Darkness Fades

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.

“That Aiden was naive and stupid,” he says, inching to the edge of the line where the shadows meet the daylight. “He didn’t understand what it was like to be fearless, strong, perfect.” He tries to grab me, but I’m too fast, jumping out of his reach.

I glare at him and narrow my eyes as I back towards the rocks again, deciding what to do. Walk away? Stay? Hurt him? “If you’re so perfect, then how come you are stuck there in the shadows?” I raise my eyebrows at him, challenging him, then tip my chin back and look up at the grey sky. “You’re flawed and your inability to go in the daylight isn’t what I’m talking about. You’re cold and uncaring. I’d much rather have the human Aiden than what you have become.” I turn my back on him and walk away.

Aiden growls, furious, and bursts out of the cave into the light, running straight at me. Without thinking, I spin around to shove him back, but it is too late. Sun blankets him as he stumbles back, still out of the shade of the cave. There’s a moment where he doesn’t realize what’s going on then he sees my terrified expression and his gaze drifts down at his hands. Time seems to slow down, yet the more time that slips by, the more aware we both become that nothing is happening. He doesn’t burst into dust as the sun touches his face, his hands, his arms. Aiden’s a Day Taker. Monarch told me that Aiden was broken, but apparently his flaw is not the sun.

A grin spreads across Aiden’s face as he holds his hands up to the sky. “See, we are perfect.”

I roll my eyes, resisting the urge to shove him to the ground.

He drops his hands back to his side and walks over next to me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “You know I would never hurt you, right?”

“I know you can’t hurt me,” I say then let out a breath of frustration. “Aiden, I care for you and everything; I don’t want you to become something different just because you suddenly feel powerful.”

His expression falls, but it quickly vanishes. “You care for me, yet you don’t love me?”

“I don’t love anyone,” I say, but for some reason it feels like a lie.

“That’s not true. You love Sylas.” He waits for me to deny it.

I open my mouth, planning on denying, but for some reason, the words won’t leave me.

“Don’t worry,” he says, pretending to be nonchalant about it when really I can tell he’s hurt. “I’ll always be here for you. Especially now that Sylas is gone.” Then his mood shifts, and suddenly, he’s back to being as cheerful as can be; a bounce in his walk as he breezes by me towards the path. “Well, since daylight isn’t a problem, how about we go get those papers?”

I can feel lies radiating from him, although I can’t figure out what they’re coming from. He’s so moody and I know I’m going to have to be on my guard. Either that or knock him out and leave him somewhere.

As I follow behind him, up the rocks, beneath the faint flow of the sun, Monarch’s words keep echoing through my head. He’s the only other one like you, but he’s broken. Broken.

I’m beginning to think that Monarch meant he is broken in the head. I wonder if he’ll ever be able to be fixed; go back to being the same Aiden he used to be. The one that cared for others. The one that I cared about, in a way. Because right now, I don’t care about him, and if he tries to put humans or me at risk, I’ll stop him no matter what it takes.