A Castle of Sand (A Shade of Vampire #3)(37)

I then remembered what he told me before when he was talking about Migrates used and discarded by vampires who once professed love to them. I could introduce you to one. Anna—stunning beauty, but degraded to nothing but a whimpering child.

I stared at her, suddenly becoming uncomfortable. Gavin was right. She was gorgeous, but her eyes—though beautiful—were vacant of life. I wondered what the vampire could’ve done to her to make her thus. I also wondered who the vampire who did this to her was. I quickly got my answer.

“They took my doll…” Anna told Gavin. “Felix gave me that doll, and they took it. Felix will get so mad…he always gets mad when I lose things and I get in a lot of trouble for it.”

“Forget Felix, Anna. He won’t cause you any trouble anymore,” Gavin assured her. “Now tell me…who took your doll?”

“The guys…”

Fury sparked in Gavin’s eyes. “What guys? They were in your cell? Did they do anything to you?”

The thoughts that flashed through my mind at what Gavin was implying made me sick.

“The guys who visited this morning, of course,” Anna explained, a flash of fear glazing her wide-eyed and innocent countenance. “They took my doll. I want my doll back.”

“I’ll get it back, Anna…” Gavin’s lips tightened as he nodded in assurance. “I promise.”

Anna threw her arms around Gavin and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you!” she exclaimed happily before skipping off to wherever she spent her time.

Gavin’s eyes were glued on her, the expression in his eyes torn. “She shouldn’t be living alone, but she refuses to live with anyone else. She has it in her head that Felix will return and she doesn’t want him finding her with another guy. She’s still afraid he’ll hurt her.”

“The guys she was talking about…do you think they…”

Gavin shook his head. “Best not to talk about such things. This is what life in The Catacombs is like, Sofia. Get used to it.”

“If anyone’s abusing her, then something has to be done about it, Gavin.”

“She’s crazy, Sofia. She doesn’t even have a doll. You can’t really trust anything she says and to spend our energy on following her around to see if anybody’s taking advantage of her is futile. Besides, what do you intend to do if such a thing was happening?”

Tears began to moisten my eyes.

Gavin heaved a deep sigh as he once again looked in the direction Anna ran to. “Sometimes, I think it’s better to die at a culling than to live like this. You should’ve known Anna before she went insane. She was a lot like you. We were actually convinced for a time that Felix truly loved her…he definitely had us fooled. Eventually, he gave in to his nature—blacked out—and turned on her. When he returned her here, the vibrant, kind and beautiful Anna we all knew was gone. All that’s left is what you see now—a shell.”

I hated to ask, but the words came out before I could stop it. “Do you think Derek could do the same thing to me?”

“I would’ve said yes if I hadn’t seen what happened earlier today, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe you and Derek really are different. For your sake, I hope that’s true.” He stared at me for a couple of seconds, and turned toward the staircase that would lead to the topmost level where my quarters were. He then shook his head before grabbing my hand and pulling me toward another direction. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“It’s time you find out what’s really happening here in The Catacombs.” He then stopped and faced me intently. “I can trust you, can’t I?”

“Of course.” I nodded.

“Good, because if you tell a soul—especially Derek—about what I’m about to show you, make no mistake about it, Sofia…I’ll kill you myself.”

CHAPTER 23: DEREK

I would’ve gone to the Lighthouse, but considering all the times I spent there with Sofia, it hardly seemed much of a refuge when what I wanted to escape from were thoughts of her. Thus, I ended up at Vivienne’s greenhouse instead, busying myself with tending to the plants and trying to recall lost, but precious, memories I had of my sister.

If gardening was some sort of therapy for Vivienne, it certainly wasn’t doing the same thing for me. Everything just reminded me of Sofia and what had just occurred at the outskirts of the Vale.

At some point, I just got frustrated with trying to get Sofia off my mind and miserably failing at it. I returned to the penthouse, head hung low, afraid of what I was capable of doing to Sofia. The darkness had never taken over me while she was here. I thought, and I assumed even Vivienne thought the same thing, that her presence kept the darkness at bay.

That was the first time I realized that Sofia was always going to be in danger while she was with me. I could snap any time and destroy her. How on earth was I going to live after that?

I stepped into my penthouse, riddled with conflicting thoughts, and found Claudia conveniently sprawled on one of my living room couches, waiting for me.

“It took you long enough…” She smiled.

“Claudia? What are you doing here? What do you want?”

“Well, I’ve been wondering how you were coping after your lovely pet left…” She stood to her feet and slunk her way toward me.