Derek creased his brows at me. “What’s too much of a coincidence?”
As twins, Derek and I always had a strange connection. It’d been there when we were kids. I had a way of instinctively knowing his dreams or figuring out what was going through his mind at certain points, especially when it was needed.
“You’ve been dreaming about her. You saw her at the exact same spot you found her, did you not? At the shore near the Lighthouse? You thought she was Cora… The fact that it actually happened, you think it’s just coincidence?”
Derek shifted his weight from one foot to another as if he didn’t remember the dream and it just suddenly became clear to him. “I have to admit that it’s strange. But it was just a dream.”
I watched Sofia for a reaction. She looked at Derek in question. “You’ve been dreaming about Cora too?”
Derek shook his head. “No… This one… I remember the dream now. It’s just as Vivienne said. I saw it exactly like this. This was the exact same spot that I found Cora hundreds of years ago. I dreamed about it, I thought it was Cora who was on the beach, but it turned out to be Emilia.”
Sofia nodded, wrinkling her nose in thought. The idea of my brother being able to tell Sofia these things made me feel better about the situation, but I still could not deny the threat I felt just by seeing Emilia there. I knew that she was a source of power that we couldn’t afford to underestimate.
Xavier, one of my closest friends, stared at me inquisitively. He knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t be objecting this much if I didn’t feel ill at ease around Emilia. “Maybe it’s better we leave her this way…” He frowned.
Sofia objected. “We can take her down if she decides to fight against us once she heals. With all four of you vampires and Corrine here, she won’t stand a chance no matter how powerful she is, but we can’t just leave her like this. It’s inhumane.”
I grimaced at the way Sofia called it “inhumane” as if the creature we were talking about was anything close to being human. “She’s not human, Sofia.”
“Maybe so, but I am, Vivienne, and lest you forget, a part of you is too…”
That silenced me. How could it not? Ever since Sofia became a part of our lives, we seemed to be obsessed with getting our humanity back – humanity that we long ago tried to silence.
Ashley looked from one person to the other, still clutching the bag of human blood in her hand. “Are we going to feed the blood to her or not? It’s not like she’s going to die if we don’t. It will just take her longer to heal, right?”
“I don’t see why we should prolong her agony…” Sofia stood her ground. “It doesn’t seem right.”
I knew her well enough to know what her greatest weakness was her compassion. She seemed to have a never-ending supply of it and although I respected that about her, there were times when we couldn’t afford to let our compassion get us into trouble. That was exactly what that woman was going to bring: trouble.
Still, I was outnumbered and just by the look on Derek’s face, I could tell that he wasn’t going to abandon Emilia. Not knowing what to do, I stormed out of The Sanctuary. I couldn’t have imagined how big a mistake that was.
I’d barely just walked out the large doors that led outside The Sanctuary when, as I expected, Xavier came running after me.
“Vivienne! What’s going on?” He held my arm to make me face him. We were already in the gardens outside of the white temple-like structure. “It’s unlike you to object to helping someone – anyone – no matter what you feel about the person, and it’s not like you to just storm off like that. What’s wrong?”
I wasn’t being myself and I knew it. I was known in The Shade as the calm and collected one, as the seer, but after my return from hunter territory, I couldn’t find that cool that I always managed to be in. I was afraid. Extremely afraid – in a way I never was before, and I had no idea how to handle it. “You saw how the original vampire killed my father, Xavier.”
The memory of my father’s body, drained of all blood, impaled on a pole in the middle of The Vale’s town square was forever etched in my mind. None of us had any idea how the original vampire did it, but he was able to kill my father even while Gregor was locked up in The Shade. He left a message – carved into my father’s flesh: You chose the wrong side.
I loved my father and I knew that he loved me. I knew that he was willing to start anew, to change. I saw it in his eyes the last time I got to spend time with him. The Elder robbed him of that. I was still mourning the death of my father and my brother, Lucas. I wasn’t about to mourn Derek’s. With Emilia being in the island, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my twin was in grave danger.
“Derek is all I have left, Xavier. I already lost my father and I lost Lucas too… I can’t afford to lose Derek. I won’t have a reason to live if I lose him. I would rather die.”
Xavier was taken aback and I could tell that he was hurt. I knew he cared about me. “Vivienne, I know you love your family. I admire that about you, but you have to open your eyes and start living for yourself at some point. You have people who care about you and have been loyal to you these past years – not just Derek or Gregor or Lucas. Liana, Sofia, me… We all care what happens to you, but it’s not even about that. There’s a reason you’re alive, a reason I’m still alive. You have to keep striving until you’ve fulfilled that reason. Live for you, Vivienne, because damn it… you’re worth living for and you’re worth dying for.”
Xavier gently brushed a loose strand of hair from my face. He leaned over slowly and I was sure he was about to kiss me. I pulled away and shook my head.
“I can’t, Xavier.” I stepped away from him, watching his eyes moisten at my rejection. “I’m sorry. I just… I need to figure out a way to stop Emilia.”
I turned and ran, not exactly certain where to go. I needed space. I needed time to think. Because as much as I hated to admit it, Xavier struck a chord so deep, I had to get away from him to keep myself from crying. I lived the past five centuries for my family, and never for myself. Xavier’s words echoed in my head. Live for you, Vivienne.
I had no idea how to do that, because I really had no idea who I was anymore. I ran for hours. I ran until my thighs began to throb. I ran and ran and ran until I ended up back at The Sanctuary, ready to stab Emilia with a wooden stake, only to find myself frozen and unable to move the moment I lifted the stake in the air.