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
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
“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.”
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.
He chuckled. “We don’t. Graveyards are full of dead people. Vampires want to be where living, drinkable blood is.”
I closed my eyes, weariness hitting me all at once. It had been a long, stress-filled day, and according to Vlad, it was only going to be the first of many.
“Where are we going? You never told me.”
“My home in Romania.”
Wow, this guy wasn’t kidding with his Dracula fixation.
I heard a snort but didn’t bother to open my eyes. Rustling noises sounded like he was getting more comfortable. I did the same. If we were headed to Romania, we were in for a long flight.
Chapter 8
Eleven hours and one stop to refuel later, we landed at a tiny airport that only had one runway and two hangars, one of which our plane taxied into. I glanced down at my bare feet with a mental sigh. Here’s hoping we didn’t have a long walk to a car. The ground was covered in snow. Vlad had loaned me his coat, but I doubted he’d give up his shoes, too.
My frostbite worries were put to rest when I followed him out of the plane and saw a shiny black limousine waiting inside the hangar. Either Vlad had lots of his own money or he had friends in high places. Of course, he might also have had a vampire associate mesmerize a limo driver into picking us up. That mind-manipulation thing had come in handy when a customs officer asked for our passports during our refueling stop.
A blond man with a Viking-like build opened the limo door when Vlad approached, executing a bow. My brows rose, but Vlad nodded as though having people bow to him was an everyday occurrence. I tiptoed after him, again grateful that I didn’t have far to walk. The ground was concrete, but it felt like ice.
The blond man barely glanced at me, which I didn’t mind because most people just stared at my scar first anyway. I ducked inside the limo, careful not to touch anything with my right hand. The driver shut the door, saving all the precious interior warmth from escaping. As soon as I sat down, I shoved my bare feet toward one of the lower heat vents.
“On the way to your house, we need to pick up some things,” I said. “My leotard will be able to walk around by itself soon, and shoes are a necessity in this weather.”
Vlad reached out, pulling my right hand into his. “It’s already been taken care of.”
I might have spent the past dozen-plus hours like this, but I still couldn’t get over having someone touch that hand without jerking back in pain. True to his assertion, he seemed to have suffered no ill effects though I must have dosed him with enough electricity to kill a regular vampire three times over.
“Was ordering me clothes part of what you were doing when you were on the phone?” I asked, slanting a look at him. He might have disparaged cell-aholics, but he’d been on his cell for most of the hour before we landed. Even one-handed, he could text like the wind.
“Among other things,” he replied. His fingers grazed my knuckles in a light stroke. “While you’re a guest in my home, I’ll provide for all your needs, but be careful that you don’t abuse my hospitality.”
I stifled a snort. What did he think I was going to do, demand only designer outfits? I’d be happy with any clothes as long as they were warm. It looked like we’d landed in an arctic wonderland from the scenery we drove past.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Damn him for always listening to my thoughts. I couldn’t wait until I had my mental privacy back.
His gaze became cold even as he continued to draw little patterns on my hand. “You should be grateful I can hear your thoughts. It’s kept me from employing more invasive methods to determine if you were telling the truth about your kidnapping.”
I flashed back to the memories I’d relived from the vampires Vlad had burned to death, and a shudder went through me. Yeah, I’d much rather have him read my mind than experience his fiery abilities personally. Even the thought made me want to snatch my hand away from his potentially deadly grip.
“You’re still afraid of me,” he stated. “Good.”
“You get off on people being afraid of you?” Was he some sort of
