“Prepared you for a Death Walker invasion,” I joke and then choose to keep quiet after Alex’s gives me a death glare.
“I think sometimes, your moods get a little confused,” he says. “Because a lot of them don’t fit the situations.”
“Yeah, but at least I have an excuse,” I retaliate. “You’re just moody for unknown reasons.”
“Oh, he has reasons.” Laylen slaps Alex’s shoulder roughly and Alex winces. “He just won’t admit them.”
Alex glares at Laylen’s hand. “That’s not what this is about.”
Laylen steps back, shaking his head. “Yes, it is. All this,” his eyes flit to me, “is about wanting what you can’t have.”
Alex raises his fist and targets it at Laylen’s jaw. Laylen does nothing but stand there, embracing it, as if he wants to feel the pain. I start to jump from my chair, but Aislin beats me to the punch, literally. She’s in between them before Alex can sling his fist forward.
She thrusts her hands out to the side of her and pushes both of them back. “Stop fighting. Fighting has never done any of us any good. In fact, it’s the main reason why we haven’t talked to each other in the last few years.” She looks at Alex, then at Laylen, and then her hands fall to her sides. “Now, we need to focus on the problem and come up with a plan.” Her shoulders rise and fall as she lets out a deep breath. “What we could do is leave Gemma with Laylen while you and I go back to Laramie and see what’s up. Check their houses, see if anyone is there or if anything gives us a clue to where the hell they disappeared to.”
Alex’s eyes narrow at her. “There’s no way in hell I’m leaving Gemma alone with him.”
Laylen laughs, but it was underlined with hurt. “Am I not even considered a person anymore?” Alex doesn’t respond and Laylen shakes his head.
“Here’s a thought,” I chime in. “It’s my life, so I think I should have some say in this. And I say I’m comfortable with staying here alone with him.”
Alex snorts a sharp, derisive laugh. “I’m sure you are. I got a full view of how comfortable you two are with each other when I walked out onto the porch.”
Aislin’s forehead furrows and she looks at Laylen for an explanation. “Wait, what happened out on the porch?”
Laylen looks guilty and starts to open his mouth, but Alex cuts him off.
“Don’t worry about it.” Alex pulls out a chair to sit down. He looks tired; there are bags under his eyes and they’re bloodshot. Positioning his elbows on the table, he lowers his head into his hands, looking defeated. “Aislin, how quickly can you get us to Laramie and back?”
She poises her chin up as she rounds the table and collects her phone. “As quick as you need me to. You know that. I’m good to go if there are only two people. It’s when there are too many that things get complicated.”
“Then we’ll leave Gemma here.” Alex raises his head and stabs a finger in Laylen’s direction. “But if anything happens to her, it’s on you.”
He rolls his eyes and sits down at the table. “Nothing’s going to happen to her. As much as you hate me, you know I’m perfectly capable of fighting off some Death Walkers.”
“Not in large numbers,” Alex says. “No one’s capable of that unless they have the Sword of Immortality, and no one’s seen it for a few years.”
“I have to go back into the library and grab my candle and crystal first,” Aislin announces as she heads for the door. “Then we can go. The sooner we get out, the sooner all this will be over. I don’t like not knowing what’s going on. I’m a very structured person.”
Laylen and Alex trade a glance and there is laughter in their eyes. For a second, they look like friends.
“Yeah, that’s you,” Laylen comments sarcastically as he turns a chair backwards and sits down in it; letting his lanky arms dangle over the top. “Miss Organized and Structured.”
She turns around. “Hey, don’t be mean!”
Alex is tracing his finger along his palm absentmindedly. “He’s not being mean. He’s just stating a fact everyone knows.” His eyes flicker in my direction. “Even Gemma probably has caught on to how disorganized you are.”
I shake my head because I don’t know enough about her to pass that judgment. “I don’t know that.”
“Well, you should,” Alex says. Aislin whisks forward and smacks him on the back of the head. His shoulders constrict and move upward. “Hey, I wasn’t the only one who said it.”
“Well, you were the first one in my reach.” She rolls her shoulders back to straighten her posture. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go get my Wicca stuff so I can use my awesome magic gift—which none of you have—to take us back to Wyoming.” She starts toward the exit, but slams to a stop and smacks her hand against her forehead. “Shit! Shit. Shit. Shit.”
I’m starting to realize that maybe I’m not as crazy as I’ve always thought. Maybe everyone is crazy. Maybe crazy is actually normal.
Laylen nibbles on his lip ring as he works to restrain a smile. “What’s wrong?”
She turns around and pouts out her lip. “The Death Walkers’ ice ruined my crystal. We were lucky we even made it here.” She makes her way back to an empty chair. “This sucks. Now what are we going to do?”
It gets so quiet I can hear everyone’s hearts beating. Thump, thump, thump, thump. They sound like tiny drums.
“What kind of a crystal was it?” Laylen inquires. “The gold-leaf one?”
“No, it’s the one made of amethyst.” She props her elbow on the table and lets her chin fall into her hand.
“The Vectum Crystal?” Laylen asks and she bobs her head up and down. Laylen hooks his finger over his shoulder and points at the window. “There’s this place in Vegas—Adessa’s Herbs and Spices.”
Alex cracks his knuckles. “I’m thinking that Las Vegas probably isn’t the greatest place to go. There are all kinds of dark creatures there. Vampires. Werewolves. It’s too dangerous.”
My eyes amplify as I stare out the window at the twinkling lights in the distance. They have to be the city’s lights. “There’s Werewolves?”
Alex points at Laylen with a bored look in his face. “There’re vampires. Of course there are werewolves.”
I shake the image of a dog howling at the moon out of my head. “Do they bite?”
Laylen lets out a soft laugh as he twirls a set of keys he’s taken out of his pocket around his finger. “You sure are fascinated with biting.”
My cheeks flush because I really am. There’s something about getting bitten that enthralls my emotions and I want to experience it in real life.
Daggers shoot from Alex’s eyes as he glares at Laylen and then his attention centers back to me. “It doesn’t matter what they do. All that matters is that you’re safe and sound here, far away from them.”
“I don’t think I’m really safe and sound anywhere,” I say. “Besides, don’t you have like a box of weapons to protect me or something?”
He struggles not to laugh at me. “Weapons or not, it’s too dangerous. If an inhuman—and maybe even human—creature gets close to you, they’re going to want to get closer.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because they will,” he responds. “You have this… thing about you.”
“Then stay here with her,” Laylen proposes as he leans back in the chair and places his hands behind his head. “Or, I’ll stay with her and you take Aislin. There’s a ton of solutions, so stop getting your panties in a bunch.”
Alex stares impassively at him. “I’m not getting my panties in a bunch. I’m being careful.”
“Careful about what exactly?” Laylen wonders. “Gemma getting hurt, or you hurting Gemma.”
“What?” Aislin and I say simultaneously.
Aislin glances at me and then at Alex. “What’s he talking about?”
“Let him explain it to you,” Laylen says with an accusing tone.
“There’s nothing to explain.” He shoves his chair back from the table and rises to his feet. “You promise we’ll just go straight there and straight back. No stops or anything.”
Laylen stares at him incredulously with his hands spread out to the side of him. “Are you kidding me? Where else do you think I’ll take us? McDonald’s? Walmart? Oh wait, I do need to make a quick stop by the cemetery.”
I snort a laugh, but it quickly dissipates at the fury blazing in Alex’s eyes. “You think this is funny? Do you think getting killed is funny?”
I shake my head. “But what he said was.”
Aislin grimaces and drops her head down on the table. “Can we just get going already?”
Alex’s hands wring the back of the chair. “Don’t underestimate the Death Walkers, Gemma. They’ll kill you if they get the chance.”
Fear capes the humor inside me. He’s right. It isn’t funny. The prickle lets me know that I need to get things in check and take things seriously. It soothes me with each stab. “I know that. And I’m sorry. I won’t laugh at inappropriate things again.”
He is stunned by my apology. “Well, good.”
After a lot of arguing, a decision is finally made. We would all go to Vegas with the stipulation that I will stay in the car and there will be no stops except to get the crystal. Including cemeteries and Walmart.
I have blood all over my clothes and Aislin insists I need to change before we leave. She informs me that she has clothes stashed in the house. We go into a room with a white four-post bed covered with tons of fluffy pillows. There is an oversized armoire in the corner and Aislin marches up to it and throws the doors open.