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hurtling through it.
    Time seemed to switch into fast-forward. One second I was being pelted by flying glass, the next I was shoved into a corner, staring at the back of a dark-haired man in a trench coat. Before my next blink, flames coated the walls in orange and red waves, covering every inch of the room except the section where I was.
    “I heard you were looking for me,” a now-familiar voice said mockingly.
    The instant heat and smoke had me looking for a way out, but before I could attempt to crawl away, a blur of violence erupted in front of me. It was so fast I was reminded of the cartoons I’d watched as a kid, only this whirling mass of limbs was frighteningly real. With their incredible speed and the smoke making everything hazy, I couldn’t tell who was winning, or if more than two people were involved in it.
    If I got caught up in that deadly maelstrom, I’d be finished, but this was my chance. I took in a deep breath for courage, coughed at the smoke, and crawled to the nearest light socket. Then I placed my right hand over it, feeling the instant surge as the currents in me connected to the voltage in the socket.
    Energy flooded me like an adrenaline shot to my heart, followed by a searing ache along my nerves. The lights blinked out, but even with the sudden darkness and my eyes watering with pain and smoke, I could still see the window Vlad had decimated. Flames and some jagged pieces of glass clung to the frame, making it look like the mouth to hell. A few feet away, several vampires were locked in a death match that defied tracking with the naked eye. None of that made me hesitate. I took in another coughing breath and then hurtled toward the window, jumping at the last second as if the floor were a springboard.

Chapter 6
     
    “L eila, don’t!” a harsh voice shouted.
    Too late, not that I would’ve obeyed anyway. My jump was high enough to clear the three-foot ledge, and I tucked into a ball immediately, rolling as soon as I hit the ground. My arms protected my head for another few bruising, scrape-inducing tumbles until something hard stopped my momentum. Air burst from my lungs at the impact, pain radiating through my body.
    I wanted to stay hunched in a protective ball, but there was no time. I rose, assessing my options. I’d slammed into the front of a car with my wild dive, but beyond that was the welcoming darkness of the parking lot. I shook my head to clear the ringing that probably indicated a mild concussion and sprinted toward it as fast as my aching muscles could take me.
    “Stop her!” a voice commanded behind me.
    I glanced back while adding some extra oomph to my stride. Smoke and flames still poured from the ruined window, but no one chased me. With luck, they’d be occupied long enough for the fire department to distract them from coming after me. Bye bye, biters! I thought, smiling despite pain radiating through me. Too bad I hadn’t been wearing my running shoes when I was kidnapped.
    Out of nowhere, something snatched me from behind with what felt like bands of steel around my midsection. I doubled over, almost vomiting from the abrupt resistance that made me instantly come to a stop. For a dazed second, I didn’t know what happened, but then I saw dark arms looped around my waist and felt something large and solid behind me.
    “I’ve got her,” a male voice called out. Then a cool mouth pressed to my ear. “Don’t bother with the stun gun again. It won’t be enough against me.”
    Wait until my new assailant realized my entire body was a stun gun. He must be another vampire or he’d be on the ground from touching me after the extra voltage I’d absorbed from the light socket—and that was just what my body gave off. My right hand was now a formidable weapon, but I needed more leverage to use it to its best advantage.
    “All right,” I said, trying to sound meek. “You’re hurting me,” I added to see if that made him loosen his grip.
    It did. So my captor