A Shade Of Vampire 4: A Shadow Of Light (24 page)

He’s going to kill me.

When the back of his hand
hit my face, I was surprised that my neck didn’t snap. My head was spinning from the pain which was already racking every bone in my body. I was certain that I had at least one broken rib and the parts of my body he dug his claws into were screaming in agony. I began coughing blood—the red liquid causing a spark of delight in his beady eyes.

“Why do you fight me, Sofia? Why do you resist?” he asked as I scampered away from him, backing myself up into a wall,
as he dipped his finger in the blood I’d coughed up on the floor and licked it. He closed his eyes. “There’s nothing like it. What is it that makes your blood so delightfully sweet?”

I wanted to glare up at him but one of my eyes was already swollen shut. I was trying to figure out a way to retrieve the wooden stake I kept on the hunters’ strap round my thigh without
Borys noticing. I knew that should he see the stake coming, then I couldn’t use it against him, but his eyes remained on me.

Maybe I’m doing this the wrong way. Perhaps I should play along with his game and pretend to want him so I could stab him in the heart while he’s having his way with me.
I grimaced at the notion. The very idea of his hands on me made me sick.

“Are you not tired, Sofia?”
He tilted his head to the side, a smirk forming on his face.

Exhausted.
I returned his smirk. “The disgust I feel just looking at you is enough to give me all the energy I need. Just the sight of you makes my skin crawl.”

I could see his stocky, muscular build tense. I didn’t know what demented part of his existence I
had just hit, but my words had struck a chord and I knew it.

“Take that back,” he growled in a low, menacing voice.

I knew that should I prod on with my insults, I would definitely cause him pain and most likely urge him to hurt me some more, but inside, I was also hoping that it would somehow repel him from me to know how much I hated him. “It’s true. Have you ever had a woman actually
want
to be with you? Isn’t it why you have to do this? Force us? I am not yours, Borys. I will never be yours. I can never
ever
enjoy your touch the way I enjoy Derek’s. You’re nowhere near even a fraction of the man he is. I think you know that. That’s why you envy him so much.”

He sped my way, grabbed me by the shoulders and I had to scream when he threw me across the room into a wall. I crashed to the ground with a loud thud and before I could even make a single move, he was on top of me, stuffing his discarded shirt down my throat until I began gagging.

“You have to learn to shut up, Sofia, my pet. Say such foul things again and I will cut your tongue out…and heal you…and then cut it out again.” He pressed a hand over one of my broken ribs, making me scream through his shirt.

“We could end this, Sofia. Just cooperate with me. Pleasure me…”

I couldn’t hate anyone else more than I hated him at that moment. He made even Lucas, who had dealt me his own share of cruel torment, seem like a gentleman. I clawed at Borys with the strength I had left, but he just knelt over me and laughed as he took hold of both my wrists and pinned them over my head. He used his weight to keep my legs down while he used his free hand to begin unbuttoning my shirt.

He bared his fangs, ready to drink from my exposed neck, forcing my head to the side to allow him better access. I shut my eyes against what was happening, hoping to mentally escape from
the hands of this man. I was so horrified by the whole thing, I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination when I heard a knock on the door.

Borys
seemed annoyed by the intrusion. “Has it been an hour?” He frowned.

He turned his head toward the door and gave the inanimate object a cold glare before deciding to ignore it and turn his attention back to me. To my relief, it seemed he lost interest in drinking my blood. My relief, however, was short-lived because he then turned his attention to groping my body.

When another series of knocks came at the door, I didn’t even bother to fight the urge to sigh with utter relief.
Please…for mercy’s sake, don’t stop knocking.

Upon noticing how relieved I was,
Borys decided to take his frustration over the interruption out on me by grabbing fistfuls of my hair. By doing so, he had to let go of my wrists, and my hands were free to claw at him and hit him.

Annoyed, he forced my arms to my sides before wrapping one strong
arm around me to keep me steady as he stood up and freely kissed my neck and jawline. He walked toward the door even as he held me in his arms.

I steeled myself against shedding more tears. I didn’t want to cry any longer, but I also had no fight left in me either, so my tense and exhausted form just limply hung
within his embrace, hoping that whoever was behind that door would somehow provide me momentary relief from Borys Maslen.

Borys
finally opened the door.

I only realized how terrible I looked when I heard Ingrid, who
m I was certain didn’t give a damn about what happened to me, gasp at the sight of me. “What have you done to her? Are you trying to kill her?”

Borys
pulled his mouth away from my cheek. “She’s trying to kill herself with all the fight she’s trying to put up against me. Little minx can’t seem to get it in her head that she’s mine and that she’s supposed to just lean back and take whatever I give her.”

“Lest you forget, she’s the only leverage you have against Derek Novak. If you destroy her, you’re not going to be able to leave this island alive.”

Borys scoffed. “Just one drink of my blood will fix her.”

“Let her drink mine.”

I was stunned to hear the familiar voice.
Vivienne.
I turned to find her stepping into the room right behind Ingrid.

“What’s
she
doing here?” Borys spat out, though none of us missed the way his grip loosened around me as he perused Vivienne from head to foot. There was no mistaking that he still wanted Vivienne after all those years.

“
A gift from Derek Novak.” Ingrid shrugged.

“I’ll do anything you want me to
.” Vivienne looked confident enough, but her voice broke when she spoke the words. She heaved a sigh to regain composure before raising her eyes to him. “Just stop tormenting Sofia.”

Borys
grinned as he wrapped both his arms around me, crushing my broken ribs against his firm chest. “Hear that, Sofia? Your lover is so enamored by you that he would willingly whore out his own sister just to rescue you.”

I hate you.
With all the defiance I still had left within me, I spat in his face. Angered, he once again threw me forcefully to the ground. Vivienne rushed to my side.

“Sofia, you look awful,” she muttered under her breath.
She bit into her wrist and made me drink her blood.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
Borys fisted a clump of Vivienne’s hair.

“Healing her. If I don’t, she will die. Do you not see how much you’ve broken her?” Vivienne responded through gritted teeth. “I can barely see a trace of her original complexion. She’s black, purple and blue where she’s not bleeding.”

“Serves her right for not giving in to me…” Borys walked away from us and leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Vivienne feed me more of her blood.

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 thin
k 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.

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 standin
g 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, eye
s 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.”

“He? Who’s he?” I tightened my jaw. “I don’t even care. Let him know that ‘he’ will never get a hold of Sofia. I would sooner wage war on anybody who threatens her than let her go.”

“I’m going to forgive this momentary lapse of your sanity, Derek. I don’t understand
how you of all people have come under her spell, but you’ll snap out of it eventually.” She smiled at me and looked at me with a lingering sultry gaze. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I know you felt it the moment you looked at me. You felt the attraction immediately, didn’t you? You felt what I felt.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied, swallowing back my guilt. “You’re delusional.”

She chuckled in response. “You don’t belong with her, Derek Novak. You belong with me.”

I straightened to my full height, not knowing how to react properly to the words she was spouting out. “I don’t even know who you are.”

“Of course you do.” She smiled. “I’m a daughter of the darkness just as surely as you are his son.”

“
His?
”

“The original. He meant you for me.”

Before the words could even sink into my mind, she vanished before my very eyes. My knees buckled beneath me. No matter how much I tried to fight it or even deny it, Emilia had something about her that just drew me to her. Like we were somehow connected…

“Derek?”

I turned to my side and found Sofia standing by the door. I wondered if she had heard what Emilia had just said. “Sofia…” I began to speak, but the words came out in a bare whisper.

“Who was that?” she asked. “How was that possible? She just…disappeared.”

I didn’t know how to respond. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before.” Sofia approached me and I pulled her against me, assured by her presence that I loved her deeply and that even my attraction for another woman could never shake that love. Still, my attraction to Emilia was killing me, and I couldn’t understand why.

“What just happened? No one just disappears like that…” Xavier spoke up
.

“If she is who she says she is, then we’re at war with a force far greater than just the other vampire covens or the hunters,” Vivienne said, emerging from the room.

I knew without a doubt that she had heard every word from the other side of the wall.

I nodded. “We need to prepare for war.”

“We wouldn’t have to do that if the cure works…” Sofia said.

At that, I
couldn’t help but scoff as everyone turned toward Aiden, who, with downcast eyes, had to tell his own daughter that he’d been playing her all along.

I hated how much it broke Sofia’s heart when he said, “There is no cure.”