Authors: Jessica Sorensen
Okay… I highly doubted that whoever was watching
the surveil ance screen could actual y see us—it was
way too dark. Then again…I squinted up at Laylen.
Did vampires have night vision or something?
I opened my mouth to ask him if he did, but I was
cut off by the roar of the garage door lifting to life as it
moved up from the ground. I was surprised to find
that, on the other side of it, there was nothing. And I
me a n
nothing
, other than a concrete floor and a
stairway leading up to a second floor, which also
appeared to be bare.
“Umm…Where is everyone?” I asked.
Not answering, Laylen pul ed me along with him as
he stepped inside the warehouse. I was abruptly
smacked in the face by an invisible wal of cold air. It
was as if we’d walked into a freezer, and right away, I
started to shiver, my low tolerance for the cold kicking
into ful force. Plus, I was wearing shorts and a tank
top, so that didn’t help.
“Are you cold?” Laylen asked. Then he shook his
head. “Stupid question. Of course, you’re cold. It’s
barely forty degrees in here.”
“Why is-s it so c-cold?” I chattered.
“It’s a vampire thing,” he explained as he started to
slip off the long-sleeved black thermal shirt he was
wearing.
“What are you doing?” I asked, taken aback. Why
was he taking off his clothes?
He wasn’t, though. He had a black t-shirt on
underneath it, and he handed the one he’d taken off to
me. “Put this on. It might help a little.”
I slipped his shirt on, smel ing a hint of cologne
lingering in the fabric. Putting it on did help a little, but
the bottom of my legs were stil exposed, and goose
bumps spotted my skin. “So now what do we do?” I
asked.
He nodded to the stairs. “We go upstairs.”
He took me by the hand, and we made our way up
the metal stairway, which shook with every step we
took. The air sank colder the higher we got, which
didn’t make any sense. Wasn’t warm air supposed to
rise?
At the top of the stairs, there was a door; a red door
—the color of blood—which seemed like an omen or
something. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying
to stay warm as Laylen opened the blood-red door.
Instantly, the smel s of smoke, rust, and sweat swirled
al around me.
“Stay close to me,” Laylen whispered, and we
stepped through the doorway and out onto a balcony.
I had no problem with staying close to him—I was
already clinging to him like a scared little child.
Below the balcony, a room opened up packed with
tables, chairs, and lots and lots of people. Black
Angel’s, “Young Men Dead,” was blasting through the
speakers. The lights were low, and the air was heavy
with smoke.
We started to make our way down the stairs, the
metal railing pressing cold against my skin as I held
on to it. Looking down at the room, I didn’t seem to
notice anything out of the ordinary, like I’d expected
to. People were just sitting at tables, drinking, talking,
and smoking. But as we got closer, I realized that
most of the crystal glasses were fil ed with a deep red
liquid, which I assumed was blood.
I tried hard not to stare at anyone as we walked
across the room—I swear I did. But as we passed by
the tables, it felt like everyone’s eyes locked on me.
That’s when I noticed some of these “people” had
fangs pointing sharply from their mouths.
Laylen wrapped his arm around me and pul ed me
closer to him, which brought me some comfort, but not
much. We went up to the bar that was in the heart of
the room, and Laylen tapped his hand on the glass
countertop. “What’s up, stranger,” he said to a
woman, who was wiping down the countertops.
The woman looked at us and her brown eyes lit up.
“Wel , hel o stranger, to you too.” She had a slight
southern accent, and her dark hair ran down her back
in dreads. She was dressed like a biker chic; in
steeled toed boots, leather pants, and a rhinestone-
decorated tank top. A vine tattoo cuffed each of her
wrists.
She leaned over the counter and gave Laylen a
smal kiss on the cheek. “It’s been awhile. What ya
been up to?”
“Nothing much, real y. Just the usual trouble,” he
said, teasing her with a smile. The woman glanced at
me, and then Laylen looked at me. “Oh, Gemma, this
is Taven.”
“Hi,” I said, trying not to sound as anxious as I felt.
She stared at me with an intrigued look. “Nice to
meet ya, sweetie.” She raised her eyebrows at
Laylen. “Final y picked yourself up a human, huh?”
I felt Laylen tense up beside me. “Yeah…something
like that.”
Taven smiled, giving me a glimpse of her fangs. I
tried not to flinch.
“So I need to see Vladislav,” Laylen told Taven. “Is
there any way you could buzz me in?”
She gave him a curious look. “Depends on what ya
need him for?”
Laylen let his arm fal off my back, and rested both
of his arms on the counter as he leaned in toward
Taven, keeping his voice low. “I need to speak to him
about The Underworld.”
Taven’s expression fel . “You’re not in any trouble,
are ya?
He shook his head. “No. It’s nothing like that. I just
have a question to ask him.”
“Okay.” She relaxed. “Hold on just a second and I’l
check to make sure ya’l can go in.”
Laylen moved his arms away from the counter while
Taven picked up a phone. She muttered a few words
into the receiver and then hung up.
“Alright,” she said, turning back to Laylen and me.
“Go on ahead and go in.”
“Thanks,” Laylen said with a nod.
As we turned to walk away, I noticed Taven give a
very distinct look at my eyes, and I tensed up. Back in
Colorado, when Alex and I had gone into town, he’d
been worried that my eye color would give me away.
He’d also mentioned that word might have spread
about me carrying the star’s energy, and that my violet
eyes would make it easy for someone to identify me.
What if word had gotten around? What if these
vampires we were going to meet knew what I was?
Crap.
I glanced around anxiously, wondering if I should
say something to Laylen. If I did, though, I might get
overheard. I mean, for al I knew vampires could have
super hearing powers.
“What’s up?” Laylen whispered in my ear as we
ducked underneath the stairwel . “You seem nervous.
Is it just this place? Or is it something else?”
I swal owed hard. “No, I’m fine,” I lied, figuring it
wasn’t worth the risk of bringing it up on the chance I
might get overheard. “Can we just hurry? It’s getting
real y cold.”
He nodded. “But try to relax, okay? They’l pick up
that you’re nervous?”
Great.
“Okay.”
We started down a long, narrow hal way with wal s
the same blood-red color as the door. Halfway down
the hal , we passed by two very big men dressed in
black suits that looked like bodyguards, neither of
which acknowledge our presence. We kept walking,
the music from the bar fading and fading the further
down we went.
When we reached the end of the hal , there was a
door made of metal so shiny I could see my reflection
in it.
“Okay, try to stay as calm as possible, no matter
what happens” Laylen told me, before knocking on the
door.
Try to stay calm no matter what? What exactly was I
about to walk into? Something bad, I could feel it in
my bones. But I guess al I could hope for now was
that, in the end, I would find out my mom was alive.
And that there was a way to free her.
Laylen waited a moment, before knocking on the
door again. I heard several clicking’s of latches being
unturned and then the door cracked open.
“What do you want?” Someone snarled through the
crack.
“I’m here to talk to Vladislav,” Laylen said, and the
door shut.
I shot Laylen a puzzled look and he put his finger to
his lips, signaling at me to keep quiet. A second later
the door opened, and smoke rushed out so quickly, I
had to choke back a cough. A man stood on the other
side of the door, his hair al greasy, and his skin was
as pale as snow.
His fangs pointed out like knives. “Please, come
in.”
I almost shut my eyes as we entered the room in a
pathetic attempt to try and hide their violet color. But
then my brain turned on, and I realized how stupid and
suspicious I’d look walking around with my eyes
closed.
A long rectangular table stretched down the center
of the room, which was surrounded by leather chairs,
each one of the chairs holding a man that had fangs
sticking out of their mouths. They were playing a
game of poker and smoking cigars. Standing behind
some of the men, were women, bounded up in old
fashion corset dresses. The women looked fangless
and I wondered if they could be human.
My heart thumped so loudly in my chest that I swear
everyone could probably hear it. The only thing I real y
had going for me was that it wasn’t as cold in here,
but the stench of cigar smoke was kil ing me.
Laylen approached the table with confidence,
dragging a very unconfident me along with him. Right
as we reached the table, though, a fight broke out
between two men. Both of them jumped to their feet,
baring their fangs at one another.
“You’re cheating,” a bald man with a stubby body
growled. “I know you are.”
“You better not being accusing me of nothing.” The
other man bit back and a lizard-like tongue slipped
out of his mouth.
My jaw dropped to the floor, and I started to turn for
the door, but Laylen caught me by the arm, and shook
his head, warning me to stay calm.
“Easy boys.” A man sitting at the head of the table
rose to his feet. He had dark hair, black eyes, and
pale skin. The room went silent and the men who’d
been arguing, slid back down in their chairs. “We
have guests,” he said and looked at Laylen and me.
Then everyone was staring at us, and I suddenly
wished I could shrink myself away.
The dark-haired man ambled over toward Laylen
and me, his hands tucked into the pockets of his
black pants. The sleeves of his black button-down
shirt were pushed up just enough for me to see the
mark of immortality sketching his forearm. “So
Laylen,” he said, stopping in front of us. “What brings
you here on this fine night?” His black eyes flicked
over at me, assessing me. “And with such lovely
company.”
Unsure of what to do, I kept my expression blank,
hoping that Intimidating Vampire Man wouldn’t be
able to pick up that I was scared out my wits.
He gave me an inquisitive look, before moving his
attention back to Laylen. “I’ve never seen you with a
human before. What’s the occasion?”
“I just decided it was time,” Laylen replied cool y.
“Is it?” The vampire said thoughtful y. He gave me
another intrigued look and said, “Al ow me to
introduce myself. My name is Vladislav.” He stuck out
his hand, and even though I real y, real y didn’t want to,
I took hold of his hand to shake it. But instead, he
wrapped his ice-cold fingers around my hand and
moved it up to his lips, placing a kiss just below my
knuckles. Then to make things even freakier, he took
a slow deep inhale, breathing in my scent before
letting my hand go.
Despite the grossness of the fact that he’d just
smel ed me, I managed to force a smile.
“So I need a favor,” Laylen said to Vladislav.
“A favor?”
Vladislav said, his black eyes stil
fastened on me. “And what would that favor be?”
Laylen looked around at the group of vampires
sitting around the table. They were no longer playing
poker, but watching us. “A…Would it be okay if we
spoke in private.”
Vladislav considered this and then, without taking
his eyes off of me, he cal ed over his shoulder. “Boys.
Could you excuse us for a moment? It seems we must
discuss something privately.”
Without arguing, the vampire men got up, leaving
their cards behind on the table, and they headed past
us and out the door, ushering the women with them. A