A World of New (A Shade of Vampire, #26)

I heaved a sigh. “I guess you’re right,” I mumbled.

My mother leaned forward to brush her lips against my forehead before rising to her feet and pulling me up with her. She led me into the living room, where my father was visible on the phone through the window pacing up and down on the veranda. As he noticed us emerge from the bathroom, he spoke into the phone. “Yes, ready. We’ll be with you.”

He hung up and entered the apartment, looking from my mother to me. He frowned slightly, probably due to my red and blotchy face. He moved up to me and brushed away a few remaining tears that had been lingering beneath my eyelashes, before kissing my head.

Then he turned to my mother and said in a low voice, “It’s time.”





Grace





I was anxious to know what my grandfather had planned. He’d just called the League to the Great Dome. I had been in the middle of a shower, scrubbing away the unbelievable amount of grime that had gotten stuck in my hair and all sorts of other unexpected crevices over the course of our trip across The Woodlands.

When my mother knocked on the door to inform me of the call and ask whether I wanted to come, I quickly hopped out, dried off and got dressed before joining my parents in the living room.

On the veranda Caleb and Rose were already waiting for us with my human cousins, twelve-year-old Benedict and fifteen-year-old Hazel. They had their school backpacks slung over their shoulders. I guessed they had wanted to see us and their parents off on their way to school.

School. What a strange concept it was, that life in The Shade continued so ordinarily. It truly felt like we lived in a parallel universe to the world around us.

My parents and I joined them on the veranda after grabbing the backpacks we had prepared in advance. As we piled into the elevator, Benedict shuffled toward me and stood right in front of me, trapping me against the elevator’s wall. He lifted his head before slanting a sly glance at me. “How are you doing, Grace?” In spite of his question, there was no innocence in his monkey eyes.

“Okay,” I murmured, already steeling myself for what was to follow.

“That’s good,” he said, licking his lips, before finally springing it on me, “So has Heath asked you out yet?”

Oh. My. God.

Why does he have to do this in front of my parents?

“Benedict!” Rose chastised. “Enough already with the whole Heath thing. Leave Grace alone.”

The whole Heath thing. I felt mortified. Does he talk about me and Heath at, like, dinnertimes with his own parents? Who else has he been talking to? I already knew the answer to that: the whole island.

Not that it mattered, anyway.

Still, I kept my eyes firmly trained on the ground, avoiding my parents’ glances.

“You’ll both be old by the time you get together,” Benedict mumbled beneath his breath.

At this, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Thanks for your concern, Doctor Love.”

“You and Claudia should form some kind of helpline,” Hazel said, shoving her brother in the shoulder.

Benedict moved to shove her back before Caleb stepped between them, foiling their game of Who Can Have the Last Shove before it could commence.

I let out a sigh. Sometimes I wished that I had a sibling… and other times I didn’t. I had plenty of family to keep me busy as it was. In addition to my cousins and second cousins, I had three aunts, Rose, Dafne and Lalia, and two uncles, Jamil and Caleb, not to mention my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-aunts and uncles.

After a couple of minutes, we reached the path that would lead Hazel and Benedict to school in The Vale and parted ways. We continued toward the Dome. I hibernated in my own thoughts for the rest of the way through the forest. I found myself playing back our journey through The Woodlands. As nerve-racking as it was, I couldn’t say that I’d hated it. Being in such a tightly knit group, it felt like Heath and I had gotten to know each other better, something I’d never really gotten the chance to do until now because, well, he was a year older than me. He was in a different class at school and frankly, I was always too shy to go near him. Plus, I’d always assumed that he already had a girlfriend.

Arriving at the Dome, we entered to find that all the League members had already gathered here except Victoria. I guessed that after everything that happened, her parents had persuaded her to remain at home. I also noticed a lot of extra dragons who did not officially belong to TSL standing around the edges of the room, as well as five extra jinn. Whatever my grandfather was planning, it seemed like we would be going into this like gangbusters.

Arwen and Brock were, surprisingly, sitting apart, each with their parents. Brock glanced my way and gave me a smile, making me grin back.