Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

stops.”
    He nodded and walked up the last few steps, coming to stand beside her. “I came along to protect you and here you are protecting me.”
    She gave him a deadpan look. “I’ve never needed protecting. Valentine could tell you that.”
    She noticed the way his eyes darkened when she mentioned Valentine’s name and smiled inside. It was strange to see a man she barely knew so jealous of one he’d only met on the battlefield. She wondered how Valentine would react to having Venturi around. From the way Venturi was acting, she got the impression that he hadn’t followed her all this way just to protect her. She had realised that night at the Creator Day masquerade that her power attracted other vampires, especially the male ones. Venturi raked his eyes over her. Maybe it wasn’t just her power.
    Rapping her knuckles against the door three times, she waited in silence, ignoring the way Venturi continued to look at her dress and the mark on her chest. She was tempted to place her hand over it and hide it from view but realised that she would probably just draw even more attention to her modest cleavage. She didn’t want Venturi staring at her breasts. So far, he’d managed to keep his eyes purely on the mark, but she wasn’t blind. She knew he wanted to look.
    The door opened and she raised her eyes to see the same maid who had answered it before.
    “Where is Elena?” Prophecy said and pushed past the girl. She looked around the large entryway and then up at the door at the apex of the stairs. She could sense power up there. Her eyes dropped to rest on the maid. “Take me to her.”
    The maid curtseyed and led the way up the stairs. Prophecy kept her focus on the power she could feel and then reached out with her senses and searched the vicinity for a vampire signature other than hers and Venturi’s. There was nothing. Maybe she had been wrong about Elena being involved, but she could see something terrible had happened in the house. Some of the marble tiles were fractured, as though something had impacted against them, and there were splinters of stone and dust coating the mosaic in the centre of the entrance hall below her.
    She stopped breathing when she approached the door and the maid left them. Pushing it open, she was ready to fly at Elena but her words fled her lips when she laid eyes on her.
    The witch was sitting in the same chair she’d occupied when Prophecy had come to the house with Valentine, only this time she didn’t look as beautiful or perfect. Her milk-white skin was broken and bruised. Her clothes were dirty and ripped. Prophecy inhaled, catching the scent of dried blood.
    “Where’s Valentine? I know it was you, Elena. If I didn’t have proof before, your condition gives it to me.” She stopped just short of the witch and kept her expression hard when Elena slowly raised her head, looking through the straggly matted threads of her hair. Prophecy’s fingers twitched with magic and the marks on her skin pulsed with it. She fought to remain calm and not let her feelings take over.
    Elena moved a little and looked past her at Venturi, and then sank back into the chair. “I do not know.”
    Prophecy barely heard the whispered words. Venturing a step forwards, she flexed her fingers and struggled to hold her power at bay when her emotions got the better of her. She could easily make Elena speak, but there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t go that one step too far and kill her.
    “It was your magic that took him!” She couldn’t stop herself from shouting. How could Elena appear so calm after what she had done? How could she sit there and not look the least bit remorseful?
    Elena swallowed and sighed. “It was, but I did not wish to use it. I am sorry for what I have done. Truly I am. If I had known then what I know now... ”
    “What do you know now?” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Venturi move closer to her. It was such a familiar move, exactly the kind of thing that Valentine would have done. It was as though he was silently backing her up, showing Elena that if she didn’t answer, she would have more than just herself to deal with.
    “That you’re in love with him, that you need him so much. I can sense it in your magic... it’s in disarray without him. Your feelings govern it.” The witch slowly stood and smoothed down her clothes with idle strokes of her hands. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor, and Prophecy narrowed hers.
    Prophecy