A Shade of Vampire 7: A Break of Day (15 page)

Craig had been surprisingly easy to deal with. He’d made no attempt to give me trouble as we waited for Derek and the others to return. He barely spoke a word. Admittedly, I’d had my claws extended the entire time we were sitting together, and had placed my hands on my knees so they were clearly visible to him.

As soon as they had arrived back and slid safely down into the boat’s cockpit, Derek barked at Craig to start the engine and speed us away.

Despite the cabin now being cramped—with a soggy Shadow hogging an unholy amount of space—Derek squeezed over to me. I reached for his wet face and examined him, relieved that he appeared to be unscathed. He slid his hands down my body and wrapped them around my hips, pulling me closer to him in a tight embrace. He caught my lips between his and kissed me intensely. He didn’t say anything, but I knew from the look in his eyes what was going through his mind. He’d been afraid something could have gone wrong while I was alone with Craig.

Our kiss was interrupted rather unceremoniously by a third party. Something coarse and wet slapped against my cheek. Shadow was attacking me with his smelly snake-like tongue.

“Urgh, thanks.” I grimaced, wiping my face against my sleeve. “It’s good to see you again too, Shadow.” The dog placed his front paws on my knees, flattening them against the hard wooden bench.

Derek grabbed the mutt’s collar and yanked him back down to the ground on all fours, where Shadow continued to brandish his tongue, attempting to lavish me with more uninvited affection. Despite the surprise, I really had no right to feel irritated with Shadow. He’d saved my life and that of my two babies in carrying me out of the Keep, and endured great personal suffering in doing so.

“There, boy,” I said, grabbing his enormous head between my hands and giving him a generous ear scratch. He settled down contentedly at my feet.

I looked around the cabin to get a better look at our newly arrived passengers. The first sight that met my eyes made me break out into a wide smile. Liana and Cameron sat opposite us. Cameron’s body shook with tears of joy as he held Liana in his arms and showered her with kisses.

And next to them sat Claudia and Yuri. The feisty blonde had placed herself on Yuri’s lap, her small legs wrapped around his waist. They kissed as though they were having a competition of who could get to the back of the other’s throat first. I diverted my gaze, feeling uncomfortable watching a scene that was escalating too rapidly to belong anywhere other than their bedroom. I caught Derek’s eye and we both broke out giggling. When we noticed Eli sitting at an awkward angle nearby, positioned to distract himself from the couple, we laughed even harder.

Taking pity on him, Derek tugged on Shadow’s collar. “Come on, boy. Stand up. Go to Daddy over there in the corner. He looks like he’s in need of some company.” Eli glanced over at us and smiled with embarrassment, mouthing a “thank you” to Derek when Shadow got up and made his way over to his master.

Then my eyes fell on Vivienne in the far corner and any joy I’d just felt vanished. Her eyes were fixed on the ground and beads of tears trickled silently down her cheeks. Landis sat next to her, an arm placed around her shoulder, although he too looked devastated.

Derek followed my gaze and, on noticing her too, he looked back at me. “My sister deserves more than this. She’s sacrificed more than any of us.”

“I-I don’t think Xavier made it, Derek,” I whispered, recalling the state of his body when the Elder had transferred to me. I hadn’t seen him since and neither had Ashley. It seemed that Yuri and Liana had no news of the man either.

Derek held his head in his hands and fell silent, a silence that lasted until Craig addressed him.

“We’re back at the port. What now?”

“We’ll drop you off here,” Derek said. “You’re free to go back to Headquarters.”

Craig looked suspiciously at Derek, but then he nodded and limped his way out of the boat. He scurried away from the port and drove off in one of the buggies still parked up on the beach.

I looked up at Derek in question, as did Gavin. “He’s of no use to us any more. And I don’t want him knowing the location of our new home.” Then Derek said, “Liana, you’re the most experienced captain on this boat. I need you to navigate us to the beach where our new house is.”

Liana pulled herself away from Cameron’s arms and stood up.

“Well, I’ll do my best. I really hope there are some decent maps here.” She began searching through a drawer beneath the controls and pulled out several large maps, spreading them out against the dashboard. Derek went over to her, gave her the address and helped her locate our villa. Once Liana seemed to be confident of our destination, she took Craig’s place and the boat went shooting forward.

“We need to hurry,” said Derek. “We’ve only a few more hours until the sun starts to rise.”

By the time we arrived at the villa, daybreak looked about half an hour away. Liana steered the boat toward the shore until it hit shallow waters, at which point we all abandoned it. We jumped into the ocean and rushed across the sand, and then up the stairs to the boulevard our house was situated on.

A wave of nostalgia hit me as we arrived outside our charming home. I remembered all too clearly visiting the place months ago with Derek. I remembered how we’d fantasized about raising a family here. A dream that now seemed destined to be elusive.

Derek was the first to arrive at the front door. He reached for the keys from his pocket and unlocked it. We all bundled inside, leaving a trail of dirt behind us on the white floors. Shadow shook his giant mane, spraying the pale walls with mud.

My immediate concern was the impending sunshine. Thankfully, the house had come furnished and blinds lined the windows.

Once we’d closed the blinds, it was clear that everyone was itching for some rest, or in a certain couple’s case, privacy. It had been a long, stressful night.

“Is there a basement here, Sofia?” Eli asked me politely, Shadow trailing along behind him.

“Um… let’s take a look.” We found the door to a large basement located in the washing room. We descended the steps and Eli looked around, nodding.

“This looks like a good place for Shadow to rest for now, out of everyone’s way.”

Shadow padded over to a corner and nestled down. Then I took Eli upstairs to find him a bedroom that hadn’t already been snagged by the others. It turned out that he had to share with Landis. The two couples had already locked themselves up and Vivienne must have already retreated into a room by herself.

I wished Eli and Landis goodnight before heading off to find Derek. He wasn’t in the master bedroom that had been left for us to share. I went down the stairs and into the living room, but only saw Gavin lying on the sofa.

Then voices came from the kitchen. Derek stood leaning against the kitchen counter, in conversation with a tall dark-haired man I immediately recognized as Ibrahim.

As soon as Derek saw me enter, he said, “Ibrahim, I hear what you’re saying. But let’s please discuss all this in a few hours once we’ve had some rest. The bedrooms are all taken but if you want to stay here, there’s plenty of comfortable sofa space in the living room.”

Ibrahim nodded and gave me a brief smile before leaving the room.

“How come he’s here all of a sudden?” I asked.

“Sofia,” Derek said sleepily, “let’s talk about it in a few hours. We both need to get some rest.” Without waiting for my response, he picked me up and whisked me to our bedroom.

We undressed and tucked ourselves under the freshly starched sheets. A suspicious noise was starting to emanate from the direction of Claudia and Yuri’s room. I cuddled up next to Derek and muttered, “Well, this sure isn’t the housewarming party I would have expected.”

I woke up after six hours of sleep. The temperature in the room had risen considerably. I moved the sheets away from my body and looked down to see Sofia still asleep, her head against my chest. I lifted her head gently onto the pillow and wriggled down in bed so my face was level with hers. I placed a hand against her back and pulled her closer, pressing my lips against her neck and breathing in her scent. She stirred after several minutes and looked up at me. Confusion spread across her face.

“That was strange. I thought for a second that I was back at your penthouse in The Shade,” she said, rubbing her eyes. Then she squeezed my hand and looked at me seriously. “We need to rescue The Shade, Derek. Our people are in a terrible state, I can’t even begin to describe…”

“That’s partly what I was talking to Ibrahim about last night.” I slid out of bed and began getting dressed. “Let’s go down and continue that conversation with you present this time.” She found a clean dressing gown in the bathroom cupboard and fastened it around her.

When we arrived downstairs, Ibrahim was already waiting for us in the kitchen. We both greeted him with a nod and took seats next to him at the table.

“So, as I was saying,” Ibrahim said, “the council’s next plan is to finish wiping out the gates to Cruor. I’ve just come directly from destroying the gate at The Underground. Now the only gate to Cruor that remains is the one within the witch’s temple at The Shade.”

“I’m curious,” Sofia said. “Why do you witches even need our help in wiping out The Shade’s gate when you seemed to be able to ruin The Underground’s without much problem?”

“Because,” Ibrahim replied, “the job at The Underground was easier. The vast majority of the Elders have gathered at The Shade because that’s where most of the vessels and humans are.”

“And how exactly do you propose that we destroy The Shade’s gates when the place is swarming with Elders and vessels?” I asked.

“Firstly, none of the vampires here would accompany us. That would just provide them with more vessels. I would call on some more witches to help from The Sanctuary.”

Gavin stepped into the room, followed by Zinnia.

Momentarily distracted from our discussion, I asked Zinnia, “How on earth did you get back?”

“Oh, it wasn’t too difficult. I just shifted the blame to you two. Told them that you and Gavin must have run off with the vampires and that I had nothing to do with it. Tyler didn’t seem to believe me, but I managed to get Joshua on my side, who convinced him to let me go. They dropped me back at the port where I called Gavin’s number. I stole one of the boats and here I am.”

Sofia placed a hand on my arm, resuming our conversation. “I understand why vampires are of no use to this mission, and the same for humans”—she looked pointedly at Zinnia and Gavin—“but the others aren’t going to like this. They’re going to want to fight for The Shade.”

“In which case, to avoid wasting time arguing with them, we should leave now before they all wake up,” Ibrahim said.

Sofia tensed up beside me and tightened her grip on my arm. “You didn’t finish explaining the plan to Derek,” she said. “How exactly are you going to go about this?”

“We’ll have to play it by ear. We don’t know what the exact situation will be before we arrive,” Ibrahim said. “But we’ll have help. And as with The Underground, we have the advantage of surprise on our side. As long as we’re quick… I’m hoping the Elders at The Shade haven’t yet received news that the witches ruined The Underground’s gate.” He snapped his fingers and a dozen witches and warlocks wearing dark grey robes entered the kitchen.

I hugged Sofia and looked deep into her eyes. “Keep everyone safe. Don’t allow anyone to leave the house. But you’ll need blood. Zinnia and Gavin will stay here and help you cope.”

Then, before I could offer her words of comfort that I knew she desperately needed, Ibrahim’s hand rested on my shoulder, and the next minute, I couldn’t see anything at all. A blur of colors shrouded my eyes.

When my vision eventually returned, I was floating in the sea beneath a starry night’s sky. Ibrahim swam beside me along with his army from The Sanctuary. It didn’t take long to spot a familiar outline in the distance; we were about a quarter of a mile away from my lighthouse.

Ibrahim nodded and we swam to land, hoisting ourselves up on the rocks just below the tall building.

“The sooner we reach the temple, the better. Derek, try to remain hidden from view.”

The witches gathered around me and I crouched down so that my head was not visible above them as we walked. We moved away from the rocky area, past the Port, and entered the woods, moving swiftly toward the Sanctuary. My whole body tensed when a symphony of screams pierced through the atmosphere.

“What was that?” I whispered to Ibrahim.

“You don’t want to know.”

It felt like we had been running through the woods for about half an hour, the screams unrelenting. Eventually we reached the spot where the trees ended and the clearing outside the temple began. We crouched down in some bushes and surveyed the situation.

Several tall figures were huddled around the fountain. One of them I recognized instantly: Ashley. The other faces were familiar but I couldn’t put names to them—vampires whom, although they were citizens of The Shade, I had never personally spoken to. And then I spotted a vampire less than half the size of the others and I realized it was Abby.

The group stood in front of our destination, the temple. There was no way we could walk past them without being noticed.

I looked sideways at Ibrahim through the shrubbery. His brows furrowed, he appeared to be thinking furiously. This surprised me, because our next step seemed obvious to me.

“Just do your disappearing trick. Vanish us from here and manifest us again inside the temple,” I whispered.

He shook his head and looked at me like I’d just come up with the most stupid idea in the world. “Just trust me, all right?”

Then, without any warning, he sprang out of the bushes. My first instinct was to grab him and pull him back, but two witches yanked me back down into a sitting position. I wasn’t used to being kept in the dark and following orders blindly.

“Shhh. Just watch, Derek. And have faith in Ibrahim. We will tell you when to move and what to do when the time comes,” an elderly-looking witch next to me said, patting my shoulder with her wizened hand.