The Underworld (10 page)

al over Laylen’s black thermal shirt that I stil had on,

and there was no way to cover it up.

“What the hel is al over your shirt?” Alex asked as

soon as he caught sight of me in the light. He came

up and took a closer look at the thermal shirt I had on.

“Is that blood?” Before I could answer, he picked up

the hem of the shirt. “And why do you have Laylen’s

shirt on?”

I yanked the hem of the shirt out of his grasp. “I have

his shirt on because it was cold outside.”

He gave me a disbelieving look. “It’s like seventy

degrees out there, Gemma.”

“Wel , I get cold easily,” I said as casual y as I could,

which strangely enough sounded casual.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “So where’d the

blood come from?”

“It came from—” Before I could finish coming up

with a lie, he reached over and lifted my hand away

from my neck.

He let out a sequence of too-inappropriate-to-

repeat-words and then lunged for Laylen. Laylen,

taken off-guard, stumbled back as Alex slammed into

him, and both of them went crashing into the wal ,

causing the wal to crack.

Laylen quickly regained his footing, and he shoved

Alex hard. But Alex barely budged.

“You bit her,” Alex said, coming at Laylen again.

“Are you freaking crazy?”

“That’s not what happen—” I said, but was cut off as

Laylen rammed into Alex, making them both fly

backward and onto the apothecary table, which

instantly buckled beneath their weight. It didn’t even

faze either one of them as they rol ed around on the

tiled floor, crashing into the shelves and sofas, while

they threw punches at each other.

I’d just decided that I might need to go get some

help—because let’s face it I am not strong enough to

stop a fight between a Keeper and a vampire—when

Aislin and Adessa appeared in the doorway. Adessa

was wearing a long navy blue robe decorated with

bright pink flowers, and Aislin was dressed in a plaid

pajama set.

“What in the world is going on?” Aislin screeched,

her bright green eyes wide.

Laylen and Alex didn’t even so much as

acknowledge she was there, stil throwing swings at

one another.

“Gemma, what happened?” Ailsin asked, looking

horrified.

“Um…we were—”

“
Subsisto.”
Adessa said, her hand out in front of

her.

Laylen and Alex flew away from each other; Alex

landing by Aislin’s feet and Laylen smacking onto the

floor not too far from me.

“What the heck are you two doing?” Ailsin asked

Alex as she tried to help him to his feet.

Alex shook her hand off, breathing heavily as he got

to his feet. His bottom lip was spilt and he had a cut

above his right eyebrow. “He bit her,” he said,

storming toward Laylen again.

Aislin grabbed Alex by the back of his shirt and,

with a lot of effort on her part, held him back. “Who

bit…What?”

Irritation shined in Alex’s bright green eyes.

“Laylen,” he said, with an attitude. “Bit Gemma.”

Aislin’s eyes widen even more as she took in the

sight of my blood-stained shirt and the two holes in my

neck. “Oh my God.”

“Laylen didn’t bite me,” I told her. “Another vampire

did.” I looked down at Laylen, who had a smal bruise

on his cheek, and waited for him to jump in and help

me explain.

But al he did was stand to his feet, dust himself off,

and pop his neck. Then he strol ed toward the

doorway, doing that thing that guys do when they take

a quick step towards the other one to “psych” them

out.

“Laylen,” Aislin said, shocked. “What’s the matter

with you?”

“Nothing’s the matter with me,” he replied, kind of

being a jerk.

Aislin looked hurt as she let go of Alex’s shirt.

Laylen left the room, and I figured I’d explain what

we’d been up to while he cooled off. Of course, I had

absolutely no idea how I was going to go about doing

this.

Aislin chased after Laylen, and Adessa took one

look at Alex and I and left, as if she could sense

something bad was about to go down and wanted to

avoid being around it when it did.

Smart woman.

I stared at the doorway for awhile, if for no other

reason, then to avoid Alex’s gaze that I could feel

burning into me. Sparks of static were dancing al

over my skin, and I wished I could tel them to stop

because they were very distracting.

“So are you going to explain to me what in the heck

you and Laylen were doing outside in the middle of

the night?” Alex asked. “And where the bite mark

came from?”

“I guess that depends on whether you’re going to

freak out when I tel you?” I told him, stil not looking at

him.

“You expect me not to freak out when you’ve got

blood al over your shirt and two holes in your neck,”

he said incredulously.

I touched the tips of my fingers to the bite on my

neck, and then looked at him. “I’m not going to tel you

what happened unless you promise you’l stay calm.”

Then as an added bonus I tacked on, “Besides, you

owe me.”

He started to walk toward me. “Oh yeah. How do

you figure?”

“Because of what happened back at the cabin,” I

said, backing away from him because I knew the

closer he got to me, the more unclear my mind would

be. And I needed my mind to be clear. “When you let

your father try to take my mind away.”

He looked pissed and suddenly he was moving

toward me at a rapid speed. I backed away until I

bumped into the wal . He kept coming at me,

slamming to a halt only inches away from me, the tips

of his DC sneakers brushing with the tips of mine. He

was so close that I could feel the warmth of his breath

dusting across my cheeks.

He put his hands on the wal , trapping me between

his arms. “I already told you I wasn’t going to let him

do it,” he breathed, leaning in. “I knew the necklace

would protect you.”

My heart thrummed insanely in my chest, the

electricity buzzing passionately from the intensity of

his eyes.

What was I supposed to be doing again?

And then I felt the metal of the locket pressing

against my neck, and remembered. Vladislav. My

mother. The Underworld.

“Okay…I believe you.” Which wasn’t the truth at al ,

but I was working on something here. “But you have to

promise to stay calm while I tel you what happened.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to promise

anything.”

“Then I’m not going to tel you anything.” I went to

duck under his arm, but he slid it down further so that I

would have to limbo real y low to get out.

“Fine, I’l try to stay as calm as I can as long as you’l

stop throwing in my face what happened back at the

cabin.” He waited for me to answer, but when I said

nothing, he added, “Deal?”

I weighed out my options and came to the

conclusion that the best way to get information about

The Underworld was to make the deal. Now whether

I’d hold true to the deal or not, depended on what

happened here. “Fine, it’s a deal.”

We sat down on the purple velvet sofa—the one stil

remaining upright—and I began searching my mind

for an idea of where to begin, and what details I

should give him. But before I could figure any of this

out, he spoke first.

“So who bit you?” he asked.

Figures he’d start there. “A vampire,” I said, kicking

a broken piece of the apothecary table with the tip of

my shoe.

“And what’s this vampire’s name?” he asked

impatiently.

“Vladislav.”

“Vladislav!” he exclaimed, slamming his hand down

onto the arm of the sofa. “You’ve got to be kidding

me?”

“So…I take it you know who I’m talking about?”

“Of course I know who he is.” He sank back in the

chair, the muscles on his arms flexing tensely as he

crossed them. “I also know how big of a problem it’s

going to be if he figured out who you are.”

“Does it even matter if he did?” I asked. “I mean,

aren’t we pretty sure that the stars power isn’t going to

stop the portal from opening anyway. So what does it

matter if someone knows I have it in me.”

“We don’t know for sure what the stars power is

for,” he said, staring straight ahead at the dark blue

wal , looking as though he was pondering something

deeply. “So until we do, we need to be careful about

anyone finding out about you. Besides the more

people who know about you, the easier it’l be for my

father and the Death Walkers to find you.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, questioning his words.

“You don’t know what the stars power is for?”

He sat there with his arms folded, staring at me so

powerful y that my skin felt like it was on
fire
. “No. I

don’t. I already told you I didn’t.”

I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but decided to stick a

tack in it for now and move on to my next problem.

“We went to see Vladislav for a real y good reason.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did.” Alex let out a laugh. “What,

did Laylen tel you that Vladislav would have al the

answers to your problems?”

“No, it wasn’t even Laylen’s idea,” I said

defensively. “I asked him if he knew whether we could

find out if my mom was stil alive, and he suggested

that Vladislav might know something. And you know

what, he did.”

“And where in
that
bril iant plan did Vladislav biting

you come into play?” Alex asked snidely. “Or was that

just an added bonus.”

I shook my head. “Why would you even say that?”

There was this awkward silence that built between

us as I realized where Alex was going with that.

Vampires’ bites stimulate people’s desires. Although,

I wasn’t sure that was what it had done to me. Al I had

seen were a bunch of images. And, yes, okay, some

of those images—some of the ones that included

Alex—did kind of make my body buzz a little, but there

was also the vision that came after the images, and

that was anything but stimulating.

“So anyway,” I said, attempting to change the

subject away from my desires. “Vladislav told me my

mother was stil alive in The Underworld.”

Alex shook his head. “Gemma, that’s not possible.”

“Even you said that there might be a smal chance

that she could stil be alive,” I pointed out.

He looked confused. “When did I say that?”

“Back at Adessa, after I’d been pul ed into my first

vision, and we didn’t know it was my mother I’d seen

forced into the lake.”

“I don’t remember ever saying anything like that,” he

muttered, his eyebrows furrowed as he stared down

at the floor. “And if I did, I’m sure I just said it to try and

get you to calm down.”

“So why would Vladislav tel us she was alive, if she

wasn’t,” I said. “There’s no reason for him to lie.”

“Of course there is.” He looked at me like I was a

total nut job. “That’s what vampires do—they lie.”

“How do you know that for sure?” I asked hotly. “I

mean, how do you know that al vampires lie. Laylen

doesn’t lie.”
You do
.

“I just do,” he said, but his voice had lost some of its

confidence.

“Vladislav didn’t lie, Alex.” I rested back in the chair,

keeping my eyes on him. “Laylen said that vampires

can pick up on when other vampires are lying, and he

said Vladislav wasn’t lying.”

Alex ran his fingers through his messy brown hair,

and then he turned and faced me, a serious

expression on his face. “Look, Gemma. You’re too

trusting with Laylen. You need to be careful.”

I gave him an are-you-serious look. “
You
think I

should be careful when it comes to trusting Laylen.”

Was he joking?

“Vampires are not good,” Alex said sternly. “They’re

evil.”

“Laylen’s not,” I snapped. “And besides, Vladislav

knew that my mother was a Keeper before we ever

told him. That has to mean he’s heard of her.”

“So what if he has heard of her,” he said. “That

doesn’t mean he was tel ing the truth about her being

alive. He might have just been messing with your

head.”

“Alex,” without even thinking, I grabbed a hold of his

arm, electricity tickling my fingertips. “It could mean

that there might be a chance that my
mom
, who I