Ashley’s eyes grew wide with surprise. “Sofia?”

I looked up to face her, only to watch with horror as Derek approached her. The stake had come from his personal stock. Each of us had one. He taught us how to kill a vampire before I left The Shade. I remembered him warning us that if we ever used it against him, he would kill us himself and that’s exactly what he was going to do to Ashley.

When his hands rose in the air, poised to hold her by the neck, I gasped at what I was certain he was about to do. He was about to break her neck and he was perfectly capable of doing it with barely any effort at all.

“Derek, don’t…”

His one hand grabbed a fistful of her blonde hair, while the other gripped her jaw tightly. “She was about to kill me.”

“She was defending me!”

I drew a breath when he pulled her head back and his hand closed tighter over her jaw. Conflicted wasn’t a good enough word to describe the expression on Derek’s face.

“She’s a hunter…”

The stake in my shoulder was agony, but seeing Derek kill a dear friend right in front of me was something I could not survive. Desperate, I staggered forward and gently held the wrist of the hand he had over Ashley. “Please.”

Forgetting just how strong he was, he pushed my hand away and the motion sent me tumbling to the floor. I whipped my head toward Ashley, fearful of the worst. To my relief, Derek threw her toward the direction of the bed. Not very gentle, but at least she’ll live. She fell to the bed face forward. I then saw the hawk on her lower back. Hers was a tattoo and not an iron brand like Derek’s but it was the exact same symbol. The hawk… what does it mean?

Derek’s focus was now on my injury. He knelt on the floor in front of me. Concern and guilt traced his stunning blue eyes when he saw the blood gushing from my shoulder. His jaw locked. “This will hurt.”

Before I could even react to his warning, he pulled the stake out of my ligament in one quick motion. I cried out, certain that I would faint, but I wasn’t given that reprieve. The pain the stake caused going out was twice the pain it dealt me going in.

I wished that I could somehow shut down one or more of my senses, but awareness sometimes felt like a curse I would forever have to deal with.

“You have a punctured ligament and a displaced shoulder,” Derek informed me upon closer inspection of my injury. “I’ll need to put your shoulder in place before healing you.”

He pulled my shoulder in place with one strong thrust, causing my mental carousel to go spinning out of control. I bit my lip until it hurt, refusing to cry or scream any more than I already had. Seemingly satisfied that he’d done his part, Derek stood up and headed for the bed. I was afraid that he was going to once again turn on Ashley. She moved as far away from him as she could until her back hit the headboard. She was still wearing nothing but her underwear. Derek glared at her but relief washed over both of us when he picked up the shirt that was hanging over the edge of the bed. He put the shirt on before retrieving a Swiss knife from his pocket. I knew what it was for.

“No. I don’t want to drink your blood.”

“Why the hell not?” He cut a gash in his palm anyway and shoved his hand in front of my face. “Drink, Sofia.” He sounded more authoritarian than he ever did before.

I sealed my lips shut as I glared at him. It was my act of defiance. It was my way of telling him that I wasn’t back at The Shade to be his slave.

“You’re trying my patience.” He withdrew his hand from me and glared at me as if I was the most exasperating, stubborn creature he’d ever laid eyes on. “Whose blood do you want to drink then? Or would you rather just bleed to death? If it’s the latter, you might as well just let me feed on you. That way, your bleeding to death could at least serve to satisfy my hunger.”

Derek was definitely making no effort to hide his irritation. I noticed how he gulped at the sight of my blood, and I wondered how much self-control it was taking him not to have a taste of it.

“Help Ashley first.”

Blood was still trickling from Ashley’s neck and she looked pale as a ghost. The expression on her face made it clear how horrified she was by the idea of drinking Derek’s blood.

“You’re joking.” Derek’s face deadpanned.

I shook my head. I kept one hand on my wound, applying pressure to it.

He muttered several curses under his breath before grabbing me by my uninjured arm and pulling me up to a standing position. The blood rush caused by the sudden motion made me too dizzy to stand on my own and I found myself falling against him. He half-carried, half-dragged me to the bed, sitting me non-too-gently over its edge before shoving his palm toward Ashley.

“Drink.” He ordered her. “Make it quick. Sofia’s losing a lot of blood.”

Ashley gave him a murderous look before holding his wrist and fingers with each hand. Then she drank. The pink was returning to Ashley’s skin, a contrast from the pale white it was only seconds ago. I looked at the bite marks on her neck. They weren’t closing yet. “Why isn’t she healing?”

“She is.” Derek assured me as he pulled his palm away from Ashley. The gash on his palm was already closing. “She takes more time to heal than you.”

“Why?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue.” He took out the Swiss knife and cut another gash in the same palm. “Your turn.” He offered his hand up to me. “Now drink.”