The Fallen Star

back to the cabin so we’ll be there when everyone shows up.”

“So where are Aislin and Laylen,” I asked. “I mean, why did they never transport back?”

“Stephan said that he sent them on an errand,” he said, not really answering my question.

“What kind of an errand?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral, not wanting to let on that I was suspicious.

“I don’t know—he didn’t say.” He parked the Jeep and shut the engine off, then turned in his seat so he was facing me. “Gemma, what exactly is it your getting at here?” I shrugged. “I wasn’t getting at anything.

I was just wondering where they were. That’s all.”

He studied my face over warily. “No, that’s not all….Okay, what did Laylen tell you?”

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I unbuckled my seatbelt. “I already told you, we didn’t talking about anything really.” He kept his eyes on me. Despite my urge to hover back, I stayed where I was and kept my face expressionless. I don’t know what he was expecting—me to breakdown and pour my heart and soul out to him. But finally, he gave up on whatever it was he was trying to achieve, took the keys out of the ignition, and opened up the door. “Let’s go.” Okay, so I know this is going to sound totally weird, but I’ve never actually been inside a grocery store before. No, I’m not kidding you. All through my childhood, Sophia and Marco rarely took me anywhere and never to a grocery store. So strolling through a store full of food was a whole new experience for me.

But I wasn’t basking in the it’s-like-I’m-a-real-person experience. No. I was too distracted. The whole vision thing was really 549/695

bugging me. I wanted to piece everything together. Every ounce of my body was telling me I had to.

And fast.

And there was also something else troubling me. The whole Marco, Sophia, and Stephan are-on-their-way thing. It wasn’t just my lack of enthusiasm that was troubling me either. No. It was that there were so many holes in the story Stephan had told Alex. Like for instance, why hadn’t anyone answered their phones during the millions of times Alex had tried to call them? Another thing, why did Alex have to get out of the Jeep to talk to Stephan? I hadn’t heard anything suspicious during my eavesdropping investigation. However, I couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the phone either. The only thing I’d really heard—and it only seemed semi-important—was that Alex had a difficult time lying to me.

I know. Who’d have guessed, right?

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Maybe I could use this information to my advantage. If Alex had a hard time lying to me, then perhaps, if I asked him enough questions, he just might let something slip out that he didn’t want me to know.

As we roamed up the snack aisle, I put on my best poker face. Well, here goes nothing. “So…I have a question.” Alex stopped pushing the cart to eye over the selection of granola bars. “Okay…what’s your question?”

Okay, so another thing I might have going for me here was that he seemed distracted. “Where were Marco, Sophia, and Stephan when you couldn’t get a hold of them?”

He selected a box of granola bars and dropped it in the cart. “They were up at a lodge in Jackson. I guess their car got stuck or something and they ended up having to stay longer than they expected to.” 551/695

There was so many things wrong with his answer. “Yeah, but why didn’t they answer their phones?”

He motioned behind me where the chips were. “Grab a bag of Doritos, would you?” I snatched one up and tossed it in the cart.

“Because you know how it is up there,” he said, inching the cart forward again.

I shook my head. “No. How is it up there?”

“Well, the phone service is really crappy.

There are just too many mountains or something, and most of the time you can’t get a signal.” He arched an eyebrow at me.

“Haven’t you ever tried to call anyone up there before?”

I

gave

him

a

you-have-got-to-be-

kidding-me look. “Let me think.” I tapped my finger on my lip. “Since calling people usually requires having someone to call, I’d say no, I don’t know how it is.” 552/695

He stopped pushing the cart abruptly, looking completely taken off-guard. A little sad even. And perhaps…wait a minute…hold on…guilty.

It occurred to me that my snide remarks were probably not the best way to get him to open up and tell me the truth. “Sorry,” I apologized, starting down the aisle again.

He followed, the wheels of the cart squeaking with every turn.

“So what happened after they got back and realized what was going on?” I asked, sidestepping around a cupcake display that was smack dab in the middle of the aisle.

He paused at the soda section. “They headed straight to Vegas. And they made it there just in time to stop Laylen and Aislin from getting killed. I guess when Aislin trans—” He stopped talking as a middle-aged woman with overly-bleached hair walked by us. A Death Walker in disguise perhaps.

Yeah, I don’t think so. “After Aislin went 553/695

back to get Laylen,” he continued on after the woman had disappeared around the corner of the aisle, “more Death Walkers showed up. There was this huge mess, and I guess she ended up breaking her crystal.” He grabbed a twelve pack of Coke and set in down in the cart.

If what he’d just told me had been a story in a book, it would’ve been the part where everything seemed to play out a little too perfectly. “So Marco, Sophia, and Stephan just, what? Showed up and saved the day?”

“Yeah, basically.” He picked up a loaf of bread from off of a shelf. “Stephan’s very good at the whole rescue thing. He has a gift for it.”

I chose to ignore that comment. “So why didn’t Stephan ever call you?” He reached for a box of cereal, then pulled back, glancing over his shoulder at me. “What do you mean?”

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“When they were making the, like, eight hour drive to Vegas. Seems like plenty of time to call and give a heads up that they were on their way, if you ask me.”

“I don’t know…maybe because they were in a hurry.” He started to push the cart again, but quickly slammed on the brakes and spun around. “Gemma, what exactly is it you’re getting at?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know…I was just trying to point out the obvious, I guess. I mean, don’t you think it’s just a little bit strange that they didn’t call right when they’d figure out what was going on?”

He scowled at me. “What did Laylen tell you?”

“I already told you, nothing.”

“Then what the hell’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

My plan was going so well….Not.

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“Just so you know,” he growled, “most of Laylen’s bitterness towards my father comes from fact that he made Laylen give up his position as a Keeper after he was turned into a vampire.”

“Stephan forced him to leave?” I asked, astounded.

“Well, we really couldn’t let him stay a Keeper when Keepers are the ones who are supposed to be protecting people from vampires.” He turned around and started pushing the cart down the aisle again.

It sounded completely cruel and heart-less, if you asked me. How could they kick him out just because he was a vampire, especially when he wasn’t evil? “That sounds really harsh.”

“Yeah, it is,” he said in a flat tone. “But that’s the way things have to be in order to do what’s right.”

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“Do you really believe that?” I asked. “Or are you just repeating someone else’s words.” Like say, hmm…your fathers.

He whirled around again, his eyes burning with fury. “Isn’t that what you’re doing right now—repeating Laylen’s words.”

“Well, Laylen’s words are the only truthful ones I’ve heard in the last fourteen years,” I snapped wildly with anger. So much for keeping calm.

“And how do you know that for sure.” He glared. “You’ve only known him for, like, a day.”