Bonds of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 7)

by Bella Klaus

  I’d already lost track of the time. The sun had been an hour or two away from setting by the time I’d returned from my treatment with Sybil. By now, it should have been dark.

  Valentine paused at the top of the palace steps and thanked the people for coming out to see him off, and we strolled down the steps to wild applause.

  The doors of the double-decker hissed open, and Captain Caria stepped out. As we continued down the stairs with the volunteers trailing behind us, I wondered how much magic it would take for such a small object to fit dozens of mercenaries and vampires in armor.

  “Have you taken a bus to a battle before?” I asked out of the corner of my mouth.

  “The last time we were at war, people travelled by sailboats and carriages,” Valentine replied.

  I turned to him and gaped. “What?”

  He inclined his head. “This hemisphere of the Supernatural World has experienced peace since the previous time of Kresnik. Our Department of Law Enforcement usually suppresses issues before they become a threat.”

  I exhaled a long breath. That explained why they’d been so eager to kill fire users.

  We reached the bottom of the palace steps and entered the folding doors of the double-decker bus.

  Its interior was four times the size of a regular public transport, with countless windows that gave us a panoramic view of the crowds filling the palace’s courtyard. Banks of standing desks took up the middle, manned by demon enforcers staring into computer monitors.

  “Welcome aboard the 666.” Hades stood at the front of the bus, clad in red leather armor embossed with the design of a winding serpent. He spread his arms wide and grinned. “Our next destination is Hampton Court Palace, the former residence of King Henry VIII.”

  Behind us, the vampires and mercenaries streamed onto the bus. Captain Caria directed them to the upper level, while Valentine and I walked toward the Demon King.

  The bus rumbled forward, making the crowds part. I wasn’t sure why we weren’t taking the tunnels, but it looked like we would travel overground. A chill traveled down my back. The humans attacking the wards would see us appear out of nowhere. Had everyone forgotten about the Supernatural Secrecy laws, or had Kresnik’s action rendered them null and void?

  “What’s the status of the wards?” Valentine asked.

  “Secure,” Hades replied, sounding more subdued. “The bright light you see around Logris comes from the power of the ophanim’s final solution.”

  My brows drew together. What was so bad about an angel?

  Valentine’s features fell. “They’ve started?”

  “There was little other choice,” said Hades.

  Valentine snarled through bared fangs.

  I tugged on Valentine’s arm. “What’s happening?”

  He turned to me, the violet in his eyes turning crimson, his features a mask of both fury and fear. “When we travel through the wards, close your eyes and do not look at those things.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  My gaze flickered from Valentine to Hades, who leaned against the front window of the bus, his shoulders sagging with resignation. It was hard to tell if he disapproved of angels.

  We had learned a little about ophanim at the academy along with the other kinds of celestial beings such as seraphim, cherubim, and archangels. I wasn’t sure how they fitted into the heavenly hierarchy—just that they were above reapers and below beings like the Angel King.

  “Are you warning me not to look at them because I’ll go blind?” I asked Valentine.

  “They’re perfectly safe to look at through an enforcer’s computer screen.” Hades swept an arm toward the front window of the bus. “This vehicle is protected against any eventuality, from preternatural vampires to avenging angels. King Valentine merely wishes to preserve your innocence.”

  I turned to Valentine. “What’s he talking about?”

  Valentine clenched his jaw and stared out of the window as though wondering how best to phrase his explanation.

  “I’ll tell her,” Hades drawled.

  “You will do no such thing,” Valentine growled.

  “Excuse us for a moment.” I took Valentine’s hand and pulled him down the length of the bus, passing demon enforcers stationed by the windows. Some stood with their wings folded behind their backs and others sported horns of varying shapes and sizes.

  We climbed the stairs to the top level, which was devoid of computer terminals but just as surrounded by windows. By now, we had reached the palace gates and were driving down the cherry blossom-lined boulevard of Caedes Road.

  Running down the middle of the bus’s top level were rows and rows of seats where the mercenaries stood separately from the vampires, who appeared to be transfixed by the panoramic views of the wide roads, open spaces, and palatial mansions of Lamia. They were mostly demon hybrids who lived outside Hell, or pure-bred demons who preferred to work outside the confines of a society like Logris. Now that I knew that Hell was divided into factions, I wondered how many of them fell under the rulership of Hades.

  I guided Valentine to the front row and sat. “What’s so terrible about these ophanim?”

  He took the seat next to mine, draping his arm around my back and balancing the trident on the window ledge. “Most people your age believe that light magic is good and dark magic is bad.”

  I shook my head. “Kresnik is a Light Lord, and he’s evil. What aren’t you telling me?”

  He exhaled a long breath. “The demons you see in Logris and even those in places like Koffeik are nothing like the nightmarish beings in Hell.”

  “Right…” I’d never seen a truly frightening demon, but my encounter with Masood, the gorilla shifter who had tried to drug Beatrice, was evidence that such monsters existed. I stared up at Valentine, prompting him to continue.

  “A similar principle applies to angels,” Valentine said. “The only difference between demons and angels is the lightness or darkness of their magic.”

  My brows drew together. “You mean there are angelic monsters?”

  He nodded. “Ophanim are nothing like reapers or the archangels. Seeing them up close with the naked eye can cause insanity, even in supernaturals.”

  “What are they doing outside the wards?” I asked.

  The double-decker rose into the air, making my stomach lurch. I glanced at Valentine, who rubbed his chin and stared out of the window with clouded eyes. Either he was so deep in contemplation that he hadn’t even noticed the bus flying, or he suspected it would need to reach our destination by air.

  Placing a hand on his thigh, I gave him a gentle pat. “Did the Supernatural Council ever discuss using ophanim?”

  Valentine gave me a slow nod. “We spoke about strategies to protect Logris if all else failed. I expect the Angel King has decided to make sure the humans who attacked Logris will never threaten supernaturals again.”

  My breath caught. “He’s taking away their sanity?”

  Valentine bowed his head.

  I shot to my feet. “What can we do to stop it?”

  He grabbed my wrist. “The scent of ozone is already in the air, and their celestial light is penetrating the wards. By the time the bus reaches the wards, it will already be too late.”

  Grief clamped around my chest and squeezed with all its might, making it impossible to breathe, no matter how much I leaned forward and struggled for air. I had noticed the ozone as we had walked through Valentine’s suite. Several minutes had passed since then—plenty of time to frighten the humans attacking Logris into madness.

  “How could he do something so terrible?” I whispered.

  Valentine pulled me down to the seat and rubbed gentle circles on my back. “From his point of view, it was a choice between saving the citizens of Logris from annihilation and meting out divine justice to a horde of attackers.”

  “Kresnik manipulated them.” I met Valentine’s solemn eyes, pleading with him to understand. “He’s been claiming that he’s God and telling
everyone that demons want to tear them apart—”

  “Did Kresnik provide them with any evidence?” Valentine asked. “Did he bring forward humans who had been injured by demons, humans with eye-witness accounts of demon attacks, reports of towns or villages laid to waste?”

  I drew back, shaking my head from side to side. Valentine couldn’t be agreeing with the Angel King’s actions. Couldn’t he see how disturbing it could be to realize that the monsters reserved for horror movies were actually real and dwelling in London? Kresnik had thousands of years of experience in manipulating humans, and now they were the ones who would suffer.

  “What about that light mage who pretended to be me to earn a million-pound reward?” I asked.

  Valentine inclined his head. “The one he forced to glamor herself into a demon?”

  I nodded. “Because of Kresnik, the humans think Logris is crammed with creatures like that.”

  Valentine placed a firm hand on my shoulder. “Think about what you’re saying, Morata. Is it right to destroy someone based on how they look?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. When Valentine put it like that, he made the humans sound unreasonable for wanting to protect themselves.

  “They were terrified of what they saw, there’s no doubt about that,” Valentine said, his voice soft with understanding. “But look at how quickly he was able to mobilize enough humans to attack a hidden city.”

  My shoulders sagged, and I bit down on my bottom lip. Some of what he was saying actually made sense.

  “Kresnik didn’t stir them up with statistics or scenes of eviscerated humans or any other kind of evidence,” he continued. “Only a handful of people died during the phoenix sightings, but those were mostly traffic accidents. Those humans tore down the wards at his instigation because they were quick to act upon lies without challenging them.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. “I’m sure he’s blaming Logris for everything that’s gone wrong in the Human World.”

  By the time I opened my eyes, we’d left Lamia and were passing over Queens Road, the street that separated Valentine’s kingdom from Striga and also led to the edge of the wards.

  On a normal day, anyone looking out from Logris would see Richmond Park and its forests, open spaces, and wildlife. Now, there was a barrier of bright light that stung my retinas.

  Valentine took my hand, turning my attention back to him. “Centuries ago, humans hunted supernaturals, and that is why we created cities like Logris. Cities governed by leaders who ensure that supernaturals don’t exercise their power against humans and cities that must be protected against human weapons and spite.”

  I sat back in my seat, letting his words sink into my skull. Perhaps the enforcers couldn’t erase their memories because they were outnumbered or the task would be too dangerous.

  “What would you do if you knew of a secret society of frightening beings?” Valentine asked.

  “Stay away from them?” My mind rolled back to the morning I thought a preternatural vampire had followed me across Grosvenor Square. Back then, I had clung to my Dharma salt like it was the only thing keeping me alive. “Hide and protect myself?”

  “Neither of those answers include gathering weapons and hunting them,” he said.

  A buzzing sound pulled my attention to the window, where shutters closed around the glass. With each passing second, every molecule in the air quivered with an intensity I thought would tear us all apart.

  Valentine sat straighter. “We’re at the wards.”

  “Hades said it was safe to look at the ophanim from inside the bus.”

  His lips tightened. “You’re determined to see them?”

  “Only if I won’t go insane.” I raised a shoulder. How many times did a person get to see celestial beings other than reapers, angel hybrids, and the Angel King?

  Picking up the trident, Valentine rose from his seat, and we headed for the bus’s lower deck, which was flooded with blinding white light.

  Hades stood before the bus’s front windows with Captain Caria. His arm drifted around her shoulder, but she elbowed him in the side, making him step away and cast her a hurt glance.

  I would have spent a few seconds pondering his relationship with his daughter if it wasn’t for the vision filling the screen.

  The flare that filled the bus’s lower level was so intense I had to squint to find the outlines of two beings of white flame mingled within the brightness. Floating on the left appeared to be a burning wheel with glaring eyes around its rim. Instead of spokes, it had a gaping maw filled with gigantic teeth.

  Something thrashed within the mouth. It could have been an arm or a leg or a giant tongue. Whatever it was got pulled back into its fiery depths.

  I clutched Valentine’s arm, my mouth falling open, and peered at the creature on the right. It had as many wings as it had legs and could have been multiple animals stuck together. A single head protruded from a mass of white feathers, but it was so misshapen that I couldn’t tell if it had three faces or four.

  The butterflies in my stomach burrowed deep, trying to escape the sight. Sweat gathered on my brow, and my skin tightened with trepidation. I shifted my gaze to the side, not wanting to get a clearer image of what lurked within that bright light.

  “Which one is the ophanim?” I whispered.

  Hades turned around and grinned. “The ravenous wheel. I can zoom the lens for a close up of the ophanim devouring the fallen humans and their camera equipment.”

  “What?” I turned to Valentine.

  “There was panic, pandemonium, followed by a stampede.” Hades waved a dismissive hand. “Half of those humans died with fire in their blood and promptly rose as preternaturals. That’s why they’re being eaten.”

  Valentine turned to Hades and scowled. “What’s our estimated time of arrival?”

  “Seven minutes,” replied Captain Caria.

  The window shutters receded, revealing thick clouds spread across the night’s sky with the barest trace of the moon. Huge snowflakes drifted down to the park, settling on the treetops and the ground below in a blanket of white.

  I turned to the rear window to find that the snow had also settled over the glowing dome of Logris’s wards. Whatever the humans had done to the magic protecting our supernatural city now made it stand out like a blight on the landscape. It was going to take more than a few monstrous celestials to clear up this horrific breach of supernatural secrecy.

  “Are you alright?” Valentine asked.

  I nodded, meeting his concerned frown with a tiny smile. “The ophanim wasn’t so frightening.”

  He pressed a gentle kiss on my temple. “Because the bright light obscured the rest of their bodies.”

  “And because you didn’t see what they did to the humans,” added Hades.

  The bus left Richmond Park and continued over the traffic-jammed roads of Kingston, passing the High Street, the British Rail station, and the police station. Most of the snow had either cleared or melted, and it looked like a typical winter night in South London.

  Hampton Court Palace glowed in the distance, a sprawling three-story building of red bricks, with towers and turrets, illuminated by external lights. On the left of the huge structure stood what appeared to be a huge stage, and next to it, a gigantic screen.

  I squinted into the front window, my mouth agape. “Are they having a concert?”

  “We’ve monitored Kresnik’s television appearances since he walked into the BBC Score studio.” Captain Caria leaned against the front window and folded her arms. “After baptizing hundreds of gullible idiots in Whitestone Pond, he and his entourage travelled south and took over the palace.”

  “He’s making up for having missed Woodstock,” Hades drawled. “Somehow, he’s managed to convince the humans to stage an outdoor celebration of the coming of their god.”

  “Kresnik will suffer for this.” Valentine clenched the trident’s handle, the prongs of which remained stained with Hades’ blood.

  �
��What will happen if we attack him out in the open?” I asked. “Will whoever witnesses our fight get eaten by those celestial monsters?”

  “The correct terminology for them are ophanim and cherubim,” Hades said.

  I ignored him and turned to Valentine. “The concert’s probably televised.”

  “We will approach him when he takes a break.” Valentine placed an arm around my shoulder and walked us past the demon enforcers stationed at their standing desks and toward the front window, where Captain Caria and Hades huddled over a hand-held device.

  My teeth worried at my bottom lip. “Why would an immortal being want to take a break from all that adulation?”

  Hades leered down at me with a chuckle. “Kresnik has thousands of admirers. Eventually, he’ll want to take a break for an orgy.”

  I clenched my teeth. The worst part of what Hades said was that it was true.

  After crossing the River Thames beside Kingston Bridge, we reached the outskirts of the palace, where the snow turned to sludge as thousands of people congregated in its grounds. Cars and campers and canvas tents littered its gardens, and humans streamed to and from a covered stage illuminated by spotlights.

  “At least that explains why there was so much traffic around Kingston,” I muttered. “He’s probably invited the entire country to this concert.”

  “Put him on screen,” Valentine said with a sigh.

  The stage appeared in the bus’s front windows, complete with a twelve-piece band of men in black suits, thin ties, and Blues Brothers’ hats and Ray-Bans. Two groups of backing singers sang a funky version of the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful.

  Kresnik stood in front, clad in a tailored white suit with an equally white shirt and tie that I’d once seen Morgan Freeman wear in a movie depiction of God. His golden hair flowed down his shoulders with an unearthly glow that he must have created with his stolen light magic.

  Surrounding Kresnik were the Rude Girls, a quartet of red-haired sisters who made up for their lack of singing ability by posting outrageous things about themselves on social media. Each wore identical camel-toe hot pants in a garish silver with long boots and sparkly bikini tops.