Free Not Another Vampire Book by Cassandra Gannon Page A

reason.  For good or ill, his fate was tied to this woman. 
Slade’s woman.  The destined bride of his enemy.
    Damien’s
strangely outspoken, utterly oblivious hostage.
    “Damien,
are you listening?”  She demanded.
    “How
could I prevent it?  You’re shouting at me.”  No one else had the spine to even
attempt such a thing.  If they had, Damien would have exploded their eyes right
in the sockets and then ripped their lungs out with his magicks.  With this baffling
human, though, he just found the impertinence… interesting.
    Kara
made a face, not at all afraid of his powers or the horrible, conscious-less
things he could do to a mere mortal.  Even one as unique as her.  “Just make
him turn left, Vlad.”
    If
Damien could have still felt amusement, he might have smiled at her nerve.  Karalynn
interested Damien and nothing interested Damien.  She was somehow immune
to his mindreading powers.  She was able to see things that others couldn’t. 
Why?  What was she?  How had she just appeared at the party?  Why would she not
want Slade?  Why would she instead choose to come with him ?  Why were
her clothes so… different?
    Damien’s
eyes flicked down to the long expanse of her legs and then quickly away, again.
 He’d always been drawn to female legs.  Hers were so beautifully shaped and
shockingly bare.  He’d never been so aware of a woman before.
    Not
that Kara was trying to entice him.  Damien might as well have been a
lamppost for all the attention she gave him.  That annoyed him, although it was
beneath him to care about a mortal’s opinion.
    “Are
you sure, this time?”  He asked just to irritate her.  “We seem to be going in
circles. One would think you’d remember the location of your own building.”
    Kara
flashed him a glare.  “It’s not my fault.  Everything’s all switched around. 
Tanya can’t even get the streets in her own city straight.”
    “Indeed.” 
Whoever Tanya was, Karalynn obviously blamed the woman for all her problems. 
He’d ask for specifics, but he could wait an hour or so for the truth.  Twelve
hundred years of life had taught him patience.  Damien leaned closer to the window
and raised his voice so the cab driver could hear.  “Turn left.”  He called,
wearily.
    The
tediously slow human transportation was yet another bothersome detail of this
excursion.  If Kara had let them just teleport, they could’ve been there by
now.  So, why hadn’t he just ignored her ludicrous feelings?  Why wasn’t he putting
a stop to all this madness?
    So
many questions and they all revolved around one small girl.
    Tonight
everything had gone strangely.  Not at all as he’d anticipated.  For the first
time in forever, Damien worried that somebody could actually defeat him.  Kara
was beyond his understanding.  He’d only been in her orbit for a short time and
already she had him acting out of character.  She did something mysterious and
unexpected to his normal, rational way of thinking and that made her a threat.
    Far
more of one than that asshole Slade.
    “Your
bird’s staring at me.”  She muttered.  “Does it have to do that?”
    “I
don’t think she likes you.”
    “It’s
mutual.”  Karalynn thumped her forehead against the window glass.  “Ya know, when
I went to work this morning, I never thought I’d misplace the whole office
today.  I was sooo not expecting any of this to happen.”
    “Neither
was I.”
    That
was an understatement.  His plan had been so simple.  Damien appreciated a good
plan.  It gave him something to think about besides the memories and hatred.  It
made sense to hold onto Slade’s woman and use her to lure the Vampire into a
trap.  Kidnapping the bastard’s Eternal-One had always been Damien’s
intention.  He was just stunned that it happened so easily.
    Karalynn
Donnelly was his prisoner.
    That
seemed… wrong.
    Maybe,
on some level, Damien had never expected his plan to work.  He certainly