A Castle of Sand (24 page)

I was anxiously pacing the floor right outside the cell where I’d left Sofia and Ben.

“You just left them there?” Xavier asked. “Without even bothering to interrogate the lad?”

“Shush,” I snapped at him.

He was my second-in-command when it came to all military matters at The Shade and I was expecting him to question my judgment over why on earth I would leave Ben—an obvious risk to the island—to have a grand reunion with Sofia, who in truth was also a risk to the island. Despite what Xavier might have been thinking, however, I hadn’t gone entirely mad. I still had my protective instincts toward The Shade completely intact. I wanted to listen in on every word coming out of both Sofia and Ben’s mouths. I felt bad not trusting Sofia and eavesdropping on her conversation with her best friend, but I couldn’t help but give in to the temptation to do it.

If I was to be completely honest with myself, I knew that my reasons for eavesdropping on them weren’t purely because of my desire to keep the island safe. Ben was the only person who had ever posed a real threat to what I had with Sofia. The fact that he would just suddenly show up at The Shade right after Sofia became my fiancée rubbed me the wrong way.

Beyond that, the onslaught of fears that came with his appearance was something I could not deny.

Of course, whatever fears I had completely washed away when Sofia made it known to Ben that she had agreed to marry me. I was expecting the young man to react with anger. He had never liked me after all, but I was surprised—and made suspicious—by his reaction.

I couldn’t believe my ears when he told Sofia that he thought I deserved her more than he did.
Why exactly is this man back here? Risking his life to return “just to see Sofia” seems too good to be true.
Unable to hold myself back, I barged inside the room in time to see them withdrawing from an embrace. The idea that he was touching Sofia—much more hugging her—made me sick with jealousy.

Rein yourself in, Novak. Don’t do anything you’ll regret,
I reminded myself as I tried to look unbothered by their embrace. I kept repeating in my head that they were best friends and that it was perfectly normal for them to hug each other after being apart for so long.

“Derek?” Sofia cast me a questioning look. “We were just talking and…”

I shook my head. “You don’t have to explain. I understand. You understand that I do need to interrogate, Ben? I know he’s your friend, but the threat he poses to the island is too great to ignore.”

Sofia nodded. “Of course.”

I shifted my attention to Ben, expecting to find the usual haughty and defiant expression on his face. Instead, he just seemed…exhausted and somewhat jaded by the time that had passed since he last stepped foot on this island.

I gestured toward a small wooden chair in one corner of the small room. “You may take a seat.”

He shook his head. “I prefer to stand, thank you.”

I leaned my back against one of the walls. From the corner of my eye, I could make out Sofia taking a seat on the edge of the cot. Xavier was leaning against one post of the open door. All attention was now on our unexpected visitor.

“I understand that you’re a hunter now?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.

Ben nodded. “Yes. That’s correct.”

“That makes you a threat to us. Do the hunters know about the location of The Shade?”

“No one knows I’m here.”

“And I should just believe you?”

“I don’t care what you believe or don’t believe, Novak. Prepare for a hunter attack for all I care, strengthen your defenses, put everyone on alert if you must. I’m telling you that it’s a waste of time. If the hunters knew about the island, then it would have been blown to pieces by now. They don’t care about all the humans you have here. They just want you dead.”

That they wouldn’t think twice about blowing up the island was something I could believe.
It’s what I would’ve done if I were still a hunter.
It was how the hunters operated. Collateral damage and the loss of human life were acceptable as long as they fulfilled the mission of wiping out every single vampire from the face of the earth.

“How did you make your way back to the island, Ben? How could you have known how to return here?”

“Your brother, Lucas, sent me,” Ben said flatly.

“Why on earth would Lucas Novak risk his own neck to contact a hunter and make him come here?” I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand what my older brother’s motivations could possibly be.

“He wants Sofia out of here. He was threatening to kill my family—my father, my mother and my little sister. Although that was a bluff. I’m sure he’s aware that the families of hunters are always closely monitored; he’d be a fool to come within a mile of our house. He got in touch with me through Natalie Borgia. He sent me here to coax Sofia out of the island.”

He said every word with such blunt honesty, it felt like a huge blow to my senses. “So all this time, my brother is still after Sofia.”

“He doesn’t trust me,” I told Sofia as she laid a plate of stir-fried vegetables on top of the wooden table inside her quarters in The Catacombs.

“Of course he doesn’t.” Sofia shrugged nonchalantly. “Why on earth would Derek trust you? Nobody here trusts you, Ben. No one has any reason to trust you.”

“Not even you?” I asked, swallowing back my hurt, knowing how much truth rang in her words.

Loose strands of her auburn hair fell to her face as she sat across the table from me. “I want to trust you, but I have so many questions running through my mind. I just…am I really supposed to believe that you had a complete turnaround and are now willing to protect The Shade?”

“I have no desire to protect The Shade, Sofia,” I clarified. “I still want to have my vengeance on Claudia. I still want to see her die for what she did to me. The only reason I’m here is because I want to make sure you’re alright. I want to make sure that he’s treating you right. Lucas was the only way I could get to you. If I was going to betray The Shade, I already would’ve done that.”

“Well, now that you’re here and you’ve seen me, I guess you can see that I’m perfectly fine, that Derek has treated me well. Now what?”

I stared at her in wonderment. After Derek released me and allowed me to go to The Catacombs with Sofia—under close surveillance at
all
times—Sofia, Ashley and Rosa had updated me on what’d been happening at The Shade since Sofia’s arrival. I was saddened by the news of Paige’s murder, shocked by Ashley’s choice to get turned into a vampire and moved by the stories about the culling and how Derek stood up for Sofia at the town square. More than anything, however, I was stunned by what Sofia had been able to accomplish at The Shade.

“She’s practically the princess of The Shade now,” Ashley had said proudly, as she cast an affectionate gaze toward Sofia.

“She’s about to become the queen.” Rosa smiled as she fingered the ring on Sofia’s finger. Derek had given it to her shortly after he released me from the port.

The sight of the ring made my heart ache with a sense of loss as I wondered what could’ve been if I’d done things differently, if I had been the one who treated Sofia the way she deserved to be treated.

Every time I looked at Sofia, I couldn’t help but regret how things turned out between us. I felt the same way as I had supper with her.

“Stop looking at me that way, Ben,” she said as she took a sip from a spoonful of soup.

“What way?” I asked.

“I don’t know…you look at me a certain way, Ben. Like you’ve somehow lost me…”

I cleared my throat. “Am I that transparent?”

“I just know you, Ben. That’s all. You feel like if you don’t get something you want, you did something wrong. The fact that I’m with Derek right now has nothing to do with you. You couldn’t have done things differently and expected things not to turn out as they have now. Some things are just meant to be.”

“And you think you and Derek were always meant to be?”

She nodded. “Yes. He’s the love of my life.”

The words stung and she knew it, but I appreciated her honesty.

“You saw me when no one else did, Ben. You took care of me all throughout high school and you made the worst nine years of my life livable. I love you, Ben.”

“But not the way you love him.”

“Why do you keep on tormenting yourself?”

I needed to change the subject. I debated with myself then whether or not to tell Sofia that her father was running the hunters’ headquarters in the USA. I had no idea how she would react. I decided not to tell her just yet.
Not now, there will be time later.

Sofia kept quiet as she finished her meal. When she was done, she laid her spoon over her plate and looked straight at me.

“I can’t explain how great it is to see you again, Ben, but your presence here terrifies me, because the man I love is fighting to keep this island protected. You’re a threat to him and that makes you a threat to me.”

I looked straight at her, surprised that I meant every word when I said, “If you’re on his side, Sofia, then so am I.”

We were at my penthouse. I was leaning back over the edge of my living room couch and Sofia had her back leaned against my chest. I absentmindedly played with the ends of her hair, my thoughts occupied by Ben and the recent reports from Eli about the possibility of tapping into the supplies of blood banks.

“Do you trust him?” I asked Sofia. It’d been three days since Ben’s arrival.

She nodded her head. “I want to. If he’s still anything like the Ben I knew, then he seems sincere…but Derek, I’m worried about his family…little Abby is the sort of girl Lucas would love to sink his teeth into. Ben is convinced Lucas poses no threat to them, but you know how scheming your brother is.”

“I know you see them as family, but I’m not going to risk losing you on their behalf.” My hand tightened around her waist, fearing that she’d act on a whim and do something stupid.

“What are we going to do then, Derek?”

“I think we have no choice but to trust Ben and trust that the hunters are fully capable of keeping his family safe.”

She licked her lips, worry evident in her green eyes. “I have a very bad feeling about all this, Derek.”

 “So do I…but what I know for sure is that you cannot—under any circumstances—step out of this island. If Lucas is out to get you…” The thought sickened me. After everything Lucas had already put Sofia through, losing her to him was something that I could never allow to happen. “I think it’s best to have you stay here at the penthouse with me for now?”

To my relief, she agreed. “I think that’s best for now.” She paused. “I’m scared, Derek.”

I couldn’t deny the truth. “So am I.”

I was staying at a hotel in Cancun, a place I detested. I hated how sunny and full of life it was, but it was one of the coasts closest to The Shade. It was also the same place where I’d found Sofia, so I figured it just might bring me some luck.

I couldn’t wait for evening to come, and when it did, I immediately prepared myself to go out on a hunt for some lovely young women I could feast on that night. I was about to leave the room when I heard a knock at my door.

I opened the door and smirked.
Natalie.

“Seems you can’t get enough of me these days, Natalie…”

“Not my fault messages for you keep on coming.” She brushed right past me and went straight to the bar and poured herself a glass of wine. The lovely Italian vixen then retrieved an envelope from her purse. “From Claudia.”

I raised a brow. I wasn’t expecting any correspondence from Claudia. I ripped the seal off the envelope and took out a short note. An onslaught of curses flowed from my lips as I read the message:
It looks like your boy, Ben, has now joined Derek and Sofia’s bandwagon. Your brother is now king of The Shade, and is about to make your pretty redhead his queen. He overthrew your father as king with a coup.

“You don’t look very happy,” Natalie commented. “News from home not that good?” She took another sip from her wine. “But wait a minute…where’s your home exactly, Lucas? Is it The Shade or is it The Oasis?”

I grimaced.
I’ll have no home if I don’t get Sofia out of The Shade and into The Oasis. In fact, I won’t need a home, because Borys Maslen will have my head.

Things were definitely not going according to plan, but it was clear that I now had two allies at The Shade: Claudia and my father. I had been certain that Ben would side with me, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
I never should’ve underestimated Derek’s powers of persuasion, but then it probably wasn’t his charm that turned Ben. Sofia really is a cunning little minx.

“Do you have a message you want me to bring to Claudia?” Natalie asked, finishing off her wine. “This is awful,” she commented, wrinkling her nose. The Italian was known to have grown up in vast and lush vineyards. She definitely knew her wines.

I, on the other hand, still could not fend off the annoyance I felt toward her—especially when I found out about the fondness she had for my brother. Still, Natalie Borgia was necessary to my existence and I knew I couldn’t mess with her.