“Sugar, water, and cherry-flavored syrup.”

I scowl as my eyes find him. Aiden, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, eyes not as welcoming as they were before I passed out.

“And a high amount of silver,” he adds.

“Silver?” My head throbs as my vision alters into focus. “Why silver?”

He moves from the wall, stopping within the limitations of the chains reach. “Not a lot of people know this, but silver is extremely toxic to vampires. It’s more toxin than even sodium chloride.”

“But I’m not a vampire,” I walk until the chains are taut. “So why make me take it?” I shake my head, confused. “You didn’t think I was one, did you?” I raise my arms, showing him my smooth skin, free of bleeding wounds and rotting flesh. “Because I can assure you I’m as human as you are.”

“Yeah, I got that, since the silver didn’t kill you,” he says. “But we had to know for sure.”

“But you still have me chained up,” I point out the obvious.

“Because we’re still not sure about you,” he says. “You did some things that are strange.”

“Like what?” I scratch my wrist, the cuffs digging into them.

“You can walk with the vampires.” He says this softly as if he worries someone will hear him.

My hands fall to my side. “How do you know that?”

He shuts his eyes and shakes his head, like he’s in pain. “Because we were watching you that night, during the rainstorm.”

“So you just watched as all our lives were threatened?”

A lantern flashes above his head and he stares up at it. “We were going to save you—it’s what we do every time the Gathering happens. But we were running late that day and didn’t make it there before dark. And when we did find you, there you were, standing out in the dark, in the middle of the rain, while all the vampires scattered, trying to get away from you. We didn’t know what to do.”

“So you what? Just left us?” I say. “Why bother even returning?”

“We didn’t just leave you,” he says. “We had to come back and tell Dominic what happened. And he told us to go get you and bring you back to him.” He kicks at the floor with the tip of his boot. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I really am. But this is the way things are done around here. We have to be careful that we don’t bring anything dangerous in.”

“Then this place is no better than The Colony,” I say.

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” He turns for the doorway.

“I’m not a vampire,” I call after him, yanking at the chains. “I’m not a blood thirsty monster—I can’t be.”