I hung my head, recalling the numerous times I’d lost control with Sofia, the many times her life was endangered by my own hands.
To my relief, Sofia answered for me, “It doesn’t matter, Dad. Derek and I are going to take a walk. You stay here. We’re going to spend the night together. We need to catch up. I’ll be fine.”
“No…” Aiden shook his head. “I’m not going to let you leave with that monster, not right after what I just saw him do to you.”
“This isn’t hunter territory anymore. If Derek says he wants me with him, then there’s really nothing you can do about it.”
She squeezed my hand and I could practically hear her coaxing me to say that I wanted to be with her, but I was apprehensive.
“Maybe your father’s right, Sofia… I don’t know if I can control myself around you…I…”
She cupped my cheeks with both her hands and began shaking her head. “Derek…please…”
The thought that she wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with her was my undoing. How could I stand there and not give in to what she wanted? How could I ignore her plea?
I raised my eyes to Aiden’s—his glare threatening and cold, warning me to choose my words well, but Sofia was right. He was in my territory, a place where my word was law—not his. I gave Sam and Ashley a quick look. “Kindly take Mr. Claremont to The Catacombs. I’m sure he’ll be more comfortable in his daughter’s quarters, where he’ll be among humans, instead of here with the vampires. Rosa, make sure he is fed well. Gavin, kindly inform Xavier to keep an eye on Vivienne. Where’s Claudia?”
“She returned to her villa,” Sam responded. “We weren’t quite sure what to do with her.”
“She’s no threat. She really just wants a way back to Yuri’s good graces,” Sofia explained.
“Leave her then. It’s about time she realized how much Yuri values her.” I then looked at Aiden. “I will do your daughter no harm, sir.”
He snorted in response. “Sure you won’t. Of course, you and I have very different definitions of the word ‘harm,’ or so it seems.”
I turned to Sam. “Sam, one more thing… See to it that my father is released and escorted to my sister’s chambers. Make sure he is well-guarded by more than one vampire stronger than him. We must also immediately hold a council meeting to address the loss of our chilling chambers… We won’t have enough blood to last us for another week unless we do something about that.”
I didn’t miss the way Aiden’s eyes sparked with interest at that bit of information. I’m sure every perceived vulnerability at The Shade was a point of interest to a man like him.
Finally satisfied that I had all my bases covered, I walked out of the penthouse with Sofia. We were already in an isolated part of the woods when Sofia stopped in her tracks and looked up at me.
“You’re trembling,” she said in what was almost a whisper.
“It’s nothing.” I shook my head. “This cure…do you think it will work?”
“It worked with my mother. I saw it with my own eyes. She’s not happy about it, but Ingrid Maslen is human again… She’s still nothing like my mother was. She’s one angry human…”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “But it is.”
I wanted it so much to be true. I wanted to escape my immortality and the weight of being prophesied as some sort of savior to my kind. I was also aware that since Sofia could never be immortal, the only way we could really be together was if I became mortal once again. My head was swimming with everything I wanted to say about Anna possibly being immune too, about Sofia not actually having LLI, but whenever I looked at Sofia, all I could think about was how much I wanted her blood.
“I can’t stand this.” She shook her head. “We can’t keep being this guarded around each other.”
I swallowed hard, wondering what it was that she had in mind. She stepped away from me and to my surprise, she began unbuttoning the top buttons of her red blouse. I knew what she was doing, what she was willing to let me do and I began shaking my head.
“No… Sofia…”
She stepped forward and pushed herself against me, making me stumble backwards until my back hit a tree trunk. I couldn’t remember her ever being so aggressive, but I couldn’t dare complain when her lips began to knead against mine—demanding and passionate, hungry for something that I myself was starving for.
I stopped fighting it and allowed my hands to fall to her waist. I pulled her up so that she didn’t have to strain her neck just to kiss me. I responded with as much passion and hunger as she was dishing out on me.
“You’re mine, are you not?” she whispered breathlessly to me when our lips finally parted.
“You know I am,” I responded, momentarily forgetting my craving for her blood as I tried to wrap my tingling senses around what had just happened.
“And I’m yours, am I not?” she asked.
Already knowing where she was getting at, I gulped before nodding. “I hope so…”
She pulled the sleeve of her blouse down her shoulder to expose her neck to me. “Then stop torturing both yourself and me, Derek. It’s okay.” She stepped forward and tilted her head to the side as she took hold of my both my hands and placed them on her waist. “Satisfy your craving.”
I couldn’t stop even if I had wanted to. I took the bite, a mix of guilt and ecstasy coursing through me when I heard her whimper over the cut my teeth had made on her neck. When I felt the blood flow past my tongue and down my throat, it was pure bliss. Her blood was coursing inside me…restoring me, empowering me, strengthening me, completing me. She overloaded my senses when she once began to hum our song to me. She ran her fingers through my hair, gently caressing it to assure me that she was alright.
Suddenly, I had the desperate urge to look at her lovely face, so I pulled my mouth from her neck and took her wrist instead. I bit into it without bothering to ask her. She bit her lip against the pain and watched as I drank from her wrist.
Every sense I had was filled with Sofia Claremont—the scent of her, the feel, the taste, the sight, the sound of her sweet voice humming our song.
Eventually, I pulled my teeth out of her wrist and then grabbed her waist to pull her against me so I could kiss her again. It wasn’t until our lips parted that the guilt began to sink in.