The Underworld (27 page)

pale pink as the sun ascended behind the shal ow

hil s of the desert. Night was almost here, the air was

getting colder, and I was freaking out. What if

someone showed up—someone bad and I couldn’t

protect Laylen? There were so many risks, and I was

concerned that if Alex asked the wrong vampire—one

that knew what Laylen had done to Vladislav—we

would be in some serious trouble.

And maybe that’s why I did what I did. But honestly, I

wasn’t sure what the exact reason was. But it real y

didn’t matter. Al that mattered was that I gave Laylen

a soft shake to see if I could get him to open his eyes.

“Laylen,” I whispered, keeping my hand pressed to

his chest as I leaned over him. “Laylen, can you hear

me.”

His eyes stayed closed.

“Laylen, if you can hear me, I need to know

something.”

Stil nothing.

“I need to know if there’s another way to save you,

without having to get a vampire involved.” I took a

shaky breath, tears stinging at my eyes. “Alex said

there wasn’t, but I don’t believe him. Please wake

up…please.”

My heart was splitting in two. I watched to see if

Laylen’s chest was rising and fal ing, but it was too

dark to tel .

“Laylen,” I said, a little too loud, and Laylen’s eyes

shot open. I gasped as he sucked in a breath of air.

“Oh my God.” Tears streamed down my cheeks.

“You’re awake.”

He nodded slowly, letting out a few coughs.

“Are you okay?” I asked, wiping my tears away.

He shook his head weakly. “I can’t feel it anymore.”

“Can’t feel what?” I asked softly.

“The pain.”

“From the wound?”

He shook his head. “From being alone.”

I almost burst into sobs, but I held it back. I needed

to be the strong one. “It’l be okay. Alex is going to get

help.”

“I don’t think….” His eyes fel shut again.

“Laylen,” I panicked. “Don’t close your eyes.”

He shook his head and said nothing.

“Laylen,” I said. “Is there another way to cure you?”

I knew I might have been searching for something

that didn’t exist, but when I asked Alex the same

question I swear he had been lying when he told me

no. And in many of the vampire-themed books I read,

human
blood worked as a cure.

“Laylen.” I kept my voice calm, but demanding.

“Open your eyes. You have to open your eyes.”

Slowly, his eyelids lifted open. His bright blue eyes

were glazed over, and I wondered if he was even

there.

“Can you hear me?” I asked.

He nodded lethargical y.

His blood soaked my fingers—time was running

out. “Can you tel me if there’s another way to save

you?” I asked. “Besides vampires’ blood?”

He blinked a few times, his eyes coming into focus.

“No, there’s not.”

“Are you sure.”

He hesitated.

“Laylen,” I said in a gentle voice. “Does human

blood work too?”

He didn’t answer right away, but when he did, his

voice was frail. “I can’t…I can’t do it.”

“If it wil save you...” I took a deep breath. “Please

just do it, okay. Don’t leave me here alone.” Whoa.

Where did that come from?

We stared at each other, and this moment passed

between us—this moment of understanding. We both

knew that our time was running out—that his time was

running out. Alex stil hadn’t returned, and he stil had

to track down a vampire who wouldn’t know what

Laylen had done to Vladislav.

He let out a cough, before nodding. “Alright, I’l do

it.”

“Okay,” I repeated nervously. “Where do you want

to…um...”

“On your wrist,” he answered for me. “It’s easier that

way, at least from what I’ve been told.”

Keeping my hand on his wound, I gave him my

other hand. He took hold of it, his skin ice-cold, and

through the looseness in his grip I could tel he was

weak. Then, with a look of horror, he opened his

mouth, letting out a whimper as his fangs descended.

I held his gaze so he wouldn’t think I was afraid of him.

But I was afraid. Not so much afraid of getting bit—

wel , maybe just a little. But I was more afraid of losing

him.

As his sharp vampire fangs sunk into my wrist, a

rush of adrenaline and a mil ion other things whipped

through me, just like when Vladislav had bit me. But

there were also different feelings there—things I’d

never felt before.

I tried not to blink.

I tried not to look away.

I stayed with him.

Minutes later, after the buzzing, humming, and so

much other stuff had worn out of my body and my

mind, Laylen and I both lay, yes, on the smel y ground

of the al eyway, and stared up at the stars.

He drunk just enough of my blood for the wound in

his chest to seal itself shut. Then he pul ed away,

putting his fangs back where they belonged. The only

evidence that anything had happened was the two

little bite marks spotting my wrist. Wel , that and

Laylen’s guilt for biting me. I could tel that he felt

guilty, which made me feel guilty for tel ing him to bite

me. But that was okay. I would deal with my guilt as

long as it meant he was alive.

The sky was a midnight black now, the glow of the

Vegas lights shimmering across it in various colors.

Car horns and roaring engines flooded the air.

“Why do you think Nicholas is helping Stephan?” I

asked Laylen, staring at the crescent moon.

“I’m not sure,” Laylen replied, his eyes glued to the

sky. “I do know one thing, though. The next time I see

him, he better run.”

I casted a glance at him. The pale glimmer of the

moon lit up the pain in his eyes. “Hopeful y, we don’t

ever see him again.”

“I highly doubt it’l be the last time we see the

faerie,” Laylen muttered, his jaw set tight.

He was probably right. Nicholas had an act for

randomly popping up.

“But I just don’t get it,” I said. “It seems like he’s

been helping Stephan for awhile, yet he was there at

Adessa’s for al those days and never gave away our

location? Why would he do that?”

“I think we’l never be able to understand why

Nicholas does what he does.” Laylen said. “What I

think we need to do is focus on getting your mom

back, just like we were planning. I just have this feeling

she knows things that we don’t.”

I was abruptly reminded of something Nicholas had

said back in the woods; that Stephan had created

Laylen. Stephan had been the cause behind Laylen’s

vampirism. But why would Stephan need to create a

vampire? Why not just go get one of the many

premade ones that were wandering around. Did it

have to do with the star?

I decided not to tel Laylen that Stephan was the

cause behind him being a vampire. Don’t freak out on

me, though. I am going to tel him. I owed him the truth,

no matter what—he always did the same for me. But I

was going to let him get over biting me first, because

he wasn’t handling it very wel . In fact, he hadn’t made

eye contact with me since he had done it.

“Are you…okay?” I asked him. “I mean with…biting

me?”

He winced, and then sat up, staring in front of him at

the side of the brick building that had been decorated

with florescent green spray paint. “I think I should be

the one asking if you’re okay.”

I sat up way too quickly, giving myself a head rush. I

pressed my hand to my head. “I’m fine. You don’t have

to worry about me. I told you to do it.”

Final y, he looked at me. “Yeah, but you’re the one

who’s going to be tied to me now. You can’t erase the

connection I just made with you. It’l be there forever.”

“And that’s okay.” I pul ed a few bits and piece of

rock and dirt out of my hair. “It wasn’t okay with

Vladislav, but with you it is.” I didn’t mean for it to

come out how it sounded, considering the feeling we

both knew I felt when he bit me.

There was this awkward moment, where we were

both real y uncomfortable. And because of that, I

didn’t notice Alex walking up, nor did I notice the

sparks until he was right in front of us.

“You’re alright.” Alex now had on a shirt and a pair

of shoes that looked a little tattered, like he’d bought

them from a second hand store. “How—what

happened?

Laylen and I jumped to our feet, like we were guilty

of committing some heinous crime. Which we so

weren’t. With as long as it took for Alex to get a shirt

to cover up his Keeper mark, Laylen probably would

have never made it.

“We weren’t doing anything,” I said quickly, making

me seem guilty.

Alex furrowed his eyebrows at me. “I never said you

were. I was just asking why Laylen’s okay.”

“Oh.” I gave Laylen a what-should-we-do look. He

shook his head and shrugged, like he had no idea

what to tel Alex either. I tucked my arms behind me to

hide the bite marks on my wrist. “Um…would you

believe me if I said he just healed on his own?”

Laylen let out a tired sigh, distracting me so I didn’t

react quickly enough when Alex seized a hold of my

arm and pul ed it out from behind me. The two little

bite marks marked my skin like a Scarlet G for guilty.

Only I was not guilty of anything.

“What the hel ,” he said, struggling to stay

composed. He looked at Laylen heatedly. “You
bit

her?”

“
I
made him bite me,” I said, pul ing my arm away

from him.

“I was going to get help.” He was furious.

“He was dying,” I said simply, but firmly. “And it was

the only thing I could think of to do.”

“I—How would you even know that would work?” he

asked, working to keep himself contained.

I shrugged. “I had a hunch. Besides, you should

have said it would work in the first place, instead of

saying we had to go track down another vampire,

which just wasted time. And it would have been more

of a risk for Laylen if you brought back a vampire who

knew about him kil ing Vladislav.” My voice was

ringing angrily, and I was breathing heavy. I was mad.

A different kind of mad then I’d ever been. I was mad

for someone else. I was mad at Alex for risking

Laylen’s life like that. And I was mad at Nicholas for

almost taking Laylen’s life. The prickle was going

insane. I saw red, and suddenly I gave Alex a shove. It

didn’t real y do anything to him; it just caused him to

take an unsteady step back. But it shocked the heck

out of everyone, including myself.

“Gemma,” Laylen said, his eyes wide with shock.

“It’s okay. I’m okay. Everything’s okay.”

I blinked a few times, blinking my way out of my

raging state. “Sorry, but he needs to stop lying.”

I waited for Alex to freak out on me in normal Alex

style. But al he said was, “Let’s get out of here.” Then

he turned away from us and headed down the al ey.

Laylen and I traded curious glances, and then we

fol owed after him.

We didn’t go to Adessa’s. Alex pointed out that it

probably wasn’t safe for us to go there, since

Nicholas was roaming around with a group of Death

Walkers, and he knew where our little I hideout was.

Laylen and I agreed with him, and that we should

probably warn Adessa and Aislin to get out of the

house and somewhere safe. But since none of us had

our cel phones, we had to go find a phone.

Here’s the problem. Phone booths are practical y in

extinction. So after roaming around the hectic streets

of Vegas, searching for a phone booth, we final y

gave up and entered a store to ask if we could use

their phone. But people are kind of rude when it

comes to letting “noncostumers” use their phones, so

getting someone to let us was becoming a total

project. And we were al tired. And hungry.

A great combination, let me tel you.

I was real y hating Vegas at the moment.

People kept staring at us funnily too, probably

because I had dried blood al over my hands and mud

stuck to my clothes. Plus, Laylen had a huge blood

stain on his shirt. Afraid someone was going to think

we’d kil ed someone, we al took a second to go into

a gas station bathroom and clean up a little. I washed

up the best I could. I even rinsed out my hair in the