“I can put feelings in there; make you feel things you never knew existed,” he whispers and his mouth lingers above my chest. I want it on my chest. I want him on me. I want so much at the moment. His voice lowers and grows ragged. “Or I can take it away.”
“Please don’t take it away,” I nearly beg as he pulls the collar of my shirt aside. I curl my toes preparing for whatever he’s going to do, hoping it will fill up the void inside me.
But then I feel him tense, his fingers and mouth move away from me, along with his body. My eyes open as he guides me upright. He isn’t looking at me, but at the front door, which is wide open and Alex is standing just outside of it.
He looks pissed. Well, pissed is kind of an understatement. He looks infuriated; his face red, his fists clenched, his eyes dark and his arms crossed so tightly in front of his chest that the lines of his muscles are showing. “Are you two having fun out here?”
It’s one of those moments where I know it’s best to lie. “Not really. We were just—”
“Oh, I know what you were doing.” He jogs down a few steps and Laylen rises to his feet. “Having fun teaching her about vampirism? I guess you two skipped right past the introductions.”
“Technically, we already know each other.” Laylen is a little taller than Alex and his legs and arms are lankier. “And maybe, if you would have explained it to her, then I wouldn’t have had to. She doesn’t seem to know anything about our world.”
“You know why that is.” Alex shuffles forward and I can feel the tension in the air like a viral disease; I feel bad for putting it there. “She’s not supposed to know.”
“She knew I was a vampire,” Laylen points out. “And she had questions, so I answered them.”
Alex’s fists tighten and his jaw twitches. “More like showed her and broke a ton of rules.”
Laylen leans forward and anger flashes across his face, which is mixed with pain and anguish. “Those are the Keepers’ rules and, since I’m not a Keeper anymore, I don’t have to follow them.”
Alex grits his teeth and Laylen steps around him, his long legs skipping over a few steps as he heads for the house. I remain on the steps, unsure of what to do. Should I follow Laylen? Go inside? Stay here?
I start to move for the house when Alex turns and looks at me, or looks through me anyway.
“Go inside,” he says quietly and even though I’m not a fan of his bossiness, I obey because it looks like he’ll crumble if I so much as utter a word.
Chapter 11
No one speaks as we make our way down the hall. Alex lollygags at the rear and Laylen towers in front. Alex is clearly irritated about the incident he walked into on the porch. I’m still unsure what happened. Now that I’ve gotten some space from Laylen, I realize how foggy my head had been when I was close to him. Not to mention, how much my hormones are bonding with my thoughts. Is that what Laylen can do? Make me horny?
Laylen heads into the room I left earlier. I’m about to walk in when Alex grabs my sleeve. He doesn’t give me time to turn around as he drags me back down the hall and around the corner into a foyer with black tile floors and a mirror hanging on the wall. There is also a small table that has pictures of Laylen and Aislin together at various different places. Are they a couple?
Alex steers me around by the shoulders so I’m facing him and then he backs me up against the wall.
“What are you doing?” I protest as I step forward.
His hands come down on the wall and he restricts me between his arms. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” I state as his hands slide down the wall and stop just above my shoulders. “Just talking.”
“You do know what he was doing to you, right?”
“I asked him to do it.”
He arcs an eyebrow and bends his elbows so he can move in closer and it galvanizes my body. “You asked him to manipulate your feelings? Considering what you’ve went through, I would assume that’d be the last thing you’d ever want.”
“I just wanted to see what a vampire could do. It isn’t that big of a deal.” I pause. “And why does it bother you so much?”
“Because…” He locks his elbows to give us distance. “Look, you’re new to this whole aspect of life and I don’t want your curiosity to get you into trouble. Because it can. Trust me.”
“You keep saying that… trust me.” I lean forward, lessening the space between our faces. “Yet, I know nothing about you. How can I trust someone I don’t know? I mean, I’ve known Laylen for like twenty minutes and I already feel like I know more about him than I do about you and I’ve known you for a few weeks.”
He isn’t intimidated by my take-charge attitude. He welcomes it, moving in even closer so our foreheads are converging. “That’s bullshit. I’ve told you things about me.”
“And how do I know any of that’s true?” I ask. “After everything, after the sheer fact that you were around me for days upon days acting like everything was normal. Being able to act like that and omit the truth can only come from practice.”
He pushes back from the wall and shakes his head. “Believe whatever you want, Gemma. See how far it gets you.”
With that, he leaves and I have no idea what he means. I have no idea what anything means anymore. I’m a mess. A giant, erratic, emotionally driven mess that is supposed to save the world.
***
It turns out that Alex and Aislin still can’t get ahold of anyone, so there is a heavy amount of friction in the room. I sit at the table and watch Alex pace the floor with his hands crossed behind his back. He does it for so long I think he is going to wear a whole in the floor.
Aislin is in the end chair messing around with her phone while Laylen searches the bookshelves as a way to busy himself. I think there may have once been something going on between Laylen and Aislin because they haven’t once looked each other in the eye.
Aislin drops her cell phone on the table and slumps back in the chair. “Maybe we should just go looking for them.”
Alex halts and unfolds his hands from his back. “That’s easier said than done, Aislin, since we have no idea where to look for them.”
“I’m just trying to help.” She frowns and scoops up her phone. “You don’t need to be rude.”
“Did you guys ever consider that maybe they don’t want you to get ahold of them?” Laylen slides a book onto the shelf and walks over to the table. He hasn’t spoken in an extent amount of time and his voice seems to make Aislin and Alex edgy, but I like the sound of his voice. He grips at the back of the chair next to mine. “That maybe they’re hiding from you.”
Alex shoves up his sleeves and tosses his phone aside. “Why the f**k would they be hiding from us?”
Laylen lets go of the chair and stands upright. “You tell me. I’ve been out of the loop for a few years now.”
“Yet, there’s an underlying meaning,” Alex retorts, striding to the table, “written all over your face.”
Laylen crosses his arms and so does Alex. They stare at each other like two dogs ready to rip each other’s throats apart. Aislin and I trade an uneasy glance, but we’re both afraid to intervene.
“You want to know what I think?” Stretching his long legs, Laylen makes a path around the table toward Alex. “That it’s not just a coincidence that Stephan, Marco, and Sophia are all unreachable when hell breaks loose. I mean, for all we know, they could be working with Demetrius and the Death Walkers.”
“Why would you think that?” I interrupt. “I thought the Keepers were good.”
“Gemma, just ignore him.” Alex prowls toward Laylen with a cocky sway in his walk. They’re closing in on each other and their chests are heaving with their rage. “He’s full of shit.”
As the two of them reach each other, I scoot the chair back from the table and stand up. “All of you are strangers to me, so I’m not sure who or what to believe.”
Laylen cinches his lips together, holding back a grin as he looks at me. “Smart girl.”
I want to say thank you, but the look on Alex’s face shuts me up. His eyes are flaring and his fists are balled so firmly his knuckles are chalk white. It’s like he thinks I’m supposed to straight up trust him. For the last few weeks, I’ve thought he was just a normal guy, who I happened to share some electrical bond with, and I thought that was because I was going insane.
“I’m sorry, but I’m confused and I don’t want to trust anyone at this point.” I lower myself into the chair. He keeps his eyes on me and it makes me want to cower under the table. There is too much power and control in those eyes; it melts my inhibitions.
“Maybe we should go back to Laramie and check up on things,” Aislin speaks and cuts through the tension in the air. “There might be something back at the house that could help us figure this out.”
“Are you crazy?” Alex asks, tearing his gaze away from me and focusing on her. “There’s no way we’re taking Gemma back to Wyoming. You saw how many Death Walkers showed up at the cabin. It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m never going back? Wait. Why? I have a home there and a…” I stop because what else do I have there? A bed. Classes. Emptiness. Nothingness. Pieces of meaningless memories that are more weightless than dust.
“You can’t go back when the Death Walkers know where you are.” His brow arches upward. “Does that upset you or something?”
“No,” I admit, “but where am I going to live? And what about my stuff?”
Alex puts his hand to his neck and pops his neck. “That’s a question only Stephan can answer because, right now, I have no f**king clue what the hell’s going on or what the next move is. No one prepared us for this.”