Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

Unease rippled through my insides. Kresnik seemed to be the kind of man who would commit even greater atrocities than all the Council Members put together. It looked like he was taking advantage of their fear to mobilize an army.

“Five hundred years ago, they brought in overseas reinforcements to subdue my power. Those monsters used the blackest of magic to break me into pieces, but I still prevailed. They tore out my divinity and hid it in the earth, yet all I could think about were my precious children.” Kresnik’s muscles bulged from his white jumpsuit as though he was reliving the horror.

Sobs broke out across the auditorium. I glanced around, my chest tightening at the sight of their remembered pain. It was impossible to harden my heart against the plight of people living centuries under the threat of the Supernatural Council one day finding them to drag their souls to Hell.

Kresnik nodded, seeming satisfied with their reaction. “We lived peacefully in Ignatius House, rebuilding our ranks and bringing more soldiers into existence, yet the Demon King and his enforcers tracked us and destroyed our home.”

My breath hitched. Was he referring to the burned-out derelict? It was certainly large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, and it had also been raided by demon enforcers. Without thinking, I placed a hand on Valentine’s forearm.

“Is he talking about the penthouse?” I whispered into his ear.

Valentine stared ahead at Kresnik without so much as inclining his head. I pressed the heel of my hand into my aching chest and curled my trembling fingers into a fist. Perhaps I needed to try again once he had fed. A shudder seized my spine. There might not be a me to ask these questions if I let him taste my blood.

“Brother Jude led you to this sanctuary, while I stayed behind with the preternatural army to fight our persecutors.” Kresnik spread his arms wide. “Their combined magics overwhelmed mine. They broke apart my physical body and dragged my soul to Hell.”

I leaned forward, my eyes wide. Kresnik’s account matched what Valentine had told me about the mansion. No wonder Valentine’s soul had been so desperate for me to escape the derelict when I had let him know that was where I was hiding. From what I was piecing together, the mage who had inhabited that mansion had been a weaker form of Kresnik.

“For decades, I roamed Britain, a disembodied shadow, waiting for my moment to rise, and here I am!”

A disembodied shadow? Every muscle in my body stiffened.

Palpitations drew the blood from my cheeks and flooded my heart. I clutched at my chest, trying not to hyperventilate. There had been a shadow around the time someone had stolen my memory. There had also been a shadow when I’d gotten cursed with the blood lure.

What if the person who had attacked me in my apartment hadn’t been a shadow mage but an ordinary human possessed by a shadow? It would make sense that the shadow attacked again, even though Macavity had destroyed the man.

“Valentine.” Kresnik’s voice sliced through my thoughts.

Valentine rose from his seat and stepped onto the stage. He walked over to Kresnik’s side and kneeled. A hush settled over the auditorium, and annoyance settled over my skin and penetrated it to the marrow. How dare a thief use his power to force a man to his knees?

“This, my children, is the strongest warrior in the Royal House of Sargon,” Kresnik said, his voice ringing with pride. “Valentine will be the general of my preternatural army and he will report directly to me.”

Polite applause broke out across the auditorium. I glanced around to find the place as full as it had been for Jonathan’s banishment.

Coral slipped into the seat next to mine. “What the hell is happening?”

“It looks like Father Jude sacrificed himself to let Kresnik live,” I muttered.

“That can’t be right,” she whispered. “Phoenix flames aren’t used for body swaps.”

I shook my head. “Kresnik just said the Supernatural Council destroyed his physical body.”

Coral glowered at the man standing onstage. “At least I know why it was impossible to burn through your curse.”

I nodded. A woman of such immense power should have been able to overwhelm the shadow magic that had changed my blood. If Kresnik or Father Jude had replenished it each time I’d broken free, it was no wonder it kept recurring at the most inconvenient times.

“Why did they want me to die from a vampire bite?” I murmured, mostly to myself.

Coral snorted. “To release your fiery soul, so they could take it for themselves? To push you to be stronger so they could steal it? I wouldn’t be surprised if they caused all the trouble I had with vampires, too. Everything I can think of amounts to one thing. They wanted to fatten you up before extracting your magic.”

She was right. Hadn’t Coral said to me earlier that a shadow had frightened her into expressing her fire?

Kresnik’s voice drifted back to my awareness. “Britain will become a supernatural power, much like New Mesopotamia. We’ll need to feed our vampires and provide new recruits for our army of preternaturals, so I see no reason to wage war with the humans.”

More applause.

My jaw tightened. He made himself sound like he wasn’t just going to murder a bunch of humans and turn them into vampires and zombies. What then? Their undead army would control the masses and frighten everyone into falling in line with his tyranny.

“Each member of the Supernatural Council will die at my hands, but I will spare those who never persecuted our kind. While you will all live as princes within my new order, they will become my loyal vassals.”

I blocked out the happy cheers, wondering what the other fire users were thinking. It was one thing to fight back to stop themselves from being oppressed. But I couldn’t understand why they would want to rule over humans.

“First, I must heal those of you who fought