☼ Chapter XIII ☼

picture; Ever Dahlyke

song; "Fresh Blood" by Eels

author's note; Yay! We have finally made it to Derik and Sonya's first date. It will be broken in two parts unfortunately because it was originally written as a very long chapter, but again, I want to leave places for readers to take breaks.

I know their date was supposed to be a couple chapters back, but there was some new important stuff I needed to put before this date, but here it is. We get to know Derik so much more and get to really develop his and Sonya's relationship.

I'm still editing part 2, so I may or may not add some smut. Or maybe I'll keep the clean version and add a smutty chapter to a private chapters book.

Decisions, decisions.

What is everyone listening to? I need more new artists and music to listen to.

Comment + Vote, enjoy!

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Even though I speed-walked, I still turned up eight minutes late to the plaza. Derik was leaning up against a light pole, waiting patiently and alone. Once he caught sight of me, he swept me up into his arms before I could protest. I was slightly surprised as he nuzzled into my hair, breathing in my scent.

"You're late." He stated obviously once he decided to pull away some time later.

"Yes, well, that's your fault. If you had just told me where we were going, I wouldn't have taken forever to decide on what to wear." I bit back with a half-ass glare pointed at him.

My anger from before had long simmered into nothing. Being away from him for the past week made me miss him a lot, too much maybe. It had only been a few weeks since I had met Derik outside of Genevieve's office, but I had grown so attached to his presence.

I always wanted to be with him, but I also was proud I hadn't turned into a total love-sick idiot who instantly forgave him the first time he acted remorseful for saying something so disgusting and hateful about my parents.

"I gave you a hint." Derik defended himself, though the mischievous glint in his cerulean eyes told me that my annoyance was amusing to him.

"Sure, and I thought about coming in sweats." Derik laughed openly at this before fisting his hands into my trench coat.

"I think you'd look sexy in anything." Derik's left eye dropped into a wink and I rolled my eyes at him, chuckling. "This is very cliché of you." He notes, tugging on my jacket. "All the Vampyres wear a trench coat."

"Not all of them apparently." I countered quickly, a smirk falling onto my mouth as I nodded to his also very cliché rich-black leather jacket. "Jealous you don't own one?" Derik drug me ever closer to his body by my coat. "And I love this coat, no matter how cliché it is."

"Hmm," He hummed, though I didn't think he was listening anymore. Derik pressed his mouth to my jawline briefly before turning away from me. The thrum of the fire had become so familiar, that I only realized how much I enjoyed it when it was gone. "We should get going. The place we're going is only open for a few more hours since it's owned by humans."

"Humans? Where exactly are you taking me, Derik?" The nervous edge to my voice made him turn to me and smirk.

"Scared of a crowd of humans?" I didn't respond; it wasn't the humans I was worried about. I was more anxious to leave the Academy for the first time in six years. I hadn't been anywhere else in Siberia, so who knew what others like our kind may lurk around here? "Don't worry, Sonya. I'd never let anything happen to you." And is it strange that I fully trust what he said?

We had been driving for a good half hour before we finally turned out of the thicket of trees. I flipped through the music stations, only to find weird Russian music that I didn't understand nor like. I missed American radio so much, I almost gagged.

Pulling the glove compartment open, I dug around all the papers and other junk Derik had shoved in there before finding a CD. The laugh that fell from my lips was unstoppable. "Beyoncé? Really?"

Derik looked mortified. "I have no idea where that came from."

"Maybe one of your girlfriends left it here." I teased, but to my dismay, Derik didn't attempt to deny it. "Wait..." I began again, turning the CD over.

"No, Sonya." His voice had suddenly turned hard, and he refused to look at me. The grip he had on the steering wheel had tightened to the point that his knuckles turned white. "I was dating this girl, but we broke up the day I met you."

"Will she be rampaging to get her CD back?" I quirked an eyebrow up as I watched him for a while longer.

"I hope not." He didn't elaborate, and truthfully I was thankful. I didn't ever want to meet any of Derik's old girlfriends because that would just be stupid and irritating drama for me if any of them had lingering feelings.

None of them could ever compare to me and the bond that Derik and I shared; it would really only make me feel pity for the girl if she tried it.

Nonetheless, I pushed the CD into the player and skipped through all the songs until I came upon "Flawless". Though I had been gone from America for quite some time, the Internet did me proud when I searched for recent music. I couldn't stand to suffer through the weird shit they played here.

Derik was easily entertained as I danced around and sang the lyrics as loud as I could; when the song neared its end, I glanced over at him and devoured the image of his amused smile.

He glanced over at me as he noticed that I had calmed down; the heat in his eyes almost burned me. "What? Got tired that fast?"

A smirk spread over my lips at his suggestive comment and I shook my head. "Nah, I just... I don't know. I feel really good around you." I shrugged, trying to hide how much that meant to me.

As soon as I was in Derik's presence, I felt so comfortable—more at ease than I'd felt in a long time; I was more comfortable next to him than I was even beside Lorelai or Genevieve, the two people I had grown so close to that our relationship was actually familial.

The worry about my crapat soul disintegrated into nothing as well. And I was so grateful that I was able to enjoy myself with him.

"That's how you're supposed to feel around me." His voice was pitched in a clear "duh" tone and I rolled my eyes at him.

"That's not what I mean, dummy." Derik nods slowly, the smile still evident.

"I know what you mean, baby." I warmed thoroughly through at his use of the stupid pet name. "Made you speechless that easy?"

"Shut up." I crossed my arms and tried to scowl at him, but couldn't manage to with the bubbling feeling in my stomach. "I was just thinking of an insult as a comeback."

"Yeah right. You love me too much." He flashed a heart-stopping smile that somehow managed to be both adorable and annoying.

"Are you always this annoying?"

"Annoying? I think you meant to say charming." Derik waggled his eyebrows at me and I laughed, shaking my head simultaneously.

"No. Nope, I meant annoying." Derik scoffed and placed a hand to his chest in mock hurt, shaking his head at me. "Oh, did that hurt your feelings? Aw, you're sensitive; how cute." I pinched his cheek and he swatted my hand away.

"You're easy on the eyes but cruel to the heart." Derik sneered playfully at me in disgust. "I'll forgive you if you kiss me."

"Kiss?" I scoffed and rolled my eyes for what felt like the millionth time. "Kiss my ass." Derik laughed whole-heartedly at this; his brilliant cerulean orbs turned to me and glinted with what could only be mischief.

"Baby..." He growled lightly, and though he was being playful, every fiber of me spiked in temperature almost to an uncomfortable level. I didn't grace him with a response since I was afraid of what would fall out of my mouth if I tried. "You can dance right?" My head cocked to the side as I turned my focus back to Derik.

"Of course; I used to be a cheerleader." I told him. Before leaving the US, I was co-captain of the varsity cheer squad which meant that I helped choreograph most of our routines. "And obviously, a gymnast."

"Gymnast?" Derik's smile was wide and goofy before he turned his eyes up to the car's roof. In a hushed tone he whispered thank you to the sky, causing me to chuckle at his lame joke. "I used to be the misfit and class clown."

"I can picture that—what with your cliché leather jacket." Rolling my eyes, I tried to mutter "And the cute non-stop joking." Derik's smile shifted back into a smirk, indicating to me that he heard what I said. I only smiled innocently at him, which caused him to chuckle this time.

"I can't picture you as a cheerleader." Derik shuddered as if the mere thought was horrifying. "It's too weird."

"Well, I was really different back then too. I miss how I was." I said honestly. He cocked his head sideways to steal a glance at me before turning his eyes back to the road. "I was headstrong and passionate and so easy to love. I was really happy."

"You're not happy now?" Derik's voice wasn't accusatory, but curious.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I reluctantly shook my head. "Not really. I mean, I've embraced being here at the Academy. The training, Lorelai, Genevieve. They've helped me a lot since my mom... but I do wish I could still be back in America, with my mom and my sister. Even my dad.

"Even though he abandoned us, I still love him because for the sixteen years that he was there, he was an amazing dad. I liked living in the human world. Everything as a human is so much easier, honestly.

"I never had to worry about how I portrayed myself because I was a Royal; never had to worry about being stalked by Darkness or attacked in my own room or about these crazy ass feelings toward men I'd never met before..." I trailed off when I realized what I'd said, but then I noticed my wording was vague, so Derik would probably assume I was referring to him, and not Trent.

"Yeah. I mean I never considered the huge difference between living as a Royal in the Unknown World and living in the human world. I was raised in this world, and my mom was a Protector while my dad was human. He raised me and my brother alone when my mom was gone on missions, and he was an amazing dad as well. For a while." Derik had stopped at a light and I realized that we had arrived into a city.

My gaze turned over to him and the iciness in his cerulean eyes made me angry for some reason, but I squelched the feeling and smiled weakly. "I feel your pain, Sonya; my life was pretty similar to yours. My parents divorced when I was fourteen after she decided to continue working as a Protector.

"My dad couldn't bear to know that his Chosen Mate was running around killing people—even if the people were Dark-influenced murderers themselves. So he just left. My mom was killed on the job and my older brother left only a year after she died when he started the Change. That's when Genevieve really came through for me; I was seventeen at the time."

"The term soul mirror is pretty literal, huh?" Derik's laugh was humorless, and I appreciated that he acknowledged my attempt to soften the atmosphere.

"Guess so. I never thought of that."

"I'm pretty perceptive." I informed him on a sigh. Giving him my eyes again, I surveyed his expression. Derik's posture was relaxed, though the muted burn in his oceanic orbs let me know that this was a sore subject for him as well. He'd been without his mom for almost ten years, but I could tell that he loved her a lot. "What about your brother? Do you speak to him or see him anymore?"

"Uh, sometimes. He actually is a Protector now and lives in England with his Chosen Mate. I believe he's on a mission right now though because I haven't heard from him in a while, and usually when he doesn't call it's because he's working."

"Oh," My response was slow as I digested the information. "Can I meet him some day?" Derik's attention snapped in my direction and a soft grin graced my lips. He grasped my hand and returned the smile before nodding.

"I would like that." We turned into a lot and parked a little farther back away from the stand-alone two story building. From the multi-coloured flashes that vault across the panes of the windows and the constant thumping bass that reverberated through the air outside, I could tell that the building was some kind of club.

The sign was read in Russian, and I therefore didn't know what it was called. "You took me to a club? And you called me cliché earlier."

"Oh, baby." Derik's hands settled onto my waist and he pressed my back into his chest as he growled into my ear. "You're gonna eat those words."

I scoffed in an attempt to try to disguise the gaining effect Derik had over me. "Yeah, right. What's so special about this place?"

"Ah, ah!" He released me, the tendrils of fire dissipating regretfully. "Don't wanna ruin the surprise do you, Sonya?"

"Of course I do." I said, scowling at him as he started up toward the entrance doors. "That's why I asked." My voice quirked in a "duh" tone as I rolled my eyes and followed behind him.

"Well, too bad because I'm not gonna tell you." That mischievous glint flitted through his gaze once again. "I want to see your face when you realize how wrong you are." I narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips. Derik responded to my expression with a meticulous and slow smirk, reminding me of Lorelai.

"Whatever." I crossed my arms before quieting as we stepped up to the bouncer. He was taking a hit of a cigarette and looked utterly bored until we came into his line of vision. By the sweet and warm scent that wafted from him, I knew that he was human and he slightly shuddered at the sensation of the Powerful aura floating around us as we closed the distance to the doors.

Once in a short proximity, I caught sight of a Lycan's bite—a Lycan's claim Mark—on his neck.

The bouncer's dark eyes dragged onto me and lingered for a while before Derik wound his arm around my waist and snappily asked something in Russian. I leaned deeper into Derik's side to hide my giggles as the guy replied with something that sounded like a grunted apology.

Derik flashed his Protector's ID and said something else in Russian when he nodded to me. My brows scrunched together as I took in the sudden sense of malice that emanated from the bouncer as he narrowed his eyes.

He told Derik something that had him also tensing up at my side.

"You don't have a school ID on you?" I unlocked my phone and pulled up my ID electronically before turning the screen over to the bouncer to show him. He gave a curt nod in the direction of the door and Derik tugged me along.

"That guy was human." I stated the obvious once we were inside. "But he had a Lycan's Mark on his neck?"

"He's probably someone's True Mate. And yes, he's human—but he's more than that." Derik spoke nonchalantly, but my curiosity burned brilliantly. I watched him expectantly. "He's of the Hunter race, but works alongside our kind instead of against us. We call his kind the războinic—a Warrior. They're usually a top-notch Protector's sidekick."

"The Hunters... They're just human, so how are they able to go up against Dark supernaturals like we can?"

I remember Sawyer's lesson from a couple weeks ago and how Eloize and Priscilla Ylisove's sons had made a pact with the Hunters to stop the Red War. The Hunters were just tricky liars that managed to get our kind to trust them before discovering our weaknesses and using them as a weapon against us.

That was the advantage they had—surprise and knowledge—but we had the strength, the speed, and the aid of bloodthirsty anger to take them down. All they had was small-mindedness and hatred, so how could they have the power to go up against a tainted supernatural?

"Like I said, he's more than just human." Derik didn't say anything else about it, and I huffed before crossing my arms. My curiosity would be the death of me. "Are we here for a history lesson, or are we here to have fun?"

"Learning is fun." I objected easily with a small smirk. Our eyes caught and the smoldering warmth evident in his gaze seared through my chest. Desire strained to arrest control of what I did next, and I was forced to breathe in carefully measured exhales to keep it in check.

My hand entwined with Derik's and the swirls of fire dominated my entire arm. I settled as close to him as I dared as I led the way to the floor where many other people were moving against one another to a song I didn't recognize.

Most people had a red plastic cup in their hands and the aroma barreled through the sweat and thrumming mixture of personal scents just to command my attention. Noxious and magnetic, it hypnotized me as I leaned away into Derik.

"What are they drinking?" My body barely moved to the music, barely moved against him, but he still took a while to respond as his fingers gripped at my hips.

"It's spiked human blood. The bartenders spike it based on the supernatural. Lycans get wolf's bane, Vampyres get valerian, and Nephilim nightshade." The smell it emanated made total sense: the blood and the semi-poisonous drug.

"They serve it like a regular drink?" Considering the club was supposedly owned by humans, I couldn't fathom how they would manage to find willing donors. Derik's chuckle flowed over my skin, and I twisted in his hold to face him. "I want you to tell me now, Derik. What is this place?"

"It's not cliché." He fisted his hand lightly in my hair and tugged to where my neck was exposed before applying his lips to the skin there. The lustful haze he conjured clouded my better judgment, and I chastised myself for worrying when I was with Derik. He wouldn't let anything happen to me, but the raw sensation that we weren't exactly safe wouldn't fade.

A shudder skimmed with a revolting velocity over my skin and contaminated every portion of my entirety. I so badly wanted to allow myself to drown in the feel of Derik. His hands firmly pressed me in place; his lips delicately coaxed me to relax.

The vague notice that the music switched flickered in my attention since I knew the song—"Feeling Good" by The Muse—and vanished as quickly as it had come. I found my rhythm and moved against Derik in an unhurried ease; the response was his fingers grasping to me tighter.

Spinning in Derik's hold, I pressed my back against his chest and rotated my hips into his. I curled my arm around his neck and tugged his hair, earning a slight growl that contrasted greatly to the playful one from earlier in the car.

Derik's lips touched my shoulder blade and I faltered in my motions as I let forth a low groan that I didn't realize was born from my lips.

Just as his tongue moved to follow his mouth, a trenchant screech rocketed mercilessly through the atmosphere and mangled the haze at the forefront of my mind. My body solidified into a fight stance as I fully submerged back into reality and Derik held me much tighter than before—though this felt more protective than desirous.

The vibrations of the bass stumbled to a halt as anguished screams filled the air. Derik pushed me behind him and further away from the heart-wrenching shrieks. They assaulted me with shock as the stench of blood grew in volume.

A man began yelling in Russian and the crowd parted to reveal a sobbing redhead girl laying her head against another girl's chest. The dead girl was black-haired with brilliant blue eyes that were open wide and filled with glassy terror.

Her neck was torn open, waterfalls of ruby life oozed over her chest and down her left arm, tinting her white tank top and pale skin crimson in the process. A cordial and revolting stench coiled around my nose and I pressed my palm to my lips to muffle the horrified gasp.

The redhead's eyes glimmered with tears as they ran up to connect to my gaze. I swallowed heavily though my mouth was dry as I recognized her as the girl from my combats lesson weeks ago—the one who had made a snide comment about my ability to fight when I was paired to spar against Carson.

She shook her head and began to chant the word "no" over and over again. Sobs wracked through her body with an extremity that was symmetrical to the manner in which I had sobbed after Meredith was killed.

The sliver of empathy that blossomed in my chest was crushed immediately when her next words made ice slither into the very marrow of my bones. "They were here for you!"

My heart dropped into my stomach and I dug my nails into Derik's arm. "We need to leave." I whispered as my terror smiled through my voice. "Right now."