“Actually, no.” I step back out of her reach. “I just need you and two other Day Takers to go help guard that building over there.” I point over my shoulder at the lab.
She frowns. “You want me to help protect a building; one that humans are already protecting?”
“Please,” I say. “It’s really important.”
She crosses her arms and stares me down. “And what do I get out of this.”
Sylas nudges her in the back, a little rough. “Emmy, stop being a pain in the ass and go.”
She huffs and stomps her foot. “God, this is so ridiculous,” she whines, but ends up obeying, going over and getting two other Day Takers to come with her. One of them is really tall and muscular while the other is shorter, though equally as strong in appearance. When they walk by us, they all give me a dirty look.
“Glad to see they still feel the same way about me,” I say, tracking them with my gaze until they arrive at the lab.
I return my attention to Sylas when he brushes the inside of my wrist with his fingers before taking my hand. “Come with me for a bit,” he says. “I need to talk to you about something.”
“What’s wrong?” I ask as he starts to pull me down the path.
He doesn’t speak as we head deeper into the shadows of the town and farther out of the eyes of Day Takers and humans. He only lets go of my hand when we arrive at a section where the ground bowls inward and all that’s around us are hills and the wall of cars.
“What about Aiden?” he asks as he releases my fingers from his hold and steps back to look at me.
“What about him?” I ask, glancing around, wondering why he brought me down here.
He considers something and then starts to circle around me with his hands behind his back. “All this talk about protecting everyone in here, especially Mathew, but what happens if Aiden shows up here with them, too?”
Through all the chaos, this detail had sort of slipped my mind and the only solution pains me. Yet, saving the world is the most important thing at this point.
“We’ll have to stop him,” I say quietly. “If he gets in the way.”
“Can you do that?” he questions, stopping in front of me, inspecting my reaction closely.
I swallow hard and nod. “I can if I have to.” I pause, gathering my voice. “Can you?”
His eyes hold mine, like he’s pretending it’s no big deal, but I can see in his eyes that it is. “I’ll stop him if he gets in the way.”
We grow quiet and eventually he turns to stare at the wall with his hands stuffed in his pocket. We can hear the sounds of voices drifting down to us as the people in town and on the walls talk way too loud.
“You know, they make a lot of noise for someone who’s in trouble,” he remarks, looking at me again; his dark eyes look even blacker, like coal.
“They’re human,” I say. “They don’t know anything else.”
“You think they can handle this?” he wonders with zero confidence. “If they can fight against the abominations and stand a chance?”
I shrug, being honest. “I’m not sure… Maci seems to think I can do something about all this… protect everyone, or at least Mathew.” I sit down on the ground in the dirt and he joins me. “But at the same time, I’m just one tiny person going up against a herd of large, vicious monsters. Yeah, I can’t die or become infected, but I also can’t make sure everyone else doesn’t either.”
He sits down beside me and bumps his shoulder into mine. “I wasn’t asking if you can handle it… I know you can.” He leans back on his hands and we stare at the hillside. “I was asking if you think they can handle it.” He nods his head at a group of humans standing just above us on the wall.
I want to say yes, but deep down I know that’d be a lie. “I honestly don’t know,” I say. “But I guess we’ll have to hope for the best.”
“You’re basing a lot of this on hope.” He leans into me, wetting his lips with his tongue. “But you’re forgetting one thing.”
“And what’s that?” I glance at his lips as he gets closer.
He pauses just as his lips almost connect with mine. “That you’re the perfect soldier.” Then he kisses me and I want to pull back as I tell him he’s wrong. That I’m flawed. That I can’t die. Can’t change. That I’m pretty much motionless.
Instead, I keep kissing him because, for a moment, it makes everything easier.
Chapter 22
Sylas and I continue to sneak off and kiss for the next few days, trying to distract our minds from what we face ahead. I check on Mathew, make walk-throughs around the town and generally check on everything. With each day I start to wonder if something has happened; if maybe Aiden didn’t make it to them or if the Highers couldn’t agree to send out the army. Deep down, though, I know that’s not true. They’ll come. They always do.
People have started to let their guard down by staying out later or not keeping such a close eye on the desert land when the sun goes down. Some even bail out and head for the hills; not wanting to protect their colony, but hide. It’s driving me mad, but there’s nothing I can do. They won’t listen to me because I’m not human; something which I try not to think about.
On the fourth day, when I stop by to check up on Mathew, I decide to talk to him about it; to see if he’ll talk to them about being more careful.
“You need to talk to your people,” I announce as I enter his lab. “They’re…” I trail off at the sight of the mess that surrounds him. Empty vials are strewn everywhere, flasks, garbage, spilt liquids on the floor, and Mathew stands in it all with his eyes pressed to that strange device he pointed at the other day; the one he said would help him study our blood.
“What on earth,” I say, maneuvering around the mess. “Don’t you ever clean up in here?”
He falters back with his hand pressed to his heart, his elbow bumping the counter and putting a dent in it. Strange. “Goodness, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I said something as I walked in,” I say, glass crunching under my boot, eyeing over his extremely healthy state. I mean, he’s been looking healthier and healthier by the day, but he’s almost glowing with strength. “Didn’t you hear me?”
He shakes his head, looking distracted. “No… no… I was…” He drifts off as he puts his eyes back on the strange device, turning the knob on the side. “Well, I was having an epiphany.”
“Over what?”
He glances up at me, his eyes shining with excitement. “Over a cure.”
I rush up to him. “You figured it out?”
“Well, yes and no.” He gestures at himself as he squares his shoulders. “I’ve been studying my blood and well…” he trails off, glancing around with a puzzled look. Then something clicks in his expression and he hurries back to the wall.
“What are you…?”
I trail off as he rams his fist through the wall. Bits and pieces of brick shatter and fly through the air. My jaw hits my knees as I gape at him, stepping back as my hand moves to my knife.
“What are you?” I ask, drawing my knife out of my back pocket.
He surrenders his hands in front of him. “Kayla, relax. I’m still me, simply stronger… just like you.”
My arm falls to my side. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
He lowers his hands and rushes towards me, beaming from ear to ear. “Yes,” he says. “You’re blood didn’t just cure me; it turned me into a Day Walker.”
“That can’t be possible,” I argue against the bluntly honest truth in front of me. I can see it in his eyes; the power, the strength, the confidence. “Sylas didn’t...” I trail off, remembering how he seemed to be stronger as we ran here and how, when he kisses me, there is so much more behind it I thought I’d bruise. I’ve never felt like I could bruise before. Unlike Mathew, however, I’m not happy. “Well, that doesn’t do us any good,” I say. “Because we’re not trying to turn the world into a bunch of Day Walkers. We want to be human again, right?”