I then began to wonder where my father was. The fact that I had no pressing desire to see him told me a lot about my feelings toward him. I immediately assumed that he’d be in the Crimson Fortress, the massive walls I made sure would be built to protect the Blood Shade before I sought escape. I found myself asking to verify if the fortress was still standing strong and if Oliver, always the fierce warrior, was there.
“The fortress is stronger than ever. We have knights, guards and scouts stationed at its walls to keep us all secure,” Vivienne assured.
“Knights? Scouts?”
“Knights are members of the Elite who also serve as warriors,” Lucas explained. “Scouts are those we send to the outside world for supplies or new blood.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that last piece of information. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a way for our kind to survive without preying on humans. I was sure that just saying those thoughts out loud would be labeled as sacrilege by my father.
“And father?”
“He’s meeting with leaders from the other covens to discuss how to stop the damned Shadow Hunters once and for all,” Vivienne explained.
My jaw tightened at the mention of the hunters dedicated to ending our kind. I remembered a time when I was one of them. That time was long gone. “They’re still a threat?” I asked.
“More so than before,” Lucas said, almost sounding indignant that I didn’t know that – as if it were my fault that the Shadow Hunters were so powerful. “We’re the strongest and most powerful coven remaining. A lot of the citizens of the Blood Shade – Lodgers we call them – escaped from covens that the hunters managed to find and completely annihilate.”
Vivienne most likely sensed my agitation over the news, because she quickly changed the subject.
“Shadow Hunters are a topic for a later date.” She said, curtly.
We had just reached the outskirts of The Vale and were now about to enter a different part of the redwood forest. I couldn’t help but draw a breath over how the Blood Shade changed since I last saw it. Before the spell, it could barely be called a community. It was our escape, our safe sanctuary from the Shadow Hunters, who were threatening to expel every single one of our kind from the earth.
If I didn’t have my father, brother and sister to fight for, I would’ve surrendered myself to the hunters, ending my life under their cruel hands. I couldn’t bear to do that to my family though, especially not to Vivienne. The coven needed me at that time, but when I fulfilled my part of the bargain and managed to bring them to this safe haven and win Cora over to our side as our protection, I knew I couldn’t bear living another second with all the blood that was on my hands. I had to end it.
But I was a coward. I dreaded to think of what would happen once I actually die. What happens to the living dead once they pass away? I shuddered every time I found myself thinking about it. It was perhaps quite a strange thing that the undead could be so afraid of death, and yet it was truth. I was afraid to die, so I went to sleep instead.
As we walked through the dense wood, I couldn’t help but speak my thoughts. “You must hate me for having done what I did…abandoning you all.”
I noticed how Lucas’ jaw twitched, a flicker of the familiar resentment showing in his eyes. I didn’t need to hear a response from him to know what was going through his mind. Of course he hated me.
Vivienne was far more gracious. “No, Derek. You did what had to be done to protect us all without even knowing it. Your rested state has caused you to gain energy over the hundreds of years that you were under Cora’s spell. Because of this, you’re most likely the strongest and most powerful vampire in existence today.”
Lucas asked a question about how exactly I managed to win Cora over to our side, but Vivienne’s words echoed through my head… strongest and most powerful vampire. Recollections of how I practically threw Sofia up that pillar roamed through my mind.
My gut clenched. She looked fragile under my grasp and yet so fearless. I was death and I was looking her right in the eye. She looked right back. Without even flinching. She was walking behind me. I could hear her gentle footsteps and the clanging of the shackles over her wrists. I could still smell and practically taste the blood on her lips. I wondered if this was the same effect women had on me before. I couldn’t even remember.
I stopped in my tracks and called to her. “Sofia.”
Everyone stopped our walk through the night the moment I spoke the words.
Her youth showed in the way she responded to me. “What?”
Without even looking back, I knew that she was about to suffer pain for her insolence in addressing me. I could practically see the guard behind us raising his hand to hit her.