Love Me to Death (Underveil, #1)(96)

Clearly, he’d read her mind as she saw the visions. “You know Aunt Uza?”

“Everyone knows Uza.”

“What did she mean?”

He placed his napkin on the table. “With all power comes great risk. In my case, you might pick up some of my gifts—or curses. In order to pick up any of my talents, you already have to have them present to some degree. I hear other’s thoughts. That won’t transfer because you do not hold that power at all. What I’m afraid will transfer is my ability to see the past.”

“Why is that a problem? We all have memories of the past.”

“Which is exactly why I think it would transfer. Elena, I don’t just see the past, I see it with absolute clarity and from everyone’s perspective. It makes events entirely different than originally perceived. It could drive the strongest person mad.”

This situation was crazy enough. She really didn’t need a dose of mad. “What’s with the paper in my vision?”

“That’s my other gift. I can teleport to a place I’ve seen, rather than only places I’ve been. It is extremely rare. I only know of one other who could do it.”

“My father.”

“Yes.”

She remembered how compassionate her father had been. How he seemed to know exactly what she was feeling without her having to tell him. He just seemed to know when she’d had a bad day, or when something made her happy. Putting that with what Lilian had said, she was getting a clearer picture of the man she thought she knew, but really didn’t. Not even a little bit. “My father was the empath vampire who used to run this place,”

“He was. His ability to feel others’ emotions made him a powerful leader.”

She stood. “I have to bite you, Vlad. I need to go to Nik as soon as possible, and I can’t do it without your ability to teleport to places based on pictures.”

“I know.”

Heart hammering, she approached his chair. “Do you need to be restrained like Ricardo?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “No. I am much older and have far greater control than Ricardo Juarez.”

“So you do this a lot?”

“I have never let another take my immortal blood before, Elena.” He took her face in his hands. “I am not kidding when I tell you this is dangerous. I am hopeful the effect will be temporary, but seeing the past with absolute clarity is not a gift. You will not like it. Please be sure this is correct.”

She closed her eyes, and the image of her biting him came up again. He was in the chair where he sat now, hands wrapped around the seat under him. Eyes closed, face relaxed. “Yeah, I’m absolutely certain. Will I see your memories?”

“Possibly, but only while you are drinking. After the physical connection is broken, they should all be your own. I hope they are more pleasant than mine.”

She stood over him and studied the vein pulsing in his neck just below the skin, and her fangs elongated with a sharp twinge deep in her jaw. Vlad showed none of the anxiety or tension Ricardo had, only calm resignation.

“The comparative study does not help. Leave the research scientist behind, Miss Arcos. Bite me.”

And he smelled different than Ricardo, too. Like the outdoors after a rain. Natural and fresh.

“Hum, please,” he said, barely above a whisper.

She struck up with the “Hokey Pokey,” her father’s favorite when he’d danced in the living room with her, and Vlad laughed.

His blood was cool and thick. The power hit her like a body slam, and she pulled back with a gasp.

“And you were worried about me,” he said with a smirk. “That wasn’t enough. Go all in, Elena. You have to save the world.”

“Will it hurt the baby?”

He actually looked offended. “Absolutely not.”

Knowing what to expect this time, she braced herself for the power rush. What she wasn’t prepared for were Vlad’s memories. She saw him with her father laughing, then smiling as he willingly went with the Slayers to the dungeon. He’d allowed himself to be captured on purpose because Uza told him he would need to save her. Then she saw the horrible slaughter in the fortress as he fought his way from the dungeon preceding his arrival at the barn, and then the scene in the great hall after the vampires had gone wild. Blood was everywhere and so were broken bodies. She shuddered, and a tear slid down her cheek. She kept on, hoping to get another glimpse of her father, but none came, only Vlad’s voice telling her to stop. Strong, cool hands shook her shoulders, and reluctantly, she opened her jaw, releasing him.

He steadied her, and after a moment, she opened her eyes to find him staring into her own as if searching for something. “Now sit,” he said. “Then focus on the future. Do not think about what you saw.”

Dizzy and body buzzing, she collapsed into the chair next to him, but found it almost impossible to concentrate as the vampire’s memories jumbled together with hers.

He leaned closer and whispered in her ear. “You must only look to the future until you fulfill your destiny as the Uniter.”

Just as he’d predicted, his memories faded, and her own moved to the forefront.

“Leave the past behind,” he said. “We all need you to succeed. If not, we all die. Including Nikolai Itzov and your unborn child.”