Once Burned: A Night Prince Novel (4 page)

Chapter 6

“L
eila, don’t!” a harsh voice shouted.

Too late, not that I would’ve obeyed anyway. My jump was high enough to clear the three-foot ledge, and I tucked into a ball immediately, rolling as soon as I hit the ground. My arms protected my head for another few bruising, scrape-inducing tumbles until something hard stopped my momentum. Air burst from my lungs at the impact, pain radiating through my body.

I wanted to stay hunched in a protective ball, but there was no time. I rose, assessing my options. I’d slammed into the front of a car with my wild dive, but beyond that was the welcoming darkness of the parking lot. I shook my head to clear the ringing that probably indicated a mild concussion and sprinted toward it as fast as my aching muscles could take me.

“Stop her!” a voice commanded behind me.

I glanced back while adding some extra oomph to my stride. Smoke and flames still poured from the ruined window, but no one chased me. With luck, they’d be occupied long enough for the fire department to distract them from coming after me.
Bye bye, biters!
I thought, smiling despite pain radiating through me. Too bad I hadn’t been wearing my running shoes when I was kidnapped.

Out of nowhere, something snatched me from behind with what felt like bands of steel around my midsection. I doubled over, almost vomiting from the abrupt resistance that made me instantly come to a stop. For a dazed second, I didn’t know what happened, but then I saw dark arms looped around my waist and felt something large and solid behind me.

“I’ve got her,” a male voice called out. Then a cool mouth pressed to my ear. “Don’t bother with the stun gun again. It won’t be enough against me.”

Wait until my new assailant realized my entire body was a stun gun. He must be another vampire or he’d be on the ground from touching me after the extra voltage I’d absorbed from the light socket—and that was just what my body gave off. My right hand was now a formidable weapon, but I needed more leverage to use it to its best advantage.

“All right,” I said, trying to sound meek. “You’re hurting me,” I added to see if that made him loosen his grip.

It did. So my captor wasn’t cruel like Jackal or the others. Without that unyielding grip cementing me in place, I was able to step away enough to glance behind me.

The vampire who’d grabbed me was the brawny African American I’d spied Vlad talking to earlier today. Guess the fire starter had arrived with backup, but holding me hostage hadn’t been part of our deal. The man looked me up and down, grimacing when his gaze followed the scar that zigzagged from my temple all the way to my right hand.

I was so used to that pitying reaction; it didn’t even elicit a twinge of self-consciousness. Right now, I was grateful for every sympathy-inducing advantage I had.

“I think I sprained my ankle,” I said, holding one foot off the ground for effect. Hey, I was getting better at this lying thing! “Could you look at it?” The vampire let me go, starting to kneel just as I’d hoped. His attention was on my ankle as I extended it, leaning forward like I was having trouble balancing. One touch of my right hand on his head should incapacitate him long enough for me to run away. I reached out—

“Touch him, and I revoke my promise not to harm you.”

Vlad’s voice cut through the night air, freezing my hand an inch away from its goal. The other vampire stood at once, back on full alert.
Shit!
I silently screamed. How had Vlad known what I was going to do?

“The same way I knew you were spying on me before,” he replied with sardonic amusement. “You have your unusual abilities. I have mine, and mind reading is one of them.”

Mind reading
. No wonder he’d been able to hear me when I established a link with him! Slowly, I turned toward his voice. Flames still shot from the hotel window, illuminating Vlad in an orange glow. He strode toward us while dragging someone who was so covered in soot and scabs, I couldn’t tell which of my former captors he was.

“Where are the others?” I asked, striving to sound calm.

His features were still hazy from smoke and shadows, but I caught a glimpse of white teeth as he smiled.

“Ashes.”

His captive tried to pull away, but Vlad’s grip tightened until his fingers disappeared into the blackened flesh beneath them. I looked away, my stomach twisting. Sirens cut through the mutterings of people who came out of their hotel rooms to gawk at the blaze. Vlad was unperturbed, as if torching a hotel room and then restraining a charred vampire was what he normally did on a Thursday night.

“You have what you wanted,” I said, still managing to sound composed. “Now hold up your end of our agreement and let me go.”

That emerald gaze seemed to pierce me to the quick. “I agreed not to harm you and I haven’t. As for letting you go, I will . . . after we have a more detailed conversation.”

Despair crashed over me. Vlad’s idea of a detailed conversation probably meant torture followed by execution. I should have known someone who’d callously burned several people to death wouldn’t honor his word to let me go. But then, unbelievably, I heard Marty’s voice over the blare of sirens.

“Run, Frankie, run!”

Vlad swiveled toward the sound just in time to see Marty barreling toward him as though he’d been fired from a cannon. I’d wondered why he hadn’t done anything when I was kidnapped, but he must have followed me and stayed hidden until he thought he had the best chance to rescue me. Problem was, this wasn’t it.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion instead of fast-forward this time. Vlad’s companion pulled out a silver knife and shoved me to the ground. Vlad made no attempt to avoid Marty’s assault, but kept his grip on the charred vampire and widened his stance as if daring Marty to take him down. It was dark, but I thought I saw Marty’s determined expression the instant before his body crashed into Vlad’s. As if trapped in a nightmare, I watched Vlad absorb the blow while remaining on his feet, his deadly free hand erupting in flames as he reached for my friend.

“No!” I screamed.

Instead of running like Marty commanded, I flung myself at Vlad. My right hand landed on his leg, desperation making those hated inner currents rocket from me and into him with far more power than normal.

With my panic and the voltage I’d channeled from the light socket, Vlad should have been blown clear across the parking lot. Instead, he remained where he was, the only effect a shudder wracking him and the smell of ozone briefly overcoming the scent of smoke. That flaming hand snatched Marty up before I registered that he’d moved, and then Vlad’s dark head swung in my direction, bright emerald eyes meeting my shocked gaze.

“That,” he bit out, “was rude.”

The sight of him restraining two struggling vampires was the last thing I saw before my vision went gray. The parking lot and burning hotel vanished, replaced by towering trees and a twisting, ice-filled river.

I knelt by its rocky bank, my clothes soaked, but I paid no attention to the cold. I couldn’t feel anything beyond the pain that roared like an inferno through my veins, building until I threw my head back and howled at the overwhelming anguish.

The woman in my arms didn’t react. No breath stirred her lips, and her eyes continued to stare sightlessly ahead. I clutched her closer, more agony ripping through me as if it were my body that had been broken beyond repair instead of hers. For all my new power, I had never been more helpless. Death had stolen her away, and she would eternally remain beyond my reach.

That knowledge made a new howl erupt from my throat, despair mixing with the grief that threatened to rend me apart. This was my doing. The river might have washed away all traces of her blood, but I would forever carry its stain on my hands.

“Hold them,” a curt voice directed.

The woman, river, and forest vanished, replaced by billowing smoke and the Red Roof Inn parking lot. Marty was still alive, to my vast relief, though he looked like he’d gotten a good scorching. Vlad handed him and the other, far more charred vampire over to his friend. I was on the ground, kneeling, tears streaming down my cheeks from reliving Vlad’s darkest memory. To be honest, I’d expected a far more gruesome image after touching the fire starter, but what scarred his soul appeared to be loss, not murder.

Once Marty and the other vampire were secured, Vlad knelt next to me. His hands were no longer engulfed with flames, but that might be because the fire truck had pulled up and that would draw too much attention. The wailing siren seemed to pierce my skull with its screech, but though vampires had better hearing, Vlad didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Stop crying,” he said shortly. “I’m not going to kill you, if that’s what you’re so hysterical about.”

He thought I’d fallen sobbing to my knees because I was afraid to die? The lingering echoes from his anguish made my ironic snort come out more like a sniffle.

“Those tears were yours, not mine. Whoever she was, you were
really
broken up over her death.”

His brows drew together. He was close enough for me to notice that despite igniting several things—and people—he didn’t have so much as a charred speck on him.

“What nonsense is this?”

“Don’t tell him anything, Frankie,” Marty hissed.

I looked up at my friend, but Vlad’s cold voice snapped my attention back to him.

“Take them away, Shrapnel. I’ll catch up with you later.”

I stopped myself before touching Vlad in instinctive appeal. Electrocuting him again wouldn’t help my cause.

“Don’t kill him, he was only trying to protect me. That’s Marty, and he didn’t know that I, ah, called you. He probably thought you were with the crew that kidnapped me.”

Poor Marty. He’d followed Jackal and the others, biding his time until he thought the odds were better. How could he have known that Vlad was tougher than four other vampires combined? Of course, if Vlad had already made up his mind to kill Marty, my plea not to harm him would fall on deaf ears. He was capable of murder, but the memory I’d pulled after touching him made me hope there was more to Vlad than his tendency to torch people.

His features hardened. “What memory?”

Right, he had mind reading abilities. That made Marty’s urging not to tell Vlad what I’d seen pretty much moot.

“You and the dead woman by the river,” I replied. “I told you I pull images from people or things I touch. I saw her when I touched you, and I was crying because I felt everything you felt that day.”

He stared at me with such unblinking intensity that it hurt to hold his bright gaze. I didn’t look away, though. He might be able to read my mind, but I’d ripped open the wound he held closest to his soul. The least I could do was not take the coward’s way out by staring at the ground.

“Keep them both alive, Shrapnel,” Vlad said at last. “I’ll rejoin you later.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other vampire nod. Then he just . . . vanished. Either teleporting was another vampire ability Marty had neglected to mention, or Shrapnel moved faster than greased lightning.

Vlad stood, his eyes changing from glowing emerald back to burnished copper.

“You’re coming with me,” he stated, holding out his hand.

I looked at it but didn’t move to take it. “So you
are
reneging on our deal.”

“I don’t like being called a liar, which is something you’d do well to remember,” he replied in a tone that made shivers of trepidation run through me. Then a small smile touched his mouth. “We need to talk, and there are too many people here for that. You know I can overpower you despite your unusual talent, so the smart move would be to take my hand.”

Yeah, I was aware that he could overpower me. I’d given him the biggest dose of voltage I’d ever harnessed and it hadn’t so much as made him lose his balance. Right now, it wasn’t just the smart move to take his hand. It was my only move.

I reached for him with my left hand. He ignored that, mouth twisting as he clasped my right one instead. A current slid into him, but he didn’t pull away.

“Sorry,” I muttered.

He let out a short grunt. “I can handle the effects from your touch if you can.”

I was about to tell him that I only pulled impressions of sins from people through a
first
touch, but the feel of him when he drew me close distracted me. It wasn’t just his hands that were unusually warm. His entire body gave off heat, searing through my flimsy leotard as he enveloped me in his arms. Normally vampires were room temperature, but Vlad felt like a furnace. Before I could ask what was up with that, or why the impromptu hug, he vaulted us into the air, the wind snatching away my yelp of surprise.

Chapter 7

A
fter a pulse-pounding half hour of flying, Vlad set us down in a large patch of dry vegetation. Once my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw the small plane ahead in the clearing. So he had more than one way to fly, but that didn’t mean I was game.

“You can’t expect me to go anywhere in that,” I stated.

His brow arched. “You’d rather stay and be a feast for mosquitoes? I can think of better uses for your blood.”

If he meant to intimidate me with that comment, he’d succeeded, but it didn’t change anything. “I didn’t get a chance to grab my rubber glove when I was kidnapped, so you put me in that and my hand will fry every circuit it touches—”

“Then we won’t let it touch any circuits,” he interrupted, clasping it firmly as he led me forward.

I tugged away, but that had no effect on slowing his stride. “Even if I agreed to get on that plane, which I haven’t, you can’t hold my hand the whole time we’re in the air. You should’ve figured out that I don’t just zap someone once. The longer you touch me, the more voltage you’ll absorb, and eventually, it’ll cook you from the inside out.”

And then I’ll cause the plane to crash and get killed, too
, I mentally added, which was what concerned me the most. Even Marty had to limit his contact with me to no more than an hour when we trained, or risk his entire body breaking out in what looked like radiation blisters.

The grin Vlad flashed me was amused and a touch feral—a combination I wasn’t sure I liked. “And
you
should have figured out that I’m fireproof. You can’t harm me, Leila, no matter how much voltage you channel into me.”

That stopped me in my tracks. Yes, I’d seen him wield fire without the slightest burn to show for it. Even his clothes seemed immune to the flames, but I was so used to my touch being dangerous that my mind immediately rejected Vlad’s statement that I couldn’t harm him.

He didn’t attempt to pull me forward this time, but waited as I digested this information. It seemed inconceivable, but I supposed if there was someone in this world I wasn’t able to harm, it would be a vampire who could call forth fire from his flesh. The danger from electrocution was stopping someone’s heart—not an issue for any vampire—and the inevitable, ever-increasing burns. If burns didn’t affect Vlad due to his pyrokinesis, he really was immune to me.

No wonder I hadn’t taken him down when I’d shot him full of voltage earlier. All that must have done was annoy him.

I looked at the plane with a sense of exhilaration this time. I’d never thought to fly in one again. Sure, I could keep protesting, but why? Vlad didn’t need to go elsewhere to torture or kill me; this deserted area would make a great spot, if that’s what he intended. The most logical assumption was he did want to talk, and if he wanted to do that while on a plane . . . well. Hopefully he wouldn’t talk the whole time. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend it was before the accident, when there was nothing special about me except my aptitude for gymnastics . . .

“Okay,” I said, trying to suppress my grin.

His snort told me I hadn’t been successful. “Then come.”

He jumped into the plane, pulling me along as if I was weightless. Once inside, I admired the plush cream interior with its sleek tables and leather reclining chairs. I’d only flown coach before, which was night and day compared to this luxurious aircraft. Vlad said something to the two pilots in a language I didn’t recognize, and then they closed a small curtain, giving us the illusion of privacy.

“Where’s Marty?” I asked, seeing no other passengers.

“Taking a different route,” he replied, shrugging off his coat. “Here.”

The air-conditioning felt like it was on full blast. Since I was no longer in his toasty embrace, I
was
chilly. Had he read that from my mind? A glance down made me stifle a groan. Nope. With nothing more than thin spandex covering my chest, even the blind would notice that my nipples were so hard, they could cut glass. I took his coat with a mutter of thanks, not looking at him as I settled it around me. It felt like an electric blanket from his body heat, cocooning me in warmth. The inner lining had heavier objects in it, but I didn’t explore. Probably silver knives, though Vlad’s most formidable weapon was his hands.

Guess we had that in common.

He sat in one of those the comfy-looking leather chairs and I followed suit, choosing the one to his left since he’d need to keep my right hand in his throughout the flight. The plane immediately started to taxi, no safety instructions or admonitions to buckle up, and I was surprised to feel it lift off moments later. Must not need much of a runway.

Vlad’s hand was still warm, but it didn’t give off the same scalding heat it had before. It felt strange for anyone to touch my right hand, let alone for this long. If he wasn’t a dangerous vampire whose intentions toward me were still suspect, I’d have reveled in a smolderingly attractive man holding my hand. For the past decade, that had only happened in my dreams.

With a flash of discomfiture, I remembered Vlad could hear my musings. A current slid into him, powered by my embarrassment. Instead of pretending that he hadn’t caught my thoughts, his mouth curled into a sly smile.

“That one tickled. If electrocution is your way of flirting, I commend you on your originality.”

“Yeah, well, I remember you weren’t impressed by the word
please
,” I responded tartly, my brief embarrassment gone.

“Were you born with these abilities?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I was electrocuted by a downed power line twelve years ago. It kept me in a coma for months. When I woke up, I had extensive nerve damage and this scar.” My finger swept from my temple to my wrist for emphasis. “The nerve damage eventually healed, but that came with unexpected side effects.”

I couldn’t stop the memories that followed my summary of the accident and its aftermath.
Me going back to school, trying not to notice how the other kids stared at my awkward gait or extended scar.
Then my horror when I glimpsed people’s darkest secrets through my right hand, let alone the realization that I shocked everyone I came into contact with. The whispers I was meant to overhear in the halls and classrooms.
She’s a monster now . . . All scarred and weird, like some sort of Frankenstein monster . . .

“I’ve met monsters. You’re not one of them.”

Vlad had been unrepentantly listening again. I tried to clear my mind, but it’s not like it had an off switch.

“You told me your name was Leila, but your friend and those other vampires called you Frankie,” he continued. “You took the Frankenstein insult and shortened it into a nickname?”

I lifted my chin. “Yes.” I’d needed to change my identity, and after I got over my hurt feelings, I used my classmates’ pettiness for inspiration. If they’d thought their favorite taunt would make me crumble, they’d thought wrong.

“What made you choose the name Vlad?” I asked, unable to resist adding, “It’s not the most
original
vampire name you could have picked, after all.”

Instead of being offended, that little smirk was back. “I’m the only authentic Vlad. Everyone else is merely an envious imitation.”

I snorted, giving him a deliberate once-over. With his long dark hair, striking features, frightening charisma, and seductively muscled body, he looked like he could pass for the infamous Prince of Darkness, but how naive did he think I was?

“You’ve got the obligatory dangerous-yet-sexy thing going on, but I’ll believe you’re the real Dracula when you believe I’m the real Frankenstein.”

“Dracula is a caricature born from a writer’s imaginings,” he snapped, that tiny smile gone. His hand flared hotter, too. “It bears no resemblance to me any more than Mary Shelley’s story is an accounting of you.”

Wow, he took his little fantasy seriously.
And he just heard you say that,
I reminded myself as his look grew pointed.

“What did you want to talk about?” I asked, shaking my head as though it could rattle any incriminating thoughts loose.

“Your survival chances.”

His tone was casual, expression back to that pleasant one I found more frightening than a menacing scowl. I’d seen the faces of countless murderers, but none of them had mastered the look of detached friendliness like Vlad did when he killed.

“Is this the part where you tell me how I’m going to die?” I asked, steeling myself for whatever came next.

He squeezed my hand in a companionable way. “You should have seen that I don’t waste my time with monologues before I kill. In fact, it’s in my best interest to protect you.”

I didn’t reply, just raised my brows at this dubious statement.

“I doubt I’ll get any useful information from your remaining kidnapper no matter how much I torture him,” he went on. “He strikes me as a pawn, so he probably has no idea who sent him after you.”

I continued with my doubtful stare. He rolled his eyes. “I forgot your generation is only familiar with mobile phone games like Angry Birds. In chess, pawns are the lowest level of—”

“I know how to play chess,” I interrupted. “When you can’t touch a cell phone or play electronic games without frying them, you learn to make do with the classics.”

He grinned, revealing those lovely white teeth. I reminded myself that if I mentally recited that famous line from Little Red Riding Hood, he’d hear it.

“Good. If you checked your e-mail every five minutes, or keep texting and Tweeting in the middle of our conversation, I might snap your neck out of sheer principle.”

“You’d feel right at home in some retirement communities with a technophobic attitude like that. You probably love to tell kids to get off your lawn, too.”

Cell phone addiction annoyed me, too, but I’d never fantasized about murdering anyone over it, unless you counted people who talked on their phones during a movie . . .

His smile didn’t slip. “You’re still half expecting me to harm you, yet you don’t hesitate to needle me. Aren’t you afraid to make me angry?”

He could read my mind, so I didn’t bother answering with anything except the truth.

“You’re scarier when you’re nice, and you’ve already decided if you’re going to kill me. No amount of bantering
or
begging on my part will change your mind, so I’ll keep on being myself. You’re not the only one who doesn’t care for pretense.”

This time, his smile widened into a full-fledged, wicked grin that made him almost devilishly handsome. I looked away, not wanting my thoughts to inflate his ego. To distract myself, I concentrated on the scarred hand holding mine. His grip was light, as if I could pull away at any moment, but we both knew better.

“You’re right on all counts,” he said in that smooth, accented voice. “But you’ll be relieved to know that you’re not about to die. I said it was in my best interest to protect you, and I meant that. If I’m right—and I always am—your remaining kidnapper will be a dead end. That leaves you as my best chance to discover who sent those vampires after me.”

“Me?” I repeated, my gaze flying back to his.

“Your ability to divine information through touch as well as locate people in the present
and
future is priceless. Vampires all over the world would kill to use you as an instrument against their enemies. I’m astounded that you’ve remained anonymous as long as you have, considering your friendship with another vampire.”

“Marty would never use me like that,” I flared. It was bad enough to feel like a pariah because of my condition, but being reduced to “instrument” status was worse.

“Perhaps, which is why I’m letting him live,” Vlad replied. “That’s a kindness I don’t usually bestow on anyone who attacks me, but because of his affection for you, he’ll also be invested in finding out who was really behind your kidnapping.”

What if neither one of us wants to help you?
I couldn’t help but wonder. Marty and I had nothing to do with whatever feud Vlad had going on with another vampire.

Those coppery eyes sparked emerald for a second. “If I let you go, how long do you think it would be until that same vampire sent another crew to snatch you up? You need me to find this person far more than I do. I’m hard to ambush.” He gave me a callous rake of his gaze. “You’re not, and since you seem to be an intelligent girl, you already know that.”

His hand didn’t so much as twitch, but I imagined I could feel it tightening over mine until it formed an unbreakable snare. My pride wanted to refute what he’d just said, but my abilities meant I’d relived too many instances of the unwary falling victim to the unmerciful. I might have a chance against one vampire, maybe two thanks to my electrocution capability, but against a horde of them? Even if Marty fought with me, I’d be setting us both up to fail, and damned if I’d be that stupid.

“Wise decision,” he said, still watching me with that unblinking gaze. “You keep thinking like that and you’ll live long enough to dance on your enemies’ graves.”

“I thought vampires didn’t do graveyards,” I said with a sigh. I hadn’t asked for this fight, but Vlad was right. I was in it now regardless.