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

feet across the parking lot. “They’ve just been ejected from their bodies and need time to realize that they’re dead and never coming back.”

The captain reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. “Want some?”

I shook my head and glanced over my shoulder at the opening in the floor. “What’s going to happen to all those dead bodies when the souls have gone?”

“Someone will incinerate them and return the ashes back into the Human World,” she replied.

“Right.” By now, the media would be filled with reports of missing prisoners. Kresnik was creating chaos in both worlds.

Light flashed from my finger, making me glance down at my ring. Before I could warn the captain that I was being summoned by Valentine, my vision turned white, and I closed my eyes.

I opened them to find myself in a dome-shaped room with glass walls that reminded me of the cat enclosure. Instead of felines on our left and right, my surroundings took on the appearance of an underwater enclosure complete with schools of colorful fish.

A simple bed took pride of place in the room, with a glass table where two magnums of blood awaited. I guess this was one of Koffie’s hotel rooms. I turned in a circle, noting that the other side of the room had a single flat wall that held a hatch and three doors. The one in the middle had a cat-flap, which I guessed was the exit, another had to be the bathroom, but what was the third?

“Valentine?” I pulled down the hood of my cloak. He had to be close, otherwise he wouldn’t have brought me here with the call stone.

The door on the right opened, and Valentine stood in a second room with couches, his features twisted with confusion. “What is that scent?”

“Oh.” I glanced down at my cloak. “The Supernatural Council wanted me present while the reapers dealt with the zombies.”

Valentine continued staring at me as though I was radioactive.

“You can smell the dead bodies?” I asked.

“And brimstone, and a very filthy old man.” His voice sounded choked.

“Sorry.” I pointed at the door on the left. “Wait for me while I have a shower?”

“I’ll order room service to clean your cloak.”

With a chuckle, I hurried through the left door, which led to a rainforest-themed bathroom that made the breath catch in the back of my throat. Perspex glass covered the wall, revealing an outline of tropical trees strewn with vines. The scent of exotic fruits filled my nostrils, making my mouth water.

It still wasn’t as grand as the one in Valentine’s bedroom, but it was a surprise to see something as beautiful as this.

As soon as I stepped into the enclosure, warm water rained down on me from above, drenching my hair and face and skin. The mingled scents of passionflower and lemon balm filled my nostrils, making me exhale all my stress in an outward breath. Whoever designed the additive in the water knew a lot about herbs that both relaxed and smelled divine.

I tilted back my head, finding a massive grate in the ceiling filled with tiny lights that streamed the herbal liquid, which felt silkier than any kind of shower and twice as luxurious.

“Wow!” I stretched my arms toward the huge showerhead, only for jets of water to spurt water at me from the left and right. A laugh bubbled up from my throat. After turning in a circle and making sure every inch of my body was drenched, I reached for the shampoo.

“Allow me.” Valentine’s hand wrapped around my wrist.

A shiver of anticipation skittered across my skin, even though the temperature of the water had risen at his arrival. Perhaps the magical thermostat sensed that he was a preternatural and adjusted accordingly. None of that really mattered. Not when Valentine was hot and wet and naked.

Despite the abundance of water, my mouth dried, but wetness flooded my folds. I bit down on my lip and moaned. It wasn’t just my addiction to thrall affecting my body—water slid down the contours of his broad chest, which tapered into a v-shaped torso of tight abdominal muscles and muscular thighs.

The water seemed to gather around his penis, which lengthened and thickened under my gaze, standing to attention in all its glistening glory. A palpitation reverberated across my chest. Valentine was bloody magnificent.

“What do you need?” His deep voice curled around my nerve endings, setting them alight.

My eyes fluttered shut as every instinct screamed at me to demand a bite, to make Valentine sink those glorious fangs into my neck and fill me with cold fluid. I shook off those traitorous thoughts. After everything Valentine’s soul had done to help me transform into a phoenix, I couldn’t let my addiction dampen my power with concentrated thrall.

“I need you so much.” The words slipped from my lips before I could temper them.

Valentine cupped the side of my face. “I summoned you as soon as I could, thinking you would suffer if I left you for so long without a bite.”

My eyes fluttered shut. “When you said I might be addicted—”

“Innamorata.” His voice filled with regret.

I opened my eyes, meeting his violet irises. Could this version of Valentine feel genuine remorse? He had seemed sorry enough when he’d rescued me from being kidnapped by Jonathan, but that was because he thought I’d left him. And his promises to be less restrictive of me had been empty, considering he locked Macavity and me in the penthouse the next morning.

“It was unpleasant, but Panacea water helped. When I went to abduct Kain, your uncle caught us, and he immediately knew what was wrong.”

Valentine’s eyes narrowed. “Did he touch you?”

I ran my hands over his broad chest, and sighed. “He made a few stupid comments and grabbed me around the neck. I tried chasing him away with my flames, but I think he recognized me as a phoenix.”

A growl reverberated in the back of Valentine’s throat, and the pale flecks in his eyes darkened to a livid