Free The Underworld by Jessica Sorensen

to ask. Laylen insisted that we should just
    blame the bite on him, since Alex was probably going
    to accuse him of it anyway. I thought this was a
    ridiculous idea, and told him we didn’t need to tel
    Alex anything, and that I would just wear a turtle neck
    or something. But then I realized that wearing a turtle
    neck in the scorching hot desert would look a little bit
    suspicious
    So that problem just hung in the air.
    It was when we reached Adessa’s that we both
    realized we had another problem. One that needed to
    be dealt with real y fast.
    During our little jumping-out-of-the-building thing, it
    never had occurred to either one of us that getting
    back up might be a little tricky. So we just stood there,
    staring up at the window we’d jumped out of, trying to
    come up with some kind of solution.
    “Maybe there’s a fire escape somewhere?” I
    suggested.
    He shook his head. “I don’t think there is.”
    In the distances, dogs were howling like crazy, and I
    saw Laylen tense up as he glanced around
    apprehensively. When the dogs stopped howling, he
    shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. Then he
    kicked a plastic bottle that was on the ground and it
    whipped up in the air and thumped against the side of
    the brick building.
    “Dammit,” he cursed noisily, and now I was the one
    glancing around apprehensively.
    “Laylen,” I whispered. “You need to be a little
    quieter or someone’s going to hear us.”
    He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and I was
    sensing that a meltdown was about to take place.
    “Who cares. I’m already screwed anyway.”
    “Why are you screwed? Because you staked
    Vladislav? I thought you said you just had to lay low for
    awhile and it would pass over,” I said.
    He looked at me gravely. “Gemma, I didn’t just
    stake Vladislav. I staked Vladislav, one of the oldest
    vampires.”
    “So is that worse than staking a young vampire?” I
    asked.
    He stared at me, not answering, and I suddenly
    grasped that he was in more trouble than he first let
    on.
    “Laylen, you shouldn’t have let me go with you.” I
    told him, guilt choking up inside me.
    “It was your choice, Gemma,” he said. “You should
    be able to choose what you want to do.”
    “Wel , I think I picked the wrong one.” I swal owed
    hard. “I’m real y sor…” I stopped as a spark of
    electricity coiled up my spine. “Ah crap.”
    “What’s the matter?” Laylen asked, his eyebrows
    dipping down.
    Before I could tel him what was up, or try to find a
    place for us to hide, Laylen’s gaze darted over my
    shoulder, and I knew without even looking that we
    were so busted.
    “So funny thing,” Alex’s voice came up from right
    behind me. “I was up in my room, and I just happened
    to look out the window. And boy was I surprised to
    find you two standing down here, in the middle of the
    night, for God knows what reason.”
    I caught Laylen’s eye, and I tried to communicate to
    him telepathical y what we should do. Of course, I
    didn’t have telepathic abilities and neither did Laylen
    so guess how wel that went.
    I shook my head, and decided to face the
    inevitable. I took a deep breath, and covering the bite
    on my neck with my hand, I turned to face Alex. I
    wasn’t too worried about what he was going to say to
    me. He could chew me out al he wanted—I was used
    to it. I just felt guilty because I knew Alex was going to
    put most of it on Laylen.
    Alex’s eyes were al over me as if he could sense
    something was wrong. “What’s the matter with your
    neck?”
    The lighting was scarce, so I was hoping that it was
    dark enough that he couldn’t see the blood dried up
    on my skin. “I have a kink in it.”
    He gave me a yeah-right look. “You have a kink in
    it?”
    I shrugged. “It happens.”
    He shook his head, irritated. “So why are you two
    standing out here?”
    I had no idea what to tel him and the way he was
    staring at me was making my brain al hazy.
    “How about we go