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

cities that must be protected against human weapons and spite.”

I sat back in my seat, letting his words sink into my skull. Perhaps the enforcers couldn’t erase their memories because they were outnumbered or the task would be too dangerous.

“What would you do if you knew of a secret society of frightening beings?” Valentine asked.

“Stay away from them?” My mind rolled back to the morning I thought a preternatural vampire had followed me across Grosvenor Square. Back then, I had clung to my Dharma salt like it was the only thing keeping me alive. “Hide and protect myself?”

“Neither of those answers include gathering weapons and hunting them,” he said.

A buzzing sound pulled my attention to the window, where shutters closed around the glass. With each passing second, every molecule in the air quivered with an intensity I thought would tear us all apart.

Valentine sat straighter. “We’re at the wards.”

“Hades said it was safe to look at the ophanim from inside the bus.”

His lips tightened. “You’re determined to see them?”

“Only if I won’t go insane.” I raised a shoulder. How many times did a person get to see celestial beings other than reapers, angel hybrids, and the Angel King?

Picking up the trident, Valentine rose from his seat, and we headed for the bus’s lower deck, which was flooded with blinding white light.

Hades stood before the bus’s front windows with Captain Caria. His arm drifted around her shoulder, but she elbowed him in the side, making him step away and cast her a hurt glance.

I would have spent a few seconds pondering his relationship with his daughter if it wasn’t for the vision filling the screen.

The flare that filled the bus’s lower level was so intense I had to squint to find the outlines of two beings of white flame mingled within the brightness. Floating on the left appeared to be a burning wheel with glaring eyes around its rim. Instead of spokes, it had a gaping maw filled with gigantic teeth.

Something thrashed within the mouth. It could have been an arm or a leg or a giant tongue. Whatever it was got pulled back into its fiery depths.

I clutched Valentine’s arm, my mouth falling open, and peered at the creature on the right. It had as many wings as it had legs and could have been multiple animals stuck together. A single head protruded from a mass of white feathers, but it was so misshapen that I couldn’t tell if it had three faces or four.

The butterflies in my stomach burrowed deep, trying to escape the sight. Sweat gathered on my brow, and my skin tightened with trepidation. I shifted my gaze to the side, not wanting to get a clearer image of what lurked within that bright light.

“Which one is the ophanim?” I whispered.

Hades turned around and grinned. “The ravenous wheel. I can zoom the lens for a close up of the ophanim devouring the fallen humans and their camera equipment.”

“What?” I turned to Valentine.

“There was panic, pandemonium, followed by a stampede.” Hades waved a dismissive hand. “Half of those humans died with fire in their blood and promptly rose as preternaturals. That’s why they’re being eaten.”

Valentine turned to Hades and scowled. “What’s our estimated time of arrival?”

“Seven minutes,” replied Captain Caria.

The window shutters receded, revealing thick clouds spread across the night’s sky with the barest trace of the moon. Huge snowflakes drifted down to the park, settling on the treetops and the ground below in a blanket of white.

I turned to the rear window to find that the snow had also settled over the glowing dome of Logris’s wards. Whatever the humans had done to the magic protecting our supernatural city now made it stand out like a blight on the landscape. It was going to take more than a few monstrous celestials to clear up this horrific breach of supernatural secrecy.

“Are you alright?” Valentine asked.

I nodded, meeting his concerned frown with a tiny smile. “The ophanim wasn’t so frightening.”

He pressed a gentle kiss on my temple. “Because the bright light obscured the rest of their bodies.”

“And because you didn’t see what they did to the humans,” added Hades.

The bus left Richmond Park and continued over the traffic-jammed roads of Kingston, passing the High Street, the British Rail station, and the police station. Most of the snow had either cleared or melted, and it looked like a typical winter night in South London.

Hampton Court Palace glowed in the distance, a sprawling three-story building of red bricks, with towers and turrets, illuminated by external lights. On the left of the huge structure stood what appeared to be a huge stage, and next to it, a gigantic screen.

I squinted into the front window, my mouth agape. “Are they having a concert?”

“We’ve monitored Kresnik’s television appearances since he walked into the BBC Score studio.” Captain Caria leaned against the front window and folded her arms. “After baptizing hundreds of gullible idiots in Whitestone Pond, he and his entourage travelled south and took over the palace.”

“He’s making up for having missed Woodstock,” Hades drawled. “Somehow, he’s managed to convince the humans to stage an outdoor celebration of the coming of their god.”

“Kresnik will suffer for this.” Valentine clenched the trident’s handle, the prongs of which remained stained with Hades’ blood.

“What will happen if we attack him out in the open?” I asked. “Will whoever witnesses our fight get eaten by those celestial monsters?”

“The correct terminology for them are ophanim and cherubim,” Hades said.

I ignored him and turned to Valentine. “The concert’s probably televised.”

“We will approach him when he takes a break.” Valentine placed an arm around my shoulder and walked us past the demon enforcers stationed at their standing desks and toward the front window, where Captain Caria and Hades huddled over a hand-held device.

My teeth worried at my bottom lip. “Why would an immortal being want to take a break from all that adulation?”

Hades leered down at me with a chuckle. “Kresnik has thousands of admirers. Eventually, he’ll want to take a