A Shade Of Vampire 6: A Gate Of Night (13 page)

During my stay at The Sanctuary, it had become increasingly clear that the Ageless was their leader, that she was a mother of sorts to their kind. Beyond that, she was perhaps the most powerful among them. It had become commonplace to see Ibrahim speak to her with reverence.

“It’s proving a little challenging, but there’s improvement.”

“Why must I stay here? Why can’t I train elsewhere?” I snapped at her.

“And have you burn down half the human realm in the process?” Ibrahim laughed wryly, in an attempt to break the ice.

He failed.

The Ageless and I were both glaring at each other. “You know why, Derek.” That infuriating tone made me feel like an idiot. “You need to learn to harness your power. You’re useless to all of us until you learn to control and manage your strength.”

“Do you know where my wife is? What has happened to her?”

“We have time. You need not worry.”

“Time? Time for what? Where is she? Do you know?” I was feeling the rage building up again. I breathed a couple of sighs to keep my temper in check. As a vampire, I’d usually let my temper run amok, but this time, I couldn’t afford to let that happen. “You’ve kept me from Sofia for five months. She’s my wife. How can I not worry?”

“I’m sure she’s safe. If they did anything to her, we would know and we would tell you.”

“Right,” I scoffed, “because you witches are all-knowing and all-useless.”

“Useless?” The Ageless’ nostrils flared. “After everything Cora did for you, I would think you’d be the last person to say something like that. You owe your power and your very existence to our kind.”

I got up on my feet. “I owe her a lot. But did you also know what she did to me? What she put me through at The Blood Keep?”

“I’ve heard. She’d never thought being a vampire would inhibit her powers. Had she known, she never would’ve agreed to the Elder’s deal. Cora was always independent. The centuries she spent under the Elder’s control were hell to her… until you ended it. We are grateful that you ended her misery. You knew Cora and how beautiful, powerful and kind she was before the Elder corrupted her and turned her into Emilia.”

“And yet you did nothing to stop her from getting corrupted.”

Pain sparked in the Ageless’ normally blank gaze. I’d been so caught up in my anger that I’d missed the hint of affection that came with the way the Ageless spoke about Cora.

“What was Cora to you anyway? You cared about her, didn’t you?”

“She betrayed us. She should’ve been loyal to our kind, but she chose to be loyal to whatever feelings she had for you. Everything you are now, you owe to her. She destroyed herself in order to make you indestructible.”

“So I’m right. You did care about her.”

“She was powerful. Had she remained the Ageless, she would’ve been unstoppable, far more powerful than I am now. Everything I know, I learned from her, and my powers have been growing ever since, but she gave all that up. For you. Frankly, I don’t understand why.” She eyed me, unimpressed.

“You could’ve stopped her.” Despite what Cora had turned into, I couldn’t deny the guilt that I felt at the thought of the beautiful witch. There was once a time when I’d seen Cora as my best friend. I hated that her life had to end the way that it did. “You probably should’ve stopped her.”

“Yes. Maybe I should’ve. But I didn’t. I reasoned to myself, out of my own love for her, that she had a choice and she’d made it. I told myself that we had to let things unfold naturally, that we cannot interfere just to undo one disastrous choice or save one life.”

“And yet you saved mine. What makes my life more important than hers?”

“Your life isn’t more important than hers. As I said, she made her choices and she had to live with them.”

My jaw clenched. There was nothing I could do about what happened to Cora. Past was past. I couldn’t change it even if I wanted to. What I did know was that Sofia needed me. Regarding my wife’s fate, there was still something I could do.

“How about Sofia? Is my life more important than hers? Why doesn’t she get to be saved?”

“They won’t harm her. You have time.”

“How are you so sure of that? She’s at The Blood Keep! Captive! My wife doesn’t belong there!” I could feel the heat rising again. Part of me wanted to unleash the fire and burn both the Ageless and Ibrahim to a crisp. Part of me understood what they were saying. The power I had was beyond my comprehension for now and I couldn’t go back to my world without understanding it. The greater part of me, however, just really wanted to hold Sofia in my arms.

A lump formed in my throat when I remembered the dream—the same dream I’d had every single night since I married Sofia. The idea of us turning against each other was sickening, and the longer I was away from her, the more possible it seemed.

The Ageless looked at me with her typical glare, not a single hint of empathy or sympathy in her eyes. Silver hair glistening, she was as fascinating as she was terrifying.

“We can’t keep going over this, Derek. Trust me when I say that we have time. You want to see Sofia, I get that, but you will risk your life—and many others’ lives—if you go looking for her while you’re still not ready.”

“You didn’t answer my question, witch. Why do I get to live?”

“Because—thanks to Cora— you are now the man powerful enough to help restore balance between the realms.”

“What realms?”

“You already know of two—ours, the witches’ realm, and yours, the human realm. There are two others—that of the vampires and that of the Guardians. Two realms at war with each other. We exist to maintain the balance between the two.”

“We? Humans and witches?”

“No. We… witches maintain the balance. Humans are like currency—the immunes being of highest value. The vampires are hoarding too many of the immunes.”

“I was a vampire. I didn’t care about the immunes.”

“Really, Derek? You didn’t care about the power that you sensed whenever you drank Sofia’s blood?” The Ageless didn’t say it as a taunt or a challenge, just as a fact. “I’m not talking about your kind of vampire. You are mutations of the original, weak compared to them. The Elder is the first vampire who entered the human realm. You are his creation, but the Elder is just one among many—one among the original vampires.”

“Ok. Restore balance. How do we do it? Let’s just get it done.”

“Don’t be an impulsive fool, Derek. You know you’re not ready.”

“You don’t understand!” I turned towards Ibrahim. “
You
keep telling me to calm down, to relax. You say that’s the only way I can control…”

Fire once again burst from my palms and it took all of me to redirect my body so that the flames didn’t get to my trainer and the Ageless. I screamed as ray upon ray of burning fire erupted from my body, evaporating the tears before they could fall from my eyes.

The Ageless mumbled a couple of incoherent words and within seconds the fire was gone, but I was still burning with a reality I knew to be true—a reality that the Ageless could never comprehend as she stood over me and with her stoic countenance reinforced her point.

“I think we can all agree that you are not ready.” She turned to Ibrahim. “Continue the training.”

Ibrahim stroked his dark goatee and sighed. “Tough break, Derek, but her word is law.”

I shook my head. “I can’t stay here, Ibrahim. What you don’t understand is that I was
never
able to control my temper or my power. Not on my own. Not until Sofia came into my life.”

“She will be back into your life the moment you gain control. It can be done.”

“Damn it, Ibrahim. Don’t you understand? The longer you keep me away from her, the more I lose control. I need to at least know that I’m getting closer to her, not farther.” My teeth were gritted, my fists clenched, as I stood to my full height. I was fighting with every inch of my life to keep the fire from bursting out of my exhausted body once again.

Spent and desperate, I told him the one truth they couldn’t seem to grasp: “Sofia
is
my calm.”

Five months.
It’d been five months since the Elder’s children had attacked The Shade and taken over, five months since the portal had opened. I knew nothing about Sofia or her pregnancy. There was absolutely no news about the fate of Derek.

As far as The Shade’s leaders were concerned, we were all in the dark.

We all feared that both were gone, but none of us had the guts to say it out loud. I, for one, was certain that my daughter was alive. I convinced myself that had anything happened to her, I would’ve known. I felt it in my gut.

Sofia is alive.

I had been given her bedroom at the Catacombs. After the Elder had attacked The Shade, the Black Heights was the only intact establishment at the island. Everything else was ruined. Apparently, destroying an entire mountain range wasn’t thought beneficial. We still had the Catacombs and the Cells.

I heaved a deep sigh as I stared at the ceiling of her room. I’d left it mostly untouched. I wanted to sense her presence lingering there. I shifted on the bed in an attempt to make myself comfortable. I muttered a prayer for her, hoping to God that she was all right. I was never a man of faith, but at that point, I was desperate enough to believe that a Higher Power would somehow let her know that she was in my thoughts.

Everything’s going to be all right,
I told myself, only to scoff at the notion.
Nothing is all right.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw terrifying red eyes looking directly at me. I saw his sneer. I saw the manic look on his face as he stabbed Natalie Borgia in the kneecap, smiled at her scream, watched the wound heal only to stab her again.

Natalie had died for betraying the Elder the same day the Elder took over The Shade. In the back of our minds, we’d known that the Elder wasn’t just going to stop at opening The Shade’s side of the portal. We were right. They wanted full control.

On top of Natalie’s death, three hunters were also tortured and killed. None of us understood what was going on with Arron, and why he would bail like that when he seemed so adamant that the portals not be opened, but one thing was for certain: in the world we were entangled in, we couldn’t trust what we did not understand.

After they were done punishing those who had crossed them, Kiev had burned the Sanctuary down. Though we never found her body, we’d concluded that Corrine had met her death within its walls. Unless she used some sort of magic in order to escape, just like the temple, she was nothing but a pile of ashes now.

Along with her demise, we were certain that the protection over the island was going to disappear, right along with its endless night. We were mistaken.

Kiev grinned at our cluelessness. “Don’t worry. The Shade will be safe as long as you comply with our demands.” He grabbed a clump of Vivienne’s hair and dragged her to the ground. He seemed to know how much her struggles to break free from him were killing Xavier, because he glared at the vampire before announcing to us what the Elder had planned for his new conquest. “Your princess here will remain in power, but she is, of course, to do as the Elder instructs. Without question. Remember that the true rulers of this island are still within our grasp. One error from Princess Vivienne here and we won’t mind killing Sofia’s offspring right in the womb. Besides, cross us once and we won’t hesitate to end The Shade’s endless night, let the sun out and burn every vampire here. Will you comply, princess?”

Vivienne’s eyes betrayed how revolted she was by him, but we all knew she wasn’t being given a choice. She
had
to comply. She was the Elder’s puppet and anything she did that displeased the Elder was to receive “just” punishment—Natalie’s torturous death was the public example.

I was expecting Vivienne to wither away, to return to the empty shell she’d become after what we put her through at hunters’ headquarters, but the strength and defiance never left her eyes. I wondered if Xavier had something to do with that, but whoever was to thank, I was more than grateful that she still had fight in her.

We needed her to be strong. She needed to be strong. She couldn’t give up, especially now that she, just like the rest of us, had just become a pawn in the Elder’s game.

After proclaiming her as the ruler of The Shade, Kiev, Clara, and the Elder’s minions left for The Blood Keep and it seemed like we could do as we wished. The first thing Vivienne did was to make sure that all those who were lost would be honored. Hundreds of bodies were buried in the days that followed. Gavin’s family—his mother, Lily, his brother, Robb, and his sister, Madeline—among them. Rosa, one of my daughter’s dearest friends, had also met her end.

I could only imagine how heartbroken Sofia would’ve been to find out about the loss.

A memorial service was held to honor the dead’s memory. At that time, it didn’t matter what any of us were—vampire, human or hunter. We became one in our grief.

I was standing beside Zinnia during the candlelit service, listening to the sobs and the cries, the broken hearts, grieving the loss of loved ones. Zinnia was deathly silent for most of the service, except for one haunting moment when she whispered to herself in a voice so low she probably thought I wouldn’t hear, “The vampires cry as if they’re human. Who knew they could be capable of grief?”

Despite all the walls the young huntress had made to convince herself that devoting her life to killing vampires was a life worth living, she was beginning to see that misery existed on both the vampires’ and the hunters’ sides. Both had suffered loss.

Still, the solidarity that came out of our grief didn’t last long. The hunters still hated the vampires and the vampires felt the exact same way. Especially considering that blood was scarce, tensions were beginning to rise.

Any thought of leaving The Shade ended when after a handful of hunters attempted to escape, Clara arrived, bled each hunter dry, and with a bloody mouth and a blood-curdling grin, announced that anyone who tried to leave the island was going to answer to her.