Free Vampires Realm Prophecy 01 - Child of Light by F E Heaton Page B

walls were so dark it appeared gloomy. There were books everywhere, stacked in haphazard piles, some of them open but most of them closed. They lined the walls, covered the tables and even took up some of the chairs.
    Valentine cleared one of them off and intimated for Prophecy to sit in it. He removed the books from the other chair by the fire and carried them over to Mathias where he had remained at the table, his fingers skimming down a page of a tome that looked as old as he was.
    “It hurts my eyes,” Mathias answered him and then closed the book and began searching for another.
    “A thousand years and you’ve spent every one of them with your nose in a book, old man. Surely you’ve read them all by now?” He picked up the book Mathias had been reading and raised a brow. “The lights would not hurt your eyes if you did not spend all your time in the darkness. I cannot see why you insist on wearing those glasses. You would not have a problem with reading if you changed.”
    “I can’t. Emily may see.”
    Valentine nearly dropped the book. “Emily?”
    “My housekeeper.”
    Valentine looked around at the messy room again and then back at his friend. “You have a housekeeper? I have to say she is not doing a very good job. I would find a new one.”
    “And do what with Emily? She has no family to go to,” Mathias said and turned his back.
    Valentine frowned as he realised why.
    “She is human?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The whole world had gone insane. It wasn’t just him. “You have a human housekeeper?”
    Mathias glanced at him and then went back to rearranging the books. “Don’t give me that look.”
    “Get rid of her. She will find out what you are one day and then you shall have the Law Keepers coming for you. It is a sin to reveal our existence to them. You know it is.”
    “Valentine, do not tell me what to do. You have come to my house with a Caelestis.”
    He leaned against the table and looked at Prophecy. She was sitting in the old high backed leather armchair idly flicking through one of the books he’d cleared off the chair.
    Mathias was right. He had committed a worse sin than keeping a human. At least Mathias could say that he intended to kill her or turn her. What excuse did he have if the Law Keepers found him?
    “What are you doing, Valentine, aligning yourself with a Caelestis? Is this what you’ve worked your way towards all of your life?”
    “Do not remind me.” He looked away from her and toyed with the corner of a book. He stared at it while he picked at the frayed edge of the thick cover. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Mathias. He didn’t want to see the look in his eyes. “I need your help.”
    “With her?” Mathias said and he nodded in confirmation. “Why?”
    “She is... it’s hard... I had to bring her here, you understand. There was nowhere else to take her. I knew that she would be safe here.” He continued to pick at the book, keeping his eyes downcast while he waited for the inevitable question. He told himself again that this was the right decision. Prophecy would be safest here.
    “Safe from what?”
    “Everyone and everything.” He raised his eyes to meet Mathias’. “She is the child of the prophecy.”
    Mathias didn’t say anything. He just stared across the room at her.
    Valentine waited to see what his friend’s reaction would be. Mathias was always researching one thing or another, and he loved to look into prophecies more than anything. Surely, he knew something that could help. Valentine knew there had to be a reason he’d seen those things in her blood. There had to be something about the prophecy that he hadn’t been told.
    “She’s young,” Mathias said. “So very small. I always thought it would be a male.”
    Valentine smiled faintly.
    “What is she doing?” Mathias frowned and nodded towards her.
    Valentine looked across to see her sucking on the back of her hand while she read the book. He frowned