Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

empty glass down on the work surface and licked her lips.
    When she looked up at him, her eyes dropped to his neck and she frowned. She stepped towards him, her eyes remaining locked on his throat as her hand came up.
    “That’s some scar.” She reached out and went to touch it but he evaded her fingers and moved away from her.
    When he looked back at her, she was still standing with her hand raised and ready to touch him. She looked at him with eyes full of hurt.
    He sighed and reminded himself of what he’d decided. If it pleased her to be close to him, then he would allow her to be. He just couldn’t help reacting whenever she was near to him. He didn’t want her to touch him, didn’t want to feel her fingers against his skin or her breath against his neck. He clenched his jaw and then relented when he saw the confusion in her eyes. He closed his, lowered his head and fought for control over his feelings.
    He was stronger than this.
    He was just helping her.
    Everything else was forbidden.
    He raised his head and shut down the emotions that had threatened to overwhelm him, forcing them back into their places and reinstating the sense of calm he was used to. This was just a problem to be solved. There was no attachment to her. They would discover what Mathias knew of the prophecy and then he would do exactly what he’d been planning to do.
    “Feeling better?” he said.
    She nodded and he realised she was still upset by what he’d done. He touched the scar on his neck. It ran from just below his right ear down to where his collarbones met. Her eyes seemed to trace the path of his fingers and he knew she still wanted to know about it.
    “I am surprised it took you so long to notice it,” he said and she leaned against the counter. He closed the distance between them so she could see it and raised his chin to let her get a better look. “Werewolf.”
    “A werewolf did this?” Her eyes were wide with fascination and he was again reminded of a child. It was hard to tell just how old she was but he was beginning to get the impression that Mathias had been right. She was young.
    “It was close. He nearly took my head clean off. He caught me with one of his claws. I caught him with mine. I think we settled things at that point.”
    “Did you win?”
    He smiled inside at the way she was staring at him. He’d never had another look at him like that. All he had done was get into a fight with a werewolf and she made it seem as though it had been life and death, a battle for the safety of the world. It wasn’t. That battle was still to come. It hadn’t even been the fight of his life.
    “No.” He noted that she looked disappointed by his answer. “We called a truce.”
    “You can’t draw in a fight... that’s just... wrong.” She wrinkled her nose up and frowned at him. “My instructor would never settle for a draw. If I didn’t win, I didn’t eat.”
    He noted what she said. Her family had obviously trained her well. She had been able to execute her first kill without supervision and had proven that she could defend herself against others. He wondered what else they had taught her.
    “He had no real desire to kill me and I in turn did not really want to kill him. What were we supposed to do?” He filled the glass again and handed it to her, urging her to drink when she shook her head. She needed the blood. She might feel fine now, but it would wear off in a few hours unless she fed properly. Two glasses of blood wasn’t a real feed. He’d make her finish the entire canister before he let her out of his sight. “Do you think one of us should have killed the other just because you cannot draw in a fight? Many wars have been ended by a truce. Our two houses are testament to that.”
    “It wasn’t really a truce,” she said and sipped the blood. “I read all about it in the library. Lady Caelestis and Lord Aurorea joined the houses. Which means our families aren’t so different really. They claimed one another and a time of peace began.”
    “Only now it’s falling apart.” He watched her closely.
    She nodded. “Do you think the houses could be joined again?”
    “The laws were changed because of what happened. It is now a sin to dissolve the bloodlines in that way.”
    She just shrugged. “What does that mean anyway, dissolving bloodlines? The elders only changed the laws because they believed our bloodlines would go the way of the weaklings. I don’t think they would. Surely blood