right in the spot where Stephan had stabbed—a bandaged was wrapped. Someone had fixed me up.

Who, though?

Good question.

My leg throbbed as I stood up, the grey carpet feeling warm against my bare feet. I limped over to the door. So far, I hadn’t heard a single noise.

Wherever I was, was quiet.

Dead quiet.

I stood hesitantly in front of the closed door. Did I dare open it?

My heart knocked in my chest, and with a trembling hand, I reached for the doorknob. But before I could get my hand around it, it started to turn on its own, and at the very same time electricity whipped through me.

I jumped back, but instantly regretted it because my legs gave out on me and I toppled to the floor.

I grabbed hold of my injured leg. “Dam—” The door swung open.

Ignoring the scorching pain in my leg, I scrambled to my feet and searched frantically for another way out of the room, other than trying to jump out the window.

“Gemma,” Alex said, in a guarded tone, as he walked through the doorway. He inched himself toward me, taking each step carefully, as though he thought walking too fast would spook me. But him just being here was spooking me.

He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, and his hair was scattered messily in its intentionally-done-perfect-yet-messy kind of way. He looked like a normal guy—completely harmless. Yet, I knew he wasn’t.

“Stay-y away f-from me?” I stammered, my heart pounding insanely in my chest as I backed away from him. “Don’t come any closer.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was as soft as a feather. He continued to step toward me, his bright green eyes locked on me, just like when he watched Stephan try to take my emotions away. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“You promise!” I cried, anger raging through me like a boiling kettle of water. “Your promises are worth nothing.” I mean, he’d promised me how many times that he wouldn’t let anything happened to me and yet, in the end, he’d let his father attempt to erase my mind and take my emotions away.

Alex stopped dead in his tracks, his expression filling with annoyance. “What the heck is that supposed to mean?”

My back brushed the wall. I was cornered. “It means 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 still feel as well, 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 all, 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 called—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 called a memoria extraho,” he said.

I glared at him. “That’s not important right now. All 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 tell 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 telling 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’ll settle down, I’ll explain what’s going on.”

I let out this unnaturally high pitched laugh. “Will you?” I asked. “Because you never have before. Not fully, 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 tell 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 spilled through a small window at the top of it. If I could just make it outside, then I could run away to…Well, I really hadn’t gotten that far in my escape plan. All 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, thankfully, 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, equally 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 tell 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, strolled lazily down the stairs, as if he had thought I’d never actually 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 tell 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 really had to look up because Laylen is like six foot four. “Everything’s okay?” I asked with skepticism. “Really?” He nodded. “Yeah, let’s go sit down, and Alex and I will 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.”