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

had acted like I wasn’t worthy of being remembered. Such disdain was understandable, considering he came from New Mesopotamia.

New Mesopotamia was a vampire-run kingdom in the Middle East, bordered by two rivers that ran through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Other supernaturals could live there, but only if sponsored by a vampire or in their employ. Valentine once told me that every vampire in existence descended from this particular family—even those who claimed they did not had set up Royal Houses of their own.

“I’m Valentine’s fiancée.” My left hand twitched with the urge to show him my engagement ring, but I forced my arms to remain at my sides. Prince Draconius would dismiss it as a call stone and call me a cow.

His gaze turned back to Hades. “The Royal House of Sargon has declared Valentine dead and already struck him off the family tree pending his extermination.”

His words landed like a fist to the gut. I thought his brothers weren’t trying to kill Valentine anymore? “He’s still alive—”

“A void in rulership now exists within Logris,” Prince Draconius said as though I hadn’t spoken. “Instability has spread among its community of vampires as well as injustices that our Royal House will not tolerate.”

Flaring his nostrils, Hades folded his arms across his chest. “What do you propose?”

“The same arrangement as when my brother succumbed to the lure of Kresnik,” the prince drawled, raising his fingers to his line of sight and inspecting his manicure. “A juvenile king will ascend the throne with me serving as the regent until he comes of age.”

Hades snorted. “Two hundred years of you again?”

“I will make it worth your while.”

“You can’t just bribe people to usurp Valentine’s throne when he’s still alive,” I snapped.

Tendrils of smoke curled around my neck, and Prince Draconius turned his crimson gaze back to mine. His pupils expanded to pools of black and the pressure of his magic pushed into me, and I drew in a sharp breath.

That wretched vampire just invaded my mind as though it was public property. Wisps swirled through my brain, wrapping around my third-eye chakra like ivy. He dredged up images—mostly of my lips wrapped around Valentine’s erection and then of me riding him in the leather booth.

Prickly heat rose to my cheeks. Valentine’s magic was protecting me again, but couldn’t that possessive bastard have installed a hellcat to claw at intruders? He was making me look like all I ever thought about was his hot body.

“Enough,” Hades snapped. “This young woman is under my protection.”

The vampire crossed the distance between us with the grace of a black panther. Not even his medals clinked as he moved.

“When his brothers have destroyed Valentine, you will be in search of a new master who can satisfy your addiction to thrall,” he said in a low voice that made my skin tighten into goosebumps. “Nobody wants a cow who doesn’t know her place, no matter how enthusiastic she might be about pleasing a man’s carnal needs.”

All the air squeezed out of my lungs, and my stomach plummeted to my boots. How dare he talk to me like I had done those things with Valentine for payment? On instinct, I raised a hand, aiming it at the vampire’s expressionless face.

The air thickened around my arm, stopping me six inches away from landing a slap. Flames curled around my fingertips like talons.

The vampire’s nostrils flared. “What are you?”

“Valentine’s fiancée,” I said through bared teeth. “And I won’t stand by while you arrange his execution and take this throne. I’ve seen him fight his brothers—all four of them—and he’s stronger, faster, and more determined.”

Prince Draconius’s gaze remained fixed on my fingers. I was pretty sure that New Mesopotamia didn’t murder fire mages, so seeing the flames on my fingers shouldn’t have been anything special. Maybe a vampire of his advanced years remembered phoenixes and recognized their magic. I didn’t care. All that mattered was Valentine.

I turned to Hades who grinned at me as though I’d just tried to fight his battle. “You want a fair exchange? Help me find my aunt and convince the Supernatural Council not to go along with this vampire’s plot to put a teenaged boy on the throne.”

He inclined his head. “Done.”

I reached into the pocket of my cloak, extracted the Hell ring and dropped it into his palm. After shooting Prince Draconius my filthiest glower, I spun on my heel and stalked toward the door, leaving two sets of eyes burning my back.

Instead of a hallway lined with doors, I stepped into a regular office, much like the type Valentine and the Witch Queen occupied within the Supernatural Council building.

With demons not being resident within Logris, I guessed the space behind the door was Hades’ pied à terre.

It was a white space, one level up from the ground floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked a courtyard of foundations and stone benches, where office workers sat around during their lunch breaks.

White ceiling tiles illuminated a modern-looking mahogany desk adorned with a computer monitor, a keyboard, and a potted asphodel plant. On the left of the room sat a large white sofa in front of a low table stacked with magazines.

Clicking footsteps approached from behind, and I turned to meet the smiling brown eyes of a tall woman wearing a pink sweater and maxi skirt moulded around her hourglass figure. Her red hair was swept in a chignon held up by pins of ivory. The name tag on her chest read Namara Carin.

Her face broke out into a wide grin. “May I be of assistance, Miss Griffin?”

My mouth dropped open. “How do you know—”

I clamped my lips shut. Of course she knew me. The scorned Neutral who had murdered the Vampire King, resurrected him as a preternatural, and was for a short time the most wanted woman in Logris. Such notoriety should have been difficult to forget, but I’d had a hectic few weeks.

“His Majesty said he would share the information he gathered on the Griffin clan. Do you