A Castle of Sand (A Shade of Vampire #3)(21)

The words had barely registered in my brain when I saw Zinnia roll toward one of the concrete banisters lining the rooftop. A small grin was on her face, her eyes still focused on the same spot in the rooftop she’d laid eyes on right after we got there.

I crawled my way closer to her, my stomach still flat on the ground. I followed the direction of her eyes as she began to aim her gun. All I could see were old wooden crates and piles of black netting.

“What exactly are we looking at, Wolfe?”

“Shut up.” She fired a shot right through one of the crates.

Within seconds, a piercing scream came from the other side of the crate and a female vampire emerged from behind it, walking around as if she was burning. It was the strangest sight, because the area where the bullet hit her began to glow from the inside—channeling through several parts of her body. She seemed just about ready to implode, and then she just fell to the ground, burned to a crisp before finally turning to ashes.

My jaw was wide open with shock. “That’s insane.”

After that first kill, chaos ensued. I couldn’t quite keep track of everything that went on around me, but what I knew for sure was that the vampires seemed to be winning. We didn’t expect them to know that we were coming. They were prepared for us—stronger, more agile. Keeping cover, like Quinn suggested, was difficult to do considering that the vampires were attacking us from all sides.

One of them lunged at Zinnia. I crouched to the ground and swung my leg and tripped him. I was surprised by how easily the big lug fell to the ground. Of all the times I’d tried to fight against Claudia, I never once succeeded in harming her in any way. Maybe this is a baby vampire. I was about to stick the wooden stake right through his heart, but a girl screamed behind me.

“No!” her cry was piercing. She obviously held affection for the monster I was about to kill. She pushed me away just in time for Zinnia to shoot another UV ray bullet at the guy.

“No…” the girl who had attacked me whimpered as she watched the man struggle and implode. Tears began to stream down her pale face. “He’s my brother…” she whispered, her voice hoarse and broken.

Taking advantage of her distracted state, I tackled the blonde vampire to the ground. I took a quick look at her. I tried to ignore how much her appearance reminded me of Claudia. I knew I couldn’t afford to lose time waiting for her to snap back to attention. Thus, without hesitation, I drove the wooden stake right through her heart. As I looked into her bright blue eyes, I wanted to feel the elation and satisfaction that came with my revenge against all the vampires that she represented. There was none.

Where’s that ‘pure satisfaction’ Zinnia was talking about?

All I felt was the life of another living creature draining away—a life force that coursed through my entire being before fading off into oblivion.

I’d just made my first vampire kill and all I could think about was the tortured look on Vivienne’s eyes when she firmly, but pleadingly told me that she was not the vampire that destroyed my life.

She wasn’t Claudia, and neither was this girl I’d just killed.

CHAPTER 14: SOFIA

“Do you like it?” Derek asked me with such a hopeful tone, it broke my heart to even think of telling him the truth.

“I love it, but don’t you think it’s too much, Derek?” My tone was tentative and unsure. “I really don’t need to have something as lavish as this. I could’ve easily lived here just like everyone else. Surely someone is more deserving than…”

“Nonsense,” he interrupted, shaking his head firmly. “You’re the woman I love. In my eyes, you’re practically princess of The Shade. You’re not like everyone else, Sofia. No one here is more deserving than you are. Accept that.”

I forced a smile, knowing how stubborn he could get when he set his mind to something. I looked at my surroundings and felt my gut clench when friends I just recently made at The Catacombs showed up. The widow, Lily, and her children, Gavin, Rob and Madeline—seventeen, seven and five years old respectively—appeared at my doorstep. Lily’s eyes widened upon seeing the quarters’ modernly designed interior. The two younger children went inside without hesitation, eager to explore the home, their eyes bright with delight and curiosity.

“They said The Palace was stunning, but I didn’t expect it to be like this…” Lily muttered under her breath.

I remembered what their home looked like. It felt garish to live in such a place when the family of four was squashed together in one room.

“The Palace?” Derek asked.

Lily’s eyes once again betrayed her terror when it came to Derek. She never really did get used to his presence and she always looked as if she were frightened that she would say or do something that would displease him.

“That’s what the Naturals call this place…” Gavin was a lot more confident around Derek. Sometimes, he even bordered on defiant—something I admired, but still found myself fearing for him, because not all vampires would tolerate his insolence the way Derek did.

“What do you think?” I asked Gavin. I’d long realized since I first met him how much I valued his opinion. I found it refreshing that he always spoke his mind without hesitation, telling me things as they were and not as I wanted to hear them.

Gavin looked Derek straight in the eye as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on a bare wall. “It’s over-indulgent, but I think you already know that.”