A Shade of Vampire 7: A Break of Day (2 page)

“Beautiful morning, huh?” He spoke quietly as he took a seat on the terrace. “Any further thoughts on leaving?”

I remained silent. We’d had a heated discussion the night before. I’d told him I couldn’t leave this place until I’d found someone who was loyal to me and capable of protecting Rose. I wasn’t about to risk losing her too. He had volunteered himself, at which point I had laughed in his face and left the room.

“We’ve just received a text message from Eli,” Ibrahim continued. “He’s arrived safely at Hawk Headquarters with Shadow and…”

Before he could finish his sentence, I whirled round and stared at the phone in horror. “I thought I told you to keep that damned thing switched off! It’s meant for emergencies, not for communicating with the hunters. Do you realize how easy it will be for them to track us now?”

I snatched the phone from his hand, jumped off the terrace, and ran toward the ocean, hurling it into the waves. Then I ripped off my clothes and dove in myself, desperate for relief.

I knew I was overreacting. Eli knew what this privacy meant to me and would have texted only from a secure location. But I couldn’t help myself. I was burning up inside and no amount of water could extinguish me.

I lay on my back and allowed the waves to carry me. A morning breeze blew over me. I looked up at the clear sky, feeling weightless. Only a few months ago, I would have given anything to be lying here, not afraid of the sun that was about to rise. And then we had found the cure.

Is this to be my life? To rise up only to be brought back down to my knees, shattered into shards?

We’d only been at the hut for a few nights, but it was time for me to leave. Ready or not, I couldn’t remain stagnant on this beach any longer. There wasn’t a second of the day when my mind wasn’t plagued with thoughts of Sofia and our son. Ben. That was the name Sofia had wanted for our first boy. I needed to reach Aiden and work out a plan.

I felt sand beneath my back; the waves had carried me back to shore. I sat up and someone called my name. Corrine approached and sat down next to me.

“Derek, I know how hard this is for you. But you know better than I that you can’t keep delaying this decision. The longer Sofia is in the clutches of the Elders… Look, either take Rose with you to Hawk Headquarters—”

“You know that’s impossible. Her grandfather may be there, but that place is still under the control of Arron, whom we obviously can’t trust.”

“Then leave her here with me and Ibrahim.”

I snorted, then motioned to stand up and walk back to the hut, aware that Rose was now alone with Ibrahim. But Corrine held on to my arm and yanked me back down.

“If Ibrahim wanted to harm or kidnap Rose, he could do it even in your presence. There’s nothing stopping him from grabbing her right from your arms and vanishing back to The Sanctuary. I know Ibrahim. And I trust him. He’s here to help us. And you need to get to Aiden as soon as possible.”

“How can you expect me to trust him when his mistress just…” I trailed off, memories of that night threatening to choke me up again.

“The Ageless came for Sofia. Not your children. I’m telling you, you won’t find anyone more capable than Ibrahim of protecting your daughter and me. If Ibrahim says that Rose will be safe, then she will be. She will have the protection of the witches’ realm, because Ibrahim is acting as The Sanctuary’s emissary. Whoever crosses him will answer to the Ageless herself.”

I looked into Corrine’s brown eyes and reluctantly saw truth in them. Ibrahim could outmatch any vampire, Hawk or hunter. I remained silent for a few minutes, diverting my attention back to the ocean. The sun had now risen above the horizon, warming my skin.

I was about to speak again when Ibrahim appeared next to us. He was carrying Rose, who had now woken up. He handed her to me and said, “You can go to the hunters, Derek. I swear that Rose won’t be harmed.”

I looked down into my baby’s beautiful green eyes and ached inside. She looked up at me with wide-eyed innocence. I kissed her warm cheeks and stroked her fine black hair, then pulled her close against my chest.
If anything should happen to you while I’m gone, I will have nothing left to live for.

Once Abby had almost finished sucking the young man dry, the male vampire grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room, leaving Abby alone to finish her feast.

“One thing you would do well to learn sooner rather than later is that we Elders are not the most patient of creatures,” he said, tightening his grip on my arm.

My heart began racing.
So this is an Elder.
He led me along the hallway, turned right into another chamber and slammed the door behind us. It was much larger than the last room and bare inside save for a table on which rested an assortment of whips. I struggled against his grasp but he held me tight.

He forced me to the ground, ripped the back of my dress open and poured a cold liquid onto my skin, which began stinging. Then came the lashes. One after another, beating against my spine and tearing into my flesh.

“Stop… Stop… Please!” I could barely utter the words through the pain.

He stopped only after my back had become numb from the torture. Then he grabbed me and pulled me to a standing position next to him.

“Now, you need to heal. But first I must change vessel. All this unnecessary exertion has rendered this old one useless.”

He dragged me out of the room, back toward the black marble staircases. Despite my stumbling and tripping against him, we climbed down several more levels.

We entered yet another chamber, this time with a young blonde vampire wearing a tattered red dress. The Elder sat me down on the ground, removed his black cloak, and gave it to me to hold. Then, without warning, his decrepit form collapsed in a heap. The female vampire let out a bloodcurdling scream, then her neck clicked, her face contorted and she stood up as if nothing had happened. She walked over to me and grabbed the black cloak, throwing it over her shoulders. Then she pulled me to my feet just as harshly as the man now dead on the floor had set me down.

“That old vessel was second-hand already. This one is much more comfortable. Now, let’s fix you.”

The lashes and the shock of what I’d just witnessed made me dizzy. I tried to steady my legs but fell to the floor and everything faded to black.

When I came to, I found myself lying on a cot in a room not dissimilar from the one we had left Abby in. My back was still causing me so much agony that it sent my head reeling again.

Sitting in the corner was an old woman—a human, I knew instantly. Her blood smelled irresistible.
Sweet. Succulent.
The Elder sat at the opposite end of the room, watching me.

“This is an immune. We haven’t turned her yet, as you can see. I’m sure you’ve noticed how much sweeter and richer her blood smells? You want to stop the pain? You drink.”

The old woman whimpered and cowered in the corner.

“I can’t,” I said through gritted teeth. It took every ounce of restraint to not fly at the woman’s throat.

The Elder stood up and dragged me closer to the woman, pushing my head down so her scent was now intoxicating me. I shook my head violently.

“No… No… Get off of me!” I stamped down hard on the Elder’s foot, making her lose balance. This gave me the five seconds I needed to flee through the open door.

I had no idea where I was going and the pain slowed me down. I headed back toward the staircases and then upward, hoping to lose myself in the maze of dark hallways and chambers. But it didn’t take long until I bumped into a second vampire—another Elder inhabiting another old vessel. I could tell this time due to the yellowish tinge of the body.

He caught my arm and pulled me down, holding me against the stairs until the Elder chasing me had caught up.

“Thank you,” she said, addressing him. “I’ll take charge from here.” Then she turned to me. Her eyes rolled in their sockets and her mouth split into a lopsided grin. “Very well. You won’t cooperate? We’ll just have to make you our very own little puppet then.”

She pulled out a vial of red liquid from her cloak, and before I could even react, she yanked open my mouth and poured it in. Its sweetness tantalized my tongue and the effect was instant; my wounds stopped aching. And, for the second time in the past few hours, I lost all consciousness.

This time when I opened my eyes, my surroundings felt strangely familiar. I lay on a cold stone slab. I sat bolt upright and glanced around. I was in the largest and innermost chamber of The Shade’s Sanctuary.

The exact spot where Derek woke up. Where I first met him. Where it all started.

The torches fixed to the high walls gave off a dim glow. A wave of relief washed over me. I was home. For all I knew, Derek could be within less than a mile. But then the reality hit me full force.
How did that Elder bring me here? Why on earth would it bring me home?
I knew that the answers to these questions would bring me neither joy nor relief.

The chamber seemed empty, although there was a strange round hole about fifteen feet away from me. I stood up cautiously. Just as I motioned to walk over to it, a deep voice I knew so well echoed around the room.

“Sofia.”

Xavier!
A figure stirred in the shadows in a far corner of the room. I was ecstatic to see a dear friend. I rushed toward him to pull him into an embrace. But as I got closer, joy turned to horror.

Translucent eyes. A manic grin.

“Xavier!” I screamed.

Xavier fell to the ground, twitching. A freezing cold enveloped me, seeping into my bones. I managed to scream for a few seconds, but then I lost my voice. I couldn’t move my tongue. I couldn’t open my mouth. I couldn’t move any part of my body. I felt trapped in my own body as a dark presence closed in around me.

Then I heard my own voice speak.

“No, darling. I’m not Xavier. Just the darkness that consumed him. The same one that has now consumed you.”

Early the next morning, I packed up a few key belongings. I made sure to leave behind a spare phone, instructing Corrine and Ibrahim to contact me only in an emergency. Then, after holding Rose one last time, I headed further inland, to the city of Liberia. There I used a telephone box to make contact with Aiden and, six hours later, I found myself boarding a helicopter bound for Hawk Headquarters.

During the flight, I tried to stop thinking about what Sofia and my son could be going through. I tried to stop thinking about what was beyond my control. If I was to think clearly and not be a constant fire hazard at Headquarters, I had to keep my emotions in check.

On my arrival, Aiden was waiting for me on the landing pad. The lines in his face had grown deeper over the past few days and he had dark circles under his eyes. In spite of this, he smiled and gave me a brief hug. Then his brows creased with worry. “My granddaughter?”

“Rose is safe with Corrine and Ibrahim, at least for the moment. I wouldn’t have left her if I’d thought that she wasn’t safe.”

“Rose,” he said softly. “I wish I could have seen her.”

“You know why I left her behind. Right now, we’re working with Arron and the Hawks blindly because we have no choice. But there are still far too many things about their motives that we don’t understand. This is no place to bring a newborn.”

Pain flickered in his eyes, but he composed himself. He was a man well practiced at switching off his emotions. We marched toward the main building.

We reached his office and shut ourselves inside. Sitting at the table waiting for us was Arron. When he saw me enter, his lips curled.

“Welcome back, Derek.”

I nodded curtly but said nothing. I would have preferred to talk privately with Aiden, but Arron knew more about Cruor, the vampire realm, than Aiden, and he certainly had more influence. I remembered how, though he had not accompanied us personally when we stormed The Blood Keep, he had armed us with dozens of Hawks from Aviary.

I took a seat opposite Aiden, who looked grimly at me before launching the discussion. “Firstly, Sofia. Based on what the Ageless told you, we can only assume she’s in Cruor.”

“There are three gates that allow passage into that realm,” Arron continued. “One at The Underground; one at The Shade; and one at The Blood Keep. Now, at the time the witch took Sofia, we were storming the Keep, so I doubt very much she would have transported Sofia to that particular gate. So the witch either sent Sofia to The Shade or The Underground, after which an Elder would have taken her through the portal and into Cruor.”

“Why do they want her?” I asked, terrified to hear Arron’s answer.

“Isn’t that obvious? She’s an immune. An immune’s blood is rare sustenance to their kind. You remember the effect it had on you? What it felt like drinking it?”

I shuddered. I remembered drinking Sofia’s blood all too clearly.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Aiden said. “To rescue my daughter, it seems the only way is to force entry into Cruor and retrieve her. One of the many problems with this is that not even Arron knows if it’s possible for a ‘non-Elder’ to enter without assistance.”

“And Ben? My son?”

Aiden heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s still a mystery to us. We’ve made no progress in tracking Kiev. Truth be told, I have no clue where to even start. We have virtually no background on Kiev other than his stay at The Blood Keep. And we searched the whole place since he kidnapped Ben. The Keep is now empty, save for a few dogs. Kiev too could be in Cruor for all we know.”

I looked at Arron. “And you have nothing to add?”

“No.”

I breathed deeply.
Ignore your emotions. They won’t help find your family. Focus, Novak. Focus
.

“All right. For now, it appears that our only option is to put all our focus on Cruor. We’ll need the assistance of the Hawks again. God knows what we’ll find ourselves faced with at the end of that portal, if we even manage to enter it.”