Eli Lazaroff stepped into the arena, looking more like a librarian than a warrior. I honestly felt sorry for one of our Elite’s most valuable strategic minds, because as Eli approached me, it was clear to anyone watching that he was shaking like a leaf, mortified by the idea of close combat with me.

I flexed my neck muscles before taking a step toward him. That one motion caused him to visibly flinch. That was enough to make me suck up any guilt that I felt over what I was about to put him through. Raising my weapon, I dealt him the first blow.

Whether I liked it or not, as ruler of The Shade, I needed to remind my subjects what pain felt like. They needed to remember what it was like to fight for their lives and bleed for a cause.

The year was 1512. The battle would always be remembered in our hearts and minds as the Battle of First Blood. It was the first battle ever to take place on the island, the battle that marked the day we decided to stop running. We all agreed that it was high time to fight back or die doing it.

We were quite a sorry bunch, huddled within the caves that would eventually become the Black Heights, home to The Shade’s prisoners and slaves.

It’d been two years since I found myself shipwrecked on that island, thinking that I’d lost all of my loved ones to yet another cruel and bloody hunter attack. The only companion I had during my first year marooned on the island was an olive-skinned, brown-eyed, black-haired beauty. Her name was Cora and she was the only reason I was able to keep sane and alive after I thought I lost everything worth fighting for. I had no idea then exactly who and what she was, or how valuable she would eventually be to our cause.

Two years after the shipwreck, sitting in that cave, I realized that we still had a lot to fight for. I was seated on the ground, leaning against the cave wall, with Cora sitting right next to me.

My father, Gregor, sat opposite us. A huge scowl on his face showed how hungry he was. His appetite was further confirmed by the ravenous stare he was sending Cora’s way.

Cora was the only human among a cave full of hungry vampires. None of that fazed her. At my father’s predatory glare, she just smirked in response. I admired how it was practically impossible to intimidate her.

Liana Hendry was sitting near the cave entrance. She pulled her knees to her chest, shivering due to the cold. She stared blankly toward the cave opening, worry that Cameron hadn’t yet arrived evident in her eyes. He left the cave with Lucas and Xavier to scout the hunters’ location hours ago.

Beside Liana, sat Vivienne, looking unnervingly serene, her head rested on Liana’s shoulder. In the depths of her blue-violet eyes were mysteries we could only wonder about, because I couldn’t even remember the last time I heard my twin speak.

Two or three feet away from the women, Eli was drawing some sort of map on the ground with a stick. So wrapped up was he in whatever scheme he was concocting that he barely noticed how peeved his younger brother, Yuri, looked when Claudia began chatting him up and making suggestive gestures toward him. Yuri eventually snapped at her and from the look on Claudia’s face, it seemed he said something rather cutting, because it was the first time I could remember seeing such a murderous glare on her pretty face. It was only the first among many that I would see.

They comprised only some of the twenty vampire clans hidden with me in the mountain caves. Most were terrified by what the break of dawn would usher in. We were losing hope. Most of them barely made it to the island, with the hunters in relentless pursuit of them. We managed to create a diversion to give us time to hide away in the caves, but the sun was about to rise and it seemed the hunters weren’t about to give up their chase until every single one of us was destroyed.

In cases like these, it seemed the sun was our greatest adversary. How were we to fight back and defend ourselves, when we had to keep ourselves hidden deep in the darkness of the caves just so the sun wouldn’t destroy us first?

The wind howled outside the cave, but then came the distinct sound of footsteps approaching. I rose to my feet, my hand gripping the hilt of my sword. I let a short breath out when Cameron, Lucas and Xavier appeared from the clearing. The grave expressions on their faces told me that I had no reason to be relieved.

“They’re approaching as we speak,” Cameron announced.

I gulped, knowing that escape was impossible. “How many?”

They exchanged worried glances.

“Four or five hundred…” Xavier estimated. “Maybe six.”

“How many of us are there?” I directed my question to Eli.

He didn’t even look up to face me. “Seventy-six. Seventy-seven, if you include her.” He was referring to Cora.

I stood to my full height, mustering all the courage I had to go through with what I had in mind. “How many of us can fight?”

“You can’t seriously be considering this!” Lucas stepped forward. “They outnumber us at least five to one. We have no choice but to run.”

“Run? Run where?” I shot back at him. “Lest you forget, this is an island we’re on. If we want to reach the ship that got you here, we’d have to walk right into the hunters.”

“Most of us aren’t trained to fight,” Lucas continued to object.

“They might simply burn us,” Yuri spoke up.

“That’s exactly what they’ll do if we just sit here and wait for them.”

“What are you saying, boy?” Cameron asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I can no longer run. I say we fight for this island. We make a refuge out of it.”