A Shadow of Light (A Shade of Vampire #4)(65)

“I couldn’t stand the idea of preying on you, Sofia.” My heart sank as I recalled my need to have a taste of her blood the moment I had woken up. I didn’t even ask her anymore. I just took what she was clearly offering.

“Does it hurt when I drink from you?” I asked, wondering why I even bothered to ask the question. Of course it hurts.

“The bite stings at first, but it’s not like I’m not used to it…” She sat up on the bed and began pulling her hair up in a high ponytail.

I breathed out a sigh, hoping that we could freeze that moment and just stay cocooned in my bedroom. I hoped that we could just forget all the concerns that I needed to deal with. Of course, I knew that was impossible. Right at that very moment, I could hear people shuffling outside my room, waiting for me to emerge. I guessed that it was some of the Elite—perhaps present to discuss our severe lack of blood supplies. Just the thought of having to deal with all the drama going on made me groan out loud.

Sofia, who was already up and about the room, getting herself ready for the day, looked my way and chuckled, seeming to already know what was going through my mind. She leaned over my side of the bed and kissed my cheek. “We’re together again, and that’s all that matters right now.”

I didn’t know how to respond as I watched her step into the bathroom and close the door behind her. I loved that about Sofia. I loved how she seemed to take the heaviest of situations and somehow make it feel lighter.

My ray of sunshine was back and I wanted to kick myself for allowing things to go any other way.

By the time we both got ready and stepped out of the bedroom, we found a group of people waiting for us in the dining room—Cameron, Liana, Xavier, Eli, Yuri and to my surprise, Vivienne.

“Aren’t you supposed to be resting? Sofia and I were just planning to visit you…” I asked my twin.

“Liana came over and told me about the dilemma regarding the island’s blood supply. What are we going to do about that?”

I gave Liana a cold glare for worrying Vivienne over matters of the island. “That’s what we’re about to figure out today, Viv.” I pulled out a chair for Sofia beside mine before taking a seat at the head of the table. “Before I ask to what I owe the pleasure of this invasion, do you have any suggestions regarding how we’re going to fix this mess?”

I was greeted by a tense silence. There was a time when the answer would’ve been to abduct humans to feed on or to hold a culling—killing off all the weak and useless humans and draining them of blood that we could preserve at the chilling chambers. Now, none of us had any idea how to replenish the blood supply at such short notice. Until Sofia stated the obvious as she stared into space and shrugged. “I don’t see what the problem is.”

All eyes turned to her.

Xavier seemed irritated. “Do you have any idea how thirsty I am, Sofia? I only had one packet blood left and I had to give it to…” He bit his lip and caught his words as he glanced at Vivienne “…Not that I regret it of course, but not all of us have a fresh supply of blood like Derek seems to enjoy since you came back.”

My gut clenched as I followed the direction of Xavier’s eyes on the bite marks on Sofia’s neck.

“What Xavier’s trying to say is that if the vampires don’t get their blood, we won’t be able to keep them from attacking the humans at The Catacombs. We’re going to have another riot and considering that the hunters are coming and so are the other covens, we can’t afford that,” Liana summarized before taking in a deep breath.

“Yes. I get the dilemma,” Sofia said. “I just don’t know why you can’t see the solution when it seems pretty obvious.”

“Just tell us what you have in mind, Sofia. We’re all ears,” I said.

“For one thing, you could always live on animal blood. Vivienne has survived all these years on that.” Sofia raised her hands in the air before anyone could object. “Yes, yes. I know what you’re going to say. Not everyone can do what Vivienne is doing. I get that. I do have another idea. I’d like to believe that through the past year, we’ve already established some sort of rapport between the humans and the vampires. I don’t see why the humans wouldn’t agree to donate their own blood to feed the vampires.”

“You mean like the humans voluntarily letting vampires suck their blood?” Yuri scoffed.

“I think what Sofia is saying is that we replenish the stocks by getting blood from the humans the way hospitals and blood banks do.” Eli glared at Yuri.

“Do you really think the humans would agree to that?” I asked Sofia.

“I don’t see why not…”

“One problem there…” Vivienne sat up. “The vampires will end up craving whoever donated blood to them.”

Sofia shrugged. “Well, it’s a temporary measure, is it not? If the cure works, then it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Ah, yes… The cure…” Liana nodded. “That’s why we came here. So much seems to be hanging on to whether or not this cure works.”

“Well, if this cure is for real.” Cameron straightened up on his seat. “Then Sofia’s right. We really wouldn’t have to worry about blood supplies at all.”

“More than that,” Liana added, “we won’t need the protection of The Shade anymore. The other covens can attack all they want… It won’t really matter. They can even turn back into mortals if they please.”