I found it hard to process this information. “Stabbed? By a wooden stake?”

Julian nodded. “The stake was meant for Derek Novak. She pushed him away and was stabbed instead. He fed her his blood to heal her.”

I found the thought that she would risk her life on his behalf sickening—the fact that she’d been drinking his blood was even worse. I hated even thinking about the things she’d been through during the period he had kept her captive at The Shade.

“What do you plan to do about that?” Julian asked with hesitation.

“About what?”

“The fact that your daughter is in love with a vampire—and not just any ordinary vampire… She’s in love with Derek Novak.”

“I don’t know.” I groaned. This reality was haunting me. If I were to be honest with myself, I highly doubted that she was brainwashed. She wasn’t exhibiting any signs of having been brainwashed. She didn’t have the twitches, the paranoia, the confusion… She never spaced out into blank gazes. It was hard for me to accept, but it seemed her love for Derek Novak was genuine. It seems that I would have to brainwash her in order to get rid of her love for that vampire. The idea turned my stomach, and I wondered if I could really do that to my own daughter.

“She could make a great hunter.”

“Trust me when I say that she is never going to be one of us.” I’m afraid she loves him too much. I stood to my full height, squaring my shoulders as I let my gaze linger over Sofia, overcome by the force of emotions that coursed through me whenever I looked at her. I made a mistake abandoning her, but how could I have kept her with me? She reminds me so much of how beautiful and vibrant Camilla was.

“Are you alright, Reuben?”

“Of course.” I nodded. “Give me a regular report on her progress. Tell her that from now on, she is to keep a stake on her person at all times. Also, make sure that she learns how to use the guns. I won’t have her defenseless against those creatures again.”

After the conversation with Julian, I found myself aimlessly wandering the corridors of the headquarters, the inescapable ache caused by all the time I had lost with Sofia at the forefront of my thoughts. Somehow, my meandering brought me to the last place I thought I wanted to be: Ingrid’s cell.

I came just in time to see her finishing up a packet of animal blood. She grinned when she saw me enter the room.

“Wow. Aiden Claremont finally pays me a visit.” She tilted her head to the side, her beautiful eyes set on me, her long auburn hair falling to one side. “What did I do to deserve such an honor?”

“What happened at The Oasis? Why was Sofia there?” I pulled up a chair and sat down, gearing myself up for a conversation I wasn’t even sure I wanted to have.

“Why don’t you ask your little princess?” she pouted.

“She refuses to talk about it.” I drew a breath and revealed the thought weighing on my mind. “Do you not feel even a thread of affection for her? For me?”

Ingrid’s eyes softened for but a moment before the familiar manic look returned. “I’m sure Camilla adored her and on her good days, I’m sure she also had some love for Sofia.”

It hurt her being referred to as Camilla, like her former self was completely gone. “Camilla was the love of my life.”

I was surprised when Ingrid scoffed at this. “Sure she was.”

I frowned. “You don’t believe me?”

“You were the love of Camilla’s life, but I doubt she was yours.”

I gave her a confused look. Did I fail to show Camilla how much I adored her? I doted on her. I practically worshipped the ground she walked on.

Ingrid rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious that you have no idea what to do with that little princess of yours. It’s not like I can help you with that. If you ask me, what you should do with her is place a white gown on her and offer her up to the man she belongs to.”

The image her words painted in my mind was sickening. I found myself seething with anger. “And that would be who?”

“Borys Maslen. Borys owns her. I gave her to him.”

She was a stranger, not a trace of the woman I had loved left in her. “What have you done with my wife? Is there any trace of Camilla left in you?”

A bitter smile formed on Ingrid’s face. “Camilla is dead. She died the day Sofia was born. That spoiled little brat stole your heart from me. Every time she had to share you with Sofia, Camilla died a little. Hers was a slow and painful death. There was no way for her to survive.” She paused and gave me a penetrating gaze that would haunt me for days after. “You were simply too blind to realize, Aiden, that your love for Sofia killed Camilla.”

CHAPTER 5: SOFIA

The moment Zinnia swung the door of my suite open, I dragged myself inside and sank onto my bed. I was exhausted. Every day at headquarters was mind-numbingly routine. There wasn’t a minute that wasn’t scheduled. My time was no longer my own. Perhaps Aiden thought that if he kept me busy every second of every day, I would somehow forget Derek. The idea was ridiculous.

The thought of getting back to Derek was the fuel that kept me going. I knew that I had to find my way back to him and that was the only thing that kept me from sinking into despair. My every waking moment was filled with thoughts of how I was going to escape the hunters and return to The Shade. I went through the trainings and did everything I was told; I was willing to play the part of a hunter if only to gain their trust and betray it afterwards.

Perhaps it was rebellion against my father. I hated that he was acting like a father to me now, assuming that he knew what was best for me, after abandoning me for all those years. I resented Aiden Claremont for keeping me prisoner and preventing me from finding Derek.

“You look horrible,” Zinnia told me as she rummaged through the kitchen for something to eat—right after she had made sure that the door was locked, so I couldn’t escape.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said, watching her move around the small kitchen. We could’ve eaten at the mess hall along with the other recruits, but I begged her to let me return to the suite. I was in no mood to socialize and I really just wanted to get back to the room that I used to share with Derek before he had mysteriously disappeared. The suite was my sanctuary, the one place in hunter territory where it felt as if Derek’s presence still lingered.

“Are you going to eat?” Zinnia asked as she put a pizza in the microwave.

I shook my head.

“Ben always ate up a storm after training… Do you ever think of him at all?”

“Sounds like him…” I smiled bitterly, recalling glimpses of Ben’s handsome face. I ached whenever I thought of him. “Ben was my best friend, Zinnia. At one point, I thought I was in love with him. Of course I think about him.”

Zinnia raised a brow. “But not as much as you think about the Novak…”

I furrowed my brows at her, wondering what she was trying to get at. She’d been acting strangely the entire day, and at that point, I really wasn’t in the mood to try and figure out her erratic changes of attitude toward me. At times, it felt as if we could be friends, then she suddenly switched and began treating me as if she thought I was the most annoying creature on earth—a burden she had to carry at all times.

“What’s your point, Zinnia?”

“Nothing. No point. Just an observation.”

I inwardly groaned, deciding to ignore her, but it seemed she wasn’t done.

“You know what I don’t get?” she suddenly said after a moment’s silence. “Why is Claudia still alive? After what she put him through, I find it hard to believe that Ben would ever request that she be kept alive unless she did something to make him do it.”

Claudia put him through hell during the time he was under her wing. Even I was confused when I was told that Ben pleaded for Claudia’s life. However, I really didn’t give it much thought after having gone through the motions of Ben’s burial and trying to adjust to all the changes going on around me. When I found out that Derek had left, I completely forgot about Claudia.

“Hasn’t anyone asked her yet?” I asked.

“As if we can trust anything she says…”

I suddenly felt overcome by curiosity about my last encounter with Claudia. I knew the thought was crazy, because Claudia had given me absolutely no reason to trust her, but I wondered if I could make an ally out of her in order to return to The Shade. I scoffed at the thought. I’m actually desperate enough to work with Claudia.

I looked at Zinnia. “Could you ask Aiden if I could talk to her? I have questions.”

Zinnia gave me a long look. I doubted that she had any trust in me at all, so I was surprised when she shrugged and said, “All right. I’ll ask.”

The next day, I was escorted to Claudia’s cell. I barely recognized her, not necessarily because of any drastic change in appearance, but more because of the change in attitude. I knew it was going to be an extremely strange encounter when for the first time since I had met her, she actually seemed genuinely happy to see me.

She was crumpled up in a corner, her back leaned against the wall, seated on the ground, her arms pulling her knees to her chest.

“Claudia?” I tentatively said, half-expecting her to attack me and once again try to turn me into a vampire.

Instead, the moment she laid eyes on me, her eyes lit up, twinkling with delight. A bright smile formed on her face as if she’d just laid eyes on a long-lost friend. “Sofia!” she exclaimed as she stood to her feet and embraced me.

My arms hung limply at my sides as I tried to figure out what was going on. I found myself stiff against her tight hug.

She pulled away from me and gave me an expectant look. “Where’s Derek? Are they going to allow us to leave now? We’re going back to The Shade, right?”

“Derek left… I don’t know what happened to him or where he is…” I found it hard to recall why I was there in the first place. Claudia’s reaction upon seeing me had thrown me for a loop.