The Underworld Read Free

what I know.”
    “Thank you,” I said, feeling slightly less anxious. But
    stil anxious enough that my legs were wobbly.
    Laylen motioned for me to fol ow him as he swept
    through a beaded-curtain doorway, which led us into a
    living room with dark blue wal s that were decorated
    with shelves holding odd looking knickknacks. Black
    and white tile checkerboarded the floor, and a set of
    purple velvet couches centered the room, along with
    an apothecary table topped with black candles.
    Hmm…I was getting a weird sense of déjà vu with
    this room. Then it dawned on me. “Is this Adessa’s
    house?” I asked.
    “Yeah.” Laylen took a seat on one of the purple
    velvet sofas. “Which is actual y attached to her store.”
    I sat down next to him, and Alex, looking annoyed,
    dropped down in the chair across from us.
    “So where do you want me to begin?” Laylen asked
    me. And I liked that he asked, instead of trying to
    evade my questions, like a certain someone with
    bright green eyes would’ve done.
    Having options, though, was kind of confusing me.
    “So…um…what happened?” I shook my head at the
    ridiculousness of my own question. “I mean, what
    happened back in Colorado? And how did we end up
    in Vegas?”
    Laylen stayed quiet for a second, and I started to
    wonder if he even knew the answers to my questions.
    Alex had made it clear that, because Laylen was a
    vampire, he was no longer part of the Keepers’ world
    anymore, making Laylen a little out of the loop on
    things.
    Laylen brushed his blue-tipped bangs away from
    his forehead. “Wel , I guess I’l answer the easy
    question first. You’re here at Adessa’s because Aislin
    transported us here.”
    “What?!” I exclaimed, making Laylen flinch. I
    lowered my voice. “Sorry. But how? I mean the last
    thing I can remember is being surrounded by a ton of
    Death Walkers, and Stephan trying to use some
    creepy smoking rock to try and take my mind away.”
    “The rock’s cal ed the memoria extraho ,” Alex
    interrupted.
    “Wel , you’d know since you were going to let him
    use it on me,” I snapped.
    A condescending look rose on his face. “If you’d
    just listen to me explain, then you’d realize you’re
    wrong.”
    “I said I want Laylen to tel me,” I told him firmly.
    He shrugged and leaned back in the chair, resting
    his hands behind his head al casual and everything.
    “Fine. Whatever you want.”
    I stared at him, entirely taken off-guard. Huh? Did
    he just say whatever you want? To me?
    “What,” Alex said, with a blasé attitude. “I was
    planning on tel ing you the truth, but if you’re more
    likely to believe it from Laylen’s mouth, then it’s better
    that he tel s you. That way you won’t have any doubts.”
    I shook my head, wondering why he was acting so
    cooperative, but figured I would worry about it later, so
    I returned my attention back to Laylen. “So how did
    you and Aislin end up in Colorado?”
    “Wel …I guess to make a long story short, after
    Aislin came back to get me in Nevada, those Death
    Walkers you and I saw marching through the desert
    had reached the house. They ambushed us, but after
    a big struggle, Aislin and I managed to escape in the
    car. But the Death Walkers cold ruined Aislin’s crystal
    again so we had to come here to Adessa’s to get
    another one. Then we transported to Colorado.”
    “So how did you guys not get attacked by the Death
    Walkers when you showed up in Colorado?” I asked.
    “And by Stephan? Because the last thing I can
    remember was that there were a ton of Death
    Walkers around, watching Stephan try to erase my
    mind.”
    Laylen glanced over at Alex, and they both
    exchanged a look I couldn’t quite figure out. My
    muscles tensed up as the idea that maybe Laylen
    was keeping secrets from me flashed through my
    mind. Would he? I mean I barely knew him. But from
    the moment I’d met him, my instincts told me I could
    trust him. Although I sometimes wondered how