A Shade of Novak (A Shade of Vampire #8)(48)

The phone buzzed as the line cut off.

“They’re not getting Anna,” almost everyone in the room said at once as soon as the vampire hung up.

I held my hands up for silence. I needed to think fast. Sofia’s panicked eyes settled on me.

I sat down in my seat and closed my eyes, resting my head in my hand.

There was no way we would ever hand over Anna. That much was for certain. But we had to find a way to get our twins home unscathed.

I sat for several more minutes in silence as every pair of eyes in the hall bored into me, waiting for my solution.

Finally I looked up. “Hand me the phone.”

I dialed our twins’ number and waited. Stellan answered after two rings.

“Yes?”

“We do have the immune,” I said. “We’ll offer her to you in exchange for the twins.”

“Hm,” he said. “Good. You are to meet us tomorrow night. I suggest you write down the location.”

I noted down the details.

“Make sure that immune is with you, Novak. And don’t bring any witches. If you breach this agreement, I’ll snap the spines of both of your children with my bare hands.”

He hung up.

Everyone in the room was looking at me like I’d gone mad.

“What did you just say?” Sofia exclaimed.

“We won’t bring Anna with us,” I said loudly, quietening everyone’s protests. “She will remain here.”

“What?” Sofia said.

“We need to turn this into an ambush. We’ll bring our best fighters, along with as many witches as we can spare. All we need right now is to have these people within reach. Once we meet them, we won’t leave until we’ve got Rose and Ben safely back with us.”

Anna stood up for the first time.

“What if they do something to Rose and Ben once they realize you’ve tried to deceive them?”

“They won’t have time. We’ll make this ambush fast. As soon as we lay eyes on them, we’ll rush in.”

“But we don’t even know what Stellan and his companions are,” Anna said. “We don’t know for sure that they are vampires. How can you be so sure that you’ll be able to overpower them and get your twins back?”

“Anna,” I said, my chest heaving. “It’s our only option.”

Everyone quietened down and sat back in their seats.

“So how are we going to go about this exactly?” Xavier asked.

“Listen carefully,” I said, flattening my palms on the table as I prepared to voice the plan in my mind.

Vampires and a few witches filled up each of the submarines we had on the island. Sofia and I boarded the smallest submarine alone. We made sure to travel a long distance ahead of the other submarines. We couldn’t afford Stellan detecting them.

Eli had given me a pager before we left. He also placed them in each of the submarines. When I pressed mine, the others would take it as a signal to close in.

After a few hours, we arrived at the location. Sofia and I navigated the submarine as close to the beach as possible, and stepped out into the warm night air. A tall vampire with reddish hair was already waiting on the beach. Alone. A few hundred meters away from him was a black submarine.

We approached and stopped a few feet away from him. Looking around the area casually, I couldn’t spot other vampires on the beach, and the submarine moored up in front of us appeared to be the only one.

“Where are the twins?” I asked.

“Where’s the immune?” he responded.

“We have her in the submarine,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pushing the button to signal to our submarines.

“I suggest you bring her out first. Remember, Novak, your twins are worth more to you than the immune is to us.”

I nodded and, taking Sofia’s hand, returned toward the submarine. We walked as slowly as possible without arising suspicion.

Sofia and I disappeared through the hatch. We exchanged nervous glances. If all went to plan, in less than a minute, an army of our vampires would surface and storm their submarine.

Sure enough, Stellan yelled out into the night air. He rushed back toward his submarine. Sofia and I climbed back out through the hatch and raced after him.

I caught up with Stellan on the sand before he reached the submarine. Leaping forward and gripping his midriff, I tripped him up. He didn’t try to fight me. Rather, he scrambled to his feet and ran in the opposite direction. I had almost caught up with him when he ran into the sea—toward another small submarine that had been hidden from view. He dove through the hatch and slammed it shut before I could climb in after him. Several seconds later, the submarine had submerged beneath the waves.

Confused by his behavior, I returned to the main submarine and, wading through the water, hauled myself up onto its roof and lowered myself through the hatch.

The submarine was in absolute chaos. Vampires at war with each other, lashing out with their claws, biting each other’s necks. I caught sight of Sofia fighting a particularly vicious-looking female.

I ducked down beneath the commotion as much as I could. I had to reach Rose and Ben while most of them seemed occupied.

Keeping against the walls, I ran from chamber to chamber until I reached the lower deck. I checked all the rooms down there and stopped outside the only one which was locked. The door was made with reinforced metal.