No sooner had the words come out of his lips when one of the “hunters” lunged for me. Everything happened so fast, I could barely wrap my mind around the whole thing. All I knew was that before I could make sense of what was happening, I had an arm choking my neck, a familiar voice speaking out.

“We came here for her and her alone. You either give me a way out of here or she dies.”

The chill of his breath and the distinct depth of his gravelly voice made it clear who was holding me hostage. Borys Maslen.

My gaze instinctively locked with Derek’s and I found in the blue depths of his eyes a mixture of fury and terror. I tried to make sense of where we were, panic overwhelming me at the idea of once again being taken captive by Borys Maslen. His mere touch was causing goosebumps to form all over my body.

“How…” Derek gasped out, perhaps wondering how on earth vampires—Borys Maslen at that—was even able to get into the submarines without getting recognized.

“Surprised, Novak?” Borys grinned, his breath cold against the back of my ear. “Since you helped the hunters destroy The Oasis, we’ve been getting some outside support. A beautiful witch’s spell kept us disguised as hunters until we could reveal ourselves to you. Now, let us leave with young Sofia here and no one has to get hurt. If you don’t let us go, well, I’ll just have to kill her.”

He began nudging me toward the exit that would lead to the submarine, so I was relieved to find that the way to the submarines had been blocked by several of The Shade’s guards, something that peeved Borys.

“There’s no way you’re getting out of here with Sofia…” Derek yelled.

From the look in his eyes, I had no doubt in my mind that I would see hearts ripped out of their rightful place that day.

“So you’d rather see her die than leave with me?” Borys said, tracing a claw over my bare arm, causing blood to trickle out of the cut. “And I thought you loved her.”

“What do you want from her?”

“Oh, I will always want her just because I want what is mine. She’s mine.” He kissed me on the cheek and I felt the tears trickling down my eyes as everyone around me watched helplessly. “But to be honest, I’m not the only one who wants her away from you, Novak. You’re up against much more powerful forces now.”

I swallowed hard at what he was implying. The original. The desperation in Derek’s face was tearing me apart. I knew it was killing him to see me in Borys’ grasp, even more now that the original was involved.

“She’s my daughter.” Aiden took a step forward. “Let her go. If she belongs with anyone, she belongs with me.”

The other hooded “hunter” chuckled. I didn’t need to know who it was. Ingrid.

“Did you really think your cure would work?” She grinned. “There’s no cure, and lest you forget, she’s my daughter too.”

“This is getting exhausting.” Borys once again clawed through my skin—so deeply, I couldn’t keep in a scream. “Are you going to let us go or not?”

Despite the anguish traced in his eyes upon seeing me in pain, Derek shook his head. “No.”

“Can’t you stop him?” Aiden hissed at Derek.

“It will take only a couple of seconds for me to break Sofia’s neck,” Borys explained matter-of-factly. “He can’t risk that. I’m going to give you time to think this through, Novak. I’ll give you an hour to let us all go unharmed.” Borys began backing up to where the cells at the port were, Ingrid and the other vampires they had with them backing up around us. “Until you decide, my lovely Sofia and I are going to spend some private time together, heh? Think of all the fun we can have in a whole hour...”

Just like that, I found myself locked in a room with Borys, five vampires standing guard right outside the door.

“What do you want from me?” I spat at him after he pushed me to the ground.

“Many things, Sofia…” He chuckled. “Many things. But first…” He licked his lips and bared his fangs. As if the implication that he was once again going to drink my blood wasn’t already sickening, he pulled off his shirt and unbuttoned his jeans. I knew what he wanted, but I wasn’t going to allow him to have it.

Gritting my teeth against what I was up against, I shook my head determined to fight with every bit of my strength. He’s not going to make a victim out of me. Not again. Over my dead body.

CHAPTER 48: DEREK

I paced the floor of the port’s control room as I tried to figure out what to do. I looked toward the direction of the cell where Borys took Sofia and just the thought of what he was doing to her in there was enough to drive me mad.

“What are we going to do?” Aiden asked.

“Did you do this?” I shot at him. I didn’t care that he was her father. If he had deliberately put Sofia in danger just to get to me, I was more than ready to break his neck.

He shook his head. “I don’t understand what happened. I didn’t know about this. They must have found a way to intercept my communication with the hunters. I had nothing to do with this.”

I narrowed my eyes at him as I moved closer to him. “Is there really a cure, Aiden? Why is Ingrid a vampire again?” I was fighting the urge to interrogate him while I had my hand choking his neck.

The man stood proud and indignant, unwilling to be intimidated even by me. I was impressed, but even more so when he looked me straight in the eye. “There’s no cure, Derek. There can never be a cure to a curse such as yours.”

I wasn’t able to keep myself from hitting him across the face, making him fall on the ground—several feet away from me.

He coughed blood. “I just wanted what was best for Sofia. You’re not what’s best for her. I had to do everything I could to get this idea of a cure out of her head, to get you permanently out of her system.”

“You want what’s best for her?!” I pointed toward the room where she was trapped with Borys Maslen. “Do you have any idea what he could possibly be doing to her right now?! Do you have any idea how sick a monster Borys Maslen is?! It’s your fault she’s at his mercy right now.” I had no idea what to do. I knew that I could take down all of Borys’ vampires if I wanted to, but I also knew without a doubt in my mind that Borys wouldn’t hesitate to kill Sofia. I grabbed clumps of my own hair as I screamed out in frustration.

“We need to get her as far away from Borys as possible,” I managed to mutter.

“Well, for once, we agree on something…” Aiden said.

I wanted to strangle him. ”This is your fault. You know that, right?” I was about to march right toward him again, but a calm, female voice stopped me.

“Calm down, Derek. We won’t get anywhere blaming each other.”

I turned toward the voice and found Vivienne standing inside the room.

“What are you doing here? Vivienne, if Borys Maslen sees you…”

“I saw a vision of this happening. I rushed here as soon as the vision was over, but I guess it’s too late. He has her now.”

“I don’t know what to do, Vivienne…I want to kill something…anything…” Out of the corner of my eye, I could make out Aiden rising to his feet. He would be a good first candidate. “Just thinking of what he could be doing to her…”

I heard a loud bang from inside the cell and my heart plummeted, my fists clenching.

Ingrid came through the hallway that led to the room and stepped into the control room. She eyed Aiden from head to foot, then smirked in triumph. “You didn’t think you could keep me trapped in hunter territory forever, did you? After I was able to escape, I found a way to intercept your communication with Zinnia—she isn’t exactly the brightest bulb, is she? Well anyway…here we are now… I won over you.”

“What exactly did you win, Ingrid?” Aiden spat out, every word dripping with spite. “Does it really give you pleasure to see your own daughter being tormented by that monster?”

“You should see her trying to put up a fight. She’s in a pretty bad state.”

Despite her words, I could swear that I saw hesitation in Ingrid’s eyes, almost as if she was also being tormented by what Sofia was going through. She even seemed proud that Sofia was putting up a fight—something that made my heart leap and my gut clench at the same time.

Ingrid turned toward me. “Sofia is going to fight to her last breath before she allows Borys to lay a hand on her. I’m not sure she’ll last an hour. Are you really sure you want to drag this out?”

“There’s no way I’m going to let Borys leave this island with her.”

“He will be more than willing to break every bone in her body and force her to drink his blood so she’ll heal, then do it all over again. An hour is a long time, Derek.” Her shoulders sagged and it was easy to see that she was conflicted. “Let us go.”

I narrowed my eyes at Ingrid and wondered if she was actually really pleading for Sofia’s sake. “That doesn’t make sense, Ingrid. I know Sofia. She would rather die than leave this island with Borys. I would rather die than give her over to him—not after what she had already gone through, not after you just told me what he’s capable of doing to her.” I couldn’t help but look at her like she was stupid. “Are you even thinking straight? How could you leave your own daughter in the hands of the likes of him?”

“We’re wasting time.” Aiden interrupted, eyes brimming with tears. “We have to stop him from destroying Sofia.” His voice was choked, and it was the first time I was convinced that he genuinely cared for Sofia.

“Let me have a talk with him…” Vivienne took a step forward. “There was a time when it was me he wanted. Maybe we can talk him into taking me instead of her.”

My eyes widened in horror. “Vivienne, what!”

“Can you think of any other way to somehow get his eyes off Sofia even for a while? We have to at least try something…”