He shakes his head, kicks the door open, and hurries inside to the vacant lobby. The walls are stained red with blood and pieces of lost papers and ruptured windows litter the floor.

“It’s the Day Takers, isn’t?”

He shuts the door.

We move back from the glass doors, his eyes locked on the front of the building. “Yeah, they’ve been tracking us ever since we left the hillside.”

“Clear since the hillside,” I say. “Because they want to kill us? Wouldn’t I, I don’t know, repulse them just like with the vampires?”

His eyes are watered over as he shakes his head. “No, they want you more than anything.”

“What?” My voice thunders and Aiden quickly flings his hand over my mouth. I shove him back, his hand falling. “They Day Takers want me? To kill me?”

His breathing is strident, his eyes about to tear up. “Please don’t hate me, okay. I did this to protect you.”

“You know, I’m beginning to think you might be worse of a liar than I am.” I pull out my knife, intimidating him. “You keep telling me lies, which lead to more lies. Even I’m not that good.”

“I don’t even know how they found out,” he mutters, not listening to me. “I thought I got to you before they found out.”

“Found out about what?”

“That you can walk with the vampires.” His eyes grow begging. “Look, if you’ll just come with me, we can find Xander—he can help you.”

“Help me with what?” I say, no longer believing that we came here to find Xander because he might know of a cure.

“With taking it all away,” he says. “All that stuff, the lying, the hearing of the hearts—he can make it all go away. He can make it so you can never change—so they can never have you.”

“Is that why you really brought me out here?” I ask. “So this Xander could change me and make it impossible for me to turn?”

“Juniper.” He takes me by the shoulder, fearing for my life. “Do you know how powerful you are? Think about it. You’re the one and only person who can walk with the vampires. Not even the Highers can do that. You’re basically invincible, and do you know what would happen if the wrong people found out about you? I mean, look what Dominic did.”

“Dominic thought I was a Higher,” I let it slip out and watch how he reacts. “And the Higher he put me in with, didn’t kill himself. I was the one holding the sword.” More fear pours off him, more than all of The Colony members combined.  “Still want to save me.”