I traced the barely visible scar on my hand. “What does forem mean?”

He dropped one of his hands from the steering wheel and tucked it to the side of him.”Why do you keep asking me that?”

“Let me see your hand.”

“Gemma, quit being weird.”

I looked down at my hand. The scar was so faint, I never even noticed it until I had seen the vision. “I saw a vision of us when we were little. You and I were hiding in that hideout—that’s how I knew where it was.

Someone was yelling for us—I think it was you father

—and I was scared to death because I didn’t want to leave, so you cut my hand and yours, and we pressed them together and said forem.” My voice trembled.

“Right after that, I saw Sophia detach my soul.” It went so quiet that I could hear the roar of the ocean. I wasn’t sure why I told him about the vision, I just did. I wasn’t expecting anything, but when he looked at me, his eyes were so full of sadness I thought he was going to say that he was sorry I had to see that.

“Gemma, I’m-I’m—” His eyes widened, and he was no longer looking at me, but to the side of me, out the window.

I followed his gaze, and saw Laylen rounding the corner of a bar, the flashing neon signs glowing against his pale skin as he walked by them. He was not alone, either. He was with a woman. Her long hair was tied up in a ponytail, and her tan skin was like a shadow against the night.

Alex made a sharp turn and ramped the SUV over the curb.

“Who’s that he’s with?” I asked, clicking my seat belt loose as the car came to a stop.

“I have no idea.” He turned off the engine, and we both hopped out.

There were a group of men loitering at the entrance of the bar, and the smell of their cigarette smoke stunk up the air. They made catcalls as we walked across the parking lot, and I moved around to the other side of Alex, putting him between the rough looking men and myself.

One of them made a very inappropriate comment—

which I will not repeat—and Alex’s eyes lit with rage.

He started to move toward the men, but I grabbed his arm.

“Now is not the time.” I tugged at his arm. “Come on.”

He actually listened, but his eyes did glint murderously when one of the men shouted something about him being a wussy boy.

Those men should really consider themselves lucky, seeing how I’m pretty sure Alex could beat the crap out of all of them without even getting a scratch. (He is a Keeper after all ).

But all thoughts of those men immediately exited my mind when we rounded toward the back of the bar, and standing underneath the back light, right next to the dumpster, was Laylen.

And he was biting the woman.

Chapter 31

“Laylen,” I called out and he immediately let go of the woman. Her limp body hit the asphalt with a thumping noise that shot goose bumps all over my skin.

Laylen’s blue eyes were wide and he looked horrified as he glanced down at the lifeless body of the woman and then back at us. Alex stepped toward him, but Laylen put up a hand, his fangs gleaming in the light.

“Stay away from me,” he hissed.

Alex pointed down at the woman. “I’m just going to check to see if she’s okay?” He took a step forward again, making sure to move cautiously.

Laylen didn’t protest. He sunk to the ground and cradled his head in his hands. While Alex made sure the woman was okay, I carefully made my way over to Laylen. He looked so broken that I wasn’t sure if I could handle this or not. I was no pro in dealing with human emotions—heck, I could barely deal with my own most of the time. So as I knelt down on the asphalt beside him, I tried to will the prickle to show up and release some kind of emotion that would let me know what to do.

It never came, though, so I guess I would have to figure out this one on my own.

“Laylen,” I said, gently touching his arm. “Are you okay?”

He pulled away. “Don’t touch me.”

“She’s okay,” Alex said and he came over and stood behind me. “She’s just unconscious.”

“See, she’s okay,” I told Laylen.

Laylen raised his head, and I almost shrank back from the anger in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. It’s still there.”

“What’s still there?”

“The…the hunger.”

I glanced up at Alex, my eyes pleading with him to help me out. I didn’t know what to do.

He gave me this look, and I thought he wasn’t going to help me, but then he knelt down on the ground next me and said. “Look, she’s not hurt, okay. So let’s just go back to the house and forget this ever happened.” Laylen glared at him with his fangs out. I had to admit he looked terrifying. But for his sake, I made sure to stay calm.

“Hey,” I said, telling myself I could do this. I could be sympathetic and make him feel better. “It’s going to be okay. She’s not dead, only passed out, and when she wakes she’ll probably feel really…” I searched for a word that would describe what I felt when he bit me.

“Euphoric.”

“It doesn’t matter how she feels,” he said, his voice pained. “I bit her, which is something I’ve spent the last few years trying not to do.”

God, this was all my fault. “Laylen, this isn’t your fault. Please just come back to the house with us—

we’ll figure something out, okay?”

Honestly, I didn’t think my little speech was that persuasive, but apparently he thought it was, which was all that matter. He got to his feet and then all three of us went back and climbed into the SUV. We drove back to the beach house in silence. I made sure to keep an eye on Laylen, fearing he might freak out and try to run away again.

He seemed calm, though, but still not his normal self, which had me worried.

What if Laylen, the only person who’d ever told me the truth—who was always there for me—was gone?

When we arrived back at the beach house, Laylen went straight into his room and said he was going to bed. I was afraid he might leave again, but Alex promised he would watch him. We had woken up Aislin, not intentionally, but nonetheless we had to explain to her what had just happened. Then I sat on the couch, listening to Alex and Aislin argue over what to do with “him.” I didn’t like how they were talking about Laylen, like they feared he might go off the deep end and kill us all. I, in no way, believed this could ever be possible. And when they started talking about leaving him behind—going someplace else without him—I lost it.

It was late, and I was tired. The prickle had been nagging at the back of my neck and I finally shouted,

“Would you two just shut up!” They both looked at me with surprised expressions, which I couldn’t blame them for—I surprised myself. I lowered my voice.

“Look, he’s not going to freak out and kill anyone, okay? So just drop it.”

“Gemma,” Alex said, his tone letting me know I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “We can’t know for sure whether he’s dangerous or not.

He’s bitten someone now, everything has changed.”

“When he bit me, you didn’t have a problem with it,” I pointed out.

“Oh, I had a problem with it.” A look passed over his face like he regretted what he just said. “Look, we have too many other problems to worry about. And right now I think we really just need to focus on getting into The Underworld.”

I shook my head. “No. I won’t leave him. You two do whatever you want, but I’m staying.”

He held my gaze, and I could see the cocky attitude rising in him. It was something I hadn’t seen lately.

“You know you can be really stubborn sometimes.” I shrugged. I wasn’t going to even try to argue with that. I knew that I was. “Stubborn or not, I’m still not leaving him.” I held Alex’s gaze with sheer and utter determination, forcing myself to ignore my normal instincts to look away—let him win.

“Fine,” Alex said. “We’ll stay with him, but if anything happens it’s on you.”