Page 1 of Sophie's Ruin
1
Darkness surrounded me. I was standing in the middle of it, completely and utterly alone. The air was still, and no sound disturbed the eerie silence, not even that of my own breathing. My heart stuttered in my chest as terror rose and swelled. I turned around in a circle, but there was no end and no beginning in sight, only the pitch-black. My pulse beat in my ears as my breathing picked up, bursting in and out of me. Before panic could take over entirely, a whisper erupted out of nowhere, skimming the surface of my mind. It echoed inside my head and all around me. Velvety-soft and dripping with allure, the sound was shadows and smoke, probing and prodding, luring me in. My brows knitted—I didn’t want to be here, alone, with the darkness whispering things to me. I didn’t want to succumb to it, but it was nearly impossible to fight the treacherous pull when my very nature was drawn to it.
“Just a taste.” The whisper in my head grew louder, the shadows blooming and swirling.
Suddenly, a hand landed on my shoulder, startling me. The brief burst of panic was quickly replaced by potent relief. Without turning around, I sensed my mother standing behindme, gripping my shoulder to guide me out of the darkness and into the light.
“There is a light inside you,” came her measured voice, as a childhood memory invaded my mind. In it, my mother was saying those words to me when I was a little girl.
“As if I’m a star?” I’d asked her then, my high voice full of wonder.
“Yes.” She’d smiled at me. “Protect that light, and nurture it so it burns brighter and brighter. Carry it with you always. Even in the darkest hour.”
As the memory dissipated, the corners of my mouth lifted, and I spun around, excited to see my mother, relieved to no longer be alone in this dark and quiet place. But it wasn’t my mother standing before me when I turned around. It was Henry, and seeing him instead of her did not douse my excitement. Quite the opposite. Happiness flooded me as I stared into his deep-blue eyes. A myriad of emotions churned in them, drawing me in, and I took what felt like my first breath in this unnatural place as if he were the very oxygen I needed. His chiseled face lit up with a brilliant smile as he reached for me to guide me farther away from the darkness and into the light. A charge passed between us when his large hands wrapped around mine. I went to step toward him, but something held me back. It was as if the darkness itself was clinging to me, its inky fingers snagging on my clothes, digging into my skin, and pulling on my hair.
Henry’s smile faltered, and his brows pulled together as his grip on my hands tightened. I tried to step toward him again, and this time, I was able to move closer, even though it felt like treading through a pool of black, viscous liquid. Henry’s taut features smoothed out, relief radiating from him. Relief flared in my chest as well, and a startled laugh escaped because I couldn’t wait to be with him, engulfed in his fresh and woodsyscent. Peace and security awaited me in his embrace. I was so close, yet, for some reason, it felt like an abyss lay between us—an insurmountable distance of darkness and pain, separating us for all eternity. I wouldn’t let it. My brows pinched in concentration as I went to take another step. Henry’s intense gaze was fastened on mine, and he seemed to have stopped breathing as he watched me.
Only one more step. I knew if I took it, I would be in Henry’s arms, and everything would be okay. My life and everything that I was would make sense again. Yet before I could reach him, two black, scaly arms shot out from the darkness behind me, wrapping around my waist like a vise and jerking me back. Despair surged, instant and all-consuming, as I tried to hold on to Henry. Tears rushed to the surface, gliding down my cheeks, because he was slipping through my fingers. I was losing him, losing us, losing myself...A heartbeat later, my hands slipped out of his grip. My curled fingers grasped thin air, and I sucked in a sharp breath a second before the darkness swallowed me whole.
My eyes flew open, and I sucked in a sharp breath, much like I had in my dream before the darkness had consumed me. Except I wasn’t in that black void anymore. I was in Henry’s bedroom, lying beside him in his bed. My hand was on his hard chest, and I had a feeling that my cheek had rested on it as well, before my head had snapped up when I’d awakened. Releasing a soft exhale, I lowered my head back down to the solid slab of muscle. The steady beating of his heart brought instant comfort, and I closed my eyes, momentarily lost in the familiar rhythm. His heart was strong like he was—strong and relentless. I might have been pulled into the darkness in my dream, but I knew that wouldn’t stop Henry from coming for me. He’d fight for me, just like he had when I’d first turned. When I’d become a vampire, the darkness had sunk its claws into me, but Henry had draggedme from the obsidian abyss before I’d plunged into the deep crimson waters of bloodlust, losing my humanity forever. He’d pulled me out, but then why had the darkness returned to haunt me in my dreams?
My forehead creased as I opened my eyes again. Perhaps I was reading too much into my dream. It was possible my subconscious had been playing tricks on me because I was nervous about tonight. In a few hours, Henry and I would meet with the clan leaders to decide the future of the Empire.
Last night, I’d defeated the Dark Witches, using the amulet my ancestors had created to erase them from existence. Josephine’s Tear had the power to eradicate all supernatural forces, but I hadn’t used it on the vampires, because I was one of them now. So the vampire clans would remain, even though the humans no longer needed their protection from the Dark Witches.
I’d destroyed our greatest enemy, accomplishing something I’d thought impossible mere hours ago. Why was my chest painfully tight with unease when I should feel lighter than air? Instead of floating, I felt weighted down, the walls of the dark room pressing in on me.
I knew why. Henry and I were prepared to step willingly into the shadows to let the humans have their country back, but I doubted the others were prepared to do the same. My mind flashed back to the moment last night on the border when everyone had realized that I’d defeated the Dark Witches. It hadn’t been elation that had splashed across their near-perfect faces; it had been shock and uncertainty. A myriad of questions had burned in the clan leaders’ eyes, but before they could voice any of them, Henry had whisked me away from the border after scheduling a meeting for tonight.
Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d known the reprieve would be fleeting and had wanted to carve out a few hours ofpeace before the next storm. A sense of foreboding slithered down my spine at the thought, prickling my skin.
As if he could sense my unease in his sleep, Henry’s arm tightened around me, tucking me closer to his unyielding body. Lifting my head from his chest, I looked at his flawless profile, my gaze gliding over the high and broad cheekbones to the well-formed mouth. With his black hair spilling across his forehead and his full lips parted, he looked peaceful and content, breathing softly in his sleep. His expression was almost serene, as if he had everything he needed right here in this room. Seeing him like this helped tamp down my inner turmoil, and I let myself relax into his hold. My gaze roamed over the vast expanse of his chest and the defined lines of his torso. He was truly magnificent, and he was mine. A feeling I couldn’t yet put into words swelled in my chest, threatening to overflow and spill into the world around me.
My pulse quickened as an intense desire invaded my senses. Reaching up, I gently brushed my fingertips over Henry’s chiseled features before trailing them down his chest to his stomach. When the sculpted muscles tautened under my touch, my eyes darted back to his face to see if I’d successfully coaxed him out of his slumber. He inhaled deeply as he stretched, and my own breathing caught in anticipation of what would come once he was fully awake. A pleasant curling sensation stirred between my thighs, and my lips curved into a sinful smile as my hand dove under the covers to further explore Henry’s powerful body. The low, rough sound that rumbled from deep within his throat made my skin flush with awareness.
“Sophie,” he growled, opening his eyes to look at me.
“Yes?” I whispered, as I wrapped my hand around his hardness.
“What are you doing?” he rasped, gliding his fingertips up and down my bare back, eliciting a shiver from me. His breathhitched when I began sliding my hand up and down his length, matching the movement of his fingers.
“What does it feel like I’m doing?” I purred, meeting his deep-blue gaze that was turning darker by the second. My heart skipped a beat at what I saw in his eyes, and I felt my cheeks heat at the intensity of his stare. “I think I never want to leave this bed,” I added, low and husky.
The heat in his gaze intensified as he swallowed thickly.
“As much as I would love it, you know we can’t do that.” He tried to be the voice of reason, but his words came out low and rough, his eyes still turning darker with desire.
He was right, of course. Soon we would have to leave this bed and this room. I truly didn’t know what the meeting with the clans would bring, and the feeling was more than disconcerting. It threatened to quell my desire, but I refused to let it, quickly recapturing the feeling.
“Last night, we faced the Dark Witches and prevailed,” I told Henry, looking into his eyes. My voice trembled, betraying how much I was still shaken by the fact. “We thought we were going to die…” My breath snagged in my throat as I realized I’d never let that truly sink in. I hadn’t known if the amulet would spare my life and Henry’s when I’d used it. I’d been prepared to die, and Henry had been prepared to follow me into the void, all for humanity’s sake. “But we didn’t die,” I continued. “We survived, and I want to be alive with you. To enjoy this moment of peace for a little while longer.”
Something I couldn’t quite decipher flickered across Henry’s features at my words. Perhaps the same realization I’d just had hit him, making his already pale skin lose more color and his eyes turn entirely black with molten heat.
Instead of answering me, he threaded his fingers through my hair and guided my mouth to his. I immediately opened up for him, eager to taste him on my tongue, to lose myself in himand in this moment. The kiss was everything I’d wanted and hadn’t even realized I’d needed. His tongue rolled over mine painstakingly slowly, as if we had all the time in the world. Each stroke sent sparks of desire through my entire body, all the way to my fingertips and toes, melting away any uncertainty I was feeling about the future. There was no room for it as my blood ignited, and I was on fire, burning only for him. The outside world ceased to exist as we created our own little world inside this room. A world where it was just the two of us, our bodies and our hearts bared, swimming in this feeling of pleasure and bliss that was fusing us irrevocably together.
2
In a few hours, the night had descended. The heavy gray curtains in Henry’s bedroom were drawn like always to prevent even a sliver of light from sneaking in during the day. Still, I knew if I opened them, the night would greet me like an old friend, comforting and full of promise. Ever since becoming a vampire, I’d developed this innate sense that told me when dawn was near, urging me to find shelter lest I meet my untimely demise. The same sense also whispered to me like a lover, low and seductive, when the last rays of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, beckoning me outside to frolic in the night. It was as if my body came alive when the blanket of darkness crawled over the city. Every part of me sparked to life like the stars in the night sky until I burned bright like they did, beautiful and otherworldly.
