Chapter 24
Minutes later, after the buzzing, humming, and so much other stuff had worn out of my body and my mind, Laylen and I both lay, yes, on the smelly ground of the all eyway, and stared up at the stars.
He drunk just enough of my blood for the wound in his chest to seal itself shut. Then he pulled away, putting his fangs back where they belonged. The only evidence that anything had happened was the two little bite marks spotting my wrist. Well, that and Laylen’s guilt for biting me. I could tell that he felt guilty, which made me feel guilty for telling him to bite me. But that was okay. I would deal with my guilt as long as it meant he was alive.
The sky was a midnight black now, the glow of the Vegas lights shimmering across it in various colors.
Car horns and roaring engines flooded the air.
“Why do you think Nicholas is helping Stephan?” I asked Laylen, staring at the crescent moon.
“I’m not sure,” Laylen replied, his eyes glued to the sky. “I do know one thing, though. The next time I see him, he better run.”
I casted a glance at him. The pale glimmer of the moon lit up the pain in his eyes. “Hopefully, we don’t ever see him again.”
“I highly doubt it’ll be the last time we see the faerie,” Laylen muttered, his jaw set tight.
He was probably right. Nicholas had an act for randomly popping up.
“But I just don’t get it,” I said. “It seems like he’s been helping Stephan for awhile, yet he was there at Adessa’s for all those days and never gave away our location? Why would he do that?”
“I think we’ll never be able to understand why Nicholas does what he does.” Laylen said. “What I think we need to do is focus on getting your mom back, just like we were planning. I just have this feeling she knows things that we don’t.”
I was abruptly reminded of something Nicholas had said back in the woods; that Stephan had created Laylen. Stephan had been the cause behind Laylen’s vampirism. But why would Stephan need to create a vampire? Why not just go get one of the many premade ones that were wandering around. Did it have to do with the star?
I decided not to tell Laylen that Stephan was the cause behind him being a vampire. Don’t freak out on me, though. I am going to tell him. I owed him the truth, no matter what—he always did the same for me. But I was going to let him get over biting me first, because he wasn’t handling it very well. In fact, he hadn’t made eye contact with me since he had done it.
“Are you…okay?” I asked him. “I mean with…biting me?”
He winced, and then sat up, staring in front of him at the side of the brick building that had been decorated with florescent green spray paint. “I think I should be the one asking if you’re okay.”
I sat up way too quickly, giving myself a head rush. I pressed my hand to my head. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me. I told you to do it.” Finally, he looked at me. “Yeah, but you’re the one who’s going to be tied to me now. You can’t erase the connection I just made with you. It’ll be there forever.”
“And that’s okay.” I pulled a few bits and piece of rock and dirt out of my hair. “It wasn’t okay with Vladislav, but with you it is.” I didn’t mean for it to come out how it sounded, considering the feeling we both knew I felt when he bit me.
There was this awkward moment, where we were both really uncomfortable. And because of that, I didn’t notice Alex walking up, nor did I notice the sparks until he was right in front of us.
“You’re alright.” Alex now had on a shirt and a pair of shoes that looked a little tattered, like he’d bought them from a second hand store. “How—what happened?
Laylen and I jumped to our feet, like we were guilty of committing some heinous crime. Which we so weren’t. With as long as it took for Alex to get a shirt to cover up his Keeper mark, Laylen probably would have never made it.
“We weren’t doing anything,” I said quickly, making me seem guilty.
Alex furrowed his eyebrows at me. “I never said you were. I was just asking why Laylen’s okay.”
“Oh.” I gave Laylen a what-should-we-do look. He shook his head and shrugged, like he had no idea what to tell Alex either. I tucked my arms behind me to hide the bite marks on my wrist. “Um…would you believe me if I said he just healed on his own?” Laylen let out a tired sigh, distracting me so I didn’t react quickly enough when Alex seized a hold of my arm and pulled it out from behind me. The two little bite marks marked my skin like a Scarlet G for guilty.
Only I was not guilty of anything.
“What the hell,” he said, struggling to stay composed. He looked at Laylen heatedly. “You bit her?”
“I made him bite me,” I said, pulling my arm away from him.
“I was going to get help.” He was furious.
“He was dying,” I said simply, but firmly. “And it was the only thing I could think of to do.”
“I—How would you even know that would work?” he asked, working to keep himself contained.
I shrugged. “I had a hunch. Besides, you should have said it would work in the first place, instead of saying we had to go track down another vampire, which just wasted time. And it would have been more of a risk for Laylen if you brought back a vampire who knew about him killing Vladislav.” My voice was ringing angrily, and I was breathing heavy. I was mad.
A different kind of mad then I’d ever been. I was mad for someone else. I was mad at Alex for risking Laylen’s life like that. And I was mad at Nicholas for almost taking Laylen’s life. The prickle was going insane. I saw red, and suddenly I gave Alex a shove. It didn’t really do anything to him; it just caused him to take an unsteady step back. But it shocked the heck out of everyone, including myself.
“Gemma,” Laylen said, his eyes wide with shock.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. Everything’s okay.” I blinked a few times, blinking my way out of my raging state. “Sorry, but he needs to stop lying.” I waited for Alex to freak out on me in normal Alex style. But all he said was, “Let’s get out of here.” Then he turned away from us and headed down the all ey.
Laylen and I traded curious glances, and then we followed after him.