He opens his mouth and bends his arms, letting his body softly fall onto me, and his lips crash against my own. I can taste salt and rust along with a thousand different things, most of which I have no idea what they are. I open my mouth, letting his tongue slide into me as I clutch onto him for dear life. His hand glides up my ribcage and resides just below my breast, where he grips forcefully. It feels so right, yet through the fog in my head, a voice whispers at me to stop; that this is wrong and Laylen isn’t who I’m supposed to be with. Although, I can’t remember the name of the person I belong to.
Laylen moves his mouth away from mine, and starts trailing kisses down my neck, licking off the blood while his teeth graze my skin, barely breaking it as I feel gentle stings.
I let him, too. I’d let him do anything to me at the moment. He owns my body and mind as well as my fractured soul. As he sinks his teeth into my neck again and starts to drain me of my blood, I eagerly allow him to suck my blood until I can’t feel my body anymore and I fall into the dark.
Chapter 5
I feel so cold, like icicles have bronzed my bones, chilled my heart and frozen the veins running beneath my frosted skin. Unbelievably cold.
Am I dead?
My eyes flutter open. The first thing I notice is that the air smells less smoky. Then I notice the grey sky. I gradually sit up, the skin on my upper arm’s blazing like it’s on fire. I press my hand to the area as I take in the sight of my surroundings. Miles and miles of muddy land, stretching toward the grey horizon and buried beneath piles of metal objects. Some are small, some large, some with a basic structure while some are so complex it takes a few blinks of my eyes to get them into focus. Some are embedded with jewels, others dull and faded. It’s like a junkyard for the collector of strange objects, but where and what is this place?
I unsteadily get to my feet and immediately reach for my neck, shocked when I find that there’s no blood on me, no wounds, as if Laylen hasn’t bitten me.
“Hello!” I call out, making my way around a massive steel box with the lid crushed in. “Is anyone here?”
Ravens flock from the heaps of misshapen metal and flee into the dusky sky, sending black feathers to the ground. I begin to walk, weaving around objects and dirt piles, hoping to find some sort of explanation of how I got here and where here is. The walk seems endless, though, and finally I sit down in the dirt.
As my skin ignites, I remove my hand from it and peek underneath it. My heart stops at the sight of a triangular symbol on my upper arm, black overlapping red. The same mark I had seen on Draven. Shit.
Panic soars inside me and something painfully alters in my heart. I feel different—powerful—like I can do anything. The power is stemming from the symbol on my arm. I slowly rise to my feet, ready to do whatever it takes to get out of here and knowing I mean it, even if I have to take another life.
There are so many terrible things flashing through my head right now that they practically swallow up my identity with a blanket of needles.
“Gemma…” Someone whispers behind me.
I turn around, glancing at the land behind me. I search for what seems like forever, feathers raining down on my head. When I give up and turn around something smacks me upside the head.
My ears ring and my skull feels like it cracks as I drift into the ground, into darkness.
***
When I open my eyes, it takes my brain a second to process where I am. There’s too much confusion. One minute I’m being fed on, then I’m in some weird junkyard, and the next thing I know I’m lying on warm asphalt, with a very dim lamppost shining down on me as I gaze up at the stars.#p#分页标题#e#
“Are you okay?” Laylen’s voice sedates me.
I turn my head to the side and find him kneeling next to me, the top of his shirt covered in blood, his eyes like shadows. I feel strangely calm, all things considering, and I have a suspicion Laylen has put the emotion into me.
“Where am I?” I croak, my fingers drifting to the area on my neck that’s coated with a warm, sticky substance. I turn my shoulder inward and glance at the place where the symbol was on my skin, but it’s gone.
It was just a dream. A nightmare. Thank God.
“We’re just outside of Adessa’s, in the parking lot.” Concern and guilt mask his face. “You blacked out.”
I gradually sit up. “Owe.” I wince, clutching onto my tender muscles.
“Easy,” Laylen says, his voice soothing as he traces his fingertips up and down my spine. “It’s going to hurt for a little bit.”
I bring my hand away from my neck and hold it up in front of my face. My fingers are drenched in blood. “What else am I going to feel?” I whisper.