A chill began to settle beneath my skin.
“I need to talk to them before they arrive at the island,” Aiden announced.
“Should we be preparing for war?” Yuri asked.
Aiden scoffed. “No. They’re not going to risk man-to-man combat. Not against The Shade. I took part in planning the destruction of The Shade, and if they’re going for what we planned. They’re going to blow the island up.”
“Even if you’re here?” Vivienne frowned.
Aiden smirked. “The hawks have no loyalties. Our mission is to destroy all vampires. I am collateral damage.”
An adrenaline rush surged through me. “Someone get my dad a phone.”
Vivienne nodded. “I’m on it.” She then sped away.
I continued to list my instructions to Yuri. “Get Corrine in here. Fast. We need to see if she can do something to ward off the attack or even escort Aiden to the hunters before they get here.”
Yuri nodded and quickly made his way to The Sanctuary.
I looked straight at Aiden, unable to hide the tension in my voice. “Is there anything you can do to convince them not to attack?”
“I don’t know if they’ll listen, but I’ll try. Perhaps it’s best to have Kyle come with me… Our only ace against them is that we’ve found a possible cure.”
I wondered what the hunters would do to Kyle and Derek if we actually found the cure, but I had to shove it out of my mind, and focus on the matter at hand. I nodded. “Do everything necessary to make them hold off on the attack. Let the hunters know that the vampires are surrendering. They don’t have to kill everyone off.”
“Surrendering?” Claudia gasped. “What?! Sofia, they’re going to kill us!”
“Not if you agree to try out the cure…” I responded.
“A cure that we’re not sure works…”
A loud groan came from within the Pit and my stomach formed into knots. “It’s going to work.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Claudia shook her head. “Not all of us want to become human again.”
My jaw tightened. “Would you rather die, Claudia? If we don’t give them a good enough reason to hold off on their attack, this will be the end of The Shade.”
Claudia was about to say something else, but Vivienne came just in time, phone in hand, to listen in on our conversation. She handed the phone to Aiden, before addressing the blonde. “Sofia’s right, Claudia. We can worry about dealing with the consequences later. Right now, we’re just wasting time arguing over this.”
Claudia scowled, but backed down.
Aiden dialed a number on the phone, putting it on loudspeaker.
“Hello?” Zinnia’s familiar voice came from the other side.
“Zinnia, this is Aiden. Don’t you dare hang up.”
“Our superiors want you to know that we value everything that you’ve done for the hunters, but you understand the way it works… this has to happen.”
“We found a cure. One of the vampires is now a human and the cure has been administered to Derek Novak as we speak. By the end of the day, he will be human again.”
I was surprised to hear the conviction in my father’s voice. It was as if he was one hundred percent sure that the cure would work on Derek. I tried to listen in on what was happening at the Pit but it seemed Derek had grown silent. I had no idea if that was a good or a bad sign.
“I don’t believe you,” Zinnia responded.
I could practically imagine the grimace on her face. The petite, raven-eyed hunter had never been a fan of me, but she was important to my father and to my late best friend, Ben. I had to deal with her snarkiness a lot while I was at the hunters’ headquarters.
“There are thousands of humans here, Zinnia. A good lot of them are women and children. Not all of them have to die. You can check the headquarters’ database for a man named Kyle Madison. He is suspected to be a vampire, and he was, but now, he’s human again.”
“Get Kyle here,” I told Claudia, before speaking to Zinnia over the loudspeaker. “Zinnia, this is Sofia.”
“Great… if it isn’t the princess of vampires herself.”
“Look… We’ll send Kyle to you so you can see for yourself… There is a cure. This could be the answer we’re looking for…. Please…”
All I got from her side was silence. I held my breath as I listened to her uneven breathing.
“I’ll ask my superiors. I’ll call you back.”
Just like that, she hung up. It was the longest five minutes of my entire life, waiting for Zinnia to get back in touch with us.
When the phone rang and Aiden answered, I held my breath in suspense.
“You’d better not be bluffing.”
I heaved a sigh of relief, but then a scream from the Pit reminded me that I was still a far cry away from any semblance of peace.
Chapter 46: Derek
The pain was indescribable and all my senses were in overdrive. I was aware of everything happening within a hundred mile radius, but at the same time, I couldn’t comprehend any of it, because the agony was making it hard for me to have any coherent thought.
The light of the sun burned my skin and I was almost certain from the moment it hit me that there was no way I could survive it, but still, there was this will to survive. I had no sense of time. The pain seemed endless. There were times when I was already certain that it would be the end of me, then my heart would practically triple its pace and blood would pump at high speed throughout my system, then the pain would subside, giving me a couple of breaths, a momentary reprieve, before escalating once again.
There were voices outside the Pit, but I was only really focused on one. Sofia’s. She told me that she wouldn’t leave, which both comforted and tormented me. I knew how compassionate she was. I knew the kind of effect my pain had on her.
I wanted it to end. I wanted it to end badly. I knew that I could just say one word and they would heed to my command and open that door to let me out of the Pit, but something kept me from ending my own misery, something more human than beastly. One word could describe what it was that pushed me on: hope. The hope that the light – no matter how painful it was – was my door to freedom.
The agony went for what felt like days until I reached a tipping point. It was a point when I’d gotten used to the pain and I was about to surrender to death, then I heard Sofia from the other side of the door. She was humming… the sweet, gentle tone of her voice hummed our song. It was exactly what I needed to remind myself that I couldn’t die. I simply couldn’t.