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

“That’s alright then.” I winced, already regretting those foolish words. What if the shifter was dead or the break-up had been painful? I’d just lost Aurora, and the unfairness of her death still sliced like a knife, yet I was acting like a jealous cow. “No, it’s not. Sorry for saying something so callous—”

“Shhhh.” He reached around me and rubbed a slow circle over my solar plexus. “It was just a phrase.”

I leaned back, resting my head on his broad shoulder. Warmth seeped from his palm, filling my chakras with a thrumming energy that combined power with love. This was already unlike any meditation I had experienced before.

“That feels relaxing,” I murmured.

“I’m assuming you’ve checked your chakras for blockages?” he asked.

“You know about them?” I turned around, meeting his violet eyes.

“I picked up a few things over the years. Tantra, as well as the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Both made the difference during the last battle I fought.”

My brows drew together. “When was that?”

Valentine patted my thigh. “That’s a story I’ll tell you another time. Let’s focus on the rite and bring forth your power.”

“Alright.” I closed my eyes, exhaled a long breath, pushing away thoughts of Valentine fighting battles. He was right about our need to concentrate on my transformation, but one thing still niggled. “Why didn’t we try this together before?”

“Your problem back then was a lack of experience in shifting and the firestone encasing your heart. Two issues beyond the scope of this exercise.”

“Right.” I nodded for emphasis, hopefully telling him I was ready to concentrate.

“The beneficium rite is the final stage in a supernatural’s rite of passage.”

“How does it work?” I murmured.

“I’ll perform the chant, and your body will do the rest,” he said, launching into a string of syllables I didn’t recognize. It sounded to me like the ancient language Valentine spoke the time he guided Jonathan and the others to open a portal to Hell and banish Kresnik’s shadow.

Power thrummed against my skin, making all the fine hairs on my body stand on end. My breath quickened, and I stared out into the infinite void of white. This was the kind of ancient magic Neutrals like me could never grasp because our power wouldn’t allow us to do anything but sense the magic of others. Now, I wasn’t just a supernatural with fire power, I was a phoenix, the rarest shifter of all.

Fire ignited in my solar plexus chakra, making my gaze drop to my belly. My lips parted to exhale a shocked breath, but the warmth spreading across my chest filled my lungs with flames.

My heart flipped. I was burning from the inside out. Valentine had to know this.

I turned around, and wrapped my hand around his thigh, trying to get him to stop. If I transformed during this ceremony, it would be just like the time we had sex.

“Valentine.” I met his eyes. “The fire—”

Shaking his head in a warning for me to stop interrupting, he chanted louder, drowning out my words. A tremor shook my insides, and the lining of my stomach trembled. I couldn’t tell if it was nerves or the vibrations of my expanding magic, but I didn’t dare to interrupt.

I turned to the front, letting Valentine readjust our bodies. It was only then that I realized that he was aligning our chakras.

My throat dried. Valentine knew what he was doing, didn’t he? He had performed this rite for younger vampires, helped at least one shifter, and seen the ceremony performed on other shifters. Valentine had to know that if I transformed, it would end up with him being reduced to ash.

His voice rang through my ears, making my nerve endings tingle.

My fingers lengthened, and then curled into talons, and my nose and mouth shifted to form what felt like a beak. Palpitations reverberated through my chest, which now heated like a furnace overflowing with flames.

Valentine might be familiar with the beneficium rite, but he hadn’t performed it with a fire user. I turned again, crying out a warning, but my word came out a guttural caw.

Bloody hell. If I couldn’t speak, I was closer to becoming a phoenix than ever. I had to break free before I burned Valentine into ash.

His voice rose into a shout loud enough to make my ears ring, and he wrapped his arms around my middle, holding me in place. I stretched out my arms, trying to struggle against his grip, trying to communicate without words that I didn’t want to burn him, but Valentine ignored my protests and continued the chant.

Lines of fire filled the sides of my vision. My arms had turned into wings of pure flame. I turned my gaze down to my legs, which were covered in flaming feathers with scaly yellow talons for feet. My stomach plummeted. In a moment, Valentine would dissolve into ash, and I would launch myself into the sky.

Valentine’s voice dimmed and his breaths became labored, worsening the frazzled state of my nerves. Even if I hadn’t fully transformed, it had to be agony to cling onto a woman-sized phoenix.

I sucked in lungfuls of air, trying to make myself relax. If I could get the fire to recede, he might get through the ceremony intact.

“Morata—” The arms around my middle disappeared.

Regret squeezed my heart, and I stumbled to my feet in an awkward gait with my wings outspread for balance. I didn’t dare turn back or flap or do anything that might shift the air and scatter what had to be a pile of ashes.

When my legs tired of the awkward run, a high-pitched squawk tore from my lips, and I flapped my wings, rising into the void. Flying through the air was different in this space. The atmosphere was a lot thicker than in ritual room one, making my wing muscles work harder to stay airborne.

I tilted my body to the left and swooped around, looking for signs of Valentine. As expected, a