Passion of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 5), Bella Klaus [freenovel24 TXT] 📗

“Aunt Arianna warned me about feeding vampires from the vein, and one of the girls in the Flame had gotten hooked on thrall,” I murmured. “She told me about the abuse she suffered with unscrupulous vampires.”

“How could he have been so selfish?” Valentine snarled, his voice trembling with rage. “He should have pulled you out of that situation the moment he regained control of himself.”

I sagged against his chest. “He’s trying to secure a better future for us.”

“By putting your life at risk?” he said.

“Kresnik wants my phoenix,” I murmured. “When the power he stole faded, he tried to send someone to the realm of the gods to capture another, but she failed.”

An ache formed in my chest, bringing with it a torrent that threatened to drown me in grief. I barely knew Aurora. Most of the time, I despised the woman, but I only caught a glimpse of who she might have been if she’d never gone to the Flame.

It was the unfairness of it all that I found most upsetting—meeting the human side of my mother that wasn’t blinded by Kresnik, having her sacrifice her life to save me from Healer Calla’s attempt to extract my phoenix, and then watching her incinerate from the inside out and become an inferno.

The backs of my eyes stung, and I lowered my head to my chest.

“Innamorata?”

Valentine ran a hand down my arm, the comfort of his touch seeping into my flesh. Warm love travelled through my heart meridian and filled my chest until I thought it would burst. Despite being dead with his soul stuck in a beating heart within a crystal sphere, he still wanted more than ever for me to be happy.

“Sorry.” The ache spread to my throat, making it thicken with emotion. Blinking away the sting from my eyes, I murmured, “I just remembered someone who died the night I escaped the Flame.”

“One of the other young people?” he asked.

Tears spilled down my cheeks as I choked out the words, “My mother.”

He exhaled a long breath, pulling me even tighter to his chest. “I’m so sorry.” His deep voice reverberated across one side of my body, easing the tension from my muscles. “Life can be so unfair to bring you together only to tear you apart.”

We sat together, taking comfort from each other’s bodies. Valentine stroked gentle circles on my back, his soft words of sympathy softening the jagged edges of my pain.

I leaned into his broad shoulder, wondering how fortune could have gifted me with such an unselfish and considerate man. Here I was needing solace, while he was probably freaking out about Kresnik’s rise to power and the current state of his preternatural body.

“He wants to destroy Kresnik,” I murmured.

Valentine stilled. “Are you sure?” he asked. “From what you described, he was acting like any preternatural and wanted to keep you powerless.”

I drew back, meeting his solemn frown. “It wasn’t like that. He gave me all that thrall to stop Kresnik from noticing that my powers had returned.”

“Because he wanted to safeguard a rare and delicious source of blood.” Valentine’s eyes shone with remorse, and he placed a hand on my cheek. “Since I joined the Council, I’ve punished hundreds of supernatural vampires who have carried out similar acts.”

Without meaning to, I shook my head from side to side. Valentine was wrong. If his preternatural self truly wanted me as a source of blood, he would have locked me in a hideout, keeping me under guard, and visited me daily to feed on my blood.

“Maybe he was acting like that because it’s what Kresnik expected,” I said. “Why did he let me leave?” I asked.

Valentine shook his head and sighed. “The day before your aunt visited my palace asking for help, I had to punish a young vampire who kept a faerie in a basement under the influence of Quell. She forced him to consume blood stabilizers so he would stay alive. Even as I removed her fangs, she insisted that she loved him.”

I placed a hand on Valentine’s chest. “You need to have more confidence in your body. That time we were in the penthouse, he never once bit me, and he probably wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t been under Kresnik’s influence.”

He frowned. “When he developed a taste for your blood.”

“That’s hardly his fault.” I threaded my fingers through the silken hair at the back of his head. “He never once hurt me.”

“Yet he kept us apart.”

I bowed my head. “What if he didn’t know I could communicate with your soul?”

Valentine’s arms tightened around my back, and he pulled me into his chest. “We could go around in circles analyzing the actions of a preternatural vampire, but we need to focus on what’s important.”

“Putting you back together again?” I murmured into his shoulder.

His laugh reverberated across my torso, making my nipples tighten. “Are those the lines to a human nursery rhyme?”

“It’s probably from before your time,” I said with a chuckle.

“How are your power levels?” he asked.

“Istabelle helped me absorb all the magic from the firestone that had encased my heart,” I replied. “She also removed the attachments Kresnik used to siphon my power.”

“The parasites?” Valentine asked through clenched teeth.

I nodded. “Every scrap of magic my fifth chamber generates will stay in my body. All I have to do now is generate enough firepower for your resurrection.”

Valentine’s eyes sharpened. “When will you see him again?”

“Tomorrow or the day after?” I shrugged. “But I can’t risk burning anyone until I know I can reduce them completely to ash.”

“How will you know?” he asked.

I bit down on my lip. “When I can transform into a phoenix?”

Valentine eased me off his lap, stood, and helped me to my feet. He cradled my head with both hands, tilting it up so that we locked eyes. “Your priority needs to be regaining the use of your magic.”

I stiffened at the urgency in his voice. “But Kresnik—”

“Can still hurt you in this vulnerable