I jerk my hand from his. “What the hell’s happened to you? You’ve changed and I don’t think I like it.”
He shrugs, stepping to the side, putting distance between us. “I’ve changed into something better.” I glare at him and he smiles. “Look at us, Kayla, the vampires won’t bite us. I haven’t seen you drink any blood and I know that I don’t have the thirst for it. We’re strong. Fast. Basically invincible. Isn’t this better than being a weak human and having to worry about surviving every day? It’s as if we’re perfect.”
I’m about to tell him that he’s lost his mind and sounds just like the Highers when we’re interrupted by a hoard of vampires blocking the trail in front of us. They’re lined up in a row across the path and between the rocks as they viciously snap their teeth at us and snarl; some stepping forward and some moving back like a rippling wave.
Aiden smirks at them and then at me, giving me the most arrogant look, before he takes off and charges headfirst towards the group, bringing his knife out as he charges. He jumps into the air right before he reaches the line of them and kicks his feet out in front of him, knocking down the front ones before he lands in a crouch. Quickly springing up, he slashes flesh and stabs them in the heart, moving at a speed my eyes can barely detect; I almost start to worry that he’s faster than me. The vampires explode into dust one by one while any that are left take a whiff of the air and start to retreat back into the shadows and down into the flat area of the land, letting out shriek after shriek.
Aiden strolls towards me with a gloating look on his face. “See what I mean.” He tucks his knife into his pocket and brushes dust off his hands. “This is much better. We kill them instead of them killing us. We’re the only ones that can control them.”
He seems like a completely different person than he was before he changed. When I changed, I felt better, stronger, but I didn’t lose my sense of compassion for the human race. Not like Aiden seems to have done.
He’s right. We’re the only ones that can control them, but it still doesn’t mean that this is what the world comes to. That we’re the future of humanity. There’s still so much we can do. We can still save the world.
Flashing me a grin, Aiden turns and strides off towards the hill like he’s proving he’s faster than me. I watch him as he makes his way up the hill while I trudge behind him, wondering if he’s lost all of the humanity inside of him.
If the Aiden I first met is completely gone, then it’s completely up to me to bring those papers back.
Chapter 13
We hike the rest of the night, keeping quiet along with a bit of space between us. A few vampires appear in front of us occasionally, but Aiden is quick to make sure that they know who we were and what they are dealing with by running at them with his knife, baring his fangs. Within a few steps, they backtrack and disappear behind the rocks, howling at one another and snapping their fangs, starving to death, yet knowing they can’t feed on us.
Eventually, the cave that we hid in earlier comes into view right as daylight is getting ready to kiss the land, trickling drops of light come down from the foggy sky. Aiden veers towards it and I wonder what the hell he’s doing.
“Where are you going?” I call out as I keep walking straight.
He turns around at the edge of a boulder and raises his arms above it, showing me his torn sleeves and the massive amount of tears in the fabric. “I guess I got a little carried away,” he says, seeming proud. “I’ll have to hide out until the sun goes down.”
Part of me thinks he did it on purpose. Part of me wants to leave him. Part of me wants to knock him out.
Shaking my head, I change directions and head towards the cave. When we arrive at it, nestled down between the rocks, Aiden rushes inside just as the sun glimmers over the horizon. I decide whether to keep going or wait since I’m not sure if he’s going to help me or not then ultimately settle on waiting, more because I worry what he’ll do if I leave him behind. Go back to the colony maybe and do something bad? At this point, I wouldn’t put it past him. Still, I find myself wishing I had some silver or something to knock him out with… although I’m not sure if it’d work since Aiden seems a lot different from a Day Taker.
I sit down outside on a rock with my knife in my hand, my elbow propped on my knee and my chin resting on my hand. I watch as the sky turns grey, lost in my thoughts.
“We can’t let the Higher find out about your perfection,” Monarch tells me as he rummages through his medicine cupboards. “If they do, then everything we’ve done to save the world will become pointless.”
“But what about Aiden? What if they find out about him?” I ask as I climb up on an empty hospital bed. “Won’t he put everything at risk, too?”
Monarch shakes his head as he looks at me. “I’ve told you that even though Aiden’s the only other one like you, he’s broken.”
“Broken how?” I look down at my arm as he places a needle full of black fluid into my skin.
“Kayla, we’ve talked about you asking too many questions. You need to stop. Concentrate on everything you’ve been trained to do.” He pushes the needle deeper into my skin, injecting more dark liquid into my vein.
“But…” Everything goes blurry and I collapse onto the bed as I fade into unconsciousness.
“Kayla, are you going to sit out there all day?” Aiden’s voice brings me back to reality.
I sigh and look over at the entrance of the cave. Aiden is standing near the edge of the shadows with his hood down, watching me with a puzzled look, as if he doesn’t understand why I won’t go in there with him. I climb off the rock and hop down to the flat space in front of the cave, staying in the sunlight. “Did you really mean everything you said last night? About it being better for humans to change into the same breed as we are?”
Aiden looks at me intensely, leaning forward just the slightest bit. “Kayla, please, just let it go.”
I back away from him, putting more and more space between us. “You’re not trying to manipulate my thoughts again, are you? Because you know it doesn’t work on me.”
He holds his hands out in front of him. “Relax. I wasn’t trying to do anything to you. I was simply trying to figure you out. Why can’t you see that what we are is better?”
“What happened to the Aiden that thought that becoming a Day Taker was the wrong choice? The Aiden who cared about people?” I ask him, storming back towards him.