A Shade of Vampire (A Shade of Vampire, #1)(29)

In the days that followed, he proved his words true. Derek never did anything or even said anything that would violate my trust. It seemed he took extra care in making sure that I wanted to do what he was asking me to do, but that really was the major difference. He actually began to ask. It seemed so unlike him at first… almost unnatural, but as time passed, we became a lot more used to having each other around. Or at least I did.

Days – or in the Blood Shade’s case - nights fell into routine. We started off with breakfast before he brought me and the girls to the Crimson Fortress to train using weapons of defense against vampires. Much to his siblings’ horror, he actually gave us each wooden stakes of our own. He, however, warned us sternly that those were for self-defense and nothing else. Should we use it for any other purpose, he made it clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill us himself. It was a reminder that the fierce and menacing part of him was still in there – no matter how caring and gentle he could be around me.

After training sessions, he would have Sam and Kyle bring the girls back to the penthouse to prepare lunch while he brought me to Corrine. I had no idea what he did while I spent a full two hours with Corrine, but it didn’t really bother me all that much. I began to treasure times I spent with the witch. She was definitely far better than the other psychologists I’d been forced to meet with. It didn’t take long for her to have a diagnosis of what my mental condition was.

“You don’t have any of the disorders those doctors diagnosed you with, Sofia,” she explained. “What you have is often confused with other disorders, because it’s hard to detect, but I honestly think that you have “Low Latent Inhibition”, also known as LLI. Latent inhibition is what allows people to shut down other things so that they can focus on selected things. It’s what allows us to not have to deal with all this external and internal stimuli at the same time. After all, the brain can only take so much. You, however, don’t have a lot of latent inhibition. That’s why you’re constantly fully aware of everything going around you. You can’t just shut down and focus on one thing. It can get overwhelming, because you’re always open to new stimuli.” She paused. “I think it’s what your mother had. She wasn’t able to handle it… hence, what happened to her...”

I bit my lip. “Does that mean I could end up like her?”

“Most people who have LLI do end up going crazy, Sofia… unless they have a high enough IQ to handle it. You’re one of those lucky few. Most people who are able to handle LLI have high levels of empathy and are often very perceptive of others. They’re creative geniuses.”

At that, I scoffed. I doubted that I was much of a creative genius. Yet, a lot of what Corrine said about LLI made sense to me. It was perhaps the reason why I was so attuned to all my senses. I’d just assumed that it was normal for everyone to be that way. Maybe I was wrong.

After sessions with Corrine, I spent the rest of the day with Ashley, Paige, and Rosa. We were often guarded by several alternating guards assigned to us, but we decided that we liked Sam and Kyle best. Those afternoons we mostly spent with them helping me finish my project in that extra room Derek provided me at the penthouse. We still talked about escaping, but we had no clue how to pull it off, it almost always ended up being a complete downer, so we tried to avoid talking about it unless ideas of how to pull it off came up. They asked me a lot about that night and what happened. I tried to avoid answering them as best I could. I didn’t want to scare them.

I managed to convince Derek to allow us to hold a memorial service in honor of Gwen and he eventually allowed it. It was the Blood Shade’s first ever memorial service held in honor of a human.

I spent most dinnertimes alone with Derek. Sometimes, he talked to me about what happened throughout his day after he left me with Corrine. Most of the time, he just listened. He kept me up to date on investigations regarding my attack and Gwen’s murder. I honestly think that he suspected Lucas; he just couldn’t admit it to himself. It only served to strengthen my resolve not to test his loyalties by telling him.

Over the course of several days, I was also finally able to teach him how to use his cell phone. He gave me one of my own and the first thing I tried to do with it was call Ben. Apparently, whatever was keeping the Blood Shade secret also blocked any calls and messages from leaving the island. Whoever Cora was, I both admired her and loathed her for making the Blood Shade so secure.

If not for Lucas, I could honestly say that I was beginning to like living at the Shade. It was harder for him to get to me, with all the security measures Derek had built up around me at night, but there were still moments when he caught me alone and off guard. Lucas never failed to remind me that a time would come when I’d be his. I never did have an encounter with him that didn’t leave me feeling shaken and violated. I hated Lucas with every fiber of my being. It seemed he knew that and the knowledge only made the whole thing more amusing to him.

Ultimately, it was Derek that made life at the Blood Shade worth living. I began to treasure nights spent with him. We spent most of it with me trying to introduce a new piece of technology to him, one at a time. Introducing him to the camera was pretty fun. We spent the night snapping pictures of each other and mostly just goofing around. It was the first time I could remember hearing him laugh.

Life at the Shade almost took on a lethargic pace and the life I lived before being taken there felt like it belonged to a completely different lifetime. I was mostly worried about the girls and how they were coping but they seemed to have accepted that this was their life for now. Occasions where we got to leave the penthouse and see other parts of the Shade were ones that allowed us to see how other vampires treated their human slaves. It was evident that it was to our advantage that we got to be under Derek’s care.