She was also human, so I didn’t understand why Ian tensed when she approached. Then I wondered if I’d imagined that when he strode over and gave her a lingering, openmouthed kiss.

“Elena,” Ian said once he’d let her up for air. “I hoped you’d be here tonight. And Klaus, mate, it’s been too long.”

Ian then kissed him with the same amount of tongue. When he was finished, Klaus gave him a light smack on the cheek.

“You know you’re not supposed to come back here.”

“Didn’t the two of you miss me?” Ian asked, sounding hurt.

Elena let out a ladylike snort. “Parts of me did, but the rest of me was too busy smarting over how you swindled me.”

“You said not to come back until I was ready to pay you back triple, and I am,” Ian countered. “Let me introduce you to my friends. Among other things, they’re the money.”

“Are they?” she drew out, coming over and extending her hand to Vlad. “Charmed, I’m sure.”

Despite Vlad’s hatred of being touched, he took Elena’s hand with a smile she wouldn’t have understood. I did, and almost pitied her. Vlad could burn objects without tactile contact first, but to burn people, he had to touch them first. Now, Elena was as good as kindling to him.

So was Klaus, after Vlad shook her handsome, dark-haired companion’s hand next. I was wearing my current-repelling gloves, so I shook hands with them as well.

Elena barely glanced at me. Instead, she looked Vlad up and down while moistening her lips. I bristled in instinctive possessiveness, though to be fair, I couldn’t blame her. Vlad’s elegant outer coat was charcoal and his tailored pants were a lighter ash color, but his silk shirt was a subtly gleaming shade of silver. Instead of coming across as bland, Vlad looked as if he’d summoned every color of smoke, formed it into the richest material, then layered it over his muscular body. When you paired that with those piercing, coppery-green eyes, no wonder Elena seemed unable to look away.

Klaus also eyed Vlad with interest, although unlike Elena, he exuded more than a hint of wariness as well. “You look familiar. What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t,” Vlad replied, his tone icily pleasant.

Elena stiffened and Klaus blanched. Ian rolled his eyes, stepping in front of Vlad. “Don’t mind him, he’s always cranky before he gets his knob rubbed. Now, while I know that both of you are magically delectable, my friends will need a demonstration before they commit themselves for the evening.”

My brows shot into my hairline. Finding someone skilled in magic was important, but we hadn’t agreed to this!

Vlad must have felt the same way. He shoved Ian aside with a muttered, “Enough of this.” Then his gaze changed to glowing green as he glared at Elena and Klaus, then the rest of the room.

“All I see are cheap tricks, but if any of you socialites or sycophants are true practitioners, I have a job for you.”

Elena’s face flushed an angry shade of red. “How dare you insult me and my establishment! Your arrogance is why your kind is rarely welcomed here, vampire.”

“Vampire?” Klaus repeated. Then his gaze widened and he stared at Vlad with horrified recognition. “Now I know where I’ve seen you! You’re Vl—!”

That’s all he got out before his head exploded right off his shoulders, coating Elena in flaming spatters of goo.

“And here we go,” Ian said resignedly.

Chapter 8

Elena screamed and lunged at Vlad, who threw her aside hard enough to snap several bones. A collective gasp rose from the crowd, then all of them charged us en masse.

For a second, I just watched in amazement. Ian had said they were human, and from the heartbeats I heard, he was right. They might be magically inclined humans, but none of them seemed to have true powers, so what did they think they were going to do? Stun us into unconsciousness with their card tricks?

That’s why I didn’t take off my current-repelling gloves when several of them jumped me. The voltage from my right hand could kill them. As it was, all I had to do was wait until the electricity zapped into them as they came into close contact with my body. Then my attackers thinned when Vlad started flinging them away, some hitting the ceiling.

“Go easy, they can’t hurt me,” I said, grimacing when I watched a guy go limp after a hard fall to the floor.

Ian was also trying for the nonviolent approach. “This is a regrettable misunderstanding!” he shouted, ducking a series of wine bottles that began to torpedo into him. “Elena, we can—”

“He killed Klaus!” she roared, waving at the crowd, who had paused in their gang rush after Vlad’s ruthless response. “What are you waiting for?” Elena continued. “Get them!”

“Imbeciles,” Vlad muttered. “Still, this is the quickest way to find out if any of them has real ability.”

I would’ve argued, but Klaus had ruined doing this the peaceful way. Yet if he’d succeeded in shouting out Vlad’s name, we may as well have carved out a message in my skin to let Mircea’s captors know that we were after them. Plus it probably wouldn’t have taken long for the Law Guardians to hear of it, too, and we didn’t need more people trying to kill us.

“Don’t hurt them too badly,” I said. “And let’s split up, it’ll be quicker that way.” When Vlad didn’t move from his position in front of me, I gave him a firm shove. “If I see any hint of dangerous magic, I’ll yell for you, okay?”