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

Nut snarled and gave him a hard kick in the crotch.

“This cafe is owned by a demon who brokers anything.” Lareth spoke so fast, I had to close an eye and squint to concentrate. “He said he needed extra Neutrals to act as blood cows because he has a big customer who likes to order a lot of blood, alright? The Neutral we found looked down and out, so my colleague collected him.”

Captain Zella groaned. “Where do we find this broker?” She scrambled around the counter and pulled herself to her feet. “Don’t worry about the repercussions of being an informant. Those will be the least of your worries considering you’ve just assaulted an officer of the Supernatural Council and the fiancée of a monarch.”

Lareth’s face crumpled, and he choked back a sob. “It was just a reflex! I’m claustrophobic.”

I would have felt sorry for the guy if he hadn’t tried to drown me.

“And you two.” She walked around the room and held out her hand. “Identify yourselves.”

My lips formed a tight line. They just rescued us both, and this was how she repaid them?

Nut snorted. Geb turned toward me and flicked his head in the direction of the door.

“Hold on a minute, he hasn’t told us where to find Jonathan.”

“I don’t know,” Lareth moaned from the floor. “My job is to work out which of the losers who come here won’t attract attention if they go missing. What the broker does with the information afterward is up to her.”

“How do we find this broker?” Captain Zella snarled.

Lareth placed his hands over his face. “She comes after dark.”

Captain Zella pulled out her phone and called for the van. “We’ll keep you in place until the broker’s arrival. If you so much as warn her of our presence or if she doesn’t arrive, we’ll bring you in for questioning.”

As the man sobbed his agreement, Captain Zella turned her attention to Geb. “Your name, please.”

Nut shot me a glance that said I had better move on before she snapped the enforcer’s neck.

“They don’t speak English or Latin,” I said. “Valentine hired them from New Mesopotamia.”

Her brows rose. “To what end?”

“Royal business,” I snapped.

One minute she was acknowledging me as the fiancée of a monarch and the next she was demanding information like I was one of her subordinates. This was the type of attitude I would have to watch out for after Valentine and I got married. It didn’t matter that I’d grown up forced to take disrespect from every supernatural who could so much as conjure up magical fart—things were different now. I was a phoenix and the soon-to-be Queen of the Vampires.

The door opened, letting in a blast of cold air and the rumble of traffic. Two enforcers stepped in and hurried to Captain Zella’s side.

Nut and Geb continued to cast me peculiar glances. I wasn’t sure if they were sensing danger or they just didn’t like the overwhelming scent of cats. It was probably the latter, since Nut wouldn’t have a problem with bodily removing me from the cafe if an assassin was close.

Something buzzed from the direction of Captain Zella. She frowned at her phone. “The Demon King has summoned us back to Logris.” She glanced around the space, her gaze catching on a mirror. “My team members will remain here and wait for the broker.”

The captain strode to the other side of the room, and I glanced in the direction of the door, which was in the opposite direction she was heading.

“Aren’t we going back to the van?” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder.

“No time for that.” She placed her handset on the glass, which rippled the way water did when disturbed by a stone. “Come along.”

My steps faltered. “We’re not traveling through a mirror.”

“It’s perfectly safe,” she said.

“For people with high levels of—” My mouth clicked shut. I was one of the powerful supernaturals who could use magical transportation and not damage body parts. If I could flicker with the help of my teammates, I could certainly step through a mirror.

A hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to find nobody standing at my side but guessed Nut and Geb were close by, planning on hitching a ride. It would be nice to have them in the room the next time I faced Hades, even if they weren’t as powerful as him. That entire tying-me-to-the-bed nonsense had been more than awkward.

Captain Zella cleared her throat, her not-so-subtle way to tell me to get going. I pulled back my shoulders, straightened my back and inhaled a deep breath. Hopefully, I wouldn’t humiliate myself and spill the contents of my stomach when I reached the other end.

On legs as stiff as chopsticks, I walked across the mauve-and-white floor, my clattering heart providing a drumbeat to Lareth’s sobs. If I could turn into a creature of fire and take flight, I could step through a mirror. It was just like jumping into a pool, and I was already still damp from the water snake.

My heart kicked up a notch as I reached the mirror, which rippled as though hungry to swallow me whole. Shoving aside speculations on what would happen if I got stuck, I pushed a boot into the glass, which sucked me in like quicksand.

I held my breath for the second-and-a-half that it took for my foot to land on the other side and exhaled my relief.

After another pat on the back from Nut, I stepped into a large room with mahogany shelves laden with leather books, and a marble fireplace filled with orange flames. Above it was a gold-framed picture of the same curly-haired woman whose image was etched on the elevator.

I stepped toward the picture, passing other framed images of Hades from before he’d turned to ash. One of them depicted him as shirtless, sitting on a golden throne with the humongous body of a three-headed dog curled around its back. The dog’s