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

breath through my teeth. Kain was related to the royal family by blood? Maybe that was why Prince Draconius was so obsessed with putting him on the throne.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Valentine snarled. “What did you do with—”

“His soul resides in Tartarus.” Kresnik sagged against the bedpost.

Valentine’s features turned slack.

“Isn’t that part of Hell?” I asked.

“No,” Valentine rasped.

Kresnik grinned. “Adjunct to the Realm of the Gods.”

I swallowed. Greek gods were always throwing each other into Tartarus, but now that their realm had been destroyed in the Great Divide, this new development could mean anything. From Valentine’s shallow breaths and the queasy look on his features, it looked like he understood what Kresnik meant.

“Why didn’t you release his soul for judgement?” Valentine’s voice cracked.

“Because I wanted a lieutenant whose soul could never be retrieved and turned against me, not by gods or demons or angels. Because I saw the potential in Antonius that the Supernatural Council failed to recognize. Because I wanted him to rule at my side.”

My flames burned hotter, with molten fury searing through my veins. He had condemned an innocent man to over five centuries of torment, just so he could have a powerful and soulless minion who would never betray him.

I met Valentine’s glistening eyes and asked, “Do you have enough information?”

With a sharp nod, Valentine stepped forward with the trident.

Kresnik held out a bloody palm. “Hurt me, and you also hurt Hemera.”

“I’ll take the pain,” I snarled. “Valentine, stab him through the gut.”

“Wait!” Kresnik cried. “You didn’t tell me why I’m not healing from the dagger.”

“The blood, bile, and bone of one god can kill another.” Valentine took another step toward Kresnik. “I happened to know that there was a trace amount of the Demon King’s blood on Mera’s weapon.”

“Don’t look so smug.” Kresnik slid off the bed and fell onto his hands and knees. “When Hemera releases her ifrit, you’ll find her body riddled with the same wounds as mine.”

Valentine’s gaze darted toward me, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. My throat thickened, and my sinuses ached with the onset of tears. Even after hearing about how Kresnik had condemned King Antonius, Valentine still hesitated in case I was truly getting hurt.

“He’s bluffing.” I sliced my blade across Kresnik’s shoulder and winced.

“You see,” Kresnik said. “She’s in pain.”

“But you’re dying.” I slid the dagger into Kresnik’s chest and buckled at the onslaught of pain.

Valentine appeared at my side and wrapped his hand around my forearm. “I won’t let you die with him.”

“Then let me deliver a killing blow somewhere it won’t affect me.” I snatched the trident and held it over Kresnik’s prone body.

The wretched creature lay on his side, his chest rising and falling with irregular breaths. He was taking too long to die because my dagger didn’t have enough of Hades’ blood.

Kresnik stared up at me through pained eyes, his face twisted in a rictus of torment. “There’s a special place in Tartarus for those who kill their fathers,” he rasped. “Cronus killed and castrated Uranus, just as you did to me. You know what happened to him?”

I drove the trident into his thigh. Lightning bolts of agony raced across my body, in strikes that were both hot and cold and electrifying. Every flame that made up my body splintered, and my vision turned black.

Valentine’s hands wrapped around my waist, the only thing keeping me from falling into a vortex of unending pain. My hands tightened around the trident. I tried to pull it out of Kresnik, but my muscles wouldn’t cooperate.

“Stop this,” Valentine growled. “This is killing—”

“It’s not,” I said through ragged breaths. “The pain will fade.”

“And what about when you revert back to a woman?” he asked.

The blackness receded from my vision, and I blinked myself back into awareness. Kresnik lay unmoving on the floor with the trident still protruding from where I’d driven it into his leg.

“Look.” I pointed down at him. “Can you sense a heartbeat?”

Valentine released my body, not speaking for a few heartbeats. I turned around to meet his slack features. The flames on the walls receded, and the figures that had once tried to attack the vampires melted into the ground, covering the entire wooden floor in clay.

My brows drew together. “What’s wrong?”

“You did it,” Valentine said, his voice breathy.

The door opened, and Caiman stepped into the room. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. The door melted into the wall, and I couldn’t reach you. You’ll be pleased to know that many of the illusions downstairs vanished, and the preternatural corpses have fallen.”

“Do you have the spheres?” I blurted.

Caiman held up the bag he’d taken from the ward masters. “Yes, My Lady, they’re still in my possess—”

Flames erupted from the butler’s belly, and he fell forward onto his hands and knees. A booted foot kicked him aside, and Brother David stepped in, his eyes burning with amber flames.

“Murdering whore,” he said in Kresnik’s voice. “Now you’ll get a taste of what happened to Cronos.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

My jaw dropped, and all the air escaped my lungs as I gaped at the malice shining from Brother David’s eyes. This was just like when he had exploded Nelson’s Column, crushing Father Jude’s body, and then rose from the debris with his immortal form.

Before I could even scream, clay surged up from the floorboards and wrapped around Valentine’s legs. He leaped toward me, but the earthy substance slammed him to the ground before swallowing him whole.

Caiman rushed to Valentine’s side, tearing off chunks of clay from Valentine’s body. The butler ignored the flames spreading around his middle, moving his hands faster than my eyes could follow.

Kresnik shifted into a fire genie and slammed me against the wall of tapestry, setting the entire work of art alight. “No weapon forged of god or man can kill me.” Huge sparks and chunks of fire flew from his lips. “I underestimated you, but no more. Once I’ve put you in your place, I’ll resurrect my body and rise from