Bound by Flames

“We need to move that block and open the door,” I said more strongly, heading toward the stone monolith.

Dorian yanked me back so hard, he broke my arm. “Napalm cannot burn through stone, but if you remove the barrier and open the door, it could flood this area and kill us. We need to wait. Help is on the way.”

My arm had already healed by the time he stopped speaking, and if my heart still worked, it would have been hammering. Another shudder rocked the dungeon, followed by more crashing noises above us. I looked into Dorian’s flinty blue gaze and saw that he really would let everyone on the other side of that door die, all to obey orders. Yes, help was on the way, but by the time Vlad’s allies arrived, most of the people in the house would be crushed or burned to death.

I couldn’t live with myself if I let that happen. Marty was up there, not to mention all the guards who were fighting for their lives and ours. Yes, we might be in danger if we removed that barrier and opened the door, but those people would die if we didn’t. With a choice like that, there was no choice.

Besides, I thought, steeling myself for what came next, stone wasn’t the only thing that was immune to fire. Thanks to Vlad smothering me in his aura, at the moment, so was I.

“Dorian,” I said in an even voice. “I’m sorry.”

Then I laid my right hand on him and blasted him with enough voltage to send him crashing into the wall behind us. Alexandru started toward me, but stopped when I held the same hand out, a line of dazzling white now dangling from it.

“If you make me, I will do it,” I said, snapping the electric whip I’d formed. I meant it, too. Countless lives hung in the balance, my best friend’s among them.

Alexandru must’ve sensed that I wasn’t bluffing. He nodded and gestured at the huge rock in front of me.

“It will go faster with both of us.”

I waved him forward, keeping a wary eye out for any sudden, duplicitous movements as we grasped either end of the rock. Then we heaved, and even with our combined supernatural strength, I felt like I’d burst a spleen by the time we rolled the monolith aside to reveal the door.

“Open it,” I ordered. When he hesitated, I snapped, “Samir didn’t lock us down here without any keys, so open it!”

“Don’t,” Dorian gasped out, crawling toward us. “Samir will kill you for disobeying, and if he doesn’t, Vlad will.”

Alexandru glanced at my glowing whip, at Dorian, and then dropped to his knees. “I can’t,” he whispered.

My whip glowed brighter as the sounds behind the door grew more desperate. Yes, Vlad had ordered them to keep me safe, but he wouldn’t want scores of his people burned alive when all that was needed to save them was to open a damn door!

“Get back,” I yelled as loud as I could. “Nobody touch the door, it’s about to blow!” Then, with a quick prayer that I wouldn’t kill the people on the other side, I brought that sizzling electric whip down onto the thick metal door.

A hunk blew off near the lock, the voltage electrifying the highly conductive metal. I brought the whip down again, channeling more energy into it. The entire door became suffused with an eerie white glow before another piece hurtled off.

“No!” Dorian shouted.

A rush of wind warned me of his charge. I pivoted just in time, causing him to smash into the door instead of me. Electricity still coursed through the metal, making his whole body shudder with the voltage he absorbed. Seizing my chance, I yanked him off with my left hand and then kicked him out of my way before aiming another strike at the door.

That final, crackling whip cut through the locks, causing the door to sag open. Grief flooded me as I saw two of Vlad’s human blood donors stuck to the other side of the door, their bodies still convulsing from all the electricity they’d absorbed. I didn’t get a chance to check them for pulses before the door flung all the way open from the rush of people nearly trampling one another to get inside. In the next instant, a tremendous explosion shook the dungeon, knocking me out.

When I came to moments later, I could barely see through the blood, soot, and stony dust in my eyes. Then I could see with dazzling, horrifying clarity because the pitch-black dungeon was suddenly lit by countless rays of moonlight . . . and flames.

The side of the mountain where the second and third sections of the dungeon were located was gone. A gaping hole was all that was left, and flaming debris from the house rained down in front of it. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, yet that didn’t stop the moans, crashing noises, and screams that came from around and above me. Szilagyi wasn’t just destroying the house; he was bringing down the entire mountain, just as he’d planned to do months ago when he was laying a trap for Vlad. I didn’t know how he’d managed to pull off his stunningly successful attack, but it didn’t matter.

Vlad’s allies would arrive too late. So would he. We were all going to die.

I knew that, yet I heaved myself up from the rubble anyway. Vlad had spent hundreds of years hardening his heart so he’d never experience loss again, and I’d rammed through his barriers to make him admit that he loved me. Even if it was pointless, I’d fight until the bloody, bitter end. I owed him that.

Besides, I thought, forcing myself through the sea of people still pouring into the dungeon despite more than half of it being destroyed, I owed Szilagyi, too. He hadn’t just attacked Vlad; these were my house, my friends, and my people, too!

If Szilagyi had come with his people to admire the destruction he’d wrought, I intended to make it the last sight he ever saw.