The much anticipated next Night 8 page 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 shortcircuit
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 ancientlooking
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 surprised 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-andpepper
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.
“Vlad said you probably thought you
were protecting us by this deception. Is
that true?”
“Yes.” A lump rocketed its way up my
throat. He knew why I did it, too. I
couldn’t have felt more ashamed.
“Well.” My father gave me a wintry
smile. “I’d say more, but I think
Gretchen’s slap covered it. Try to use
better judgment next time, will you?”
I swallowed hard, regretting so many
things that I didn’t know where to start
with the self-recriminations.
“I will.”
Avampire named Oscar escorted me to
the same room I’d stayed in before Vlad
and I started dating. It was on the second
floor, a full two levels below Vlad’s
room. The sight of the lace canopied bed,
marble fireplace, enormous antique
wardrobe, and indigo walls shouldn’t
have been depressing, but it was. Months
ago, I’d dubbed this the Blue Room
because of its color and the psychic
impression I’d picked up from the crying
woman who’d stayed here before me. Her
relationship problems ended up being
resolved, as I found out after meeting her
and her husband. Mine were irreparable.
It was just after ten a.m., Romanian
time, but convert that to Greenwich
Vampire Time and it was practically the
middle of the night. Therefore, I made no
attempt to talk to Vlad. I might have slept
on the flight over, but he could’ve been
awake the whole time making sure my
hand didn’t short-circuit the jet. Besides, I
wasn’t sure what I was going to say.
I showered and changed into an outfit I
selected from the packed wardrobe, not
surprised to find it was my size. Vlad’s
house was always stocked with all the
amenities. Then I went down to the first
floor, passing by several magnificent
rooms in search of one on the farthest
eastern corner.
Once inside the kitchen, I was glad to
see a familiar face.
“Hi, Isha,” I greeted the rotund, grayhaired
woman who was one of the house’s
several cooks. Vlad’s guards were
vampires and so was his staff, but he
made sure that the human blood donors
who lived here ate like kings. So did his
guests. I could’ve ordered room service,
but I didn’t want to put on airs.
Isha stopped chopping. “Miss Dalton,”
she replied in her heavy Romanian accent.
“How may I assist you?”
I blinked. It had been “Leila” before,
and was it my imagination, or was she
politely glaring at me?
“Don’t mind me. I just came to grab
some fruit and cheese.”
Isha blocked the front of the huge
refrigerator before I made it two steps into
the kitchen.
“Miss Dalton, please indicate where
you would like your breakfast served, and
I will be happy to have it sent there.”
Now I stared at her in disbelief. I
couldn’t count all the times I’d helped
myself when I lived here, usually while
having a pleasant chat with Isha or one of
the other chefs.
“It’s no trouble, I’ll get it myself,” I
tried again.
Isha’s gaze narrowed even as she
smiled, crinkling lines that showed she’d
been in her sixties when she was changed.
“Nonsense, it will be my pleasure.
Shall I send a plate to your bedroom, or to
the second-floor lounge?”
Her tone couldn’t have been more civil.
Same with her words, and still, I felt like
I’d been reprimanded.
“The lounge is fine. Ah, thank you, Ms.
. . .” Crap, I didn’t know her last name.
“Call me Isha, dear!” she’d said when we
met, and we’d been on a first-name basis
ever since.
She turned away without another word,
going back to her cutting board. Faster
than a machine, she julienned a pile of
vegetables, the morning light glinting off
her knife.
I left, but decided to take the long way
back to my room. There was something I
wanted to test first.
As I wandered around downstairs, I
made it a point to greet every person I
recognized. They were all impeccably
polite, but people I’d once counted as
friends now made Stepford Wives seem
warmer by comparison. If I had undead
senses, I’d bet the scent of disapproval
would’ve clogged up my nostrils.
No great stretch to figure out why.
Guess I’d done the unforgivable by
breaking up with their Master. Even if
they’d overheard my reasons, obviously
they thought I should’ve been grateful to
accept whatever crumbs of affection Vlad
offered me.
Now I knew how a pinball in a machine
felt—everything I touched seemed to
bounce me away as fast as it could. His
staff’s coldness shouldn’t bother me, but it
did. My stomach growled, reminding me I
hadn’t eaten in over a day, but instead of
going to the second floor, I went to the
small stairway behind the interior garden.
Then I followed it to an enclosed stone
hallway and opened the second door past
the chapel.
The gymnasium. I’d spent most of my
childhood in one of these, so the pulleys,
mats, weights, trampoline, and uneven
bars meant more than exercise. They were
time machines transporting me to a
carefree past before I touched that downed
power line. I went to the trampoline and
started a series of flips, but they reminded
me too much of my act with Marty. I
jumped off and went to a mat, fighting a
surge of grief.
There, I began to do the routine I’d
perfected back when I was thirteen and
had a shot at making the Olympic
gymnastics team. My body wasn’t as
conditioned nor was I wearing the right
clothes, but I did the entire set of floor
exercises anyway. Then another one, and
another. Soon my jeans and T-shirt were
sweaty, but I didn’t stop. Some days, if I
pushed myself hard enough, I could almost
hear my mother’s voice.
Who’s my little champion? I’m so
proud of you, sweetheart . . .
“Leila!”
The feminine voice didn’t come from
my imagination. It came from a strawberry
blonde across the room.
“Everyone, Leila’s back!” Sandra
called down the hallway. Then she rushed
forward with a grin. “Why didn’t you tell
us?”
Her genuine happiness was like a balm
on a stinging burn. If it wouldn’t have
electrocuted her to death, I might have
hugged her for an hour.
“I, ah . . .”—was afraid I’d get yelled
at or rejected again—“wasn’t sure if
you’d be awake,” I finished lamely.
Sandra laughed. “I wasn’t an hour ago,
but that would have been fine. Why are
you back? Did you and Vlad—”
“There she is!” Joe called, cutting off
Sandra’s question. In no time at all, I
found myself saying hi to old friends and
meeting the new live-in donors for the
a.m. shift of the house’s feeding schedule.
“Come, you must tell us everything,”
Sandra commanded. Then she grinned. “I
didn’t really want to exercise anyway.”
I couldn’t tell her everything, but I
could give her some details. Besides,
there was a kitchen down here, too, and
unlike the one upstairs, it didn’t have any
vampires who held a grudge against me in
it.
Chapter 19
After a pleasant couple hours where I
caught up with Sandra and the others, I
went back upstairs. There, I spent a notso-
pleasant couple hours with Gretchen
and my dad, trying to explain that someone
had planted the gas line bomb and that
same person would’ve considered my
family excellent bait if he—or she—
realized I’d survived. My father, a retired
lieutenant colonel, understood and seemed
willing to forgive me. I wondered if
Gretchen ever would.
At last, I went back to my room and
took another shower. Once clean and
redressed, I looked out my window at the
darkening sky and tried not to wonder if
Vlad was waking up. Out of all the people
who were angry at me, he had the most
right to be. Despite how coldly he’d
ended our relationship and how hard it
was to be near him, I still owed him an
apology for believing that he’d been
behind the carnival bomb. The next time I
saw him, I’d pay up on that debt.
Until then, I distracted myself by
wondering how Maximus was doing. I
wasn’t about to ask the staff, and asking
Vlad might make him blow his lighter
fluid. However, I had another way to see
if Maximus had recovered.
I ran my right hand over my skin,
finding the essence trail Maximus had left.
Then I focused on it until the Blue Room
vanished and complete darkness
surrounded me. For a second, I was
confused. Then I saw a green glow and
heard Vlad’s voice.
“—wasn’t my preference. I’d rather kill
you.”
A heavy sigh. “Then why don’t you?”
Maximus’s voice. I still couldn’t see
him, but he sounded sane, to my vast
relief. Where were they that the only light
came from Vlad’s eyes?
“Leila.” My name hung in the stygian
air. Vlad let out a short laugh. “She
refused to tell me where she was until I
swore an oath not to torture or kill you.”
Maximus laughed, too, and it sounded
equally humorless. “She left a few things
out, like eternal imprisonment.”
“She’s young,” Vlad said, “and it may
not be eternal. In a century or two, I might
get over my anger and let you out.”
Something clanked together, and then
another flash of green filled the blackness.
Maximus’s eyes, illuminating enough for
me to see that his face was pressed against
thick metal bars.
“She’ll be long dead by then,” he
rasped.
Vlad’s gaze gleamed brighter. “Will
she?”
Now I knew where the two of them
were, and rage shot through me. Maximus
wasn’t back at Mencheres’s house. He
was about a hundred feet below me in
Vlad’s underground dungeon!
“Leila refused your offer to turn her into
a vampire.” Maximus’s tone hardened.
“She’s done with you, remember?”
Vlad’s laughter rolled out, low yet
relentless, like thunder during a spring
storm. “If you believed that, you wouldn’t
have lied to me about her being alive. You
must have guessed that I was letting her
leave me, but I wasn’t letting her go.
That’s why you kept her from contacting
me by convincing her that I might be the
one behind the bomb.”
“You could have been,” Maximus
growled.
Vlad’s hands flashed out, closing over
Maximus’s. Only those thick rods of metal
separated their faces as he leaned in.
“That, you must want to believe,” he
said softly. “Otherwise, you betrayed me
for nothing.”
Their matching glowing gazes showed
every nuance of their flinty expressions.
Finally, Maximus’s mouth curled and he
yanked his hands out from under Vlad’s.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say it was for
nothing.”
My jaw dropped. His insinuation was
clear, as Vlad’s hands bursting into flames
proved. Part of me was offended by the
false intimation while the other cheered
Maximus for scoring a hit despite his
helpless circumstances.
Which I was going to do something
about. Locking him away in a dungeon
counted as torture in my book, especially
since Vlad intended Maximus to stay there
a century or two.
Vlad barked out something in reply, but
the room swam around me, blackness
giving way to an avalanche of blue as I
lost the link. After I was reoriented, I felt
dizzy and didn’t need a mirror to know
what the warmth trickling from my nose
was. Fury made that irrelevant. Vlad might
think he’d pulled one over on me, but I
was about to show him otherwise.
I swiped the blood off my upper lip and
stormed out of my room, practically
running down the stairs to the interior
garden and the staircase behind it. Those
steps I took two at a time, making a left
turn at the tunnel instead of my usual right.
My footsteps echoed in the enclosed
space, but I slowed down the last twenty
yards. I had a plan to get past the guards,
and running up to them wouldn’t help.
The hallway curved and narrowed,
dead-ending with two vampires in front of
an iron door a foot thick.
“I’m sorry, Miss Dalton, you can’t be
here,” the sandy-haired one said. Then he
frowned. “You’re bleeding.”
I gave him my best helpless-female
smile, hoping he’d mistake the rage
wafting off me for something else.
“I know, that’s why you have to let me
through. I need Vlad to heal me. It might
be serious.”
The guards exchanged a wary glance.
“He didn’t authorize you to come down
here,” the beefy, redheaded guard stated.
“However, I would be glad to give you
my blood—”
“Wouldn’t that make him angry?” I
interrupted, widening my eyes. “If I drank
your blood when he was so close by?”
The guards exchanged an even warier
look while inwardly, I smiled. That’s
right. Think about how territorial you
vampires are and how I only drank
Vlad’s blood when I lived here before.
For further effect, I swayed, and though
the sandy-haired guard steadied me, as
soon as I straightened, he snatched his
hands away while looking around guiltily.
Checkmate.
“I’ll secure permission to let you
through,” the redhead guard said. He
wasn’t so easily deceived. Must be
married.
In response, I let myself go entirely
limp. As expected, I didn’t hit the floor
before strong arms caught me. Then I was
lifted up, the wind rushing past me from
how fast whoever had grabbed me ran
down the narrow staircase that led to the
dungeon. I kept my eyes shut and my head
drooping as we were ushered through
more checkpoints. None of Vlad’s guards
wanted to be responsible for me dying, yet
they were all too afraid of him to give me
their blood.
By the time the fourth and final door
creaked open, I sat up and pushed at the
arms supporting me. No need to make it
easier for me to be hauled away once the
jig was up.
“Let me down,” I told the guard, who
turned out to be the blond instead of the
redhead. No surprise.
My feet had barely hit the ground before
Vlad’s voice thundered through the
cavernous darkness around us.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
Chapter 20
An orange glow preceded his appearance,
showing the stone monolith in the center
wasn’t empty like the last time I’d been in
the dungeon. Two vampires hung from the
spiked silver chains embedded in the
rock, a third impaled in front of them.
When Vlad came closer, more light from
his flaming hands showed which part of
him the long wooden pole had entered by
first.
“That’s sick,” I breathed, temporarily
distracted.
He ignored that, stabbing a flaming
finger at the guard. “You’ve bought
yourself some painful time to think,
Jameson.”
“But she’s bleeding!” the guard
protested, giving me a little push forward.
“So you come and get me,” Vlad said
icily. The flames on his hands vanished as
he seized my jaw, turning my head and
forcibly preventing me from looking at his
prisoners.
“You don’t bring her down here without
permission, ever,” he continued, still
speaking to Jameson while he stared at
me. “A week on the pole will remind you
of that.”
“I wasn’t about to let you pull one of
your usual disappearing acts, so I tricked
him by pretending I’d fainted,” I snapped,
trying without success to knock his hand
away. “You want to punish someone?
Punish me.”
He grasped a handful of my hair.
Between that and his grip on my jaw, I
couldn’t move as he leaned down, placing
his lips directly over my ear.
“ I am punishing you,” he whispered.
“You’ll suffer from guilt every day he’s
on that pole. Then perhaps next time,
you’ll think twice before tricking my
guards.”
I shoved at his chest the same instant he
released me, so I ended up pushing away
only air. Vlad stood a few feet off, almost
invisible against the darkness with his
Date: 2015-12-11; view: 332
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