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 passed 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 glasses—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 button, her hand trembling.
“Rose? Ben?”
No response.
“Hello?” 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 bitch. 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 passed 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.
After a few hours, we arrived at the location. Sofia and I navigated the submarine as close to the beach as possible, and stepped out into the warm night air. A tall vampire with reddish hair was already waiting on the beach. Alone. A few hundred meters away from him was a black submarine.
We approached and stopped a few feet away from him. Looking around the area casually, I couldn’t spot other vampires on the beach, and the submarine moored up in front of us appeared to be the only one.
“Where are the twins?” I asked.
“Where’s the immune?” he responded.
“We have her in the submarine,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pushing the button to signal to our submarines.
“I suggest you bring her out first. Remember, Novak, your twins are worth more to you than the immune is to us.”
I nodded and, taking Sofia’s hand, returned toward the submarine. We walked as slowly as possible without arising suspicion.
Sofia and I disappeared through the hatch. We exchanged nervous glances. If all went to plan, in less than a minute, an army of our vampires would surface and storm their submarine.
Sure enough, Stellan yelled out into the night air. He rushed back toward his submarine. Sofia and I climbed back out through the hatch and raced after him.
I caught up with Stellan on the sand before he reached the submarine. Leaping forward and gripping his midriff, I tripped him up. He didn’t try to fight me. Rather, he scrambled to his feet and ran in the opposite direction. I had almost caught up with him when he ran into the sea—toward another small submarine that had been hidden from view. He dove through the hatch and slammed it shut before I could climb in after him. Several seconds later, the submarine had submerged beneath the waves.
Confused by his behavior, I returned to the main submarine and, wading through the water, hauled myself up onto its roof and lowered myself through the hatch.
The submarine was in absolute chaos. Vampires at war with each other, lashing out with their claws, biting each other’s necks. I caught sight of Sofia fighting a particularly vicious-looking female.
I ducked down beneath the commotion as much as I could. I had to reach Rose and Ben while most of them seemed occupied.
Keeping against the walls, I ran from chamber to chamber until I reached the lower deck. I checked all the rooms down there and stopped outside the only one which was locked. The door was made with reinforced metal.
“Stand back,” I shouted through the door to whomever was inside.
I climbed to the top of the stairs and, with all the force I could muster, I smashed down against the door. The impact made a dent in it, but it still didn’t open. Again, I struck the door. Now looser. The third time I struck, it swung off the hinges. I hurried inside and looked around the room.
My son lay on the floor, his eyes closed. There was no sign of Rose.
I hauled Ben’s body over my shoulder, relieved to feel he was still breathing, and ran out of the room. I looked once more in every corner of the lower deck but Rose was nowhere to be seen. I rushed back up to the top level and barged through the crowds of fighting vampires until I reached the hatch.
As I climbed up, pain seared through my ankle. A vampire dug his claws into me. I shook the vampire off, kicking him in the face. I climbed out of the hatch and jumped into the water. Readjusting Ben’s weight over my shoulders, I ran back to our submarine and placed Ben down on top of a blanket in the back of the vessel.
Where the hell is Rose?
My stomach churned as I ran back toward the submarine. We had managed to overpower quite a few of the other vampires already, though many were still fighting against us. I breathed a sigh of relief on seeing no casualties on our side yet.
In the corner Aiden tied up a male vampire in line with a bunch of others we’d managed to tranquilize. I reached out for Aiden’s shoulder and he spun round to face me.
“I found Ben,” I said. “You need to go to the small submarine immediately. Ben is there. Bring some witches and help care for him.”
“And Rose?”
“I haven’t found her yet.”
As Aiden rushed off, I looked around the vessel for Sofia. I spotted her in the far corner of the room, struggling beneath the weight of a large male vampire.
I gripped his neck between my arms and with one sharp motion I disjointed it. I held out my hand and pulled Sofia off the floor, her face shining with sweat. “I found Ben,” I said. “But Rose isn’t here.”
“What?”
“I searched this whole vessel. She’s not here.”
I began to fear the worst—that the reason Stellan had fled so quickly was that he held Rose separately from Ben just in case we attempted to pull a stunt. He probably thought that we wouldn’t risk an ambush or anything that could put our precious twins’ lives in danger. He thought that we would rather just hand over our immune. But just in case we tried an ambush, he kept Rose separately. Thinking now with hindsight, I was kicking myself for not having considered he might do this. He would have been a fool not to.
“But where could she be?”
“We need to find out where it is these vampires reside.”
Leaving Sofia’s side, I raced over to Xavier, who was just about to inject a vampire with a tranquilizer. I knocked it out of his hands and pulled the vampire away from him. She had a youthful face, possibly in her twenties when she was turned, and short blonde hair.
I outstretched my claws and positioned them over her heart while my other hand gripped her neck. “You are going to take us to your base,” I hissed.
I pulled her up and dragged her into the control room. “Where do you vampires come from?”
When she remained silent, I pressed my claws against her throat. She gasped but still didn’t speak.
“There are plenty of other vampires I can ask. So I suggest you speak, unless you prefer that I rip your heart out.”
“All right,” she croaked, gasping. I released the pressure from her neck. “We live on an island, about an hour away from here.”
“What island?”
“Stellan rules over it. It’s protected by a witch’s spell.”
“A spell? Will we be able to enter it?”
Trembling, she nodded. “Yes, because you are accompanied by us.”
I pushed her into the control seat and said, “Do you know how to operate this thing?”
“Y-yes.”
“Then you’ll take us there. You said it takes about an hour. I’ll be watching the timer. I suggest you don’t mess with me.”
She eyed my claws as I sat down next to her, ready to strike if I sensed even the slightest bit of disobedience from her.
I turned to Sofia.
“Are all the vampires tied down now?”
“Yes, it looks like it.”
“Then instruct the others to return to their subs. They must follow this submarine closely. And you should return to our submarine and follow us there too.”
Sofia nodded and rushed off. Once I was sure that everyone who was due to leave this vessel had left—leaving me with Vivienne, Xavier, and a few others to help make sure the sedated vampires remained in their docile state—I ordered the blonde vampire to start our journey.