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

When his body finally shut down the pain, he raised his eyes to look at her.

She was gone.

He hurried to his feet and swung around to face the now open door.

Not pausing to think, he began after her. He couldn’t let her reach her family’s mansion. If she made it there, then they’d both be dead. His family wouldn’t want to hear any of the excuses that he could think of. Kalinor wouldn’t believe him if he said that she had been the danger he’d sensed. He would only see that he had abducted the child of the prophecy. When she told the two families of the questions he’d asked, he would be condemned to death.

They’d both die.

But it couldn’t happen could it? Not if the things her blood had shown him were true.

He took a deep breath of fresh air as his feet hit the road outside the warehouse. She wasn’t far ahead of him and he knew exactly which direction she was going to head in.

Running after her through the dark deserted streets, he kept his senses fixed on her and ducked down a side road. If he were quick enough, he would be able to cut her off before she made it half the distance to her house. He ducked down another alley and smiled when he came back out onto the road she was running down.

She ground to a halt the moment she saw him, her expression hardening as she realised he was again blocking her path.

She kept still, obviously waiting for him to make a move.

Relaxing, he straightened up and raked his eyes over her. She was fast, and strong. He’d not met a female as strong as her before. The way she’d thrown him across the room was impressive. She had power too, enough to stop him from seeing things in her blood. What else was she hiding from him?

He smiled inside when she continued to stand before him in a fighting stance, her fists clenched while she stood with one foot in front of the other in the weakly lit street. He listened to the sound of her heavy breathing as it cut through the silence. It was getting late. The sun would be rising soon. He was running out of time to convince her that everything she had thought was safe, was gone, replaced with a death sentence.

She frowned at him, clearly wondering why he wasn’t making a move. He could almost see the question flickering in her dark eyes. His gaze wandered downwards. The long black nightdress she wore clung to her body, not hiding anything from the imagination. Her feet were bare. He gave a thought to the clothes that were still at the warehouse with the rest of his things. He should have realised that she wasn’t going to make any of this easy. Not that it was easy. Going against his family was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, but his instincts had told him it was the right thing.

And blood never lies.

He raised his eyes back to her face. She cleared her hair away from her eyes, pushing it back over her shoulders and revealing herself fully to him. She still looked heavenly.

“Show me your true face.” The words left his lips before he even had time to consider what he was asking or why he wanted to see it.

He was surprised when she did as he’d asked. The bones of her face shifted smoothly, her teeth elongating and sharpening, and her eyes changing to emerald green. She was a Caelestis then. No doubt about that.

She hissed and flexed her fingers while her claws extended.

He didn’t bother changing. He had already satisfied her curiosity about the real him back at the cemetery. There was no need to reveal his demon face again. He stared at her. She moved her weight from one foot to the other, waiting for him to make a move.

When he didn’t, she broke the silence.

She slid gracefully out of her vampire guise and raised her chin. “Who do you think I am?”

He could hear the nerves in her voice. It trembled. If she’d had a heartbeat, it would have been rocketing, sending his every instinct into overdrive and making desire scream through him. The way she was reacting to him made him feel a ghost of that, only a hair’s breadth away from what he would have felt had she been human. He wanted to push her, wanted to make her frightened so he could feed off the feeling of power it gave him, but it would get him nowhere and time was running out.

“Why did you take me from my family? I know you’re not one of them. I know you have a reason for kidnapping me and I want to know what it is.” She took a step towards him.

She had nerve. She may have some power, but he could easily defeat her in a fight. She was young, inexperienced. She’d proven that earlier tonight when she’d thought she could stand her ground against him and not answer his questions.

“I have a reason, yes.” He took a step towards her, showing her that her manoeuvre hadn’t frightened him as she’d intended it to.

Her lips compressed and her nostrils flared as she glared at him. She was young, definitely young, and probably no older in vampire years than she looked. She pushed her hair out of her face again, flicking it over her shoulders. There was such a spark of defiance in her and he didn’t know whether she really wasn’t scared of him, or whether she just had great command over her body. Now that he was closer to her, she seemed calmer and more relaxed. She wasn’t trembling any more. She was standing with a resolute expression on her face that said she was going to get an answer to her question. He was willing to give her one, but he knew she wouldn’t like it and she wouldn’t believe it.

“You are not safe with your family any more. It was my doing. I revealed your existence and now the master of my bloodline has gone to see yours. I took you because…” He struggled to against the tempest of feelings inside him and tried to form the words he wanted to say. He could see that she was waiting. She wanted to know the reason why he had taken her and he wanted to tell her, but everything inside of him revolted against saying the words. He swallowed hard, tensed his jaw and then ground them out. “I wanted to protect you.”

Her eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed again.

“I don’t need protection,” she said in a cold, composed voice.

“I am afraid that you do. We need to find out more about you. I know a scribe in England. He’s older than any vampire I have met. He will give us the answers we need. He will give you the answers you want.”

She backed away a step, the frown remaining etched on her face.

“I can’t go. I can’t leave my family.”

He knew that for a moment he’d convinced her. It gave him a sign that she was willing to be convinced, that she would go with him if he made her see that it was her only option. She wanted answers, and she knew that he could help her get them. If only he could make her see that she was no longer safe with her family.

“They are not your family, not anymore.”

He dodged the punch that she threw at him and then gave chase the instant he realised that she was running again. He was getting tired of this. The sun would be up soon and even if she agreed to go with him, they were going to be cutting it close to make it back to the warehouse before it broke the horizon.

He glanced up at the sky as he ran after her. It was clear with only a few patches of clouds, not enough to protect them from the harsh light of day when it came.

Bringing his eyes back down to earth, he realised that she was running faster this time, and that he was beginning to lose her. He couldn’t let her make it back to the mansion. He should have told her exactly what she was letting herself in for if she went back there but he had seen in her eyes that it would have been one push too many. Telling her that she no longer had a family had upset her enough. If he told her that she would die if she went back, that he was the one who would have to kill her, he couldn’t imagine how she’d take that. She’d certainly never be able to bring herself to trust him. He’d tell her when she was ready to hear it.

Turning down the street that led to her home, he redoubled his effort. She was mere feet away from him now. He could easily catch her before she made it to the gates.

He frowned when he sensed other vampires, strong vampires, and made a lunge for her. Dragging her into the bushes that lined the opposite side of the road to her mansion, he placed his hand over her mouth to silence her.

Prophecy thought about biting into his hand as it clamped down over her mouth. She dug her nails into it, trying to prise it off her, and wriggled to get free.

She stopped the instant she saw why he’d dragged her into the trees and undergrowth.

Arkalus.

And he wasn’t alone.

Her hands relinquished their grip on her captor’s arms and she watched the scene unfold in front of her.

Arkalus was with one of the other family, one of stature. Was this the lord of the vampire now holding her captive? He was strong, and old. She could sense the power in him when he turned to face her brother at the gates.

He signalled and several guards appeared and moved off to a distance as he waved a dismissive hand. Her eyes strayed to them. If they were the guardsmen of Aurorea, then she had been right about the vampire who was holding her. He wasn’t a guard. He was something above that position.

She returned her gaze to her brother and thought about that.

“Then it is settled.” Arkalus smiled broadly at the lord of Aurorea. “We shall join forces and hunt the abomination together.”

“For the safety of our kind.” The other vampire grinned back at her brother and firmly shook his hand.

“We thought we could contain her. Iona was a fool not to listen to me. She is not worthy of running this house.” Arkalus’ smile faded, leaving his expression cold.

Her stomach dropped. Abomination? Safety of our kind? Aurorea and Caelestis working together? She felt lost and struggled to comprehend what they were saying. Was she the abomination they were to hunt?

The vampire who was holding her had said that he had revealed her existence to his family, and her brother was saying that they had thought they could contain her.

What was happening?

She didn’t even notice the gates closing and the other family leaving. The vampire behind her let go of her and she slumped against a tree, staring at the dirt beneath her.

They were talking about her. Her own brother wanted to hunt her down and kill her. A vampire from the house of Aurorea wanted to protect her. Her head pounded as she tried to make sense of everything. Who was she? How was she a danger to their species? She was barely twenty, had never left her home before tonight.

They’d kept her hidden, just as the vampire had said. She’d broken the rules of her mother and gone out into the night, and this is what had happened.

If she went back, they were going to kill her.

She looked over at the mansion, letting her eyes take