Jeaniene Frost - Once Burned

Red exploded as if I’d hit him with a paint gun pellet. The vampire staggered, turning in my direction. That’s when I saw that the back of his head was missing. Despite everything I’d seen over the years, let alone experienced today, I gagged, but I didn’t slow down. He fell over, thick dark blobs staining the snow, yet he wasn’t dead. His hands swatted at his head in an uncoordinated manner, as if some thread of consciousness urged him to stuff his brains back inside the ruins of his skull.

I reached him in the next minute. He still looked dazed, but part of his head had already begun to heal. Soon he’d be fully recovered—and pissed . I fell to the ground next to him, avoiding most of his wild swipes as I began to search him. My teeth chattered until I tasted blood and my hand shook so badly that it took a few tries to get inside his coat. His eyes were open but unfocused, the sounds he made horrible animalistic grunts. Even when a few of his blows landed, I continued to tear at his clothes. Two hands would’ve been more thorough, but I couldn’t afford to lose any time reliving his sins.

Something stabbed me in his inner coat pocket. At the same moment, those smoky brown eyes focused on me with terrifying clarity. Without even looking to see what metal the weapon was, I yanked it out and shoved it into his heart, twisting with all of my might.

Itrudged into the stables wearing clothes and shoes several sizes too big. I’d even put on the vampire’s shirt despite its bloody rip in the chest. I was too cold to be picky.

Marty would’ve heard me com-ing, but until I appeared in the entrance of his stall, I don’t think he’d allowed himself to really believe that I was okay. He stared me as I dropped to my knees in front of him. Two fat red tears rolled down his cheeks.

“You made it, kid.”

I began ripping the knives out with hands that still shook, my own tears falling onto my cheeks. Their fleeting warmth was welcome. I didn’t know if I’d ever feel free of the cold that seemed to have turned my bones to icicles within me.

“You made it, too,” I said huskily.

The truth of those words made more tears fall, blurring my vision as I yanked out the last of the knives. Once Marty was free, he grabbed me in a hug so tight, it would have been painful if not for how happy I was to be held by him again.

Then he pushed me back. “We gotta hurry, kid. Now that Szilagyi and Vlad are after us, we need to disappear.”

I blinked, thinking hypothermia must be messing with my ability to comprehend. “What do you mean, we need to disappear?”

He sighed. “I heard Rend say that you agreed to betray Vlad to Szilagyi, so he’ll come after you with everything he’s got. With luck, they’ll keep each other occupied long enough for us to leave Europe—”

“I didn’t betray him, Marty,” I interrupted. “Rend was right. I lied to Szilagyi. In fact, I need to search through Rend’s bones to find out where he is and then contact Vlad with the information.”

“Vlad let you get captured?” Marty shook his head in disgust. “I warned you that he was ruthless. Vlad doesn’t care about what happens to you as long as he gets what he’s after.”

“That’s not true,” I said sharply. “We were searching some vampire’s house when Maximus, Shrapnel, and I got ambushed, but you are right about one thing. I did offer to let Szilagyi capture me in order to lead Vlad to him. He refused.”

Marty’s expression said that he couldn’t believe I was the same person he’d known for years. Maybe I wasn’t. The old Leila had a tendency to hide from her problems while suppressing her unwanted powers. This Leila was running toward them while milking her abilities for all they were worth.

“How long do you think we have until Szilagyi realizes there’s a problem?” I asked, moving to the next issue.

“Not long. He stayed in frequent contact with Rend,” he muttered, still giving me that who-are-you look.

I stood. “Then I better get started with Rend’s bones. If Maximus and Shrapnel are still alive, they won’t be for long after Szilagyi realizes Rend and the others are dead. Or he’ll move and we’ll have to hunt for his location all over again—”

“I know where he is.”

My mouth fell open long enough for my teeth to stop chattering. “You know where Szilagyi is right now ?”

“Of course. They didn’t worry about blindfolding me when they brought me to him. They never intended to let me live.”

I bent and hugged him even harder this time before tweaking his bushy brown sideburns in delight. “You are beautiful, you know that? Wait while I link to Vlad and tell him.”

“Or you could use Rend’s cell phone,” he pointed out.

Marty nodded at the satchel a few feet away. Sure enough, next to several silver knives and other gruesome-looking instruments was a cell phone.

“Use his gloves to make the call,” Marty went on, baring his fangs in a fierce grin. “He won’t need them anymore.”

I stripped the gloves off Rend’s now-shriveled hands and wiped the remains of my blood onto his stylish suede coat. Then I grabbed the cell phone . . . and paused.

“Do you know Vlad’s number?”

Marty recited it, and ended up punching in the numbers himself because I kept messing them up with the thick gloves. Vlad answered on the second ring.

“Who is this?” No niceties, just a demand. That was my guy.

“It’s me. We were attacked at Tolvai’s. I’m with Marty now, but Szilagyi isn’t here, obviously, or I wouldn’t be calling you on a cell. Marty knows where he is, though, and—”

“Where are you , Leila?” Vlad interrupted, his tone rough.

I’d thought it would take days to feel like I’d thawed out inside, but hearing him ask where I was before his centuries-old enemy’s location made a warm glow spread through me.

“Actually, I don’t know. Marty, do you know where we are?”

He shrugged. “They had me in the trunk with you when they brought me here. But if the phone has GPS, you can hit map and then location to find out where we are.”

“Leila.” Vlad’s voice lost its roughness and became the too-pleasant one he used right before he torched someone. “If you’re acting of your own free will, then link to me right now.”

“Huh?” He only wanted to talk the psychic way?

“Do it,” he ordered, and then the call ended.

Maybe he was worried that Rend’s cell could somehow be monitored. I took my former torturer’s glove off and stroked the skin beneath my thumb. Like before, Vlad’s thread leapt out at me. I followed it backward, the wood and straw interior of the stables turning into a cream, peach, and sunshine-colored room that would have been elegant except for the shattered windows, overturned furniture, bloodstains, and multiple char marks. Vlad stood in the center, flames coating his arms, holding up a large blackened hunk of . . . something.

Okay, so where are you ? I thought at him. That pastel decor sure wasn’t in any room of his house.

The answer hit me even as he spoke. Everything was so trashed, I hadn’t recognized it right away.

“I’m at Tolvai’s.” Vlad shook the blackened hump he held aloft. “He was just telling me how stunned he was by the attack and how he had no idea where you, Maximus, or Shrapnel were.”

That charbroiled thing was Tolvai?

“Can you hold off on, ah, questioning him?” I said, out loud this time. “I’ve seen enough gross things for one day.”

Vlad dropped the crispy vampire and slammed a booted foot onto him, holding him down. “Are you being coerced into giving me a false location? Is Szilagyi attempting to ambush me?”