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

My throat dried, and I swallowed several times in quick succession. Kresnik must have infiltrated Koffiek the moment he’d discovered that the vampires turned by Valentine’s blood had crumbled to ash.

Everything had happened so quickly the night I resurrected Valentine. November kept threatening to scatter his ashes if I didn’t submit to his demands, which made me sloppy and desperate.

I should have stayed behind to make sure he had burned to ash. I should have separated November’s remains to make sure he never rose. But when I returned to where I’d left Valentine, he was gone.

“There’s only one upside to my new status.” November made what he probably thought was a dramatic pause, but I was too busy wallowing in my mistakes to feel anything but wretched.

“Right.” Hades clapped his hands together. “That was a tedious waste of five minutes. Demons, with me.”

He winked out of existence, leaving Valentine and me alone with the vampires and mercenaries.

November held up his clenched fists and roared. “What I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted was that I will never be alone.” He raised his arms and curled his fingers in a beckoning motion. “With my newfound power, I can create an infinite number of brides. Each of them powerful, nubile, and wholly devoted to their master!”

Dozens of smaller figures in cloaks floated down from the rooftops and settled around the double-decker bus. November drifted down, landing in a ninja crouch.

The preternatural vampire stared up at me and grinned, revealing gleaming white fangs. “Hemera Griffin, prepare to die.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

I pushed my magic into my hands and raised my flaming fists in warning at November’s preternatural brides. Valentine, the mercenaries, the volunteers from Lamia, and I outnumbered the preternaturals, but if they were anything like Valentine had been, none of that would matter.

A thunderstorm of doubt struck through my insides, and my breaths turned shallow. I didn’t have the speed or strength of a supernatural vampire, let alone one of the undead monsters staring at us through crimson eyes. My only hope was that November had turned them from humans and not any of his ancient siblings.

As though through silent communication, the mercenaries and Valentine’s subjects formed a circle around us.

“Cousin.” Valentine’s voice was as sharp as a stake. “Step aside, and nobody will get hurt.”

November hissed. “Lies. If My Lord dies, so do all of us.”

One of November’s so-called brides sucked in a deep breath. I got the impression that this was the first time she’d contemplated her complete and utter dependence on the survival of her sire.

Cold wind swirled around the courtyard, blowing down snow that had gathered on the palace’s rooftops. It was too late to save any of them. In this realm, over a month had passed. Each of the souls would have moved on to their final resting places. Even if I burned them to ashes and resurrected them, they’d rise as mindless as Brother David.

I swallowed hard, wanting to tug at Valentine’s arm and tell him to order everyone to attack. There was no reasoning with a power-hungry idiot like November, who was bent on retaliating against my attempt at self-defense.

Valentine growled. “I will kill you and all of your companions before I let you get close to my mate.”

November sneered. “You were always overly fond of waifs and strays. Now this one will get you killed. Again.”

“Die!” A large woman flew out of formation, her hands curled into claws.

In the blink of an eye, her head was severed from her shoulders and landed against the side of the double-decker with a hollow thump.

Before I could even flinch, her body fell into the snow.

Some of the vampire brides backed toward the pillars that lined the palace’s external walkways.

“I order you cowardly wenches to fight for your master,” November snarled with a command that he backed up with suffocating magic.

As November swept out an arm and made Valentine stagger back a few steps, someone grabbed me around the neck. I pushed my magic out to my skin, and my eardrums rang with a bloodcurdling scream. The hand released me, and another head landed against the side of the bus, followed by the muffled thud of a body hitting the snow.

“I am a fire user,” I said from between clenched teeth. “If any of you so much as touch me, I will reduce you to ash.”

“She’s bluffing,” said November. “Hemera Griffin hides behind my cousin because she has no magic of her own. Our Lord has the power to resurrect us over and over, making us anew with greater power and strength.”

It took every ounce of effort not to roll my eyes. His brides heard the part of his speech where I burned him, and they’d also seen me hurt the sister wife who had gotten herself killed trying to attack me.

With a greater surge of power, I shifted into an ifrit, and my leather armor retracted into a collar around my neck. One of the preternatural brides whimpered and disappeared from sight.

November raised himself several feet off the ground and snarled down at us with his fangs bared. “I always knew you were an abomination.”

“Just like your so-called Lord.”

“Vampires, form groups and give the victims of my cousin quick and painless beheadings,” Valentine said, his voice toneless.

“Hypocrite,” November snapped. “Less than a month ago, you were just as preternatural as us.”

Valentine raised a hand, indicating for his subjects to wait, and handed Caiman the trident. “Did you remove their hearts and preserve them with magic before they turned?”

November reared back. “Who would take heed of that old wives’ tale?”

“Then they must die,” Valentine said in a voice as heavy as stone.

The vampires rushed toward the preternatural brides in a blur of power and movement that shifted the air and made my head spin. Some of November’s vampires rose into the air, dodging flying missiles.

November’s outraged roar made the snow rise several feet off the ground. He flew through