An End of Night (A Shade of Vampire #16)(12)

I opened my eyes underwater even though it stung. Ten feet away from us were the gaping jaws of the sea monster. It was sucking us toward it. Even my father was helpless against its strength. In a last-ditch attempt, my father and I tried to summon our fire powers—it was useless, of course. Like trying to light a wet match.

No.

Just as the monster’s teeth were a few feet away from closing down around us, a sudden weight from above hit hard against my shoulders. I found myself being dragged down further into the sea, narrowly missing being gouged by the monster’s lower set of serrated teeth. My father was pulled down too next to me. I looked down to see that it was Corrine. She had grabbed both of our ankles and was yanking us down, out of direct aim of the monster.

Caleb hurtled toward the head of the creature. His right leg was covered in blood and his chest marred with cuts. He held one of the merfolk’s spears in his right hand. I opened my mouth to scream as he made contact with the creature’s skull. Balancing himself above it, he drove the spear through the roof of the monster’s mouth. A deafening bellow filled the ocean as it thrashed violently. Its movement sent Corrine, my father and me hurtling further down into the depths of the sea.

I couldn’t even see what had happened to Caleb. Corrine gripped my and my father’s arms and propelled us upward with speed that would have been impossible without magic. I looked down to see the blood spilling from the monster’s head as it retreated further into darkness.

But where is Caleb?

“Caleb!” I screamed, as we hit the surface. I looked around wildly. “Caleb!”

“I’m here,” a strained voice called. Caleb had just resurfaced a few meters away from us. Despite his injuries, he swam toward us quickly. Corrine then magicked us all to a nearby rock where other members of our group were waiting, many of them injured. I barely had a chance to look around before Ibrahim and Corrine began ushering us all together in a circle and we vanished.

We reappeared again on another islet—quiet, with no signs of the destruction we had just left. We all looked battle-worn—clearly many of us had attempted to battle the mermaids, judging by the various gashes in our bodies. My eyes traveled from Aiden, to Ashley, Landis, Helina, Erik, Ibrahim, Corrine, Micah, Caleb, my father, Matteo… But no matter how many times I looked around, I couldn’t see my mother.

My father’s eyes lit up with panic as he realized the same thing.

“Where is Sofia?” He leapt to his feet and gripped Ibrahim’s shoulders.

“What?” Ibrahim choked. He and Corrine cast their eyes around disbelievingly.

“How could we have missed her?” Corrine gasped.

Chapter 8: Sofia

As I fought to the surface, a slimy hand closed around my ankle.

I was yanked painfully downward, managing to take one last deep breath before my head submerged. I opened my eyes in the murky water and could just about make out the outline of a merman through the weeds. I kicked with all my strength, but his hold on me remained. I tried to bend down to lash out with my claws. He let go of me to dodge, but then another merman approached behind me. He caught my arms and pinned them behind my back.

No.

The first merman reached for my ankle again and the two of them dragged me down. I squirmed and continued to fight, but I couldn’t break free from their grasp. I looked up at the rapidly disappearing surface. As a vampire, I could hold my breath much longer than a human… but not forever.

As we descended deeper and deeper, the weeds grew thinner, the murkiness lifting and the water becoming clearer. My eyes widened at the sight that was now beneath me. I had a bird’s eye view of a magnificent underwater city. Paths lined with coral formed a maze around stone buildings. Gardens of sea flora and forests of tall sea grass were scattered between the constructions.

I was expecting the mermen to begin dragging me down toward the buildings, but to my surprise, they didn’t. They stopped descending and continued swimming with me at this level, past monstrous black sharks, luminous blue jellyfish the size of cars, pure white dolphins, and other alien creatures. We weaved in and out of the bases of the islets that served as majestic columns for the city. I wanted to scream out to them to let me go, but opening my mouth would only hasten my demise. I couldn’t afford to start swallowing water.

We started approaching one of the columns and they began swimming upward again. As they drifted with me higher and higher, I hoped for a moment that they were about to take me back up to the surface, but they stopped about fifteen feet beneath the surface. They swam right up to the rocks and now I could make out a dark hole. They pulled me through it, traveling along a narrow tunnel that had apparently been drilled right through the base of this islet, and I was brought an unexpected reprieve. My head popped above water, sweet oxygen filling my lungs. I gasped, looking around. We were in a cave. They hauled me out of the water and pinned me down against the rough ground.

They tied some kind of rope tightly around my ankles and arms. They were hog-tying me. They rolled me onto my side where I could better make out the cave. It was empty except for two still forms lying in the corner. As the stinging in my eyes from the salt water subsided, and my vision returned, I realized that it was Kiev and Mona—unconscious.

“What do you want with us?” I gasped at the two mermen.

They just shoved me farther away from the entrance to the cave and then disappeared back into the water.