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Chapter Four

Prophecy's head throbbed. It felt heavy and dull, and it spun when she tried to open her eyes. The world seemed dark, as though she was looking at it through a black film. She pressed one hand to her head and the other to the floor to support herself as she tried to sit up. She tensed when she felt the cold stone underneath her fingertips. Her senses immediately sharpened to a pinpoint and she realised that she wasn't in her bedroom any more, and she wasn't alone.

She knew that scent.

She forced her head to clear while her senses screamed of the danger she was in. Her eyes sought him out and she backed away when she found he was standing not ten foot from her. He was watching her with the same critical look he'd had when they'd first met.

Her eyes darted about the room, searching for an avenue of escape, and then she closed them as her head ached painfully.

"It will wear off soon."

The tone of his voice made her start. She hadn't expected it to be so calm and gentle. There was a hint of something in it that made her relax, something that sounded a lot like concern.

She shook her head, trying to make it clear now. Whatever he'd given her had been powerful. She could still feel her blood trying to expunge it. Looking back at him, she wondered what he wanted with her. Hadn't it been enough that his reaction to her blood had given her more questions than she could come up with answers for? Now he had abducted her and drugged her. What did he want with her? Was it something that he'd seen in her blood? He must have come to her house to kidnap her. He was either incredibly brave to enter the house of his enemy alone or incredibly stupid.

Her headache worsened and she cast him an angry look.

She couldn't even tell where they were. It was a warehouse, but all warehouses looked very much the same didn't they? How long had she been asleep? She'd read of poisons strong enough to knock out various demons and some of them could keep the victim unconscious up to three days.

"Feeling better?"

She didn't answer his question. She just stared at him and curled up, holding her knees tightly. She finally realised that he was standing between her and the only exit. She hadn't been strong enough to fight him earlier. Now she had been drugged and didn't have full command of her senses. All she could do was wait and see if an opportunity presented itself. Hopefully he'd reveal why he'd abducted her too, and what he'd seen in her blood that had startled him so much.

He took a step towards her.

"Do you have a name?"

She glared at him. He should be the one answering her questions, not the other way around. Biting her tongue, she resisted the desire to say something. He'd slip up and then she could escape. How the hell had he made it in and out of her house? She wanted to ask him, wanted to hear his explanation. There were guardsmen on the gates and stationed around the grounds, and there were nearly one hundred members of her family within the mansion walls at all times. It was impossible that he'd managed to find her and then take her without someone seeing him. Then again, she'd escaped easily in order to hunt.

"Who is your mother?"

Her frown intensified and her gaze dropped to rest on the ground.

"My mother is Iona, leader of my bloodline," she said without looking at him.

"No. I meant your real mother," he said and she raised her eyes to meet his.

She knew she looked confused; she couldn't help it. What was he talking about? Iona was her mother. He smiled at her, or at least she thought it was a smile. The corners of his mouth barely moved, but his look softened. She felt as though he was mocking her, treating her as if she was a child like the rest of her family did.

"Do not be frightened."

She got to her feet, pushing her fear down inside of her and keeping her expression empty as she glared at him. She wasn't frightened. She'd never be frightened of one of his bloodline. But his questions, they seemed to burn in her mind, making it spin and ache while she searched for answers to them. Who was her mother? It was Iona. She was the Chosen Daughter of her household, sister to Arkalus, the Chosen Son of Caelestis. But this vampire of Aurorea had said she wasn't. He'd said he wanted to know who her real mother was. Real mother?

Her brows furrowed as she struggled to remember something. It seemed just out of reach, too far away for her to grab hold of and bring into focus. Her real mother? Who was she? A blurred image flickered in front of her eyes and then slipped away before she could make sense of it.

"I want to go home now," she said in a pleading tone, her eyes meeting his again. He looked at her as though she was insane for asking.

"There is no going home." He took another step towards her. "You are not safe there any more."

"I'm safe in my household. It's here I'm not safe." She moved backwards, trying to maintain the distance between them. It hadn't worked before, and it wasn't going to work now. Reaching out behind her, she silently cursed when her hands met the cold walls of the room.

He sighed.

It made her look at him. When he made no move to come closer, she couldn't stop her eyes from roaming over his face. The lights overhead made him sickly pale, even paler than he should have been. His eyes were still as green as she remembered them. They were clear and rich, sparkling with intelligence as he looked at her. His black hair was tousled and spiked, neater now than it had been when they'd first met and longer than she recalled. He had fine brows, and a slim nose that made him look regal. Her eyes dropped to his clothing. They were elegant. He wore a delicately embroidered deep red jacket that extended to his knees. The buttons were shiny gold, as fine as the material they were sewn on to. She skimmed over his tight black trousers to the highly polished black boots he wore.

He looked like a guard, but she got the impression that he was more than that. The status of guard seemed too lowly and common for him. He was something else. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing as he questioned her, keeping his voice gentle and soothing, and ensuring he kept enough distance to put her at ease. He had entered her home and stolen her, clearly without raising the alarm since he didn't seem in a hurry or at all flustered by how long things were taking.

There was something about the way he held himself that confirmed he couldn't be a guard. Guards of all the pure bloodlines were proud creatures, but this man's poise went beyond pride. His head was held high, his eyes betraying how sure of himself he was. He wasn't slouching and there was an air of wisdom about him. She got the feeling that he could handle any situation with ease, no matter how dangerous it was. He was older than her, his eyes told her that, but she couldn't tell how old.

"Your family had reasons for not letting you out. You disobeyed them, and now you are not safe anywhere."

The sound of his voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The strange sense of calm her perusal of him had given her vanished and fear crept in again. She looked into his eyes to see if what he was saying was true. How was she supposed to trust him? He'd kidnapped her. For all she knew this could be a ruse to get her to do something for him, to make her lose faith in her family.

She backed against the wall as he advanced on her, his movements slow and steady as he closed the gap between them. Her time was up. She could see in his eyes that he was tired of taking things slowly.

She closed her eyes instinctively when he came to a halt in front of her and drew her hair away from her neck. He leaned towards the place where he'd marked her and a low purr rumbled through his chest.

"Who is your sire? If you do not have a mother," he whispered the words into her ear.

Her sire?

She struggled again, a frown flickering on her brow. She searched her memories for the slightest clue as to the answer to his question.

"It is Iona," she answered with all the confidence she could find in her now trembling body.

He pulled back and looked at her, shaking his head as he did so. "You have no marks, but mine."

Her hand automatically moved to her neck. It was true. She had no other marks on her neck. She'd never realised it until the day that her maid, Serenity, had told her, and since that day, she'd been thankful that she didn't have a reflection so she didn't have to be faced with it. The questions that had arisen in her mind still plagued her. She'd asked herself countless times how it was possible that she could have a sire and no marks. There was no other way of creating a vampire that she knew of. She'd scoured the library archives over and over again, searching for a book that would give her the answer. There had to be another way. She was a vampire after all.

"I could tell you."

His silken voice aroused her interest and she almost nodded. Could he really tell her? Was this another trick? How could he tell her how she came about, how she became a vampire?

His hands grasped hold of her upper arms and panic rose up inside her when he neared her neck. She tensed and screwed her eyes shut when his teeth penetrated her throat in the same place he'd bitten her before. She wriggled against him, trying to get her arms free so she could push him away, but he only held her tighter.

Valentine frowned and bit down harder on her neck, drawing her blood into his mouth and bracing himself while he waited for the images to hit him.

Nothing.

His teeth retracted.

It wasn't possible that she had the strength to block her memories from him. He'd easily seen the visions she held in her blood when he'd bitten her before. She hadn't put up a fight. How had she blocked him this time?

He moved back a fraction to look at her and didn't have time to react when her feet came up. They pressed hard into his stomach and propelled him backwards through the air. His breath was knocked from him as he slammed into the far wall and dropped to his knees, his teeth gritted.

When his body finally shut down the pain, he raised his eyes to look at her.

She was gone.

He hurried to his feet and swung around to face the now open door.

Not pausing to think, he began after her. He couldn't let her reach her family's mansion. If she made it there, then they'd both be dead. His family wouldn't want to hear any of the excuses that he could think of. Kalinor wouldn't believe him if he said that she had been the danger he'd sensed. He would only see that he had abducted the child of the prophecy. When she told the two families of the questions he'd asked, he would be condemned to death.

They'd both die.

But it couldn't happen could it? Not if the things her blood had shown him were true.

He took a deep breath of fresh air as his feet hit the road outside the warehouse. She wasn't far ahead of him and he knew exactly which direction she was going to head in.

Running after her through the dark deserted streets, he kept his senses fixed on her and ducked down a side road. If he were quick enough, he would be able to cut her off before she made it half the distance to her house. He ducked down another alley and smiled when he came back out onto the road she was running down.

She ground to a halt the moment she saw him, her expression hardening as she realised he was again blocking her path.

She kept still, obviously waiting for him to make a move.

Relaxing, he straightened up and raked his eyes over her. She was fast, and strong. He'd not met a female as strong as her before. The way she'd thrown him across the room was impressive. She had power too, enough to stop him from seeing things in her blood. He wondered what else she was hiding from him.

He smiled inside when she continued to stand before him in a fighting stance, her fists clenched while she stood with one foot in front of the other in the weakly lit street. He listened to the sound of her heavy breathing as it cut through the silence. It was getting late. The sun would be rising soon. He was running out of time to convince her that everything she had thought was safe, was gone, replaced with a death sentence.

She frowned at him, clearly wondering why he wasn't making a move. He could almost see the question flickering in her dark eyes. His gaze wandered downwards. The long black nightdress she wore clung to her body, not hiding anything from the imagination. Her feet were bare. He gave a thought to the clothes that were still at the warehouse with the rest of his things. He should have realised that she wasn't going to make any of this easy. Not that it was easy. Going against his family was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do, but his instincts had told him it was the right thing.

And blood never lies.

He raised his eyes back to her face. She cleared her hair away from her eyes, pushing it back over her shoulders and revealing herself fully to him. She still looked heavenly.

"Show me your true face." The words left his lips before he even had time to consider what he was asking or why he wanted to see it.

He was surprised when she did as he'd asked. The bones of her face shifted smoothly, her teeth elongating and sharpening, and her eyes changing to emerald green. She was a Caelestis then. No doubt about that.

She hissed and flexed her fingers while her claws extended.

He didn't bother changing. He had already satisfied her curiosity about the real him back at the cemetery. There was no need to reveal his demon face again. He stared at her. She moved her weight from one foot to the other, waiting for him to make a move.

When he didn't, she broke the silence.

She slid gracefully out of her vampire guise and raised her chin. "Who do you think I am?"

He could hear the nerves in her voice. It trembled. If she'd had a heartbeat, it would have been rocketing, sending his every instinct into overdrive and making desire scream through him. The way she was reacting to him made him feel a ghost of that, only a hair's breadth away from what he would have felt had she been human. He wanted to push her, wanted to make her frightened so he could feed off the feeling of power it gave him, but it would get him nowhere and time was running out.

"Why did you take me from my family? I know you're not one of them. I know you have a reason for kidnapping me and I want to know what it is." She took a step towards him.

She had nerve. She may have some power, but he could easily defeat her in a fight. She was young, inexperienced. She'd proven that earlier tonight when she'd thought she could stand her ground against him and not answer his questions.

"I have a reason, yes." He took a step towards her, showing her that her manoeuvre hadn't frightened him as she'd intended it to.

Her lips compressed and her nostrils flared as she glared at him. She was young, definitely young, and probably no older in vampire years than she looked. She pushed her hair out of her face again, flicking it over her shoulders. There was such a spark of defiance in her and he didn't know whether she really wasn't scared of him, or whether she just had great command over her body. Now that he was closer to her, she seemed calmer and more relaxed. She wasn't trembling any more. She was standing with a resolute expression on her face that said she was going to get an answer to her question. He was willing to give her one, but he knew she wouldn't like it and she wouldn't believe it.

"You are not safe with your family any more. It was my doing. I revealed your existence and now the master of my bloodline has gone to see yours. I took you because..." He struggled to against the tempest of feelings inside him and tried to form the words he wanted to say. He could see that she was waiting. She wanted to know the reason why he had taken her and he wanted to tell her, but everything inside of him revolted against saying the words. He swallowed hard, tensed his jaw and then ground them out. "I wanted to protect you."

Her eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed again.

"I don't need protection," she said in a cold, composed voice.

"I am afraid that you do. We need to find out more about you. I know a scribe in England. He's older than any vampire I have met. He will give us the answers we need. He will give you the answers you want."

She backed away a step, the frown remaining etched on her face.

"I can't go. I can't leave my family."

He knew that for a moment he'd convinced her. It gave him a sign that she was willing to be convinced, that she would go with him if he made her see that it was her only option. She wanted answers, and she knew that he could help her get them. If only he could make her see that she was no longer safe with her family.

"They are not your family, not any more."

He dodged the punch that she threw at him and then gave chase the instant he realised that she was running again. He was getting tired of this. The sun would be up soon and even if she agreed to go with him, they were going to be cutting it close to make it back to the warehouse before it broke the horizon.

He glanced up at the sky as he ran after her. It was clear with only a few patches of clouds, not enough to protect them from the harsh light of day when it came.

Bringing his eyes back down to earth, he realised that she was running faster this time, and that he was beginning to lose her. He couldn't let her make it back to the mansion. He should have told her exactly what she was letting herself in for if she went back there but he had seen in her eyes that it would have been one push too many. Telling her that she no longer had a family had upset her enough. If he told her that she would die if she went back, that he was the one who would have to kill her, he couldn't imagine how she'd take that. She'd certainly never be able to bring herself to trust him. He'd tell her when she was ready to hear it.

Turning down the street that led to her home, he redoubled his effort. She was mere feet away from him now. He could easily catch her before she made it to the gates.

He frowned when he sensed other vampires, strong vampires, and made a lunge for her. Dragging her into the bushes that lined the opposite side of the road to her mansion, he placed his hand over her mouth to silence her.

Prophecy thought about biting into his hand as it clamped down over her mouth. She dug her nails into it, trying to prise it off her, and wriggled to get free.

She stopped the instant she saw why he'd dragged her into the trees and undergrowth.

Arkalus.

And he wasn't alone.

Her hands relinquished their grip on her captor's arms and she watched the scene unfold in front of her.

Arkalus was with one of the other family, one of stature. Was this the lord of the vampire now holding her captive? He was strong, and old. She could sense the power in him when he turned to face her brother at the gates. He signalled and several guards appeared and moved off to a distance as he waved a dismissive hand. Her eyes strayed to them. If they were the guardsmen of Aurorea, then she had been right about the vampire who was holding her. He wasn't a guard. He was something above that position.

She returned her gaze to her brother and thought about that.

"Then it is settled." Arkalus smiled broadly at the lord of Aurorea. "We shall join forces and hunt the abomination together."

"For the safety of our kind." The other vampire grinned back at her brother and firmly shook his hand.

"We thought we could contain her. Iona was a fool not to listen to me. She is not worthy of running this house." Arkalus' smile faded, leaving his expression cold.

Her stomach dropped. Abomination? Safety of our kind? Aurorea and Caelestis working together? She felt lost and struggled to comprehend what they were saying. Was she the abomination they were to hunt? The vampire who was holding her had said that he had revealed her existence to his family, and her brother was saying that they had thought they could contain her.

What was happening?

She didn't even notice the gates closing and the other family leaving. The vampire behind her let go of her and she slumped against a tree, staring at the dirt beneath her.

They were talking about her. Her own brother wanted to hunt her down and kill her. A vampire from the house of Aurorea wanted to protect her. Her head pounded as she tried to make sense of everything. Who was she? How was she a danger to their species? She was barely twenty, had never left her home before tonight.

They'd kept her hidden, just as the vampire had said. She'd broken the rules of her mother and gone out into the night, and this is what had happened.

If she went back, they were going to kill her.

She looked over at the mansion, letting her eyes take in the sight so she could always remember it and the sense of safety it had once given her, and then looked back at the man beside her.

"I'll go with you, but I need to know some things first."

He nodded. "I will answer all your questions as truthfully as I can but we must get to safety before the sun fully rises."

Her eyes moved to the lightening sky. She hadn't even realised that she was in danger. The whole night seemed like a confusing whirlwind of events that had spiralled beyond her control. She felt lost and empty, unable to deal with the things that were happening and what she was being told. She didn't want to know everything. She looked at the man again. He was watching her, his eyes intently locked on hers. She just wanted to know enough to make her feel it was all right to go with him.

She followed his lead in silence as he stood and began walking down through the trees to the path. Giving her home one last look, she started along the street, back to the warehouse.

The words of her Arkalus and the lord of Aurorea haunted her.

She was an abomination in the eyes of her kind.

She was a danger to them all.

She frowned.

Just what was she?

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