Twice Tempted (Night Prince 2)

His voice cracked at the last word. I took his hand, glad my new gloves allowed me to do that without shocking him. "And then you called Vlad," I finished, piecing it together.

Marty let out a grunt. "He didn't take the news well. Made me find out where they were transporting the bodies and then jumped on his jet. I told him there wouldn't be enough left of you to raise, but he wouldn't listen."

"Raise?" I repeated before comprehension dawned. Ghouls were made by having a person drink vampire blood, then killing that person and switching their heart with a ghoul's heart. Since I was on a regular diet of vampire blood and Vlad knew I was fireproof at the time, he'd know such a transformation was possible, if the explosion hadn't ripped me limb from limb -

That's what he was doing at the morgue when I dream-linked to him! He hadn't wanted to see my body to grieve or gloat, as I'd thought. He'd gone there to bring me back.

"Raise you into a ghoul," Marty said, not knowing I'd figured it out. He shrugged. "You'd look the same, but every so often, you'd need to eat the other, other white meat."

I was still reeling from this discovery. Had Vlad known as soon as he saw those bones that I was still alive? Or had he not realized it until he "heard" me spying on him? And the most important question: Why, if he cared enough to fly overseas and rush to a morgue to raise me from the dead, had he acted so indifferent when I left him?

" - look pale, Leila. I'm gonna go, let you get some rest."

That I heard, but whatever he said before had been lost.

"I slept for three days, you wouldn't think I'd be tired."

I was, though. Still, I had a few things to do first. "Can you find my dad and Gretchen? Vlad ordered them out, but I can handle their heartbeats now."

And their voices. I'd just remember that everything sounded like a shout at the moment.

"Sure." Then Marty cleared his throat. "You should know something. When you hemorrhaged so much your heart stopped, Vlad stuck IV lines in your arteries and flooded you with his blood. Then he broke the defibrillator shocking your heart back to life. If that didn't work, you were waking up undead, and there wasn't a thing your father could've done to stop him."

I closed my eyes. Was that the shouting match I'd heard in my semiconscious state? I will bring you back by any means necessary, Vlad had said, and apparently he meant it.

Which meant he cared far more than he'd admitted.

Was there hope for us after all?

Chapter 24

Dr. Natalia Romanov was Vlad's in-house physician, and unlike the other members of his staff, she couldn't have been nicer. When I jokingly asked if I was her first patient this year, thinking a doctor couldn't be called upon much in a mostly vampire house, Natalia replied that she monitored all of Vlad's humans to ensure they were healthy enough to feed from and assisted in tortures since she was an expert in neuromuscular manipulation.

Well, I'd asked.

After she left, my dad and Gretchen came back to see me. I apologized for Vlad putting the mind whammy on them, which mollified my father not at all. Gretchen, oddly enough, seemed more fascinated than angry.

"I didn't want to leave, but my legs took me right out of the room anyway. He could've made me do anything, couldn't he?"

"Yes," I said, hating the way my father's features tightened up as though he'd swallowed ground glass. Then he muttered something under his breath that, without my new super senses, I never would've heard.

"No, he doesn't use mind control on me. For one, all the vampire blood I drink makes me immune to it. For another, if he did, we wouldn't have broken up because he would've made me believe I was delighted with the way things were between us."

My father stared at me, suspicion replacing the disbelief in his expression. "That you heard me proves how dangerous this man is to you. He's changing you into something inhuman. Leaving him was the smartest decision you ever made."

Gretchen shrugged. "After seeing how he acted when she almost died, I'm starting to get why she's with him." Then her voice hardened. "And really, Leila. That's twice now."

I closed my eyes, guilt assailing me. Yes, this was the second time Gretchen had seen me teetering on the edge of death, but unlike my suicide attempt at sixteen, this had been an accident. Not that it made it less emotionally scarring. In many ways, that power line accident had put Gretchen through as much hell as it had me, only she didn't get the occasional perks.

"I'm sorry," I said, opening my eyes.

Another shrug as she acted like it didn't matter. "Have your boyfriend add therapy bills to my expense tab."

"You'll take nothing else from him, and he's not her boyfriend anymore."

My dad used his lieutenant colonel voice. It usually garnered instant obedience from Gretchen, but this time, it rolled right off her.

"I'm taking it, and if he's not her boyfriend, someone should tell him that. You saw how he freaked when she almost died. Then he wouldn't budge from her side until she woke up."

"Vlad stayed here the whole three days?" I was shocked.

She nodded. "Like one of his stone gargoyles."

My father gave Gretchen a look that, if she'd been anyone else, I'd swear was a prelude to him throwing a punch.

"That's enough," he ground out.

"No, it's not," I said sharply. "You have no right to shush her because you don't like the truth. Whatever problems Vlad and I have had, at worst he's been a loyal friend who's saved my life, yours, and Gretchen's more than once, so as Mom used to say, if you can't say anything nice . . ."

Then shut the hell up, my flinty expression finished.

My father rose, his lips compressed into a thin, tight line as he limped to the door.

"I'm glad you're better, but I don't want your sister ensnared in this walking dead underworld, and no matter how you dress it up, that's what it is."

I didn't reply because anger would've made me say something I'd regret. I hadn't asked for the abilities that made me a kidnap magnet for the undead and drew my family into danger because they made great bait for the bad guys. My dad knew that, yet he was still blaming me anyway.

Gretchen waited until he'd left before she spoke, too.

"Wow. That was bitchy of him."

For once, my little sister and I were in complete agreement.

Chapter 25

With some help from Gretchen, I took a shower, glad to wash away the results of three days of being comatose and briefly dying. Then I had a bowl of soup and napped, awakening to another checkup from Dr. Romanov and more visitors as Sandra, Joe, and the other humans I'd befriended stopped by. In the evening, Marty and Gretchen came by again. Even my father dropped off books so I had something to do aside from watch my IVs drip, but the person I most wanted to see never showed up.