The Underworld (32 page)

was only a waiting game. The question wasn’t
if

someone was going to show up, but
when
someone

would. And who? The list was long.

It was our second night here. We had al been

resting from the insanity of the last few days we had.

Alex was stil recovering from being in the City of

Crystal, and I was drained dry from al the bouncing in

and out of visions. Everyone, including me, figured it’d

be best to rest for a few days, and then I was going to

give it a go at using the Ira. I wasn’t going to lie and

say I wasn’t afraid of going to The Underworld. I’d

been there before and that had been in a vision. Real

life was going to be a lot worse because I wouldn’t be

invisible. But I had to do it.

There was something else concerning me besides

my future endeavor to The Underworld. Laylen’s

moods seemed to be getting stranger. One minute he

was perfectly fine, and the next minute he was upset

over something. If I didn’t know any better, I would be

wondering if he was experiencing a prickling

sensation on the back of his neck that was releasing

an abundance of his emotions. But Laylen had never

previously been unemotional, so I knew he couldn’t be

suffering from a soul-detaching-Keeper-gift that a

certain red-headed Keeper, who had raised me,

possessed.

No. Something else had to be up with him.

I was sitting out on the deck that extended out from

my bedroom. The sky was a jet black, and the

moonlight reflected like an orb against the dark ocean

water. The stars were twinkling in their own beautiful

way, and the lul of the ocean was having a calming

effect over me.

If I hadn’t been sitting out there, I wouldn’t have seen

him walk across the sandy beach, heading away from

the house to who knows where. The light of the moon

hit his blond hair making it look white, but I could tel

by his height and the way that he walked that it was

Laylen.

“Where is he going,” I mumbled to myself. I stood

up and yel ed, “Laylen!”

He turned and looked at me, and then…he ran.

“Laylen!” I shouted, causing a rising uproar

amongst the neighbor’s dogs. “Where are you

going?”

But he already disappeared into the darkness of

the night.

“Crap.” I went into my room, slipped on my flip flops,

and ran out of the bedroom. I was so mad at myself. I

knew something had been wrong with him, but I never

said anything, and now he was running away.

I reached the front door and realized I had two

options here. One, that I take off on foot, al by myself,

in the middle of the night, and roam around a strange

town, looking for a vampire who was struggling with

some kind of issues. Or I could go wake up Alex, and

he could drive us around in the SUV.

Even as I headed back to Alex’s room, I wasn’t sure

he would help me. Yeah, Laylen and Alex had been

getting along—in fact everyone had been getting

along—but I was stil skeptical that Alex would jump

out of bed and say “yeah, let’s go find him.”

When I got to Alex’s door, I hesitated before

knocking. It took him a second to answer, but the door

did swing open, and a tired-eyed, shirtless Alex, with

some serious bed-head, stood in front of me.

He blinked wearily at me. “What’s up?”

“I just saw Laylen leaving.” My words came out

rushed. “Down the beach. And when I cal ed his

name, he ran.”

His eyebrows dipped down. “Where was he

going?”

“I don’t know....but he’s been acting kind of weird

since he…since he bit me.”

“You’ve noticed that, too?”

“Wait, you’ve noticed it?”

He nodded. “Yeah, he’s been acting just like…” he

trailed off, looking away from me.

“Like me,” I said, like it was obvious, which it was.

There was no use tiptoeing around it.

“Wel , I wasn’t going to put it that bluntly, but, yeah,

he’s been acting like you.” He gave me a funny look.

“Or the old you. I’m not real y sure about the current

one.”

“Okay.” Let’s get off that subject. “Wel , if something

is wrong with him, then we need to go find him.”

Alex nodded and walked back into his room. I tried

not to stare at him too much as he slipped a black t-

shirt over his head. He put his shoes on, grabbed the

car keys off the dresser, and then we were heading

out the door.

“Okay,” he said, once the engine was running, and

we both had our seat belts buckled up. “Which

direction did he head in?”

“To the left,” I told him, and he backed the SUV

down the driveway. “So where do you think he’s

going?” I asked Alex as we drove past the brightly

painted beach houses that lined the street.

“I’m not sure,” he said a little too quickly.

My head whipped over to him. “You’re lying. I can

tel .”

He shot me a dirty look, but then erased it; I guess

he changed his mind about fighting with me. “Fine…I

think when he…bit you it might have awakened the

blood thirst inside him.”

I gave him an unconvinced look. “There’s no way

that could be true.” But I didn’t ful y believe my words

myself.

He raised his eyebrows at me questioningly. “Think

about it. You were his first bite, and if anyone’s

blood’s going to make a vampire go al blood crazy

it’s going to be yours.”

“Why would mine do that?” I was offended. “There’s

nothing wrong with my blood.”

“I’m not saying there’s something wrong with it, just

that it’s very…energized,” he said, then quickly

added, “Or at least I can imagine it is.” His grip

tightened on the steering wheel, and I stared at the

hand I saw him cut in the vision—the one when we

were little and we made some kind of vow to each

other.
Forem
.

I traced the barely visible scar on my hand. “What

does
forem
mean?”

He dropped one of his hands from the steering

wheel and tucked it to the side of him.”Why do you

keep asking me that?”

“Let me see your hand.”

“Gemma, quit being weird.”

I looked down at my hand. The scar was so faint, I

never even noticed it until I had seen the vision. “I saw

a vision of us when we were little. You and I were

hiding in that hideout—that’s how I knew where it was.

Someone was yel ing for us—I think it was you father

—and I was scared to death because I didn’t want to

leave, so you cut my hand and yours, and we pressed

them together and said
forem
.” My voice trembled.

“Right after that, I saw Sophia detach my soul.”

It went so quiet that I could hear the roar of the

ocean. I wasn’t sure why I told him about the vision, I

just did. I wasn’t expecting anything, but when he

looked at me, his eyes were so ful of sadness I

thought he was going to say that he was sorry I had to

see that.

“Gemma, I’m-I’m—” His eyes widened, and he was

no longer looking at me, but to the side of me, out the

window.

I fol owed his gaze, and saw Laylen rounding the

corner of a bar, the flashing neon signs glowing

against his pale skin as he walked by them. He was

not alone, either. He was with a woman. Her long hair

was tied up in a ponytail, and her tan skin was like a

shadow against the night.

Alex made a sharp turn and ramped the SUV over

the curb.

“Who’s that he’s with?” I asked, clicking my seat

belt loose as the car came to a stop.

“I have no idea.” He turned off the engine, and we

both hopped out.

There were a group of men loitering at the entrance

of the bar, and the smel of their cigarette smoke

stunk up the air. They made catcal s as we walked

across the parking lot, and I moved around to the

other side of Alex, putting him between the rough

looking men and myself.

One of them made a very inappropriate comment—

which I wil not repeat—and Alex’s eyes lit with rage.

He started to move toward the men, but I grabbed his

arm.

“Now is not the time.” I tugged at his arm. “Come

on.”

He actual y listened, but his eyes did glint

murderously when one of the men shouted something

about him being a wussy boy.

Those men should real y consider themselves lucky,

seeing how I’m pretty sure Alex could beat the crap

out of al of them without even getting a scratch. (He is

a Keeper after al ).

But al thoughts of those men immediately exited

my mind when we rounded toward the back of the bar,

and standing underneath the back light, right next to

the dumpster, was Laylen.

And he was biting the woman.

“Laylen,” I cal ed out and he immediately let go of

the woman. Her limp body hit the asphalt with a

thumping noise that shot goose bumps al over my

skin.

Laylen’s blue eyes were wide and he looked

horrified as he glanced down at the lifeless body of

the woman and then back at us. Alex stepped toward

him, but Laylen put up a hand, his fangs gleaming in

the light.

“Stay away from me,” he hissed.

Alex pointed down at the woman. “I’m just going to

check to see if she’s okay?” He took a step forward

again, making sure to move cautiously.

Laylen didn’t protest. He sunk to the ground and

cradled his head in his hands. While Alex made sure

the woman was okay, I careful y made my way over to

Laylen. He looked so broken that I wasn’t sure if I

could handle this or not. I was no pro in dealing with

human emotions—heck, I could barely deal with my

own most of the time. So as I knelt down on the

asphalt beside him, I tried to wil the prickle to show

up and release some kind of emotion that would let

me know what to do.

It never came, though, so I guess I would have to

figure out this one on my own.

“Laylen,” I said, gently touching his arm. “Are you

okay?”

He pul ed away. “Don’t touch me.”

“She’s okay,” Alex said and he came over and

stood behind me. “She’s just unconscious.”

“See, she’s okay,” I told Laylen.

Laylen raised his head, and I almost shrank back

from the anger in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. It’s stil

there.”

“What’s stil there?”

“The…the hunger.”

I glanced up at Alex, my eyes pleading with him to

help me out. I didn’t know what to do.

He gave me this look, and I thought he wasn’t going

to help me, but then he knelt down on the ground next

me and said. “Look, she’s not hurt, okay. So let’s just

go back to the house and forget this ever happened.”

Laylen glared at him with his fangs out. I had to

admit he looked terrifying. But for his sake, I made

sure to stay calm.

“Hey,” I said, tel ing myself I could do this. I could be

sympathetic and make him feel better. “It’s going to

be okay. She’s not dead, only passed out, and when

she wakes she’l probably feel real y…” I searched for

a word that would describe what I felt when he bit me.

“Euphoric.”

“It doesn’t matter how she feels,” he said, his voice

pained. “I bit her, which is something I’ve spent the

last few years trying not to do.”

God, this was al my fault. “Laylen, this isn’t your

fault. Please just come back to the house with us—

we’l figure something out, okay?”

Honestly, I didn’t think my little speech was that

persuasive, but apparently he thought it was, which

was al that matter. He got to his feet and then al three

of us went back and climbed into the SUV. We drove

back to the beach house in silence. I made sure to

keep an eye on Laylen, fearing he might freak out and

try to run away again.

He seemed calm, though, but stil not his normal

self, which had me worried.

What if Laylen, the only person who’d ever told me

the truth—who was always there for me—was gone?

When we arrived back at the beach house,

Laylen went straight into his room and said he was

going to bed. I was afraid he might leave again, but

Alex promised he would watch him. We had woken up

Aislin, not intentional y, but nonetheless we had to

explain to her what had just happened. Then I sat on

the couch, listening to Alex and Aislin argue over what

to do with “him.” I didn’t like how they were talking