“I don’t believe you,” Zinnia responded.

I could practically imagine the grimace on her face. The petite, raven-eyed hunter had never been a fan of me, but she was important to my father and to my late best friend, Ben. I had to deal with her snarkiness a lot while I was at the hunters’ headquarters.

“There are thousands of humans here, Zinnia. A good lot of them are women and children. Not all of them have to die. You can check the headquarters’ database for a man named Kyle Madison. He is suspected to be a vampire, and he was, but now, he’s human again.”

“Get Kyle here,” I told Claudia, before speaking to Zinnia over the loudspeaker. “Zinnia, this is Sofia.”

“Great… if it isn’t the princess of vampires herself.”

“Look… We’ll send Kyle to you so you can see for yourself… There is a cure. This could be the answer we’re looking for…. Please…”

All I got from her side was silence. I held my breath as I listened to her uneven breathing.

“I’ll ask my superiors. I’ll call you back.”

Just like that, she hung up. It was the longest five minutes of my entire life, waiting for Zinnia to get back in touch with us.

When the phone rang and Aiden answered, I held my breath in suspense.

“You’d better not be bluffing.”

I heaved a sigh of relief, but then a scream from the Pit reminded me that I was still a far cry away from any semblance of peace.

Chapter 46: Derek

The pain was indescribable and all my senses were in overdrive. I was aware of everything happening within a hundred mile radius, but at the same time, I couldn’t comprehend any of it, because the agony was making it hard for me to have any coherent thought.

The light of the sun burned my skin and I was almost certain from the moment it hit me that there was no way I could survive it, but still, there was this will to survive. I had no sense of time. The pain seemed endless. There were times when I was already certain that it would be the end of me, then my heart would practically triple its pace and blood would pump at high speed throughout my system, then the pain would subside, giving me a couple of breaths, a momentary reprieve, before escalating once again.

There were voices outside the Pit, but I was only really focused on one. Sofia’s. She told me that she wouldn’t leave, which both comforted and tormented me. I knew how compassionate she was. I knew the kind of effect my pain had on her.

I wanted it to end. I wanted it to end badly. I knew that I could just say one word and they would heed to my command and open that door to let me out of the Pit, but something kept me from ending my own misery, something more human than beastly. One word could describe what it was that pushed me on: hope. The hope that the light – no matter how painful it was – was my door to freedom.

The agony went for what felt like days until I reached a tipping point. It was a point when I’d gotten used to the pain and I was about to surrender to death, then I heard Sofia from the other side of the door. She was humming… the sweet, gentle tone of her voice hummed our song. It was exactly what I needed to remind myself that I couldn’t die. I simply couldn’t.

The tune played in the back of my mind and slowly, but surely, the pain subsided. A strange black gas-like substance began to ooze out of my skin, mouth… even my nostrils.

I looked at my hand and tried to make my claws come out. Nothing. I felt my mouth and I couldn’t touch my fangs any longer. The last stings of sunlight crept through the layers of my skin right down to the marrow of my bones. The black gas-like substance was then quickly replaced by radiant light, oozing from my every pore.

I could feel life overtake me where nothing but death used to be. For the first time in five hundred years, I felt completely alive.

I rose to my feet, basking in the warmth of what I was certain was the afternoon sun. “Sofia!” I called out, my back still turned to the door as I lifted my face, eyes shut, to the sunlight. The ever-present coldness under my skin was gone. I felt warm from the inside out – a sensation I had long forgotten.

I could hear them remove the locks of the door. It swung wide open and without looking, I could sense Sofia nearby.

“Derek?” Her voice broke.

She approached me. I wasn’t sure if it was just because of the high that I was feeling due to the success of the cure, but I was just as keenly aware of my surroundings then as I was when I was a vampire.

Must be the adrenaline rush…

My senses came alive when I felt Sofia touch my arm. She circled me in order to look into my face. I opened my eyes to find a mixture of wonderment, delight and apprehension on her beautiful face.

Tears ran down her cheeks as the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard came through her lips: her laughter. There was no mistaking the glee on her face as she threw herself at me. “It worked. I was so scared… Derek… It worked.”

I held her close, breathing in her scent, running my warm fingers through her soft, red hair. A vampire’s senses were supposed to be far more heightened than that of a human, but holding my Sofia as a man – and not some beast – that sensation was far better than any I had experienced as a vampire.

I put Sofia down on her feet before leaning down to kiss her. It was the first time I was able to be around her without having to fight the urge to sink my teeth into her. I could touch her, hold her, be with her without wanting to devour her.

“As touching as this scene is, I believe we have business to take care of,” a deep, gruff voice spoke from behind us.

I turned around to find a stranger – an old man with graying hair but perhaps one of the most intimidating presences I’d ever been around. Aiden was standing beside him.

“This is Arron,” Aiden introduced. “He’s one of the hunter elders.”

My gut clenched. Hunters. In The Shade. It felt like the beginning of the end.

“So this is him? The infamous Derek Novak? The ever-elusive king of the vampires…” Arron stepped forward and retrieved a dagger from his pocket. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

He grabbed my arm and then ran the dagger through it, cutting deeply. I winced at the pain. I couldn’t remember a dagger ever cutting so painfully when I was a vampire. We watched the wound, waiting for it to heal. Nothing happened.

Delight flickered in his dark brown eyes as a manic grin formed on his face. “Wonderful.”

That was when I came upon an important conclusion. Vampire or not, I had absolutely no business putting my trust in the hunters. Sofia’s wary face told me that she thought the exact same thing.

Chapter 47: Sofia

Borrowed time. It felt like every moment I spent with Derek was just borrowed time. The hunters insisted that Derek, Kyle, Anna and I be shipped to hunter headquarters immediately. A select number of vampires were also to be taken to headquarters – mostly those who were willing to become human again. The rest were to remain on the island – under hunter surveillance. If we refused to cooperate, they would threaten to blow up The Shade.

Derek shook his head. “I’m not going to hunter headquarters to spend my honeymoon getting poked and prodded for your research.”

We were at his penthouse, Arron and Zinnia sitting on the side of the dining table across from us. Aiden was sitting on my side, while Vivienne was sitting on Derek’s.

I clasped his hand tightly, wondering what it was that he had in mind. Does he not realize the threat that the hunters are posing to all of us?

Arron’s face remained stoic as he eyed Derek. “We’re not exactly giving you a choice here, Novak. It’s either you go by our demands or we destroy The Shade.”

“Arron, they just got married. If you want people to study, Kyle and Anna are more than willing to take Derek and Sofia’s place while the couple have their honeymoon.” Aiden was speaking very carefully, as if he was weighing every word that came out of his mouth, almost as if he was afraid of making a mistake.

I noted that I’d never seen him as on edge as he was when he was around Arron. I eyed the imposing old man with a sense of intrigue. How can he make even my father tremble?

Arron shifted his beady eyes toward Aiden. “Do you really think I care whether or not someone like Derek Novak has a peaceful honeymoon? He may be human now, but that doesn’t erase the hundreds of years when he was a beast.”

Derek slammed his left hand over the wooden table while his right hand tightened its grip on mine. “Let’s cut the nonsense, Arron.”

I caught the way Vivienne was staring at her twin in horror. She was looking at him as if he had gone mad. I could practically read what was going through her mind. Does he not realize that he is no longer as powerful as he was yesterday? Does he not realize how vulnerable The Shade is?

“Now that we’ve found a cure,” Derek began to speak up, “you and I both know that to blow up as valuable an asset as The Shade – and all its citizens – would be complete nonsense. The Shade has existed autonomously for the past four hundred years. We have a strong workforce and our own technologies that have enabled us to thrive independently and without your knowledge. To destroy The Shade – after having found a cure – is stupidity.”

“Are you saying that I’m bluffing, Novak?” Arron sat up straight.

He appeared menacing to me, but a quick glance at my husband took my breath away. Derek was just as intimidating as a human as he was a vampire. At that moment, everything about him exuded power.

“Yes.” Derek nodded confidently. “I think you’re bluffing. The cure changes everything and you know it. I was a hunter once and I’ve heard the whispers of what a cure could mean. You and I both know, Arron, that any vampire who would willingly take on the cure isn’t your enemy anymore.”

Arron wetted his lips, giving thought to Derek’s words. It seemed to me as if he wasn’t used to people standing up to him.

“We are willing to cooperate with you, Arron, because we want this cure just as much as you do, but we’re not going to do it as your prisoners or even as your hostages. I may be human now, and no longer the beast that I used to be, but I am still ruler of The Shade, and I will not let you treat my subjects like slaves or lab rats. If we’re going to find a cure that won’t require every single vampire to feed on Anna or my wife, then we’re going to do it here in The Shade after I spend time with my wife on our honeymoon.”