"Released" means it is being conjured anywhere beyond the thaumaturge's own palm.
As per the v20 rules, the number of successes determines the accuracy of the placement of the flame.
You need to declare the size of the flame (determines difficulty) and the desired placement before rolling (determines successes required).
If you want it to appear in your hand, it requires only one success. (Using anything above a palm sized flame in this case is not recommended...) Five successes means you can place it anywhere within your line of sight. It is indicated in v20 that, as a rule of thumb, you need one success per 10 yards of distance.
Once the roll is successfull, there is no need for throwing or otherwise placing the flame, it immediately appears at the desired location.
When it is in your palm, it will not harm anyone including yourself, nor can it be thrown. It will function as a light and a tool to scare the crap out of other kindred. If placed anywhere else, it immediately becomes an active flame that causes damage and rötschrek. At that point, the thaumaturge no longer controls the fire and cannot quench it.
Dodging is not described in the book, but to me it seems that it can be dodged like a ranged attack if the victim has inits over the caster and knows what lure of flames is. (It's kind of hard to determine that someone is going to set you on fire if he is only looking at you.)
When your Incapacitated health box is filled with damage (of any sort), you become Incapacitated. Any further damage past Incapacitated, whether from the same attack or a later one, sends you into torpor, unless it is aggravated, in which case you meet Final Death.
Bashing and lethal damage to a vampire in torpor typically don't do anything, although enough (decapitation, removal of the heart, etc) will still result in Final Death. Note that this is different from most other World of Darkness games in that there is no "wrap-around" where bashing damage converts to lethal and lethal to aggravated when damage off the chart is suffered. In fact, vampires don't even mark bashing and lethal separately, they just treat them both as "normal" damage and mark them both with the same slash.
Best Answer
None.
You are correct. Disciplines don't cost blood to use unless they say they do.