A Break of Day (A Shade of Vampire #7)(41)

“So… so that means that…” I was still stumbling over my words and trying to grapple with the situation. “Hawks and Elders… there’s no way they can trouble us anymore? We’re free?”

Just as I said the words, the Ageless manifested herself in front of the fountain, just a few feet away from us. She looked sternly at me but then fixed her gaze on Ibrahim.

“So, I see you were successful,” she said. “And now you understand what remains to be done?”

Ibrahim nodded.

“What?” I asked. “What remains to be done?”

The Ageless ignored me. “You don’t have long. I gave you this concession because you are my cousin. But you understand that we must carry out what we agreed upon.”

“Concession? What are you talking about?” I tried to grab hold of the witch’s shoulder but, to my frustration, the minute I touched her she vanished into thin air. “Damn you!” I yelled at the empty space that only seconds before had been occupied.

I faced Ibrahim. “Well? Explain.”

“I will, Derek. But first, I suggest we bring your friends and family here to The Shade. The Elders are no more, and I believe it’s the safest place for now. My companions here will start to care for the vessels.”

An unnerving feeling began to creep over me and Ibrahim’s unwillingness to discuss it only served to further fuel the fire of my doubts.

We’ve wiped out the gates of the Hawks and Elders, but what kind of evil are we now left with?

Chapter 31: Sofia

Ibrahim didn’t even give me a chance to say goodbye to Derek. For all I knew, it could be the last time I saw him. The whole island had been transformed into a hive of wasps. I shuddered to think of what could happen on his arrival.

But there was nothing I could do other than wait and hope for the best. It took me almost an hour after Derek’s sudden disappearance to compose myself enough to speak to anybody. Zinnia and Gavin respected my silence and left the room, muttering about going out to look for some animal blood for us.

Then I made my way back upstairs to see if Vivienne had woken yet. I’d been meaning to speak to her since we first rescued her from the ship, but she had seemed to be in no state to talk to anyone.

I knocked on her bedroom door, and when there was no answer, I entered anyway. She lay in bed, eyes open and staring blankly at the ceiling. It was only when I sat on the bed next to her that she turned her head to face me.

“Sofia,” she said hoarsely, reaching for my hand. She looked at me differently now than when I’d had an Elder inside me; I guessed that she had already sensed that I was my old self again, save for the fact that I was still a vampire. “What happened to you?” she asked.

I explained about the time I’d spent under the Elder’s influence. But the real reason I’d come to see her, and what I truly was dying to do, was to offer an apology.

“Vivienne, when I visited you in your room at Headquarters and told you about… about Xavier. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know for a fact that the words I spoke were true, since I didn’t witness his death with my own eyes. Everything I said came directly from the Elder’s mouth.”

She cast her eyes away from me and gulped. She looked on the verge of tears again, but she swallowed her emotions back. “It’s okay, Sofia. You weren’t in control of yourself. How can I blame you for that? And in any case… I-I think it’s about time that I come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to see him again. It’ll be less painful in the long term.”

I held her in my arms and kissed her forehead, running one hand through her hair. There was nothing I could say that wouldn’t make her feel worse, for her conclusion was the truth.

Eventually she broke the silence and asked, “Where’s Derek?”

I didn’t want to lay any extra worries on my sister-in-law’s shoulders. “Ibrahim took him to meet the Ageless,” I lied. “I’m not sure what for exactly, because he left very suddenly. But he should be back within a day or so.”

After I’d spent a couple of hours with Vivienne, I left her alone and went downstairs to see if Gavin and Zinnia had returned. Indeed they had, but instead of the sacks of blood that we were used to at Headquarters, they’d bought hunks of raw meat and bags full of fresh fish from the local shops.

“There’s not much blood in the meat, but you’ll have to make do for now,” Zinnia said.

“Seems like the dog is asking for breakfast,” Gavin muttered, as howling started in the basement. Shadow must have woken up and smelt the dead flesh. “I’ll go feed him.”

It wasn’t long before the two couples came down to join us, closely followed by Eli and Landis. We all sat around the large kitchen table and began tucking into our meal. All the vampires ate hungrily while I pecked here and there just for the sake of normalcy. Gavin and Zinnia settled for cereal they’d picked up from the grocery store.

I repeated much of the conversation I’d just had with Vivienne, an overview of everything that had happened since I last saw them. And again I lied about Derek when they asked where he had gone.

Craving solitude, I grabbed some fish for Vivienne and brought it up to her on a tray. Then I left for my own room and spent the rest of the daylight hours in bed. It was too much for me to keep engaging in conversations with people who were oblivious to the fact that my husband was in mortal danger.