A Shade of Novak (A Shade of Vampire #8)(10)

It was strange to think that I would be her age now had I not asked Derek to turn me. My heart ached as I looked at her. I owed her more than I could ever repay. Yet I felt powerless to hold on to her.

Since Anna was immune to the vampire curse, there was no way she could ever become one of us. Immortal. The only way we knew to cure an immune of their immunity was to take them to Cruor—as I had been kidnapped there. That was a fate worse than death, and it wasn’t even possible, since the gates to that realm had been closed for almost two decades.

We all had to accept the fact that she would pass away. It was for that reason that Kyle hadn’t changed himself back into a vampire. He couldn’t stand the idea of living on without her, so he’d decided that he would pass away naturally with her when nature took them both.

“It’s not a problem, Corrine.” Anna smiled gently. “I’ve always told you that I don’t mind giving blood. I’m glad that it’s so useful.”

“Yes.” Corrine squeezed her hand. “And this island owes you too much already, Anna. We don’t want to take anything more from you than we absolutely need.”

“It’s fine, Corrine,” Anna said, waving a hand in the air. “You’re all my family.”

Corrine sighed and stood up. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer, dear,” she said, eyeing Anna’s huge stomach. “You take it easy, all right?”

Anna nodded and walked over to the exit at the other side of the room, while Corrine made her way toward me. “Ah, Sofia. I’ve been expecting you.” She looped an arm through mine and we left the dining hall. “Let’s go back to my place.”

“So you definitely won’t need to take any more of Anna’s blood after this?” I asked.

“That’s correct. We have enough to recreate more doses, so long as we guard our supply carefully.”

I sighed heavily.

Corrine looked up at me. “Anna’s at peace with her life,” she said. “You fret more about her than she does for herself. You do realize that?”

I nodded. “I just can’t stand the thought of losing her one day. It will be like losing a sister.”

“I know,” Corrine replied, clenching her jaw. “There’s not a person on this island who won’t grieve her loss. That one’s special. Kyle’s a very lucky man.”

We walked in silence for the rest of the walk to the Sanctuary. Once we were sitting in Corrine’s lounge, I tried to tear my mind away from Anna. From her fate that I had no power over.

“So,” I said, clearing my throat. “About the twins’ birthday…”

Corrine’s eyes lit up with excitement as she began explaining to me the ideas she had for their party this year.

I held up a hand.

“Corrine, this is what I’m here to talk to you about. They don’t want us to throw them a big party this year.”

Her face fell in disappointment.

“Why ever not? We always have so much fun.”

“They’re… maturing. They don’t like the idea of their parents still organizing parties for them. I’m already making them go on that adventure course. They won’t want a big party as well. We can just arrange for a picnic for all the children and teenagers on this island.”

Corrine swallowed back her disappointment and nodded.

“Well… all right then.”

I squeezed her shoulder. The witch—still holding out on having children of her own with Ibrahim, since, being a witch, she still had lots of youthful years ahead of her—lavished all her attention on the twins and enjoyed every moment of it. I knew how much my twins meant to her—especially Rose—and I saw the pain in her eyes as it dawned on her that they no longer were the young children who lapped up all her attention eagerly.

I stayed for about half an hour longer with her discussing the picnic, and then I returned to the penthouse.

Once the twins are gone, we’ll all have much more important things to discuss than birthday parties.

Chapter 2: Rose

“He could wear my grandma’s pants and still look sexy,” Becky said, looking longingly at my brother who was sitting across the lawn with a group of friends.

“I love that he’s growing his hair out a bit,” Jessica said, staring at him dreamily, her chin resting in her palms. “Damn, it looks good.”

“Seriously, what do your parents feed him?” Silvia asked, turning toward me.

“The same as me,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at my friends.

“Who do you think he’ll date next, now that he’s no longer going out with Yasmine?” Jessica asked.

“No idea.”

“Does he still do martial arts training with your dad?” Becky asked.

“Yeah,” I said, stretching my legs out on the grass and yawning. “My dad makes us both do it.”

“Ahh… Prince Benjamin Novak,” Silvia whispered, sighing. “When will you be mine?”

I looked at the three friends who had stayed back with me after the picnic just so they could continue to ogle my brother. Ben was the heartthrob of all the girls on the island. Whenever I was with them while Ben was around, it felt like I might as well not exist.

It was my birthday as well as Ben’s, yet throughout the whole picnic my friends had done almost nothing but stare at and gossip about my brother. Occasionally I found myself wondering how many of them were friends with me just so they could get the inside scoop on my brother.