Passion of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 5) by Bella Klaus (best motivational books txt) 📗

as souls trapped within hearts, power-stealing maniacs, and vengeful Greek ex-gods trying to take over Great Britain. I slipped the phone back into my pocket and sent Istabelle a text to say I was five minutes away.

When she texted back to say she would put the kettle on, I smiled and slipped the phone back into the pocket of my cloak. I could work out what to say to Kain later.

The vehicle turned right and travelled over rougher terrain, making everything vibrate. I raised my head. We had now left the road and were traveling through a tunnel large enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic.

Straightening, I peered out into the tunnel, which seemed to stretch for miles. This was my first time down here, even though I knew the place existed and was vaguely aware that London contained more supernatural communities than just Logris. The scent of cold metal streamed in through the air conditioning, mingled with whispers of witch and wizard magic.

“Do you come down here often?” I asked the driver.

“You’d be surprised how many people come here whenever things in the Supernatural World get unsettled.” He glanced at me through the rear-view mirror. “One of my passengers told me preternaturals have returned. This time, the fiend behind them is a woman. Can you believe that?”

Not only could I believe it but I also knew the woman in question was me. I offered him a tight smile and a shake of my head.

“I reckon this place will be packed soon enough,” he muttered. “That’s why they put the vampires on lockdown—so they wouldn’t go rogue.”

There was no point in telling him the truth. He either wouldn’t believe me or might tell the wrong person that he’d had me in the back of his cab.

Dark openings appeared within the tunnel’s curved walls, which the driver explained were doorways. Apparently, the Goodge Street bunker consisted of three parallel tunnels with the middle serving as a roadway and the ones on the left and right sliced widthways into apartments.

I nodded. It was probably just like Striga, where most people magically expanded the interiors of their cottage to form multi-roomed homes.

“Who are you visiting? Hyde, Osbourne, Stevenson, Balfour?”

“Pardon?”

He reeled off all the names of the bunker’s residents, including Istabelle’s.

“Bonham-Sackville,” I said.

“Right.” He gave me a jaunty salute and slowed outside one of the doorways. “Tell Mrs. B that Benny from Überwald said hello.”

As soon as the car stopped, the driver slumped against the door and hit his head on the window.

I lurched forward, unsettling Macavity, trying to wedge myself between the front seats. “Benny?”

A hand landed on my shoulder. Nut materialized and gave me a firm headshake.

“Don’t help him?” I said. “Why not?”

Her brother reappeared in the front passenger seat, leaning over the driver’s collapsed form. He drew back, holding a huge spider.

Every ounce of blood dropped from my face, leaving me reeling back in my seat with a hand clutched over my chest. Macavity scrambled to his feet and hissed.

“What just happened?” My voice shook.

Nut made a zipping motion with her mouth. At first, I thought it was a command for me to be quiet, but we were all alone in the car, and nobody was out in this tunnel. As Geb pulled out the driver’s smartphone and extracted its SIM card, realization trickled through my shock. They meant to silence him.

I turned to Nut, my heart fluttering like a bird trying to fly with one broken wing. “Is he dead?”

Geb grunted in the affirmative, but I couldn’t look at him. I continued staring at his sister until she nodded.

My heart skipped several beats. “Did your brother kill Benny to stop him from telling our location?”

She inclined her head.

My body temperature plummeted, and the cab’s interior suddenly felt too cold, too cramped, too crowded with killers. A noose of guilt wrapped around my throat. They murdered that driver because of me.

Nut opened the door of the back seat and gestured for me to step out. I shot poor dead Benny a helpless glance. There wasn’t a thing I could do to help him.

“You can’t go around killing innocent people because they talk too much,” I said.

The slight rise of her brows said she would agree to disagree.

“I’m being serious,” I snapped.

One of the muscles in her face twitched. It was only the tiniest of expressions but I recognized it as impatience. Nut probably thought I was being idealistic and that begging the man not to spill secrets of my location would keep him quiet. Of course it wouldn’t, but I hadn’t been stupid enough to confide in a stranger prone to idle gossip.

Geb stepped out, walked around the front of the vehicle, opened the driver-side door, pulled out the dead man, and dragged him toward the back. The noose around my neck tightened, making my eyes bulge. He was packing Benny away like trash.

A knock sounded on my window, making me jolt. Geb met my gaze through expressionless eyes and gestured with his hand for me to step outside.

Macavity trotted out of the cab and stood by Istabelle’s door, staring up at me as though to ask if I was coming or not. I clenched my teeth and swallowed back a snarl. Why were they making me feel like I was being unreasonable?

“This contract is over.” I scooted across the back seat and stepped out of the car. “It’s one thing to get rid of assassins, but I won’t stand for cold-blooded murder.”

Nut folded her arms across her chest and stared down at me with a frown. She was the only one of the pair I could stomach right now.

I met her gaze and scowled. “On behalf of King Valentine, I’m calling off the contract. You two can return to New Mesopotamia because I no longer need your services.”

She tilted her head to the side but didn’t get back into the taxi. When she didn’t show any signs of disagreement, I continued toward Istabelle’s door, where Macavity swiped at my cloak