Authors: Jessica Sorensen
sink, but there was nothing I could do about the fact
that I didn’t have any shoes on.
After I finished cleaning up, I met Laylen and Alex
back outside. Laylen had scrubbed down his shirt, but
I could stil faintly make out a smal stain. Alex had run
water through his hair and somehow had miraculously
styled it into place.
Apparently while they’d been waiting for me to
clean up, they’d come up with a plan. Wel , Laylen
came up with a plan, anyway. Laylen suggested to
Alex to go work his “Alex charm” on the cashier girl
inside the gas station, and see if he could persuade
her to let us use her phone. I felt bad for the poor girl,
and for a brief second I wanted to smack Alex on the
back of the head for doing such a mean thing,
especial y because I once was in that poor girls
position. But my sore bare feet and hunger pains kept
me from stopping him.
So Laylen and I waited outside the gas station,
which was located in a less busy, but sketchier area
of Vegas, while Alex went in to work his “Alex charm”
on the poor girl. And within seconds, he had the
phone pressed up to his ear.
“So you’re okay, right?” Laylen asked, as we stood
in front of the glass entrance doors, keeping our eyes
out for any Death Walkers, vampires, man with a scar,
ect.
“What, with Alex flirting with that girl,” I replied,
ringing some of the left over water out of my dark
brown hair. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” The expression
on Laylen’s face let me know right away that that was
not what he had been talking about at al , and I felt like
such an idiot. “Oh, you mean with the bite,” I said,
feeling stupid. “Yeah, of course I’m fine.”
“You don’t feel…” He hesitated, leaning back
against the door. “Weird or anything?”
I shook my head, cupping my hand over the bite
marks on my wrists. “No. No weirdness.” Actual y, that
was a lie. During the bite-session, there was this
fleeting instant where I pictured Laylen and I kissing,
which was completely weird. I knew it was only the
bite that had struck up the picture in my mind, but
there was stil a lingering feel-good sensation that the
image had brought up inside me. But I knew it would
wear off soon enough.
“So no weirdness, then?” He stil ed seemed
disbelieving.
“Besides this conversation?” I joked.
He laughed, and it felt good that I had been the one
to make him laugh. Also, maybe I could take this as a
sign that my people skil s were improving.
I know, who would have thought, right?
“So how are you feeling?” I asked. “No weirdness
with you?”
He shook his head as he absentmindedly touched
his mouth on the spot where his fangs had slipped
out. “I feel okay, I guess. Except my teeth feel a little
strange.”
“Strange how?” I wondered.
“I don’t know…I can feel them now, up there, and
it’s…I don’t know.” He touched the tip of his finger to
his tooth. “I’ve never had them out before.”
I gaped him. “What? You’ve never brought out your
fangs before…ever?”
“Nope,” he said. “I told you I never brought them
out.”
“Yeah, but when you said ‘never’ I thought you
talking about hardly ever, like maybe once and
awhile.”
“Nope. Never as in never.”
“So you’ve never bitten anyone before…
Ever
.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re the first.”
Wow. I stood there, taking in the heaviness of the
situation. What if, because he brought them out, he
changed? What if he started to become blood
hungry? It would be my fault because I made him bite
me. But he would’ve died if he hadn’t. Especial y
since Alex had been moving at the pace of a turtle,
which I was hoping wasn’t done intentional y. But Alex
is Alex and you can never put anything past him.
I chose to keep al of this to myself, though. There
was no use letting Laylen in on my thoughts of whether
or not he was going to go insane and start biting
people. I was just going to have to make sure to keep
an eye on him.
“Okay,” Alex announced as he stepped outside, a
bel dinging as the door swung shut. “Aislin and
Adessa are leaving the house now—wel , Aislin is,
and Adessa’s going to go stay with some friends of
hers until we let her know it’s safe for her to return
home.”
“And where are we going?” I asked, glancing
anxiously at a large Chevy truck turning into the gas
station parking lot.
“
We
are driving,” he answered.
“Driving?” I repeated. Driving seemed like such an
amateur thing to do. “Why can’t we just have Aislin
transport us? Or maybe I could get us somewhere
since I can now use my Foreseer power to travel to
places.”
“No.” He moved right in front of me, his bright green
eyes gleaming in the neon pink glow of the flashing
“Open” sign. “We’re not transporting because there’s
no way we can get to Aislin or Adessa without the fear
of them being fol owed.”
“But I could—”
“And we’re not using your Foreseer abilities
anymore until we know for sure that you know how to
use them.”
“I know how to use them. I got us to the Black
Dungeon perfectly fine, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but you’re tired.” He gave me an intense
look, before looking away at the silent street. “I can
feel it.”
I focused on the electric buzz, and it did seem very
faint—a soft hum instead of fiery sparkles. “Wel , so
are you,” I pointed out.
“Exactly. We al are.” He looked at Laylen. “So for
now, I think it would be best if we drove. It gives us a
chance to rest. And besides, since our location wil
constantly be changing, it’l make it harder for
Nicholas to track us down. Showing up in a moving
vehicle is basical y impossible to do.”
“But what about when we stop?” I asked.
“We’l make limited stops, and I won’t make the
decision to stop until a few seconds beforehand,”
Alex ran his hands through his very messy and not in
an-intentional-done kind-of- way hair. “That way he’l
have very short notice on where we’l be at.”
“You think that’l work?” Laylen asked, moving away
from the gas station entrance doors so a man
wearing a red basebal cap could go inside.
“Honestly,” he shook his head, “I have no idea if it
wil , but it’s al I got right now so…”
“So, where’s this car we’re supposed to be
driving?” Laylen asked. “And where are we going to
be driving it to?”
“That’s for me to know.” Alex started across the gas
station parking lot.
I headed after him, the gravel cutting into by bare
feet. “You’re not going to tel us?” I asked, not
surprised, but irritated.
He came to a stop so rapidly I just about ran
straight into him. The electricity awoke from its lazy
slumber, reacting excitedly.
He turned around with very serious expression on
his face. “Look,” he said. “I understand it’s your nature
to want to know things, but it’s best if only I know
where we’re going. If Nicholas is trying to track you,
it’l be easier for him if you’re thinking about where
we’re headed.”
Whether his plan made sense or not, I gave in
because I didn’t have a better idea. “Okay then,” I
said. “Let’s go get a car.”
Turns out Adessa had a friend who would lend us
their car, or an SUV I guess I should say. The beastly
thing could in no way qualify as a car. The colossal
SUV—a shiny black Chevy Tahoe—had tires as tal
as my legs and a lift to add even more height. I
practical y had to high jump into it. Then after I made it
inside, I had to wait around while Alex and Laylen
argued over who was going to drive the beast.
Final y, they decided that Laylen would go first
since apparently he felt very wired and awake. So we
pul ed out of the parking garage and onto a main road
of Vegas, where Alex told Laylen to drive to the
freeway and head east.
As I sat there on the sticky backseat, staring out the
window—at the stars of course—I couldn’t help but
think about how much trouble we were in now that it
seemed Nicholas was helping Stephan. With Stephan
having a Foreseer on his side, it was going to make
tracking us down much easier. In fact, I was surprised
he hadn’t already, which made me question just what
Nicholas was up to. He had me right there when he
pretended to help me, so why not turn me over?
At least we were in a moving vehicle now, and if
what Alex said was true then we were safe for the
moment.
The longer we drove, the dimmer the florescent
lights of Vegas became, until they were completely
tucked away behind the sandy hil s. I let out a yawn as
I stared up at the sliver streams of stars, questioning
my whole existence. Why was I here? I mean, if the
star’s energy was being used to open the portal, then
didn’t it mean I was as wel ? It was in me, therefore I
would be responsible for the portal opening and
ending the world.
Wel , that was a heavy thought.
“You should get some sleep.”
I tore my eyes away from the stars and my very
unsettling thoughts and found Alex watching me from
the front seat.
“It’s late,” he said. “And we have a ways to go.”
“I’m not real y tired,” I said, even though I yawned
about ten times in the last few minutes.
“Wel , you should try to get some sleep, anyway, just
in case something happens.” He ran his fingers
though his hair and turned away. “And I know you’re
tired. I can feel it.”
This whole new “I-can-feel-your-tired-and-you-can-
feel-I’m-tired” thing was weird. But I guess everything
between Alex and I was a little weird so…
I rested my head against the cool, hard glass of the
window, and within seconds my eyelids had drifted
shut.
Bright light. Bright light everywhere.
I belonged here—I could feel. I belonged in the
bright white light.
Peaceful, calm—this was my end.
The light sparkled across my skin, enveloping me
in a blanket of warmth.
I’d been here before, in a vision. Nicholas had
said it was my end. And as I stood here in the bright
light, I knew he was right. This is where I would end
up…
Forever.
My eyes shot open, and for a moment I couldn’t
figure out where I was. Somewhere dark. And warm.
Then it dawned on me. I was in a car, headed to who
knows where. I was also lying down on the seat, the
leather pressing warmly against my cheek.
The whole light dream I had was making me freak
out a little, especial y because Nicholas had told me
that the light vision I’d went into meant my future was
dead. And now I was dreaming about it. That couldn’t
be good.
From the front seats, Alex and Laylen were chatting
about cars, like they were two normal guys, which I
guess was a good thing—at least they weren’t
fighting. But it was stil strange to hear a normal
conversation that didn’t center on Death Walkers,
Foreseers, or the end of the world.
“No. There’s no way your GTO could beat my
Camaro,” Alex was saying, sounding a little worked
up. “Are you freaking kidding me with this?”
“No I’m not freaking kidding you with this,” Laylen
replied calmly. “I bet you hands down that my car
could take your car any day.”
“Bul ,” Alex said. “You know I would win, you just
won’t admit it.”
I decided that I’d rather be sleeping than listening to
this. But right as I was shutting my eyes, Laylen said
something that made me open them right back up.
“I’l tel you what,” he said. “I’l admit that you might
be right, if you’l admit that you like Gemma.”
“If I told you that then I’d be lying,” Alex said,
sounding as if he meant it. “Wel , at least not in the
sense that you’re implying.”
Ouch, that stung.
They were silent. The only sound came from the
rumble of the tires and the low hum of the song purring
from the stereos speakers—“Epiphany” by Staind.
“Okay Alex,” Laylen said, in an ‘I’m-going-to-lay-it-