I’d gone into Maximus’s room without thinking about it. He lay exactly as he had before, but with one marked difference. His eyes were open, silver streaking them like hideous veins, and they were fixed on a point over my shoulder.
I turned. Vlad was in the doorway behind me. He stared down at Maximus, his face coldly expressionless. Then, almost casually, he withdrew a knife.
Maximus’s eyes fluttered shut, either from resignation or insensibleness. Without my even needing to concentrate, a whipcord of electricity shot from my hand.
“You promised!”
Vlad glanced at the glowing strand and his eyes went green.
“Are you threatening me?”
His voice was buttery smooth—and deadly. My gut twisted from a mixture of fear and resolve. He could burn me to death before I snapped this whip, but I wasn’t about to back down.
“I am if you’re about to break your word.”
My wrist was suddenly seized in an iron grip. Any other vampire would’ve been knocked backward from touching my right hand when it was fully charged, but Vlad absorbed the voltage like it was mere static electricity. Then he leaned down, brushing my hair back with his free hand.
The one that still held a knife.
“I told you before—I dislike being called a liar.” Breath from his words fell like the softest of blows against my neck. “But more importantly, if I had decided to go back on my word, you wouldn’t be able to stop me.”
Just as blindingly fast, he was kneeling in front of Maximus, slicing through that razor wire with brutal efficiency. The cord of electricity I’d summoned curled up into itself before disappearing into my hand like a turtle seeking the shelter of its shell.
No, he’d proved that I couldn’t stop him even if his pyrokinesis was out of the equation. At that moment, I felt like exactly what I was: a woman who was in way over her head with the creatures around her. All at once, loneliness overwhelmed me. I didn’t belong in the vampire world, but thanks to my own oddities, I didn’t fit into the human one, either.
I turned on my heel and left the room. I couldn’t do anything about being an outcast in every society that existed, but I could at least let the terrified survivors know that help had arrived at last.
Chapter 17
Mencheres and Vlad stood close together, talking too softly for me to overhear. Still, they stopped as soon as I came back on deck.
Weariness helped me hold back my snort. They weren’t even trying to be subtle, were they?
“My associate will be here shortly to transport us,” Mencheres stated.
Good. I’d checked on Maximus again, too, since he looked in worse shape than the humans, which was saying something.
“Just drop me anywhere after you take care of them,” I said, giving the dead bodies a calculated look. I hadn’t cared before in my search for cell phones, but a few of them carried cash. I’d need that to keep up my hunt for the female vampire.
“Robbing them won’t be necessary. You’re coming with me.”
Disbelief snapped my head up. Vlad flashed me a smile that was both charming and challenging, while his expression almost dared me to argue.
I took that dare.
“I’m not coming with you because my problems no longer concern you.” Ice was warmer than my tone. “So thanks for the arrogant assumption, but no thanks.”
“But they do concern me,” he replied, his tone as pleasant as mine had been cold. “If I do nothing when someone attempts to blow up and then kidnap my former lover, my enemies will think I’m weak and attack more of my people.”
“I’m not one of your people and I don’t need your protection, as all the bodies on this boat should attest.”
Vlad’s charming smile never slipped. I stiffened, remembering he was never more dangerous than when he smiled.
“As you wish.” Then he glanced at the door leading to the cargo hold. “Their heartbeats are faint, and they might not live long enough to make it to the hospital. Pity.”
My fists clenched, the only sign of the fury coursing through me. “You promised to heal them.”
“No,” he replied instantly. “You made me swear not to kill or torture Maximus, but you never bargained for them. Dropping them off at a hospital is free, but my blood comes at a price.”
I hadn’t thought to bargain for them because Vlad normally wouldn’t need to be bribed to help innocent victims. Yet from his expression, he would do nothing more than bring them to a hospital if I didn’t go with him, and that might not be enough. Only vampire blood could guarantee their survival.
I glanced at Mencheres, but the other vampire appeared to be fascinated by the waves lapping against the boat. Really? I thought in disgust.
His oblique shrug was my answer. I’d get no help from him, either. Once more, I found myself cursing the limitations of my humanity. Vlad had me cornered and we both knew it.
“Heal them and make sure they’re safe, and I’ll come with you,” I said, jaw clenched so tight I could barely speak.
His teeth flashed in something too feral to be called a grin. “Wise choice.”
Probably not, but unless I wanted to kill those people myself, I didn’t have any other option.
I stared down at the boat from the helicopter. We were up high enough that the water was no longer white from the churning rotors. Vlad sat up front with Mencheres, but I was in the back with the humans, trying to convince the crying ones that these vampires wouldn’t eat them.
My attempts at comfort were interrupted when an eerie blue light suffused the entire boat. For a few seconds, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then a flash of color yanked my attention over to Vlad. He sat as if completely relaxed, a half smile curling his mouth, but his hands were engulfed in flames.
My gaze flew back to the boat. Now I knew what that blue light was. Fire. Vlad never changed his relaxed position, even when the boat exploded with a spectacular boom! that shook the chopper and littered the lake with flaming debris.
“We can go now,” he said to the pilot, a muscular blond vampire Mencheres had addressed as Gorgon.
I closed my mouth with an audible click. Vlad hadn’t rigged the boat with explosives. He’d destroyed it with his power, and while I’d seen him burn people to death, I hadn’t known the full extent of his abilities. Since he’d just made a forty-foot craft go up like a Roman candle, I suppose I should be flattered that he hadn’t laughed when I threatened him earlier. The boat explosion was as devastating as the gas line bomb—
“Shit,” I burst out as something occurred to me. “We didn’t grab any bones off of those vamps.”
I’d also lost Adrian’s charred body part. Not that Hannibal would have taken it with us even if I’d asked. Kidnappers were notoriously uncooperative.
“They were hired mercenaries; I doubt their bones would contain anything useful,” Vlad stated. He didn’t ask me to explain the context behind my thought about Adrian. He must have figured out why Maximus and I had carted around a body part.
“I exploded the boat to hide the evidence of what you did, and to send a message to whoever hired Hannibal that now he’ll have to deal with me. Or she,” he added reflectively.
He must have read that from my thoughts, too. Then Maximus let out an extended moan, turning my attention to him.
“Why haven’t you started to get the silver out?”
Vlad’s smile remained but his features hardened.
“It will require extensive cutting. If I do it, then I’m guilty of torturing him. Gorgon is flying the helicopter, and while Mencheres could hold him down, you don’t have the experience to remove it properly.”
I swallowed. Much as I hated the thought of Maximus continuing to suffer, I didn’t want to release Vlad from his word not to torture him. Wait it was, then.
“Where are we going?” Please don’t say back to your castle, please don’t say back to your castle . . .
“Fine.” Glints of emerald appeared in his burnished copper eyes. “I wo
n’t say it.”
For the second time in ten minutes, the word shit flew out of my mouth. Vlad only chuckled, the sound as enticing and merciless as the man himself.
Mencheres and his wife, Kira, lived near Chicago, which explained how quickly he’d rendezvoused with Vlad. We stopped by his house first, which relieved me for several reasons. For one, several of Mencheres’s staff immediately went to work on Maximus. Two, I got to shower and change out of the oversized wetsuit Hannibal had dressed me in. Kira kindly let me borrow one of her outfits, and judging from the grandeur of their home, she’d be in no hurry to get it back.
I was barely done getting dressed when it was time to leave. Gorgon flew Vlad and me to a nearby private airport where Vlad’s jet was fueled and waiting. Maximus . . . well, Vlad was keeping his word, but he obviously hadn’t forgiven him. I didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye, but insisting on that would only make matters worse. I hadn’t meant to cause the rift between them, but I was the reason for it nonetheless.
It was only when we boarded Vlad’s sleek Learjet that the full weight of my circumstances hit me. For the second time in my life, I was being hustled to Vlad’s home because some unknown person was trying to use me or kill me, in whatever order proved most opportune. And Vlad was only protecting me because it was in his best interest. Talk about déjà vu.
When he sat down and held out his hand as he had on my first trip to Romania, something inside me snapped.
“No.”
His brow rose. “You’d rather take down the plane if you accidentally short-circuit the electrical system? Don’t be childish, you know it’s this or gloves and we don’t have any.”
“I don’t care.”
To my horror, tears sprang to my eyes, but I’d used up all my strength freeing myself and then killing my captors, so I didn’t have anything left to fight them.
“In the past month, I’ve been rejected, blown up, shot at, drugged, and kidnapped, but I’d rather go through all of that again than hold your hand while acting like . . . like everything that happened between us doesn’t matter.” My voice cracked. “Maybe it doesn’t to you, but even being around you hurts and I can’t pretend that touching you won’t be a thousand times worse.”
As I swiped at those treacherous tears, I braced for mockery. Or another coolly practical admonition about how my condition necessitated this action, but Vlad said nothing. He stared at me, his expression slowly changing from cynical detachment to an almost pathological intentness.
“I don’t want to touch you, either.”
The words hit me like a slap, but before I could respond, he went on.
“No one feels like you do, so every brush of your skin is a cruel reminder of what I’ve lost. I can barely stand the sight of you because you’re more beautiful than I’ve allowed myself to remember, and when I cut that wire off Maximus and smelled you all over him, I wanted to kill him more than I’ve wanted to kill anyone in my life, yet I couldn’t because of my promise to you.”
His voice thickened. “Now sit down and take my hand, Leila. The pilots are waiting for my command to leave.”
Slow tears continued to trickle down my cheeks, but for a different reason this time.
“You care.”
The words were whispered with a despairing sort of wonder. He wasn’t willing to rescind his loveless vow, clearly, but I was wrong about the apathy I’d thought he felt. That he admitted all the above was surprising enough; the fact he’d done it within earshot of his pilots was no less than shocking.
Vlad grunted. “Don’t worry. I intend to kill them as soon as we land.”
I laughed, something I wouldn’t have thought possible five minutes ago. “No you won’t.”
“I will if they repeat any of this.”
That I believed, and though it only highlighted all the reasons why I should flee from this lethal, arrogant, maddeningly complex man, I sat down and took his hand. I could pretend I didn’t have a choice, but that would be a lie. He could send one of the pilots to get gloves. Hell, he could’ve sent someone to do that when we were back at Mencheres’s. For that matter, I could’ve brought the rubberized body suit my kidnappers had clothed me in; it’s not like flying complications were a surprise to me. But neither of us had done those things. Deep down, we both must have wanted this no matter how much it hurt.
His hand tightened around mine and currents sparked into him as though they’d missed him, too. I met his gaze and something else flared between us, not tangible like the electricity coursing from my flesh into his, but just as real. I barely noticed him directing the pilots to take off, and the rumbling of the engines couldn’t compare with my heartbeat when he brushed my hair back to stroke my face.
“You should never have left me.”
I reached out as well, tracing my fingers over the stubble on his jaw before moving higher to the smoothness of his cheekbone. “You shouldn’t have made me.”
His lips curled into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “You don’t really want me to love you, Leila.”
I let out a soft scoff. “Is that what you tell yourself?”
“It’s what I know,” he said, a touch of anger coloring his tone.
“You remember the dream I kept having?” I whispered. “The one with the waterfall of fire? I finally figured out whose voice kept warning me to leave. It was mine, and you’re the flames I couldn’t hold on to no matter how hard I tried. That’s why I had to leave, Vlad. If I’d stayed, your refusal to even consider loving me would’ve ended up destroying me.”
Then I closed my eyes, putting a finger to his lips when he drew in a breath to respond.
“I don’t want to argue. Right now, I want to do what I tried to do when I dreamed myself onto this plane several days ago.”
With that, I rested my head inside the crook of his shoulder, draping my other arm across his chest. He stiffened, but made no move to push me away.
“This is what you sought to do when you came to me that night?” His voice was rough.
I nodded, wondering if he was angry. True, it was a violation of his personal space and Vlad was picky about people touching him, but in my defense, I thought I’d been dreaming . . .
His free arm slid around me and the stiffness left his frame. Then something brushed the top of my head, too briefly for me to tell if it was his chin or his lips. Somewhere deep inside me, that twisted, pain-filled knot began to loosen.
All at once, I wished the flight to Romania was longer than twelve hours.
Chapter 18
Either the drugs Hannibal pumped into me were long-lasting, or I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was. Whatever it was, I ended up sleeping almost the entire flight. When I awoke, Vlad was back to his usual aloofness, which was for the best, I told myself. Nothing had really changed except the knowledge that I wasn’t the only one upset over our breakup—cold comfort for my pride, of no use to my still-wounded heart. We passed the last couple hours in strained silence. Once we landed and transferred to a car, I couldn’t wait to get to his house so I could put some distance between us.
Of course, like all of my wishes, this one turned out to be topped with a stink bomb instead of a cherry when it came true.
I’d seen his house many times, but when we pulled up and I got out, my breath still caught. Over four stories of gleaming white and gray stone towered above me, made even more imposing by the triangular turrets that rose from each corner. Ornate carvings adorned every pillar, balcony, and exterior window, while stone gargoyles kept watch on top of soaring towers. The limousine could’ve fit through the house’s twelve-foot-high, fifteen-foot-wide doors with their ancient-looking dragon knockers, not that they were needed. As soon as our vehicle came to a stop, the doors opened wide and stayed open, a guard appearing on each side.
I was admiring how green all the trees had become when a petite girl with shoulder-length black hair came charging through the entryway.
“Gretchen,” I said, both sur
prised and delighted to see my sister. “What are you doing he—?”
My question was cut off by a ringing slap. Stunned, I gaped at her while cradling my cheek.
“How could you?” she shouted. “You let us think you were dead! Dad and I were planning your frigging funeral when he”—a wild wave at Vlad—“showed up to say you’re alive and we have to come back here for our own safety! Then you don’t call once and no one tells us anything until ten minutes ago when they say you’ll be here soon!”
“Dad’s here, too?”
“Yes, I’m here,” a steely voice said from behind Gretchen.
I gulped, feeling like time rewound and turned me into a child awaiting punishment. A slim man with salt-and-pepper hair appeared in the doorway, his bearing erect despite leaning more heavily on his cane than the last time I’d seen him.
“You kept your word,” my dad said, but he wasn’t looking at me. He stared at Vlad.
“I always keep my word,” he replied before striding by my father and entering the main hall of the house.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Gretchen demanded, yanking my attention back to her.
I opened my mouth . . . and nothing came out. What could I say? That I hadn’t told them I was alive because I was afraid Vlad would use them against me if he was the one behind the bombing? It had seemed viable at the time, but fell flat now considering that Vlad had been the one to rush them to safety instead.
Guilt hit me harder than my sister’s slap moments ago. I hadn’t just let my family believe I was dead. I’d let Vlad believe it, too, and while I was off with Maximus doubting him, he was making sure my family was safe while searching for me.
The word sorry didn’t even begin to cover this one.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you” was what I said, and it sounded as inadequate as it was.
Gretchen gave me a withering glare. Then she turned on her heel and stomped away. Moments later, I thought I heard a door slam.
That left me with my father and the two vampires who continued to hold the massive front doors open, their faces expressionless. Hugh Dalton treated me to a long, wordless stare and then he sighed.