I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want to be the cause of Vlad’s death, either. Besides, with the pain increasing until it felt like I was being napalmed on the inside, I might not last long enough for Szilagyi to kill me “later.”

“Touch me. See how it works out,” I said, letting out a harsh laugh.

Szilagyi glanced past me, where unfortunately, I could hear Maximus moaning. Damn. I hadn’t killed him.

“I don’t need to do anything but wait,” he said, sounding so confident that I managed another gasping laugh. Didn’t he know that Vlad’s allies would be here any minute—?

A blaze of light hit my eyes as the first rays of dawn touched the ruined, smoking castle. Before I could finish my thought, I was already unconscious.

Chapter 10

My hated inner voice awoke before the rest of me did. Its taunting whisper of “What is this? The fourth time?” acted as an alarm clock to my subconscious. If I never woke up as someone’s captive again, it would be too soon.

Then, like the other times, I began to assess my situation while pretending to still be unconscious. No more searing pain, so someone had taken the silver out of me. Arms completely immobile, check. Legs immobile, check. Right hand encased in something rubbery, check. No gag, though, and the lack of pitching or vibration meant I wasn’t on a boat, car, train or plane. Whether that was good or bad, I’d soon find out.

“ . . . telling you, this is the best way to prevent her from using her abilities to link to Vlad,” Maximus was saying. “Even if she managed to get her hand free, she’d run up against a clean slate instead of an essence map.”

When my eyes opened, the first thing I saw was Maximus standing at the far end of the room. Szilagyi was with him, looking intrigued by whatever Maximus had proposed. A tripod camera was set up a few feet from me, and in a corner, a fair-haired vampire bent over a table as if he had no interest in anything except its contents. The room itself didn’t tell me anything useful. The walls, floor and ceiling were stone, so we were underground . . . somewhere. If I’d stayed out until dusk like I usually did, we might not even be on the same continent anymore.

I fought against the despair that tried to poison my emotions. One of the advantages to being a repeat captive was the knowledge that there was always a way out of a tough situation. You just had to keep looking until you found it.

Then the platinum blond vampire moved enough to reveal the objects on his table, and my stomach felt like it tried to crawl into my spine to hide. The worst part about being a repeat captive? Knowing firsthand how excruciating torture was.

I must have made a noise, or maybe my scent changed with dread, because Maximus and Szilagyi quit talking to stare at me.

“Hello, Leila,” Szilagyi said. The two words purred with luxuriant menace. “What do you think of my taking you now?”

Begging would be useless. So would making threats or trying to negotiate. You didn’t capture your worst enemy’s wife and chain her in an underground room with a table full of sharp instruments because you cared about anything she had to say.

“I think getting a fresh cup of blood is probably out of the question,” I settled on.

Being a smartass was the only option I had left. Besides, maybe a little false bravado would help me endure what was about to happen. Fake it until you make it, as the saying went.

Szilagyi smiled with what looked like genuine amusement. “I’m starting to see why Vlad and Maximus have fallen for you.”

“I’d blush if I wasn’t undead,” I muttered. What was that curved knife with the partial loop on the handle for?

Szilagyi caught what I was looking at and his smile widened. “I intended to let Harold torture you the way he normally does, but Maximus just told me how you really kept slipping through my nets the other times I’d captured you. I knew you could link to Vlad through essence imprints on objects or other people, but I didn’t know you could also link to him through the imprints he left on your skin.”

I swung a hate-filled glare toward Maximus. Despite what he’d done, Vlad had given him a second chance and I had trusted him again, too. Was there no end his backstabbing?

His gray eyes didn’t waver. “I don’t have a choice, Leila.”

“Yes, you do,” I spat. “You could die with some dignity, like I intend to do.”

“Oh, you’re not going to die,” Szilagyi said, sounding a bit disappointed this time. “I’ve agreed to let Maximus keep you, if he’s right and you bring about Vlad’s demise. Never let it be said that I don’t reward loyalty among my people.”

“Is that why you did it?” I asked Maximus, incredulous. “You’re still holding on to the fantasy that if Vlad was out of the picture, I’d be with you?”

“Something like that.” Then his rugged features hardened. “Don’t give yourself all the credit. I was loyal to Vlad for over five hundred years, yet he threw me out of his line after one mistake. Would’ve killed me, too, if not for the promise you forced out of him. In one month, Szilagyi’s treated me better than Vlad did in centuries.”

“Thank you,” Szilagyi said mildly.

Bitterness made my voice vibrate. “I so regret stopping Vlad from killing you, and I hope you get the same reward Shrapnel and Cynthiana got for their loyalty. Or didn’t you know that Szilagyi blew them up when he took out the lower dungeon?”

“Whose idea do you think that was?” Szilagyi interjected, actually managing to sound offended. “Cynthiana knew what would happen if Vlad ever caught her, so she wanted an insurance policy that doubled as vengeance. She’s the one who had Shrapnel set charges around the house’s foundations and the dungeon, then spelled both of them so they couldn’t admit to it under torture. I agreed not to blow the charges unless they were captured, which, after weeks of not hearing from her, became obvious. Bringing down Vlad’s house serves me little purpose otherwise. I couldn’t do it while he was there or he’d turn the fire right back around on my people, and I expected you to be traveling with him.” A taunting smile. “How happy I was to be mistaken.”