A Shade of Novak

  Lastly, we asked ourselves the same questions and concluded that each of us had alibis.

  As it turned out, every single vampire on the island had alibis for the night the Cancún kidnappings took place… except for Aiden and Abby.

  Eli, Derek and I sat alone in one of the mountain chambers we now used for storing sacks of food for the human inhabitants of the island.

  “Well, leaving aside my father and Abby for a moment, everyone else seems to be innocent,” I said. “Of course, unless this is a mass operation with multiple vampires going behind our backs and providing each other with alibis.”

  “I suppose that it’s possible,” Derek said. “But that would be hard to orchestrate on such short notice. We asked detailed information and it would have been hard to not slip up.”

  “So, we’re left with Aiden and Abby,” Eli said, frowning at the long list of names of vampires in front of us.

  “Ludicrous,” I said. “Neither of them would do something like this.”

  “So, since you’re convinced of that, we can cross everyone at The Shade off of our list of possible suspects,” Eli said, dropping the list on the table and leaning back in his chair, stretching out his legs.

  I nodded.

  “So we’re back to square one,” Derek muttered.

  “I’m going to turn in now,” Eli said, standing up. “I’ll think more about all of this when I’m fresh in the morning.”

  Derek and I returned to our own penthouse. We both sat at the dining table and sipped on some blood before heading off to bed. As we were both drifting off, a pounding on our front door sent us shooting up out of bed.

  Derek swung the door open to see Eli standing at the door, covered in sweat, eyes alight with panic.

  “I just tuned into the news before sleeping,” Eli said, panting. “There have been more kidnappings. Hawaii.”

  He came rushing in.

  “There were two incidents… some days apart from each other. The second incident,” he said, gasping for breath. “R-Rose and Benjamin Novak, both twenty-one years old. Staying with Kristal and Jake Palmer, eighteen and nineteen. They said on the radio. All four are missing.”

  “What? But they’re not anywhere near Hawaii,” I breathed. “They’re in Scotland. And they’re seventeen. It must just be a coincidence.”

  “Twins! They’re twins!”

  Whatever blood I still had in my pale face drained out of me. I looked up at Derek. His jaw dropped open, eyes widening.

  “Come! I’ll show you,” Eli urged. “They showed photos. I saw them. They’re your twins, goddamn it!”

  Chapter 13: Rose

  I must have drifted off in Ben’s arms, because I woke to the sensation of the submarine shuddering so violently both Ben and I were thrown to the ground. I groaned as my head connected with the wall. Then my stomach lurched—it felt as if we were surfacing.

  Several minutes passed in silence, but then there were shouts and banging overhead. It sounded like a violent argument was going on.

  “Do you realize who their father is?”

  “Obviously. That’s why we took them.”

  “Stellan, you’re a bloody fool.”

  “For carrying out Annora’s orders?”

  “Liar. Even she wouldn’t order something like this.”

  “She did. As soon as you told her you’d almost taken the girl.”

  “Liar!”

  More crashing. Shouts. Screams. Then heavy footsteps descended the steps outside the door. Wood splintered and metal bent as someone kicked the door down in three violent motions.

  A tall young man stood over us, a deep gash across his cheek, his face covered with dirt and sweat. His shirt was ripped, revealing his muscled chest beneath.

  The vampire I’d danced with on the beach.

  Caleb.

  His deep brown eyes settled on us.

  “Hurry,” he said, his chest heaving. “I need to get you out of here.”

  Ben and I shot to our feet. Caleb gripped my arm and pushed me up the stairs in front of him, while Ben followed closely behind.

  As I was about to step up onto the upper deck, Caleb jerked me back.

  “Wait,” he whispered.

  He climbed up on the same step where I was standing, his rock-hard chest pressing against me as he strained his neck to see what was happening on the deck above.

  “Now!”

  He almost lifted me off my feet as he pulled me up with him. I glanced back anxiously to check that Ben was still following us.

  The deck was in chaos. The submarine was split into a large control room at the front, and then an area with more seats at the back. Vampires clawed and ripped at each other.

  I didn’t have much time to look around though, because soon Caleb was pushing me up a narrow ladder. We reached yet another level of more vampires fighting. He ran with us across the floor until we reached another ladder. Again he pushed me up and this time, there was an open hatch up ahead. Rain poured onto my face. Caleb gripped my thighs and pushed me up. I held onto the metal edge of the hatch and pulled myself the rest of the way.

  It was night and we appeared to be floating in the middle of the ocean. Another black submarine floated parallel to us. I scrambled further along the roof of the submarine. The heavy rain was impairing my vision, and the already smooth surface became even more precarious. My foot slipped. I screamed as I slid down the side of the submarine, trying to find anything to grip onto, but there was nothing. I closed my eyes, bracing myself to fall face forward into the ocean, when a strong hand wrapped around my ankle.

  The hand pulled up until I was once again on the flat surface of the roof. When I sat up, I found myself looking into Caleb’s intense eyes.

  “Careful!” he scolded.

  My hair stood on end as I looked down at the rough, dark waters I’d almost slid into.

  I looked around me and breathed out in relief to see Ben climbing out of the hatch. He lowered himself down and crouched down next to me on the roof, pulling me closer to him.

  Caleb whistled, and vampires began also retreating out of the hatch, filling up the remaining space of the roof. The last one out slammed the hatch shut behind him and about four vampires pushed down on it as vampires within the vessel tried to break out.

  Caleb whistled again, and the submarine floating next to us neared. As soon as it was within jumping distance, the vampires on the roof began to leap onto it. Now all of them had crossed but one who remained applying pressure to the hatch so that the vampires within it couldn’t get out.

  Ben pushed me forward toward Caleb.

  “Hurry, take my sister,” Ben said, eyeing the hatch.

  Caleb nodded and stared down at me.

  “Climb onto my back. You must grip tight.”

  Trembling, I locked my arms around his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist. I closed my eyes as he took the leap. We landed with a thud on the roof of the other submarine and Caleb had to grip a pipe to prevent us from skidding off.

  “Now, into the hatch,” he ordered.

  “No! Wait!” I gasped, fighting against his attempts to push me into the submarine.

  The last vampire who was holding down the hatch on the other sub lost his footing and slipped into the ocean.

  That left Ben all by himself.

  “Ben!” I screamed. “Jump!”

  He leapt, but the ginger vampire who had just climbed out of the hatch jumped with him at the same time and pulled him down into the ocean.

  “No! Ben!”

  The vampire caught hold of my struggling brother and pulled him back up onto his sub.

  “Caleb! Do something!” I screamed as the vampire wrestled Ben back through the hatch. I fought against Caleb’s strong grip, trying to break free.

  But then it was too late for even Caleb to leap back over. The hatch slammed shut and the submarine lowered itself into the depths of the dark ocean.

  Chapter 14: Sofia

  I stared at Eli’s
TV, barely believing what I was seeing.

  Passport photos of my twins flashed before the screen.

  “Those are the suspects.” Eli pointed to the screen as CCTV footage showed two tall men dressed in long black cloaks, wearing gloves and black hats, entering the apartment foyer.

  Derek stood up and swore as the two men entered the elevator after Rose and presumably her friend Kristal. “But how did any of this happen? How the hell did they get to Hawaii?”

  “Oh, God,” I said. “You know how much they were complaining about going to Scotland. They must have figured out a way to get to Hawaii instead.”

  Derek slammed his fists down against the table. “And who are they?” He looked like he wanted to climb into the TV and rip the two men to shreds there and then. It was impossible to tell who they were. For all we knew, they could have been regular humans looking to prey on two innocent girls.

  “There’s footage of the two of them entering,” Eli said, his hands shaking as he held the remote, “followed by two more a few minutes later—see?—but there’s no footage of them ever exiting. That’s what’s got the police so confused. They have no idea how they could have gotten all four of those teens out of there without being caught on camera. The last footage they have is the four men entering the apartment. After that, nothing.”

  “We need to get out of here,” I said, standing up. “We have to find them.”

  Derek and I stormed out of Eli’s penthouse and raced through the woods to the Sanctuary. Derek ripped the heavy wooden door from its hinges with his bare hands as we raced through the corridors to their bedroom.

  “Ibrahim! Corrine!” we shouted as we burst in.

  The married couple sat up in bed, looking at both of us groggily and rubbing their eyes.

  “Sofia?” Corrine mumbled. “Derek? What is this?”

  “The twins,” I shrieked. “They’ve been kidnapped.”

  That woke her up faster than a bucket of ice water.

  “We need you to take us to Honolulu, Hawaii this instant.”

  She and Ibrahim stumbled out of bed, wrapping robes around their bare forms. Corrine gripped my shoulders, shaking me. “What? What are you saying? Hawaii?”

  “There’s no time for explanation now.”

  Corrine swore, clasping a hand to her mouth. “This is all my fault.”

  “What?” Derek gripped Corrine’s shoulders. “What are you saying?”

  “For the twins’ birthday, Rose asked me to change the dates on her and Ben’s passports. She promised that it was just to allow them to—”

  “Derek, there’s no time for talk,” I urged. “Take us there. Now! Hurry!”

  Ibrahim and Corrine held onto us and a few seconds later, we had vanished from The Shade in a whirl of colors.

  Chapter 15: Rose

  I screamed as the shadow of the submarine disappeared completely beneath the water.

  Caleb tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me up toward the hatch, but I continued to struggle.

  “Let me go!” I cried.

  He gripped both of my wrists with one hand and lowered me into the hatch with the other. Hands beneath me grabbed my legs and pulled me down. When my feet touched the ground and Caleb slammed the hatch shut, my knees gave way and I crumpled to the floor, sobbing.

  “Ben! Ben! No!”

  I shut my eyes tight, and prayed that when I opened them, I’d wake up back in Kristal’s condo. This would all be a dreadful nightmare. I’d get up and rush into Ben’s bedroom to find him snoring and splayed out on the mattress in his blue pajamas.

  “Ben, Ben, Ben,” I breathed, as if saying his name would bring him back to me.

  Caleb crouched down beside me. I looked up into his brown eyes, my own eyes blurred with tears.

  “I’ll get your brother back,” he said, his voice deep, his face ashen, dark hair soaking wet from the rain.

  He stood up and began walking away.

  “Wait,” I stammered, scrambling to my feet and following after him. “How? How will you get Ben back?”

  Caleb didn’t look back at me as he continued walking along the narrow corridor of the submarine, injured vampires zigging and zagging in and out of rooms and crossing over our path as we walked.

  He didn’t answer me until he reached a door at the bow of the vessel, pushed it open and took a seat in the control room, behind hundreds of buttons and dials, next to a vampire whom I assumed was the captain of the submarine.

  Once seated, Caleb swiveled in his seat and faced me again.

  “I’m going to speak to his superior. He had no authorization to do what he has done.”

  I sat down in one of the spare seats behind them as the vampire on the right moved the vessel forward.

  “But where are we going? Why don’t we chase after their submarine and get Ben back right this instant? Just like you rescued me.”

  Caleb shook his head and set his eyes forward through the window screen.

  “It’s too late for that now.”

  “But what if they do something to him in the meantime?”

  “They won’t harm him.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know.”

  Racing forward in the opposite direction from my kidnapped brother was the most painful experience I remembered having. “Where are we going now?” I breathed, tears spilling from my eyes again.

  “Back to base.”

  “Base?”

  “You’ll see,” Caleb said, impatience beginning to show in his voice. “Enough questions.”

  I gripped the back of his seat and, wiping away my tears with the back of my sleeve, looked forward through the screen to try to make sense of where we were headed. All I could see was an endless expanse of black ocean.

  I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes.

  Please, Ben. Be safe. Please.

  Then I thought about the mobile phone they had confiscated. Our parents were used to us calling thrice a week. Usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If we didn’t call them, they’d get suspicious.

  But how on earth will they find us? They’ll contact the adventure company’s office only to find that we checked out long ago.

  Goddamn it. We should have called to tell them about those vampires.

  Tears threatened to consume me again, even though there was no point to them. Tears weren’t going to help bring Ben back. Or help our parents find us. I looked up at Caleb.

  He’s our only hope.

  I still didn’t understand his motivation for helping us, and I couldn’t trust him. But he was the only glimmer of light we had in this darkness.

  I sneezed. My clothes were soaking from the rain.

  Caleb turned around in his chair to look at me and immediately got up. “Come with me.”

  I followed him out of the control room, along the passageway. We stopped outside a door. He knocked three times.

  “Frieda,” he called.

  The door opened and a tall ebony-skinned vampire nursing a painful-looking gash in her arm appeared in the doorway.

  “Do you have anything this girl could change into?”

  Her chestnut-brown eyes settled on me and she nodded.

  “Yes, I’m sure I can fix her up with something. Come in.”

  Celeb placed his hand on the small of my back and nudged me inside. Frieda closed the door behind me.

  “Let’s see what we’ve got here,” she said.

  The cabin was tiny—barely large enough for a single bed and a cabinet. She crouched down and pulled open a drawer in the chest in the corner.

  The first thing she pulled out was a towel. Then a long cotton nightdress.

  “It’s not much, but it’s better than staying in those wet clothes.”

  She placed both on her bed and left the room for me to change.

  I wasn’t sure what to do with my sopping wet pajamas so I just put them in a corner of the room. I dried myself as much as I could with the towel, then pulled the nightdr
ess over my head. I wrapped up my wet hair in the towel to form a turban.

  I opened the door to find Frieda waiting outside.

  “Thank you,” I murmured.

  She nodded and was about to shut herself back in the room when I asked, “Could I ask you a few questions?”

  “I think it’s best you ask Caleb any questions you have. I don’t know how much you’re allowed to know.”

  She shut the door and I made my way back to the control room. When I pushed open the door, Caleb turned around and looked me over briefly, then turned back to face the glass screen.

  I sat down in my seat.

  “How much longer until we arrive at your ‘base’?” I asked.

  “About three hours.”

  Chapter 16: Rose

  The submarine slowed to a halt and rose to the surface.

  “We’re here,” Caleb said.

  He stood up and I followed him out of the control room, along the narrow passageway, until we reached the ladder leading to the hatch.

  He climbed up first, and I followed next, the rest of the vampires lining up behind me.

  “Oh,” I breathed as soon as I looked around outside.

  The sudden cold was the first thing that hit me—it felt like we were in the Arctic. Everything seemed to be covered in snow. We had stopped outside a small port. Behind us in the far distance the rays of the sun beat down against the water, but here they were blocked out due to the same protective charm that The Shade had.

  I turned to look in front of me. Caleb had climbed down onto the icy wooden jetty and was looking up at me, hands crossed over his chest.

  Shivering, I climbed down after him, almost slipping on Frieda’s long night gown in the process.

  When I cast a cursory look around the island, leaving aside that it was covered with snow, it did appear similar to The Shade. There were thick woods—although the trees weren’t nearly as tall here—and I spotted a mountain range in the distance.

  “Where do you vampires come from?”

  Caleb remained silent, his eyes set forward.