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

us out of the auditorium because he was about to share sensitive information, but the man ordered his preternatural enforcers to stand at the back of the stage while he continued burning the dead with his flaming swords.

There were no signs that a battle had ever taken place within the hallway. Kresnik’s magic had restored the curving passage to their usual pristine white. Even the light fittings were repaired.

Valentine’s arm encircled my waist, pulling me into the coldness of his corpse. A shudder ran down my spine. Whatever he had done out there must have burned away every ounce of blood in his veins. He looked even worse than he had the day we had fought the Demon and Mage Kings.

The woman who was supposed to be my mother walked down the hallway at a brisk pace, never once sparing me a backward glance.

“Aurora,” I snapped.

She turned her head to the side and scowled.

“You planned this all along, didn’t you?” I asked.

“What are you talking about now?” she said as though this was the tenth in a string of questions laden with unfair accusations.

“My conception,” I snapped. “How many children did you dump around Logris, hoping they would develop enough fire magic to eventually steal?”

Aurora halted in the middle of the hallway, her shoulders rising toward her ears. She turned around and glowered at me through narrowed eyes. “It is a great honor to survive the enchantment that made you a vessel for the highest and purest grade of magic. Remember that, girl.”

That was like telling a calf it had been fed only the very best so it could provide the most delicious meat. I shook my head from side to side, wondering what level of brainwashing Father Jude and Kresnik had performed on her to participate in such a barbaric act.

“How could you?” I whispered.

Aurora turned around and continued down the hallway. “If you knew how the people within have suffered, you wouldn’t ask such tedious questions.”

My muscles tensed, and my pulse revved up to full throttle. I tried to rush at her, but Valentine’s arm secured me to his side. Even when I glowered up at him, he continued to stare ahead as though he’d been programmed to obey a single command, which was to follow this wretched woman to a safe spot where he could drain my blood.

“Why don’t you explain then?” I curled my hands into fists.

Aurora smoothed her hands down the sides of her white gown. “The magic all of you were born with belonged to our Lord—”

“What, he was a phoenix, too?”

She shot me a glare, her features tightening. “Our Lord thought that the power to resurrect our warriors would serve in the upcoming conflict.”

“What am I then? A sacrifice—”

“A dual soul,” she said, sounding smug. “Much like Father Jude and Our Lord except that you combine the intelligence of a person with the fire of a phoenix.”

So, at some point after leaving the mansion and being dragged into Hell, Kresnik managed to hitch a ride in Father Jude’s body. At least now the old man’s dual personality made sense. The version of him who had set my teeth on edge and raised my hackles had actually been Kresnik, broadcasting straight from Hell.

I turned to Valentine to see his reaction, but he continued staring straight ahead. All the anger inflating my insides seeped away, replaced by the fluttering of my stomach and a sense of dread so thick I could scrape it off my tongue. Perhaps after feeding, he might be able to make sense of what was happening—if I even survived the night with a hungry preternatural.

Aurora pushed open a door that led to a stairwell of stone floors and ornate iron banisters that curved upward in a gentle slope. As we walked through the doorway, pinpricks of power travelled across my skin, indicating that we were passing some wards. It looked like I had retained my sensitivity to subtle magic, which meant I was still a Neutral. It also meant that Valentine might not need to drink every ounce of my blood to replenish himself.

She took the stairs two at a time. I guess because she had tired of my accusations and wanted to return to her beloved master.

At the top of the first flight was a grand entrance hall of dark wood floors, turquoise walls, and a vaulted ceiling. White pillars broke up the colors, and stone plinths stood at ten-foot intervals, each holding marble busts.

After a battle of the magnitude I’d seen earlier, all this must have been reduced to rubble. There had been dragons and salamanders and warriors wielding weapons, and half the mansion had been destroyed. Goosebumps tightened across my skin. How could one person hold so much power without shattering into pieces?

The new wards had to be powerful if Kresnik was allowing Valentine to stay in Kenwood House. That, or he was too dangerous to allow anywhere near his followers.

“How many babies died before you worked out how to combine their souls with a phoenix?”

“Not as many as those who were killed by the Supernatural Council,” she said, sounding as smooth as slime.

“Aunt Arianna always told me—”

“One evil only compounds another,” she snapped. “Arianna was my sister before she became your guardian.”

I clenched my teeth. This wasn’t a competition. “What do you think she’ll say when she discovers that the child she took great pains to raise just got fed to a hungry vampire?”

“You and I know she wouldn’t approve.”

“Yet you’re handing me over anyway.”

Aurora paused by the door, her lips tightening into a thin line. Unease settled in the lining of my stomach. I knew it was Kresnik who handed me over to Valentine and Aurora was just a follower, but how could she carry someone inside her for nine months and just let them get consumed?

For a moment, I pictured her as a woman who had spirited me away to the safety of Aunt Arianna, so I wouldn’t become a sacrifice. But that wasn’t true.