so mellow,” Aislin added in an unsteady voice.
“Oh.” I raised my eyebrows. “So you guys thought that I’d bumped my head or something and knocked the old Gemma back in.”
Neither of them said anything. Aislin fiddled with the visor above her head, and Alex stared out the window. I knew he was only trying to avoid making eye contact with me, seeing is how we were in a dark, desolated area, and there was nothing particularly fascinating to look at outside.
“Well, that’s nice,” I muttered, slumping back in my seat.
Aislin slowly turned around in her seat and looked at me with sad eyes. “Gemma, we didn’t mean it like that. We just thought…”
“That I’d stopped feeling,” I finished for her grudgingly. “Well sorry to break it to you, but I don’t think a bump on the head is going to knock me back into to that.” Then I crossed my arms and pretended like I was harboring this huge secret about what had caused the sudden onset of my emotions. Really, I had no freaking clue what had caused my emotions to suddenly be released. But they didn’t need to know that. Letting them think I knew more than what I was telling them, strangely enough, felt very gratifying.
“Gemma, if you know something,” Alex began, but I turned my back to him and stared out the window, tracing the lines of the surrounding buildings with my eyes.
I tried to brush off the fact that Alex seemed disappointed that I’d showed emotion. Who cared what he thought. Not me. I could feel and that was all that matter. Okay, well, that was a lie. But whatever. I was going to try my best not to focus on how Alex felt about me because, if I did, it would probably eat away at my insides.
As I stared at Adessa’s Herb’s and Spice’s, I noticed a crescent moon outlined by a black star sketching the window of the door. I glanced at the tattoo on Aislin’s shoulder. It was exactly the same as what was on the window.
“What is that?” I asked, pointing at her shoulder.
She traced the lines of the tattoo with her finger. “It’s the
witches mark. After I became a witch, it appeared on my skin.”
“Like the mark of immortality?” I inquired.
Her eyebrows dipped down in perplexity. “How do you know about that?”
“Laylen told me while we were at the Black Dungeon,” I explained.
“Oh great,” Alex scoffed. “What else did he tell you?”
“Nothing,” I said, which was a lie since I now knew what a Black Angel was. “So does everyone have a mark?”
Aislin nodded. “I actually have two. One because I’m a witch.” She lifted her foot onto the center console and flipped the ceiling light on. A black circle trimmed by fiery gold flames tattooed the side of her ankle. “And one because I’m a Keeper.”
“And what? They just all of a sudden showed up?”
“Yeah, my Keeper’s mark appeared when I was about twelve. It was also about the same time I really started learning about what it is to be a Keeper. And my witches mark showed up when I was about fifteen, which is when I first found out I possessed Wicca magic.”
I wondered how many marks Alex had. Was he more than just a Keeper?
“If you’re wondering if I have one, the answer is yes,” he said, like he’d read my mind or something.
Hold on. What if he could read minds? I mean, with everything else I’d learned over the last twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there was such a thing as mind-reading abilities. If Alex could read minds then that would totally suck, considering how my thoughts tended to center around him and his beautifulness.
“I only have one mark, though,” he said, meeting my eyes “The Keepers mark.”
Phew. What a relief. “Does it look the same as Aislin’s?”
He nodded. “Same mark, just in a different spot.”
Why, for the life of me, did his remark fire up the electricity was beyond me. I chewed on my bottom lip, severely distracted by my thoughts of where his mark could be.
A sly grin spread across his face. “If you want, I can show you where it is.”
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