Bonds of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 7) Bella Klaus (books to read this summer .TXT) 📖

“Weeks ago, there was a ritual where Kresnik’s followers created a parasitical attachment between me for Kresnik to steal my magic. Is that what you’re seeing? Do you think it could have re-formed?”

“Mera,” she said with a sigh. “Such abominations are obvious to even the least sensitive of healers. The last time I examined your energy body, the only subtle bond you had was with King Valentine’s soul nucleus.”

Her pale eyes bored into mine, and I imagined them burning with accusation. She probably thought I’d spent the past month as the protagonist of a Hades and Persephone style scenario where I’d fallen for my abductor.

“How do we get rid of it?” Valentine’s voice cut through our stare-off, and the healer moved her gaze to his.

“It’s impossible to remove such a bond,” she replied.

I flinched at her proclamation, and my throat tightened. She had to be wrong. If my soulmate bond with Valentine could fray even though our love remained constant, then anything Kresnik could have done to me could be undone. I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying not to hyperventilate.

“Remember that parasitical bond I told you about?” I licked my dry lips. “We managed to get rid of it with sound healing. Can’t you do something like that?”

Healer Hadriel inhaled a deep breath and rolled her shoulders. I could tell she was getting frustrated with my incessant questions and my constant refusal to accept her authority, but I was too desperate to care. Nothing was impossible—there was always a way.

Closing her eyes, she exhaled delicately through her nostrils. It was a trick Istabelle had taught me for centering my energies in times of annoyance. When she opened her eyes again, she appeared perfectly composed.

“In my profession, sound healing is a blunt instrument only suitable for amateurs,” she said.

“But it works,” I replied.

“Unfortunately not on the subtle soul threads that connect mates.” She pressed her palms together. “True love is the most powerful force in existence and beyond the scope of most supernatural healers. I don’t know how Kresnik tethered himself to you, but I cannot cut your connection.”

“How do we weaken it?” My voice was hoarse.

“This isn’t my specialty, I’m afraid,” she said with a weary breath.

“Then who can help us?” I glanced from Healer Hadriel to Valentine, who held his features tight with restrained fury. “Someone in history must have discovered they had a soulmate and wanted to get rid of them.”

“I can refer you to a shifter healer.” She plucked a white card from the air. “Shifters tend to form bonds that break upon death. Healer Asena has dealt with many cases of rejected mates, but I doubt she’ll have the experience required to help you with anything deeper.”

As the card drifted through the examination room, Valentine reached into the pocket of his cloak, extracted his phone, and held it up. The card floated into the screen with a beep.

My pulse rattled in my skull, thrumming out the beat of my escalating panic. My instincts told me that Healer Hadriel didn’t think the shifter healer could help me. Beneath that unlined and inexpressive face was a woman who believed I was stuck with Kresnik for the rest of my life.

“What happens if Kresnik gets sent back to Hell?” I rasped. “Will I get dragged down with him?”

The healer’s pale brows drew together, and she scratched her chin. “It’s rare for someone who has experienced the joy of an eternal soulmate bond to resort to the depth of evil that warrants condemnation.”

“And Heaven?” Valentine’s voice wavered.

She placed a hand over her mouth, her eyes widening.

A jolt of fresh alarm lanced through my heart, and I slid down from the examination table and stepped back to look Valentine full in the face. “What are you two talking about?”

“There are two types of soul bond.” His words thickened with sorrow, and he gulped a mouthful of air. “The type that lasts only a lifetime, and the other, which connects two souls for an eternity.”

He paused, staring down at me to check that I was following. When I nodded, he continued.

“When an eternal mate dies, so does his or her partner. The legends describe such an event as a blessing, because the mates remain together for eternity, reincarnating at the same time and always finding each other.”

“No.” My gaze dropped to the marble floor, following the way its pale gray veins bled into unique patterns. If I continued this line of conversation, the phoenix inside me might explode from the surface and burn down the entire room.

Of all the crimes Kresnik had committed against me, this had to be the sickest, the most twisted, and the cruelest. It was even worse than the needle in my heart.

“Kresnik just ensured that if he’s defeated, he will have your soul at his side, ready to help fuel a fresh campaign of terror.” Valentine’s words hit me like a burning meteorite.

Rage seared through my veins, and the acid in my stomach simmered to a boil. The back of my throat burned with the urge to scream my fury, to lash out at Kresnik and reduce him to ash. I wasn’t even sure that was a viable option, considering he could turn himself into an ifrit and survive my attacks.

Raising my gaze from the floor, I met Valentine’s sad eyes. My lips tried to form a smile, but the muscles in my face wouldn’t cooperate. On the other side of the room, Healer Hadriel clutched her giant pendant. I couldn’t tell if she was holding it for comfort or as a barrier, considering I was the soulmate of such a wicked creature.

I cleared my throat. “So, even if I sacrificed myself to rid the world of Kresnik—”

“He will resurface unless he’s imprisoned,” Healer Hadriel said. “But you will be trapped with him.”

My throat tightened. I couldn’t condemn myself to an eternity with Kresnik. The few hours I’d spent with him had been bad enough. I shook