A Shade Of Vampire: A Shade Of Novak Part 22

He ignored my question. He pushed open the door and hauled me into the witch's apartment.

I breathed out in pain as he yanked my head upward. As he forced me to my feet, I found myself face to face with the witch.

Chapter 34: Caleb.

The witch's cold eyes settled on Rose's distressed face. Then she looked up at me, frowning. "What are you doing with her? I told Stellan-"

"I know what you told Stellan," I said coolly. "But he wants some rest after his last task. I'm doing this instead."

She looked from me to the girl. I made sure to keep my face devoid of emotion-something I'd gotten good at over the years.

Finally, she nodded. "Very well. You have my permission. You know what must be done?"

I nodded and took Rose by the scalp. Pulling harshly enough so that Rose moaned in pain, I dragged her back out of the witch's chambers.

As soon as the door shut, I scooped Rose up in my arms and carried her down the steps. Rose tried to ask me what the h.e.l.l I was doing, but I ignored her until we'd exited the castle, run down the mountain and reached the port. I set her down at the edge of the frozen jetty while I opened up the hatch of a submarine.

Only once I'd lowered us both inside of it and locked the hatch did I bend down and examine her wounds closely. I swore as I saw how much blood was still oozing from the gashes Stellan had made.

I took her hand and led her into the control room, where I sat her down in one of the seats. She continued to glare at me, her expression full of pain and accusation. I rummaged around in the overhead cupboards until I found a first-aid kit-something we always kept on board, since we transported humans regularly in these vessels.

I bent down next to her and began treating her wounds. I salivated as I wiped up her succulent blood and disposed of the tissues. Once I'd fixed bandages over them, I stood up and looked down at her.

"Rose," I said quietly. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at me, her eyes still wide.

"I had to scare you. The distrust in your eyes helped convince her to let us go."

Her soft lips parted as realization dawned upon her.

"And now?" she asked, her voice hoa.r.s.e. "Where are you taking me?"

"I'm taking you home."

Chapter 35: Derek.

We'd been at a loss for what to do. We had no idea where to even begin looking. And of course the police were even more clueless than us.

We had searched the condo. There had been clear signs of a struggle-the sofa was in disarray, water splashed all over the kitchen, the kettle on the floor along with a knife. A mirror smashed, several paintings fallen off the hooks. The windows had been left wide open-and since there was no record of them leaving the apartment on the CCTV cameras outside of the room, the only conclusion we could come to was that they must have escaped with the four teenagers out of the window. Given the height of the building, unless they had parked a crane alongside it, this wouldn't have been possible for humans.

We saw no choice but to return to The Shade. Hanging around in Hawaii wasn't going to solve anything. We called an urgent meeting in The Great Dome with our closest friends and family. But none of us could figure out what our next step should be. They'd just vanished without a trace.

Now, I was beginning to lose track of how much time had pa.s.sed since their disappearance. Days merged into a blur. We continued having meetings, but it felt like we were going round in circles.

We'd received no calls from their phone, and whenever we tried calling it, we reached voice mail.

"So we're sure it's vampires behind this, Derek?" Vivienne reached out and clasped my arm.

I looked up into her worried eyes.

"That's the only conclusion we can come to. It's hard to make out their features from the CCTV, but you can see the pale skin beneath their gla.s.ses-they definitely look like they could be vampires."

"But why?" Anna sat forward in her seat. "Why would they want the twins?"

"I don't know."

"If they are vampires," Xavier said, "it's possible they targeted the twins on purpose. They may want something from The Shade."

"But what? And how can we even give it to them?"

"Maybe-"

Eli's speculation was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing.

Sofia reached into her pocket and pulled out our phone.

We all stared at it, dumbstruck.

"Put it on speaker!"

Sofia flipped it open and pressed the speaker b.u.t.ton, her hand trembling.

"Rose? Ben?"

No response.

"h.e.l.lo?" I shouted into the phone.

"My name is Stellan," a deep male voice replied. "And I suggest you listen carefully to what I'm about to say."

My heart leapt into my throat. Sofia gasped and almost dropped the phone. I took the phone from her and laid it down on the table, staring down at it, trying to steady my racing heart.

"We have your twins," Stellan continued. "And they are still alive. How long this will be the case depends entirely on your cooperation."

I wanted to grab the phone from Sofia and shout down the line at this son of a b.i.t.c.h. It took all that I had to stop myself from doing it. Showing emotions would only reinforce their sense of control over us.

"Continue," I grunted.

"We're holding your son and daughter captive. We've given your twins a rough time already, so I suggest that you don't make this more difficult than it needs to be."

"What are you?" Sofia said, her voice weak.

"That's not important. What's important is that you pay attention."

We waited with bated breath for him to continue.

"We know that you hold an immune on your island. In exchange for the return of your children, you will hand over the immune to us."

All eyes shot toward Anna. Blood drained from her face as she sat resting her hands over her pregnant stomach.

I picked up the phone, my resolve disappearing by the second.

"Why do you want an immune?"

"Is that Derek Novak speaking?" The man chuckled. "You know the value of immunes. And since most of them are locked away in the depths of Cruor now, they are almost impossible to find."

"We no longer have the immune," Sofia said. "She pa.s.sed away a few months ago during labor. But our witches took samples of her blood. We have large stores. We could hand them over to you instead."

Stellan laughed.

"Only the fresh, hot blood of an immune is of use to us. So if your immune has indeed died, then you've nothing to offer us in exchange for the twins. You'd better think long and hard if that immune really is dead."

We all paused, staring at each other. After a few moments, Stellan said, "I'll give you time to think things over and not make any rash decisions, eh? Call me back once you have an answer. You have my number. I'll be waiting."

The phone buzzed as the line cut off.

"They're not getting Anna," almost everyone in the room said at once as soon as the vampire hung up.

I held my hands up for silence. I needed to think fast. Sofia's panicked eyes settled on me.

I sat down in my seat and closed my eyes, resting my head in my hand.

There was no way we would ever hand over Anna. That much was for certain. But we had to find a way to get our twins home unscathed.

I sat for several more minutes in silence as every pair of eyes in the hall bored into me, waiting for my solution.

Finally I looked up. "Hand me the phone."

I dialed our twins' number and waited. Stellan answered after two rings.

"Yes?"

"We do have the immune," I said. "We'll offer her to you in exchange for the twins."

"Hm," he said. "Good. You are to meet us tomorrow night. I suggest you write down the location."

I noted down the details.

"Make sure that immune is with you, Novak. And don't bring any witches. If you breach this agreement, I'll snap the spines of both of your children with my bare hands."

He hung up.

Everyone in the room was looking at me like I'd gone mad.

"What did you just say?" Sofia exclaimed.

"We won't bring Anna with us," I said loudly, quietening everyone's protests. "She will remain here."

"What?" Sofia said.

"We need to turn this into an ambush. We'll bring our best fighters, along with as many witches as we can spare. All we need right now is to have these people within reach. Once we meet them, we won't leave until we've got Rose and Ben safely back with us."

Anna stood up for the first time.

"What if they do something to Rose and Ben once they realize you've tried to deceive them?"

"They won't have time. We'll make this ambush fast. As soon as we lay eyes on them, we'll rush in."

"But we don't even know what Stellan and his companions are," Anna said. "We don't know for sure that they are vampires. How can you be so sure that you'll be able to overpower them and get your twins back?"

"Anna," I said, my chest heaving. "It's our only option."

Everyone quietened down and sat back in their seats.

"So how are we going to go about this exactly?" Xavier asked.

"Listen carefully," I said, flattening my palms on the table as I prepared to voice the plan in my mind.

Vampires and a few witches filled up each of the submarines we had on the island. Sofia and I boarded the smallest submarine alone. We made sure to travel a long distance ahead of the other submarines. We couldn't afford Stellan detecting them.

Eli had given me a pager before we left. He also placed them in each of the submarines. When I pressed mine, the others would take it as a signal to close in.