A Gate of Night (A Shade of Vampire #6)(61)

I rushed past the several levels of the Catacombs that separated him from me. I knelt on the ground beside him, raising his head and laying it on my lap. He was barely conscious.

“What was that?” I whispered. “How… What did you just do? You were able to kill Elders, Derek. How were you able to do that? What happened to you?”

I probably should’ve been more concerned for his wellbeing, because he didn’t appear to be doing well at all.

Derek’s lips opened to say something, but instead tears began rushing down his face and he sobbed. “I killed them all. I killed…”

I looked around at our people lying on the ground around us. They were all moving. Claudia looked through the mass of bodies. A disheartened expression was on her pretty face, her shoulders sagging in defeat, even though most of the people there were alive. “Claudia?” I whispered, unable to wrap my mind around everything that was happening.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered.

I could practically see Yuri’s countenance reflected in her eyes. My heart went out to her. Is Xavier’s face reflected in mine? I could still feel his hand on my body and I couldn’t suppress a shudder. Once he was free from the Elder’s grasp, would I be able to let him touch me without thinking of that moment? Of that moment when he wasn’t Xavier, but instead a complete monster. The regret, guilt and depression swept over me as I recalled my missed chance to let him know how much I loved him. Why didn’t I just say the words?

I realized that the most difficult times of my life had been when I had been taken captive by Borys Maslen and that time when I had been taken by the hunters—both times were made even more difficult because Xavier wasn’t with me.

Now wrapped in my own pain, I knew I had to snap out of it or it would eat me alive, so I did what I had to do. I switched the emotions off, even if I knew that it was an entryway to the darkness. I wondered to myself what darkness Xavier had in him so as to have an opening for an Elder to take over him.

Snap out of this, Vivienne. I once again caught sight of Claudia, looking lost as she stared blankly at the people surrounding her. I couldn’t be like her. I couldn’t be a lost, whimpering little girl, pining for Xavier. I had to be the leader Xavier had challenged me to be if I was to have any chance of getting him back.

Landis was the first to sit up. He looked me straight in the eye, this time no longer possessed, his irises clearly showing.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

He nodded, but he also frowned. “I think I have a fever.”

“Vampires don’t have fevers.” Claudia wrinkled her nose. I thought she had half a mind to break Landis’ neck.

His jaw tightened. “Exactly. It feels… strange.” He groaned as he tried to get up. “Ugh!” he exclaimed. “My head feels like it weighs a million tons.”

“Derek, you didn’t kill them. They’re all right.” I turned toward my brother, but he lay unconscious in my arms.

“They’re human,” Corrine explained.

I almost jumped out of my skin. I hadn’t even felt her approach behind me. “How is that possible?”

“Derek’s powers mixed with mine. It burned the Elders’ magic away from them—including the original curse that turned them into a vampire.”

“His powers? How on earth does he have powers?”

“We don’t have time to…” Corrine stopped her sentence short. Her eyes widened with shock. My eyes followed her gaze and found a woman with stunning silver hair standing right before us.

“What have you done, Corrine?” the woman asked. “Do you know what your intervention just cost us? Do you have any idea at all…” The woman’s voice broke.

Corrine stood to her full height before bowing her head slightly. “I am sorry. I know I have done our kind wrong, but my loyalty is to this clan as my ancestor’s was.”

“Cora’s loyalty was to the vampires!” The strange silver-haired woman attempted to keep her calm. “Do you honestly realize what you have just done? You have exposed Derek Novak to the Elders. You have made them weak and aware that they can be killed. The Elders are now out to kill him and the Guardians. Who knows what they will do once they know?”

“I had to help. They’re family.”

“I’m sorry this has to happen, Corrine. I should’ve done this to Cora when I had the chance.” The woman breathed in some air and began to mutter inaudibly.

I saw horror in Corrine’s eyes. “No. Please. Please…”

I was expecting something to happen. Wind. Fire. Anything to match or even exceed the display of power shown by my brother only moments ago. Nothing.

“I’ll send Ibrahim to watch over you. When he deems that you can be trusted, then you’ll have what I say you have the right to have. If you want to be a witch again, you have to earn it, Corrine.”

Corrine swallowed hard, tears running down her face as she steeled herself against what the strange woman was saying. Just like that, the woman disappeared, replaced by a handsome-looking man with a black goatee.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way, Corrine,” he said.

“What is going on?” I spat out. “Who was that, Corrine? What did she do to you? And who is this?”

“That was the Ageless, leader of the witches. This is Ibrahim.” Corrine trembled as she revealed to me the price she’d had to pay in order to help us. “The Ageless just took away my powers.”