Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

feel safer out here.”
    He nodded and she was thankful that he hadn’t questioned her about it or told her it was best that they went back to the hotel. She wanted to be out in the city, enjoying the night and letting the images of buildings and people erase the horrors of Campo dei Frari. She wanted to be out in the open where she could run if it was necessary, not get trapped in a room where there was no easy escape.
    When Valentine leaned against the wide white stone wall that formed the side of the bridge, she mimicked his move. Her eyes traced his profile while he looked at the city and then moved to rest on the canal when he turned to look at her.
    She smiled at the people in the gondolas and then turned her back on the canal and watched the people walking over the bridge.
    Meeting the eyes of people as they passed, she wondered what she and Valentine looked like to them. They probably appeared to be a couple, just some more tourists in a tourist infested city on a warm spring night. She pondered how unaware of everything they were, not only of the presence of vampires and demons, but of the impending war.
    She wondered if they really were as blind as they appeared.
    They wrote stories about demons, had television programs and movies about them. It seemed to be instilled into some cultures. They had folklore about zombies, vampires, and various other ghouls and goblins. She looked at her hand. Even magic was something they dreamt of having. People became vampire hunters, and witches were magically inclined humans. It meant that at least some of them knew demons were real.
    The others were just happy pretending it was all make believe.
    She could understand why. It would be a frightening world for them if they all realised that they were actually lower down the food chain than they wanted to be. They believed themselves top of it, when in reality they were food for most demons, including herself.
    There were demons that did worse things to humans than vampires did. At least some vampires spared the occasional human by turning them into another vampire. No other demon did that. They were too busy eating their victim’s eyeballs, hearts or brains to want to give them a chance at life after death. All a vampire needed from a human was the essence of life they held in their veins.
    She watched a young girl skip across the bridge, her face bright with laughter as golden hair flowed around her shoulders.
    She wouldn’t be smiling if she knew the killers that lurked just feet from her. She’d be screaming.
    Her teeth itched and her eyes flickered briefly into their green state before she got control of herself. No, she could never kill something so innocent, not even if she was starving. She turned away from the people and looked at Valentine. Would he? He’d admitted that he hated the taste of bagged blood. Would he rather eat a child if he were starving?
    She bit her tongue, not wanting to broach that question because she already knew what the answer would be. She could live with it if she didn’t hear him say it. So long as he was with her, she wouldn’t let him kill an innocent child.
    “Is something the matter?” he said without looking at her.
    “No... nothing.” She drew her eyes away from him.
    “I can feel something’s wrong.”
    She smiled. He must have grown used to her presence if he could sense the barest bones of her feelings. She could only do that with Serenity, the one vampire she’d spent a lot of time with. It was as though her senses had become attuned to her maid’s feelings. Apparently, it happened to many vampires. She’d been told that claiming and mating between vampires had the same effect, only it was so strong that you could feel your mate’s emotions as though they were your own and you were so attuned to each other that you shared telepathic communication. The strength of the bond determined the distance the empathic and telepathic powers worked over.
    A thought rose at the back of her mind but she pushed it away. It wouldn’t do to be thinking about things like that. A bond between her and Valentine was forbidden. She didn’t even like him in that way. Did she?
    She realised he was still staring at her, giving her that concerned look that seemed to melt her reserve towards him a little more each time. Her eyes met his and something stirred deep inside of her, forcing her to recognise that she did like him after all and it was in a way that would lead to a claiming if