Soul of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 3) Page 2

  “Your quarters,” she said.

  I stepped back. “My cell, you mean.”

  “You won’t be staying long.” Aurora placed a hand on my back and ushered me inside.

  I pushed back, but the floor melted beneath my feet and dragged me inside the room. Before I could regain my footing, the door slammed shut, encasing me in the dark.

  “Hey!” I pushed a bit of magic into my right hand, illuminating the windowless room. Where there had once been a door was now a stretch of wall, complete with a thick candle standing within an iron holder.

  A harsh laugh erupted from the back of my throat, but it was more out of desperation than mirth. “You can’t just lock me in here,” I screamed at the top of my voice. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  I pounded on that wall, pushed my magic into its surface, doing whatever I could to turn it back into a door, but it remained as solid and as immovable as before.

  “Aurora,” I yelled. “Let me out.”

  After slamming my fist on the hard concrete until it throbbed, I gave up on trying to attract Aurora’s attention and touched a flaming finger to the candle’s wick, setting it alight. It illuminated three other candles, which hung around the room, and I walked around its walls, lighting them until they filled the space with a warm glow.

  I lowered myself into the cot and placed Valentine’s jar on the floor. Now was probably not a good time to remove the reaper’s cloak. I still didn’t know why the people in the Flame wanted me or even offered me any training. Valentine would have said that my flames were precious and rare, but from what Aurora said in the hallway, it looked like they had enough healers. Hell, I didn’t know if phoenix magic was good for anything else.

  With a long outward breath, I lay on the cot and stared at the flickers of light dancing across the ceiling. Aurora brought up some excellent points. I was completely untrained in using my magic, the wards around this building would probably keep me here until I could work out how to flicker, and running after Valentine in this untrained state would get me caught and enslaved. Or the Demon King might tear off my mortal body as he had described and keep my soul as an exotic pet.

  I didn’t even like bloody birds.

  A knock sounded on the door, making me scramble to my feet. “Who is it?”

  The door opened, and Jonathan poked his head into the room and furrowed his brow. “Are you settling in okay?”

  “Is this a jail?” I walked to the wall.

  The concern on his face melted into relief, and he slipped inside. “It’s a holding room.” He leaned against the door, offering me a shy smile. “Newbies spend their first nights here so the wards can get used to their magic.”

  “Why did you betray Valentine?” I asked, my heart heavy. If I could get through to him, there was a miniscule chance he might help.

  Jonathan’s eyes widened. “Does he still have you under his thrall?”

  “He never did.” I folded my arms across my chest. “That’s something you made up by yourself to escalate your campaign of stalking into abduction and assault.”

  Jonathan’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and his bottom lip trembled. He was clearly the type that wanted everyone to think he was a good person despite his bad deeds. “That vampire was about to hand you over to the Mage King, and the Demon King would have killed us all the moment he broke free.”

  I pictured the black-haired king impaled against the wall with a combination of a ventilation grill and the twins’ light magic. Something about him had seemed off. The most powerful demon who had probably been around since before the birth of mankind should have been able to defeat any vampire with the power of his mind. The Demon King was probably just stalling us until the Mage King could work his magic on Valentine.

  Bitterness coated the back of my throat and spread across my tongue. We could have avoided all of this by working together. “You left him behind.”

  “To save you.” Jonathan pushed himself off the wall and reached out a trembling hand. “How many times do I have to show you how much I care?”

  Three years of his persistent attempts to ask me out for lunch, coffee, the movies, a walk, whizzed through my mind, culminating in that awkward scene in the front seat of his car where he booked a discount hotel room. My throat thickened with disgust. Was this what he wanted all along? A chance to be alone with me?

  I slapped away his hand and poured all my magic into my clenched fists. “Get out of my room.”

  Jonathan raised his thin shoulders and stepped back to the door. “If there’s anything you need while you’re here. You know, chocolate, crystals, coffee…”

  “You sound like the lecherous guard in a human prison drama,” I snapped. “All that’s missing is a pornographic mustache.”

  His shoulders drooped, and he glared at me with glistening eyes. “I’m not your jailor.”

  “You want to help me?” I snapped.

  Jonathan gave me an eager nod. “Of course.”

  “Find me a healer who can remove the firestone from my blood and take me back to the derelict house.”

  He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his duffle coat. “Sorry. It’s out of the question.”

  “In that case, you can bugger off.”

  Jonathan’s face fell. He stared at me for several moments, looking at me as though he’d been slapped in the face, before slinking back out of the room and shutting the door with a click.

  The lights in the room turned themselves off, once again encasing me in the dark. Anxiety fluttered though my stomach like a flock of lost birds, trying in vain to find their way out. I placed a hand over my mouth. Had I just sent away my only ally?

  Chapter Two

  After placing Valentine’s heart back into the pocket of my cloak, I lay awake the entire night, plagued by memories of fighting the Demon King and then becoming encased in the dark with the Mage King. My throat dried to the point where I could barely get oxygen into my lungs.

  In my mind, Jonathan’s black flames severed Valentine’s arm over and over until nausea seized my insides, and I emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet.

  No matter how much I spat, I couldn’t get the acidic taste from my mouth. I searched for a flush, only to find that the contraption only had faucets.

  The sound of running water filtered between the loud beats of my pulse, and I lowered my head toward the bowl with a groan. What was happening to Valentine right now? Had he fed? Was his soul trapped in a body now out of his control? Panic squeezed my chest. Sweat broke out across my brow and crawled down my back. The room became too small, too dark, too hot.

  If I didn’t take off that infernal cloak, I would melt, and the water would wash me away. I sat back on my heels, resting my palm on the floor, only to find that it was as hot as a stove.

  Irritation fizzled against my skin, and I stared at my palm, which glowed yellow in the candlelight. This wasn’t a panic attack. The wretched mages were heating the room. A surge of hot water spat out of the strange contraption’s single tap, bringing with it a cloud of steam. I shook my head and turned off the tap.

  The door creaked open, and Aurora stepped inside, still clad in the same denim jacket and jeans from the night before and still wearing the same stern expression. In one hand, she held a mug, topped with two slices of buttered toast. She set it on the floor with a clink.

  “Breakfast.” Aurora stepped back, folded her arms across her chest, and glowered down at me as though I’d offended her already.

  “Thanks.” I picked up a slice of soggy toast from the tiny stack and nibbled its crunchy edges.

  If she was waiting for me to complain about her impeccable timing or the suspicious heat surge, she was going to be disappointed. They could play all their mind games. All I wanted was a chance to see their healer.

  Aurora stared down at me in silence as I ate the crusts and left the rest of the toasted slice uneaten. “Won’t you take off that cloak?”

  “You could have
asked instead of turning up the heat in my cell,” I said, keeping the annoyance from my voice.

  “We’re not your enemy.” She hooked her thumbs in the front pockets of her jeans and rocked back and forth on her heels, daring me to say otherwise.

  I met her gaze with a cool stare. “Jonathan let himself into my room. Was that on your orders?”

  She paused. “Of course not.”

  “You might want to reconsider who has access to a girl while she’s sleeping.” I raised a shoulder, acting unaffected even though my insides roiled at the intrusion. “He told you about the hotel, right?”

  Aurora nodded.

  “Did he also tell you how he continually asked me out on dates for the past three years?”

  Her lips thinned, indicating that he hadn’t.

  The old me might have felt bad about throwing Jonathan under the steamboat, but after cutting off Valentine’s arm, leaving him behind, and the annoying late night visit, I was in no mood to be charitable. “If I’m going to stay here and be trained, I want him to stay away.”

  “You’re in no position to make demands,” she snarled through clenched teeth.

  I tossed my half-eaten slice of toast back onto the mug, rose to my feet, and crossed the room. Back at the academy and even among the other witches, I had let others make me feel worthless because I couldn’t convert my power into magic. Aunt Arianna and Valentine were the only people in the Supernatural World who had treated me any differently, and now one was missing and the other in the clutches of at least one wicked king.

  There was so much at stake here, and it felt like I was part of a wider game where no-one had explained the rules. I stopped a foot away from Aurora and stared into her deep green eyes. Valentine had once told me that no supernatural would want to relinquish the power of a phoenix. If we were going to survive, I needed to believe that with every fiber of my being.

  Pulling back my shoulders, I inhaled a deep breath, gathering every ounce of strength I could muster. Aurora might have been five-eight to my five-five, but after facing down the Demon King and the Mage King, I wouldn’t be intimidated by her superior height, stern features, or her ability to wield fire magic.

  “What kind of unusual fire users do you have here apart from an ifrit?” I asked in my mildest tone.

  Her nostrils flared and she clenched her jaw so tightly that her teeth ground together. Aurora was probably thinking several steps ahead and knew what I would say next.

  “That’s what I thought,” I murmured. “The Demon King let himself get badly injured for the chance of capturing me, and the Mage King salivated at the thought of being in control of my unique fire.”

  “You’d rather be the plaything of two wicked monarchs?” she spat.

  I edged closer, and raised my chin, not allowing this woman to condescend or command me as she had done last night.

  “Right now, I don’t know what you want from me, and I don’t care,” I said. “If you need me to ally with you for some confrontation with the Supernatural Council, then you’re going to have to work with me.”

  Aurora’s eyes flashed with rage, and she curled back her top lip, looking like she was about to deliver a scathing insult. But she flinched. Her eyes turned vacant for several heartbeats before she turned her focus back to me with a reluctant nod.

  I checked her ears for signs of a bluetooth earpiece but I couldn’t see much beyond her thick curtain of red hair.

  “What do you want?” she snarled.

  “Get this firestone out of my blood.”

  She bared her teeth, but the expression wasn’t close to being a smile. “Allow me to escort you to a healer.”

  I inclined my head in thanks, walked around her tense form, and stepped out through the door.

  We continued down the hallway of white doors for less than half a minute before Aurora placed her hand on the blank right-side wall, creating a doorway.

  “Why are the doors on that side sealed?” I stepped back, not eager to be shoved into another room.

  “Our sanctuary consists of concentric rings formed around a circle that houses our areas of strategic importance.” Aurora counted them off on her fingers. “The infirmary, the academy, our ritual and meeting rooms. And of course, there’s the chamber of the High Priest.”

  “Is he your leader?”

  Her lips curled into a smile. “Father Jude is our connection to our god.”

  My brows rose. Supernaturals didn’t believe in a single god—not in the way most humans did. We learned that the gods created the realms, including this one, but they now dwelled somewhere else. Nobody actually prayed to them or even bothered to acknowledge them unless it was to explain a historical artifact or a work of art.

  I was about to ask her which god they worshiped in the Flame, when she pushed the door open and stepped into a space the size of the Crystal Shop.

  A gentle lavender scent overwhelmed my senses, and an elderly woman with long gray pigtails rose from behind a U-shaped counter, clad in a white long-sleeved shirt and a denim pinafore. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled at the sight of us, and she pressed her hands together as though in prayer.

  Warmth filled my chest at the sight of the woman. Although she was the complete opposite in appearance to Istabelle, the joy in her expression reminded me of my mentor.

  I returned her smile and glanced around the infirmary. Two doors stood on each side, presumably leading to treatment rooms, just like at the Crystal Shop. Floor-to-ceiling shelves occupied the corners, some filled with books, others with dried herbs, and phials of liquid. My gaze drifted to the one containing the types of healing crystals we sold in the shop.

  “Good morning, Sister Aurora,” the woman said, her smile widening. “Is this young lady Hemera?”

  “Healer Calla, I will return shortly to pick up my daughter.” Aurora turned around and stalked out of the room.

  I gaped at her retreating back. This was the first time she had acknowledged our connection except to tell me that I looked like Aunt Arianna. Shaking off Aurora’s odd behavior, I crossed the room and offered the healer my hand. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Mera.”

  She wrapped her fingers around mine, and bright, clean power radiated against my fingers. The magic thrumming beneath her skin was angelic, even though she was clearly a hybrid from the way she had aged.

  “Of course you are.” Her blue eyes twinkled as she pumped my hand up and down. “I would recognize those big eyes anywhere.”

  I blinked. “We’ve met?”

  “I delivered you,” she said with a chuckle. “And now they’re telling me that you’re a phoenix.”

  “A shifter?”

  Healer Calla's eyes twinkled. “Shifters are animal spirits in human form. Just like you.”

  I bit down on my lip, remembering what the Demon King said about destroying my body. “Aren’t phoenixes—”

  “Immortal?” she asked with a wide grin of perfect teeth that belonged to a woman a fraction of her age.

  “Yes?”

  “Some would say they were.” She walked out from behind the counter and ushered me toward one of the doors on the right of the space. “Others would say they reincarnate from their ashes with intact memories.”

  I stepped into a white chamber about the size of the reception area, with white-leafed plants climbing over its walls. Instead of a treatment table, a ritual circle of white symbols lay on the wooden floor. It consisted of a six-pointed star with four symbols in its hexagonal interior, surrounded by another seven-pointed star and then a series of concentric circles each containing sentences of symbols I didn’t recognize. Healer Calla gestured at me to sit in the middle.

  As I walked toward the circle, she cleared her throat, making me turn around.

  “Very little can penetrate the cloak of a reaper.” She held out her hand and curled her fingers toward me. “If you’re worried about being vulnerable without its protection, I’ve sealed the door, and nobody can get inside.”

  My g
aze darted to the wall where the door now melted into the wall, and I swallowed hard. Everything about this woman appeared trustworthy, but the reaper cloak contained Valentine’s heart. No matter her assurances, it wouldn’t surprise me to find Aurora standing at the ready to burst in and snatch my cloak.

  “If you’re still nervous, you may open your cloak and let me take a look,” she said. “The examination won’t be as thorough with the cloak, and you’ll have to take it off if I’m to heal you.”

  “Alright.” I unclipped the fastening around my neck and pulled the cloak open.

  After Healer Calla closed the distance between us, she raised a glowing palm and pressed it against my chest. Warm magic surged through my insides, feeling like it had concentrated around my heart. It pushed against my lungs and spine and ribcage, squeezing out my air. A heartbeat later, the magic zinged through my bones, ending at the tip of my fingers, my skull, and my toes. As quickly as it had surged across my body, it withdrew, remaining around my heart.

  “Are you a fire user, too?” My voice trembled at the magical intrusion.

  “All angel hybrids are capable of wielding holy fire.”

  My gaze snapped up, and I met her aquamarine eyes. There were several quarter-angels at the academy, and none of them generated a single flame. “Don’t the enforcers hunt your kind?”

  “Our fires are sealed at birth by the angel in our lineage,” she murmured. “It takes decades of unravelling to liberate enough flames to even light a candle.”

  Another surge of magic pushed against my ribcage, filling my eyes with light. I glanced down to find that Healer Calla had lit me up from the inside, leaving my ribs blocking the light.

  “Do demons have the same arrangement with the Supernatural Council?” I asked.

  “Those capable of wielding hellfire.” She withdrew her hand from my chest and frowned.

  My throat dried. “Did you find anything?”