A Shade of Novak (A Shade of Vampire #8)(18)

“I suppose there’s not much they could do about it,” I began slowly. “Though I still think that we should tell them when we return. Mom and Dad have never mentioned any other covens still existing today except for our own. They always told us that the other vampires were taken back through the portal into Cruor—and those who weren’t joined us in The Shade. It’s really very odd.”

“Okay, I agree,” Ben said. “We’ll tell them when we get back.”

There was a knock on the door. Ben got up to open it and Kristal walked into the room in her bathrobe.

“How did you both sleep?” she asked.

I rubbed my throbbing head and muttered, “Good.”

“You really scored last night,” she said, sitting down on the bed next to me and squeezing my knee.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I did.”

Chapter 6: Aiden

As I approached the front door of Yuri and Claudia’s penthouse, my hands trembled. Exhaling deeply, I reached for the front door but paused just before I knocked.

Pressing my head against the door, I shut my eyes tight.

What am I doing?

I’d been feeling crazy ever since I seriously began to entertain Sofia’s suggestion that I turned, but now I felt downright bonkers.

Do I really want to become the creature that killed my father? That ripped my family apart? How will I even look myself in the mirror?

I’d spent enough time around the vampires of The Shade for my prejudices that all these creatures were the same to disappear. But some things that were associated with the pale bloodsuckers—like the horrific images from my past—just couldn’t be undone.

But then my darling Sofia had turned into one. Along with Derek. And they even spoke of turning their children once they were old enough to make an informed decision. And something had stirred within me. A desire to live on past my natural lifetime. I felt blessed to have the family that I had, and somehow, my limited human lifespan didn’t feel enough. Knowing that they would go on to live eternally while I passed away after a few more decades was haunting.

Sofia didn’t stop urging me either.

So here I stood.

So this is the day Aiden, one of the most feared hunters the world has ever known, becomes the very creature he hunted.

Clearing my throat, I knocked on the door.

Footsteps sounded and the short blonde vampire appeared in the doorway.

“Oh, Yuri,” she called. “Look who’s here for your, ahem, services.”

She winked at me and opened the door fully for me to step inside.

Yuri entered the hallway and, rolling his eyes at her, walked up to me and gripped my hand in a firm shake.

“You’ll have to excuse my wife,” Yuri said, eyeing Claudia with mock disdain. “As much as I’ve tried over the years, I still haven’t quite managed to rescue her mind from the gutter.”

Claudia reached up and grabbed Yuri’s ear between her fingers, yanking him down to her level to kiss him full on the mouth.

“Baby,” she whispered as their lips parted. “Stop pretending you’d want me any other way.”

Yuri’s cheeks flushed. He pulled away from her and stood up straight, clearing his throat.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” she said, winking and floating out of the room.

“Well,” Yuri said, raising his eyes to me and grinning sheepishly. “Follow me through here.”

I followed him into their spare bedroom, which he had stripped of all furniture, curtains and carpets. Anything that could be stained with blood or ruined in case I was overcome by a violent fit, as was often the case with newly turned vampires.

“You sure you want me to be the one to do this?” he asked, eyeing me dubiously.

Yuri had come to be my best friend on that island—the level of friendship I’d struck up with the young vampire had surprised even me. Somehow, I felt more comfortable with him turning me than my own daughter. I didn’t know what state I would wake up in, and exposing my daughter to that side of me before I got control of myself made me very uncomfortable. I trusted Yuri and developed a level of comfort of him over the years that I felt I could discuss things with him—man to man—that I felt embarrassed discussing with others. He just seemed to be the logical choice, the first person to spring to mind, when I thought about who should turn me.

I nodded and lay down on the wooden table in the center of the room.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I said, grimacing.

“All right. Man, this ain’t gonna be pretty.”

Splashing cold water over my face, I looked up at myself in my bathroom mirror. Even after eleven years of being a bloodsucker, my reflection still shocked me sometimes.

Those first few years had been harrowing. That all-consuming greed to feed on human blood. To hunt, to harm, to devour. I hadn’t allowed myself to even go near the part of the island where my grandchildren lived for the first month after turning. The whole experience had made me more sympathetic toward vampires than I could have ever been before.

Somehow, it had also given me renewed emotional strength.

The day I’d pushed my wife into the pit knowing she’d be burnt alive, I’d thought my ability to feel for anyone else ever again had burned alongside her.

Then along came Adelle. The shy, soft-spoken witch who through her devotion to teaching the children of The Shade soon became appointed headmistress.