Bonds of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 7) by Bella Klaus (reading e books .txt) 📕

mochaccino and exhaled a contented sigh. Although Hades and Namara had gotten me accustomed to their hot chocolate, I could still enjoy coffee-related beverages.

Valentine pressed a kiss on my temple. “I can’t decide what I love most about you. Your pure-heartedness or your resilience.”

“Not so pure anymore,” I replied with a wink.

He shook his head and smiled. “I did say you were pure of heart.”

As the caffeine seeped into my veins, my feet made an abrupt stop and the cold fist of realization slammed into my heart. Twenty-eight days had passed. An entire month. An eternity for a woman whose youth had been stolen and was fading fast.

“Mera?” Valentine asked.

I turned to him, my breaths shallowing. Passengers from the train streamed past, some of them muttering under their breath at having to steer around us. They faded into the background as I forced myself to say the word, “Beatrice.”

He closed his eyes for a heartbeat longer than was necessary, and I stopped breathing.

“Whatever’s happened to her,” I croaked, “you’ve got to tell me—”

“I’m sorry for alarming you.” He met my gaze with soft eyes. “These last few weeks have been tumultuous. She’s perfectly fine and is touring Europe with Lazarus.”

My eyes bulged. “You got the faeries to return her youth?”

Valentine placed his hand on the small of my back, urging me to continue walking. “And we brought the culprit to justice. I’m sure Beatrice will tell you the tale the next time you see her.”

I frowned. Something in his voice said that the time he’d spent helping Lazarus track down Christian had been painful.

At the end of the platform stood a door marked MIRRORS, manned by a male faerie clad in a teal uniform with silver buttons and matching piping. He tipped the brim of his hat and stood to attention, fluttering his transparent dragonfly wings and acting like he already knew we were heading toward him.

Valentine handed him two gold coins, and he let us into a room with walnut-paneled walls, red carpets, and a bank of leather sofas in the middle.

A quartet of wooden booths protruded from the walls like oversized lockers with tall doors that hid their interiors. Between each enclosure stood writing tables with chairs upholstered in the same red velvet as the floor.

“This looks like a waiting room,” I said. “I thought we were going to take a mirror.”

Valentine gave me a gentle pat on the back. “The cubicles allow people to travel to their destinations in privacy.”

I glanced around the unoccupied room. It was a rare individual who would spend gold coins to get from one place to another. That sort of money could keep Aunt Arianna and me in luxury for an entire month and leave several silver coins to put in the bank.

We walked to the nearest booth, which turned out to be a hallway that led to a small room containing a pair of reclining chairs and a gold-framed mirror. Valentine waited for me to finish my drink before placing his hand on the mirror’s golden frame. “Two for the Atlantis General Hospital.”

As the mirror’s surface rippled, he took my other hand and turned to me with his brows raised. “Are you ready?”

Nodding, I stepped close enough to brush arms. “Let’s go.”

We entered a white room with blue marble floors that opened up into a wall consisting entirely of glass. Instead of a view of the city or gardens, schools of fish floated within a darkened ocean. This was just like the last room Valentine and I had visited in Koffiek, except hopefully without the vampire ambush.

A pair of angel hybrids stepped in through the doors, a woman with feathery white wings that barely extended beyond her shoulders, and a man with vibrant gold hair that contrasted with his ebony skin. They inclined their heads at us and walked to the mirror at the opposite end of the room.

“Isn’t Atlantis enclosed in a celestial bubble?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“It is.” Valentine swept an arm around my waist, and we continued toward the door. “The most prominent buildings are on the outskirts.”

“Right.” I nodded. “So the Phileas Express travelled underwater?”

“Under the water, through mountains, volcanoes, icebergs…” he said. “One day, after I’ve retired, we can embark on one of their world tours.”

“That’s centuries away,” I said.

Chuckling, Valentine opened the door and swept his arm for me to go first. “Some of them last longer than a year.”

The hospital’s hallway was a curved corridor that reminded me of the Flame, except with floor lights illuminating arched glass walls that ran beneath the ocean. We strolled past doctors clad in white gowns, past patients wearing light blue, toward a perspex door that opened into a transparent elevator.

Fortunately, I’d ridden in a few of the devices since Macavity and I had traveled up from Hell, so I stepped in with only the tiniest trace of apprehension.

“Your heart just skipped.” Valentine’s finger hovered over a floating metallic panel with hundreds of buttons. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “It’s stupid.”

After tapping a series of commands, he turned to me and frowned. “What is it?”

The elevator descended through what appeared to be an endless ocean, and I asked, “Are you planning on taking your revenge on Hades?”

Valentine’s brows rose. “For a list of injuries and insults he’s committed against my person?”

I nodded.

“You hold him in high esteem?” He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and stared at me with softening eyes.

This was the difference between the ensouled Valentine and all the other versions of himself. While the others might scowl or express irritation about my connection with Hades, Valentine’s primary emotion was concern.

“He’s wicked, dishonest, lecherous, and treats women like challenges to be conquered,” I said.

“But?”

“And he sincerely wants to keep me as a pet.”

Valentine narrowed his eyes. “All the more reason for me to strike against the Demon King.”

“He’s our most useful ally against Kresnik,” I said. “Everyone else apart from you and the Shifter King seems more interested in bureaucracy than in being