Of course not, you insane b.i.t.c.h... I fought the urge to scream when her claws sank into my skin, drawing blood. The way her eyes lit up with delight at the sight of my blood was sickening.

"My mother was a wh.o.r.e you know... We were so poor and she was so sick, so she decided to sell me to The Duke. I was only six years old." She began running her hand through my hair before gripping a clump of it with a tight fist. "You remind me so much of him."

My heart sank at this revelation.

I felt myself inside her, every fiber of my being urged back, struggling against the restraints she kept me in, struggling against the degradation she was putting me through. All of it for nothing.

She slapped me with the back of her hand as she chuckled. "I struggled too you know. I screamed and clawed and fought back, but he had his way with me still. He always got his way. I'm going to have my way with you too."

And she did. Everything about her made my stomach turn. Her moans, the things she was saying... When she collapsed over my body, panting, I wanted to murder her.

"When I turned into a vampire, I made him pay dearly for what he did to me." Her eyes lit up at the memory. "You should've heard him cry and scream. He was weak," she said. "Just like you. I hold the power now and no one will ever be able to harm me the way he did again."

By the time she was done with me that first night at The Shade, I was battered, bruised, bleeding and exhausted. She left me still cuffed to the bed, gag in my mouth. It took hours before someone entered the room. At first, I thought it was her. I flinched just at the sound of the door creaking open. I couldn't stand the thought of her touching me again. Thus, I was relieved when I found a pretty girl with raven hair motioning for me to be quiet. She took the gag out of my mouth before beginning to pick the lock of the cuffs holding me to the bed.

"You have to be deathly quiet." She whispered so softly, I barely understood what she said. The rest of our conversation was in hushed whispers.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Eliza." She looked at my worn-down form. "Can you get up?"

I nodded. "I'm mostly just sore."

"Okay then. We're going to get out of here."

I was surprised at how quickly she was able to get the cuffs off me. I sat up on the bed, rubbing my wrists as she began rummaging through the closet for clothes she could throw on me.

"What's your name?" She threw me a pair of boxers and a navy blue hoodie.

"Ben." I quickly put the boxers on. "How did you get here?"

"I was following Claudia. I saw her approach you at the beach and sedate you. I would've saved you, but she was too quick, like she was suddenly in a hurry." She threw me a pair of jeans.

I quickly put them on, surprised by how well the trousers fit. "Saved me? How could you possibly..."

"There's no time for that now. All you need to know is that if you ever make it out of here without me, find Reuben. He's a hunter like me. He'll help you."

She made me memorize a number as I pulled the hoodie over my head. We snuck out of the room, careful to check that no one was following us. We were foolish to think that we could actually escape, but it made perfect sense at the time. I was stunned for a moment when I realized that Claudia's penthouse was nestled on top of giant trees. It was an amazing sight, but of course, it presented us with the dilemma of trying to figure out how to get down from there.

Eliza pointed to a lift nearby. We crept past some guy wearing a white woolen tunic. I was certain that we'd be found when I saw him, because of what folklore said about vampires having heightened senses. I was relieved to get past the guy, wondering if perhaps vampires weren't really that attuned to their senses or whether he was most likely human.

We managed to get inside the lift and punched a b.u.t.ton to get to the bottom of the tree. When the doors of the lift slid open, my stomach turned into knots.

We found Claudia waiting for us, chuckling. Two vampire guards were with her.

"Did you really think you had any chance of escaping?" Claudia taunted. The two guards restrained Eliza while Claudia set her attention on me, pushing me back into the elevator. Trying to capitalize on all the martial arts training I had back home, I made a move to hit Claudia, but she effectively dodged my blow. All it took was one hit from her, and I crashed into the elevator wall and fell to the ground, quickly fading into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, I was in a small, dimly lit room with no windows, chained to a wall, naked from the waist up. I noted how there were various chains and whips and contraptions that made my gut clench arranged in various areas of the room. On one side of the room, a surveillance monitor was mounted up on the wall, its screen showing an image of a large bed. Eliza was lying in the middle of it.

On the opposite side of the wall, Claudia was seated looking quite relaxed on a metal chair sharpening a dagger.

"What do you want from me?"

Claudia looked up. Her eyes lit up when she saw that I was finally awake.

"Oh, good. You're up and about. This means we can now start with your training."

She stood up and walked to me. She began tracing the tip of her dagger over my torso. "After everything I did to please you, you go off and leave me with that b.i.t.c.h?" She motioned toward the flickering screen. "I'm so disappointed with you, Ben."

With a crazed look in her eyes, she used her dagger to make a long, shallow cut in the skin below my left collarbone. I gritted my teeth. I refused to give her the satisfaction of hearing me scream. I didn't even want to let her see me writhe in pain.

She seemed to be pleased with my reaction. "You have a high pain threshold. I like that."

"You b.i.t.c.h."

She slapped me with the back of her hand, throwing my head grotesquely to the side. The force of her blow was so strong I was surprised my neck didn't break. I tasted blood on my lips and her eyes popped wide open when she saw the trickle of blood. Her gaze alternated manically between the blood on my lips and the blood spilling from the cut she had just made on my torso.

She took a lick of the blood on both my lips and my chest before making another cut, this time a little above my waist.

My breathing grew heavy trying to keep myself from giving her the satisfaction of a painful reaction as she made one agonizing cut after the other until my upper body became nothing but a b.l.o.o.d.y mess. The pain was excruciating and I was begging my brain to make me lose consciousness, but my body denied me even that escape. When she stopped cutting me, I hoped that it meant she was done. Wrong. She grabbed my hair and made me look up at the monitor.

"Keep your eyes on your little friend there. She's a huntress, dedicated to finishing off our kind. I suspected someone was following me back at the beach where I found you. How she found me, I guess I'll never know. When I sedated you, I could hear her gasp from a mile away. Silly, insipid little worm. It's funny how out of her own stupidity, she actually thought that she was being stealthy, thinking that vampires wouldn't notice her follow us all the way here to The Shade, but I let her go as far as allowing you the illusion of escape to test your loyalty to me." She grinned. "Now, that you've proven yourself disloyal, I can commence with punishing you."

She gave my b.l.o.o.d.y torso a manic glance. "Oh wait, I already did." To my surprise, she made a cut on her palm and shoved it over my lips, forcing me to gasp when she pinched my nose shut. I had no choice but to let the blood from her palm trickle down my throat. Her grip on my head tightened. "Of course, your punishment is far from over. I said I want you to watch your friend."

I shifted my gaze toward the surveillance monitor and saw a man approach Eliza's unconscious form. She looked so fragile as he lifted her in his arms and pulled her against his body. There was no mistaking the dark expression in his eyes as he looked at her milky white neck. It was ravenous and predatory. I wanted to look away when he bared his fangs and bit into Eliza's neck, but I couldn't. Claudia made sure of that as she held my head in position, her blood beginning to travel through my veins. As I was forced to drink Claudia's blood, I was also forced to watch another vampire drain the lifeblood away from an innocent young woman - one who already felt like a friend in the few minutes that I'd known her. By the time the vampire was done with Eliza, Claudia pulled her palm away from my mouth. She then looked at my body, which was to my surprise, beginning to heal.

I didn't realize fully the extent of her madness until she said, "Perfect. You'll be like brand new soon, and then I can cut you up all over again."

"Claudia was s.a.d.i.s.tic and insane," I told Sofia. I no longer wanted to continue the story or paint for Sofia any more of the gory details of the torture and humiliation Claudia inflicted on me, so I simply settled for: "She put me through h.e.l.l." Even time couldn't erase an experience like that.

Silence followed as both of us got lost in our own thoughts. Eventually, I couldn't bear the quiet anymore.

"So?" I asked with a bitter chuckle. "Was your experience at The Shade anything like mine?" I tried to say the words as lightly as I possibly could. Instead, my words came out flat and unnervingly cold.

"No." Sofia shook her head, her head bowed, as if she couldn't bear to look me in the eye. Guilt was evident in the tone of her voice. "Derek was nothing like Claudia. It was Lucas who tried to make my life there a living h.e.l.l. If it weren't for Derek, he would've succeeded, but Derek did everything he could to protect me from his older brother."

I found it sickening the way she talked about Derek like he was some sort of hero, but if one thing was clear to me at that point, Derek had done something to warrant her trust. Still, though he might have fooled her, he wasn't fooling me.

Tears moistened her eyes as she was finally able to force herself to look at me. "I'm so sorry, Ben. If I didn't wander off that night, you wouldn't have..." She choked on her words, biting hard on her lower lip. She grabbed my hands and squeezed hard.

I wanted to comfort her, tell her that it wasn't her fault. She couldn't have known. She was a victim too. However, I didn't tell her the things that I should've told her, because I was too preoccupied mulling over what I couldn't bring myself to tell her.

I couldn't tell her that after what Claudia put my body through, my sense of touch was so dulled I could barely feel Sofia's hands on mine. I didn't want any more of her pity.

I also couldn't tell her that Derek was the vampire who killed Eliza, because in spite of everything we'd been through, I was no longer sure of where her loyalties stood and the idea that she wouldn't believe me, that she could still choose Derek over me was one that I found terrifying.

CHAPTER 9: DEREK.

You shouldn't have let her go.

I tried everything I could to shut out my sister's words and keep them from continuously circling in my mind, but it was impossible. They gnawed at me and reminded me of the truth that I already felt so immensely. Sofia was no longer around, and no matter whom I surrounded myself with or what activity I tried to immerse myself in, I could still feel her absence with every fiber of my being.

Of course, I'd lived long enough to mask what I was going through as I continued my strict schedule of meetings with the vampires I needed to carry out my commands. By the end of the day, word was already out all over the island: The prince is wide awake. He's done taking a break and is about to get right to the b.l.o.o.d.y business of keeping The Shade safe.

I hated to admit it, but Vivienne was right. It was all a ruse, a show I had to put on in order to distract myself from the void that formed upon Sofia's departure.

After I wrapped up the last meeting of the day, I pulled Cameron to the side. "I can trust you, can't I?"

He nodded. "You know you can."

"I want you to find my older brother. We had a falling out..." He almost killed Sofia. "It was a pretty big fight and he's running scared of me now. You know how cowardly Lucas can get."

A smirk formed on Cameron's face. It was recognized by a handful of us that Lucas wasn't the kind of warrior we'd like to end up on the battlefield with. He'd be sure to throw us at the enemy's cannons if it meant he could save his life.

"What do you want me to do, Derek?" Cameron asked in his typical Scottish slur.

"I need you to find him. He's hiding on this island somewhere, or maybe he's even out with some of the scouts looking for new slaves he can exploit. I don't know... I just need to know where he is."

"What do you want me to do once I find him?"

I hesitated, but nodded when I realized what was needed. "Lock him up. In the Cells." I can't afford to have him go after her. "Then report back to me immediately."

"The king isn't going to like that. Neither will your sister."

"Vivienne will understand. She's always been on my side. As for my father, I'll take care of him when he gets here. It's just of prime importance right now that I know where Lucas is located at all times."

Cameron nodded. "I'll be on the lookout for him."

Satisfied that the search for my older brother was left in capable hands, I eventually retreated to my penthouse, ready for a well-deserved rest. The moment I entered my house, however, I realized that my day was far from over. Ashley, Paige and Rosa, the other three girls who, along with Sofia, completed my harem, were waiting for me.

Harem. I grimaced at the word. What a foolish connotation. It was another one of those innovations The Shade had come up with during my four-hundred-year slumber. Keeping a house full of young, gorgeous and nubile human slaves was a reckless and lavish indulgence the Elite and some of the other Lodgers naturalized vampire citizens of The Shade enjoyed. From the moment I was introduced to the idea, I was never an avid fan of it, but it was this very indulgence that brought me Sofia.

I scowled at the three lovely teenagers, standing in the middle of the hall, waiting for my arrival. Seeing them only reminded me of Sofia. h.e.l.l, everything about this place reminds me of Sofia now.

"Where's Sofia?" It was the blonde, Ashley, who spoke up. Of the three, she'd always been the gutsier one.

Half of me planned to just walk past them and head directly for my room. Something told me, however, that they would simply follow right after me so I sat on one of the couches in the living room. "I don't know where she is exactly, but she's definitely no longer here." I motioned for them to take their seats across from me. The girls exchanged glances as they sat next to each other on the largest couch.

"She escaped?" Ashley asked.

"Yes," I nodded. "Her and that boyfriend of hers... Ben."

"Ben's not her boyfriend," Rosa, the pretty pet.i.te one with the short, wavy black hair spoke up. She was the one who always looked like she would die of fright whenever I was around. She still looked that way, so I had to give kudos to her for being able to speak up in front of me for what I believed was the very first time.

I exhaled, annoyed by her clarification, before nonchalantly waving a hand in the air. "I don't really care."

A lie. I knew it. They knew it.

Bold-faced, Paige, the sporty brunette, scoffed at me. "Oh, sure. You don't care about her. Look... We know Sofia. She would never leave without us. She wouldn't betray us like that."

"But she did, didn't she? She's no longer here."

"What did you do to her?" Ashley managed to ask, her voice mixed with accusation and fear.

"I helped her escape." I grimaced even as I glared at her for daring to question me that way. "Look. If it's any consolation, she begged me to let you come. I wouldn't hear of it. I couldn't risk The Shade by just letting you loose."

"But you trust Ben enough to let him go?" Paige's voice betrayed her frustration.

It was getting exhausting talking to them. I was Derek Novak. I didn't have to answer to three teenage slaves, and yet I found myself sitting there, explaining myself to them. "I had no choice. Sofia wouldn't have left without him."

"But she left without us..." Rosa said.

"This conversation is going in circles." I rolled my eyes and stood up.

"What are you planning to do with us now?" Ashley's face was pale with apprehension.

I sat right back in my seat and looked at each one of them. I could do whatever I wanted with them... use them, break them, bed them. No one would think worse of me for it. No one but Sofia.

"I really don't care what happens to any of you. Right now, all I need from you is to make sure that n.o.body finds out that Ben and Sofia are gone. n.o.body. I already warned Sam and Kyle that they too are not to breathe a word of this to anyone. As far as everyone at The Shade is concerned, they're still locked up somewhere in this house, or dead. As for the three of you, I don't know... The only reason you mattered to me in the first place was because you mattered to her."

"What makes you think we no longer matter to her?"

"What don't you get, Ashley?" I snapped at her, feeling the rage that was undoubtedly showing in my face. "She's no longer here! It's not like she'll ever return to find out what I decide to do to you. I could swing you over my back, take you to my bedroom and do the most despicable things to you. She wouldn't ever know."

It was obvious that the threat stunned them because a chilling silence followed.

It was Rosa who broke the silence. "But you won't do that, because you still care about what Sofia will think."

"Maybe so, but so what?"

Ashley smirked. She leaned back in her seat, shaking her head as she focused her almond-shaped eyes right on me. "It's funny."

"Yes? What is?"

"You spent so much time with her, practically demanded it of her to give you her time, and yet you still don't seem to have the slightest clue what kind of girl Sofia is."

I straightened up in my seat. "What are you talking about?"

"With people she cares deeply about still here us... you... we know Sofia well enough to tell that she would want to come back." Ashley stood up and glared at me. "You'd know that too if you actually got to know her all those times you were keeping her in your bedroom."

Seemingly done chastising me for not knowing Sofia well enough, Ashley stormed out of the room. Paige quickly followed suit. It was Rosa, however, who gave me that one remaining ray of hope that there was still a possibility I could get Sofia back. She gave me a tentative half-smile and said, "Sofia cared deeply about you."