Prophecy: Child of Light (42 page)

Drumming his fingers against the weather-beaten stone, he tried to think of something to keep his mind occupied but it kept drifting back to Prophecy. It was odd that the split-second before she’d screamed, the whole world seemed to have grown silent. Did she have other powers, ones that she was yet to discover?

She was learning new things about herself every day and her control over the magic she commanded was growing.

A glance at the moon told him that time was passing. It had moved across the heavens and was beginning a slow descent towards the horizon. Mia had been working on Prophecy for over an hour while he’d been lost in his thoughts and watching the night pass him by. Surely, she must have made progress by now?

He walked over to the door and peered in through the gap in the curtain. He felt as though he was a child again and was sneaking a look at his Christmas presents or one of the exclusive dinners his human family used to host. He shook his head, trying to shift the unwanted memory of his past, and looked at Prophecy. She was still now, her eyes closed in sleep while Mia’s hands hovered either side of her head.

Drawing the curtain aside, he risked Mia’s anger by entering and began towards them. He was surprised when Mia rose and walked towards him. He noticed that she intentionally avoided looking at him when she passed by and he turned and watched her walk out onto the balcony.

He glanced at Prophecy and then followed Mia. He found her staring up at the moon, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

“You look troubled,” he said, coming to stand next to her. He searched her eyes when she turned to face him. She didn’t need to answer his question in order for him to see his observation had been correct. He’d never seen her looking so worried before.

“Her history is a strange one.” Her voice was barely audible, but he caught every word and the meaning they carried.

“What is wrong with her?” He couldn’t stop the note of panic from entering his voice when he saw that Mia was trembling. Her eyes were wide and darted about, looking everywhere but back into the room, as though something there had disturbed her. He looked at the open doors and past the billowing pale curtains to where Prophecy was still sleeping. Maybe her memories had been tampered with for a reason. Maybe there were things she was better off not remembering. Could they both have made some terrible mistake in unlocking her mind?

It was too late now. She would wake soon and she would remember it all whether she liked it or not.

“She has been fed lies, Valentine. They have buried them deep and they were strong and hard to break. They have given her images and memories that are set in what appears to be a loop so she believes.” Mia’s voice shook and she averted her eyes when he brought his around to meet them.

A chill dashed up his spine on hearing her words and his stomach turned over as dread filled him.

“Believes in what?”

Mia stared into the distance. He looked down at her hands and saw they were shaking badly. She didn’t want to say what she had seen, but she had to. He had to know. He reached out and caught hold of her upper arms, forcing her to face him. Bending down, he stared up into her eyes, not letting her avoid looking at him any longer. Fear glittered in her eyes, showing him how scared she was, and she was beginning to make him feel that way, too.

“Believes in what, Mia?” he said again.

“That she has always looked this way. That she was always this age,” she whispered, her eyes wide with fright.

“What do you mean, Mia?” He shook her slightly, trying to rouse her from her fear and keep her focused. “You are not making any sense.”

“She is as old as she looks, Valentine.” She hesitated and then looked back at the room. “There is a reason she cannot remember her human life.”

He steeled himself against whatever her answer was going to be. Instinct was telling him that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be easy to stomach, not for him and definitely not for Prophecy.

“Why?” He pushed the word out and it felt heavy as it hung in the air between them. He was on the brink of discovering just why Arkalus had been tampering with Prophecy’s mind and he was no longer sure whether he wanted to know, but he felt that he had to, if only to help her deal with whatever it was she had discovered about herself.

Mia stared deep into his eyes.

“She does not have one.”

The words hit him with more force than he’d expected and they sent his mind reeling. He released her arms, stepping backwards as though he could distance himself from the reality of the situation if he distanced himself from her. He didn’t want to believe that she was trying to say what he thought she was. It wasn’t possible.

“What in the Devil’s name are you talking about? She must have one!”

Mia solemnly shook her head. “She is aging, Valentine. I saw her as a child and as a baby. I saw her born on a black day. I saw her mother die to give her the power to live.”

“It isn’t possible. I will not believe it.”

“Believe it, Valentine, for it is the truth. She has no marks because she was not turned. She was born. That is why she can use magic. Her mother was a witch and she sacrificed everything, her life and her soul, to give Prophecy all the power she had.”

“What does it mean? She is a vampire. I have seen it with my own eyes, Mia.” He stared at Prophecy who was still sleeping. He still couldn’t get his head around what he was being told. She had been born and was aging. Her mother had sacrificed herself so she would have power. If it was all too much for him to deal with, he didn’t want to think about how she was going to cope.

“She is half vampire at the very least. There was a terrible trauma when she was still in her mother’s womb. I believe that her mother may have been turned while she was pregnant. Somehow, she has become part vampire and part human. I do not know how or why.”

He believed her when she said that she didn’t. She looked as confused as he felt.

“You said she is aging.”

Mia nodded. “I do not know when she will stop, or if she will stop. It is apparently the only side effect of the coupling of the species. She has all the abilities of a vampire, no?”

“She does. She has the healing and the strength, and she has the enhanced senses. She has everything we do.”

“And yet she has something else, too,” she said. “She has magic. It is obvious that this is the reason she can carry it. A part of her, no matter how small, is human. She is a hybrid, a new species.”

“What if I turned her?”

Mia’s eyes widened in shock. “You wish to turn her?”

“I didn’t say that.” He shook his head, backtracking swiftly. “I meant what if she were turned.”

“Prophecy is already a vampire. She would bond with you if you turned her. You would become mates.”

He stared at the floor, trying to avoid Mia’s gaze as he gathered his thoughts. He hated it when she seemed to see straight through him. He felt as though he couldn’t hide anything from her. He hadn’t meant to voice his thoughts about turning Prophecy, but he had, and now Mia knew that he desired to keep Prophecy with him, no matter what he had to do in order to achieve it.

“It is forbidden,” she said, breaking into his thoughts and bringing him back to the world. “The great houses would execute you both. I can turn her for you. We have no attachment on either side and therefore would not bond.”

He shook his head again, a frown knitting his brows.

“It is not necessary. Turning her may affect the prophecy,” he said and then looked over at Prophecy, sensing her stirring.

Leaving Mia’s side, he instantly went to her. He knelt beside her, watching her eyelids flutter as she gradually awoke. When she shot up into a sitting position, he moved backwards, fearing she was going to lash out at anything near her.

Prophecy breathed deeply and tried to make sense of everything that was going on in her head. It was a blur of disjointed memories that made her head ache with despair and confusion. She pressed her hand to it and then drew her knees up and hugged them. Her whole body trembled and she rocked back and forth, staring into nothingness. All of the images floating around her head seemed to swim in and out of focus. She screwed her face up in agony and buried her fingers into her hair, covering her ears with her palms and trying to shut the world out. She could hear a voice, a familiar one. Someone was speaking in gentle tones, caressing her ears and soothing her. She wanted to latch onto that voice, wanted to wrap her arms about him and make him hold her tightly until everything in her head went away.

She didn’t stop the tears as they slipped large and fast down her cheeks, and didn’t make a move to reach out and take hold of the one thing that could comfort her.

She didn’t deserve his comfort.

“I’m an abomination,” she whispered into her knees and more tears came, constricting her throat and making it ache while she silently made herself believe her words. She was an abomination like Arkalus had once said. She deserved to be hunted.

“No, no you are not.” Valentine’s tone was still gentle and she listened to his words, wishing they were true even when she knew they weren’t.

“I am. I’m not human and I’m not a vampire. I’ve never lived, not once. I’ve never really lived. I was born an abomination. You say that I’m not, but if that’s the case then what am I?” She raised her head, keeping her hands over her ears and looking deep into his eyes in search of an answer.

Their green depths were filled with concern, with affection and tenderness.

With love.

“You are a vampire, as I am, only there is a human part of you. You have some human qualities. You are not an abomination, understand?” He placed his left hand lightly on her shoulder at first and then moved it to rest over her right hand where it was pressed against her ear.

The feeling of it against hers made fresh tears rise up. She wanted to lean into his touch and take comfort from him but there was still a part of her that wanted him to hate her. She wanted to be punished for what she was. Her whole life had been a lie. She wasn’t the person she’d always thought she was. She was a stranger to herself.

“It is your humanity that gives you the ability to use magic,” he said.

Her eyes remained locked with his. She couldn’t understand how he could be so calm. Mia must have told him everything. Her gaze drifted to the female vampire. She looked petrified and was keeping her distance from them. Something told her that it wasn’t to give them some privacy. How was it that Mia was now scared of her but Valentine wasn’t? He was sitting by her, kneeling so close that she wanted to throw her arms about his neck and bury her face into it. She wanted to cry until no more tears would come, but she knew that it wouldn’t solve anything and it wouldn’t help her deal with what she had discovered about herself.

How was she supposed to cope with this? She had cursed Arkalus when Valentine had first mentioned that her blood brother might have been tampering with her memories rather than helping her. Now she understood why he had done it. She would have realised she was different. It would have been obvious that she wasn’t wholly vampire. Vampires didn’t age. Her eyes dropped to rest on Valentine’s chest and she frowned, trying to make sense of everything in her head. It felt as though there was a war going on in her mind. The barriers and lies that Arkalus had put in place, the memories she’d always thought were hers, were fighting against those that she now remembered. When they all fell into line, she didn’t know how she was going to cope.

“It’s all so fuzzy, in my head. I can remember it all, Valentine. I can remember everything, but there’s no sense of time or place. It’s all mixed up.”

“It will take time for your mind to regain some sense of order,” Mia said, cautiously approaching them. “The sun will rise soon. It is best we take Prophecy back to her room so she may get some rest.”

“No, I will take her.” Valentine stood and offered her his hand.

Prophecy looked at it and then up at his face. He really was taking the news better than her, but then she supposed that he would. He didn’t seem to care that she wasn’t truly a vampire. He still looked at her the same way. There was still fire burning in his eyes.

Slipping her hand into his, she allowed him to help her to stand and then frowned when she wobbled, her knees feeling weak.

“The process can be very draining. You will recover your strength in time. Do not fear.” Mia touched her shoulder and then began towards the door.

She was about to follow her when she found herself being scooped up by Valentine. He let one arm rest against her back while the other supported her legs. Her head instantly came to rest against his shoulder and she looped her arms about his neck. She closed her eyes, feeling the weight of everything lift the tiniest amount now that she was in his arms. Everything didn’t seem so bad.

He walked with her and she didn’t need to open her eyes to see their journey. She could see it all in her head, every turn and every room they passed through. She’d memorised it when they had been walking to the room Mia had chosen to work with her in. She had wanted to know her escape route if it was necessary.

Valentine shifted her in his arms and a door creaked as it opened. She breathed in the scent of her room and clung to him a little tighter. She didn’t want him to leave her. She didn’t want to be alone with her memories. He was the only thing that seemed real in her life now.

She frowned when he settled her down on the bed and removed her arms from around his neck.

He smiled.

Her eyes followed his movements. She sniffed back her tears, watching him undo the laces of her boots and slip each of them off. He placed them neatly beside her bed and a small smile teased her lips. It was so like him, always prim and proper.

When he straightened up, she went to speak but lost her voice when he removed his jacket and placed it over the chair in the corner. She couldn’t believe what was happening, even when he moved around the expansive mahogany four poster bed and sat down beside her on it. She stared at him for the longest time, unsure of whether this was really happening or not. Had he read her mind? She hadn’t wanted him to go, and now he wasn’t. He was leaning into the pillows that were propped up against the headboard and waiting patiently for her to go to him.