A Break of Day (A Shade of Vampire #7)(16)
Author: Bella Forrest

On arriving at my bedroom, it turned out that leaving a note wasn’t necessary. For there lay Sofia, sprawled unconscious on the bed, her skin covered with blisters and blood seeping from a deep wound near her abdomen.

Chapter 15: Sofia

As the blackness gave way to fluorescent white lighting, the first thing that came into focus was a set of bright blue eyes. A warm hand brushed against my cheek. Derek. Relief overwhelmed me, but as I came further to consciousness and realized what a danger I was to my loved ones, it transformed into horror.

Derek’s face lit up as soon as I stirred. He bent down and his lips pushed against mine. I wished I could have returned his embrace with as much passion. Instead my lips and arms remained stiff. The Elder retained full control of my movements.

“Sofia!” my father gasped.

Oh, no. Not you too.

I turned my head to see Aiden on the other side of my bed. He clutched my hand, leant down and kissed my forehead. Pain was etched in his eyes. He’d already lost his wife to the curse. Now he was watching me suffer under it. Thank God he doesn’t know my situation is even worse than Ingrid’s was. I don’t know how he would survive it.

“You’re going to be okay, my darling,” Aiden said. “We’re going to find a cure for you, just as we did for Derek. And then we’re going to bring your beautiful baby boy back to your arms. How does that sound?”

I was desperate to ask about my son, but my lips remained tightly sealed. I looked around for the first time. We were in the emergency room at Hawk Headquarters.

Why does it want me here?

A nurse walked over to me and helped me into a sitting position. It was then that the remains of a mouthful of blood trickled down to the base of my tongue. Sweet. Succulent.

“You’re lucky we retained some of Anna’s blood from the lab when we were doing tests on her.” The nurse smiled.

Anna’s blood. Although I couldn’t deny my craving for more, I felt disgusted. Whatever did happen to Anna? And what about Kyle who accompanied her here all those months ago, just after he became a human?

Aiden must have guessed such questions would have been running through my mind. “Anna and Kyle are okay, Sofia. They’re in Aviary right now. Arron brought Ian there too. But they will be returned unharmed. They are just assisting the Guardians with some testing.”

Aviary? Guardians? Testing? I had no idea what he was talking about, but none of it put me at ease for my friends’ safety.

His face betrayed realization that he’d implicated himself in a longer and more complicated discussion than he had intended. “But all that, my dear, is a topic for another day. We need to get you better first.”

“How long before I can leave this bed?”

“Immediately,” the nurse said. “Take a look, you’re all healed.”

The blisters and all traces of my wound had vanished. I shivered internally as I recalled my trip to the witch in The Cells who, in exchange for some more dried bread, had carved the wound into my body and covered my skin with blisters as soon as we had returned from our… expedition.

“Where did you go, Sofia?” Derek must have been burning to ask.

“I-I don’t know, Derek.” I felt myself frown. “The last thing I remember was you leaving me in the bedroom. I was upset that you were refusing to bring me to see everyone here at Headquarters… I probably ran outside into the daylight. I suppose I worked myself up into a state and didn’t know what I was doing. But I think that what we can learn from this is: don’t make me upset again and I won’t go anywhere.”

Disappointment shrouded his eyes. He knew this wasn’t his Sofia he was talking to. He wanted me back. I wanted me back.

“How did you get back to the cabin?” he pressed.

How did I get there?

The truthful answer was that I didn’t know myself. After creating my wound, the witch had put me into unconsciousness and after that I remembered nothing. I guessed that Liana and her submarines must have had something to do with my journey.

“Again, I don’t remember anything. My guess is that some humans from the local village spotted me and brought me there.”

Derek was about to interrogate me further, but Aiden came to the Elder’s rescue and interrupted him. “There’ll be time for more questions later, Derek. Sofia has been through an ordeal and, although her body is looking better now, she clearly still needs some mental rest.”

“Rest is exactly what I need. Thank you.” I put my arms around my father’s neck and kissed his cheek. Then I turned to speak to the nurse. “Where will I sleep?”

“What? With me in my quarters, of course.” Derek didn’t even give the woman a chance to answer. “I’m not letting you leave my sight after having you slip from my grasp twice already.”

“No, D-Derek,” I stuttered. “I c-can’t sleep anywhere near you. I don’t want to risk doing more harm to you than I’ve done already.” I placed a hand underneath his shirt and traced my fingers over the scars I’d created on his torso. Then cold tears started to fall from my eyes. “P-please, I can’t sleep anywhere near you.”

Again my loving father came to the aid of the Elder. He gathered me in his arms and said, “Derek’s not going to make you stay with him if you don’t want that, honey. You can sleep wherever you want.”

“No, she can’t!” Derek hissed. “Aiden, are you mad? I am not going to let her out of my sight. Especially not during the long hours of the night. That’s when she’s most vulnerable! She needs supervision.”

Aiden placed a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “As long as she’s within the boundaries of Headquarters, she’ll be fine. I’ll have security positioned at all exits to the main building during the day so she won’t be able to go out into the sunlight, and around the outskirts of the entire grounds at night so she won’t leave the campus even once it’s dark. There was nothing stopping her leaving that little hut. You’re forgetting that it’s different here at Headquarters.”

“I still don’t trust…” Derek began, but Aiden cut him off.

“And,” Aiden said in a low voice, “you know very well that there are other reasons why it’s better that Sofia is kept away from everybody… why it’s better that as few people as possible realize that she’s back here.”

At that, Derek remained silent. Then Aiden turned to me once again. “You can stay in whatever apartment you want while you’re here, okay, darling?”