Darkness Fades (Darkness Falls Series, Book 3) (16 page)

I hear some movement and rustling towards
the back of the hallway, and as I get closer, I see Mathew through
the doorway to his lab. He’s wearing a white coat and is holding
some vials filled with various colors of liquid, carefully
measuring as he pours each one into a large, silver flask.

He glances up from the flask as I enter and
startles back with a concerned look on his face. At the same time
that he ends up spilling a drop or two of the liquid onto the
silver table in front of him.

“Is everything okay?” he asks, setting the
empty vials down, his fingers trembling. “Have the Highers’ army
arrived already?”

“Not yet.” I cross the room and glace at the
jars on the counter filled with an array of liquids.
I wonder
what is in them.
“Sylas went to get the other Day Takers to
help us.” I wonder if I should tell him about Maci and her gift.
“And Nichelle’s setting up around town, but honestly it could be
days before the Highers’ army shows up. Or even weeks, depending on
how hard it is for the Highers to reach a decision.”

He sets the flask down onto the table beside
the vials. “Well, at least we’ll be ready for them when they get
here. And Nichelle is a very good fighter... I’d trust her
completely with my life, but she isn’t you, Kayla. I’d feel better
if you were the one in charge of the others.”

“That isn’t what I’m supposed to do be
doing.” It sort of slips out of me and there’s no taking it
back.

“What do you mean by that?” he wonders,
resting his weight against the table, his skin dripping with
sweat.

I dither, deciding if I should tell him
about Maci. He seems trustworthy, yet at the same time, a lot of
people do. Then again, Maci said I should talk to him. “Maci told
me that I’m supposed to protect you and that I need to talk to you
about why I do.”

“Why would Maci tell you that?” he asks.

“Because…” I sit up on the countertop,
letting my legs hang over the edge of the corner, and put my knife
in my lap. “She can see things before they happen… she told me that
I was going to save the world.”

Mathew crosses his arms and his pale eyes
flood with curiosity. “I wonder if that was from the
experiments.”

“She wasn’t just born that way?”

He shakes his head. “Humans weren’t born
with extraordinary gifts, which are why the Highers were so
determined to create them.”

I’m not sure if I believe him or not,
though, considering he used to be one of the doctors and the cause
for all this messing around with humanity. Maybe it was that
thought process—that humans had no gifts—that helped their strive
to perfection escalate.

He scratches his head. “Did Maci by chance
tell you how to save the world? Or how to find the cure even?” he
asks, hopeful. It makes me have less hope that he’ll be able to
find a cure.

His expression sinks as I shake my head.
“She didn’t tell me how to save it… she never gives instructions,
just tidbits of information that will lead me to do the right
thing. And she told me that I needed to protect you,” I tell
him.

He sighs and turns back to the vials on the
table. “Yeah, I guess things can’t ever be that easy.”

“No, they really can’t,” I agree, reflecting
on my difficult past and everything I’ve gone through to get to
this exact point. “But what about you?” I ask. “Did you figure out
anything at all yet?”

His pales eyes light up as he picks up a
glass vial and holds it up to the light. There is a purple liquid
inside the vial that reflects through the glass. “Not yet.” He
lowers the vial. “But in the papers Aiden left behind, Monarch made
several references to how you seemed not to be immune to the
original virus in the beginning… that your body reacted to the
virus just like everyone else, which means that somewhere along the
lines, that changed; you became immune.” He places the vial back
down on the counter. “So I think the answers might start with
you.”

I already knew that
. I hop off the
counter and walk over to him. “So, wait a minute. Are saying that
he purposefully injected me with the virus to see if I would turn
into a vampire? And then what? I’d turn? How the hell did he change
me back?”

“That’s the answer we need.” He gives me a
sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Kayla. He was determined to find a
way to create perfection and he didn’t care about those he was
hurting. Or killing.” He pauses. “He did try to make up for
it—tried to reverse the damage he’d done.” Mathew starts organizing
the vials in rows.

I’m burning in my own anger. Monarch had
changed me into a vampire at one point. I was once one of those
disgusting monsters crying out at night; hungry and looking to eat
flesh and blood. Just like Sylas before he changed.

I swallow my emotions down because I know
that I have to—or maybe it’s how I’ve been programmed. “Mathew,
there’s something I have to tell you.” I watch as he sorts through
vials, reading the label on them. I hope that I can trust him.
“Something important.”

He glances up at me with a concerned look on
his face. “Kayla, what is it… you look a little ill.”

I touch my cheek to my hand, wondering what
ill looks like on me. “I feel fine, except I need to tell you
something… I just need to know that I can trust you.”

He nods, standing up as straight as his
crooked back will allow him to. “You can trust me with your life. I
promise.”

I absorb his truth, feeling a little better.
“Back when I went to get the papers and Sylas was there… well, he
wasn’t there as himself but a… but an abomination…”

He holds up his hands. “Wait, Sylas was an
abomination?”

I reluctantly nod. “He was, but then he bit
me and well…” I trail off as Mathew’s eyes widen.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he
asks in disbelief, dropping the vial he’s holding onto the floor.
It shatters at our feet and scatters into fragments around us.

“Because... I wasn’t sure I could trust
you,” I say. It’s my initial instinct to mistrust, to keep things
to myself, to put walls up. “And besides, it doesn’t make any
sense. He didn’t turn back into a human… he turned back into a Day
Taker. Plus, he’s bit me before and it didn’t do anything at all to
him; just made me pass out.”

Mathew deliberates what I’ve said, fiddling
with the button on his coat. “What were you when he bit you the
first time?”

I shrug. “Whatever you want to consider me
before I was a Day Walker,” I say. “A soldier… I’m not sure.”

“But you were a Day Walker when he bit you
the second time?”

I nod, the wheels in my head turning. “Do
you think that’s what did it? Do you think my Day Walker blood has
something to do with the cure?”

His eyes are as wide as I’ve ever seen
before, and without even answering, he whisks over to a cabinet
door, his excitement giving him a boost of energy. He opens the
door and takes out a syringe. There’s a stool next to him and he
pats it for me to sit down.

“Why?”

He pauses, uncertain. “If it’s all right
with you, I’d like to draw some of your blood and study it.”

I pull out the stool and sit down on it.
“You think studying it will help you figure out a cure?”

“We’re about to find out.” He pulls the cap
off the syringe. “Roll up your sleeve,” he instructs. I sigh, but
obey, rolling up my sleeve. He presses the needle into my skin,
into a vein. It pinches and I watch as the syringe fills up with my
blood. When the syringe is full, he removes the needle.

“So now what?” I ask. “How do you study
blood?”

He points at this strange looking object
over on the counter with a tube attached to it that angles to a
platform. “You study blood through that,” he says, rolling up his
sleeve. “But that’s not what I’m doing.”

Before I have time to think, he aims the
needle at his forearm and plunges it into his vein. My eyes widen
as I leap from the stool and reach out to stop him. “You don’t know
if that is safe!” I exclaim, my fingers snagging the rolled up
sleeve of his jacket.

He turns out of my reach and nudges my hand
away with his elbow. If I wanted to, I could take him out, but it
wouldn’t do any good. He’s already put some of my blood into his
veins.

“What if it doesn’t work on you?” I say,
stepping back and shaking my head. “What if it only worked on Sylas
because he was a Day Taker? Or what if it turns you into a Day
Taker or an abomination? There are so many possibilities,
Mathew.”

“I know that, but that’s how all of this
started. Risks where taken. Lives were sacrificed.” He continues
injecting himself with my blood. “Whatever happens doesn’t matter…
I can either do this or turn or die. I have to try something
else.”

Sacrifices need to be made. You must
understand that, Kayla.

Shaking my head, I sit back down on the
stool. “Well, I’m killing you if you turn.”

He glances up at me with a ghost smile.
“Fair enough.”

It grows silent as he takes the needle out
of his skin then sets it down on the countertop. I hold my knife
and keep my eyes locked on him, ready to slice his chest open if I
have to.

He pumps his fist a few times, staring at
his arm, waiting for something to happen, I guess.

After some time goes by, I ask, “What do we
do now?”

“Now,” he says simply, “we wait to see if I
turn human or if you have to kill me.”

Chapter 21

And wait we do, for a very long time—hours
maybe—although I’m not exactly sure since I never did figure out
the exact concept of time. Nothing seems to be happening. We make
it all the way through the night when Nichelle comes by to inform
us that a few vampires tried to break through the wall, but were
easily fended off. That ends up being the most excitement we get
for the night.

She gave me a weird look when she came into
the lab, probably wondering why I was sitting there with Mathew
instead of being out with her as well as the others, fighting off
vampires. However, neither Mathew nor I offered her any
explanation, so she got irritated and left us alone.

“Thanks for not saying anything to her,”
Mathew tells me after she leaves, slumping down onto the table. He
looks exhausted and a little bit weaker than he did before.

“No problem,” I respond calmly, yet on the
inside I’m worried about how he looks. I’m kicked back in the stool
with my legs up on the counter, my back leaning against the wall so
I’m facing the door with my knife on my lap. I look relaxed,
however I’m anything but. “I didn’t think you’d want her worrying
about you.”

He nods his head, his eyelids fluttering
like he’s fighting off sleep. “She’s very important to me,” he says
with a yawn. “I hate that she’s even out there fighting.” His head
suddenly begins to wobble around so his forehead is angled and
pressed against the surface of the table. Then he shuts his eyes
and becomes silent.

I sit up and lower my feet to the ground,
wondering if something’s happening. My senses go on high alert, my
fingers wrap around my knife as I get to my feet. I listen and
realize I can no longer hear his heartbeat, so I hurry to his
side.

“Mathew, are you okay?” I place my hand on
his shoulder and gently shake him, keeping my other arm out to my
side, ready to swing it around and stab him in the chest if he sits
up and his eyes start bleeding. He limply moves around as I shake
him. “Mathew!” I still can’t hear his heart beating so I lean over
and put my ear beside his face, trying to hear if he’s breathing.
All I hear is silence and I feel no breath.

Jesus, did it kill him?

I pull my hand away and turn for the door to
get help, hoping someone else around here can understand medical
stuff enough to know what’s going on. I’m halfway there when I hear
it. Soft at first, but then it increases; rapid, loud and
sturdy.

Thump… Thump… Thump… Thump…

I quickly spin around and race back to the
table as Mathew elevates his head and focuses on me, blinking his
eyes as he looks around in disbelief. I put my hand in front of me,
the sharp tip of the knife angled at his throat, but then he opens
his eyes widely; my knife slips from my hand and hits the
floor.

His eyes are no longer pale. They’re green,
like how grass used to look.

“Holy shit,” I say, stunned.

He lets out a shaky breath as he sits up
straighter. “What’s wrong?” He looks at me worriedly. “Did it
work?”

“I’m not sure… but…” I scoop up my knife and
inch closer to him, “but your eyes are green... and your skin looks
less pale.”

Mathew’s green eyes widen as he touches his
fingertips to the bottom of his eyes. Then he examines his skin
over, putting his arms out in front of him, turning them over,
noting that it looks healthy and smooth. When he looks at me, he’s
in a state of awe.

“I feel so much better,” he says and even
his voice sounds stronger.

I open my mouth to ask if he thinks it
worked—if maybe that’s the cure—or if he thinks he might have
turned into a Day Taker—or worse something else—but we’re
interrupted when Nichelle bursts inside the room, panting and
gasping for air. Mathew purposefully looks in the other direction
from her, as though he’s working on something at the table.

“Sylas is back with the others,” she says,
breathless, pressing her hand to her chest as she reaches the
center of the room.

“That’s good.” Mathew pretends to be moving
things around. “Why don’t you send him in here? But just him, not
the others.”

She nods, giving his back an inquisitive
look. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He shoos her away. “Just really
busy.”

She still looks lost as she turns and exits
the room, letting the door bang shut behind her.

“Why are you hiding from her?” I ask him,
sitting down at the table beside him.