Chapter 12: Sofia
Under the questioning glares of all the vampires on the island, we made them all gather in the large clearing outside the Black Heights and wait in line as we called them into the mountain chambers for interviewing. Claudia, Ashley and Zinnia produced a particularly loud symphony of complaining, so we saw those three early. Eli, Derek and I each interviewed a vampire at a time, but it still took all day even though each interview didn’t last long.
We even interviewed those closest to us: Vivienne, Xavier and my own father, Aiden. Although there was no chance in hell they’d betray us, we had to do it.
Lastly, we asked ourselves the same questions and concluded that each of us had alibis.
As it turned out, every single vampire on the island had alibis for the night the Cancún kidnappings took place… except for Aiden and Abby.
Eli, Derek and I sat alone in one of the mountain chambers we now used for storing sacks of food for the human inhabitants of the island.
“Well, leaving aside my father and Abby for a moment, everyone else seems to be innocent,” I said. “Of course, unless this is a mass operation with multiple vampires going behind our backs and providing each other with alibis.”
“I suppose that it’s possible,” Derek said. “But that would be hard to orchestrate on such short notice. We asked detailed information and it would have been hard to not slip up.”
“So, we’re left with Aiden and Abby,” Eli said, frowning at the long list of names of vampires in front of us.
“Ludicrous,” I said. “Neither of them would do something like this.”
“So, since you’re convinced of that, we can cross everyone at The Shade off of our list of possible suspects,” Eli said, dropping the list on the table and leaning back in his chair, stretching out his legs.
I nodded.
“So we’re back to square one,” Derek muttered.
“I’m going to turn in now,” Eli said, standing up. “I’ll think more about all of this when I’m fresh in the morning.”
Derek and I returned to our own penthouse. We both sat at the dining table and sipped on some blood before heading off to bed. As we were both drifting off, a pounding on our front door sent us shooting up out of bed.
Derek swung the door open to see Eli standing at the door, covered in sweat, eyes alight with panic.
“I just tuned into the news before sleeping,” Eli said, panting. “There have been more kidnappings. Hawaii.”
He came rushing in.
“There were two incidents… some days apart from each other. The second incident,” he said, gasping for breath. “R-Rose and Benjamin Novak, both twenty-one years old. Staying with Kristal and Jake Palmer, eighteen and nineteen. They said on the radio. All four are missing.”
“What? But they’re not anywhere near Hawaii,” I breathed. “They’re in Scotland. And they’re seventeen. It must just be a coincidence.”
“Twins! They’re twins!”
Whatever blood I still had in my pale face drained out of me. I looked up at Derek. His jaw dropped open, eyes widening.
“Come! I’ll show you,” Eli urged. “They showed photos. I saw them. They’re your twins, goddamn it!”