A Shade of Blood (A Shade of Vampire #2)(22)

Ben grabbed the form I was writing on, crumpled it and tossed it on the table. “Eliza gave me a name and a number… She was the girl…”

“I know who she is,” I interrupted. Just the mention of the name made me feel guilty. I knew it escaped reason, but I felt like an accessory to a crime that Derek committed. “What name? What number?”

“The hunters. It’s a contact person… His name’s Reuben. I think he’s my… our… ticket in.”

I sat up straight, threw the pen I was holding over the table and slammed my book shut. “You can’t be serious, Ben. You’re saying you’re going to join them?”

“No. I’m saying we’re going to join them. How else will I exact revenge on The Shade, Sofia? It’s not like I can crawl back to the police and change our story.”

“Where is this coming from, Ben? We’d barely spoken about the island…”

“Not speaking about it doesn’t mean neither of us is thinking about it. We get nightmares every single night, Sofia… Don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about that place.”

“Of course I have, but I thought…”

“…but you thought what? We’d just move on? Come on, Sofia… High school? College? I think we’ve been so good at pretending to be normal that you got yourself convinced that we’re actually normal. The Shade stole that from us and they’ve stolen it from countless others. They have to pay.”

I shut my eyes, hoping that if I did, everything else would shut down right along with it. “Ben, believe me when I say that I’d thought about exposing the island so many times while I was there, but…”

“But what?”

The last time we talked about exacting revenge on The Shade was that first night we got back from Mexico. I thought about it from time to time, but I couldn’t swallow the idea of being a hunter, of living a life devoted to vengeance.

“I don’t think I can live that way, Ben.”

“So what? We’re just going to keep this up? Pretend that nothing happened? Go on with life as usual? What about the people you left at The Shade? Ashley, Paige, Rosa… What about Gwen, Sofia?”

At that, I stood up. My knuckles were white from the way I was clutching the edges of the table. “Don’t go there, Ben. Not a day has gone by since we left that they haven’t crossed my mind.”

“Well, maybe it’s time to stop thinking about them and actually start doing something about it. How can you not see that this is the only way?”

“I can’t bring myself to accept that it’s the only way. I do not want to spend my life killing vampires. There’s got to be a better way… one that doesn’t involve as much bloodshed…”

His shoulders straightened as he held his head high. His blue eyes showed his disappointment in me, his disapproval. “How can you be so naïve?”

At his question, a slew of memories began to flood my mind. Derek and Vivienne embracing after centuries of being apart… Derek playing fascinating harmonies on his grand piano... His decision to allow us to escape… His laughter, his embrace, his patience trying to train us girls in combat… the delight in his eyes when I showed him the Sun Room… how much he seemed to crave light…

Perhaps it was just me clinging to this hope that I wasn’t wrong about him. I wanted to believe that I saw goodness in Derek Novak, and if the prince and savior of The Shade could still be capable of goodness, then perhaps there was still hope yet… for him and the other vampires…

Or perhaps Ben was right. How could I be so naïve?

CHAPTER 16: BEN

I couldn’t understand the way her mind worked. I sat across her, waiting for her to explain her own naïveté, but she remained silent as she sat back in her chair, a pensive expression on her green eyes as she brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face.

I caught my breath at how beautiful she looked. My best friend’s appearance was something that I was never oblivious to. She was Rose Red come to life. The auburn hair, the pale white, pinkish complexion, the hourglass figure, those legs that went on for days… I’d have to be blind not to see how lovely she was. I knew she’d grow up to become a stunner from the moment I first laid eyes on her. That was the day her father left her at our house and never again returned.

What a damn fool he was.

He was just as unaware of her as she seemed to be of herself. Sofia grew up without giving much thought to the effect she had on people. She didn’t notice the way men looked at her whenever we were out. It was part of her appeal.

That and the fact that she was mine.

It helped that I was the only person she ever truly let in. She liked keeping to herself, her fear of becoming like her mother and her insecurity after being abandoned by her father always looming over her. It made it easy for me to keep her to myself. The guys in school knew that she was off limits. I think even the girls I dated knew that they were flings and that Sofia was the one. It was never spoken out loud, but we belonged together.

My security in that idea was my undoing, because during the time we spent at The Shade, it seemed she let someone else in – Derek Novak. I never could’ve seen that coming. No one was ever able to penetrate her walls, but it seemed like he did. He managed to get through to her and I couldn’t understand how.