Authors: Jessica Sorensen
He shook his head. “I’m not calm.” He looked at me
and I could see it in his eyes—the sadness, the pain,
the hurt of being betrayed and lied to. I knew how it
felt, but it was strange to see it in Alex’s eyes
because he rarely showed much of anything, which
now I knew why.
“Are you sure you’re going to be o—” I started to
say, but I was stopped by a set of lips pressing
against mine. A set of warm and sparkling lips.
Way, way in the back of my mind, right where the
rational side of my brain was I had a thought that
maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for the two of us to
be kissing. It had never been made one hundred
percent clear if it was a good thing or a bad thing for
Alex and me to be this close to one another.
But the irrational and emotional side of my brain
took over, and I kissed him back, feeling effervescent
and sparkly. The kiss was so much different from the
other kisses we shared. There was so much more
trust and foreverness to it. And as his hands wrapped
around my back and pul ed me closer to him, I
temporarily forgot about al the problems we had and
would be facing very soon. The key word here is
temporarily. Because moments after the kiss began it
was over as Aislin came running out the front door,
the screen banging closed behind her.
I quickly pul ed away from Alex, but he didn’t seem
to care as much as I did that we had been caught
making out on the front porch. In fact, one of his hands
was stil residing on the base of my back. And I think
Alex was planning on chewing Aislin out for
interrupting us. I could see the annoyance in his
expression. But then Aislin spoke, and al irritation
disappeared from the both of us.
“Laylen’s gone,” she said, her words rushed, her
eyes wide.
“Gone?” Alex’s hand fel from my back.
“What do you mean gone?” I asked, jumping to my
feet. “I thought he was in his room?”
She shook her head. “No, he’s not. And I searched
the house, and I can’t find him anywhere.”
This was bad. Very, very bad. Laylen had been in
such a fragile state already, with the whole first-time
biting thing, and now he has just found out that he was
created on purpose, to help end the world.
“What do we do?” Aislin cried to Alex.
Alex ran his fingers through his hair, thinking. “No
one saw where he went?” he asked, looking at Aislin
and then me.
I shook my head. “Like I said, I thought he was in his
room.”
“And I haven’t seen him since we were on the
deck.” Aislin’s voice trembled. “And Jocelyn said she
hasn’t seen him anywhere, but she’s out back
checking if he’s out there.” Right as she said it, the
screen door swung open, and my mom stepped out,
looking worried and worn out.
“He wasn’t out back,” she said, heading down the
stairs toward us.
“Wel , we have to find him.” I was trying not to panic,
but finding it very difficult. “He—he was already upset
before he found out everything, and now…” What the
hel was this? This massive…hole in my chest. And
the hole seemed to be sucking al the air right out
from me.
“Gemma, calm down,” Alex said, and I realized I
was breathing rather loudly. “We’l find him, but you
need to quit freaking out.”
“Sorry.” I took a deep breath. “So what are we
going to do?”
Alex gave me the strangest look as if something
horrible had just occurred to him, but it vanished from
his face before I got the chance to ask him what it
meant.
“Okay, we need to split up,” Alex said, switching
into I’m In Charge mode. “Aislin, you go check that
way,” he pointed to the left of the main road in front of
us, “and I’l go up the right side, towards where you
and I found him the other night,” I nodded, and he told
my mom, “You go check out to the right side of the
beach and Gemma check the left.”
We al nodded, and headed off to our designated
areas. Before I’d even been able to take two steps,
though, Alex pul ed me back.
“Don’t go too far,” he told me. “After what we were
just told—you need to be extremely careful.”
I nodded. “And so do you.”
He nodded too, gave me this weird look, and
headed off down the sidewalk. I spun around, and ran
up the stairs, feeling the same way I’d felt when I’d
been at the top of the rol ercoaster tracks waiting for it
to fal . But I wasn’t sure if what would be awaiting me
at the bottom was happiness.
The beach was packed with a mob of people, but
I figured that even with the abundance of bodies
roaming around, the odds seemed fairly favorable in
spotting a six-foot-four, blonde hair, blue-tipped bang,
vampire wandering around. But what if he wasn’t just
wandering around? What if he was doing something
he would regret? What if he was drinking blood
again?
I started to walk faster, the sand making my
footsteps heavy as I barreled across the shoreline.
Every once in awhile the cold ocean would rol up and
hit my ankles. I was trying to keep it together, but the
further I went down the sandy beach, the more
concerned I became that I wasn’t going to find him.
I decided that it might be a good idea to ask
someone if they had seen him. So, as a girl around
my age with auburn hair and hazel eyes walked by
me, I stopped her.
“Have you seen a guy that’s about six foot four, with
blond and blue hair and has a lip ring?” I asked her.
She thought about this and then her expression lit
up. “Is he like real y good-looking with bright blue
eyes, and has these symbols tattooed on his arms?”
I nodded. “Do you know where he is?”
She pointed up the beach, towards a group of
rocks that framed the lip of the shore. “Yeah, he went
that way.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I took off, sprinting like a mad
man for the rocks.
By the time I reached the rocks, I was panting for
air. The mobs of people were so far away now that
they looked like dots. There was a smal narrow path
that went between the rocks, and I stepped down it
and the beach disappeared out of sight. I gradual y
made my way down the path, stepping over the sharp
rocks as I braced my hand on the cliff’s wal . A few
times I lost my balance and slipped, and by the time I
made it to the end of the path, the palms of my hands
were covered in cuts.
But the cuts were the least of my problems because
there was no one at the end of the path, and nowhere
else I could go. I tried to listen for voices, but the
sound of the ocean was too loud. Shaking my head, I
started to turn around, wondering why the girl had told
me Laylen had come back here.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
His voice sent me scurrying backwards, and I
scraped my back on one of the rock’s jagged edges.
“Easy, Gemma,” Nicholas said, his hands in the
pockets of his tan cargo shorts. “Why so jumpy?”
I didn’t answer him, my gaze searching desperately
for an alternative way out. But after a few seconds, I
realized I was trapped.
“Where’s Laylen?” I asked him, keeping my back
pressed into the rocks, even though it hurt.
He tapped his finger on his lips, his golden eyes
watching me like a cat watched a mouse. “Haven’t
seen him.”
I opened my mouth about to tel him that I knew
Laylen had come back here—that an auburn-haired
girl back on the beach had told me he had, but the
wicked smile on Nicholas’s face stopped the words
from leaving my mouth.
“It’s amazing what a little faerie charm can get
people to say,” he said, casting a glance back in the
direction of the beach. “Wel , except on you. My charm
never seems to have any effect over you.”
“Charm?” I said snidely. “Is that what you cal it?”
Nicholas pressed his hand to his heart dramatical y.
“Oh Gemma, how your words hurt me.”
I glared at him, and he grinned.
“Wel ,” he said. “As much as I would love to hide out
here with you al day—I mean, think of the endless
possibilities of the things we could do back here, way
out of sight of everyone. But I’m afraid I have a
promise to finish.” He reached for me, and I jumped
back, bumping my head on the serrated wal of the
rocky cliff.
“Careful there.” Then, the next thing I knew, Nicholas
was in front of me, so close I could smel his flowery
scent overlapping the scent of the salty ocean air.
“Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” he whispered, sliding a
finger down my cheek.
I kneed him in the stomach, and he buckled
forward. I seized the opportunity to dodge around him,
but I didn’t make it very far, before Nicholas grabbed
me by the shoulder and threw me to the ground. My
head smacked against a rock, and the world started
to spin like a merry-go-round.
He stood above me, looking relieved, as if a huge
burden was about to be lifted from his shoulders. “It’s
time to go,” he said.
I think my head had started to bleed. Either that or I
was lying in some other kind of warm, sticky liquid. I
stil tried to get up, but my legs weren’t having any part
of it. I tried to use my Foreseer power to take me
away, but al I got in return was a headache.
Nicholas knelt down beside me and placed his
hand on my arm, and there was nothing I could do but
lie there as he retrieved the miniature, ruby-fil ed
Foreseer bal out of his pocket. He held it close to my
face as if to taunt me, and closed his eyes.
Then we were gone.
When I opened my eyes again, Nicholas was
gone. The room I was in was completely empty. And
cold—Wyoming mountain cold.
I was lying on the floor, my face pressed against the
hard floorboards. My head felt like it had been split in
two, my body ached, and there was dried blood in my
hair. I also noticed that my necklace was missing from
around my neck, which sent a surge of panic soaring
through me. The one thing that could protect me from
magical harm and it was gone
I sat up slowly and glanced around the room that
had nothing more than a door on each side of it, and
a single window, which was barred shut. I have been
here once before. This was the place that I had seen
myself, lifeless, curled up on the floor.
This was bad. I thought Nicholas would take me to
the City of Crystal, especial y since he had taken out
the ruby-fil ed crystal bal . But he brought me here
instead. Why, though?
Fearing the answer, I got to my feet, ignoring the
painful head rush I had, and took a few wobbly steps
toward the door. It took me forever to get there, but I
final y made it. Before I could get the door open,
though, it was opening by itself, and I was hit with a
puff of air so cold, it froze my body over in a
heartbeat.
And then I saw him and part of me wished that the
cold air had turned me to ice and kil ed me.
Stephan stood in the doorway, dressed in black,
Death Walker’s towering on each side of him, their
ravenous eyes gleaming yel ow beneath the hood of
their black cloaks. Snow was blowing in from the
outside, and I could see snow was everywhere
outside, just like it had been in the vision I had seen.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” Stephan said, entering
the room as if he owned it.
I stumbled backward, my heart pounding with terror.
“Nicholas said you were out when he left you,”
Stephan said, stil moving toward me.
Thankful y the Death Walkers didn’t enter. But
real y, could I be thankful about that because Stephan
was here and the scar on his cheek had reminded me
of everything my mom had told me.
“Why am-m I-I here,” I stuttered, my whole body
shaking, not only with fear, but from the cold that was
swirling through the room.
Stephan’s dark eyes stared at me, and they held so
much irritation that I wanted to duck under something
and hide.
“You’re here because I had to create out an
alternative plan.” He walked around the room,
glancing at the log wal s, as if he was searching for
something. “Since you and my son ruined my original