A Shade Of Vampire 5: A Blaze Of Sun (25 page)

Only Aiden, Vivienne and I remained to wait for when the first signs of sunlight would arrive.
It felt like my heart was being torn from me when I heard Derek scream, a sign that his torment had already begun.

“How long is this going to take?” I asked Vivienne.

“We won’t be able to check on him until the sun sets,” she replied.

Another scream of pain came from inside.

“I want to go in,” I announced
, as I moved to open the latch that was keeping the door locked and secure.

“No!” several voices
said with alarm.

Aiden and Vivienne were by my side immediately, with my father giving me a stern look and Vivienne giving me a concerned one.

“You’re not going in there.” Aiden shook his head. He then gave Vivienne a look. “Maybe we should get her out of here.”

I could barely make out what he was saying. His voice was being drowned out by Derek’s screams pounding through my mind.
What if there’s no cure? What if we got something wrong?
“No. I promised Derek I’d stay here.”

“Sofia, you’re torturing yourself.” His voice was firm but not void of desperation.

Vivienne gently took a step forward. “We don’t know what he might end up doing to you, Sofia. We don’t know what’s going on in there. It’s enough that Derek’s life is at risk. We’re not going to risk your life too.”

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 s
ettle 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.

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. One 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.