A Shade of Vampire 7: A Break of Day (3 page)

I was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. Aiden got up to open it. When Vivienne stepped into the room, my heart leapt. I jumped up and pulled her into my arms.

“Derek, I’ve been so worried about you,” she said breathlessly. “When you didn’t return Eli’s text… I didn’t know what to think.”

“I’m just about hanging on, Vivienne. I’m glad you arrived safely.” I kissed the top of her head. “What about the others who were headed here?”

“Claudia, Cameron, Zinnia, Gavin, Eli, Shadow, and Xavier’s brother Landis, they’re all here.”

“What of Ashley, Liana, Yuri and Xavier?”

Her lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes. She looked down at the floor. That was enough of an answer. I wanted to comfort her, but we had no time for it now. We had to stop mourning the situation and put all our efforts into facing it.

I sat back down, anxious to resume our discussion. Storming The Keep was one thing. Barging into a different realm was entirely another. I knew the only person with true power to help us was the Ageless. It was our misfortune that she was the one person who was certain to never help us.

Just then, there was another knock at the door.

“Come in!” Aiden snapped. A young hunter rushed in. “What do you want?”

He lifted up a phone. “For Mr. Novak. Someone called Corrine is on the line.”

My heart leapt into my throat as I snatched the phone from him.

“Corrine?”

“Derek. I feel mad saying this out loud, but… Sofia just showed up at the hut.”

Now that the Elder had taken over my body, I was in a constant state of cold. The chill had settled within the marrow of my bones and made them ache. My eyes stung, yet I couldn’t blink. My vision was blurred; I could still see, but not clearly. I wanted to gasp for breath, yet I was not in control of my own windpipe.

Leave me… please!
I begged.

My mouth opened in response.

“We have much work to do together, you and I.”

I shivered internally.

“And besides, you’re far too sumptuous a vessel to let go of before your expiry.” This time my body trembled—it was the Elder trembling through me, as if experiencing pleasure.

My legs carried me out of the temple and into the garden outside. The moon’s rays shone down on the clearing, allowing me to make out the shadows of three figures sitting in a circle on the lawn. As we drew close, I was horrified to see that I recognized all of them: Ashley, Liana and Yuri. Only they were not the same vampires I knew, just as I was no longer the Sofia they knew.

My legs folded beneath me and I dropped to the ground next to Ashley.

“Continue where we were. Before I left to change.”

I wondered if my friends had thoughts like I had. Whether they too were horrified to see me. If they were, I could not tell. Their eyes remained unfocussed and their faces void of expression. I assumed they saw the same in me.

It was Liana who spoke next, anger in her voice. “Did I not warn you that this might happen if too many of us rushed through at once? We are expiring too many vessels. We are exerting them far too much. And we are forgetting the purpose of our visit; we came here for a harvest.”

“I agree with you. If we were back on the other side of the gate, we’d never dream of engaging in such activities.” Ashley addressed me. “We are becoming complacent, forgetting that vessels are a far more precious commodity now than they were only a short while ago, thanks to the queen here.” She waved a hand toward me in disgust.

“I will ensure that this
queen
realizes her mistake, have no doubts about that,” my voice replied.

“We must call a ban on spoiling any more vessels,” Ashley said.

Yuri, who had been swigging from a bottle of wine, looked agitated. “We have been starving ourselves for too long! We’re already abstaining from immunes. To hell with more austerity! There are still plenty of vessels remaining on this island. And when we run out of supply? We go forth and create more.”

“Mindless fool. You know it’s not as easy as that any more. And what about all the human blood we have needlessly wasted?” Liana said. “I can’t stand watching it spilled on the ground by filthy game hounds! It’s fresh, hot blood that we should bring back for our own sustenance. We’ve had enough amusement. Now we must see to the preservation of our kind.”

From the way we were all speaking, it was now obvious to me that these were the key leaders of the whole operation. But the decisive tone my voice took on next made me realize that the Elder possessing me was even a step higher than the other three.

“We will call a ban on any further wastage; both humans and vessels.” Yuri opened his mouth to protest, but my voice bulldozed over him. “To accomplish this, all Elders—save for the four of us and a few dozen others who you think are best suited to assist us—must return through the gate. We can call on reinforcements as and when they become necessary.”

Ashley and Liana nodded in approval.

“Then, we organize the creation of more vessels. Only once we have collected enough to fill Cruor’s chambers will we resume our festivities. Is this understood?”

Yuri’s face twitched but it was clear that he was not about to argue.

My voice continued. “For now, we’ll keep all humans and vessels already on this island as they are currently situated: the humans in the lower levels of The Cells; the vessels in the upper levels. Once we’ve completed our procreation, we’ll call on more Elders to come back through the gate and help us transport them all back to Cruor in one swoop.”

“And the Hawks…” Liana began.

“The plan for the Guardians remains as it was,” I said, looking at Liana. “Go now and wait for me by the Port.”

We all stood up at once. Ashley and Yuri began walking toward The Vale; Liana to the Port; and myself toward The Cells. Using my vampire speed, the Elder rushed us past the giant redwoods until we arrived at the large wooden entrance.

As my Elder had mentioned, they had evacuated the humans from The Catacombs and stuffed them all into The Cells for ease of access. It sickened me to see the number of humans they held in each cell; they were caged like animals. Those who weren’t sleeping or unconscious looked up at me as I passed them.

“Sofia! Oh, thank God!”

“Please, help us!”

“Mom, look! Queen Sofia is back! I told you she’d come for us!”

I couldn’t even turn my head to see who was calling out to me. I was sure I heard the voice of a little girl among them. The Elder continued to march my body forward. The lighting was so dim that I doubted they could even see my face to understand that I had been possessed. They would think that I was ignoring their plight.

These were my people; they were dependent on Derek and me to rule them and give them protection. A wave of guilt hit me, crushing me into dust. Then fury boiled within me unlike any I had ever felt before.

This time when the Elder addressed me, he didn’t use my voice to speak out loud. It was as if he had read my thoughts and felt my emotions. I heard his hissing voice within my head.

“Save your sentiments for later, girl. I promise you’ll find better use for them.”

You won’t get away with this, you snake,
I screamed in my head. Tears would have fallen from my eyes had I been in control of them. I thanked the heavens that, at least for the time being, no more blood was to be spilled.

After a few more minutes of this torture, we stopped in front of a cell. Inside, a person slumped on the floor. She crawled to the bars and started whimpering.

“Please, feed me! My stomach is burning! I’ll do whatever you want!”

She was a young woman wearing a torn black gown. Her face was brown with dirt and she looked like she hadn’t eaten in days.

“Silence, witch!” my cold voice said.

If she was a witch, I wondered to myself why on earth she allowed them to treat her this way. The Elder answered my curiosity within my own head.

Not all witches are as powerful as your Corrine.

It was disturbing to know that my every thought was exposed to this kind of evil.

I continued to speak: “I will feed you. But in return, you must polish my vessel. The same treatment as the last vessel we sent to you.”

The witch lost no time in gathering herself up from the ground. She staggered to the corner of her cell and started mixing some kind of concoction together—what exactly, I couldn’t see. Then she murmured a chant for several minutes, walked back over to the bars and threw a handful of powder into my eyes. The powder felt like acid and in my head, I cried out in pain. But after a few seconds the stinging subsided and my vision was as clear as it had been before my possession.

She held up a mirror. My eyes were exactly as I remembered them. My face also looked the same as when I first discovered I’d been turned, back in the white chambers. No crooked expression. I certainly didn’t look like an Elder was inhabiting me.

I reached for a black box that was lying on the ground in the empty cell next to the witch’s. I withdrew a piece of dry bread and threw it toward her. She snatched it and began eating ravenously.

Then, without another word, I turned around and headed toward the exit. The second time we passed by the humans, they were far more subdued. Most didn’t bother calling my name. Instead I heard low mutterings. It cut me to the core to realize that they must have already accepted that I had abandoned them.

Once we’d exited The Cells, the Elder started speaking to me again.

“Now, help me understand where your lover could have gone.”

Memories flashed before my eyes; all of them involving locations. After a few seconds, it dawned on me.
He’s accessing my memories.
The flashing stopped, leaving a vision of a small beach hut.
But I’ve never been to this place.
This isn’t even my memory.

“Aha,” the Elder hissed. “He wouldn’t be fool enough to go running to the Hawks’ protection. He was with the witch on the night of the birth. This would have been the natural option.”

Then I remembered that the memories contained within my head were not all my own.
Vivienne’s memory.

“Once we have arrived there, I will give you back control of your body. You are to follow my every command. And never forget, I’m right here with you.”

Not my husband… and my babies…

Panic set my mind on fire. I couldn’t think straight. Fear, despair and rage consumed me all at once. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.

Instead, I rushed toward the port. Waiting for us there, peeking out of the hatch of a small submarine, was Liana. I climbed in and we both took a seat near the controls. I grabbed a map from the dashboard and hovered my finger over it for a few moments until I pointed to a coastal area in southern Costa Rica. I picked up a pen and drew a mark against it, then handed it to Liana.

“This is the location. If we wish to reach there before the next century, you must loosen control of your vessel so that she can navigate the ship. But keep close watch on her. She is loyal to the Novaks and we have no time for detours.”

You bastard. You snake.

I stood up and made my way to the back of the submarine. We had barely sat down on one of the benches when we lurched forward. The Elder’s mind must have been preoccupied with other matters since it chose not to respond to my insults.

My thoughts turned to Liana.
The submarine is moving. My dear friend is back in control of herself again.
I feared she’d risk her life by attempting to veer us off course, hoping that her Elder wouldn’t notice. She’d be a fool to even try; she’d be caught the moment she entertained the thought.

I wished that I could walk back into the control room and embrace her. It felt like an eternity since I’d come in contact with even a shred of humanity. I longed for a warm embrace, the squeeze of a hand, reassuring me that we would make it through this ordeal. I’d been frozen with fear and doubt for so long, I was desperate for anything that could help keep my fire alive. Darkness threatened to close in on me at any moment. Every second was a battle to prevent the haze from settling over me again.

The fact that I had no clue as to what the Elder planned to do with my family once we arrived caused my mind to spiral into a black abyss of terrifying possibilities.
Do they want to turn my children too, or keep them for their blood? Will they bring them back to Cruor and make them grow up in the darkness of the storage chambers? What will they do to Derek? Will they harm him just to spite me, or will they find use for him as a vessel?

Several hours must have passed while I remained seated in the same spot, quivering slightly. The reason for my parasite’s silence dawned on me.
The Elder is taking pleasure in my fear. My despair is its strength. I can’t give it that
.

The thought of depriving the Elder of pleasure summoned a strength that I’d thought I had lost. I forced myself to imagine living happily with my family, sheltered from harm.
Derek bought that beautiful beachfront villa. When I find my way back to him, he’ll be waiting on the porch. He’ll be holding our children, one in each arm. I’ll run up and shower them with kisses…
I smiled internally. A warm feeling of peace spread through me.

My body stopped quivering and the Elder made me stand up and start pacing around the small compartment, as though trying to distract itself from my thoughts.

I remained pacing for another hour until the submarine thudded to a halt. Liana appeared through the door and said, “We’re about half a mile from the location you marked. It’s best we keep our distance and you travel by foot from here.”

I nodded. Then I reached up for the hatch, pushed it open, and slid myself out, dropping into shallow waters. It ached to leave Liana behind with no assurance that I would ever see her again. And what would become of Ashley, Yuri, Xavier and all the other vampires and humans of The Shade? I felt myself in danger of sinking again.