Free The Vampire Diaries: A Cage of Burning Light (Kindle Worlds Novella) by L.J. McDonald

and
the ground leveled out underneath them into a straightaway that would take them
to the main road and then the airport. Sternes hung on until it was traveling
straight again before he started forward again, crawling to the back edge of
the truck. The truck wasn’t going at anything he’d consider to be speed, but he
wasn’t sent out on jobs like this because he was stupid.
    He looked
over the edge and saw the vampire crouched on the back step, hanging onto the
side with one hand and struggling with the awkward length of chain and lock
he’d used to secure the door with the other. She hadn’t seen him, and Sternes
grinned as he pulled one of his guns out of its holster at the small of his
back.
    A bullet
wouldn’t kill a vampire. It took a stake or sunlight for that. A lot of times,
a bullet didn’t slow them down, or it made them madder. However, a bullet
straight into the head would make her let go since they couldn’t pull that
instant healing crap of theirs if they had something foreign messing with their
motor control that their body needed to shuck out first. She’d be up again in
minutes, but by then they’d be halfway to the airport, and she’d never catch
up.
    She still
hadn’t seen him. She had to be new to the bloodsucking world, he decided, which
made this so much easier. He carefully cocked the pistol and aimed it at her
head. It wasn’t the most powerful gun he carried, but he needed the bullet to
stay in her head, not travel all the way through.
    “Elena!”
the vamp inside the truck shouted. “Look out!”
    Sternes
fired, but the vamp was already moving, swinging in an uncoordinated way that
caused her to lose her footing as his shot missed her. She screamed as she was
twisted by the speed they were going so she was hanging by one arm with her
back to the truck, her butt only a foot off the road and right behind the rear
tire while her feet kicked at the pavement. She tried to get them under her,
but every time she did, the truck’s momentum just made them fly out from under
her again. She was half hidden between the step and rear wheel well, however,
which made her an even harder target.
    “Elena!”
the trapped vampire yelled. He sounded wild with rage.
    The
vampire kept scrambling to get her feet underneath her as the momentum of the
truck twisted her back and forth and she flailed for balance with her free
hand. It brought her perilously close to the back tire, but the only clear shot
Sternes had at her were those legs. Given how badly they must be being abraded
against the asphalt, Sternes doubted she’d even feel a bullet there.
    Still,
lying flat on his belly, Sternes spread his legs and braced his feet against
the top of the truck to keep himself steady and gripped the pistol with both
hands. His next shot missed, but she shrieked again, and he hoped it scared her
enough to not be able to get back up on the truck.
    The truck
went around a turn, less sharp than the ones on the hill but still enough to
make Sternes glad he was braced as he slid a few inches. They were on the main
road now, a four lane deal that passed through exits to suburbia and strip
malls before it crossed a bridge and reached the airport. It was flat but also
occupied by other drivers, and he cursed this vampire who was too stupid to
give up. They were definitely going to be spotted, and someone was going to
call the police. Still, they couldn’t be able to respond too quickly in a hick
town such as this, and once they reached the plane, they’d be able to drag
their prisoner aboard and take off before the cops got there. Just as long as
they got rid of this vamp now .

    It was
too much, too much by far.
    Elena was
still hanging onto the back of the truck, the crazy woman refusing to abandon
him, and that bastard was taking shots at her. He wouldn’t be able to kill her,
but to Damon that didn’t matter worth a spitball in the ocean.
    He still
couldn’t break the chains around him, but the rage and, he’d