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

when did he find a reminder of his failures amusing? I was about to ask him what on earth he found so funny, when he placed a finger on his lips in a gesture for me to be silent.

My mouth clicked shut, and I turned to Valentine, who shrugged. Even after working beside Hades for centuries, it was hard to fathom the Demon King’s peculiarities.

“I have another idea.” Hades set his jar on the ground and rose with one of his fists clenched tight. “Miss Griffin, would you do me a favor and reduce the immortal body to ash?”

“You want me to separate Kresnik’s body into different containers?” I asked.

He grinned, his eyes shining with cold malice. “Let me tether his soul to it first.”

“But you said…” My words trailed off as Hades’ grin widened into an expression more gleeful than the one he’d made when Nut and Geb had come to claim my organs. I cleared my throat. “Didn’t you say enforcers were looking for Kresnik’s soul?”

“Have you found it?” Valentine asked.

Hades fixed his glittering eyes on me, breathing hard as though he could barely contain his excitement. “Do you remember the time you murdered the Mage King in hot blood?”

I choked on thin air, heat rising to my cheeks. “I was mad with grief.” My words tumbled over each other. “Besides, you had the power to tether his soul to his body, but you only kept him alive long enough for an interrogation.”

Valentine rubbed a comforting circle on my back. “Stop agitating my mate,” he growled. “The information we have on you is far more damaging.”

Hades didn’t even scowl. Instead, he raised his fist to the ceiling in a gesture that reminded me a little of how he’d manipulated the Mage King’s soul.

Bibi’s corpse lifted itself off the floor with the awkward movements of a marionette. Her head, which should have lolled to the side, rose to glower at us through eyes that burned with hatred.

This was no Rude Girl. She’d died the moment she had refused to have sex with her own sisters for the amusement of a psychotic god.

The being staring out through those eyes with a loathing hot enough to incinerate my soul was Kresnik.

Best of all, Hades had trapped him in a magicless body.

“Impressive,” Valentine said.

“How on earth did you do that?” I asked.

“Not me,” Hades replied with a chuckle. “When Kresnik’s soul left the puddle of flame, I imagine you pictured him possessing another fire user. Perhaps even a dragon shifter?”

I shrugged. “Actually, I did.”

“After the way he treats women, the last place you’d look is the corpse of one of his human victims. Kresnik’s plan to hide in plain sight backfired.” Hades grinned down at the corpse.

Kresnik bared Bibi’s teeth and hissed.

The Demon King snickered. “After you’ve cremated him with your phoenix flames, we’re going to split his ashes into multiple containers.”

Valentine rubbed his chin. “It sounds familiar.”

“A fitting end for the bastard who did it to me,” Hades growled. “But my friend Medusa will bronze the severed cock and balls.”

“Wait,” Kresnik groaned through Bibi’s mouth.

White light streamed from the dead woman’s lips and entered the stab wound I’d made in the gut of Kresnik’s immortal body.

I leaned against Valentine’s side, waiting for Hades to finish his gruesome task. With Kresnik dead, there would be no more preternatural vampires—at least none that he had kept alive with his magic. There would also be no more zombies, either, but he’d left the Supernatural World with a gigantic mess.

Once Hades had finished transferring Kresnik’s soul to his dead body, Valentine moved all the ash from the burned furniture and furnishings to one side of the room, and the Rude Girls’ remains to the other. He floated back our weapons, and I slipped the solid flame dagger back into my sword belt.

Hades turned to me with his brows raised. “Miss Griffin, will you do the honors?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “You signed a contract in blood that stated you’d fight with us against Kresnik, yet you buggered off. How do we know you won’t duck out of helping to find King Antonius’s soul?”

Hades’ lips tightened. “The force majeure clause in the contract absolves me from liability.”

“Not good enough,” I snapped.

Hades’ facade of calm cracked, and he jerked his head to the side. “They found Persephone.”

Valentine nodded but didn’t ask for any more information. I bit down on my lip and frowned. If Persephone was still alive and living in his palace, why was Hades such a horrific womanizer?

None of it made sense. Valentine had once mentioned that Hades pined for his wife, but now wasn’t the time for gossip. I made a note to ask Valentine about it later, preferably once we were certain we’d sealed all parts of Kresnik.

“Fine,” Valentine said. “But you will help us find Tartarus.”

Hades nodded. “Thank you. I only wish I’d been here to strike the killing blow.”

Valentine gave me a pat on the back, indicating it was alright to set Kresnik alight.

I knelt beside his immortal body and laid my hands on his chest and forehead. “Should we say a few words before committing him to ash? Maybe a spell to make sure his soul never breaks free?”

Hades crouched beside his corpse. “Here’s to spending the next thirty thousand years with your ashes as an office paperweight.”

“You’ve already claimed your souvenirs,” I said without looking at the Demon King. “That should be revenge enough for you.”

Valentine sighed. “Of all the evils he’s committed, exposing the Supernatural World to the humans will be the most damaging. Kresnik deserves to be remembered by them forever as a fraud.”

“It sounds like you have a plan,” Hades said.

“Yes,” Valentine replied with a broad smile. “And you’re going to implement it.”

Kresnik’s body took half an hour to reduce to ash, and we separated his remains into seven of the spheres. Once we had secured the containers within the bag, Hades summoned one of his enforcers to glamor him to look