A Shade of Vampire (A Shade of Vampire, #1)(36)

“What happened?!” I yelled, though I already had a clear enough idea of what occurred there.

“Sun…room,” was all Sam managed to say. “Ben’s…there…too.”

My gut clenched. I actually felt betrayed that Sofia would be with any other person in the sun room who wasn’t me. I forced my jealousy aside, knowing that something was wrong and that I had to get my head on straight, but there was no way to prepare myself to see Ben’s unconscious form on the ground and hear Sofia’s whimpers as she tried in vain to push my brother away from her.

Lucas had her up a wall, naked from the waist up, as his teeth sank into her neck, his hands freely groping her body, obviously enjoying the sensations the feel of her provided as he greedily drank her blood.

I lost all sense of control as I attacked my brother, making a huge crack on the wall when I pushed him into it.

Lucas actually had the gall to laugh. I punched him in the face with such great force, I half-expected his neck to crack from the way his face swung violently to the side.

I was sure that he had gone completely mad based on the wild expression on his face. I was wrong.

He knew exactly what he was doing. “I can’t let you have her, brother,” he spat at me – a mixture of her blood and his own. “I will lose everything the moment she becomes completely yours.”

I didn’t understand what he was saying. I didn’t want to. I just wanted to end him, end this bitter rivalry we’d had for so many years. It was clear that I was far more powerful than he was, because his struggles to get away from me didn’t do him any good. I retrieved the wooden stake I kept on my person all the time.

“Is that the wooden stake? The same one you kept from all those years of being a shadow hunter?”

Lucas showed no fear. I knew that he knew me well enough to know how important family was to me, but he grossly underestimated how important Sofia had become to me. After all that time I spent weighing who mattered more to me – my brother or Sofia, at that moment, the choice was crystal clear: I had every intention of stabbing that stake through his heart – if only to protect the woman I loved.

I caught my own thoughts. I tensed at the realization. The woman I loved. That’s how I saw Sofia. Now that Lucas had tasted her blood, he would always be after her, though I was certain that he’d been after her since the night of the attack. I had no doubt in my mind that it was him who hurt Sofia and killed Gwen. I hated that I was too much of a coward to face him. This was my fault.

I raised the stake and targeted my brother’s heart.

The smirk on his face disappeared when he realized I had every intention of killing him. He had simply gone too far. He actually cowered in fear when I made the motion to stab him. Relief washed over his face when someone stood to his defense.

“Derek, no…”

At first, I thought it was Vivienne, but it wasn’t. I would know Sofia’s soft voice anytime I heard it.

“You’re not safe from him,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“I never was.” She panted.

I could tell from the way she spoke that she was conflicted, most likely debating against her own reasons for keeping me from driving that stake into Lucas’ heart.

“Then why should he live?! He has to die!”

Sofia’s answer reminded me why I adored her so much.

“If you kill your own brother, Derek, you might never be able to forgive me. Or worse than that, you might never be able to forgive yourself.”

She knew me – all sides of me – but she never treated me like a creature of the dark. When she looked at me, it felt as if she still saw someone capable of light.

I dropped the stake and loosened my hold on my brother. He lost no time in taking advantage of what he most likely perceived as a momentary lapse of sanity and rushed out of the room. He hasn’t changed at all. Lucas was a coward and a bully. He never did stand up to those who were more powerful than him, but he found enjoyment in preying on the weak.

That was why I was certain that as long as she was at the Blood Shade, Sofia would never be safe.

Lucas would stalk her and hunt her like he would an animal. He wouldn’t relent until he’d had his fill of her. Unless I killed him.

I flinched when I felt her soft hand brush up my arm. I turned around and forced myself to look at her. She tossed the pieces left of her night shift over herself to try and cover up her bare upper torso. I ripped off my shirt immediately and pulled it over her head. I once again made a cut on my palm and made her drink my blood. It was at that moment that I realized that her friend was already awake, watching us – specifically me – with untrusting eyes.

I ignored him, and waited for Sofia’s wounds to heal, my eyes fixed particularly on Lucas’ bite marks on her neck. “I’m so sorry, Sofia. I failed you again.”

She looked so pale and weak from the attack, as she shook her head. “No, Derek. You saved me… again.”

“Sofia…did he rape you?” I couldn’t look into her eyes when I asked the dreaded question.

The question obviously broke her heart and I hated that I had to ask it. She shook her head.

“No. He didn’t,” she assured me.

However, I could tell somehow that he had done everything but. It sickened me that I could be related to such a monster.

“You have to go, Sofia.”