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

together, and I drowned out the rest of Kresnik’s ravings to focus on what Valentine was trying to communicate.

If the scythe didn’t kill Kresnik, then maybe something else might hurt him? I fumbled into the pocket of my cloak and nicked my finger on something sharp—the solid flame dagger Lieutenant Cien had tried to use to assassinate Valentine.

My eyes bulged, and I glanced at Valentine to find him nodding.

I shook my head. Solid flame only killed supernatural beings who didn’t wield fire.

When Valentine nodded again, I slipped the dagger from the pocket and waited to strike. I’d have to trust that Valentine knew something about the weapon that I didn’t.

Kresnik spread his arms wide. “Now, will you join me and secure Hemera’s continued existence, or will you die in a futile effort?”

Valentine bared his fangs, his eyes turning as red as freshly spilled blood. “There’s a third option,” he snarled. “One where Mera and I put you down forever, and we spend the rest of our days together with you a distant memory.”

“Then you choose death.” Kresnik shrugged.

The back wall melted away, revealing a dozen clay figures, each six and a half feet tall. They marched toward Valentine and Caiman like zombies.

“Impressive, aren’t they?” Kresnik drawled. “My clay figures aren’t undead, because they were never alive. Each is powered by my will and will engulf your bodies to remake you to my wishes.”

My throat dried. This was just as Epimetheus had said when he’d ranted at me in the Realm of the Gods. He and Prometheus made humans out of clay, so it had to be possible to remake Valentine out of clay.

The door leading to the antechamber slammed shut, shoving Caiman out, and flames engulfed the walls. With the fireplace already burning in the room and the smoke that had seeped in from the battle downstairs, I couldn’t tell if this new development was real or a vision.

I turned to Kresnik, my voice trembling. “Tamper with Valentine, and I’ll return you to that bloody eagle.”

He wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me into his chest. “If I didn’t need constant use of your phoenix, I would let my clay remake you with a better attitude and larger breasts.”

I still hadn’t recovered from Kresnik and the undead Rude Girls, so his comment blew over me like a draft.

“Valentine, run,” I screamed.

One of the creatures lunged at Valentine, but he darted to the side, only for another to appear behind him.

I slammed my elbow into Kresnik’s side, wincing at the painful jab in my ribs.

“Fool,” Kresnik snarled. “I made vampires. Vampires and shifters and mages and witches. I made you all out of humans. Don’t you think my new creations would surpass the powers I gave you?”

“Mera.” Valentine darted across the room, dodging the clay figures. “Use the dagger.”

Kresnik chuckled. “A solid flame blade empowers fire users, Valentine. How could it possibly—”

I rammed it into Kresnik’s gut. Agonizing heat sliced through my belly, making my nerves scream. I doubled over, gasping through the shock of pain.

The clay figures froze. Kresnik released his arm from my waist and staggered back, his eyes wide.

“How?” he rasped.

I stared down at the dagger, which was now coated in Kresnik’s blood.

A breath caught in the back of my throat. Wait a minute. How on earth was he bleeding when none of my attacks had harmed him until now?

“That’s the trouble with light mages.” Valentine walked across the room with his hand outstretched toward me. “They always forget that vampires have acute senses of hearing and smell.”

“What?” Kresnik tripped over the corpse of a Rude Girl, and the white suit vanished, leaving him naked and bleeding.

A line of dried blood ran down his legs from his crotch, which was missing both his penis and testicles, and the gash I’d made across his chest with the scythe was already healing.

My mouth gaped open. The only wound that hadn’t stopped bleeding yet was the one I’d made in his gut. “Those times I attacked you—”

“Of course I felt the pain, you twit,” he snapped. “Little cuts mean nothing after thirty thousand years of being eaten alive by that fucking scavenger.”

Valentine sniffed. “I commend you for your stiff upper lip, but you failed to disguise the scent of your blood. I knew all along that those attacks were damaging your body.”

“And the solid flame dagger?” Kresnik rasped.

“If you wish to know, then you must answer a question of mine.”

Kresnik coughed out a mouthful of blood. “Name it.”

“What did you do with my father’s soul?” Valentine asked.

Kresnik stretched out a trembling hand toward the drapes around the side of the four-poster and wrapped his fingers around the fabric. The entire curtain tore down, making him lose his balance and tumble into the bed.

“Shit.” He groped around its surface until he reached one of the wooden posts and pulled himself up to standing. “Antonius was a very powerful vampire. Clever, too.”

Curiosity burned my insides hotter than the flames that made up my ifrit body. I glanced at Valentine, who glowered at Kresnik with his nostrils flared.

“Where is my father’s soul?” Valentine growled.

“Antonius must have gotten my true identity from Hades.” Kresnik swayed on his feet, pointing in Valentine’s direction. “He came at me with both the helm and the trident.”

Valentine stepped toward Kresnik. “What happened?”

“But I always think ahead.” Kresnik raised a bloody hand and tapped the side of his nose. “Antonius had commissioned a newborn with a Neutral woman. When she was heavily pregnant with a daughter, my people took her hostage to lure out the Vampire King.”

“What?” I whispered.

Kresnik laughed, bringing up mouthfuls of blood. “The great King Antonius sacrificed himself for a worthless daughter.”

“Then you killed them.”

“Only Antonius, who I raised from the dead,” Kresnik said with a gurgling cough. “Antonius kept the Neutral woman somewhere in the human world, where she gave birth to the girl.”

“What happened to my sister?” Valentine asked.

“She died recently, but I believe you’re in possession of her son.”

I sucked in a