A Blaze of Sun (A Shade of Vampire #5)(51)

I could hear her whispering before emerging with Anna in tow.

My eyes widened with surprise. Anna hadn’t been out of The Catacombs for the longest time. She was mostly kept in there, because she was someone who would be an easy target for attack by the vampires. “Ash, what were you thinking? How do you intend to defend her in case an Elite vampire attacks her?”

The sharpness of my tone made Anna withdraw in fear, backing up a couple of steps away from me.

Ashley’s face deadpanned as she cast me a sharp glare. “What is wrong with you?” she mouthed. “She’s here safe, isn’t she?”

I approached Anna who seemed to recoil with every step I took to draw closer to her. “You’re safe with me, Anna,” I assured her.

At first, she just whimpered in response, but then as I took slow steps forward, careful not to scare her, she drew close, held my hand and led me to the dock of the lake, where we both sat over the edge. I could hear Ashley mumbling something about not being needed anymore, but my focus was on Anna and how beautiful and serene she looked as she blankly stared at the lake.

I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. I simply wanted to enjoy that one moment - that one snapshot of time where I felt like Anna belonged to me and me alone. We sat there in silence, simply enjoying each other’s company, our legs dangling over the water below.

Anna then began nodding before breaking the silence. Her words meant the world to me. “Yes. I’m safe with you.”

All eyes were on me as I sat across Sofia on the dining table inside her quarters. I didn’t bother finding out who exactly was surrounding me. I was too overwhelmed by the stare Sofia was throwing at me, her fascination of me clearly showing on her face.

Corrine and Vivienne sat on either side of her, while Aiden sat at the head of the table. They were making me feel uncomfortable, simply because they were staring at me like I had somehow committed a crime.

The elephant in the room, of course, was that I was once again a normal, mortal man, and no longer an immortal vampire. They’d already done every test possible to check if I had indeed turned back into a human, and it was evident that I had.

“How is it possible?” Aiden muttered beneath his breath, but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

Sofia leaned forward. “What happened, Kyle?” There was a sense of hope and excitement in her voice, although it was still laced with worry and concern.

I tried to recall what had occurred. After the ordeal I went through inside the pit Rex trapped me in, I felt like everything was a blur. I began to recount exactly what happened as I remembered it.

Drinking Anna’s blood was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I didn’t want to do it, because I knew that I would crave her every day after, but it was pure ecstasy just to taste the red liquid and feel it pounding within me. I felt amazing, powerful, unstoppable and I couldn’t even wrap my senses around why I felt that way. My conscience was nagging at me for what I was doing, but I couldn’t stop it, once her blood ran through my throat, there really was no way I could resist.

She didn’t seem to mind. She did it so that I would heal and heal I did – faster than I ever have before. Just then, in such rapid succession, Rex showed up and pushed Anna away from me. She screamed as she fell to the ground. Her scream was followed by a loud thud as her head hit the stone wall.

I gasped with horror, but before I could go to her, Rex lunged toward me, picking me up in the air before speeding with me in tow into some other part of the cave. I tried to get away from his grasp in an attempt to check if Anna was alright, but Rex was one of the Elite, which were the vampire clans that helped Derek establish The Shade hundreds of years ago. He was far more powerful than I was. Still, I put up a fight until he just stopped and pushed me into a cell in The Catacombs that had what looked like a sunroof.

He quickly shut and locked the door. He smirked as he began to speak from the other side of the door. “This is the Pit. Not many know about this room. Only Gregor, Lucas, Felix and a select number of men… We used it to punish vampires before Derek took over and began running The Shade. You can’t get out. The sun will rise and you will feel the pain. If you get exposed to more than eight hours of sunlight, you will surely die. That’s what sunlight does to a vampire. If I change my mind, I might return before you die, but be warned, boy… never ever interfere in my affairs again. Felix’ girl is mine.”

I grimaced at him. I never really spent much time with Rex. He wasn’t a very important person in The Shade and he mostly kept to himself, but he was one of Felix’s men – one of those who surrendered to Derek after the siege at the Port.

When he left, I tried to take down the door, but it didn’t work. I figured it might be the same kind of doors they were using at The Cells. I screamed for help, but none came, so I just waited and waited and waited, dreading the moment when the sun would finally come up and destroy me.

When it did, I already lost all hope that anyone would come for me, so I braced myself for the agony that was to come. Just as expected, it was a painful, excruciating experience – so much so that after the first hour, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw Ashley leaning over me, shaking me awake, her eyes wrought with deep concern.

“Kyle? Are you alright?”

I felt weak and fragile – like I could easily break with the slightest touch. “What happened?” I asked.