A Castle of Sand

by Bella Forrest

  I gave it a moment’s thought, but I couldn’t relate to what she was saying—not at that moment, not completely. Thus, I just nodded and said, “Thanks, Zinnia. Don’t worry about me. I know exactly what I’m getting into.”

  I didn’t realize what a lie that was until the morning of the mission.

  Everything started out as planned. We flew by helicopter to New York. Since I’d been paired with Zinnia, I was supposed to stick with her at all times. After landing on the rooftop of a building right across the street from our mark, the rest of the team quickly ran toward their assigned positions. I was about to do the same thing, but Zinnia quickly grabbed a hold of my arm.

  “Wait…” she whispered.

  “What?” I asked impatiently. “We’re supposed to get into position, Zinnia…”

  Cat-like, her eyes darted from one side of the roof to the other. Her gaze stopped on a specific spot on the rooftop.

  “Zinnia! Ben!” our squad leader, Quinn, spat out in a muffled hiss. “What are you two doing?”

  My eyes widened when I saw a red dot on Zinnia’s forehead. I was about to push her to the ground, but she had already done so, screaming, “Duck!” before tackling me to the ground.

  Gunshots were fired and from my peripheral vision, I could see one of the hunters fall to the ground. I was looking for a trace of panic among the hunters in my squad, but there was none.

  Quinn had a faint smirk on his face as he ran for cover. “They knew we were coming,” he said through our communication system. “Just take cover. The sun is about to rise. They won’t have an advantage for long. The other squads are already in position. All we have to do is stay alive until sunrise. Keep cover.”

  The words had barely registered in my brain when I saw Zinnia roll toward one of the concrete banisters lining the rooftop. A small grin was on her face, her eyes still focused on the same spot in the rooftop she’d laid eyes on right after we got there.

  I crawled my way closer to her, my stomach still flat on the ground. I followed the direction of her eyes as she began to aim her gun. All I could see were old wooden crates and piles of black netting.

  “What exactly are we looking at, Wolfe?”

  “Shut up.” She fired a shot right through one of the crates.

  Within seconds, a piercing scream came from the other side of the crate and a female vampire emerged from behind it, walking around as if she was burning. It was the strangest sight, because the area where the bullet hit her began to glow from the inside—channeling through several parts of her body. She seemed just about ready to implode, and then she just fell to the ground, burned to a crisp before finally turning to ashes.

  My jaw was wide open with shock. “That’s insane.”

  After that first kill, chaos ensued. I couldn’t quite keep track of everything that went on around me, but what I knew for sure was that the vampires seemed to be winning. We didn’t expect them to know that we were coming. They were prepared for us—stronger, more agile. Keeping cover, like Quinn suggested, was difficult to do considering that the vampires were attacking us from all sides.

  One of them lunged at Zinnia. I crouched to the ground and swung my leg and tripped him. I was surprised by how easily the big lug fell to the ground. Of all the times I’d tried to fight against Claudia, I never once succeeded in harming her in any way. Maybe this is a baby vampire. I was about to stick the wooden stake right through his heart, but a girl screamed behind me.

  “No!” her cry was piercing. She obviously held affection for the monster I was about to kill. She pushed me away just in time for Zinnia to shoot another UV ray bullet at the guy.

  “No…” the girl who had attacked me whimpered as she watched the man struggle and implode. Tears began to stream down her pale face. “He’s my brother…” she whispered, her voice hoarse and broken.

  Taking advantage of her distracted state, I tackled the blonde vampire to the ground. I took a quick look at her. I tried to ignore how much her appearance reminded me of Claudia. I knew I couldn’t afford to lose time waiting for her to snap back to attention. Thus, without hesitation, I drove the wooden stake right through her heart. As I looked into her bright blue eyes, I wanted to feel the elation and satisfaction that came with my revenge against all the vampires that she represented. There was none.

  Where’s that ‘pure satisfaction’ Zinnia was talking about?

  All I felt was the life of another living creature draining away—a life force that coursed through my entire being before fading off into oblivion.

  I’d just made my first vampire kill and all I could think about was the tortured look on Vivienne’s eyes when she firmly, but pleadingly told me that she was not the vampire that destroyed my life.

  She wasn’t Claudia, and neither was this girl I’d just killed.

  Chapter 14: Sofia

  “Do you like it?” Derek asked me with such a hopeful tone, it broke my heart to even think of telling him the truth.

  “I love it, but don’t you think it’s too much, Derek?” My tone was tentative and unsure. “I really don’t need to have something as lavish as this. I could’ve easily lived here just like everyone else. Surely someone is more deserving than…”

  “Nonsense,” he interrupted, shaking his head firmly. “You’re the woman I love. In my eyes, you’re practically princess of The Shade. You’re not like everyone else, Sofia. No one here is more deserving than you are. Accept that.”

  I forced a smile, knowing how stubborn he could get when he set his mind to something. I looked at my surroundings and felt my gut clench when friends I just recently made at The Catacombs showed up. The widow, Lily, and her children, Gavin, Rob and Madeline—seventeen, seven and five years old respectively—appeared at my doorstep. Lily’s eyes widened upon seeing the quarters’ modernly designed interior. The two younger children went inside without hesitation, eager to explore the home, their eyes bright with delight and curiosity.

  “They said The Palace was stunning, but I didn’t expect it to be like this…” Lily muttered under her breath.

  I remembered what their home looked like. It felt garish to live in such a place when the family of four was squashed together in one room.

  “The Palace?” Derek asked.

  Lily’s eyes once again betrayed her terror when it came to Derek. She never really did get used to his presence and she always looked as if she were frightened that she would say or do something that would displease him.

  “That’s what the Naturals call this place…” Gavin was a lot more confident around Derek. Sometimes, he even bordered on defiant—something I admired, but still found myself fearing for him, because not all vampires would tolerate his insolence the way Derek did.

  “What do you think?” I asked Gavin. I’d long realized since I first met him how much I valued his opinion. I found it refreshing that he always spoke his mind without hesitation, telling me things as they were and not as I wanted to hear them.

  Gavin looked Derek straight in the eye as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back on a bare wall. “It’s over-indulgent, but I think you already know that.”

  Derek visibly tensed, most likely surprised that Gavin would have the gall to speak to him in that manner.

  “Sofia deserves the best,” said Derek.

  Gavin’s eyes went from Derek to me and to my relief, he nodded. “I’m not going to argue with that. I have to admit that Sofia really is quite special.” He then took out a white rose that had been tucked in his back pocket. “I heard it’s your birthday.” He approached and handed me the rose. “Happy Birthday, Sofia. Now, you can’t say I never gave you anything.”

  From behind me, I could hear Paige and Rosa trying to stifle their giggles. I wondered what they found so funny until I noticed the look on Derek’s face after Gavin gave me the rose. He looked just about ready to rip Gavin’s heart out.

  Derek cocked his head to the side. “Do you have a death wish, boy?” he asked Gavin.


  Lily was trembling. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she suffered a heart attack then and there. Her face had drained of all color.

  Gavin, on the other hand, still had a cocky smile on his face. He stayed calm as he gave Derek a look over from head to foot. “Don’t worry, your majesty. I’m not interested in your princess. Not in that way.”

  “In what way are you interested in her then?”

  “Not in any way that would be a threat to either her or you, your highness. She’s a friend—a sister even. Nothing more.”

  Gavin said the words in a matter-of-fact way, as if he expected all of us to already know what he’d just explained. He sounded almost bored. Even I was intimidated by Derek’s disposition at that point, but Gavin didn’t even flinch.

  I recalled the first time I had spent time with Gavin. It was right after Claudia took him from the farm and I helped stopped her from making a slave out of him. Claudia attacked him and left some pretty nasty gashes on his upper torso with her claws. I pleaded for Derek to give me a vial of his blood, so we could use it to heal Gavin’s wounds.

  “You want me to drink his blood?” Gavin spat out, staring at the vial in disdain. “Are you insane?”

  “It will help you heal…” I said meekly, unsettled by the anger blazing in his eyes. I wondered to myself why I was feeling guilty. It wasn’t my fault Claudia caught him and clawed her nails through him. Heck…he should be thankful that I intervened.

  “Yeah? Well, duh…of course it will help me heal. Doesn’t mean I want vampire blood running through my veins…” He stared at me disgustedly. “Have you been drinking his blood?”

  I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. “Several times…”

  “Migrates…” He rolled his eyes. “No wonder the vampires treat you as pets. What are you doing here, really?”

  We were in his small cell in The Catacombs and he was lying on one of the four cots belonging to his family. The drab setting and dimly-lit room proved to be rather depressing.

  “I just wanted to check on you,” I responded to his query, wondering why he was throwing so much hostility at me.

  “You think you’re some sort of savior, don’t you? Like you’re above us just because the prince of The Shade is professing his love to you?” Gavin, despite the bloodied bandages wrapped around his torso, sat up on his cot and glared at me.

  “No…I just wanted to help.”

  “I’ve been here all my life, girl. I know the vampires a lot better than you do. Do you think you’re the first Migrate these creatures have been infatuated by? You’re not. There have been others before you.” He snorted as he shot me a condescending look. “It’s the same old story. The vampire fell in love. The Migrate got special treatment. Then what? The human gets either turned or killed. If not, they end up with us Naturals—practically useless, because they’ve been so broken, both mentally and physically, by the vampire who claimed to love them. I could introduce you to one. Anna—stunning beauty, but degraded to nothing but a whimpering child. You’re nothing special.”

  A lump formed in my throat as I searched my mind for a response. You obviously don’t know what kind of person Derek Novak is, was what I wanted to say, but it was clear that Gavin thought himself better schooled in the subject of vampires than I was. Thus, I just hung my head in surrender. It seemed pointless trying to get my point through to him, at least at that moment.

  The silence seemed to mellow him down, draining the fight out of him. “You have no idea what it’s really like to be a human at The Shade, living like every day could be your last. Don’t come here holding yourself high above everyone else.”

  “I’m not holding myself above anyone! Is it so wrong to want to help, Gavin?”

  He studied me carefully, assessing me, perhaps trying to figure out if I was being sincere. His eyes then once again found the vial containing Derek’s blood. “I’m not going to drink that. I don’t think you should either.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the last thing you want is to owe a vampire anything.”

  Standing in the living room of my new quarters in The Catacombs, I couldn’t help but form a bitter smile as I realized the extent to which I had neglected to follow Gavin’s advice. It felt like I owed Derek everything.

  Derek continued to study Gavin carefully. He then gave Gavin a nod. “Very well then.” He straightened to his full height, once again towering over the rest of us. “I will entrust her to your care. She seems to put a lot of faith in you, so I expect that you will look after her during her stay here in these caves. Do you agree with this?”

  Gavin smirked. “How can I refuse? Sure. I’ll take her under my wing.”

  “Gavin…” Lily muttered, her voice hoarse and dry. She still had that mortified look in her eyes. I was about to approach Lily and reassure her, when Corrine stepped into the room. Derek raised a brow upon seeing the witch.

  “You told me to inform you once Ashley’s turning is about to commence,” Corrine said.

  I felt myself go pale at what that implied.

  “Wait here,” Derek instructed.

  I shook my head. “I’m going with you.”

  “Sofia…you don’t have to see this.”

  “No.” I stood my ground. “I want to see this. I have to see this.”

  Sadness filled his eyes as he nodded. I couldn’t place exactly what emotion was coursing through him. To me, for reasons I couldn’t entirely understand at that moment, it felt like my sandcastle had just been hit by another wave.

  Chapter 15: Derek

  I didn’t want her to see anybody—much less Ashley—being turned into one of us. It wasn’t the prettiest of sights, neither was it a memory that one could easily purge out of the mind. I was afraid that the sight would haunt Sofia forever. I was afraid that seeing Ashley turn would forever remove from Sofia’s mind the option of becoming a vampire.

  That’s when I realized that I was still hoping that she would agree to be one of our kind. I hated myself for being so selfish.

  How could I wish my curse upon the woman I love?

  We were taking the walk from the Black Heights all the way to The Sanctuary, Corrine’s home at The Shade.

  The Sanctuary, befitting its name, was located southwest of the island. The white marble structure, with its large round pillars and domed roof, was originally built to honor and house Cora, the witch who made the Shade possible—a dear friend of mine. After her death, the Sanctuary became home to every other witch that succeeded her. One of its chambers also served as my mausoleum during my four-century slumber. Surrounded by lush gardens, complete with a labyrinth, a gazebo and a fountain, it was one of the most lavishly designed structures at The Shade.

  Still, I never did quite like going there. This time, in particular, I dreaded reaching the witch’s temple. As we walked along the rocky path and past the giant redwoods, I found myself grabbing Sofia’s hand.

  “You really don’t have to see this, you know…” I repeated, a plea for her not to take part in the turning.

  “Ashley’s my friend. She’d want me there.”

  “Paige and Rosa are her friends too…you don’t see them tagging along.”

  She squeezed my hand reassuringly. “I’ll be alright, Derek.”

  My gaze focused on what lay ahead. I could already see the Sanctuary coming into view. The sight of the pure white marble façade, seeming to glow under the light of the full moon, should’ve taken my breath away. It was quite a sight to see. Should I dare look at her, I could almost picture the spark of delight in Sofia’s eyes—one that never failed to grace her face whenever we went to the Sanctuary. Corrine, after all, was one of her treasured allies at The Shade. I was never really a fan of the Sanctuary, truth be told. The price paid for such a lavish structure lessened its value in my eyes. I knew what it took for it to get built, but that was only one of the reasons the sight of it made me sick to my stomach. That night, I feared that the sight she was about to witness would lesse
n my value in Sofia’s eyes.

  I squeezed her hand tighter. She looked up at me, stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against my cheek. “I love you, Derek.”

  Those words would’ve been healing balm—hearing them from her always did make all the difference, but not that night. I wondered if she could tell me the same thing after witnessing Ashley get turned.

  I kept my silence as we reached the Sanctuary. Corrine, Ashley, Kyle and Sam were already there. Ashley was wearing a skin tight red dress that made her look absolutely stunning. I would’ve normally been amused at how Kyle and Sam both gulped at the sight of her, but all I could think about was Sofia. Upon seeing each other, Sofia and Ashley embraced.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Sofia whispered.

  Ashley nodded. “Yes. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  The expression on Sofia’s lovely face made me ache inside. She looked like she was about to lose a friend. I didn’t know if I was being paranoid, but it was almost as if she was already grieving Ashley.

  “Are we ready to begin?” Corrine asked.

  Awkward and unsure glances were exchanged across the hall, before Ashley stepped forward and nodded. “I’m ready.”

  I watched Kyle carefully. I knew for sure that he’d never turned a human before. I wondered what was going through his mind. At that point, however, there was no time to ask. I’d been spending all my free time preparing Sofia’s quarters at The Catacombs, I barely gave Ashley’s turning much thought.

  Corrine nodded for us to follow her and we made our way to the chambers where I’d been kept asleep for four hundred years. The giant round pillars, the stone slab in the middle of the room—each feature triggered unwanted memories from the past.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” Cora’s big brown eyes were moist. It was clear that she’d just hurriedly wiped tears away before I came in.

  I couldn’t look into her eyes. I knew that she loved me. She’d told me many times before. More than that, she’d shown me in more ways than one that I meant more to her than she did to me. I could still remember how she broke into tears when I told her that I wanted to end it all. I wanted to escape The Shade and all the memories that came with it.