Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

jacket, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the vixens of his household as they called to him. He didn’t have time for making sport tonight.
    Tonight he had more serious business to attend to.
    His thoughts drifted to the female vampire. She had been slim, her dark tunic top and trousers clinging to her figure as she’d defiantly stood before him in the rain. Her long hair had been soaked and had hung in loose tendrils. The darkness of it had made her face seem even paler than it probably was, drawing his attention to it. Her round dark eyes had spoken volumes to him, but all in a language that he couldn’t understand. There had been something about her that had drawn him in until he’d been powerless to resist seeing what she held in her blood. Little had he known that what he would see would only confuse him. If instinct had told him that, he would have let her go.
    Let her go?
    By the Devil, he wished he had.
    He wished she’d answered his damn questions, wished he’d never laid eyes on her.
    He stopped just short of the heavy wooden doors that led into the main reception room.
    What was he doing?
    He almost laughed aloud at himself while he tried to make sense of the thoughts that were running riot through his mind. He shut them down. To think such things was mutinous, disloyal. His hands curled into tight fists, his nails digging into the softer skin of his palms while he stared unseeingly at the dark doors. It was his duty to report this. It didn’t matter what he’d seen in her blood.
    Taking a weary step forwards, he pushed the doors open. Everything felt heavy, his limbs, his heart, and his head. It all conspired to make him feel as though he couldn’t take another step towards his destination, and that he couldn’t tell his lord what he’d discovered tonight.
    The sounds of merriment drifted into the background as he pushed on, walking into the room and closing the doors behind him. He could feel all eyes on him and he knew what they were thinking.
    He didn’t belong here.
    He was too young to be a part of this hallowed scene, this sanctum for the elder vampires of his family, this place where they hid themselves away from the idle play of the children. His place was here, whether they liked it or not. He’d worked hard to attain his position. He’d spent over two centuries as a loyal servant to his lord and a dutiful son of his bloodline.
    He looked down at his hand, almost seeing the smear of blood that had stained his fingers not thirty minutes ago. Her blood. That’s all it was. Just blood. There was nothing more to it. It was responsible for the disquiet he felt inside. It was always a danger when drinking from another of the seven pure bloodlines. They had power, enough to intoxicate the drinker and make them believe the things that the blood whispered to them.
    “Good hunting?” A voice cut through the noise and reached his ears.
    Peeling his jacket off, he handed it to Cornelius who was approaching him from the side.
    “No... interesting hunting,” he answered, stopping a few feet inside the room.
    Cornelius arched a brow at the soaking wet coat and then neatly arranged it over his arm. Valentine gave him a look that warned him not to complain. The only reason that Cornelius could enter this area of the house was because the young vampire was his aide. That title meant bearing everything that he threw at him—even wet coats. He knew his friend would do almost anything he asked so long as it afforded him such standing amongst their family and so long as he treated him well.
    “Did you run into him?” Cornelius asked.
    Valentine touched a lone finger to his lower lip, remembering the sweet taste of her blood. He could smell it still, knew it continued to stain his lip for all to see.
    “No... a her.”
    His eyes scanned over the plush plum walls of the room, their height almost reaching forty foot. He ignored all the looks he was receiving while he searched the balcony and then the floor in front of him.
    “Who?”
    When he failed to find who he was searching for, his eyes fell to rest on an ornate mahogany door directly opposite him. His stomach squirmed for a moment and then settled when he reminded himself of his duty to his family. It was just her blood trying to work its will and contaminate him. That was the only reason he felt this way.
    He nodded towards the door. “That would be telling. Is he in?”
    Cornelius frowned. “He’s engaged with