“You really shouldn’t annoy me too much, Yuri,” Claudia warned.

“Oh?” Yuri smirked. “Why’s that?”

“I’m a vampire, you know. I could switch off the love I feel for you any time I want.”

Yuri began laughing. “No, you can’t. If there’s one emotion we vampires can’t switch off, it’s love. Look at Ingrid, no matter how much she tries, she still can’t stop loving Aiden. You said so yourself.”

“Is that true?” I asked. “You can’t switch off love?”

Yuri cast a fond gaze at Claudia. “Believe me, Sofia. I tried for hundreds of years. I never stopped loving Claudia…” Their eyes met and within a few seconds, Yuri made a face. “But I think it’s just because Claudia is part witch... a witchpire. I’m pretty sure she cast a spell on me, or something. Otherwise, why on earth would I love her?”

Something told me that they were going to bicker and banter the whole time they were together, so I bade them goodbye.

Before I was about to leave, Yuri grabbed my arm and looked straight into my eyes, his face filled with brotherly concern. “Sofia, I know your story. We all watched it unfold. You know The Shade for what it is – all its secrets, all its darkness, all its light, all that’s bad and all that’s good. I’m sure that your experience in this island is of a completely different vein than mine, but I’m hoping you see, just the way that I do, that The Shade is a place of second chances. You gave Derek a lot of chances to redeem himself.” Yuri shrugged. “Maybe your parents deserve the same thing.”

“I’m working on giving them that chance,” I assured him. I was just about to open my mouth to thank him when Xavier arrived, out of breath.

His eyes focused on me. “I think you’ll want to see this.”

I gulped. The expression on his face was telling me the exact opposite. Whatever it was, I was sure it wasn’t something that I wanted to see. What on earth just happened?

Chapter 16: Derek

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Emilia was lying face down on the shore in the exact same spot I had found Cora, centuries ago. Xavier, Ashley and I were headed for the Lighthouse, so we could prepare a surprise date with Sofia that night, when we happened to pass by the young woman.

“Who is she?” Ashley asked, as she approached the motionless body tentatively.

Xavier knelt in front of the girl and brushed her hair away from her face. He lifted his eyes toward me to let me know what I already knew. “It’s the original vampire’s daughter.”

I approached Emilia and found myself gasping at her appearance.

Xavier’s jaw tightened. “She’s not looking well.”

He was right. Emilia’s wet, brown hair was a tangled mess and blood was flowing from her scalp. She was bruised and unconscious, and for some strange reason, I was blaming myself.

Did she not warn you that she would be in trouble if you made her go back to her father? My stomach churned at the idea that her own father could do this to her. What kind of a creature is the Elder? If he was our foe, then we were up against a more powerful creature than we knew how to handle. How on earth could anyone do this to their own daughter?

“They must’ve used one of those serums that keep vampires from healing,” Xavier began thinking out loud. “Who would do this to her? Aren’t they afraid of her father?”

I scoffed at the question. “Odds are that it’s her father who did this to her.”

Xavier and Ashley exchanged glances, grimacing at the notion.

“What are you going to do with her?” Ashley finally asked.

I stared at Emilia… I didn’t want to touch her. I didn’t want anything to do with her, but I knew I couldn’t just leave her there. Don’t make the same mistake you did the last time. Don’t keep Sofia out of it.

I decided right then that Sofia and I were a team and that I should stop making decisions without her – especially when the decisions involved young women I was extremely attracted to. I directed my glare at Xavier and gave him an express command. “Go get Sofia. I can’t decide what to do with Emilia unless Sofia is involved.”

Xavier nodded and sped off.

Ashley seemed intrigued by my desire to get Sofia in on deciding Emilia’s fate. “Since when do you factor Sofia in when it comes to decisions like this?”

“Since I decided to marry her…” I shrugged a shoulder before looking her directly in the eye. “You do realize that once I marry Sofia, she’s going to be your queen.”

I was sure Ashley wasn’t really seeing the gravity of the situation at hand because she just laughed at my statement. “I actually have to remind myself that you’re king of The Shade, Derek. Most of the time, I look at you and Sofia and just think of a regular high school couple. Only instead of the two of you being prom king and queen, you’re both running an entire kingdom.”

I stared at her, wondering how she could possibly live life like it was a continuous game. I actually breathed an audible sigh of relief when Xavier and Sofia arrived. My gut clenched when I saw how Sofia’s face paled at the sight of Emilia.

“She’s back,” Sofia croaked.

I was about to approach her and pull her into my arms, but I wasn’t able to, because compassion immediately filled her green eyes at the sight of Emilia.

“What happened to her?” Sofia sounded alarmed as she rushed to Emilia’s side. “Dear heavens, who would do this to her? I think she needs blood… It will help her heal…”

My eyes widened with shock when Sofia raised her wrist in the air as if she were trying to decide if she should feed Emilia her own blood. Has she gone mad? “You are not going to feed her your blood, Sofia!” I shot my eyes toward Ashley, eager to rid myself of her peskiness. “Go get some blood for Emilia before Sofia gets any ideas.”

Ashley tilted her head to the side. “Animal or human?”

I glared at her and realized that Xavier and Sofia were doing the exact same thing.

“What?” Ashley shrugged. “We’ve all been skimping on our reserves of human blood. Now, we have to feed it to our enemy’s daughter?”

Ever since several rebels in The Shade blew up the Chilling Chambers, where we stored our reserves of human blood, we’d been living mostly on animal blood – taken from the wildlife of The Shade. We also had reserves of human blood – mostly taken from blood donations by the Naturals, but we made sure to use them sparingly.

“Could you just leave?” I snapped at Ashley.

She ran off and I found Sofia checking on Emilia. “I think she has a lot of broken bones…” Sofia frowned. “Her body doesn’t look right.” She gazed up at me and Xavier. “Can’t we get her somewhere comfortable?”

“You’re seriously considering bringing her onto the island?” I asked Sofia, wondering what she thought about Emilia being back after everything I told her.

“All I know right now is that she obviously needs help and that we’re the only ones capable of giving it to her,” Sofia responded.

I couldn’t help but admire her. At that moment, I knew that I’d just fallen more deeply in love with her. You really are something, Sofia. When she saw Emilia, Sofia didn’t see a threat. She just saw someone broken and in need of mending.

“Okay then,” I finally agreed.

“Where are we going to take her?” Xavier asked.

We all exchanged glances and though my first instinct was to take Emilia to The Cells, I knew that Sofia would object. Someone as wounded as Emilia didn’t belong in a prison cell. She needed to be in a hospital. In The Shade, the closest thing we had to a hospital was either The Catacombs – where Emilia definitely did not belong – or The Sanctuary.

I made a decision right there. With Corrine at The Sanctuary, it’s much safer. At least Corrine can control Emilia in case she tries to do something to harm The Shade.

“Let’s take her to The Sanctuary.”

Chapter 17: Aiden

A pack of cigarettes tied to a lighter with a rubber band landed on my bed in front of me. I looked toward the direction of the prison cell’s bars and found Yuri there. He was smoking a cigarette. I was grateful for the favor and still bothered by the friendship I was forming with a vampire. I couldn’t help it though. I liked Yuri. He was like the son I never had.

“I told you last time that I’d bring you some, didn’t I?” Yuri said smugly, before taking another puff from his cigarette.

“Where did you get these?” I asked him, unable to hide my gratefulness. I was infamous in The Shade for my taste for tobacco.

“Claudia has a bunch of them stacked up in her penthouse,” Yuri told me.

“Have you talked to Sofia about getting me out of here?”

Yuri winced. “Sorry, man. I forgot. It’s been crazy around here. I have been putting a good word or two on your behalf.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t make me regret it, Claremont. I don’t ever want Derek or Sofia to have a reason not to trust me.”

“Thank you.”

“Ingrid is asking to be brought to you…” He paused. “Actually, make that Camilla. She no longer wants to be called Ingrid.”

I made a face as I lit my cigarette and took a puff. “What’s her game now?”

“She says that she wants her family back.”

“Right.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or get angry. How dare she pull that card after everything she put Sofia through…

Yuri looked at me. “If she really is willing to change, would you take her back?”

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to trust Camilla again more than anything, but I couldn’t. Not as long as she was a threat to Sofia. “I think the only way I can ever trust Camilla again is if she gets back into Sofia’s good graces.”

Yuri laughed. “Sucks for Camilla then. Sofia says that the only way she can ever trust Camilla again is if she gets back into your good graces. Seems to me like Camilla is screwed if neither of you are willing to take a chance on her once more…”