by Bella Klaus
Rebirth of the Vampire King
Bella Klaus
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Also by Bella Klaus
Night of the Vampire King
Copyright © 2021 by Bella Klaus.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.
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Chapter One
Time stilled. At least it did for me because my heart stopped beating, and cold spread through my insides like the onset of frost. It filled my chakras, stretched across my meridians and seeped into my cardiovascular system until even my capillaries stopped sending blood to the outer layer of my skin.
Weeks ago, when I first stepped into Koffiek, it was an exotic establishment of clay floors and walls and a three-tiered water feature that spouted freshly brewed coffee. I had been awed at its North African-style decor and its sophistication. Never once had I imagined that this would be the place where Valentine would die.
Valentine’s severed head flew across the air and landed in the fountain with a splash that resounded through my eardrums.
Out of the corner of my eye, Valentine’s headless body stumbled forward several steps before falling onto the coffee-soaked floor.
For the next few moments, nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Nobody seemed to breathe. Not even the cloaked vampire who had cut off Valentine’s head.
My gaze darted from one part of the man I loved to the other. Back and forth, back and forth, my mind trying to puzzle through the attack. In a moment, Valentine would rise, retrieve his head, and continue fighting. Wouldn’t he?
“Is he dead?” Irdu asked, but his voice sounded like it came from behind a barrier of ice.
“He was never alive to begin with,” Prince Draconius snapped.
A draft swirled around my naked body, and water dripped from my wet hair, but I barely registered anything through the layers of numb shock encasing my heart.
Irdu pointed at Valentine’s body, which lay on the coffee-drenched floor. “Then how do you explain that twitch?”
“Didn’t any of you ever tear the head off a chicken when you were children?” Prince Draconius drawled, sounding thoroughly fed up with dealing with the demons.
My eyes shifted to the left. Coffee continued to surge through the fountain’s spout, overfilling the base tier, and Valentine’s severed head rolled to the surface, his eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
I forced a breath through my nostrils, but it caught in the back of my throat. Tried to move my arms, but my body wouldn’t cooperate, not even my heart. Part of Valentine still existed, and he was wholly dependent on me for survival. His sphere was in my cloak, and my cloak was in that hotel room with the transparent windows.
If I didn’t move before Prince Draconius took advantage of my shock and destroyed his heart, I would lose Valentine forever.
“Finalize King Valentine’s accounts.” Irdu’s voice pierced my efforts to break free. “Send an invoice to his palace in Logris and copy the Royal House of Sargon in New Mesopotamia,” said Irdu. “If they don’t settle within the customary forty-eight hours, send bailiffs.”
One of the demons shuffled forward and bowed. “Yes, my lord.”
The vampire who just destroyed Valentine’s preternatural body turned him over with his foot. There should have been blood, but the only moisture in the wound came from the coffee. Valentine had probably used up his reserves while fighting all those ancients.
Somewhere deep inside, beneath the layers of numbness, tiny fists battered at me to break free of this torpor, to protect Valentine’s body from this outrageous disrespect. But I couldn’t move beyond the horror of his decapitation.
Clawed hands wrapped around my bicep, and Irdu pulled me into his bare chest. Somewhere on the edge of my awareness, I registered the scent of brimstone and freshly sliced oranges. “As for you—”
“Not so fast.” Prince Draconius appeared on my other side. “You forfeit the phoenix since you failed to uphold your end of the agreement.”
“How so?” Irdu wrapped a muscular arm around my chest.
Prince Draconius grabbed my wrist. “You told the phoenix that you would set my nephew free in exchange for her servitude. Valentine died in captivity, thereby rendering your agreement—which I might add was not signed in blood—null and void.”
Irdu’s maniacal laugh resounded against my bare back. Under any other circumstances, standing in the wreckage of a demonic coffee shop would have been alarming. Being fought over by a monster who looked like he slept in a sarcophagus and a vampire so old, his uncanny features should have made every fine hair on my body stand on end, but I felt nothing.
Everything paled next to the sight of Valentine’s body lying unmoving on the floor with his head bobbing up and down in a fountain.
Prince Draconius and Irdu continued to bicker over ownership of me, the sounds of their voices grating against my barrier of ice. Everyone from around the coffee shop formed a circle of spectators, gaping at us as though we were the evening’s entertainment.
“Her firstborn is mine, but I will let you bid on her second,” said Irdu. “How about that?”
“That phoenix wears my nephew’s call stone,” the prince snarled. “She is the property of my Royal House, and as the guardian of my nephew’s heir, ownership of her reverts to me.”
Irdu made a noise that sounded like a hyena. “Then we’ll split the phoenix in half.”
“This isn’t funny, you counterfeit Egyptian,” the prince hissed. “Everyone knows you’re a hybrid who gained power by purchasing stolen life-force.”
The vampires all snickered, making Irdu’s demon employees snarl. Prince Draconius tugged my arm hard enough to dislocate my shoulder, and sharp pain tore through the joint, shattering the numb ice that had encased my heart.
I fell hard on my knees, letting myself hang down, suspended by the dislocated joint. Valentine was dead. Dead and destroyed. Dead and decapitated. Dead and departed.
Pain turned to agony that tore through my heart with claws of fire, and the agony transmuted to anger. Valentine had hurt nobody, yet Prince Draconius and his army of ancient vampires had hunted him to death. Irdu, who was supposed to value Valentine’s custom, had allowed his demon to hold him immobile so that anyone could land the killing blow.
Rage seared through my veins, and my heart pounded hard enough to rupture. Either Irdu or Prince Draconius reached down to where I knelt, grabbed my other arm, and yanked me to my feet.
The edges of my vision filled with red flames that clawed and lapped and spread. Before I knew it, fire consumed me, making every fiber of my body burn.
A cry tore from my throat, but there was nothing human in the sound. Fire spread across my arms, en
gulfing both Irdu and Prince Draconius, filling the coffee shop with their screams.
The vampires and demons surrounding us jumped back, but the two burning figures to our left and right flailed, just like Father Jude had thrashed when he’d set himself on fire touching my flames.
I launched myself to the sky, propelled by grief and pain and anguish, not knowing how to fix this awful calamity. Could I save a man who had been decapitated? Valentine was already dead, and he had recovered from the time Jonathan had sliced off his arm…
“Capture that phoenix,” a massive demon yelled. “She just burned Irdu.”
The demons below me scattered across the shop floor, some of them racing to the doors, including many of those who sported wings. I didn’t care about them—I only wanted to save Valentine.
Flames consumed the two figures, who writhed and danced around the space below until the fire burned through their vocal cords. I circled the air with my wings outstretched, flying over the mezzanine, and considered what to do next.
A hooded figure rushed to the fountain toward Valentine’s head. The glint of a curved sword made my eyes narrow. It was the vampire who had decapitated Valentine.
With an avian shriek, I swooped down with my talons outstretched and tore at his back.
“Stop!” the vampire screamed. “Somebody, help.”
The satisfying stench of seared flesh filled my nostrils, and I threw back my head and crowed.
“Get off my brother.” Another vampire sliced a blade through my body with a whoosh.
I felt nothing except for a slight cooling of my flames as the metal melted. I removed my claws from the screaming vampire and glowered at my attacker, who stumbled back, the hood falling off and revealing the face of a blue-haired woman.
A screech tore from my beak, and I spat a mouthful of flames that landed on her belly, making her fall to the ground, screaming. None of her comrades came to her rescue, and all the vampires stood by the walls, gaping at what had become of their colleagues.
With one mighty flap of my wings, I rose several feet into the air and circled the coffee shop. Until I worked out a way to touch things without burning them, I would have to wait until later to retrieve Valentine’s body.
Two figures stood in a doorway—Nut and Geb, both clad in black jumpsuits and staring up at me through determined eyes. Nut raised her hand, beckoning at me to come closer. A sad caw caught in my fiery throat. There was no way for me to fit into something as narrow as a hallway.
I turned my head to my wings, trying to tell her that I was too big, but she shook her head and mimed folding her arms.
Nodding, I swooped down with my wings outstretched. As I reached the floor, I leaned back, straightened my legs, and landed.
Nobody dared to approach except for an imp with horns like a bull, who reached out a clawed hand as I passed.
“Hello,” he said in a voice one might use to address a pampered poodle or kitten. “How would you like to come—”
I spat a ball of fire at his feet, making him flinch, and waddled toward the doorway. Not every part of me was fire, I realized as my claws click-clacked against the hard floor. Steam rose from each step as the coffee on the floor evaporated and fizzed, the mingled scents of roasted beans mingling with something both magical and sinister.
There were no signs of flaming bodies on the edges of my vision. Either Irdu and Prince Draconius had burned to ashes or someone had extinguished them. Neither option made much difference to me. Even if they were lucky enough to have incinerated, their remains would still be destroyed by all that spilled coffee.
“Somebody seize her,” a deep voice snarled.
Sparks of frustration flew off my feathers. What the hell did they want from me now?
The air crackled and thickened with the same kind of power that had held us in place, but the flames rolling off my feathers burned through the magic, and I continued toward the twins. Hope flared deep within my anguish that Valentine still had allies and that they had survived the fall. I folded my wings behind my back and picked up my pace.
By the time I entered the hallway, Geb had disappeared but Nut remained visible, continuing to beckon me close. Missiles flew through my body, either melting and falling to the floor with several clunks or evaporating.
My throat thickened. This was why Kresnik wanted my phoenix power so desperately. It didn’t seem to have any weaknesses.
Eventually, my attackers gave up, and I followed the twins down a staircase that seemed to go on forever. Cats poked their heads through flaps in the doors that led to the hallway, some of them disappearing with a hiss, others trying to bat at the flames curling off my talons. I edged away from the curious cats, not wanting any of them to get burned.
When we reached the room with the glass walls, Nut held up my reaper cloak and gave it a shake, indicating that I should transform.
I shook my head from side to side. “This is only my second time.” The words came out a series of caws. “I don’t know how.”
Her features hardened and she shook the cloak, flinging her arm out to the open bathroom door, where Geb stood in front of a mirror.
Understanding rippled through my flames. I bobbed my head up and down, my heart aching at the thought of leaving Valentine’s body upstairs in the hands of enemies. Nut and Geb had worked out an exit and wanted me to leave. Squeezing my eyes shut, I focussed on turning myself solid, but when I opened them, I was still a phoenix.
A loud banged rattled the door, and Geb rushed out into the room, pointing at the mirror and yelling a string of words in an ancient language I couldn’t understand.
With a growl, Nut waved the cloak, ushering me toward the bathroom like she was herding an unstable bull. I clacked my beak, wanting to tell the twins I would never hurt them, but I didn’t dare try to use body language in case my wings hit Nut and set her on fire.
The bathroom mirror was about as wide as a door—wide enough to fit a woman-sized phoenix and her flames. Explosions sounded in the hallway, making the door behind us rattle. I waddled faster to the mirror, whose glass rippled like the surface of a lake.
“Bloody hell,” I muttered under my breath, making a strange trilling sound.
I raised one leg into the glass, hitting a hard floor on the other end, squeezed my eyes shut and dipped my head, and then stepped through with the other leg. Right now, I was placing all my faith in the twins that I wouldn’t end up in a cage somewhere in Hell or on an auction block being sold to the highest bidder in revenge for them falling off a high building.
As soon as I landed on firm ground, I opened my eyes, meeting the smiling face of the King of Demons. Today, he wore a red cravat beneath a black dressing gown with a matching sash, his hair mussed like some woman had run through it in the throes of passion. A five-o’clock shadow graced his cheeks, adding to the façade of lazy charm.
My gaze darted from side to side. We were in his mahogany office, with the fire crackling in the background. Sitting at the desk on the left of the room was his assistant Namara, who glanced up from her laptop and offered me a nod.
“What a glorious sight,” Hades said with a happy sigh.
I reared back as everything clicked at once. I hadn’t told anyone—not even Kain—that Valentine had summoned me to Koffie using the call stone. The only people who knew my location were Nut, Geb, and Hades.
Every feather on my body bristled, making my fire flare.
The Demon King tilted his head to the side, his grin widening. “Do you know how long it’s been since I last saw a phoenix?” He shook his head, looking like the Fates had given him a rare gift… That, or he was delighted with the success of what were his latest machinations. “Miss Griffin, you are truly magnificent.”
Blood roared through my ears, punctuated by the frantic drumbeat of my pulse. Hades tracked me with the cloak. Hades, the duplicitous demon who once set up a trap to ensnare Valentine and me, then tried to capture me again when I had resurrected him from his ashe
s. I had been foolish enough to leave the Demon King chatting with the prince, who probably helped him concoct a plan to destroy Valentine.
“You did this,” I screeched, barely registering that I had transformed back into a woman.
Hades reared back, his brows drawn together. “Miss Griffin?”
I launched myself at the Demon King, knocking him down to the floor. My magic flared, with flames erupting from my hands, but he held on to my wrists, keeping my burning palms off his face with a grip of steel.
His brow furrowed, his features etched with confusion. “While I welcome being set upon by a naked woman, especially one as beautiful as you, something in your demeanor says your intentions aren’t to seduce.”
A growl resonated deep within my chest. “You set us up.”
Hades rolled us over, pinning me to the wooden floor. His cravat loosened, and the front of his gown gaped open, but I snatched my gaze away from his deliberate attempt to flash.
“Explain yourself,” he said in a voice hard enough to remind me that I was trying to tussle with a creature more ancient than I could fathom.
Tears stung the backs of my eyes, and ragged sobs tore from the back of my throat. My magic failed me just when I wanted to destroy the wretched demon who had ruined everything. Without him and the Mage King’s trap, Valentine and I would have found a way to unlock my magic and restore him to life, and neither of us would ever have ended up with Kresnik.
I brought up my knee to his crotch, but the air thickened before I could reach my target. Hades must have gotten himself in this position a thousand times and already knew to prepare some protective magic.
His eyes turned cold. “Don’t take me lightly because I’m unable to retaliate,” he said, suggesting that he was already looking for ways to break free from our bond. “Which heinous crime was I supposed to have perpetrated?”
