I noticed Laylen was watching me closely. Alex wasn’t looking at me at all, his eyes fixed on the spot of red tinted carpet resting in front of his feet. He appeared at a loss for words, which was so strange for him. He was never at a loss for words. In fact, he usually had too much to say.

I opened my mouth. “I’m sorry, am I missing some—”

“Got it.” Ailsin announced as she bounced through doorway with the Sword of Immortality gripped in her hand. “Now let’s go.”

Alex let out a breath of relief. “Sounds good to me.”

Laylen pulled a balled up navy blue duffel bag out of his pocket. Back at the car, he’d stuffed it in there, so we could smuggle out the sword without it being noticed. He shook it out and unzipped it. “Here, put the sword in here.”

Aislin placed the sword inside the bag. “Are you sure no one’s going to be suspicious of us carrying out a bag?”

“They’d be far more suspicious if it wasn’t in the bag,” Laylen pointed out, zipping the bag up.

“Can we just get going?” Alex snapped, backing down the hall.

Aislin sighed. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Laylen slid the handle of the bag over his shoulder, and then he and I followed them down the hall. The air dipped colder the closer we got to the stairs. Goose bumps polka dotted my skin. I shivered, rubbing my hands up and down my arms.

“Are you cold?” Laylen asked, adjusting the handle of the bag.

“Kind of,” I replied, my breath rising out in a smoky cloud. Well, that can’t be good.

Laylen stopped dead in his tracks, his already pale skin draining to a ghostly white.

“What is it?” I asked him. Before he could answer, I slammed into the back of something. That something was Alex. I could tell by the electric surge.

“Go back,” he hissed, shoving me in the direction we’d just come from. “They’re heading up the stairs.”

He didn’t have to explain who “they” were. I already knew by the icy brittleness that had strangled the air. My heart hammered as we ran back into the room where the sword had just been locked up.

Aislin bounced up and down on her toes. “Oh my God. How did they find us?”

Laylen shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Is there another way out of here?” Alex asked Laylen.

“There’s a fire escape at the end of the hall,” Laylen told him. “But it’ll probably set off the fire alarm when you open it.”

“Well, if there’s no other way, then I guess we’ll have to risk it.” Alex crept over to the doorway, and peered out into the hall. “There are two of them standing at the top of the stairs….What we need is a decoy.” He turned around, his eyes locking on Laylen. “Someone to distract them while I get Gemma out of here.”

“And I’m assuming you want me to be that decoy.” Laylen’s tone didn’t sound bitter, but empty.

It made my stomach ping.

“Laylen, I’m sorry but I just don’t see any other way,” Alex said. “I think it would be best if I was the one with—”

Laylen cut him off.  “Just go.”

Alex hesitated, but only for a split second, then he grabbed a hold of my hand, throwing me off balance as he yanked me toward the doorway. “Come on Aislin.”

Aislin didn’t budge. “No.”

Alex stopped and gaped at her. “What do you mean no?”

She crossed her arms and raised her chin defiantly. “I’m not going to leave Laylen here to fend for himself. I’ll stay and help him.”

Knots tied in my stomach. They were staying behind to fend for themselves all because of me.

Alex shot her a warning look. “Aislin there’s no way—”

“This is not a debate,” Aislin interjected. “I’m staying. Now hurry up and get out of here before you can’t.”

It took another second of hesitation before Alex agreed. “Fine. But promise me that neither one of you will try to kill them. Just distract them long enough for me to get Gemma out of here, and then make a run for the car, okay?”

Aislin nodded and shooed us toward the door. Alex casted one last look at Aislin and Laylen, then he tightened his grip on my hand and tugged me after him as he sprinted down the hall, leaving Aislin and Laylen behind to fight the deathly ice monsters by themselves.

Chapter 18

Guilt. What a feeling, like rotting eggs spoiling inside your stomach, the stench seeping out through your pores. It sucked, and I wanted to get rid of it. But I couldn’t. Leaving Aislin and Laylen behind had created the horrid feeling, and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t go away until I knew they were safe again. So add the guilt with the possibility that I might die pretty soon, and my chances of vomiting were getting pretty high.

And my guilt continued to fester the farther and farther Alex dragged me down the hall. I was desperately struggling to keep up with him, clumsily tripping over my own feet. I was scared but trying hard not to freak out.

Lining the sides of the hall were paper-white shoji doors. On some of them, I could see shadows of human-shaped figures moving around on the other side. But I feared what they belonged to weren’t human. They could have been anything. Death Walkers, Black Angels, vampires, take your pick. All were scary in their own way.

Unexpectedly, the hallway came to a fork, and Alex slowed to a jog.

“Which way is the fire escape?” I asked in a shaky, panic-stricken voice.

He started for the left, and then I guess changing his mind, took off down the right.

My feet stumbled in protested as he pulled me after him. “How do you know this is the right way?”

“I don’t,” he said simply.

I gulped. Was I allowed to throw up yet? Because I’m pretty sure the fowl taste gurgling in the back of my throat was vomit.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief “There it is.”

And sure enough, at the end of the hallway was a door with the words Fire Escape printed at the top. My heart leapt. I’d never been so excited to see a door in my life. That was until the stupid thing opened.

The alarm went off, blaring deafeningly up and down the hall as a black-hooded monster emerged from the door.

“Son of a—” In the snap of a finger Alex had me twirled around and was pulling me back the way we’d just came from.

A cold breeze rushed up against the back of my legs, and I knew the Death Walker was coming after us.

“What are we going to do?” I cried, in an unnaturally high-pitched voice.

We rounded a corner and then, without any warning, he screeched to a halt. And for the third time today, I smacked straight into him. I didn’t care, though. Nor did I react. At the moment, who the heck cared about the electricity? Not me.  It wasn’t going to do anything to save us.

He did a quick scan of our surroundings. “We need to find a place to hide.”

“A place to hide?” I repeated, glancing around like there actually might be a possibility of a secret door lurking beside us or something.

There wasn’t.

“Yeah, a place to hide.” He let go of my hand and grabbed hold of the handle on a nearby shoji door.

I hadn’t realized how bad my palms were sweating. I wiped them on the front of my skirt as Alex jerked the door open. Behind it was a man lying on a bed. His eyes were shut, and a woman wearing an old fashion corset dress was kneeling over him. Her blond hair curled down her back and tracing her neck was a tattoo, which I now knew was the mark of immortality.

Noticing us, the woman rose up and bared her fangs.

Avampire. My mouth dropped open. “Holy—”

Alex slammed the door shut.

I stared at him with wide eyes. “Wh-what the heck was that?”

Alex brushed me off, already rushing to the next shoji door.

I dared a glance back down the hall, wondering if I’d find a Death Walker charging at us. Surprisingly, I found it empty. But that brought no comfort to me. In fact, it made me worry more. At least if I’d been able to see it than I’d know where it was.

Alex slid open another door, and thankfully, no one was inside. He pushed me through the doorway and slammed the door shut behind us. The room was dark, only a trickle of light seeped through the screen of the door.

“Now what?” I breathed.

I heard a soft click as he locked the door. “I need to find a place to hide you.”

“Hide me. What are you going to do?”

He felt his way around in the dark, moving across what I could make out as a bed, a dresser, and then came to a stop at what looked like a room divider.

“Over here,” he whispered. “Get behind the screen.”

“Why? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kill the Death Walker,” he hissed. “Now get over here.”

“Kill the Death Walker.” I inched my way toward him. “But you said they couldn’t be killed. Not without the sword, which you don’t have.”

He took me by the arm and gently shoved me behind the divider. I couldn’t see his face, but I sensed he was afraid.  “I know that,” he said softly.

I pressed my quivering lips together, feeling like I might cry.

“Look.” His voice was gentler than I’d ever heard it be. “I promise everything will be okay, just as long as you stay behind here.” Then he did the strangest thing ever. He brushed his finger across my cheek. The touch was as light as a feather, but the electricity still tickle down my cheek. “Promise me you won’t come out until you know everything is okay.”

My thoughts were fluttering all over the place, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. “Okay.”

And then he was gone. Just like that. And I was alone. That’s when I realized what I’d done.

Chapter 19

I stayed behind the divider for what felt like an eternity. I swear the world could have been ending and I would have been completely unaware, the room was too dark and quiet—I swear the walls had to be sound proof or something, with how quiet it was—to get any kind of sense of what was going on.

All I had were my thoughts to pass the time. They brought me no sense of comfort whatsoever. All I kept thinking about was how Alex had said to wait here until I knew it was safe, but he’d never mentioned anything about him coming back. So what did that mean…that he wasn’t coming back?

I was so going to throw up.

Plus, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to know when it was safe enough for me to come out. So I did the only thing I could think of. I waited until I felt like I was going to burst—until I couldn’t take it any longer—and then I made up my mind that it was time to step out from behind that divider.

I crept to the edge of it, my adrenaline hounding at such a rate that it just about knocked me to the ground. I paused, taking a deep breath, and…1…2…Bam! The lights flipped on. And before I even had time to react, fog was swirling all around me. I panicked. What was I supposed to do?

Holding my breath, I backed away from the edge of the divider. Logically, the best thing to do would be to stay calm, analyze the situation, and make a plan. But how the heck was I supposed to stay calm when there was fog everywhere, clouding everything, including the rational part of my brain. So instead, I freaked and jumped out from behind the divider, preparing to run. I quickly realized, though, just how big of a mistake I’d made. I couldn’t see anything but fog. It was like being in a haunted house on Halloween. The only thing missing was the strobe lights.