A Shadow of Light

The momentary reprieve was exactly what I needed as my eyes met with Vivienne’s. Her blue violet gaze bore into mine with sympathy and compassion. She was the one person I knew who had been through Borys’ cruel hands before, which is why I was so shocked when she looked at me and said, “Just give in to him, Sofia. Let him have his way. There’s no point in fighting back. You’ll only get hurt much worse if you don’t give in.”

I stared up at her in horror. She must know exactly how I feel about him, how disgusted I am by the idea of his touch, how revolted I am whenever I sense his eyes on me. How could she ask this of me? Her own memories—ones that she had shared with me before—came flooding through my mind. How she fought back with everything that she was, how he continued to defeat her and break her until her mind snapped and just let things be. It took years before she was able to completely recover from the trauma of what Borys had put her through.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Delight was sparkling in Borys’ dark eyes as he stared at Vivienne with amazement, reveling in her words. “You should listen to Vivienne, Sofia. She knows. If Derek hadn’t taken her away from me, I know Vivienne and I would’ve gotten along well even to this very moment. Isn’t that right, Vivienne?”

Vivienne didn’t respond. Instead, she checked on me and seemed satisfied that I was healing fine. I could see the fear and the dread in her eyes and I gulped at what she was planning to do. She rose to her feet and faced Borys.

As I followed her with my gaze, it finally dawned on me what she was doing. She was using herself as bait, as a distraction to get Borys’ attention away from me. My heart broke in the process, knowing the kind of sacrifice she was making for me.

Vivienne approached Borys slowly, biding her time. Caught in her spell, he remained still, devouring her with his eyes, taking in her lovely form, loving every minute of her approach. I couldn’t help but sneer at how delighted he seemed. I was certain that no woman had ever given him the same attention Vivienne was giving him at that moment. She gently caressed his face and hair. She then pressed her lips against his jaw. A sigh of pleasure escaped Borys’ lips. The idea that he was getting pleasure out of Vivienne’s humiliation sickened me.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her body against his, before rolling over so that Vivienne’s back was against the wall and he had full control. Now having a pliable victim under his grip, he seemed to revel in the idea that Vivienne was just going to let him do whatever he pleased.

I rose to my feet, my eyes on Vivienne. She looked straight at me even as Borys began ripping the neckline of her shirt and kissing her collarbone. What am I waiting for? This is my chance. I reached for the wooden stake attached to my thigh and slipped it out. Vivienne’s eyes widened and she nodded at me, but she also raised one hand to motion for me to wait.

To my shock, she began running her hands over his bare torso and slightly tugged at his jeans to lower them. What is she doing? I heard Borys moan over the idea of a woman actually willingly reciprocating his advances.

“Borys is good to those who are good to him, isn’t that right?” Vivienne said and Borys moaned his agreement as his hands gripped her hips and lifted her up higher against the wall, his own hips supporting her weight. “Let me teach Sofia how to please you. You’ll like it when she learns.”

He hesitated for a moment. I was afraid that he was going to turn and look at me and find the wooden stake in my hand, so I hid it behind my back as I slowly approached them. But Vivienne continued to coax him. “You’ll have us both. Isn’t that what you want?”

It sickened me to think of him smiling at the notion, and I sped up my steps toward him. I was about a foot away when Vivienne nodded.

“Let me down, Borys…” she gently pleaded right after she had kissed him.

His head was probably still reeling from her kiss because he gently lowered her to the ground. Vivienne continued to kiss him. “Turn around, baby… Sofia is right behind you and I’m going to instruct her on what to do so that you won’t get so mad at her all the time.”

He must’ve been expecting kisses from me—something evident from the look of euphoria on his face as he quickly spun around to face me. By the time he saw the stake, it was already driven deep into his heart. He motioned to attack me with the strength left in him, but Vivienne held his jaw from behind and swiftly snapped his neck.

Just like that, we saw the great Borys Maslen drop to the ground, dead.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. We actually did it. Vivienne and I had defeated Borys Maslen. As much as I was relieved, however, I could feel pain in my heart. This is what it feels like to end the life of another. Overwhelmed by everything that had just occurred, I did the only thing I could. I broke down in tears, and so did Vivienne.

I didn’t know exactly what caused her tears, but I liked to believe that we were crying over the same thing. We were crying over the many lives lost, the many broken souls, the many more that would be lost and broken in the days to come.

CHAPTER 50: DEREK

The silence was worse than the bangs and the screams coming from that room. It left too much room for my mind to concoct horrible images of what Borys was putting Sofia through. And now, Vivienne’s under his mercy too.

“They’ve been quiet for too long. What’s going on in there? I can’t stand this.” I began marching toward the room, ready to put up a fight.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Aiden motioned to stop me.

“I can’t take it anymore. I have to do something.”

“You said so yourself. That monster might kill Sofia if you screw up.”

“Do you hear that silence, Aiden? She might be dead already!” I choked on the words the moment they came out of my lips. The idea of Sofia being gone was something I couldn’t allow myself to accept. I shook my head against my own thoughts. “No. She’s fine… She’s fine…” I shot a quick look at the vampires surrounding me. “We’re going in.”

Unlike Aiden, they knew me well enough not to protest, so they just nodded and we began to walk toward the corridor that led to the room. The corridor was guarded by Borys’ minions.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ingrid got in my way.

“You know for a fact that I can easily destroy you, Ingrid,” I snarled. “Since you’ve made it quite clear how indifferent you are to the plight of Sofia, I don’t think she’ll mind my killing you either, so get out of my way.”

“Borys will kill my daughter the moment he sees you walk through that door.”

“Your daughter?” I hissed. “You talk as if you care about what happens to her.”

“Don’t do anything rash,” she warned.

“Let me talk to him…”

She gave it a moment’s thought and looked at the vampires standing behind me. She nodded and motioned for me to follow her.

As we walked past the other vampires, I couldn’t help but feel something was amiss. There was something different about them. I had no idea if I was just imagining things, but it almost felt as if they were looking at me with admiration. One of them particularly caught my eye. A man would have to be blind to not notice how gorgeous she looked. Our eyes locked and I knew without a doubt that she too was attracted to me.

I swallowed hard, guilty that I was checking out another woman—an enemy at that—while Sofia was most likely going through hell. What’s wrong with you, Novak?

I followed Ingrid into the room and practically bumped into her frozen form when she suddenly stopped in her tracks and stared at something on the ground. I side-stepped her and my jaw dropped wide open when I saw Borys’ dead body on the ground and a broken and bruised Sofia sobbing next to him. Vivienne was sitting a couple of feet away from Sofia, looking absolutely distraught.

I couldn’t understand what was going on. I was wrought with a mixture of shock, absolute joy and confusion over the reaction the women had to Borys’ dead body.

Before Ingrid, frozen with shock, could gather her wits about her, I rushed toward Sofia, making sure that she was safe. I grinned triumphantly at Ingrid as I bellowed a command, “Take them all captive! Now! Kill them if you have to!”

Chaos erupted outside the room. Ingrid seemed to have all the energy drained from her as she threw herself at Borys’ body, her entire form racked with deep, broken sobs. I embraced Sofia, unable to bear looking at the bruises—though slowly healing—all over her body.

“Are you alright?” I whispered into her ear, tightening my embrace around her, feeling her tremble against my body.

She nodded into my shoulder.

“You did it, Sofia. I don’t know how, but you ended Borys Maslen!”

“They might need you out there…” she whispered hoarsely.

I knew she was right, so I pulled away from her. I directed my attention toward Vivienne. “Keep an eye on Ingrid. Keep her away from Sofia.” Satisfied that my sister was capable of getting a handle on things, I stepped out of the room to find all of the other vampires dead. All but one—the beautiful brunette who had caught my eye earlier as I passed her by…

She glared at me, eyes blazing—this time, with anger instead of attraction…

“You’ve no idea what you’ve done and what you’re up against.” She shook her head defiantly at me even as she motioned to attack me. She, however, was being held back by Xavier and Sam.

I narrowed my eyes in scrutiny of her. I could tell that she was more powerful than she was letting on. I knew by instinct that she could’ve easily gotten out of their grips if she wanted to. “Who are you?” I asked.

“You don’t remember, do you?”

I frowned in confusion. “Remember what?”

“Emilia. I’m Emilia. You made a huge mistake today, Derek, but don’t worry…you’ll get back on track soon enough. For now, I’m warning you. He won’t stop until he gets a hold of her.”