Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (25 page)

Carrying her to the bed, he gently lay her down on it and took a closer look at the wound. Her eyes fluttered open while he was clearing the hair away from it and he found her watching him.

“Valentine?” Her voice was nothing more than a strangled whisper.

He looked at her neck. The areas around each wound were already going black. It would be a while before she could speak properly. Her windpipe was going to need time to heal.

“He’s gone,” he said and felt torn inside when a tear slipped down from the corner of her eye and cut through the blood on the side of her head. “I am sorry, Prophecy. We will find a way to get him back. I know how much you need him.”

She managed a smile and he was relieved to see it. Her fingers groped across the bedspread towards him. He looked into her eyes and then took hold of her hand.

“It hurts,” she said. “I can’t…”

“You cannot heal yourself right now. I know. You have used up too much of your strength. Rest a while and once you are ready, we will find a way to get Valentine back.” He gave her a smile and knelt beside the bed, still holding her hand. It was better that she saved her voice when he already knew everything she needed to say. He was always willing to speak for her if it saved her from hurting herself.

“Thank you,” she whispered and her eyes closed for a moment before they opened again.

“Get some sleep. I will have someone bring you fresh blood. You will be strong enough again soon.” He listened to the people approaching, voices that he recognised stood out in amongst the din. He held her hand a little tighter while she drifted off to sleep and then raised it, pressing a kiss to it. He dropped it the second he heard someone enter the room.

He gripped his injured shoulder, and swallowed down the pain in his body. His skull felt as though it was splitting open.

“What happened here?” Xavier demanded.

Venturi looked at the broken window and then at Prophecy.

“Elena has taken Valentine. He threw me against the wall and attempted to kill Prophecy when she tried to stop him. He did not seem himself.” Venturi walked around the bed, resisting the temptation to look at Prophecy again when Mia stared at him.

Dmitri was standing in the doorway almost blocking his view of the hallway beyond. Serenity pushed past the werewolf and ran to the bed.

He went to her. “She will be fine, Serenity. She needs time to recover her strength. I have told her we will bring her fresh blood.”

Serenity nodded and paused for a moment, glancing at Prophecy before leaving the room. He was glad that someone here was responding. The rest of the occupants of the room were just staring at him and he didn’t know how much longer he could take it before he snapped.

He was still recuperating from the force of the blow Valentine had dealt him. He felt as though any moment now, he was going to collapse. His head was fuzzy and his eyes hurt whenever he moved them. The pain stabbed at them and he found it hard to concentrate like he had to. With Prophecy unconscious, he was the only master vampire in the house, and it was vital that someone kept control of the three bloodlines. The Aurorea were not going to be happy about the disappearance of Valentine. It would be down to Cornelius to keep order within them. The same went for Serenity and the Caelestis until Prophecy woke up. Neither Cornelius nor Serenity struck him as having the skill necessary to control a bloodline when things weren’t on such a knife’s edge, let alone when they were.

“Someone needs to clean this place up. Xavier, I am sorry to have to ask you to do this, but can your men remove the body from the hall. I believe you will find another in the garden.” Venturi waited to see what the Aurorea high guard’s reaction would be to his request. Xavier stared at him a moment and then nodded.

Venturi watched him go, relieved that the number of people staring at him had been reduced. He pressed his hand against his head when it spun and closed his eyes a moment, waiting for the feeling of sickness to pass.

“Cornelius,” he said and the blond stepped forwards, looking a little out of place and scared. Venturi couldn’t blame him. Being handed a bloodline to control during a time of war wasn’t something an inexperienced vampire needed, especially one that had no ability for fighting. “Keep word of Valentine’s disappearance from your family for as long as possible. It is best if Prophecy has recovered before they find out. Order Xavier to keep his mouth shut.”

Cornelius stood for a moment, his hands toying with one another and his eyes showing Venturi all the uncertainty that he could feel in the young vampire’s signature.

“Go now,” Mia said to Cornelius with a smile.

He nodded and edged past Dmitri as though he was going to bite him.

Venturi looked at Mia and Dmitri and then at Prophecy. He stared at her, watching the blood trickle from the wound on the side of her head. Someone needed to seal it, but he got the distinct impression from Mia that it wasn’t going to be him.

He looked at her. She held his gaze, her eyes so cold that it sent a chill through him, and then went to Prophecy’s side. He moved to stand the opposite side of the bed to Mia and his eyes roamed up the length of Prophecy’s body, lingering on her neck and the wounds there.

He watched Mia clean the cuts with a cloth that Prophecy had clearly been using to tend to Valentine with, and then she licked them to seal them and stem the bleeding.

He heard the door close and frowned when he realised he was alone with Dmitri and Mia, and both were staring at him. This was the last thing he needed when his head was pounding and he was one push away from snapping.

“Venturi, you watch her too closely,” Mia said and instinct made him tense when the atmosphere in the room seemed to change.

He didn’t respond. He kept his eyes fixed on Prophecy’s ashen face. Her lips were so pale, almost as white as her skin. Her hair looked like blood against it and the black covers of her bed—the only colour in an otherwise colourless world.

Mia moved closer to him, rounding the bed. He sensed Dmitri move too.

“Why have you offered your services to her?” Mia said.

He blinked slowly. It wasn’t the time for confrontations, but he didn’t see that his relationship with Prophecy was any business of Mia’s. What right did a Venia who had only just met him have to lecture him, especially one who had refused to help Prophecy in her hour of need?

“I have pledged my allegiance to her,” he said in a steady voice, not taking his eyes away from Prophecy.

“You are certain that is all? Valentine pledged his allegiance to her but it is his heart that is now hers. Do not think that you can replace him in hers.”

He glared at her, curling his lip back to expose his elongated fangs as he snarled.

She didn’t flinch. She stepped towards him, her face a mask of calm. Her eyes darkened.

“Heed my words, Venturi Tenebrae, to ignore them would prove catastrophic,” she said in a voice so venomous that he almost looked away from her.

He held her gaze. “I’m listening.”

“Your ears may be pricked, but your heart is deaf.”

“I said I was listening. Speak your piece, Venia, or lose your head!” He turned fully to face her, showing her that her attempts to intimidate him weren’t going to work. She could say all she wanted. His feelings for Prophecy were none of her business.

Dmitri growled.

Mia smiled. “She commands limitless power, the strength of which you have never known. If her feelings were to—”

“What are you suggesting?” Venturi cut her off, angered by Mia’s belief that she could threaten him. Even if he didn’t want these feelings for Prophecy, there was no way he could just turn them off. The woman stood before him was in love with a werewolf. Who was she to lecture him about love?

“Offer her comfort, Venturi, but let it go no further than that. She is weak. The loss of Valentine will hit her harder than she will let show on the surface. Do not be weak yourself. Any act of betrayal to her heart could see the prophecy fulfilled the way the others believe.”

Her words hit him hard and he looked over his shoulder at Prophecy where she lay on the bed.

The last thing he wanted was for Prophecy to fail, but it was hard not to relish every ounce of affection she showed for him, even if it was at all misplaced. He knew that she had feelings for him deep inside, and that whenever she let them come to the surface she regretted it and it ate away at a little of those feelings, diminishing them. He didn’t want that. He wanted her to love him like she loved Valentine, but it wasn’t possible.

Mia was right. The loss of Valentine would hit Prophecy hard and she would need to draw strength from someone. He knew that someone was going to be him; she’d shown him that over the past few days. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t use her weakness to his advantage. He had to hold back his feelings and his wants, and support her, giving her his strength and asking nothing in return. It would be so easy for her to fall into his arms now, but that wasn’t what he wanted in his heart. If she was ever to be his, he wanted it to happen when she was strong and in control of herself. He didn’t want to be a substitute for Valentine, just a man for her to take comfort from and not love in return for the affection he’d lavish on her.

She’d grow to hate herself if he let her do that.

He wouldn’t do it. It would destroy her.

He looked at her a moment longer and then closed his eyes.

He’d never do that to her.

He’d sworn to protect her.

And protect her he would.

“So very nice of you to join me,” a melodic voice said.

Valentine looked around at the dull grey stone walls of the room and wondered where he was. He ignored the pull inside of him that told him to go towards the voice and stood still. She wasn’t going to win. She may have taken him from Prophecy and brought him here, but he wasn’t going to just lie down and let her control him.

“Come,” Elena said and held her hands out. She was sitting on a throne-like chair a few metres away from him, her face as still and beautiful as a Venetian mask, and her long dark dress revealing so much that he wondered why she bothered wearing it.

He growled and ran at her, his claws extending at the same time as the bones of his face shifted to allow his fangs to descend. She held her hand up when he was within a few feet of her and he stopped dead, held by invisible bonds that he couldn’t break.

He struggled against them anyway, showing her that he wasn’t going to go along with her plans for him.

He was going to fight her to the very last.

Elena stood and her purple dress shifted, the long slit up the leg parting to reveal her thigh when she stepped forwards, towards him. Her lips took on a seductive curve. Her eyes were surrounded by dark make-up, making her already black irises even more like midnight skies. She’d tied her hair up into a mess of unruly curls that were pinned at the back of her head and allowed to tumble down her back. She held one slim, delicate hand out towards him and stared into his eyes.

“Tell me everything,” she said and curled her fingers up, as though beckoning him to come to her.

He tensed when he felt himself losing control and pushed at the barriers that seemed to come up, trapping his consciousness. He wasn’t going to become a mindless zombie for her to command. She’d known that when she’d cast the spell.

He loved Prophecy too much to give up the fight.

He shook his head, not trusting his voice.

Elena’s expression hardened for a moment before she smiled in a way that betrayed how much his refusal had annoyed her.

“I warned you not to resist. It isn’t wise.” Her tone was one of displeasure. She shook her head, lowering it as she did so.

For a moment, he’d thought he was getting somewhere. He felt more in control, as though he had power and Elena had underestimated him.

Then she looked up and smiled wickedly.

The air in the room sparked with static electricity. She raised her arms above her and then brought her hands down her sides.

The room seemed to grow dark, the lights dimming, but the area around Elena remained as bright as it had been.

She laughed. Black ribbons of magic spiralled up her arms.

A pain in his chest made him double over and he clutched at it, fighting against the darkness that grew inside of him. He wouldn’t surrender to it. He was stronger than this. Prophecy needed him to be strong.

“Kneel!” Elena’s command rocked him.

He dropped to his knees.

He went to growl but she held up a hand.

“Silence!” she said and his voice left him.

He tried to move his mouth, but it was no use. She was in control now and there was nothing he could do to stop her. She was too powerful.

No. Prophecy was more powerful and she’d promised him that she’d find a way to save him. That’s why he’d given in. That’s why he’d let Elena take him. Because he knew in his heart that it was better this way. With him gone, Prophecy would be less distracted and more determined to break the spell on him and defeat Elena.

He was counting on Prophecy.

Prophecy was counting on him.

He struggled against Elena’s power and managed to bring his hand up to his chest. Something itched there and he growled at Elena when a spark of pain thundered through him, making his senses reel as he tried to fight her command over his body and mind.

He clenched his jaw and glared at her.

“When this spell is broken…” He struggled to speak when Elena held her hand up. A wave of magic hit him, pushing against his will and forcing it into submission. He pushed back. “I will kill you!”

She laughed.

“We’ll see. Now, speak!” She touched his cheek and his whole body shuddered with pain.

Closing his eyes, he silently asked for Prophecy’s forgiveness when Elena’s hold over him became too powerful to resist.

“The prophecy is partly translated.” His voice was monotone as he reported everything that had been happening. It was impossible not to. His mouth moved of its own accord, ignoring any attempt he made to control it. “Venturi Tenebrae has moved his commanders away from Romania. The Aurorea have taken residence at the house of Caelestis. Mia and Dmitri have arrived. I have heard tell that they have brought their remaining generals with them.”