Fractured Souls(12)

“It’s a club for Vampires,” I state the obvious. I scoot in closer to him as a sketchy looking man wearing a black hoodie walks by us. “How high are my chances of being bit, then?”
Smiling, he drapes his arm around my shoulders. “I wouldn’t let anyone bite you, sweetheart. Seriously.”
“But there will be people getting bit?”
He goes rigid. “Yes.”
I swallow hard. “Will they… will the Vampires be killing them?”
He shakes his head. “This is just a feeding ground, a place to feed on willing humans in a closed space where you don’t have to worry about getting caught.”
I angle my neck back to look at him. “Willing humans?”
He nods once, his eyes focused on the sidewalk ahead. “Vampire bites are intoxicating in ways I can’t even begin to explain. Some humans love it… it’s like a drug for them and so they come to clubs like these to get their next hit.”
I picture teeth sinking into my neck. Pain. Then euphoria? If it’s true, it sounds kind of sexy.
I push the thought from my head. “So who is this all-knowing person that we’re going to see?”
He inches to the left as a sleek, black car rolls up the road, driving close to the curb. “Draven.”
“The guy you were so afraid of back at the Black Dungeon? I thought he was dangerous and the reason why… the reason why Aislin got bit.”
“Aislin got bit because she was a Keeper and most Vampires loathe Keepers.” His jaw goes taut as we round the side of a warehouse. The road reaches a dead-end of dumpsters that line the walls of boarded up, metal buildings. “You’re not a Keeper, so you should be fine, but I’m not going to try and convince you that what we’re doing isn’t dangerous. I think you deserve more than being lied to and walking in blindly.”
“And I appreciate that,” I say. “I’m just a little nervous.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” Laylen replies as we halt in front of a door on the side a large, rusty looking warehouse. “But Draven should be able to help us.”
“How though?”
“You know how I can control emotions?”
Goosebumps dot my skin, but more from excitement than the cold. “Yeah.”
He glances up at the stars in the sky. “Well, Draven has a different kind of gift—or curse depending on how you want to look at it. He can see what’s going on in different realms.”
“Realms, like The Underworld.” I shiver.
He nods, his attention drifting to the door. “So, if we can get him to agree, he should be able to see if your mom’s still there… it’s going to be hard, though.”
“I figured as much,” I tell him. “Since nothing is ever easy.”
He gives me a partial smile and then removes his arm from my shoulder to rap his hand on the door. The sound echoes from the inside, the only noise that can be heard around us. I’m about to ask him why it’s so quiet when the door swings open and light floods the night.
On the other side of the door is a tall man wearing a hoodie and his dark eyes resemblie coals. His skin is extremely pale like Laylen’s, his lips are a deep red, and he has a sequence of tattoos on his neck.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the cruor fastidio." He leans against the crooked doorframe, assessing Laylen with his dark eyes while I struggle to figure out what a cruor fastidio means.
“You know I’ve drank blood, Kameron” Laylen replies, his blue eyes intense and his voice sinking to a low octave. “I merely choose to do it only when necessary.”
Kameron shakes his head as he runs his tongue along his teeth. “Blood is always necessary in life, but you really don’t have one, do you?”
Laylen glances at me and then to Kameron, remaining nonchalant. “I need inside. Now.”
Kameron’s eyes devour me. “And who’s this lovely creature right here?”
“No one you need to know,” Laylen states, inching in front of me so I’m partially hidden behind him.
Kameron leans to the side to get a better look at me. “She looks like a Black Angel, but the nervousness in her bloodstream suggests otherwise,” he says and then waits for something. Perhaps for Laylen to deny that I am a Black Angel or insist that I do have hidden wings on my back, but Laylen never utters a word. “Fine, remain silent then.” He steps back, getting ready to close the door.#p#分页标题#e#
Laylen slams his hand forcefully against it, shoving the door back open. “I said I need in.” His blue eyes blaze and his voice is low, sultry, dangerous.
It’s giving me the chills and adrenaline crashes through my body. I’m scared, yet excited for things I’m not sure I should be excited for. I inch back, but only because my mind and body are becoming so perplexed. I wonder if it’s because Laylen is getting pissed and his emotion gift—or curse—is no longer under his control.