Since Anna was immune to the vampire curse, there was no way she could ever become one of us. Immortal. The only way we knew to cure an immune of their immunity was to take them to Cruor-as I had been kidnapped there. That was a fate worse than death, and it wasn't even possible, since the gates to that realm had been closed for almost two decades.

We all had to accept the fact that she would pa.s.s away. It was for that reason that Kyle hadn't changed himself back into a vampire. He couldn't stand the idea of living on without her, so he'd decided that he would pa.s.s away naturally with her when nature took them both.

"It's not a problem, Corrine." Anna smiled gently. "I've always told you that I don't mind giving blood. I'm glad that it's so useful."

"Yes." Corrine squeezed her hand. "And this island owes you too much already, Anna. We don't want to take anything more from you than we absolutely need."

"It's fine, Corrine," Anna said, waving a hand in the air. "You're all my family."

Corrine sighed and stood up. "Well, I won't keep you any longer, dear," she said, eyeing Anna's huge stomach. "You take it easy, all right?"

Anna nodded and walked over to the exit at the other side of the room, while Corrine made her way toward me. "Ah, Sofia. I've been expecting you." She looped an arm through mine and we left the dining hall. "Let's go back to my place."

"So you definitely won't need to take any more of Anna's blood after this?" I asked.

"That's correct. We have enough to recreate more doses, so long as we guard our supply carefully."

I sighed heavily.

Corrine looked up at me. "Anna's at peace with her life," she said. "You fret more about her than she does for herself. You do realize that?"

I nodded. "I just can't stand the thought of losing her one day. It will be like losing a sister."

"I know," Corrine replied, clenching her jaw. "There's not a person on this island who won't grieve her loss. That one's special. Kyle's a very lucky man."

We walked in silence for the rest of the walk to the Sanctuary. Once we were sitting in Corrine's lounge, I tried to tear my mind away from Anna. From her fate that I had no power over.

"So," I said, clearing my throat. "About the twins' birthday..."

Corrine's eyes lit up with excitement as she began explaining to me the ideas she had for their party this year.

I held up a hand.

"Corrine, this is what I'm here to talk to you about. They don't want us to throw them a big party this year."

Her face fell in disappointment.

"Why ever not? We always have so much fun."

"They're... maturing. They don't like the idea of their parents still organizing parties for them. I'm already making them go on that adventure course. They won't want a big party as well. We can just arrange for a picnic for all the children and teenagers on this island."

Corrine swallowed back her disappointment and nodded.

"Well... all right then."

I squeezed her shoulder. The witch-still holding out on having children of her own with Ibrahim, since, being a witch, she still had lots of youthful years ahead of her-lavished all her attention on the twins and enjoyed every moment of it. I knew how much my twins meant to her-especially Rose-and I saw the pain in her eyes as it dawned on her that they no longer were the young children who lapped up all her attention eagerly.

I stayed for about half an hour longer with her discussing the picnic, and then I returned to the penthouse.

Once the twins are gone, we'll all have much more important things to discuss than birthday parties.

Chapter 2: Rose.

"He could wear my grandma's pants and still look s.e.xy," Becky said, looking longingly at my brother who was sitting across the lawn with a group of friends.

"I love that he's growing his hair out a bit," Jessica said, staring at him dreamily, her chin resting in her palms. "d.a.m.n, it looks good."

"Seriously, what do your parents feed him?" Silvia asked, turning toward me.

"The same as me," I muttered, rolling my eyes at my friends.

"Who do you think he'll date next, now that he's no longer going out with Yasmine?" Jessica asked.

"No idea."

"Does he still do martial arts training with your dad?" Becky asked.

"Yeah," I said, stretching my legs out on the gra.s.s and yawning. "My dad makes us both do it."

"Ahh... Prince Benjamin Novak," Silvia whispered, sighing. "When will you be mine?"

I looked at the three friends who had stayed back with me after the picnic just so they could continue to ogle my brother. Ben was the heartthrob of all the girls on the island. Whenever I was with them while Ben was around, it felt like I might as well not exist.

It was my birthday as well as Ben's, yet throughout the whole picnic my friends had done almost nothing but stare at and gossip about my brother. Occasionally I found myself wondering how many of them were friends with me just so they could get the inside scoop on my brother.

I, on the other hand, didn't seem to get as much attention from the boys my age. Sure, I caught them looking at me, but it was rarely more than that. My girlfriends thought that maybe I intimidated them, being princess of The Shade. My theory was that they were intimidated by the males in my family. I thought that perhaps the prospect of having both Derek and Ben Novak breathing down his neck was just too daunting for a young man to bother. Because my brother was just as protective of me as my father. There were after all plenty of other pretty girls on the island with less obstacles.

I couldn't say that any of this bothered me much though. My life didn't revolve around finding a boyfriend as my friends' seemed to.

I didn't know if it was just my imagination, but my girlfriends' gossiping seemed to have become worse in recent months and I found myself spending more and more time with Griffin. When he wasn't around, I'd got into the habit of hanging out with my parents' friends instead. I realized that I had more in common with them than most of my contemporaries, who were all still human.

The Shade was an odd place. Although most of my parents' friends were technically in their late teens and early twenties, many had been alive for hundreds of years. In a sense, I got the best of both worlds when I spent time with them. They were still young at heart, yet had so much experience with centuries' worth of knowledge and stories to share.

"Would you do that for us, Rose?"

I looked up to see my three friends staring at me.

I'd drifted off into my own thoughts and completely lost track of their conversation.

"Sorry, what?" I mumbled.

"We want you to give us a tour of your brother's bedroom," Jessica said, her chestnut brown eyes wide with expectation.

"Oh," I snorted. "No. Trust me. You don't want that. It's such a mess, you have no..."

My voice trailed off as I spotted Anna and Kyle taking a seat on the lawn a few feet away from us with their children, Ariana and Jason.

Although Ariana was four years younger than me, I knew that she would make for better company than my friends right now. I stood up and shook the gra.s.s off my dress.

"I'll see you guys around," I muttered, waving a hand and walking away before they could object.

All four looked up as I approached.

"Happy birthday, princess." Kyle grinned. "You want to sit with us?"

"Thanks."

I plopped myself down next to Ariana. Everyone on the island joked that we were twin sisters because our features were similar.

"Happy birthday," Ariana said through a mouthful of cake. "What's up?"

"Ah, nothing much." I sighed, leaning back and looking around the lawn once again. Most of the attendees of our picnic had left by now, with just a few latecomers stopping by to drop gifts off for us and pick up some lunch. "I wanted to thank you so much for the gifts."

"You liked them?" Jason asked, poking his head around Ariana's shoulder to look at me. The ten year old's mouth was covered with strawberry icing.

Anna had knitted pajamas for Ben and I, and they truly were works of art. I hated to think how many hours she must have spent on them.

"They're the most beautiful pajamas I've ever seen," I said, ruffling Jason's hair. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, darling." Anna smiled.

"Hi Rose."

I swivelled around to see who had spoken.

A tall red haired boy with warm hazelnut eyes. And now possibly the best friend I had on the island: Griffin.

"Sorry I couldn't make it earlier," he said, grinning sheepishly.

"Oh, that's fine."

He had one hand hidden behind his back, while he reached the other down to pull me to my feet.

I turned back to Ariana and her family.

"Sorry, guys," I said. "I'll catch you later. Enjoy the rest of your cake."

"Bye!"

I turned back to Griffin and attempted to see what he was hiding. He stepped away, blocking my view.

"Wait," he said, laughing. "Not yet. Follow me."

He placed his hand on the small of my back and pushed me forward toward the entrance of the woods.

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking over my shoulder and narrowing my eyes on him in mock suspicion.

"Just trust me," he said, still smiling. "It's a surprise."

He led me forward, refusing to answer any of my questions until we reached the Port. We stepped onto the jetty and he walked me right up to its edge.

"Keep your eyes forward," he said.

I placed my hands on the banister and stared out at the dark ocean. I heard a clinking behind me and then Griffin said, "Okay, you can look now."

He stood beside me, holding out a gorgeous sh.e.l.l necklace.

"Happy birthday."

"Oh my." I gasped, reaching out to take the necklace from him.

"I'll put it on you. It's quite delicate."

"Yeah, good idea," I muttered.

I bunched up all my hair above my head and he reached his warm hands around my neck, fastening the hook.

"I wish there was a mirror here... Did you make this yourself?"

"Yup."

"It's beautiful. Thanks man," I said, giving him a high five. "Since when did ol' Griff start getting in touch with his feminine side?"

"Since I realized I should probably start giving the princess better gifts than home made chocolate pigs every year... which my mom made, by the way. I just took them from the kitchen and pretended they were from me."

"I always thought those pigs tasted suspiciously good," I said, giggling and shoving him in the shoulder. "What did you get Ben?"

"Oh, pigs again."

"So the princess was deserving of a better gift, but the prince wasn't?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said nonchalantly, reaching a hand behind his head and running it through his hair. "Maybe I'll think of something better for him next year. But for now, it's pigs."

"I see," I said. "And why did you need to bring me all the way here to give me the necklace?"

"Oh, I dunno. Just thought the setting matched the gift." He averted his eyes to the ocean and placed his hands on the banister next to mine. He cleared his throat. "Rose, uh. I also wanted to ask you if...if you-"

"If I still want the pigs too?" I asked, grinning up at him.

He chuckled and shook his head.