Not Another Vampire Book (18 page)

“Liar. 
You promised that you weren’t just pretending to be attracted to me.  You promised
that I wasn’t just a way to attack Slade.  You
promised
you believed
me about not being his bride and…”

Damien
cut her off.  “I didn’t lie!”  He sounded furious, now.  “All of that is true. 
You’re not
supposed to be his and I will
never
accept that you
are.  That deluded bastard has
nothing
to do with you and me, Kara
Lynn.  Nothing, at all.”

“Bullshit. 
Just hearing the man’s –Vampire’s-- name pisses you off and now you tell me I
can’t leave, because I’m the key to your stupid plan!  You’re going to stake me
out like a goat, aren’t you?”

“Slade
will not get near you!”  Damien bellowed.  “The entire point of holding you
captive is to keep him away from you.  To stop what I
know
will happen
if you’re near him for long.  You think that I would risk losing you, now that
I know what you are?”

“What
I
am?
  A book editor?”

“You
are… special.”  Damien wouldn’t meet her eyes.  She could see his mouth tightening
as he tried to regain control.  “At one time, I thought to use Slade’s
Eternal-One to trap him.  Now, I just want to keep you away from the Vampire.”

“Why?” 
She wasn’t taking any of this at face value.  In fact, she flat out didn’t
believe any of his denials.  He sure wasn’t “protecting” her out of the
goodness of his heart.  This was all about Slade for him.

Damien
didn’t answer that.  “You can leave
later
.”  He temporized, instead.  “
Later
,
I will take you to your ball.  I give you my word.”

“
You
can’t come to the ball, though.  Note how I didn’t invite you.  First of
all, you’ll just start a fight and secondly, you need to watch Melessa for me. 
Who else can do it?”

He
flashed Mel a distracted look.  “I’ll find a servant to keep an eye on her.”

“You
have servants?  Where?”

“They
come and go.”  He muttered.  “It doesn’t matter.  I will solve all these
problems for you later.”

“How
much later?”

“I
am expecting a telephone call soon, so at some point after that.”

“A
phone call?”  That actually diverted her, for a beat.  Not
just
that
somebody would call this nut, but that he even owned a telephone.  Of course,
the way things were going, Tanya had probably written in Blackberries for his
evil networking needs.  “What year were phones even invented?”

“1876.”

Typical
that he would know that right off the top of his head.  Jerk.  Kara wasn’t a
history buff, but Damien seemed pretty sure.  So, maybe –
maybe
-- the
phone wasn’t a complete anachronism.  In theory.  But, Kara wasn’t giving
Eternal
Passion at
Sunset
the benefit of the doubt, at this point.  Vlad
getting calls at home seemed pretty sketchy.  “So, I’m only a prisoner because
you’re waiting on a real important call?  Why do I
not
believe that?”

“No,
that’s
not
why you’re a prisoner.  You’re a prisoner for your own
safety.  You are a target for the Vampires.  How many times have they almost
kidnapped you in the past twenty-four hours?  Slade will try again at this
party and, if I’m not there to stop him, you will be gone forever.”

“It’s
a bad romance novel!  There are lots of kidnappings in bad romance novels!” 
She crossed her arms over her chest, because the weakest part of her plan
was
the ‘keeping-Slade-from-abducting-her’ step.  Vlad’s skeptical expression wasn’t
helping with her confidence.  “The ball will be nice and public, so he won’t
try anything.”

One
black eyebrow arched.  “Oh, obviously.  Because, the
Wild West Show
was
such a small, private affair and he certainly didn’t attack you
there
.”

Damien
had a point, but his snide tone made it impossible for Kara to acknowledge it. 
“You know, I’m suddenly not worrying too much about the
Vampire Diaries
gang
stealing me away, since apparently they’d only be kidnapping me
back
from you.”  That was a lie.  Even pissed at Damien, she knew she was safe.  The
kidnapping thing was annoying her on general principles, but she certainly wasn’t
terrified.  She just didn’t have time for this craziness.  “You abducted me
first.
”

Vlad
was
not
happy with her assessment of things.  “You
asked
to come
with me last night.”  He snarled.

“And
now I’m asking to go.”

“No.”
 He stalked back towards his chair, clearly wanting the argument to end.  His
usual hostages probably didn’t talk back so much.

Kara
wasn’t done, though.  “How do you plan to hold me here against my will?  Chain
me to a radiator?”

“I’m
a sorcerer. It should not be difficult to keep you within the hotel.”  He stared
at the dreary wallpaper, his jaw like granite.  “I’ll just use my magicks to
make it impossible for you to open any of the doors or windows.”

Kara
said the first thing that popped into her head.  “What if there’s a fire?!” 
She’d seen more things burn over the past few day than in the whole rest of her
life combined.  The manuscript, her hand, the entire
Wild West Show
…
Being trapped in an inescapable building didn’t fill her with confidence.

Besides,
when someone said you were locked in a spooky hotel and couldn’t get out the
doors and windows, burning a hole in the wall just instantly came to mind. 
Well that or using an ax to hack yourself an exit.  Did Vlad even
have
an ax?  She looked around to see if any were hanging menacingly from the weapon
festooned walls.  He must, if only to dismember the corpses of his victims.

“I
would not allow my home to burn, Kara Lynn.”  He tone suggested that was just
crazy talk.  “I would not allow anything to harm you.  I wish you to feel safe
here.”

“Well,
using words like ‘captive’ and ‘kidnapped’ really don’t help that wish come
true.”

“I
know.”  He still wasn’t looking at her, but she saw his shoulders slump forward. 
“It does not surprise me that you no longer feel secure in my company.  It was
only a matter of time, really.  It’s best that it happened quickly.”  He
sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

“That’s
a copout and you know it.  You
chose
to do this to me and you could undo
it, if you wanted.”

Damien
shook his head.  “Some things are simple fate,
cari
.  I cannot allow you
go to Slade.  I have no choice.”

He
just wasn’t getting it.  Something had set him off and sent him back into his
full-on bad guy character.  Even his words were more stilted and
Eternal
Passion at Sunset
-ish.  Was this all because she wanted to go talk to
Slade?  Why was he acting this way?

“Damien,
you don’t want to do this.”  Kara warned, quietly.  “Be logical.  Holding a
girl captive is always a dead end.  You’re thinking like a villain.”

Damien’s
temper detonated, his ebony eyes glowing like burning coals.  “
I am not the
fucking villain!
”

Kara
let a long silence answer that roar.

That
seemed to say it all.

Damien
ran a hand through his hair and swore.  He glanced over at her and she could
see something besides frustration in his gaze.  He looked resigned, with hints
of desperation showing around the edges.  “I would not have you see me that
way.  I would have you see me… differently.”

“Well,
I’ll give you a heads up when the Stockholm’s Syndrome kicks in.  Until then, I
don’t think I want to hang out with you anymore.”  Turning, Kara headed for the
door, again.  It was either leave or start throwing stuff at his oblivious
head.  “I’ll be out here.  Tell me when my cell in the dungeon is ready.”

“Kara
Lynn…”

She
slammed the door on whatever he was planning to say next.  She stood in the
lobby of the hotel, breathing hard.  “Bastard.”  Vlad had seriously
underestimated her if he thought she the type of girl who’d put up with this
crap.  He wasn’t even
real
.  None of this was.

Okay,
well maybe Nestor the dragon guy.

He’d
seemed pretty damn real when he’d been trying to kill her.

But,
the rest of this psych-ward was just words on a page.  She looked around the
oppressive, cobwebby lobby.

Stupid
words
on a page.

It
was a good thing that Damien didn’t seem to be running an actual business here,
since the hotel’s entrance wouldn’t pull in many guests.  The place screamed
“run far, far away” right down to the creepy paintings on the wall.  The front
desk had handcuffs bolted to it.  Tourists would be better off staying in that
hotel from
The
Shining
.

Kara
stalked towards the double-doored entrance, testing just to make sure she
couldn’t walk right out.  Sadly, Vlad hadn’t been bluffing.  Kara’s hand phased
through the knob when she went to turn it.  It had no substance, as if the door
was made of nothing but mist.

How’d
he do that?   

“Kara
Lynn.”  Damien followed her out into the lobby.  “If you would just try and see
the bigger picture…”

“Not
speaking to you.”  She headed over to try the windows.

“
Cari
,
I do not want you angry at me.  Please just give me some time and I will take
you anywhere you wish to go.”

How
the hell did he shift it all around so
she
was the one being
unreasonable?  “A prison that has fieldtrips is still a prison.”

 “This
is not a prison!  I merely want you and Slade kept separate.”

“Right.” 
The window locks wouldn’t work.  Kara grabbed a particularly ugly gargoyle
statue from a coffin shaped table and aimed for the glass.

Damien
sighed as she tried to smash it in.  “It won’t break.  I can leave nothing to
chance… Hey!”  He ducked to the side, when she heaved the statue at him.

“You’re
lucky I always sucked at sports.  If I could aim, you’d be about a head
shorter, right now.  Your oh-so reasonable obsession with King Fang is getting
really old!”

“I
am not obsessed with Slade.  That damn book you read twists my actions and you
believe its lies!  It makes me seem wrong, when --if you would just look at
everything from
my
perspective-- you’d see that I am on the right side
of this war.”

“You’re
vowing vengeance every twenty minutes!”  She shot back.  “That’s an obsession
and it’s taken over your life.  I’m telling you, you need to let it go.”

“Not
until Slade’s dead.”  Damien hissed, in his most mustache-twirling tone, yet.  “
Not
until he dies
.”

“He
won’t die, you idiot!  He
can’t!
  You won’t beat him.”

Damien’s
expression darkened into something terrifying.  People were afraid of this man
for a reason.  She saw it so clearly in that moment.  “Oh, I
will
beat
him.”  It was a vow.  “I’ll have my…” He paused.  “
Reckoning
with the
Vampires.”

He’d
almost said vengeance, again.  Kara could tell and it set her temper spiraling
in a new direction.  It made her unaccountably furious that he couldn’t just
break free of Tanya’s hold and see how pointless this was.

“This
Slade fixation will kill you!”  She shouted.  “You’re not the hero, Damien, and
the bad guys never win in the end.”

He
laughed, the sound devoid of any humor.  “I’m not sure if I pity you or envy
you for that naivety.”  He pinched the bridge of his nose.  “How could you
possibly exist in this world, Kara Lynn?  How could you
possibly
be here
with someone like me?”

“Well,
it’s not like I can go anywhere
else
, now is it?”  She snapped.

He
dropped his hand on a sigh.  “It wasn’t an insult.”  He sounded tired.  “My
sister believed in good triumphing over evil, too.  She died believing it, I’m
sure.”

“And
do you think this is what she’d want for you?  This kind of life, mired in hate
and destined for a gratuitous death scene?  Is this what you’d want Amalie to
do, if your situations were reversed?  To kill herself for revenge?”

Damien’s
jaw ticked.  “I don’t want to speak about my sister.”

“We’re
speaking about
you
.”  Why couldn’t he see?  Slade would win their final
battle.  That was inevitable.  After all, how many romance novels ended with
the hero dead and the bad guy living happily ever after?  “If you never believe
another word I say to you, trust me on this one thing.”  She closed the
distance between them, catching hold of his arm and giving him a shake.  “If
you confront Slade, you will lose.”  She stared up into the sharp, beautiful
angles of his sinister face.  “You’ll die, Damien.”

Something
like regret moved across his expression.  “I know I will.”  His hand came up to
brush across the curve of her cheek as if he just couldn’t help himself.  “I’ve
felt that for a long time.  But, it doesn’t matter if I die, just so I take him
with me.”