We hide out for the night, in the shelter of an empty cave. Before anyone entered, I snuck in to check things out and make sure it was unoccupied. Then we all squished inside and sealed it with a large pile of rocks, locking away the outside, but smothering us with darkness.

I didn’t mind the dark, but the others seemed a little restless. Cedrix, thankfully, has a tiny light, that clicks on and off with the flip of a button. He placed it on the ground and we all laid around it, wordlessly listening to their shrieks fill up the night.

The sounds of heavy breathing fill the cave as everyone starts to doze into dreamland. That’s when it all comes rushing back to me, when I have nothing else to distract me. I was created. Monarch is a Higher. I need to save him and the world, but I don’t know how. And I’ve left his pocket watch with Sylas.

“God, I can’t believe this,” I mumble to myself.

“So what did Sylas tell you?” Aiden’s voice rises through my thoughts. He lies beside me, arms crossed, eyes shut.

“I thought you were asleep.” I stare up at the ceiling of the cave.

His eyes open and he rolls onto his side. “I have too much going on in my mind to sleep.”

“I know the feeling.” I roll on my side too and there’s a disturbing silence choking between us. “Why didn’t you just tell me about the Day Takers? It would have saved us a whole lot of problems.”

He shrugs. “Out of fear I guess. I was afraid after you learned what you were, you’d take the medicine and join them.”

“But to go to the extent of dragging me out into the city to find a man who was dead? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“You know what, you’re right. It doesn’t make sense.” He rolls over so he’s on top of me and can look me in the eye. “I might not agree with what the Day Takers are doing—after a life spent in a lab, the last thing I want to do is sentence myself to a life I don’t want. But it’s not just about what I think is right, it’s about you getting yourself killed.  We all had these little gifts, because of the experiments,” he says. “But yours … you ended up with something that everyone is going to want—to be the one who the vampires fear. It’s going to get you killed. Or worse, back in the lab.” He rolls off of me and sits up. “Look what Dominic did to you.”

“He tried to kill me because he thought I was going to turn into a Higher,” I say. “Not because I can walk with the vampires.”