Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

the frown remaining on her face. The people tumbled back out into the hallway and stumbled off.
    She continued to frown at the now empty door.
    Valentine moved over to it and pulled it shut, locking it and drawing the blinds down before walking back to his seat opposite her. She looked across at him.
    “Why did they laugh at us?” she said.
    He smiled.
    “Because they are drunk and do not know or cannot see what we really are.” He held her gaze and she noticed his look softened slightly. “I wish that you never stop asking questions as I have. Your curiosity about the world is so beautiful. I have lost that... I have seen it all. There is nothing left for me to question.”
    She dropped her eyes to rest on the floor, frowning at it. She didn’t like the note of solemnity in his voice. He seemed to have lost all of the brightness he had been filled with earlier. Was the loss of his sire still plaguing him? She hadn’t forgotten what had happened back in Venice. He’d been so distraught. She had known that there had been something between them once, something more than just a sire and child relationship.
    Moving across the compartment, she sat sideways on the couch beside him so she was facing him. She frowned when she realised that he looked paler than usual. There was a sallow look to his skin.
    She furrowed her brows and gently placed her hand against his cheek, bringing his head around so he was looking at her. When his eyes met hers, she gave him a shaky smile. They were so full of sadness. She’d never seen him looking so sombre.
    “There are questions inside you still,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. The atmosphere between them seemed to grow heavier, all sense of lightness rapidly disappearing as she stared deep into his clear green gaze. “Conflict reigns in your eyes whenever you look at me. What is it that you fear? Is it what I am or what I could do to our species if you and Mathias are wrong?”
    She started when he placed his hand over hers where it rested against his cheek.
    “It is myself that I am afraid of... not you or the hunter at our backs, or the path that lies ahead. What I have done is unforgivable. It is a sin, a mark against my family... I... I dared to place you above them. I placed you above my duty. I went against my orders to destroy you and instead I helped you. I am no longer the man I once was. I have cut ties to the only world I have known and betrayed it, myself and my family.”
    She shook her head, her chest tightening with mixed feelings when she saw the hurt gradually surface in his eyes. He wanted forgiveness for the things he’d done to help her, and she wished with all of her heart that she could give that to him, but she knew that whatever she offered him wouldn’t soothe the pain he was feeling. He needed forgiveness from his family. Lucya had offered it to him and he’d turned his back on it to remain with herself. He’d surrendered his one chance to return to his world so that he could stay by her side.
    She cursed the tears that were welling up, trying to make them go away so he wouldn’t see them. She didn’t want to make him feel worse than he already did. It was so easy for her to forget the things that he’d sacrificed for her. What she had surrendered was nothing compared to what he had lost.
    “Valentine.” Her voice was a quiet whisper, her emotions constricting her throat and making it impossible for her to talk any louder without letting the tears come. “Don’t speak like that.”
    She pulled him towards her and wrapped her arms about him, stroking his back while he buried his face into her neck. She held him tightly, feeling his cool breath against her neck, and closed her eyes. He’d lost everything he’d known in order to be with her and it was taking its toll on him. The sense of purpose his duty to his family had given him was gone. Everything he had worked towards had disappeared. One single decision had cost him everything.
    She’d cost him everything.
    Resting her cheek against his, she ran her fingers through his hair and cradled him to her. Right now, he didn’t seem like the strong vampire she’d met that night in the cemetery, or even the man he’d been in Oxford. He seemed so small and scared, nothing more than a child. Everything that had happened since his meeting her had finally broken him, and it was up to her to show him that all was not lost and that deep inside he was still as strong as he’d always