Darkness Falls: Darkness Breaks Part 19

Sylas is waiting for me in the cave. He's inclined back, with his legs blocking the entrance. His gaze bores into me. "Did you two have a nice chat?" he asks with a sly smile. "Did he forgive you for your horrendous decision?"

"I didn't apologize for what I did," I inform him. "I only apologize for the things I'm sorry for and this isn't one of them."

He bites at his lip, slightly taken back. "You don't regret that you're now the living undead?" He moves in front of me. "That you don't have a pulse or a breath? That you're no longer human?"

"Do you regret the decision?" I confront him with a lift of my chin.

He stares blankly at me. "There wasn't a decision to make. Either I did it, or I died."

"Not necessarily," I say. "Humans can survive if they're careful."

He leans in, putting his mouth up to my ear. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Aiden and I are the same. Monarch created both of us and broke both of us. The only way out was to choose death." He leans back, wavering his hand in front of him. "Well, life and death since I'm technically both."

I glance at Aiden. "How long does he have before hea dies?"

"Only Monarch knows that." Sylas shrugs. "Now can we move on from death and get onto life. You still have the map, right?"

"Who says we're going to the tunnel next?"

"You were just about to announce it, weren't you?" He taunts me with an all-knowing grin.

"Yes, buta""

"But nothing," he talks over me. "Now go give your little speech about our next big plan to save the world."

I frown. "You're referring to me like I'm the leader?"

"You have everything that can save us, so yeah, you're the leader now."

Am I a leader now? I walk to the back of the cave with Sylas at my heels. Greyson, Maci, and Aiden are huddled together underneath an indented section of the cave wall. Maci's eyes are red and her forehead has a gash across it. A piece of a torn shirt cloaks her hand and she's missing a shoe. Greyson is dotted with bruises, his red hair stained a dark red from the blood of an open wound. Aiden is scratched, bruised, and there's a thin red line tracing above his eyebrow, a mark which might end up healing into a scar, just like he used to have.

Even though I spent countless days in the hospital with Monarch, these are unknown injuries, ones I wish I could fix, but can't without the aid of Monarch's healing injections.

"I need to know what you guys want to do?" I ask. "I'm goinga""

"We're going," Sylas interjects.

"We're going to the tunnels to search for some answers and maybe even a cure if we're lucky. I'm actually hoping that I might be right and that Cell 7 has another entrance into The Colony. Maybe we could sneak in from there."

"How the h.e.l.l do you know how to get there?" Aiden asks in a near panic. "Did you remember it on your own or something? Because even I can't remember it."

I quickly explain what happened during Sylas and mine's detour to the underground hideout, where we found Dominic and the map. But omit some of the more gory details.

"Dominic isn't a vampire," Aiden says. "He can't be."

"I never said he was," I remind him, not bothering to point out that he's dead and no longer is anything. "He was some kind of crossbreed."

"But who created the crossbreed?" Aiden rubs the back of his neck. "And you said the Highers are feeding off vampiresa why?"

"That's another question to add to our endless list," I shrug and pause. "Everyone thought Dominic was helping everyone, when really he was running his own little Colony."

"I guess, in a way, he wasn't really that bad." Sylas rests his hand on the wall behind me. "He didn't completely listen to the Highers and kept them in the darka for a while."

"He turned everyone over to the Highers," Aiden snaps. "There wasn't any good in him."

"Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad," I state to no one in particular. "No one is completely good."

Aiden disagrees. "Your view on life has totally been distorted by medicine and a certain doctor."

For a minute I consider hitting him.

"There has to be cure," I tell everyone, changing the subject. "I'm walking proof that there is. We just need to find it. And right now, everything I know points to Cell 7. It's where this all started and I mean everything. Highers and all."

"How do you know that's where the cure is?" he asks. "Just because the virus started in Cell 7, doesn't mean it ends there."

"Do you have a better idea?" I ask.

He shrugs, surrendering. "Do whatever you want. You've proved more than enough times that my opinion doesn't matter."

Sylas makes a growling sound and scratches his fingers the air. "I feel the claws coming out."

"I want to go with you, Kayla." Maci interrupts and clings to my hand. "Please take me with you."

I look to Aiden for help, but he brushes me off. "If she wants to go, then let her go." He pauses. "At least to the edge of the city anyway. But not in the Cell 7. It's too dangerous."

"And leave her there with the Day Takers?" I ask. "I don't think that's such a great idea."

"No, don't leave her with the Day Takers." Aiden stands and pops his neck. "I'm going with you. And I'll watch her while you're gone."

I'm wary of the idea. "I don't think that such a good idea. And besides, you just said you didn't think the answers are in Cell 7. And you really don't want to be around me anymore."

"Where else are we going to go?" he asks baffled. "We have nothing left out here for us."

"So instead you want to go with a Day Taker and a Day Walker?" I question. "Why am I not buying this?"

"You know I'm not lying," he says.

I waver, because he's not lying.

He forces a smile. "What Juniper? Am I not worthy to go with you anymore?"

I shake my head. "No, I justaworry."

Sylas pats me on the back. "See you're not completely a Day Taker. You're perfectly capable of experiencing human emotion, something we don't possess."

I almost call out his lie, but back off because he'd only deny it. "So we're all going, then? At least to the edge of the city?"

We exchange agreeing looks and then our eyes dart to Greyson.

"Greyson?" Aiden asks. "Are you coming?"

He traces a circle in the dirt. "I'll go, but after we bury Cedrix. He deserves that much."

"Bury?" I ask, adjusting my sword in my belt. "What does that mean?"

"It's our way of mourning," Aiden explains with a subdued tone. "Whenever someone died at hillside, we'd bury them in the ground to show our respect."

I don't understand what they're feeling, but they seem to really want to bury Cedrix. "Okay, we can go back, but we need to hurry. And we're not walking at night. That's still a rule, as much as it's related to The Colony. At least for you four."

"Why the h.e.l.l am I put in the same category as them?" Sylas asks amused and partially offended. "Let's not forget what I am."

My gaze downfalls to his abdomen. "I'm not forgetting, but I still don't think it's a good idea."

He quickly protects the injury with his hand and pulls his hair farther over his forehead. "Yeah, but I heal," he points out and slowly lowers his hand, showing me his smooth skin, crusted with blood. "See, healed."

"Do whatever you want." I turn for the arch. "I can't make you do anything."

He follows me, laughing under his breath. "Maybe you could, if you really, really wanted to."

I shake my head, hoping Aiden doesn't hear him, or see the smile threatening at my lips.

Before we leave, I make everyone empty their pockets to check what we have. "No water. No food." I count down on my fingers. "One knife, a sword, and an empty bottle. A pocket watch, matches and the map. A flashlight and aa" I collect the spool. "And a thing of wire."

Greyson shrugs, with his hands in his pockets. "It might come in handy. You never know. Besides, Maci told me to put it in my pocket before the fire started."

"That's it." I rub my temples. "That's all we have."

Maci runs up and adds a gla.s.s vial to the pile. "And this too!"

Sylas and I trade inquisitive glances and I pick up the vial. "Does anyone know what this is?"

We all lean over and peer at the vial resting in the palm of my hand.

"What color is that?" Greyson asks. "White?"

Aiden plucks the vial from my hand. "It's more like clear, with a swirl of different colors."

"Like a rainbow," Maci states proudly.

"What's a rainbow?" We ask simultaneously.

She points at the sky and curves her finger in the air. "It's the color that arches across the sky after it rains. Don't worry, you'll find out soon."

I take the vial from Aiden and hold it between my finger and thumb. "Maci, where did you get this?"

"The Higher gave it to me when he came to the cave." She skips around the rock.

Out of the corner of my eye, Aiden moves to swat the vial out of my hand. I react quickly, closing my hand.

"Aiden, calm down," I say. "We don't even know what it is."

"It's from the Highers," he snaps, his honey eyes burning golden. "And we don't even know what it is."

"Gabrielle said it would help me through the fire," Maci beams. She's taken off her shoe and dips her toes in the sand. "But I didn't take it because I knew Kayla would save us."

"What else do you know Maci?" I constrict my fingers around the vial.

"I can't tell you yet." She cups her hand around her mouth and whispers, "Not until the time is right."

She sounds just like Monarch.

"When will the right time be?" I set the vial on the rock.

"Soon, Kayla." She hops on a rock. "Very, very soon."

"She's so weird," Greyson mutters. "It's like she can tell what's going to happen before it happens, yet she won't tell you unless she wants to."

"It's because I can't," Maci sings-songs. "Not until I know for sure that what I'm seeing is going to happen. Sometimes it changes." She ducks under a tunnel, burrowing through the rock.

Putting my boot on the vial, I press down, shattering it in pieces. All their attention centers on me.

"You're right," I say. "If it's from the Highers, it's probably not a good thing. But I would like to know why Gabrielle gave it to Maci to help her through the fire. If he wanted to save her, why didn't he just take her with him?"

"That's an answer she might know." Sylas crosses his arms and indicates his head at Maci. "Now whether you can get her to tell you or not, is a whole other story."

Apprehension rises in me as I take another glimpse at our small pile of stuff. "How are we going to survive?"

"We'll be fine," Sylas makes a point. He picks a twig off his black, torn shirt and flicks it to the ground. "We don't have to eat, just drink. And there are plenty of ways to get around that."

Aiden gapes at him. "You're not drinking blood?"

"Oh, we still drink blood." He licks his lips, eyes glued to me.

I frown at him, knowing what he's referring to. I saw it a few times during my stay with the Day Takers. They feed off each other. I find it weird and unnatural and I hope Monarch made sure to include a blood-free thirst in me. But only time will tell.

I want to tell them that we need to skip the burial, but the looks on their faces stops me. So we pack up our knife, flashlight, and wire and descend over the hills onto the land. Aiden carries Maci on his back, because her legs are tired, and Greyson barely utters a word.

When we reach the spot where Cedrix was last seen, we only find bare dirt.

Aiden looks up at the top of the hill and then down at the bottom. "This is where we saw hima where he died." He scratches his head.

"Sometimes when vampires attack, there isn't anything left." Sylas squats down to inspect the ground.

"There has to be something left," Greyson says, marching up the hill with determination. "He can't be gone completely."

Sylas furrows his eyebrows at the ground and then his gaze travels downward.