We were thinking of putting in surveillance cameras into the pit in order to observe what was going on. Derek voted against it for reasons I couldn’t understand. The only explanation he gave was a simple, “I don’t want anyone to have to see what I’m going through.”
Eli had insisted on it, and Derek agreed under the condition that it would not be seen by anyone as it happened. It would only be used for study purposes after we found out the results.
The unknown was killing me. I wanted to know what was happening and I didn’t even have any idea why. Do you really want to see your husband in sheer torment, Sofia?
Another piercing scream came from inside. I grabbed a hold of my father, hoping to somehow fast forward time and take Derek out of his misery.
“You don’t have to be here for this, Sofia…” Aiden pushed. “He’ll understand.”
I entertained the idea, but quickly shook my head. “No.” I pulled away from my father and leaned against the door. Get a grip, Sofia. Be strong for him. “I’m here, Derek,” I spoke up, hoping that he would somehow hear me. “Survive this. Please. Be strong.”
Right then, Yuri and Claudia showed up. From the grim expressions on their faces, it was clear that something was very wrong.
No matter how difficult it was, I pried my attention from Derek to them. “What’s going on?”
They took one look at me, obviously hesitant to answer my question. Yuri looked at Vivienne and Aiden instead, motioning for them to follow him so they could speak in private – away from me.
“No.” I rose to my feet, the sound of Derek’s screams pounding in my brain. “What’s going on? I’m queen of this island now. Let me know what’s happening.”
The atmosphere was thick with tension. I could practically feel the static in the air.
Yuri and Claudia exchanged glances before Claudia nodded toward him. He then blurted out the problem at hand. “The hunters are coming.”
A chill began to settle beneath my skin.
“I need to talk to them before they arrive at the island,” Aiden announced.
“Should we be preparing for war?” Yuri asked.
Aiden scoffed. “No. They’re not going to risk man-to-man combat. Not against The Shade. I took part in planning the destruction of The Shade, and if they’re going for what we planned. They’re going to blow the island up.”
“Even if you’re here?” Vivienne frowned.
Aiden smirked. “The hawks have no loyalties. Our mission is to destroy all vampires. I am collateral damage.”
An adrenaline rush surged through me. “Someone get my dad a phone.”
Vivienne nodded. “I’m on it.” She then sped away.
I continued to list my instructions to Yuri. “Get Corrine in here. Fast. We need to see if she can do something to ward off the attack or even escort Aiden to the hunters before they get here.”
Yuri nodded and quickly made his way to The Sanctuary.
I looked straight at Aiden, unable to hide the tension in my voice. “Is there anything you can do to convince them not to attack?”
“I don’t know if they’ll listen, but I’ll try. Perhaps it’s best to have Kyle come with me… Our only ace against them is that we’ve found a possible cure.”
I wondered what the hunters would do to Kyle and Derek if we actually found the cure, but I had to shove it out of my mind, and focus on the matter at hand. I nodded. “Do everything necessary to make them hold off on the attack. Let the hunters know that the vampires are surrendering. They don’t have to kill everyone off.”
“Surrendering?” Claudia gasped. “What?! Sofia, they’re going to kill us!”
“Not if you agree to try out the cure…” I responded.
“A cure that we’re not sure works…”
A loud groan came from within the Pit and my stomach formed into knots. “It’s going to work.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Claudia shook her head. “Not all of us want to become human again.”
My jaw tightened. “Would you rather die, Claudia? If we don’t give them a good enough reason to hold off on their attack, this will be the end of The Shade.”
Claudia was about to say something else, but Vivienne came just in time, phone in hand, to listen in on our conversation. She handed the phone to Aiden, before addressing the blonde. “Sofia’s right, Claudia. We can worry about dealing with the consequences later. Right now, we’re just wasting time arguing over this.”
Claudia scowled, but backed down.
Aiden dialed a number on the phone, putting it on loudspeaker.
“Hello?” Zinnia’s familiar voice came from the other side.
“Zinnia, this is Aiden. Don’t you dare hang up.”
“Our superiors want you to know that we value everything that you’ve done for the hunters, but you understand the way it works… this has to happen.”
“We found a cure. One of the vampires is now a human and the cure has been administered to Derek Novak as we speak. By the end of the day, he will be human again.”
I was surprised to hear the conviction in my father’s voice. It was as if he was one hundred percent sure that the cure would work on Derek. I tried to listen in on what was happening at the Pit but it seemed Derek had grown silent. I had no idea if that was a good or a bad sign.
“I don’t believe you,” Zinnia responded.
I could practically imagine the grimace on her face. The petite, raven-eyed hunter had never been a fan of me, but she was important to my father and to my late best friend, Ben. I had to deal with her snarkiness a lot while I was at the hunters’ headquarters.
“There are thousands of humans here, Zinnia. A good lot of them are women and children. Not all of them have to die. You can check the headquarters’ database for a man named Kyle Madison. He is suspected to be a vampire, and he was, but now, he’s human again.”
“Get Kyle here,” I told Claudia, before speaking to Zinnia over the loudspeaker. “Zinnia, this is Sofia.”
“Great… if it isn’t the princess of vampires herself.”
“Look… We’ll send Kyle to you so you can see for yourself… There is a cure. This could be the answer we’re looking for…. Please…”
All I got from her side was silence. I held my breath as I listened to her uneven breathing.
“I’ll ask my superiors. I’ll call you back.”
Just like that, she hung up. It was the longest five minutes of my entire life, waiting for Zinnia to get back in touch with us.
When the phone rang and Aiden answered, I held my breath in suspense.
“You’d better not be bluffing.”
I heaved a sigh of relief, but then a scream from the Pit reminded me that I was still a far cry away from any semblance of peace.
Chapter 46: Derek
The pain was indescribable and all my senses were in overdrive. I was aware of everything happening within a hundred mile radius, but at the same time, I couldn’t comprehend any of it, because the agony was making it hard for me to have any coherent thought.
The light of the sun burned my skin and I was almost certain from the moment it hit me that there was no way I could survive it, but still, there was this will to survive. I had no sense of time. The pain seemed endless. There were times when I was already certain that it would be the end of me, then my heart would practically triple its pace and blood would pump at high speed throughout my system, then the pain would subside, giving me a couple of breaths, a momentary reprieve, before escalating once again.
There were voices outside the Pit, but I was only really focused on one. Sofia’s. She told me that she wouldn’t leave, which both comforted and tormented me. I knew how compassionate she was. I knew the kind of effect my pain had on her.
I wanted it to end. I wanted it to end badly. I knew that I could just say one word and they would heed to my command and open that door to let me out of the Pit, but something kept me from ending my own misery, something more human than beastly. O
ne word could describe what it was that pushed me on: hope. The hope that the light – no matter how painful it was – was my door to freedom.
The agony went for what felt like days until I reached a tipping point. It was a point when I’d gotten used to the pain and I was about to surrender to death, then I heard Sofia from the other side of the door. She was humming… the sweet, gentle tone of her voice hummed our song. It was exactly what I needed to remind myself that I couldn’t die. I simply couldn’t.
The tune played in the back of my mind and slowly, but surely, the pain subsided. A strange black gas-like substance began to ooze out of my skin, mouth… even my nostrils.
I looked at my hand and tried to make my claws come out. Nothing. I felt my mouth and I couldn’t touch my fangs any longer. The last stings of sunlight crept through the layers of my skin right down to the marrow of my bones. The black gas-like substance was then quickly replaced by radiant light, oozing from my every pore.
I could feel life overtake me where nothing but death used to be. For the first time in five hundred years, I felt completely alive.
I rose to my feet, basking in the warmth of what I was certain was the afternoon sun. “Sofia!” I called out, my back still turned to the door as I lifted my face, eyes shut, to the sunlight. The ever-present coldness under my skin was gone. I felt warm from the inside out – a sensation I had long forgotten.
I could hear them remove the locks of the door. It swung wide open and without looking, I could sense Sofia nearby.
“Derek?” Her voice broke.
She approached me. I wasn’t sure if it was just because of the high that I was feeling due to the success of the cure, but I was just as keenly aware of my surroundings then as I was when I was a vampire.
Must be the adrenaline rush…
My senses came alive when I felt Sofia touch my arm. She circled me in order to look into my face. I opened my eyes to find a mixture of wonderment, delight and apprehension on her beautiful face.
Tears ran down her cheeks as the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard came through her lips: her laughter. There was no mistaking the glee on her face as she threw herself at me. “It worked. I was so scared… Derek… It worked.”
I held her close, breathing in her scent, running my warm fingers through her soft, red hair. A vampire’s senses were supposed to be far more heightened than that of a human, but holding my Sofia as a man – and not some beast – that sensation was far better than any I had experienced as a vampire.
I put Sofia down on her feet before leaning down to kiss her. It was the first time I was able to be around her without having to fight the urge to sink my teeth into her. I could touch her, hold her, be with her without wanting to devour her.
“As touching as this scene is, I believe we have business to take care of,” a deep, gruff voice spoke from behind us.
I turned around to find a stranger – an old man with graying hair but perhaps one of the most intimidating presences I’d ever been around. Aiden was standing beside him.
“This is Arron,” Aiden introduced. “He’s one of the hunter elders.”
My gut clenched. Hunters. In The Shade. It felt like the beginning of the end.
“So this is him? The infamous Derek Novak? The ever-elusive king of the vampires…” Arron stepped forward and retrieved a dagger from his pocket. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
He grabbed my arm and then ran the dagger through it, cutting deeply. I winced at the pain. I couldn’t remember a dagger ever cutting so painfully when I was a vampire. We watched the wound, waiting for it to heal. Nothing happened.
Delight flickered in his dark brown eyes as a manic grin formed on his face. “Wonderful.”
That was when I came upon an important conclusion. Vampire or not, I had absolutely no business putting my trust in the hunters. Sofia’s wary face told me that she thought the exact same thing.
Chapter 47: Sofia
Borrowed time. It felt like every moment I spent with Derek was just borrowed time. The hunters insisted that Derek, Kyle, Anna and I be shipped to hunter headquarters immediately. A select number of vampires were also to be taken to headquarters – mostly those who were willing to become human again. The rest were to remain on the island – under hunter surveillance. If we refused to cooperate, they would threaten to blow up The Shade.
Derek shook his head. “I’m not going to hunter headquarters to spend my honeymoon getting poked and prodded for your research.”
We were at his penthouse, Arron and Zinnia sitting on the side of the dining table across from us. Aiden was sitting on my side, while Vivienne was sitting on Derek’s.
I clasped his hand tightly, wondering what it was that he had in mind. Does he not realize the threat that the hunters are posing to all of us?
Arron’s face remained stoic as he eyed Derek. “We’re not exactly giving you a choice here, Novak. It’s either you go by our demands or we destroy The Shade.”
“Arron, they just got married. If you want people to study, Kyle and Anna are more than willing to take Derek and Sofia’s place while the couple have their honeymoon.” Aiden was speaking very carefully, as if he was weighing every word that came out of his mouth, almost as if he was afraid of making a mistake.
I noted that I’d never seen him as on edge as he was when he was around Arron. I eyed the imposing old man with a sense of intrigue. How can he make even my father tremble?
Arron shifted his beady eyes toward Aiden. “Do you really think I care whether or not someone like Derek Novak has a peaceful honeymoon? He may be human now, but that doesn’t erase the hundreds of years when he was a beast.”
Derek slammed his left hand over the wooden table while his right hand tightened its grip on mine. “Let’s cut the nonsense, Arron.”
I caught the way Vivienne was staring at her twin in horror. She was looking at him as if he had gone mad. I could practically read what was going through her mind. Does he not realize that he is no longer as powerful as he was yesterday? Does he not realize how vulnerable The Shade is?
“Now that we’ve found a cure,” Derek began to speak up, “you and I both know that to blow up as valuable an asset as The Shade – and all its citizens – would be complete nonsense. The Shade has existed autonomously for the past four hundred years. We have a strong workforce and our own technologies that have enabled us to thrive independently and without your knowledge. To destroy The Shade – after having found a cure – is stupidity.”
“Are you saying that I’m bluffing, Novak?” Arron sat up straight.
He appeared menacing to me, but a quick glance at my husband took my breath away. Derek was just as intimidating as a human as he was a vampire. At that moment, everything about him exuded power.
“Yes.” Derek nodded confidently. “I think you’re bluffing. The cure changes everything and you know it. I was a hunter once and I’ve heard the whispers of what a cure could mean. You and I both know, Arron, that any vampire who would willingly take on the cure isn’t your enemy anymore.”
Arron wetted his lips, giving thought to Derek’s words. It seemed to me as if he wasn’t used to people standing up to him.
“We are willing to cooperate with you, Arron, because we want this cure just as much as you do, but we’re not going to do it as your prisoners or even as your hostages. I may be human now, and no longer the beast that I used to be, but I am still ruler of The Shade, and I will not let you treat my subjects like slaves or lab rats. If we’re going to find a cure that won’t require every single vampire to feed on Anna or my wife, then we’re going to do it here in The Shade after I spend time with my wife on our honeymoon.”
“If I disagree?” The hunter raised a brow in question.
Derek shrugged. “Well, it’s not like there’s anything you can do about it, is there? I would think that you’d prefer our cooperation instead of taking us by force, and we both know that you’re not going to blow the island up. It’s a waste of a v
aluable resource.”
Zinnia chuckled. “I don’t believe this. He’s talking about a partnership between hunters and the vampires of The Shade.”
I could swear that I saw a flicker of respect in the way Arron eyed Derek as he gave thought to what Derek was saying.
He nodded. “Two weeks. I expect your honeymoon to be over in two weeks, and then we can discuss how to proceed. During that time, I expect to have full access to all the people and resources of The Shade, as well as the cooperation of everyone in finding out a way to multiply the blood of the immunes. Do we have a deal?”
I was expecting a smile to appear on his face. Instead, I found the same fierce expression. Derek shook his head. “No.”
“Excuse me?” Clearly, Arron was getting irritated.
“One month. Our honeymoon will last for a month, and during that time, none of you will get in touch with us. You will give us the privacy we deserve. You are not to try to find us. Give my wife and me a chance to enjoy each other’s company.”
“How do I know you’re not just going to run off?” Arron asked, squinting an eye in suspicion.
“We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to,” I spoke up. “We’ve both fought and bled for the people of The Shade. We wouldn’t abandon them. We couldn’t.”
Arron shifted his gaze away from Derek and let it settle on me. He seemed to want to say something but thought better of it, but the way he was looking at me sent shivers down my spine. I could almost feel the hatred oozing out of his pores as he looked me over.
I had no idea who Arron was or what he was capable of, but I knew that he couldn’t be trusted. I made a mental note to ask Aiden about him at some point, but for now, I found solace that even in his human form, Derek was still in charge and still presenting himself as a force to be reckoned with.
Arron rose to his feet. “Very well. One month,” he conceded.
I searched Derek’s face for some sign of relief, but found none. He kept his cold poker face on as he stood up to shake Arron’s hand. “One month.”
A Blaze of Sun Page 23