Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls by Jessica Sorensen (motivational books for students TXT) 📕

pocket and then wrapping both his arms around me. Our bodies are aligned completely and I can feel things that I really don’t want to feel… bulging in certain places. It’s disgusting and vomit burns at the back of my throat.

“What do you want?” Laylen asks with his hands just to the side of him. He appears composed, but I can see that he’s flexing his fingers, as though he’s considering taking a hit at Nicolas. He could probably reach him in a few more steps, the pillar being the only thing between us. However it’s still enough time for Nicholas to take us out of here and the last thing I want to do is end up alone somewhere with him.

Sliding his hand up my ribs and then my neck, he sketches a finger across my cheek. “I have what I want right here.” He dips his mouth next my ear. “Are the nightmares getting worse?” he breathes, stroking my upper arm. “Can you see the symbol clearly?”

I go rigid. “W-What?”

He laughs against my ear.

“You’re going to pay for this,” Laylen says in a low tone that conveys so much warning it actually sends a chill down my spine.

Nicholas strengthens his hold on me, his chest rising and falling as it repeatedly crashes against my back. “I’d like to see you try, you pathetic excuse for a Vampire. You can’t even bring yourself to drink blood.”

Laylen’s lips expand to a slow grin. “Want to bet?”

Nicholas laughs. “You’re so enter—”

Laylen launches forward so fast he’s nothing except a blur and, seconds later, Nicholas is jerked from my grasp. Laylen doesn’t bite him, but he does bring his fist up against the side of his head and knock him out cold. Nicholas’s body slumps to the ground and Laylen steps back, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

His fangs descend and then retract as if he’s deciding whether he wants to bite him. Then choosing not to, he slumps over, grabs onto Nicholas’s arms, and drags him behind the pillar.

“The last thing I ever want to do is taste his foul blood,” He says, standing upright.

“I don’t blame you.” I pause, watching Nicholas’s chest rise and fall as he sleeps off Laylen’s punch. I can’t help thinking about what he whispered moments before Laylen leapt on him, though. How did he know? Not just about the nightmares, but about the symbol? “We should probably hurry before he wakes up.”

Laylen nods and then takes my hand as we head back to the path. We walk for what seems like an eternity and the more time that passes, the more worried I get that someone’s going to discover us. I’m starting to get discouraged, which is a horrible feeling, when I feel it. A spark. It’s soft at first, like a delicate kiss, but it increases in intensity the further we continue to go down the path until finally my body is drowning in heat.

“Alex is close,” I whisper, glancing around at the walls and floor. “I can feel it.”

“What?” Laylen asks, studying me with a mystified expression.

I’m completely engulfed in feeling it again, so welcoming and familiar. I’ve never had familiar before and it makes me feel content. “I can feel him through the electricity.”

“The electricity?”

“It’s a story for another time.” I tug on his hand as I start to speed up down the path. “Now come on. We have to hurry.”

We run, following the invisible current of electricity, going further into the cave. With each step, the current grows and becomes more charged and at the same time I become more eager and excited. God, I’ve missed this. I’ve never really missed something before and knowing I’m going to have it back soon pumps adrenaline through my body at a toxic dose.

By the time we reach a door, the current is flowing so powerfully that I know Alex has to be behind it. I’m actually shaking from the energy coursing through me, it owns me, consumes me, possesses me to the point that nothing else matters.

I need to feel more of it.

I need to see Alex.

What I need is to feel like I’m breathing again.

I let go of Laylen’s hand, turn the door handle, and push the door open, starting to smile. However, what’s on the other side makes my mouth turn back down and my stomach churn. All the excitement evaporates and my eagerness alters to paralyzing fear.

There’s a massive crystal ball about the size of a football stadium flaring brightly within the enormous space of the cave. Attached to the crystal, solely by chains, are people. Alex is front and center, chains wrapped around him from head to toe, binding him to the crystal ball.

And he looks dead.

All of them do.

Chapter 18

They’re all dead. Alex is dead. I can’t breathe. I can’t live.

“Calm down, Gemma.” Laylen’s voice is soothing, yet distant. I feel my legs turning into rubber and the room begins to sway. “They’re not dead.”

I straighten my legs back up. “Are you sure?” I choke out while I stare at Alex’s slackened body; his shirt’s off and his jeans hang loosely at his hips. His head is tipped down so all I can see is his hair. Is he awake? Dead? Alive? “They look… he looks dead.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. The crystal’s collecting energy from them,” he explains, his hand brushing my back. “If they were dead, they wouldn’t be useful.”

I nod and then I’m running to Alex at a pace I didn’t even know I was capable of. When I get closer, I realize that not only are chains securing him to the crystal ball, but so are tubes. They’re embedded all over his body, sucking his life and blood.

I immediately start pulling the tubes out of his skin. “Laylen, can you break through these chains?” I ask as he moves up beside me. With each tube I remove, a hole and blood trail is left on Alex’s skin. They’re not too deep, though with so many, they