Chapter 35: Derek
I did not know how it had happened or who instigated the news, but word of the hunters coming to the island spread like wildfire. As was expected, the news came with several degrees of mixed reactions—mostly negative. The vampires who remained neutral were beginning to question my sanity. Those who were loyal, on the other hand, did not find it hard to voice out their concerns on the matter. While some were quick to assure me that they had my support, I knew that their trust in me was wavering.
The arrival of the hunters seemed to spark hope of escape from The Shade from some of the Naturals. Gavin and Ian were trying to take my side in explaining to them that hunters didn’t exactly see humans taken captives by vampires as citizens of the outside world worth saving. They were made examples of, the human slaves of The Oasis, when they were massacred right along with their vampire lords. This knowledge didn’t serve well to quell the hopes of those who would rather cling to the unknown brought about by the hunters rather than to the chaos they were so accustomed to at The Shade.
I myself was questioning my own judgment, but I knew Sofia, and I knew that she would not suggest something she believed could ever bring The Shade harm. Unless of course they’d gotten to her somehow and turned her against me…
“Am I making the right decision?” I asked Corrine, after having found my way to her home at The Shade—The Sanctuary.
She shrugged as she stared at me warily. We both knew that my coming to her for advice or any kind of conversation was completely out of my character. Still, she gave me a piece of her mind. “Well, I think you’re doing what you need to do in order to get Sofia back here. That’s what’s important—that she gets back here.”
“Is it really possible that there’s a cure?” I asked the witch. “You know these things.”
She paused, seeming to access a distant memory as she wrinkled her nose in thought. “There were attempts to find a cure before, but I haven’t heard of any successful ones that actually turned vampires back to humans. I wouldn’t even really call it a ‘cure.’ Vampirism, as we know it, is a curse, not a disease.”
“I don’t think Sofia would propose something this big unless she believes it will work.”
“I don’t doubt Sofia.” Corrine nodded. “I’m curious too.”
“Perhaps it has something to do with her being the immune…” My eyes sparked with interest. “Maybe she has somehow become the antidote.”
“The immune?” Corrine narrowed her eyes at me and I realized that since my arrival at The Shade, I haven’t actually told anyone about Sofia being immune to being turned into a vampire.
“Claudia tried to turn Sofia. And at her request, back at hunter territory, so did I… She didn’t turn.”
Corrine’s brows furrowed with confusion. “I didn’t think… Oh wow…”
“What?”
“Well, I thought it was a myth—that there are immunes. Somehow—and no one knows exactly how it happens—immunes survive the three days that follow after being bitten. Legend says that if the immune doesn’t die or turn in those three days, they disappear at some point. Or they go crazy. It’s because they’re still human, but their senses and emotions are heightened like that of a vampire’s. Their human mind is unable to cope with this and they snap… I didn’t think it was true. My mother always told that story to me like it was an old wives’ tale or something…”
“Maybe that’s why Sofia was exhibiting signs of that psychological disorder you diagnosed her with…” I mused. “What was that again? LLI?”
“Low Latent Inhibition.” Corrine nodded.
“Wait. You mean there are more out there like Sofia?”
“If the legend is true, yes, but so far, Sofia’s the only one I’ve actually ever heard of.”
I frowned, suddenly remembering one insane person at The Shade. “Maybe there isn’t just her…”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t Felix want to turn Anna before? That’s what I was told…”
Corrine’s brown eyes narrowed. “He wanted to, yes, but there’s no indication that he ever did try to turn her. That’s what was so surprising about it. He was so in love with her one minute, wanting to turn her and be with her forever and then suddenly, he just abandoned her. When he left her at The Catacombs, she was already insane.”
“What if he actually did try to turn her? Perhaps he really did want to be with her and he tried to turn her into a vampire, and she didn’t turn.”
“You think Anna is an immune too?”
“Don’t you think it’s possible?”
The witch’s eyes lit up. “It does seem like a possibility. It could even explain why she went crazy. If you’re right about Sofia exhibiting the signs of LLI because of the fact that she wasn’t turned, perhaps Anna’s brain wasn’t able to handle it the way Sofia was able to. Still, the only person who could really verify that is Felix.” Corrine shrugged. “He would be the only one who would know if he had ever tried to turn her. Heaven knows we can’t get any trustworthy information from Anna.”
I grimaced, remembering why I was so distraught in the first place. Right before I found myself meandering toward The Sanctuary, I was to meet with Felix and his men for negotiations with the humans. I had no idea how Eli and Yuri managed to find Felix—much less convince the man to have a talk with me, but they had somehow managed to do it and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the meeting—one that, for some reason, they had decided to hold at the port—apparently Felix’s “neutral ground.”
“Wish me luck,” I told Corrine before leaving for the port. A couple minutes later, I was fighting to hold myself back from ripping several hearts out. All of them. They’re going to drive me insane. I was summoning every ounce of self-control I still had left in me to not lash out at the people surrounding me, but I kept my anger in—mostly by letting everything they were saying go in one ear and out the other.
“I’m not going to work with the humans,” Felix repeated, shaking his head adamantly.
“It’s not like we want to work with you,” Ian shot back.
“You’re here to work for me, boy, not with me.” Felix then glared at me. “See what you’ve done? You’ve let these weaklings entertain the delusion that they are somehow our equals.”
“This island will crumble without us.” Ian was now on his feet, his nostrils flaring as he boldly stood up against a creature that could easily break his neck in two.
My jaw tightened as I tried to reel in my frustration. It seemed Felix and his men had no idea what the word ‘negotiation’ meant when they had agreed to the meeting. They had it in their heads that they were there to make demands. I was trying to drive the point that if we didn’t come together, the other covens were going to annihilate everything we worked to establish over the past years. None of this common sense information seemed to faze Felix, who was adamant that he would never lower himself to the level of working hand-in-hand with humans. They were supposed to be his slaves.
At some point, Ian must’ve already had enough of the endless banter with Felix, because he ignored the man and set his attention on me. “You know I’m with you in this, Derek, but not all the humans are willing to fight in this battle. Most of the humans are willing to just sit this whole thing out and wait for the battle to finish. Others are hoping to escape during the heat of the battle.”
I knew that what he was saying was a sure possibility. I couldn’t blame the humans for saving themselves or even grabbing a chance for freedom. The other covens had their sights set on The Shade, but it seemed it was going to implode before they even stepped ashore.
I was hoping that this meeting could somehow help us arrive at some sort of compromise before Sofia, Aiden and the hunters they brought with them were to arrive. Of course, it seemed the negotiations weren’t going to take us anywhere that would lead to an actual resolution.
“Who cares about the humans we already have here? They’re easy to replace.” Felix brushed Ian’s announcement off.
“You mean the same way you brushed Anna off?” Ian hissed.
Felix responded with a wide grin. “Ahhh…Anna…word is you have an eye for my little pet. How is she, that lovely one?”
Ian was obviously using his own self-control not to attack. I, on the other hand, found a way to voice out my own thoughts about Anna. “You were in love with Anna once, were you not?”
Felix raised a brow at me. “Perhaps. What’s that to you?”
“She was human.”
“She was a freak.”
“A freak?” I sat up straight, suddenly finding myself engrossed in conversing with one of the men I detested most. “How so?”
Felix’ lips twitched as he sealed his mouth shut, refusing to answer my question.
“Rumors were you wanted to turn her into one of us so that you could be with her forever. You used to worship the ground she walked on, then suddenly, you just didn’t want her anymore?”
Felix gulped. His jaw tightened.
“What did you do to her?” Ian hissed, blaming Felix for her mental condition.
The tone of accusation made Felix’s temper flare. “I did nothing to her. She was supposed to be mine. We were supposed to be together, but no matter what I did, she wouldn’t turn into one of us. She remained human until I lost her. Until she just went insane… Happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
I tried to hide the smile. My suspicions are correct. Anna is immune. “I know why she didn’t turn. It’s the same reason Sofia didn’t. They’re both immune.”
Felix narrowed his eyes at me. “What does that even mean?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not why we’re here. Bottom line, Felix, is whether or not you will work with us.”
Stubborn as a mule, the man shook his head. “You’re going to run this kingdom to the ground, Derek. With rumors going on that you’re about to allow hunters into The Shade…”
“That’s none of your business,” was all I told him. The thought of the cure once again made my heart leap. Sofia is coming with a cure. It seemed too good to be true, but it was the one thing that I was hinging all my hopes on at that moment.
I knew as I sat there that we weren’t going to accomplish anything that day. Felix was too obstinate and Ian was just a boy who didn’t hold any sway when it came to the majority of the masses occupying The Catacombs.
The reality that we were about to go to war while still fighting amongst ourselves was sinking in and I was beginning to accept that it was a reality I couldn’t escape from. Unless Sofia’s cure actually works… I knew that a cure would change life as I knew it. It would change everything.
“Are you even listening to what we’re saying?” Felix slammed a fist over the table between us.
I glared at him. “I ask you one final time, Felix. Will you work with us or not?”
“No. Never.”
“Then why on earth would I listen to you?” I stood to my feet and spoke into the communication device Eli gave me before the meeting. “Have them all arrested. I don’t want them causing any trouble.”
At that, Felix’s face broke into a huge grin. “I knew I couldn’t trust you, so before we came here, I made sure I had a safeguard. If I don’t come out of the port alive or a free man, Derek, I have a man waiting by the chilling chambers ready to set the chambers—and all the blood supply this island has—on fire. With all your people starving for blood, let’s see you try to keep these human pests safe.”
The chilling chambers were compartments where we kept our supply of blood. We relied on them to keep the entire vampire population fed.
Ian’s eyes grew wide with shock. “You sick bastard…”
“What’s to say you won’t destroy the chambers even if I let you go?”
“Well, you’d just have to trust me, Novak.”
Anger was taking over me and I could sense the darkness coming. I knew the chaos that would happen if Felix actually made good on his threat to destroy the chambers. Any form of progress I had made in quelling the possibility of a human revolt would be gone. Any loyalties the vampires had toward me would certainly be placed in shaky ground.
Suddenly, I was seeing red, and in my eyes, Felix was the enemy—one I had to absolutely destroy for his impertinence. Perhaps it was my exhaustion and frustration catching up with me, but at that moment, I just snapped. I couldn’t fight the rage anymore and I lashed out at Felix. Before I could stop myself from doing it, I had his neck wrapped in my fingers and I blacked out. In my last moment of sanity, I tried to remember Sofia’s face, Sofia’s touch, but when I did, all I felt was a deep hunger, an immense craving for her blood and that only served to inch me further toward darkness. Power filled me as I ripped Felix’s heart out and the moment I did, there was a loud explosion and I knew then that I’d just signed up for more destruction than I knew how to handle.
The black haze in my mind was beginning to clear, desperation and guilt over what I’d just done beginning to sink in. Still squeezing Felix’s beating heart in my hand, I stood to my full height and raised my eyes only to feel the darkness once again attempt to grip at me. My blood started pounding, because right there in front of me, with her mouth agape, stood Sofia.
I dropped the heart on the ground. I wanted to take her in my arms, breathe in her scent, feel her body against mine, hear her words, touch her…see if she was really there, but more than that, I wanted to sink my teeth into her neck and drink. Drink deep.
I can’t live without her and yet I can’t be with her either. Sofia Claremont is going to lead me to my ruin.
Confused, I did the only thing I could do to keep Sofia safe. I ran. My heart ached when I heard her softly whisper my name and say: “I love you.”