The Vision (10 page)

I try to find you myself, but I never can seem to find you. So, finally, I thought to myself, what can I do? How can I get a hold of my star?” He traced the scar grazing his left cheek, where his Mark of Malefiscus once existed, until his parents cut it off. “Then, an idea hit me. If I can’t find you, why don’t I have you find me?” He walked in a circle around me with his hands behind his back. “See the thing is Gemma, there’s something you don’t understand.” He gave a dramatic pause. “I always win.”

I dared a quick glance over my shoulder, relieved to find that Laylen had gotten the chains freed from around my mother’s wrists. Now, if I could just get all three of us out…I glanced over at Aleesa, curled in the corner…all four of us.

“I wouldn’t put so much trust in people, Gemma,” Stephan’s voice ripped me back to him. “You never know what secrets they could be hiding.”

“And you would be the expert on that, wouldn’t you?” I asked, looking him straight in the eye.

He smiled, but my confidence seemed to take him back a little. “I’m not the only one in this room who is an expert at lying.” His gaze flickered behind me and I turned to find he was looking at my mother, sitting on the floor, her blue eyes saddened. “Should I tell her? Or would you like to Jocelyn?” I stared at my mom, waiting for her to explain what was going on. But she hung her head, refusing to look at me.

Laylen gave me an uneasy glance and I nodded my head Aleesa, signaling for him to get her and bring her closer.

“Ask her what’s on her wrist,” Stephan said. “Go ahead.” I think I already knew. “No…I—”

Laylen rolled up the sleeve of my mother’s faded grey shirt and there it was. A triangle outlining a red symbol.

“No,” I whispered, horrified. “How…”

“She’s had it forever, you know. Sophia, Marco…Didn’t you ever wonder how I got everyone to do what I asked. The only ones I didn’t mark were the ones who couldn’t be marked.” He frowned disappointedly.

Was he referring to Laylen, Aislin, Alex, and me…and also Aleesa?

“You mother’s a fighter,” Stephan continued. “She was always a fighter…it’s her gift, you know—her Keeper’s gift.

She always made things difficult for me, which is part of the reason why I sent her to The Underworld. In fact, I couldn’t even summon her to go—I had to threaten her with you.” He let out a breath of frustration. “The Underworld has weakened her, though.” An evil smile crept across his face.

“It has tainted her, which makes things easier for me.

Getting her to come here was as easy as a master whistling to call his dog.” His dark-eyed gaze landed on my mother. “Makes her easier to control…All I had to do was tug at the leash a little.”

Okay, this conversation was getting a little too metaphorical for me.

He turned his back to me and began rolling up the sleeves of his black button down shirt as if he was getting ready to fight me. A small part of me wanted to see how that fight would turn out, especially with my newfound badass fighting skills. But the other part of me knew what needed to be done.

With one swift dive, I slid across the icy floor, slipping between the two Death Walker’s legs and into my mom like a baseball player slides into home plate. I grabbed hold of Laylen’s arm, and extended a hand out to Aleesa. She looked horrified but, thankfully, she took hold of it.

Stephan turned around and his face dropped.

“Get her!” he screamed at the Death Walkers, but it was too late.

We were already gone.

I knew as soon as we landed in the living room that we need to get the heck out of the beach house. It was as if I had gained these awesome leadership skills.

“We have to go,” I ordered, already on my feet, because that’s how I landed (go figure).

Alex and Aislin were stunned into a silent state of shock at the sight of the extra passenger with us. But I didn’t have time to explain to them who Aleesa was—that conversation was going to take some time.

I squatted down to eye level with my mom. “Mom, did you tell him where we were hiding?”

She was trembling. “I’m so sorry Gemma. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.”

“Okay, but I need to know if you told Stephan where we were hiding.”

She didn’t answer and, I think, it was because she couldn’t.

So I made the call. “We need to leave now.” Alex was right in front of me when I stood up.

“Why do we need to leave?” He pointed at Aleesa, freaking out in the corner. “And who the hell is she?”

“She’s just someone we found in the basement,” I told him.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “So, then, why do we need to leave?”

I raised my mom’s arm, rolled back her sleeve, and gave an exaggerated gesture towards her marked wrist.

“Because of that.”

His jaw nearly hit the floor. “What the…did he just do that to her?”

I shook my head. “But I’ll explain everything later, okay? I think she told him where we were hiding.” His eyes widened and he called out, “Alright everyone, we’re leaving.”

“Why?” Aislin looked so confused.

“Because we have to,” was the only reason Alex gave her.

“Any suggestions on where we should go?” I asked, grabbing the glittering purple mapping ball off the coffee table.

“I’m running out of ideas,” Alex said, dragging his fingers through his hair. “With all the moving around we’ve been doing.”

Silence. Well, except for Aleesa’s whines and my mother’s sobbing.

“What if we went back to Afton?” I asked, practically choking on my own words.

“Gemma, Stephan knows where that is,” Aislin said, like I was an idiot.

“Yeah, which means he’s less likely to look for us there,” I explained. “He would never think we would go to a place he knew about.”

Alex mulled this over. “You know, that actually makes a lot of sense. I mean, Marco and Sophia abandoned it…and there was something about Afton that was supposed to preserve the energy of the star…so maybe going there will help,” he gestured between himself and me, “our little fading problem.”

I nodded. “So, to Afton it is.”

“Look at you,” Laylen joked with a smile. “First the badass ninja moves and now the awesome leadership skills.”

Alex gave me a weird look. “Ninja moves?” I waved him off. “I’ll explain later…now what’s the best way to get there?” I paused. “Aislin, how fast can you do a Tracker Spell?”

She tapped her finger on her lips. “Pretty quick if you need me to.”

“Can you do it before we go and make sure Marco and Sophia aren’t there?”

She nodded, already heading out of the room.

“How should we go there?” I asked Alex. “To Afton?”

“Either by transporting,” Alex said, peering out the blinds.

“Or with your power, seeing how we don’t have a car anymore.”

I glanced around at the five of us—plus Aislin in the bedroom—realizing how many people I was going to have to move if I opted for using my Foreseer power.

Alex continued to watch out the blinds until Aislin returned, while Laylen tried to calm Aleesa down. I think Alex was watching to make sure his father didn’t show up, but really, I figured it would take him a while since Stephan didn’t seem to have a quick way of traveling.

“They’re not there, at the house,” Aislin informed us when she entered the room. Something about her expression made me wondered where Marco and Sophia were—that maybe something bad happened to them.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“How do you think we should get to Afton?” I asked Aislin.

“There’s too many for me to transport at once,” Aislin said, gathering her bag of herbs into the box. “But I could make two trips.”

“No!” Alex and I yelled at the same time and she flinched.

“Sorry,” Alex said. “But remember what happened the last time we did that.”

Aislin nodded, putting the lid on the box. “Yeah, I remember.” She shuddered.

“It’s okay…I can do it,” I told him, hoping the extra adrenaline pumping through me at the moment would give me the extra boost I needed.

“Are you sure?” Alex asked, locking eyes with me.

I knew what he was doing. He was letting me make my own decisions, even though he might not like what I chose.

“I’m sure,” I said with confidence.

I gathered everyone in a group as tightly as I could, and then I shut my eyes, picturing the high mountains, the red brick house I grew up in, centered in the middle of them. I tried not to cringe at the picture. But when I opened my eyes, I did cringe.

All six of us were huddled together, in the center of my old living room. I slowly stood up, a mixture of feelings pouring through me a hundred miles a minute.

Everything...It was too much.

My eyes rolled into the back of my head and my body collapsed to the floor.

The icy lake glistened before me, Alex stood beside
me. My hand was in his, and I could feel his racing pulse.

He was scared. I was scared.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, and Alex brushed
them away with his finger.

“Don’t cry.” He leaned in, his lips a sliver of air away. “It
will be alright.”

“Will it?” I asked.

He kissed me like I was everything. “It will.”
Tears dripped down my frostbitten cheeks. “How do you
know?”

“Because I’ll save you,” he whispered. “I’ll always save
you, Gemma.”

When I woke up, I was lying in my old bed. It freaked me out for a split second, like maybe I had dreamt the last few weeks and had finally woken up back in my lonely old Gemma life, friendless and with nothing.

But it couldn’t have been a dream. It just couldn’t.

I pinched myself just to make sure, and, yep, I was awake Everything looked exactly the same. The walls were still a boring tan and a single shelf sat in the corner that held my books and CD’s. The only thing that was different was the six foot four vampire snoring away in my computer chair, his feet kicked up on the computer desk, his head tipped back in the most awkward position.

I found myself smiling at the picture. I crept out of bed and padded softly over to him. I didn’t try to wake him right away. I just stood in front of him, taking in his pale skin, the silver lip ring looping his bottom lip, and the mark of immortality on his arm. God, he was beautiful. Although, he could snore like no other.

I lightly tapped him on the shoulder, figuring I would wake him up and see what was going on…and why he was snoring in my room?

He jumped, startled, and let out a loud snort.

“Sorry.” I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

His bright blue eyes were huge and he pressed his hand to his heart. “You scared that crap out of me.”

“Sorry,” I apologized again. “But why are you sleeping at my computer desk?”

“I was on Gemma duty.” He sat up and dropped his feet to the floor, his black boots hitting the carpet with a thud.

I raised my eyebrows questioningly. “Gemma duty?”

“Yeah, Gemma duty.” Laylen fiddled with his lip ring.

“You’ve been out for almost three days and we were getting a little worried about you…that maybe the
rush
was too much for you.”

“What
rush
?” I asked, picking up a CD case from off the computer desk. I turned it over in my hands. Alkaline Trio—

hadn’t listened to them in a while.

“Yeah, the
rush
,” Laylen said, swiveling in the chair. “It’s what we call the rush of adrenaline you get when your Keeper’s mark first appears.

My arms went limp, and the CD case fell from hands. “My Keeper’s mark? I don’t have a Keeper’s mark.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a happy kind of smile. “Yeah you do…on your shoulder blade.”

I shook my head as I rushed over to the mirror and yanked down the upper part of my black t-shirt. “Holy…” Circling the center of my shoulder blade was a ring of fiery-gold flames. “Wait?” I gave him a suspicious glance. “How did you guys find the mark on me?”

He gave me a sneaky smile. “How do you think?” I picked up a pillow from off my bed and threw it at him.

He caught the pillow effortlessly. “I’m joking. We just checked the obvious places—the arms, the ankles, the shoulders. If we wouldn’t have been able to find it, we would have waited for you to wake up.”

I wondered who he meant when he said “we,” but didn’t ask. I touched the mark on my shoulder. “God, I can’t believe I’m a Keeper.”

“You didn’t think those awesome fighting moves came from nowhere, did you?” Laylen joked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

“So, you knew what was going on back at the castle?”

“I assumed as much.”

I picked up the CD case and set it back on the desk. “So what’s been going on for the last few days while I was out?”

“Not much,” he said. “In fact, it’s been pretty quiet.” I glanced over at the window, at the green grass lining the yard, kissed with the early morning’s dew. That was one thing about the summers in Afton, they were very green.

“What about my mom.” My voice was barely there. “How’s she doing?”

He hesitated, fiddling with a loose string on the pillow he was still holding. “Everyone thought it would be best, including herself, to lock her up until we can figure out what to do with her. I mean, we don’t want her sneaking off and doing something like what she just did.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” I said quietly. “It’s the mark’s fault—

she can’t help it.”

“I know it is.” Laylen tossed the pillow aside. “But we have to be careful.”

“Well, can’t we try and figure out a way to remove the mark?” I asked “Maybe with magic, like what we were going to do with…Nicholas.”

“Aislin’s already on that,” he explained. “She’s been searching the internet like crazy for the last few days, but no luck yet. The problem is we don’t know who to trust. After everything, she can’t just go walking into a witch store and ask how to remove the Mark of Malefiscus.” He stood up, went over to my shelf, and examined the row of CD’s.

“Aislin also went pretty spell crazy—she put like a ton of spells all over the house, trying to keep us protected.” I sat down on my bed as he skimmed my CD titles. “That was smart of her.”

He nodded, sliding out a CD.

I sat in silence, feeling uncomfortable. Being in here, it was weird and it felt…Well, it felt wrong.

“What’s up?”

I blinked up and found Laylen staring down at me, with a puzzled look on his face.

“You look like something’s bothering you,” he said, concerned.

“No…” I paused. “It’s just that it’s so weird to be in here again.”

His eyebrows dipped down. “In your room?” I nodded, eyeballing my old stuff. “It doesn’t feel that way, though. Nothing about this room feels like me.” He gazed around my room, taking in the bareness. “Well, maybe that’s because this room isn’t you. I mean, all those years you spent here—were you ever really you?” I shrugged. “I don’t think I really know who I am yet.”

“And that’s okay.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in for a hug. “You’ll figure out. Just give it time.” I sure hoped he was right.

He pulled me up from the bed and we headed out of the room to announce that I was indeed alright and hadn’t died from an adrenaline overdose, which Laylen told me was actually a rare occurrence in the Keeper’s world.

“So have you already explained to Aislin and Alex who Aleesa is?” I asked once we were out in the hall.

“I kind of had to,” Laylen said, as we trotted down the stairs.

“And how did they take it?”

“Pretty bad at first, but I think she’s growing on them.”

“And how’s she doing?” I asked, thinking of her life stuck in the basement. I didn’t know what was worse; being emotionally hollow for most of your life, or being locked away in a torture room, strapped to a rack.

“She’s…okay.” Laylen pointed back over his shoulder.

“She’s sleeping in the guest room right now….she sleeps a lot. And eats a lot. I don’t think Stephan was feeding her that well.”

I paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Why would he do that? Why would he lock her away and starve her…and torture her.”

“For a few reasons, probably.” Laylen said. “One, being that he didn’t want anyone to know about her, considering what she is. And I’m also guessing it probably has something to do with the fact that he purposely secluded me from the living, drained you of your emotions, and taught his son to emotionally shut off.”

“What about Aislin?” I asked in a low voice, leaning in. “It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything to her.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Hasn’t he? I mean, she’ll practically do whatever he says.”

“Not anymore, though.”

“No one does what he tries to get them to do anymore,” Laylen pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said as we entered the living room.

Aislin was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a laptop resting on her lap, and Alex sat on the sofa, watching TV.

Hmmm….what was wrong with this picture? Oh, yeah, it looked normal.

Upon closer look, I noticed Aislin was searching the web for mark removal spells, and Alex was sharpening a sword as he stared blankly at the TV. Yeah, that seemed more fitting.

“Oh, thank God.” Aislin pressed her hand to her heart and let out a relieved sigh when she saw me. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.”

“You guys always think that,” I joked. “Yet, I always do.” Aislin clicked the computer mouse. “Wow, you seem in a good mood.”

I gave her a funny look. “Do I?”

“It’s because of the lingering adrenaline from the
rush
.” Alex turned around and gave me a lingering look that made my skin hum. “So you’re a Keeper after all.”

“I guess so,” I said, trying not to squirm under his intense gaze. But, God, it was so intense, and suddenly I wanted to lean down, run my hands through his messily-in-an-intentional-kind-of-way hair, and press my lips to his.

Whoa
.

“So,” Laylen said, changing the subject. “What’s our next move?”

He sat down on the floor beside Aislin and I took a seat in the chair behind them. Across from me Alex sat, still looking at me with way too much heat glowing in his bright green eyes. Was he trying to kill me or something?

“Has anyone talked to my mother?” I asked. “I mean what happened? Or could she even tell you?”

“After we made the same Blood Promise with her as we did with Nicholas, then yeah, we got some information out of her.” Alex raised his hand showing me a fresh cut on the palm of his hand.

“You didn’t tie her to the garage ceiling and beat her up first, did you?” I asked, half joking, but half serious.

Alex let out an amused laugh and shook his head. “No, Gemma, I didn’t beat your mom up.”

“So what did she tell you?” I brushed my hair out of my face. “Did she say how she ended up at the Keeper’s Castle?”

Alex’s face grew grave. “
He
called her.”

“But my mom doesn’t have a phone?” I pointed out. At least I think she didn’t, since she just got out The Underworld a few days ago, and I’m pretty sure reception down there is nonexistent.

“No, he
called
her,” Alex said, setting his sword on the table “As in he
summoned
her.”

I leaned back and folded my arms. “Summoned?”

“Apparently, Stephan can summon people with the Mark of Malefiscus,” Laylen said, looking over Aislin’s shoulder as she typed something on the computer.

“How exactly does that work?” I asked.

Laylen glanced at Alex. “We have no idea, and neither does Jocelyn. All she said was that she suddenly felt compelled to go to the castle, so she did.” I tapped my foot anxiously. “How do we know he’s not going to summon her right now?”

“We don’t know,” Alex said straightforwardly. “But we’ve got her locked up and we took away her Key of Malefiscus.” I frowned. “Key of Malefiscus
.
He has his own key now.”

“He’s had one all along,” Alex said with this bitter/sarcastic tone. “Apparently, as Stephan marked each one of the Keepers’ with the Mark of Malefiscus, he also gave them a key, so when he touches his scar, they can take the key, trace a door, and
Walla
—they’re at the castle.”

“What the…” I shook my head in astonishment. “So Nicholas had one of these too. And Marco and Sophia.” Aislin gasped when I mentioned Marco and Sophia’s names. I gave her a funny look, but she avoided eye-contact with me.

“Nicholas didn’t have one, I don’t think,” Alex said.

“Jocelyn said that Stephan gave them to the Keeper’s he marked.”

“I still can’t believe it…all this time…my mom….” I shook my head, thinking about before, when I knew nothing about her—when I thought she was dead—and I use to wonder what kind of a person she had been. And now I had her back, but it turns out she was marked with evil.

“Gemma.” Alex voice was cautious. “I think you should go talk to your mom about this…there are some other things you need to know and I think you should hear them from her.”

“Bad things?” I asked, even though I was sure they were.

He wavered momentarily. “Not necessary bad things, but things you need to know.”

I nodded and got to my feet. “Where is she?” He pointed over his shoulder at the stairs. “Up in Marco and Sophia’s old room.”

He gave me one more look that made me feel like I was some sort of Greek Goddess shimmering in the sunlight, and then I headed off up the stairs to go chat about the dark side with my mom.

She looked miserable, lying on the floor, bound to the wall by chains. What I was wondering, though, was where all the stuff came from? The hooks in the wall that held the chains—the chains themselves. Had Marco and Sophia owned this stuff or had someone went out and bought them?

Her head was resting on a pillow, her brown hair a tangled mess. Her eyes were shut and she was breathing softly.

I shut the door behind me and her eyes shot open.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” I said apologetically.

She sat up and I went over and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. We both stared at one another, not knowing where to start.

“I’m sorry, Gemma,” she finally said with a guilty look on her face.

I traced a star pattern in the carpet with my finger. “It’s okay. I understand you couldn’t say anything about the mark to me.” I paused. “But there’s one thing I don’t understand.

How is it you’re marked, yet you went to The Underworld to protect me? And how was it you could tell us all those things that day—about the ending of the world? Shouldn’t the mark have stopped you?”

She shook her head. “There are always loopholes, Gemma.”

“You keep saying that, but it doesn’t make sense to me at all.”

“I know. Some things are hard to understand and even harder to explain.” She rested her head back against the wall. “Sometimes my mind gets all cloudy as if it doesn’t belong to me, and I say words that aren’t my own.” She traced the cut of the Blood Promise on the palm of her hand. “It’s not cloudy right now, but it won’t last forever.”