Authors: Jessica Sorensen
nightmares. What if what I’d just saw was a vision?
That couldn’t be good. The strange ghostly figure had
sent so much fear through me that…I shivered, hoping
that it was just a nightmare.
I climbed off the bed and flipped on the light. The
brightness stung my eyes and I had to blink them into
focus. I wondered what time it was and what time
Laylen would show up. I didn’t have a watch and
couldn’t see a clock anywhere in the room, but it had
to be late since the sky was black, except for the
silver specks of stars, and the faint rainbow glow that
Vegas’ lights cast across it.
Perhaps I should go get Laylen. Of course, I had no
idea where he was, and I worried that, if I went looking
for him, I might run into the wrong person and end up
having to explain why I was wandering around the
house late at night.
So I decided to wait it out. Laylen said he’d be here
so he would.
I went over to the oval mirror hanging on the wal
above the dresser. For it being so late, I sure looked
awake; my violet eyes staring back at me al big and
wide. Sliding my ponytail to the side, I turned to look
at the back of my neck where my Foreseer’s mark
was tattooed. It was the first time I’d seen it, and
honestly, it was kind of strange to look at. I’d never
even considered getting a real tattoo before, and now
I suddenly had one, under no choice of my own. But I
guess that just came with the territory of being part of
a world where people’s supernatural gifts mark them.
It was almost like being branded.
I traced the black circle that curved around the S
with my finger, my skin tingling beneath my touch. “So
weird,” I muttered.
A soft click came from behind me and I spun
around as the bedroom door creaked open. I almost
bolted for the window, but then I saw it was Laylen and
I relaxed.
“Good. You’re awake,” Laylen said in a hushed
voice and shut the door. He was dressed in a black
long-sleeved thermal shirt, black jeans, and black
boots, which made me wonder if we were going to the
Black Dungeon, since almost everyone there dressed
entirely in black. “You’ve been up here for so long I
thought for sure you’d be asleep.”
I had been, but I didn’t tel him that. “If I’d stayed
down there,”
around Alex
, “then they would’ve figured
out something was up. I thought it’d be best if I came
up here where no one could see how bouncy I was.”
“Wel , I guess I don’t have to ask you if you’re ready
to go then,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah, I’m more than ready,” I said, feeling both
excited and nervous. Excited because what if I was
told my mother was alive. And nervous because…
Wel , I had a feeling that even if we were not going to
the Black Dungeon, we were probably going to a
place that was a lot like it.
“Okay…” He hesitated, making me wonder if he’d
changed his mind about going. “Here’s the tricky
part,” he told me. “We’re not going to be able to just
walk out the front door of the house. Adessa sets up
these magical charms at night so if someone tries to
come in or go out, she’l know. It’s her version of a
security system.”
“Okay…so how are we supposed to get out of the
house?” I asked, and his gaze flickered in the
direction of the window. My eyes widened. “You want
us to
climb
out the
window
.”
“It’s the only way. Al the downstairs windows have
charms on them, and although I’m not sure exactly
what Adessa’s charms do if they get set off, I’d real y
rather not find out.”
I glanced with uncertainty at the window. “But how
are we even supposed to climb out. Do you have
some kind of special climbing-down-the-wal super
power or something?” Real y, I wouldn’t have been
that surprised if he did.
He shook his head, seeming amused. “I’m a
vampire, Gemma, not Spiderman.” He paused. “No,
you’re going to get on my back, and I’m going to jump
out.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to deliver the punch
line of the joke because he had to be joking. But the
look on his face was dead serious.
“How’s that even going to work without us getting
hurt,” I asked, dumbfounded.
“We won’t get hurt,” he assured me. “That far of a
fal won’t hurt me at al . It’s a vampire thing.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a vampire,” I made a point to say,
even though it was obvious. ‘The fal
will
hurt me.”
“That’s why you’l be on my back, so I can break the
fal for you.”
I glanced back and forth between the window and
him. Did I dare?
“And I promise I’l do my best not to drop you,” he
said and then gave me a smile.
I rol ed my eyes at him. “Alright…I’m in.”
He went over to the window, clicked the latch open,
and inched the window up, the hinges creaking and
whining the entire time. After he had opened the
window al the way, Laylen stuck his head out and
looked down at the ground. Personal y, I didn’t want to
look. I mean, it wasn’t like I was afraid of heights or
anything, but since I was about to jump out of a two
story building, on the back of a vampire/Keeper, I
thought it’d be better not to look.
Laylen ducked his head back in and turned his
back to me. “Hop on.”
I had never hopped on to someone’s back before,
but there was always a first time for everything, I
guess. So, for the first time that I could ever
remember, I hopped up piggy-back style onto
someone’s back.
“You good?” Laylen asked as I moved around,
trying to get comfortable.
I tightened my arms and legs around him, maybe a
little too tightly. But he didn’t complain. He grabbed
onto my legs and stuck his head out the window. Then
with the balance of a tight-rope walker, he stood up on
the window seal, giving me a ful view on the glittery
rock hard asphalt down below. The warm air hit my
skin as I tucked my head into his back, not wanting to
look.
“It’s real y not that far,” he told me.
I didn’t say anything because I was too afraid to
speak.
“It’l be over in a second,” he assured me.
I shut my eyes, and then he jumped.
I don’t know if any of you remember, but the few
times I’ve traveled through a crystal bal , it required a
very long fal down a dark tunnel. And every time I
landed, I ended up hurting myself. Jumping out the
window was nothing like that. It was over by the time I
actual y acknowledged we were fal ing. Laylen landed
with the gracefulness of a cat, his feet hitting the
asphalt with a soft thud, and I barely felt the impact.
For a moment, neither of us moved. Even the air
seemed to pause, as if we’d fal en so fast, we were
waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.
“You alive back there?” Laylen asked over his
shoulder.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked back up at the
window we’d just jumped out of. “I think so.”
He let go of my legs, and I slid off of his back. The
fal must have thrown off my equilibrium or something
because I felt off balance and dizzy. I started to tip
sideways and Laylen caught me by the shoulder.
“What? Have you never jumped out of a window
before?” He joked.
I shook my head, and we started off across the dark
parking lot.
“So where exactly are we going?” I asked
“To a place that’s just up the road a little ways,” he
replied.
“So we’re walking there then?” I asked, glancing up
at the flickering lamppost as I walked by it.
He nodded. “It’s not very far. Plus, my car got
damaged during Aislin’s and my little escape from the
Death Walkers, so driving real y isn’t an option.”
I looked around at the ominous-looking, graffiti-
decorated buildings, the shadowed cars dotting the
parking lot, and the giant garbage cans towering not
too far away from us. Al were perfect places for
someone—or something to hide. And, okay, I know I
made the choice to come out here, but now that I
actual y was, warnings were popping up al over in my
head. And now that I thought about it, no one had ever
said how high of a chance it was that Stephan and/or
the Death Walkers would show up.
“Are we safe?” I asked Laylen as we reached the
sidewalk that bordered the dark street.
“Hmm…Define safe,” he said, fiddling with his lip
ring.
I gaped at him. “What? So we’re not safe?”
“Gemma, I already warned you it might be
dangerous,” he reminded me.
I shielded my eyes with my hand as a car driving by
blinded me with its headlights. “Yeah, I know, but….
What are the odds of us running into a Death
Walker?”
Out here?” he asked, and I nodded. “Probably
lower than when we went into the Black Dungeon.” He
tucked his hands into his pockets and moved to the
side as a homeless man, pushing a cart, passed by
us.
“Wel , what about the place we’re going to?” I
asked. “What are the odds of us running into one
there?”
“Pretty low,” he said.
“Wel , what kind of place are we going to exactly?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “The truth?”
I gave him a ‘duh’ look, but wasn’t sure if he could
see it through the darkness. “Always,” I answered.
“A place where vampires hang out,” he replied.
Maybe I should have asked this question
beforehand, because going into a place where
vampires hung out seemed kind of sketchy. “But isn’t
there going to be a problem with me going in there
since I’m human?” Even Laylen himself had told me
that other vampires—non-Keeper Vampires—were
not real y good. And then there was the whole
humans-letting-vampires-bite-them thing that I’d seen
going on back when we’d been at the Black Dungeon.
He shook his head and answered, “There’l be
other humans there. It’l be like at the Black Dungeon,
when you saw that man getting bit.”
I tried not to freak out. “So…There’l be a bunch of
humans standing around, getting bit by vampires
because they want to…”
stimulate their desires
. Wel ,
that idea was comforting. How was I supposed to
walk into a room like that, when I couldn’t even talk
about it aloud?
“You’l be fine. Just make sure you stay by me at al
times,” he said, sounding just like Alex.
“Wel , what are we going to do when we get to this
place,” I asked, inching closer to Laylen as a door to a
bar swung open and a group of men stumbled
outside, talking rowdily.
“We’re going to go see if we can talk to Vladislav,”
he told me. And when I gave him a confused look,
explained further. “He’s a vampire…a very important
vampire.”
Even though the air was hot, I shivered. An
important vampire. What did that mean? Wel , I got
that it meant he was important—
duh
—but what did it
require to be considered important in the vampire
world.
I hated to even think about it.
We veered off to the right, away from the road. The
already dark atmosphere, shifted even darker. There
were no lampposts and no lights on in any of the
broken down buildings.
“Laylen, are you sure this is the right way?” I asked
in a quiet voice. “There’s nothing here.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” He swung his arm around my
shoulder, al buddy buddy, which was the strangest
thing ever. “Trust me.”
And trust him I did, letting him lead me deeper into
the shadows of the night, making me grow so edgy
that I just about turned around and ran back. Of
course, since it was almost pitch black, and I could
hardly see a thing, I’d have probably just ended up
getting lost if did.
“Alright,” Laylen muttered to himself as we came to
a stop in front of a garage door belonging to an old
metal warehouse.
“So this is the place?” I asked uneasily.
He nodded. “This is the place.”
I glanced at the closed metal garage door. “So
how do we get inside?”
“Like this.” He turned around, guiding me with him,
and he looked up at a camera perched on the wal
above us. “Smile for the camera.”