“You think you can bribe me?” I ask, trying to sound firm, but the idea of kissing her the entire time is so God damn appealing.
She lets her lip pop free and stares into my eyes. “Just let me do it or I’ll… I’ll never be able to forgive myself for everything I did.”
“That was Helena,” I remind her. “You can’t feel guilty about the stuff she made you do.”
“It’s not that easy.”
Her eyes beg me to cooperate and even though I really don’t want to, I find myself saying, “Fine.”
Shutting her eyes, Gemma kisses my cheek. “Thank you,” she whispers in my ear and I shut my eyes, fighting the urge to pick her up and lock her in the dungeon until I can fix all this and know she’s safe.
Evan lets out a yawn, stretching his arms above his head, and then blinks his eyes repeatedly. “I’m going to have to get a quick nap if you guys want me to be a part of this.” He opens and closes his hand and a flame starts to burn, but then sizzles weakly. “I’m drained and my powers are pretty much useless right now.”
I let out a breath, glancing at the window and the blackness outside. “How long of a nap?”
Evan shrugs. “Like an hour, tops.”
I hate waiting, yet I want to wait because I don’t want Gemma to do it alone. I’m extremely conflicted, but in the end the more power we have, the better. “An hour,” I say. “And then we’ll go.”
Laylen, who pretty much never sleeps, heads for the doorway. “I’m going to go get that book about the Lost Souls and see if I can find a way to send them back. After we get Aislin, we’re going to have to move onto that problem.”
Gemma lets out a breath and mutters, “I wish that we didn’t have to deal with so many damn problems.”
Laylen and Evan wander out of the room and Gemma watches them leave, staring at the doorway even after they disappear. Worry courses through her and I can almost feel it inside me.
“You know you don’t have to do it?” I try to reassure her and calm her down. “I can go and fix it for you. As long as Aislin comes back, it’s really all the same.”
She shakes her head and slides her gaze to me. “Yes, I do. I need to do it or it’s going to haunt me forever.” Her eyes squint as she considers something. “I do have a question, though.” She walks towards the sofa, pulling me with her. “You said you could feel that I went to Nalina’s; how?” She sits down without releasing my hand and I sit next to her.
I shake my head. “I have no idea. All I know is that when Helena and Annabella left your body and went into mine, something shifted in me and I could feel and almost see—or tell—what you were going to do.”
She pouts at her lip, disappointedly. “You don’t think we’re connected again somehow, do you?”
“Would it be that bad if we were?” I joke, touching her bottom lip with the pad of my finger.
She nods. “I want everything between us to be real. When we had the Star’s energy in us, I always had my doubts that I was the driver behind our feelings for each other; that it could be the reason for the feelings instead of me.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“But I didn’t know that until it was gone.”
I eye her over, feeling her concern flow through her and into me. I don’t want her to ever think that my feelings aren’t real. It took me forever to let myself feel like this towards someone.
“You’re the most important person to me,” I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet as I stand up. “You need to understand that. I’ve never—ever—felt this way about someone else.”
“Not even Stasha?” she questions as I lead her towards the stairway.
“I didn’t feel anything for Stasha,” I tell her with honesty as I step up the stairway, my body rotated so I can look at her. “Which was the appeal of dating her.”
She assesses my expression, like she’s hunting for cracks that will reveal that I’m lying, but I’m not. “Nothing at all?”
I shake my head, holding her gaze as we reach the top of the stairway. “I’ve never felt anything, except with you.”
She’s quiet for a minute as we walk down the hall, towards the room at the end where I’ve been sleeping. I don’t even think she realizes where I’m taking her until I stop in front of the shut door, and then her cheeks start to turn a little red.
“What are we going to do for an hour while Evan takes a nap?” she asks, nervously.
“Whatever you want,” I say, turning the doorknob.
I wait for her to say something, but she never does. Instead, she lets out a faltering exhale, stands on her tiptoes, and seals her lips to mine.
It’s the best answer I’ve ever gotten.
Chapter 14
Gemma
I’m glad Alex didn’t put up too much of a fight about my, “save Aleesa and Aislin rescue mission.” When he agrees, I kiss him, relieved, yet scared because I actually have to do it now. Even though I’m a Foreseer, a Keeper, and apparently Royal Fey, it doesn’t make things less terrifying. I still have the same things to lose, which is where the fear stems from.
Somehow, in the midst of the madness, Alex ends up telling me that I’m the only one he’s ever loved. At first I question it, but the look on his face is genuine. I’m the only person he’s ever loved and I’m pretty sure he’s the only one I’ve ever loved.
Then he takes me up the stairs, kissing me, with this hungry look in his eyes that makes my skin tingle. We end up in his room, on his bed, kissing, slowly at first, but the more time that passes by, the more things get heated. My skin feels like it’s burning up as his palms feel every inch of me. His tongue is in my mouth and he tastes like life, full of warmth and familiarity. He’s positioned above me, with one elbow propped next to my head, so his full weight doesn’t bear down on me. As he runs his tongue along the roof of my mouth, I slip my hand below his shirt, sketching the lines of his muscles as I gasp between kisses.
Suddenly, he’s pulling back, though, and I think he’s going to stop. Through the darkness of the room, I can barely read him, but the trail from the moonlight shows the passion in his eyes as he reaches over his shoulder, grabs his shirt and tugs it over his head.
I trace my trembling fingers over the edges of the Keepers’ mark on the side of his ribcage, taking my time on each pattern of the golden flames and the black circle centering it all.
He shivers from my touch and it makes my body heat as he returns his lips to mine, almost violently. I open my mouth, letting him in, and he kisses the oxygen out of my lungs. Pulling away slightly, he kisses a trail down to my jawline, the arch of my neck; my body getting warmer and warmer. When he reaches my collarbone and slips the strap of my tank top down, I feel like I’m going to burst. I moan as he moves his mouth to the hollow of my neck and runs his tongue along my skin. My hands slip around him and I clutch onto his bare shoulder blades as my body arches into him.
He groans as his lips travel lower and my body bursts with feelings I’ve never felt before. “I love this…” he murmurs. “I love you…”
“I love you, too,” I whisper, knowing out of all the words I’ve ever spoken, these convey the most truth. These words own me; they changed me, made me become who I am. It’s the most amazing moment of my life, and for a moment, I’m just a normal girl, basking in the touch of her normal boyfriend, who she loves, knowing he reciprocates her love equally.
I never ever want the feeling to go away, but I know as soon as I open my eyes, reality will crush me, like it always does.
Chapter 15
Laylen
The mark is back. The stupid, annoying mark that’ll never go away, not even with magic. I know because when Aislin removed it the first time, she explained to me that if I died again, it’d come back and there would be no way to take it off.
So, after a few months of thinking, I get to finally have a future, I’m back to where I started, which isn’t that great of a place.
I sometimes get the feeling that I’m the most confused person—or Vampire, anyway—that’s ever roamed the earth. I love Aislin. I really do, but I also love Gemma. Sometimes, I can distinguish between the two loves, and realize that Gemma’s is more of a friendship thing. There are times, though, like now, when I have a hard time.
I hear Gemma and Alex going upstairs, into his room, and it’s followed by a lot of noises that I don’t want to hear. Finally, I get up and shut the door, silencing it. When I return back to the chair, I feel a little bit better, but I’m still distracted. I make myself focus on the book, though, and a few minutes later, I’ve blocked it out.
I’m actually really good at blocking things out. The whispers. The hateful comments. I can remember when I was first turned, just how much I had to block out. Back then, Aislin and Alex were pretty much pod people and did whatever Stephan, and the Keepers, told them to do.
“You can’t be around him,” Stephan had said, right in front of me. “He’s an abomination—evil.”
I wanted to show him just how evil I was. I’d even run my tongue along my teeth, pretending I was hungry, when really, I had no desire to bring out my fangs. Deep down, I really thought—very stupidly thought—that Aislin and Alex would be on my side and that they’d stand up for me, but I was wrong because they stood behind their father while he made me walk away from the Keepers, never letting me return, as he put it.
It hurt and, sometimes, when I’m with Aislin, the pain I felt back then comes back. It’s hard being with her sometimes, but with Gemma, it’s easy—like breathing. With Gemma, there’s no painful history. In fact, her past is even worse than mine, which makes her understand me and allows me to understand her. It’d probably be easy if we were together. No complications. However, she’d always have feelings for Alex and I’d always have them for Aislin, and in the end, I don’t think it’d work out.