Twice Tempted (26 page)

Chapter 37

W
hen Vlad let me go, I fell back against the mattress, not panting only because I didn’t need to breathe. I’d never smoked before, but if this cell had a cigarette, I would’ve lit up in salutary commemoration.

Then my stomach clenched. My satiation vanished, replaced by hunger so intense that I began to shake.

Vlad jerked me up, pushing me against the wall with one hand while the other punched numbers on a keypad I hadn’t noticed before. A drawer slid out of the stone surface, and one glance at what it contained made my mind go blank with need.

The next few minutes were a whirling carousel of pain and relief. When my sanity returned, I was still against the wall, sucking at the remains of a plastic bag while Vlad watched.

He held out his hand and I forced myself to relinquish the bag even though it had some luscious crimson streaks remaining. Still, I would
not
act like an animal a moment longer than necessary. He took it and the other cellophane remains at my feet, depositing them in the same slot the bags had come from.

“How did you know?” I managed to ask calmly.

A shrug. “It’s the same with all new vampires. Sex, anger, and violence will trigger your hunger. Until you can control it, you need to learn to anticipate it.”

I glanced down. Blood splashed my front from how madly I’d torn at the plasma bags, making me look like an actress from a pornographic horror movie. I had several more days of mindless feeding frenzies ahead, but some things couldn’t wait for me to master my new hunger.

I went over to the bed and wrapped the sheet around me. What I had to say was too serious to talk about while naked.

“So you figured out Shrapnel was the traitor,” I began.

A snort cut me off. “I didn’t think you cut him into pieces because he
accidentally
drove you off a cliff.”

I held his gaze. “He was the only traitor in your house, but he wasn’t the only accomplice.”

Vlad’s gaze turned bright green. “Explain.”

“Sandra was passing messages—”

I didn’t get to say anything else before Vlad whirled, pressing a part of the wall that looked no different from the rest, yet a door suddenly appeared.

“Waters,” he barked into the open space. “Secure Sandra immediately.”

Don’t
, I mentally yelled.
It’s not her fault!

He didn’t reply. Right, he couldn’t hear my thoughts anymore. I’d put that and spectacular sex in the plus column of being a vampire.

“She didn’t know,” I said out loud. “Shrapnel mesmerized her into doing it. I saw it when I touched her.”

He turned, his expression no less foreboding, but he did add, “Secure her
gently
, Waters,” before closing it by pressing another indistinguishable panel.

“What else did you see?”

I couldn’t tell if his displeasure curling into my emotions was due to Shrapnel’s actions or mine.

“First promise me you’re not going hurt Sandra.”

He folded his arms across his chest. With his muscular build and the blood spattered on him from my rabid feedings, he couldn’t have looked more menacing, but I refused to back down.

“Promise me,” I repeated.

“I do have other ways to find out,” he said silkily.

I let out a grim snort. “Why do you think I went behind your back? I’m well aware of your ‘ways’ for getting information. That’s why I wasn’t going to subject my friend to them if she’d done nothing wrong.”

His mouth tightened while echoes of his anger slashed my emotions, yet that wasn’t all. As poignant as a bittersweet memory, regret floated into my subconscious. Losing my mortality was my fault, but I realized Vlad blamed himself, too.

Then he pressed the wall and that hidden door appeared again.

“Well, go on,” he said with a sweep of his hand.

I looked at the open entry suspiciously. “Aren’t I supposed to be in lockdown because I’m a bloodthirsty menace right now?”

“Yes, but you’re coming with me to see for yourself that Sandra won’t be harmed, as long as she didn’t knowingly betray me. Unless, of course”—a sharklike grin—“you end up ripping her throat out yourself.”

I
hadn’t expected to return to the dungeon so soon, yet after showering, getting dressed, going into another feeding frenzy, showering and redressing again, here I was. When we entered the first chamber of the dungeon, the stench made me recoil. It smelled like someone had mixed together kerosene, rotten fruit, stale blood, urine, and dog shit, then blown it up. How had I not noticed this before? I wasn’t even breathing, but the rancid odor found its way into my nose anyway.

“This place
stinks
.”

“Did the guards forget to spray Febreze?” Vlad asked in mock indignation. Then he gave me a jaded look. “It’s a dungeon, Leila. They’re supposed to smell.”

Mission accomplished. The stench might have actually killed my new appetite. If Hell could fart, it would smell like this.

“Leila!”

I turned toward Sandra’s voice. She wasn’t restrained to the large stone monolith, to my relief. Instead, she was huddled on the floor, her expression so stricken it was clear she thought she’d never leave this place. As soon as she saw me, she lunged toward me.

“Please, tell them there has been a mistake!”

One of the guards appeared out of nowhere, catching her before she reached me. Good thing, too. She’d also showered and changed clothes since the accident, but I could smell dried blood from her scratches, scabs, and the stitched wound in her head even above the horrid stink. Fangs pressed against my gums.

You just ate
, I reminded myself,
and Sandra is NOT dessert.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “Vlad just needs to peel back your memories on a few things.”

We were doing that here because he wanted Shrapnel to witness the exposure of his betrayal and there was only one place
he
was staying. Despite the challenge to my control, I wasn’t leaving until Vlad was finished probing Sandra’s mind. I was the only ally she had, and the dungeon was terrifying enough without having a friend at your side. Vlad might taunt me about ripping out Sandra’s throat, but he’d never let me do it.

Besides, I also wanted to hear more about the brunette vampire Shrapnel had been getting it on with. Like why she’d been so determined to kill me, for starters.

Of course, being down here meant coming face-to-face with Vlad’s dark side, and he wasted no time in letting it out.

“Take him down,” he said, pointing at Shrapnel.

Three vampires again appeared like ninjas, but as they removed the many manacles binding Shrapnel to the stone wall, their movements no longer appeared blurringly fast. Before the last silver chain fell, Vlad picked up a lengthy wooden pole and rammed it the long way through Shrapnel’s midsection.

Sandra gasped. I tried not to notice how her heart rate sped up as if trying to catch my attention. Surreptitiously, I squeezed the plasma bag I’d tucked into my jacket. If I felt a hunger stab, I’d rip into that instead, giving the guards more time to protect Sandra. How was that for anticipating?

Vlad carried Shrapnel over to one of the holes in the stone, dropping the end of the pole in as casually as putting a flower in a vase. Through it all, Shrapnel let out several harsh grunts, but that was it. His fortitude was impressive, but the stronger he was, the more he’d endure while Vlad sought to discover who he’d betrayed him to and why. Shrapnel had tried to kill me twice, yet I still couldn’t help but pity him.

A sniffle directed my attention back to Sandra. Her head hung low, long reddish-gold hair shielding her expression.

“I did something awful, didn’t I?” she whispered. “I don’t remember it, but when you touched me in the car, I
felt
it.”

I wanted to pat her consolingly but her pulse was already starting to sound like a dinner bell, so I didn’t trust myself to get any closer.

“Vlad’s not angry at you,” I said in my most reassuring voice. “In fact, you’re going to help us find the other person who forced you to betray him, and then we’re going to stop her.”

Vlad’s brow arched.

“Her?”

“Her,” I repeated, glancing up at Shrapnel. “And apparently, she’s a spell caster.”

Chapter 38

S
hrapnel stared at me and his obsidian gaze became sprinkled with green.

“You lied to me. You
don’t
know who she is.”

He sounded more surprised than angry, not that he’d have any reason to point fingers on the subject of dishonesty.

“We don’t know yet, but we’re about to,” I replied coolly.

With Shrapnel now getting a bird’s-eye view, Vlad strode over to Sandra.

“If you were aware of none of your actions because they altered your memory, I will hold you blameless.”

Conditional words of comfort, but they worked. Sandra knelt on one knee and bowed her head.

“You took me from the streets after my parents abandoned me. Gave me a home, an education, and the promise of a better future. I would never knowingly betray you.”

Vlad’s mouth curled sardonically as he cast a look up at Shrapnel. “Then you would be more faithful than two of my closest friends turned out to be.”

At those words, a stinging mixture of anger and pain threaded into my emotions. I winced, reminded that Shrapnel’s actions were more than a vampire going against his sire. A knife in the back hurt so much worse when it came from a friend.

Sandra rose and brushed her hair aside. “
Lasă-mă să-ți dovedesc, prinţul meu!
”

Vlad grasped her neck and lowered his mouth. As he bit her, something rose in me I didn’t expect. Not hunger, though the fresh scent of blood made my own fangs spring out. Not concern for Sandra losing more blood since she was already in rough shape. Instead, I had an overwhelming urge to rip her out of Vlad’s arms and then lash her with a sizzling electrical whip until nothing remained but ragged pieces.

I was jealous. How
absurd
. He was a vampire, she was a human who’d had her mind altered, and the best way to get around that was to take her blood before mesmerizing her. I knew that, but it didn’t stop the surge of emotions that made sparks fall from my hand.

His mouth on her. Her head falling back in a way that didn’t denote pain. The line of his throat as he swallowed . . .

A bolt torpedoed into the rock floor beneath my hand. Turning into a vampire hadn’t dulled my inner electricity a bit. At once, I covered the crack with my foot, as if that would stop anyone from noticing.

Vlad lifted his head, his gaze going unerringly to the spot before he looked at me. I expected an eye roll for my display of irrational jealousy, but instead, he looked thoughtful.

Then he released Sandra, dabbing the puncture wounds in her neck with his thumb after he pierced it with a fang. I tried to rein in my emotions—and the currents that kept my hand sparking—while mentally singing Sting’s “Every Breath You Take.”
Life-and-death stakes going on, Leila. Get your priorities straight.

“He came into her room to mesmerize her,” I said, in case that detail helped.

Vlad’s eyes turned green as he stared at Sandra like she was the only person in the room.

“Shrapnel came into your room,” he repeated, his voice resonant. “He wanted you to pass along a message. What was it?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“Yes you do.”

The air crackled, causing the hairs on my arms to stand on end. An invisible wave seemed to roll off Vlad, filling the room with enough energy to make my skin crawl. What was he
doing
?

“You can see him in your room,” Vlad continued in that same vibrating tone. “Hear his voice even now. What is he saying?”

“He says”—her face tightened as if straining to hear a far-off whisper—“tell her that her powers are back. She almost died using them, but Vlad revived her and now he won’t leave her side. I will attempt tainting her food if she wakes up.”

I swung an accusing look Shrapnel’s way. While I was in a coma, he was planning to poison me?

Rage brushed my emotions but Vlad said nothing and he didn’t glance away from Sandra.

“That wasn’t his only message. What else?”

In the monotone I’d come to associate with people under a vampire’s influence, Sandra recounted Shrapnel telling his accomplice all the details of my abilities, my location at the carnival, and my location at the hotel with Maximus. He even stated that Maximus would need to be neutralized by extreme measures. The liquid silver bullets flashed across my mind. It didn’t get much more extreme than that.

When Vlad ordered Sandra to repeat the woman’s messages, they started off as benign inquiries about me that seemed more curious than threatening. That changed after the carnival bombing. Once her real intentions were exposed, it wasn’t a surprise that subsequent messages consisted of variations of
Kill Leila. Kill her now.
While my anger grew, most of this we already knew, and I didn’t need to feel Vlad’s emotions to know he was frustrated by that, too.

“Where do you meet her to relay these messages?” he asked.

Sandra frowned. “I’ve never met her, but every two days, I go into town to the bookstore. I write the messages down and put them in
The Odyssey
by Homer. If
The Odyssey
has a new message waiting from her, I memorize it, throw it away, and then repeat it to Shrapnel, but
only
if he asks me to. Otherwise, I never mention it. I don’t even remember the messages.”

Sandra said the last part like she was repeating a set of instructions. No doubt she was, and they’d been given to her under the same mind-controlling circumstances she was in now.

“Get to the bookstore,” Vlad said without looking away from Sandra. One of his guards bowed smartly and then left.

“You’ve never met her, but did he tell you her name?”

More of that hair-raising energy rolled out of Vlad, until I was rubbing my arms to chase the tingling sensations away. Was this what Marty meant when he told me vampires could measure each others’ strength by feeling their auras? If so, then Vlad’s had
Badass: Do Not Engage
written all over it.