It’s been a while since I shared a chapter from one of my Vampires Realm series books so today I’m going to share chapter two of Prophecy: Child of Light. Prophecy: Child of Light is the first book in my popular vampire romance series so it’s a great introduction to the series, and since it’s only $0.99 it’s a bargain too. Why not pick up a copy and see for yourself why so many readers are enthralled with this series?
If you like adult vampire romances with vampires that behave more traditionally and thirst for human blood and take it straight from the vein, vampires that are dark and mysterious, with powers and a society separate from our own, then this is definitely a series that you’ll enjoy. I write dark vampires, ones who can kill without regret in order to survive, and who feel intense emotions even when the object of their affection is forbidden fruit.
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
F E Heaton
A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever.
Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable to ignore the vision of them that he saw in her blood, Valentine goes against his orders to execute Prophecy and kidnaps her instead. The attraction between them grows as they search for the truth behind the prophecy, battle a dark evil that threatens to destroy the world, and attempt to evade their families and the Law Keepers.
When the truth about her is revealed, will Prophecy be strong enough to face it? Will they discover a way to save the world from Hell? And will they finally see past the hatred bred into them by their families and surrender to their love?
The first novel in the Vampires Realm series, Prophecy: Child of Light, is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.
ebook price: $0.99
genre: paranormal vampire romance
length: 135000 words
rating: sultry
released: March 2007
Book 1 in the Vampires Realm series
Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801048/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Child-Of-Light/mix-rDOnD6cECkGermYtAHD9Dw/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248920
EXCERPT
When he approached them, Valentine nodded at the two guards that were flanking the main entrance of his family’s house. The rain was falling fast now, the wind driving it hard against the façade of the old mansion and saturating the heavy black coats the guards wore. He mused that they wouldn’t provide much protection against the weather tonight.
Stepping out of the darkness and into the brightly lit hall of his home, he unbuttoned his long coat while he walked along the corridor and through the entrance reception room. Shaking the excess water off his jacket, he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the vixens of his household as they called to him. He didn’t have time for making sport tonight.
Tonight he had more serious business to attend to.
His thoughts drifted to the female vampire. She had been slim, her dark tunic top and trousers clinging to her figure as she’d defiantly stood before him in the rain. Her long hair had been soaked and had hung in loose tendrils. The darkness of it had made her face seem even paler than it probably was, drawing his attention to it. Her round dark eyes had spoken volumes to him, but all in a language that he couldn’t understand. There had been something about her that had drawn him in until he’d been powerless to resist seeing what she held in her blood. Little had he known that what he would see would only confuse him. If instinct had told him that, he would have let her go.
Let her go?
By the Devil, he wished he had.
He wished she’d answered his damn questions, wished he’d never laid eyes on her.
He stopped just short of the heavy wooden doors that led into the main reception room.
What was he doing?
He almost laughed aloud at himself while he tried to make sense of the thoughts that were running riot through his mind. He shut them down. To think such things was mutinous, disloyal. His hands curled into tight fists, his nails digging into the softer skin of his palms while he stared unseeingly at the dark doors. It was his duty to report this. It didn’t matter what he’d seen in her blood.
Taking a weary step forwards, he pushed the doors open. Everything felt heavy, his limbs, his heart, and his head. It all conspired to make him feel as though he couldn’t take another step towards his destination, and that he couldn’t tell his lord what he’d discovered tonight.
The sounds of merriment drifted into the background as he pushed on, walking into the room and closing the doors behind him. He could feel all eyes on him and he knew what they were thinking.
He didn’t belong here.
He was too young to be a part of this hallowed scene, this sanctum for the elder vampires of his family, this place where they hid themselves away from the idle play of the children. His place was here, whether they liked it or not. He’d worked hard to attain his position. He’d spent over two centuries as a loyal servant to his lord and a dutiful son of his bloodline.
He looked down at his hand, almost seeing the smear of blood that had stained his fingers not thirty minutes ago. Her blood. That’s all it was. Just blood. There was nothing more to it. It was responsible for the disquiet he felt inside. It was always a danger when drinking from another of the seven pure bloodlines. They had power, enough to intoxicate the drinker and make them believe the things that the blood whispered to them.
“Good hunting?†A voice cut through the noise and reached his ears.
Peeling his jacket off, he handed it to Cornelius who was approaching him from the side.
“No…interesting hunting,†he answered, stopping a few feet inside the room.
Cornelius arched a brow at the soaking wet coat and then neatly arranged it over his arm. Valentine gave him a look that warned him not to complain. The only reason that Cornelius could enter this area of the house was because the young vampire was his aide. That title meant bearing everything that he threw at him—even wet coats. He knew his friend would do almost anything he asked so long as it afforded him such standing amongst their family and so long as he treated him well.
“Did you run into him?†Cornelius asked.
Valentine touched a lone finger to his lower lip, remembering the sweet taste of her blood. He could smell it still, knew it continued to stain his lip for all to see.
“No…a her.â€
His eyes scanned over the plush plum walls of the room, their height almost reaching forty foot. He ignored all the looks he was receiving while he searched the balcony and then the floor in front of him.
“Who?â€
When he failed to find who he was searching for, his eyes fell to rest on an ornate mahogany door directly opposite him. His stomach squirmed for a moment and then settled when he reminded himself of his duty to his family. It was just her blood trying to work its will and contaminate him. That was the only reason he felt this way.
He nodded towards the door. “That would be telling. Is he in?â€
Cornelius frowned. “He’s engaged with Indigo.â€
“Not anymore he isn’t. This is more important than pandering to that girl’s needs.†Valentine moved swiftly towards the closed door, continuing to block out the mutterings of his elders.
“What is it?†Cornelius hurried after him.
“You shall hear in time. I have to tell him first. I shall be a dead man if you know before him.â€
“You already are a dead man,†Cornelius said as one of the men guarding the door stopped him and held him back as Valentine passed.
Valentine smiled and continued walking towards the door. His friend always had a habit of wanting to know everything first, but this time he couldn’t risk his lord’s anger by letting Cornelius know before Kalinor heard.
Taking a deep breath, he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to relieve some of the tension in his body and then pushed the mahogany door open, striding confidently into the room.
He ignored the alluring smile that Indigo gave him when she pulled away from her mate and slowly covered herself, drawing her black hair down over her bloodied neck. Blanking her attentions, he looked straight at Kalinor.
When his lord looked back at him, Valentine walked quickly towards him. He took Kalinor’s hand, pressed a kiss to the ring on his finger and then looked up into his eyes.
“Valentine,†Kalinor greeted him dryly with an empty smile that barely masked his annoyance over the disturbance. “Couldn’t this have waited?â€
“I am afraid not, my lord.†Valentine bowed his head. He didn’t need to look up in order to see the displeased look that his lord would be giving him.
Kalinor rarely bestowed it upon him though. Usually it was one of the other vampires in the household who was on the receiving end. He’d seen it often enough to know exactly what Kalinor would look like. His lord would be leaning against the large ebony desk, his long arms folded across his chest and his blue eyes watching him intently for a sign of why he was being disturbed.
Risking a glance, Valentine saw that he looked exactly as predicted.
Kalinor preened his sandy brown hair back into place and then scratched under his thin jaw before moving around his desk. He carefully arranged the tails of his long, ornately embroidered black jacket into place and sat down. Valentine watched him wave a hand at Indigo, silently dismissing her, and then found Kalinor’s eyes meeting his again.
Valentine moved to the chair on the opposite side of the desk, sat and met Kalinor’s gaze.
The elder vampire stared at him and Valentine tried to quell the desires that were rising up inside him, rebelling against his better judgement as they whispered words of insubordination to him. He told himself it would be more than disloyal to do as they asked.
It would be a sin.
It would be illegal.
He struggled to maintain a cool façade as his lord sniffed the air and fixed him with a dark look. He knew immediately what the problem was.
He stank of blood.
Not the delicate perfume of human blood.
It was the stench of vampire blood, of Caelestis blood.
He had to tell him now. It was his duty. He swallowed hard as everything inside him told him not to.
Kalinor raised a brow.
“Is something wrong, Valentine?†Kalinor said the words with cold calculation as their eyes remained locked with each other’s. “Did something happen on the hunt? I’ve known you since you were barely turned and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you like this.â€
Valentine stood sharply, bowed his head a fraction and then walked to the other side of the room. He never could keep still. He had to pace in order to get his thoughts together and clear his head of the vision her blood had given him.
He had to clear his head of the vision of her.
There was something about her, something enthralling. The tiny trace of blood he’d taken from her had tasted so sweet, like honey on his tongue, and now a part of him was fighting against his better judgement and begging him not to tell his lord about her.
He could keep her to himself.
He shook his head to rid it of such a ridiculous notion. His allegiance was to his house, to the family of Aurorea, not to a female vampire of the house of Caelestis. Besides, if he didn’t tell him now, Kalinor would have him executed when he eventually found out about her and discovered that he’d known of her existence all along.
But what he’d seen in her blood. It couldn’t be a lie. No vampire on earth had the power to make their blood lie. It was truth, and he had seen it with his own eyes and felt it in his heart. To tell his lord of her existence was to sentence her to death and that would have terrible repercussions.
He stared at the window, watching the rain streaking down it while he pulled himself together and reminded himself that he’d served this house loyally for over two centuries. Now wasn’t the time to be disloyal, not when he’d worked so hard to get where he was. Not when he was so close.
“You seem troubled.â€
He heard Kalinor stand and he looked at him out of the corner of his eye. His lord looked worried. He was drawing too much attention to himself. He had to tell him now before he grew angry.
“You did not succeed tonight in finding the hunter that plagues our city, but that does not mean you will not prevail. You will defeat him. I’m as certain of that as I am of you becoming the Law Keeper for Aurorea one day.â€
Valentine closed his eyes as he felt those words plunge into his chest, twisting there like a knife. He would be a Law Keeper one day, if only he could find his voice and confess to his lord what he’d found tonight and why he smelt of their enemy.
He took a deep breath and felt tranquillity fill him.
“The prophecy,†he said the words slowly and looked directly at his lord.
Kalinor’s eyes widened, his jaw tensing while he waited to hear what he had to say.
Valentine began to pace, not wanting to see his lord’s eyes when he told him about her. He could feel Kalinor’s gaze following his every move, could sense the anticipation as it hung in the air between them. His lord would know that this was the reason he’d seemed so distracted and agitated tonight. He could no longer go back and keep her to himself. He had to go forwards and do his duty.
“Go on.†Kalinor encouraged him.
Valentine sighed.
“I had no luck in hunting the man responsible for taking two of our best. I ran into something else…something…†He closed his eyes briefly and replayed the image of her lost in the taste of blood and the thrill of the hunt. Opening his eyes, he looked at the floor and frowned. “Enthralling.â€
“Enthralling?†Kalinor moved towards him, but Valentine moved away, going to the window and staring out of it at the darkness.
He watched the rain sweeping across the garden and clasped his hands behind his back.
“She exists,†he said and waited.
It wouldn’t take his lord long to piece together what he was saying. He would know that the blood he could smell on him would have something to do with it. He didn’t resist when Kalinor caught hold of his shoulders and turned him to face him. His lord’s eyes came to rest on the small spot of red that was still marring his lips.
“She’s one of them?†Kalinor said.
Valentine nodded in confirmation.
“I found her hunting, alone. She appeared to be executing her first kill. They have kept her hidden well…only she did not wish to remain that way.†He looked deep into his lord’s eyes and searched them for an answer to his next question. “Is she dangerous?â€
Kalinor smiled.
It was true then. Valentine remembered what he’d been told as a youngling, what all vampires were told. In the future, a dark day would dawn and with it would come the end of their existence, all at the hands of one of their own. The one he had met tonight was the child of the prophecy. She was going to destroy their kind.
 Kalinor walked towards the door and stopped with his hand on the handle.
“For now, this goes no further than the elders. As an envoy, I will visit the house of Caelestis. You will be there at my side to recount what you witnessed tonight and we will see what they have been hiding from us.†Kalinor looked back at him and gave him a grim smile. “Then you will have the proud honour of destroying the abomination.â€
Valentine’s stomach dropped when he heard those words. They had been spoken with a smile that said what a true honour it would be to be known as the vampire who had stopped the prophecy from coming true. He stared at the door his lord had walked out of and felt empty inside.
He would be responsible for destroying the abomination?
What honour was there in murdering her? He couldn’t see any, not as his lord could.
He shuddered inwardly at the thought of killing her.
He didn’t want to be the one responsible for her death, didn’t want to take eternity away from her. There was nothing 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.â€
* * * *
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?â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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 once shown any interest in him. Recently he’d taken to threatening her, and the more he did the more she wanted to lash out at him. She wished he would go back to how he used to be, acting like a brother to her rather than attempting to be a lover. She wished her continual rebuffs would show him that she didn’t want anything to do with him in that way, but they only seemed to drive him on.
So long as their mother, Iona, was walking the earth there was nothing he could do without her consent, but Prophecy knew that one day she would be gone and then it would be her duty to do as the head of the household commanded.
The idea of being Arkalus’ bride made her sick to her stomach, but she wouldn’t be able to stop him if Iona was out of the equation.
Something told Prophecy that regardless of what he’d said, Arkalus was growing ever more impatient. If she didn’t agree to his terms soon then there was a chance that he would take the death of Iona into his own hands in order to ensure that she was his.
Changing out of her wet clothes, she slipped into a long black satin dress and lay down on her bed. She closed her eyes and pushed away from the thought of being claimed by Arkalus, and returned to her previous ones.
Who was the vampire she’d met tonight? Was he one of the Aurorea responsible for the death of one of her house or was he something else? He’d been alone, just like she had, not hunting with the pack like most vampires did. The way he’d looked at her after tasting her blood seemed like an image frozen in her mind. It haunted her.
He’d looked stunned, shocked by the visions he’d received from her blood, and it made her shudder to think of what he’d seen to make him look like that.
She’d suspected for some time now that she wasn’t like the other vampires of her house. They all spoke about her behind her back. Serenity had told her that much. Prophecy had caught fearful looks in their eyes sometimes and now a vampire from the other house was looking at her in exactly the same way.
Curling up on the bed, she emptied her mind of all thoughts until there was only him.
His dark hair, his green eyes, and the way he looked at her as though he could see straight through her, down into her heart.
There was something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but one thing she knew she could be sure of.
This wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.
Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Prophecy:%20Child%20of%20Light%20[book%201]
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0035LDNV4/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Prophecy/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940000801048/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Prophecy-Child-Of-Light/mix-rDOnD6cECkGermYtAHD9Dw/page1.html
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/f-e-heaton/prophecy/_/R-400000000000000248920
