Once Burned

are with me. If you come, they’ll kill me before they allow you to take me.

“Maximus and Shrapnel?” That made Szilagyi pause, but not in fear. In obvious delight. Clearly I’d just added a cherry to the already yummy sundae of my situation.

Yes, and if they realize they’re outnumbered, they’ll kill me, I repeated, seeking a reason that would dissuade him. I’m no good to you dead, so give me a little time. Vlad’s sending me all over the place, as you may have heard. I’ll contact you as soon as circumstances are better.

Szilagyi spun away from Marty to stare at what would have been eye level to me if I’d actually been there.

“All right,” he said.

I was so surprised by his capitulation that my mind briefly went blank. “But if you’re lying to me,” he went on, “your friend will experience such pain that hell will be a relief once I finally kill him.”

My lack of belief in heaven or hell didn’t prevent me from shuddering at the threat. I’m not lying. I’ll contact you as soon as I’m under less heavy guard. Vlad’s already getting lax by letting me go out without him.

Fear for Marty made every mental syllable ring with the illusion of truth. After a long moment, Szilagyi gave me another frosty smile.

“You have a week to contact me with a location to collect you. Otherwise, your friend will suffer for your betrayal.”

Got it, I thought, stuffing down my doubts over how I’d pull that off.

His dark brown stare seemed to reach into my soul. “Then I’ll hear from you soon, Leila.”

I dropped the link and sank to my knees, still blasting away songs from an era where rockers had longer hair than their girlfriends. That awful gray room was replaced by shades of pale blue, yellow, and peach, the tall windows letting in the radiance of a sunny winter’s day. Fear that I’d just condemned Marty to a terrible death battled with determination. You can do this, I chanted to myself. Someone at Tolvai’s had a connection to Szilagyi. We’d find out who, Vlad would interrogate the hell out of him, and we’d find Szilagyi’s location and save Marty in time. I kept repeating it until I forced myself to believe it.

The attack came less than twenty minutes later.

Chapter 38

I was still searching Tolvai’s house to see if I could determine who he’d been in collusion with when the first window shattered. I knew better than to assume anything benign caused it, so I ran to look for Maximus and Shrapnel. In the seconds it took me to see them in the entrance hallway, the house was under a full- scale assault.

Glass exploded inward as vampires crashed through multiple windows, converging on the two men in the hallway. More violent sounds came from outside, too, and gunfire made me instinctively hit the floor. Once there, I froze, not sure if I should try to help, or if I’d only get in their way. My decision was taken away when suddenly I was snatched up from behind, my right wrist held in an iron grip. Whoever grabbed me cursed from the voltage he absorbed, but I couldn’t hit him with my full power. I couldn’t even connect to Vlad and tell him of the attack because my hand was immobilized.

Then a voice hissed in heavily accented English, “Quit struggling! Szilagyi has ordered me to protect you.”

Tolvai. It wasn’t one of his people who were in league with Szilagyi. It was him. No wonder Szi-lagyi had capitulated so easily at my refusal to tell him where I was. Tolvai hadn’t stormed off in ire over his house being searched, but to message Szi-lagyi about his unexpected visitors. That’s how he’d known where to attack. When I first saw Szi-lagyi typing away on his iPad, he’d probably been ordering the assault.

Tolvai hustled me up the stairs and into an upper bedroom closet. Meanwhile, the battle sounds continued. From the shouts and how the walls and floors shook, Szilagyi had attacked with overwhelming force. Maximus, Shrapnel, and the other guards wouldn’t have a chance. Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to face my enemy crying. I waited, hoping Tolvai’s grip on my wrist would let up enough for me to do something, but it never did.

When the shouts and tremors finally stopped, the silence drowned me in a tidal wave of dread. Were Maximus and Shrapnel still alive? Then a man’s voice called out, of course not in English. Tolvai responded in the same language, and he sounded relieved.

“What?” I asked.

He didn’t reply, which was no surprise, but he did move away as though being in close proximity to me had been distasteful. Before I could snap a current at him or connect to Vlad, an ominously familiar person appeared in front of me.

“Hello again,” purred the silver-haired vampire who’d left me to die in a burning club.

I didn’t see his fist. Only felt the explosion of pain that darkness quickly snuffed out.

I had no idea how long I was out, but I awoke with a chemical taste in my mouth and ropes digging into my wrists and ankles. No shocker there, but my head wasn’t pounding, which did surprise me until I remembered how much of Vlad’s blood I’d been drinking recently. That would accelerate my healing. It wouldn’t help with the biting cold temperature, however. Immediately, my teeth began to chatter, but before another thought could cross my mind, I began to recite the lyrics to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.” Not an eighties song, but sufficiently irritating on endless repeat.

When I risked opening my eyes, I didn’t see gray concrete walls, Szilagyi, or Marty. Instead, I was in a wooden stall, the straw-covered ground smelling strongly of horses, and I was naked except for a scratchy blanket tucked around me.

I wasn’t, however, alone.

The silver-haired vampire lounged on top of the high stall door, balanced effortlessly on the narrow strip of wood. He stared down at me with a little smirk that would’ve made me shiver even if I wasn’t already doing so from the cold.

“Expecting someone else?” he asked in a smug tone.

I allowed a single Oh crap to slip through my thoughts before I buried that under lyrics declaring that I was too sexy for my shirt—not that I was wearing one at the moment. Just because Szi-lagyi wasn’t in sight didn’t mean he wasn’t close by, tuning in to my head.

“In fact, I was,” I said, and my reply would’ve been smooth if not for my teeth chattering. “Where’s Szilagyi?”

Silver Hair jumped down, sticking the landing perfectly, of course. He was dressed for the cold in a long suede jacket over a cream sweater, and the material of his chocolate-colored pants looked like corduroy. But what drew my gaze were his gloves. He wore the same oversized, industrial ones I’d used before Vlad got me the normal- looking pair. They weren’t the only things in Silver Hair’s hands, either. He also carried a wooden mallet and a knife that looked like it was made from ivory.

My previous Oh crap upgraded to an Oh shiiiit!

“You told Szilagyi you’ve had a change of heart about joining his side, but he’s not convinced,” the vampire replied cheerfully. “Until he is, he’s not letting you near him in case you try to summon Vlad and ambush him.”

I schooled my features not to show fear, but I felt like my stomach had dropped to my knees.

“How am I supposed to summon Vlad if I don’t have anything of his to link through? And more importantly, how can I convince Szilagyi of my sincerity if I’m nowhere near him?”

The vampire’s grin widened, and his flipped his weapons in the air before catching them. “That’s where I come in.”

It was the answer I’d expected—and dreaded. He’d even made sure to pick torture items made of wood and bone instead of the more highly conductive steel, and his gloves would provide protection against any currents that did slip through. Despair knotted in me. I’d wanted to give myself to Szilagyi to trap him, but Vlad had vetoed that plan. He’d said Szilagyi wouldn’t believe me and would torture me into telling the truth. Looked like he was right.