A Castle of Sand Read online

  We remained silent for a few more moments, just staring. I couldn’t comprehend what was going through his mind, but this was the longest time I’d been able to spend with him for the past couple of days and truth be told, despite the silence, I was satisfied just to be there with him.

  Suddenly Derek squared his shoulders and stood to his full height. He grabbed me by the wrist and nodded. “Fine. Come with me.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked as he began pulling me outside.

  “To take a walk,” he responded. “If we’re going to have this talk, it won’t be here.”

  I creased my brows, trailing after him, wondering why on earth we couldn’t just have the conversation in his penthouse. I stared at the back of his head as I tried to keep up with his long, fast strides. What is going on inside that brain of yours, Novak?

  We were already at the Vale, nearing the town square when I stopped in my tracks and pulled against him, trying to catch my breath. I looked around us and felt annoyed that he had dragged me to such a public place. People were beginning to look at us, but out of reverence for him, kept to themselves.

  “What is going on, Derek?!” I managed to exclaim in between gasps. Frustrated, I placed both hands over my head, grabbing clumps of my hair to emphasize my point. “I can’t wrap my mind around what you’ve been up to lately.” I was desperately trying to fight back the tears as I leaned against the stone wall of one of the buildings bordering the town square.

  His eyes softened and he heaved one deep sigh before finally addressing my concerns. “You’re moving out on your birthday, Sofia. We have to get accustomed to being apart from each other.”

  That wasn’t what I wanted to hear from him. I shook my head and swallowed hard as I stood straight, digging my heels into the ground in irritation. “So it’s like that? Is that why you were saying sorry to me? Because you’re just going to abandon me? Is this some sort of punishment over my choice to live in The Catacombs and not get turned into a vampire?”

  “It’s not like that…”

  “Then what is it?!” I couldn’t understand what was going through his mind. He’d barely looked at me, much less touched me in the past week. My voice softened as I begged him to tell me, “What’s going on, Derek? Why are you avoiding me?”

  “My father’s got me busy. You know what he’s like…”

  I gently placed a hand on his arm and he flinched away from my touch. That sudden motion of his was painful to experience.

  He must’ve noticed how my eyes were beginning to moisten, because he softened at the sight.

  “Sofia…”

  My sandcastle feels like it’s about to fall apart. “I always knew that I would lose you eventually. I just didn’t expect that it would happen so soon.”

  “You know what, Sofia!” he snapped. “That’s just it!”

  I gasped when he pushed me against the wall. Eyes blazing, he rested one hand against the stone so that he could have his face closer to mine, his breath cold against my skin.

  “You keep talking about how we’re going to lose each other as if it’s something inevitable, as if it’s something we just have to accept. I dread the day I could lose you, Sofia. It would be like losing my reason to live, and for the past few days all I’ve been able to think about when I look at you is how you’re slipping away from me every second of every day.”

  The urgency by which the words came out of his lips drew my breath away. Desperation oozed out of every syllable. I stared up at him, not knowing what to say.

  He stepped forward and leaned closer so that he was looking right into my eyes. “Why can’t what we have last forever?”

  A tear ran down my cheek as I spoke the sad truth, “Because we both know that it can’t.”

  His jaw tightened and he began shaking his head furiously as he spat out through gritted teeth, “How could you say that?! How could you just give up like that?” Both his hands gripped the sides of my head and his lips crushed against mine. The kiss was passionate and forceful—as if he were punishing me for daring to resign myself to the eventual doom of our relationship.

  I found myself frozen beneath his touch, a hundred thoughts warring in the battleground of my mind. I couldn't respond to his advances, but neither could I resist. I missed this, missed his touch so much that the only thing I found myself feeling at that moment was relief. He still wanted me. He wasn’t giving up on us.

  When our lips parted, I was trembling and I could barely form words through my quivering lips. I stared up at him. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore,” I admitted.

  Fire sparked in his eyes as they narrowed in question. “How could you ever think that?” His hands wrapped around my waist and he pulled me close. “I will always want you.” He once again pressed his mouth against mine—tender this time, before kissing my forehead.

  Suddenly, we were interrupted by a loud clap. We both looked toward the direction of the noise and found Gregor Novak approaching with several members of the Elite council—members I wasn’t quite familiar with—trailing behind him. He had a young woman holding on to his right arm. He shrugged her hand off him and she stumbled backwards.

  My gut clenched when I saw the bite marks on her neck. I grabbed Derek by the arm for support. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the girl even as I bowed my head in reverence toward the king of The Shade.

  “Father.” Derek’s entire demeanor tensed.

  Gregor’s eyes were on me. Cold. Cruel. Condescending. When he touched me, brushing his fingers over my cheek, I couldn’t help but flinch.

  “Jumpy, isn’t she?” He chuckled.

  Derek glared at his father, his sovereign. “Don’t touch her.”

  “What is it with you and this consuming urge to protect this little firebrand?” Gregor kept his steely eyes on me, amusement and mockery dripping from his every word. “What’s so special about her? What makes her so different from all the other women you’ve brought to your bed?”

  My eyes shot toward Derek. I knew that I wasn’t the first woman he’d had in his bed, but to hear someone call him out on it felt different. I could practically sense how torn apart Derek was at being reminded of his past. He just hung his head, staring into space as Gregor drawled on, this time addressing me.

  “Do you have any idea how many lovely ladies have graced the presence of your prince here? Do you know the kind of women whose pleasures he’s willingly partaken of? Do you really believe an immortal could stay faithful to a mortal like you?”

  I hated the way he was talking. I knew it was meant to cause doubt in me, but more than that, it was meant to inflict pain on Derek. I gave Gregor the sweetest smile I could manage before turning my eyes toward the man I loved. I hated how dejected he seemed when all his past weaknesses were slapped right into his face. I brushed a hand over his cheek and tilted his chin so that he would look at me and see me smiling.

  “I don’t have a single doubt in my mind that he can and he will be faithful to me,” I spoke the words with conviction emanating from every fiber of my being. I knew then that the words were true and from the spark in Derek’s blue eyes, I could tell that he too knew that I meant every word.

  Gregor laughed wryly. “Sure. You must be really good in bed if you think you can keep him interested for…”

  “Enough,” Derek spoke up. “You don’t talk about Sofia that way. Ever.”

  “What? You deny that she isn’t the first whore you’ve taken to bed? That she’s just one among many who…”

  “I said enough.” Derek’s glare was so menacing, even I stepped back. “She’s not one among many, father. She’s the only one, the only woman I have ever been in love with.”

  “In love?!” Gregor exclaimed. “Do you even know what that means, son? Is that what you think you feel whenever you have this nubile body of hers writhing beneath yours?”

  “It’s got nothing to do with sex.” Derek looked around at the crowd now beginning to form around us—made curious by the argum
ent going on between king and prince—and raised his voice, “In fact, I vow that I will no longer take her to my bed and make love to her until she’s become my wife…until the world knows that Sofia Claremont alone owns my heart.”

  My eyes widened with surprise. His eyes met mine and if he didn’t know it already then he was a fool, but I was his. I was forever his.

  Still, he wasn’t done astounding me. He looked deep into my eyes and I found my mind reeling at the next words he spoke, “I’m going to marry you someday, Sofia Claremont. I don’t know how it will happen, but it will happen. We belong together and you know it.”

  I tried to say something, but I had no idea what to say, so my jaw just hung loosely as I gaped up at him.

  “Until that day, Sofia, I can’t treat you the same way I treated all the other women who came before you. You’re too precious for that, but be sure of one thing…I will pursue you. Relentlessly. I will pursue you until death pulls us apart. I will find a way, Sofia. I’ll find a way to make what we have last forever.”

  I shuddered at what he was trying to tell me. He knew that I could never become a vampire, an immortal like he was, so how he thought that the words he was speaking could possibly become true was beyond me. Still, the determination in his eyes told me that he meant everything he had said.

  Moved, I caressed the side of his face with my hand, enjoying the feel of his skin beneath mine. “No matter what happens, Derek,” I tried to assure him. “Remember that my heart belongs to you, and it could never belong to any other.”

  A smile formed on his lips. “That’s all I need to hear.”

  Given that statement, every single person present that night was made aware that Derek’s pursuit of me had just begun.

  Chapter 10: Lucas

  I didn’t know what to expect after the Maslens—our clan’s archenemy—offered me sanctuary. It felt like such a gamble, but having been informed that my father would rather send me back to The Shade and face death at Derek’s hands instead of taking me under his wing, I really had no other choice. The Oasis, home of the Maslen clan, became my sanctuary.

  Thus, I travelled to Cairo where Borys Maslen—lord of the Maslen clan—sent an escort to take me to The Oasis. In a couple of days’ time, traveling by night and seeking shade by day, I arrived. At first, I thought that it was some sort of joke. It was exactly as it name implied—a small oasis hidden within the Egyptian boundaries of the Sahara Desert.

  A slew of curses escaped my lips as I approached the small lake surrounded by three palm trees that appeared to form a triangle around the lake.

  “What is this?” I hissed at my escort.

  “Wait and see,” he responded smugly.

  I’d already heard a lot of stories about The Oasis. It was said to be a marvel, but nothing prepared me for what I saw.

  My escort took out a small velvet pouch and retrieved a brass hexagonal object studded with emeralds. He walked toward one of the palm trees and knelt on the ground, brushing sand away from an area beneath the tree to reveal what looked like a metal plate. He then gently placed the emerald-studded hexagon on top of it. He stood up and took out another brass hexagon, this time studded with sapphires. He walked to another one of the two palm trees and did the same thing. For the third palm tree, he repeated the process with a brass hexagon studded with rubies.

  “Earth, water, fire…” he muttered as he placed the third hexagon in place. The moment the ruby-studded plate was put in its place, I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet. The small lake transformed into a whirlpool and suddenly an opening began to form in the center of it. That’s when I spotted a black staircase leading downward. This real-life oasis was actually just a gateway allowing entry to the Maslens’ infamous Oasis.

  “Follow me.” My escort motioned to descend the stairs. I stood frozen for a couple of seconds before finally gathering my wits about me and following him to wherever the staircase led.

  We descended the stairs surrounded by gushing water, but amazingly I was kept dry. We finally reached the top level of The Oasis’ seven underground levels.

  The levels were once Egyptian tombs concealing hidden treasure. After the Maslens found the keys to The Oasis over a hundred years ago, they modernized and renovated all of the tombs’ interconnected halls and chambers. At the center of it all was a huge, round, glass-encased elevator that allowed quick access from one level to the next.

  I didn’t get a chance to look around much, because I was immediately brought to level four: “The Palace”. I was ushered through several well-lit corridors, lavishly decorated with golden-framed paintings and beautiful antiques. Finally, we reached the chamber which was our destination.

  Borys Maslen was slumped on a large black throne made of skulls—looking the same way he did centuries ago—muddy brown hair; dark eyes; a stocky, well-built physique; wide and muscular.

  Our first conversation was tense to say the least—even more so when I mentioned that the girl prophesied to establish my brother’s rule was already at The Shade. When he discovered the girl was actually Sofia, he lost all control of himself—something that I couldn’t fully understand until I saw Borys’ right-hand woman, Ingrid.

  Ingrid used to be Camilla Claremont before she became a vampire. She was Sofia’s mother.

  It was daunting to me, but from that day onwards, everything about my stay at The Oasis became about finding Sofia. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. She was just one human girl and yet no matter where I went—whether it be in the middle of the ocean at The Shade or the middle of the desert at The Oasis—everything seemed to revolve around Sofia Claremont.

  “I want Sofia,” Borys told me.

  “As I told you, I haven’t figured out how to get her to you yet.” I replied.

  We were inside my quarters; a one-bedroom suite located at level four, where all the royals and favored citizens of The Oasis resided. To them, I’d been given a privilege to stay there. To me, it was just a comfortable prison, because they forbade me to leave level four.

  “What is it with my daughter and getting vampires so caught up in her wiles?” Ingrid said in a slurred tone as she slinked from one side of the room to the other. She lay down on one of the Egyptian couches.

  “I have no idea,” I lied, wondering how Sofia ended up with such a demented mother.

  Having already tasted Sofia’s blood, I knew her appeal. I knew how sweet she was. Sofia has this thing about her—almost as if her blood is a siren call. I don’t know how my brother can stand being around her and not suck the blood out of that pretty white neck of hers. She’s the tastiest little morsel I’ve ever had the pleasure of having. Still, considering Borys’ obsession with Sofia, I couldn’t reveal that little secret to them. I was sure that the moment Borys found out that I was most likely the first vampire to ever taste Sofia’s blood and live, I would be a dead vampire.

  “What’s so special about her anyway?” I asked.

  Borys and Ingrid gave me wary glances.

  “I didn’t expect that Derek would have such a heavy ace against me. First, Vivienne. Now, Sofia.”

  I stared at him. Does he actually think that Derek is keeping Sofia as some sort of hostage to cause umbrage against him? “I doubt that Derek is keeping Sofia to spite you, Borys,” I said carefully, surprised that I was defending my younger brother.

  “Then what good would the teenager do him?” Borys frowned.

  “I told you…I’m pretty sure Derek is in love with her. If you get Sofia in your hands then it’s you who would have an ace against my brother.”

  Borys sat up straight on the couch he was slouched on. “How do you propose we get Sofia in our hands?”

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I wasn’t one to boast about my average intelligence, but Borys—cruel brute that he was—really wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box. I looked at Ingrid. Perhaps that’s why she’s proven to be invaluable to him. She’s his brain.

  Ingrid stretched and purr
ed on her recliner before breathing out a sigh. “This conversation isn’t going anywhere. It’s a waste of my time.”

  “I’d just like to know why you want Sofia,” I pried.

  Ingrid gave me a calculating look before finally nodding as if deciding for herself that she could trust me with the information she was about to give. “When I asked Borys to turn me into a vampire, he agreed to do it on one condition. I was to give him my daughter. I agreed. Thus, Borys turned me. When we set off to retrieve Sofia from the States, my husband, Aiden, already realized what we were after. He took my daughter away from me and hid her somewhere. I have no idea how, but he managed to obscure her from all our attempts to sense her and track her down.”

  I shifted my weight over the edge of my bed as I digested the information she just told me, wondering how I could use it to my advantage. Too late. Ingrid stood from her seat and looked at me with sheer agitation.

  “Are you not weary of this pointless conversation we’re having with your enemy’s brother, Borys?”

  “I am.” Borys nodded, the expression on his face stoic. “And I’m not sure we can fully trust him. Not yet.”

  I swallowed hard. The conversation had suddenly taken a dangerous turn. “Look…I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t desperate. Desperation calls for loyalty as a necessity.”

  “If you really are pledging allegiance to us, you will help us get Sofia.” Ingrid tilted her head to the side, not a trace of maternal affection in her expression. She talked about Sofia as if she were talking about a piece of property we were all haggling over.

  “I told you… I don’t know how to help you… Derek is going to kill me the moment I step back into The Shade. I don’t have any allies there.” Except maybe Claudia, but she’s more an ally to herself than to anyone else.

  “All I hear are excuses, Novak.” Borys now also rose from his seat and walked toward Ingrid. He brushed a hand through Ingrid’s red hair, and I had no doubt in my mind that with each fond caress, he had Sofia on his mind. “Make a way. If you don’t bring us Sofia soon, you will die. I expect a report on your progress within the week.”