“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching for a mug on the counter. I wasn’t really thirsty. In fact, I’d kind of planned it out so he’d have to talk to me. “You’ve seemed a little distant the last few days.”
He shrugged, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black jeans. “As good as I always am.”
I rotated the mug in my hand and leaned in. “Laylen, what happened in the forest. That was no one’s fault. It had to be done to save you.”#p#分页标题#e#
He stared at me for a moment and, at first, his expression was unreadable, but then he cut me with a harsh look. “What would have saved me, Gemma, is if you’d have simply let me die,” he says. “That’s how I want to be saved.” He walked around me, bumping his shoulder into mine and leaving me stunned.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. It’s been over a day and the pain in his eyes when he said those God-awful words remains imprinted into my mind. Not want to be saved? Did he want to die? Does he hate himself that much? The thought hurts at my heart. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I told him what I’d overheard Nicholas saying about Stephan creating him. It would break him and luckily Alex seems to agree with me because he’s kept his mouth shut. The biggest question I have is why, though? Why would he create a Vampire when there are ton of them wandering around?
It’s late, the full moon an orb against the charcoaled sky and the darkened ocean water. I’m sitting out on the deck that extends out from my bedroom, the French doors swinging in the light breeze while Alex sleeps soundly in the bed just inside the room. The stars are glimmering with it and I can’t help thinking that this is where it all started. This entire mess. One single star fell from the sky, or a piece of it anyway, and all hell has broken loose. Lives were shattered. Souls detached.
I have a hoodie and boxer shorts on as I sit in one of the chairs, sipping a soda. I’m lost in my thoughts when a tall figure emerges on the beach. It’s strange because the beach becomes vacant usually after sunset and I wonder if maybe it’s a homeless person looking for a place to stay. Then the light of the moon hits the person’s blond hair and highlights his figure even more.
I feel a slight pull toward him and I set my soda down, jumping to my feet. “Laylen!”
He stops, turns to look at me, and then he takes off running down the beach. When he reaches a cluster of cliffy rocks, he makes a sharp veer to the left and heads toward the street that curves beside the ocean and leads to the city limits.
“Shit.” I run into my room, slip on my flip-flops, and hurry over to the bed where Alex is fast asleep on top of the comforter.
I give him a soft shake. “Alex, wake up. “
He jolts awake, blinking his eyes. “What’s wrong?” He sits up quickly.
“I just saw Laylen leaving,” I tell him. “Down the beach. When I called his name, he ran.”
Shaking his head, he reaches over to the nightstand and flips on the lamp. “What direction was he heading?” He blinks wearily at me with some serious bedhead going on.
I point over at the north side of the house. “That way… he’s been acting kind of weird since he…since he almost died and then drank my blood.”
He swings his bare feet to the floor as he tosses the blanket aside, stretching out his arms. “You’ve noticed that, too?”
“You’ve noticed it?” I ask, averting my gaze from his muscles because if I stare at them for too long I’ll have no self-control and get completely caught up in him to the point that I’ll forget about everything else.
He nods and then stands up from the bed and reaches for his shirt draped over the back of a chair in front of the vanity. He refastens the tie on his drawstring pajama bottoms and then scoops up the keys from the coffee table.
“Let’s go look for him,” he says and heads for the front door. “I don’t know if we really should, because I don’t really think he’s running away or anything.” He opens the door for me.
We step outside and he locks the door up. The chilly air hits my skin and I pull the hood of my hoodie over my head, jumping to the side when a stream of sparks shoots out of the bushes and threatens to land on my toes.
“Damn it, Aislin,” Alex says, pulling me onto the grass out of the way. “I get that we need to be protected, but it doesn’t do any good if we get hit by one of her charms.”
I don’t say anything as we hurry for the driveway. The house is in a fairly secluded neighborhood, where most of the houses on the block have their porch lights on.