Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (12 page)

Cutting down a side street, she sharpened her senses, this time making sure that she focused on her surroundings and didn’t let her thoughts of Valentine creep in. It was no wonder she was going to get hurt if she couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t trust that she would make it through the fight no matter what. She had already altered her destiny once, it would be easy for her to slip up and get herself killed. After a lot of thought, she’d come to realise that her visions didn’t guarantee the things to come. Overall, her destiny was mapped out, but she was beginning to think that how she got there was a little more pliable.

The idea that she did have a small amount of control over her life made her feel stronger and more confident. She had been starting to feel as though there was no point in making decisions because her fate had been written before she had been born. Now she felt more alive and in charge. She could still shape her destiny to a degree, even if the end result was the same. She wondered if she could change that too. If fate had decided she was going to destroy the world, could she change her destiny and save it instead?

Her head ached with questions she didn’t have answers to and her eyes widened when she found she had again let her concentration slip.

Focusing, she frowned when she felt something on the very edge of her senses. She took a deep breath and carried on walking up the hill towards the church. She was much closer now, near enough that she could make out the details of the white building that clung to the hillside. It was only a matter of time before the Nocens reached her.

Their signatures were growing stronger now. There were at least a dozen of them and she didn’t know how many she’d have to fight before she escaped to the church and found the book.

She could feel the magic already building inside of her. It made her fingertips tingle and her marks itch. If the Nocens got too close to her, she would blast them all and run for the church. It was a distance up the hill, but she knew she could make it.

A noise made her cock her head a fraction and she listened to them approaching.

She stopped and looked up at the church. In the light from the lamps, she could see it was beginning to rain. The wet tiles of the church reflected what little light there was just as they had done in her vision and the stairs and turrets that were built into the hillside were beginning to grow darker as the water soaked into their pale stones.

Flexing her fingers, she held her position, waiting for the Nocens to make their move. They were still a distance off, and she wanted them as close as possible before she turned to face them. She still couldn’t count their number. They had to be moving in close formation to cloud their signatures. Her senses were reacting as though there was one large demon coming towards her.

She listened to their footsteps on the ground, using their unique sounds to tell her the build of each vampire. One of them stood out in amongst the rest. The stride was confident and heavy. It had to be the leader.

Taking one last breath to steady her nerves, she brought her hands around in front of her and gripped her wrist. She didn’t look down at the amulet. She already knew what it would look like. The magic was growing, intensifying the feelings inside of her and heightening her senses. She could count the number of Nocens now. There were fourteen, two more than she’d anticipated. It didn’t matter. There could be a hundred and she would still fight them. They were standing between her and something she wanted. They were slowing her down.

Closing her eyes, she forced her focus to move to her hand and the magic. She thought about the danger that Valentine was in while she was here in Budapest and used the pain she’d felt in him during her vision as the catalyst for her power.

She raised her hand while she turned. In one sweeping motion, she was face to face with the leader of the Nocens group and had the amulet pointing at them. She splayed her fingers, holding herself steady and not letting any sign of nerves show on her face or in her signature. She had been taught to mask her true feelings in the presence of the enemy. It had failed with Valentine, but she had perfected the technique now. Besides, she was more confident in her power and her fighting abilities than she’d ever been. The Nocens were no match for her. If they chose to attack, they would soon realise their mistake.

The leader of the Nocens regarded her, his fiery orange eyes raking over her body and his fine brows arching. She remained standing motionless in the same spot, letting him take the time to see what he was up against. She didn’t have to mask her fear when she looked over the group. She wasn’t scared of them. She’d taken on an entire army of Tenebrae that had looked more skilled and dangerous than the ragged bunch in front of her.

She took another deep breath and moved her feet so they were shoulder distance apart. Chatter broke out in amongst the group and she watched them bend their heads together and mutter in a language she couldn’t understand. The leader growled low and guttural in his throat and silence descended.

He stepped forwards, looking confident and sure of himself, but she caught the fear that surfaced briefly in his eyes.

“The child of the prophecy?” he said in a deep accented voice.

She said nothing and kept still. He was a fool if he couldn’t see who he was dealing with. She smiled and it seemed to unnerve the group. If they wanted to know who she was, she was happy to show them.

She let the magic grow and leave her fingers. There was no need to keep it contained now. It would be an advantage to her to have them scared and she intended to frighten the life out of them. Keeping her eyes locked with the leader’s, she directed her hand towards the edge of the group and kept her face impassive as she released the magic. The startled cries and screams of pain made confidence swell inside of her. She could see the group bunching up and moving away from where she’d aimed. It was exactly what she’d wanted them to do.

Moving her hand, she released another bolt of magic and this time watched it tear through the vampire who had strayed away from the group on the other side. The group moved again, this time gathering behind the leader while they watched with horrified expression as the vampires she’d killed slowly disintegrated.

Bringing her eyes back to the leader, she smiled when she saw the same look of fear and horror on his face.

She counted the number of Nocens left. There were eleven now. Something told her that the leader wasn’t going to back down after losing only three of his kin.

She frowned when a smile flickered on his lips and then her eyes widened when she picked up on something at the edge of her senses. She began to turn but it was too late. Pain burned in her side like an inferno and she screamed in agony. She snarled and brought her elbow back, hitting the vampire behind her directly in the face, and then pulled the knife from her side. Turning on the spot, she slashed across the vampire’s throat, taking her head clean off. She kicked the body away as it began to decompose and then swung around to face the group.

In the split second that she’d been distracted, they had started running at her. She leapt clear of them, landed safely behind them and rolled onto her feet so she was facing their backs. She was barely in control of the power that surged through her. Her lip curled and her brows knit as she sneered at the Nocens. Some of them scrambled to face her while the others tried to flee.

She clutched her side with her left hand and stared straight into the eyes of the leader when she unleashed the magic. Sweeping her hand across, the threads of magic lanced through the vampires. It buried itself deep into them and she held her breath as she waited to see what was going to happen. The leader grasped his chest and howled in pain when a bright light tore through him. She flinched away when the others followed, the magic burning them to cinders and leaving nothing but ash behind.

Slumping slightly, she held her side and stared down at it. In the dim light, she could see the blood spilling over her fingers. She hadn’t even noticed the female vampire. She had been so preoccupied in scaring the group that she could see and had focused her senses on them so she could get the most pleasure out of feeling their fear.

A noise up the steep bank from her drew her attention and she frowned when she saw something move in the shadows. She started after them but by the time she had reached the spot, they were running down the street. The Nocens would know that she was in town now. The group she had fought had probably been a hunting party that had run across her by chance. She had to get the book and get out of the city as fast as possible, but there wasn’t another train before tomorrow night. She had almost eighteen hours to pass in Budapest. It was going to be a long eighteen hours.

She changed into her vampire guise and used her heightened senses to scan the shadows surrounding her. There wasn’t a sign of any more vampires, but she was sure that would change soon enough. The Nocens that had fled the scene would report back to their family that she was in the city. She was going to have to move quickly to avoid them.

Running up the steps, she cursed the sky when the rain began to fall more heavily and pulled her small black jacket closed around herself. She kept her hand pressed into her side and cringed when the wound ached. It wasn’t far to the church now. Once she was inside, she would heal herself just as she had in her vision and would find the book. At least she knew where to find it. That would save her time.

She turned when she reached the top of the flight of steps and walked up the next set that led up onto the square. She glanced at the statues under the arch she passed through and then stepped out into the open again. There was a figure of a man on a horse in front of her and the spires of the pale fairytale-like building seemed to glow against the dark sky.

To her right, the church rose up and she scowled at the cross emblazoned on it. She hunched up and kept her eyes downcast while she walked across the empty square to the church. Heading down the side, she kicked open one of the smaller wooden doors and went in. She ducked when the thunder boomed overhead and listened to the rain falling heavily on the tiled roof. Heading into the centre of the building, she leaned against one of the wooden pews and pulled her top up. The incision was clean but she knew it went deep. The knife the woman had used had been at least six inches in length. Sighing, she held her amulet against the wound. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, waiting for the pain.

It wasn’t as bad as she’d been expecting. It tingled a little but she couldn’t see why Valentine and Venturi had made such a fuss over it. Concentrating on healing herself, she gasped when it began to burn with pain and took back what she’d thought. It did hurt. It hurt like Hell. Her free hand tightly gripped the pew and she clenched her jaw when the wound began to throb. She could almost feel her flesh knitting back together and it turned her stomach, making her head spin along with it.

The second the pain subsided, she removed her hand and lifted her shirt. She raised her brows when she looked at the smooth skin where the wound had been. There wasn’t even a scar.

She ran her fingers lightly over her side, amazed at how easy it had been to fix herself. The last thing she needed were wounds slowing her down. It would have healed in a day or two, but during that time, she would have been in pain. It was better this way. She had the magic for a reason and she might as well make the most of it.

Looking around her, she ignored the flashes of lightning and the heavy thunder and searched for the door she had gone through in her vision. She spotted it at the side of the church on her left and walked along the narrow avenue between the pews to reach it.

Peering into the stairwell, she was stunned by how it looked exactly like she had seen it. She crept down the stone spiral steps, gripping onto the central column for dear life just as she had done in her vision. When she reached the bottom, she went straight to the metal door. She raised her hand, took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes on her target. The moment she released the magic, she dived behind the nearest tomb and covered her head. The sound of ripping metal still made her insides lurch. It was so close to a piercing cry or tormented scream that she couldn’t stop herself from picturing all the vampires she’d slain at the battle in the Tenebrae’s castle.

She scrambled to her feet when the dust settled and grabbed the unlit torch from the socket in the wall. Lighting it on one of the other torches, she carried it with her into the room. She set it into the holder on the wall and placed her hands on her hips, looking at the stone box.

It was time to discover the extent of her mother’s legacy.

Pushing the heavy lid off, she removed the cloth wrapped book and took it into the other room. She placed it down on one of the tombs and inhaled a few times before finding the courage to unwrap it. Contained in this book were the spells her mother had used with the magic and Prophecy’s heart told her that she needed them if she was going to survive the upcoming battle.

She might not know who the robed person was that she would be fighting, but she didn’t need to in order to hone her craft and learn how to use her powers. Whoever they were, no matter how strong they turned out to be, she would use the spells to destroy them.

With trembling fingers, she unwrapped the book and stared at it. It was as large as any of the books she’d had to study in the library and at least twice as thick. There had to be over a thousand pages. How was she supposed to commit all of it to memory?

She ran her fingers over the dark grey cover. It was cold to the touch and decorated with a lighter pewter-coloured metal. There was an intricate design that looked exactly like the star on the back of her amulet. Her fingertips brushed the dust out of the indentations in the cover and she frowned at the marks. They didn’t look like a part of the pattern. They were familiar for some reason. Was she supposed to know them? She searched her memories and it felt as though she should. There was something hazy in the back of her mind but she couldn’t quite remember it and the harder she tried, the more it seemed to slip away.