Not Another Vampire Book (42 page)

Slade
ignored Damien’s listless efforts to pry it free.  “I just want you to know, I
will not really kill your mate.”  Slade squeezed his lips together, holding
back sobs.  “I will find a Vampire husband to care for her, in fact.  Do not
worry as you pass from this world.  She is in my wise hands.”

Kara
had been preparing to tell Slade to zip it, but she stopped short at that
announcement.  Not that she ever,
ever
, planned on marrying a Vampire,
for God’s sake.  But, Damien was suddenly a lot more awake.

He
focused on Slade, his eyes narrowing.  “
You
will find… a…
Vampire husband
…
for
my cari
?”

“It
is my duty.”  Slade vowed, one hand to his newly healed heart.  “When you gave
your life for mine, you left your woman in my care.  I will fulfill the
responsibility exactly as you would want.  Carefully, thoughtfully, and respectfully…”
 He glanced over at Fibos.  “Hey, you’re single.  What do you think of mating
with the Witch?”

“I
fear the woman has always fancied
you
, sire.  I would not be man enough
for her.”

“True,
true…  And I
do
appreciate that curling hair of hers.  Still, a Vampire
cannot have
two
Eternal-Ones.  Not even a king.”

“No,
he sure
can’t
.”  Melessa snapped.

Slade
pursed his lips.  “Perhaps we could have a raffle for the woman, then.”

“Oh
fuck.”  Damien said, again.  Thanks to Slade, he wasn’t thinking about dying,
anymore.  He looked at Kara, his expression resolved.  “You win.  I’m not…
going anywhere.  Think of something… to save me… so I can kill him… again.”

“Trust
me, I’m working on it.”

“You
should see what the magic book says to do.”  Melessa put-in, wisely.  “It’s
magic.”

It
showed the level of her utter desperation that Kara actually listened to Mel’s
idea.  Her eyes slashed over the manuscript, which lay face up a few feet
away.  “Damien, hang on.”  She crawled over to grab it, staining the pages with
Damien’s blood as she frantically flipped towards the end.

To’kel
finally was defeated, Slade and Melessa were together, Damien was dying…

Eternal
Passion at Sunset
was exactly where it wanted to be.  The
events and characters were beginning to overlap and the last chapter lined up
with this reality for the first time since Mel’s engagement party.  Kara had
actually succeeded in forcing the novel back on track.

Now,
she needed to derail it, again.

“You’re
such a dimwit, Melessa.”  Eugene piped up, sourly.  Fibos men were busily tying
him in golden rope, but his attention seemed centered on bickering with his
ex-girlfriend.  “I’ve seen that book and the Witch was telling the truth all
along.  It’s just a story, not a magical prophesy.  Why I’m barely in it, at
all.”

“I’m
not speaking to you, Eugene.  If I
was
, I’d say that the book predicted
I would be Vampire queen and now I
am
.  Therefore, it is
magical
.”
  She gave her hair a toss.  “Dummy.”

“Well,
the book
also
says Damien dies at the end.”  He shot back.  “It’s all
right there in print.  So, if it’s so ordained and
magical
, than what’s
the point of trying to subvert the text and save him, Mel
essa
?”

“The
Witch can
change
the text, Eu
gene
.”  Melessa rolled her eyes in a
style perfected by teenage mall goers the world over.  “Hell-
lo
?  She’s
magical, too.”

Kara
froze, her eyes staring at the page and not even seeing the words as she
processed Melessa’s snarking.

Change
the text.

“I
just hope my literary death scene… is more dignified than this one.”  Damien
muttered.   “Kara Lynn?  Must he keep… holding my hand like that?”

“Shhhh!” 
Slade clutched Damien’s palm against his chest and rocked it gently.  “There,
there, sorcerer.  Just relax.  Your king is here.  Slade is here.”  He began to
hum a soothing lullaby that sounded a lot like the theme song from
Angel
.

“Oh
Gods… I’m in Hell.”

Kara
ignored Damien’s longsuffering tone and launched herself at Eugene.  Or, more
specifically, she launched herself at Eugene’s pocket protector.

“Help!” 
He squawked as she grabbed one of his red pens.  “I’ve been robbed!”

Melessa
snorted.  “You’re such a nerd.  Thank God I found my wonderful Slade, before I
wasted my life on a mere human with no castle, at all.”

“Yes,
my queen.  Destiny has truly brought us together.”  Slade agreed.

Kara
slapped the book down flat on the ground next to Damien and uncapped the pen
with her teeth.  It was a modern ballpoint and, for once, she didn’t mind
Tanya’s anachronisms.

Eternal
Passion at Sunset
was just a manuscript and she was a goddamn
editor.

Let’s
see what kind of changes she could make.

Kara
began ruthlessly drawing Xs through whole paragraphs, her eyes scanning over
the dialogue.

“Thank
God I found my wonderful Slade, before I wasted my life on a mere human with no
castle, at all.” Melessa said.

“
Yes,
my queen.  Destiny has truly brought us together.”
 
Slade agreed.

All
around them, the courtyard was in ruins from the fight.  But, it mattered not
to the happy couple, who stood on the brink of their endless, love-filled
future.  The other Vampires gazed at them with joyful, yet envious, faces.  For
who could ever match the love and beauty of such a golden couple at the peak of
their golden beauty?

“I
repent of my evil ways.”  Damien whispered from his deathbed there on the
ground.  “You have shown me what true love truly is, Slade, and I thank you
from the bottom of my black heart.”

“Damien,
sweetie, do you repent of your evil ways?”  Kara asked distractedly, trying to
keep him engaged and conscious.

“Hell
no.”

“Good.” 
She crossed out all of that crap and swiftly turned to the next page.

The
last page.

“I
forgive you, creature, for all your terrible deeds against me.”  Slade knelt
down by Damien’s side and clasped his hand.  “I am a big enough man to say… you
were wrong.  But, I absolve you, for you knew no better.”

Slade
actually said that line out loud as Kara read it on the page. It
sounded
even stupider than it
looked
.

Also,
Damien’s real life response was a bit different from his scripted reaction in
the book.  “Fuck off, Vampire.”  He snarled.

“Oh
Slade, you really are a gracious winner.” Damien’s eyes closed.  “I go now to
seek the peace I could never find here on Earth.”

With
that, his chest ceased to move and Damien, last of the Wizard-Warlocks,
perished.

“Kara
Lynn… love you.”  Damien whispered and then he went still.

“Witch!” 
Slade cried.  “He stopped breathing.  The sorcerer has stopped breathing!  You
must do something!”

“
I’m
trying!
”  Kara couldn’t look over at her husband’s silent form.  If she
did, she’d break down completely.  CPR wasn’t going to cut it here.  She needed
to bring him back another way.  Her whole body was shaking, trying to edit
Eternal
Passion at Sunset’s
final page.  She could barely hold the pen as she
scribbled out the damning lines that killed Damien in wild, jagged strokes.

Time
for a new ending, Tanya.

Excising
Damien’s death scene under layers of red ink, Kara drew an arrow to the wide
margin at the bottom of the page and started writing her corrections in huge,
waving letters.  Tears were making it impossible to keep the printing straight.

Damien
healed.  He woke-up and went home with Karalynn Donnelly.

Her
head whirled around to look at Damien, willing him to move.  To blink.  To
curse.  To do
anything
in response to the book’s changes.

Nothing
happened.

No.

This
couldn’t be happening.  Not to Damien.  It wasn’t fair!  He’d just saved the
whole friggin’ world!  He couldn’t die like this.  He
couldn’t
.  This
wasn’t his destiny.

“Damien!” 
Kara was close to hyperventilating.  What was she missing?  It had to be
something
. 
What were the magic words she could write to save him?

How
else should a love story end?

She
looked back at the manuscript and played her last card, scrawling the sentence
out in almost illegible haste:

 And
they lived happily ever after.

The
platform beneath them gave way, suddenly.   As if the all supports had been
kicked out from under it, the whole structure seemed to plunge downward.  Kara forgot
about the book and flung her body over Damien, holding onto him with all she
was worth.  “
Shit!
”  Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to protect him
from an impact that seemed like it was taking a hell of a long time happen.

In
fact, it took Kara a moment to realize that they somehow weren’t falling
anymore.

What
the hell?

She
cautiously raised her head from Damien’s chest and looked around.

What
the
hell?

Kara’s
mouth parted in surprise as she took in her surroundings.  They weren’t in the
courtyard of the Vampire Palace, any longer.

…
They were sprawled out in the Art Deco foyer of the Donnelly Building.

She
blinked, trying to figure out what was going.

“So,
is that the infamous elevator, then?”  Damien asked from beneath her, staring
over at the dangling brass doors on the opposite side of the room.  “It looks
like it met up with one of your future weapons.”  Smoke still emanated from the
interior.  Gears and wires littered the marble floor.

She
was back in the real world, apparently just seconds after she left it.

Kara
so didn’t care.

“Oh
God,
Damien.  You’re awake!”  It didn’t matter
where
she was or
what had happened, just so Damien was alive and standing next to her.  Or lying
next to her as the case may be.  She dismissed the Donnelly Building’s
reappearance from her mind and focused all her attention on her husband.  “Are
you alright?”

“I’m
fine.”  He raised himself up on his elbows and arched a brow.  “I think you
cured me, Witch.”

“I
did?”  Kara couldn’t really take in the fact that he was sitting up and talking
so easily.

“Well,
it was either you or Slade’s singing.  Ask me which of you I chose to credit?”

“Let
me see the wound.”  She carefully checked under the makeshift bandage that
Melessa had been holding against his chest and smiled in relief when she saw
nothing but smooth, healthy skin.  “You’re right.  It closed up.  I did it!”

Damien’s
mouth curved.  “My hero.”

“No,
Vlad.  You are
my
hero.”  She wrapped her arms around his neck and
struggled not to dissolve into tears again.  “You saved my life.  If you ever
do anything so stupid and noble again, I will kick your ass through every damn
dimension there is.”

“Then,
for my sake, do not try and rescue any more Vampires,
cari
.”  Damien
drawled.  His gaze cast around the foyer, with growing interest.  “So, this is
your world?”

“Yeah.”  
Still not completely satisfied, Kara checked his chest wound, again.  “Do you
hurt anywhere?  We should get you to a doctor, just in case.”

“I
am
a doctor.”  Damien concentrated on the elevator for a beat.

With
a grinding of metal, the entire elevator reassembled itself right in front of
their eyes.  All the random, broken pieces fit back together like a jigsaw
puzzle and the freshly polished doors slid open with effortless ease.  Even the
interior lights lit-up, again, and one of them had been burned out since Kara
was in college.

Damien
grinned at the elevator’s welcoming ‘bing.’  “Good news.  My powers continue to
work in this reality.”

“Fabulous. 
We’re still not riding in that thing.”  Kara got to her feet taking stock of
her possessions.  She still had her purse, but the manuscript was gone.  It
must have gotten left behind on the Vampire Isle, along with Melessa and Slade
and all the rest of the cast.

Right.

“Uh,
Vlad?”

“Yes?”

She
needed to break this to him gently.  “I don’t think we’re getting back to
1892.”

Damien
sighed, his smile fading.  “I know.  I can feel it, too.”  He sounded
resigned.  Who wouldn’t be a little upset that they’d never see their reality,
again?  “What will I do in this place?”  He asked, mostly to himself.