The first part was so close to what I’d been thinking that I was stunned. Then Vlad got to the last sentence and I barely heard Cat’s reply because of the roar from my own mind.
Don’t you dare give up on us! I don’t care what will happen later, we’ll face it together!
You never learn, my inner voice instantly mocked. Are you a special kind of stupid or what?
I was so angry that I had a flash of absolute clarity. As if in a dream within a dream, I saw myself reach into slimy darkness where she lived, yank her up by her tentacles, and rip that fucking bitch to pieces.
You took away my hope when I was a frightened, injured child! I screamed at her. You made me believe I’d killed my mother, you talked me into slitting my wrists and you’ve tried to ruin every bit of happiness I’ve ever had since, but you are done, hear me? I will get out of this and I will get back with Vlad and we will make it work, and if I hear another word out of you, you’re fucking dead! You got that? DEAD!
“Did you just threaten me?” Vlad asked, his voice flinty.
Cat leaned forward, her gray gaze concerned. “I said I’d always be there for you. Unless you take that as a threat—”
“Shh,” he interrupted, slowly glancing around the cabin. Then my heart felt like it kick-started when he whispered, “Leila?” in a disbelieving voice.
Yes, I’m here! my thoughts screamed before I could even finish processing that he’d heard me at last. Tears spilled from my eyes as I went on. I’m here and I love you and I’m underneath the abandoned Sukhumi train station in Abkhazia. Don’t attack until dusk. I need to be awake to defend myself.
Cat looked around the cabin, her brows drawing together in confusion. “Vlad, what are—?”
He leapt up, clapping his hand over her mouth. Her eyes bugged and she began to struggle until he snapped, “Quiet. I can’t hear her now, but I think Leila was trying to reach me.”
He couldn’t hear me anymore? I began repeating “Under the Sukhumi train station in Abkhazia!” but a sudden, bone-numbing lethargy meant the first rays of the sun were breaking. I struggled against the undertow while trying to turn the volume up on a single word, hoping it made the difference.
Abkhazia, Abkhazia, Abkhazia!
Then the undertow dragged me down into the darkness.
My eyes snapped open with a suddenness that made me surprised to find that I was alone in my cell. I tried not to let the fact that I was still in my cell depress me. After all, what had I expected, to wake up in Vlad’s arms because he’d heard me and already rescued my while I slept? Nothing had ever come that easily for me.
What had woken me, then? I strained my ears, but didn’t hear anything unusual. Just the guards going about whatever tasks Szilagyi had assigned them to, which, I knew, consisted mostly of making sure that no one got near the former Soviet train station and that I didn’t get out. Same old, same old . . .
A scream escaped me as a transparent head suddenly appeared next to my own—through the rock behind me! The filmy face frowned and a single ethereal finger appeared over the thing’s lips while it—he?—shook his head as if warning me to keep it down. By the time one of the guards ran in to check on me, the head had already disappeared back into the rock.
“What?” the guard demanded in English.
“I, ah, thought I saw a rat,” I stammered.
What was I going to say? I’d seen a ghost who had longer facial sideburns than Marty, but who seemed to be missing the rest of his body? I’d call myself crazy if I said it out loud.
The guard, a brunet vampire who looked to be the same age Szilagyi had been when he was changed, gave me another suspicious glare, but then left. As soon as he did, the ghost’s head popped back out of the rock again.
“Get ready,” he whispered directly into my ear before disappearing.
I didn’t feel any breath, but the words, though soft, had been clear. Then, faster than a lightning bolt, rage and ice-cold determination flashed through my emotions before they, too, were gone. Gooseflesh broke out over my skin that wasn’t a result of the cell’s perpetual chilliness.
Those hadn’t been my emotions. That meant . . .
I let thoughts of Vlad explode into my mind. Just as quickly, my stone cell faded.
He stood next to Cat, but I wouldn’t have recognized either of them if I’d passed them on the street. Both had on incredibly lifelike, full-face masks beneath their wigs, which were a bland shade of brown. They were dressed in equally nondescript clothing, their ragged, long-sleeved T-shirts slouching over jeans that had also seen much better days.
They blended in perfectly with the few other loiterers who wandered in and out of the abandoned buildings that lined the old train tracks. In fact, the only thing that stood out was the ghost who zoomed up to Cat, although no one but she and Vlad seemed to notice him. As soon as he came to a stop, I realized he was the same one who’d just haunted my cell.
“She’s in the southeast corner of the bunker,” the ghost stated. “There are thirteen guards and ten humans below, with seven or eight more guards in and around the station above, and that doesn’t count the security cameras.”
I didn’t know what shocked me more: that Vlad was really here, or that he’d sent a ghost to do reconnaissance—not to mention how efficiently the ghost had done it.
“You told her to prepare?” Vlad asked.
That transparent head bobbed out a nod. Vlad and Cat exchanged a look, but I didn’t wait to see what they did next.
I dropped the link while wild bursts of excitement and fear coursed through me. Even with Vlad’s incredible power, if I wasn’t free by the time he attacked, the guards would kill me just as Szilagyi had ordered them to. Vlad hadn’t brought Mencheres with him, so the telekinetic vampire couldn’t freeze everyone in place as he had during a prior ambush with Vlad. I didn’t have time to wonder at Vlad’s choice of Cat as backup instead. I stretched my arms, using the restraints as a brace. Then, with a deep breath for courage, I threw myself forward with all of the inhuman strength in me.
It took two more times with me biting through my lip to keep from screaming, but I finally felt my bones crush enough to where I could yank my pulpy arms out of the triple restraints. Then I felt something I hadn’t felt in weeks; my upper body sagging forward, freed from the clamps.
I waited, clenching my jaw to keep from verbalizing my agony as my pulverized bones began to grow back into their proper shape. At the same time, I listened hard, but the guards didn’t seem aware that anything was going on. I glanced at the clamps that fastened around my legs and urgency replaced my former excitement. I didn’t have much time.
As soon as I had ripped the glove and tape off my right hand, I bent and started on my ankle restraints. During his faux rapes, I’d paid attention to how Maximus had uncuffed my leg. The locks didn’t require a key and the latch was a fairly simple, smaller-case H shape. Once I had it lifted in the right direction and then turned, the clamps on my right ankle opened. Five more clamps later, and I stepped away from the wall at last.
If I’d still been human, I would’ve fallen to the ground from muscle atrophy, not to mention tissue damage from being in the same cramped position for weeks. As a vampire, my body adjusted almost instantly. I wanted to whoop with victory at finally being free—and good Lord, I wanted some clothes!—but I didn’t have time for any of that. I needed to recharge so I could fight for my life.
I was halfway across the room to the electrical socket when the alarms went off.
Chapter 16
Above the screech of sirens, I heard one of the guards yell, “Perimeter breach, unknown vampire.” Vlad was attacking now, so the guards would be coming for me! Panicked, I dove toward the socket. My velocity caused my right hand to ram through it, electrocuting me instantly. Voltage surged through my body, the effect similar to my first bellyful of blood after being starved. My eyes rolled back and I began to convulse as my cells felt like they were exploding from the overload of u
nbridled, delirious energy.
I hadn’t pulled electricity from a socket since before I turned into a vampire. Back then, it had felt like a painful shot of adrenaline. Now, it felt like I’d just been struck by a lightning bolt containing pure, ecstatic power.
I couldn’t see the guard who ran into the room, but when he grabbed me, I held onto him with my legs, free arm, and teeth, still shuddering from the raw, addictive bliss shooting into my body. The electricity I absorbed like a desert drinking in the rain proved too much for the guard. With it transferring into him from my unbreakable grip, he screamed over and over, now fighting to get away from me instead of trying to harm me.
Then I wasn’t just the recipient of the voltage: A wild, unknown part of me started yanking it out of the socket in large, greedy gulps that drained the wires in the next few moments. Still, it wasn’t enough. Like a vampire rising undead for the first time, I was filled with a mindless, insatiable hunger that nothing except rampant gorging would satisfy.
I threw the guard aside, so consumed with need that I barely noticed him smacking into the wall like a rag doll. Then, my vision hazy, I followed the power I felt pulsating beneath the stone walls outside my room. When I came to the socket in the hallway, I shoved my hand through it, crying out in relief at the new surge of electricity. In moments, however, that dried up, too, and my whole body burned from the pain of denial.
I would have kept mindlessly seeking out the next power source if not for the emotions that blasted over mine. They surpassed even my ravenous need, filling me with rage such as I’d never known. That rage cleared away most of the haze that had filled my vision, and I saw Harold, my torturer, try to run by me. I grabbed him, letting out a howl of vengeance as I unloaded my voltage into him. Part of me didn’t want to release the energy; I wanted to hoard it until I was bursting with it, but the frenzy riding my emotions told me I had to kill anything that moved and I had to do it now.
When Harold exploded from the force of too much electricity ramming into him, I threw his remains aside and sought out new prey. Screams rang in my ears while freezing shadows seemed to merge with solid shapes around me, making it feel like I was walking through an icy, nightmarish tunnel. The tiny part of my mind that was still rational urged me to hide, not to grab each guard I saw and unleash a dizzying surge of electricity into him, but I had to kill. Tear. Rip. Burn. Leila. Leila. Leila.
“Leila!” a hoarse voice shouted behind me.
I whirled, seeing those hideous shadows part to let a far darker, larger figure pass. Fire haloed the form, making it appear demonic, while my emotions flared with a crescendo of relief-soaked rage that was so powerful, it shattered me. I fell, first hitting the wall, then a pain of scalding arms that swept me up against a body that felt like fire encased in stone.
“Go,” a feminine voice yelled. “Get her out of here!”
The haze that had descended on my mind lifted enough for me to see as the dark figure flew us through the hallway. The guards that were still alive made no move to stop us. Instead, they were on the ground, their bodies violently contorting as what looked like hellish shadows tore into them and through them, all while emitting deafening, high-pitched shrieks.
The rest of my mental haze lifted as the psychotic rage that had filled me abruptly vanished, leaving me with only my own emotions. That’s when I fully realized whose arms I was in, and a sob tore past my lips.
Vlad!
I didn’t say his name out loud. I couldn’t speak past the sobs that kept clogging my throat, but I didn’t want to start crying. If I did, I didn’t know when I’d be able to stop, and we might not be out of the woods yet.
Somehow, he wrapped a cloak around me while flying us so high up that I had to close my eyes to keep from getting sick. Then, he plummeted down to set us on a hill about a mile away from the train station. With the higher elevation and my enhanced vision, I could still see what was going on, and I watched with disbelief as the grayish figures I’d first thought were shadows tore through the perimeter guards like translucent sharks. More filmy figures sprang up from the ground, joining the gruesome melee. I wasn’t surprised when some of the guards stopped moving and the creatures abandoned those now-shriveling bodies for whoever was still alive. I was only shocked that creatures without solid form could be so lethal.
“What are they?” I whispered.
“Remnants,” Vlad said, yanking off his mask and wig. Rivers of cruel satisfaction snaked through my emotions before he closed his feelings off again. “They can’t be killed because they’re already dead, and they feed from energy and pain. That’s why not even the strongest vampire is a match for them.”
Were the Remnants what Vlad had wanted from Cat? I’d thought he meant “grave power” as a metaphor. As if to reinforce my guess, Cat strode out of the old station and onto the train platform. Not only did the hideous creatures refrain from attacking her, they swayed in a trancelike way as she neared them, reminding me of snakes and a skilled charmer.
“That’s . . . that’s . . .” Words failed me, but not Vlad.
“An even more excruciating way to die than being burned,” he finished, his palm sliding along my smooth, bald head before he cupped my face. “I cannot take back what was done to you, but I will avenge your pain a thousandfold. That, I promise.”
I wanted to throw myself into his arms, not because of his vow but because he was there and I could. Before I made a move toward him, however, shame seared me, making it hard for me to even hold his gaze. He was determined to avenge me for what he’d seen, but what about the things he hadn’t seen? The things that, truth be told, I could have stopped and yet didn’t?
“Are we safe here?” I asked, hugging the long cloak around me instead of reaching out to him.
As if he sensed my reluctance, he stepped back until his body no longer brushed mine. “Yes. Even Mencheres couldn’t best Cat when she manifests grave power. As I said, it’s unstoppable. However, it’s also recordable.”
With that, multiple small explosions rocked the former station, until black smoke rose up in dozens of places. Just when I was worried about those drawing bystanders, the entire structure exploded in a thunderous detonation that sent a fireball mushrooming into the sky. Cat got pelted with burning debris before she dove out of the way. Then she turned and threw an aggravated look in Vlad’s direction.
“That’s for not saying yes to me immediately,” he muttered without a hint of remorse.
Then he wrapped his arms around me, but not in the embrace I so desperately needed. Instead, he propelled us back into the sky, taking us so high up that once again, I couldn’t stand to look. Tears escape my clenched lids as I locked my arms around him. We might be holding each other out of necessity, but his heat still seared me, his scent filled my nose, and his hair was whips I reveled in as strands lashed my cheek from the wind.
I was so overwhelmed by being back in his arms, it took me several minutes to notice that my right hand kept shooting tiny pulses of voltage into him.
Chapter 17
Vlad flew us through the air faster than I’d known he was capable of, yet it still took almost two hours to reach his plane. He must not have wanted to land anywhere near the station to avoid tipping off Szilagyi’s people. With the wind snatching away everything except the loudest shouts, it meant we didn’t have a chance to talk. I had a lot to say to him, but none of it seemed the type of thing to scream.
Of course, once we reached his plane, then we had an audience in the two pilots who greeted me with utmost respect while also managing not to look at the long cloak that was my only clothing. Our audience expanded when Cat showed up in time for me to emerge from the bathroom wearing the sweater and pants that Vlad had provided. In private, I’d also drained both big bags of blood that came with the clothes, then spent several minutes fighting my body’s response to the blood. Afterward, I tried to clean up, but there was only so much I could do with the small sink and hand soap. When I finally got to t
ake a shower, I didn’t plan on coming out for hours.
The plane took off before I made it from the bathroom back to my seat. Clearly, Vlad was taking no chances about anyone coming after us. He waited for me before he sat down, and when he held out his hand as he had so many times before, I had to fight back a fresh surge of tears before I took it.
If he noticed my slight pause, he didn’t say anything. In truth, the electricity my right hand currently emitted probably couldn’t damage the aircraft, but I savored the simple act of touching him. When I asked where we were going, Cat said to Germany to drop her off. I didn’t ask where after that. Wherever it was, it wouldn’t be to Vlad’s Romania house. That was gone.
Cat sat as close to the pilots as she could, trying to give us as much privacy as the interior allowed. I wasn’t sure, but I also thought I glimpsed the same ghost that had warned me about the attack up there with her, too. Then I forgot about them as Vlad drew a blanket over me once I was settled into my chair. How did he know that I wanted as many layers on me as possible after being denied even a single piece of clothing for weeks?
“You should try to sleep, if you can,” he said, his voice oddly neutral. “You must be exhausted.”
His hand was still curled around mine, but other than that, he didn’t touch me. Aside from vowing vengeance and answering my questions, he also hadn’t really spoken to me. I didn’t know why and I found myself afraid to ask. Yes, he’d gone batshit with rage over those tapes, but the last thing he’d said to Cat in my vision was that he never should have married me.
What if he hadn’t been speaking facetiously in a moment of frustration over my captivity? What if he were still thinking that now? I had no way to know. His face was expressionless and he had his emotions under tight lockdown, which wasn’t what I had imagined when I’d dared to envision our reunion.