Bonds of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 7) by Bella Klaus (romantic books to read TXT) 📗

Next, Valentine raised both hands, and the wooden furniture splintered, their pieces flying to the walls. At least that explained why I’d found the sofas so uncomfortable. What was the point of furnishing the room with the good stuff when it would be smashed into pieces as part of a declaration of a duel?

“Mera,” Valentine growled. “If you want to stay here and watch me beat some sense into the Demon King, then shift.”

With a nod, I pushed my magic out and transformed.

Valentine did a double take, turned his attention away from Hades, and walked toward me with his brows furrowed. “What happened?”

I glanced down at my fiery hands.

Hands?

My head snapped up. “I’m not a phoenix.” I reared back. “And I can talk?”

Hades staggered to his feet and brushed himself off. “I believe Miss Griffin has unlocked another element of her power and has discovered how to transform herself into an ifrit.”

I glanced down at my body. It was still female, still fiery, and still mine. Best of all, I still wore my cloak. “Maybe I’m channeling some of Kresnik’s power through our bond.”

“Bond with Kresnik?” Hades choked. “I hope you’re referring to the father-daughter connection?”

Valentine stepped forward, his eyes wide with awe. “This is wonderful news.”

Hades nodded. “There’s a lot a young woman can do with a pair of hands.” When I shot him my most venomous glare, he raised his hands. “I’m talking about wielding your reaper scythe.”

My fingers trembled as I tapped the cloak, trying to avoid melting Valentine’s credit card. The miniature scythe protruded from my right pocket, and I reached into its depths and pulled it out.

In the blink of an eye, it expanded into a full-length reaper weapon, its curved edge aflame.

Valentine gave me a sharp nod. “With the blood of one immortal Greek god, the trident of another, and a scythe that can harness the power of a phoenix, we have everything we need to destroy Kresnik.”

I beamed at the prospect of putting an end to Kresnik, but a worry twisted in my stomach. What if turning into an ifrit meant I could never again shift into a phoenix?

Chapter Twenty

I stared down at my fingers, turning them around to find that my flaming body had completely engulfed the engagement ring. Valentine and Hades still crowded around me, staring intently at my latest development. A lock of orange hair slipped down over my face, and I tucked it behind my ear.

“This is so much better than being an oversized bird,” I murmured.

A knock sounded on the door and Kain slipped inside, his eyes bulging. “Mera?”

I spread my arms wide. “What do you think?”

“You look like the Human Torch.” When I didn’t react, he glanced at Valentine with his brows raised. “From The Fantastic Four? He’s a superhero?”

I shook my head, for once not loosening bits of fiery debris.

“Anyway.” Kain hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve been watching Kresnik all day. You should know he’s already gathered thousands of people across Kingston Bridge.”

“What for?” asked Valentine.

“We suspect they’re advancing on Logris,” said Hades.

“But the wards will hold,” Valentine said.

“The Council has brought in ward masters from Atlantis, Akakor, and El Dorado, ophanim from Heaven, and I’ve employed a combination of my most talented demons and deceased wardsmiths to secure Logris.” Hades ran a bloody hand through his hair, seeming to have completely recovered from his ordeal. “Nobody’s getting inside unless Kresnik does something drastic.”

I tilted my head to the side, wondering what could be more desperate than tricking a horde of humans to attack a supernatural city. “What could he possibly do to make the wards fall?”

“Human sacrifices,” Valentine and Hades said at the same time.

Kain clapped a hand over his mouth. “That’s what he was talking about!”

We all turned to the young man standing in the doorway, who flushed. “Kresnik asked a crowd of people if they were prepared to sacrifice everything to make the world safe from the demonic plague.” Kain wrinkled his nose. “Then he showed a bogus vision of Heaven with half-naked models with angel wings.”

My jaw dropped. “People fell for that?”

He raised his shoulders. “At least the men did.”

“Do you have the app on your phone that plays human TV?” I asked Kain.

He reached into the pocket of his leather jacket, pulled out a smartphone, and tapped its screen. While Hades and Valentine crowded around him, I pulled back my flames, fastening the clasp of my cloak.

“It’s worse than we thought,” Hades muttered. “Excuse me while I gather a crack team to deal with these delusional humans.”

My mouth dropped open. “You can’t kill—”

Hades disappeared before I got a chance to complete my sentence.

“What’s happening?” I strode across the room to where Valentine and Kain stared at the screen of the smartphone, finding Annie Chong from BBC Score standing in front of a screen, narrating the actions of hundreds, if not thousands of humans walking through the trees.

“Is that Richmond Park?” I asked.

“They’re heading straight toward us,” Valentine muttered.

I shook my head. “Is Hades going to murder anyone who comes close to the wards?”

Valentine paused for several moments, seeming not to want to reply. When I placed a hand on his bicep, he pressed his lips together and exhaled a sharp breath through his nostrils. “I’d like to say he’s bound by law not to attack innocent humans, but the answer is complicated.”

Kain raised his head. “What do you mean?”

“The laws concerning the exposure of our world to humans are somewhat…” Valentine winced. “Murky.”

My shoulders sagged, and I exhaled the world’s heaviest breath. All that time I kept secrets from Beatrice, I should have worried about the world at large, because those things I imagined she would suffer could now be done on everyone who had seen a hint of the Supernatural World.

“They wouldn’t attack them all,” I whispered.

“The Supernatural Secrecy Act does allow for executions in cases where a human’s knowledge of our world would put our lives in jeopardy,” Valentine said, his