Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

her feelings grew stronger. She told herself that it didn’t matter how she felt. There was a war on the horizon and it was no time for love, not when the fate of millions would rest in her hands. She couldn’t let herself get caught up, and she couldn’t let Valentine know how she felt.
    “I just feel... funny still. I can’t shift the images of those people,” she lied without flinching. She had shifted the horrifying pictures from her mind a short time after they’d stopped on the bridge.
    “It will pass.” The corners of his mouth moved into a small smile of reassurance.
    He pushed himself up off the bridge and looked down the other side of it. She realised that he wanted to move and started walking. She knew they had spent too long in one spot. The werewolves could be looking for them so it was best they kept moving. Besides, she wanted to see the rest of the city.
    Her eyes roamed lazily over the goods in the windows they passed, heading along a narrow corridor of buildings towards St. Mark’s Square. She raised her eyes up to the top of the campanile as they walked out into the piazza. It was so tall, capped with its pyramid roof that marked a contrast against the square walls. Dropping her gaze, she looked at the elaborately decorated façade of the basilica. She could see the domes and the horses above the entrance arches as they approached it. It was beautiful. She’d never seen a building so richly decorated and ornate.
    “It is even more beautiful on the inside,” Valentine said and she looked at him. He was standing beside her, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes on the building in front of them.
    She tried to resist the temptation to ask him what it looked like and then caved. “How pretty?”
    “The inside of the domes are decorated with millions of gold mosaic tiles, pure gold.” He leaned his head towards her and she remembered the time he’d told her of sunsets. Everything he said seemed so easy to imagine. “They surround each mosaic of saints and other heroes of Christendom. There are angels, and demons, all looking down on you from a sea of gold. Every wall is covered with it, right down to the floor.”
    “It sounds beautiful,” she said, looking at the doors. They were closed and the sign said it wasn’t open after dark. “How did you see it?”
    “I just had to look.” He smiled and she got the feeling she was being teased. It was strange to be teased by him. He was evidently enjoying how hungry she was for information about the things he’d seen in his life.
    He turned to walk away but she caught his arm. “Tell me.”
    He looked over his shoulder at her. “I heard about it from a werewolf. They can move about during the day so they can see the things we cannot. I had to see it, so I broke into the building one night, lit every candle I could find and drank my fill of the beauty it contained.”
    “I’d ask if we can do that... but you’ll say no, won’t you?”
    He nodded and went to walk away but paused and turned to face her instead. “Some day I shall take you in to see it.”
    She didn’t know what to say as she watched him walking towards the two columns near the canal. He’d made her a promise of sorts. He’d said he would take her to see the beautiful mosaics inside the cathedral and she knew he wasn’t talking about doing it before they had fulfilled the prophecy. It was a masked declaration of intent to remain in contact with her if they made it through this.
    She tried to make sense of him, then realised that he had stopped walking and was waiting for her. The people in the square kept walking across the path between them, but she didn’t notice them. She just stared at him, looking into his eyes as he stood patiently waiting. Everything else became a distant blur.
    The spell broke when she placed one foot out in front of her and started towards him. He turned away from her again, walking slowly towards the canal, letting her catch up with him. Her eyes were drawn to the Victorian lights that lined this section of the square. They glowed warmly, adding to the romance of the piazza.
    She looked at the couples as they walked past them. She’d seen movies about love and had read books, but she’d never been drawn to anyone like the heroines in them had. Arkalus wanted her as his, but the idea of it repulsed her. She could never love him.
    Her eyes strayed to Valentine and she forced herself to look at the scene ahead of her. It was no