Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

tying it off. She ran her hands over it and smiled again, satisfied with her work.
    Another glance around the room brought her amulet to her attention. She retrieved it from the nightstand and slipped it on, fastening the bracelet around her wrist and wriggling her fingers to make sure it was comfortable.
    She still couldn’t believe what she’d done in Paris. She’d blown the werewolf up. Ever since then, she could sense a slight edge of uneasiness in Valentine whenever he looked at the amulet, as though he wasn’t sure about the magic she suddenly had control over. She wanted to know more about where it came from just as he did, but there was no way it was going to happen any time soon. For now, she would have to deal with it without having any information about it, just as she had to deal with everything these days.
    Her eyes fell to the star on her chest and she touched it lightly. Would they ever go away? Was she going to be marked forever?
    The door opened, only to be quickly shut again. She dropped her hand away from her chest.
    “Sorry.” Valentine’s voice drifted through the closed door.
    She grabbed the shirt that was on the bed and slipped into it, buttoning it up as fast as she could before putting on her black trousers. She suppressed a giggle when she tried to picture what he looked like right now. He’d shown her such chivalry by not watching her change in Prague. He was probably mortified that he’d walked in on her when she was only in her underwear.
    Opening the door, she smiled at him when she found him standing with his back to the door and his hands clasped behind him.
    “You might want to knock next time,” she said.
    He turned to look at her, his eyes betraying how awkward he felt.
    “I was coming to see if you were ready... obviously you weren’t.” He stepped back and looked her over, his eyes settling on her bare feet. “And still aren’t.”
    “I won’t be long.” She nipped back into her bedroom, pulled her socks on and then shoved her feet into her boots and tied the laces. Walking back into the other room, she leaned against the doorframe, amused by the fact that Valentine was again standing with his back to her. “Ready.”
    He walked across the room and picked up a small piece of paper. She frowned.
    “What’s that?” she said with a nod in the direction of his hands.
    “The location of the curator. It is not far from here.” He put the piece of paper into his pocket and took his jacket off the back of the armchair in the cramped area between their bedrooms.
    It had to be the smallest suite on the planet.
    She watched his fingers while he buttoned his jacket up carefully, smoothing the area around each one as he fastened it. Sometimes, he was so methodical and practical that she could really see why he had wanted to be a Law Keeper. Other times, she couldn’t figure him out at all. It was as though he was two people. One was nothing more than an emotionless assassin just like a Law Keeper and the other was caring and protective, as he had been in Paris when he’d wanted to take revenge on the hunter for what he’d done to her and give him a message to never touch her again. In both, there were common qualities, like loyalty and duty, skill and determination. She wished he’d decide which one he wanted to be and stick with it, but she got the feeling that he didn’t know that yet.
    If he let himself go more, he’d probably find he was the protective one, and that the emotionless side of him was only there because he felt he shouldn’t feel anything towards a vampire of another bloodline, just like she felt she shouldn’t have feelings for him.
    She averted her eyes when his expression told her that he’d known she’d been staring at him.
    “Shall we go?” he said.
    She nodded, going straight to the door without looking at him. She wished that she could shake the feeling inside of her that said she shouldn’t care about him, but it wouldn’t shift. She didn’t care if it was wrong. The law meant nothing to her, and it meant nothing to him. If they were caught, they’d be sentenced to death regardless of the things they did now. As far as she could see, they may as well make the most of it. She reasoned that she only kept a tight hold on her emotions because Valentine did so with his. Whenever he slipped and let himself go a little, her feelings rose to the surface and she didn’t feel the need to contain them. On the Eiffel Tower, she’d felt