Into the Fire

  Several months ago, I’d promised Vlad that I would never again let myself be crippled by guilt, fear, or hesitation, yet here I was, beating myself up for circumstances that were beyond my control. All of this might be because of me but it wasn’t my fault, no matter if it felt that way. I had to stop punishing myself for the consequences of Mircea’s spell. He’d cast it, not me. Against all odds, I’d survived it, and I would survive this, too. So would Vlad. I’d make sure of that.

  I rose, pushing off my tiredness with all the willpower I had left in me. I’d start with trying to save Samir. Vlad might have left me here, but that didn’t mean I was helpless.

  “Who’s got a cell phone?”

  Ian disappeared into the room next door before returning with a cell. “Here,” he said, and I grabbed one of my gloves and put it on before accepting it.

  Maximus shot a censuring look at Ian. “Vlad won’t like you doing that.”

  Ian snorted. “If her calling him will make him stop, then Vlad didn’t truly want to kill this bloke to begin with.”

  From the flash of power I’d caught from Vlad’s aura, I didn’t question his determination. Him having my friends physically stop me from coming after him also didn’t smack of any indecisiveness. Extreme dickishness, yes, and we’d have words over that when I saw him again, but first things first.

  “I’m not calling Vlad,” I said, dialing.

  Marty cocked his head. “Who are you calling?”

  “It won’t matter who,” Maximus said, his gaze almost pitying. “Vlad has nearly six hundred years’ experience in these matters. Whatever you’re planning, Leila, he has a contingency.”

  I gave Maximus a level look. “We’ll see about that.”

  Chapter 20

  Three hours later, I was seething with frustration. I’d called and texted Samir repeatedly, yet he hadn’t answered. That could have been coincidence, so I then called and texted every single person in Vlad’s line whose number I remembered. None of them answered. For all of Vlad’s people to suddenly ignore dozens of my calls and texts was no coincidence. He must have ordered them not to respond to me.

  Undeterred, I called the airline next and tried to book a flight to Romania. That’s when I found out that all of my credit cards had been canceled. When the guys refused to let me use one of their cards, I went into the lobby, grabbed the first well-dressed person I saw, and green-eyed him into letting me use his credit card instead.

  That’s when I also found out that my name was now on the no-fly list. No airline in the country would book a flight for me, and I couldn’t green-eye my way past a national computer system. Finally, in desperation, I called Vlad. No surprise, he didn’t answer.

  “I told you,” Maximus said without any smugness. “Vlad has made up his mind. When he does that, he doesn’t let anyone stand in his way, even someone he loves. It’s not your fault, Leila. You can’t save Samir, but you might be able to prevent Vlad from ever having to do this again.”

  It didn’t seem nearly enough, yet I had run out of ideas, and the clock was ticking. Maybe the only way I could stop this was by finding out something useful from my mother’s people. I certainly hadn’t been able to do anything here at the casino.

  “Fine,” I said shortly. “Let’s do this.”

  We checked out of the hotel—not even vampire hypnosis could hide the fact that the fire in our suite had been responsible for shorting the electricity in the entire hotel. Only mesmerizing the hotel manager kept us from going to jail. Hypnosis had also cleared Gretchen’s memory of where Vlad had gone and why, once we met back up with her.

  Marty did that last part. I hated altering her memory, but I agreed with the reason behind it. Gretchen would have a fit if she remembered Vlad’s grisly task, not that I could blame her. No, I had to focus on other ways to save Samir, and to stop whatever Mircea’s captors had planned for Vlad next.

  We drove past the “Welcome, Cherokee Indian Reservation” sign that must’ve annoyed my mother a lot because it was one of the few things she’d mentioned about growing up here. Technically, the Eastern Band of Cherokees didn’t live on a reservation. The government hadn’t given them part of their own land back—it had been purchased by the tribe as a trust back in the nineteenth century. The trust still gave the Cherokees the same tribal sovereignty that true reservations had, so when we crossed over the Qualla Boundary, we were now under the authority of the tribe instead of the state.

  I expected that the part of the land trust where people actually lived would look different from the rest of it, and I was right. The hotel, casino, museum, and other attractions were glitzy, tourist-ready versions of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, complete with more than a few people dressed in old-fashioned Native American garb. The residential area didn’t have any of those things.

  The economic downturn once we left the tourist areas was also readily apparent, and that hurt to see. I wondered how my life would have changed if I’d grown up here instead of on different military bases because of my father’s frequent change of duty stations. Gretchen looked around with wide eyes, too. When she saw two little black-haired girls playing in a yard, I knew she was flashing back to our childhood like I was.

  Despite my longing to know more about our roots, we needed to find out things that couldn’t be discovered by researching tribal records. However, I couldn’t just knock on doors and ask if anyone knew whether my mother had been a descendant of the Ani-kutani. Maybe no one here even remembered my mother. She and my aunt Brenda had left over thirty years ago.

  We were stopped by a tribal officer before we had gotten halfway through the first section of the residential area. “I’ll do the talking,” I said, rolling down my window.

  “You lost?” the grizzled, white-haired officer asked.

  “Osiyo,” I said, which was exactly one third of all the Cherokee words I knew. “No, I’m not lost. My mother used to live here. I’m, ah, trying to see if anyone here knew her.”

  The officer gave me a jaded look. Clearly, greeting him in Cherokee had done nothing to endear me to him. “There are over ten thousand residents here. Do you even know what street your mother used to live on?”

  “No,” I said, embarrassed. Why had I never asked her that?

  His expression said he’d expected that. “How about which of the seven clans she was from?”

  I paused. Mom had always said we were from the Blue clan, but if the demon was right, we weren’t. Still, at some point, Mom’s ancestors must have been adopted by the Blue clan in order to help them hide, so would talking to those members help?

  I took another look at the officer. Multiple wrinkles gave his skin the appearance of worn leather, and his white hair had only a few sprinkles of black left in it. He might be old enough to remember my mom. Even if he hadn’t known her, maybe he’d been around long enough to know something else useful. Sure, it would sound crazy to come right out and say why I was really here, but I had a way of getting around sounding crazy, didn’t I?

  “I just found out that my mom might have descended from the Ani-kutani clan,” I said, putting the full force of vampire power into my gaze. “I need to know if that’s true. Can you take me to someone who would know about Ani-kutani survivors and if their descendants had inherited any special magic legacies?”

  “Holy shit,” Gretchen breathed. Right, I hadn’t filled her in on that yet. Well, no time like the present.

  The officer nodded, his expression becoming glazed. “I can. Follow me,” he said, and got back into his vehicle.

  “Isn’t it refreshing to cut through the shite and get what you want?” Ian said as we began to follow the officer.

  This did save more time and we were running against a merciless clock, but still. “I actually don’t like mind-manipulating people.”

  Ian grunted. “Give it time. You’ll grow to love it.”

  “Are you forgetting something, Leila?” Gretchen said, leaning forward to pinch my arm. “Like Mom being an An
i-kutani?”

  I filled her in on what had happened when we met the demon while we followed the officer. Well, most of it. I left out the part where I’d been gutted in front of everyone in order to deliver a murderous directive to Vlad that Gretchen now forgot.

  I expected a flurry of questions when I was finished. Instead, Gretchen said nothing, which concerned me enough to look back at her several times in my rearview mirror. Then I really grew worried when I caught her scent. Beneath her normal lemon-and-sea-spray scent, she smelled very, very upset. What had caused this sort of reaction? Discovering the real reason Mom had died? Finding out that we both might be witches? The magic legacy thing? All the above?

  “Tell me what’s wrong,” I urged her.

  She looked at me with cornflower-blue eyes shiny from unshed tears. “Don’t worry about it. Look, the officer’s stopping. Brake or you’ll hit him, Leila.”

  I hit the brakes in time to avoid rear-ending the other car. Marty muttered something about my being a terrible driver. Okay, maybe, but I’d learned how to drive just last year, and the only way to get better was with practice.

  “We’re talking about this later,” I told Gretchen as I parked and we got out. She muttered “Whatever” under her breath.

  “Here,” the officer said, pointing to the house he’d stopped in front of. It was a small structure with wooden siding that needed repainting and a broken section in the wraparound porch. But its position near a precipice gave it a magnificent view of the mountains, and intricate dream catchers swayed gently from their perches over the porch.

  “Who lives here?” I asked the officer.

  “Leotie Shayne,” he said, gesturing to the door. “Go. Knock. She is home.”

  I did hear a heartbeat inside, slow, steady, and coming closer to the door. Leotie Shayne must have heard us pull up.

  The officer got back in his car. I debated telling him to stay, then decided not to. I might not like mind manipulation, but it did ensure that I’d get the truth out of Leotie Shayne.

  I blinked in surprise when the door opened and a girl who looked years younger than Gretchen stared back at us. “Yeah?” she said with a teenager’s unmistakable attitude.

  “Leotie Shayne?” I asked.

  “Grandma!” she yelled in reply, turning around. “Some people are here to see you!”

  Scraping sounds preceded the appearance of a stooped Native American woman. Like the officer, her hair was almost completely white and her skin was crisscrossed with wrinkles. She also leaned heavily on her walker as she limped toward the door.

  Nothing about her appeared threatening, but I stiffened. So did Maximus, Ian, and Marty, and Maximus pushed Gretchen behind him with one swipe of his hand.

  “What’s your problem?” she hissed, not catching the reason for our new, heightened tension.

  I’d heard only one heartbeat, yet two people had been inside the house. Sharp, intelligent black eyes met mine as the wizened old woman stared at me. Then laughter that sounded decades younger than her appearance spilled out of her.

  “Lisa, go to Toby’s,” she said in perfect English.

  The teenager let out an annoyed huff. “Why?”

  A torrent of Cherokee followed. Whatever the old woman said lit a fire under the teenager’s ass. She was out the door and running toward what I assumed was Toby’s house in less than a minute flat.

  “So,” Leotie Shayne said, shoving her walker aside and straightening into a posture that had looked impossible moments before. “What brings a group of vampires and witches to my house?”

  Chapter 21

  “What makes you say witches?” I said, masking my surprise. How she’d known we were vampires was obvious. That no-heartbeat thing was a dead giveaway, pun intended.

  The old woman laughed again, a light, tinkling sound that reminded me of champagne flutes clinking together. “Dear, I know exactly what you and your sister are, and who you are.”

  I exchanged a quick, measured glance with Ian. “Did Ashael tell you we’d be coming?” I asked in a casual tone that belied me starting to pull off my right glove.

  Leotie Shayne cast a pointed look at my hands. “Don’t. I’ve heard very impressive things about your whip, but I don’t need a demonstration.”

  “You didn’t answer her question, luv,” Ian said, flashing her one of his brilliant smiles.

  She smiled back wide enough to reveal that she was missing several teeth. “Don’t try to charm my panties off, boy. Your gender doesn’t tempt me.”

  Ian puffed up in outrage. “Uppity crone, you should be so lucky! You’d never enjoy getting your hips broken more!”

  Now Leotie’s laughter held a snort. “Who is this one?” she asked me. “He’s not your husband and neither are the other two.”

  Frustration made my fists clench. How quickly Ian had proven correct when he said I’d grow to love mesmerizing people. I’d give a lot to just glare the answers I needed out of this old woman, but since it was impossible to mesmerize another vampire, I’d have to do this the slow way.

  “Let’s try this again,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a friendly smile. “I’m Leila, as you already seem to know. This is my sister, Gretchen; the very tall vampire is Maximus; the very short one is Marty; and the very offended one is Ian. Now, who are you, and how do you know so much about us?”

  Leotie eyed me shrewdly. “You and your sister can come in and I will answer your questions, but the rest of them must leave.”

  “No,” Marty and Maximus said in unison before I could get a word out. Gretchen stomped forward, glaring at me when I grabbed her arm to snatch her back.

  “If this old woman has answers, then we’re hearing her out. They can stay out here and guard the perimeter or something.”

  “No,” Maximus said. “Vlad sent me to protect you. I cannot do that if I can’t even see you.”

  Gretchen waved at Leotie. “She’s only one old vampire! Leila’s taken on much more than that and walked away, so I’d be the only one in danger. Since I’m no one’s priority, just stay outside and let us get this over with.”

  “Your safety is my priority,” I said at once. “And I’m not risking you without more information.” To Leotie, I said, “You’re masking your aura. That’s why we couldn’t feel you when we first got here. Drop your shields, or we get what we came here for the unpleasant way.”

  The old woman looked at me with the strangest expression. Was that approval? I didn’t know why she’d like being threatened. Then I forgot that as she freed her aura.

  Power enveloped me like an inescapable avalanche. Endless, sharp tinges had me looking at my arms as if expecting to see thousands of tiny needles sticking out of them. That power continued to swell until birds abandoned their perches in trees and coyotes howled as if startled awake.

  That wasn’t the only thing that startled me. A shimmer appeared over the old woman, then fast as a blink, it dropped and someone completely different stood before us. Blue-black hair hung in lustrous swaths around a face that was strikingly beautiful—and young. Gone were the wrinkles and missing teeth. Creamy, sepia skin set off red lips and a mouth full of pearly whites. Her body filled out into strong, curvy dimensions that had Ian moving toward her with his most charming smile. Only her gaze remained the same, and she stared at me in open challenge.

  “No more shields or deceptive appearances. I have met your terms, Leila. Will you now honor mine?”

  Leotie’s powerful aura marked her as either a Master vampire or one several centuries old. Either way, she’d make a formidable opponent. She also must be versed in magic to have glamoured her appearance into the old woman mirage she’d first shown us, so who knew how much more magic she was capable of? Maybe enough to make my electrical whip useless against her?

  Yet if I refused to meet her terms, I’d get nothing out of her. I saw that in her steely black gaze as surely as I saw the danger. If it was only me, I’d already be inside her house, but I had Gretchen to wor
ry about. Part of me wanted to shove her at Maximus and tell him to run. But if I did that, I wouldn’t only be ruining my chances at finding out what Leotie knew. These were Gretchen’s answers, too. If I ruined that without even giving Gretchen the choice, I’d be driving another wedge between me and my sister, and I already had plenty of those as it was.

  I took in a slow breath to steady myself. “Gretchen,” I said in a very calm tone, “this woman is very dangerous. If we send the guys away and go inside with her, I can’t guarantee your safety. Do you still want to do this?”

  “Yes.” Gretchen’s answer was immediate.

  I looked back at Leotie. “Then we accept your invitation.”

  “Kid,” Marty began.

  “We came for answers and she has some,” I interrupted. “Not knowing could be even more dangerous.” Then I flashed a quick, feral smile at Leotie that I must have learned from Vlad. “Don’t worry. If she pulls anything, you’ll know it because you’ll hear her screaming from what I’ll do to her.”

  She smiled back, and again, it seemed to contain a layer of approval I didn’t understand. “Agreed,” she said silkily.

  “Wait.”

  I stiffened at Maximus’s unyielding tone and turned around. “Look, you can tell Vlad that I made you—”

  “I’m not talking to you,” Maximus said. Then he went over to Gretchen, who gave him an irritated look.

  “Don’t bother. I’m not staying out here with you.”

  “You’re not,” Maximus agreed, smiling thinly. “But you’re also not going inside until you do this.”

  I had forgotten how fast Maximus was. Granted, I had only seen him fight a couple of times, and during those times, I’d been preoccupied with keeping myself alive. Now I could only marvel at how he’d whipped out his knife, cut himself on the arm, and pressed Gretchen’s mouth to the wound, all before I could get out a shocked “What the hell?”