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

My muscles melted across the floor, part of me still twitching and trembling from the aftershocks of my orgasm. I let my eyes flutter shut and caught my breath as Valentine rained kisses over my face.

“I missed you so much, Innamorata.” He drew back, and I cracked open an eye, meeting his expectant stare.

“How long has it been?” I ran my fingers over his sharp cheekbone, loving how his skin felt like the most luxuriant silk.

Valentine shook his head and pulled back, sitting beside where I lay. “There’s no way to measure the time.”

My throat thickened, and dread stirred in my belly. I raised myself off the floor, clutching his arm. “Was it weeks, months, years? Tell me—”

“You’re here now.” He pressed his lips on mine, silencing me with a kiss.

I slumped against his chest, trying to process my guilt. Valentine didn’t want to worry me about something I couldn’t change, just like Lazarus working behind the scenes to fix Beatrice’s supernatural parasite but not telling her she was getting drained.

“Something happened, didn’t it?” He threaded a hand through my hair.

Anxiety skittered through my insides, setting off my pulse, which fluttered in my dry throat. The last time we spoke, our biggest problems were the Mage King’s machinations to raise taxes in Lamia and my lack of magic. Both of these issues paled in the light of the rise of Kresnik.

My tongue darted out to lick my dry lips, and I burrowed my head further into his chest like a coward. “When your other self broke free from the Mage and Demon Kings, he took the heart from my pocket and got some wizard to encase it in an unbreakable crystal ball.”

The hand stroking my hair stilled, and he drew back, trying to make eye contact. “What else are you not telling me?”

I lowered my gaze to my bare feet, trying to figure out how to break the news that Kresnik had returned and enslaved his body, who then broke free by drinking large quantities of my blood. And said body tried to keep me safe with large quantities of thrall and now thought I might be addicted?

My teeth worried at my bottom lip. Even the part where I escaped with the help of the Demon King made my stomach clench with dread. If Valentine disapproved of his preternatural self, I could already imagine what he thought of Hades.

“You’re afraid of me,” he said in a monotone.

I shook my head. “More like I’m worried about your reaction.”

“How bad could it be?” He ran a large hand down my back. “Has my preternatural body turned anyone yet?”

The image of a preternatural Roman striking at his twin brother surged to the front of my mind, making my chest tighten. I placed a hand on my throat, and inhaled a deep breath. Maybe if I blurted it, the words would flow better.

“You have to understand that I was still unsettled from seeing your heart destroyed and resurrected.”

“Of course.” He placed a hand on my cheek, staring down at me with eyes that shone with compassion. His brows drew together. “But how does this relate to turning others into preternatural vampires?”

“Well…” I gulped. “The high priest—”

“Your father?”

I shook my head. “Sort of.” Before Valentine could ask what I meant, I continued my story. “They said I was ready to get rid of the firestone, and we would perform a ceremony so I would turn into a phoenix the way I did over here.”

His eyes narrowed. “Something went wrong?”

I grimaced. “It worked. A few other young people pooled their magic to push mine to make the transformation, but it was all part of a larger plan for him to steal our power.”

Valentine’s mouth went slack and he stared down at me with unfocussed eyes. “Why would a high priest steal from his own daughter?”

A fist of dread reached into my gut and twisted. If he found this scenario shocking, I couldn’t imagine how he would take the rest of my story. “It was part of a sick plan to combine his soul with another entity from Hell,” I muttered. “At the time, I noticed a shadow on Father Jude, but it was dark and could have meant anything. When he touched my wings and burned to ash, he and the shadow combined to create something new.”

His eyes bulged. “A demon?”

By now, the pulse between my ears boomed loud enough to drown out sound, and the contents of my stomach simmered with anxiety. This was supposed to be a dreamscape that allowed the meeting of two souls, but I felt every visceral reaction as though it came from my physical body.

My tongue darted out to lick my dry lips, and I put together the words in my head. Each time I tried to break the news that the man who had enslaved his father was now back from Hell, they came out overly dramatic.

“Mera.” Valentine placed his hands on my shoulders, his fingers holding me firmly in place. “Whatever it is, we can deal with it together.”

I couldn’t look him in the eye, not when he was breathing harder than a racehorse. Perhaps part of Valentine already knew what had happened, or he could sense the intensity of my dread within this dreamscape. The pressure built up inside me like a kettle that had been left on the stove for too long and had no means to let out its steam.

“Kresnik,” I rasped.

His hands dropped to his sides. “What?”

“Do you remember the derelict mansion a mage built on land your father purchased?” My words were flat, as though my vocal cords were now exhausted from the strain of keeping this secret. “That mage was Kresnik after the battle five hundred years ago stripped him of his immense magic.”

Valentine shook his head. “He was alive all this time?”

“Living in that mansion with a bunch of fire users.” I gulped. “One of them was Father Jude, who took over the leadership