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

place. The pain was intense, but all it really did was feed the
urge for vengeance already boiling in his blood.
    Damon’s
nostrils flared, and as he turned his face up toward where he knew the man
threatening his Elena was, his eyes were blood red and his face creased with
blackened lines.

    He had
her this time. All the flailing back and forth while she was hanging down past
the edge of the truck made her a hard target, but she had a good grip now that
kept her nice and still.
    Sternes
didn’t give her any sort of warning that he was going to shoot. It would have
been nice and dramatic, but also stupid as hell. He preferred to play his
chances when the odds were in his favor, such as considering bribes from a
vampire that was chained down, not one that was free and only ten feet away.
    He
steadied his breathing, his finger beginning to squeeze on the trigger, not
pulling. He had one shot now, or else she’d be up on the roof with him and if
he were lucky, all he’d be doing was kissing asphalt at 60 miles an hour. He’d
take a dive if he had to, but he’d rather just nail her now.
    She
looked up, her soft eyes startled and frightened, as if she couldn’t quite
believe any of this was actually happening, and he had a perfect opportunity to
put a bullet right between them.
    A hand
punched up through the metal roof of the van, fingers crooked like claws as
they slammed down and into Sternes’ side.
    He
screamed in pain and involuntarily dropped his gun. It fell down off the truck
past the girl as Sternes tried to pull away from the hand holding him and draw
another gun from a shoulder holster under his jacket at the same time. The vamp
they’d captured shouldn’t have been able to do this. The vervain was supposed
to keep him kitten weak and helpless.
    The
vampire tightened his grip and pulled again. Sternes couldn’t stop his scream.
There was a massive hole torn in his side and his blood poured down into the
truck to feed the vampire inside, only making the monster stronger. Sternes
heard a low, pleased chuckle and a second hand reached through the hole to dig
into his side next to the other one, fingers tangling through his intestines.
    Sternes
was getting weak, dizzy, and in shock. He still tried to reach his gun, but his
hands weren’t obeying him and now the vamp was pulling him down into the truck.
The hole wasn’t very big, not more than a foot across, but that wasn’t a problem
when he didn’t care how many bones broke in the body he yanked through.
    Soon
enough, it wasn’t anything Sternes was concerned about either, nor was he
concerned about anything else ever again.

    Elena
crouched on the step at the back of the truck with her hair blowing in her face
and stared at the rust around the bolts that held the license plate while she
listened to the screaming. It didn’t last long, and when it was done she could
hear drinking sounds.
    She could
smell the blood as well, and it was better than anything else she’d ever
smelled in her life. Still, she didn’t move.
    “Remember
who you are,” she whispered to herself. “Remember who you are. Don’t give into
the bloodlust, you can’t. You can’t.” He’d been an evil man, but to feed off
his death, oh she couldn’t. She couldn’t.
    “Elena,”
she heard through the door. “Hold on. I’m opening the door.”
    How, she
wondered, given it was locked from the outside, right before Damon kicked the
door on the other side of the truck out and held a hand out to her despite how
the late sunlight made the skin on the back of it start to smoke and char. His
sleeve and shirt were soaked in blood, and there was blood on his lips and
chin, but he was grinning at her as if he’d never been in any danger at all.
    Elena took
his hand and let him pull her to him, holding her safely inside the truck.
Elena hugged him tightly and pressed her cheek against his chest, trying to
ignore the smell of the blood and keeping her eyes shut so she didn’t have to
see