Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4)

by Bella Klaus

  I placed a hand over my mouth, waiting for her to scream, shout, burst into flames, but she stood in place with her eyes wide.

  “Hmmm…” Hades’ voice rumbled in my ear. “So, your friend is special. But why?”

  I turned to Racon, meeting his gaze. “Has your dragon returned to you yet?”

  He shook his head. “Why?”

  “We could do with a huge animal to blast down the wall.”

  Racon turned to Gail, placed Petra in her arms, and pointed at an unoccupied corner. “That’s where there used to be a door. If a bunch of us rush at that space, we might break through the wood.”

  I nodded. “It’s worth a try.”

  Leaving Kresnik to continue raging at Coral, we sped across the ritual room, grabbing stray people as we continued to the other side. The flames in this patch were shoulder-height, and Racon took Petra back and held the little girl high above the fire.

  “Right then.” I turned to the dozen people we’d gathered.

  The pity in their eyes brought back images of Aurora’s brutal death. My throat thickened, and I swayed on my feet, feeling like the flames surrounding us would engulf my soul. Fresh tears stung the back of my eyes, and my vision blurred to a haze of shadow and flame.

  “Focus,” Hades hissed.

  Blinking over and over, I swallowed back my grief and turned to the wall. “Let’s kick at a single spot and see if we can make a hole.”

  A girl about my size was the first to charge at the former exit with a flying kick. The flames spread across the wall jumped apart, leaving the wood panels unburned. I clenched my teeth. It figured that everything would be flameproof in a stronghold of fire users.

  The next man was in his late twenties with freckled skin and dreadlocks the same deep red as Petra’s hair. He slammed one fist into the same patch of wall followed by another and then stepped back.

  “Use your flames,” said Hades.

  I glanced over my shoulder, through the fire to where Coral now pummeled at Kresnik with flaming fists. The former god raised his arms, trying to shove her away, but white sparks of magic flared each time he attacked.

  Martika stood at Kresnik’s other side and rained blows on his back, but he didn’t pay her any attention.

  The bald man wrapped his arms around Martika and lifted her off, but when a second man tried to do the same to Coral, she splayed her arms, throwing out an eruption of white sparks.

  It looked like her power had finally returned.

  Volunteer after volunteer attacked the patch of wall, their blows landing uselessly against the wood. I stared down at my hands, pushing all the magic I could muster into my palms. A few sparks emerged from my skin, but they were tiny enough to be figments of my imagination.

  Cheers broke out around me. I whirled to the side to find that patch of wall had turned into a doorway. Racon, my other team members, and the volunteers rushed out into a second chamber, knocking aside an addled-looking Brother David.

  “After all that effort, the human golem opened the door from the other side,” said Hades.

  I jogged through the door. “He’s my lucky charm.”

  The chamber led to another ritual room and then to a darkened passage that curled within the center of the Flame. We eventually reached the white hallway, where people strolled around, oblivious to Kresnik’s attempt to consume the power of a single generation of fire users.

  I glanced over my shoulder, finding a horde of people behind me, and continued toward Kenwood House.

  Images of Aurora tortured my mind—Aurora being lashed by four men on Father Jude’s orders, Aurora lying on the treatment bed with glowing whip marks across her back, and Aurora reeling back from the flame whip to the face.

  Kresnik would pay, and I wanted to be the one to land the killing blow. But there wasn’t a thing I could do until I had my magic.

  I picked up my pace, running hard enough to break into a sweat, even though some of the people behind me ran faster and filed into their rooms. An entire group stopped at the refectory, but I continued.

  Either Coral would tire out and Kresnik would subdue her, or he would work out a way to keep her from harming him. There was no telling if she could maintain the upper hand for minutes or hours or days, but we had to leave immediately.

  Memories of Kresnik’s resurrection floated to the top of my mind, bringing with it an idea that might both help Hades and myself.

  “Did any of your ash get damaged in the fire?” I asked.

  “I know better than to put them into a single location,” he replied. “But I left a few particles nestled in the lining of your cloak.”

  Suppressing a shudder at any part of that Demon King being so close to my body, I asked, “Can you gather all your ash together in one place?”

  “What are you planning?” said Hades.

  Up ahead was the entrance to Kenwood House. I slowed my steps and opened the door. “After tonight, Kresnik is going to be more determined than ever to extract my magic.”

  “Correct,” he replied. “Without that healer, he’s likely to find a way to strip you of that phoenix and leave King Valentine with nothing salvageable to… cuddle.”

  My lips tightened at what he really wanted to do. I pushed open the door and stepped into the stairwell and up the steps. “Where did Healer Calla’s soul go?”

  He huffed. “Do you even need to ask?”

  As I descended the stairs an ache formed in my chest and spread up the back of my throat. Swallowing hard, I clutched the base of my neck. “What about Aurora’s?”

  Hades paused for several moments, making my steps falter. I couldn’t tell if he was using his power to track Aurora’s progress or trying to work out the best way to phrase terrible news. The demon wasn’t diplomatic, but I still had his fourth jar of ashes in my pocket and was still sore that he had lied to me about knowing the location of Valentine’s heart.

  “One heroic act doesn’t negate a lifetime of wickedness,” he replied, sounding serious. “Only recently, she tried to infiltrate the realm of the gods to steal Prometheus’s divinity. She also helped to force the essence of a phoenix into the body of an infant.”

  “Right,” I whispered.

  “If it’s any consolation, all supernatural souls reside in my faction. It’s one of the better divisions of Hell.”

  “Right,” I repeated because what else could I say?

  It wasn’t like I had bargained with Hades to distort the natural order of things. If someone had been evil and they’d earned their place in Hell, who was I to demand they go to Heaven because I liked them? My eyes grew damp again, and I trudged up the stairs, desperate to ask him about Hell. Was it really a place of punishment like people said or a playground for sadistic demons? As much as I tried, my lips couldn’t form the words.

  After passing the wards of Kenwood House, I rushed through the turquoise hallway and into the grand entrance of marble tiles where the candelabra still stood atop the circular table.

  My gaze landed on the clay disk at its base, etched with symbols. Wax marred its surface, along with tiny flecks of white, which I guessed was the final fifth of Hades’ remains.

  “You told me not to blow out the candles until you got your body back,” I said.

  He didn’t reply because Kresnik had ensured that Hades wouldn’t ever return to a physical form. All the time I’d spent running around with the Demon King had been based on the lie that he would become whole again and help me break out.

  “What if I told you I could give you your body back?”

  “How?” he asked.

  “I know a method.”

  His jagged magic crackled around my body. “Then you must—”

  “You’re in no position to make demands,” I snarled.

  His magic stilled. “What do you want in return?”

  “Your protection,” I replied. Before he could promise me a bunch of meaningless crap, I added, “Both from your attempts to cage me and the Supernatural Counc
il’s. I want them to know that Kresnik is back, and I need guarantees that they won’t try to destroy Valentine to get at his preternatural army of vampires.”

  “It’s the only way to stop the spread—”

  “There’s no deal if anyone hurts Valentine,” I said in a much louder voice.

  “Fine,” he growled. “What else?”

  “Retribution for what you and the Mage King did to Valentine.”

  Hades scoffed. “Don’t you think that being flayed alive, burned to ashes, and separated into five pieces was punishment enough? If you could read the profanity Kresnik scrawled on that disc, you would weep with horror.”

  “Alright then.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re going to help me get revenge on the Mage King.”

  “Done.”

  “And three unspecified favors.”

  When Hades didn’t answer, anxiety rippled through the lining of my stomach. Maybe I’d gone too far by adding this extra request, but I knew nothing about making deals with devils. The three favors were a buffer in case I was making a terrible mistake and getting myself ensnared.

  I pulled back my shoulders and reminded myself that I was in the position of power, not him, and he would have to agree to my request if he ever wanted to regain his physical form.

  “Very well,” he said in a voice too smooth to be believable. “You shall have everything you demanded including your three unspecified wishes. Now please restore my body to its former glory.”

  “First, we need somewhere to hide in case Kresnik comes hunting for me.”

  “There’s a cupboard around the corner,” he said. “What else do you need?”

  “A distraction.” Inhaling a deep breath, I leaned across the circular table and blew out the candles.

  They flared back to life again, making me snarl.

  Hades chuckled. “Did you think the wards would be this easy to break?”

  “Actually, I did.” I stuffed both hands in my pocket, feeling for inspiration. My fingers brushed against the jar of Hades’ ashes, the leather-bound book, the firestone heart, and the foil wrapper of the raisin and biscuit Yorkie.

  At the bottom of the pile was the flick knife that opened up into a miniature reaper’s scythe.

  My lips curled into a smile. “How about this?”

  After pulling out the knife and flicking out its blade, I cut the first candle at its wick. The flame dropped to the clay disc and puttered out.

  “Careful,” Hades snarled. “Those are my ashes.”

  I ignored the demon and sliced through the other candle flames. When I extinguished the final one, the lights flickered, and an alarm rang through the hallway. My stomach plummeted, and I shoved the candelabra aside and picked up the disc embedded with Hades’ ashes.

  Atmospheric magic that I hadn’t noticed before splintered, making my ears pop, and our surroundings seemed less vivid. I inhaled a frantic breath, filling my nostrils with the scent of disinfectant.

  “Which way is the cupboard?” My voice trembled with the beginnings of panic.

  “Not sure,” he replied.

  My heart flip-flopped. Kresnik would be here at any moment to investigate. If he found me standing here with the reaper dagger in my hand, I might as well carve out my soul and hand over the phoenix.

  “But you told me—”

  “That was before you broke the wards and merged the two instances of Kenwood House into one,” he replied.

  I glanced from side to side, looking for somewhere to hide, my blood pressure rising to a boiling point. “Where should I go?”

  Hades directed me through the hallways, past empty rooms, each of them locked. Eventually, we found a box room with a narrow strip of window close to the ceiling. Artificial light streamed inside, providing the barest illumination.

  I leaned against the door, panting hard, my heart clattering in sync with the footsteps thundering past. Panicked shouts echoed through the hallway, adding to my terror. Kresnik wouldn’t think to check that the person who destroyed his wards was still in Kenwood House. Everyone probably thought the Supernatural Council was attacking again.

  Hades cleared his nonexistent throat. “Now that you’ve created your diversion, I would advise you to restore my body so we may leave this location intact.”

  “Right.” I pulled out the final jar and poured his ashes onto the floor. “I hope you can see in the dark.”

  He sniffed. “I am darkness itself.”

  There was no time to decipher his words. It was probably some elaborate boast that implied he was the big bad or whatever powerful supernatural men liked to call themselves. I crouched against the door, my pulse quickening.

  “Gather all your ashes together.”

  Hades did as I asked and formed a largish pile. “Phoenixes can take days to regenerate. If they haven’t found you by morning, one of the maintenance staff will come in, thinking that I’m dust.”

  “Trust me, I know a shortcut.”

  “You’d better. I don’t fancy dislodging myself from human refuse.”

  As the noise outside echoed through the hallways, I smashed the final jar against the wall and cut my hand with a shard of glass. The sharp pain made me hiss through my teeth, and I curled my fingers, pooling warm blood in my palm.

  “What are you doing?” he said.

  I poured my blood onto the pile of ash, making Hades’ power bristle.

  “Blood?” he snarled.

  “Blood of the phoenix,” I said in my mildest voice. The last thing I wanted was for him to skitter out from the pile before he reformed.

  “What now?” he asked.

  I slipped the hand that wasn’t bleeding into the pocket of my cloak and wrapped my fingers around the firestone heart. “Now I’m going to reabsorb this power while we wait.”

  Hades fell silent. I hoped this was because the regeneration process was working. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what would happen if he only had eighty percent of his ashes. He might emerge with a missing leg or one-fifth less tall. I pulled out the heart and stared at the firestone, which pulsed and glowed with my power.

  Aurora might be right. My fifth chamber was still intact—the part of me that generated my magic—so all that I needed to restore myself to power was a significant boost.

  Silence spread through the hallway, and the voices became distant. I wasn’t sure if it meant that the fire users had evacuated Kenwood House or that the wards had been restored and I was locked out of the Flame. Either way, I was safe until Hades emerged from his ashes.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I focused on the heart. This was going to be similar to the exercises I did with Coral when she let me draw on her magic. My heart ached, and I hoped she would be alright.

  Of course she would. Her blood had accelerated Kresnik’s regeneration, which was why he couldn’t hurt her. It would be the same between Hades and me.

  The door swung open, pushing me aside, and every ounce of oxygen escaped my lungs.

  Valentine stood in the hallway, glowering down at me with his fangs bared and his eyes as bright as stoplights.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  My mouth fell open, but I couldn’t make a sound. I couldn’t even exhale a shocked breath because my lungs had completely emptied.

  Valentine stepped into the cupboard, his huge frame looming over my quaking body like a specter. Every bone in my body rattled with terror under the force of his glower.

  He stood so still that the pale light streaming in from the window shone against his bronze skin, making him look like he was a statue that had just come to life. What did he want? How did he find me?

  I shook off that question. No matter who had taken control of his soul, it was my blood that had resurrected him, my blood that coursed through his veins and animated his dead body. It didn’t matter where I went or where I hid, Valentine would always know exactly where to find me.

  A question tumbled to my lips, but so much of me trembled at the shock of his presence that I couldn’t form
words.

  What if Kresnik had recalled Valentine from his mission and ordered him to bring me back through the wards—or wherever he was—to continue the ritual? What if Valentine realized that the blood oath he’d made me take hadn’t stuck and he wanted to reinstate it with the correct wording? Questions tore through my mind, filling the painful silence.

  I remembered something Coral told me about how some vampires would subdue their favorite cows and ensure that they both never escaped and that no other blood sucker found their blood appealing.

  Palpitations squeezed my heart, the sensation reverberating across my tightening chest. What if Valentine injected me with so much thrall that I never moved again?

  “Valentine—” The word stuck in the back of my throat. “Please, don’t bite me.”

  Flaring his nostrils, he inhaled a breath deep enough to spike my adrenaline. I raised a trembling hand, which still streamed with blood. “Take this.”

  Without his gaze leaving mine, he snatched my wrist and brought my hand to his lips. His warm, wet tongue lapped at my blood, sending shivers of pleasure down my arm and into my heart chakra.

  My nipples tightened, and my breaths turned shallow. He continued licking my hand, delving his tongue between my digits and into the deep creases of my palm. My eyes fluttered shut.

  It felt like—I squeezed my thighs together. Valentine licked my blood with the same enthusiasm he used when he pleasured me between my legs.

  My pulse quickened, and my heart beat hard enough that I felt its reverberations in my clit.

  “Valentine,” I said, my voice breathy.

  “You betrayed me.”

  I shook my head from side to side.

  He gripped my face between his fingers. “Do not lie to your master.”

  My shoulders tightened, and I froze in place. How on earth could I answer the question without inciting his wrath? Of course, I betrayed Kresnik, but he was never my anything except for the monster who stole my power and kept the man I loved under his control.

  “I don’t want to lie, but I also don’t want anyone to get into trouble,” I whispered.