gave him my left one first because it looked like it’d taken the worse of it. I sat there, letting him dabbed my skin with a cotton ball soaked with peroxide, and tried hard not to wince. But then the sparks tickled at my skin, and it numbed some of the pain away.
Even dressed in his worn out clothes, Alex was still as gorgeous as ever. I thought about Stephan being his father. Maybe that had contributed to why Alex was such a jerk most of the time and why he was the way he was. I thought about the younger Alex I saw and how he was so much different—so much more caring. Could it be possible that that Alex still existed?
After Alex finished cleaning my left wrist with peroxide, he asked for my other wrist. He dotted the cotton ball on my cuts, but when he was done, he didn’t wrap my wrists with gauze like I thought he would. In fact, what he did next shocked the heck out of me. He raised my wrist to his mouth, so there was only a sliver of air between his lips and my skin. Then he blew softly on my wound, causing my heart to flutter and the electricity to shimmer. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. He switched to the other wrist, doing the same thing, and I tried not to gasp. When he released my wrist, I opened my eyes, and found him watching me with the most intense expression on his face.
There was something different that happened between us then. I don’t know how to describe it. The prickle was there, on the back of my neck, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on what feeling was trying to emerge. I didn’t move away when he leaned toward me, even though I knew he was going to kiss me. In fact, I was more than willing to let him kiss me. I wanted him to. But then the car came to a brake-slamming stop that sent me flying forward, but Alex caught hold of me before I made it too far.
“Sorry,” Laylen apologized. “I thought I saw a deer in the road.”
I glanced around outside, but all I could see was the sage brush covering the flat land. There was nowhere for a deer to hide.
“Do you need me to drive so you can get some rest?” Alex asked.
Laylen shook his head. “No, I’m good.”
He sped up the car again, and Alex bandaged each of my wrists with gauze. I didn’t pay attention to him much, though. I was too distracted by Laylen and how strange he has been acting. Ever since he bit me, he has been acting a little off. He hadn’t done anything major, like run the streets biting people, but I was still worried that something was wrong. But I didn’t want to bring it up to Alex because I figured he would be unsympathetic. But I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him.
Just in case.
Chapter 30
We drove for days. Yes, days. We drove all the way to the other side of the country, to the beautiful, but very humid, state of Maryland. The air was so heavy and moisturized there, it was like being in a sauna.
Not too far off from the little beach house we were hiding out in was the ocean. From the room I was staying in, I could sit out on the deck and watch the ocean’s waves crash against the sandy shore. It was a fascinating thing to watch for someone who had never seen the ocean.
The house belonged to a friend of Adessa’s, which was a good thing because that meant Stephan didn’t know where it was, nor Nicholas. When we arrived, we informed Aislin and she transported here. She had also put up some location charms, which were supposed to help make tracking us down more difficult. But at this point, I was prepared for the fact that at any given moment someone could turn up. It was only a waiting game. The question wasn’t if someone was going to show up, but when someone would. And who? The list was long.
It was our second night here. We had all been resting from the insanity of the last few days we had. Alex was still recovering from being in the City of Crystal, and I was drained dry from all the bouncing in and out of visions. Everyone, including