Twice Tempted

Maximus grunted. “Some days, you remind me of Vlad.”

  “Meaning?” I asked sharply.

  “Your obsession with revenge. Next you’ll want to drive a pole through that vampire once you find her.”

  The thought was appealing, but . . .

  “It’s not just revenge. My family will have targets on their backs as soon as the killers find out I’m alive.” Then I switched tactics. “Besides, I keep having nightmares about Vlad finding us. Exercise helps me sleep without those.”

  All true. I’d let myself off easy last night and regretted it when Dream Vlad told me he was closing in on me. It wasn’t real, but I woke up with a nosebleed and a sense of foreboding anyway, both of which I hid from Maximus.

  His gray gaze became tinged with green. “There are other ways to tire yourself out before sleeping.”

  This was the first time since our sidewalk kiss that he’d made a pass; pretty chivalrous considering we’d been locked in the same room for the past three days. I was about to let him down gently when that inner voice roared to the surface.

  Now’s your chance! Take your gloves off and touch him. If the brunette’s essence is anywhere on him, he’s guilty as hell.

  I paused. Could I be so ruthless?

  You’re swimming with sharks, that pitiless voice snapped. Either grow some teeth or get eaten.

  Maximus’s gaze grew brighter. Little did he know why I was considering his offer. Guilt competed with cold practicality. Maximus had been nothing but kind to me, but how well did I truly know him? For that matter, Vlad had known him for centuries, yet Maximus was still going behind his back now.

  Marty’s face flashed in my mind, followed by my dad’s and Gretchen’s. Someone had murdered my best friend and would hurt my family to lure me out. I couldn’t afford to be naively trusting when I could be sure instead.

  Very slowly, I stripped off my gloves. Maximus’s eyes gleamed brighter, bathing the room in a soft emerald glow. Then he came over and knelt, each movement deliberate, as if anything sudden would startle me into bolting.

  It might. My heart beat so fast it made me slightly dizzy. I was about to play a sensual version of Russian roulette with the nearly thousand-year-old, six-and-a-half-foot vampire crouched in front of me. There was a fine line between survival and recklessness, and right now, I wasn’t sure which side my actions fell on.

  Maximus came closer with that slow, leonine crawl. When he was only inches away, he inhaled, and a frown stitched his brow.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Damn vampires and their ability to decipher emotions by scent. I glanced at my hands and then back at him. Lies were more convincing when peppered with the truth.

  “I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to put my gloves back on.” I swallowed a lump that wasn’t entirely made up of nervousness. “I—I want to touch you.”

  A low growl sent icy-hot chills up my spine. Before my next breath, I was in his arms. He kissed me with an intensity that briefly made me forget my objective. Then he pulled me onto his lap, shifting until I straddled him.

  A large bulge jutted between my thighs. He grasped my hips and rocked me against it, that hard length rubbing my most sensitive spot. I gasped, but with a touch of despair. It felt good, but also . . . meaningless. With sudden clarity, I understood the difference between lust and lovemaking. If I had sex with Maximus, I’d enjoy it the same way I enjoyed Chinese food—with the knowledge that too soon, I’d feel empty inside again.

  Damn Vlad! Even in another man’s arms, the memory of that hardhearted vampire tormented me. I tore my mouth away.

  “Maximus, stop.”

  His hands stilled, but he gave my neck a long, hungry lick.

  “What’s wrong?”

  For starters, you’re not the man I’m still in love with. Besides that, I’m not sure I can trust you. “I . . . it’s too soon.”

  I dropped my head as I said the words, letting my fingers play over his shoulders as if in apology. No trace of foreign essences there. Then I sat back with a sigh, trailing my hands down his arms. An all-too-familiar essence thread popped up, making me silently curse Vlad again. He wasn’t only embedded in my skin; he was in Maximus’s, too.

  His hands slid over my thigh. “Too soon for sex, perhaps, but there are other things we can do.”

  I stopped his hands by working down his arms to grip them.

  “Sorry. It’s, ah, too soon for that, too.”

  His disappointed sigh made me feel guilty. Tease! my conscience mocked. That devious inner voice didn’t care. It urged me to grasp Maximus’s hands in a pretense of concern while I searched them for incriminating essence traces.

  “It’s fine.” Wry smile. “I’m not getting any older.”

  Another essence trail was imprinted on his right hand, but it didn’t belong to the brunette vampire or to Vlad. Whoever it was felt very guilty when he—or she—touched Maximus, but if it wasn’t the female killer, it wasn’t my business.

  “Thanks for understanding,” I said before dropping my hands and rising. “I, ah, think I’ll hit the shower now.”

  I wouldn’t even need to make it a cold one. For the third time, I cursed Vlad. It wasn’t fair that he’d been the only man to inflame my heart and my body. Wherever he was, I hoped my memory still burned him inside and out, too.

  Maximus got up, too. Then his head cocked as if listening—and I was on the floor, his big body protecting mine from an explosion of glass. Over the noise from our window shattering, I heard him groan. Felt him shudder so violently that his grip became excruciating, but before I could scream, he let go. Then he grabbed several knives and leapt up.

  I did, too, voltage surging to my right hand from a double shot of fear and adrenaline. Vlad must have found us! This was the same way he’d stormed a hotel room when we first met. I expected fire to soon surround us, but it didn’t. Instead, another volley of gunfire sounded. Maximus knocked me down and shielded me once again, but this time, he didn’t leap up after the barrage stopped. He slumped forward, agony streaking his face as vividly as the bloody holes all over his body.

  “Bullets are liquid silver,” he rasped. “Run!”

  I was horrified. Even a vampire’s regenerative abilities wouldn’t be able to expel that, and not only would it near-paralyze Maximus, it would feel like acid burning all through him. I shoved him off me, but not to run. To slice an electric bolt through whoever tried to shoot him with that poison again. I yanked my gloves off, grimly satisfied at the unearthly glow suffusing my right hand. Then I held it up while letting loose a snarl of my own.

  “You want to kill him, Vlad? You’ll have to go through me!”

  Mocking laughter met this statement. The door didn’t open—it flew across the room to smash against the bed. A cloaked figure appeared in the door frame, face in shadows, but I caught a glimpse of dark hair. I tensed, my heart twisting even as the electricity channeling into my hand became more intense. Could I kill the man I loved to protect the man I didn’t?

  “If you want him to live, don’t move.”

  Moonlight fell onto the cloaked man’s face, revealing short black hair, a smooth jaw, and a wide, full mouth. Not Vlad, I realized, or anyone else I recognized. Who the hell was he?

  The stranger smiled, showing fangs. “You have questions, but we only have time to answer one. Will he live or die?” Belittling nod at Maximus, who writhed in agony. “If you want him to die, fight me. You’ll lose because I didn’t come alone, and then we’ll take you anyway and kill him. Leave with me willingly, however, and I’ll let him live.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Maximus managed to grit out.

  I didn’t glance his way because that would require taking my eyes off this stranger; a mistake I wouldn’t make.

  “I should trust you why?” I asked with heavy sarcasm.

  His eyes flashed green. “Because I’d rather not lose my best leverage over you.”

  That single sentence spoke volumes. Whoever he
was, he wasn’t stupid. He also wasn’t one of Vlad’s men. Vlad wouldn’t attempt to use Maximus as leverage against me. He’d know it was pointless since he’d already told me he was going to kill him.

  Sirens sounded in the distance. The stranger sighed. “Time’s up, little bird. Which will it be?”

  My hand ached with the overload of currents coursing into it, but slowly, I lowered it. Now wasn’t the time. Maximus cursed between ragged moans of pain. The stranger smiled.

  “I heard you were smart. Let’s hope your friend is, too.”

  Something hard jabbed me in the chest. I glanced down, seeing what looked like a dart sticking out of me. By the time I glanced back at the stranger, my vision was already starting to blur and my legs felt like they’d been replaced with jelly.

  “Make sure you get her gloves” was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.

  Chapter 14

  When I came to, I didn’t open my eyes or alter my breathing. Instead, I took inventory while pretending I was still unconscious. Headache, no surprise, but other than that I felt okay. My arms were behind my back. Thickness around my fingers was gloves, tightness around my wrists and ankles was restraints. Uncomfortable gag in my mouth, self-explanatory.

  Then I moved on to my surroundings. The pitch and roll beneath me had to be waves, which meant I was on a boat. Some of my captors were topside, from the voices, but I could tell someone was in the room with me.

  So when I opened my eyes, my gaze landed unerringly on the black-haired vampire who’d shot up the hotel last night. The only surprise he showed was to blink.

  “Didn’t expect you to be up already,” he drawled.

  I glanced down at my gag and back at him, raising a brow.

  He translated the silent message. “Do I need to tell you that screaming is useless?”

  I rolled my eyes. What was this, amateur day? He smiled before rising from the opposite berth. “I thought not.”

  The vampire looked to be around my age, but I judged him to be less than a hundred in undead years. Really old vampires had a certain . . . weight in their stares, as if the passing centuries had left a tangible heaviness. My nameless captor didn’t have that, and if I was lucky, neither did anyone else on this boat.

  Young vampires were easier to kill.

  “Water,” I said once the gag was removed. Between that and the aftereffects from being drugged, my mouth was so dry that my tongue felt like a wadded-up sock.

  The vampire disappeared and then returned with a can of Coke. Even better. The caffeine would help my headache, and watching him pop the soda can tab meant he hadn’t doctored the contents, so I wasn’t about to be drugged again.

  I gulped at it when the vampire held it to my lips, which meant that I let out an extended burp when I stopped swallowing. If that burp happened to be aimed in my captor’s face, well, it wasn’t my fault. I was tied up.

  “Charming,” he said dryly.

  “I lost my concern for social niceties when you shot my friend up with liquid silver,” I replied in an even tone. “Speaking of, I want to see him.”

  The vampire’s mouth quirked. “You’re not in a position to make demands, but yes, he’s still alive.”

  “You don’t want to take me to him, fine,” I said, thinking fast. “I assume you know I pick up psychic impressions from touch, so take these gloves off and let me touch you. Then I’ll know if you’re telling the truth.”

  The vampire chuckled, a brighter green swarming in the peat-moss color of his eyes. “Touch me? Don’t you mean use that deadly electrical whip you can manifest to cut me in half?”

  I stiffened. How did he know about that? Aside from Vlad, Maximus, and a handful of Vlad’s guards, everyone who’d seen me wield that power was dead.

  “That’s why those rubber gloves are duct-taped onto you,” he went on, unperturbed. “Just in case.”

  “What’s your name again?” I asked, glad I sounded casual.

  Those wide lips stretched further. “Call me Hannibal.”

  I smiled back. “Okay, Hannibal, what do you want me to do? Use my abilities to find one of your enemies? Tell you if someone is betraying you? Or read the past from an object?”

  Hannibal laughed, and though it was more Dr. Evil caliber than chilling, it was still foreboding enough to creep me out.

  “I don’t want you to do anything, little bird. I’m merely the delivery boy. I don’t even know who I’m delivering you to. All I know is you’re worth three times as much alive, but if you try anything, dead is still a good payday for me.”

  Hannibal gave me a cheery wave before leaving the room. I said nothing, trying to think of a way out of my predicament. I was not going to let myself or Maximus be delivered to some unknown baddie. I’d find a way out of this if it killed me.

  The fact that it might didn’t deter me. After everything that had happened, I’d rather an early death while fighting than living with more regret than I already had.

  Every ten minutes, one of my captors would check in on me. I’d seen four different faces in addition to Hannibal’s, and from the paneled walls, queen-sized bed, curtained windows, and the size of the room, whoever hired them had deep pockets. If I weren’t trussed up to the handicapped railing, I’d have enjoyed traveling in such a nice vessel.

  The only window had the drapes drawn, but from the lack of light peeking out, it was still night. Guess Hannibal had been telling the truth about me not being out that long. Lake Michigan was the closest large body of water to the hotel and it was larger than some seas, so it might be a while until we arrived at our destination. Or we might arrive in minutes.

  That’s why I was concentrating, trying to channel all the currents in my body to my right hand. After several moments, the overload of electricity began to form into what felt like a spike. It pushed against my glove, seeking the smallest crack to free itself from its heavy rubberized cage.

  No such crack existed, but my goal was to make one. Better to be killed trying to escape than meekly be delivered to whoever wanted me dead or alive. I should never have surrendered to Hannibal, but I hadn’t anticipated him knowing the full extent of my abilities, and Maximus’s life had been on the line.

  He’s probably dead already, my nasty inner voice whispered. You gave yourself up for nothing!

  My teeth ground together. How I hated the dark part of me that continually foretold failure or futility. It had driven me to a suicide attempt at sixteen, but it would not defeat me now. Dismal odds or no dismal odds, I was getting out of this.

  I refocused on my right hand, willing more currents into it. If that spike of energy became sharp and strong enough, it would punch through the rubber and I would get free. Come on, I silently urged it. Drill, baby, drill!

  Was it my imagination, or did the layer of rubber around that energy spike feel like it suddenly . . . dented?

  My heart pounded, either from excitement or from being overly strained. I didn’t need a doctor to tell me that building up so much electricity was hazardous to my health, but I kept concentrating, willing those inner currents to grow and strengthen. Sweat beaded on my upper lip, my vision blurred, and my whole body started to tremble, yet I kept focusing—

  White light briefly suffused the room and I heard a zzzt! right before an ominous cracking at my feet. I looked down, both elated and mildly terrified to see a small but distinct hole. Good news: I’d broken through my glove. Bad news: I might’ve punched a hole all the way through the boat’s hull, too.

  I didn’t hear any footsteps, but I hadn’t expected any strange sounds to go uninvestigated. Seconds later when the guard with the thick beard and long black hair appeared in the doorway, I’d already covered the hole with my foot.

  Of course, if that hole started spurting water, I was dead.

  “You’ve got to let me out!” I improvised, banging against the pole and making more of a ruckus. “I, um, I have to pee!”

  The guard, who I’d nicknamed Captain Morg
an because of his looks, shook his head in disgust.

  “Humans,” he muttered. Then he disappeared.

  I waited, breath sucked in, but he didn’t reappear and water didn’t start shooting up beneath my foot. Then I exhaled with relief and ruthless determination. Ten more minutes until the next guard checked in with me. In that time, I’d have to get free, and once I did, I’d have to kill them all.

  Chapter 15

  Thankfully, I got loose without punching more holes into the floor, but I barely made it to the blind spot behind the door before the next guard came to check on me. I cursed my heartbeat as I heard those light footsteps come nearer. Could the guard hear that I was no longer secured to the railing? If so, I was signing my own death warrant. Hannibal’s warning echoed through my thoughts. Dead is still a good payday for me . . .

  Nerves and fear added to the electricity shooting into my hand, making a tiny shower of sparks rain from it. The air felt thicker and I caught a whiff of ozone. Then the guard paused at the doorway before rushing forward with a muttered “What?”

  My wrist snapped, the currents arcing out as though they had a will of their own. The blond guard didn’t utter another word, but his mouth was still moving when his head hit the floor. The rest of him stayed upright for a few seconds, arms flailing as though he was trying to get his balance.

  I was too worked up to be sickened. Fear-fueled adrenaline surged through me, acting like jumper cables to my currents. I peeked down the hallway, saw no one, and at once seized on a way to lure another guard in the room without arousing suspicion.

  “What are you doing?” I asked in a shrill voice. “Stop! Get your filthy hands off me!”

  I punctuated that by making a slapping sound and then crying out as though in pain. After that, I made ragged whimpering noises interspersed with cries of “Don’t, no, stop!”

  Moments later, Hannibal muttered, “I told you not to damage the merchandise, Stephen. Fuck someone in the hold instead—”

  My wrist snapped as soon as Hannibal crossed the threshold, but he took one look at the body and slammed the door back into me. The whiplike current sliced into his waist instead of his neck, but not deeply enough. He was still standing.