A Shade Of Vampire 4: A Shadow Of Light(21)

I wet my lips as I grasped for a proper response. “How exactly do you even know of all of this, Felix?”

A tense hush filled the dome when the doors swung open and a prominent figure at The Shade stepped inside.

I’d always known my father as having a flair for the dramatic, but I never could’ve predicted that he’d be back in The Shade before me, and from the reactions of my allies, it seemed they weren’t aware either. Gregor Novak entered the dome, cued by my question, to take his place beside Felix at the stand. “I told him everything, son. It’s your word against mine now.”

“You know that I never worked with the hunters.”

My father shook his head. “I’m not so sure about that. In fact, I haven’t been very sure of your actions as of late. None of us are. You’ve elevated the standing of every human of The Shade. You left the island to save one human girl from the Maslens. You stayed with the hunters for weeks. I think we deserve answers.”

Just like that, reality sank in—not only to me, but to everyone present there. The king of The Shade was now on trial.





Chapter 12: Sofia


Upon my request, Aiden agreed to have Ingrid brought to my suite rather than to have me brought to wherever they were keeping her. I felt safer in my own turf than in hers, and it seemed Aiden felt better with that arrangement too.

“You summoned me?”

Wanting to end the conversation as soon as I possibly could, I got straight to the point. “Why am I immune? What does being ‘the immune’ mean for me?”

She sighed and smiled at me, her eyes looking at me with what almost seemed like affection. She then shrugged her right shoulder. “I don’t know, Sofia. You should be a Maslen, a beautiful nine-year-old vampire, but you’re not and I will never understand why. All I know was that the moment he tasted your blood, Borys has been absolutely obsessed with you.”

“Why? What’s in my blood?”

“I’m curious myself,” she admitted before looking hungrily at my neck. “Perhaps you should let me have a taste so that I could find out for myself?…I’m sorry. Bad joke.” A moment of silence then ensued as she eyed me with what almost looked like longing. “You must have so many questions. How have you been, Sofia? I’ve been overhearing whispers about Derek disappearing…”

A lump formed in my throat at the mention of Derek. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to Ingrid—or anyone else for that matter—about him. I ached with longing at the very mention of his name.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Ingrid continued, perhaps realizing that she hit a note with what she had just said. “I understand how you feel.”

“Why?” I asked, unable to hide the resentment in my voice. “Because it’s the same way you feel about your beloved Borys right now?”

The question sparked anger in her eyes, but she quickly recovered and shook her head. “No. It’s what I felt about your father during my first years at The Oasis. It felt like I was missing a part of me.”

“Yet you turned your back on him in spite of that. We’re not the same. I didn’t leave Derek. I’m fighting to get back to him.”

“Forget Derek, Sofia.”

That’s impossible. I knew how obsessed my own mother was about giving me to Borys and was well aware that harping on about Derek wasn’t going to help my situation. “Is that what you did with Aiden? You forgot him?”

“It can be done, you know.” She paused before looking directly into my eyes. “Is it true that you’re married to Derek? Or were you bluffing?”

I had no idea what possessed me to tell her the truth, but I shook my head and responded, “I’m engaged to him, but no…we’re not married.”

Relief washed over her face. “Claudia told me that you wanted to escape in order to get back to Derek. Is this true?”

I pursed my lips, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. What has happened to Claudia? She’d been completely useless in my trying to find a way out of headquarters. The only thing that sparked any worthwhile reaction from her was how much she wanted to get back to The Shade and whether or not Yuri would even care that she was there. It’s like all common sense left her the moment she left The Shade. I couldn’t help but smile a bit at the next thought that came to me, realizing how many times I did things that didn’t really make sense to others out of my love for Derek. I guess that’s what love can do to a person.

I tried to re-focus my attention on Ingrid, responding to her question with a question. “If it is?”

“I want to help you.”

I raised a brow, taken by surprise. “Why?”

“I want you out of here. As long as you’re here, Borys can’t get to you.”

“So what you’re saying is that you want me out of headquarters so that Borys can once again abduct me and make my life hell?”

“It sounds so wicked when you put it that way.”

“That’s because it is, Ingrid. You’re my mother. Does that not mean anything to you?”

I couldn’t decipher the look in her eyes when she responded. “It means everything to me that you’re my daughter, Sofia. Trust me when I say that if it weren’t for you, Ingrid Maslen would probably not exist.”