Not Another Vampire Book (21 page)

It
read ‘Illinois Drivers License’ and was made of some slick, durable material. 
It described Karalynn’s eyes and height, listed her address, and proclaimed her
an ‘organ donor.’  None of it made any sense, but that wasn’t what made his
stomach knot and a chill sweep through him.

It
was her date of birth.

Karalynn
wasn’t crazy or lying about being from the future.  Damien hadn’t thought she
was, exactly, he’d just had a hard time conceptualizing it.  He accepted
supernatural happenings as easily as he breathed, but this wasn’t the work of
any magic he knew.  He was holding the evidence in his hand and he still
couldn’t believe it.

No
wonder Karalynn insisted that this was all fiction.  The world must be baffling
for her.

This
wasn’t her time.

The
explanation was actually a relief.  It explained how she’d just appeared and
why she acted so odd; her clothes and her way of speaking and her confusion
with everything she saw.

His
cari
had been born in a different time, so fate had sent her here to
him.

Somehow.

Damien
blocked out the questions that still plagued him and seized onto time travel as
the simplest answer for everything that seemed so
off
.  It was the only
thing that he’d accept, because he knew –
knew
-- that he wasn’t just a
character in a story.  This
was
reality.  It had to be.  Karalynn being
from the future smoothed some of the frayed edges of his world.

“Any
idea what that stuff means?”  To’kel asked.  “Slade couldn’t figure it out.”

Damien’s
thumb brushed over Karalynn’s smiling photo.  His fate, his doom, his mate. 
The only being who constantly surprised him.  
His
.  He gave his head a
rueful shake.  “It means that my
cari
is very young for me.”

******

Locking
your doors with nothing but magicks turned out to be a real bad idea.

Kara
placed one phone call and she was free of her prison within twenty minutes.

It
was easy.  The helpful operator had connected her to Eugene Blanders’
accounting office.  All Kara had to do then was tell the guy that his beloved
Melessa had passed out at the World’s Fair Hotel.  Eugene promptly agreed to
come over and help resuscitate Sleeping Beauty.

That’s
how you staged a jailbreak.

Kara
smiled to herself, her feet swinging as she sat on the front desk.  Poor Vlad
was probably gonna wish Tanya had written a deadbolt on his door or that
Victorian hotels had better security against their guests.

While
she’d waited for Eugene, she’d amused herself by searching through Damien’s
possessions, but the snooping didn’t take long.  For someone so old, he sure
didn’t have a lot of interesting stuff in his bed chamber.  Like the rest of
the hotel, it had the warm and cozy ambiance of Freddy Kruger’s boiler room. 
Tanya wasn’t a less-is-more kinda girl when it came to her decorating choices. 
Damien’s room was over-the-top black, with massive furniture and flickering
candles.  It didn’t seem safe to keep them burning, but maybe Damien was
subconsciously hoping that the whole place would burn down.

He
didn’t have any personal items, which disappointed her.  No revealing diaries
she could flip through.  No evidence of hobbies or embarrassing photo albums.  The
only interesting thing in the room was a painting hanging on the far wall of a
dark haired woman in a white dress.  It didn’t take the
Eternal Passion at
Sunset
CliffsNotes to realize the portrait must be of his sister.

Amalie
was lovely.  Ebony hair and pale skin, with shiny black eyes that connected
with you right through the painting.  Her gaze had an impish light, the feather
of the fancy hat she wore curved down over her cheek and she almost looked like
she wanted to laugh and blow it away.  A girl like that belonged in a Disney
cartoon dancing with the seven dwarfs and marrying a handsome prince.

Only
her life hadn’t had the fairytale ending.

It
was crazy to want to cry as she looked at Amalie’s innocent face.  The girl was
just a figment of Tanya’s imagination.  She’d never really lived, at all, so
the Vampires hadn’t really cut her existence short.  Logically, Kara knew
that.  Except it was getting harder and harder not to see these characters as…
real.

The
weirdness of her feelings had Kara abandoning her scavenger hunt through
Damien’s room and returning to the lobby.

It
didn’t take long for Melessa’s fiancée to arrive.  When, Eugene knocked, Kara simply
called, “Come in,” and just like that, she’d Steve McQueened her own
Great
Escape
.

Ta-da.

She
hopped to the ground, as he pushed open the door.  “Don’t move, Eugene!”

He
stopped on the threshold, holding the door ajar with one hand.  “I beg your
pardon?”

“Don’t
move!”  She shoved the antler hat rack into place to prevent it from shutting,
again.  “There.  Okay. 
Now
, you can move.”

Eugene
flashed her an odd look.  “Are you the one who called me?  I’m looking for my
fiancée, Lady Melessa Fairview.”  He edged out of the way, his blue eyes
scanning the lobby in astonishment.  Early
House of Usher
obviously
wasn’t his favorite design period.  Mr. Soon-to-be-dumped-for Slade seemed
stunned by the hotel’s decorations.

It
was a shame he couldn’t do better for himself, story wise.  The guy wasn’t bad
looking exactly.  He was much bigger and cleaner cut than a ‘Eugene’ had a
right to be.  With a little work, he might even have been handsome.

Unfortunately,
he’d obviously been cast as the blandest, most boring, blond character ever
stereotyped.  His slight British accent gave him a condescending air, his unruffled
exterior made you want to lob mud balls at his clothes.  On his neatly groomed
head he wore a dorky looking bowler hat, which matched his tasteful plaid
overcoat.  Even though it was a clear summer evening, he carried an umbrella
under his arm.  And most amazing of all… He had a monocle.

A
monocle!

Tanya
was pulling out all the stops with Eugene.

It
was almost impressive.

“She’s
in the sitting room.  Right over there.”  Kara tried not to stare at the little
glass circle covering his right eye.  She’d never seen a monocle outside of a
Marx brothers’ film.  Part of her wanted to wave her hand in front of it.  “Um…
she’s fine.  She just passed out from…” 
dragons
  “excitement.”

“She’s
very high strung.”  Eugene muttered, in a long-suffering tone.  “We’re to be
married, you know.”  Eugene passed Kara his umbrella as he carefully removed
his coat.  “I had thought she’d call off the wedding by now, though.  Did she
mention that to you?”  He looked almost hopeful.

Clearly,
the Duke of Most-Likely-to-Succeed knew his marriage to Melessa was doomed and
he was okay with his jilting.  Poor guy probably didn’t understand what was
happening to the plot, either.  He looked concerned.  Kara would have been too,
if she’d just found out that she might have to actually marry Melessa, after
all.

“Uh…
Well, Mel did run away from your engagement party.”  She offered in a ‘think
positive’ tone.  “So, I don’t think you’re destined for orange blossoms, but if
you could just look after her for a little while, I know she’d appreciate it.”

“Does
she need a physician?”  Eugene passed her his coat and hat, like he just
expected her to take them, and headed towards the sitting room.  “I could
summon one.”

“No,
she saw a doctor.”  A Wizard Warlock doctor, but a doctor none-the-less.  Kara
would trust Damien’s opinion over some nineteenth century quack who probably
still used leeches.  She carelessly dumped Eugene’s stuff on the front desk and
followed him into the sitting room.  “She’s just sleeping.  It’s been a rough
time for her.”

Eugene
made an ‘umm’ sound.  “Quite.”  He started down at Mel, and Kara could have
sworn he rolled his eyes.  “I don’t suppose you care to explain why Lady
Melessa is dressed like a mountain man?”

Kara
winced.  She’d forgotten about Melessa’s Wild West getup.  “It’s a fashion
statement.”  She decided authoritatively.  “All the rage in Paris, this
season.”

 “Very
well.”  Eugene was taking this all in stride.  Or maybe he just didn’t give a
damn.  “I shall watch over Lady Melessa and her buckskin until she recovers.  I
suppose it is my duty until she breaks our betrothal.”

“Big
of you.”

“Yes,
yes.  I try to honor my responsibilities like a gentleman.”  He glanced back at
Kara.  “Have you called her father, yet?”

“Uh…
Melessa wouldn’t want me to.”  She lied.  “She needs some time to think, away
from home.  Emotional space and all.”

“Hmmm. 
I presume that’s why she’s here in this… place?”  He said it like ‘ninth ring
of hell.’

“Yeah,
she’s visiting me.” 
She just doesn’t know it, yet. 
“Mel needed a
vacation.”

“I
see.  And who are you, exactly?”

“Karalynn
Donnelly.  I’m a… guest here.”

“Oh. 
I thought you were a servant.  So, you chose to stay at this establishment
deliberately?
”
 Eugene scanned the displays of deadly weapons and the wallpaper that always
looked like it was moving.  “I assume you couldn’t afford better?”

Jesus,
this guy actually made Slade seem like a dream date.  Amazing.  “Well, once you
check in here, it’s hard to leave.”  She grabbed the book that Damien had been
reading and shoved it at him.  “Here.  Do some reading and stay out of trouble. 
I have to go.”

His
lips pursed, scrutinizing the title on the spine.  “This is a medical text.  In
Austrian.  I don’t speak Austrian.”

“Damien
knows Austrian?”  Kara snatched it back and rolled her eyes.  “That’s so
annoying.”  The guy got to be a scholar on top of his magical powers and
off-the-charts hotness?  Completely unfair.  “Whatever.”  She tossed the book
aside.  “Just add big numbers in your head or whatever accountants do for fun,
then.  I’ll be back soon.”

“When?”

“As
soon as I kill someone.  Don’t worry.  It won’t take long.  I know just the bar
he’s hiding in.”

Eugene
got a stuffy look on his face.  “I find something odd about this entire
arrangement.”

“Buddy,
you’re preaching to the choir.”

“
You have stood against me for the last time!” 
Slade pronounced passionately.  “You have betrayed our people and broken our
grandmother’s heart!”  His sword swung in a graceful arc and impaled his traitorous
cousin.  “Worse, you attacked my Eternal-One.  No honorable warrior would let
you roam free to try such actions again.”  He stepped back as To’kel toppled
over, the lesser Vampire gasping his last breaths.  “Your plan was poorly
conceived from the start.”

To’kel coughed as he collapsed to the ballroom floor. 
“You have killed me in front of the humans.  You will be sanctioned.”

“Perhaps.  Perhaps, I shall face the wrath of the
Council of Elders.  But, my Eternal-One is safe from you and that it worth any price.” 
Slade shook his handsome head.  “You have no comprehension of what a hero will sacrifice
to protect his mate and make her happy.”

Eternal
Passion at Sunset- Chapter Eleven

Finding
Damien was the easy part.

There
was only one ‘Al’s Bar’ in fake-Chicago, so the carriage driver took her right
to it.  Kara stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked around.  Obviously,
Tanya’s idea of Al’s was more along the lines of an Old West Saloon than a
corner pub.  Kara wrinkled her nose at the swinging double doors and
illuminated sign with cowboy movie font.  Ragtime music blared from a piano,
the stench of liquor made her eyes water, drunken men laughed too loud.

Damien
had left her to come
here?

Jerk.

Kara
stalked into the bar, ignoring the surprised looks leveled in her direction.  Al’s
must not have a lot of female patrons in ball gowns.  Too bad.  It only took
Kara a moment to spot Damien sitting in the far corner.  In fact, he was the
only
person she saw.  Large and dark, his presence dominated the entire space.

Damien’s
head turned as if he sensed her standing there.  Glowing black eyes found her
unerringly through the crowd.

Kara
arched a brow at him, waiting for some show of surprise or anger.  The lowly
human had outmaneuvered him in less than an hour.  It had to be tough on a professional-hard-ass-with-magic-powers’
ego.  She wasn’t sure what to expect really.

It
wasn’t a smile, though.

For
the first time since she’d known him, Damien genuinely grinned.

Kara
felt her mouth part in amazement at his spontaneous, delighted expression.  It
softened the menacing edge to his mouth and warmed the ebony light of his
gaze.  “Hello, Kara Lynn.”  He didn’t raise his voice, but she heard him just
fine over the din.  “How surprisingly unsurprising to see you here.”

She
started in his direction, refusing to be dazzled by his supernatural hotness
when he smiled like that.  He was already egotistical enough without gaping at
him.  “What?  No threats and swearing because I escaped your Fortress of Doom?”

“What
would be the point?  After all, you escaped straight back to me.  Mind if I ask
why you would do something so contradictory and utterly self-defeating?”  Under
his amusement, he was relieved.  Kara could read it in his face as he got to
his feet and held out a chair for her.

 “I
told you, I feel safe with you.”  Kara stopped in front of him and arched a
brow.  “No more trying to screw that up.”  She noticed the raven was missing
again, which was always a good thing.  Vlad was in a better mood as if her
coming here had reassured him that she wasn’t planning an elopement with Slade
the second his back was turned.  “I mean it.  I have a great sense of humor,
but kidnapping stunts aren’t nearly so funny the second time.”

“Well,
I’d hate to repeat a joke.  I’ll just have to keep you under my nefarious
control in some other hilarious way.”

Kara
did
not
almost laugh at his sardonic drawl.  She also didn’t go up on
tiptoe to accept his slow, open-mouthed kiss.  It was some kind of arrogant,
territorial, macho thing and it absolutely
didn’t
make her toes curl. 
It
wasn’t
wiping her mind free of everything but Damien and how good he
smelled and how much she wanted him and...

She
gave a soft moan of surrender, as her arms wound around his neck.

God
but this guy was wasting his talents on villainy.  Her lips parted, giving him
access and demanding her own.  He should be on the lecture circuit, explaining
his kissing techniques to men everywhere.  The entire female population of the
world would be in his debt.  Kara would never, ever get enough of his skills.

“This
is her?”  A masculine voice demanded as Damien finally drew back to nuzzle her
curls.  “This is Slade’s woman?”  He sounded disappointed.  He must have been
picturing someone different in his mind.  Someone who was a size zero, with
shiny blonde hair that didn’t frizz, and fluttering, foot long lashes.  Someone
worth going to Vampire war over.

Someone
like Melessa.

Kara
pulled her attention away from Damien long enough to scowl at the guy.  He had
to be To’kel.  She recognized the Vampires’ trademark pirate clothes and
bedroom eyes.  If Damien and Melessa were untapped summer blockbuster
goldmines, To’kel could’ve made his Tinsel Town fortune as a porn star.  He
should have been wearing mirrored sunglasses and gold chains.  If she wasn’t
still breathless and achy from Damien’s kiss, she would have flipped him off
just on general principles.

“I’m
not ‘Slade’s woman.”  Her denial was drowned out by a certain sorcerer’s even
more emphatic response.

“She
is
not
Slade’s woman.”  Damien flashed To’kel a look that had Dirk
Diggler flinching and hastily backtracking.

“I
know.  Sorry.  She’s
your
cari
.  I know.”

“Uh...” 
Kara raised a hand.  “It’s
Kara
, not
Carrie
.”  She didn’t mind
Damien calling her that.  He gave it a melty sort of accent that made the
nickname incredibly provocative.  Sleazy guy, though?  Nope.  He didn’t have
the same privileges.  “Karalynn, actually.”

Damien
and To’kel both squinted at her like she was speaking in tongues.

Then,
Damien’s mouth curved.  “You think I call you ‘
Carrie
’?”  He made a
rusty sort of noise that --from anyone
not
evil--might have been called
a laugh.  The sound was oddly, darkly beautiful.  It did some mysterious
dipping thing to her insides and made her want to rip his clothes off.

Not
good.

Especially
when she didn’t get the punch line.

“What’s
so funny?”

“Nothing.” 
He still seemed amused.  “I wondered at your lack of reaction, but... Of course. 
You’re human.”  He pressed a kiss to her temple and guided her into her seat. 
“It’s for the best.  I just had not thought that you’d interpret
cari
in
that way.”

“In
what
way?  What are you calling me if not Carrie?”

“
Cari
. 
With an ‘i’ and one ‘r’.  It is like... an... endearment in my language.”  He
shook his head as if her inability to speak Wizard Warlock-ese was just silly
and adorable to him.  “You are right, though.  No other should call you
cari
. 
I would not like it.”

Cari
spelled that way actually seemed kinda familiar.  She must have read it in one
of the chapters, but Kara still felt like she was missing something.  “It’s an
endearment?”  She repeated suspiciously.  “You sure you’re not secretly
swearing at me?”  She looked over at To’kel for a second opinion.

He
was goggling at her.  “The human does not even understand the meaning of
cari
? 
But, Damien...”

Damien
cut him off.  “Weren’t you leaving?”  It wasn’t a suggestion.

“Yes,
but...”

“No,
wait!  He can’t go, yet.  That’s why I’m here.”  Kara looked back over at the
Vampire and cut right to the chase.  “Right now, we’re all living in a book.  I
know it’s gonna be hard to accept that, but you have to, because we’re more
off-track than ever.”

 To’kel
blinked.  “What?”

“We’re
already supposed to be at the ball.  Every minute I waste explaining this, is
another minute we’re veering away from the plot.  And if you’re planning to
kill Slade or whatever, that could be disastrous.”

“What?!”

“Kara
Lynn…”  Damien began.

“This
is important.”  She frowned at him and then turned back to To’kel.  “You need
to lay off Slade, until he’s better prepared to fight.  You have to let him
win.”

To’kel’s
jaw dropped.  “
What?
”  It was a shriek this time.  “Why the fuck would I
do that?”

“Because
you’re not supposed to beat him!”  Kara shot-back.  “He already knows what
you’re up to.  He knows you’ll be going to that ball for Melessa.”

“Who?”

“Alright,
well, he doesn’t know that part, right
now
, because he hasn’t met
Melessa.  But
I
know that your plotting against him and the plan is
supposed to fail.”  It just so happened she could prove it, too.  She plopped
Eternal
Passion at Sunset
onto the table in front of him, flipping through the
pages.  “See?  Right here.”  She tapped page 175.  “‘To’kel!’ shouted Slade,
‘Your plan has failed.’”

To’kel
gasped in outrage.  “No!”

Kara
kept reading.  “Slade stood as straight and imposing as a very large tree.  ‘I
know that you have plotted with Damien to steal my crown and my beloved, but I
am the rightful owner of both and will not have them stolen by you, my
illegitimate cousin from hell.’”  She sighed and glanced up at Damien.  “You
really
think I’m irresistibly drawn to that clown?  Really?”

Damien
didn’t answer that.  His attention stayed fixed on To’kel.

The
Vampire scanned the sentences as if there might be a “just joking” printed in
there someplace.  His face grew darker.  “What is this blasphemous text?  Have
you created it?  Are you a Witch?!”

Again,
with the Witch stuff.  “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, buddy.”  She slammed
the book closed, point proven.  No sense in letting him read his own death
scene.  “Look, I’m not a Witch.  And I’m not Slade’s Eternal-One.  Not really. 
I have that girl locked up at Damien’s house.  I just know what’s supposed to
happen.  I
know
that you’re taking us way off script, so you can’t...”

“NO!
 
I
will
win.  Slade knows nothing of my plans unless
you
have
told him!”

“I
didn’t tell him.”  Kara waved that aside.  “Your grandma will, though.  You
should have been nicer to her and not killed her cat.”

“Grandmother
will betray me because of Fluffy!?”  To’kel tried to grab the book and double
check.  “That
bitch!
”

“Oh
geez, get a grip.”  Kara rolled her eyes and held the manuscript away from him. 
“You plan to attack Slade at the ball, but you’re not even the main bad guy. 
You’re a hastily tossed together plot devise.  You can’t win and you’re gonna
screw everything up.  So what I need for you to do is stop this stupid scheme
to usurp Slade, before I’m stuck here...”

“
You
plot to kill me!
”  To’kel surged to his feet.  “Your prophetic book is
unholy proof!  You
are
a Witch!”  Kara had been expecting anger or
disbelief, but she hadn’t thought he’d go nuts.  He wanted to attack her.

In
fact, he
did
.

To’kel
lunged across the table towards Kara, with intent to do great bodily harm.  The
Vamp probably would have gone for her jugular –literally-- only Damien was
there.  His powers slammed out like a wrecking ball.  Kara felt them whooshing
past her and blowing her hair as she instinctively pressed backwards towards
their big, silent Wizard-Warlock-y source.

Damien
didn’t move, but To’kel went flying.  He hit the wall hard enough to send him careening
right through the wooden siding and out onto the street.  He actually left a
vaguely Vampire-shaped hole.  Kara hadn’t seen anything like it outside of a
Bugs Bunny cartoon.  She blinked at it for a beat and then up at Damien.  “That’s
a neat trick.”

He
arched a brow.  “That book is cursed.”  All the humans in the bar were gaping
at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.  Or care.  Instead, Damien stalked over
to stare out his newly made ‘window’ and sighed.  “Perfect.  He’s already gone. 
See? 
Cursed
.”

“To’kel
vanished?”  She hurried over to his side.  “Can Vampires do that zapping trick
of yours?”

“Sometimes.” 
He sounded frustrated.  “Now, I’m going to have to track him down before I kill
him.  It’ll waste my entire evening.  Plus, I’m out a perfectly serviceable
spy.”  He glanced down at her.  “You cause me no end of trouble, woman.”

Kara
met his eyes.  “I know.  Sorry.”

His
mouth curved at her rueful apology.  One elegant hand passed over her hair in a
caress.  “Are you alright,
cari
?”