I kneel up in front of him, vulnerable, knowing he can shoot me down. “I don’t care. I don’t care about any of it anymore. Let me die, but let me die happy.”
His eyes scroll up my stomach, to my chest, and conclusively reside on my eyes. He reaches behind his head and tugs his own shirt off. His chest is solid and his stomach is lined with muscles. I want to touch him, more than anything. We move for each other like magnets and, as our bare chests collide, passion crazes every single part of me. I’m happy. Blissfully, mind-numbingly happy.
And in the end, that is all that matters.
***
A light flashes and is echoed by an explosion inside my head. My vision resurfaces and my face is inches away from the floor. My nose smacks against the hard wood and my bones pop. I moan as pain erupts through my nose and jaw.
“God dammit.” I roll over to my back, clutching my nose and staring up at a red ceiling. “Where am I?”
Flipping onto my stomach, I push up to my feet. The room is small, the walls are red, and there’s a leather sectional sofa in the corner. Bookshelves line the room, along with windows, but curtains block the view outside. “Am I dreaming?”
“No, you’re very much awake.” A hand comes down on my shoulder and a surge of electricity spirals down my arm. I reel around, swinging my hand and slap the hand from my shoulder.
“Relax.” Alex stands only a foot away from me. There are cuts on his face and on his arm. The front of his shirt is torn and there is glass in his hair.
“Are you okay?” Aislin is behind him, observing me from over his shoulder. Her face is streaked with lines of mascara like she’s been crying and some of the ends of her hair have been singed.
“Gemma,” Alex says when I don’t respond. He exchanges a look with Aislin and then moves toward me. “Tell me what you’re thinking?”
I’m conquered with the compulsion to throw my arms around him and I step toward him, but the feeling dissipates. The memories of what happened rematerialize—the madness, the mirage, the monsters—and I back up with my hands out in front of me. “I’m thinking you need to get the hell away from me.” A sharp pain throbs to the surface of my left rib and I hunch over moaning. “Something hurts.” Alex moves for me and my hand shoots up. "Stay away from me. I mean it.”
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He pauses, waiting for me to settle down. I take a deep breath and keep my eyes targeted on him as he makes the rest of the journey toward me. “You need to hold still. You’re bleeding.”
I’m suddenly aware that blood is dripping down the back of my hand. I lift up the edge of my coat and see a small piece of glass sticking out of my ribs. “That’s disgusting.”
He chuckles under his breath. “Yeah, but I think you’re going to be okay. In fact, you seem subdued.”
“I feel subdued.” Like if my emotions are malfunctioning. I straighten my shoulders, even though the pain is crippling, and compel what little irritation is left inside me to show itself. “You think I’m going to be okay? Seriously. Because my mind is racing so fast, I can’t even grasp what just happened.” I throw one of my hands in the air. “I mean, what was all that?”
“Just relax,” Alex insists and then turns to Aislin. “You better go find Laylen and see if he has a first aid kit or something... Although, I’m still trying to figure out why you transported us here at all. Seriously, out of all the places to go, you brought us here?”
“It was an accident.” Aislin’s cheeks go pink as she tucks her chin down and lets her hair veil her face. “And you should be grateful I got us out of there before…” She glances at me, then trails off and hurries for the door. “I’ll go find Laylen.”
“Who’s Laylen?” I wince as the fragment of glass shifts.
Alex motions his hand to the sofa as he tears off the corner of his shirt. “Go sit down so I can look at it.”
I disregard the pain and the blood running down the back of my hand. “Not until you tell me where we are and how the hell we got here. What was all that back there? Because right now, I’m thinking that I’ve got to be dreaming, yet it all seems so real.”
“I really don’t think that’s the most important thing right now,” Alex interrupts with a disapproving shake of his head. “Considering you have a piece of glass sticking out of your rib.”
“And you have a giant cut on your arm.” I point my finger at his sliced open forearm. “Yet, all you seem to be concerned with is me.”
“Yeah, and my concern for you is what caused all this,” he mutters. As my eyebrows furrow, he sighs. “Look, go sit down and I’ll try to explain everything.”
“How do I know you’re you, though? What if you’re that mirage thing I saw back there?”
He wraps the torn piece of shirt around the cut on his arm. “You really think I am?”
I swallow hard and glance around the room, at the bookcases, the old books that look ancient and the window that is concealed by a curtain. What’s out there? “I really don’t know what to think. Seconds ago I was in the forest and Aislin was doing all that weird witchy stuff with that crystal and candle. Now I’m in some person’s house I just—I just don’t get it.”
He studies me as he presses his lips together and pops his bruised knuckles. “You know, you’re nothing like what I thought you’d be.”
“What does that mean exactly?” I ask quizzically. “You always say things like that. They make no sense to me, just like a lot of the stuff you say.”
My response seems to entertain him. He smiles softly as his fingers drift toward my cheek. I flinch as his thumb grazes across my cheekbone and my tender skin is kissed by an eruption of sparks. He draws his hand back, which has some blood on it, and he wipes it off on the side of his jeans.
He inhales and then his sturdy chest puffs out as he lets out a slow breath. “You feel that right?”
I nod my head, knowing exactly what he means, even though he didn’t say it—the sparks. “Yeah… I think so.”
“Then that’s how you know I’m real. You won’t feel that with the mirage.”
He’s right. While I was holding the counterfeit's hand, I felt nothing but hollowness and that’s why I sensed something was off.
He knows things, about me—I know he does—and I need the answers more than I need air. “You know things about me?” I ask. “Don’t you?”
He rubs his tense jaw and shuts his eyes. “I do.”
I force the lump in my throat down. “How?”
His eyes open and it’s like staring into my own, the amount of pain is infinite. “Sit down and I’ll try to explain. Even though, it’s going to be nearly f**king impossible.”
Desperate to understand what secrets he has locked away inside, I settle on the couch, and let my questions pour out of me. “Okay, so how did we get here? And what were those things back there? Those... Death Walkers? And how do you know about them…” I trail off.
Alex is staring at me with eyes as big as golf balls. “Are you going to give me a chance to talk? Or do you want to just keep going with the questions?”
“Sorry, but they’ve been piling up at a very rapid rate,” I say and he stifles a smile. “But, I’ll try to calm down and get them out one by one.”
He stares off into empty space, lost in thought. “Take off your coat.”
“Huh… Why?”
Desire burns in his eyes. “You have to take your coat off if you want me to get the glass out of your side.
My thoughts coast back to when I had the orgasm while we were on the bed. It was the most incredible feeling I’ve experienced yet and I wonder how much better it would be if we were closer, touching, bare skin to bare…
“Gemma.” Alex’s voice jerks me out of my thoughts.
I blink at him and then carefully slip my arms out of my sleeves, easing my coat off. “God, it hurts.”
Alex chucks his coat off, rolls up the sleeves of his black thermal shirt, and stretches his arm toward me, his fingers moving for my side.
“What are you doing?” My muscles tense as his hand nears me.
His hand freezes as I lean away from him and then he shakes his head. “Would you relax? I have to actually get close to you in order to look at that.” He points a finger at my wounded side.
“Oh, sorry, I’m just nervous, considering…” Where do I start with that?
He understands, nodding. “I get it, but I promise I won’t hurt you.”
I nod, put my hands on my lap, and kink my elbow out of the way so he can get a full view of my rib and the glass wedged in the skin like a splinter. He gradually lifts the bottom of my shirt and there’s a notable shake to his fingers as he inspects the area.
I suppress the gasp wanting to flee my lips as his fingers search each bump of my ribs and every spot of my skin. After what seems like an eternity, he pulls his hand back.
His eyes are amplified and his breathing speeds up. “Shit, I don’t know what to do.”
“Why? How bad is it?” I crane my neck and peel my shirt away from my skin to get a look at the injury myself. It doesn’t look that bad; narrow and not that long. There’s some blood dripping out, but not a significant amount.
Alex stares at me with a serious expression, then his mouth curves into a grin and laughter escapes his lips. “No, it’s not that bad at all. The piece of glass is small, and you’re barely bleeding. I should be able to get it out and stitch it up without any problems.” He glances at the door. “Just as soon as Aislin gets in here with the first-aid kit.”
I tug down my shirt and swat his arm with my hand. “That wasn’t funny. You had me worried I was seriously hurt.”
He glances at where I touched him and then back at my face. “Actually, it was funny.”