TheFallenStarBookSeries1 (35 page)

“And you think its Stephan,” I said, feeling like I might throw up. My mom hadn’t just died in a car accident. My mom had disappeared. And someone might have made her disappear.

“I can’t say for sure because I don’t have any proof but….” He twisted his lip ring back and forth. “Okay, this is what I know about Stephan. First, he is very power hungry, and he likes to be in control of things all times. If anyone gets in the path of what he wants, he’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of them. And because he’s the leader of the Keepers, no one questions the decisions he makes.”

“So you think that he might have gotten rid of my mom so he could have control over me and the star’s power.” My voice sounded strangely off pitch.

“I think that’s one possibility. But since I have no proof, I can’t say for sure.”

“Well, maybe you could ask your parents,” I suggested. “They might know more about it.”

His bright blue eyes saddened as he leaned back in his chair. “My parents are dead, Gemma. They died in a car accident a few months after all of this happened.”

“Oh.” I felt so bad for bringing it up.
Nice one Gemma. Nice one.
“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago.” He was acting like it wasn’t a big deal, but I knew it really was.

“Does Alex know about any of this?” I asked, shifting the subject away from his parents.

He seemed hesitant to answer. “The thing about Alex is that he’s kind of been brainwashed. Like how you were with your emotions. He’s got it in his head that Stephan can do no wrong. But yeah, I have mentioned it to him and he didn’t believe me.”

Everything was so confusing; a bunch of questions with no answer—cliffhangers without endings. I sighed, my mind spinning.

“Hey, I have an idea.” Laylen scooted his chair away from table and got to his feet. “Why don’t we take a break from all of this deep talk and go into the kitchen and get you something to eat.”

Hmmm…I was kind of hungry. “That actually sounds like a good idea.” I yawned. Apparently, I was kind of tired too.

He laughed. “And then maybe you should get some sleep.”

I glanced at the window. The sun’s pale pink glow spilled through the glass
.
Sunrise had arrived and I really did feel tired, but I didn’t want to stop our conversation. I wanted to figure out as much as I could before Alex returned. “Yeah, I guess I could sleep.”

Hearing the reluctance in my voice Laylen said, “Don’t worry. We’ll finish talking about this. I promise.”

I sure hoped so.

We went into the kitchen and Laylen began cooking me some eggs. Yes, a Vampire/Keeper was making me eggs. Crazy, right? I was sitting on one of the barstools that encircled the midnight blue countertop island, waiting patiently. I would’ve been helping him cook, but he’d refused to let me when I’d offered.

The pan sizzled as Laylen dragged the spatula through the eggs. It had been quiet for a little while now, so when he suddenly spoke, it startled me.

“Gemma, do you still have the list of dates you told me about?”

Instinctively, I reached for my pocket, but quickly realized I was wearing Aislin’s skirt. The piece of paper with the list of dates was tucked away in the pocket of my jeans, which yes, of course, Aislin had thrown into the washing machine. “Ah, crap.”

Laylen turned, spatula in hand. “What’s the matter?”

“The list is in the pocket of my jeans,” I explained. “The ones Aislin threw in the washing machine.”

He cursed under his breath. “Well, I think it’s probably a goner.”

“Crap!” I said again. “Now what am I supposed to do?”

The pan hissed, and he swiftly turned the oven temperature down. “Do you remember any of the dates on it?”

“Just one of them.” I sighed, frustrated that the list of dates was gone forever. “February 8
^th
. And I only remember that one because it was the first day I’d felt the prickle and started to experience emotion.”

He moved the pan off of the burner. “Okay, that’s weird…Was there anything that seemed significant about any of the other dates?”

I shook my head. “Nope. They all seemed random except for the February 8
^th
one.”

Shaking his head, he took a plate out of the cupboard. “It just doesn’t make sense. The list of dates. The prickle. If Alex’s theory about how you lost your emotions is true, then how would a prickly feeling be able to jump start your feelings?” He scooped some eggs onto the plate. “You know what it sounds like, right?”

“No.”

“Like magic.”

“Magic,” I said very slowly. “Like
witch
magic.” Like Aislin’s witch magic?

He slid the plate of eggs across the counter to me. “Maybe, but it could be something else. In our world there are a ton of things that would be able to wipe out a person’s ability to feel.”

I was just about to take a bite of my eggs, but his words made me drop my fork. “You think they
wiped
out my emotions.”

“It’s possible, but like I said, there are tons of possibilities. With what you’ve told me, though, I’m starting to think that some kind of magic was involved.”

I wasn’t hungry anymore. With all the stomachaches I was getting lately, I wondered if I was getting an ulcer.

“Gemma are you okay? You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “My stomach just feels a little queasy.”

“Food looks that bad, huh?” He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

I summoned a small smile. “No, it looks really good.” I took a bite. It did taste good.

Laylen scrapped the leftover bits and pieces of egg out of the pan and into the garbage, and then rinsed the pan off in the sink.

“You’re not eating,” I asked, scooping up another forkful of eggs.

He shut off the faucet. “No…I don’t eat.”

“Oh.” I felt so stupid. Of course he didn’t eat. He was a vampire after all. “Gotcha.”

I ate my eggs and watched him with curiosity as he wiped down the countertops and stove. If you’d have asked me a day ago whether I would’ve ever thought that I’d be sitting in the kitchen with a vampire, eating eggs, all while trying to unravel the secrets that belonged to a group of people whose mission it was to save the world, I’d have told you no. Then I would’ve run for my life because I’d have thought you were a total psychopath.

“Laylen,” I dragged my fork through my eggs. “Can I ask you a question?”

He tossed aside the towel he’d been wiping the counters off with and turned to face me. “Sure. What’s up?”

I hoped I wasn’t crossing a line here. “How exactly did you get turned in to a vampire?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, muscles flexing, and leaned back against the counter, looking confused. “I don’t….I can’t remember.”

“Is that how it normally works?” I shoved another forkful of eggs into my mouth.

He shook his head. “Memory loss isn’t a side effect from getting bit. Something else had to of happened to me…the only thing I can remember about that night is coming out of a club alone and thinking I heard a noise from behind me. When I turned around, everything went black.  I’m not sure if I blacked out or what, but when I did come to, I was sprawled out in alley with a bite mark on my neck.” He pointed at the immortality mark on his forearm. “And of course this lovely little thing was on my arm. It took me a few days before I figured out I’d been bitten by a vampire. I started getting all of these weird…cravings. But luckily, because I was a Keeper to begin with, the cravings were fairly easy to control.” He made his way around the island and took a seat on a barstool next to mine. “What’s really strange is that I’ve been told by other vampires that the change is supposed to be this big, memorable experience, yet I can’t remember a single thing about it.”

I had a flashback to when Alex had opened up one of shoji doors back at the Black Dungeon, and I’d witnessed the vampire about to bite the seemingly willing man. My gut instinct told me not to ask, but curiosity got the best of me. “Do humans let vampires bite them?”

His eyes widened. “Wha—why would you ask that?”

They say curiosity killed the cat. “Because when we were in the Black Dungeon, and Alex and I were running from the Death Walkers, he opened a door and there was a woman vampire getting ready to bite a man. And the man seemed…well, he seemed really relaxed for someone who was just about to get bit.”

By the look on his face, I could tell I was making him uncomfortable. “Yeah…some people do.”

“Why?” I scrapped the last of my eggs off of my plate. “Wouldn’t that mean they’d turn into a vampire themselves.”

He shook his head. “That’s not how it works. They’d have to bite you, and then you’d have to drink their blood. Really, it’s this whole big ordeal. See, and there’s another problem with me turning into a vampire. I know I wouldn’t voluntarily drink vampire’s blood.”

“That does seem strange...” About as strange as me not being able to remember the details of my life. Hmmm…are we seeing a connection here? “So when you turned into a vampire, did you have to die or anything?” The reason I’d asked was because in a few of the vampire-themed books I’ve read, the humans who would drink the vampires blood would have to die right after in order to turn into one.

“No, I had to die,” he said charily.

I choked on my eggs, bits and pieces spewing from my mouth and nose. Ewe…so gross. “You died?” I coughed.

“Yeah, but I don’t remember that part either. I just know that I had to die in order to be what I am now,” he said with a matter-of-fact attitude.

I eyed him over, taking note of his pale skin, his extremely red lips, and his abnormally bright blue eyes. As bad as this was going to sound, I had to admit, for a dead guy, he looked pretty good.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “So I still don’t get it. Why would someone let a vampire bite them?”

He gave a quiet laugh. “You really ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”

“Sorry,” I said, feeling stupid.

“No, it’s okay.” He took a deep breath, which puzzled me. I mean if he was dead, then why was he breathing? But since he’d just pointed out that I ask a lot of questions, I decided to stick a tack in that one for now. “Human’s let vampires bite them for a few different reasons. There’s the whole thrill of the danger that being bit brings. Sometimes it’s out of sheer curiosity. But most of the time, people do it to stimulate their…desires”

Okay, so I’ve felt embarrassed before, but never absolutely mortified. Wow. It had been awhile since I’d felt the prickle. I could feel my face heating up, so I let pieces of my hair drift down across my face.

“Yeah…so anyways,” Laylen said, in an attempt to change the subject and remove the awkward silence that had gripped the air. “Going back to that prickle thing you were talking about. Do you feel it every time you experience an emotion? Or does it just happen every once and awhile?”

“It only happens when I experience a
new
emotion,” I told him and then shivered, suddenly feeling cold.

He considered this. “Hmm…I don’t think I’ve heard of anything like that. But seeing as that there are hundreds of different forms of magic out there, there are a lot of things I haven’t heard of.”

“So how can we find out?” I shivered again. It was getting really cold.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Are you cold?”

I rubbed my hands up and down my arms. “I’m freezing. Aren’t you?”