Chapter 34
“Stephan.” Alex grabbed hold of the door handle, about to climb out.
“Alex,” I hissed. “Please don’t. We still need to get out of here. There are Death Walkers everywhere.”
“Alex,” Stephan called out in the commanding voice I’d heard him use so many times in my nightmares, but never in real life. Asleep or awake, the sound still sent a slimy chill down my spine.
The door handle made a click as Alex started to push the door open. Panicking, I reached out and clutched on to his arm. He glanced down at my hand clutching his arm, and then looked up and gave me this strange look.
“Please,” I begged and released his arm. “If this isn’t proof that you’re dad’s working with Demetrius,” I did a gesture back at the driveway where dozens of yellow eyes glinted at us through the darkness, “then I don’t know what is. We have to—”
He pressed a finger to my lips, shushing me. Then he slid his fingers around the necklace hanging around my neck and tucked it down in my shirt. My mouth dropped open. Huh? “Whatever you do, keep that hidden. Don’t let anyone know you have it.”
“Why?” I asked, but he’d already turned away and was climbing out of the car, the Sword of Immortality clutched in his hand.
I sat there for a second, confused about why I had to keep the necklace hidden? It was just a necklace, wasn’t it? Then it hit me. Because I probably wasn’t supposed to have the necklace to begin with, and Alex didn’t want to get in trouble for giving it to me. Nice. Really nice Alex. And now I had to climb out of the car and not only face the monsters that wanted to kill me, but also face the man who was responsible for my mother’s disappearance and the whole crappiness of my life.
I mean, I guess I could have just sat in Jeep until Alex and Stephan came and forced me to get out. Or I could have scooted over to the driver’s seat and peeled out into the night on my own, but Alex had taken the keys with him. Most likely so I wouldn’t do just that.
He knew me all too well.
So with wobbly legs, I dragged my butt out of the car, tucked the small knife Alex had given me into the back pocket of my jeans, and made my way over to where Alex and Stephan stood. I stayed several feet away from them, because seeing Stephan in real life was about a million times more frightening then seeing him in my dreams.
When I approached them, Stephan had been telling Alex something in a low voice, but shut his mouth immediately when he saw me.
“Gemma,” Stephan said in an eerily calm voice. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
Well look at him. Pretending like he’d never met me before. What a jerk. Now I’d love to be able to tell you that I spat every foul word that was running through my mind right in his face. But I didn’t. Just being there in the same room with him, I felt like I was suffocating, and my voice was getting strangled inside my throat. So instead, I just stood there like a coward, nervously eyeballing the Death Walkers that were gathering out in the driveway.
“Well, Alex, you’ve done a good job here—keeping her out of trouble and everything,” Stephan said. “But I’ll take it from here.”
Take it from here. What did that mean? Detach my soul. Sick the Death Walkers on me? I eyed the door that led back inside the cabin, contemplating whether or not to make a run for it. But where would I go?
“Okay,” Alex told Stephan, and I wanted to smack him in the back of the head.
“Traitor,” I muttered.
He shot me a look and shook his head once as if to say be quiet.
“Look,” Alex said to Stephan, “I understand that there are some things that need to be done here. But what I don’t understand is why they’re here.” He pointed at the Death Walkers.
“That is a very good question.” Stephan said in a condescending tone. “But right now, all I need for you to do is give me the Sword of Immortality and keep your mouth shut. You know better than to question anything that I do.”
Wow. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was some kind of How To class that Keepers were required to go to in order to be such crappy parents/guardians, because Stephan reminded me a lot of Marco and Sophia with the do-what-you’re-told-and-don’t-ask-any-questions attitude.
Speaking of Marco and Sophia, weren’t they supposed to be gracing us with their presence?
Stephan held out his hand and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Alex to surrender the sword over.
“Okay, I’ll give you the sword,” Alex said, and my gut clenched. “But I have one small thing I have to ask you before I do.”
“Make it quick,” Stephan grumbled.
And the next thing I knew, Alex’s fist was slamming into Stephan’s face. After that, everything moved by in a blur. Stephan staggered back. Alex yelled at me to run. And I suddenly found myself running inside the house and out the back door into the forest.
Definitely not the brightest thing I’ve ever done.