Given that statement, every single person present that night was made aware that Derek’s pursuit of me had just begun.
CHAPTER 10: LUCAS
I didn’t know what to expect after the Maslens—our clan’s archenemy—offered me sanctuary. It felt like such a gamble, but having been informed that my father would rather send me back to The Shade and face death at Derek’s hands instead of taking me under his wing, I really had no other choice. The Oasis, home of the Maslen clan, became my sanctuary.
Thus, I travelled to Cairo where Borys Maslen—lord of the Maslen clan—sent an escort to take me to The Oasis. In a couple of days’ time, traveling by night and seeking shade by day, I arrived. At first, I thought that it was some sort of joke. It was exactly as it name implied—a small oasis hidden within the Egyptian boundaries of the Sahara Desert.
A slew of curses escaped my lips as I approached the small lake surrounded by three palm trees that appeared to form a triangle around the lake.
“What is this?” I hissed at my escort.
“Wait and see,” he responded smugly.
I’d already heard a lot of stories about The Oasis. It was said to be a marvel, but nothing prepared me for what I saw.
My escort took out a small velvet pouch and retrieved a brass hexagonal object studded with emeralds. He walked toward one of the palm trees and knelt on the ground, brushing sand away from an area beneath the tree to reveal what looked like a metal plate. He then gently placed the emerald-studded hexagon on top of it. He stood up and took out another brass hexagon, this time studded with sapphires. He walked to another one of the two palm trees and did the same thing. For the third palm tree, he repeated the process with a brass hexagon studded with rubies.
“Earth, water, fire…” he muttered as he placed the third hexagon in place. The moment the ruby-studded plate was put in its place, I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet. The small lake transformed into a whirlpool and suddenly an opening began to form in the center of it. That’s when I spotted a black staircase leading downward. This real-life oasis was actually just a gateway allowing entry to the Maslens’ infamous Oasis.
“Follow me.” My escort motioned to descend the stairs. I stood frozen for a couple of seconds before finally gathering my wits about me and following him to wherever the staircase led.
We descended the stairs surrounded by gushing water, but amazingly I was kept dry. We finally reached the top level of The Oasis’ seven underground levels.
The levels were once Egyptian tombs concealing hidden treasure. After the Maslens found the keys to The Oasis over a hundred years ago, they modernized and renovated all of the tombs’ interconnected halls and chambers. At the center of it all was a huge, round, glass-encased elevator that allowed quick access from one level to the next.
I didn’t get a chance to look around much, because I was immediately brought to level four: “The Palace”. I was ushered through several well-lit corridors, lavishly decorated with golden-framed paintings and beautiful antiques. Finally, we reached the chamber which was our destination.
Borys Maslen was slumped on a large black throne made of skulls—looking the same way he did centuries ago—muddy brown hair; dark eyes; a stocky, well-built physique; wide and muscular.
Our first conversation was tense to say the least—even more so when I mentioned that the girl prophesied to establish my brother’s rule was already at The Shade. When he discovered the girl was actually Sofia, he lost all control of himself—something that I couldn’t fully understand until I saw Borys’ right-hand woman, Ingrid.
Ingrid used to be Camilla Claremont before she became a vampire. She was Sofia’s mother.
It was daunting to me, but from that day onwards, everything about my stay at The Oasis became about finding Sofia. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. She was just one human girl and yet no matter where I went—whether it be in the middle of the ocean at The Shade or the middle of the desert at The Oasis—everything seemed to revolve around Sofia Claremont.
“I want Sofia,” Borys told me.
“As I told you, I haven’t figured out how to get her to you yet.” I replied.
We were inside my quarters; a one-bedroom suite located at level four, where all the royals and favored citizens of The Oasis resided. To them, I’d been given a privilege to stay there. To me, it was just a comfortable prison, because they forbade me to leave level four.
“What is it with my daughter and getting vampires so caught up in her wiles?” Ingrid said in a slurred tone as she slinked from one side of the room to the other. She lay down on one of the Egyptian couches.