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

backwards, fell over and hissed at the person when she felt the power they held.

The person’s hood fluttered in the breeze as they roared at her.

Or at least she’d thought they were roaring at her.

Another roar caught her attention and she realised it had come from behind her. She looked up to see Valentine towering above her. She moved towards him but he rushed past her, his claws and teeth extending as he ran at the masked person. She didn’t want to watch as they clashed with each other, but she couldn’t take her eyes off them.

Suddenly, she realised that they weren’t alone and they were no longer outside. Vampires, werewolves, and other under-demons surrounded her. They were dressed in armour, all fighting each other to the death. There were bodies everywhere. Blood of all species soaked the cold flagstones beneath her. She rushed to her feet, grabbing a sword from a fallen vampire as he began to quickly decay. Lunging forwards, she fought to get to Valentine. He was standing on a platform above the thousands of warriors filling the room. She paused for a second when she saw a vampire, tall and proud, stood by a large wooden door and flanked by two guards in ornate armour. Her breath caught in her throat and a chill swept through her as he said her name. Her gaze flickered to the guard on his right, her eyes meeting his rich blue ones for a second before she turned away. A scream of pain pierced the din of battle and her attention was immediately with Valentine.

She slashed and hacked at anyone standing in her way, panic growing inside her as the fight between Valentine and the robed person escalated.

As Valentine fell to his knees and the robed person raised their sword to deal the final blow, she stopped dead, her breathing the only sound in her ears.

The sword fell.

She screamed.

“No!”

Silence filled the room.

She looked around her with wide eyes. The battle had been frozen in time. She raised her hand to see the stone in her amulet glowing bright white. Her eyes darted to the platform, her body trembling. The robed person’s sword had stopped only inches from Valentine’s neck.

She tried to get to him, wanting to push the robed person away, but her limbs felt heavy and unresponsive. Panic lanced through her as the sword began to slowly fall. Her hand moved of its own volition and before she had noticed what she was doing, she’d unleashed a glowing, crackling orb of magic that tore through the room, turning everything in its path to dust as it headed directly for the robed person.

She flinched away when a blinding white light filled the room, then everything faded to black.

* * * *

Prophecy breathed in sharply as her eyes opened. She stared at the ceiling, not seeing it but seeing the last few moments of her vision before she’d awoken. There was so much to try to make sense of.

A knock on her door made her jump and she scrambled into a sitting position, gathering her blankets to cover herself.

“Come in,” she said in a voice that betrayed how flustered she was.

The door opened and Valentine appeared in view.

“I heard a scream.”

“Um…” She tried to think of something to say but failed dismally.

“Another vision?” He took a step into the room and she noticed the way his eyes strayed to the thin blankets that were hiding her body.

She nodded, not wanting to remember it but knowing that he was going to ask her to. She pulled her knees up to her chest when he gently sat down on the bed a few feet from her. Her eyes dropped to the distance between them. There was room for him to sit closer to her, but she knew that he wouldn’t, not when it seemed to be taking him so much effort just to be in the same room as her while she was in such a state of undress. When she saw that he was staring at the marks on her shoulders, she let the covers slip a little, revealing them to his eyes. She smiled inside when he immediately stared at the patch of bed beside his thigh. It seemed strange that a vampire his age was so prudish. All of the males in her household loved to relate their sordid tales of seduction to each other. Surely, he’d seduced enough girls in his time that sitting here with her shouldn’t make him embarrassed. She felt like asking him, but decided against it. He would leave if he thought she was mocking him about something like that and she needed his company.

Looking at him again, she found he was staring at her chest and she realised that she’d been letting the covers slip while she was lost in her thoughts and was on the verge of completely exposing herself. She drew the covers back up again and caught sight of the fire in his eyes when he looked at her. Evidently, he wasn’t so prudish after all. The way he’d looked at her last night in the alley, and was looking at her now, told her that if he wasn’t in such good control of himself, she would have found out by now what it was like to be on the receiving end of one of the seductions the men of her house boasted about. She got the feeling that he’d know exactly what to do and would probably put their stories to shame.

She bit her lower lip when part of her vision came back to her and she remembered him kissing her in the field. Her eyes dropped to his mouth, taking in the tempting curve of his lips. They had felt so delicious against hers and she’d not wanted the kiss to end. She wondered if it had meant something. It had felt like a vision. If it was one, then surely it meant he was destined to kiss her, just like he had done in her dream.

“Prophecy.”

She couldn’t miss the note of desire that laced his voice and found it was still evident in his eyes when she raised hers to meet them.

“I saw…it was all so confusing,” she said, unsure of how to proceed or where to start.

“Was it Venice?” He leaned towards her.

“No.” She shook her head and stared at the far wall so she could concentrate. Whenever she looked at him, her thoughts roamed to the kiss and her eyes strayed to his lips. “I don’t know where it was.”

“Were you in a city?”

She met his question with another shake of her head. “No. It was countryside, wide-open countryside, like nothing I’ve seen before. There were mountains, and a field. You were there. And there was a castle. Then a battle. There was so much death. I screamed and it stopped, just before…before…”

She couldn’t bring herself to say what had happened.

“Before?” He pressed her. She looked deep into his eyes and didn’t hide her feelings, wanting him to see that what had happened had upset her and hoping that he’d piece it together for himself so she didn’t have to say it. He frowned. “I see.”

He was visibly shaken. A mixture of guilt and sorrow settled in her stomach, and she was overwhelmed by a sudden need to be close to him, to touch and comfort him.

She leaned forwards, reached out and placed a hand over his while her other arm held the sheet against her body. She looked up into his eyes while he stared down at their hands.

“Nothing happened. I didn’t let it happen.”

He still looked shaken when he met her eyes and smiled.

“I wouldn’t let it happen, Valentine.” She wrapped her fingers around his hand so the tips of them brushed against his palm and was surprised when he responded by curling his fingers under and holding her hand.

“I know,” he said in a gruff tone of voice that betrayed what he was feeling.

He was scared. She could see that now. Beneath the strong and confident exterior, he was hiding his true feelings. There was something about what lay ahead of them, or something about her, that scared him, that made him want to disconnect from it all and pretend that he could go back to his old life just like he’d wanted to in Oxford. She could understand. She was frightened too.

She watched his thumb brush against her fingers and could almost sense the depth of his true feelings for her.

They frightened her most of all.

His hand slipped free from hers as he stood. “You should get ready. My contact will be expecting us, and she hates it when people are late.”

Jealousy flared up inside her while she watched him leave. His contact was female. She glared at the far wall and wondered why he’d neglected to mention that earlier and then reasoned that he probably hadn’t thought it would matter that his contact was a woman. She huffed and threw the covers aside. It damn well mattered to her.

Tugging her combats on, she frowned the whole time. She slipped into a black vest top and grabbed the piece of string off her side table. Pulling her hair back, she gathered two long strands of her red hair and let them fall down the sides of her face like a fringe. She tied the rest of it back, and then put her boots on before walking into the other room.

Valentine was waiting for her. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing his jacket tonight. He was just wearing his shirt and trousers along with his boots. She gave him a black look and started towards the door.

“Prophecy,” he said. She turned to see him holding her shirt out to her. He looked at her shoulders. “It is best that you hide those from prying eyes.”

She looked at the mark on her left shoulder. He wanted her to hide the stars? Why? Was it because he didn’t want her drawing attention to them while they were out in Venice, or was it because he didn’t want his contact seeing them?

She was tempted to ignore his thinly veiled order but took the shirt instead. He would have a good reason for wanting her to cover the marks, even if it was only to stop himself from staring at them. She slipped the shirt on and held her hands out by her side.

“Better?”

He raised a brow at her irritated tone and then nodded. She brushed her hair from her face and opened the door.

“Good. Let’s go see this woman of yours.”

* * * *

Valentine glanced across at Prophecy as they walked. He’d known she would react like she had done back at the hotel. She had a jealous streak a mile wide. He smiled, amused by the fact that he could make her jealous. He couldn’t remember ever having that effect on someone before.

She had been silent since leaving the hotel and he didn’t push her into speaking. She looked as though she was brooding while she walked beside him with her eyes locked on the ground. She couldn’t have made it more obvious that she was avoiding looking at him if she’d tried.

He led her over the wooden bridge and she raised her head, a frown marring her features. She glanced at him and when she found he was looking at her, she dropped her gaze back to the floor. He raised a brow. She wouldn’t be able to keep up the silent treatment for ever. Eventually, she would crack. He could see the questions bubbling up inside of her.

Besides, he knew she wanted to mention her previous vision of Venice and she had every reason to. After all, he was leading her along the same route it had taken her.

When they walked down the other side of the bridge, he could see the imposing church of Santa Maria della Salute lit up in the distance. It disappeared from view as they turned down one