But my sore bare feet and hunger pains kept me from stopping him.
So Laylen and I waited outside the gas station, which was located in a less busy, but sketchier area of Vegas, while Alex went in to work his “Alex charm” on the poor girl. And within seconds, he had the phone pressed up to his ear.
“So you’re okay, right?” Laylen asked, as we stood in front of the glass entrance doors, keeping our eyes out for any Death Walkers, vampires, man with a scar, ect.
“What, with Alex flirting with that girl,” I replied, ringing some of the left over water out of my dark brown hair. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” The expression on Laylen’s face let me know right away that that was not what he had been talking about at all, and I felt like such an idiot. “Oh, you mean with the bite,” I said, feeling stupid. “Yeah, of course I’m fine.”
“You don’t feel…” He hesitated, leaning back against the door. “Weird or anything?”
I shook my head, cupping my hand over the bite marks on my wrists. “No. No weirdness.” Actually, that was a lie. During the bite-session, there was this fleeting instant where I pictured Laylen and I kissing, which was completely weird. I knew it was only the bite that had struck up the picture in my mind, but there was still a lingering feel-good sensation that the image had brought up inside me. But I knew it would wear off soon enough.
“So no weirdness, then?” He stilled seemed disbelieving.
“Besides this conversation?” I joked.
He laughed, and it felt good that I had been the one to make him laugh. Also, maybe I could take this as a sign that my people skills were improving.
I know, who would have thought, right?
“So how are you feeling?” I asked. “No weirdness with you?”
He shook his head as he absentmindedly touched his mouth on the spot where his fangs had slipped out. “I feel okay, I guess. Except my teeth feel a little strange.”
“Strange how?” I wondered.
“I don’t know…I can feel them now, up there, and it’s…I don’t know.” He touched the tip of his finger to his tooth. “I’ve never had them out before.”
I gaped him. “What? You’ve never brought out your fangs before…ever?”
“Nope,” he said. “I told you I never brought them out.”
“Yeah, but when you said ‘never’ I thought you talking about hardly ever, like maybe once and awhile.”
“Nope. Never as in never.”
“So you’ve never bitten anyone before…Ever.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re the first.”
Wow. I stood there, taking in the heaviness of the situation. What if, because he brought them out, he changed? What if he started to become blood hungry? It would be my fault because I made him bite me. But he would’ve died if he hadn’t. Especially since Alex had been moving at the pace of a turtle, which I was hoping wasn’t done intentionally. But Alex is Alex and you can never put anything past him.
I chose to keep all of this to myself, though. There was no use letting Laylen in on my thoughts of whether or not he was going to go insane and start biting people. I was just going to have to make sure to keep an eye on him.
“Okay,” Alex announced as he stepped outside, a bell dinging as the door swung shut. “Aislin and Adessa are leaving the house now—well, Aislin is, and Adessa’s going to go stay with some friends of hers until we let her know it’s safe for her to return home.”
“And where are we going?” I asked, glancing anxiously at a large Chevy truck turning into the gas station parking lot.
“We are driving,” he answered.
“Driving?” I repeated. Driving seemed like such an amateur thing to do. “Why can’t we just have Aislin transport us? Or maybe I could get us somewhere since I can now use my Foreseer power to travel to places.”
“No.” He moved right in front of me, his bright green eyes gleaming in the neon pink glow of the flashing “Open” sign. “We’re not transporting because there’s no way we can get to Aislin or Adessa without the fear of them being followed.”
“But I could—”
“And we’re not using your Foreseer abilities anymore until we know for sure that you know how to use them.”
“I know how to use them. I got us to the Black Dungeon perfectly fine, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but you’re tired.” He gave me an intense look, before looking away at the silent street.