Bonds of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 7), Bella Klaus [best classic books .TXT] 📗

Kresnik growled. “I will not tolerate your insolence.”

“Tough luck, because that’s all you’ll get.”

He appeared at my side, and I tried not to flinch. “Do not test me.” His breath fanned across my flames. “With my magic, I can torture you with unending pain.”

I held my breath. If he could open a rift with the force of his power, he would have done so already. Hell, he might even have tried and tried again to put me to work while I’d been unconscious. That was the kind of creepy act I would expect from the man who had spawned Jonathan.

Something rose from the pool behind me, forming huge splashes of water that sizzled against my flames. Before I could rise off my perch, darkness engulfed me, and I tumbled backward into a warm, slippery chasm.

I splayed out my wings, smelling burned flesh and a substance that seared my nostrils and coated my sinuses with its acid. No matter how much I thrashed, I continued through the slimy chute, which churned and spasmed, bent on forcing me down.

My talons stretched out, digging into the creature’s flesh and trying to claw my way up. Then a rattling hiss made my breath catch.

Rapid pulse beats thudded between my eardrums. I couldn’t have been swallowed by an animal. It was impossible, but we were in the Realm of the Gods, a place that had monsters like the hydra.

Hacking and tearing sounded from above, and light streamed down from a slash within the darkness, and Kresnik poked his head inside, staring down at me through eyes round with shock.

“Hemera.” He stretched out an arm. “Take my hand.”

A warble sounded in my chest. This had to be a trick. If he could create illusions with his light magic, then he must have stolen other powers I didn’t know about to simulate this horror.

The muscles squeezing me spasmed, and I slipped a few inches further down the chasm. My stomach plummeted with the onset of my doom. Maybe I could trust him this once, since he seemed genuine about wanting to help.

Kresnik roared, his hand slicing through the dark, widening the rift of light. “Hemera, if you don’t come with me now. The acid in that thing’s stomach will digest you until there is nothing left to regenerate. It has swallowed gods and phoenixes, and not one of them has survived.”

Every instinct screamed at me that this was a ploy Kresnik had conjured up to manipulate me into falling into his clutches, but a tiny voice whispered that he might be telling the truth.

The walls of my prison squeezed until half my feathers flickered out, and my eyes bulged. I pulled my magic back into my body, reverted back into a woman, and stretched out a hand.

Kresnik grabbed my wrist and yanked me out, holding me to his broad chest. A lock of hair fell into my eyes, making them sting. He carried me to the side of the water, placed me gently onto the rocks, and rinsed my face.

“Are you hurt?” His warm hand rubbed soothing circles on my back.

Revulsion rippled through my insides. Why the bloody hell would he care when he had already caused me the most intense physical pain of my life?

Without waiting for a reply, Kresnik set me on my feet, placed his hands on my shoulders, and swept his gaze down my naked form. “I need to rid you of those digestive fluids before they dissolve your skin.”

I squirmed, pulling an arm over my breasts and another over my crotch, but he grabbed my biceps and turned me toward the pool.

Something large and green and dragon-like fell back into the water with a massive splash, spraying water over us both.

Nausea rose to the back of my throat, and every ounce of blood drained from my face and settled into my plummeting stomach.

“What was that?” I whispered through panting breaths.

“Python,” he snarled.

“A python?” I turned to meet his burning amber eyes.

“The Python,” he said. “A gigantic serpent killed by Apollo in revenge for the attack on his mother. Also one of the monstrous Titans born to Uranus and Gaia.”

A shudder ran down my spine. “What’s it doing alive?”

“It’s the Great Separation,” a thin voice said from somewhere deeper in the chamber. “It destroyed our realm and spat out the dead from Tartarus.”

“I don’t get it.” My voice shook. “Father Jude talked as though the realm was beautiful.”

“His temporal magic was far stronger than mine,” Kresnik muttered. “He likely accessed the realm at a different point in time in order to steal your phoenix.”

I ground my teeth. “Then Aurora shouldn’t have been punished for failing to find an eagle here?”

Rocks fell from the direction of the stalactites, making us both flinch.

“Who goes there?” Kresnik snarled.

A naked man stepped out from behind a stalactite with his palms raised. His long beard covered his prominent ribs, concave stomach, and crotch, trailing several feet behind him. “It is I, Epimetheus.”

Kresnik’s face went slack. “But you died.”

His thin shoulders rose to his ears. “The Great Separation released me from death.”

“Who is that?” I whispered.

“My twin,” Kresnik said.

Epimetheus’ gaze turned to the water, his eyes solemn. “You killed our uncle and my only companion.”

I glanced from Kresnik to his brother. The only similarities they shared was their amber eyes and height, but what was all this about that snake being their uncle?

My brows drew together. More importantly, what was the Great Separation? I was sure Father Jude had mentioned it once, but I hadn’t had the chance to ask him what it meant.

Kresnik wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his chest. Resisting the urge to elbow him in the gut, I placed my hands over my breasts and crotch.

Epimetheus turned his watery eyes back to Kresnik then stared at me with a penetrating gaze. It was one of those looks I would describe as undressing with his eyes, but I was already naked.

The newcomer bared