Cameron’s voice faded away as my eyes reverted back to Vivienne’s.

“Derek, if Lucas is out there, then…”

I knew what she was going to say. I lifted a finger to silence her. I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted no mention of Sofia. “No, Vivienne.” I eyed the bloody mess surrounding me. Guilt gripped me when I saw Ashley on the ground, but I found myself resigned to the fact that the deed had already been done. “Get her the care she needs, take her to her bedroom… I don’t care. Just get her out of my sight.”

A lot of scrambling around the room was done as they made an effort to do my bidding. Only Vivienne remained in the room with me afterwards.

“You’re not going to go after her? You can’t just mean to stay here and…”

Before I could keep myself from doing it, the back of my hand met squarely with the side of her face and I watched her stumble to the ground. I immediately regretted hitting her. I wanted to step forward, help her up and hug her, but something held me back. After waking from the sleep I asked Cora to put me under, I was reluctant about taking leadership of The Shade once again. That was long gone now.

“I told you never to speak of her.”

Her hands cupping the assaulted area of her face, my sister looked up at me. Her violet eyes contained no anger, no accusation, no condemnation… just resignation and a deep sadness that made me ache inside.

“It seems the darkness has arrived.”

As usual, Vivienne was right.

CHAPTER 21: LUCAS

My escape was narrow to say the least. The only thing I managed to take with me on my journey was my backpack – filled with sacks of blood, a change of clothes and my wallet. Upon reaching the port, I immediately went for one of the speedboats. I didn’t have time to think of other supplies. I just needed to get out of there before Cameron showed up to rip my heart out – or worse, take me captive so Derek could do the deed later.

As the glass-covered tube lifted the speedboat up to open seas, I realized that I had to act fast. The moment the boat reached The Shade’s boundaries, I would no longer be under the protection of its darkness; I would be exposed to broad daylight. The longer I stayed close to The Shade, however, the greater the chances that the guards could reel me back to the island.

I did a quick inspection of what I had in the boat with me. All I had was a toolbox, a first-aid kit and a rolled up sheet of canopy used to cover the boat when not in use. That was exactly what I needed. I unrolled the sheet and it became my savior from the sun.

It protected me from the sun’s rays, but not from its sweltering heat. Floating in the middle of the sea with that sheet over me, while the sun’s rays were beating at me, felt a lot like being inside an oven. It was a struggle starting the boat and there were unavoidable times when I happened to move the wrong way and accidentally exposed my flesh to the sun. The way it seemed to burn right through my skin down to my very bones was excruciating.

Rumor was that there was no more painful death than to have a vampire burn under the rays of the sun. I was not sure if that was true. I’d never actually seen a vampire die because of exposure to the sun, but I wasn’t about to put it to the test anytime soon. Besides, the few times I found my flesh exposed to it was painful enough to convince me that the rumor was true.

I eventually had to stop the boat – somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean – to wait until the sun had set. I couldn’t reach the shore in my condition. I had to wait for dusk. It was only a few hours, but it felt like days, but I had what it took to wait it out.

The sun eventually faded into twilight. I survived. For a moment, thoughts of Sofia flashed through my mind. I could practically feel her blood running through me, still taste her sweet blood on my lips. I wanted her so badly, just thinking about her made me ache, but she was back at the island. I would seek her out eventually and make her mine, but I knew I had to set thoughts of her aside for the time being. What I needed to do was make my way to the one person who had any chance of overpowering my younger brother.

Our father. Gregor Novak.

CHAPTER 22: SOFIA

Standing by my bed, inside my bedroom, thoughts of how much I missed Derek quickly faded away when Ben’s lips parted from mine. The way he looked at me – like I was precious to him – made me forget any doubt I might have had regarding his intentions. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds, both rather shaken by the encounter, until his cheeks began to flush red. I didn’t remember the last time I’d seen Ben blush.

It called my attention to the bruises he got from his fight. I began to wonder how he could kiss me and not ache from the way I accidentally touched the bruise on his cheek and the gash on his side.

Whatever questions I had regarding his physical state, however, were brushed aside when his eyes settled on my lips, which felt a bit swollen after his rather adamant kiss. “Wow, Sofia. You really are Rose Red.”

I found the breathlessness in his voice endearing. It made me feel wanted, desired – something I didn’t remember him ever making me feel before. My hands were still clasping his neck. I leaned my forehead against one of his broad shoulders. Both his hands were on my waist, his thumbs softly brushing over my flat stomach.

“Rose Red?”

“You know… from the fairy tale…” He took a step away from me, one eye winking at me as he made the character reference “Snow White’s sister?”

“Yeah… I know who Rose Red is. How am I Rose Red?”