Free Damien by Jacquelyn Frank Page B

would translate to the Demons would be hard to say. Damien could only take comfort in the fact that Siena was married to one and that would go a long way toward tempering her response. However, to lose her only sister…that could unavoidably affect a powerful monarch in ways that would have long-reaching repercussions.
    The trail laid out before him was one of dragging energy. Though a teleport had all the appearance of starting cleanly in one place and popping up in another, it was more like a folding of space. A touching of the starting point to the ending point left behind something of a dotted line, as the crow flies, which could be followed if one knew what to look for and how to keep the track in sight.
    The only thing was, it would take Damien a hundred times the amount of time to track it, and anything could happen in that time. So he flew through the air with all the speed he could muster, the wind burning over his skin and whipping through his clothing at hurricane force.
    He barely noticed it, his entire concentration on his path.
    As strong as she was, Ruth had her limitations. He did not figure her to be beyond the European continent. He had never heard of a female Mind Demon who could teleport more than a thousand miles’ distance. Ruth, however, was the first and eldest of her kind. There was truly no telling what she was capable of doing.
    Especially with the black arts to aid her.
     
    It took Jasmine a full hour before she truly took note of Damien’s extended absence.
    Vampires were not in the practice of monitoring one another, but this was certainly an unusual circumstance. She was in another species’ territory, surrounded by Nightwalker strangers, set to a task that Damien had said he would accompany her on for at least this initial visit, just to make certain everything was reasonably safe and calm before leaving her to her own devices.
    Not that she needed protecting. It was simply that Damien had mentored her for most of her life, elevating her to the level of a personal favorite that no one else could lay a close claim to, and since then had always taken it upon himself to act as her guardian and protector. Much in the way an elder brother would protect a younger sister.
    So for him to break promised plans without even so much as a word to her, was enough to stimulate a measure of curiosity, if not concern. Far be it for Jasmine to play guardian to a Vampire twice her age and power.
    Still…
    Jasmine walked out of the Library, looking into the cavernous tunnels all around her, even though she knew by sense that Damien was nowhere close enough for visual acquisition. It was habit, she supposed, to look just the same. He was strong enough to block his presence from anyone should he choose to. She just did not understand why he would want to do so.
    As she paid closer attention to her surroundings, however, she began to pick up his trail.
    So he was not hiding for any purposeful reason.
    The track was mostly cold, telling her his passage had taken place long before.
    She debated the wisdom of tailing him.
    It could very well be the Vampire Prince had found something…or someone…to amuse himself with, and an interruption would not be welcome. A Vampire’s attention could always be easily swayed in these ways. A race of pure sensualists, they rarely passed up a delight if it piqued their interest.
    Although it had been some time since anything of that sort had been unique enough to win the attention of the Vampire who had lived long enough to see it all.
    Jasmine had spent the better part of five hundred years at Damien’s side; she had seen the multitude of females he had gone through in that time alone, never mind the four hundred fifty years he had lived before she had even been born. While he still had appetites, he was no longer easily intrigued. It would not be like him, for all his Vampire nature, to suddenly see something that would distract him from a duty he held important. Especially