Passion of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 5) Bella Klaus (the red fox clan TXT) 📖

“Save me from your bestial intellect.” Hades clutched at his temple.

The Shifter King growled.

“Enough.” The Angel King’s voice sliced through the bickering. “Thank you, Mera, for this important piece of intel. You are dismissed.”

I rose from my seat and headed toward the exit, where the enforcers around the door let me out into the hallway. A few more of them hovered outside, and I turned my attention to a young woman I was sure had been in the jail the time I tried to escape.

“Is there a shortcut to the barracks?” I asked. “Captain Zella gave me a room to stay in, and I don’t know how to find my way back to it.”

She inclined her head. “Allow me to walk you there.”

An hour later, after a long shower followed by a late lunch of cheeseburger and fries from the Hatch, I slipped under the covers and extracted the sphere containing Valentine’s heart.

As my deep breaths floated my consciousness into the dreamscape, I turned my gaze from left to right, looking for signs of Valentine in the distance. My bare feet landed on the floor, and I spun in a slow circle to find Valentine staring down at me with a broad smile and eyes that sparkled with vitality.

My heart melted. Even though this version of Valentine was nearly identical to the fully-fed preternatural, there was a compassion in his eyes that came straight from the soul.

He threaded his fingers through my hair, holding me in place as he brought his lips down for a kiss that sent sparks of sensation across my skin. I parted my lips, and our tongues met, sending hot rushes of pleasure across my every nerve ending. Valentine’s arm tightened around my waist, and he brought us close enough for me to feel the rapid beat of his heart, and the press of his hardness into my belly.

Molten ecstasy stirred between my legs, making my core clench with need. I surrendered to the kiss, letting that clever tongue elicit a level of pleasure that made my insides melt.

“I love you.” Valentine’s kisses traveled along my jaw, down the column of my neck, each press of his lips making me moan.

I clung to his broad back, the pads of my fingers digging into his muscles. “Love you, too.”

Everything in this realm was more intense, from the way he kissed to the way he made love. I supposed it was the interactions of our souls or the knowledge that our actions were expressions of pure love. A contented sigh slipped from my lips. At least this time, we would spend the entire afternoon, evening, and night together.

Just as I thought he would lower us to the floor and make love to me, he drew back from the kiss, then placed another on my lips. “Any news from the outside?”

The heat of my excitement cooled in anticipation of his disappointment, and I glanced to the side, wishing I had practiced how I would break the news that I had failed to convince his preternatural self of anything.

“Don’t get upset,” I murmured.

He laughed, making my gaze snap back to his dancing violet eyes. The way they sparkled with happiness and contrasted with the deep bronze of his skin, he looked more like a Greek god than Kresnik and Hades combined. “Now I’m preparing myself for the worst.”

I lowered my head to his chest. “It’s not funny.”

“Innamorata.” His large hand rubbed his back. “I’m just so glad I didn’t have to wait so long before seeing you again.”

Of course. I bit down on my bottom lip. When his heart got confiscated, poor Valentine had been stuck here in this featureless void, wondering if I was alive or dead or had forgotten his existence.

This place was perhaps the worst kind of afterlife. Heaven was supposed to be a paradise where good souls received rewards for lives well lived. At least in Hell there were other souls or demons to keep a person’s mind occupied. This void was an eternal nothing, where a person was only left with their memories and thoughts.

I lifted my head, my heart flipping at the intensity of his gaze. Valentine was wholly and utterly reliant on me, and I was failing him. Failing him because I hadn’t yet gotten the full extent of my powers and failing him because I had no control over his preternatural self.

“How do you cope here?” I asked.

The corner of his mouth lifted into a smile that reminded me of the moment he’d died from the dagger of solid flame. “I knew that one day you would return, even if it was to tell me you’d been imprisoned for a century or had moved on to a better life.”

A lump formed in the back of my throat. “I would never—”

“Just promise me that you will do everything you can to reunite my body and soul.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “He’s impossible. Every time I think I’ve convinced him to come back, he says or does something to make me stop nagging him.”

“A conniving manipulator?” he said.

“More like stubborn and single-minded.” I shook my head. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

“Perhaps I could,” Valentine muttered. “He reminds me of the type of young vampire nobles they raise in New Mesopotamia.”

I grimaced at the reminder of Prince Draconius, who acted like his soul was festering somewhere in a jar or had rotted to the size of a cherry tomato. “He’s not completely bad.” Before Valentine could say anything else, I added, “He told me of Kresnik’s plan to install a thousand zombies in the sewers.”

Valentine stepped back, his eyes wide. “Truly?”

I nodded. “Hades thinks Kresnik wants to destroy the barriers between the realms.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Must you refer to him with such familiarity?”

“Seeing as Kresnik is also Prometheus, it seems silly to keep referring to Hades as the Demon King of the Fifth Faction of Hell.”

“Fine.” Valentine wrapped his