A Gate of Night (A Shade of Vampire #6)(56)

Are these creatures even capable of real pleasure? Or do they just do all of these things in order to make us all miserable?

“Is she dead?” Xavier asked one of the humans he’d sent to check on Claudia’s body.

The trembling middle-aged woman who was stooped over Claudia’s motionless form shook her head after she checked Claudia’s pulse.

Xavier frowned. He set his eyes on Yuri. “Do you want to kill her off?”

Yuri flexed his muscles and cracked his knuckles. “I’d rather wait for her to heal and beat her up again. Pretty little Claudia was such a disappointment to all of us. She had such potential to be true evil, a perfect vessel for us, but no, she had to fall in love with that dismal sap.”

“That dismal sap would be you, fool,” Xavier responded without a tinge of amusement in his voice. Just contempt. I wondered if he was seeing his fellow Elder or just Yuri—another one of the vampires who’d ‘betrayed’ their kind by being loyal to my brother.

Yuri chuckled dryly before shrugging. “I forgot. I’m not used to such weak vessels.”

“You can always end him once you’re tired of him.”

“Only after I make him kill the love of his life.”

We were in the presence of pure evil and even though they’d only occupied several of us—Xavier, Yuri, Ashley and Liana, as far as I knew—I could sense that there were more of them lurking, waiting for a vessel to make their own. Invisible creatures surrounded me, just waiting to take over. I shuddered even as one of the humans dragged Claudia out of the arena.

Yuri walked out almost listlessly. The moment he stepped out of the arena, he grabbed hold of the nearest human and bit into the man’s neck. After several seconds, he drew away from the man and screamed, “Blood! Invigorating blood!”

“They can’t do this,” Sam muttered next to me. His hand clutched mine—completely unlike the vampire guard, who had always acted in a friendly, albeit rather stiff, manner around me. I squeezed his hand as tight as I could.

Ashley walked toward the middle of the arena, crouched down on the ground and dabbed her finger into Claudia’s blood still splattered all over the stone floor. She grinned as she took a whiff of the blood. Her eyes flashed a brilliant red.

It was as if she were gaining power from just the smell of the spilled blood. Unsettled, I looked for Xavier.

I found him grabbing Liana’s arm and planting a kiss on her lips.

I swallowed hard, finding it difficult to see any other woman in his arms—the fact that it was my best friend made it worse. It seemed he sensed me looking because after kissing Liana, he sped toward me.

“Jealous, princess?” he asked me mockingly. “You should’ve given yourself to this man while you still had the chance. But don’t worry. I can still let him—and you—have your kiss.” He kissed me full on the mouth.

I’d never thought that I could find a kiss from Xavier disgusting. I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t Xavier, but I couldn’t help but feel betrayed.

Why isn’t he strong enough to fight this? Why aren’t any of us? I wondered what it would be like for Sofia and Derek. Would they be able to fight this? I recalled all the times that Derek had been able to fight the darkness just because of his love for Sofia. Just hearing her hum their song or even just seeing her… It turned him to light.

I found myself resenting them for their love. Now, they’re even immune to being turned into an Elder’s vessel. They’re both human. Should I ever get out alive, I would turn human as soon as I could. I would go as far as force Sofia to let me drink her blood just so I could have an immune’s blood in my system.

Xavier pulled his lips away from me. I looked at him and all I saw was the monster that he now was.

He backhanded me in the face. I was thrown on the ground several feet away. It was only then that I realized that I was already unchained and that Sam was already at the arena, being dealt his first blow from the Elder who possessed Ashley.

Xavier grabbed a fistful of my hair and made me focus on the fight. “Watch, Vivienne. Watch your friends bleed.”

To my surprise, Sam fought back, pushing Ashley to the ground with one massive upper cut.

My heart sank. What has become of us? They’re turning us into them. Only then did I realize that maybe that was their intention all along. They wanted us to become just like them. That’s why they spent hundreds of years turning humans into vampires. But why?

Xavier gasped with seeming delight as Ashley rose to her feet.. “This just got interesting. I knew it all along. Your love is weak. None of you have the kind of love Derek and Sofia had for each other. But don’t get me wrong, princess. If they were in your situation, they wouldn’t be able to fight this either.”

I recalled how Derek had been able to break Emilia’s hold over him. Desperate to stop the madness, I rose to my feet, pressed my body against Xavier’s and whispered into his ear, “Please. Drink my blood.”

I hoped that as Sofia’s blood running into his veins had jolted my brother out of Emilia’s curse, my blood running into Xavier’s might have the same effect. I wasn’t human nor was I an immune like Sofia, but I had to try.

Just as Xavier’s fangs were about to sink under my skin, my brother’s voice boomed across the cavernous walls of the Catacombs.