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

admit it, the
terror he felt for Elena had burned all of the vervain out of his system, and
Damon was blood hungry and at full strength.
    He
couldn’t break the chains, but he could squirm, and while the slack was
insufficient for him to use enough force to snap the chains, the abrasion made
him bleed and the blood made his skin slick. It also nearly drove him mad with
hunger, but Damon focused that madness, using it to ignore the pain while he
squirmed and struggled, not caring what joints he tore or bones he dislocated
as he fought to free himself from the chains. He was going to slither out of
these chains if it took every last drop of blood in his body because he’d see
himself damned before he let any more harm come to Elena.

    Elena
didn’t know if she could hang on for much longer. She kept trying to get her
feet under her, but the ground was moving too fast and she was swinging so much
she faced backwards, unable to get a hold anywhere with her other hand. If
she’d still been able to sweat, she would have lost her grip a long time ago.
    A bullet
whizzed by her head, and she couldn’t stop herself from letting out another
scream. Being swung around like a streamer on a ceiling fan wasn’t perhaps the
worst thing that could be happening to her right at this moment, but it was
still pretty high up there as far as she was concerned.
    “Stop
it!” she shouted. “Please!” The man hanging over the top of the truck just
smirked at her, and that only made her angrier, but she still couldn’t get her
feet under her and even as a vampire, this hurt .
    A car
passed them going in the other direction, the people in it staring at the
action happening on the truck in stunned surprise. Elena really hoped they
called the police and that the Sheriff showed up fast.
    Sternes
took another shot, this one grazing her free shoulder with a fresh flash of
pain. She couldn’t stay like this. She had to either let go or stop hanging
half off the truck and kicking at the road.
    She
couldn’t let go. Elena took a deep breath and stopped fighting the drag of the
street. Instead, she pulled her legs up to her chest and let all the strain go
onto her arm. She swung back against the side of the truck, the motion almost
gentle now, but she was so close to the rear tire that she could feel it
stirring the hair on her arm. If she touched that, she’d be ripped right off
the truck.
    For a
terrified moment, as she hung there banging against the side of the truck like
a dangling sack of potatoes, she truly thought that was going to happen and
that she’d lose her chance to rescue Damon. The strain was immense, but when
the wheel didn’t catch her, she was finally able to bend enough to use her
other arm to grab the side bar.
    Holding
on with both hands, she had the leverage to pull herself up and get her feet
back on the step at the back of the truck. She did and looked up in relief,
right into the barrel of a gun.

    His
shoulder was dislocated, his skin ripped to raw hamburger by the chains, and
still Damon struggled. The fresh blood made his bindings slick and he squirmed
his way out, forcing himself out of their grip until he had an arm free. He
could barely move it thanks to the dislocation, but it was enough to get his
fingers into the canvas over him and tear it open. He wriggled out through the
gap, the slack in the chains enough with his arm free that they weren’t able to
hold him anymore. He flopped onto the floor of the truck like a newborn and
pushed himself to his feet, much as he would have preferred to rest at least a
few moments. Elena didn’t have time for him to waste being weak.
    One thing
he did give a few seconds’ attention to was his dislocated shoulder, given he
couldn’t use it effectively while it was out of the socket, and some types of
injuries needed help before the healing could kick in. He turned to the wall of
the truck and slammed into it hard enough to dent the metal as he felt the bone
pop back into