Bound by Flames

First, though his guards spoke Romanian when they talked among themselves, Szilagyi only spoke to them in Old Novgorod, an ancient, dead language that I couldn’t understand a word of. Second, I doubted that wherever we were was his main hideaway. Szilagyi had just returned after being gone for three days, and that was too long to be away from home base when he was playing a winner-take-all game with Vlad the Impaler.

Three, whatever this place was, it was definitely underground. The lack of natural or urban background sounds confirmed that. Szilagyi had a penchant for subterranean lairs, considering his last hiding place had been below the castle that Vlad had lived in when he was human. This one didn’t have as many people, so it must be smaller. It was possible the guards Szilagyi had brought with him were just very quiet, but from the number of heartbeats I counted, there weren’t enough humans to feed more than a dozen vampires.

I certainly wasn’t dipping into that supply. I hadn’t been given a drop of blood, as my ever-stronger hunger pangs could attest. Not that I expected any different. Starvation was one of the first things you did with a captive. I supposed I should be happy that they hadn’t gone for the other, surefire way to weaken an undead captive—silver poisoning. Maybe skinning and dismembering me had been brutal enough for Szilagyi’s first attempt to rattle Vlad into making a reckless move.

As I found out the next evening, I’d given Szilagyi too much credit by thinking that.

Shouts woke me. From how leaden my whole body felt, I’d risen earlier than I ever had before. Maybe it was still even sunny out. Before I could celebrate that small victory, I caught some of the heated argument between Maximus and Szilagyi.

“ . . . not going to let you do that to her. This is going too far,” Maximus said, sounding furious.

“ . . . need something more drastic to be effective . . .” I caught before Szilagyi’s voice lowered to where I couldn’t hear him.

“Think of something else!” was Maximus’s shouted reply.

Ice blossomed from my stomach to my leaden limbs. Maximus had given Szilagyi the idea to skin me. If he was appalled by what Szilagyi wanted to do now, it must be truly horrendous.

“Careful, Maximus,” Szilagyi said. He didn’t shout, but I could hear him clearly because they were right outside my cell now. “I value your place in my operation, but I am the one who makes the decisions. Not you.”

Maximus said nothing, apparently not willing to jeopardize his position by further argument. The manacles that bound me to the wall felt like they tightened even though it was only my imagination. My heart didn’t beat, but it felt like it was being squeezed from the panic I tried to fight back. If I could, I’d be sweating. What was Szilagyi going to do to me this time?

“Then let it be me,” Maximus said, now speaking so softly I could barely hear him through the thick wall. “If you’re going for maximum rage effect, it’s better that way anyway.”

“How?” Szilagyi sounded doubtful.

Maximus’s next words sliced through my emotions as if they were razors. “Because six weeks ago, Vlad sent me to spy on you. He didn’t think you’d suspect me because he’d thrown me out of his line, but part of you must’ve wondered. Vlad thought I wanted back in his good graces, but all I want is Leila. That’s why I wasn’t lying when I joined you, and it might enrage Vlad to watch his worst enemy fuck his wife, but it won’t drive him mad like it will to watch the man who twice betrayed him do it.”

I sucked in a horrified breath. They were arguing over who was going to rape me? I began pulling at my restraints for all I was worth. Maximus kept talking, sounding amused now.

“You’ll also never have to doubt my loyalty after this. Vlad would invent new ways to torture me for it, so I’ll need him dead now even more than you will. Besides, women can forgive a lot, but Leila would hate me forever if I went along with you raping her. If it’s me . . . well, let’s just say that I don’t think she’ll entirely mind.”

“I’ll kill you myself!” I shouted.

Blood began to drip from the metal restraints as I tore open my skin faster than it could heal trying to get free of the clamps. Szilagyi’s burst of laughter covered my roiling dread with a flash of rage. My right hand tingled, but it still didn’t manifest so much as a spark. I’d never needed my abilities as much as I did now, and instead, I was completely helpless.

“Then again, she might need a little warming up,” Maximus muttered, opening the stone door. “Bring me some lubricant.”

“We don’t have that here,” Szilagyi said as he followed Maximus into the room. He had the tripod camera, and the sight of it slammed home that what was about to happen was going to be videoed and sent to Vlad.

“Twelve guys, no women, and they’re not allowed to leave?” Maximus’s snort was scornful. “Someone’s got lube.”

Szilagyi shrugged, disappearing briefly to shout something in Old Novgorod at his guards. By the time an abashed guard returned with a small bottle, causing Maximus to arch a knowing brow, Szilagyi was done setting up the camera.

And I was in a frenzy to find some way, anyway, to stop this.

“You’re wrong, I will hate you forever if you do this,” I rasped. “You sided with Szilagyi to be with me? You’re about to destroy any chance you had of that.”

He already had no chance, but maybe if he believed that . . .