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.
Kara scanned the lobby for a phone and tried to sound positive. “Well, first we’re going to call an ambulance to take you to the hospital. Can you stand up? Here let me help you.”
“I am fine, Kara Lynn.” He took hold of her proffered hand and tugged her back down onto his lap. “We must talk.”
“After your CAT Scan. I promise. You know how interested you were in CAT Scans, earlier? Well, now you’ll get to see one from the inside.” She gave him an encouraging nod.
Damien ignored it. “I do not have my home to offer you, anymore.” That apparently troubled him for some reason.
Kara squinted at him. “I think you really did hit your head. I hate your house. You hate your house. We can stay in my apartment, or you can create us another house, or we can move to Fiji… Who cares, just so we’re together?”
“But, I know nothing of life here.” His voice got more insistent, his eyes worried. “Why would you want a mate who cannot navigate your world?”
“I would always want you, Damien.” She rested a hand on either one of his cheeks. “Now, trust me. You have nothing to worry about, when it comes to this reality. You’re brilliant, handsome, super-powered, sneaky, and you can make rubies with your mind. Seriously. You’re probably going to wind-up as president.”
“So, you will not be disappointed in me?”
“No, silly. Never. I love you.” Kara gave him a quick kiss. “Listen, I know how you feel. I was terrified when I got dropped into 1892 and you know what happened?”
“Yes. A sorcerer kidnapped you.”
“Besides that.”
“Dragons tried to kidnap you.”
“Besides that.”
“Zombies tried to kidnap…”
“Oh for God’s sake. You happened, Vlad. You helped me adapt and took care of me and I’ll do the same thing for you. We can help each other. You teach me about magic powers and I’ll teach you how to program a DVR and together we’ll be invincible.” She grinned, feeling more and more confident that this had all worked out perfectly. “Maybe we’ll even take over the world.”
He made a considering face. “I have always wanted to do that.” He mused.
“See? This reality will be a cinch for you.” She made her voice coaxing. “Plus, there are no Vampires here.” He’d love that part.
Damien’s expression lightened. “Your people have wiped out the Vampires?”
“Yep. Well, except on TV, anyway.”
“TV?” He repeated. “Is that an island?”
“No, it’s sort of a…” How did you describe television to a thousand year old sorcerer? “Never mind. I show you when we get to the hospital.” She bounded to her feet and pulled him up beside her. “The point is, you don’t have to worry about fitting in here. Just fix your shirt, be yourself, and you’ll do great.”
His hand brushed over her hair. “Being myself, I really do tend towards villainy.” He warned, ruefully.
“I know you do. But, that’s okay. Haven’t you notice?” She winked. “I always vote for the bad guy.”
Epilogue
Slade and Melessa clasped hands and stared into the setting sun, happy and content, but always knowing that the Wizard-Warlocks might one day rise again…
Final line- Eternal Passion at Sunset
“Karalynn, are you sure this is a wise idea?”
“Absolutely, it is.” She knocked on the penthouse door. “I want to tell Tanya St. Clair, in person, that Donnelly Publishing will not be buying her book.”
Damien made an ‘umm’ sound, feeling unsettled. It seemed strange that a struggling writer could live in such an upscale apartment building and that the doorman had just sent them right up to her suite without even asking their names. “Why is Tanya apparently expecting us, though?” He asked. They certainly hadn’t called ahead.
“Well, you can ask her that.” Kara promised. “Right after I kill her.”
“Now, cari, the experience inside the book was not so bad. You admitted that yourself. We found each other, after all.”
“Uh-huh. And you also got stabbed in the heart, so I’m still going to kill her.”
Damien’s mouth twitched. He’d been in Karalynn’s world for seven full days and it was clear that she acted exactly the same here as she had been back in 1892. His mate didn’t allow her surrounding to alter her actions in the slightest. Damien was trying his best to follow her example and not let life in the future overwhelm him. It was easier than he would have thought.
He liked this world.
He liked that they didn’t use horses for their carriages. That made travel so much faster, without the need for teleporting. And he liked the shower. And making love to Kara in the shower. He liked the new black suits he’d created for himself. He liked pizza and CNN and all the medical journals that he could read. He liked that it smelled a hell of a lot better here.
And, of course, he really liked the absence of Vampires.
He even liked Karalynn’s family. Thankfully, her father and stepmother seemed to approve of him. Although, Kara left out quite a few details on how they met, the news that Damien was a rich doctor seemed to win him lot of points. Gemma had already offered to plan a huge wedding reception for them. Kara had just rolled her eyes at the idea, but Damien was all for it. He’d endeared himself to Gemma
forever by telling her to spend as much as possible on the arrangements. Gemma loved to whip out credit cards and Damien wasn’t known for his understated tastes. Together, they would create an event that could be seen from space.
Everyone would know that Kara was his.
Damien couldn’t have been happier about that.
Yes, he loved his new life in this world. It was a strange and beautiful place, regardless of the occasional snags he hit trying to fit in. He was doing his best to adapt to all the changes by just being himself. His best self. Regardless of Kara’s assurances that she accepted him for who he was, Damien really was trying not to be a villain.
Sort of.
The day before, he had turned all the traffic lights in the city red for half an hour just to see what would happen. And he’d flooded their neighbor’s apartment with green Jell-o, because the man tried to flirt with Kara and it annoyed him. And he’d changed the stock readouts that ran along the bottom of the television screen to say nothing but, ‘Damien is Your Master’ on every station. Twice.
But, hell, little slip-ups like that were bound to happen.
The important thing was, he hadn’t killed any humans and he’d only taken two people prisoner, all week. That kind of effort counted for something.
Karalynn said she was very proud.
“Open up.” Kara ordered, pounding on Tanya’s door. “Listen, lady, you do not want to see what I can do to this lock.”
Damien winced at that threat. Kara’s powers were coming along nicely. Especially, the destructive ones. The woman loved to blow things apart. “Cari, remember how you said we should be calm about this meeting?”
“I am being calm!”
“I can see that. But, breaking into her apartment would probably not convince anyone else of your tranquility, so…” Damien trailed off as Tanya’s door creaked open, revealing a young woman with dark hair and a sheepish expression.
“Hi.” She said, weakly. “Don’t be mad.”
Damien gaped at her, speechless.
“I know you.” Kara blurted out. “I recognize you from that painting in Damien’s house. You’re Amalie.” She glanced up at Damien in astonishment. “Is that really your sister or are we dealing with shape shifters, again?”
Damien couldn’t find the words to answer that. It really was his sister. He would have known her anywhere.
She was alive.
“I’m really Amalie.” Amalie shot Damien a cautious look. “Tanya St. Clair’s my pen name. I just liked the way it sounded.”
“So, wait… You wrote Eternal Passion at Sunset?” Kara clarified.
“Kinda. Yeah.” Amalie stood there, alive and beautiful, wearing the same kind of future clothes that filled Kara’s closet. Dressed in denim trousers and an oversized shirt that read ‘My other car is a broomstick,’ she had obviously assimilated into this world without missing a beat.
She was also obviously worried about her reunion with her big brother. Biting her bottom lip, she met his eyes. “Come on, Damien, don’t be mad at me. It was the only way to get you outta there.”
He stared at her, torn between the need to fall to his knees in sobbing relief and the desire to start shouting at her. His relationship with his sister always ricocheted between those extremes.
“I mean, this was all an accident. Right from the beginning. When the Vampires attacked our homeland, I tried a spell to hide from them and I somehow ended up here.” Amalie backed up into her apartment, flinging her hand out in an all-encompassing wave. “I couldn’t get back. Totally not my fault.”
Damien slowly moved forward, following her retreat.
Amalie’s nose wrinkled, the way it always did when she got caught red-handed at something. “If anything, you should be thanking me. It’s way better here. I spent decades figuring out how to get you into this dimension, too. I needed to be a thousand years old before I was strong enough, though. Meanwhile, all the time, I knew you were getting more and more crazy back home. I could see it all happening in my mind. I always know when you’re unhappy.” She frowned. “Do you think I could just leave you there, all alone?”
Damien kept stalking her across the room.
“And then I tracked down your cari.” This time Amalie pointed at Karalynn. “And I knew that she’d destroy you. The old, grouchy you in that world, anyway. I knew she’d allow you to be a new Damien. Free. Happy.” She punctuated the words by pounding her fist into her palm. Amalie always talked with her hands. “And that’s something else you should thank me for. Her. Finding that girl took a lot of work and magic locator spells. I even had to go to a friggin’ pilates class. But, I knew she could rescue you, so I endured it.”
Damien didn’t know what pilates were, but Amalie made it sounded like she’d been subjected to the rack.
Kara still looked mystified. “So, you wrote Eternal Passion at Sunset just to bring Damien and me together? Questions of how in the hell that could possibly work aside… Why did you make him the bad guy?!”
“Well, what girl wants to date the dull-ass hero?” Amalie rolled her eyes. “I mean, boooor-ring. You had to want to help Damien, so I knew it would work better if the book was pro-Vampire.” Her retreat was halted when she hit the far wall, but that didn’t stop her from glowering up at him. “And besides I didn’t invent that world or the characters. They’re all real. I just… directed them a little bit.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Well, you were totally acting like a villain, Damien. I didn’t need to take a lot of creative license. Really, I was getting kinda frustrated with your brooding. You should thank me for not giving you peg leg and hooks for hands.” She sighed dramatically when he just watched her. “Gods, you always have such a lousy sense of humor. I knew what I was doing the whole time, alright? It was all perfectly safe. If I had a teeny bit of fun tossing in a raven or a couple of atmospheric cobwebs, you brought it all on yourself.”
“You got him stabbed!” Kara shouted.
“I had to do that, so he could finally let go of the past.” Amalie fixed Damien with an exasperated look. “Geez, are you going to hold a grudge about that?”
Damien stopped directly in front of her, leaning down so he was level with her gaze. “Amalie?” He said, darkly.
She winced at bit at his tone, all her blustering defenses falling away. “Yeah?”
He reached out and gently touched the side of her face, unable to believe that she was really real. “Thank you.” He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her tight. “Thank you for being alive. Thank you for authoring that horrible book. And thank you for finding Kara Lynn for me.” He looked over at his wife. His cari. His heart and soul and life. “You’re right. She saved me.”
Kara still looked miffed over this whole experience, but her mouth did curve upward at his words. “I think we saved each other, Vlad.”
“No, I saved you both, with my incredible talents.” Amalie corrected, modestly.
“Right. Well, just don’t ever write anything else, Tanya.” Kara implored. “Ever. Speaking for the literary world, Eternal Passion at Sunset was more than enough.”
Damien snorted. “Agreed.” He fixed his sister with a meaningful look, wanting to clear this up before he got down to the business of alternately hugging and shouting at her for the next century. “No more Tanya St. Clair. No more spells to ‘help’ me. And, especially, no more romance novels. Understand?”
A slow, impish smile spread across Amalie’s face. “But, see, I already have this great idea for a sequel…”
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Not Another Vampire Book Page 35