Vivienne seemed to take notice of this, but paid it no heed. Instead, she walked toward her brother and gave him a hug. This time, he let go of my hand in order to reciprocate her gesture.

I stepped backward. That’s when I noticed Lucas staring at the hand Derek just let go of. He looked like he wanted to crush it. I balled my fists and hid them behind the silky fabric of the exquisite dress they’d made me wear. I felt Lucas’ eyes on me, traveling along every curve of my body. I wanted to bolt away.

“It’s only a few hours until morning. We’d best get going,” Vivienne said. “I’ll instruct the guards to have the girls brought to their quarters… unless you have other plans.”

Derek shook his head. “Take them there. Except for Sofia. She stays in the bedroom nearest mine.”

Vivienne gave me a pointed look from head to toe, as if she were wondering what was so special about me. That made two of us.

She nodded. “Very well. See you tomorrow, Derek.”

I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved by her goodbye. It meant that I would no longer be in the same room with Lucas, but it also meant that I would be completely under the mercy of Derek. Still, the inevitable happened. They left.

The moment they closed the door behind them, I found myself wanting to back away from Derek, but found myself rooted to my spot. He turned around, studying his surroundings until his gaze fell on me.

“You’re just standing there,” he retorted.

I shrugged. “I have nowhere to go, do I?”

“Why are you not afraid of me?” He began to draw closer.

I wanted to run – the same way I should have when Lucas first approached me at the beach.

“What on earth makes you think I’m not afraid of you?”

“I thought maybe you’re one of those girls.”

“What girls?”

“Girls who are fascinated by our kind,” he stopped a few steps away from me, almost as if he were afraid to draw closer. “Girls who want to be like us.”

“I can describe your kind in many words,” I practically spat out. “Fascinating isn’t one of them. Is that really what you think you are? Fascinating?”

He took a step back. I could swear that he actually looked hurt. He shook his head, a bitter smile forming on his lips. “No. Far from it.”

“Why am I here? What are you going to do with me?” The questions came out of my lips before I could stop them. The tone of desperation was evident in how the words were said.

He stared as if he were battling with himself whether to answer my questions or not.

“Go to sleep, Sofia. You need the rest.”

My heart sank. “You’re never going to let me go, are you?”

He shook his head. “No. I can’t let you go. You’ve seen too much.”

I gritted my teeth. No way am I going to stay here forever. I had every intention of escaping and I figured the morning would be the best time to do it. As we both found our way to the other rooms and discovered where our bedrooms were, I had one thought circling my mind: I had to escape by daybreak.

I guess I underestimated the Blood Shade when it came to its penchant for surprises. I drifted off to sleep in a round comfortable bed covered with furs, expecting to see sunlight breaking through the bedroom windows the next morning. To my horror, I woke up to a deep, dark night.

CHAPTER 10: DEREK

The moment I laid my back down on the furry covers of the four-post bed in the middle of the lavish bedroom I’d chosen for myself, the first thought that came to mind was: What on earth are you doing? I’d just woken up from four centuries of sleep. There really was no more sleeping to be done. Thus, I spent the night in the library, reading books – hoping to catch up with what I’d missed over the past years. I found a wealth of information there, but I knew that I’d only scratched the surface. I then realized what a great value Sofia would be to me in becoming acquainted with the world as it was now.

I picked up the fourth glass of blood that was brought to me by one of the harem girls. A gift from Vivienne.

When the girl, Gwen, tentatively came in with the first glass in hand, I didn’t even care to ask where the blood came from or whose blood it was. I just drank it all up. My hunger had to be satisfied if I were to keep myself from murdering the girls who were living inside my home. I thanked her for the blood and asked if she could fetch me more. The brunette nodded, her lips trembling even as she moved away from me. I looked at her and wondered why I wasn’t as drawn to her as I was to Sofia. It could be said that she was similarly pleasant to look at as the redhead sleeping in the chambers next to mine, and yet that simple gesture Sofia did back at the Sanctuary – grabbing Gwen’s hand to comfort her – somehow solidified Sofia, in my eyes, as more valuable than the other four girls combined.

As I finished my fourth glass, I found myself longing to check on how my beautiful captive was doing. I stood up and made my way through the glass-covered walkways, displaying the starlit sky above it. I smiled. It was a nice touch by Cora – always keeping the sun out of the Blood Shade – the one place on earth where it was always night. I eventually ended up in her bedroom. I heaved a sigh. I couldn’t understand why I was so nervous. She was just a girl. I’ve had my fill of blood. There was really no reason to be so anxious. I knocked on the door and waited. Nothing. I knocked again. “Sofia?”

I creased my brows. Something was wrong. I opened the door. It wasn’t locked. For some reason, that bothered me. Is she so foolish to trust a stranger like me – a vampire at that – that she wouldn’t even lock her door? I pushed the door open and surveyed the room. She was nowhere in sight.

“Sofia?” I stepped in, the truth beginning to dawn on me.

I was the fool to trust her. I didn’t even bother to station guards outside her bedroom. Of course she would attempt to escape. She’d be a fool if she didn’t.

CHAPTER 11: SOFIA

Run, Sofia. I kept telling myself to go on, to flee. I figured that at some point, I’d reach something – anything to give me a clue on how I could escape the Blood Shade. And so I continued, stumbling through the darkness of the forest.

I knew I had no escape plan and the likelihood of actually leaving the island was practically non-existent. But I had to take my chance the moment I saw it. I couldn’t afford to hang around while Derek decided exactly what he wanted to keep me for.

I thought of Ben and what he would do given my situation. Knowing how impulsive my best friend was, I figured to escape while he could was probably what he would’ve done. That really was all the encouragement that I needed. So when I woke up that morning – and found the sky to be as dark as it was the night before – I realized that waiting for daylight to escape was pointless.

I got off the bed as quietly as I could – I had no idea where Derek was, but if he was in the chambers closest to mine, I figured he’d hear every single noise that I made, so I took care in making none. I slipped out of the slippers I found in the large wardrobe inside the bedroom. I figured I’d make less noise with bare feet.

I rummaged through the closet, which I discovered mostly contained women’s clothes. It made my stomach turn as I wondered why. The idea that the room next to Derek’s was specifically meant for a woman – and what that woman could possibly be intended for – made me sick. Whatever reasons these vampires had for taking us, what they were doing was terrible. I wasn’t just going to sit there and be the victim.

I tried to look for jeans or something comfortable to run in, but found none. My hands sifted through dozens of silken gowns, cocktail dresses, skirts and lingerie.

Eventually I found a pair of denim shorts and a black hoodie two sizes too large for me. I frowned, noting how out-of-place the outfit was considering the rest of the contents of the wardrobe. I shrugged it off and was just thankful that I didn’t have run through a dark forest in a cocktail dress. It was the best I could come up with and I figured it should be enough. I slipped the clothes on as quickly as I could. I knew there was no time to waste. The further I got without anybody noticing I was gone, the better off I’d be.

Satisfied with my outfit, I snuck outside the room, carrying the rubber slippers I had with one hand, careful to close the door as noiselessly as I could. I made my way toward one of the glass-covered walkways connecting the corridor to the guest room to another wing of the penthouse.

Standing in the walkway, I saw one of the girls I was with walking through the walkway parallel to where I was standing, all the way to the wing on the opposite side. She was the one whose hand I held when we were first brought in front of Derek. I couldn’t remember her name. My hopes lifted. If she was there, perhaps Derek was also. I thought for a moment if I should include the other girls in my escape. I wanted to, but I figured it would be a case of the blind leading the blind. My best chance of helping them was to escape and expose the Blood Shade to the rest of the world. Surely someone would help me save the people brought into this coven as slaves.

I didn’t spend too much time musing over this and instead, focused on how on earth I was going to get back to the ground. I looked outside and smiled faintly with relief. I saw a lift not too far away. That must be it. I pulled the black hoodie over my head and made my way to the lift. It didn’t take long before my feet were back on the solid ground. It was almost too good to be true, but no one seemed to be around to keep watch over me, so I just slipped the slippers on and made a run toward the direction opposite the Vale, the town center. I figured that north of the Vale were the Cells, east of it was the Sanctuary, while on the west side was the Pavilion. If I made a run for it in the direction away from the Vale, further to the west, I just had to reach an exit sooner or later.