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

A vehicle rumbled close, an Überwald, which slowed toward us. Both its driver and the family of wizards inside gaped. Captain Caria glared into the vehicle and motioned for them to continue through the parking lot.

Valentine placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me to walk along with the enforcers toward their vehicle.

“What’s going on?” asked Kain.

Caiman placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Your Majesty?”

“Everything’s alright.” Valentine reached into his pocket and extracted the snake bile. “Mera’s arrest is part of a prearranged hearing that will have her acquitted for breaching the Supernatural Secrecy Act. Take this to an alchemist and have it turned into a paste for applying onto weapons.”

My eyes narrowed. Valentine could have mentioned it before it if an arrest was part of the procedure. He was giving his colleagues at the Council the benefit of the doubt.

One of the enforcers opened the back of their van, while a pair of them positioned themselves in front of Kain, Caiman, and Macavity.

“We’ll see you in a few hours.” Valentine ushered me toward the enforcers’ van.

I glanced at Captain Caria, looking for any signs of deception on her features, but they remained blank. After bidding my friends a silent farewell, I stepped into the van’s gray interior and took the back seat with Valentine.

We passed the short ride through London’s underground streets in silence. Valentine held my hand and remained calm, as though he was accustomed to riding in the backs of vans with enforcers. I forced myself to stay calm. Maybe things would work out for me differently with Valentine alive and at my side.

When the vehicle reached the wards of Logris, Captain Caria guided us out and marched us through the darkened hallways of Border Control.

“Valentine,” I whispered.

“Don’t worry.” He tucked me under his arm, encasing me in his warmth. “This is part of the formal hearing I mentioned earlier.”

Doubt crept over my mind with icy talons, and my skin tightened into goosebumps. Maybe he was right and we’d get through the questions unscathed, but I had little faith in the justice system in Logris and trusted the Supernatural Council even less.

All the times I’d crossed the border of Logris, it had been in a vehicle of some sort, whether an enforcers’ van, a limousine, or the trunk of Kain’s BMW. I’d always imagined Border Control to be a magical checkpoint, but it looked to be a long series of hallways forming a ring around the supernatural city.

Dim wall lights illuminated our way, reminding me of the passages that had stretched between the courtroom and the jail where the enforcers had kept Mr. Masood, the gorilla shifter who had wanted to sacrifice Beatrice to his beloved.

The hallway bent at a forty-five-degree angle, and up ahead stood a metallic door guarded by a pair of enforcers.

“This way, Your Majesty.” Captain Caria raised a hand, indicating for her colleagues to let us into a room no larger than a broom closet, containing a silver-framed mirror. “We’re going straight to the Council’s hearing room.”

One foot stumbled over the other, but Valentine held me to his side, stopping me from tripping. As we stepped into the enclosed space, the question of why our destination sounded so much like a courtroom burned through my mind.

Keeping my voice light, I asked, “Why aren’t we going to the usual meeting room?”

“Because this is a disciplinary hearing,” Valentine replied, sounding unusually casual for someone who had walked out of a meeting to perform an unauthorized rescue operation. “If everything goes as planned, we’ll return to the palace before dinner.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” I asked.

Valentine shifted his gaze toward the mirror. “They swore upon their souls that they took your extenuating circumstances into account.”

I was about to tell him that such oaths were probably meaningless to the most powerful supernaturals in Logris, but he stepped into the mirror and pulled me through.

On the other side was what I could only describe as a miniature courtroom. Seven wooden thrones stood atop a three-foot-high podium set within a wood-paneled wall decorated with the seven crowns of the Logris insignia. Captain Zella stood at the far left of the configuration of seats, with Captain Caria rushing toward the door on the far right.

“Please be seated,” said a voice from behind us.

I turned to lock gazes with the herald, a stout man with a toilet brush mustache and eyebrows to match. He clasped his hands over a red robe with a fur trim, pursing his lips with disapproval.

When I raised my shoulders in a silent question of where he expected us to sit, the herald flicked his long chin at a point over my shoulder. I turned back toward the thrones, to find a pair of wooden stools rising from the floor.

Without complaining about the seating arrangements, Valentine took the stool on the right. I rolled my eyes and walked around the remaining seat.

“If I end up executed with my ashes poured into a jar, I’ll break free and peck you where it will hurt,” I muttered under my breath.

He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips. “I’ve already negotiated your freedom.”

“Fine.” I lowered myself onto the stool next to Valentine’s and drummed the fingers of one hand on my thigh. This procedure made no sense.

“All rise for the court,” said the herald.

Pursing my lips, I glanced over my shoulder and shot the officious man my filthiest glare. What was the point of asking us to sit just to make us stand again?

He rocked back and forth on his feet, his cheekbones rounding with a satisfied smirk. Whatever. A man whose idea of fulfilment came from petty victories probably didn’t have much to look forward to in life.

The doors on both sides of the thrones opened, and the Angel King strode out of the left one clad in a similar white robe to the one he’d worn to my trial, except with a silver trim. Behind