The much anticipated next Night 18 page hiring a sketch artist to discover her
identity sooner. Unintentionally, it had
also kept me from recognizing her as the
same vampire who’d watched Dawn and
Marty’s last performance the night of the
carnival explosion.
Then dark topaz eyes met mine as
Cynthiana looked up and stared straight at
me.
Chapter 44
As casually as possible, I glanced away,
pretending to smile at someone farther
down the walkway. Just another vampire
meeting a friend, nothing to see here.
When I could still feel her gaze on me, I
headed in the direction I’d been looking,
hoping the skin-scouring version of a
deodorizing treatment I’d undergone had
removed all traces of Vlad’s scent from
me. Then I picked a person at random,
coming toward her while saying, “Hello!”
in Romanian as if we were old friends.
Something punched me in the back, a
hard double tap that made me spin around
so fast, I splashed coffee on the person
closest to me. As that man began to sputter
out a curse, another hard double punch hit
me square in the chest.
I looked down. Silvery liquid oozed out
of two holes onto my blazer, but before
my mind even registered that I’d been
shot, instinct took over. I leapt up,
clearing the crowd and hitting the roof of
the tunnel in less than a second. A piece of
concrete exploded near my head and I
spun away as fast as I could. Then gravity
brought me back down into the crowd. I
landed on a few people, inadvertently
knocking them over. As soon as I hit the
ground, the screaming started.
I couldn’t see anything through the sea
of legs surrounding me, which meant the
shooter couldn’t see me, either. Still, I
wasn’t about to use them for cover. Liquid
silver bullets might be as dangerous to me
as regular ones were to humans, yet thanks
to Vlad’s insistence, I wore a bulletproof
vest underneath my clothes. The people
around me didn’t have such protection. I
began to crawl away from the crowd,
throwing my coffee cup aside after
noticing with disbelief that I’d held on to
it this entire time. As I crawled, I pinched
the wire underneath my scarf. I hadn’t
seen her do it, but it didn’t take psychic
powers to guess who’d shot me.
“The jig is up,” I said shortly. “And
she’s firing liquid silver bullets.”
I reached the end of the crowd and
stood up. As if my gaze was drawn, I saw
Cynthiana amidst the terrified commuters,
almost casually tucking her gun back into
her jacket. She must’ve thought the silver
bullets had done their job and I was dead
beneath the stampeding crowd.
Vlad’s voice barked through the
receiver. “Don’t engage her. Go to the
Crangasi station. We’ll be there soon.”
Cynthiana whirled, either sensing my
presence or hearing Vlad’s voice over the
noise from the commuters.
She stared at me for what only took a
second, yet felt like an eternity. I don’t
know what possessed me to rake my
coffee-coated hand over the side of my
face, but I did, using the liquid and the
material from my glove to wipe away the
thick makeup that hid my scar. When she
saw it, her dark topaz gaze turned bright
green and she bared her teeth in a snarl.
“You.”
I expected her to go for the gun again.
Or to charge me; she looked as furious as I
felt. Both would’ve been fine. I’d lead her
away from the people if she charged, and
if she shot at me, at least she wouldn’t be
shooting at any innocent bystanders. But
Cynthiana didn’t do either of those things.
Instead, she raised her hands and shouted
something in a language I didn’t recognize.
As if yanked by invisible strings, every
commuter who’d started to flee stopped in
their tracks. Then they turned around and
headed straight toward me, their hands
outstretched like claws and their
expressions murderous. Over the horde, I
saw Cynthiana’s snarl change into a smirk.
Then she ran down the subway tunnel in
the opposite direction from the Gara de
Nord.
I muttered a curse as I began to plow
through the crowd, trying not to hurt them
as I shoved them away. I wasn’t shown the
same consideration. My hair was yanked,
multiple fists punched me, and I was even
bitten when a woman latched on to my leg
and wouldn’t let go despite my dragging
her as I ran. My first attempt to use
vampire mind control to get them off me
didn’t work. I was either doing it wrong
or Cynthiana’s spell was too strong. I
managed to get free only after losing my
jacket, scarf, and several pieces of my
pants courtesy of the biting woman. Then I
dashed away before the rest of the mob
joined in the melee.
As I ran toward the Crangasi station, I
squeezed the wire near my neck. “She
went down the M1 tunnel,” I shouted, then
let out a groan as I saw the frazzled end of
the wire sticking out of the Kevlar vest.
Someone had torn it in two. Without
hesitation, I turned around and began to
run in the same direction Cynthiana had.
With no way to tell Vlad where she was
going, if I didn’t track her, she might get
away before his people converged on the
Metro.
A shrill sound and blinding light
signaled a train headed right for me. I
jumped off the tracks and onto the
concrete lip of the tunnel, hugging the wall
as I continued as fast as I could along the
narrow ledge. When the subway passed
me, the wind from its velocity tried to
suck me into its path, yet my new muscles
held me to the wall as if I’d been glued.
Once it was gone, I jumped down and
dashed along the tracks, my gaze lighting
up the darkness with green.
If not for my enhanced vision, I
would’ve missed the slot in the tunnel
across the tracks that marked the entrance
to another passageway. No light shone
from within and the walls were wet from
what looked like a recurring leak, leaving
a shallow, dirty puddle in front of the
entrance. Must be one of the many unused
passages that made up the underground
labyrinth of the Metro. I paused, glancing
between that and the rest of the tunnel. If I
were Cynthiana, which way would I go?
Seeing a muddy footprint leading into
the passageway made up my mind. I ran
over the tracks and into the narrow
entrance, grimacing at the smell that
suggested indigents used this as a shelter.
Now there was no point trying to track
Cynthiana by scent, though over the stink, I
caught an odd, earthy odor. Was that her?
If so, she needed to change her perfume.
I ran faster when I heard sounds ahead,
almost like a mad scrabbling. Had Vlad’s
people entered the passageway from the
other side and caught her? The narrow
tunnel forked ahead so I couldn’t see. Just
in case Cynthiana was waiting with a gun
aimed for my head, I hunched so I’d be a
few feet shorter than expected, and then
peered around the corner.
What looked like hundreds of glowing
eyes stared back at me. That scrabbling
noise increased. So did harsh chirping
sounds as a mass of gray fur and fangs
charged right at me.
“You bitch!” I yelled down the
passageway.
Cynthiana wasn’t done with her tricks.
Now it seemed she’d bewitched every rat
in these tunnels to attack me.
Despite my revulsion, I began to run
toward them. Vampires can’t get rabies , I
mentally chanted as dozens of the rodents
flung themselves onto me as though I were
covered in meat. I crushed several of them
as I plowed onward, but just as many held
on with razorlike teeth and claws. Pain
exploded in almost every part of me
except what was covered by the Kevlar
vest. Some fell off as they chewed through
the rubber wetsuit and bit into my currentfilled
skin, but more of them took their
place.
I wanted to dance around madly while
shaking them off, yet I continued on while
only clearing the disgusting rodents I
could reach as I ran. If Cynthiana thought
she’d empty a clip of liquid silver bullets
into me while I was distracted by the
results of her latest filthy little spell, she’d
thought wrong.
My refusal to look away from what lay
ahead is why I saw them. Large forms
hugging the wall of the next corner,
covered in so much grime they almost
blended into the dank concrete. I caught a
whiff of that strange earthy scent even
over the stench from the rats and the smell
of my own blood, and when I stopped
running, they must have guessed that I
spotted them because they came out of
their hiding place. All dozen of them.
They looked human, but their eyes
gleamed with an inner light no normal
person had. It wasn’t vampire green and
they didn’t have fangs, yet they moved
with a quickness that only came from
supernatural ability. When their mouths
opened obscenely wide as they charged at
me, I knew what they were.
Ghouls, I realized with a sinking
feeling. And ghouls ate people, including
vampires.
Chapter 45
With rats still chewing on me, I tore off
my right glove. A thin line of white pulsed
from my hand, growing until it reached the
ground. The ghouls looked at it without the
slightest bit of fear, which wasn’t
necessarily a good thing. If they were
tunnel dwellers attacking me because I
looked tasty, they’d cease once I proved
not to be easy prey. If Cynthiana had
managed to spell them into doing this, then
like the rats, they’d continue to come at me
until all of them were dead.
Or I was.
I didn’t have time to ask what their
motivation was. Three of them covered
the distance between us with cheetah-like
speed. I cracked the whip and spun in a
circle, sending more currents into it as I
felt it meet the resistance of bodies.
Multiple thumps sounded and the surge of
voltage through my body made the rats
briefly abandon ship. Then they leapt back
onto me just in time for me to see that I’d
decapitated two out of the three ghouls.
The third lay on the ground, trying to pull
his lower body back onto the gaping stump
that remained of his upper one.
With a roar, the rest of the pack
charged. I spun the whip around me as if it
were a large, deadly lasso, the current
slicing through anything that dared come
into contact with it. Two more ghouls fell
lifeless to the ground, joining a growing
pile of rats as the voltage in me surged to
levels I’d never manifested before. I
snapped the whip at another ghoul who got
close and he fell in two pieces. The pack
circled me more warily now, but from the
empty look in their eyes, they weren’t in
control of their will. They would keep
trying to kill me no matter the
consequences. If I wasn’t in a life-anddeath
fight, I would’ve marveled at the
extent of Cynthiana’s powers. “Dabbled”
in magic, my ass!
Another two ghouls dropped in pieces
when their lunges were met by the crack
of white across their necks. Only four
more to go, and thanks to my new vampire
strength, my arm wasn’t even feeling tired.
More rats began to fall off me as the
rubber suit became torn in so many places,
electricity leaked out like water through a
colander. The rodents’ bodies crunched
under my feet as I took the offensive,
charging at the ghouls instead of falling
back, my whip ruthlessly slashing through
them and the rats that still came at me from
every direction.
Now only one ghoul remained on his
feet. When I got him in range, I snapped
my whip in victory, but it fizzled where it
struck. Instead of cutting through the ghoul,
it seemed to bounce off him. He looked
down as if confirming that he was still in
one piece and then his lips pulled back
impossibly far, revealing a smile like the
open maw of a snake.
Oh shit. I shook my right hand as if to
force more juice into it, but the strand
dangling from it only flickered the way
flashlights did when they were running out
of battery. Then I whirled, ready to run for
it, but at the opposite end of the tunnel,
new snarls echoed, followed by another
wave of musty, earthy air.
My path to escape was blocked.
The ghoul I’d failed to kill started
toward me. Panicked and out of all other
options, I began throwing rats at him. They
bounced off his hulking frame, as
ineffectual at stopping him as they had
been at stopping me. As if to punctuate
this, he caught one, biting its head off and
spitting it at me. Behind him, two of the
fallen ghouls stirred, one hopping toward
me on one leg, the other crawling through
a carpet of rat bodies because everything
below his waist was gone.
One ghoul I’d have a chance against.
Not several of them. Fear made me
immune to the spikes of pain as the rats
that hadn’t been electrocuted continued to
chew their way across my body. Soon it
would be more than rodents feasting on
me. Despite never being more powerful, I
was still helpless to stop my own death.
Then I squared my shoulders, kicking
the rats from my feet. I’d make them earn
their meal. Before they ate me, they’d
have to catch me.
Right as I began to take that first step,
the tunnel lit up with an orange glow that
was both ominous and the most welcome
sight I’d ever seen.
Then Vlad’s voice thundered out.
“Leila, get down!”
I dropped to the ground, putting me nose
to nose with countless living and dead
rats. In the next moment, an inferno roared
down the tunnel, blanketing everything that
was more than three feet off the ground.
As fire rushed over me in searing waves, I
covered my head with my arms and
pushed my face deeper into the disgusting
mass of bodies. Better to be closer to them
than the fire shooting out with the force of
a hundred geysers.
Seconds later, hands closed over my
arms. I tried to jerk away, thinking the
crawling ghoul had reached me, but then I
realized the hands were hot as a stove.
When they pulled my arms away from my
head, I didn’t resist, and when a booted
foot kicked at the swarm of rats around
me, I didn’t hesitate to sit up despite the
continued roar of flames.
Vlad bent over me. Except for a twofoot
perimeter surrounding us, fire filled
the tunnel from ceiling to floor, burning so
fiercely I couldn’t hear anything over the
crackle of flames. Then he lifted me into
his arms and began to walk through that
blistering wall of orange and red.
It parted before him like drapes held
back by invisible hands. As he walked, I
swiped at the rats still chewing on me,
knocking them off into the flames. By the
time he reached the end of the tunnel
where there was a closed door, there
were only a few left that I couldn’t reach.
Vlad opened the door, carrying me into
a far narrower tunnel that could’ve been
an abandoned service hallway. Instead of
being filled with flames, this space was
filled with Vlad’s people. Well, all except
one. Cynthiana had four vampires restraining
her, which might not have been enough
considering her real strength lay in magic.
Yet with one glance, I saw why Vlad
wasn’t worried about her working any
spells on his men. She couldn’t utter a
word. Her mouth was filled with so much
silver that shards of it protruded from her
cheeks.
“Where’d you get that gag?” I asked.
He set me down, knocking away the rats
that clung to my back before crushing them
underfoot.
“I melted silver knives together and
then shoved them into her mouth.”
Some days, I really loved his dark side.
“Why didn’t you wait in the Crangasi
station?” he demanded, grasping my
shoulders now that the last of the rats
were gone.
“She spelled the commuters into
attacking me and one of them ripped my
wire. I couldn’t tell you which way she
went so I followed her.”
“Why?” he asked with even more
emphasis.
I blinked. “Because she was getting
away.”
His grip tightened while a wave of
frustration and another, far stronger
emotion washed over me.
“When I heard the ghouls coming for
you, all I cared about was reaching you in
time. How often must I tell you that you
mean more to me than vengeance? I can
live without defeating my enemies, but I
cannot live without you.”
Before I could respond, he crushed me
to him, his mouth covering mine in a
blistering kiss. I forgot that I was covered
in blood, dirt, and rat hair. Didn’t care
that a roomful of people were watching,
or about anything else. I kissed him back
with all the relief I felt at being alive to do
so. Now that the fight was over, all the
fear I’d held back came rushing forth,
reminding me how close I’d come to
losing everything. Vlad was right.
Enemies would come and go and battles
would be won or lost, but nothing
mattered more than what we had.
Everything else was replaceable.
When he finally drew away, slow tears
were running down my cheeks. “I love
you,” I whispered.
He brushed them away, a sardonic
smile twisting his mouth. “And I love you,
which is why I intend to lock you inside
the house as soon as we’re home.”
I let out a watery chuckle. “You won’t
need to. I’ll gladly stay put.”
Then I fingered my Kevlar vest, the
only thing on me that hadn’t been chewed
or ripped to shreds.
“This was a good idea. I must suck at
being a covert operative. Cynthiana took
one look at me and started shooting.”
The smile he flashed me reminded me
of the fire that was so much a part of him
—alluring yet deadly, consuming and yet
quicksilver.
“It was her determination to kill you
that doomed her. When she bewitched the
tunnel-dwelling ghouls into a mindless
murdering state, she cut off her exit behind
her, leaving her nowhere to run except
straight to me.”
I turned and stared at Cynthiana with a
surge of coldness I hadn’t known I was
capable of. “Time to take her home, and I
hope you have a pole with her name on
it.”
Chapter 46
Afew of Vlad’s men stayed behind to
make sure any ghouls who survived the
fire didn’t make their way to the Metro
stations and try to eat the innocent
commuters. The rest of us returned to his
house via helicopters. As soon as we
landed, I followed him and Cynthiana’s
guard entourage into the dungeon. After
being covered in enough rats to give me
screaming nightmares, I might long for a
shower more intensely than Midas had
coveted gold, but I was seeing this
through.
Vlad ordered Cynthiana chained onto
the large stone monolith. Then he had
Shrapnel brought in from the other side of
the dungeon to be restrained next to her.
He’d done his best to kill me, and yet I
couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity at
the grief in his expression when he saw
her. Cynthiana, on the other hand, didn’t
seem to be at all upset over her lover’s
predicament. In fact, her gaze passed over
him in a manner that could only be
described as annoyed.
“He really was just a pawn to you,
wasn’t he?” I asked in repugnance.
She didn’t answer, of course. Despite
being captured, gagged with silver, and
facing a truly horrible future, Cynthiana
wasn’t cowed. Her gaze flicked over me
in the way women perfected when they
wanted to raze your self-esteem without
saying a word, yet all I did was smile
wide enough to show my new fangs. I
might be covered in filth, blood, and rat
hair, but a centuries-old vampire had
nothing on the belittling looks I’d received
while attending high school with a
zigzagging scar, a limp, and the growing
ability to shock anyone who touched me.
“Did I mention it was nice to see you
again?” I almost purred. “Though you
don’t remember the first time we met, do
you?”
The look Vlad shot me was almost as
surprised as hers. Then he went over to
Cynthiana, ripping the silver from her
mouth.
“If you utter one word of magic, I’ll fill
you with enough silver to drive you mad
before dawn.”
Cynthiana stared at Vlad for a long,
silent moment before she looked my way
dismissively.
“I don’t know what you’re talking
about, dearie. I’ve never seen you before
tonight.”
“I don’t blame you for forgetting. You
were busy staring at a young girl named
Dawn who was performing under my
stage name. You thought she was me, and
that’s why you detonated the bomb right
after she went into our trailer.”
Now her gaze raked over me with
calculated intensity. “You used your hair
and a hat to cover your scar,” she said at
last.
“Habit. Now, let’s see what your worst
sin is.”
With luck, it would lead us to whoever
else she was working with. I came toward
her and she recoiled as much as her
restraints allowed.
“Don’t touch me.”
I didn’t reply, but grabbed her arm with
my right hand. Only a faint current of
electricity slid into her. I’d used most of it
up on the ghouls she’d sent to kill me.
Then the dungeon disappeared,
morphing into a room that didn’t look
much different because it consisted
entirely of stone walls. It seemed familiar,
yet what I experienced next made me
forget about that. By the time those
surroundings faded and I was mentally
back at the stone monolith, I snatched my
hand away.
“You sick bitch,” I breathed.
“What?” Vlad asked instantly.
I stared at Cynthiana with loathing.
“She needed a fireproofing spell, but she
wasn’t strong enough to do it without
crossing into the darkest kind of magic. So
she did.”
And that magic had required the highest
price: lifeblood of a newborn. I’d seen
many terrible things through my abilities,
but I’d never seen something as brutal as
that.
“A fireproofing spell?” Vlad repeated.
“Did you think that was the only defense
you needed against me?”
She said nothing to that.
Then Vlad sighed. “I know you,
Cynthiana. You would never cross me
without a protector, so tell me who he is.
Refuse, and I’ll find out after you’ve
experienced more agony than you can
imagine.”
She glanced away. “I have no
protector.”
He laughed in that scary, humorless
way.
“Yes you do, although you betrayed him
because he wanted Leila alive.”
Why would Vlad think that? Every
message Cynthiana sent Shrapnel after the
bombing had been demands for him to kill
me. Then I remembered what Hannibal said
after he’d kidnapped me. You’re worth
three times as much alive. Dead was the
only way Cynthiana wanted me, so Vlad
was right. Someone else had been pulling
her strings at least part of the time.
She glanced at me. The pure loathing in
her gaze I expected; the fear, I didn’t.
After Vlad’s threat, why would she be
afraid of me? I’d already done all I could,
though finding out her worst sin had
revealed only revolting information, not
useful—
“Vlad, wait,” I said, something about
that stone room nagging at my memory.
“Shrapnel told you everything he knew
about my abilities,” I said slowly, the idea
still forming in my mind, “but you know
more, don’t you? Like, for instance, my
ability to feel other people’s essences in
someone else’s skin.”
Her gaze widened while her scent
changed to a putridly sweet aroma. I knew
what that was. I’d smelled it all over this
dungeon. It was the scent of fear.
Vlad caught it, too. His expression
changed, chiseled features switching from
chilling friendliness to sculpted granite.
“Who is he?”
Three soft words that managed to be
filled with all the menace of a thousand
shouted threats.
I stared at Cynthiana, measuring the
spikes of hatred and fear in her gaze as I
approached.
“Do you know what I overheard the
first time I linked to you? You told
Shrapnel, Whatever she might have been
worth to him alive, she’s less dangerous
to us dead.”
I let out a short laugh. “At the time,
Shrapnel thought the ‘him’ was Vlad, but
you really meant your new protector,
didn’t you? He was interested in me and
you already had the inside track.”
Then I glanced at Shrapnel. “Cynthiana
came back into your life right around the
time I came into Vlad’s, didn’t she?”
Pain creased his features, but Shrapnel
said nothing. Maybe he was still trying to
protect her. More likely, he was under the
effects of a spell. Maybe he hadn’t
betrayed Vlad or tried to kill me of his
own free will.
A searing hand slid along my arm as
Vlad drew near, yet he didn’t look at me.
His gaze was fixed on Cynthiana.
“Your protector must be powerful or
you wouldn’t bother with him. He’s also
an enemy of mine or he wouldn’t dare risk
my wrath by using one of my ex-lovers to
kidnap another. That leaves a small list.
Smaller still if he was interested in Leila
before Shrapnel told you about her
abilities.”
A very small list, indeed. In fact, I
could only think of one name, and though it
didn’t seem possible, it fit with the facts,
right down to Hannibal’s capture-or-kill
order. That hadn’t been the first time a
vampire had been given those instructions
regarding me, and while Cynthiana’s
preference had been dead over alive, her
protector disagreed.
Funny thing was, everyone except
Maximus and Vlad thought my psychic
abilities were gone when Hannibal
kidnapped me. Cynthiana’s protector was
either gambling that they’d come back . . .
or he knew another reason why I’d be a
valuable hostage.
Only one other vampire had guessed
how Vlad really felt about me even before
he’d admitted it to himself. The same
vampire had attempted to use my abilities
against Vlad before I even met him. It had
been the reason we were first thrown
together, but Mihaly Szilagyi had died in
an inferno months ago.
Hadn’t he?
I took another step closer. Cynthiana
thrashed in her restraints, eyes flashing
emerald and fanged mouth snapping while
Date: 2015-12-11; view: 309
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