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

Chapter 15

Valentine paced the length of the room, his hand balled into a fist and pressed against his mouth as he waited. She couldn’t have been gone long. Mathias’ phone call had woken him about two hours after the sun had set. Stupid girl. Why had she gone without him? He knew where she’d gone and he couldn’t bear the thought of her going to see them alone. Why?

He sighed heavily and let his hand drop to his side. He winced when his shoulder throbbed with pain. Had she gone without him because she was under some kind of misguided belief that he wasn’t fit enough to go out into the night? He’d had injuries worse than this before and had still managed to fight.

Where was she?

He glanced at the clock again. It was almost three in the morning. If she had left shortly after sunset, then she had been gone a long time.

He had to find her.

Grabbing his jacket, he headed for the door and stopped dead when a weak knock sounded. He opened the door and dropped his jacket as Prophecy fell into his arms. He collapsed to the floor with her, cradling her gently as she writhed against him. She was burning up. He pressed his hand against her forehead. She had some kind of fever. He caught her under her arms, gritted his teeth against the pain in his shoulder and dragged her into the living area.

Going back to the door, he closed it and locked it. He looked at Prophecy.

She was lying on the floor muttering things to herself. When she moved, something caught his eye and he frowned. He went to her and pulled her up into a sitting position so he could get a better look at the slim shaft protruding from her shoulder. His stomach dropped when he recognised the type of dart. The hunter had found her.

He tried to ignore her ramblings as she moved closer to him. He didn’t want to hear the things she was saying while under the influence of the drug. He couldn’t stand hearing them.

She ran her hands up over his chest and he winced as they passed over his injury. She drew him closer to her, tugging harder when he tried to resist her and smiling coyly when he complied.

“My blood burns…” she whispered into his ear and tingles swept up his spine. “I hunger…”

He leaned to one side so his ear was away from her lips and the temptation they offered him but she pulled him back to her, digging her fingers in as she shivered with the fever. He looked at her. She was barely holding on as she moved her mouth back to his ear. He couldn’t miss the seductive tone her voice had taken on as she whispered into it.

“Only your blood can sate mine, Valentine…give it to me…don’t deny me…”

He closed his eyes, struggling against his desire to do as she’d asked and let her have what she wanted from him. He was powerless to resist her and she knew it. He tensed when she ran her lips slowly down the right side of his neck, teasing his skin.

“You have been drugged.” He tried to keep focused while she edged ever downwards. “The dart was drugged and fitted with a tracking device.”

He didn’t know why he was still talking, she wasn’t listening to him, but he felt compelled to talk, as though by doing so he could pretend this wasn’t happening and could still the desires that were beginning to take control.

She reached the curve of his throat and nipped at him with blunt teeth. He could feel her feverish skin against his shoulder as she drew the collar of his shirt to one side. He could feel it all happening, sense it before it even happened, and he knew there was no way he could stop her.

There was no way he would stop her.

He wanted it to happen.

He wrapped his hand around the dart in her back and pulled it out of her at the exact moment she sank her sharp teeth into his neck. He tensed, his whole body jolting with pleasure as she pulled on his blood and moaned low in her throat. He crushed the dart, letting it fall to the floor in pieces and trying to focus on it as he resisted giving in to the delicious feeling running through him. She just needed blood to cleanse her own of the drug and that’s what he was giving her. That was all.

Bringing his hands around as she sucked harder, stirring his passion into life, he hesitated for a moment, standing on a brink between retaining control and distance, and surrendering to his darkest desires.

He wanted to focus and suppress his memories, but she was so hungry for his blood, for him, that it made it impossible. He let his hands hover over her, wanting to hold her to him but not wanting to at the same time. He couldn’t cross that line. It was forbidden. They were doomed anyway. They had already committed sin when they’d fled together. No, he wouldn’t cross that line. Crossing it would be admitting that he was doing all this for a reason other than it being his fault that she was discovered. Her life had been stolen from her. That was the reason he was doing this. It had nothing to do with the reasons his dreams whispered to him.

He closed his eyes when she bit down harder, her fingertips digging into his ribs as she held onto him. Before he’d realised what he was doing, he’d wrapped his arms about her. He felt as though he was falling as he held onto her, burying his fingers into her wild red hair and holding her to his neck.

The feeling of her fangs in him was divine, an exquisite pain that defied words, and he found himself clinging to her and letting her take everything she wanted from him. He wouldn’t stop her, not now, not ever. He couldn’t stop her. He didn’t have the will any more. Something that felt this right could never be wrong. The law had no hold over him any more.

His body ached and tightened in response to the desire she was stirring in him, and he growled quietly when her fingers moved against his sides, drawing him towards her.

When he opened his eyes and the room spun, he pushed her away from him, forcing her to stop drinking. She looked at him. Her mouth was surrounded by blood and her eyes were still a vivid shade of green. He stared into them and didn’t stop her when she moved to lick the wound. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and relishing this last drop of pleasure she was offering him by closing the wound. Her tongue moved lightly over his skin, fanning the embers of his passion until he was forced to push her away again for fear of doing something he’d regret.

“We need to move. Are you feeling any better?”

She blinked at him and slid out of her vampire guise. She looked more conscious now at least. The drug would be starting to wear off and his blood would have helped, but she needed more if she was to cleanse her system. He stood up and ignored the way his head spun. He should have stopped her sooner. She’d taken so much from him and he’d been dangerously lost in the feeling of it all. He should have kept his focus and not let it affect him, but it had been impossible.

Grabbing her arm, he hauled her onto her feet and sat her down on the couch while he gathered their things. They needed to leave now. He had been foolish to waste time by letting her drink from him in the same place where he’d killed the dart she’d been shot with. The hunter would have used the homing device it was fitted with to track her here.

He threw everything back into the bag and zipped it shut before walking into the living area and putting it down on the table. He took his jacket and placed it on Prophecy, not listening to her weak protestations as he did so. When it was on, he grabbed the bag and put an arm about her waist to help her stand. He led her to the door and took one last look around the room to make sure they had everything.

Leading her down the corridor to the lift, he thought about what to do. They would check out and get as far away from here as possible without being spotted. They were going to need somewhere to hide, somewhere quiet and safe, and she needed more blood.

There was only one place he could think of.

A cemetery.

* * * *

Valentine turned to face Prophecy when she began to lag behind. He pressed a hand to her forehead and frowned when he found she was burning up again. He was running out of time. Whatever poison the hunter had laced the dart with, it was powerful and he feared that if she didn’t feed soon it was going to consume her. He’d never seen a vampire as sick as she was. She was constantly shivering, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she held his jacket closed. He picked her up, shutting down his own pain as she nestled close to him and aggravated his shoulder. He had to get her to safety. The sky was on the verge of lightening and there wasn’t a sign of shelter so far in the cemetery.

When he reached the small church in the centre, he placed her down by a narrow door. This side would remain in shadow for most of the day. She would be safe here and it would be quicker for him to find shelter without her slowing him down. He crouched and ran his fingers across her brow as she murmured.

“I shall not be long. You will be safe here.” He promised her and she curled up, holding her knees. She said things beneath her breath that he knew were directed at him. “We are running out of time. Stay here. The sun will not get you.”

He straightened up and took one last look at her before walking off around the other side of the building. He hadn’t got far when he sensed someone in the vicinity and turned to see a man dressed in dark clothing walking towards the spot where Prophecy sat. He moved swiftly, aiming at first to cut the man off before he reached her and then deciding to wait so he could see the man’s reaction.

He rounded the corner, looking at the man who was now bent over Prophecy and reaching a hand out to touch her. She growled and the man paused.

“Leave her be, preacher man, this is something that you do not want to see,” he said.

The clergyman looked at him. “She is hurt. She needs assistance. She must come into the church and we shall help her.”

“To help her is to sin.” Valentine took a step towards the man. “To look upon her, is to look upon the Devil himself.”

The man’s expression became one of confusion and Valentine knew it was no use telling him again not to look. The man’s eyes were already moving to Prophecy and all Valentine could do was wait.

Prophecy snarled at the clergyman, exposing her fangs by curling her top lip up.

The man stumbled backwards, his face blanched and his hands trembling as he stared at her.

“Wha…what…what is she?” The clergyman looked at him.

“We’re angels with broken wings.” Valentine grinned, snapped the man’s neck and caught his body before it hit the ground.

Grabbing the keys from the man’s belt, he carried him over to the small door and opened