Someone knocked at the door.

“Come in,” I called out, figuring it was Laylen ready to get the show on the road.

But it wasn’t Laylen. It was someone who I probably shouldn’t be alone in a room with.

“You about ready?” Alex walked in and shut the door behind him.

I sat up and frowned at him. “I’m not taking you with me.

You need to stay here with your sister.” I tensed up under his gaze. “I never realized your mom left.” still not speaking, he sat down on the bed, making me even tenser. Well, that and the fact that he was holding the Sword of Immortality.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I mean in here…with me?”

He stared at the floor, his eyebrows dipping down. “My mom left when I was about five.” He said suddenly and looked up and met my eyes. “At least I think she left…I have to wonder now, after everything my father has done, if maybe he had something to do with it.”

There was so much agony burdening his expression that I wanted to lie and tell him that that probably wasn’t the case. But he would know it was a lie, and it would make things worse. I think in reality, we both knew Stephan probably had something to do with his mom disappearing.

“There’s this rock at the back of the castle that hides a secret entryway to the basement,” he said, still looking back at the floor. “Laylen should be able to lift the rock up so you guys can get in…no one knows it’s there but me.” He looked up and handed me the Sword of Immortality.

The jagged, silver blade glinted deathly in the light and the handle was cold against my skin. “What—why are you giving me this?”

“Because you might need it.” He shut his eyes tight, as if he was in pain. “I want you to be able to protect yourself.” My heart thumped in my chest. “Thanks.”

He paused and fear filled his eyes, which freaked me out even more because Alex rarely showed fear, especially such a powerful kind of fear.

“Can you promise me something?” He sounded breathless.

The word left my lips under no control of my own.

“Anything.”

I surprised both of us and seizing my rare moment of cooperativeness he quickly said, “Promise me if anything happens at all —if anything even remotely bad looks like it will happen, you’ll come right back.”

I swallowed hard. “Alex, I can’t—”

He placed his hand across my mouth. “I know you feel like you need to save her—and I completely understand that. But you also need to understand that you might be the one person who can save the world. So if it all comes down to it, you’re going to have to save yourself.” I was breathing loudly, so loud the sound filled up the room.

He moved his hand away and suddenly he was panicking, his foot tapping madly against the floor. “I should be going with you.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” I shook my head. “Aislin needs you. I

—I didn’t realize that about your mother.” I stared down at my feet. “No one should be alone in the world.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It hurts…a lot.”

It was quiet for a moment as my thoughts drifted back to my old life filled with loneliness. As dangerous as my new life was, I don’t think I would trade it back. I never wanted to go back to that.

“You need to let me start doing things on my own—let me make my own decisions.” I met his eyes. “No one ever has.” He nodded. “I know I do.”

Silence enclosed around us again.

“Gemma,” Alex whispered, and I knew what the softness of his voice meant.

I should have stopped him—I know I should have—but I found that my lips were incapable of forming a refusal. So I let him lean in. I let him brush his lips against mine. I let him kiss me.

I waited until my skin started to heat, and then I pulled away. He nodded, as if he understood. Then we got up, and left the room as if nothing happened.

Laylen was a little freaked when he saw me holding the Sword of Immortality. And that was okay—I was a little freaked out by it too. I could just see myself doing something stupid, like tripping and accidently stabbing him with it.

It made me nervous.

I stood in the living room, one hand holding Laylen’s hand and my other gripping the sword. My pulse pounded as I tried not to panic at the huge responsibility I had put on myself.

“Are you ready?” I asked, tilting my head up at the six foot four vampire.

“Are you ready?” he replied, his voice pressing me to make sure.

I nodded and shut my eyes. “I am…let’s go…”

“Wait. Wait.”

My eyes shot open as Aislin came running into the room.

She tripped over a small maroon rug and shot it a dirty look as she stopped in front of me. “I have something for you.” I furrowed my eyebrows. “You have something for me?”

“Yeah,” she said with an excited sparkle in her green eyes. “It’s to help you see in the dark.” I thought she was going to hand me a flashlight or something, which didn’t seem like such good idea. It would be like saying: ‘hey we’re right here, come and get us.’ But instead she whispered, “iuvo vos animadverto,” as she raised her hand and blew something in my face.

Instinctively, I dropped the sword and pressed my hands to my eyes. “Oh my God! What was that?”

“Oh, sorry,” Aislin apologized. “I was just so excited because I figured out how to do it, but I guess I should have warned you.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Thanks, but a warning would have been kind of nice.”

“Jesus Christ, Aislin,” Alex said sharply. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I was giving her night vision,” Aislin retorted.

I dropped my hands and blinked a few times. Everything looked normal. “Night vision?”

She smiled, looking a bit like her old cheerful self again

—something I hadn’t seen in a few days. “Yep, night vision.

So you don’t have to stumble around in the dark basically blind.”

“What about Laylen?” I asked. “Can you blow your little dusty stuff in his eyes?”

“No need to.” She looked at Laylen in a way I had never seen her look at him before—with a look that I wondered if I sometimes gave Alex. “He already has night vision.” Laylen gave her the same look back, but quickly blinked it away. “Well, we should go.” He carefully picked up the sword and handed it to me. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this thing?

I gave Laylen an uncertain look, but Alex said, “She’ll be fine.”

Laylen had his own sword tucked away in the pocket of his black jeans; one that wouldn’t kill a Death Walker, but would temporarily immobilize it. It would, however, kill Stephan.

I took Laylen’s hand again and took a deep breath. My heart raced insanely as I casted one last glance at Alex, and a thought crossed my mind. Would I ever see him again? I shook the thought from my head—I would not go into this with such thoughts—and shut my eyes.

I saw the lake, the forest, the castle…Then I was falling.

Chapter 13

I landed in Classic Gemma Style, tripping over my own feet and plummeting for the grassy ground. Laylen was still holding onto my hand, though, and pulled me back up before my face hit the ground.

“Thanks,” I told him, breathless.

He gave me a small smile. “No problem.”

Wait a minute. I could see his smile as if it were day time.

Was it day time? I glanced up at sky. The full moon beamed down amongst the silver speckles of stars. No, it was not daytime. It just looked that way, thanks to Aislin and her awesomeness.

“Amazing,” I muttered, touching the corner of my eye.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Laylen asked and I nodded.

I purposely had taken us into the forest because, from there, we could see the castle without being seen. That way we could get an idea of what was going on, before we actually went inside.

Laylen and I started through the tall trees, heading for the castle. The grey-stone tower poked out from the tips of the trees, like an arrow. Twigs and leaves crunched under our shoes and the air was chilly. For a while neither of us spoke, but then, suddenly, I had to know something.