A Blaze of Sun (A Shade of Vampire #5)(52)

Gavin shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was standing behind Ashley. He shook his head as he responded, “We should be the ones asking you that.”

I checked my arms to see if the skin had completely peeled off and if my flesh had burned. I was wondering if I was numbed by the experience, because I wasn’t experiencing any pain. I was surprised to find my arm completely intact – only with one major difference. It was no longer the pale white it used to be. My complexion returned to the bronzed one that I had before I was turned.

I saw Ashley swallow hard as she stared at me before asking a question that I wasn’t sure how to answer. “Kyle, are you human?”

“Well, are you?” Ashley butted in after I finished my story. “I’m sorry, but I’m still finding it hard to believe.”

“We’re all finding it hard to believe,” Aiden seconded, before glancing at Ingrid, almost as if he were hoping he could put her through what I went through.

“Have you ever seen someone die under sunlight, Vivienne?” Sofia asked.

Vivienne took a moment to search her thoughts before shaking her head. “No. I don’t remember anyone ever dying from sunlight. We just always stayed away from it, because getting exposed to it was awfully painful.”

I nodded in agreement. “There’s no describing the pain. It’s torment.”

Sofia swallowed hard as she tried to process the information we’d just given her.

Claudia then spoke up, her brows furrowed in thought. “Ingrid was once exposed to sunlight. Perhaps we should ask her what that was like.”

Sofia narrowed her eyes at the vampire. I could swear that I saw a hint of pain in her eyes at the mention of her mother, but it quickly faded way. “Someone please get Ingrid here.”

Yuri stood up to fetch Ingrid and returned within a couple of minutes. After being asked about whether or not she had been exposed to the sun, Ingrid recounted to us the details of her experience.

“When I escaped hunter territory, I had to spend time running under direct sunlight. It was an awful experience, but I managed to survive it.”

“How long were you under sunlight?” Sofia asked.

Ingrid shrugged. “I was just under the sun’s rays for about a half hour or so, but it felt a lot longer.”

Sofia directed her attention to me. “You must’ve been under sunlight for over a day…”

Ingrid eyed me. Her eyes widened with horror when she realized what had become of me. “You’re human…” She looked so horrified by the idea, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the recollection of the painful experience or if it was because she was terrified by the idea that she could’ve turned back into a human had she stayed in the sun long enough.

I shrugged when the others looked to me perhaps expecting me either to validate or refute Ingrid’s statements or perhaps give Sofia a better estimate of how long I was under the sun. “There’s no way for me to know. I wasn’t conscious after the first hour.”

“We need to figure this out… What if this is it?” Sofia asked. “What if the sun is the cure?”

“How are we going to test that theory?” Corrine spoke up. “What vampire would want to be exposed to sunlight for more than a day to see if this ‘cure’ works?”

“The one who doesn’t have a choice, because he’s been very bad,” Xavier spoke up from behind us, pushing into the room the man who tried to kill me – Rex.

“No…” Rex shook his head, terror filling his eyes. “You can’t do this to me. First off, I don’t want to turn back into a human. Besides, I’ve seen vampires die under the sun – isn’t that why those UV rays hunters use are so deadly?”

Vivienne raised a brow at him. “You’ve seen a vampire die under the sun? Who? As far as I know, no vampires were killed in The Shade during the entirety of my father’s rule. Besides, The Shade had no sunlight until Emilia took Derek away. How could you have used the cell then?”

Rex grimaced, knowing that he couldn’t possibly argue with Vivienne. He also knew that he was digging himself deeper and deeper into his own self-induced nightmare of a hole. “Very well then… The Pit is in some corner of the island where sunlight streams through. I don’t understand why either, but it seems to be unprotected by the spell. I’ve never actually seen anyone die. We always took them out of the Pit before they died. I’d seen them in pain, and I don’t want to go through that… It’s merciless and none of us are even certain that this could possibly be the cure. Please…”

“So you admit to having tried to kill Kyle by exposing him to sunlight?” Vivienne asked. “And you did this after he tried to stop you from attacking a human, which we all know is something that we have prohibited here at The Catacombs?”

Desperation formed on Rex’s face. The truth was clear to everyone. We were going to test out Sofia’s theory that sunlight could possibly be the cure, and Rex was going to be our very first test subject.

Chapter 31: Sofia

We were headed for the Pit in a rather odd procession. Xavier, Yuri and Claudia were helping each other restrain a frantic Rex. He was fighting and clawing with every ounce of his might to avoid what was to come. Vivienne and Corrine were walking right behind them, while I trailed behind. Aiden walked right next to me, Ingrid on his other side. I didn’t bother to look at whoever else decided to come to watch the show, because I was torn inside about what we were about to do.