Nothing from Vlad for so long, I wondered if he was speaking too softly for a nonvampire to overhear. Then Maximus asked, “Are you still there?” dispelling that idea.
“Yes.”
One word, bit out so harshly that I flinched. Something had Vlad furious. I wanted to grab the phone and demand to know if he’d tried to kill me, but of course, I didn’t. I waited, breathing as shallowly as I could despite my heart racing.
“Why did you ask about Leila?” Maximus prodded, still doing a great job of sounding guileless.
Another loaded silence. Then Vlad replied, “She’s dead,” in a tone so casual that tears sprang to my eyes. Even if he hadn’t ordered it, he didn’t care. Hearing the apathy in his voice cut me in places I didn’t even know I had.
I must’ve made some sound because Maximus scowled while holding his finger to his lips in the universal command for silence. Then he said, “What? How?” with such believable shock that I mentally upgraded him from Good Liar to Fantastic One.
“A gas line ruptured near Martin’s trailer. I’m told both of them were killed instantly in the explosion. I leave for America tonight to return Leila’s remains to her family.”
Oh shit! In the midst of everything, I’d forgotten Gretchen and my father would also think I’d been killed. I began to mime at Maximus that we needed to stop Vlad, but he clapped a hand over my mouth, tightening it when I grunted.
“That’s terrible,” he said, rolling down the car window with his other hand. Traffic noises soon merged with my grunts, muffling them. If he hadn’t saved my life twice in the past week, I would’ve taken off my gloves and dosed him with enough electricity to make him glow, but he had so all I did was glare.
Well, that and I bit him. He deserved it.
“Yes, tragic,” Vlad said, sounding bored this time. “Meet me in Atlanta tomorrow. We’ll fly from there to Gretchen’s.”
“That might be difficult,” Maximus replied, flashing his fangs at me when I continued to chomp on the fleshy part of his hand. I took that as Keep it up and I’ll bite you back so I stopped after one final, angry nip.
Iciness returned to Vlad’s voice. “Why?”
“I told you I was checking on some of my people while I was in the States. Seems a couple of the younger ones have taken to feeding in the open. I have to deal with that, of course.”
“Of course,” Vlad all but purred. “If you don’t punish their disobedience now, who knows what betrayals they’ll inflict on you in the future?”
From the way Maximus’s features hardened, he, too, thought those comments were more warning than instruction.
“Pass on my condolences to Leila’s family,” he said, mouthing, Don’t make a sound at me.
Since his hand was still clamped over my mouth, I couldn’t, but my glare promised that we weren’t done with this.
“I will,” Vlad replied.
Then they hung up. Vampires weren’t big on saying good-bye, as I’d learned after years of living with Marty. Once he double-checked that the call had truly ended, Maximus took his hand away from my mouth.
“We can’t let my family believe I’m dead” were my first words. “That’s too cruel.”
“What’s more important? Their safety, or their temporary sadness?” he retorted, nailing me with a hard stare.
“Safety? They have nothing to do with this!”
“Not yet,” he countered ruthlessly, “but they will, if you reveal that you’re alive. You think they can fool Vlad? One sniff and he’ll know they’re only faking grief.”
Despite his logic, I was torn. My dad was strong, but I didn’t know how much Gretchen could take. She still had emotional scars from finding me after a failed suicide attempt a decade ago when my new abilities had nearly broken me.
“I still don’t think Vlad is behind the bomb. He might not care that I’m dead, but if we play on his pride, he’d be a hell of an ally while we looked for the real person responsible.”
The look Maximus gave me was both annoyed and pitying. “He’d also be a worse enemy if you’re wrong, and then what do you think will happen to your family?”
I banged my fists against the car seat. Yeah, I knew. Vlad would use them against me. Even if he wasn’t behind this, the real killer would, if it leaked that I was alive. The best way to protect my family was to let them think I’d died—and hope one day they’d forgive me for the deception.
I sighed. “They’re going to hate me for this.”
“But they’ll be alive to hate you,” Maximus pointed out, and that was the most important thing.
I shot him a grim look as something else dawned on me.
“Even if Vlad isn’t responsible, what are you going to do when he discovers you’ve been lying to him this whole time?”
From the way Maximus’s expression closed off, he’d already thought of this. “I’ll have to convince him not to kill me,” he said, voice light as if he were discussing a game.
I closed my eyes, struck with a sudden, irrational urge to pray. That would be easier said than done, as we both knew.
Chapter 12
Maximus green-eyed a passing motorist into taking us to a Motel 6 inside the Indiana border. Once there, I forced myself to eat the drive-through food Maximus had gotten me even though traveling with a body part had killed my appetite. Then I showered before tumbling into the unoccupied second bed.
Despite having slept only a few hours the past couple days, I was wide awake. Maximus, on the other hand, seemed to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
I glanced at the plastic baggie on the table between us. At least the smell from Adrian’s crispy . . . whatever was contained. I couldn’t risk using it to link to the female vampire again for a few days. I needed regular doses of vampire blood to stay alive even when I wasn’t overusing my abilities, or dealing with the lingering aftermath of a pyrokinetic aura embedded in me.
Once again, I found myself envying vampires, this time for their instant healing. If I wasn’t human, I could start tracking Adrian’s killer now instead of in a few days. Being limited by my fragile mortality was frustrating, but I’d turned down my chance to switch sides. With Marty gone and Vlad and I broken up, there wasn’t another vampire I’d trust enough to “sire” me. Vlad had been right about it being an unbreakable bond. I doubted I’d ever feel close enough to another vampire to want that permanent connection with them.
Still, some rest, regular nutrition, and vampire blood should recuperate me enough to track down my would-be killer without risking another hemorrhage and heart attack. Even if it didn’t, I’d try again in a few days. The brunette vampire’s pretty face flashed across my mind, bringing a fresh surge of determination. Marty and Dawn deserved to be avenged and my family deserved to be safe. Stopping that woman—and whoever had sent her—was worth the risk.
I floated inside a luxurious private aircraft, knowing at once where I was. Vlad’s plane. He was only a few feet away, wearing a charcoal trench coat over black pants and a black shirt. It was the same outfit I’d imagined him in at the morgue, but he wasn’t threatening anyone now. His eyes were closed, hair spilling over his shoulders to blend into his dark clothes.
This had to be another dream. Since none of this was real, I could do what I’d secretly longed to do the past couple weeks. I floated over to Vlad and lowered myself until I hovered next to him, reaching out to stroke his face.
I didn’t feel the stubble that clung to his jaw. Instead, my hand disappeared through his face. Still, touching him fulfilled a need that had clawed at me night and day since I left him. Even though everything had gone to hell and Vlad might be the very person I was running from, I couldn’t stop myself from stroking his cheek, his brows, and finally his lips. Part of me hated him for his callous treatment, but the rest of me still missed him so much it hurt.
“I see your powers are back, Leila.”
I jerked away, fleeing to the far side of the aircraft. Vlad’s eyes were still clos
ed, but the sardonic curl to his mouth told me I hadn’t imagined the words.
“This is only a dream,” I stated, more to myself than him. “And we’re on your plane because you told Maximus you were flying to America, so my subconscious used that detail.”
See? Nothing to worry about, I reassured myself. Too bad he wouldn’t shut up so I could siphon off a few more moments of solace. Figures even in a dream, Vlad wouldn’t be cooperative.
“You’re with Maximus.” A statement, not a question.
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see it. “That’s none of your business.”
Flames appeared, crawling up from his hands to his upper arms. “Oh, but it is.”
Then his eyes opened and he sat up, looking around as if to pinpoint my location. I waved my hand back and forth, pleased when he didn’t so much as glance in my direction. Vlad always seemed to know where I was before when I spied on him, further proof that none of this was real.
“It ceased to become your business when you walked away from us without a backward glance,” I said, relishing the chance to unload some hurt. Thank you, subconscious!
“I walked away?” His snort managed to be both contemptuous and elegant. “I offered you everything, yet you spurned it all. I’ve had enemies be less merciless in their dealings.”
I grabbed his shoulders but my hands went right through. So much for shaking some sense into him!
“Me merciless? All I wanted was for you to love me, but according to you, THAT was asking too much.”
Those flames extinguished. Good. I didn’t want to dream about him accidentally blowing up his plane.
“Words.” His tone sharpened. “I shared my house, my bed, and my blood with you, as well as offered you a place in my life forever. What are words compared to that?”
I sighed, my anger dissipating as quickly as his flames had. “Oh, Vlad, if you believed that, you would’ve told me what I wanted to hear to just appease me. You didn’t, which proves saying ‘I love you’ means more to you than everything else.”
His brows drew together like thunderclouds. “Enough of this. Tell me where you are.”
I almost said, “South Bend, Indiana” because what was the harm in telling Dream Vlad? Then I paused. Why would I gratify Dream Vlad, either?
“I’m at the corner of None of Your Business and Screw You.”
His fist slammed down, knocking the armrest off. “Don’t test me. You know the gas line explosion wasn’t an accident.”
“And I also know who might’ve been behind it,” I countered nastily even though I didn’t believe it.
His fists clenched and unclenched. If this wasn’t a dream, I’d swear I smelled smoke. “You can’t think it was me.”
Another shrug he couldn’t see. “Maximus says your pride might have prompted a little payback for me leaving you.”
A noise escaped Vlad that was too visceral to be called a snarl. “He’s signed his own death warrant twice, then.”
Even imaginary, there was no reasoning with him. “I need to wake up. This dream sucks.”
“You’re asleep? Is that why your voice is fainter and I can’t catch most of your thoughts?”
Alarm bells began to ring. This better be my subconscious being VERY creative.
He must have taken my silence as a yes. Vlad smiled, foreboding expression changing to infuriating satisfaction.
“You won’t contact me when you’re awake, but you reach out to me in your sleep. That should tell you who you really trust.”
I began pinching my arm. Hard. Dream or not, it was too upsetting to keep talking to him.
“Think on this when you wake,” he continued, honeyed steel dripping off each word. “Maximus has always wanted you. Since the explosion, he has you believing he’s your savior and you can’t trust anyone else. A happy coincidence?”
Wake up, wake up! I mentally chanted. Out loud, I said, “Maximus wouldn’t hurt me, whereas you kept doing that even when you weren’t trying to.”
Vlad’s smile faded, though his lips remained drawn back, revealing fangs longer than I’d ever seen before.
“I’m coming for you, Leila. If you care for Maximus, then you’ll leave him and then contact me with your location. That will give him a chance to run. Otherwise, you’ll watch me kill him when I catch up with you.”
You wouldn’t dare! trembled on my lips, but I didn’t say it out loud because I knew very well that he would.
“I don’t know why I ever thought I loved you” was what I barked instead, fear and anger making my tone brutal.
Something flashed across Vlad’s face that, on any other man, I would’ve said was pain. But that was impossible. Even in a dream, Vlad didn’t care enough for me to hurt him.
That proved true when his expression became detached again. “I’ll see you soon,” he said, waving as if in dismissal.
A surge of fury had me bolting upright in bed. My abrupt movement startled Maximus, who awoke with far more alertness. I was still processing the fact that my dream was over when he was right in front of me, big hands framing my face.
“Not again,” he muttered, cutting his wrist with a fang.
“Stop,” I protested when he held his bloody wrist against my mouth, but that and swatting at his arm made no difference.
“Swallow,” he said sternly.
I did, cursing vampires and their highhandedness the whole time. When he finally removed his wrist, I shoved him, but it had as much effect as a fly trying to bring down a brick wall.
“What the hell?” I snapped.
He flicked my nose before showing me his red finger. “You started bleeding. I wasn’t waiting to see if your heart stopped again, too.”
Another nosebleed? But I hadn’t been using my powers—
My gaze darted down. Yep, the gloves were still on, plus there was that whole impossibility factor with connecting to someone in my sleep. Still, the coincidences were piling up.
“Call Vlad,” I said, seized with a near desperate urge to be proven wrong.
Both his brows shot up. “Why?”
“To see if he”—threatens your life, tells you to put me on the phone, anything like that—“sounds weird,” I finished lamely.
Maximus stared at me, skepticism written all over his face.
“It’s important,” I said, gripping his upper arm.
After another penetrating stare, he went over to where he’d thrown his coat and pulled out his cell phone.
“Vlad,” he said after a brief pause. “Sorry. I must’ve unintentionally redialed the last number that called me . . .”
I waited with indrawn breath, expecting to hear my name amidst an explosion of threats. But although I could make out Vlad’s voice on the other line, he spoke too softly for the words to be clear. After a minute, Maximus hung up and shrugged.
“He sounds fine.”
I let out my breath in a sigh that seemed to come from my soul. Only a dream! trumpeted across my mind. No matter how it felt or my spontaneous nosebleed, if it had been real, Vlad would’ve torn into Maximus as soon as he heard his voice—
I froze, claws of doubt skittering up my spine. Or would he? Vlad told me to get away from Maximus and then contact him. If Maximus knew the jig surrounding my purported death was up, he wouldn’t let me out of his sight long enough for me to do that. Vlad also insinuated that Maximus might be the one behind the gas line bomb. If he believed that, would he tip his hand about my ability to contact him in my sleep?
No. Vlad was cunning to the point of being a sociopath. He’d never reveal such an advantage until it was too late.
Of course, there was another possibility. Vlad might not reveal that I’d contacted him in my dreams just to mess with me.
“Going to tell me why I just crank-called my sire?”
Maximus’s wry voice cut through my musings. Even though I didn’t believe the insinuations Dream Vlad had levied, niggling doubts kept me from replying with the truth.
&nb
sp; “I, um, had a dream that his plane crashed,” I said, managing to hold his gaze despite feeling like I had “Liar!” written in neon lights on my forehead.
A grunt. “You need to get over him. You’ll only make yourself crazy if you don’t.”
Make myself crazy? I thought bleakly. All signs indicated that I was already there.
Chapter 13
Sweat dampened my clothes and my muscles screamed, but I kept lifting and lowering my legs in a smooth, controlled rhythm. One hundred thirty-nine . . . one hundred forty . . .
“You’ve got to stop. This isn’t healthy.”
Maximus’s arms were crossed, his handsome features creased into a scowl. I ignored him, continuing my leg lifts.
Cool hands locked around my ankles, keeping me from my next set of lifts. “I mean it, Leila. Stop.”
I glared up at him. “Let me go.”
His grip only tightened. “Not until you tell me what’s been eating you the past few days.”
Laughter came out in pants from my exertions. “Should I start with my best friend being blown to smithereens, or skip to the part where you think his killer may be my ex-boyfriend?”
Or maybe even you? my nasty inner voice added.
I tried to ignore that voice, but it had been growing louder. Maximus claimed he hadn’t known about my being fireproof, but he could’ve overheard that while I’d been living at Vlad’s. He’d helped me find the bomber, but what if that was because he knew Adrian would already be dead? Since then, he’d been adamant about me holding off on looking for the female vampire, citing concerns for my health. But what if the heart attack never happened? What if the only repercussions from me overusing my powers were a nosebleed?
“Something else is bothering you,” Maximus said, letting go of my ankles. I sat up and carefully picked my words.
“Exercise helps keep me strong and I’ll need that to link to the female vampire tomorrow. I’ve waited long enough.”