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

by Bella Klaus

  We stepped on the other side of the street, and the sensation of crackling flames lashed across my skin, making me stare up into Valentine’s profile. He glanced down at me with a tiny smile, and we took the stone steps down to the river bank and onto a walkway running beneath the bridge.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “One of the few establishments in London where the Supernatural Council tolerates the mingling of demons and humans,” Valentine replied.

  “A coffee shop?” I whispered.

  “And a casino, a nightclub, and a hotel,” he replied. “Its owner is an incubus who is on good terms with my great-grandfather and has stayed close to the family for generations.”

  My stomach roiled, but I glanced from side to side, looking for people with horns, large teeth, or misshapen faces. High demons visited Logris all the time, but only the less powerful hybrids went to our academy. It was the same with angels and some breeds of fae. I didn’t know very much about the creatures except that most of them were truly immortal and only became weaker when killed.

  Valentine ducked into an unlit archway, encasing us in darkness. Our footsteps echoed, picking up sound until my ears rang, and a cold draft draped over my shoulders like a shroud. Suppressing a shudder, I wrapped an arm around Macavity, who remained completely calm in such eerie surroundings.

  “Is this where we’re staying?” I asked.

  Valentine chuckled. “I wouldn’t trust Irdu with someone as precious as you, but I can negotiate the rental of a secure ritual place we can use to summon the fire mages.”

  “Alright.”

  At the end of the arched passageway we reached a cobbled road that looked like we’d stepped two hundred years back in time. On the right stood a two-story castle of stone bricks, complete with crenellations and its own moat.

  “This is the place?” My voice shook.

  Valentine released my hand and placed a protective arm around my back. “You’ll be safe with me.”

  I leaned into his side, drawing courage from smoky magic billowing from beneath his cloak. Just as we reached the drawbridge, a tiger-striped cat jumped out in front of us from nowhere and yowled.

  “Meow?” Macavity tapped my shoulder, indicating for me to let him down.

  I lowered myself onto one knee, and he jumped down to the cobblestones and followed the other cat across the wooden drawbridge.

  “Another hellcat?” I whispered.

  “Irdu has a weakness for all things feline.” Valentine pulled up his hood and escorted me over the drawbridge.

  Violin music drifted from the castle’s arched entrance, which appeared as dark as the tunnel we’d just left. As we stepped inside, a pair of seven-foot-tall men with bald heads approached from the dark, each wearing tuxedos that strained across their broad bodies.

  From the faint crackle of energy I sensed from the pair, they were either extremely low-level demons or demon-human hybrids sent to scare interlopers they deemed harmless.

  The man on the right stared down at us with glowing eyes, and his companion extracted a dagger that stank of brimstone. “Reapers aren’t welcome—”

  Valentine’s growl reverberated across the dark entrance, followed by a burst of power that made both men drop to their knees. I leaned into his side, the pulse between my legs thudding with excitement.

  “Please forgive the assumption, sire.”

  Valentine raised his palm. “We wish to hire a ritual room.”

  “Of course, sire.” As the demons scrambled to their feet, wall lights flared with bright light, illuminating a heavy wooden door.

  The taller of the pair pushed the door open and bowed, while the violin music increased in volume, accompanied by the hum of chatter; a warm cloud of roasted coffee engulfed my senses.

  We stepped into a one-hundred-foot-wide room of clay walls and polished brown floors. A fountain appeared in the middle where servers in tuxedos refilled silver coffee pots, which they poured into the small cups of patrons sitting at tables and chairs along the room’s perimeter.

  My mouth watered, and I licked my lips. This place was nearly the size of a McDonald’s.

  Valentine leaned into me and murmured, “I don’t know how the food and drink they serve here will affect you in your current state, so don’t accept anything.”

  “Right.” I huddled close to Valentine, letting my gaze drift over mostly human patrons.

  Sitting among them were people too beautiful to look human, each with different kinds of energy signatures. Valentine pointed out the succubi, incubi, and different types of faeries who fed upon human sexual desire.

  A small man wearing a white tuxedo approached us with a low bow and led us across the room toward a small hallway. Strangely, his power was at least four times that of the demons at the door, yet he cowered and twitched at Valentine’s presence.

  As we approached a door at the end of the hallway, fiery magic that felt like Jonathan’s black flames lashed at my skin. The air thickened with the scent of brimstone, but Valentine remained unconcerned about venturing deeper into a demon’s lair, so I tried to remain calm. Beyond the door was a stone staircase that spiraled down what felt like six stories, and the air became cooler and damper the farther we descended.

  The small demon glanced over his shoulder. “Will you be summoning, sire?” His eyes widened, and he placed a hand over his mouth. “I don’t mean to pry. We need an idea of the room size—”

  “A chamber large enough to contain the hellfire of twenty-one average-strength demons,” Valentine said, as though he summoned demons every day. “Set the wards for me to control all entry and exit, is that understood?”

  The demon bowed again and pressed his hand on the wall, creating a doorway into an octagonal room of clay walls with a domed roof of stained glass fashioned to look like fire. A large platform stood in the middle containing etchings of symbols shaped into a pentagram within five concentric circles.

  He held out a notepad, which Valentine skimmed before taking a pen and scribbling down a few items. Then he signed the bottom with a flourish.

  “A sample of your blood, sire?” The demon held out a small sickle. “I wouldn’t ask, but it has changed somewhat since your last visit.”

  I bit down on my lip, hoping the demon wouldn’t inform the Supernatural Council of Valentine’s location. If they were holding the coven to ransom, surely the Council might employ other techniques for finding Valentine and me?

  Valentine stared at the demon until the smaller creature trembled and shrank. Without a word, he pressed the pad of his thumb into his fang and squeezed out a bead of blood. Before the demon could get anywhere near it, he growled, “Leave, now.”

  The demon bowed and backed out of the room.

  As the door clicked shut, I furrowed my brow and turned to Valentine. “Did he need the blood as payment?”

  “Identification,” he said, still glaring at the door. “He wanted to check that I wasn’t a shapeshifter pretending to be me.”

  “Right.” My gaze wandered to the symbols etched on the clay floor. I never qualified for anything but the most basic of classes at the academy, but even I could tell that the configuration of circles and pentagrams was meant to keep powerful beings from wandering beyond the ritual’s confines.

  “What next?” I asked.

  Someone knocked on the door, making my heart jump into my throat. I skittered toward Valentine, who wrapped his strong arms around my middle.

  “You are safe here with me,” he murmured, the deep timbre of his voice dissolved a layer of tension around my chest.

  I turned to meet his red eyes, and my gaze dropped down to his full lips. Being close to Valentine felt like being encased in a slightly cool, sexy blanket. His arm tightened around my back, and he drew me toward him, pressing a soft kiss on my lips.

  Before I could relax into the embrace, the door creaked open. Valentine drew back, baring his fangs. A pale man in a waiter’s uniform stepped inside, holding a tray c
ontaining two magnum-sized bottles, a tall tumbler, and a pile of napkins.

  “O-Neutral, sire.” He edged around the room, placed the tray on a low table I hadn’t noticed until now, and bowed. “Would you like something for your guest?”

  Valentine scowled. “I ordered four magnums.”

  The waiter wrung his hands. “It’s been centuries since we’ve had a patron with such a large appetite for Neutral blood, and there’s only so much our suppliers can produce at short notice. If you would prefer to drink human by the vein—”

  “No.”

  “As you wish, sire.” The waiter hurried out of the room, letting the door click shut.

  I turned to Valentine and pressed a hand to his cool cheek. “Will two bottles be enough?”

  His face tightened, and he walked us over to the corner table. “It will have to suffice.”

  Guilt roiled through my insides. If I had to guess, he probably needed the blood of another human to return to normal, but that would only last a day. The average human contained five and a half liters of blood, and two magnums only contained three. But it was Neutral blood, which contained magic. A lump formed in my throat. I couldn’t in good conscience encourage Valentine to take up the waiter’s offer, knowing that it would mean someone’s death.

  Valentine picked a bottle, sniffed its contents, and placed it to his lips. I stepped away, pressing my back to the wall. It wasn't like I’d never seen him drink blood before, but that blood had always been mine.

  He stared at me out of the corner of his eyes, and I forced a smile, encouraging him to continue drinking.

  Another knock sounded on the door, and I spun around. “Did you order anything else?”

  “A healer,” he said between mouthfuls.

  Excitement rippled through my insides, and I took a step toward the door. Valentine placed a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me behind his larger body. I stared at his broad back, feeling like an idiot for getting so comfortable in a den of demons.

  “Enter,” he said.

  I peeped out from behind Valentine to find a five-foot-tall woman with amber eyes and platinum hair that was only a few shades darker than her white coat. My gaze dropped down to her left hand, where she clutched a battered case.

  She dipped into a curtsey. “Irdu said you had need of my services.”

  Valentine stepped aside, allowing me to approach the doctor. The jagged edge to her magic suggested that she was a demon but too powerful to be a hybrid. Thankfully, I couldn’t see the demonic form beneath her glamor.

  I licked my lips. “My blood contains firestone, and I was looking for a way to extract it from my body?”

  She gestured for me to sit on the platform and placed her leather bag at my side. “How did you get such a thing in your blood?”

  “A transfusion,” I said with a grimace.

  Her gaze snapped up to Valentine’s. “And you find that palatable?” He snarled, making her flinch. “Forgive my presumption, but most vampires season their blood with spices, not stones.”

  I placed a calming hand on her arm, only to feel a ripple of dark power beneath her skin. “My aunt arranged it to soak up the magic in my blood so that I could pass a test for fire magic.”

  “I see…” Realization crossed her features, and she shot Valentine a furtive glance. Either he wasn’t looking at her or had returned to the bottle of blood because all the tension drained from her features.

  The healer opened her brown leather bag, which contained items wrapped in brown paper, peculiar-looking tubes, and labelled bottles. Two rows of pockets ran along its interior, each containing an array of metallic devices.

  She extracted a corkscrew with a needle-thin point. “I’ll need a blood sample to analyze, which I’ll destroy the moment I’ve finished.”

  I offered the healer my thumb, and she made a tiny prick that coated her corkscrew with blood. It sizzled and evaporated, releasing a few tiny grains, which she collected into a tiny dish.

  “Is that the firestone?” I asked.

  She scooped up the grains with her finger and peered at it with one eye. “Just the usual solid one finds in blood. It looks like the firestone has settled somewhere and has absorbed the magic in your blood. If you lie on the circle, I’ll perform a ritual to bring it to the surface, but it will cost—”

  “How long will that take?” Valentine asked from behind me.

  “Twelve to sixteen hours, if you want me to remove every speck of firestone.”

  My insides tightened. I had no idea what time it was right now, but the coven could be dead in less than that time. I rose to my feet. “And the recovery time?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Everything I’ve told you is theoretical and depends on if I can separate the firestone—”

  “An estimate,” Valentine growled.

  Her shoulders stiffened. “Twenty-four to thirty-six hours.”

  I shook my head. “We’ll have to do it tomorrow.”

  Valentine set down his bottle. “Return in twenty-four hours.”

  The healer packed up her leather bag, rose to her feet, and bowed before walking out the door. I dipped my head, exhaling my disappointment in a long breath. It looked like we might have to rely on Jonathan and his companions to help us rescue Aunt Arianna and the rest of the coven.

  I pulled out the mages’ box and placed it on the raised platform. Until now, my power hadn’t been distinctive enough to activate a magical communication device. I wrapped my fingers around the box and pushed my magic down my arm, making it glow.

  Valentine flicked his fingers and floated it to the center of the pentagram. He wrapped an arm around my middle and pulled me back from the platform and toward the wall.

  I turned to meet his violet eyes. “Did you finish your bottles?”

  His lips curled into a fanged smile. “Worrying about my health?”

  “You still look hungry.” I placed my hand on his stomach. “How are you going to function if you—”

  Light filled the room. I turned back to the platform to find Jonathan standing with six others, each of them dressed in denim. He stepped toward us, bumped into an invisible barrier, and whirled around to glance at his companions.

  Valentine released a growl ferocious enough to make every fine hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I placed a hand on his chest, hoping he’d had enough blood to remember that he had summoned them, and we needed their help.

  Each of the fire mages walked to the edge of the ritual circle and tested the boundaries with their flames.

  “What’s going on?” asked a man about my age with blond hair.

  Valentine’s arm tightened around my waist. “Don’t waste your firepower trying to escape. It’s set to contain even the most ferocious of demons.”

  “Mera.” Jonathan placed his hands on the ward, making him look like a mime artist. “Why?”

  I pulled back my shoulders. “My coven’s execution is tomorrow. We need you to infiltrate the Supernatural Council and bring them here.”

  His eyes narrowed. “And you thought to do that by trapping us like a pack of demons?”

  “I would hate to snap your necks for trying to abduct Mera,” Valentine said from between clenched teeth. “Again.”

  Jonathan’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “And you’ll come with us to the Flame?”

  Valentine snarled. “The Flame can come here to meet Mera.”

  The smaller man raised his arms and flinched. He glanced from side to side, seeming to look to his companions for moral support, but they all stared at us as though they’d never seen a vampire. Perhaps if they’d spent their entire lives living in the Flame, this was the first they’d seen up close.

  “That can be arranged,” Jonathan said with a tremble in his voice. “But only if you come with us, Mera.”

  “No.” Valentine’s voice was as heavy as stone.

  Jonathan ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve done rescues like this before with zero casualtie
s, but how will we rescue these people if we don’t know what they look like?”

  I turned to Valentine, my stomach plummeting with dread. Jonathan was absolutely right.

  Chapter Twenty

  I placed my hands on Valentine’s chest and stared into his violet eyes. “Let’s both go with them.”

  Jonathan cleared his throat. “That’s fine with me, but preternatural vampires are vulnerable to fire.”

  “Then I’ll go with them on my own.” I directed my comment at Valentine, hoping he wouldn’t object.

  The tightening of the skin around his eyes, his flexing of his jaw muscles, his flaring nostrils said he wanted to reject Jonathan’s offer and keep me at his side. He ran a cool hand down the side of my face, making every nerve ending tingle. “I swore to myself that I would keep you safe.”

  “If I let these people die because of me—” My words choked with a surge of dread, and I dipped my head, resting it against Valentine’s broad shoulder. “You’ve seen how quickly these people move in and out of wards. We can reach their prison cells and transport them out in no time.”

  “Make a decision,” Jonathan said from the platform. “Or we return to the Flame and every member of the Griffin coven dies.”

  “Fine,” Valentine growled. “But Mera doesn’t leave without protection.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jonathan raise his arms in an exasperated huff, but one of the other fire mages placed a hand on his shoulder, keeping him from an outburst. I turned my attention back to Valentine, who stared down at me as though committing my face to memory. I gulped. He was about to let me go.

  Valentine reached into my collar and pulled out the diamond engagement ring from the chain around my neck. “You know how to use this?”

  I sucked in a deep breath and placed my fingers on the huge gemstone, remembering how Valentine had returned it to me in the hospital and how the ring had concealed itself in my chest during my arrest but showed itself the moment I needed to escape my cell.