A Shade of Vampire (A Shade of Vampire #1)(13)
Author: Bella Forrest

“Your highness, I-I… I didn’t mean to…” Husky was shaking so badly I could barely make out the words. “I didn’t know…”

What happened next was unlike anything I’d witnessed before. Derek let go of Husky’s neck and without a single moment’s hesitation, dug his claws into Husky’s chest. I could practically hear the sound of flesh breaking as Derek pulled out Husky’s bloody, still beating, heart. My knees weakened and I found myself falling to the ground. I never imagined – even for once in my life – that I would ever see someone literally rip another person’s heart out. I couldn’t even stand watching gory films. Having to see something like that in person felt like far more than I could handle.

Derek now focused on Pitchy who was spitting out profuse apologies. “Be silent.”

Pitchy lost no time in shutting his mouth and sparing us the annoying sound of his voice.

“Never touch what’s mine. Sofia Claremont is mine. Whoever harms her answers to me. Understood?” Derek growled.

Pitchy nodded. “Of course, y-your M-Majesty.”

Derek let go of Pitchy’s throat and the guard lost no time in scampering away from the prince. Derek tossed the then very much dead heart he was holding with his right hand and threw it to the ground. He then wiped Husky’s blood off his hands using the dead guard’s shirt. He rose to his full height and turned, his eyes settling on me. I thought of backing away from him, but saw its futility. He was glaring at me and I found myself fearing his anger.

“Get up, Sofia.”

I lost no time in rising to my feet. I was fully expecting to experience some form of pain. Instead, I found him looking at the length of my legs, concerned by the scratches he saw there. He brought out a dagger he had hidden up his sleeve. I stared at it, wondering if he was going to use it to teach me a lesson of sorts. Instead, he cut through his palm with it.

Despite my fear of him, I stepped forward, momentarily concerned.

“What are you doing?” My eyes were glued to the deep red blood now spilling from his palm – his blood.

“You shouldn’t have done what you did,” was all the response that I got. He lifted his palm, directing it toward my mouth. “Drink.”

My eyes grew wide open as I stared at his bloody palm. I gulped, disgusted.

“I can’t!”

“You will. It will heal your scrapes,” he insisted. “Marching you back to the Residences with all those bloody scratches will only make you a walking target for every vampire we pass by.”

I gave him an incredulous look, wondering if he too wanted to drink my blood at that moment. Tears were beginning to moisten my eyes, but I knew from the look on his face that we weren’t going to leave that spot until I did what he was telling me to do.

“Drink, Sofia,” he repeated – more sternly this time, impatience obvious in the tone of his voice. “My palm will heal in just a couple of seconds. I don’t want to have to cut myself again.”

I once again looked at his palm, unable to believe what I was about to do. I held his wrist with one hand, his fingers with the other. I noticed how his jaw twitched the moment I touched him. I gulped before doing the unthinkable – I began sucking the blood off his palm until his self-inflicted gash closed. I stepped back, the strange taste of his blood overwhelming my taste buds.

“Good,” he said and wiped off the thick red liquid dripping from the corners of my mouth.

I checked the gashes I had on my legs. Just like he said, all of them had gone. I didn’t know whether to be relieved. I still could not wrap my mind around the fact that I just drank blood, a vampire’s blood. I didn’t even think they had their own blood. I was aware of how badly I was trembling.

Derek inched closer to me and brushed his thumb against my cheekbone. “Are you alright?”

I stood, unmoving, my eyes drawn to the guard’s corpse on the ground.

“You killed him,” I said, betraying how stunned I felt. “Just like that… He’s dead.”

Derek heaved a deep sigh, a stoic expression coming over his chiseled face.

“I had to make an example of him. The other guard will make it known to the entire coven that you are not to be harmed because of what I did. You’re safer that way. Besides, he’d tasted your blood. He had to die.”

I still looked at him with a stunned expression on my face.

“He was going to kill you. He’d tasted your blood, Sofia. I doubt he would’ve had enough self-control to keep himself from devouring you completely.” He raised a brow, his mood lightening up a bit. “From the expression on your face as they were both about to sink their teeth into you, I figured you knew that you wouldn’t be able to talk them out of supping on you like you did me.”

Recollections of the previous night flowed through my head. I remembered how conflicted Derek seemed as he raised me up on that pillar ready to sink his teeth into me. There was no conflict of that sort evident in the vampire he just killed.

I found myself intrigued by Derek – even more so than I was before. He was a paradox, a walking contradiction. How he could do such a violent act with no hesitation in one moment and be as gentle as he was with me right afterwards was something that left me completely unnerved.

I could sense his eyes traveling my body from head to foot, then back up.

“You’ve been running for hours, haven’t you?” he concluded.

I almost felt embarrassed to admit it. “It feels like it.”

“Even if you get past the wall, you’re on an island, Sofia. Unless you can swim for miles, past the sharks, and get back to the mainland, there’s no way out of here.” Before I could respond to that, he scooped me up in his arms and in a matter of minutes, we were back at his Penthouse. He carried me to my bedroom and laid me on the ground.

“We’ll have breakfast in a couple of minutes. Get dressed in something other than that,” he looked at my outfit pointedly. It dawned on me that considering the time he’d been asleep, he’d probably never seen a lady wearing a hoodie with shorts before. Considering how my outfit was tattered and worn down after my morning “run”, I saw why it lacked appeal.

Before he turned toward the door, he stopped and asked, “Is there anything you need, Sofia?”

I need to get out of here was I wanted to say. Instead, I shook my head. “No.”

He nodded and headed for the door. He stopped just as he was about to open it. He gave one final warning.