Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (11 page)

She swallowed when she focused on his feelings and found they were growing stronger by the second. A flicker of a thought crept through her mind but she couldn’t grasp it and hear what it was. Whatever he had thought on watching her while he held her in his arms, it had been something tender and affectionate.

Stepping out of the dark stairwell, she went to hurry along the corridor towards the servant entrance but didn’t get more than a few steps before the scene changed again.

She paused when she was greeted with darkness and the pain began to creep in. She knew where she was now. This time she could feel more than just the bonds that held her wrists and feet in place. She could see them. She could see the wall she was chained to and could see a stone table nearby. Next to it was a fire grate and the embers still glowed in it. On the table, she could see bloodied instruments.

She dropped her eyes and saw Valentine’s chest. Horror consumed her when she saw the marks that littered it, the deep gashes and wounds that were still bleeding. He was suffering so much. She had to find him soon or there was a chance he wasn’t going to make it. Her head jerked around when she heard a door open and suddenly everything was growing darker and she felt as though she was slipping away.

Someone was pushing her.

She growled and shot her eyes open to find herself staring into those of a female guard. The woman muttered something at her in a language she couldn’t understand and then left her. Scrambling to the window, Prophecy drew the blind aside a little and then opened it when she saw it was dark. A sign opposite greeted her and filled her with dread at the same time.

Budapest.

Valentine wearily raised his head a fraction and made the effort to growl at Arkalus as he entered the room. He clenched his fists and then let his hands fall open again when he found he didn’t have the energy to keep them closed.

He hung his head forwards again.

Arkalus dragged a chair across the room and placed it in front of him. Valentine waited for the lord of Caelestis to seat himself. He wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of his full attention. If Arkalus wanted to talk to him, he could do it without him wasting his energy on looking at him.

“You cannot imagine how disappointed I was when I discovered that I had claimed Serenity instead.” Arkalus started and stretched his legs out. Valentine stared at Arkalus’ boots but didn’t respond. He knew how annoyed he would be if he’d gone to claim Prophecy and someone else had taken her place, but he wasn’t going to sympathise with Arkalus. If Arkalus had successfully claimed Prophecy, he would have been dead by now. Valentine would have seen to that. “Cat got your tongue? Or has Kalinor removed it?”

He ground his teeth on hearing the snide tone of Arkalus’ voice.

“I do not wish to waste my breath on you. Talk all you like. I do not have to respond,” he said and longed to have enough energy to break his bonds so he could smash Arkalus’ head in. Arkalus’ nightly taunting sessions were beginning to grate on his nerves. He was tired from a day of torture, but nothing sucked the life from him like the lord of Caelestis’ inane talk.

“I think you should listen and you had better respond.” Arkalus stood and Valentine heard him move across the room. There was the sound of scrabbling and he knew what the lord of Caelestis was doing.

“If you dare undermine Kalinor’s command and attempt to torture me yourself, you will not live to see dawn.” He looked at Arkalus and saw the amusement in his eyes that his threat had caused.

“Yes. I wouldn’t put it past you to tell your precious lord what I did to you, just like you told him about my attempt to make Prophecy mine.”

He frowned when he noticed that Arkalus had one hand behind his back and his eyes darted to the table, his mind racing to discover what tool Arkalus had taken. They were all there. Every single device that Kalinor had used on him was in the exact same position as his lord had left them.

Arkalus smiled at him. “You see, your lord did not appreciate knowing such a thing and is refusing to speak with me. He is apparently still thinking up adequate punishment for what I did and judging by what he has done to you, my fate will be painful. It’s not something I’m looking forwards to, but to lighten my pain when he finally makes his decision, I’ve decided to get some revenge on you and some answers at the same time.”

Valentine stilled his breathing and kept his eyes fixed on Arkalus’ side, waiting to see what he had in store for him.

“Kalinor does not seem to be doing very well in torturing you for information. Each night he reports that you have said nothing. He seems impressed by your ability to withstand the punishment he is exacting upon you, but I’m not.”

His eyes widened when Arkalus moved his hand swiftly and there was nothing he could do to avoid it. He cried out, flinging his head back and slumping against the wall as pain tore through him, racing along every nerve ending and making his body throb where Arkalus had stabbed him.

He tried to swallow, but ended up coughing instead. His senses filled with the metallic tang of blood and he could feel it flooding his mouth. He spat it at Arkalus who laughed at him.

Gritting his teeth, Valentine’s gaze dropped to his torturer’s hand and he saw the thick cloth he was still holding.

He cried out again when Arkalus wrapped the cloth around the object and forced it harder into his chest.

“Do you want to answer a few questions now?” Arkalus grinned.

“Bastard!” Valentine spat blood at him again and then looked down at the slim shaft of wood protruding from his chest.

It was close to his heart. One inch to the left and Arkalus would have killed him.

“I’m a terrible aim. I could try again?”

“No!” He slumped a little more and grimaced when his motion moved the wooden stake in his chest making pain shoot through him.

“I thought not.” Arkalus stepped closer to him and wrapped the piece of cloth around the stake. “It took a lot of trouble and pain to get this. It’s genuine holy wood. Must burn.”

Valentine didn’t answer him. Instead, he focused on trying to subdue the fiery pain emanating from the wound. There was no point in denying that it hurt. He could almost feel it burning him from the inside out. Arkalus had probably got hold of a wooden cross from a church. He had seen notches in the wood that looked as though another piece could have once been attached to it.

“Are you going to answer my questions?”

His focus remained on the piece of wood and he regretted not answering when Arkalus twisted it. Screaming in pain, his knees gave way and his demonic visage rushed to the surface. He roared at Arkalus and pushed himself forwards in a desperate attempt to break the chains and grab hold of him.

“Now, now.” Arkalus chided him with a sly smile. “You’ll only hurt yourself. Just answer me one thing and I’ll remove this.”

“What?” Valentine said. One question he could answer, so long as it didn’t compromise Prophecy in any way and it lessened his own suffering.

Arkalus stepped closer to him and Valentine raised his head, looking him in the eye. Arkalus was silent for what seemed like the longest time and then frowned.

“Did you claim her?”

Valentine didn’t know whether to tell him the truth or whether to lie. Arkalus could easily confirm everything by drinking from him. If he lied, he would seal his fate, not only because Arkalus would react by biting him, but because the man in front of him would react the same way he himself would if someone had claimed Prophecy.

He would kill him.

Hanging his head, he clenched his jaw, steeling himself against the pain and fatigue in his body and then sighed.

“No,” he said.

Arkalus caught hold of his jaw and forced him to look into his eyes. “Tell me again.”

“I said no. We are not bound to each other.”

He growled in pain when Arkalus repaid him by yanking the wooden stake out of his chest.

“That’s all I wanted to hear.”

“Why?” he said and forced himself to remain conscious. “You want her dead so why did you want to claim her?”

“Who said I wanted her dead?” Arkalus smiled. “Kalinor wants her dead. With her at my side, I’ll destroy Kalinor and rule this world. If I mate with her, she’ll be mine to command.”

“No!” Valentine struggled against his bonds and snarled with effort. “Leave her alone!”

“Breathe one word of this to Kalinor and instead of claiming her when I next meet her, I’ll kill her.”

“I won’t let you—” He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence. Arkalus punched him hard across the jaw and his vision swam, his limbs grew heavy and he couldn’t stop himself from falling into darkness.

He wouldn’t let Arkalus have her.

She was his and he’d kill anyone that stood between them.

Prophecy stared at the distant church across the river. It was lit, the white light casting a sickly glow and making the fairytale building she’d seen in her vision look even more ghostly. Her eyes moved to the dark sky behind it and she assessed the situation. There was a lot of ground between her and the church. The weather looked as though it was closing in and there was a chill in the air. She could smell the dampness of the impending rain. It thickened the atmosphere around her. The streets were relatively empty. She’d only seen two people on the underground and one in the square not far from where she now stood.

She traced a path from the church to her current position. There was an impressive bridge barely fifty metres from her. She watched the cars crossing it and disappearing in amongst the buildings on the other side. It was the quickest way to get to where she wanted to go, even if it wasn’t the most direct route. The next bridge was a long way away in the opposite direction.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember everything she’d seen in her vision. The book was in the vault of the church. Between her and it were at least a dozen Nocens and she was going to have to fight them. She didn’t know how long for or how many she would have to kill, but at some point, she was going to get hurt.

She was beginning to wish that she’d brought a weapon with her. She didn’t care if that would alter her vision, she had already changed one and she hadn’t been shown a new one in its place. Had her actions not had any repercussions or had fate simply altered her course so she still arrived at the same outcome?

Maybe she was going to destroy the world and that was why her killing the lord of Tenebrae hadn’t affected her destiny. She was going to kill them all anyway, she had just killed him a little sooner than anticipated.

She sighed and shut out the negative thoughts. She needed to remain positive and believe that she was destined to save the world rather than destroy it.

The moon peeked out from behind a gap in the clouds and she watched it until it disappeared again. Once it made the sun disappear, then the war was going to begin. She made a mental note to check the papers for any mention of the impending eclipse and then started walking to the church.

Why had they put her mother’s book in the vault, in a room so secure and untouched? Maybe they believed it was cursed or the work of the Devil. She wondered what it contained. The witches hadn’t told her anything other than the fact that it had spells in it and it had belonged to her mother. What if she couldn’t use any of the incantations written on the pages? What if she couldn’t understand them? If she couldn’t decipher their meaning and know what they were saying, would they work?

She supposed that there was only one way of finding out. She would have to get the book and try a spell.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she cast a glance at the sky. The clouds were knitting tighter together and the breeze washing over her carried the scent of damp earth. A storm was coming.

Quickening her pace, she went from a walk to a jog. She didn’t want to wear herself out by running at speed to the church, not when she knew that she was going to have to fight when she got there. Even with the superior stamina she had, she would still tire after a while and she was going to be fighting vampires.

Nocens of all of the seven pure bloodlines.

She’d read about the things the Nocens bloodline had done. Although they were clever with technology and creating things that would benefit their species, they had a wicked streak that could match what she’d recently discovered about the Tenebrae. The records she’d read had told her tales of battles so bloody and fierce that cities had been brought to ruin, all by the hands of the Nocens. They were merciless, even towards another vampire of the pure bloodlines. She knew that they would see her appearance in her city as the perfect opportunity to either capture her for Kalinor and Arkalus, or the Law Keepers, or kill her so their bloodline would have the glory.

There was no way she was about to let either of those two things happen.

Reaching the other side of the bridge, she started along the waterfront in the direction of the church. She kept her eyes fixed on it, perched high on the hill looking over the city, but kept her senses scanning her surroundings for any sign of danger. She struggled to keep her thoughts off Valentine and what she had seen during her sleep. Witnessing his muddled memories had been both confusing and enlightening. She’d felt the feelings he’d had on watching her and she’d realised something—she wasn’t the only one who had known from the start that they were destined to be together. From the moment that she’d met him, her heart had whispered words of love and, although she’d tried to ignore them, resisting had been futile on her part. It had been futile on Valentine’s part too.

She looked up to see she’d jogged a good distance during her thoughts and she hadn’t been paying attention to the outside world at all. She quickly extended her senses and searched for any vampire or demon signatures in the area. There was nothing as far as she could tell, but she knew there soon would be. It wasn’t far now to the base of the hill below the church. She would need to find her way up through the maze of narrow streets to where the fairytale looking building she’d seen in her vision began.