Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (14 page)

“Venturi—” She started.

“Don’t.” He cut her off and his tone softened. “Let us forget the past and the things we have said and done. I have work to do.”

“You’re not sleeping? It’s daylight there isn’t it?” She hated the way his words made her heart heavy. It was as though he’d shut her out and now that he had, she wanted to be back in. She didn’t want him to become distant. She’d liked having him around and being on easy terms with him. It had been difficult when Valentine had been cold towards her, but at least then he’d never been affectionate and friendly. To have Venturi go that way would hurt her more than she dared to admit.

“I cannot sleep, no matter how hard I try.” There was a solemn edge to his voice and it made her frown.

“Why not?” she asked and his silence told her everything she needed to know. He’d slept that night and she’d left. No matter what he said to her, she knew that was the underlying reason. She’d left him while he was sleeping and now he couldn’t. It was her fault. She sighed. Bad things seemed to happen to everyone she met.

He heaved a sigh. “I swore to protect you.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have left like that. I wanted, no, I needed to be alone almost as much as I need to find Valentine.”

“If you find Valentine, you won’t be alone.” His words were loaded with so much meaning that even the hardest of hearts would have been able to see his feelings for her.

She felt them keenly in hers.

“I know I won’t,” she said and hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. “I really should go. I have to sleep before the train back to Paris this evening.”

“Will you at least keep in touch? If you have to be away, at least tell me where you are and that you are safe. I cannot protect you from such a distance, but I am here if you need me.”

“Thank you, Venturi.” She held the phone a little tighter. “If anyone calls, if the Three or Mia … I’ll be here until sundown.”

“I shall tell them. Be careful, Prophecy.”

She smiled into the phone. “You too.”

She held it against her ear, not daring to be the first to put it down. When a purring rang through the receiver, she placed it down and stared at it. She hated how muddled he made her inside. Her feelings for him were nothing more than friendship, but sometimes she felt a little more towards him than appropriate. She felt as though she was being tested by some higher power. Valentine had been taken away from her and in his place, she had been given Venturi. As charming and attractive as he was, her heart only wanted Valentine.

Lying back on the bed, she stared at the ceiling. Valentine. It seemed like so long since she’d seen him. She could still picture his face when they’d been up on the plateau above the castle of Tenebrae. He’d looked at her with so much love in his eyes that she’d felt as though she was going to suffocate on her emotions and he’d still felt the need to ask her whether she really knew that he loved her. She’d known it long before he had.

She smiled and closed her eyes, her thoughts remaining with him as she drifted off to sleep.

Opening her eyes, she saw the now familiar darkness surrounding her. She felt the stab of pain and the chill of fear. She blinked away the tears they brought and got to her feet. Soon, all this suffering would be over. Her heart said she was getting closer to the day she would save him.

Something glinted in the inky blackness when she moved forwards a few steps. She walked over to it and stared down at it. It was her book. She jumped a little inside when sleek, pale hands came into view and picked it up. Their owner was humming a sweet melody that she felt she ought to know. Had she heard it when she was in her mother’s womb?

She smiled when her mother brushed her long auburn hair from her face and continued to sing to herself while running her fingers over the book. There was such a pure innocence in her voice and her actions. Her mother always seemed to be laughing or at the very least happy. She must have had a good life, and regardless of what Elena had told her, Prophecy knew that her mother wasn’t trapped roaming the world. She was happy still.

“You have the book,” her mother said.

“I do, but I can’t open it. It won’t budge.”

Her mother smiled. “It can be tricky. There’s such powerful spells in here that it has to be like this. You’ll find the way in.”

She was about to ask her mother how to get in when the ground beneath her feet wobbled and buckled. The sound of cracking earth filled her ears, echoing like thunder in the darkness. Spots of red appeared, small at first, but quickly turning into streaks like lightning along the ground. She flinched when intense heat hit her and the sound of a million voices all speaking at once filled the air.

“What’s happening?” she called out to her mother and then ran towards her when she saw that her mother was fading. “Don’t leave me!”

The ground trembled again and deep booming laughter made her freeze to the spot. She turned sharply on the spot, trying to locate the source of the chilling laugh. She squinted into the darkness and could make out a shifting silhouette against the red fiery cracks in the floor. It was massive, a whole bank of demons whose horns and wings made frightening shapes. She backed away and closed her eyes, willing herself to wake up.

Instead, the ground beneath her feet gave way and she screamed when she fell into darkness. She opened her eyes a fraction, too scared to fully see what was happening around her. More voices echoed in her head, all speaking different languages. She caught snippets of Russian in amongst them and her eyes widened when a flash of a Russian church zoomed past her. She felt sick when image after image flared into existence and then just as quickly disappeared again. There were places she didn’t recognise, but one that she did. She stopped breathing the second Dmitri’s bastion appeared in front of her and she reached a hand out, trying to keep hold of the image so she could see what it meant.

A rush of air from below her chilled her to the bone and she struggled to remain conscious. She watched the image of the castle fading and realised that it wasn’t the image that was growing dark, her eyes were closing and it was her who was fading.

She shot up into a sitting position on the bed and gasped at air while staring at the far wall.

Her head shot around when she finally heard the telephone beside her bed ringing. She stared at it for a moment, letting herself fully come back to the world and then reached across and lifted the receiver.

“Hello?” she said.

There was silence and then a distant voice.

“We know where Valentine is.”

Prophecy vaulted the gate and strode across the empty field, keeping her eyes fixed on the woods in front of her. She still couldn’t understand her vision last night, or whether it was wholly a vision at all. She had been scared that her mother was going to Hell for what she’d done and suddenly she had been surrounded by a fiery landscape and hulking demons. She hoped that it wasn’t a vision. It wasn’t that she was scared of having to fight the demons. It was just that she didn’t want to go to Hell, and she definitely didn’t want Hell coming to Earth.

She still felt queasy from falling through the ground and into the darkness beyond. Visions where she was walking about and doing things, those she could stomach, but ones that consisted of flashes of images all rushing by at high speed, those made her feel sick. She couldn’t see why those visions had to be so hurried. Was it her own sense of urgency that was affecting them? Before Valentine had disappeared, her visions had been smooth, playing out in real time. Now her visions were jumpy and they zoomed around all over the place.

A distant wolf howl told her she was getting closer to her destination. She flexed her fingers to limber up a little and extended her claws. They weren’t going to scare her this time. She wasn’t a child any more. She didn’t have Valentine here to tell her not to react. If they came near her, if they tried to goad her into fighting them, they’d soon realise it was a mistake. Now wasn’t a time for their mind games and empty threats. She’d kill whoever ventured close enough.

Entering the outskirts of the forest, she slid into vampire guise and frowned when her stomach growled. It had been too long since she’d eaten. She’d not tasted a fresh kill in over a week. Valentine was right. Bottled blood was nothing when compared to fresh stuff directly from the source.

Her body swam with desire at that thought.

She snarled when a werewolf came too close to her and it slunk off into the shadows. Walking straight through the trees to the castle, she kept her head held high when she approached it. The massive front of the building was as imposing and dark as she remembered it. The crenelated roof lent it the castle-like feel and the dark grey stone made it appear gloomy.

The doors opened of their own accord and she went through them, not bothering to look back this time and ignoring the shadows on either side of her. The high vaulted ceiling still made the long room impressive but now that she wasn’t frightened of what lurked in the darkness around her, it wasn’t as mysterious and daunting.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the pack of werewolves that were following her, waiting for one of them to come too near to her so she could scare them off. She would have been more scared of them if they’d been in human form. The ones nearer the back were as tall as her waist. In human form, they would have towered over her, making them even more frightening. Just like Dmitri was.

She’d not seen him in his werewolf guise, but she was certain he wouldn’t be anywhere near as terrifying when changed into a wolf as he was when human.

Stepping through the arched doorway, she snarled and bared her teeth at the werewolves that raced to catch up with her. They flinched away but still held their places, flanking her while she walked towards the empty throne.

“Go and get your master,” she said to the nearest werewolf. It growled at her, as though affronted at that thought, and then disappeared through one of the doors on either side of the fireplace.

“Dmitri would not appreciate you calling him their master,” Mia’s calm voice came from the shadows.

Prophecy turned to see her coming out of the other door. Mia looked as beautiful as ever, her pale skin such a contrast against her tight black dress and her raven hair.

“It’s what he is, isn’t it?” Prophecy said, trying without success to keep the bitterness from her voice.

“You bear a grudge against him for his decision at the Tenebrae castle. Do not forget that it was I who offered to keep a watchful eye on my environs and it was I who reported to you that I had found Valentine.”

Intense guilt squirmed in Prophecy’s stomach. She hadn’t meant to sound angry with Mia, but she hadn’t been able to help herself. The hurt of being left to find Valentine alone still stung her heart and it hadn’t faded yet, not even with Mia calling her. She had believed that Mia and Dmitri would help her, would come with her to find Valentine, and they had turned their backs on her in her time of need. She was never going to forget it.

“Where is he?” she asked.

Mia cast a glance at the door. Prophecy listened hard and frowned when she heard the footsteps approaching. They were heavy and she knew who they belonged to. Dmitri was coming.

She held her ground when he walked into the room and straight over to her. He raked his eyes over her and she saw no sign of apology in them. Turning away from him, she kept her focus on Mia, blocking him out and refusing to deal with him.

It was Mia who had contacted her, and it was Mia that she had come to see.

“Tell me where he is,” she said to Mia.

Dmitri snorted in contempt of her actions but she didn’t look at him.

“We should discuss this somewhere more comfortable,” Mia said and led the way into the lounge that Prophecy had passed time in with Valentine during their visit.

Prophecy followed in silence, feeling Dmitri behind her while they walked through the doorway. Her eyes immediately sought out the painting over the fireplace that had fascinated her last time they were here. It was still as mesmerising now. The dark castle in the distance really drew her eye into it, and the details of the war and the image of Mia and Dmitri locked in battle in their respective demonic guises made her want to stand for hours just looking at it.

Dragging her gaze away from it, she took the glass of blood Mia offered her and thanked the Venia with a nod of her head. She sipped it, waiting to hear what Mia had to say.

“Arkalus and Kalinor have him. There is a mansion house on the other side of St. Petersburg, near the palace of Validus. They are holding him there. My spies brought me word of this just yesterday, but I cannot guarantee that he is still there. It was reported that the mansion is heavily guarded. Rescuing Valentine will be difficult,” Mia said.

Prophecy hesitated a moment, took another gulp of the blood and then stepped forwards. “You have always been good to me Mia. You know what I have to ask you. Will you come with me?”

She cursed Mia when she glanced across at Dmitri and then readied herself for the answer. She knew what it was going to be.

“I cannot.”

The words fell heavy on her chest but she didn’t let it show on the surface. Again, the people she had thought she could rely on had turned their backs on her. She had seen the number of werewolves Dmitri still had during her journey to the castle and she knew they were just a fraction of his total army. But she wasn’t asking him to lend her his warriors. All she wanted was Mia to come with her so she wouldn’t be alone during the fight. She needed someone to watch her back.

“The werewolves are not yours to command, little woman,” Dmitri said. She still refused to look at him. “We lost many to your foolish cause.”

“I lost something too, more valuable to me than anything,” she said and looked straight into Mia’s eyes. “You’re meant to be his friends, but you do nothing to help me save him.”

She saw the flicker of guilt in the depths of Mia’s eyes and clenched her fists.

“I don’t want your damn army. They’re not going to save you when the long night comes. Our fate will be the same. If I fail, you all fall along with me.” She kept her eyes locked with Mia’s. “I need your help, Mia. Please?”