The Vampire Diaries: Bound By Blood (Kindle Worlds Novella) (11 page)

“Why hello! If it isn’t it our favorite private dick,” said a voice that I knew all too well.

I opened my eyes to find Damon standing before me. “Where’s your brother?”

“He’s preoccupied, Mr. Private Dick.”

“Enough with the dick jokes, okay?”

“Who’s joking?” he said, stepping out of the surrounding woods so I could see him a little more clearly. To my amazement, I could see better in the night. In fact, the night air seemed suffused with particles of light that I had never known existed. “Besides,” said Damon, “I’m the one you want, right?”

“You killed the campers,” I said. “So, yes, you have to pay.”

“Pay?” he said, smirking. “What is this, the Old West?”

“You tell me,” I said, “since you’re older than the hills.”

“Very funny, dick. So, how does this go down?”

I didn’t like that he was alone—no, he wasn’t alone. I caught more decay on the wind, a wind that was coming from a different direction … a wind that was meant for only me. Yes, Mother Nature was taking care of me.

“Your brother is behind me,” I said. “I can smell him.”

Damon smirked, and then called out, “Stefan, you might as well come out—and please shower next time. Sheesh. Way to screw up a perfectly good ambush.”

As I turned at the sound of footsteps behind me, Damon rushed me, moving faster than I could have possibly believed. I had just enough time to raise my palm and focus my thoughts, sending a blast of air that literally knocked the bastard off his feet.

Damon rolled a couple of times, scrambled to his feet, and then dusted himself. “What the hell just happened?”

“I don’t know,” said Stefan, behind me. “Maybe we should ask her.”

As he stepped out of the woods, he had Gracie by the hair, pulling her painfully along with him. She was oddly quiet, although her face was tear-streaked, until I realized she had been undoubtedly compelled to be here, to do as these bastards said. I saw how they played, and they played for keeps.

“Let her go,” I ordered. For the first time, I saw the perils of my new life—that others who I cared about could get hurt. Interestingly, my life was devoid of anyone close to me. I had no parents, siblings, wife, or kids. Maybe I was ideally suited to this line of work.

That is, until I’d developed feelings for Gracie.

Still, feelings or not, I would never allow someone innocent to be hurt.

“No deal,” said Stefan.

“She’s innocent.”

“No, she hired you,” said Damon, stepping closer to me. I noted he did so warily this time. I truly didn’t think he knew what hit him. “That makes her a problem. What do we do with problems, Stefan?”

The taller brother gave me a horrific smile, then flashed a small knife—and promptly plunged it into Gracie’s thigh. She screamed but did not fight.

I screamed and was about to rush forward when the bastard held the now-bloody knife high and said, “The next one goes right into her heart.”

I stopped, breathing hard. The whisperings of the woods seemed to surround me, nearly overwhelming me. I got a strong sense that something was wrong with this picture, except I didn’t know what. The only thing that I could see that was wrong was that a girl I had started caring for was being used as a human pincushion.

“Let her go.”

“No.”

“What do you want?” I asked. I noted that Damon was creeping even closer.

“We want to drink from you,” said Stefan, still holding Gracie and still holding the small dagger over her heart.

“Why?”

“Because we’re thirsty, that’s why,” said Damon.

“So, if I let you drink from me, you will release her?”

“That’s the plan,” said the taller brother.

I pretended to think about it, knowing that an innocent girl’s life hung in the balance, knowing that if I screwed this up, more than likely she would be dead, and me as well. As I pretended to think about it, storm clouds began appearing above, building rapidly. Supernaturally fast.

Damon pointed up as a cold wind began to blow. “Is that you? You’re going to bring a little rain? How cute. Stefan, kill her.”

“Wait!” I shouted.

The taller brother did wait, the knife hovering over Gracie’s heart. And that was all the time I needed. Two jagged bolts of lightning appeared from the sky, ripped through the night air, and drove deep into the hearts of both vampires.

I stumbled back, amazed by the power and fury of the lightning. Both vampires were hurled back into the trees. I could smell burning flesh. Mercifully, Gracie seemed unhurt, at least not mortally wounded. She had crumpled to the ground, holding her leg and weeping.

I dashed to her side. She grabbed onto me tightly.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I knew that she wasn’t okay. The bastard had stabbed her leg.

“I’m okay now,” she said, a perhaps a little too calmly for me.

I was about to frown when a great force threw me to the ground. That great force had been Gracie herself. I was about to ask what the hell was going on when I saw her blazing yellow eyes.

“What the hell is going on?”

“What’s going on, Detective,” said a familiar cocky voice behind me, “is that we need your heart.”

I craned my head to see Damon appear in my line of sight. His leather jacket was still smoking from the lightning strike. He peeled it off. The shirt beneath had a black hole in the center of it.

“That was my favorite jacket. That’ll cost you one heart.
Yours
.”

I looked back up at Gracie who was currently pinning me to the ground. Her amber eyes blazed and I sensed a sadness in her, but that didn’t stop her from keeping me pinned down.

“Gracie, snap out of it!” I said.

“Hurry,” she said to the vampires, as if I wasn’t even a blip on her emotional radar. “We don’t want another lightning trick.”

And with that, Damon pounced—or, rather, tried to. After all, the ground beneath him gave way, swallowing him up in the process. And just as quickly as he disappeared, the ground above him sealed up.

“Damon!” shouted Stefan, and even as he lunged forward, the ground beneath him fell away, as well. He was gone in a blink … even as the ground reappeared.

Gracie leaped back, stumbling. “I’m sorry, Max. I—I was compelled. They forced me to attack you.”

I recalled Michael’s words that supernatural creatures cannot be compelled.

My head was still spinning. Jesus, had I really just sealed up two vampires within the Earth? Had Gracie just betrayed me? She continued backing up, holding her hands out before her.

“What—what are you?” I asked. And then it occurred to me … those eyes. Wolf eyes. “You lie.”

“No, Max—I swear!”

“You are not human.”

She opened her mouth to deny it, then decided better of it. “I’m sorry, Max.”

“They were going to kill me. They were going to take my heart.”

Her betrayal hit me like a bomb, blowing up everything I had built her up to be in my mind. As the realization hit me that the girl I was interested in, a girl I was crushing on, was plotting to kill me—and feast from my heart,
with the vampires
, Gracie turned and dashed off, running faster than I had ever seen any human run. Except, of course, she wasn’t a human.

She was a werewolf.

We stood together, scanning our surroundings. Neither of us could see much, but it was obvious we weren’t going anywhere soon.

“It’s a cavern,” said Stefan. “Sealed all around.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I said. “That private dick is really beginning to annoy me.”

“Well, that private dick is a very powerful Elemental, and we’re screwed, big brother.”

“Your cell phone working?” I asked.

“No, crushed. Yours?”

“Crushed.”

“Great,” said Stefan. “So, we’re trapped.”

“Looks like it. Any chance Bambi got trapped down here with us? We’re gonna be hungry soon.”

And that’s when my little brother sucker punched me, really laying me out. As I picked myself up, rubbing my jaw, I said, “What was that for?”

“Getting me into this mess.”

“How was I supposed to know the bastard could booby-trap the forest?”

“We have to think of a way out of here.”

“While you think, I’m going to start digging.”

“There’s probably a few tons of dirt above us,” said my bro, ever the pessimist.

“Then I suggest you start digging, too,” I said, and then whispered to myself: “Dear Bloody Diary … I’m screwed.”

“You really trapped them underground?” asked Tom.

We were playing darts at the Mystic Grill, slumming again in our favorite hangout. It had been three days since the confrontation in the woods, three days since Gracie broke my heart, and three days that I had spent drinking. I had finally emerged into the world and met Tom here at the Grill, where I’d proceeded to tell him everything. Tom, a true Mystic Falls resident, didn’t even bat an eye. He believed every word, saying only that he always knew there was something wrong with this town.

“Yes,” I said.

“How did you know there was a sinkhole there in the forest?” asked Tom.

“I didn’t.”

“Wow, you Elementals are weird.”

“Could you say that a little louder?”

“Sorry, I’m nearly drunk … and this is all damn weird.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So, are they, like, trapped there for eternity?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not just kill them, Max?”

“Because I’m not a killer.”

“Well, I would have killed them.”

We continued drinking and playing darts and shaking our heads at the craziness of it all, when the waitress came over with a drink. She handed it to me, along with a message written on a napkin. “Courtesy of the lady over there,” said the waitress, and pointed across the bar. There, sitting alone and drinking what appeared to be a dirty martini, was Gracie Lockwood. She gave me a sad smile.

I frowned and unfolded the napkin. On it she’d written: “Sorry for trying to kill you, Max. My bad. Can we please start over?”

But I took too long to decide. When I looked up again, Gracie was gone.

Tom returned from the dartboard with a fistful of darts. “Hey where did you get that drink? Who’s that note from?”

“No one,” I said, looking at where Gracie had just been sitting.

Despite myself, I grinned. What was wrong with me? The woman had tried to kill me. Hell, she had betrayed me … and yet, seeing her … my heart still skipped a beat. Two beats.

“Unbelievable,” I whispered and turned back to the dartboard. A few tosses later, I caught movement from the corner of my eye. So did Tom. We both turned as a very lovely young lady approached us, determination in her step.

“I hear you hunt vampires,” she said in a lilting English accent. She extended her hand and brushed aside her long, blonde hair.

“I—no,” I said.

“Oh, nonsense, Mr. Long. I overheard you. I have a bit of a vampire problem, myself.”

“Er, what’s your name?” I asked.

“Rebekah,” she said. “Rebekah Mikaelson.”

A special thank you to Danine Katt for her expertise in all things Damon and Stefan. And, as always, many thanks to the tireless Eve Paludan.

I was born in southern California and have lived up and down the West Coast. I currently reside on a small island outside of Seattle. I am the author of 33 novels and 5 short story collections. I have sold over a million ebooks, across all platforms. I am a Hemingway enthusiast and read all I can about the man.