Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea Read Free Page B

but he didn’t seem to have any special skills like that.
    She glanced across at him as he kept step beside her. His old world clothes had been replaced by the long black jacket and trousers he’d been wearing before. His eyes were fixed intently on the bridge just ahead of them. He looked so different to Valentine. There was nothing regal about his features. They had Italian beauty, but weren’t noble. His brows were fine, his lips full and his nose straight. He reminded her of a gladiator she’d seen in a television program. Sometimes though, there was something in his blue eyes that made her realise that there was darkness inside of him just as his bloodline’s name said. He had a wicked streak and she was sure it was going to come out one day. She believed that Valentine would take pleasure in killing, but this man had a look about him that said he would revel in it.
    When his eyes moved to rest on her, she looked away and sighed.
    “Where now?” Venturi’s voice echoed along the quiet alley.
    She frowned thoughtfully and then stared at the bag he was carrying. When they’d left the castle, she’d made him stop by the inn so they could pick up hers and Valentine’s belongings. She patted her pocket and ran her fingers along the outline of the tube that contained the first part of the scroll.
    There was only one place they could go.
    “Mathias.”
    Venturi raised a brow and she remembered that he didn’t have a clue who she was talking about.
    “He’s a friend of Valentine’s. He helped us before and promised to translate the scrolls if we brought them back to him. We have the first half of it, but are yet to find the second. If I take him the scroll and tell him about Valentine going missing, he may be able to point me in the right direction.”
    “And where is this … Mathias?” Venturi said, his eyes falling to rest on her hand where it still rested over the scroll case in her pocket.
    “England. It’s going to be hard to get there without passports, but we have to try. From there I will be able to contact Mia and Dmitri again and see if they’ve learnt anything about Valentine.” Leading the way over the bridge, she tried to remember how to get to the train station. If she could find the Rialto Bridge then she would know roughly where she was going. She went to turn and go down the steps on one side of the bridge but Venturi stopped her.
    “It is quicker to go through Piazza San Marco,” he said and tugged her arm, leading her down the other side.
    Her stomach twisted and turned at the thought of having to pass through the place where Elena had transported Valentine to not once but twice. The last time she had been in the square, she had been forced to fight for her life and had then been abducted by Arkalus. She tried to focus on the time she’d been there before that. She had been with Valentine. He’d promised her that when they had fulfilled the prophecy, he would take her to see inside the cathedral.
    She caught sight of it as they rounded the end of the square, passing the two columns and the beautifully ornate buildings either side. She looked up at the campanile and then at the people milling around the square. Her stomach growled, reminding her that it had been too long since she’d fed. The deer blood that Valentine had got for her in Romania had worn off long before she had left the castle but she hadn’t felt the hunger inside of her, all she had felt was the remorse and pain of losing him.
    Her teeth itched but she held her vampire guise at bay. There was no time to hunt and feed. They had to get to England as soon as possible and tell Mathias what had happened. She hoped that he would have some answers for them.

    Venturi stared at Prophecy who sat looking out the window of the train. She was beautiful. He hadn’t expected her to look like this and he hadn’t been prepared for how drawn to her he would be. There was something in her eyes and her movements that mesmerised him.