Chapter 1
I’d always thought life was complicated, back when I didn’t know there was something other than the human world. But it was a piece of cake compared to the mayhem I live in now. Vampires. Demons. Evil. Possession. I’ve experienced it all. I barely remember my possession, honestly. Bits and pieces, Alex desperate to save me, me a total bitch, wanting nothing more than to kill him. Which I did. I killed him…
It happens so quickly that I don’t have time to process it. One minute my brain is full of haziness where I can only see one single thought—kill Alex—and then suddenly I’m free, my heart flooding with emotions.
Pain. Longing. Need. Sadness. I see so many things. Alex and I. Our hide out. Violet flowers. Dancing in a field. Blood Promise. Forever. Everything I’ve ever felt in my past, before my emotions were erased, surges through to me and jumpstarts my emotions.
I scream at the top of my lungs. “Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop. It’s me. It’s me. Alex, stop!”
But it’s too late. He gags as he pulls the needle out of his heart. Gasping for air, his skin pallid, eyes wide. Seconds later, he crumples to the floor.
A blood-curdling scream rips from my lips. “Aislin! Untie me! Please. He can’t die now!” I did this. This is all my fault. No! Help! Stop. Please. God, it hurts so much.
Aislin buckles over Alex’s body with her head tucked down as she utters a chant under her breath, over and over again. Her hand glows red as she presses it to his heart. I realize she’s doing a spell, hopefully one that will bring him back. However, the longer it goes on, the more my hope crumbles. After a while, Aislin gets quiet, tears still falling from her eyes as she looks up at me.
“He’s dead, Gemma. He’s dead,” she whispers softly as the glow from her hand fizzles away.
“No, he’s not!” I cry as I tug on the ties around my arms and legs. “Aislin, please untie me. I need to be with him.”
She’s finally able to get up, then she moves over to me, her eyes swollen; tears streaming down her cheeks. She unfastens the ties around my wrists, her fingers shaking. As soon as she gets the last one undone, I spring upright and scramble over to where Alex is lying on the floor. His eyes are open, though distant and vacant; his arms and legs are sprawled across the floor. He’s not breathing. I check his pulse with my fingertips. Nothing. I try to feel the sparks. Nothing. I feel nothing.
I vaguely hear Aislin say something to me, but I can’t make out her words. There’s so much pain. Hollowness and it’s growing larger every second his heart isn’t beating. I feel like I’m being pushed down from it. Sinking. Falling. Dying.
***
There’s a frozen lake before me and icicles dangle from the leafless tree branches enclosing the water. The dark sky casts a shadow over the icy land and the air is as chilly as death. Alex’s arms are wrapped tightly around me as we stand near the edge of the frozen water, holding onto one another as if our lives depend on it.
“We’ll be all right, won’t we?” I ask him. A breeze gusts through my hair and the silence around us makes the world feel desolate. Yet somehow at the moment, I feel whole; at peace, calm.
I tip my head back and look up at him to tell him my how I feel, but he shushes me as he brushes my hair away from my face. “It will be all right,” he whispers, but his voice is unsteady.
My lips part to disagree, because I can feel the omen in my bones, but a crackle rips through the air and steals the words from my lips. Moments later, several tall, cloaked figures with skin of the dead and soulless glowing eyes emerge from the trees and surround us.
“Death Walkers.” I look at Alex in terror. “What do we do?”
He pulls me closer to him. “It will be all right,” he whispers again, his body heat the only drop of warmth we have left. “Just trust me.”
I feel warmth and pain. Heat and agony. Then suddenly I’m suffocated by light. Yet for some reason, it feels like everything will be okay. Gripping onto him, I take a deep breath and let the warming light engulf me and take me away from the world. Then there’s a rough tug and I can feel Alex slipping away. I let out a scream, but we lose each other in the light.
***
“Gemma,” a voice calls out to me. “Can you hear me?”
My body tenses as light encircles me. “Who’s there?”
“Come toward me,” the voice echoes.
I lift my hand to my forehead and try to shield my eyes from the blinding light, but I still can’t see a thing. “Whoever you are, I can’t see you… The light’s too bright.”
“Yes, you can,” the voice assures me. I’m certain that it doesn’t belong to Nicholas, even though it seems like something he would say to f**k with my head. The voice is much deeper, and sounds older and wiser. “You just have to look harder.”
I blink a few times and the light begins to dim. Slowly at first, and then more quickly, until there’s nothing left other than a soft glow orbing around me. I can see my hands and arms… my feet… I start to get my bearings when, suddenly, my legs are ripped out from under me.
I tumble down a rabbit hole for what seems like forever until, finally, I land on a hard surface on my back. My vision comes into focus and I’m shocked to my very core at what I see. A midnight-blue marble floor, a cathedral ceiling painted with intricate art, and tile walls of sapphire blue and shimmering silver. It’s beautiful—too beautiful.
“I have to be dead,” I mutter, getting to my feet. I examine myself. My skin is pale, but that’s normal, and I can feel the air coming in and out of my lungs, my heart still beating in my chest. I have to be alive, but where the hell am I?
“Hello!” I call out, turning in a circle between rows of columns that lead to a colossal statue.
I head for the statue, taking each step carefully, afraid that any second someone—or something—will jump out from behind one of the columns. Quite honestly, I think I’m hoping Alex will appear from somewhere. Surprise me. Tell me he’s okay… that he didn’t… die.
I start crying again as I reach the end, thinking about where Alex could be and if he’s alive. My heart feels shattered. Broken. I’m broken. Just like the statue with a crack down the center, although it’s still intact. Made of flawless, white marble and perfect edges, it forms a figure that looks like a tall man. Looking closer, there is something about the angles of the face that look familiar, and there’s a crystal ball chiseled in his hand.