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

valiantly to protect the innocent.” Two flaming swords sprouted from Kresnik’s arms, making everyone gasp. Except Coral and me. I was too busy recalling Coral’s uncanny ability to shape magic. Coral stiffened, perhaps working out where he gained that ability to shape fire.

Kresnik touched the tip of his blade to a man with a bleeding chest wound. He shuddered and screamed and thrashed, but seconds later, he stood.

“You see?” He raised his sword. “I now have the power of healing. No-one will ever fear death because my magic will secure the immortality of my most loyal.”

For the next several minutes, Kresnik walked around the stage, sticking his sword of flames into the wounds of the injured. Dozens of audience members lined the steps, clutching minor wounds. I slid down from the seat and lowered myself onto my knees.

“What are you doing?” Coral hissed.

“Getting out of here with all my blood,” I whispered back.

Coral glanced at the stage, where Valentine stared at us through red eyes. My escape was also a test to see how much free will Valentine could exercise in the presence of Kresnik. Kresnik called him onstage. Would he stay there and obey his new master while I escaped or would he come after me instead?

By now, the magic thief had already healed the injured and was moving on to those with minor wounds. I ducked behind the people lining up on my right and bolted up the auditorium steps. In a few moments, I would be free…if the wards weren’t already trapping me here.

Excited chatter echoed around the auditorium. It looked like everyone was pleased to see the return of Kresnik. Ignoring them, I took the stairs two at a time. Even if I couldn’t leave for now, I would bide my time until one of the people here left on a mission. Now that my magic belonged to someone else, he probably wouldn’t be able to track me. Especially if I only moved about during daylight hours and stayed away from windows at night.

The air shifted, and Valentine appeared at the top of the stairs, glowering down at me through those eerie red eyes. My stomach plummeted to the stone steps, and my insides rippled with anxiety.

“I can explain,” I stuttered through yet another round of applause. “People like me need to use the bathroom—”

He grabbed my arm and dragged me down the steps, making me stumble over my feet to keep up. Valentine deposited me on the seat next to Coral’s, placed both hands on my shoulders, and pointed a finger between my eyes. The scowl on his features told me I would not enjoy what he would do to me if I tried escaping again.

I nodded, and he continued toward the stage.

Coral leaned into me and murmured, “Possessive?”

“This soulless version of him thinks I’m his property.”

“Typical vampire.”

My posture slumped. This time, I let her comment wash over me. There were a hundred more things to worry about than Coral still thinking that Valentine was a tyrant who would use me as a blood cow, and my continuing life was one.

I stared at the stage, meeting Valentine’s eyes. If he wasn’t completely under Kresnik’s control, how much influence could I exercise on him to set him free?

Chapter Two

I slumped back in my seat and blew out a weary breath. What I needed right now was Valentine. Not the preternatural glowering at me from across the stage, but the fully restored soul dwelling within his heart. If Valentine was in his right mind, we might be able to work out how to get out from under Kresnik’s control.

Better yet, Valentine’s soul might help me work out how I could retrieve my power, because there was no way Kresnik would use his flames to restore an enemy who would kill him for murdering and enslaving his father.

After the man in question finished healing the last few stragglers’ minor wounds, he walked to the center of the stage, where the dead bodies lay two feet apart in a line.

“My children,” he said in a voice that echoed across the room. “When you follow me, I will grant you eternal life. I can heal the sick and injured, raise the dead, turn the elderly into youths.”

He walked along the line of corpses and stopped at Brother David’s. With a gigantic hole in the chest, his was one of the worst in the lineup. Kresnik skewered the other man’s corpse with both flaming swords and stepped back to let the blades do their work.

I licked my dry lips, trying not to act impressed. This was no different than throwing a fireball—something most mages could do.

The scent of burning flesh filled the air, but the dead man’s exterior remained unmarred. Seconds later, his skin glowed with the light of the fire burning him from the inside out. I placed a hand over my mouth. Could Kresnik bring back every dead fire user from the battle? By the time I’d completed that thought, the corpse was reduced to ash.

“Ceremonial dagger?” he said.

Healer Calla extracted a golden knife from the apron of her white gown and knelt to present it to her master.

Kresnik sliced the palm of his hand and dripped his blood over the ash pile. I glanced at Valentine to see if he would react to the blood, but he kept his gaze on mine. My stomach tightened. What kind of thirsty vampire didn’t gravitate to blood? Then realization hit with the force of an anvil. When I was Valentine’s master, he never once tried to bite me. Valentine didn’t attack Kresnik because the wretched man was his master.

Coral leaned into my side. “Why’s he using blood?”

“Remember that piece of debris that hit you on the head?” I asked through the side of my mouth. “Your blood got into the ashes and accelerated his return.”

“I still can’t believe that’s not Father Jude.”

I wrapped my arms around my middle. It looked like the Kresnik from five hundred years ago who