A Blaze of Sun (A Shade of Vampire #5)(19)

“I love your warmth,” he whispered, his voice husky with emotion. “I love you, Sofia.”

I wondered what was going through his mind and what could’ve brought about this mood of his. I didn’t want to ask, afraid that it might spoil the moment, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss away.

“I love you too. You know that, don’t you?”

I could feel him nod, his lips pressing against the back of my head.

I couldn’t help but smile as a wave of nostalgia came over me. “We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we?” I found myself asking, memories in The Shade – both good and bad – suddenly replaying through my mind. One memory in particular came at the forefront. The Sun Room.

During my first months in The Shade, I was mostly known as Derek’s favorite slave. For my own protection, I wasn’t allowed to leave his penthouse unguarded. Of course, the girls and I found ourselves bored out of our minds so I took on a pet project. Derek allowed me to turn one of the rooms in his penthouse to whatever I wanted to make of it.

I turned it into the Sun Room. The memory of the first time he saw it was still fresh on my mind.

“So you did this?” He looked around the room, a mural of a beautiful sandy beach painted on one wall, large mirrors on the other walls to make the room brighter and reflect the light projected by the recessed LED lights on the ceiling and the walls. At the center of the ceiling was a sunroof, mostly composed of LED lights over a glass window, creating the illusion of sunlight streaming through the room.

We chose lawn furniture that would create the feeling of being outdoors.

I smiled at Derek. “It wasn’t just me. Vivienne was more than happy to get us everything we needed. The girls and Sam and Kyle helped too. I guess it’s not just you who misses sunlight, so thanks for giving me the idea.”

To my surprise, he gently pulled me against him. He took my arms and laid them over his shoulders and around his neck. He then held my waist and led me to a slow dance.

“There’s no music,” I reminded him.

He grinned. “In my head, Sofia, there’s always music.”

I found the thought funny. “That must be interesting. It’s like you always come with your own background music.”

He nodded, smiling down at me. “Exactly.”

He then pulled me closer and placed a soft kiss over my forehead. His kiss then fell on my cheek, then to the corner of my lips. I knew he was going to kiss me, and if I were to be honest with myself, I wanted it to happen, but I pulled away.

“I’m sorry... I… I can’t.”

I was expecting him to ask why or assert himself and insist.

Instead, he just nodded and looked away from me. “I understand.”

Derek could have demanded that kiss from me, but he waited – the same way he waited for me to be ready to get engaged to him, the same way he was waiting to marry me before we could make love, the same way he waited for me to agree to turn into a vampire. He never forced me into anything until I was ready. I wondered then if he could wait a little bit more before we could get married.

“Do you really think we should go ahead and get married, Derek?” I felt guilty just asking the question, but I couldn’t keep myself from asking either.

“Don’t you?” was his response. “You said so yourself so many times… we belong together.”

At that, I couldn’t help but give in. It was hard not to with him being so loving and tender and sweet. Why resist it? Why not now? Still, I couldn’t deny to myself that I felt a cold sense of foreboding regarding the whole thing.

I tried to shake it off as we spent more time together that night, but I just couldn’t. When we ended up in his couch and he began to tug at my shirt to expose my neck, my heart sank when I realized what he was doing. He didn’t ask for my permission or consent. He just bit into my neck and began feeding on my blood.

As I sat there, feeling his body pressed against mine, his teeth sinking into my skin, I couldn’t help but wonder: If he never becomes mortal, is this how it’s going to be? Is this going to be what life is like?

For the first time in a long time, I saw him as a predator and I, his willing prey.

Chapter 12: Ian

Screams were a common thing within The Catacombs. They were as familiar to the Naturals as an ambulance’s siren would be to people outside of The Shade – or so the books say. While someone screaming with terror was a cause for alarm, a Natural never quite runs to the rescue unless they fear that the person screaming was one of their loved ones.

So, for a guy like me, who was orphaned at fourteen and didn’t have any loved ones to worry about, screams never really became a source of alarm.

One particular night, I realized that things were different, because when I heard a piercing scream, I immediately found myself sitting up on my mat, blood pounding and heart racing. One name began echoing in my head. Anna.

Ever since Sofia led the rebellion against Derek’s father, Gregor, and his idea of another culling in The Shade, things had been very different around The Catacombs. I was already leading a group of rebels – mostly teenagers like me – against the idea of a culling ever being done again. Once was enough and the horror it brought all of us was still fresh in our hearts and minds. During a culling, all the humans of The Catacombs deemed to be weak or in any way useless, were killed. Their blood was harvested and preserved for future consumption by the vampires.