A Shade of Blood (A Shade of Vampire #2)(29)

“Where are you going?” Ashley called after me curiously.

Her voice irritated me. “The Sun Room.”

The Sun Room was the one room in the penthouse that Sofia had designed herself. I mentioned to her once that I missed the sun, so she designed a room with a beach mural on one wall and the illusion of sunlight streaming from a sunroof on the ceiling.

When I opened the door, I realized that it was largely untouched since the night Lucas attacked Sofia and drank her blood. Broken glass was all over the floor. Cracks lined the wall I threw Lucas against. Traces of blood still appeared in several areas of the room – some Ben’s, some Lucas’, some Sofia’s, some mine.

It only served to remind me of one of the darkest periods of The Shade’s history. The Uprising. The memory began to overtake my mind, and just like that, all the light the Sun Room represented turned into pitch black night.

The screams were deafening, the sound of cannons alarming. I watched from where I stood at the top of the fortress as hundreds upon hundreds of the human slaves we’d kept at The Shade to do the labor required to finish the Wall, fought for a chance to escape the island or if not, for the chance to escape the life we’d forced them into.

“What do we do now?” Lucas hissed as he leaned over the fortress, terror visible in his eyes.

I swallowed down the guilt. It was the first time I’d ever allowed myself that indulgence. I knew the drastic measure we had to undertake, because none of them could escape. Not a single one. The moment a human succeeded in leaving the island was the moment that everything we had at The Shade would be over. I couldn’t risk that. I looked at my brother and said the words with more resolve than I felt.

“We have to kill them all.”

I jumped from the fortress down to the solid ground and with one swift swing of my sword, managed to kill three of the men poised to attack me. They came at us – violent and angry – no longer willing to remain our slaves. We tried to convince ourselves that we had no choice, but at the end of the battle, standing amidst the bloody grave left by our determination to keep our sanctuary safe, I knew that the price I paid for The Shade was far too high.

Cora approached me. She was quiet, obviously disturbed.

“How many more must die?” My voice came out broken, blood still dripping from the corners of my lips. “They were innocent.”

“No one is innocent.” Cora shook her head, her gaze distant and blank. “We’re all tainted.”

“I can’t do this anymore.” I shook my head, allowing the guilt to come back after finishing what had to be done.

Cora grabbed my hand. “You won’t ever have to again.”

I found myself wondering if what Cora said had been a lie, because as the murky mist in my mind cleared and a moment of clarity jolted me back to reality, I realized that I was standing in the middle of the Sun Room, with Vivienne holding me by the shoulders, desperation tracing her eyes.

“What have you done, Derek?”

Confusion followed her question as I tasted blood on my lips. “I don’t know…” I stammered. “I guess I blacked out…” From behind Vivienne, I saw Ashley’s limp form on the ground, bite marks – mine – on the side of her neck. Sam and Kyle were groaning as they tried to get up from the ground. Newly formed dents were on the walls I threw them against.

As if all of it weren’t already too much to take, Cameron showed up on the door, his eyes widening at the bloody spectacle. “What happened?”

I responded in a menacing hiss. “Why are you here?”

“Lucas. He escaped. Yuri and I tried to stop him. He almost killed Yuri… if I hadn’t…”

Cameron’s voice faded away as my eyes reverted back to Vivienne’s.

“Derek, if Lucas is out there, then…”

I knew what she was going to say. I lifted a finger to silence her. I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted no mention of Sofia. “No, Vivienne.” I eyed the bloody mess surrounding me. Guilt gripped me when I saw Ashley on the ground, but I found myself resigned to the fact that the deed had already been done. “Get her the care she needs, take her to her bedroom… I don’t care. Just get her out of my sight.”

A lot of scrambling around the room was done as they made an effort to do my bidding. Only Vivienne remained in the room with me afterwards.

“You’re not going to go after her? You can’t just mean to stay here and…”

Before I could keep myself from doing it, the back of my hand met squarely with the side of her face and I watched her stumble to the ground. I immediately regretted hitting her. I wanted to step forward, help her up and hug her, but something held me back. After waking from the sleep I asked Cora to put me under, I was reluctant about taking leadership of The Shade once again. That was long gone now.

“I told you never to speak of her.”

Her hands cupping the assaulted area of her face, my sister looked up at me. Her violet eyes contained no anger, no accusation, no condemnation… just resignation and a deep sadness that made me ache inside.

“It seems the darkness has arrived.”

As usual, Vivienne was right.

CHAPTER 21: LUCAS

My escape was narrow to say the least. The only thing I managed to take with me on my journey was my backpack – filled with sacks of blood, a change of clothes and my wallet. Upon reaching the port, I immediately went for one of the speedboats. I didn’t have time to think of other supplies. I just needed to get out of there before Cameron showed up to rip my heart out – or worse, take me captive so Derek could do the deed later.