I shook my head. “No…I can get through to him. I know I can.” And I did it the only way I knew how. I tentatively approached and placed a gentle kiss on Derek’s lips. I was surprised when one hand gripped my arm painfully while the other found my neck.
He pulled his lips away from me and growled before pushing me away again. Within a couple of seconds, he was kneeling over me, straddling my hips, as he pushed my head to one side, clearing my neck for a bite.
I recalled the times in the past when this had happened between us—with him threatening to hurt me and me talking him out of it. This felt different. It felt like the man I loved wasn’t even there for me to speak to. It was as if the curse was in control of Derek. For a moment, I was tempted to accept my fate the same way Gavin was about to. I looked at him and knew that he wasn’t about to risk his life by doing anything to stop Derek. It was every man for his own at The Shade and in Gavin’s eyes, I’d signed my death certificate when I dared to interfere.
Derek’s grip over my shoulder and jaw tightened as he moved over me and just as he was about to bite, all I could think of doing was hum. At first, I couldn’t even recognize the tune I was humming, but I knew that it was something familiar, a tune I held dear to my heart. A smile formed on my face when I realized what it was. The tune I was humming was the same one that he hummed to me the night of my birthday when he danced with me in the lighthouse.
Tears began to moisten my eyes as I remembered how treasured and special he made me feel that day. Guilt also took hold of me considering the way I avoided him the past few days. He didn’t deserve that and I knew it, but I loved him for understanding anyway and giving me the space that I needed. I could feel his fangs on my neck, sinking deeper and deeper. I shut my eyes as he was about to break skin, still humming that song…that tune that played only inside his creative mind, where numerous symphonies must’ve already taken place.
I bit my lip anticipating the pain that was sure to come. Then nothing.
After a moment’s silence, Derek began to swear. “Sofia…” he choked, as he helped me to my feet. “What have I done? I’m so sorry. Sofia, I…”
“I’m alright. I’m not hurt.”
He stared at me like I was a precious ornament that he’d just broken.
“Derek…”
Before I could say anything, he had his lips on mine, kissing me like he hadn’t in a long time. Demanding. Passionate. Hungry. It’s like he poured out every pent up emotion he had into that one kiss. I could feel my knees weaken beneath me, making me lean my entire weight on me, realizing just how much I missed the security of his arms around me.
When our lips parted, we stared at each other for a few moments. I could sense the guilt he was feeling. I knew Derek. I knew that he was beating himself up over what had just occurred.
“I love you,” I assured him. “Nothing’s changed.”
A bitter smile formed on his face as he nodded. “That just makes me feel more like a monster, Sofia. Like I don’t deserve you.”#p#分页标题#e#
He walked away and just as I was about to hold him back, he used his lightning speed to get away from me.
I stood rooted to my spot staring at the direction he went off to for a few minutes, wondering if I should follow him. When I was about to make a run for where I thought he was headed, Gavin held me back.
“Let him go. There’s no way you can catch up with him.”
“I think I know where he went.” The Lighthouse. I realized then that I had no idea how to get to the Lighthouse without Derek. There was no way I could make the hundred-foot leap down the fortress without him. I looked Gavin’s way. I had actually forgotten he was there for a while. I sighed. He looked nothing like my best friend, but he reminded me so much of Ben and how easygoing things were when I was around him. This time, however, Gavin was looking at me in a different way—like he was in a daze, blinking several times in disbelief.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” he finally spoke, amazement evident in his voice.
“Anything like what?” I asked.
“That! Sofia, the way you get to him…it’s amazing. What were you humming? Will it work on all vamps?”
“It was a tune Derek made up on my birthday. We danced to it while were at the…” I caught myself, remembering that no one apart from me and Derek knew about the Lighthouse. I creased my brows at Gavin and quickly changed the subject. “Can’t everybody do that? Calm a vampire?”
“Calm a vampire?!” Gavin spat the words out like it was the most laughable thing he’d ever heard of. He shook his head profusely as he snickered. “No…not everybody can do that. When a vampire loses it, they lose it. Of all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen a human survive a vampire attack unscathed or unbitten when the vampire goes into blackouts. The vampire attacks, destroys, ruins. Only their own kind can stop them, and it’s usually through bloody violence, but you…” He stared at me like I was the most magical thing he’d ever laid eyes on. “It’s like you put a spell on him. How did you do it?”