Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Series Book 1) (Reading Sample) - Felicity Heaton (novels to read for beginners .TXT) 📗

“Proph—”

“Don’t speak my name! You have no right to speak it.” She cut him off with a fiery glare and he took a step towards her, his own anger rising inside him as he did so.

“I brought you here to hide you…to protect you.” He frowned when she shook her head.

“I’m tired of hiding. I’ll only be found. It’s better to meet my destiny head on rather than waiting for them to come for me.” Her expression became filled with solemnity and she heaved a sigh.

“What are your plans?” He ventured another step closer to her and the sadness in her eyes disappeared.

“My plans are no business of yours.” She towered over him, her face dark and her brows knit tightly. “A filthy dog of Aurorea is below my notice and not worthy of my acknowledgement.”

He saw straight through her mask of anger, seeing the hurt in her eyes and hearing it in her voice as she spoke. It was his fault. He deserved it for attempting to leave without telling her. He had known she would react this way.

“Go, get out of my sight. I don’t need your help. I’m better off without you. Go back to your wretched family. Go back to Prague and hide there. Leave me alone. Go, slink back in shame and pretend that you’ve not done anything wrong. I hope you can live with yourself. I hope that when I’m facing death, when I’m fulfilling my destiny, that you’re there and I can show you how strong the blood of Caelestis is compared to yours. Go! You’re no better than one of the weaklings. You should have killed me when you were told to, should have been a good little boy and murdered me while I slept!” She came down the steps and pushed him in the chest repeatedly, the force of her blows getting stronger until she had her fists curled into tight balls and was banging them down on him. “Go. Go! What are you waiting for? Go!”

He grabbed her wrists tightly and restrained her, staring deep into her eyes. He tensed his jaw and didn’t relinquish his grip even when she began to struggle. She’d insulted him, degraded his family, and was now resorting to violence in an attempt to make him leave. Why was she so desperate for him to go?

She stilled.

“They’ll know,” she whispered and stared at his chest. Her brows were furrowed and her hair covered half of her face. It struck him that she didn’t want him to go after all. She wanted him to stay and that’s why she was pushing him away. It was all a reaction to what she was feeling inside, a defence mechanism. He could feel her trembling in his hands and the distant tone of her voice spoke of pain. “Someone will have seen us. To go back is insanity…is suicide.”

They were true words. There was a high chance that someone would have seen them together in Prague or Paris, or even here. Word would be out by now that Prophecy was wanted for crimes against her species and it would be a miracle if they didn’t know that he’d assisted her escape.

Her eyes met his and he could see the hurt swimming in them. She didn’t want him to go. She feared for his safety and believed that he would die if he returned to his family. He could see it all in the way she was looking at him, nothing hidden, everything on show for him to see.

“I heard you…I’ll keep away if you stay,” she said.

It took him a moment to realise what she was talking about. He remembered what he’d said to Mathias and the odd sensation he’d had that they were being watched. They had been watched, or at least listened to. He should’ve been more guarded with his words and the things he was speaking of. He shouldn’t have spoken about his feelings in the first place, but he’d needed to get things off his chest and needed the advice of his old friend.

“I know you can’t stand me. I know it’s hard for you, Valentine. It’s hard for me too. I can’t hide any more. I have a choice, you said that, and I’m going to discover the true meaning of the prophecy no matter what it takes. I can’t live life in the dark any more.”

He closed his eyes briefly and searched for the right words to say to reassure her that things weren’t as bad as they’d sounded. He didn’t want her to keep away; he just didn’t trust himself when she was near. She made everything so much more confusing. He didn’t know what he was supposed to feel about her. When the tiny trace of her blood had left his system, he had come to see that there was something else motivating his reaction to her and it was something that was dangerous to them both. It was forbidden. She was a Caelestis, his family’s enemy. He shouldn’t want to comfort her and help her. He shouldn’t want to protect her.

Letting go of her wrists, he watched her rub at them, her slim fingers caressing them. There were red marks on her where he’d held her too tightly. He hadn’t meant to hurt her but she’d provoked him into it with her words against his family and him, with the fact that she was trying to make him leave.

With the way that she was making him feel weak.

He stood in silence, still unable to find his voice as his thoughts dived off in so many directions that his head felt as though it was spinning. It was all falling away from him, everything lost because of his decision to help her. He wished that he’d never met her, but at the same time, in the recesses of his heart, was glad that he had.

He placed one foot up onto the step she was standing on and opened his mouth to speak.

“Are you going somewhere, Valentine?” Mathias’ voice made his disappear and he turned to see the older vampire walking up the street towards them with a leather satchel over his shoulder.

Valentine looked at Prophecy. She was smoothing her long hair back over her shoulder, giving him an expectant look. She was waiting for him to speak. She was waiting to see if he really was going to leave.

He gave a brief look over his shoulder in the direction he would have gone in if Prophecy hadn’t caught him. She was right. There was no going back, not for her and not for him. To go back now was to face certain death. If he remained with her, he would be able to protect her and guide her through the world. She was going to have to visit places she’d never been to before, would have to meet with demons that wouldn’t think twice about killing her if she offended them by mistake and wouldn’t know how to keep herself safe from the nightly dangers of the human world.

He closed his eyes, fighting against the voice inside of him that was telling him to go back to his family and continue as their loyal son, and the torn feeling he had whenever he thought about the choice he had to make.

It was her or his family.

But he did have a choice.

Just like he’d told Prophecy not a few hours ago.

He pictured how she’d looked as she’d sat beside him with her eyes closed imagining what a sunset looked like. She was so innocent, so young.

He smiled to himself as he made his decision.

“No,” he said and walked past her into the house, meeting her eyes for the briefest of moments. She smiled broadly back at him.

He kept his eyes fixed on the end of the hall as she fell into step beside him and he led the way back to the study.

“I have news,” Mathias said while he closed the doors and then followed them.

Valentine sat down in the chair beside the fire and crossed his legs, waiting for his old friend to speak. Prophecy sat in the chair opposite him. He raised a brow as Mathias removed several canisters from his satchel and opened one of them. The scribe filled three glasses with blood and carried two of them with him as he walked over to where he and Prophecy were sitting. Prophecy almost snatched hers. Valentine smiled when she looked sheepish and then he noticed that Mathias was holding the other glass out to him.

His stomach growled.

“It’s still warm,” Mathias said, as though he needed any enticing to make him drink what he was being offered.

He had to eat. It had been days since his last feed. He took the glass with a nod and waited for Mathias to retrieve his and join them. He was amused by the way that Prophecy kept licking her lips, her eyes not leaving the blood as she waited for a sign that she could drink it. When she looked across at him, he raised his glass and nodded, showing her that no one would think she was rude if she drank it now.

He sipped his.

She gulped hers down and then bit her lip while she looked at both him and Mathias, seeing that they weren’t drinking theirs so indelicately. His gaze was drawn to her lips. Her teeth were bloodied, her lower lip stained with crimson. He felt drawn to it, mesmerised by the sight of her having fed. Images of the night he’d found in her the cemetery flashed into his mind. He really hadn’t seen one take so much pleasure in blood. It had stirred fire in his veins.

He stared at the bloom of red on her lip as she released it.

It still stirred fire in his veins.

Tearing his eyes away from her, he swiftly drank the blood in his glass and stifled his desire to change into his vampire guise.

Mathias cleared his throat.

“You had news?” Valentine used it to distract himself and pushed away the images of Prophecy in the cemetery that lingered in his mind.

“News?” Mathias frowned thoughtfully and then raised his brows. “News, of course.”

Prophecy placed her glass down and leaned towards Mathias where he was standing between the two chairs near the unlit fireplace.

“Well?” she said, her eyes showing her eagerness.

Valentine leaned casually back into his chair.

“I tracked a guardian tonight,” Mathias said and Valentine’s attention was immediately with him. “I’ve heard from a reliable source that the seven have had orders to release their guardians. Many of the families have already sent them out to seek out the child of the prophecy. The only house yet to respond is Validus. Hyperion shows no interest in releasing them. Aurorea and Caelestis have informed the Law Keepers.”

“You are certain?” he said.

Mathias nodded. A sense of dread filled Valentine. Prophecy had been right. There was no going back.

“We don’t have guardians. I wasn’t aware that my family kept werewolves,” Prophecy said with a frown and looked at him.

“Neither of our families keep them at the mansion. When our houses were joined, they built a compound in the outskirts of the city. They have kept the werewolves there. If all the bloodlines and demons have not been alerted to your existence by now, they soon will be. Kalinor will lose no time, especially if he has realised that I am with you.”

“You must move quickly,” Mathias said. “You will be watched for. Keep your guards up.”

“Where must we go?” Prophecy said.

“Paris.”

“Paris?” Valentine straightened up on hearing the name of the city he knew so well. It was where he’d had the most dangerous fights of his life against the hunter. He was sure that the hunter lived in that city. It had good connections, both land and air, to the rest of Europe, making it the most sensible place to base his operations.

“My research has uncovered