The Fallen Star

But the deep red color of the ceiling reminded me a lot of blood, and I was very 265/695

aware of the tug as Alex removed the glass. I threw my arm over my face and shut my eyes, taking slow breaths.

“You doing alright?” he asked.

I nodded, but my ribs were on fire.

“This little thing right here is what was in you,” he said

I opened my eyes. In the palm of his hand was a piece of blood stained glass about the size of a quarter.

“That’s it.” Sticking out of my skin, it had looked so much bigger.

“Yep, that’s it.” He dropped the glass in-to the first aid kit, and it plinked as it hit the plastic. He took out a cotton ball and poured rubbing alcohol on it. “Gemma, I’m really sorry.”

His “sorry” momentarily perplexed me.

Before I could figure out what he meant by it, he’d already pressed the cotton ball onto my cut. It felt like someone had dumped gasol-ine on my skin and lit a match. I squeezed 266/695

my eyes shut and bit down on my lip, trying not to scream bloody murder.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he moved it away. “Sorry about that. I just thought it would be better if I caught you off-guard. That way you wouldn’t anticipate it and try to move away.”

I was in too much pain to respond.

“Now I just have to stitch it up.” He tossed the now blood soaked cotton ball into the first aid kit. “The cuts not very big, so it shouldn’t take me that long.”

“’Kay,” I said through my shallow breathing.

He began winding a spool of clear string around his hand.

“So, are you going to explain to me why you think I’m so important?” I asked, watching him unwind the string like a cat.

“Give me a second.” He snipped the end of the string off with a pair of scissors.

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“Before I do, though, you have to promise me two things.”

“Depends on what those two things are.” He gave me a look as he withdrew a shiny needle from the kit.

“Sorry.” I tried again. “So what are the two things I need to promise?”

“First, you have to promise that you’ll try to keep an open mind.”

“Okay.” Keeping an open mind seemed easy enough. “And the second promise?”

“That you’ll let me finish talking before you start freaking out.”

That one wasn’t as easy. My gut churned. “How do you know I’ll freak out?” He looped the piece of clear string through the needle. “Because you will.” Jeez. Just how bad was it going to be? I guess, considering everything that had happened, it had to be bad, right? How could it not.

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I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Alright, I’ll try not to freak out until you’re done talking.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’ll try?” I suddenly felt very aware that I was about to hear something bad. Very, very bad.

‘Fine. I won’t freak out until you’re finished.” But after that, all bets were off.

He held the needle just above my rib-cage. I flinched—I absolutely, one-hundred percent, hate needles. With all their sharpness and being pointy—their sole purpose was to stab you.

“I’m not even sure where to begin with all of this,” he muttered and let a hiccup of silence go by. “Do you remember that story I told you about. The one about the fallen star.”

“Yeah…I remember.”

“Hold still,” he said as he tipped the needle down and vigilantly guided it through my skin.

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It stung. Bad. My eyes snapped shut, and I clutched on to the edge of the couch.

“Breathe,” Alex reminded me.

My eyes flew open, and I sucked in a breath of air.

“You good?” he asked after a second or two had ticked by.

“Yeah, I think so.” But my voice trembled.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah…but can you get this over with quickly. Please.” He nodded, and then weaved the needle into my skin again. “So where was I?”

“You were talking about the fallen sta—"

I gasped as he pressed the needle into my skin for the third time.

“Oh yeah, the fallen star—all of what has happened has to do with that.”

“How?”

“You remember the story, right? Twenty years ago a star fell from the sky.” 270/695

I nodded. “But that doesn’t mean I believe it.”

He paused, the needle a mere sliver of air away from piercing into my skin. “You promised me you’d keep an open mind, remember. And you need to believe in the fallen star story otherwise the rest of this is going to sound like a lie.”

“But you are a liar, right?” I asked, knowing I was treading on thin water here.

He was the one holding the needle, after all.

But still, it needed to be said.

“Liar’s such a strong word. I prefer to think of it as me omitting some of the details.”

I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

This time when he snaked the needle through my skin, he placed his free hand on my stomach. My bare stomach. All of my focus centered on how his fingers were touching my bare skin. The warmth. The buzzing.

It even numbed out the pain a little.

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“Gemma?” His voice pulled me back to him.

I blinked dazedly. “Huh?” He stared down at me, his forehead creased. “Did you hear what I said?” As much as I hated to do it, I shook my head because I hadn’t heard a single word he’d said. “Umm…No.”

“I asked if you remembered when I mentioned the secret group that hid the star.” I nodded, still somewhat distracted by his warm hand touching my stomach. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, the secret group is called Custodis of Vita.”

There was so much electricity. “The awhata?”

“The Custodis of Vita,” he repeated, sounding irritated.

That’s it. It was too hard to focus with his hand touching me like that. I reached down and lifted it off of me.

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He gave me a strange look, glanced at his hand, then back at me.

“What is that like Latin or something?” I asked, hoping to distract him away from what I’d just done.

“Yeah…it means Keepers of Life. But for short we call ourselves The Keepers.”

“Keepers of life.” I raised my eyebrows.

“It sounds like a cult.”

A soft laugh escaped his lips. “It’s not, though. We actually protect the world from dangerous things”

“We?” I studied his expression; so serious and, at least as much as I could tell, so not the expression belonging to someone who was lying. However, Alex was an excellent liar. “So you’re saying that you belong to this Keepersgroup?” He nodded. “And Aislin. And…” His voice got quieter. “Marco and Sophia.” I lay there, motionless, letting his words sink in. “So what you’re trying to tell me is 273/695

that Marco and Sophia, the people who’ve raised me since I was one, belong to some secret group who protect the world from evil?” It sounded way too fictiony. All saving the world from evil and demons and vampires. Yeah, I know, he hadn’t actually mentioned vampires but…God, what if there were actual vampires? “No. There’s no way.

You’re lying. You have to be lying.” He had to be.

“That’s the second time you’ve said that in the last five minutes, which is really frustrating since this is one of the few times I’ve ever told the truth.” He seemed so angry it was hard not to believe him. Besides, something else had just occurred to me. Something that might backup part of what he was saying. That time I’d caught Sophia and Alex having that strange conversation in the foyer. If what he was saying was true, it would explain how they knew each other. My stomach felt all twisty. What if what he was 274/695

saying wastrue? “Is that why you and Sophia were talking the other day? Did it have something to do with all of this?” He gave a slow nod. “That night we were discussing….something.”

I felt a sharp tug as the needle snagged my skin. I let out a whimper and my hand instinctively flew down toward the pain. Luckily, Alex caught my fingers before they touched the stitches.