Pandora shivered, remembering it.
This time when Tatsuya responded, his annoyance was palpable. "I'll hold true to my word if you hold true to yours. When I have the thief, I'll begin making my viewpoint known through all the right channels. I'm nothing without my honor."
Interesting, Pandora thought, watching as the female conduit nodded her consent. A thief in return for a head vamp's support for the cure? Was she really so important? The trade-off seemed a little one-sided, even Pandora could admit it. Why did Tatsuya want her so badly? Surely it couldn’t only be because she'd stolen some of his jewels…and some of his high lords' jewels…and, well, some other things as well? Supporting the cure was a huge statement, especially from the head vamp of New York.
When Tatsuya turned, walking away, Pandora paused.
Should she stay with the conduits, take the sword while it was here in the back room, and slip out with Tatsuya none the wiser? She could still meet with his agent tomorrow to make the drop, maybe grab the guy and question him for information about his master.
Or should she go with Tatsuya, observe the head vamp for a little while longer to see if there was any more she could learn about him or his dungeon, and take the sword sometime during the auction?
One way was definitely smarter.
The other would require a bit of a show.
Of course, there was a third option now that she realized Tatsuya had been expecting her all along, now that she knew the whole heist was an elaborate trap—cut her losses and leave.
But Pandora had never been one to back down from a challenge. And she had no doubt that even if it was a trap, she’d have no problem slipping away.
Door number two it is… Showtime.
With one glance over her shoulder, Pandora tried to hold back a grin as she watched the male conduit lift the sword and start arcing it over his head, cutting through empty space, while the female was completely oblivious, mind still on the mission.
They aren’t like I thought conduits would be.
But she didn’t have time to figure the pair out. Tatsuya launched into hyperspeed, and Pandora followed, returning to the party. She used the music and the conversation as cover for her movements, trailing closely behind, listening as he greeted guests and made his way slowly to the front of the room.
What do you want with me? she thought, not sure if she'd learn anything else tonight. Where are you hiding all those people—where’s your dungeon? Do you know they're what I'm really after? Are you just trying to stop me before I get them, or is there something else you want, something I can't quite see?
His smiling face was lit with a spotlight, and he began his speech, thanking all the oblivious, wealthy humans for their kind donations supporting such a worthy cause.
But Pandora wasn't paying attention to his words. She was just absently staring at him, mind wandering. It couldn't be that he was afraid of her. She wasn't powerful enough to merit that sort of response from a head vamp—at least she didn’t think so. Anger? Yes. Fury? Often. Fear? Not a chance.
And then she realized the only possible explanation.
He wants to use me.
He wants to use my invisibility.
If the rumors were true and Tatsuya really did have the power to bend even the strongest vampire to his will, what better weapon to have in his arsenal than a nearly indestructible undead with the power to disappear? He could order her to do anything in the world, go anywhere in the world, kill anyone in the world. And she’d be able to do it—to surprise even his toughest adversary.
As Tatsuya stepped down from the stage, allowing some survivors to say a few words about how blood donations had saved their lives, Pandora couldn't help but notice the way he scanned the room, searching every shadow, looking for her. The conduits had come out of the back room and were sitting at a table close to the stage. Their gazes were roving too.
I should go.
I should definitely go.
I should one hundred percent, not a doubt in my mind, drop everything and go. Forget the cash. Forget my pride. Forget this heist. And go. Away from Tatsuya. Away from Jax. Just flee New York and leave everything behind.
Yes.
I really, really should.
Instead, Pandora stepped closer, sensing her eyes shift into the undeniable frosty glow of hunger, but not for blood—for the danger, for the impossible odds, for the chance to prove her strength.
If Tatsuya was watching, she would give him a show. She'd let him know that she didn't care how powerful he was, didn't care that he was a head vamp, didn't care about his rules. She'd still find his dungeon. She'd still free his prisoners. And tonight, she'd still steal that sword. She'd be out so fast they'd never come close to catching her. And then maybe he'd understand that he'd chosen to underestimate the wrong girl.
The first item went up for auction.
Pandora bided her time, waiting out of sight.
Another item sold.
And another.
And another.
Until finally, they brought the sword from the back room, setting it off to the side until it was ready for the stage.
Now or never, Pandora thought. And then she grinned wickedly. Definitely now.
Leaping from her spot at the side of the room, Pandora lurched into hyperspeed. She zipped through the tables, not taking care to keep her feet silent. Let Tatsuya hear. Let any vamp hear. Because in a moment, there'd be enough noise to cover everything.
Her fangs were already out, prodded by the adrenaline pumping through her recently refilled veins. So she used them, acting too fast to think, to process her movements. A moment later, her teeth sank into soft, wrinkled flesh, cutting deep and quick. By the time the pain registered and the woman screamed, Pandora was already across the space. Lips bloody, she dropped to another neck, eliciting another bloodcurdling scream from the opposite side of the room.
Eyes darted in her direction, but Pandora didn’t take a second to pause, to think. She jumped, bending down, springing off the floor, nearly flying. She wrapped her hands around a thick metal chain hanging from the ceiling and landed smoothly on the top of a chandelier. Looking down, she noticed the table full of people below and took a moment to observe the conduits standing at attention. Before any doubts had time to creep in, she used her strength to rip the chain, popping a single metal link open.
Gravity did the rest.
Before Pandora even touched the ground, the crystals were chiming, clinking together as the chandelier grew unstable, trembling beneath its own weight now that the chain's strength had been compromised.
Three.
Two.
One.
The cable snapped.
The chandelier plummeted toward the ground, almost melodic if it weren't so utterly terrifying.
Have I gone too far…?
Pandora waited a second, watching as the people leapt from their table, diving out of the way. But as soon as she knew everyone was safe, she turned her back on the chaos. Tatsuya was standing in front of the sword, waiting for her with a smile on his lips, aware he was the only thing standing between her and victory.
So smug.
So arrogant.
So idiotically full of himself, she thought.
Still invisible, Pandora pressed herself flush against the wall, moving slowly closer, watching to see if Tatsuya could hear her.
He couldn't.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at the sword a mere foot away, looked at the incredibly powerful vamp also standing a mere foot away, and acted.
In one quick move, she flipped, reaching down with her hands as her feet came up and over, arcing in midair to grab the sword. She tumbled head over heels to the opposite side, pulling the sword into the shadows with her, making it disappear too.
Tatsuya heard the shift in the air, the swoosh of the sword as it left the table.
He acted on instinct, turning toward the sound.
Turning the wrong way.
By the time he realized his mistake, Pandora had already landed gracefully on her feet, utterly invisible, and sprinted with everything she had for the exit, trying to hold back her crazed laughter as she raced into the night, leaving the party and its patrons behind. She had no doubt they would try to follow—try being the operative word. Because Pandora was fast, and she had absolutely no intention of being caught.
The heist was over.
The fun, however, had only just begun.
Chapter Five
Pandora ran, not sparing a moment to glance over her shoulder as she flew through the door and down the grand staircase, into the night.
Going to her apartment was out of the question.
Just in case Tatsuya or one of his vamp cronies was following, she needed to lead them somewhere unexpected, somewhere she'd never need to return. Sure, she wanted to break into his dungeons and free his prisoners, but she was still weeks away from being able to do that, weeks from having all the information she needed—information like where the dungeon was, for starters, and what sort of security it had. Just, well, little things like that. Tonight was only supposed to be her first look at her competition, not the final face off. So she needed to lose him, fast.
And Pandora knew just the place.
A cemetery.
Every time she moved to a new city, she memorized where the local cemeteries were, and New York was no different. Queens. That's where she needed to be. Something about so many dead bodies in a single place made vampire senses go haywire. If Tatsuya followed her there, she'd evade him in the shadows. He wouldn't be able to smell her or hear her. The constant reek of decay was too much, seeping up from the ground and wrapping around a vampire's body, blocking everything else—as though the dead were trying to reach out and grab hold, trying to drag the vamp into the dirt and into death where it belonged. Of course, she'd forfeit a lot of her power too. They’d be on almost even ground, except for one little detail—her invisibility, the perfect leg up. She’d be able to lose him easily, and right now, that was all that mattered.
Pandora shifted directions, swerving around taxis and pedestrians, heading east toward the bridge. Before long, she was in Queens, hopping the cast iron gate at the entrance to the cemetery and wrinkling her nose as she searched for the best place to hide. As much as she hated it, she knew what that place would be.
In a grave, completely masked by the stench of the dead.
Spotting a row of mausoleums at the top of the hill, Pandora picked one, and dove inside. It wasn't exactly what she'd been picturing—gothic, scary, generally creepy. Instead, it was ultramodern and sleek, totally pristine. The walls were utterly flat, lined with square marble inlays signifying the different graves built into the sides of the building. Overhead, a glass dome allowed for the moonlight to pour in. The only decoration in the entire structure was a tomb in the center of the room, topped with the statue of a man holding a woman, sheltering her from something unseen.
At first, Pandora wanted to turn and run.
The only accessible grave in here was the tomb beneath the statue—a little too obvious for her liking. But the second she shifted her head toward the door, voices carried to her ears, far away and not quite clear since her senses were dampened by the heaviness of these sacred grounds. The presence of so many corpses brought a ringing to her ears and a plug to her nose, stripping her supervamp abilities away.
Was it Tatsuya?
One of his men?
She paused for another moment, straining. And then she relaxed when the words finally became clear.
"Come on, babe," a deep voice said, faint and far away but audible. "I've got a blanket in my bag, a bottle of wine, some candles. We're away from the noise, under the stars. It's romantic, just go with it."
Freaking hormonal teenagers, ruining my hiding place.
Pandora sighed, glancing out the door for a split second, unable to make out the two figures in the distance, shrouded in the dark—a boy and a girl. For a moment, she paused. Could it somehow be the conduits from the ball? But it wasn’t possible. Conduits didn’t have superstrength or superspeed. There was no way they could have followed her—not when she was five times as fast, not when she was wrapped in the shadows, not without superhearing or superscent or any other superability capable of tracking her.
No, these were just teenagers in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They had to be.
The girl giggled—high-pitched, gleeful, and annoying as hell. Pandora snarled, curling her upper lip, wanting to slap her. The instinct only increased when she spoke.
"But it's so scary."
You ain't seen nothing, she thought, letting her fangs pop out just a little.
"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."
And then they were kissing like dogs in heat, totally obnoxious.
Pandora rolled her eyes.
Thank god I don't have my supersenses right now, she thought, stepping back from the door. Those two wouldn't give her any trouble, but they were wandering a little too close for her liking. On the one hand, there'd be no better protection from Tatsuya than two sex-crazed teens making out in her hiding spot, covering any possible clue that she was there. On the other hand, ugh—she didn’t need to be witness to that.
But safety was more important.
Escaping was more important.
Pandora shifted her gaze to the tomb in the center of the room, sighing.
No time like the present.
She pushed the heavy lid of the tomb to the side, using the stone statue as a hold. Even with her strength, the thing was surprisingly heavy, but it slid open nonetheless, revealing the dank black space beneath.
This is so disgusting, Pandora thought as she stepped closer, searching for clothes or a skeleton or any hint of what was hiding beneath. The rotten smell of stale air told her the body inside was old. How old, she didn’t really want to know.
Outside, the girl shrieked. "You have to catch me first!"
A coy game of chase… How original…
Cringing from both the sappy lovefest going on outside and the dead body about to become her new best friend, Pandora crawled through the hole into the narrow space of the tomb. Using her hands and knees, she lifted the lid and balanced the uneven weight of the statue as she slid it back over, removing the light and surrounding herself in darkness. Trying not to think of the uneven grooves of bones digging into her back, she wrapped the shadows closer around herself, pretending that her invisibility also meant she wasn't really going to second base with a corpse right now.
A vamp could dream.
Right?
"Gotcha," came the muffled sound of a male voice seeping through the heavy stone. "What's my prize?"
"Me," the girl said.
Pandora closed her eyes. Please, go away. Please, don't make me listen to you make out for an hour. Oh, dear god, please do not use tonight to live out some rebellious fantasy about doing it in a graveyard. It's not that romantic, I swear.
Please.
Please.
Please.
"Now," the girl whispered.
Pandora's eyes shot open.
Now?
What the heck did that mean?
But trapped in the darkness, she had no clues but the drowned-out noises traveling through the stone. No smells. No sights. Nothing.
"Well, that's a bit of a letdown," the boy said, clearly disappointed.
"I don't get it. The tracker said he was right here."
Tracker?
Pandora reached for the sword strapped to her back—her heist, her prize, her moment of victory. Feeling along the handle, she scrunched her entire face into an angry, wrinkled mess.
Crap!
Right beneath the handguard, nestled into the corner of the handle, was an unusual little bump. She plucked it off and brought the button in front of her face. The subtle red blink was impossible to miss.
They tracked me.
They freaking tracked me!
> It was genius.
It was a royal pain in her ass.
And despite her previous doubts, it was definitely the two conduits from the ball. No vampire ever thought to use modern technology—not even Pandora, and she'd been practically born with a computer on her lap. The superstrength, the superhearing, the superspeed—they'd made her soft. And now that she was really paying attention, she couldn't help but notice that the temperature of the stone on either side of her face was rising. Oh, they were conduits all right. Because there was no doubt in her mind that outside this tomb, the entire mausoleum was drowning in flames.
But it was okay.
She could get out of this.
She was a master thief.
She could get out of anything.
Pandora tuned back into the conversation.
"Kira," the male conduit said. And the name made her pause—she swore she'd heard it somewhere. Kira. Kira. Why was that name so familiar?
"What?" the girl snapped, frustration evident. "Why are you twitching like that?"
Pandora sighed, realizing that the guy must have been jerking his head toward her hiding spot. She must not have put the lid on perfectly centered.
I really am off my game tonight.
But everything was fine, no reason to panic. They were conduits after all. Even if they had realized the sword was hidden in the tomb, it would actually be entertaining to watch them attempt to lift the lid. A huge stone statue? They had no chance. None. And even if they did, she was invisible. All they'd see was a dead body, not the sword and certainly not her—not with the shadows wrapped close. Or maybe she'd drop the sword, release it from the shadows and return it to the light, and then all they'd see was the sword and the tracker, and absolutely no sign of her.
She was fine.
Totally and completely fine.
Great even.
"Show yourself," Kira commanded.
Pandora snorted. Yeah, like that's going to work.
The boy must have thought the same. "That was convincing…"
Frost (Midnight Ice Book One) Page 6
