A Shade of Vampire 8: A Shade of Novak Read Free Page A

Sofia,” she said. “I want to grow up.”
    I breathed in deeply. I felt the pain in her voice. I’d actually been expecting this day to come sooner. She should be reaching her adolescent years by now, yet she was still trapped in the body of a child.
    “We’ll do it, Abby. I promise. We’ll turn you back into a human before this month is over.”
    I placed a kiss on her head and she smiled more fully, reassured by my promise. She kissed my cheek and drew away from me, allowing me to continue forward with Derek, Vivienne, Xavier and the twins.
    “Sofia! Derek!”
    I turned around yet again. Anna walked toward us, her long black hair flowing down her back as she carried her and Kyle’s one-year-old daughter, Ariana, in her arms. Kyle followed closely behind her. I kissed them all and while Anna stayed to talk with me, Kyle walked over to Derek, who started talking animatedly with him.
    Ariana reminded me of Rose when she was younger. She was a beautiful child and had similar features–green eyes and dark hair.
    “Anna!” Ben shouted. He left Derek’s side and wandered over to us.
    Anna beamed and bent down to cuddle him. It warmed my heart to see the special bond the two of them had, and I felt an eternal sense of gratitude. If it wasn’t for Anna’s initiative to take care of Ben when he was still a newborn trapped in Aviary, I doubted I ever would have seen him again.
    Rose also skipped over and tugged on Anna’s sleeve.
    “Hey Anna and Ariana,” she said, smiling sweetly.
    “Hey beautiful.” Anna kissed Rose’s cheeks.
    “Sofia,” Anna said, after she’d finished greeting the twins. “Ian left.”
    I stared at her. “Already?”
    She nodded. “He finally proposed to Katrine about a month ago, and they decided it was time to leave the island and start their new life outside. He was sorry you weren’t here to say goodbye.”
    I smiled. Ian and Katrine—one of the human girls who used to live a few doors along from him in the Catacombs—had started seeing each other three years ago.
    While I was deeply disappointed that he hadn’t waited to say goodbye to us, I felt nothing but happiness for them. I saw joy in Anna’s eyes too, and an obvious relief. Ian had finally found someone to replace her, and he no longer had to suffer each time he saw her with Kyle.
    “Well, I’ll let you go, Sofia,” Anna said. “I’m sure you’ve got lots of work to do settling into your home again. I’ll see you around.”
    She kissed me once more and headed off with Kyle and Ariana.
    Derek scooped up Ben and placed him on his shoulders. Ben chuckled with delight on being so high up. I took Rose’s hand and kissed her on the nose, which made her giggle.
    As we neared the Residences, two more familiar faces came into view. Ashley and Landis—Xavier’s younger brother—were walking toward us, holding hands.
    It had taken Ashley two years to finally let Landis in after she had lost Sam in the most brutal way imaginable. But finally, the day had come when she was happy again.
    I ran up to Ashley, pulling her into my arms. I kissed her cold pale cheek and whispered, “I missed you so much.”
    Tears welled in my eyes as she smiled back at me. I’d grown so used to her smiling only to stop people pitying her. But now she was smiling from her heart. She’d truly found happiness with Landis.
    I stayed with Ashley for several more minutes before finally turning away and arriving at the foot of one of the tallest redwood trees on the island, upon which our magnificent penthouse was built. We stepped into the glass elevator and made our way to the top.
    Rose and Ben wandered about on the verandah, marveling at the star-strewn sky. We’d made sure to build a high fence around the verandah so that there was no chance of any accidents. Our twins had dangerously adventurous minds and, now that they were becoming independent, it was hard to keep an eye on them sometimes.
    Once we’d settled down and finished bringing