I doubled over with laughter at her outburst.
“It doesn’t make sense.” She lifted her arms and stared at them. “The Prince of Darkness himself can get a tan, but no matter what I do, I never can.”
My laughter subsided. She was right. We’d been on our honeymoon for over a week now and a good chunk of our time had been spent outdoors. My skin had already bronzed nicely, but Sofia’s skin was still as pale as the day I’d first met her.
“That is odd.” I frowned, narrowing my eyes at her. “Are you sure you’re not a vampire, Sofia?”
She sighed and stretched out on her towel. “Ben used to tease me about it. He always got a beautiful tan during the summer while I just ended up red and sunburned.”
I kept my eyes on her, amused. Sofia was an old soul and she had accomplished so much at The Shade already. Moments like these, however, reminded me that she was an eighteen-year-old, young and with her whole life ahead of her, a life she’d decided to live with me.
I found it humbling. She’s mine. She willingly gave her life and love to me.
The expression in her green eyes changed to something more pensive. I didn’t need to ask.
“You miss him, don’t you?” I asked, referring to Ben Hudson. She’d grown up with the young man. He had been her best friend and the fact that he’d died not so long ago—at the hands of my older brother—wasn’t lost on me. It was a reminder of how resilient and strong Sofia was. She’d been through hell and back the past year.
She nodded. “Of course I do. And I feel guilty I haven’t spoken to Ben’s family since the funeral. It’s been difficult to contact them. I couldn’t bear the thought of facing them, you know? Besides, with what’s been happening with us and The Shade and… I haven’t even really thought about them until now. That’s awful, isn’t it?”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Sofia. There was no way you could’ve communicated with them.” I paused and gave it some thought. “But we’re out here… we can do whatever we want. Maybe we should pay them a visit.”
“We’re in Tahiti, Derek. Are you seriously proposing that we fly to California?”
“They deserved to be at our wedding, but since bringing them to The Shade wasn’t an option, I don’t see why we can’t visit them now.”
A smile broke into her lovely face as she gave me an affectionate look. “I love you, Derek Novak.”
I flashed her a wide grin and shrugged a shoulder. “I know.” I threw a plastic shovel toward her. “Now, get to work, lazy. You started this sandcastle. Come help me finish it.”
Sofia jumped up from her towel and she was in my arms, her slim form comfortably settling on top of me as she kissed me. Her kiss was gentle and sweet, and to my delight, lingering. Even with my eyes closed, I could sense the smile on her face—that beautiful smile that always had a way of melting my heart—that same smile that I got to see once our lips parted.
“I adore you, Derek. You know that, don’t you?” She grinned.
I squinted my eyes at her. “All right,” I drawled. “What do you want in exchange for that?”
“You.” She bit her lip. “Just you.”
She wrapped her legs around me and pulled me on top of her. Being with her was like a piece of heaven—one that I wished would last forever. But I knew that our honeymoon was borrowed time. It would soon be over, so I intended to enjoy every single moment.
I was needed back home. The Shade was crippled without us there—especially with the hunters looming over us and the discovery of the cure that had created all sorts of enemies and all kinds of threats—but this was my one shot at normalcy. This one-month honeymoon was the only time I could just be a young man in love with his wife.
I let all the responsibilities I had as ruler of The Shade roll off my shoulders. I had one month to have Sofia all to myself and I wasn’t going to trade that for the world.
Chapter 2: Vivienne
“We need your brother back here.” The blonde vampire slammed her palm down on my dining table, glaring daggers at me.
I sat still, maintaining a cool and collected front—a façade that was completely opposite to the chaos going on inside of me.
“Claudia, calm down,” my best friend, Liana Hendry, reprimanded our co-council, who was known for her mood swings and temper.
Yuri Lazaroff glared at Claudia, which was enough to reel her in and make her settle down in her seat beside him.
The surviving leaders of the twelve clans that composed The Shade’s Elite were all gathered around Aiden and me at my dining room table. When Derek and Sofia had left for their honeymoon, they’d left her father, Aiden, and me in charge of The Shade. We’d been tasked to “cooperate with the hunters” who’d been sent to “guard” the island. Little had we known what the hunters had in mind.
“The hunters are taking over The Shade. We can’t keep living this way. They’re calling all the shots. Did they even consult you and Aiden when they shut down the Port?”
The Port was the main entry point to the island. Recently, the hunters had placed it on full lockdown. No one was allowed to enter and no one was allowed to leave without their express permission. We were prisoners in our own home and the only explanation was a cryptic, “Orders.”
“We can take these hunters down, Vivienne,” Claudia hissed.
“That may be true, but at what cost? We can take down those who are present here at the island, but we stand no chance against a full-on attack from the hunters. We all know that.”
“Vivienne’s right.” Aiden nodded. He was the only human among us vampires, but if anybody knew how the hunters worked, it was him. “Under no circumstances can we afford to retaliate against them.”
“The problem is that they know that.” Cameron spoke up. “They’re using that knowledge against us.”
“They’re provoking you,” Aiden explained. “They want you to retaliate. They want you to lose your cool so that they have a reason to destroy you. These are hunters with decades of vendetta against vampires. Make no mistake about it—most of these hunters hate you with every fiber of their being.”
“Well, that’s comforting.” Claudia grimaced. “They can do whatever they want with us and there’s nothing we can do to make them stop.”
“Not if you want to maintain peace with the hunters, and that’s exactly what Derek wants us to do,” Aiden reiterated.