Prophecy: Child of Light (12 page)

He had to eat. It had been days since his last feed. He took the glass with a nod and waited for Mathias to retrieve his and join them. He was amused by the way that Prophecy kept licking her lips, her eyes not leaving the blood as she waited for a sign that she could drink it. When she looked across at him, he raised his glass and nodded, showing her that no one would think she was rude if she drank it now.

He sipped his.

She gulped hers down and then bit her lip while she looked at both him and Mathias, seeing that they weren’t drinking theirs so indelicately. His gaze was drawn to her lips. Her teeth were bloodied, her lower lip stained with crimson. He felt drawn to it, mesmerised by the sight of her having fed. Images of the night he’d found in her the cemetery flashed into his mind. He really hadn’t seen one take so much pleasure in blood. It had stirred fire in his veins.

He stared at the bloom of red on her lip as she released it.

It still stirred fire in his veins.

Tearing his eyes away from her, he swiftly drank the blood in his glass and stifled his desire to change into his vampire guise.

Mathias cleared his throat.

“You had news?” Valentine used it to distract himself and pushed away the images of Prophecy in the cemetery that lingered in his mind.

“News?” Mathias frowned thoughtfully and then raised his brows. “News, of course.”

Prophecy placed her glass down and leaned towards Mathias where he was standing between the two chairs near the unlit fireplace.

“Well?” she said, her eyes showing her eagerness.

Valentine leaned casually back into his chair.

“I tracked a guardian tonight,” Mathias said and Valentine’s attention was immediately with him. “I’ve heard from a reliable source that the seven have had orders to release their guardians. Many of the families have already sent them out to seek out the child of the prophecy. The only house yet to respond is Validus. Hyperion shows no interest in releasing them. Aurorea and Caelestis have informed the Law Keepers.”

“You are certain?” he said.

Mathias nodded. A sense of dread filled Valentine. Prophecy had been right. There was no going back.

“We don’t have guardians. I wasn’t aware that my family kept werewolves,” Prophecy said with a frown and looked at him.

“Neither of our families keep them at the mansion. When our houses were joined, they built a compound in the outskirts of the city. They have kept the werewolves there. If all the bloodlines and demons have not been alerted to your existence by now, they soon will be. Kalinor will lose no time, especially if he has realised that I am with you.”

“You must move quickly,” Mathias said. “You will be watched for. Keep your guards up.”

“Where must we go?” Prophecy said.

“Paris.”

“Paris?” Valentine straightened up on hearing the name of the city he knew so well. It was where he’d had the most dangerous fights of his life against the hunter. He was sure that the hunter lived in that city. It had good connections, both land and air, to the rest of Europe, making it the most sensible place to base his operations.

“My research has uncovered something which I had long forgotten. In my youth, I had been curious about the prophecy. I discovered that there was a key that supposedly unlocked it.”

“As in translated it?” he asked and Mathias nodded.

“The prophecy is written in an ancient tongue, one which all vampires have lost their knowledge of. It took the ten original vampires over four years to translate the entire scroll. The wheels have been set in motion for a reason. I do not believe we have such a luxurious amount of time in which to decipher it. The key will help us, of that I am sure.”

“Where is the key?” Prophecy shifted forwards on her seat until she was balancing on the edge, as close to Mathias as she could get without leaving the confines of the armchair.

“There is magic mentioned in the scroll. The Three have the key. Head to Paris and seek them out. Valentine will know where to find them. They will know you are coming.”

She looked across at him. The corners of his mouth tugged into a brief smile that he hoped reassured her that he did indeed know where to find the witches Mathias had spoken of.

“And what of the scrolls?” Her attention returned to Mathias.

Valentine wondered just when she had began to take everything in her stride. The child he had seen in her over the past few days seemed to have disappeared since their conversation in the courtyard. She had accepted her fate and was now determined to face it head on and win. Did the things he’d said have anything to do with the woman now sitting before him? The layers of insecurity and confusion seemed to have been stripped away and she now looked as she had done the night he’d met her. She looked strong and defiant, ready to take on the world if she had to.

He didn’t look away from her when she looked at him surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye while continuing to face Mathias. There was a shy edge to her expression, as though she’d realised that he’d noticed the change in her and she was embarrassed by it.

She shouldn’t have been.

She was enthralling when she was like this. She was powerful, almost commanding, and he could see why she was the child of the prophecy.

He could see the woman that he had witnessed in his vision, one strong enough to lead an army.

“The first half is still held where it has been for nearly three centuries, by someone both I and Valentine know.”

Valentine looked up at Mathias, trying to think of a person they both knew that wouldn’t care about the end of vampires, that wouldn’t be tempted to translate the half of the scroll they had been given.

“A veritable princess,” Mathias said with a small smile.

Valentine nodded in understanding.

The woman in question was as close to being a princess as vampires got.

“And the other?” Prophecy’s voice was still certain and his attention was drawn back to her.

“The other is lost. It was stolen by humans many centuries ago. Thankfully they have never been successful in translating it, so the meaning remains hidden. While you are in Paris, I will attempt to locate the second half of the scroll.”

“There will not be a train tonight,” Valentine said and thought over everything they would need to do before heading to Paris. “We will have to get more clothes so we are not so easily spotted.”

He looked down at the jacket he was wearing. He supposed it would do him good to get out of it. It was a tie to his past that he was better off without. It only served to remind him of what he had lost.

“When will we go?” Prophecy said.

He stood.

“We leave tomorrow night.”

V
alentine led the way as they walked through customs at Gare Du Nord in Paris. Prophecy waited in silence behind him, watching in fascination as the guard checked the passports and ushered them through without so much as a suspicious glance. She met his eyes as she passed, wondering if he was still under Valentine’s spell. The guard winked at her and made some comment to his colleague. The two men grinned at each other like Cheshire cats.

She didn’t need to speak French to know they’d said something dirty about her.

She glared at them and then pressed her hand to her stomach as it growled. Hunger pushed her, making her want to change and feed. She screwed her face up in agony and told herself that she couldn’t change here. No matter how much satisfaction she would get from scaring the life out of the two guards.

Valentine would find her something to eat soon enough. They just had to make it to the hotel. He had promised to get them both some blood once they were safely there.

She looked up to see that while she’d been standing still, he’d continued walking and was now waiting for her by the exit. She hurried to him, ignoring the wolf whistles that the guards gave her as they laughed.

When she reached him, Valentine turned away and continued towards the underground. She didn’t pay attention to where they were going. She let him lead the way while her eyes roamed the dimly lit corridors and the people who were coming and going. She smiled as a group of people passed them, laughing and playing with each other as they headed down into the depths of the metro.

She closed her eyes when she walked out onto the platform and smoky wind blew against her, signalling the approach of a train. She could hear the wheels screeching as it rounded a corner and then the lights appeared in the tunnel.

When it stopped with one of its doors in front of them, she ducked behind Valentine and used him as a shield to protect herself against the sudden river of people that flowed out of it.

A glance at the clock on the wall told her it was nearing midnight.

Why were there so many people still around?

She let her gaze follow them as they all disappeared up the steps and then hopped onto the train when she realised that Valentine had moved again without her noticing. There was so much to take in now that she was aware of her surroundings. When they had passed through the city before, she had been too deep in the grip of the Hunger to see anything. All she had been able to focus on was the intense pain.

Her stomach rumbled again.

Intense pain that was going to return if she didn’t feed soon.

“Are you all right?”

She looked up at Valentine. The train began to move, jerking around the corner as it pulled out of the station. She gripped the rail by the door with one hand while keeping her other one pressed against her stomach.

“Hungry.” She pushed the word out.

“We shall get you something soon enough. It is not far to go now. The hotel...” He trailed off and looked along the length of the train towards the next carriage.

“What?” She could see there was something wrong and her senses automatically reached out, trying to pick up on what he’d felt.

The carriage they were in was half full and she could barely see the occupants of the next one through the tiny window in the door. Was there something there? All she could feel were humans.

The second the train stopped at a station, Valentine caught hold of her hand and dragged her off it. His actions ignited a spark of fear inside of her and she gripped his hand tightly.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered and started to turn her head.

“Do not look back,” he said. She stopped herself just in time. He glanced down at her. “I think we are being followed.”

“Werewolf?” she said and stared straight ahead, her body going rigid as she resisted the temptation to look behind her and see what it was that was following them.

“No. Human.” Valentine looked around them when they reached the ticket barrier and then lifted her over it. He jumped the gate and caught her hand again. “Act normal. Do not panic. We shall soon see if they are following us.”

“Who are they?”

He didn’t answer her question; he led her up into the street. She looked around them at the tree-lined road with its pretty buildings and streetlights. There were still a lot of people around and she again wondered why.

Her question was answered when Valentine led her towards one of the buildings and gave some money to a man on the door.

She flinched as the music assaulted her ears and the strobe lights made Valentine look jittery as they headed deeper into the club. She growled and hissed at the people as they pushed her, making her almost lose her grip on his hand. The beat of the music was heavy, pounding with guitars and drums, and she tried to catch some of the words but failed. There was a bar against the wall furthest from her, and every inch of the floor was swarming with people. They were dancing, writhing against each other under the blue lights and flickering strobes. The air was hot, swamped with the smell of sweat and the tempting fragrance of blood.

She was knocked backwards by a group of people and she growled at them. When she regained her balance, she found that Valentine was nowhere to be seen. She looked around her, hers eyes darting over every face that she could see as she searched for him. She felt dizzy when she tried to reach out with her senses to find him and was flooded by the intoxicating feeling of every heartbeat in the room. They all sped, making her head spin. She covered her mouth, trying to hide her teeth as they began to descend. She wanted to close her eyes and breathe in the delicious scent of blood that was engulfing her. Her claws extended and her eyes changed.

Overwhelming hunger swept through her.

She saw another person enter, a tall man who was broad in build, and she remembered why Valentine had brought them in here.

Someone was following them.

Her vampire guise receded, forced away by panic in an attempt to make her blend in, and she quickly searched for Valentine. She couldn’t see him anywhere and the tall man was beginning to move through the crowd towards her. She needed to find somewhere safe to hide. Her eyes darted to her right as a bright white light appeared and disappeared. Perfect.

She forced her way through the crowd and pushed the bathroom door open.

The brightness of the light was blinding and her hand came up instinctively to protect her eyes. The door closed behind her and she breathed a sigh of relief as the wall dulled the feeling of the people in the club. She paused when she sensed that she wasn’t alone.

Someone flushed a toilet and then fell out of the cubicle door into a heap on the floor.

Her head cocked to one side as the girl struggled to her feet. The girl stared at her with wide eyes and then stumbled towards her, wobbling on her feet as she leaned heavily against the row of washbasins.

Prophecy focused on the sound of her heartbeat, licking her lips as it pounded erratically, the staccato rhythm calling to her, urging her to feed.

“You’re pretty,” the girl said in an accent that sounded like the people in the television programs Prophecy had watched back at the mansion. American.

She didn’t say anything, just moved slightly as the girl reached a hand out towards her face. Her eyes were on it immediately, her Hunger begging her to bite into it and drink her delicate blood down. She needed to sate it. Valentine wouldn’t feed her for ages. Besides, she didn’t need him to feed her. She could feed herself. She frowned and told herself that Valentine had promised to feed her as soon as possible. She didn’t need to eat the girl. It would only make the situation worse.