Prophecy: Child of Light (16 page)

And here they stood.

“How long has it been since you’ve been to Paris? I mean, apart from passing through,” she asked, keeping her eyes fixed on the scenery.

He leaned against the railings and looked at the fountains dancing before bringing his eyes back to her. She was far more interesting than Paris. He’d seen this city so many times that he’d become immune to its beauty. Paris was just another city. Prophecy was enthralling.

“Five years, possibly more.” He kept his eyes locked on her face, taking in the changes in expression as she thought about his answer and looked at another sector of the city.

“That long? If I had your job, I’d always be travelling. I’d see every city I could, as many times as I could. Tell me about the things you’ve seen. Tell me about the cities. Have you been to many of the balls that are held in the palaces and the mansions? Arkalus and Iona often attended them, but I was never allowed to go.”

He shook his head in amusement. She was talking so fast that if she had needed to breathe she would have been blue in the face from lack of oxygen.

“I have attended a few. My position does not afford me such privileges. I can only go where I am ordered to go.”

She frowned. “But you’ve seen cities? I bet you’ve spent years living in some of them. I’d live a year in each city and when I ran out of cities to see, I’d start all over again.”

“You would grow bored. They lose their sparkle over time. When you spend too long in a city, you begin to see it as just another gathering of buildings. It becomes nothing special.”

“Oh. But it’s so fascinating. Look at it.”

He did. It wasn’t remotely fascinating any more. It was dull, tarnished by years of fighting for his life in its dirty back streets and searching for hunters. To him, it was just another battleground. He didn’t see the buildings any more, didn’t stop to look. All he focused on when he entered any city was completing his mission. He looked at her again.

She was fascinating, not the rest of the world. He could watch her for hours, especially when she was like this.

“What is it?” She caught him looking at her.

“You are so young.” He straightened up and reached a hand out, brushing his fingers against her cheek. “You are so very young and everything is so fresh and new. I have seen the whole world change. I have witnessed man’s progress... seen it all.”

Her eyes were large and round. He withdrew his hand and hers touched the spot on her cheek where his fingers had been.

She really was young, maybe too young to be facing something like saving the world. She’d spent her whole life trapped inside her family’s mansion. As far as he knew, she’d learnt everything from books and television, and her physical training had always been against the same opponent. She had a lot to learn and she was going to have to learn fast. He would protect her to the best of his abilities, but there was a chance that she may have to fight without him at some point and he had to know that she could handle herself. He needed to test her.

“When I met you, was that the first time you had been out of your family’s house?”

She nodded. “I told you, they don’t let me hunt. I guess I know why now. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle this whole crazy situation so well if I had been any younger.”

“If you do not mind my asking, how old are you?”

Her look turned pensive and she stared at the city in silence for a few seconds before answering, “I honestly don’t know.”

She looked as though she wanted to cry as she said those words and the need to comfort her rose up inside him again.

“We shall find out. Do not worry.”

She smiled at him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He stared at her, feeling as stunned by her words as she looked. If she had been able to blush, her cheeks would’ve been blazing. She averted her eyes, turning her head away from him and fiddling with the railing.

He searched for something to say.

“The last time I was here was insane.” He knew that she wanted to know about the things he’d seen and if it alleviated some of the tension between them, he was happy to tell her. She looked out of the corner of her eye at him. It was a small gesture, but it told him that if he continued to talk she would turn back around and face him. “I had not one but two hunters to track. I had planned to kill the weaker one first, but things rarely go to plan. I ended up fighting them both at once. It wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if the second hunter had not been one of the few good ones.”

“What happened?” She turned a little more to look at him. If he kept talking, he’d be able to see her face properly again. He could see that she wanted to face him, but she was still embarrassed about what she’d said.

“It was close. I haven’t been back since because of it. I can handle most weapons in combat, but two hunters with swords were beyond my capabilities when I did not have a weapon myself. The scars still haven’t disappeared, and I doubt they will now.” He subconsciously rubbed at his chest while he remembered the fight. It really had been close. Looking up, he found that she was facing him again, her eyes full of questions.

“Did you kill them both?” she said and her eyes fell to rest on his hand which was still pressed against his chest. “Did they badly hurt you?”

He couldn’t get over how everything seemed to fascinate her.

“If it had been holy wooden swords they’d had, I would not be here today.”

She reached out her hand towards his chest. Her eyes were locked on it in a distant stare and her brows were raised. She paused, clearly realising what she was doing and withdrew her hand.

“So you still have the scar?” she said and he nodded slowly. He still had it. It served as a reminder of just how close he’d been to meeting his end and since receiving it he had worked even harder at perfecting his skills.

“I would show you it, but...” He trailed off when she averted her eyes again.

She leaned against the railing and heaved a sigh. “Valentine? What’s Prague like?”

He leaned beside her and his eyes settled on her profile. He’d thought she was going to ask him something more personal. He was beginning to get the feeling that she was avoiding asking directly. She was learning about him from his tales about the cities he’d seen and the things he’d done in them. All the way here, she’d been asking about them. He’d told her about the time he was nearly killed in Istanbul by nothing more than a group of angry people. He’d told her about his visits to Rome and Florence. He’d even told her about the times he’d spent in England with Mathias. She’d now added Paris and Prague to the list. She asked him about cities, but not about himself.

All he’d asked her was about her family and how she’d learnt things without being out in the world to gain experience. He hadn’t asked her anything personal like how she’d felt to be trapped inside the house, or what she liked to do.

It seemed they were both avoiding asking about each other. It was as though they were both trying to maintain their distance for some reason. He knew why he was doing it. A part of him believed that if he kept that distance between them, then he wouldn’t be breaking the law. It was pointless. They had already broken one law; they may as well break the rest too. The penalty would be the same. Nothing they could say or do would stop the Law Keepers from coming for them.

He hated that name. It should have been his.

Two centuries he’d spent working his way through the ranks of the guardsmen, from the lowly rank that was assigned to stand guard outside the house all the way through to the high guardsmen, those that protected Kalinor. He’d moved one step beyond that by attaining the role of hunter nearly a century and a half ago. He’d been a single step away from becoming a Law Keeper.

Perhaps it was best that he hadn’t achieved that rank. He would have had to do his duty and murder Prophecy. The punishment a Law Keeper suffered if they broke the law was unspeakable, so harsh that no vampire would bring themselves to consider it. All it would have taken was for the Law Keeper of Aurorea to have been killed and he wouldn’t have had the choice of going against his family and his duty.

He sighed.

In a way, what he had done had proven that he wasn’t perfect for the position after all.

He looked at Prophecy. She was still waiting for an answer, her eyes fixed intently on him. He’d given it all up for her. He hadn’t even thought about what he was doing. His decision had been made the moment he’d laid eyes on her, he just hadn’t realised at the time.

“Prague is beautiful, even when you spend many years in it. It has been my home since I was given this dark gift and I have spent half of my life as a vampire there. You can feel its history when you walk around it. It looks so at home at night that it seems as though it was built to be seen in darkness.” He noticed the solemn edge her expression picked up and placed a hand on her shoulder. She winced slightly but tried to hide it from him. He frowned at her, concerned that she was hurt. Opening his mouth, he thought about questioning her about it but let it go instead. She clearly didn’t want him to know what had happened with the witches and he didn’t want to force her into telling him. It would only spoil the evening. “You will see it again. I am certain of that.”

He removed his hand and let it rest on the railing again.

She smiled at him, evidently relieved that he wasn’t mentioning her flinching. “I know.”

His brows knit again when something caught his eye. It was too far off to make out in the dark square below them, but it was rapidly approaching. His fingers tightly gripped the railing as the creature below them finally came close enough for him to see it properly.

It looked as though the evening was about to get spoiled after all.

P
rophecy didn’t quite know how to react when Valentine leapt up on top of the barrier around the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. She’d been enjoying a quiet evening away from the increasing pressure of the prophecy and suddenly it was coming to an end. She looked at Valentine. He was peering at the ground below them, scanning it for something. He’d seemed a lot better tonight. He’d been happy to be near her and talk to her. In a way, she got the feeling that he was concerned about her. She’d given him good reason to be worried after all.

She pressed her hand into her shoulder and frowned while she rubbed it. It was still sore.

Her whole body was sore, but she didn’t want to worry Valentine. It was strange seeing him so concerned about her. He was so agitated and attentive, and it made her feel self-conscious and awkward. She wanted him to be confident about everything again, everything including herself.

“What is it?” she said and then heard a scream from far below.

Her eyes immediately sought out the owner of it and she saw two men harassing a woman.

“Someone is about to get much more than they bargained for,” he said and gave her a grim look. “Werewolf.”

“Which one?” She focused her senses, trying to determine which one out of the three people was the werewolf.

“See you down there,” he said and dropped off the side of the tower.

She watched him plummet towards the ground, land gracefully on his feet and then run straight for the three people. She hesitated and then jumped up to the same spot where he’d been. Looking down at the dizzying drop below her, her gaze followed Valentine where he was now fighting the three. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

If he didn’t break anything by jumping, then she wouldn’t.

Would she?

Another scream pushed her into a decision and she stepped out into mid air, letting her instincts guide her movements during the fall. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to see the ground as it came up to meet her. There was no point in looking; she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if she was going to hit the ground wrong. She’d rather not know.

She landed on her feet in a crouching position, opened her eyes and bolted over to Valentine.

She levelled a swift kick at the head of the man who was about to hit him and when it connected, she realised that he was human. He fell to the floor unconscious and she wondered if Valentine would be sorely disappointed if she killed him. She was getting hungry again. She looked at Valentine as he grappled with the woman and saw the other man unconscious on the ground. He hadn’t come here to fight the men.

The woman was a werewolf.

A roar of pain filled her ears and Valentine clutched at his arm.

She was by his side immediately, trying to check the damage, but he was looking straight past her. She realised that the woman was gone and turned to see her running across the square towards the Eiffel Tower.

When Valentine started running, Prophecy did too. She kept up with him as the world sped by, nothing more than a blur as they tracked down the werewolf. They ran into an area of low bushes and trees. She stopped when Valentine caught her arm and pulled her backwards.

He pressed a finger to his lips and then pointed through the trees.

She looked there. It was another open square and the woman was stood in the middle of it, waiting for them to make a move. Prophecy looked up at the moon. It was only a quarter full. She wished it still held its sway over all werewolves, but those over a century old learned to defy it and change at will. The woman was staring at them and she got the feeling that they were about to find out if she was older than one hundred years.

The woman’s bones shifted and clicked into place, her body changing shape as fur erupted across her skin and her face distorted into her werewolf guise. It stared across at them with yellow eyes, its teeth glistening with saliva as it waited.

“We have to kill her.” Valentine’s voice broke the silence and Prophecy glanced across at him.

“Why? She’s just a werewolf. She probably doesn’t even know who we are.”

“She knows,” he said, looking down at Prophecy. “She is a guardian of Aurorea. I have met her before. That’s why Kalinor sent her out to hunt us down, because she would recognise me. If we do not kill her, she will report back to our families.”