by F. E. Heaton
"I have nothing to say to you,” he whispered with malice into her ear and she closed her eyes.
The feel of his fingers against her shoulders disappeared.
She cringed when the door slammed.
Her heart ached and she went to run to the door but she found a Watchman blocking it.
She looked at Hyperion, silently understanding what he was telling her. Now wasn't the time for dealing with affairs of the heart. She had to take care of the Law Keepers first.
She glanced at the door again and then, with a heavy heart, walked back to Hyperion.
"I suppose you'll add Venturi to my list of crimes too,” she said bitterly to the Law Keepers.
The Aurorea had joined the others again. He gave her a hard look, clearly disgusted by her. She didn't ask any of these men to fall in love with her and she certainly hadn't asked for the feelings she had for them in return.
"Get out of my house!” she growled at them, her eyes switching to their green vampiric state as the last thread of her temper frayed and snapped. “I'm sick of this shit. Get out!"
She called the magic up. It swirled dark and dangerous around her hand. All of the Law Keepers stared at it. Hyperion had said that dominance was a good thing. Well, she was going to show them just how strong she was compared to them.
Taking a deep breath, she curled her fingers up, calling the power to both of her hands. Her whole body hurt as the magic transferred, running through her veins.
She roared in pain and raised her hands, lifting the Law Keepers off the floor. They all looked down, their panic stricken faces making her smile. Holding them with the will of her right hand, she commanded her magic to open the door with her left. She guided them through it. Hyperion gave her an impressed smile.
Taking the Law Keepers out into the corridor, she stifled her desire to laugh at the way they struggled to get free of the magic. There was no escape for them. She'd asked them to leave and they'd ignored her request. Now she was going to make them leave.
People cleared the path as she walked with the Law Keepers towards the main door. She kept her focus on them, not daring to look at the faces of the people around her in case the momentary lapse in concentration caused the magic to disappear.
When she'd made it outside, she drew her hands back and then pushed them both forwards. The Law Keepers tumbled through the air like leaves and fell into a pile on the ground. The guards at the gates immediately rushed forwards, surrounding the four vampires.
She rolled her shoulders and glared at the Law Keepers, keeping the magic circling around her hand in case they still tried to fight her.
They all turned away and walked silently to the gate. When they disappeared from view, she went back into the house. Hyperion was standing outside the study with Serenity.
"Wait here,” she said to Hyperion and then moved her attention to Serenity. “Please inform Mia and Dmitri that our guests have left. I would like you to gather everyone to the study. I will find Venturi, but I don't know where Cornelius, Xavier and Tiberius are."
She ignored the raised brow that Hyperion gave her. She'd made Venturi angry and it was down to her to calm him again. At the time, drawing his attention to her new scars had seemed like a wise idea, but even though his eyes had been black, she'd still been able to see all the hurt in them, hurt that she'd caused. She had to heal the breach between them. She couldn't focus when she knew he was mad at her.
Chapter 24
Heading down the hall, Prophecy honed her senses on Venturi's scent, following the path it made through the house. She looked up when she encountered a door, and frowned. The training room. Why had he come here?
Pushing the door open, she eased it closed behind her when she found Venturi standing in the middle of the room. He was staring at the floor, his back to her.
She leaned back against the door, unable to find her voice to break the heavy silence. He wasn't the only one she'd hurt back in the study. A part of her had been hurt too and she couldn't figure out why.
Venturi turned his head slightly. He could see her standing there, her hand still resting on the door handle behind her, as though she hadn't quite decided whether she was staying or leaving.
He didn't know which he'd prefer.
When she'd nonchalantly revealed her new marks to him in front of all those people, he'd felt as though she'd reached through his chest and torn out his heart. What had made him even angrier was when she'd looked shocked at how hurt he was. He couldn't understand it.
It didn't make any sense. It just wasn't sinking in that she'd let that dog of Aurorea claim her.
He stared unseeingly at the floor.
"It was here that I first believed there was a part of you that loved me,” he whispered, giving up the fight against his better judgement. She had to know, if only so she felt as terrible inside as he did.
She deserved to feel it.
She stepped towards him, her movements hesitant and unsure. He kept still, refusing to go to her. He'd never go to her again. What she'd done was irreversible. There was no chance for them now. It was all a foolish dream on his part. He'd been deluded to think that she could ever love him. She'd never loved him.
"I ... I...” She stumbled on the words and went silent when he turned to face her.
He held her gaze, taking in how small she looked and how much pain there was in her eyes. Even if it was multiplied a hundred-fold, it would still be less than what he was feeling.
"The Law Keepers are gone,” she said in a quiet voice. He glared at her hand when she held it out to him. “Come back to the study. Come back with me."
He frowned. She wasn't asking him to come back to the study with her. She wanted him to come back to her. How the hell did she think that was possible? Had she honestly believed that he'd be fine with this, that it wouldn't change anything between them? The voice at the back of his mind whispered spitefully that it hadn't. He may think that it had in an attempt to convince himself that his feelings for her were over now, but he still loved her. He'd always love her. No matter what happened or what she did, there would always be a place for her in his heart. She couldn't make him not love her, not by turning him away a million times, or beating him black and blue, and certainly not by something like being claimed by another man.
He didn't take her hand. Instead, he stepped up to her, looking down into her eyes and not letting one trace of emotion show in his. Hers were shining with unshed tears. He didn't allow himself to believe they were for his sake.
Maybe they had been once, in some fantasy of his where all this would have ended differently. She would have been his. He thought about that moment they'd shared in this room and stared deep into her eyes, searching them for a sign that what he'd thought that day was actually true.
She blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek. Her eyes told him everything her heart didn't dare put voice to.
"I know,” he whispered intimately and she started a little, “what I thought here that day is true."
He went to walk past her but she captured his cheek with her hand. It was a feather light touch that made him stay a moment when an uttered command would have made him leave.
His gaze slid across to meet hers again. He was surprised by the emotion in it and the gentle way her fingers played against his skin. They soothed him, coaxing him out of his vampire guise. It would be hurting her to do this with him. The claim was new. The revulsion at another's touch would still be strong.
She swallowed hard and looked as though she wanted to say something.
She didn't.
She just stared at him, drawing all of his feelings out of him no matter how hard he fought to keep them deep down inside.
There was no denial in her look. She wasn't telling him that he was wrong about her feelings. She was telling him that he was right. He could feel it in her touch, the way her fingers trembled, and see it in the fear in her eyes.
There had been a part of her that loved him, and by the looks of things, i
t loved him still, regardless of the claim between her and Valentine.
Raising his hand, he lightly touched hers where it still rested against his cheek, and gave her a look that said he finally understood. This claim had hurt them both, but it had not altered their feelings for one another.
He walked past her, opening the door and holding it for her to pass. She was silent as they walked along the hall, lost in heavy thoughts that knitted her brows. She wasn't thinking about him, but she wasn't thinking about Valentine either. Only one thing could be playing on her mind.
The impending battle.
They both knew where Elena was. Piotr had tried to call the inn over a dozen times without success. He hoped for his commander's sake that the innkeeper's daughter had survived whatever horror Elena had unleashed upon them. He'd never realised before today that Piotr's feelings for the girl extended beyond using her as a blood slave.
It seemed that no Tenebrae were lucky in love.
He followed Prophecy into the study and glared at Mia as he passed.
Prophecy stopped beside Hyperion. She gave a furtive glance to Venturi. He had gone to stand next to Piotr and they were talking quietly enough that she couldn't hear what was being said.
Hyperion pushed the two parts of the manuscript towards her and Venturi came over. Mia, Dmitri, Serenity and Cornelius gathered around the opposite side of the table. Piotr, Xavier and Tiberius stood to one side. She intimated for them to join the group. She was relying on them in this war as much as she was on everyone else present.
When everyone was surrounding the table, she stared down at the prophecy. It was such a small, delicate thing that it seemed impossible for it to be responsible for so much death and destruction. The haphazard marks on its surface still made no sense to her, but she could feel the weight of what they said keenly in her heart. The eclipse had come, and with it her power had risen. Had Elena's too, or was her power the one it spoke of?
She gave Venturi a look, asking him to tell her what it said.
He took up the manuscript and stared at it.
"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 paused and moved his gaze to meet hers.
His blue eyes shone with worry and she wanted to place her hand on his arm to reassure him that she was strong enough to face this battle and survive, but she could feel Mia watching them closely. And she could feel the amused smirk of Hyperion behind her. Venturi returned his attention to the prophecy and frowned.
"Our species will be decimated. Only in death can the light be released and the balance of power restored."
He held her gaze for a moment and she could see in it that he was waiting for her reaction. She frowned, mulling over the words in her head.
Only in death can the light be released.
Whose death and what light?
"Is it Elena's death?” she said to Venturi, almost pleading him to give her the answer. He gave her a clueless look so she turned to Hyperion. “If we kill Elena, the sun will come back ... is that what it's saying?"
"I am afraid that we do not know. Many great scholars debated the meaning of the prophecy when it was originally translated, and none of them agreed on anything but their inane belief that the child of the prophecy would destroy us all.” His tone was apologetic and she lowered her gaze to the scroll.
"But Iona didn't believe. She believed that I would save the world and that's why she saved me. She knew what she was doing, just like my mother did when she got herself turned while pregnant with me.” Prophecy slumped into the chair nearest her and stared unseeingly at the table, and Venturi's hands where they were pressed against the surface of it.
"We will decipher what it means so it may help you,” he said with such determination that she had to smile. It was exactly the kind of thing that Valentine would have said had he been there.
She shook her head. “We don't have time. The long night has begun. We must move and we must move now."
"To Romania?” he questioned.
She raised her eyes to meet his and nodded. “Hell knows how many zombies will be there to meet us."
A quiet gasp caught her attention and she turned her head to look at Mia. She was huddled against Dmitri's chest, her face pale.
"You don't have to come,” Prophecy said, seeing the fear in her friend's face.
Mia still hadn't fully recovered from the trauma of being attacked by zombies. Sometimes Prophecy overheard Dmitri comforting Mia, telling her that it was over now, she was safe from zombies. Now Prophecy was asking her to go back and fight them again, and a part of her wanted to say she didn't need Mia's help, or that of the werewolves, even when she did.
"We will come,” Dmitri said in his deep bass voice. He smiled at her while one of his large hands engulfed Mia's shoulder, holding her pressed tight against his chest. “You will need men."
Mia nodded when Prophecy looked at her.
She nodded too.
"The Three of Paris said that they will see you there."
Her attention shot back to Venturi. He held out the note to her and she took it, reading it over three times.
"They always seem to know the future.” She smiled and then stood.
Looking around the room, she wondered how they were going to defeat Elena. Their army was barely over a hundred-strong, not nearly enough to go to war against a necromancer as powerful as Elena. She could raise an army as large as her magic would allow, and for each soldier that fell, she could cast her spell on another. Their only hope lay in getting to Elena as fast as possible and not stopping to kill her entire army. It would be over quickest if they could just get to her and defeat her.
Her and Valentine, she corrected herself. Elena wasn't alone.
She looked down at her amulet to see it glowing red in its depths. Maybe she could change that. Elena would rely on Valentine's strength to aide her in the battle and keep her safe. If she were to remove Valentine, she would have a chance.
But could she really do it?
Her chest ached and every star on her body set off in a low, bone-aching pulse. She stared into the centre of the stone in her amulet, remembering the spells it had absorbed in her mother's mansion, and the things that Valentine had said.
She didn't think she could do it.
"Is something wrong?” Serenity said close to her ear and Prophecy looked at her, shaking her head.
"Everything is going to be just fine,” she said and walked across the room, giving herself space to think.
When she turned back around, everyone was watching her. They were waiting for her command.
"We're leaving. The army will go to Romania."
Hyperion nodded in acceptance of her order and smiled, his rich purple eyes shining with it. “I will send word to my men. They will be in Romania before a day is out. I will leave behind only those I cannot spare. Four dozen Watchmen will be yours to command."
She gave him a grateful look and then smiled shyly when he pressed a kiss to her hand.
"You promised me a good battle, but it seems you are going to bring me a great one. I am honoured to fight by the side of someone so powerful and alluring.” He squeezed her hand, his eyes remaining locked with hers and making her thankful that she couldn't blush. He grinned, evidently seeing how embarrassed she was.
She watched him signal to his Watchmen and leave.
"Dmitri, Mia ... gather your men and meet us there,” she said and waited for Dmitri to nod before turning to Tiberius and Xavier. “I must ask you two to lead the army to Romania. I trust in your ability to command them. Do it swiftly. Lose no time and don't leave yourself open to attack. Elena will hopefully have her focus elsewhere while we travel, but she will be expecting us."
Tiberius saluted her. “We will see to it the army arrives safely."
She smiled at both him and Xavier. They turned to each other with heavy frowns and began to talk tactics so she looked at P
iotr. She gave a hesitant glance to Venturi and then spoke to his head guard.
"I need the Tenebrae there as soon as possible. Is the jet still here?"
"It is. My lord and our commanders will travel directly to Romania and meet you at the inn,” he said.
She swallowed hard and looked at Venturi. “If you don't mind, Piotr, I would prefer Venturi travelled with me."
She ignored the way she could feel Mia's eyes boring into her and held Venturi's gaze.
"Then I will travel with you also. Where my lord goes, I go. The commanders will take the jet.” Piotr's voice was firm, showing her there was no way of changing his mind.
She didn't know what to say to him so she nodded, still staring into Venturi's eyes. He looked a little stunned and she wondered how he could have thought she'd be happy travelling without him. She felt like reminding him that he'd sworn to protect her and he wouldn't be able to do that from another plane, but he didn't look as though he'd appreciate her teasing him and she knew that his oath wasn't the whole reason she wanted him with her. She wanted the comfort his proximity gave her.
"Serenity, Cornelius, you will both travel with us in the Caelestis jet. Serenity, please make arrangements for transporting the army.” She turned to look at her friend and saw the nerves in her dark eyes. She looked at her head guard. “Tiberius, please see to it that Serenity is fitted for the armour I asked for."
Serenity's eyes widened and she smiled.
"I would never risk you. You are to go with Tiberius and prepare yourself, understand?” Prophecy took a deep breath and then frowned. “And gather the houses. It's time they knew."
* * * *
Prophecy stared at the people gathered before her. To her left stood Hyperion and to her right was Serenity. She glanced at Venturi where he stood in front of his commanders, and then at Mia and Dmitri where they were speaking with the werewolves.
She toyed with the hilt of the sword hanging at her waist and eyed the Aurorea and the Caelestis. They looked as uneasy as she felt.
"You're not fools,” she said, raising her voice until it was loud enough for all to hear and to understand the gravity of what she was about to say. These two bloodlines hadn't gone to war for over three centuries, and they hadn't gone to war together for even longer than that. “You have seen the eclipse and you know what it means."
