“Yeah,” he said, unsurprised. “Marco and Sophia have been noticing a change in you over the last few months. That’s one of the reasons why Ailsin and I enrolled in school. We were trying to figure out what had happened to cause the change. And we were also keeping an eye on you.”

That’s why they’d shown up at my school. I shook my head. I was going to have to let go of that one for now, otherwise I’d get sidetrack from my plan to escape. “That’s not what I meant. I’ve been able to feel for more than a few months. Awhile ago, I found a paper in one of Sophia’s trunks that had this list of dates on it.” I caught a hint of understanding pass over his face, and I knew he knew what paper I was referring to. “After doing a lot of searching around, I finally figured out what it meant.” Now I was going out on a limb here because I wasn’t sure if the list of dates had anything to do with any of this. It was just a hunch I had, but I was going with it. “After that, the whole being-able-to-feel thing became simple for me.”

I searched for a sign that he might be buying my lie. At first, he looked completely lost. Then his expression shifted to anger. A couple moments later, worry washed over his face. I felt his grip loosen on my hand, and I seized the opportunity. I yanked my hand as hard as I could. It worked. His hand fell off of mine, and I was on my feet in a heartbeat, bolting for the door, ignoring the pain tearing up my side.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Alex called out.

Ignoring him, I threw open the door.

“The Death Walkers will find you,” he said. I could hear him moving toward me, his footsteps scuffing lazily against the hardwood floor like he was so sure I wasn’t going to run away. “Now that they know the stars in you, they’ll always be searching for you.”

All I had to do was go. Leave. Find the front door and run my little heart out. But my fear made me hesitate. What if he was telling the truth? What if they did find me and I was all alone? What would happen to me? Was it worth the risk?

I turned to face him, my hand still clasped on the doorknob. “How can you be so sure they know I have the stars energy in me?”

“Oh trust me, they know.” He came to a stop in front of me. “After what happened on the bus, there’s no way they don’t.”

I was trapped. Either I could run and risk the chance of getting killed by a bunch of hypothermic-inducing monsters, or I could stay here with Alex, a liar who had caused me to suffer through most of my life as a walking emotionless corpse.

I stayed still, even when he set his hand on top of mine.

“Running away would be a very stupid thing to do,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t ever try to do it again.” I frowned as he removed my hand from the doorknob. “You were lying, weren’t you? About being able to feel earlier than we’d thought?” he asked.

I stared at him impassively.

“I know you were,” he said. “If it were true then Marco and Sophia would have known.”

“Would they?” I twisted my hand out of his grip. “Because she didn’t seem to notice when I stole the list of dates from her trunk.”

We stared at one another in silence. I wasn’t sure what to believe. And I had a feeling he felt the same way, which was exactly what I wanted. I wanted him to feel as lost and confused as I was.

“Well, since this is going nowhere, I might as well go and call Stephan,” he suddenly announced.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Fine. Do whatever you want.”

“I was planning on it.” He walked by me and waved for me to follow him.

Even though I really, really didn’t want to, I did.

Chapter 15

Alex led me down a hallway lined with doors, finally coming to a stop in front of a closed door at the very end of it. My head was hurting so badly by this point, and my ribs were aching big time. I felt more empty and alone than I’d ever felt in my life. Although Marco and Sophia had never been that great of grandparents, they were still my grandparents. And what they’d done to me felt like the ultimate betrayal.

Alex didn’t open the door right away. He just stood there, staring at it as if he were trying to compel it to open with his mind. Needless to say, it didn’t open. Then, unexpectedly, he whirled around and faced me.

“There’s is something else I need to tell you before we go in here,” he blurted out.

I sighed “What now?”

“Relax it’s not about you.  It’s about Laylen, the guy who lives in this house” He leaned against the door and crossed his arms. “He’s not exactly human.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked. “If he’s not human then what is he?”

“Well,” he wavered, “a few years ago he was bitten by a...vampire.”

I gaped at him. “So you’re saying he’s a vampire?” Was he kidding me?

He moved away from the door and stepped toward me. “I know what you’re thinking. That there’s no way vampires are real, but they’re about as real as the Death Walkers.”

I pressed my lips together and stared down at the opposite end of the hallway, at a door with a small stained glass window on it. Light spilled through the glass, casting misshapen reflections across the floor and walls. It had to be the front door. And just on the other side of it was the desert. The warm and sandy desert. The complete opposite of where I’d been no more than a few hours ago.

“You’re not thinking about running away again?” Alex’s voice tore through my thoughts.

I turned my head back toward him. “No.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure” I said, but I didn’t sound very convincing.

He opened his mouth and started to say something but, changing his mind, clamped it closed again. He’d done that a lot over the last few hours—started to say something then stopped. Who did that reminded me of? Hmm…Let me think. How about Marco and Sophia. Coincidence?  Who knew?

“Do I have to worry about him biting me?” I asked tensely.

He laughed. “No, you don’t have to worry about him biting you. Since he was a Keeper before he was changed, things work a little differently with him. He’s more in control of his blood lust.”

“And what about vampires that aren’t Keepers to begin with? What are they like?”

He hesitated. “Let’s just hope you don’t ever have to find out.”

And with that, he opened up the door.

On the other side was a room that had the same red walls and ash-black hardwood flooring as the room we’d just came from. There were also bookshelves everywhere. The only noticeable difference was a long mahogany table that trailed down the middle of the room. And in one of the eight chairs bordering the table, sat Aislin, staring down at her cell phone.

She immediately jumped to her feet when she saw us. “Oh good. I was just about to come get you.” She hurried over to Alex and asked in a barely audible voice, “Did you get everything taken care of?”

“Yeah,” Alex’s bright green eyes flicked in my direction, “I did.”

Aislin gave me a wary look before returning her attention back to Alex. “I can’t get a hold of Stephan.” She tapped her cell phone in the palm of her hand. “It goes straight to his voicemail.”

“That’s odd,” Alex mumbled. “Did you try Marco and Sophia?”

The mentioning of Marco and Sophia made my stomach ping. It shouldn’t have hurt. It really shouldn’t have. Yet it did.

Aislin nodded. “They didn’t answer either.”

“Where the heck could they be?” he asked. “They weren’t going anywhere, were they?”

Aislin shook her head. “Not that I know of.”

“Do you know if Marco and Sophia were going somewhere?” Alex asked me.

I gave him an are-you-kidding-me look. “Yeah, because they tell me all the time what they’re doing.”

Alex frowned. “Gemma, this isn’t a joke. It’s important.”

“Oh, I know it’s not,” I assured him. “I was being very, very serious.”