A Shade Of Vampire 6: A Gate Of Night (11 page)

“Corrine?” Vivienne croaked through choked breath. “What’s going on?”

Corrine had a wild-eyed, almost manic, reaction in her face as she stared at Kiev. “You ruined Cora. If it weren’t for you, she never would’ve become Emilia. I’m sorry, Vivienne, but this was the only way I saw to get this monster here and still keep the portal safe.”

Kiev snickered. “Corrine, you really are like your ancestor. A naïve little fool.”

I had no idea what was going on—especially with the witch the vampires seemed to trust with their lives. One thing, however, was clear.
Everyone
had an agenda of their own.

All this was made even clearer when Ian arrived, out of breath. He went straight for Vivienne.

“Arron’s gone.” he announced. “He abandoned the hunters.”

I had no idea who Kiev, the red-eyed vampire, was, but he couldn’t have been more right when he cast Corrine then Vivienne an amused look. “All hell’s about to break loose, princess.”

Five months. I haven’t seen Derek in five months
.

I stared up at the night sky, my arms spread wide on either side of me, so that my palms could reach past the embroidered blanket spread beneath me and touch the smooth grass. I wondered what it would be like to have Derek by my side, what it would be like to have his arms around me.

Over the past few months, I’d begun to love full moons. Those were the nights when the sky seemed to shine brightest. Those nights were no substitute for sunlight, but they were the closest thing to light that I had in a place like The Blood Keep.

Blood Keep.
I grimaced at how appropriately named the Elder’s territory was.
Even the name makes my skin crawl.

I shifted on the blanket and rested my head on a satin-covered pillow. I was still a prisoner at The Blood Keep, but I was treated far better than Derek had been during our first days of capture. I recalled the last time I’d seen him, held him in my arms, kissed him. I missed him so much, and yet the thought that he wasn’t in The Blood Keep, held against his will, ready to be tortured at the whim of our captors, gave me hope.

I recalled the night I’d found out that Derek was no longer at The Blood Keep.

“What have you done to Derek? Where is he? What have you done to him?” I pounded against Kiev’s chest with all my might. I struck him, hit him, pushed him. He didn’t budge. He just looked at me with that infuriating smirk on his face. “You promised me he wouldn’t be harmed,” I sobbed as I finally exhausted myself, my shoulders sagging in defeat.

“You done, Sofia?” Kiev asked.

I raised my eyes to meet his. I had every intention of showing him my defiance, but though it might have worked with the likes of Derek, I learned that night that the same thing wouldn’t always work with Kiev.

Kiev was as unpredictable as anyone could get.

When our eyes met, Kiev struck me in the face so hard, I was thrown to the ground at least a couple of feet away from him.

“Mention his name again, Sofia, and I will make you bleed.” The tone was almost seductive. He gripped me by the head so hard I screamed, my scalp burning with pain.

He was asking the impossible of me. How could I possibly last without speaking about Derek? “I want to see Derek,” I insisted. “Now.”

“Shut up!” He struck me again. And again. And again.

I thought he was going to kill me, but as he was about to deliver the fifth blow, the servant standing by the door took a step forward.

“Master,” she breathed out.

“Stay out of this, Olga,” Kiev hissed, his fist up in the air, ready to deal another blow.

She was young and beautiful. She reminded me of a porcelain doll, her eyes bright, her voice thin and almost baby-like.

“I’m only worried that you might cause her to…” Olga hesitated, fidgeting with her dress.

Clarity came over Kiev’s blood-red eyes. He looked at me like I was dust turned into a precious diamond.

He dropped his hand and nodded. “You’re right.”

I was about to sigh with relief, but Kiev was far from finished. Instead he flexed his arms and cracked his knuckles. “Still, Olga, sweetheart, you know that someone has to pay for all the trouble Derek Novak put me through…” He turned to the young woman and before I could comprehend what was going on, he hit her.

“Kiev! Stop it!” I screamed.

He didn’t stop until she was beaten to a bloody pulp. Kiev cuffed me to the bed when I tried to hit him on the head with the first object I could get a hold of.

When he was satisfied, he stood and pointed at Olga. “I can’t hurt you, Sofia. What you carry inside you is too precious. Be thankful for that. Thus, whenever you displease me, it is Olga who will feel my wrath. And you’ll know that you’re responsible for her pain. Do you understand?”

“You’re a monster,” was all I could respond with, my mind reeling at what he was implying.

He chuckled, and then in a split second, his mood completely changed, as if the word ‘monster’ had triggered something in him. He began to cry and when he saw Olga’s unconscious form on the ground, he gasped. “What have I done? Olga…”

He knelt beside her and forced her to drink his blood so that she would heal.

“Please don’t cross me again,” he pleaded and for a moment, I actually believed that he meant it, but I was confused by how he could be this violent man one minute and this whimpering child the very next.

I learned several things about my stay at The Blood Keep that night. Derek was no longer at The Blood Keep. That he had escaped was a hope I latched on to, something that Olga eventually verified. I also began to wrap my mind around the possibility that I was pregnant and that this was the reason I was so important to them. They wanted my child.

It didn’t take long before nature verified this fearsome possibility for me. I was indeed bearing Derek’s child.

Finally, I realized that Kiev wasn’t just evil. He was stark crazy, and neither I nor anyone else was safe around him.

I knew then that I had to find a way to escape like Derek had, because I didn’t want him to have to come back to The Blood Keep. Ever.

Five months into my stay at The Blood Keep, I was getting nowhere in my attempt to escape. Only recently had Kiev allowed me outside the bedroom he’d kept me in for the first few months of my captivity at the castle. All that time, I was heavily guarded. By a beast.
Beasts,
the vampires called them, but I’d been at The Blood Keep long enough to know what they really were—dogs turned into blood-sucking vampires. The dogs fed only on blood. They were twice their original size and they had the keenest senses an animal could possibly have.

One was always tailing me wherever I went. The only places I was allowed to go to were the gardens and my bedroom. All my meals were served in either of the two places. I couldn’t get too far away without the giant, bloodthirsty mutt snarling at me.

Still, as far as I was concerned, an animal was an animal and the one that kept following me seemed likeable enough—if I ignored the fact that one wrong move I made would cause it to go berserk and drink my blood. I called him Shadow.

I looked around and found Shadow pacing the ground a few feet behind me. He didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

“Hey, boy…” I nodded his way. He growled fiercely at me in response, reminding me of what had happened when I had dared approach the Keep’s border. I’d ventured past the gardens and through the woods to the boundary line where the witch’s spell of eternal night stopped, and day began. Shadow had tackled me to the ground as soon as I had got within fifteen feet of the border, first biting my shoulder, then aiming for my neck. If Kiev hadn’t arrived to hold the beast back, I was certain it would have eaten me alive.

I rolled my eyes at the beast. “You’re
never
in a good mood.” I took a deep breath.
For crying out loud, I’m actually having a conversation with a dog. I must be getting desperate.

The only people I was allowed to converse with were Olga and Kiev, although I could hardly call him a person. Olga was cordial enough, but she always acted like she was walking on eggshells around me. I couldn’t blame her. Any mistake I made and she would pay. I wasn’t exactly a safe ally for her at The Blood Keep.

I was often allowed to roam the castle’s gardens, well-trimmed and beautiful. The gardens looked completely out of place in the Keep. Beauty didn’t belong in such a place.

I flipped over so that I was lying on my stomach and propped my upper body up with my elbows. I watched Shadow pace like the brooding vampire that he was before he stopped to face me, his eyes hateful and full of hunger.

“So, Shadow, do
you
know where Derek is? Is he safe? Olga told me that he escaped. I have to believe that’s true, that he’s somewhere out there, doing everything he can to get to me.”

Shadow’s deafening growl told me that he was getting agitated by my friendliness. When he poised himself for attack, I backed down. “Fine. You don’t want to talk. You don’t have to be mad about it.”

I felt the pressure to do for Derek what I hoped he was doing for me, to find him, but there wasn’t much I could do at The Blood Keep. I was at the mercy of one person: Kiev, a man I could not understand at all.

Not wanting to think about Kiev, I sat up and retrieved the sketchbook I kept on my person at all times. I began thumbing through it. Every sketch it contained made my heart ache with longing. Every single one was of Derek.

I felt movement in my growing belly. I smiled as I began to stroke my stomach.

“Hello, little one. You’re getting heavier every day.” I trusted that my child could understand. Kiev had forbidden me to even mention my husband’s name, but nothing could stop me from talking about Derek to my unborn child. “Your daddy would’ve loved nights like these. Stargazing. I’m looking at sketches I made of him. It helps me keep his face, his smile fresh in my mind. I miss him so much. I can’t help but wonder what his reaction would be if he found out that you’re coming. I bet he’d be really excited. I know he’s always dreamed of having you.”

I choked as I tried to suppress the tears, wondering what life would’ve been like had we lived a normal one.
Get it together, Sofia. You’re bearing his child. You can’t go through the whole thing depressed.
I knew little about pregnancy or children, but I had it in my head that my emotions affected my child. Having had Ingrid Maslen as my mother—I’d sworn early in life that I was going to be a good mother to my children. I determined to start as early as I could.

I began to hum a tune to my unborn child. The same tune Derek had hummed to me countless times. Our song.

Never had I wished for normalcy more. I was a pregnant teenager. I wasn’t supposed to go through this alone. I needed my husband. I needed my family.

But this was the life I’d signed up for when I married Derek, and I could blame no one for that choice. Daily, I drew hope that I would be with him again, that this life within me was going to know how strong, loving, and wonderful a father Derek could be.

For now, I just need to keep myself together, stay alert and try to remain on Kiev’s good side… for Olga’s sake.

“Enjoying the breeze?”

Kiev’s voice made my heart beat faster. I caught my breath. Chills shot up my spine. He induced sheer terror in me, but I wasn’t about to show him that.

He sat beside me and shifted his attention to my stomach. “How’s the pregnancy going? I trust the fresh air has been helping. Are you not getting cold?”

Based on the smile on his face and the uppity tone of his voice, he seemed to be in a cordial mood—a good sign.

“You seem rather pleased with yourself,” I commented, maintaining a flat, civil tone with him.

“Hello to you too, Sofia. How was your day?”

“Devoid of sunlight. Yours?”

Just like The Shade, The Blood Keep was under an eternal night. No mornings. No sunshine. As much as I loved The Shade, I couldn’t imagine raising my child never seeing sunlight. Suddenly, the house Derek and I had checked out back in California seemed like heaven.

“You didn’t seem to mind the lack of sunlight when you were at The Shade.” He grabbed the picnic basket I had with me. Olga had prepared the food inside the basket. Kiev thumbed through the food there. “This looks healthy. You haven’t even touched it.”

I wasn’t thrilled about having him around, but it didn’t look like he was going to give me a choice. “The Shade was home.”
It was enough that Derek was there
.

“The Blood Keep is your home now.”

Never.

He threw me a bag of sliced apples. “Eat.”

I didn’t want to irk him, so I took the bag and took a bite from one of the slices.

Most of the time, Kiev was kind to me—or at least he tried to be. I never did understand why. At first, I’d thought it was because of an attraction toward me, but he had made no advances on me since he’d arrived from The Shade.

I was dying to know what had happened at The Shade and what had happened to my husband—but the island and Derek were topics that were not to be broached if I wanted to remain unhurt, unscathed.

“Those sketches…” Kiev eyed the sketchbook I had on my lap. “They’re all of him?”

I took another bite from the apple and chewed silently. My silence was enough of an answer.

“Why do you torture yourself this way, Sofia?” He reached for the sketchbook and began looking at the sketches. He seemed to get annoyed by it, because he eventually tossed the book back to me. “Forget him.”

“That’s never going to happen, Kiev, and you know it. Derek’s not going to stop looking for me. He’ll destroy this whole place if he has to.”