Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

evident in his voice. She heard the sound of glass hitting glass. Was someone drinking? If they were, what was it alcohol? Arkalus drank. He drank so much that she had to lock her door and ask the guardsmen to stand sentinel outside it for fear of him coming to her. “She clings.”
    She clenched her fists when she realised that they were talking about her and bit her tongue to stop herself from saying something.
    “I cannot bear it. I cannot. I cannot stand it when she touches me. I want to push her away. I hate it.”
    “She’s just young and scared. From what you’ve told me, the whole world is new to her. Think about how she feels.”
    “I know.” There was a note of resignation in Valentine’s voice and she frowned. “This is my fault. I am the reason this has happened to her. I just... I need some space. I need to kill something.”
    There was a sound of chair legs scraping against the floor. She edged a little further away from the door and held her breath.
    “Nearly three hundred years old and still acting like a youngling.” Mathias’ words made her smile. She could almost picture how sour Valentine would look on hearing them. “Killing won’t solve anything and in your current mood, you’re likely to kill openly. If someone saw you—.”
    “I would settle for some air,” Valentine interjected.
    “It sounds to me like you are scared.”
    She heard the creak of old leather as someone sat down and she pictured them sitting opposite each other in the two armchairs by the fire.
    “I have never seen you like this,” Mathias said with a note of concern in his voice.
    “What am I to do?” Valentine sounded desperate and she frowned.
    She turned so she was facing the wall and pressed her palms against it. Reaching out with her senses, she tried to find Valentine in the room. She’d never realised that she was affecting him so much, that he didn’t like it when she was near him. He sounded as confused and lost as she felt. The calm façade he wore had hid his feelings well, but she could hear them clearly in his voice now that she knew they were there.
    Letting her forehead rest against the wall, she closed her eyes and kept her senses fixed on him. She wasn’t the only one suffering. He had given up everything and was suffering too. It was so easy to forget that. When she heard someone sigh so heavily that it practically spoke words of bewilderment, she suddenly felt that what she was doing was wrong. She was spying on him. Why?
    She had wanted them to be talking about her. She’d wanted to hear what it was they were saying. Only she hadn’t been ready for the truth of it. Valentine didn’t want to be around her. He was helping her because he felt he had a duty to do so, not because he wanted to. He was just alleviating his conscience.
    But she had seen things in his eyes and his actions that said it wasn’t just about duty. There had to be a part of him that wanted to help her or he wouldn’t have risked everything to save her from death.
    When they began to speak again, she blocked out the sound of it, not wanting to hear any more. It had been wrong of her to listen in on their private conversation. She snuck back to the stairs and pressed her foot down hard on the bottom step, making it creak.
    The room went quiet.
    She waited a few seconds and then walked to the door. She couldn’t get past what Valentine had said. She hoped that Mathias was right and that it was fear talking.
    Walking into the room, she didn’t know how to act when they both looked at her. They had been sitting by the fireplace, but as she entered, Mathias stood and placed a hand on Valentine’s shoulder before walking over to his books.
    She let her eyes meet Valentine’s. He stood and gave her an indefinable look before turning to face the fire.
    “Valentine... this isn’t the time,” Mathias said.
    She didn’t take her eyes off Valentine. He growled and dug his fingertips into the mantelpiece, his head hung so she couldn’t see it. He didn’t look at her when he pushed off and walked over to the books that littered the table by Mathias.
    Her eyes lowered to the small table beside one of the armchairs and she saw a half-full decanter of golden liquid and a used glass. He had been drinking.
    “Come here, child.” Mathias beckoned her and she resisted telling him not to call her a child. She supposed in his eyes she was. She was so used to having a high standing amongst vampires and hadn’t realised