I swiped the blood off my upper lip and stormed out of my room, practically running down the stairs to the interior garden and the staircase behind it. Those steps I took two at a time, making a left turn at the tunnel instead of my usual right. My footsteps echoed in the enclosed space, but I slowed down the last twenty yards. I had a plan to get past the guards, and running up to them wouldn't help.

The hallway curved and narrowed, dead-ending with two vampires in front of an iron door a foot thick.

"I'm sorry, Miss Dalton, you can't be here," the sandy-haired one said. Then he frowned. "You're bleeding."

I gave him my best helpless-female smile, hoping he'd mistake the rage wafting off me for something else.

"I know, that's why you have to let me through. I need Vlad to heal me. It might be serious."

The guards exchanged a wary glance. "He didn't authorize you to come down here," the beefy, redheaded guard stated. "However, I would be glad to give you my blood - "

"Wouldn't that make him angry?" I interrupted, widening my eyes. "If I drank your blood when he was so close by?"

The guards exchanged an even warier look while inwardly, I smiled. That's right. Think about how territorial you vampires are and how I only drank Vlad's blood when I lived here before. For further effect, I swayed, and though the sandy-haired guard steadied me, as soon as I straightened, he snatched his hands away while looking around guiltily.

Checkmate.

"I'll secure permission to let you through," the redhead guard said. He wasn't so easily deceived. Must be married.

In response, I let myself go entirely limp. As expected, I didn't hit the floor before strong arms caught me. Then I was lifted up, the wind rushing past me from how fast whoever had grabbed me ran down the narrow staircase that led to the dungeon. I kept my eyes shut and my head drooping as we were ushered through more checkpoints. None of Vlad's guards wanted to be responsible for me dying, yet they were all too afraid of him to give me their blood.

By the time the fourth and final door creaked open, I sat up and pushed at the arms supporting me. No need to make it easier for me to be hauled away once the jig was up.

"Let me down," I told the guard, who turned out to be the blond instead of the redhead. No surprise.

My feet had barely hit the ground before Vlad's voice thundered through the cavernous darkness around us.

"What the hell is she doing here?"

Chapter 20

An orange glow preceded his appearance, showing the stone monolith in the center wasn't empty like the last time I'd been in the dungeon. Two vampires hung from the spiked silver chains embedded in the rock, a third impaled in front of them. When Vlad came closer, more light from his flaming hands showed which part of him the long wooden pole had entered by first.

"That's sick," I breathed, temporarily distracted.

He ignored that, stabbing a flaming finger at the guard. "You've bought yourself some painful time to think, Jameson."

"But she's bleeding!" the guard protested, giving me a little push forward.

"So you come and get me," Vlad said icily. The flames on his hands vanished as he seized my jaw, turning my head and forcibly preventing me from looking at his prisoners.

"You don't bring her down here without permission, ever," he continued, still speaking to Jameson while he stared at me. "A week on the pole will remind you of that."

"I wasn't about to let you pull one of your usual disappearing acts, so I tricked him by pretending I'd fainted," I snapped, trying without success to knock his hand away. "You want to punish someone? Punish me."

He grasped a handful of my hair. Between that and his grip on my jaw, I couldn't move as he leaned down, placing his lips directly over my ear.

"I am punishing you," he whispered. "You'll suffer from guilt every day he's on that pole. Then perhaps next time, you'll think twice before tricking my guards."

I shoved at his chest the same instant he released me, so I ended up pushing away only air. Vlad stood a few feet off, almost invisible against the darkness with his charcoal-gray shirt and black pants. If not for the emerald glow coming from his eyes, I wouldn't have known where he was.

"Now, apologize for intruding."

Not whispered. Instead, the command resounded in the cavernlike interior. Despite that, I couldn't contain my snort.

"I'd rather bleed to death."

"If you were anyone else, those would be your last words."

All of a sudden, I was reminded that the dungeon was a place where most people that entered never left. I'd looked at storming in here from my perspective: I was going to tear my ex-boyfriend a new one for his underhanded way of breaking a promise, and I had to get through a few of his cronies first.

From a vampire's perspective, I'd deceived highly trained guards into betraying their Master by taking me into what was supposed to be the most secure area of his house. That I'd done so in front of enemy combatants probably made it worse. I suppose the human equivalent would be bitch slapping my ex-boyfriend at his wedding while telling everyone what a small penis he had, though that would have short-term consequences. With the fear-based, feudalistic system vampires lived under, the repercussions from this might reverberate for centuries, and I couldn't even claim the girlfriend exemption anymore.

"At last, you begin to understand," Vlad said, irony threading into his tone.

I no longer saw the blond guard I'd duped into taking me down here, but even if Jameson had left, he was still listening. All the guards I'd fooled would be listening, and they'd repeat my next words to the rest of Vlad's staff, who'd repeat them to other vampires, who'd eventually repeat them to his enemies. I might prefer whatever retaliation Vlad would be forced to dish out to apologizing, but this was about more than me.

That didn't mean I was overlooking what he'd done to Maximus. I'll play along now, but if you refuse to see me after this, I'll make you impale me with the fit I throw, I thought defiantly. Then I cleared my throat and uttered an apology I never intended to give.

"Please forgive the intrusion. I shouldn't have come down here and I'm sorry."

My tone was good, but if tiny sparks shot out of my right hand in protest, I couldn't do anything about that.

A smile flitted across Vlad's face.

"I forgive you, but only because you said 'please.' "

Smartass, I thought. Then I groaned at the instant chorus of "Please!" mixed with cries for release from Vlad's prisoners. No wonder he got so sick of the word.

"I'm only merciful to one person a day," he threw over his shoulder. "As the saying goes, today isn't your day and tomorrow doesn't look good, either."

Then his gaze landed back on me. "Now, ask me to heal you."

You are REALLY pushing it, I thought, glaring at him.

He bared his teeth in a charmingly ferocious grin. "My dungeon, my rules."

Mentally, I cursed him in English and Romanian, but out loud I said, "Would you give me some of your blood to heal me?"

Another flash of teeth, now with fangs. "Come and get it."

I approached him the same way I would a swaying, upright cobra - with extreme caution. Being in close proximity to Vlad was dangerous, especially since we both still had feelings for each other. The odd sort of "time out" we'd experienced on the plane was over, so touching him now was playing with fire - literally - and he'd made sure that I had no choice.

Yes you do, my inner voice hissed. Take a beating instead!

I paused, considering that, and Vlad yanked me to him. Despite my anger, I was the one who felt like shocks of electricity sizzled into me when his body touched mine. For the briefest second, I closed my eyes, savoring the sensation. Then I snapped them open and stared up at him in challenge.

"Going to give me your blood or not?"

His grin was gone, replaced with a tight-lipped, savage intensity. Then he brought his wrist up, bit down deeply on it, and held it over my mouth.

I didn't look away as I parted my lips, taking in that warm, sharply flavored liquid. I never thought I'd miss the taste of blood, but with one swallow, I knew I'd missed his. My eyelids felt heavy with the strangest sort of bliss, yet I refused to close them. Keeping them open proved almost as treacherous. The look in his eyes when I sealed my lips over the punctures and sucked sent heat rocketing straight to my core.

Have you missed this, too? a dark part of me whispered. It wasn't my hated inner voice; it came from somewhere else. A place that felt like it only flared to life when Vlad was near.

His lips parted, showing the tips of his fangs. "Ask me again and I'll show you."

A threat? A sensual promise? Both? I moistened my lips. Even both would give me more pleasure than I could stand -

"No," I said, the single word echoing from my vehemence.

His embrace was my drug of choice, and as any addict knew, one sampling was too many - and a thousand never enough.

Then I pushed him away. Something dangerous smoldered in his gaze but he did nothing to stop me. Several torches flared to life, allowing me to find my way to the exit without tripping or groping about. Once I reached it, I turned back to him.

"I meant what I said. We still need to talk."

"Be in my private lounge at ten tonight. Otherwise, I'll consider the matter closed."

His private lounge, the same place I used to cross every morning because it bridged his bedroom with my old room. I'd sooner face a firing squad than go there, but if I refused, Maximus could stay locked in this dungeon for centuries.

The smile Vlad flashed me before he disappeared into the darkness said he already knew what I'd choose.

Chapter 21

I entered the lounge at exactly ten p.m. Vlad was on the sofa, two wineglasses and a bottle on the obsidian table in front of him. The TV was off and the light from the fireplace cast a soft glow over the rust-colored couch.

Memories assailed me as mercilessly as I'd feared. Vlad and I had spent many evenings unwinding with a bottle of wine on that couch. We'd done other things there, too. Unbidden, warmth crept through me that had nothing to do with the blazing fire.

I tried to squelch it with bluntness. "You didn't misunderstand why I wanted to see you, did you?"

He laughed, and that half growl, half-amused purr played havoc with my senses even as my hackles rose.

"You think I'm trying to seduce you? How presumptuous, considering I've never allowed an ex-lover back into my bed."

I glanced at the wineglasses, the romantic lighting, and finally back at him. If Vlad wasn't trying to seduce me, then he was taunting me with what I couldn't have. I'd dressed in a simple navy sheath that rose no higher than my knees. His black pants molded to his lower body, while his white shirt contrasted like snow against his tailored ebony jacket. That shirt was open, revealing all of his throat and the first few inches of his chest. Platinum cuff links winked when they caught the firelight, and his long, dark hair was combed back, all the better to highlight his lean, sensual features and arresting copper eyes.

The only thing missing was him slowly pouring hot fudge onto that bare expanse of chest. Then any court in the world would consider this sexual entrapment.

His smile widened. Crap, I'd forgotten to sing to keep him out of my thoughts.

"Fine. We're both here for platonic reasons and we'll leave it at that," I said, hating how husky my voice had become.

"Fine."

All of a sudden he was inches away, bringing me eye level to his open collar and the skin I'd just imagined drizzling with chocolate. I swallowed. Think of the dungeon and his broken promise, not how intoxicating he tastes even when he's not covered in dessert!

The dungeon image helped. "You need to let Maximus go," I stated, my voice stronger now.

"No. Wine?"

I blinked, anger covering my desire. "You promised you wouldn't torture him, but being imprisoned in a dungeon for centuries counts as torture."

Vlad held out a glass and then drank from it himself when I refused with a sharp shake of my head.

"No it doesn't," he said, still in that damnably unruffled tone. "Since I've firsthand experience with both, I assure you that torture and imprisonment are very different."

"You're splitting hairs. You knew exactly what I meant when I asked for your promise."

A shrug. "I've honored my word as it was given. If you wanted more, you should have specified."

"I was drugged!"

"And I was coerced," he replied, his gaze narrowing. "Many would consider that reason enough to invalidate a promise. I don't, and Maximus knew that betraying me would cost him. Because of you, it hasn't cost him as much as it should."

"This is just what you did with Marty," I seethed. "Giving me a promise that's useless after you're done playing word games with it, then you get offended when I call you a liar!"

Vlad set his glass down so hard I was amazed the stem didn't snap. Then he went to the door. When he opened it, I thought he was going to order me out. Instead, he left.

"Where are you going?" I called.

"To kill Maximus" was the reply that drifted back. "If I'm a liar, I may as well get full value out of it."

"Wait!"

He'd already made it to the end of the hall by the time I ran out to him, but at my frantic call, he turned around.

"You can't have it both ways, Leila. Either I'm a liar or I'm not, and if I'm not, then you have no cause to cry foul over what I've done to Maximus."