A Gate of Night

by Bella Forrest

  Vivienne’s eyes betrayed how revolted she was by him, but we all knew she wasn’t being given a choice. She had to comply. She was the Elder’s puppet and anything she did that displeased the Elder was to receive “just” punishment—Natalie’s torturous death was the public example.

  I was expecting Vivienne to wither away, to return to the empty shell she’d become after what we put her through at hunters’ headquarters, but the strength and defiance never left her eyes. I wondered if Xavier had something to do with that, but whoever was to thank, I was more than grateful that she still had fight in her.

  We needed her to be strong. She needed to be strong. She couldn’t give up, especially now that she, just like the rest of us, had just become a pawn in the Elder’s game.

  After proclaiming her as the ruler of The Shade, Kiev, Clara, and the Elder’s minions left for The Blood Keep and it seemed like we could do as we wished. The first thing Vivienne did was to make sure that all those who were lost would be honored. Hundreds of bodies were buried in the days that followed. Gavin’s family—his mother, Lily, his brother, Robb, and his sister, Madeline—among them. Rosa, one of my daughter’s dearest friends, had also met her end.

  I could only imagine how heartbroken Sofia would’ve been to find out about the loss.

  A memorial service was held to honor the dead’s memory. At that time, it didn’t matter what any of us were—vampire, human or hunter. We became one in our grief.

  I was standing beside Zinnia during the candlelit service, listening to the sobs and the cries, the broken hearts, grieving the loss of loved ones. Zinnia was deathly silent for most of the service, except for one haunting moment when she whispered to herself in a voice so low she probably thought I wouldn’t hear, “The vampires cry as if they’re human. Who knew they could be capable of grief?”

  Despite all the walls the young huntress had made to convince herself that devoting her life to killing vampires was a life worth living, she was beginning to see that misery existed on both the vampires’ and the hunters’ sides. Both had suffered loss.

  Still, the solidarity that came out of our grief didn’t last long. The hunters still hated the vampires and the vampires felt the exact same way. Especially considering that blood was scarce, tensions were beginning to rise.

  Any thought of leaving The Shade ended when after a handful of hunters attempted to escape, Clara arrived, bled each hunter dry, and with a bloody mouth and a blood-curdling grin, announced that anyone who tried to leave the island was going to answer to her.

  “We have plans for you little hunters,” she said to those who remained at The Shade. “You didn’t think that you could just get away with everything that you did to us vampires, do you? No, each of you is going to pay very dearly for all the vampires you killed.”

  Her words were a bone-chilling clue to what the Elder had planned for his captives.

  In the months that followed, the Elder’s minions began bringing their captives to The Shade. It seemed the Elder saw the island as his very own Alcatraz. Vampires from other covens—most of them opponents of the Novak clan—began to occupy The Shade.

  We weren’t told how to handle their arrival. They were just dumped at The Shade and it was up to Vivienne to figure out what to do with them.

  Protecting the humans began to be a challenge the more outsiders were brought to The Shade, but we had control of the Black Heights—and both the Cells and the Catacombs within it. All outsiders were simply kept outside of the cavernous mountains.

  As for the portal, none of us knew what had become of it. We weren’t given any information on whether or not anyone had crossed through any of the realms.

  I really didn’t care until Vivienne showed up outside my bedroom one night.

  “I’m sorry. I just… I can’t sleep,” she explained when I found her standing outside my door.

  As if I’m the person you always go to when you can’t sleep. “Neither can I,” I admitted.

  “Can we talk?”

  “Sure.”

  Intrigued, I stepped out of the bedroom and we both made our way to the living room. We made ourselves comfortable on separate couches before the vampire heaved a deep sigh.

  “What’s going on, Vivienne?”

  “It’s been months, Aiden. Do you think they’re still alive?”

  “I have to believe that they are. Sofia is important to them. They won’t just…” I thought of my teenage daughter going through her first pregnancy. Possibly alone, a captive of a psycho freak like the Elder. I found myself unable to breathe. I hated that I couldn’t be with her. Sofia was strong, but I was her father and she’d been away from me for so long. I was never going to forgive myself for not being there for her through this.

  “Do you think they’re together? Do you think Kiev is telling the truth? That Sofia is really pregnant? If she is, then they would keep them together, wouldn’t they? I…” Vivienne probably realized that it was pointless throwing her questions at me because she just stopped. “I’m scared, Aiden.”

  “I am too,” I admitted, finally realizing why it was me Vivienne had come to. Of all the people in The Shade, only I could understand Vivienne’s fears regarding Derek and Sofia. I hadn’t wrapped my mind around the idea until that moment, but whether I liked it or not, since my daughter had married Derek, the Novaks were now our family.

  In an attempt to appease both her and myself, I said the words that became our glue that held us together for the days to come.

  “Sofia and Derek are strong and resilient. They’ll make it. Now, we have to do them proud and stay strong and resilient too. They can’t return to…” I gestured towards our surroundings. “This.”

  Vivienne stared directly at the space in front of her. “We need to rebuild The Shade.”

  I shrugged. “How hard could it be? You did it in…” I paused in wonder “How long did it take you to make The Shade what it is?”

  “Five centuries.”

  I couldn’t keep myself from scoffing. “Great. We’re attempting the impossible.”

  Hope and determination sparked in the blue-violet eyes of The Shade’s princess. A smile formed on her face.

  “Impossible never stopped us before.”

  Chapter 20: Sofia

  Eli Lazaroff and I had never gotten the chance to bond throughout my stay at The Shade, but the moment I saw him at The Blood Keep, he became my best friend.

  “Eli?” I blinked several times to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things.

  “In the flesh, my queen.” He nodded stoically as he scanned the room, his eyes settling on Shadow, who was seated by the door, busy lapping up a bowl of blood. Eli showed no trace of fear over the magnificent creature. On the contrary, he seemed quite taken by it.

  He probably wants to poke it and study it. Curiosity might just kill Eli Lazaroff if he does that. I stared at him for quite a bit, still uncertain if he was some sort of apparition. I couldn’t explain how my heart was swelling with joy just to have a comrade, an ally at the castle.

  I jumped off the bed and threw my arms around his neck. As I hugged his tall, lanky build, I began to sob against his chest, giving in to the emotions I’d been suppressing over the past months.

  Eli stood stiff against my embrace. He clumsily began brushing his one hand over my hair as he cleared his throat. “Your highness, I… I’m sorry.”

  I pulled away from him, not wanting to make either of us uncomfortable. “No, Eli, I’m sorry. I just… you understand. You’re the first person from home I’d seen in months, and…”

  “I understand, your highness.” He nodded sympathetically.

  “Please. Call me Sofia.” I pulled him toward one of the couches near the window of the finely-furnished bedroom. I sat beside him, eager to hear about home, but also dreading what he could tell me. “How’s The Shade? How’s Derek?”

  He lifted his black-rimmed glasses over the bridge of his nose and creased his brows. “What do you mean? Isn’t the k
ing here with you?”

  I tensed. “You mean he isn’t at The Shade?”

  Eli shook his head. “We haven’t seen either you or him since you both left after your wedding, and now…” His eyes focused on my stomach, a mixture of concern and excitement in his eyes. “I never thought I’d see the day when a woman would be carrying Derek Novak’s child.”

  “Children,” I corrected him. If he isn’t here and he isn’t back home, where is he? I was tempted to think the worst, but I couldn’t allow myself to do that. “Eli, is there a way we can find out where Derek is?”

  Eli shook his head. “Not from here, we can’t. Unless you can convince your captors to allow you to have your pregnancy at The Shade. Your father is concerned for you.”

  A lump formed in my throat at the mention of Aiden. What I would give to be in his embrace right now… It dawned on me that Kiev had more cards against me than I had initially thought. If he could get Eli at The Blood Keep in a span of mere hours, I had to assume that they had control over The Shade.

  “What’s happening at The Shade, Eli?”

  I was nowhere near prepared to hear his answer to my question. All the lives lost, all the destruction left behind… by the time he was done, I was in tears.

  I thought about the young lives that had been taken—Rosa, Lily and her children. Even Natalie, whom I knew more from Derek’s stories than anything else, left a hole in my heart when I heard about her sorry demise. It took a while before I was able to choke down the tears, but I knew… I sensed it somehow. I changed that morning. More than grief and sorrow, I felt something else… an emotion I wasn’t quite familiar with began to creep in. Hatred.

  I wasn’t even sure exactly what it was that I hated, but I knew that its seed had taken root in my core as I began to sob uncontrollably. I was exhausted by the unfairness of it all, and try as I did to deny it, I felt like it was all my fault. Countless what-if’s began to plague my mind as the faces of those who had passed away during the Elder’s attack began to eat away at my teetering grip on my own sanity.

  I wondered if Derek knew what had become of The Shade. I tried to comprehend why it was so important that they did not allow the gates to be opened.

  “It seems that in our world,” Eli concluded, “if you want to survive, you can’t go about it without sacrificing the lives of other people.”

  I couldn’t think of any objection, not when so many lives had indeed been sacrificed for my sake—for the sake of The Shade. I longed so much to have Derek with me at that moment, hear his deep voice remind me of the beauty in this world, but at that moment, the sense of loss kept me from even visualizing him in my mind.

  Derek, where are you? We need you. He was alive. I had to believe in that. But at the same time, we had to make our move. We couldn’t just wait for Derek to save the day.

  “Eli,” I said breathlessly. “Is there a way we can escape from here?”

  Eli tightened his lips, a muscle on his jaw twitching as he gave the question some thought. “I’m sure there is, Sofia. There’s always a way, but I have to ask… if we do succeed in escaping, where do you intend to go? The Shade is also occupied by the Elder.”

  I had no ready answer to the question.

  Eli swallowed hard whenever he looked at me. It hadn’t registered to me that I was in that bedroom with a vampire until that moment. He must be craving me too. That’s why he’s acting so strange.

  “I want my children to experience sunlight, Eli.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “If we manage to find a way to escape, we’d have to do it in sunlight. It will buy us time from the Elder’s vampires pursuing us.”

  The color drained away from Eli’s face. “You’re serious?”

  I nodded. “It would mean us escaping to the human world. We’d have to go to the hunters. It’s our only chance.”

  “The sunlight will eventually kill me.”

  I shook my head. “You won’t die if you drink my blood first.”

  “You’re suggesting that I take the cure?”

  “I’m not forcing you to do this, Eli. It’s not a command or anything. I know the consequences of turning human. I saw what it did to my husband, how vulnerable it made him, but…”

  Eli nodded as he digested the information. “Very well then. Let’s figure out a way of escape. You’ve been here longer than I have. Do you have an plan in mind?”

  I shook my head. “I was hoping you could help with that.” I looked out the window overlooking the gardens. “The only places I’m allowed to go to are this bedroom and the gardens. I doubt the servants I get to interact with will ever have the guts to help us escape. You, on the other hand… Maybe you can volunteer to help the servants grow crops. There must be a loophole we can use to our advantage somewhere in that information.”

  Eli stood, clasping his hands behind his back. “There’s not much to hold on to, Sofia. No one has ever been able to escape this place.”

  “Except for Derek.”

  “How do you know that he was able to escape? How are you so certain?”

  “Because if he wasn’t able to escape, then he’s most likely dead, and that’s a reality I won’t be able to live with. He’s alive. That means he is somewhere.”

  Eli seemed dubious, but he nodded.

  I could see the hesitation and the fear in his eyes, and I had to wonder about how selfish I was bringing him here, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Five months was already way too long and I still didn’t have a plan. I was hoping that they would give Eli a little more leeway than they gave me. “Eli, you are the smartest person I know. You were invaluable in building up The Shade. Prove how invaluable you are to the people here and we might just have a way out.”

  Eli smiled. “I know who I am and what I can offer. That’s not what I’m worried about.” He gulped, his eyes on my neck.

  I took a short breath. He’s craving my blood.

  As if reading my mind, he threw me an explanation as he began pacing the floor. “If I need to turn to a human just to be able to escape… Once I drink your blood, Sofia, I’m not sure I can stop.”

  “You can,” I said with a curt nod of determination. “You will, but before we worry our heads over the consequences of you drinking my blood, we have to think of a way to escape first.”

  Eli nodded shortly then stopped his pacing before furrowing his brows. “You say that the only places they allow you to go to are this bedroom and the gardens, correct?”

  I nodded.

  “How do they make sure you stay within these boundaries?”

  I pointed Shadow’s way. “Once, I tried to go where I wasn’t supposed to and well, let’s just say that Shadow has already had a taste of my blood.”

  “Shadow? That’s his name?”

  “That’s what I decided to call him. He doesn’t really answer to the name. He just answers to Kiev snapping his fingers. Kiev calls them beasts.”

  “Them? You mean there’s more?”

  I nodded. “More than I care to count. All over The Blood Keep, but Shadow here is tasked to guard me. He has my scent and everything. Kiev told me that Shadow would be able to track me down even if I were miles away.”

  Eli stared at the beast for a good long while before he gave me a determined nod and said the one thing I desperately wanted to hear.

  “I think I know a way out of here.”

  Chapter 21: Derek

  No matter what I did to convince Ibrahim that there was no way I’d calm down as long as I felt far away from Sofia, he didn’t budge.

  “I understand.” He would shrug and shuffle his feet. “But the Ageless has spoken.”

  While I understood how easily the power the witches had could be abused, I didn’t understand their blind submission to the Ageless. I didn’t understand how they could just sit on that power when they could be an agent for good.

  However, I had to accept that to reason and argue would be futile, so I had to settle for the next bes
t thing: music. Whenever I returned to my quarters, I would go directly to the guitar they’d provided for me and strum the song I’d hummed many times to Sofia. It was a wordless song that was ours, one that helped make memories of her more vivid.

  As time went by, it felt like I was losing control more than I was gaining it. I resorted to using wooden utensils, because I’d already seared my lips and tongue more times than I could count with the heat that was coming from my palms.

  I would never gain control of the power—not without her. The prophecy still stayed true. We were strongest together and we were weakest apart. I couldn’t believe that I’d doubted it even for a moment.

  Music and memories got me through every day, but my patience was wearing thin and my training with Ibrahim was getting nowhere. The warlock having already given up on me, I was summoned to the quarters of the Ageless.

  She lived in a palace made of pure white marble and studded with red rubies. I was brought inside and through a series of halls, gardens and brightly-lit rooms. I couldn’t help but contrast the place with the Elder’s castle. The palace was to light as The Blood Keep was to darkness. It felt like hours before Ibrahim and I finally arrived at a courtyard, beautified by a variety of strange-looking flowers and plants. The Ageless was standing in the middle of a sand circle, located at the center of the courtyard. Her eyes were closed and her face was turned toward the heavens, a peaceful look on her beautiful face.

  With the sunset serving as her backdrop, she looked nothing short of heavenly.

  Ibrahim cleared his throat to get her attention, but whatever she was doing, it seemed she wasn’t going to stop for anything. We just had to wait our turn.

  Ibrahim motioned for me to follow him toward a gazebo where we sat to wait for the Ageless to be ready to meet with us.

  “So you’ve finally given up on me,” I told Ibrahim, almost in an accusatory tone. “Didn’t I tell you that I wouldn’t be able to control myself? Not without Sofia?”