“But if there’s a cure for the Highers then The Colony no longer exists.” He puts on a hooded black jacket and zips it up. His eyes meet mine and he walks in front of me, lifting the book from my lap, setting it aside, and pulling me to my feet. “Hey,” he says. “I’m sorry for how I was acting earlier. It was just hard, you know, to find out Dominic tried to kill you just because the vampires are afraid of you. I didn’t realize he was so afraid of someone being different like that. But I promise I’m on board with you now. Let’s go find a cure.”

“We don’t even know for sure if it’s a cure we’re looking for,” I say. “In the memory, all Monarch said was that I’d fix the world.”

“It’s got to be a cure,” he says with determination. “All that talk about medicine, it just has to be.”

I stare at him, listening to his heart, beating softly, but with excitement.

“I wish you knew how much you meant to me,” he says seriously. “I wish you could remember and realize I’d never do anything to hurt you. Not intentionally, anyway.”

I eye his lips, beautiful and lustrous. Then without thinking, I lean in and press mine against them. Not because I want to kiss him, but because I want to know if he speaks the truth. Like the first kiss, I can taste everything he feels and it’s so intense I have to pull away. Because at one time or another, Aiden has loved me, and I know that at this moment, he’d do anything to protect me from harm.

“Let’s go to the to the city, then,” I say. “Let’s go see if there’s a cure.”

His eyes open and he flashes me a smile. “Finally we’re on the same page. And hopefully, Xander knows more than we do.”

“I sure hope so.” I stare at the book, at the pages that lay open. The vampire’s teeth, the blood. What if this is a Higher? What if this is what I’ll turn into if I can’t find a way to fix it?

Aiden tosses me my jacket and a bag. “Start loading up. We have a long way to go.” He starts throwing bottles of water and cans of food into a backpack.

I reach into the pocket of my jacket, feeling the vials and syringes. I take out one of the vials. “What is this?”

“You don’t know?” He asks, shoving the book into his bag.

I shake my head. “Maci had them when we woke up and said an Angel said we had to inject them into us.”

“What’s an Angel?” He asks.

I shrug. “I thought maybe you might know.”