A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,14

deeply, his arms snaking around my waist as he pulled me closer, pressing my body against his. I welcomed all the love he had to give, as always. He was my anchor, my safe haven, my everything. And I relied on him to get through this, as much as he relied on me to do the same.

“You have this way of making me want to be a better version of myself, Sofia, that’s all,” Derek murmured against my lips. “I wouldn’t be who I am without you.”

I sighed, relaxing in his embrace. I closed my eyes for a moment, my mind wandering back to The Shade and its Sun Beach. Derek and I had often talked about it—about me walking in the sun with him, about us spending days with the ocean lapping at our feet. This was our chance at making all our dreams a reality. We loved the night, and we’d grown accustomed to the darkness, but the sun had always remained a distant desire. Not anymore.

Pulling away, I took his hand again, and we headed for the study room. “Come on, babe. Let’s see what the wonder twins have worked out.”

Amal and Amane stood in front of the worktable. They took turns looking through the microscope, systematically checking different glass Petri dishes under the magnifying lenses of the device. On the other side of the room, Nethissis’s body was exquisitely preserved under its swamp witch spell, her skin glimmering pink and orange like a sentient gemstone. It broke my heart whenever I looked her way, but I’d learned to adapt and accept what had happened. Knowing Zoltan would eventually pay for what he’d done gave me some comfort.

“What’s going on?” Derek asked as we walked in.

“We found it,” Amal said.

My heart jumped. “The day-walking protein?”

“Mm-hm. Take a look.” She stepped aside. Derek was breathless, staring at her and Amane with wide eyes. It made them both giggle. Amal had broken the news so simply, and we weren’t really emotionally prepared for such a breakthrough.

Derek sucked in a breath and looked through the microscope, his hands shaking as he pressed them on the table. “Okay… what am I looking for?”

“You’ll spot a variety of shapes in the middle, but focus on the caterpillar-looking ones,” Amal said. “They should be slightly yellow around each cluster.”

“Oh, wow… Yes, okay. I see one.”

Amane grinned. “There are billions of different molecules in a single drop. We had to study, examine, and identify each one. Then we had to figure out what function each of them serves. It’s why it took us so long, especially since the Aeternae’s day-walking molecule is slightly different from yours, Derek. Here, let me show you.”

She removed the Petri dish and replaced it with another. Derek looked through the microscope again. “What am I looking for now?”

“Do you see those caterpillar-like formations, but with what looks like a second head? They’re more orange. Easier to spot,” Amane replied. Derek nodded slowly. “Okay. Those are your day-walking proteins. From your bloodstream. Ta’Zan took one Aeternae strand and clipped it in order for your molecular structure to accept it, and it evolved into your ability to walk in the sunlight.”

“Basically, the day-walking protein isn’t a single molecule. It’s a group of five to six molecules. They tend to bond and split, depending on the exposure to direct sunlight,” Amal added. “We’ve never seen anything like this, but it’s truly amazing. Basically, whenever you’re exposed to daylight, these weird little proteins quickly come together, in a matter of nanoseconds, forming amino acids that protect your skin from instantaneous combustion. Once you’re back in the shade, they relax and break down again, becoming dormant without troubling anything else.”

“Like an internal force field of sorts?” I asked.

The twins nodded. “Exactly. It’s how the Aeternae’s bodies have adapted. The cellular regeneration that facilitates rapid healing and immortality takes its toll on the body’s ability to withstand natural light. The Aeternaes’ molecular structure basically takes from one part of itself to feed into the other. The day-walking protein evolved from a rogue cell, as far as we can tell, and its development was so quick that the Aeternae didn’t even have time to adjust or to suffer from sunlight exposure,” Amal said.

“Which is weird,” Amane continued, frowning.

“Why weird?” I asked, feeling my eyebrows rise.

“Because it means the Aeternae did not naturally evolve into what they are today,” Amal replied. “They were once a species similar to the Rimians and the Naloreans in terms of biological