Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light

honourable about what Kalinor had asked him to do.
    He could hear Kalinor shouting commands to the house elders when he walked back into the main reception room and stared blankly at the floor.
    He should have listened to her blood. He shouldn’t have tried to ignore the vision it had given him. Raising his head, he spotted the blond mess of hair that belonged to Cornelius through the heads of the elders and headed directly for him.
    He caught him by the arm and started up the stairs with him. “Come with me. I need your assistance.”
    * * * *
    Prophecy was soaked to the skin by the time she had made it over the high wall surrounding the grounds and back to the house. Scaling the drainpipe again, she pushed the sash window up and slipped back into her room. She clawed her wet hair out of her face, closed the window as quietly as possible and then let out a sigh of relief.
    She was so stupid.
    She should have listened to her mother when she’d told her that she wasn’t strong enough to hunt. The other vampire had been so much more powerful than her. She hadn’t been able to stop him from biting her and she didn’t know what to make of his reaction. At the time, she’d just seen it as an opportunity to escape, but as she’d made her way home, she’d begun to think about it. He’d been stunned by what he’d seen, and she couldn’t fathom why.
    It wasn’t as if she’d led a long or interesting life. She had spent over twenty years trapped in the same house. What was interesting about that?
    At least she was back safe now, and no one had to know that she had been gone. She would change her clothes, dry her hair and then go down to see her mother. No one had to know.
    She froze when she heard a noise in the darkness and realised that she wasn’t alone.
    “Brother,” she greeted him coldly when he stepped out of the shadows by the door and moved towards her.
    Turning away from him, she carefully covered the marks on her neck and stared out of the window, waiting for him to speak.
    “Prophecy,” Arkalus said softly and came to stand behind her. He moved to touch her shoulder but she stepped forwards and evaded his fingers. She saw his hand drop to his side out of the corner of her eye. How long had he been waiting for her to return? She’d been gone for hours. “Where have you been?”
    She bit her tongue and continued to stare out of the window.
    She could feel his eyes as they raked over her wet hair down to the smooth skin of her exposed shoulders.
    “One day, you won’t be able to turn me away so easily.”
    She frowned at his words, a thinly veiled threat that he emphasised by brushing his fingers lightly over her shoulder. Her jaw set tight and she turned her head away from him, disgusted by his attentions and wanting nothing more than to be alone.
    Unable to hold her feelings inside, she found her mouth moving before she could stop it. “You’ll be waiting a long time.”
    Her words had no impact. It was as though she’d never spoken them. His fingers moved to play with her hair, his tone becoming so intimate a whisper that it made her stomach squirm.
    “What makes you think I won’t tell mother about your disappearance tonight?” He leaned in a little closer to her and her whole body tensed.
    She tried to make light of it, hoping that he’d leave her alone and find someone else to bestow his attentions upon. “If you did that, mother would want to know why you didn’t tell her earlier... why wait so long? You’d be in as much trouble as me.”
    He seemingly ignored her comment and stroked his fingers gently over her shoulder. She shuddered when he pressed a light kiss to it, the tendrils of his long brown hair grazing her skin. It brought the stranger back into her head. She remembered the way his lips had grazed her neck. An echo of the feelings he’d ignited then danced through her.
    “You won’t be able to turn me away forever. I’m a patient man... ” Arkalus whispered it into her ear. She leaned away from him, trying to escape his touch. “As soon as mother passes the house to me, I’ll take you as my mate and you won’t be able to stop me.”
    She closed her eyes when the air shifted around her and then the door slammed. She let out the breath she’d been holding and slumped into her chair, thinking about what he’d said.
    It was no secret that he wanted her as his own. The whole house knew. He’d been courting her for as long as she could remember, but she had never