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Chapter 1

The rain pours down like needles againstbolts flash sliver across the cloudy sky The va me to stop But I can’t This is what I’ down the vacant streets, weaving through rusty cars, lass and et, a tall one with fleshless skin and bloodless eyes, scurries around a burning barrel and ju of shiny steel It bolts for the doors, its bare feet shedding skin Clutching the stake, I charge after it and with a swift launch off the bottoh the darkness My boot catches against the railing, and just as quick as I caught up to the

"Da my hands on rocks I let out a frustrated screa skills slip away from me

"If you’d just take the medicine, then that vampire would be dead by now" Sylas creeps from the shadows of the cars, dressed head-to-toe in black His dark eyes light up like coals against the fires burning in the streets His hands are stuffed in his pockets and his dark hair brushes across his forehead "Yourtoto do that… yet I’ainst the railing and trapsback because of a certain sohten ht in the eye "I’e until I knohat I’ Monarch’s orders" He coils a strand of ht after everything you’ve learned, you’d have given up on hi" It takes a lot, but I shove hiotten nowhere with h and touches his chest where I shoved him "Always so feisty"

A shriek pierces the air and our gazes dart to the street The va to feed

"Shouldn’t you be hiding out with the rest of the Day Takers?" I flip the stake in my hand and slide it in the back pocket of my jeans "Or do you have a death wish?"

He winks atif you’d " His dark eyes wander to the top of the stairs where I lost the vampire "Looks like I owe Emmy a shot of amortire"

A solution they take to block out their cravings, but honestly I think they use it --just like they do withbets on me" I stomp after him, past the fires, and dip into the shadows of the cars

"Hey" He grins through the night, his long legs stretching as he steps gracefully over the dented hood of a s ass"

"Sorry to disappoint you" I hop over the hood of a car and slip cluround

"Take the medicine, Kayla," he calls out, barely a silhouette anymore The rain lets up, and the sky cal off if you don’t"

I stop in the center of the street, listening to the va’s walls as they hide fro to do with

It hasn’t been that long since I left Aiden and the others, but it feels like an eternity I don’t regret my decision to leave Not yet, anyway If it turns out E h and head down the street I can’t see Sylas any; to a place where I feel just as uncomfortable as I did in The Colony

I take razing against the broken pieces of concrete My handfro at the sidewalk I pause and take a step back, knocking my hip into a buh the dark at two outlines of pale white figures with feathery white hair and flawless skin

Highers

Chapter 2

I stand in the ain, but the Highers stay Their pale figures are blinding against the blackness of night Sharp howls of the vampires’ cries shake the city as they flee for their lives

But why? Because of the Highers?

The Highers follow after a va words with each other I can’t hear what they’re saying But I want to I inch forward, ducking loard the ground, and strain to listen They look like they’re searching for solow of the fires always burning in the streets and his pale eyes are recognizable

"Gabrielle," I breathe

Gabrielle snatches the vas flail as it struggles to escape Fangs ascend from Gabrielle’s lips and he tips his head back, his body tre with desire His head snaps down and he sinks teeth into the vaer in Gabrielle’s pale eyes, one he’s desperate to get rid of

His shoulders jerk with each s of blood The vampire’s body twitches and its nails thrash Gabrielle drinks until the vampire is eround as if it is discarded trash I stifle a choking sound Gabrielle’s eyes rise through the darkness