Memories of Sofia swam through my mind at the sight of the girls and the guards. Sam and Kyle stood up upon seeing me. Both looked sheepish about being caught playing games with the girls while off guard duty.

“Your highness,” Sam began to explain, “we were just…”

“It’s fine.” I said, waving his explanation off. Truth be told, I found myself irritated by the whole situation. I was desperately trying to reel my anger in.

Ashley gave both guards an odd look, remaining seated on the couch, a full hand of cards still clutched between her fingers.

Largely due to Sofia, my being prince of The Shade wasn’t given much emphasis within my own home. I never really interacted much with the girls. As far as I was concerned, they were Sofia’s friends, and I didn’t need to bother much about them as long as Sofia kept them in line. With Sofia gone, however, I realized I couldn’t just leave them cooped up in a guest room doing nothing. What to do with them was just another item in my growing list of things to deal with.

I gave the two guards curious glances. They seemed to have developed quite a rapport with both Sofia and the girls. Maybe I could just give them the girls. At least that would get them all off my back. I was surprised by the adverse reaction I realized I had to the idea of letting the girls go. The house would be so empty without them, for heaven’s sake, even if they managed to get under my skin.

Irritated, I decided to ignore the people making a hangout of my living room and began to walk away. Afraid of the darkness, I found myself seeking light.

“Where are you going?” Ashley called after me curiously.

Her voice irritated me. “The Sun Room.”

The Sun Room was the one room in the penthouse that Sofia had designed herself. I mentioned to her once that I missed the sun, so she designed a room with a beach mural on one wall and the illusion of sunlight streaming from a sunroof on the ceiling.

When I opened the door, I realized that it was largely untouched since the night Lucas attacked Sofia and drank her blood. Broken glass was all over the floor. Cracks lined the wall I threw Lucas against. Traces of blood still appeared in several areas of the room – some Ben’s, some Lucas’, some Sofia’s, some mine.

It only served to remind me of one of the darkest periods of The Shade’s history. The Uprising. The memory began to overtake my mind, and just like that, all the light the Sun Room represented turned into pitch black night.

The screams were deafening, the sound of cannons alarming. I watched from where I stood at the top of the fortress as hundreds upon hundreds of the human slaves we’d kept at The Shade to do the labor required to finish the Wall, fought for a chance to escape the island or if not, for the chance to escape the life we’d forced them into.

“What do we do now?” Lucas hissed as he leaned over the fortress, terror visible in his eyes.

I swallowed down the guilt. It was the first time I’d ever allowed myself that indulgence. I knew the drastic measure we had to undertake, because none of them could escape. Not a single one. The moment a human succeeded in leaving the island was the moment that everything we had at The Shade would be over. I couldn’t risk that. I looked at my brother and said the words with more resolve than I felt.

“We have to kill them all.”

I jumped from the fortress down to the solid ground and with one swift swing of my sword, managed to kill three of the men poised to attack me. They came at us – violent and angry – no longer willing to remain our slaves. We tried to convince ourselves that we had no choice, but at the end of the battle, standing amidst the bloody grave left by our determination to keep our sanctuary safe, I knew that the price I paid for The Shade was far too high.

Cora approached me. She was quiet, obviously disturbed.

“How many more must die?” My voice came out broken, blood still dripping from the corners of my lips. “They were innocent.”

“No one is innocent.” Cora shook her head, her gaze distant and blank. “We’re all tainted.”

“I can’t do this anymore.” I shook my head, allowing the guilt to come back after finishing what had to be done.

Cora grabbed my hand. “You won’t ever have to again.”

I found myself wondering if what Cora said had been a lie, because as the murky mist in my mind cleared and a moment of clarity jolted me back to reality, I realized that I was standing in the middle of the Sun Room, with Vivienne holding me by the shoulders, desperation tracing her eyes.

“What have you done, Derek?”

Confusion followed her question as I tasted blood on my lips. “I don’t know…” I stammered. “I guess I blacked out…” From behind Vivienne, I saw Ashley’s limp form on the ground, bite marks – mine – on the side of her neck. Sam and Kyle were groaning as they tried to get up from the ground. Newly formed dents were on the walls I threw them against.

As if all of it weren’t already too much to take, Cameron showed up on the door, his eyes widening at the bloody spectacle. “What happened?”

I responded in a menacing hiss. “Why are you here?”

“Lucas. He escaped. Yuri and I tried to stop him. He almost killed Yuri… if I hadn’t…”

Cameron’s voice faded away as my eyes reverted back to Vivienne’s.

“Derek, if Lucas is out there, then…”

I knew what she was going to say. I lifted a finger to silence her. I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted no mention of Sofia. “No, Vivienne.” I eyed the bloody mess surrounding me. Guilt gripped me when I saw Ashley on the ground, but I found myself resigned to the fact that the deed had already been done. “Get her the care she needs, take her to her bedroom… I don’t care. Just get her out of my sight.”

A lot of scrambling around the room was done as they made an effort to do my bidding. Only Vivienne remained in the room with me afterwards.

“You’re not going to go after her? You can’t just mean to stay here and…”

Before I could keep myself from doing it, the back of my hand met squarely with the side of her face and I watched her stumble to the ground. I immediately regretted hitting her. I wanted to step forward, help her up and hug her, but something held me back. After waking from the sleep I asked Cora to put me under, I was reluctant about taking leadership of The Shade once again. That was long gone now.

“I told you never to speak of her.”

Her hands cupping the assaulted area of her face, my sister looked up at me. Her violet eyes contained no anger, no accusation, no condemnation… just resignation and a deep sadness that made me ache inside.

“It seems the darkness has arrived.”

As usual, Vivienne was right.

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.

CHAPTER 22: SOFIA

Standing by my bed, inside my bedroom, thoughts of how much I missed Derek quickly faded away when Ben’s lips parted from mine. The way he looked at me – like I was precious to him – made me forget any doubt I might have had regarding his intentions. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds, both rather shaken by the encounter, until his cheeks began to flush red. I didn’t remember the last time I’d seen Ben blush.

It called my attention to the bruises he got from his fight. I began to wonder how he could kiss me and not ache from the way I accidentally touched the bruise on his cheek and the gash on his side.

Whatever questions I had regarding his physical state, however, were brushed aside when his eyes settled on my lips, which felt a bit swollen after his rather adamant kiss. “Wow, Sofia. You really are Rose Red.”