The Underworld (2 page)

your promises are worthless. At least the ones you

make to me. You promised me you wouldn’t let

anything happened to me and look where it got me.”

He raised his eyebrows, a slight mocking

expression teasing at his lips as he spread his arms

out to the side of him. “It got you here, safe and

sound.”

“Safe and sound,” I repeated, glancing around the

room where no potential danger was evident. I looked

down at my hands, my arms, and, except for the

bandage around my leg, everything appeared to be

fine. I could stil
feel
as wel , my emotions resting

somewhere between confusion, anger, and longing.

But I blame the last feeling on the sparks.

“Gemma,” Alex said, and I looked up at him. “You’re

okay, right?”

I eyed him over warily. I wasn’t sure what to do here.

I didn’t trust him at al , despite the fact that I did seem

to be alright. “I don’t know…Am I?”

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “I’m asking you?”

“Why? You’re the one who knows what happened to

me.” I crossed my arms. “I mean, what’s going on

here? Am I supposed to feel? And where’s Stephan?

Outside the door waiting for you to come check on me

and see if the memoria extracta—or whatever that

stupid memory erasing rock is cal ed—has wiped out

my mind.” My anger simmered hotter as the painful

memories of what had happened to me resurfaced.

“
Memoria
extraho
,” Alex said.

I gaped at him. “What?”

“The memory erasing rock is cal ed a
memoria

extraho
,” he said.

I glared at him. “That’s not important right now. Al I

need to know is what the heck is going on.”

He hesitated, running his fingers through his dark

brown hair, probably trying to conjure up some lie to

tel me. I couldn’t take this. I couldn’t take anymore

lies. I needed to get out of here and away from him,

even though the electricity was tel ing me to do

otherwise.

I darted to the side, starting to swing around him.

“Gemma,” Alex warned, matching my move with

cat-like reflexes. He blocked my escape. “Just listen

to me for a second. If you’l settle down, I’l explain

what’s going on.”

I let out this unnatural y high pitched laugh. “Wil

you?” I asked. “Because you never have before. Not

ful y, anyway.”

“Gemma,” he started, but I was already hopping up

onto the bed, overlooking the pain igniting in my leg

as I dodged around him, and headed for the door.

He stuck his arm out, attempting to catch me in

mid-air as I leapt off of the bed, but he missed me by

a sliver of an inch, and I was able to escape out of the

room.

I wasn’t exactly sure where I was planning on going,

or what would be waiting for me down at the bottom of

the stairs, but I knew I had to get away. Run. Find

Laylen or someone else who would tel me what was

going on.

My bare feet hammered against the stairs as I

charged down them. There was a door just at the

bottom, and the sunlight spil ed through a smal

window at the top of it. If I could just make it outside,

then I could run away to…Wel , I real y hadn’t gotten

that far in my escape plan. Al I knew was that I was

going to run away from this madness. I was sick of the

lies and the secrets. I was sick of monsters and

people trying to harm me.

I reached the bottom of the stairs, my hand

extended out to the doorknob. Just a few steps and I’d

be overtaken with the warm Vegas air and sunshine.

“Gemma,” a voice said from beside of me.

I jumped, my heart racing. For a split second I

thought I was dead. That the person who’d said my

name would be Stephan.

But, thankful y, it wasn’t.

“What the heck?” Laylen said breathlessly, his hand

pressed over his heart. “You scared the heck out of

me.”

“You scared the heck out of me,” I told him, equal y

as breathless.

His bright blue eyes stared at me in astonishment,

almost as if he couldn’t quite believe I was standing

here.

Trust me, I felt the very same way.

For a moment, I just stood there, taking in the sight

of him. His blonde hair, the tips dyed a bright blue.

The dark red shade of his lips with a silver ring looped

through the bottom. The mark of immortality tattooing

across the pale skin of his forearm. It was such a

relief to see him. I had so much I wanted to tel him

and so many questions I wanted to ask.

“Are you alright?” He eyed me over as if he were

checking to see if I was broken. “What were you

running from?”

“I was—”

“From me,” Alex’s voice drifted up from behind me.

I spun around and scooted closer to Laylen.

Alex, in typical Alex style, strol ed lazily down the

stairs, as if he had thought I’d never actual y run away.

“I don’t understand why you have to be so difficult,” he

said, his eyes locked on me like a target, the sparks

reacting with such eagerness that my legs felt a little

weak. “I told you I’d tel you what was going on.

There’s no reason to try and run away.”

“There’s no reason to try and run away,” I said

exasperatedly. “Are you kidding me?”

He frowned as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

As he walked closer to me, I inched myself closer to

Laylen. So close in fact that my shoulder bumped into

his.

Alex’s eyebrows dipped down as he stopped just

short of me. “What do you think I’m going to do to you,

Gemma? Hurt you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I never know anything

when it comes to you.”

He glowered at me, and I glowered right back, the

electricity heating hotter and hotter the longer our

eyes stayed on one another.

“Gemma,” Laylen said, and for the second time in

just a few short minutes I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Everything’s okay. No one here’s going to hurt you.”

I looked up at him. And I mean it, I real y had to look

up because Laylen is like six foot four. “Everything’s

okay?” I asked with skepticism. “Real y?”

He nodded. “Yeah, let’s go sit down, and Alex and I

wil explain everything that’s happened.”

I casted a quick glance at Alex, and then looked

back at Laylen. “I want
you
to explain it to me.”

“Gemma, I already said I’d tel you the truth.” Alex

sounded irritated.

I opened my mouth to tel him that I real y didn’t care

what he said he’d do. And that he was a liar. But

Laylen spoke before I got the chance.

“Alex, you real y can’t blame her for not trusting

you.” He paused, deliberating something very charily.

“After what you did.”

That, of course, pissed Alex off. “I didn’t do

anything. And you have some nerve for saying that I

did.”

Laylen got this look on his face that I could tel

meant he was about to say something that might start

a fight. And Alex looked completely ready to fight

back. That’s what these two did sometimes; they got

into arguments that became more heated the more

they opened their mouths.

But I didn’t have time for this right now. I needed to

know what went on back at the cabin, after I’d…

blacked out?

“Can’t you just tel me what happened?” I begged

Laylen. “
Please
. I trust you more than I trust him.”
In

fact, I don’t trust him at all.

Laylen glanced at Alex, who shot him a dirty look,

and returned his bright blue eyes on me. “Yeah, okay.

I’l tel you what I know.”

“Thank you,” I said, feeling slightly less anxious. But

stil anxious enough that my legs were wobbly.

Laylen motioned for me to fol ow him as he swept

through a beaded-curtain doorway, which led us into a

living room with dark blue wal s that were decorated

with shelves holding odd looking knickknacks. Black

and white tile checkerboarded the floor, and a set of

purple velvet couches centered the room, along with

an apothecary table topped with black candles.

Hmm…I was getting a weird sense of
déjà vu
with

this room. Then it dawned on me. “Is this Adessa’s

house?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Laylen took a seat on one of the purple

velvet sofas. “Which is actual y attached to her store.”

I sat down next to him, and Alex, looking annoyed,

dropped down in the chair across from us.

“So where do you want me to begin?” Laylen asked

me. And I liked that he asked, instead of trying to

evade my questions, like a certain someone with

bright green eyes would’ve done.

Having options, though, was kind of confusing me.

“So…um…what happened?” I shook my head at the

ridiculousness of my own question. “I mean, what

happened back in Colorado? And how did we end up

in Vegas?”

Laylen stayed quiet for a second, and I started to

wonder if he even knew the answers to my questions.

Alex had made it clear that, because Laylen was a

vampire, he was no longer part of the Keepers’ world

anymore, making Laylen a little out of the loop on

things.

Laylen brushed his blue-tipped bangs away from

his forehead. “Wel , I guess I’l answer the easy

question first. You’re here at Adessa’s because Aislin

transported us here.”

“What?!” I exclaimed, making Laylen flinch. I

lowered my voice. “Sorry. But how? I mean the last

thing I can remember is being surrounded by a ton of

Death Walkers, and Stephan trying to use some

creepy smoking rock to try and take my mind away.”

“The rock’s cal ed the
memoria
extraho
,” Alex

interrupted.

“Wel , you’d know since you were going to let him

use it on me,” I snapped.

A condescending look rose on his face. “If you’d

just listen to me explain, then you’d realize you’re

wrong.”

“I said I want Laylen to tel me,” I told him firmly.

He shrugged and leaned back in the chair, resting

his hands behind his head al casual and everything.

“Fine. Whatever you want.”

I stared at him, entirely taken off-guard. Huh? Did

he just say whatever you want? To me?

“What,” Alex said, with a blasé attitude. “I was

planning on tel ing you the truth, but if you’re more

likely to believe it from Laylen’s mouth, then it’s better

that he tel s you. That way you won’t have any doubts.”

I shook my head, wondering why he was acting so

cooperative, but figured I would worry about it later, so

I returned my attention back to Laylen. “So how did

you and Aislin end up in Colorado?”

“Wel …I guess to make a long story short, after

Aislin came back to get me in Nevada, those Death

Walkers you and I saw marching through the desert

had reached the house. They ambushed us, but after

a big struggle, Aislin and I managed to escape in the

car. But the Death Walkers cold ruined Aislin’s crystal

again so we had to come here to Adessa’s to get

another one. Then we transported to Colorado.”

“So how did you guys not get attacked by the Death

Walkers when you showed up in Colorado?” I asked.

“And by Stephan? Because the last thing I can

remember was that there were a ton of Death

Walkers around, watching Stephan try to erase my

mind.”

Laylen glanced over at Alex, and they both

exchanged a look I couldn’t quite figure out. My

muscles tensed up as the idea that maybe Laylen

was keeping secrets from me flashed through my

mind. Would he? I mean I barely knew him. But from

the moment I’d met him, my instincts told me I could

trust him. Although I sometimes wondered how much I

could trust my own instincts.

“When Aislin and I showed up there,” Laylen’s

bright blue eyes focused back on me, “Stephan and

the Death Walkers were gone.”

“What,” I said, baffled. “Why would they just leave?”

Laylen looked at Alex again, and I grew even more

uneasy. Something was up. I could feel it through the

sudden heaviness in the air.

“I think maybe you should explain that part to her,”

Laylen told Alex. “It’s more your story to tel , anyway.”

“No,” I protested, shaking my head. “I want you to

tel me.”

Laylen shifted uncomfortably in the sofa. “Look

Gemma, I understand why you want me to tel you. But