A Gate of Night (A Shade of Vampire #6)

CHAPTER 17: Sofia

Five months later...

Five months. I haven’t seen Derek in five months.

I stared up at the night sky, my arms spread wide on either side of me, so that my palms could reach past the embroidered blanket spread beneath me and touch the smooth grass. I wondered what it would be like to have Derek by my side, what it would be like to have his arms around me.

Over the past few months, I’d begun to love full moons. Those were the nights when the sky seemed to shine brightest. Those nights were no substitute for sunlight, but they were the closest thing to light that I had in a place like The Blood Keep.

Blood Keep. I grimaced at how appropriately named the Elder’s territory was. Even the name makes my skin crawl.

I shifted on the blanket and rested my head on a satin-covered pillow. I was still a prisoner at The Blood Keep, but I was treated far better than Derek had been during our first days of capture. I recalled the last time I’d seen him, held him in my arms, kissed him. I missed him so much, and yet the thought that he wasn’t in The Blood Keep, held against his will, ready to be tortured at the whim of our captors, gave me hope.

I recalled the night I’d found out that Derek was no longer at The Blood Keep.

“What have you done to Derek? Where is he? What have you done to him?” I pounded against Kiev’s chest with all my might. I struck him, hit him, pushed him. He didn’t budge. He just looked at me with that infuriating smirk on his face. “You promised me he wouldn’t be harmed,” I sobbed as I finally exhausted myself, my shoulders sagging in defeat.

“You done, Sofia?” Kiev asked.

I raised my eyes to meet his. I had every intention of showing him my defiance, but though it might have worked with the likes of Derek, I learned that night that the same thing wouldn’t always work with Kiev.

Kiev was as unpredictable as anyone could get.

When our eyes met, Kiev struck me in the face so hard, I was thrown to the ground at least a couple of feet away from him.

“Mention his name again, Sofia, and I will make you bleed.” The tone was almost seductive. He gripped me by the head so hard I screamed, my scalp burning with pain.

He was asking the impossible of me. How could I possibly last without speaking about Derek? “I want to see Derek,” I insisted. “Now.”

“Shut up!” He struck me again. And again. And again.

I thought he was going to kill me, but as he was about to deliver the fifth blow, the servant standing by the door took a step forward.

“Master,” she breathed out.

“Stay out of this, Olga,” Kiev hissed, his fist up in the air, ready to deal another blow.

She was young and beautiful. She reminded me of a porcelain doll, her eyes bright, her voice thin and almost baby-like.

“I’m only worried that you might cause her to…” Olga hesitated, fidgeting with her dress.

Clarity came over Kiev’s blood-red eyes. He looked at me like I was dust turned into a precious diamond.

He dropped his hand and nodded. “You’re right.”

I was about to sigh with relief, but Kiev was far from finished. Instead he flexed his arms and cracked his knuckles. “Still, Olga, sweetheart, you know that someone has to pay for all the trouble Derek Novak put me through…” He turned to the young woman and before I could comprehend what was going on, he hit her.

“Kiev! Stop it!” I screamed.

He didn’t stop until she was beaten to a bloody pulp. Kiev cuffed me to the bed when I tried to hit him on the head with the first object I could get a hold of.

When he was satisfied, he stood and pointed at Olga. “I can’t hurt you, Sofia. What you carry inside you is too precious. Be thankful for that. Thus, whenever you displease me, it is Olga who will feel my wrath. And you’ll know that you’re responsible for her pain. Do you understand?”

“You’re a monster,” was all I could respond with, my mind reeling at what he was implying.

He chuckled, and then in a split second, his mood completely changed, as if the word ‘monster’ had triggered something in him. He began to cry and when he saw Olga’s unconscious form on the ground, he gasped. “What have I done? Olga…”

He knelt beside her and forced her to drink his blood so that she would heal.

“Please don’t cross me again,” he pleaded and for a moment, I actually believed that he meant it, but I was confused by how he could be this violent man one minute and this whimpering child the very next.

I learned several things about my stay at The Blood Keep that night. Derek was no longer at The Blood Keep. That he had escaped was a hope I latched on to, something that Olga eventually verified. I also began to wrap my mind around the possibility that I was pregnant and that this was the reason I was so important to them. They wanted my child.

It didn’t take long before nature verified this fearsome possibility for me. I was indeed bearing Derek’s child.

Finally, I realized that Kiev wasn’t just evil. He was stark crazy, and neither I nor anyone else was safe around him.

I knew then that I had to find a way to escape like Derek had, because I didn’t want him to have to come back to The Blood Keep. Ever.

Five months into my stay at The Blood Keep, I was getting nowhere in my attempt to escape. Only recently had Kiev allowed me outside the bedroom he’d kept me in for the first few months of my captivity at the castle. All that time, I was heavily guarded. By a beast. Beasts, the vampires called them, but I’d been at The Blood Keep long enough to know what they really were—dogs turned into blood-sucking vampires. The dogs fed only on blood. They were twice their original size and they had the keenest senses an animal could possibly have.

One was always tailing me wherever I went. The only places I was allowed to go to were the gardens and my bedroom. All my meals were served in either of the two places. I couldn’t get too far away without the giant, bloodthirsty mutt snarling at me.

Still, as far as I was concerned, an animal was an animal and the one that kept following me seemed likeable enough—if I ignored the fact that one wrong move I made would cause it to go berserk and drink my blood. I called him Shadow.

I looked around and found Shadow pacing the ground a few feet behind me. He didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

“Hey, boy…” I nodded his way. He growled fiercely at me in response, reminding me of what had happened when I had dared approach the Keep’s border. I’d ventured past the gardens and through the woods to the boundary line where the witch’s spell of eternal night stopped, and day began. Shadow had tackled me to the ground as soon as I had got within fifteen feet of the border, first biting my shoulder, then aiming for my neck. If Kiev hadn’t arrived to hold the beast back, I was certain it would have eaten me alive.

I rolled my eyes at the beast. “You’re never in a good mood.” I took a deep breath. For crying out loud, I’m actually having a conversation with a dog. I must be getting desperate.

The only people I was allowed to converse with were Olga and Kiev, although I could hardly call him a person. Olga was cordial enough, but she always acted like she was walking on eggshells around me. I couldn’t blame her. Any mistake I made and she would pay. I wasn’t exactly a safe ally for her at The Blood Keep.

I was often allowed to roam the castle’s gardens, well-trimmed and beautiful. The gardens looked completely out of place in the Keep. Beauty didn’t belong in such a place.

I flipped over so that I was lying on my stomach and propped my upper body up with my elbows. I watched Shadow pace like the brooding vampire that he was before he stopped to face me, his eyes hateful and full of hunger.

“So, Shadow, do you know where Derek is? Is he safe? Olga told me that he escaped. I have to believe that’s true, that he’s somewhere out there, doing everything he can to get to me.”

Shadow’s deafening growl told me that he was getting agitated by my friendliness. When he poised himself for attack, I backed down. “Fine. You don’t want to talk. You don’t have to be mad about it.”

I felt the pressure to do for Derek what I hoped he was doing for me, to find him, but there wasn’t much I could do at The Blood Keep. I was at the mercy of one person: Kiev, a man I could not understand at all.

Not wanting to think about Kiev, I sat up and retrieved the sketchbook I kept on my person at all times. I began thumbing through it. Every sketch it contained made my heart ache with longing. Every single one was of Derek.

I felt movement in my growing belly. I smiled as I began to stroke my stomach.

“Hello, little one. You’re getting heavier every day.” I trusted that my child could understand. Kiev had forbidden me to even mention my husband’s name, but nothing could stop me from talking about Derek to my unborn child. “Your daddy would’ve loved nights like these. Stargazing. I’m looking at sketches I made of him. It helps me keep his face, his smile fresh in my mind. I miss him so much. I can’t help but wonder what his reaction would be if he found out that you’re coming. I bet he’d be really excited. I know he’s always dreamed of having you.”

I choked as I tried to suppress the tears, wondering what life would’ve been like had we lived a normal one. Get it together, Sofia. You’re bearing his child. You can’t go through the whole thing depressed. I knew little about pregnancy or children, but I had it in my head that my emotions affected my child. Having had Ingrid Maslen as my mother—I’d sworn early in life that I was going to be a good mother to my children. I determined to start as early as I could.

I began to hum a tune to my unborn child. The same tune Derek had hummed to me countless times. Our song.

Never had I wished for normalcy more. I was a pregnant teenager. I wasn’t supposed to go through this alone. I needed my husband. I needed my family.

But this was the life I’d signed up for when I married Derek, and I could blame no one for that choice. Daily, I drew hope that I would be with him again, that this life within me was going to know how strong, loving, and wonderful a father Derek could be.

For now, I just need to keep myself together, stay alert and try to remain on Kiev’s good side… for Olga’s sake.

“Enjoying the breeze?”

Kiev’s voice made my heart beat faster. I caught my breath. Chills shot up my spine. He induced sheer terror in me, but I wasn’t about to show him that.

He sat beside me and shifted his attention to my stomach. “How’s the pregnancy going? I trust the fresh air has been helping. Are you not getting cold?”

Based on the smile on his face and the uppity tone of his voice, he seemed to be in a cordial mood—a good sign.

“You seem rather pleased with yourself,” I commented, maintaining a flat, civil tone with him.

“Hello to you too, Sofia. How was your day?”

“Devoid of sunlight. Yours?”

Just like The Shade, The Blood Keep was under an eternal night. No mornings. No sunshine. As much as I loved The Shade, I couldn’t imagine raising my child never seeing sunlight. Suddenly, the house Derek and I had checked out back in California seemed like heaven.

“You didn’t seem to mind the lack of sunlight when you were at The Shade.” He grabbed the picnic basket I had with me. Olga had prepared the food inside the basket. Kiev thumbed through the food there. “This looks healthy. You haven’t even touched it.”

I wasn’t thrilled about having him around, but it didn’t look like he was going to give me a choice. “The Shade was home.” It was enough that Derek was there.

“The Blood Keep is your home now.”

Never.

He threw me a bag of sliced apples. “Eat.”

I didn’t want to irk him, so I took the bag and took a bite from one of the slices.

Most of the time, Kiev was kind to me—or at least he tried to be. I never did understand why. At first, I’d thought it was because of an attraction toward me, but he had made no advances on me since he’d arrived from The Shade.

I was dying to know what had happened at The Shade and what had happened to my husband—but the island and Derek were topics that were not to be broached if I wanted to remain unhurt, unscathed.

“Those sketches…” Kiev eyed the sketchbook I had on my lap. “They’re all of him?”

I took another bite from the apple and chewed silently. My silence was enough of an answer.

“Why do you torture yourself this way, Sofia?” He reached for the sketchbook and began looking at the sketches. He seemed to get annoyed by it, because he eventually tossed the book back to me. “Forget him.”

“That’s never going to happen, Kiev, and you know it. Derek’s not going to stop looking for me. He’ll destroy this whole place if he has to.”

Kiev’s eyes flickered with anger. He grabbed me by the jaw. He gripped hard, enough to make me yelp in pain. “I would think that you already know better than that, Sofia. Your husband wasn’t what he once was, and even at the height of his power, he was a slave to this place. Just like you are now,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t irk me further by talking about these daydreams of yours.”

I glared at him, my sense of defiance and independence rising over my fear of him. Just to annoy him further, I looked him straight in the eye, and continued to talk about Derek. “He’s going to come for me and you know it. He’s going to hold my child in his arms and he’s going to be a great father. He already managed to escape this place, didn’t he? What makes you think he won’t know how to return?”

Kiev frowned, his grip tightening. For a minute, I thought he was going to hit me, but then I was reminded of who was going to suffer for what I did.

“I’m sorry,” I quickly breathed out. “I just… I’m sorry, Kiev.”

“Olga’s going to have a rough night thanks to you.” He didn’t seem pleased with the prospect, his fists clenching.

I wondered whether he was clenching them to defend Olga or to punish her. With him, I never knew. Most of the time, he seemed to really care about the young girl. I even thought it hurt him more to cause her pain than it did me.

“Don’t hurt her. I made a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

He pushed my face away, my head jerking backwards. “Olga told me that you asked her where the food you’re being given comes from. I want to know why.”

I answered with a shrug. “I’m just curious. I have no idea where this place is. I was just wondering where The Blood Keep gets its food.”

“Really? You’re just wondering? You’re not snooping around trying to figure out an exit from this place?”

I swallowed hard. “Like that’s possible.” I wrinkled my nose as I eyed the guard dog following me everywhere.

Kiev snapped his fingers and Shadow approached.

Shadow growled and snarled as he stepped toward Kiev. The animal wasn’t that much of a fan of Kiev either. Kiev didn’t seem to care. He bared his claws and dug their pointed ends into Shadow’s fur, making the creature whimper, but to my surprise, it neither attacked nor cowered away from Kiev.

“Escape is not possible,” Kiev said, “and we both know it, but I think you’re crazy enough to try.”

I grimaced, uncomfortable at seeing Shadow in pain. “Then you have nothing to worry about, do you?”

“You feel sorry for the beast?” Kiev’s eyes sparked with curiosity.

“It has done you no wrong.”

“If only you knew what it did to your husband when he was still here.”

“So you admit it. Derek isn’t here anymore? He was actually able to escape?”

Kiev just chuckled. “Don’t get any ideas into that pretty little head of yours, Sofia. Olga’s like a daughter to me, but I wouldn’t hesitate to kill her should you even attempt an escape.”

Like a daughter. I had to wonder what kind of relationship Kiev had with Olga. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, but it was perhaps one of the most demented, unhealthy relationships I’d ever seen. This beats even Claudia’s crazy. Still, Olga meant something to him.

“You miss The Shade, don’t you?”

“My heart aches just thinking of everything I left behind there.”

“It may not be as you remember it. I don’t see what you love so much about the place. It didn’t look all that great to me last time I paid a visit.”

Paid a visit? Is that all you did? I had a bad feeling about the state of The Shade at that point. “It’s not the place that makes it home, Kiev. It’s the people there… people I love.”

I glanced his way. I was desperate for an ally, a companion, someone I could talk to who wasn’t going to scare the life out of me—like Kiev—or wasn’t trembling at the thought of speaking to me—like Olga.

“I’m about to give birth to my first child, Kiev. This is my first pregnancy. Would it be so bad if you brought someone from home to help me through this?”

“Am I not enough for you, Sofia?”

No, you’re not. “Kiev, please…”

“Who do you have in mind?”

My heart leapt at the thought that he might be considering it. My first instinct was to request Corrine, but I highly doubted that Kiev would ever agree to bring a witch into The Blood Keep. She was simply too much of a threat. The next person who came to mind was Eli Lazaroff. Surely with all the knowledge he accumulated, he’d know a thing or two about pregnancies. Also, considering how pale and lanky he appeared, he wasn’t much of a threat to anyone.

“I’m thinking of Eli Lazaroff.” Of course, he’s also smart. Maybe he can figure out a way for us to get out of here. “He could be a huge asset here, you know.” I had to choose my words carefully. “Eli can help with my pregnancy. I’d feel so much more at ease with him around.”

“You really want this, don’t you?”

“Kiev, I need this.”

“Just eat.”

I took the last of the apple slices and bit into it. I was trying not to place any of my hopes on the possibility that Kiev would agree to bringing Eli into The Blood Keep. Come on, Sofia. Why would you even want to endanger Eli this way? I began to wonder if I had made a mistake even suggesting that Eli be brought to The Blood Keep. I doubt he’ll be very thrilled by the idea of being held captive here with me.

“How did you know?” Kiev asked after I’d eaten my last bite—his eyes never leaving me while I was absent-mindedly finishing my meal.

“Know what?”

“That he had good in him?”

For someone who wanted me to forget Derek, I was surprised that Kiev would bring Derek up as a topic of conversation. He seemed strangely interested in how Derek had turned away from darkness and come to light. We’d had this talk before. I wasn’t in the mood to answer, because talking about my love story with Derek only made me miss him more. Missing him more made me want to ask Kiev questions that made the red-eyed vampire want to hurt me. As much as I wanted to speak about Derek, conversations that involved him never ended without a bruise or two from Kiev.

I tilted my head to the side and drawled out my own question. “How did you know?”

His lips tightened. “Are we going to go at this again, Sofia? This questioning? Can you not answer my question like a normal person?”

Annoyed, I just stared at him and repeated my question. “How did you know, Kiev?”

“You stubborn little minx.”

Stubborn little minx. I smiled, remembering all the times Derek had referred to me that way.

Seeing that I wasn’t about to play this game on his terms, Kiev relented. “Fine. I’ll play,” he spat out. “How do I know what, Sofia?”

“How did you know I was pregnant? You seemed to know even before you took Derek and me here.”

“We’ve had our eye on you ever since you left The Shade for your honeymoon. Your children… they’re important to us.”

“Children?”

“Twins. A boy and a girl.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s one of the things I learned from Emilia. How to tell if a woman is pregnant, what the child is going to be. It’s always useful to know.”

“Why?” The smirk on his face told me that I wasn’t going to like the answer to that question.

“Let’s just say that a pregnant woman is quite a scrumptious delicacy to our kind. I’m surprised the Elder hasn’t tried to take your blood.”

I’m surprised you haven’t recently. I’d seen countless times the way he would lick his lips as he stared at the nook of my neck as if he was a man starving for months.

As if he could read my mind, he chuckled. “Don’t think I haven’t been tempted to drink from you, Sofia. The further along your pregnancy is, the more tempting it is to drink, but I can’t give in, because I won’t be able to restrain myself from bleeding you dry.”

It’s so strange how hearing that has become so commonplace to me. I thought back to the time when life had been simple and I was a teenager trying to cope with everyday normal things. Ben’s face—his smile—came to mind. I hadn’t seen Abby since Clara took her from the dungeon. I kept asking where she was but I wasn’t given an answer.

Instead, I was told to relax and take care of myself. Relax. The idea sickened me. Relax while I’m constantly afraid that you might have killed my husband. Relax, while Abby, who is practically my little sister, is in the hands of one of the most capricious and cruel vampires I’ve ever met. Relax while I bear two children who are in danger the moment I give birth to them.

Relax while everything I love and live for is slipping away from me. Relax while I lose all control of my life. Relax, while I sit here trying to avoid a conversation with this red-eyed monster, who just confessed to craving my blood more and more every day.

Relax, Sofia. I repeated the words to myself over and over again. The only thing that got me through each day at The Blood Keep was the conviction: Derek is coming.

If not, I will find a way to get to him.

To my delight, when I opened my eyes after a long night’s sleep, I found a familiar man sitting on a chair near my bed, waiting for me to wake up.

“Hello, my queen. I was told you requested my presence.”

Eli Lazaroff.