Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Series Book 1) (Reading Sample) by Felicity Heaton (best feel good books .txt) 📕

He smoothed the hair from her face and then packed the syringe away and distanced himself from her. Watching her stir, he waited in silence for her to wake.

Chapter 4

Prophecy’s head throbbed. It felt heavy and dull, and it spun when she tried to open her eyes. The world seemed dark, as though she was looking at it through a black film. She pressed one hand to her head and the other to the floor to support herself as she tried to sit up. She tensed when she felt the cold stone underneath her fingertips. Her senses immediately sharpened to a pinpoint and she realised that she wasn’t in her bedroom any more, and she wasn’t alone.

She knew that scent.

She forced her head to clear while her senses screamed of the danger she was in. Her eyes sought him out and she backed away when she found he was standing not ten foot from her. He was watching her with the same critical look he’d had when they’d first met.

Her eyes darted about the room, searching for an avenue of escape, and then she closed them as her head ached painfully.

“It will wear off soon.”

The tone of his voice made her start. She hadn’t expected it to be so calm and gentle. There was a hint of something in it that made her relax, something that sounded a lot like concern.

She shook her head, trying to make it clear now. Whatever he’d given her, it had been powerful. She could still feel her blood trying to expunge it. What did he want with her? Hadn’t it been enough that his reaction to her blood had given her more questions than she could come up with answers for? Now he had abducted her and drugged her. What did he want with her? Was it something that he’d seen in her blood? He must have come to her house to kidnap her. He was either incredibly brave to enter the house of his enemy alone or incredibly stupid.

Her headache worsened and she cast him an angry look.

She couldn’t even tell where they were. It was a warehouse, but all warehouses looked very much the same didn’t they? How long had she been asleep? She’d read of poisons strong enough to knock out various demons and some of them could keep the victim unconscious up to three days.

“Feeling better?”

She didn’t answer his question. She just stared at him and curled up, holding her knees tightly. She finally realised that he was standing between her and the only exit. She hadn’t been strong enough to fight him earlier, and now the situation was far worse. All she could do was wait for the drug to leave her system and see if an opportunity presented itself. Hopefully, he would reveal why he’d abducted her too, and what he’d seen in her blood that had startled him so much.

He took a step towards her.

“Do you have a name?”

She glared at him. He should be the one answering her questions, not the other way around. Biting her tongue, she resisted the desire to say something. He’d slip up and then she could escape. How the hell had he made it in and out of her house? She wanted to ask him, wanted to hear his explanation. There were guardsmen on the gates and stationed around the grounds, and there were nearly one hundred members of her family within the mansion walls at all times. It was impossible that he’d managed to find her and then take her without someone seeing him. Then again, she’d escaped easily in order to hunt.

“Who is your mother?”

Her frown intensified and her gaze dropped to rest on the ground.

“My mother is Iona, leader of my bloodline,” she said without looking at him.

“No. I meant your real mother,” he said and she raised her eyes to meet his.

She knew she looked confused; she couldn’t help it. What was he talking about? Iona was her mother. He smiled at her, or at least she thought it was a smile. The corners of his mouth barely moved, but his look softened. She felt as though he was mocking her, treating her as if she was a child like the rest of her family did.

“Do not be frightened.”

She got to her feet, pushing her fear down inside of her and keeping her expression empty as she glared at him. She wasn’t frightened. She’d never be frightened of one of his bloodline. But his questions, they seemed to burn in her mind, making it spin and ache while she searched for answers to them. Who was her mother? It was Iona. She was the Chosen Daughter of her household, sister to Arkalus, the Chosen Son of Caelestis. But this vampire of Aurorea had said she wasn’t. He’d said he wanted to know who her real mother was. Real mother?

Her brows furrowed as she struggled to remember something. It seemed just out of reach, too far away for her to grab hold of and bring into focus. Her real mother? Who was she? A blurred image flickered in front of her eyes and then slipped away before she could make sense of it.

“I want to go home now,” she said in a pleading tone, her eyes meeting his again. He looked at her as though she was insane for asking.

“There is no going home.” He took another step towards her. “You are not safe there anymore.”

“I’m safe in my household. It’s here I’m not safe.” She moved backwards, trying to maintain the distance between them. It hadn’t worked before, and it wasn’t going to work now. Reaching out behind her, she silently cursed when her hands met the cold walls of the room.

He sighed.

It made her look at him. When he made no move to come closer, she couldn’t stop her eyes from roaming over his face. The lights overhead made him sickly pale, even paler than he should have been. His eyes were still as green as she remembered them. They were clear and rich, sparkling with intelligence as he looked at her. His black hair was tousled and spiked, neater now than it had been when they’d first met and longer than she recalled. He had fine brows, and a slim nose that made him look regal. Her eyes dropped to his clothes. They were elegant. He wore a delicately embroidered deep red jacket that extended to his knees, with shiny gold buttons. She skimmed over his tight black trousers to his highly polished black boots.

He looked like a guard, but she got the impression that he was more than that. The status of guard seemed too low and common for him. He was something else. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing as he questioned her, keeping his voice gentle and soothing, and ensuring he kept enough distance to put her at ease. He had entered her home and stolen her, clearly without raising the alarm since he didn’t seem in a hurry or at all flustered by how long things were taking.

The way he held himself strengthened her belief that he couldn’t be a guard. Guards of all the pure bloodlines were proud creatures, but this man’s poise went beyond pride. He held his head high, his eyes betraying how sure of himself he was. He wasn’t slouching and there was an air of wisdom about him. She got the feeling that he could handle any situation with ease, no matter how dangerous it was. He was older than her, his eyes told her that, but she couldn’t tell how old.

“Your family had reasons for not letting you out. You disobeyed them, and now you are not safe anywhere.”

The sound of his voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The strange sense of calm her perusal of him had given her vanished and fear crept in again. She looked into his eyes to see if what he was saying was true. How was she supposed to trust him? He’d kidnapped her. For all she knew this could be a ruse to get her to do something for him, to make her lose faith in her family.

She backed against the wall as he advanced on her, his movements slow and steady as he closed the gap between them. Her time was up. She could see in his eyes that he was tired of taking things slowly.

She closed her eyes instinctively when he came to a halt in front of her and drew her hair away from her neck. He leaned towards the place where he’d marked her and a low purr rumbled through his chest.

“Who is your sire? If you do not have a mother,” he whispered the words into her ear.

Her sire?

She struggled again, a frown flickering on her brow. She searched her memories for the slightest clue as to the answer to his question.

“It is Iona,” she answered with all the confidence she could find in her now trembling body.

He pulled back and looked at her, shaking his head as he did so. “You have no marks, but mine.”

Her hand automatically moved to her neck. It was true. She had no other marks on her neck. She’d never realised it until the day that her maid, Serenity, had told her, and since that day, she’d been thankful that she didn’t have a reflection so she couldn’t see it for herself. The questions that had arisen in her mind still plagued her. She’d asked herself countless times how it was possible that she could have a sire and no marks. There was no other way of creating a vampire that she knew of. She’d scoured the library archives over and over again, searching for a book that would give her the answer. There had to be another way. She was a vampire after all.

“I could tell you.”

His silken voice aroused her interest and she almost nodded. Could he really tell her? Was this another trick? How could he tell her how she came about, how she became a vampire?

His hands grasped hold of her upper arms and panic rose up inside her when he neared her neck. She tensed and screwed her eyes shut when his teeth penetrated her throat in the same place he’d bitten her before. She wriggled against him, trying to get her arms free so she could push him away, but he only held her tighter.

Valentine frowned and bit down harder on her neck, drawing her blood into his mouth and bracing himself while he waited for the images to hit him.

Nothing.

His teeth retracted.

It wasn’t possible that she had the strength to block her memories from him. He’d easily seen the visions she held in her blood when he’d bitten her before. She hadn’t put up a fight. How had she blocked him this time?

He moved back a fraction to look at her and didn’t have time to react when her feet came up. They pressed hard into his stomach and propelled him backwards through the air. His breath left him as he slammed into