A Shade of Blood (A Shade of Vampire 2)

CHAPTER 21: LUCAS

My escape was narrow to say the least. The only thing I managed to take with me on my journey was my backpack – filled with sacks of blood, a change of clothes and my wallet. Upon reaching the port, I immediately went for one of the speedboats. I didn’t have time to think of other supplies. I just needed to get out of there before Cameron showed up to rip my heart out – or worse, take me captive so Derek could do the deed later.

As the glass-covered tube lifted the speedboat up to open seas, I realized that I had to act fast. The moment the boat reached The Shade’s boundaries, I would no longer be under the protection of its darkness; I would be exposed to broad daylight. The longer I stayed close to The Shade, however, the greater the chances that the guards could reel me back to the island.

I did a quick inspection of what I had in the boat with me. All I had was a toolbox, a first-aid kit and a rolled up sheet of canopy used to cover the boat when not in use. That was exactly what I needed. I unrolled the sheet and it became my savior from the sun.

It protected me from the sun’s rays, but not from its sweltering heat. Floating in the middle of the sea with that sheet over me, while the sun’s rays were beating at me, felt a lot like being inside an oven. It was a struggle starting the boat and there were unavoidable times when I happened to move the wrong way and accidentally exposed my flesh to the sun. The way it seemed to burn right through my skin down to my very bones was excruciating.

Rumor was that there was no more painful death than to have a vampire burn under the rays of the sun. I was not sure if that was true. I’d never actually seen a vampire die because of exposure to the sun, but I wasn’t about to put it to the test anytime soon. Besides, the few times I found my flesh exposed to it was painful enough to convince me that the rumor was true.

I eventually had to stop the boat – somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean – to wait until the sun had set. I couldn’t reach the shore in my condition. I had to wait for dusk. It was only a few hours, but it felt like days, but I had what it took to wait it out.

The sun eventually faded into twilight. I survived. For a moment, thoughts of Sofia flashed through my mind. I could practically feel her blood running through me, still taste her sweet blood on my lips. I wanted her so badly, just thinking about her made me ache, but she was back at the island. I would seek her out eventually and make her mine, but I knew I had to set thoughts of her aside for the time being. What I needed to do was make my way to the one person who had any chance of overpowering my younger brother.

Our father. Gregor Novak.