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

brushed my fingers over its metallic surface, feeling a cool rippling magic that I might find on a water mage. The trident didn’t feel good or bad, but beneath the undulating sensation of the ocean lay the same kind of angular power I had felt when touching Hades’ helm.

“Do you sense anything in particular, My Lady?” asked the butler.

“If it isn’t Poseidon’s trident, then it has to belong to another god associated with water.”

The phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out and glanced at the screen to find a reminder for my appointment with Asena, the shifter Healer Hadriel had recommended I see about severing my bond with Kresnik.

“May I be of assistance, My Lady?” Caiman asked.

“I need to use the mirror for a trip to Lunaris.”

Unlike Natura, which consisted of high-rise buildings, Lunaris was mostly mismatched cottages dotted about a green landscape, with a castle at the top of a hill. That was because shifters tended to live in large family groupings, requiring fewer but larger homes.

Out of all the villages within Logris, Lunaris was the greenest—even more so than Striga. Witches and wizards valued the land because it provided food and herbs and fuel, but the shifters believed that they were at one with nature.

I strolled through a square of shops and cafes that reminded me a little of Dulwich Village in South London with its small stores presenting their wares both within window displays and outside beneath colorful awnings.

There was a specialty butcher that sold only offal, another that sold large cuts of meat, a fishmonger, a flower seller, and a magical outfitter who could create garments that didn’t tear during the shifting process. I made a mental note to visit her store at some point in the future to see if they could make me something that wouldn’t burn when I shifted into a phoenix.

Healer Asena’s clinic was on the corner of the village square, its exterior decorated with a collage of Noah’s arc. I guessed this was her way of saying she welcomed all kinds of animals. I stepped into a small reception area with a low table on its right, stacked with magazines and two chairs on its left side, both occupied by a large man with a walrus mustache.

The receptionist was a tall woman with black eyes and a twitchy nose that made me wonder if her alternative form was a rabbit.

“May I help you?” she said in a jittery whisper.

“I have an appointment to see the healer.”

“Which one?”

“Asena,” I said. “I got a referral from the Atlantis Hospital of Soul Healing.”

“Right.” She lowered her gaze to the counter and stilled.

“Excuse me?” I said.

The receptionist flinched. “Yes?”

“Can I see the healer now?”

“I don’t see why not.” She pressed a buzzer on her counter, and a door to the right of the low table clicked.

“Thanks.” I walked to the door and gave it a few sharp raps.

“Come in,” growled a deep voice.

My brows drew together. “Healer Asena?”

“Come in, I said!”

My belly made a nervous flutter, and images of a Nut-sized woman with sharp teeth flitted through my mind. Shoving those thoughts aside, I pushed open the door and stepped into a spearmint-scented room.

Apart from the diagrams of animal meridians and chakras all over the walls, it looked much like the healing rooms in Istabelle’s store. A king-size examination table took up most of the space, with a sink at the back on the far left, which also doubled as a desk.

I glanced from side to side, looking for signs of life. “Hello?”

“Hemera Griffin?” asked a snarling voice from behind the table.

“Mera.”

“Alright then, Mera.” The owner of the voice enunciated my name with three syllables. “Hop on the table, and let’s take a look at you.”

I perched on the high surface, letting my legs dangle off the edge, still waiting for the healer to emerge. Magic crackled, feeling more demonic than shifter, and a three-foot-tall woman stepped out from beneath the examination table, dragging a stepladder.

Of all the images that had flitted through my mind, none of them had been of a square-faced woman with huge brown eyes, high cheekbones, and a button nose framed by blonde wisps. Healer Asena looked more like a faerie than a shifter, with pointed ears and a mischievous grin.

“Healer Hadriel tells me you’re the phoenix shifter, and you’ve managed to acquire two mates,” she said in that gravelly voice.

“Not really.” I shifted on my seat.

“Polyandry is nothing to be ashamed of.” She closed her left eye in an exaggerated wink. “If both males are willing to share—”

“It’s Kresnik,” I blurted.

Healer Asena’s face fell, and the corners of her lips turned slack. She rifled through her papers, seeming to scan their contents for clues. “It says nothing here about you being his mate.” Her voice was sharp with accusation. “How on earth did you join souls with a man who was supposed to be long dead?”

“We did nothing of the sort,” I said, trying not to bristle. “He got one of his minions to stick a needle in my chest one time. Another time, he abducted me to the Realm of the Gods. Kresnik could have made the connection then.”

“Lie down and close your eyes, while I take a look.”

Swallowing back a sigh, I lowered myself onto the cushioned surface and let my eyes flutter shut. Healer Hadriel hadn’t seemed hopeful that her colleague could help me with my Kresnik problem, and I was only here out of desperation.

There was nothing Valentine or I could do against Kresnik until we worked out how to weaken the abomination of a bond the monster had made with my soul.

The healer’s magic swept over my body, a mix of static electricity and the kind of fluctuating power that reminded me of Macavity and also indicated that she was a shifter. What would she say when she saw the thick soul bond? That I was doomed?

I swallowed, blanking my mind of negative or hopeless thoughts. Even if this session didn’t