Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (8 page)

“Why have I been called here?” Venturi said in such a light tone that his ease sounded forced to her, especially since his eyes had remained dark and cold.

“Have you discovered anything new about the prophecy? It’s been a long time since we’ve spoken of it.” She knew that Valentine could sense that something was wrong. His hand left hers the slightest amount but she didn’t let it get far. She moved hers at the same time and then covered his with it, showing him that she wasn’t about to let him go.

“I am making progress.” Venturi opened the journal and picked it up. He flicked through the pages for a few minutes in which she took the time to look at Valentine.

Valentine’s expression was darker than thunder and she really wished that they weren’t having to take part in this meeting. When he frowned over her head, she turned and caught Venturi looking at her clothes. She stopped herself from looking away from him like she wanted to and instead managed a frown. Venturi should have known better than to look at her like that when Valentine was present. He should know better than to look at her like that even when Valentine wasn’t present.

“I have unveiled some of the scroll, but it is nothing that we do not already know,” Venturi said.

Her heart sank. All this time and she still knew nothing new. The war was getting closer and she could almost see a clock hanging over her head, ticking away invisible seconds to the moment when she’d have to face Elena for the final time. How was she supposed to defeat the witch without knowing more about her own magic or the prophecy? She couldn’t unlock one and Venturi couldn’t unlock the other. It was hopeless. It couldn’t possibly get worse than this.

“Most of it is complete gibberish.” Venturi went on, his fingers toying with the spine of the journal while his eyes scanned the page it was open on. “There is a series of words placed at strange intervals within the core of the prophecy. So far, I have translated the following: A dark moon will herald the birth of a prophecy. Great powers will rise and grow. With the return of the long night, Hell will be unleashed.”

He gave her an apologetic look.

“Thank you.” She nodded and smiled. “You’ll keep working on the rest?”

He nodded and determination filled his eyes. “Of course … the prophecy will yield its secrets. I will never give up on it.”

She wondered if he was talking about her or the actual prophecy now. Was he telling her that he’d never give up on her, or on the text? Was the secret he spoke of the one that was hidden within the cuneiform, or her feelings for him? She barely kept the frown from her face. It seemed Venturi didn’t need to muddle her any more. She was doing a good job of muddling herself. She had to stop reading into things.

Dragging her eyes away from him, she gave her head a moment to clear and then hurriedly looked back.

“I meant to ask you to contact your men. They may have heard something and you might feel more at home if you had some of them here. The house of Caelestis will welcome them.”

Venturi lowered his head and then smiled up at her. “I have contacted Piotr recently, but will send word again to ask him to come and bring a small number of my army with him. None of them have left Romania before. It will be interesting for them.”

She wanted to remind him that visiting Prague wasn’t the reason they’d be coming and that there was a battle on the horizon, but she realised that these were Tenebrae. She’d noticed that Venturi’s attitude towards war was one of calm unconcern, as though apocalyptic battles were something commonplace and unthreatening, something he almost looked forwards to. During the fight against Kalinor, she’d seen the intense pleasure Venturi took from killing, even when it was his own species he was butchering. The Tenebrae were darkness. They relished the chance of war and bloodshed. They gave no thought to their own deaths or the death of their friends. Or did they?

Her eyes found his again and she searched them briefly, hoping to see the answer to her unspoken question. Would Venturi care if she died? On some hidden level, was he worried that she would get hurt in this war? Were the Tenebrae really as dark and heartless as they appeared?

He looked away from her, lowering his head and shifting the papers of the journal around. She got her answer when he surreptitiously looked at her out of the corner of his eye and there was a weight of sadness filling them.

“Mia and Dmitri have heard nothing,” Valentine said, drawing her attention away from Venturi.

She was welcome of the distraction and, in her heart, she was sure that Venturi was too. She’d never seen him let his guard down like that in public before. He’d done it a few times when they’d been alone together, letting her see his feelings for her, but never when Valentine was close by.

“I hate this,” she said. “I hate this waiting around.”

“I know,” Valentine said.

“We’re vulnerable. If the two families can’t work together then Elena will easily pick us off. We have to be a unified army, or at least willing to fight as one even if we can’t work together any other way.” She paused and looked at Tiberius and Xavier. “How? How the hell are we supposed to defeat Elena when the two families can’t even stand being within a mile of each other?”

There was silence.

She could almost hear the clock ticking again, telling her that time was fast running out. Elena would make a move soon and they were sitting here twiddling their thumbs and dealing with something as trivial as a feud.

“I see no option but to go the route of Lord Aurorea and Lady Caelestis.” Valentine’s commanding voice broke the silence and everyone including herself looked at him.

The silence seemed heavier this time and more foreboding. A glance at the two guards was all she needed to see that they were both shocked by what Valentine had said. She knew what he was saying and why they looked so concerned.

Lord Aurorea hadn’t killed half his family straight away. First he’d sent them a message by making an example of someone. That someone had been the head guard.

Lady Caelestis had followed suit.

She swallowed hard, telling herself that this was a scare tactic and Valentine didn’t really mean to kill his head guard and he certainly didn’t expect her to kill Tiberius. It was just something that the two guards needed to hear so they could then tell the other guards what was said. From there, it would filter down the ranks that Valentine and herself intended to massacre half of their bloodlines in order to achieve command of them.

Her stomach twisted and turned over.

She silently hoped that they didn’t have to go through with it.

“Maybe we should get the families together … informally … or formally.” Serenity looked as nervous as she sounded.

Prophecy gave her a look that was meant to convey that she wasn’t about to kill anyone. Her friend relaxed a little, giving her a hesitant smile.

The hairs on the back of Prophecy’s neck prickled and she turned to see Valentine staring at her clothes.

“What?” she said.

His frown intensified. “Formally.”

“Huh?” It was her turn to frown.

He caught hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. His eyes raked down the length of her body, scrutinising her.

“A ball,” he announced.

Her jaw dropped. “A ball?”

“Why not?” Serenity said, coming forwards. “There’s no better way to get the two houses together and it’s happened in the past.”

Prophecy considered it for a moment. It hardly seemed the right time for one but the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like the only alternative to Valentine’s other plan of massacre.

Besides, dancing with Valentine tonight had taken her mind off things, and she’d welcome another chance of that happening.

“Okay … the house of Caelestis will host a ball in honour of the house of Aurorea.” She looked at Xavier and Tiberius. “We will require all of the guards to work together on this. Do you think that is possible? If we don’t have complete cooperation we’ll be extremely vulnerable … both houses will be.”

Xavier bowed stiffly. “You have my word that my men will work with the Caelestis guards.”

Tiberius nodded. “It will not be a problem, my lady.”

“Will you invite Mia and Dmitri?” she said to Valentine and studied his face while he thought about her question.

He looked straight at her, his green eyes reflecting his tiredness and telling her the real reason he’d come here tonight. He hadn’t come to talk politics. He enjoyed this as much as she did. He’d come here to see her. The mark over her chest pulsed and her hand automatically came up to touch it. She really did wish they were on the run again, not tied down in Prague. She wanted to go back to how things had been when Mathias had still been alive, when they were still on good terms with Mia and Dmitri, and before she’d foolishly killed the old lord of Tenebrae.

When she raised her head, Valentine was still looking at her.

“I will invite them. We need them on our side,” he said in a gruff voice that betrayed the fact he still hadn’t wholly forgiven Dmitri for refusing to assist her.

“Then it’s settled,” she said and looked at the other occupants of the room. “The ball will be held in two days. All that can are welcome to attend.”

Valentine strode back into the room, relieved to see that Prophecy was still alone. The others had gone back to their business, Serenity leading Xavier back to his men, Tiberius heading out to patrol and Venturi slinking off to his room to apparently be alone. He was thankful for all of it, but mostly for Venturi’s departure.

Prophecy turned while he approached. A smile flitted across her lips but quickly faltered when she looked into his eyes. It was as though she could see what was coming and hated it almost as much as he did.

“Mia has promised that they will try to attend,” he said in a light tone, trying to alleviate the hurt he could see gathering in her dark eyes.

“That’s good,” she said in a sullen voice and then frowned. “You have to go, don’t you?”

He sighed and ran his fingers over his hair, hesitating and not quite knowing what to do. She wrapped her arms about him and he held her close, his fingers toying with the tips of her now dry hair.

“Call if you need me,” he whispered.

She drew back and nodded.

“I know you don’t want to leave,” she said and took hold of his hand. He watched the magic joining them, its red ribbon-like threads slipping between their fingers. “I can feel it.”

His gaze moved from their hands to the mark over her chest. The tips of his fingers grazed it, disturbing the magic that was running around it. The red streaks followed him and disappeared into his hand.

“I need my family to see that I am the one in control.”

“They will,” she said with a smile. “Just try not to kill them all.”

He grinned and kissed her briefly on the lips, knowing that she wasn’t going to see him to the door. She needed time to be alone and a public goodbye was something neither of them wanted.

She held his hand until the last moment and when they finally broke apart, he glanced back at her and smiled again before walking through the door. Heading back towards the main reception room, he thought about what she’d said. He signalled to Xavier to follow him and thanked Serenity with a nod when she handed him his coat.

Slipping it on, he buttoned it while he walked through the entrance hall. It was quiet now. The Caelestis had clearly heeded Prophecy’s warning and weren’t daring to interfere with him or his men.

He looked up when he stepped out onto the gravel path. The inky sky showed the barest sign of the approaching dawn. There was still at least an hour before it happened. It was enough time.

Someone held the car door open for him when they reached it and he got in, his thoughts too much with Prophecy to even notice which of the guards it had been. Once the others were in, the car pulled away and he looked at the mansion as it disappeared behind the high wall. He smiled when he thought about the night he’d kidnapped Prophecy. Both of their lives had changed so much since then.

The journey through the city seemed to last a fraction of a second and before he could blink he was faced with his family’s home.

His family.

He frowned and got out of the car. They were his family now, whether they liked it or not, and it was time they started behaving like it. This foolishness, this thought that they could rule him and do as they pleased, ended tonight. What he said was law, and it was their duty to obey. He hadn’t wanted to resort to this kind of tactic. They had left him with no other choice.

Unbuttoning his coat as he entered the hallway, he flung it open, letting the long tail of it flow around legs. He made eye contact with each guard he passed, his expression cold and hard.

“Xavier!” He didn’t give his head guard time to catch up with him before he continued. He turned the corner, heading away from the place where some of the elders still hid. His voice was empty of emotion as he stared straight at the doors to the main reception room. “Gather the family.”

Pushing the doors so hard that they slammed against the wall when they gave way, he growled at the few occupants of the room. They flinched away, recoiling just as they had been taught to and becoming subservient. It was a wise move on their part.

He took the steps to the throne two at a time and then turned, drew his long coat to one side and sat down. He crossed his legs and rested his right elbow on the arm of the ornate chair. Propping his head up on his right hand, he waited.

One by one, the family filtered into the room. Word always spread fast in small places and all lower ranking vampires seemed prone to gossip. The guards were the worst though. He knew what people would have been told. There was no way that Xavier would have been able to stop himself from telling the guards what he’d heard in the meeting room.

He closed his eyes and listened closely to the murmur of voices filling the room.

He smiled when he picked out several mentions of the words “Lord Aurorea”. They weren’t referring to him. Aurorea had taken the name of his family on his death day, as had the woman who had become Lady Caelestis. Or at least that’s how the tale went.