Why isn’t he strong enough to fight this? Why aren’t any of us? I wondered what it would be like for Sofia and Derek. Would they be able to fight this? I recalled all the times that Derek had been able to fight the darkness just because of his love for Sofia. Just hearing her hum their song or even just seeing her… It turned him to light.
I found myself resenting them for their love. Now, they’re even immune to being turned into an Elder’s vessel. They’re both human. Should I ever get out alive, I would turn human as soon as I could. I would go as far as force Sofia to let me drink her blood just so I could have an immune’s blood in my system.
Xavier pulled his lips away from me. I looked at him and all I saw was the monster that he now was.
He backhanded me in the face. I was thrown on the ground several feet away. It was only then that I realized that I was already unchained and that Sam was already at the arena, being dealt his first blow from the Elder who possessed Ashley.
Xavier grabbed a fistful of my hair and made me focus on the fight. “Watch, Vivienne. Watch your friends bleed.”
To my surprise, Sam fought back, pushing Ashley to the ground with one massive upper cut.
My heart sank. What has become of us? They’re turning us into them. Only then did I realize that maybe that was their intention all along. They wanted us to become just like them. That’s why they spent hundreds of years turning humans into vampires. But why?
Xavier gasped with seeming delight as Ashley rose to her feet.. “This just got interesting. I knew it all along. Your love is weak. None of you have the kind of love Derek and Sofia had for each other. But don’t get me wrong, princess. If they were in your situation, they wouldn’t be able to fight this either.”
I recalled how Derek had been able to break Emilia’s hold over him. Desperate to stop the madness, I rose to my feet, pressed my body against Xavier’s and whispered into his ear, “Please. Drink my blood.”
I hoped that as Sofia’s blood running into his veins had jolted my brother out of Emilia’s curse, my blood running into Xavier’s might have the same effect. I wasn’t human nor was I an immune like Sofia, but I had to try.
Just as Xavier’s fangs were about to sink under my skin, my brother’s voice boomed across the cavernous walls of the Catacombs.
“Stop this madness right now!”
Chapter 33: Sofia
“What’s bothering you, Sofia?” Kiev tucked a loose strand of my hair beneath my ear.
We were in my bedroom. I was on the bed, sitting with my back against the headboard. He had taken the liberty of resting his head on my lap before, after hours of telling me one morbid story about his past after another, he knelt on the bed, facing me, and asked me that question.
“Nothing,” I lied. “Why would you think that something’s bothering me?”
“I don’t know. You haven’t spoken much for the past hour or so.”
That’s because you’re doing all the talking. Frankly, I wish I could unhear the things you just told me. Hearing stories from a vampire who’d spent hundreds of years serving the evil that was the Elder didn’t exactly make for a peaceful night’s sleep.
I shrugged. “I just don’t have much to say. That’s all.”
“I appreciate that you listened.”
He was being kind. It was terrifying to be around this version of him. I was always on my toes, wondering when he was about to burst out in fury over the slightest mistake.
To worsen my already bundled-up nerves, he began rubbing my belly. “Are you excited to meet them? Have you decided on names?”
During our honeymoon Derek and I had playfully talked about the children we were going to have. We’d always fought over what to name our child should we have a girl, but we’d both agreed on what we would name our son. Benjamin.
There was no questioning that. Ben deserved that honor.
Not knowing what had become of Abby, and having been strictly ordered never to inquire about her again, I said the first thing that came to mind. “Ben and Abby, I guess.” I was bothered by how curious Kiev seemed to be when it came to my children. Since his plan for escape, he’d been fawning over me almost as if he were the father of the children I was bearing.
Though it unnerved me, I had to run with it if I were to have any chance of compromise with my captor.
So, whenever he was in one of these moods, I plastered a smile on my face, pretending that I was flattered—even delighted—by his attention.
Kiev stared at me. “Ben and Abby? That’s sweet, but just so you know, it would be an honor if you named your son after my father. Serghei.”
I gave him a look, wondering if he was joking. “His name is Ben.”
A flash of anger crossed his face, but he reeled it in.
What is going on? I wanted to believe that this was a sign of goodness in him, but I’d never felt more unsettled by him than I did at that moment.
“Kiev…” I spoke up tentatively. “Are you really going to help me escape?”
His eyes darkened to a bloody crimson. I could sense his suspicions rising. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m in my third trimester. I would really like to not have to bear my children here at The Blood Keep and you mentioned that you would…”
“Just be ready. I don’t need to tell you about my plans. You just have to go along with what you are told to do and everything will be okay.”
“Can you not give me a hint or something? Anything? I just really want to be able to hold on to some sort of assurance that…”
He grabbed my jaw and forced me to look into his eyes. “I’m your assurance. Drop this subject, Sofia. Or I will make you bleed.”
I nodded. “Fine,” was my curt reply.
He let go of my jaw, took a deep breath, stared into blank space for a few seconds then began caressing my hair gently. “You’re going to be all right.”
He’s a madman. Eli is right. How can I ever trust him? His mood swings were so erratic, I couldn’t keep up with them.
Silence took over the room. I asked myself what I would’ve done had I been with Derek. I remembered how I’d coped through everything at The Shade.
I did it through laughter. All those times I’d spent with Derek, cutting through the tension between us by making him watch movies or pulling him to the music room and charming him to play me some music.
I was intrigued by whether the approach I’d used on Derek would work on Kiev. I was sick of always feeling like I was at the edge of my nerves when around Kiev.