A Castle of Sand (A Shade of Vampire #3)(22)

Derek visibly tensed, most likely surprised that Gavin would have the gall to speak to him in that manner.

“Sofia deserves the best,” said Derek.

Gavin’s eyes went from Derek to me and to my relief, he nodded. “I’m not going to argue with that. I have to admit that Sofia really is quite special.” He then took out a white rose that had been tucked in his back pocket. “I heard it’s your birthday.” He approached and handed me the rose. “Happy Birthday, Sofia. Now, you can’t say I never gave you anything.”

From behind me, I could hear Paige and Rosa trying to stifle their giggles. I wondered what they found so funny until I noticed the look on Derek’s face after Gavin gave me the rose. He looked just about ready to rip Gavin’s heart out.

Derek cocked his head to the side. “Do you have a death wish, boy?” he asked Gavin.

Lily was trembling. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she suffered a heart attack then and there. Her face had drained of all color.

Gavin, on the other hand, still had a cocky smile on his face. He stayed calm as he gave Derek a look over from head to foot. “Don’t worry, your majesty. I’m not interested in your princess. Not in that way.”

“In what way are you interested in her then?”

“Not in any way that would be a threat to either her or you, your highness. She’s a friend—a sister even. Nothing more.”

Gavin said the words in a matter-of-fact way, as if he expected all of us to already know what he’d just explained. He sounded almost bored. Even I was intimidated by Derek’s disposition at that point, but Gavin didn’t even flinch.

I recalled the first time I had spent time with Gavin. It was right after Claudia took him from the farm and I helped stopped her from making a slave out of him. Claudia attacked him and left some pretty nasty gashes on his upper torso with her claws. I pleaded for Derek to give me a vial of his blood, so we could use it to heal Gavin’s wounds.

“You want me to drink his blood?” Gavin spat out, staring at the vial in disdain. “Are you insane?”

“It will help you heal…” I said meekly, unsettled by the anger blazing in his eyes. I wondered to myself why I was feeling guilty. It wasn’t my fault Claudia caught him and clawed her nails through him. Heck…he should be thankful that I intervened.

“Yeah? Well, duh…of course it will help me heal. Doesn’t mean I want vampire blood running through my veins…” He stared at me disgustedly. “Have you been drinking his blood?”

I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. “Several times…”

“Migrates…” He rolled his eyes. “No wonder the vampires treat you as pets. What are you doing here, really?”

We were in his small cell in The Catacombs and he was lying on one of the four cots belonging to his family. The drab setting and dimly-lit room proved to be rather depressing.

“I just wanted to check on you,” I responded to his query, wondering why he was throwing so much hostility at me.

“You think you’re some sort of savior, don’t you? Like you’re above us just because the prince of The Shade is professing his love to you?” Gavin, despite the bloodied bandages wrapped around his torso, sat up on his cot and glared at me.

“No…I just wanted to help.”

“I’ve been here all my life, girl. I know the vampires a lot better than you do. Do you think you’re the first Migrate these creatures have been infatuated by? You’re not. There have been others before you.” He snorted as he shot me a condescending look. “It’s the same old story. The vampire fell in love. The Migrate got special treatment. Then what? The human gets either turned or killed. If not, they end up with us Naturals—practically useless, because they’ve been so broken, both mentally and physically, by the vampire who claimed to love them. I could introduce you to one. Anna—stunning beauty, but degraded to nothing but a whimpering child. You’re nothing special.”

A lump formed in my throat as I searched my mind for a response. You obviously don’t know what kind of person Derek Novak is, was what I wanted to say, but it was clear that Gavin thought himself better schooled in the subject of vampires than I was. Thus, I just hung my head in surrender. It seemed pointless trying to get my point through to him, at least at that moment.

The silence seemed to mellow him down, draining the fight out of him. “You have no idea what it’s really like to be a human at The Shade, living like every day could be your last. Don’t come here holding yourself high above everyone else.”

“I’m not holding myself above anyone! Is it so wrong to want to help, Gavin?”

He studied me carefully, assessing me, perhaps trying to figure out if I was being sincere. His eyes then once again found the vial containing Derek’s blood. “I’m not going to drink that. I don’t think you should either.”

“Why?”

“Because the last thing you want is to owe a vampire anything.”

Standing in the living room of my new quarters in The Catacombs, I couldn’t help but form a bitter smile as I realized the extent to which I had neglected to follow Gavin’s advice. It felt like I owed Derek everything.

Derek continued to study Gavin carefully. He then gave Gavin a nod. “Very well then.” He straightened to his full height, once again towering over the rest of us. “I will entrust her to your care. She seems to put a lot of faith in you, so I expect that you will look after her during her stay here in these caves. Do you agree with this?”