I thought about the day ahead of me and felt like staying in bed forever. But I knew that I didn’t have a choice. I dragged myself out of bed, and started getting ready. Finally satisfied with my appearance, I stepped out of my bedroom and found breakfast already prepared on the dining table.
I smiled wryly at the sight of the food. Breakfast. Only here in The Shade could you say that you’re having breakfast in the dark of the night. I popped a handful of vitamin pills into my mouth and took a seat at the table. I made a mental note to thank Rosa and Lily for the lovely breakfast they had prepared.
I was sharing my quarters with Rosa, Lily and her children – seventeen-year-old Gavin, seven-year-old Robb, and five-year-old Madeline – and Ian and Anna. None of them were at home; they were hard at work already. Idleness wasn’t a welcome trait in The Shade – The Catacombs even more so.
Derek had recently assigned me my own team focused on keeping order among the human population of the island. This team of mine walked into my quarters just as I was about to have my first bite of toast. Ian and Gavin stepped into the room, followed by one of Derek’s guards, Kyle. They all took a seat around at the table.
“Looks like we’ve got lots to discuss,” Gavin announced, as he leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his red hair.
Ian glared at Kyle before looking at me. “What is he doing here?” He pointed at the vampire.
“Kyle has expressed interest in helping us here at The Catacombs and Derek gave him permission,” I explained, putting down my food despite the fact that my stomach was growling. “Okay… So you two are here. Shall we start?”
The men nodded at me.
“We can’t afford to still be fighting amongst ourselves once the covens attack. The riots have got to stop.” There’d been a lot of dissent within The Catacombs over the past weeks. The humans were getting restless after the vampires’ blood supply was blown up. What I couldn’t wrap my mind around was why they were getting at each other’s throats over this matter, while the vampires were the ones attempting to find a solution. “When was the last time we had a record of a vampire attacking one of The Catacombs’ citizens?”
Gavin and Ian exchanged glances.
Ian shrugged, scratching against his black hair. “I can’t remember.”
“So why are the Naturals still going crazy?”
Ian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “You have to understand, Sofia, that it’s always been this way. There never was order here in The Catacombs. Every day was a fight to keep yourself alive – if not against the vampires, against your fellow humans. The law of The Shade has always been survival of the fittest until you came along and started leading protests and whatnot.”
“Well, that’s a problem we have to solve. We need human cooperation during the war,” I reiterated.
“We can’t even get the Naturals to work together amongst themselves. How on earth are we going to get them to work with the vampires?” Ian frowned.
“We could just draft all the male population and train them by force,” Kyle suggested with a shrug. “Derek did that to the vampires.”
“Sending humans off to battle with vampires is like sending them to their deaths,” Ian snapped. “Are you mad?”
“Well, it’s not like we’re expecting the humans to go on man-to-vampire combat,” Kyle defended himself. “No matter what they’re assigned to do, they’re still going to need to know how to fight.”
“I don’t think getting the humans to do anything by force is a good idea.” I shook my head. “I think it will only create more trouble in the long run.”
“Well, then, it’s not looking good, Sofia,” Gavin spoke up. “Most of the humans are actually seeing this as some sort of hope to escape The Shade and finally be free.”
I was surprised by that notion. “That’s foolish. They’re either going to end up dead or as slaves of the other covens. I doubt the other covens will be as benevolent as Derek has been.”
At this, Ian scoffed. Knowing him as someone who always spoke his mind, I wasn’t surprised by the words that came out of his mouth: “As much as I know you love him, Sofia, benevolent isn’t exactly how most of the people at The Catacombs would describe Derek.”
It was my turn to scoff. “I’ve known more vampires outside of The Shade than most humans here at The Catacombs. Believe me when I say that Derek is as benevolent as it gets for vampires. Take it or leave it.”
To that, no one could object. I was beginning to find the silence awkward, so I was thankful when Kyle broke it.
“Before we can even talk to the humans about joining a war, I think we first need to find a way to establish some sort of order here at The Catacombs, because let’s face it… in its current state, it’s been pure anarchy. Derek tried to figure out what the humans wanted with the general assembly at The Vale just recently, but with the vampire rebellion, that didn’t exactly push through.”I nodded, remembering how the vampires split into two factions – one loyal to Derek, the other to his father, Gregor. Since Gregor’s mysterious and untimely death, the vampire rebellion – as Kyle called it – had already been quelled.
“Well, there’s no rebellion now,” I said resolutely. “I guess it’s time we call another general assembly and figure out what the people at The Catacombs want. I’m putting you three in charge of that. If you come upon any problems, let me know.”
All three of them grinned at me, making me rather uncomfortable.
“What?” I asked, widening my eyes at them.
“Is it just me or is Derek Novak’s bossiness rubbing off on you?” Gavin squinted an eye at me. Ian and Kyle were chuckling.
“It’s not just you, man.” Kyle shook his head. “She wasn’t this bossy when she first arrived here. She’s definitely getting a lot of Derek into her personality.”
I rolled my eyes as they found amusement at my expense. “Whatever,” I mumbled before finally digging in to my breakfast. They bade me goodbye and left me to eat in peace.
I enjoyed the silence and the solitude, but it also made me sense Derek’s absence a lot more keenly. We hadn’t been spending much time together and I couldn’t help but miss him. I kept telling myself that he had a lot on his plate, that he was the king of the island and was responsible for keeping the whole place together. That’s a good enough excuse to not spend time with his fiancée, is it not? Still, I wanted to be with him, but knowing that there wasn’t anything I could do about it, I finished my breakfast and hoped that I could somehow manage to spend some time alone with him later that day.
After I put away the dishes, I headed off to The Cells, where my father was still being kept captive. Aiden was more famously known in the vampire world as Reuben, one of the most ruthless and notorious hunters alive.
To say that my father was unhappy about me being in love with a vampire was a huge understatement, but then so was he… After all, my mother was now Ingrid Maslen.
Aiden was doing push-ups on the ground when I stepped into his cell. For a man who was well into his forties, he was still extremely fit and worked at remaining so. I waited for him to finish his set before clearing my throat.
He didn’t even bother looking up to see who his visitor was. He knew it was me. “How long are they going to keep me here, Sofia?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Derek about you yet.”
Aiden ended up in The Shade after he fooled me into believing that the hunters had found a cure to turn vampires back into humans. I was disappointed to find out that it was all, in fact, a ruse. When he was forced to reveal to Derek that there really was no cure, he ended up getting thrown into prison.
“The hunters will come for me, Sofia. I’m too important to the organization for them to just forget about my disappearance. The longer you keep me here, the longer you’re putting the island in danger.”
I knew he was bluffing, so I just stared at him blankly. “They won’t know how to get here, Aiden. Your tracker was disabled, protected by Corrine’s spell, the moment you came within the boundaries of The Shade. You know that. Besides, isn’t it hunter protocol to consider anyone caught by vampires dead?”
A muscle in his face twitched. He heaved a deep sigh and sat on the edge of his couch, tapping the space beside him to encourage me to sit.
Despite my apprehensions, I took a seat beside him and we sat in silence for a while before he broke it.
“I’m sorry, Sofia.”
I wasn’t expecting an apology. Not from him. I’d been putting off seeing him for days because I felt betrayed by him. Right after I thought we were becoming closer to each other and forming a bond as father and daughter, he betrayed me. He knew that I wanted to find a cure to turn vampires back into humans and he used that desire against me. I had no idea how to even begin forgiving him for that, and yet, I found myself responding with a nod and saying, “I understand why you did it.”
“I was doing what I thought I needed to do to get this idea of a cure out of your system. You have to accept, Sofia, that there is no cure.”
I shook my head, refusing to accept what he was saying as truth. “No. There is a cure. I’m going to find it.”
I saw how his face turned into a bitter, grim expression. “Stubborn,” he muttered. “Just like your mother.”
I remembered the last time I saw Ingrid. She was looking at me with so much hatred, because I had just killed the man who turned her into a vampire – Borys Maslen. She was loyal to him above all – a loyalty that transcended even her love for her husband and her daughter.
I shook my head as I stood up and motioned to leave. Before the guard could open the door for me, I turned back to my father. “I am nothing like Ingrid.”
I left his cell with a heaviness in my heart that I couldn’t quite describe. I wasn’t sure why but I felt within me an overwhelming sense of loss. Perhaps it was just the recent events catching up with me – all the deaths that The Shade suffered, losing not just my foes, but also people I cared about. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t just sit around sulking and I knew it; so I picked myself up, tried to ignore the melancholy and moved on with my tasks for the day. I headed to meet with two of the most intelligent people in The Shade – the island’s resident genius, Eli Lazaroff, and Corrine, The Shade’s witch.