A Castle of Sand (A Shade of Vampire #3)(51)

I eventually asked how Derek was and Ashley assured me that he was recovering, though he was still mostly unconscious. I wondered what he would think if he found out what I was up to. I asked Ashley to let him know that I loved him.

“Do you want me to let him know what exactly you’re getting yourself into?”

I gave it a moment’s thought and nodded. “I think he knows where I stand. I think he knew that, by telling me about the culling, something like this would happen. We love each other, but I guess this is just us fighting our own battles.”

“You really are a piece of work, Sofia Claremont.”

The next morning, as Gavin and I made our way to the opening of the Black Heights, I wasn’t exactly feeling like “a piece of work.”

“What if nobody shows up?” I asked Gavin.

“Ian will.” He shrugged as we descended one of the ladders.

I had to chuckle. “So that makes three of us?”

“Nah…” Gavin assured. “People will show up, Sofia. Don’t worry your pretty little head over nobody showing up. Give the Naturals more credit than that.”

I wanted to ask him how he was so sure, but I figured it might just be him trying to reassure himself. When we reached the entrance to the Black Heights, it seemed our fears were unfounded, because thousands of Naturals already stood at the cave entrance, in silent protest against the culling.

We didn’t have any weapons, no means whatsoever to fight against the vampires—who were in every way more powerful than us, but winning wasn’t our objective. We didn’t have any delusions about actually being able to stop the culling. It was just the Naturals coming together to make a stand against a blatant massacre of their own loved ones.

We saw Ian approaching us. “I can’t believe this many people showed up…” I confessed, still stunned by the sheer number of people standing there, protesting the culling.

“Did you really think you’re the only one crazy enough to stand for the lives of people you love?” Ian teased before his eyes fell and lingered on a lone figure coming out of the Black Heights—Anna.

From the way he was looking at her, I knew immediately that they had an untold story—most likely too tragic and heartbreaking to hear. I gently brushed a hand over his shoulder.

“She was beautiful,” Ian said breathlessly. “She still is, but it wasn’t just physically. She was one of those rare beauties who are just as beautiful inside as they are outside. She was a gentle soul who loved people and who loved life. She was vibrant, smart and kind…”

“Many have been destroyed by The Shade,” I muttered, my own thoughts on Ben, Gwen, Paige and the many innocents ruined by the island.

From just one look at the young men I was with, one could already easily surmise that the embers burning within them were now a full-on fire, ready to set ablaze anything that came in their way. They’d had enough and it seemed thousands of others shared their sentiments.

A sense of tension and excitement filled the atmosphere, but more than that, it was an overwhelming sense of unity that overtook us all. Still, whatever elation we felt was short-lived because we were well-aware that we had a great battle ahead of us—one we had no chance of winning.

When the vampires arrived, it was clear to see that we outnumbered them, but we knew that meant nothing. We would be lucky to even take down a handful of the vampires who arrived under Gregor’s command.

Gavin, Ian and I were still standing at the back of the crowd, by the cave entrance. The collective hush that swept over the crowd was enough to tell us that trouble was brewing. Gavin and Ian began to push through the crowd in order to make way for me. I was surprised to find that every time someone saw that it was me they were making way for, they quickly stepped aside—almost as if in reverence. At some point, they were already making way of their own accord, and all Gavin and Ian had to do was stand on either side of me as some sort of protective gesture.

“Why are they looking at me like that?” I muttered under my breath at Gavin when I finally had enough of the way people would look at me and nod their heads in a show of respect.

“You’re a legend, Sofia. What happened at the square last night was unheard of…the prince of The Shade thought of you highly enough to take fifty lashes for you—even knowing that he’d just been administered a suppression serum. That’s a big deal. The fact that other vampires took on the same punishment for the rest of us, it gives a lot of us something that we thought we could never have.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” I asked as we finally broke to the crowd and reached the frontlines.

“Hope,” Gavin responded before we both took a deep breath in order to peruse what we were up against.

“We definitely need that now…”

About a hundred fully-armed vampires were standing before us. We might’ve outnumbered them ten to one—perhaps even more, but I was no fool to believe that we could possibly stand a chance against them.

“You…” Gregor sped my way, stopping a couple of inches away from me. “You did this?”

“You’re going to have to kill a lot more than just the weak and defenseless if you want to proceed with the culling,” I told him, sounding far more confident than I actually felt. “Are you really willing to cripple The Shade by murdering off a good chunk of its loyal human population?”