Captive of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 2)

by Bella Klaus

  “He’s eleven hundred?”

  “It’s complicated,” Valentine replied. “Hellcats usually live a few centuries or until they lose a life and have to be recalled.”

  As I poured the warm milk into the bowl of champorado and took my first bites of warm chocolate porridge, Valentine explained that Macavity was a demon hybrid. Hellcats occurred when a large cat fathered a cub with a particular breed of feline demon. The result was a highly intelligent being that took the form of house cat but could revert to the species of its father. Macavity had attached himself to the first vampire queen of Valentine’s bloodline and had taken care of generations of her royal heirs.

  I pictured the dark-skinned woman depicted on the mausoleum wall and on the stained glass window and took the first spoonful of champorado I’d had in three years. The bitter chocolate notes hit me first, followed by the tapioca texture of the glutinous rice. It was far richer than I had remembered, but with a creamy sweetness that made me hum my appreciation.

  “Does Macavity have nine lives?” I asked.

  Valentine chuckled. “Nobody knows. He dies after a few centuries but always reappears within years of the birth of a new heir, or in the case of my brothers, an entire group.” He reached out and tickled the cat under his chin. “I haven’t seen this little critter since I was ninety-four.”

  “Did Macavity return because of Kain?”

  Valentine’s brows drew together, and he fixed me with the strangest look. His eyes seemed to say that I wasn’t getting something that should have been obvious. “He came back a few days after I met you.”

  My gaze dropped to the cat whose face was now buried in his plate of sashimi. “But I didn’t meet Macavity until—”

  “Until you left my protection,” he replied.

  I stared down at my plate, feeling a little like Sarah Connor in the first Terminator movie when Kyle Reese was sent back in time to protect her because her unborn child would become someone important. “Are you saying Macavity chose me?”

  Valentine’s lips curled into a smile. “His presence told me the woman who would birth my heir was close. I looked around, and as soon as our eyes met at that auction and I saw you reading Shakespeare, I knew immediately that she would be you.”

  Warmth filled my chest. Valentine had explained that he had fallen for me over our love of human culture, but I had always felt there was a missing piece to his explanation. Any woman wanting to marry a king would have done their research on him and feigned an interest in the arts, and it had seemed peculiar that his attention had drifted to a Neutral from a common clan of witches.

  I dropped my gaze from Valentine’s and stared down at the cat, who was still engrossed in his breakfast. Any lingering annoyance I had toward Macavity dissolved. He hadn’t really been a traitor who had thrown away three good years of friendship. He was protecting me, or the child I would one day have with Valentine.

  His warm hand cupped my cheek. “I fed last night, but it’s what I have to do to keep my mind intact and my instincts in control when I’m around you.”

  I gulped and lowered my spoon into the bowl. “The sooner we can remove the firestone from my blood, the sooner you can stop feeding on strangers.”

  Valentine leaned into me and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “It will be difficult, as my very existence is a threat to the Supernatural Council, but I will see what I can do.”

  A memory rolled to the forefront of my mind. “Lazarus said my coven was in prison and Jonathan said they were already under a death sentence.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced. “I told Arianna to ready herself to escape. Enforcers would have been watching their homes the moment they confirmed you were a fire wielder.”

  My throat thickened. “She must have stayed behind to help me.”

  We both fell silent. Aunt Arianna had spent the past three years working with Valentine on a way to suppress my power and had even helped him with the safe house in case the firestone bracelet hadn’t worked. When I got captured by Captain Zella, she should have fled Logris but had tampered with the blood transfusion and found a way to send a message into my mind.

  I met his sorrow-filled violet eyes. “We have to help them.”

  “Let’s confirm that the Council has detained them,” Valentine replied. “Lazarus might have fabricated that story to make you come with him without a fight.”

  I nodded, not finding it difficult to imagine Jonathan producing a counter-lie to make me think Aunt Arianna’s situation was hopeless. “Let me call Kain.”

  “What for?” Valentine growled.

  My gaze snapped up, and I met his darkening eyes. The muscles of his face tightened, and his nostrils flared. I leaned across the breakfast tray and slid a hand over his tense forearms and onto his balled fists. Did he even remember Kain, the young man he brought under his wing? The same young man Valentine had entrusted to watch over me when he had been alive?

  I met his reddening eyes and frowned. “Kain is the only person in Logris I know who wants to keep you alive.”

  The suspicion hardening his features melted, but his lips remained tight. Valentine had never been possessive. Was this a new development of being a preternatural? I pinched a corner off one of the croissants, dipped it into a puddle of melted chocolate, and waited for Valentine to come to his senses. He cast me a narrow-eyed glance, seeming to consider some course of action.

  “Are you about to regress into the tyrant who tried to imprison me in this penthouse?” I asked.

  He shook his head but didn’t say no.

  “Alright then.” I took a large sip of bitter black coffee, which washed away the sweetness of the chocolate porridge. After pulling him down for a long kiss on the lips, I murmured, “Thank you for the most sumptuous breakfast. I’m going to take a shower.”

  Valentine wasn’t around when I emerged from the dressing room, and Macavity bolted across the penthouse’s wooden floor and stood by the exit, his ears pointed toward the door. Perhaps he was eager for another adventure.

  I picked him up and cradled his little body to my chest. “I’m glad what happened yesterday hasn’t frightened you from leaving the penthouse.”

  He gave me an eager meow, which I interpreted as a demand to go for a walk.

  “Alright.” I placed a hand on the door, but nothing happened.

  Macavity tilted his head to the side. “Meow?”

  “Hold on a second.” I pushed some magic down my arm and into my hand, but still, nothing happened. My lips formed a tight line. Either Valentine had tampered with the wards, was hiding somewhere and using his power to keep me confined, or I still hadn’t recovered my magical reserves from yesterday.

  After several failed attempts at opening the door with my magic, I clenched my teeth, still unsure of what was keeping me stuck in the penthouse. Macavity squirmed in my arms, seeming to have already worked out that leaving the penthouse today would be a futile effort.

  “Bloody vampire,” I muttered under my breath.

  With an annoyed yowl, Macavity batted at my calf. I stared down and met his furious green eyes. The cat stood with his front legs splayed and his ears flattened against the side of his head.

  “Alright,” I said in my most calming voice. “Maybe it’s just my magic.” I turned my gaze back to the palm of my hand and concentrated the magic swirling in my heart.

  The heart was one of the most versatile organs in a supernatural’s body. Not only did it pump blood to and from every vein and capillary, it determined the type of power they would wield. It was also the location of the heart chakra, a green energy center, and it had its own meridian of acupuncture points that ran from my armpits to my little fingers.

  While I focussed on the magic gathering in the chakra and breathed hard to improve the actions of the physical organ, I channelled my magic to move the power from the heart chakra to the heart meridian on the left, naming each acupuncture point as it traveled toward my hand.

  W
hen I reached the end, a tiny flame erupted from my little finger, and I glanced down at Macavity, who stared up at me through wide eyes.

  “At least this proves my magic still works,” I said.

  He tilted his head in reluctant agreement.

  I nodded back. At least he wasn’t still flattening his ears. “Alright then. Now, let’s see what happens if I place my magic on the door.”

  Macavity rose onto all four paws and curled his tail into a question mark.

  I pressed my hand between the door and its frame, but no tendrils of magic shot out to wind around my arm. Turning my gaze down to Macavity, I raised both brows. “It looks like Valentine did something to stop us from leaving.”

  The cat glanced away and lowered his tail, seeming as disappointed as I was about Valentine’s conduct.

  “I won’t give up.” Valentine had to learn he couldn’t keep me confined. My time with Jonathan yesterday proved that fire mages were powerful enough to face down multiple vampires. And I had already broken through the Supernatural Council’s jail cell with my flames.

  For the next few minutes, I breathed hard, gathering as much power as I could muster into overpowering the wards. Yesterday, this would have been easy, but after struggling against Jonathan and trying to defend myself from those vampires, I was spent.

  Eventually, the magic clicked, and I pulled open the door. Macavity paused at my side and tapped at my leg for me to pick him up. Once I had him cradled to my chest, he meowed at me to get going. We took the same route as before to the library, but I itched to speak to Kain. Using the elbow of my hoodie to shield myself from the vegetation growing against the door, I pushed it open and let the cat inside, and pulled out my phone.

  Kain answered in a few rings. “Mera?”

  “What happened to you?”

  He blew out a noisy breath. “Their uncle from New Mesopotamia just arrived, and he’s assigned me an army of bodyguards.”

  “Why?” I stared out into the moss-covered hallway, watching what appeared to be pollen drift through a stream of pale sunlight.

  “Sylvester wants me to take Valentine’s place with the uncle serving as my regent,” Kain said, his voice laced with bitterness. “They won’t even consider letting me join the academy next September.”

  I wanted to tell Kain he wasn’t missing much, but the vampires I’d studied with seemed to enjoy their time there immensely. As a pure-blood, he would also have more than his share of girls like Ellora Vandamir throwing themselves at his feet.

  “If our plan succeeds, Valentine will take back his throne and you’ll be able to have at least a normal century of life,” I murmured. “Did you make any progress with finding what they did to his heart?”

  “From the way they talk, it’s in the palace somewhere,” said Kain. “The head butler knows its location. I tried speaking to him about bringing Valentine back, but he wants the brothers to put Valentine out of his misery.”

  I swallowed hard. Had anyone tried to speak to Valentine since he’d fed? He was about seventy percent normal apart from his murderous feeding habits. Eighty, if one ignored his controlling proclivities.

  “They’re saying you’re a fire mage with the same black flames as Kresnik,” Kain murmured. “Is that true?”

  A shocked breath whistled through my teeth. Until Kain had spoken, I hadn’t even known the color of Kresnik’s flames. Jonathan had psychopathic tendencies, but there couldn’t be a connection, could there?

  “That wasn’t me. Some idiot abducted me, and he fought off some vampires who caught my scent.” Before Kain could say anything else, I asked, “Do you read the news?”

  “Not all the way through,” he replied. “Why?”

  “Lazarus told me my Aunt Arianna and the rest of the coven were sentenced to death.”

  “I thought they ran away.”

  My heart ached. So had I, but my theory that Aunt Arianna had returned to save me from execution was sounding more plausible by the minute. “Could you please check?”

  A knock sounded, like someone putting down the phone, then Kain disappeared for several moments before saying, “Sorry, it’s true.”

  My heart sank into my stomach. “Is there an execution date?”

  He paused again. “It says they’re waiting to capture Valentine. There’s something here about the Council wanting to use him as an exhibit in the trial.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, my mind already racing with possibilities. Maybe I should be the one keeping Valentine locked up so none of the enforcers could see him in all his preternatural splendor.

  “Is he alright?” Kain asked.

  I exhaled a long breath. “You know how they depict vampires on human TV?”

  “Badass?”

  “Ruthless, but still capable of love,” I replied. “Valentine’s one of those kinds of villains.”

  I stared at the rotten floorboards, exhaling a long sigh. I wasn’t ready to say out loud that Valentine had become a killer who hoarded his next victims the way I hoarded bars of chocolate. The answer to slaying this monstrous part of his personality lay in my blood… if only I could free myself from the firestone.

  “Any updates on getting a healer?” I asked.

  “Everyone I spoke to said it wasn’t possible for objects to soak into the skin, let alone contaminate the blood,” he replied.

  “Maybe it’s different because I have fire magic,” I replied.

  “I’ll try a mage healer.”

  “But don’t tell them it’s to help a fire user.”

  Kain huffed a quiet laugh and thanked me for calling. I hung up feeling worse for the guy than I did for myself. The amount of pressure he had to be feeling right now was more than anything I had experienced at his age. His mother had died, his father disappeared, and his guardian had been transformed into one of the undead. Now, Valentine’s family was putting him under pressure to become the next Vampire King.

  My shoulders sagged, and I stared down at the rotten floorboards. If there was anyone in Logris I could trust not to run straight to the enforcers with news of our location, I wouldn’t have to rely on the help of a young man already under stress.

  Macavity’s yowl from inside the library broke through my musings. I slipped the phone back into my pocket and I pushed the door open.

  A curl of smoky magic wrapped around my wrists like restraints, and I stepped inside to find Macavity sitting atop the leather desk, talking to someone standing on the far-left of the library.

  Valentine stood against an alcove of bookshelves, dressed in a white shirt that skimmed his muscular frame. He had unbuttoned it to the sternum, revealing a perfectly unscarred chest. My throat dried, and I gulped several times in quick succession. Now was not the time to get distracted by the way he looked. This was the man who just tried to keep me confined.

  He raised his brows, partly in challenge that I had left the penthouse and partly in expectation for how I would explain myself. I pressed my lips into a firm line and fixed my features into a glower. This time, I wasn’t off-balance and still from seeing him rise from the dead. This time, I was ready for a confrontation.

  I placed my hands on my hips. “What did you do to the door?”

  Valentine pushed himself off the bookshelf and prowled toward me, his violet eyes narrowing. “Apparently not enough.”

  “You tried to imprison me,” I snapped.

  “Mera,” he said in a deep voice that sent tremors down my spine. “Have you forgotten the events of yesterday already?”

  My mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. What happened to the man who had apologized for toying with me and frightening me away? Had that been a ploy to lure me back to the penthouse? Valentine drew closer, his power thrumming against my skin. I took a step back and turned my head away from the distracting sight.

  I clenched my teeth. “I should be free to at least visit the library. What happened with Jonathan and those other vampires won’t happen again.”

  “Because
I will keep you safe,” he said.

  “Not by locking me up.”

  Valentine’s snarl made me whirl around and meet his darkening eyes. I pulled back my shoulders and raised my chin. He wasn’t about to subdue me.

  The last time Valentine had said I was his prisoner, it had been the day of the spanking and he hadn’t been in his right mind. Now he was in full possession of his faculties and still acting like I was his possession. The only difference between half-dead, uncommunicative Valentine and the man standing in front of me was that the well-fed version of himself was better at hiding his feral nature.

  “You are not my jailor.” I prodded him in the chest. “You can’t keep me confined in a penthouse forever.”

  He wrapped his larger hand around mine and pulled me into his hard chest. “I am your protector.” The low growl in his voice made my heart pound. “If any vampire followed your scent—”

  “Why don’t you ward the building, then?” I snapped.

  “Nobody may enter this place without my permission,” he said.

  Annoyance tightened my skin. Nothing this vampire said made sense. “If they can’t come in, then why did you tamper with the door?”

  “Nearly losing you yesterday was unbearable.” Valentine placed a warm hand on my cheek. “I will not tolerate seeing you surrounded by danger a third time.”

  I lowered my lashes and exhaled a long sigh. Perhaps I had been right earlier when I had thought that dying while trying to save my life had somehow placed him in permanent protective mode. “You once said that if I came into my powers, I wouldn’t need any protection. Help me remove the firestone from my blood, and you’ll never have to worry about me being in danger.”

  “I have already contacted a healer about your situation,” he said.

  The tension around my shoulders melted, and my mind drifted to the woman who had visited Mera’s hospital room and wanted to report the fire in her blood to the enforcers. I raised my head and asked, “Who?”

  “A former associate of my father’s,” he said.

  I thought of asking if this association had taken place before the former Vampire King had fallen under the control of Kresnik or during, but the question seemed tasteless, considering Valentine’s current undead status.