A Dawn of Strength

  A Shade of Vampire 14: A Dawn of Strength

  Bella Forrest

  Also by Bella Forrest

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  Derek & Sofia’s story:

  A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)

  A Shade of Blood (Book 2)

  A Castle of Sand (Book 3)

  A Shadow of Light (Book 4)

  A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)

  A Gate of Night (Book 6)

  A Break of Day (Book 7)

  Rose & Caleb’s story:

  A Shade of Novak (Book 8)

  A Bond of Blood (Book 9)

  A Spell of Time (Book 10)

  A Chase of Prey (Book 11)

  A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)

  A Turn of Tides (Book 13)

  A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)

  * * *

  A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY

  A Shade of Kiev 1

  A Shade of Kiev 2

  A Shade of Kiev 3

  * * *

  BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY

  Beautiful Monster 1

  Beautiful Monster 2

  * * *

  For an updated list of my books, please visit my website: www.bellaforrest.net

  * * *

  Join my VIP email list and I’ll personally send you an email reminder as soon as my next book is out! Click here to sign up: www.forrestbooks.com

  Copyright © 2015 by Bella Forrest

  Cover design inspired by Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations LLC

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Prologue: Ben

  As we stopped spinning through the air and my feet touched solid ground, the first thing that hit me was the heat. It felt like I’d just been locked in an oven. My breathing became sharp and shallow. When my vision came into focus, I gazed around. A pale moon in a clear sky speckled with twinkling stars cast down light on sand dune after sand dune. There was no sign of civilization in sight. Nothing but miles upon miles of desert.

  I turned to face Jeramiah—who was still carrying an unconscious Tobias—and Amaya, the tall black-haired witch who stood next to him.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “Just follow,” the vampire replied and turned on his heel. Amaya and I followed after him.

  I couldn’t imagine where he was heading to. I could see nothing but sand. I was about to repeat my question when Jeremiah stopped abruptly. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small golden key. He lowered himself to his knees and, digging his left fist into the ground, began brushing the sand away until metal showed. I bent down closer to watch him as he slid the key into a hole etched into it. There was a sharp click. The sand in front of us shifted as what turned out to be a long metal door swung open, leaving a gaping oblong hole in the ground. There was a winding iron staircase leading down to what appeared to be… a basement of some sort.

  I stood up, still staring in astonishment. He and Amaya began to descend the stairs. I followed after them. The drop in temperature was sharp and sudden—I felt it as soon as I took my first step downward—as though I was descending into a refrigerator.

  “Amaya, please close the door behind us.” Jeramiah’s eyes were fixed on me.

  With a flick of Amaya’s palms, the metal door slammed above us and the lock clicked shut.

  As I gazed around at the well-lit chamber, I realized that calling this a basement was entirely inaccurate. A crystal chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling, giving off a warm glow. The walls… they were made of glass. I walked up to the edge, and realized that this wasn’t so much a room as it was a platform. I was standing at the top of a magnificent multi-layered atrium. There were at least ten levels beneath me, from what I could see, and each was lined with an open veranda. At the center of this open court was a stunning communal area—there were lush ornamental lawns, a large pond covered with vibrant blue water lilies, and even a sprawling orchard containing an array of exotic-looking trees. The sweet scent of jasmine pervaded the air.

  “Come, Joseph.” Jeramiah was holding Amaya’s hand now, and he was gesturing that I do the same. “We don’t need the elevator while she’s with us.”

  The moment I reached for her arm, we vanished and reappeared in the center of the gardens, right at the bottom of this strange atrium.

  “Where are we?” I repeated.

  Still ignoring my question, Jeramiah walked onto the terrace lining the bottom floor, stopping outside a wooden door. He withdrew another key from his pocket and opened it to reveal a small dim room. Unlike outside, no care seemed to have been taken in furnishings or decorations. Indeed, the walls were rough stone and the floor was dusty and uneven. He headed to the back of this room and unlocked another door. He stepped inside and closed it behind him, not even giving me the chance to follow.

  I stepped outside and looked up and down the terrace for the witch. She had disappeared. I walked back to the door Jeramiah had disappeared through and knocked. He reappeared after a minute—without Tobias.

  “In answer to your question,” Jeramiah began, brushing his hands together and heading back out of the chamber. Closing the door behind us, he cast his eyes toward the opulent gardens. “This place has had a number of names in the past, and has been used for a number of purposes… But perhaps, most famously, this was once the Maslens’ palace… The Oasis.”

  Chapter 1: Sofia

  Even though she was sitting barely four feet away from me, I could still hardly believe that my daughter had returned. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Even though it hadn’t been all that long, somehow she looked older to me. More grown up. I could tell Derek felt the same as me from the way he was gazing upon her as she told us everything that had happened since we’d parted.

  Derek and I remained speechless throughout—from her recounting of Rhys posing as Micah, to Caleb being the one who had saved Derek and I from Annora’s curse, to their adventures through South America, then almost reaching The Shade, once again being caught by Annora, her being kidnapped once again by the ogres, her short visit to the realm of the dragons, and then the journey back here. It all left Derek and I speechless. When she finally brought her story to a close, I barely knew what to say first. I was just staring from her to the young man sitting next to her. We’d believed he had betrayed us. Now it turned out we owed him our very lives.

  Rose’s eyes grew wide with expectation. It was Derek who broke the silence, his eyes fixed intensely on Caleb.

  He stood up and closed the distance between them. Caleb stood up too, his height level with my husband’s. Derek reached out a hand and gripped Caleb’s.

  “I owe you an apology,” he said. “We all do.”

  Caleb nodded, averting his eyes to the door. “I understand why you thought what you did,” he said.

  “It was wrong of us all the same. We jumped to conclusions,” I said. Once Derek stepped back away from Caleb, I drew him in for a hug. He looked surprised by the gesture as I resumed my seat next to Derek. But my daughter was beaming.

  “Of course, you are welcome to stay with us as long as you want,” I said.

  Caleb glanced at Rose, giving her a small smile. “I’ll stay as long as your daughter wants me here.”

  Rose’s cheeks flushed as she slipped a hand through Caleb’s and squeezed it. Then she looked back at us, a small frown crinkling her forehead.

  “Now it’s your turn,” she said. “What’s happened all this time?” She looked around. “And where is Ben? Does he even know I’ve returned?”

  Her words m
ade my stomach flip. I’d been hoping we could delay telling Rose about her brother for a little longer. She’d just had such a traumatic experience, after all. I didn’t want to lay this burden of worry on her now. But of course, I couldn’t have expected a different reaction from her. She wanted to see her brother.

  I exchanged weary glances with Derek.

  That only made Rose tense further. She stood up and gripped my hand. “Mom? Where is he?”

  “He left, honey,” I croaked.

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  I heaved a sigh, bracing myself to relive the harrowing experience again. “We were so worried about what the witches had in mind for you two, we made the decision to turn him early, before his eighteenth birthday. We’d hoped that the turning would go smoothly. It didn’t. He had symptoms unlike any we’d seen before, and—”

  “What symptoms?” Rose gripped my shoulders.

  “He was unable to stomach animal blood. His body just expelled it as though it were poison.”

  She gasped. I really didn’t want to give all the details, at least not yet—and especially not about Yasmine’s death. “Rose, your brother decided to leave because he felt that he was a threat to the humans of The Shade.”

  “B-but where did he go?”

  “He took a submarine,” Derek replied, and I was relieved that he took over for me. It was so painful recounting it. “He’ll return, darling. Don’t worry. He just needed time for himself.”

  “A submarine? What do you mean a submarine? He can’t just live in that. How will he feed?”

  Tears were beginning to brim in her eyes. Derek stood up and drew her in for a hug. He wiped the tears that were escaping down her cheeks with his thumbs. “Ben’s a fighter. He’ll find his way back to us in one piece. Just as you did…”

  She still looked devastated, though Derek’s words seemed to comfort her somewhat. She took a seat next to Caleb, who wrapped an arm around her and squeezed gently. She nestled her head closer to Caleb’s chest as she continued to look at us worriedly.

  “Why do you think his turning went so wrong?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

  “We don’t know. We can only guess that it’s something to do with his blood.”

  “His blood?” Rose looked at me with confusion.

  Of course, she hadn’t been here when Mona had told us what she believed was different and special about our twins—the unique trifecta they had.

  I took this as an opportunity to segue from the subject of Ben. Derek and I explained what Mona had told us about Rose and her brother’s blood, as well as everything else that had happened on the island since she’d been gone.

  Her expression turned from curiosity to terror as the story progressed.

  “We still don’t know what happened to Mona and Kiev during their visit to The Sanctuary,” I said. “We’ll go to speak to them in a few hours…”

  Rose bit her lip. “Do… Do you think the same thing would happen to me, if I turned? Do you think I would end up like Ben?”

  “We don’t know,” Derek said. “It’s possible.”

  She swallowed hard. “Because I was thinking, after everything that’s happened to me… I want to stop being a weak human. I don’t want to ever feel weak and vulnerable again.”

  Derek and I fell silent as we looked at each other. Of course, I understood why my daughter would want to turn early after everything she’d been through. I’d wanted to turn back into a vampire for a similar reason—to not feel so vulnerable in the face of danger. But after what happened to Ben, I didn’t think I could handle watching my daughter turn too. At least, not yet. Not until we understood exactly what had gone wrong with Ben’s turning.

  I was relieved that she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

  “But I guess,” she continued, “after what happened to Ben, we should wait for him to come back before I turn.”

  I nodded. “That’s what I was going to suggest.” Although Mona had returned to us, if a number of black witches attacked at once, they might be able to overpower her. This meant Rose was still in potential danger, but after what happened when we turned Ben, turning her now seemed like madness. At least she was back with us on the island. For now, we’d just have to protect her as best as we could. I could see that Derek was just as relieved as me that she’d come to this conclusion by herself.

  A silence fell between the four of us as we stared at one another, the stories we’d exchanged still playing on our minds. It was Rose who eventually cleared her throat and stood up. Still clutching Caleb’s hand as though she might never let go, she said, “I’d like to show Caleb around a bit.”

  “Aren’t the two of you exhausted?” I asked.

  Rose cast a glance at Caleb. “Are you, Caleb?” she asked.

  “I’m up for a short tour.” Caleb stood up with her.

  I felt uncomfortable about letting her out of my sight even for a moment, but now I had to trust Caleb. He’d kept her alive and well all this time. I owed it to him to trust him to roam around the island with my daughter for a while. He’d just fought off a dragon, after all…

  Derek and I nodded and, leaning in to kiss us both on the cheek one last time, she left the apartment. I supposed it would be good to help distract her mind from thoughts of her brother.

  Once they exited the apartment, I turned my focus back on Derek. His expression was almost inscrutable.

  I reached out and touched his hand. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “Just… our daughter.” He was still staring at the front door where Caleb and Rose had disappeared.

  A smile curled my lips. “She’s no longer our little girl.”

  He breathed out heavily. “That she isn’t.”

  He stood up and began pacing up and down the room. Still, he looked agitated.

  “What do you think of Caleb?” I asked.

  Derek shot me a look. “What do you think of him?”

  “Not that I’ve known him long… but I have to admit, right from the start there was something I liked about that boy. Before our minds got clouded with doubts about his intentions.’

  Derek heaved a sigh. “I… I just don’t know.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He stopped pacing and looked down at me. “I have to come to terms with the fact that nobody will be good enough for my daughter… but if anyone deserves her, I suppose Caleb appears to be the closest to it.”

  I couldn’t stop the grin from splitting my face. I stood up and reached for Derek’s hands, twining my fingers with his. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “He means a lot to her.”

  Derek nodded slowly.

  Still amused by his lack of enthusiasm, I narrowed my eyes on him. “You remind me of my father. It took a long time for him to come round and accept that you deserved me.”

  He paused, looking at me closely. “And what makes you think he was wrong in believing I didn’t deserve you?” He pulled me closer, his arms wrapping around my waist as his hands rested on the small of my back, and whispered into my ear, “Did I ever deserve you, Sofia?”

  I bent my head back to look him in the eye and raised a teasing eyebrow. “You didn’t seem to have much doubt about it, all those times you declared me as yours when we first met.”

  He gave me a small smile before his restless demeanor returned. He swallowed hard, his eyes traveling back to the front door. I found his anxiousness both amusing and endearing. I slipped my hands into his hair and forced him to face me again. I pulled his head lower to me so I could kiss his lips.

  “Yes, Derek,” I whispered. “You deserved me. Just as I think it might be time we accepted that Caleb deserves our daughter.”

  Chapter 2: Rose

  I was smiling as Caleb and I left the penthouse and stepped into the elevator. Although Ben’s departure was weighing heavily on my chest, I couldn’t help but feel relieved at how smoothly Caleb’s reintroduction to my parents had gone. I just had to have faith in my father’
s words—that my brother would find a way back to us, just as I had. Driving myself insane with worry wouldn’t bring Ben back. Ben was resourceful, and now he was a vampire, he would be incredibly strong. From what my parents had described, he sounded like he was a match for even my father’s strength.

  As we began to descend in the elevator, I looked up to catch a glimpse of Caleb’s face. He was staring through the glass at the branches as we approached closer and closer to the ground.

  I moved closer to him and reached up to touch his cheek. “Caleb,” I said.

  There was warmth in his eyes as he lowered his gaze to me. “Yes, Rose?”

  “Are you okay?”

  My parents had given him some blood as we sat talking for hours, but so much had happened in the past twenty-four hours, he looked like he was still in a daze. I could only imagine what a shock to his system it was to be back here in The Shade. An island he’d never thought he’d be able to set foot on again, much less contemplate living here with me.

  He smiled and pressed his lips against my forehead. “I couldn’t be better,” he whispered.

  My heart soared as his smile broadened.

  “So you… you really are happy to be here?” I asked, leading him out of the elevator as we reached the ground.

  “I think I’d be happy anywhere you are, princess.”

  I felt my face growing red again. Of course, I didn’t feel any differently about him.

  We began to walk hand in hand through the woods. As we passed through the Residences, I pointed up at the trees, listing the names of the vampires who lived in each one of them. It wasn’t until we arrived at the Port that panic gripped me.

  “The ogress! We forgot about Bella.”

  Caleb’s eyes widened. So much had happened, we’d both totally forgotten that we’d left her wandering along the beach before we ran off to try to figure out how to deal with the dragon. For all I knew, she could have come across a group of humans. Bella was a man-eater, and although I hadn’t given her permission to eat anybody, I suspected she would be starving by now and might not be able to resist swiping a human or two for herself.