A Shade of Vampire 13: A Turn of Tides (9 page)

A
lthough my quarters were spacious
, and my maid’s rooms were situated so far from my own that I barely noticed her presence, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic remaining inside. I considered putting an invisibility spell over myself, but instead just grabbed a cloak in hopes of trying to remain at least somewhat inconspicuous. I left the palace and began walking along the roads through the city. I avoided eye contact with the witches and warlocks I passed by, hoping that most wouldn’t recognize me after all this time.

I knew that if I was to live here long-term, I couldn’t keep avoiding people. I’d have to become more sociable and reintegrate myself with the society.

But my heart was still bleeding. Any company but my own was too much of a burden to bear.

Each street I passed along seemed to have its own set of memories and walking down it unleashed them afresh in my mind. Hardly anything had changed here, even after all this time. I’d never thought I’d see the day when I’d be welcomed back home with open arms. Now that I had been, I couldn’t deny that nothing could replace The Sanctuary as my home—not The Shade, not anywhere.

I walked for hours along familiar streets until I approached the edge of the city. The buildings were becoming fewer and fewer, while sparkling lakes and fragrant meadows surrounded me. My breath hitched as I caught sight of a waterfall crashing down into a gorge. I approached the hanging bridge connecting one side to the other and began walking across it, breathing in the crisp air. I stopped once I reached the middle of the bridge and gripped the railings. As I stared down at the churning waters beneath me, my vision started to become hazy again as more tears formed behind my eyes.

Memories of Kiev began to play in my mind. From our first meeting in Aviary, to the first time we’d made love in my lake house… all that had happened between us washed over me.

I wondered if Kiev felt any remorse over what he’d done to me. Or whether he was just angry with himself for getting caught and causing me to leave the island unprotected. I was sure that it was the latter. He was too besotted with Sofia Novak.

I thought back once again to the night I’d seen them both standing in the Port. Derek Novak had been watching the scene too. I hadn’t been able to bear staying there a moment longer, so I didn’t know what had happened after I left. But I was sure that Derek would kick Kiev off the island. Perhaps Sofia had left with him.

I brushed my tears away angrily with the back of my hand.

I need to stop wasting my thoughts and emotions on a man who cares nothing for me.

Determined to distract myself, I continued walking along the bridge and, on reaching the other side, I climbed down to the rushing water. Discarding my dress and stripping to my underwear, I dove in. Surfacing, I rubbed my face, washing away the tear stains from my cheeks. Loosening my hair, I swam closer to the waterfall. I was about to duck down behind it when someone called my name.

“Mona.” A deep male voice.

I cast my eyes toward the direction of the voice to see a warlock with long blond hair standing at the bank, arms crossed over his chest.

I swam closer to him, staring at his face. It was strangely familiar, but somehow I couldn’t quite put a name to it.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” he said, removing his light cotton shirt and sliding into the water with me.

I shook my head, still staring at him.

“Coen.” He held out a hand. “Coen Brymer. My family lived opposite yours, and we went to school together.”

“Oh,” I said, stunned. “Coen? You… look different.”

The Coen I remembered had been a wiry, shy boy with short-cropped hair and a pale complexion. Nothing like this tan, well-built man. I probably wouldn’t have recognized him even if I spent all day staring at him.

He smirked. “I guess we’ve both grown up since we last saw each other…”

I shook his hand.

“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

I nodded, backing away from him a little.

“I hope you don’t mind me intruding,” he said, wetting his hair and flicking it back.

“That’s okay.”

“I’ve been curious to see you ever since Brisalia mentioned you were back. Lots of us are… Though I see you’ve been keeping to yourself.”

I heaved a sigh. “It’s been so long since I was last here… and so much has happened since. I guess I’m still trying to ground myself.”

“That’s understandable,” he said, eyeing me closely. “I guess it also must be bizarre being welcomed by the same people who expelled you all those years ago.”

Coen clearly wasn’t one to skirt around subjects. I gave him a small smile. “Yes, that too.”

“If you wanted a little help in reintroducing yourself to people here, I’d be happy to assist.”

“Thanks.”

“It might be too soon after your arrival, but a small group of us—mostly old classmates—are gathering to celebrate my older brother’s birthday tonight, after the sun goes down. There’ll be music, food, dancing…” He swam toward the bank and climbed out, grabbing his shirt and buttoning it up. Straightening, he looked down at me. “If you feel like it, just come knocking. I still live in the same place… opposite your parents’ old home.”

I nodded, swallowing hard. “Thank you, Coen. I’ll think about it.”

“You never know, it might help to take your mind off things.” He flashed me a smile before turning on his heel and vanishing.

I stared at the empty space he’d just been standing in. I wondered if Brisalia might have put Coen up to seeking me out. I had mentioned Kiev briefly to her. Perhaps it had been her idea to give me a distraction.

Whatever the case, I couldn’t deny now that I was desperate to start forgetting the vampire. Although the last thing I felt like doing was attending a party, perhaps I owed it to myself to go.

I swam back to the opposite side of the gorge and climbed out. Drying myself with magic, I pulled on the dress and climbed back up to the bridge. I decided to walk the distance back to the palace. It would give me time to think about Coen’s proposal.

I wasn’t paying much attention to the streets I was walking along as I made my way back. I was too absorbed with weighing up the pros and cons. But as I reached a particularly elevated area of the city, I snapped out of my reverie to realize I’d arrived at the end of my family’s old road.

I shuddered as my eyes fixed on my old home. It was just as I’d remembered it—the gently sloping roof studded with crystals, the spacious verandas, the square lawn out front with a small toad pond in the corner…

It took all I had to not break down again. I fought to steady my breathing and forced my eyes away from the sight, and onto the house opposite—Coen’s house.

I hadn’t intended to arrive here. Hell, I didn’t feel I’d even made up my mind yet. But it seemed that my subconscious had decided for me: I was going to the party.

Drawing in a deep breath, I walked up to the Brymers’ front door and knocked. Coen answered it after a few seconds. A wide grin spread across his sun-kissed face as soon as he laid eyes on me.

“That was quick,” he said.

I smiled sheepishly.

“So you’re coming?”

“Yeah… I’ll come.”

“I’ll pick you up from your quarters later this evening, around nine o’clock. Which apartment are you staying in?”

“I… uh…” My mind went blank. I hadn’t even noticed a number on my front door. “I’m not sure. It’s on the top floor. You could just ask someone when you arrive—”

“Are you heading back there now?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Then I might as well escort you,” he said. Before I could even object, he’d stepped out onto the porch with me and closed the door behind him. He gestured toward the street. “Shall we?”

I followed him away from his home and we continued walking together down the road. I looked sideways to see Coen stealing a glance at me. His cheeks flushed slightly as our eyes met and he cleared his throat.

Coen Brymer was cute. That much I couldn’t deny.

As we made our way along the peaceful streets back toward the palace, I couldn’t help but wonder if he might turn out to be the distraction I needed to take my mind off Kiev.

Like I’d been the distraction Kiev had needed to take his mind off Sofia.

S
itting still had never been
something I was good at. I’d lost track of how much time I’d spent on the boat, waiting and hoping for someone to come and navigate it away, but now all I knew was that I’d had enough.

Since the silence and boredom of the yacht was slowly driving me insane, anything seemed better than this—even risking my life.

I managed to gather just enough patience to wait until night fell beyond the boundary of the island before I adopted my wolf form. Leaping from the deck, I landed on the frozen jetty. I threw myself into the nearest cluster of bushes. Straining all my senses, I tried to detect if anyone was within two miles of me. Unable to, I began running through the forest, sticking to the undergrowth and trying to make as few rustling noises as possible.

I hurried toward the castle perched among the mountain peaks that loomed in the distance. On reaching the borders of the forest, I stopped. Once again, I utilized my sharp senses to evaluate the risk of moving closer to the castle. There were certainly a number of vampires and witches moving about within the castle, but I couldn’t detect anyone outside of it at this late hour. However, I had to be careful not to be seen. My dark coat stuck out like a sore thumb amidst this white snow. For that reason, I couldn’t take to the stairs. Instead, I left the shelter of the trees and bounded right toward the steep rocky slope leading up to the right half of the building.

As I began to climb, I didn’t really have a plan. I just wanted to try to get some understanding of when the next batch of inhabitants would be leaving in one of the vessels. If I knew, there might be some way I could latch on to the vessel until it passed outside the boundary and then quietly slide off into the sea… Granted, I didn’t know what I’d do once stranded in the sea, but even that was a more hopeful situation than the one I was currently in.

Fortunately, my body as a wolf was uniquely equipped for this terrain and the cold didn’t bother me. I was agile, even on the most treacherous of ledges, and it wasn’t long before I reached the base of the castle. I pulled myself up onto the narrow pathway that ran around the circumference of the building.

I paused and looked around, straining my ears once again to hear snippets of conversations going on within the castle that might lead to a clue about when someone would next be departing from this place.

There were dozens of conversations going on at once and they were all overlapping each other, so it was hard to focus on one. As the night drew on, I hoped that people would turn in to bed and there would be fewer conversations, thus making it easier for me to concentrate.

I jumped down onto the rocks beneath the base of the castle and curled up in a nook beneath an overhanging rock, monitoring the conversations from this safer, less visible spot. As it turned out, I was right in my assumption that people would start going to sleep. What felt like a few hours passed and finally, I was left with only four conversations to decipher. One sounded like it was coming from the ground level—some argument about the amount of human blood someone was trying to consume—while the other three were drifting down from the floors above. As the argument on the ground floor faded away, I soon realized that the conversation on the floor most distant from me, perhaps even the top floor of the castle, was the most interesting.

“How could we have run out?” It was the angry voice of Rhys. “I told Lilith we’d be ready to leave for The Shade!”

A chill crept down my spine at mention of the island.

“I’m sorry,” a quieter female voice replied. “Your palms were damaged much worse than I thought, and I underestimated our supply of mer-fin.”

“What about the other two islands? Stellan’s, and our own back through the gate? There are kitchens full of ingredients there, Goddamn it.”

“I already checked in both places. We’ve run out. I’ll need to make another trip to The Cove to retrieve some more.”

Glass smashed.

“And how long will that take?” he seethed.

“You know that’s a question I can’t accurately answer. But while I’m gone, keep drinking as much were-blood as you can down. I’ll instruct Arielle to bring you a goblet five times a day. It will help to build your strength until I can brew up my potion again… I’ll leave through the gate now. And, Rhys, I promise I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Rhys grunted angrily as the conversation came to an end.

My mind was still fixed on The Shade. What did they plan to do exactly? Were they finally going to attempt a full-blown invasion?

At least, for now, it seemed that some time had been bought for the island.

But how much?

I
had to admit
, I thought that the night Caleb finally sank his fangs into me might have been my last. The hunger in his eyes was both terrifying and exhilarating. He drank deep. So deep my head began to feel faint. But even as my vision became fuzzy, I didn’t struggle. I still clung onto him tight, beckoning him to take more of me—all of me, if that was what he wanted.

But then he stopped. Wiping my blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, he staggered back, as far away from me as he could on the deck. His chest heaving, he turned his back on me and forced his gaze out toward the ocean.

I could only take his restraint and self-control as evidence that he didn’t want to end me. I’d been right all along: he did still love me, and I just had to prove to him that I was still the girl he’d sworn to marry.

I felt a sense of elation as I stood there, watching him struggle to control his hunger on the other side of the boat. His refusal to end me was the first step toward recovering what we’d once had. I’d survived Caleb’s initial attack, and now he craved me. Madly. Deliriously.

I kept my distance from him for the rest of the night, as well as the following morning. I noticed him putting more effort into navigating us toward a shore where he could drop me off, though I could still see land nowhere in sight. In this old boat—unless we came across another ship—we had no chance of reaching land any time soon.

He fasted for the entire day, but as evening fell again and I settled down to sleep in my corner, he approached behind me, grabbed my waist and pulled me back against him as he once again gave into his craving for me. I reached my arm around the back of his neck, once again pulling him closer, inviting him to take me fully, even though pain was shooting through me from his bite.

But as he’d done the night before, he regained control over himself. I stared into his eyes—turned almost black with bloodlust—and brushed my fingers against his cheek. He flinched as I leaned forward and kissed his neck, and shot back toward the opposite end of the boat again, cursing and slamming his fist against the wood.

But as morning broke, I woke up to a cupful of blood next to my head. A long metal spear lay a few feet away from me, its tip tinged with red. Caleb was nowhere in sight—though his breathing came from the inside of the cabin. I smiled knowingly as I lifted the blood to my lips. It was Caleb’s blood. He couldn’t afford for me to waste away now, or he’d no longer be able to satisfy his craving.

He was addicted to my blood.

Now, it was only a matter of time before he became addicted to me.