A Shade of Blood (A Shade of Vampire #2)(44)

She nodded and quickly let go of my hand before leaving. It was as if she couldn’t wait to get out of there. I watched as she left, observing how she was able to make a pair of jeans, a loose checkered button-down blouse and a baseball cap on her head look sexy and feminine.

A modeling agency could make a fortune out of her. I shook the thought away before giving way to concerns of greater matter. What is she doing here and what could she possibly want from me?

Five minutes later, after begging a quick leave from Lyle and Amelia, I was fully expecting to get an answer to that question as I sat across Vivienne inside a crowded coffee shop. I held the cup of latte with both my hands, savoring the heat, before taking a sip. I just agreed to have coffee with a vampire. Do you have a death wish or something, Sofia?

I found it unnerving how strange Vivienne was acting. Her eyes were darting from one corner of the room to the other, as if she suspected that someone was following her. She eventually managed to stop fidgeting – enough so that she could speak to me. “Thanks for agreeing to have a word with me.” Her voice was hoarse, almost as if she hadn’t had a drink for a while.

The thought that she was thirsty did little to bring me comfort. I laid down my mug of coffee on the table between us. “What’s going on, Vivienne? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

She clasped her palms together and laid them on her lap. She shut her eyes for a few seconds and took a couple of deep breaths before opening them again. She appeared to be a lot calmer after that. “It’s nothing. It’s just that I haven’t been out of The Shade for hundreds of years. I’m a little on edge. Anyway, I don’t know how much time I have, but I’m going to answer all the questions you may have for as long as I am able.”

Questions about what? I had no idea what she was talking about. She’s speaking like she’s going to keel over and die any time now… Back at The Shade, Vivienne always seemed calm and poised. She had this all-knowing look about her that made me feel antsy around her, like she could see right through my soul. Seeing her act like a basket of nerves was definitely an interesting sight to see.

“Could you just tell me why you’re here? Get straight to the point. You’re acting weird and it’s making me nervous.”

A flicker of interest crossed the stunning hues of her eyes. “No wonder he was so enamored by you…”

The statement took me aback, but I had no chance to respond because she then paid heed to my request and got straight to the point.

“I came to ask you to come back to The Shade.”

My jaw dropped, a dry chuckle coming out of my lips. It was madness. “You have got to be joking…" I exclaimed before motioning to rise from my seat.

“Wait… Please… Hear me out.”

Vivienne had something about her that caught my attention… She still reeked of fear and desperation, but there was something more… something I couldn’t place.

I settled back on the couch, but not without letting her know that I was keeping her on a short leash. “This better be good.”

She fidgeted on her seat and wrinkled her nose as if she was weighing her words very carefully. I began drumming my fingers over the table as I waited for her to say something. She certainly was taking her precious time.

“Well? I’m waiting…”

She blew out a deep sigh before finally finding words. “I didn’t expect you to live, Sofia.”

My eyes widened. “That’s not exactly a great way to start, Vivienne…”

“Maybe so…” she agreed “but it’s the truth.” She then lowered her voice so that only I could hear. “That night… when you and the girls were brought to Derek, just after he woke up, I wasn’t expecting him to be able to command enough self-control to keep himself from devouring each and every one of you.”

I remembered that night well. How scared I was… How I held Gwen’s hand in hopes of both giving and drawing comfort from her… How I somehow caught his attention… How he pinned me against a marble pillar…

“If that’s what you thought, why then would you have brought us to him? You just led us to our slaughter… That’s sick, Vivienne.”

“It’s the way of The Shade.”

“Again… not a very convincing argument for me to go back. What’s your point?”

She stared at me for a few seconds before speaking. Desperate. “A prophecy has been spoken about Derek a long time ago. The prophecy says that he will rule and that he will bring our kind true sanctuary.”

“Your kind? You mean vampires?” I didn’t care to lower my voice. It didn’t matter to me who heard. Vivienne really wasn’t giving me much reason to feel a need to protect her.

The surprised expression on her face showed that she was nowhere near used to my audacity, but she quickly recovered. “Yes. Our kind. Derek asked Cora, a great witch – Corrine’s ancestor – to put him under a sleeping spell. He wanted to escape all the things we did in order to keep The Shade safe. The guilt was killing him.”

“Why? What exactly did your kind do to make him feel so guilty?” I interrupted.

Vivienne shifted in her seat, showing her discomfort. Still, she maintained her posture and set her eyes on me. “That’s a question you’d have to ask him yourself.”