The much anticipated next Night 5 page didn’t feel alone and rejected.
When his tongue slid into my mouth, I
welcomed it. He’d kissed me before,
months ago, and back then, I’d felt mild
enjoyment but no real emotion. This time,
I was filled with such aching loneliness
that I explored his mouth as thoroughly as
he did mine. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t
the man I loved. All that mattered was he
was here.
After several moments, Maximus pulled
away.
“I wish I didn’t care about you so
much.”
“What?” I asked breathlessly. Vampires
might not need oxygen, but I couldn’t kiss
like that without paying a price.
His eyes resembled the nearby traffic
light with how green they were. “You’re
overstressed, overtired, and emotionally
vulnerable. I won’t take advantage of that,
but if I cared less about you, Leila”—his
voice deepened—“we’d be in the nearest
alley with your legs wrapped around my
waist right now.”
Heat should have swelled at that
explicit image. Instead, an icy bucket of
shame washed over me. What was I
doing? Despite my actions, I didn’t want
to start anything with Maximus. I wanted
to find Marty’s killer—who hopefully
wouldn’t turn out to be Vlad—murder that
person, and then grieve for my best friend
while putting my life back together.
Getting involved with my ex’s right-hand
man wasn’t anywhere on my list.
Maximus must have sensed the change
because he let me go, his gaze turning
from glowing emerald back to smoky gray.
“My point exactly,” he said, dryness
etching each word.
I crossed my arms over my chest,
wishing I hadn’t thrown my coat and shirt
away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to, ah—”
“Save it,” he interrupted crisply. Then
his voice softened. “I understand. You
needed to feel something good in the midst
of everything crumbling around you, even
if it was only for a moment. Humans don’t
have a monopoly on that, Leila. Vampires
need it sometimes, too.”
Then he picked up his discarded shirt
and coat, giving me a single hard stare
before he turned away.
“But right now, we need to get back to
the car and then you need to find out who
killed that bomb maker.”
Chapter 11
It didn’t take long to find the images I
sought. Although nothing was more
densely packed with memories than a
person’s bones, death was a stand-out
event for everyone. Pity the images only
played like clips from a film reel instead
of me being inside Adrian’s head when
his murderer came calling.
“Who is it?” Adrian replied to the
knock, as if he wasn’t looking at the
other side of the door through a security
feed.
“Don’t be boring, dearie” was the
reply he received.
My brows went up. Adrian’s killer was
a woman. She didn’t have an accent so
much as a pretty lilt to her speech, but I
doubted her nationality was American.
Adrian minimized the screen before he
opened the door. The woman walked in,
wearing dark glasses and a scarf around
her head. To make matters worse, what I
could see of her face seemed blurry.
What a time for my psychic vision to
need a tune-up.
“Make yourself at home,” Adrian
drawled, shutting the door behind her.
“You thirsty?”
“Of course,” she purred.
That tone would’ve screamed, Danger!
to me, but Adrian didn’t seem to notice.
“What’ll it be?” he asked.
“When we’re done, your blood,” she
replied pleasantly.
He turned, startled, and then froze as
she took her glasses off. Though her face
was still blurred, the inhuman glow from
her eyes came through clearly. I could
almost see Adrian’s willpower being
hijacked under that hypnotic gaze. If he
hadn’t made a bomb that killed my best
friend, I would’ve pitied him.
“You will erase all records of our
dealings, from bank transactions to the
camera feed at your door,” the woman
stated.
No! I thought, but of course that didn’t
change Adrian’s actions. He went to his
computer, booted up a bunch of files, and
then methodically deleted them. He even
erased secondary backups and ghost
files, too, much to my dismay.
“It’s done,” he said woodenly once he
was finished.
The woman took off her scarf. I caught
a flash of rich, dark hair before
everything blurred again.
“Time for that drink now, dearie.”
Then she yanked Adrian’s head to the
side and bit down on his neck. When his
death ended the vision, my frustration
grew.
Not once had I gotten a good look at
her face.
“Five foot four, about a hundred and
twenty pounds, dark hair, and a slight
accent that could be Welsh, English,
Scottish, or Irish.”
Maximus scowled. “That’s all you got?
A female vampire that might be from the
UK?”
I knew how useless that information
was. “I’ll try linking to her again, see if it
works better this time.”
Despite my disgust, for a second time I
rubbed the burnt piece that Maximus had
yanked off of Adrian’s body. Flashes of
lights followed a rocking sensation, but
when I concentrated harder, those images
faded and I began to feel dizzy.
“Leila? Are you all right?”
“Fine. Just a little carsick,” I muttered,
trying again. After a few moments, I
caught a glimpse of a woman wearing the
same outfit as Adrian’s killer, but that and
the thick spill of walnut-colored hair was
the only way I could be sure it was her.
Her features were completely
indistinguishable. The tiny blue room she
was in rocked, which was odd. Then all
my attention focused on what she was
saying.
“ . . . no, it wasn’t too risky . . . I took
care of it, dearie. He’s dead, ending any
chance this will be traced back to us.”
From how she spoke, she must be on the
phone. I stared at the blurred spot where
her face would be, concentrating, but
instead of getting better, it made the
haziness worse.
“You’re overreacting,” she went on.
“Even if there are suspicions, they won’t
lead anywhere. Whatever she might have
been worth to him alive, she’s less
dangerous to us dead . . .”
I tried to focus on her more, but then my
dizziness came back with a vengeance.
My ears rang, too, and I felt something wet
trickle out of them.
Maximus swore. Then the car swung so
sharply that it fishtailed, adding crashing
to my list of concerns. I couldn’t seem to
voice a complaint, though, and now the
only thing I saw were large black spots.
That can’t be good, I thought, right before
something hard smacked me in the
forehead.
I had a few minutes of blissful
nothingness until I became aware that I
was choking on coppery-tasting liquid. I
tried to spit it out, but a hand clamped
over my mouth.
“Swallow, dammit!”
Left with no other choice, I did,
grimacing as I recognized the taste.
Vampire blood. Pureed pennies would’ve
been less repugnant. I opened my eyes to
find Maximus crouched over me. My seat
belt was off and my seat was all the way
reclined. At least he’d pulled over before
utterly ignoring the road.
“Yuck,” I said once he finally dropped
his hand.
He didn’t look offended so much as
relieved. That’s when I noticed both his
hands were smeared in red and so was the
front of my shirt. This couldn’t all be from
Maximus forcing me to drink his blood.
That whole lack of a pulse meant
vampires didn’t bleed much even when
they were cut. Add that to the steering
wheel being ripped off, and I’d missed
something big.
“What happened?”
He tossed the steering wheel into the
back before flopping back into the
driver’s seat. “You started hemorrhaging
from your eyes, ears, and nose. Then your
heart stopped. I had to give you CPR and
blood to bring you back.”
Hearing that I’d come so close to dying
should’ve terrified me, but all I could
muster up was a weary “This day sucks.”
Maximus’s incredulous expression
made me want to laugh, an even more
irrational response, but what was I
supposed to do? I couldn’t cry because
that wouldn’t fix anything and we didn’t
have time for me to slowly rock myself
while shaking, which was the only other
thing that sounded appealing.
“I must be using too much power within
too short a time,” I said. “Plus, I’m not
fireproof anymore, but remnants of Vlad’s
aura might still be messing with my
system. Between the two, I should’ve
guessed that my body couldn’t handle it.”
Maximus still stared at me as though he
couldn’t believe my nonchalance over
almost dying. I ignored that, directing my
attention to more important issues.
“What happened to the steering wheel?”
“It was in my way when you needed
help” was his reply.
“Well.” I forced a smile that must’ve
been lopsided at best. “Thanks. Too bad
we have to get another car now.”
His teeth flashed in a matching
humorless grin. “That’s the least of our
problems.”
Great. “What’s the worst of them?”
Maximus pulled out his cell phone and
wagged it at me. It didn’t ring but the
screen was lit up, showing an incoming
call.
“This is the third time Vlad’s tried to
reach me. I have to answer or he’ll get
suspicious.”
“Don’t you—!”
Maximus held up a finger. “Don’t even
breathe loud,” he muttered before
answering his phone with a brief “Yes?”
I froze when I heard Vlad’s voice. That
familiar, cultured cadence affected me so
much that for a few moments, I didn’t
breathe at all.
“Maximus,” my ex said coolly. “Am I
interrupting anything?”
Smoky gray eyes bored into mine as
Maximus replied, “No, why?” in a tone so
casual that I blinked. Good liar, I noted
for future reference.
“Because this is my third call” was
Vlad’s implacable reply. Guess it was too
late to keep him from being suspicious.
“I left my phone in the car while I found
someone to eat,” Maximus said glibly.
“Everything all right?”
Even if I wasn’t a couple feet away in a
closed space, I still would’ve heard
Vlad’s whiplike reply. “No, everything is
not all right. When did you last see
Leila?”
I couldn’t help it—I sucked in an
audible breath. Maximus frowned at me
before responding with “Last week, when
I dropped her off at Marty’s trailer in
Atlanta.”
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
closed, 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
Date: 2015-12-11; view: 356
|