A Gate of Night (A Shade of Vampire #6)(19)

“As if Clara cares. Truth be told, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s drinking the child’s blood now.”

“And you don’t care that this is happening? Is there no humanity left in you?”

He began to chuckle. “Humanity? In me?” He pouted to mock me. “Is that what you’re looking for, sweet Lady Novak? Are you actually trying to find some good in me? I’ll show you what’s good about me.” He pressed his lips against mine. Invading. Intruding. Violating.

I tried to pull away from him but my struggles did me little good. When our lips parted, I gasped for breath—something he mistook as a gasp of pleasure. This can’t be happening to me. Not again.

He gave me a smug smirk. “Good enough for you? You know, Sofia, if you ever tire of your mortal, remember that I’m waiting for you to give yourself to me. After all, without his power, Derek might be a lot less appealing to a young woman like you.”

The idea that he was actually into me was sickening. I didn’t know if I had it in me to fend off another Lucas or another Borys. “You disgust me,” I spat at him. “I will always be Derek’s. Always.”

“Ah, yes.” He smiled with genuine pleasure. “I must say it’s beautiful to see the eternal love of Derek and Sofia Novak playing right in front of me. Riveting really. But I hate to say it, sweetheart. I doubt he’ll want you after we’re finished with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I think it’s time I start asking the questions. Don’t you agree?”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Why did you fall in love with him?”

“What does it matter to you?”

“Come on, tell me, Sofia. What exactly did you see in him?”

“Why are you such a monster?”

He seemed to tire of our questioning game, because he tilted his head to the side, ran a hand through my hair before grinning. “Mrs. Novak, believe me when I say that you haven’t got the slightest clue just how much of a monster I am.”

The moment the words left his lips, his fangs appeared and sank into my neck. At the same moment, he stuck a syringe into my arm, causing me to lose all consciousness.

Chapter 12: Derek

Nothing was left of The Shade. Nothing. War raged all around me as I stood at the center of a bloody battlefield. I couldn’t make out the creatures that were fighting. Phantoms, all of them, but I was seeing my comrades fall one at a time.

First, Cameron, then Claudia, then Xavier… then Vivienne…

I wanted to scream when I saw her fall, but I couldn’t. The pain built up inside of me until it balled into a magnificent force that caused fire to spark from my palms.

Anger. Fury. Rage.

I was unstoppable.

I hit anyone who came into contact with me. Someone had to pay for my sister’s death. I was on a rampage, destroying everything in my path—indiscriminate and violent. I no longer knew who my allies were, so I determined to ruin them all.

Then I saw her.

My Sofia.

Beautiful as always.

Terrifying.

Covered in a thick black liquid, she smiled.

I couldn’t think of anything more horrifying than seeing my innocent Sofia standing amidst a battlefield of phantoms, the liquid dripping from her head to her toes, flashing that eerie, delighted smile.

For a moment, I hesitated. Then I shook my head.

I said words more horrifying than the scene that surrounded me.

“She isn’t my Sofia.”

My eyes shot open, waking me from the nightmare. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. The nightmare had been plaguing me since our honeymoon began. A cold breeze swept across the dungeon. I was alone. I was terrified.

What are they going to do to her? I felt like I was about to lose my wife.

I took a long gasp for breath, refilling my lungs with air before jolting up in a sitting position. The cell was empty. My heart doubled its beat. My stomach twisted.

“Sofia!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. My voice bounced across the room in a mocking echo. “Sofia,” I sobbed.

The idea that she could be going through what Kiev had put me through inside that torture chamber haunted me.

“What were you thinking, Novak? Why would you willingly become human again? Become weak again?” he taunted me as he ran the edge of the knife beneath my skin.

I shouted through the gag he’d stuffed into my mouth as I lay flat on my back on the steel platform he had me chained to. This was after he’d let loose the mutts. I didn’t know what those creatures were, but they’d torn at my flesh before gulping generous amounts of my blood. I’d thought Kiev was going to let me die under their mercy, but he had other plans. Once he was satisfied watching the strange dogs maul me, he’d brought me to a dimly lit chamber where he took pleasure in taunting me as he tortured me.

His taunts escalated even as his methods became more torturous.

“What did you think was going to happen? You killed Emilia, crossed my father more times than can be counted, then you find the cure that would threaten our kind’s existence in this world, and then you turn human. Did you really think you were going to get away with all that? Did you really think we would just let you live happily ever after with your precious redhead? What were you going to do? Buy a house with a white picket fence? Have children? Be normal?”