My gut clenched. How could he possibly know that Derek already had a drink of my blood? Could Derek really have told him that?
“I know I haven’t been much of a father to you, Sofia, but why would you ever willingly feed a vampire your own blood?”
Zinnia looked at me like I was insane. “You’ve been feeding him your blood? What is wrong with you?”
Aiden glared at her. “Stay out of this, Zinnia.”
I hated that he was acting like some sort of authority figure in my life. He didn’t have that right—not after abandoning me for years, leaving me under the care of the Hudsons and barely acknowledging my existence until a few weeks ago when he suddenly woke up to the fact that I was alive.
“Don’t.” I shook my head. “Don’t start acting like a father now, Aiden. I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
“Yes, Sofia. You do. Derek Novak is one of the most powerful vampires alive and he is craving your blood on a twenty-four-hour basis. How is this not a reason to be concerned?”
“You don’t understand. We are strongest together and we are weakest apart. That may not make sense to you, but you have to realize that a life without him…for me, that’s no life at all!”
I should’ve known that an emotional plea would just sound weak to the rational and calculating mind of Aiden Claremont. Both he and Zinnia stared at me as if I had somehow been brainwashed into loving Derek.
“Do you love Derek Novak?” Aiden asked after a long and awkward pause.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “I love him. I love Derek.”
“And how exactly will this love work, Sofia? He’s immortal. What do you intend to do? Turn into a vampire so you can be with him for all eternity? So you can be a bloodthirsty killer like him? Do you even have any idea how many people have died in his hands?”
I knew what he was trying to do. He was preying on my own deepest fears about my relationship with Derek. As if Derek’s immortality wasn’t already haunting me, my father had to rub it in my face.
“You deserve so much better than Derek Novak, Sofia.”
I smiled bitterly as I shook my head. “You have no idea who Derek is, and trust me when I say this, Father…even if I wanted to, I could never become a vampire. I could never become immortal like Derek. Are you happy now?”
He narrowed his eyes at me in scrutiny. “What exactly are you saying, Sofia?”
My jaw tightened as I glared at my father. “It doesn’t matter. What matters right now is this: I am going to find out what happened to Derek and if I find out that anything bad has happened to him and that you were behind it, I will never be able to forgive you.”
Aiden smirked and the sight of that cold smile on his face as he shook his head at me and took a puff of his cigar sent chills down my spine. “No, Sofia. You aren’t going anywhere near Derek. Not again. In fact, until I say so, you’re not going to leave this place. You will train as a hunter and learn to defend yourself against these vampires. I will keep you here until your deluded love for him is weaned out of your system.”
Despite my shock, I managed to take a few steps closer to him in order to emphasize my point. “You can’t keep me prisoner here.”
At that, my father scoffed. “Oh yes I can, darling. Yes, I can.”
CHAPTER 3: DEREK
Natalie Borgia’s safe house was a log cabin out in the country. For the first time in the past few days since I left the hunters’ headquarters, I actually felt secure.
Natalie was an old friend of mine. She was also one of the few rogue vampires who had full access to all of the vampire covens. She also had all the covens’ sworn protection. In exchange, she was the ultimate diplomat, the main communication line between all vampire covens. She was invaluable to our kind.
I walked along the stone path that led to the luxurious log cabin and knocked on the door. When Natalie opened it, a smile spread across her face as she handed me a glass of blood.
“I’m sure you’re famished.” The Italian girl always had a way of making me feel taken care of.
I looked at her gratefully as I took the glass and drank its contents in one go. I hadn’t had a drop of blood in my system since I left hunter territory. I couldn’t bear the thought of killing the humans I had happened to come across during my journey to Natalie’s safe house. I was indeed famished.
Natalie welcomed me into the cabin and asked me to make myself comfortable as she poured another glass of blood for me. As I waited for her, I recalled the first time I was able to get in touch with her a couple of days back.
“Derek? What is going on? Where are you? Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you right now?”
Gripping the disposable cell phone over my ear, I never thought I could be as elated to hear Natalie Borgia’s voice as I was at that moment. I heaved a sigh, taking note of the mixture of alarm and relief in her voice upon realizing that she was talking to me. “I need you to help me get back to The Shade without the hunters following me there. I’ve been trying to get them off my back for the past two days. It’s been hell.”
“Two days? Where are you? How are you keeping out of the sunlight?”
Hidden in some sleazy motel in the middle of who-knows-where, I was in no mood to answer her questions. “Natalie, I appreciate your concern, but right now, could you be less of a friend and more of a diplomat and just help me out?”
Truth be told, I couldn’t really wrap my mind around how I had survived the past two days. During times we spent at The Shade, both Sofia and my sister Vivienne—before she passed away in the hands of the hunters—tried their best to keep me up-to-date with the technologies and norms of the twenty-first century. Still, living them out firsthand was a shock. The world was far different from what it was four hundred years ago.
“Okay,” Natalie said, her voice lower and a bit less excited. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know how they’re doing it, but the hunters seem to know where I am at all times. I just can’t get them off my back no matter how hard I try.”
“They probably have a tracker on you.”
“Okay…how do I get rid of the tracker?”
“For one thing, do you have anything on you that came from the hunters’ headquarters?”
“I have credit cards, wallets, drivers’ licenses, an SUV…”
I could practically see Natalie roll her eyes. “Get rid of all of those. You don’t know which one of those is bugged, so you might as well just get rid of everything. I’m going to give you an address. That’s my safe house. Don’t bring anything that the hunters have been in contact with. Did you get all of that?”