Free Darkness Fades (Darkness Falls Series, Book 3) by Jessica Sorensen

to
meet the others?” I still have the knife, holding it out to the
side, and Mathew eyes it with interest.
    “You don’t have to worry about it, Kayla.
It’s okay to put the knife away; we aren’t going to hurt you.” He
smiles at me as he crosses his arms on the table. “I’ve sent for
someone to bring your friends here.”
    I plaster a fake smile on. “I think I’ll
simply hold onto it, just in case.” I select a spot at the table a
ways away from him and pull out a chair, sinking down into it.
Nichelle goes to the opposite side of the table and takes a seat
right next to Mathew. We wait in silence, eyeing each other down;
Mathew trying to look comforting while Nichelle looks annoyed.
    Finally, the door opens and a man enters
with Greyson and Aiden to the side of him. They both look confused,
looking around, but show no signs of being harmed. Aiden doesn’t
have his hood on and his hands are out, making me wonder if they
came from inside the building or if darkness has arrived
    “Please, have a seat,” Mathew says,
gesturing at the table.
    Aiden’s eyes land on me and he rushes over
to sit beside me while Greyson walks to the other side of the table
and takes a seat opposite of Mathew.
    “Where’s Maci?” I ask Aiden.
    “They patched her up and she’s resting in a
room,” he answers, staring Mathew down with a cold, hard glare.
“Who’s the old guy?”
    Before I can explain, Mathew clears his
throat. “First, I want to apologize to each of you for the way we
welcomed you. You need to understand that it was only done to
protect the people of this town. We needed to be positive that none
of you had been infected by the virus.” He pauses and directs his
attention at Aiden. “Or that any of you would be a danger to
us.”
    “If you thought we would be dangerous, why
did you bring us here?” I interrupt, putting my arms on the table,
reminding them that I still have the knife.
    Mathew’s pale eyes glance at the knife then
at me. “I didn’t expect you to arrive with others. It surprised me.
Also, when we saw the wounds and blood on Maci, we needed to make
sure she wasn’t bitten; that none of you were.”
    I place my knife on the table and fold my
arms. “I can understand that. We all want to protect those we
belong to.”
    He nods in agreement. “Exactly.” A bead of
sweat drips down from his forehead and he wipes it on his sleeve. I
remember that Nichelle told me earlier that Mathew had been bitten.
I wonder if he is changing, if he is putting his people at risk
right now.
    “Nichelle told me you were bitten,” I say.
“Yet you haven’t changed. How is that possible?”
    “That isn’t the reason I brought you here,”
he replies, looking pale and worn out. “When I worked with the
doctors at the colony, we were experimenting with our medications
on animals. It was difficult to see what kind of results we were
getting. So Gabrielle and Monarch began stealing children for our
experiments. They rationalized their antics by telling themselves
they would only steal children who had been neglected or abused in
their homes.”
    Aiden’s eyes flicker with rage. “That’s
bull. Sylas and I were never neglected or abused by our
parents.”
    He gives him a sad look. “I’m not sure how
come the two of you were chosen, but after they stole you, they had
to slow down on the amount of children that they were stealing.
Your parents did a massive search trying to find you. Everyone at
the colony worried we’d all be found and then locked away.”
    Aiden jumps up, toppling his chair over.
“Stop lying.”
    Nichelle instantly jumps up in front of
Mathew, putting herself between Aiden and him. “Watch it. I’m not
afraid to take you out.”
    Aiden laughs sardonically, throwing his head
back. “Like you could.”
    She glares at him, her voice dropping low
with a warning, “Want to find out?”
    Aiden laughs again, but it fizzles out and
he lets it go, picking up his chair. “So you knew about