The Vampire Diaries: A Cage of Burning Light (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

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  A CAGE OF BURNING LIGHT

  THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

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  A CAGE OF BURNING LIGHT

  L. J. McDonald

  Kindle Worlds

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2013 by L. J. McDonald.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program. All characters, scenes, events, themes, plots, and related elements of The Vampire Diaries remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Alloy Entertainment LLC / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., its affiliates, or licensors.

  For more information on the Kindle Worlds publishing program: www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  All Rights Reserved.

  Published by Kindle Worlds

  Las Vegas, NV 89140

  Digital ISBN: 9781477859063

  CONTENTS

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  Start Reading

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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  Dear Diary,

  I never thought I’d ever have to be afraid of the light. Not like this. I mean, who ever does? No one normal, certainly. After all, the sun’s life and normalcy. It’s the daylight. It makes everything grow. People get depressed if they don’t see it for too long, and the most popular vacation spots have it shining the brightest. It’s…. Well, everything’s based on it. Our food, our myths, when we sleep, what we can see. What we prefer to do, and how we live.

  Now though, everything’s changed. Since the bridge, I’m stronger, faster, I can heal in an instant, and if it weren’t for the ring that Bonnie made me, the sun would burn me away to ash. All those times I walked out in the daylight without thinking about it, and now it’s like I’m living at the sun’s mercy.

  I’m not scared though. I don’t want to be. I just don’t want to think about it anymore. I’ll just keep telling myself that my friend gave me this ring, and that alone is enough reason to wear it.

  Sometimes, though, there is something that scares me. Yes, I can walk around in the day with this ring, and I do, but things have changed. I think what might scare me the most about being a vampire is that if I never saw the sun again I’m not sure that I’d even miss it.

  Elena finished the end of the page and lifted her pen away from the paper, nibbling on the cap while she stared out the window. It was a beautiful fall afternoon, and she really needed to stop this. She was starting to get maudlin, and it was far too nice a day for that, with the sun shining and the weather warmer than normal for this time of year. It was a bit of Indian summer come to remind them of the season just passed and well worth enjoying while it lasted. Especially now, when so much of the world and everything in it felt new all over again.

  Becoming a vampire the way she had enriched her senses, made everything she saw and felt so much stronger than they’d been before. Ever since she woke up in the morgue and realized that because of Rebekah, she’d drowned in the water below Wickery Bridge, she’d had a fever bright awareness of her surroundings, her body, and her hunger.

  There was no doubt in her mind that the hunger frightened her. It never fully went away, and at times she found she couldn’t think of anything else. Both Damon and his brother taught her ways of dealing with it, but the most effective so far was Elena’s personal terror that she’d lose control. She didn’t dare let herself forget that her humanity had been balled up and shoved into a box with a switch on it when she woke up a vampire. She could open the box and let it out, and did, but she could also shut that box, and her humanity would be gone. If she were weak enough, she could give in to the vampire instincts, and once she did there was no guarantee she’d ever want to turn that humanity switch to On or be able to live with herself once she did. She wasn’t actively hungry at the moment, and she was trying very hard not to think of where she and Damon went the night before and what they’d done in order to make sure she wasn’t hungry. But she still remained so much more sensitive to everything now, and the longer she sat there in the window seat, the more she was left with the feeling that she was all twisted in on herself inside.

  She could feel the sun through the window and discern how it warmed her skin with an intimacy far greater than she’d known before. She could feel the dust that floated in the air and the way it was warmed by the light, how it stroked against her skin with the lightest of kisses when it touched her. She was pretty sure she could even perceive the power in the ring on her hand, heavy and cold, and yet somehow almost alive as the magic inside it kept the sun from burning her to ash. When she held it to her nose, she could smell the faintest whisper of Bonnie’s perfume, along with the spell components she’d used to focus her magic during its creation.

  Elena studied the ring, slowly twisting it on her finger as she watched the shine on the silvery metal and the glistening colours of the lapis lazuli set into the top. The blue of the stone was streaked with gold veins, and she had to shake herself before she found herself lost in the layers of colour she never would have been able to see before.

  She sighed and set her pen inside her journal to mark her place before she stood up from the window seat. She still found peace in her writing, becoming a vampire hadn’t changed that, but she was too restless right now. She didn’t want to sit around all day, waiting for Damon to get back from the Council meeting. She wanted to move, wanted to feel that sunlight directly on her skin in defiance of what it could do to her, wanted to feel the wind and smell the trees and grass. She wanted to pretend that she was still alive and that the day was a comforting thing instead of the threat of a death that otherwise would likely never find her at all now.

  She wanted Damon, even wanted Stefan. She shoved the journal behind a few other books on the nearest shelf and headed out of the room. She wanted them both, but she was wild and restless today, and the more she thought about it, the more she wasn’t sure that being near either man while in this sort of mood would be a good thing.

  “Probably not,” she muttered to herself. Not while she felt as if she were about to crawl out of her own skin. Damon would likely only encourage it, tell her it was a natural part of settling into the reality of being a vampire. Stefan would look at her with sad eyes and tell her to resist.

  Right now, neither of them was around. Stefan had moved out, and when Damon was away, the boarding house was empty except for her. She’d become used to the general creepiness of the big old house with its dark wood and antique furnishings, but when it was quiet, the unease always started to come back.

  “That’s it, I’m getting out of here,” she muttered and headed to the front door, where her purse hung on the heavy, old, ornate coatrack. She pulled her phone out and tossed her hair back over her shoulder as she dialed a number and held it up to her ear. It only rang three times before the other end was picked up.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Bonnie, it’s me,” Elena said. “Are you busy? I want to go out for coffee. I need to go out for a coffee. Please come with me for some coffee. I’ll buy.”

  “Do you even drink coffee anymore?”

  Elena made a face, digging in the purse to make sure she had her keys. “Be nice. I just need to get out. I feel like I’m
losing my mind here today. I want to hang out with my best friend and talk about girl stuff like we used to.”

  Bonnie laughed. “Sounds like a plan to me. I’m kind of in the middle of something right now, but I can meet you in a bit. Want to get together at the Grill in maybe about an hour?”

  Elena grinned. “Sounds perfect.” She’d walk. She had the time and maybe then she’d burn off some of this energy and be able to sit still again for a while.

  “I’ll see you soon,” Bonnie promised and hung up.

  Elena grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, pausing only to lock it behind her. She didn’t look back at the creepy old house turned home as she strode down the curving driveway and out onto the street, whistling while she went. The sunlight was just as delicious as it looked from the window, and the scent of trees and flowers soothed her.

  She felt happy, she realized. Maybe it was part of the changes in her, more of her body settling down into what she was now, but for the moment, she was good. It was almost an alien feeling to her now, but she shoved that thought down. She didn’t want to think about anything other than that she was heading to see her best friend in the world and they were going to spend an afternoon the way they always used to. Without caring about anything that might or might not happen, or how both their lives had changed in ways neither of them ever expected when they first met and giggled about their futures.

  It was a long walk into town from the boarding house, but it felt good to move and it did serve to burn out the restlessness that had taken over her. She found she was even smiling as she reached the edge of the downtown core, walking along and twisting the heavy ring on her finger back and forth, watching the sunlight shining on the silver metal and the blue of the stone.

  Elena did have half her mind on where she was going, but as she passed one store, a man stepped outside of it and right in front of her. She walked straight into him, jostling them both, and looked up in surprise and embarrassment. “I’m so sorry,” she said to the tall, thin man before her. He was so close that the rich scent of his blood filled her nose and against her will, Elena’s nostrils flared.

  The man only stared at her, his brow heavily wrinkled and his chin scruffy with the beginnings of a beard. He looked at her face, down at the ring she was still twisting on her hand, and stepped back out of her way, a bland expression on his face.

  He smelled incredibly good, better than the best steak or chocolate cake had before what happened on the bridge changed everything. Elena’s mouth watered and she took a step back too, swallowing both her saliva and the urge to jump at him with her fangs bared.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again, for so many more reasons this time.

  “Just watch where you’re going,” he grumbled, and she nodded and hurried on, hands clenched together and with the unnatural feeling that he was watching her go.

  “Please tell me he didn’t notice me looking at him like he was a cheeseburger,” she whispered to herself and ducked down into one of the gentrified alleys that would let her get to the Grill that much sooner. She felt like a predator again, and she hated it.

  Being out of sight of him and any of the other people out on the sidewalk helped, and Elena stopped so that she could draw in a deep breath of air and tip her head back, her hair falling down her back in a cascade as she just let herself breathe. She could smell bricks, flowers, and the varying stock of the little, kitschy shops and cafes the town encouraged to open up in the cleaned up alleyways. The fact that they overwhelmed the scent of human blood was wonderful.

  She could deal with this, she reminded herself. She didn’t have to give in to everything that she’d become or surrender her humanity. Who she was at her very core hadn’t changed, and she wouldn’t ever let it.

  Elena smiled, feeling more balanced and herself than she had all day.

  There was the sound of a footstep behind her, nothing she thought she had any reason to be concerned about. Nearly every turn she took in the twisting little maze of alleyways revealed another tiny shop or cafe with little tables and chairs crowded onto patios. She didn’t react at all, not until she felt something sharp and pointed stab into the muscle beside her shoulder blade. Elena gasped, turning around, but even as she did she felt dizziness spin her head, and her knees gave out underneath her. Her enhanced senses were no kindness at all as she slammed onto the brick covered ground, smacking her skull against it.

  She looked up, and the last thing she saw before she fainted was the man she’d bumped into on the sidewalk, looking down at her with a bland expression that was anything but kind.

  Bonnie hurried into the Grill fifteen minutes later than she’d planned. She’d been reading her grandmother’s books and lost track of time, then ended up hunting for her car keys for another five minutes.

  “So much for being psychic,” she muttered to herself as she yanked the door of the Mystic Grill open and hurried inside, an apology to Elena on her lips. She’d been happy when her friend called and honestly, she was glad to have this chance to spend some time with her. She’d just got a bit distracted is all. Elena would understand.

  There wasn’t anyone to apologize to. Bonnie paused in the center of the restaurant, looking around at the somewhat shadowy tables, but while there were a few customers there in the middle of the afternoon, she didn’t see any sign of Elena.

  Matt wandered over to her, a bucket of dishes he’d just cleared balanced on his hip. “Hey, Bon, how’s it going?”

  “Hey, Matt. Where’s Elena? Is she in the bathroom?”

  He frowned. “Elena? I haven’t seen her today. Why?”

  Bonnie frowned as well, a sudden spike of familiar worry in her gut. “Uh, don’t worry about it. I must have beat her in.”

  “Sure. I got to get these to the back. Sit wherever you want.” He headed off in the direction of the kitchen with his dishes.

  “Right.” Bonnie made her way to one of the tables set against the brick wall at the rear of the restaurant and sat down in a chair where she could see the door. Elena was just late, that was all. She wouldn’t have asked Bonnie to come here just to bail on her with no word. She’d be along any minute now, and Bonnie would taunt her for being late. It would be just like the old days.

  She couldn’t shake the feeling, however, that something was wrong.

  Once the Town Council meeting was over, Damon headed back to the Salvatore Boarding House. It was an hour after sunset, and his stomach was starting to rumble. It was time to get Elena, go out, and convince her again to surrender her inhibitions enough to have a good feed with him. It still took effort to get her to relax and trust that a vampire who didn’t resist his nature was less likely to kill a human than one who did, but when she did let herself give in and enjoy it, being with her was glorious. It was like hunting at Katherine’s side again, only without any of the sadistic cruelty the older Doppleganger was known for.

  He smelled Bonnie before he saw her, sitting as she was on a bench behind the obscuring structures of the porch columns. She smelled of magic, woman, and … fear?

  “Hey, Bitchy,” he taunted as he came up the porch steps with his hands shoved in his pockets.

  Bonnie gave him a glare filled with more hatred than usual. “Why the hell weren’t you answering my texts?” she snapped.

  Damon pulled his cell out of his pocket and shrugged. “Turned it off. Why? What did you blow up this time?”

  “Where’s Elena?” she demanded.

  He stared at her. “What?”

  Bonnie stomped closer, her angry face as clear to him in the darkness as it would be in the sunlight. “Where. Is. Elena?” she repeated.

  “Inside,” he said and shoved past her to stick his key in the lock and open the front door, as if doing so would prove it. He scented the air as he moved, straining his ears to search for anything other than the empty house he already knew waited for him.

  “She’s not in there!” Bonnie yelled as if he couldn’t already tell. “I don’t know w
here she is. She was supposed to meet me for coffee at the Grill hours ago and she never showed. What did you do to her?”

  Damon slammed into the house and flicked the foyer light on. He saw immediately that Elena’s jacket and purse were gone, and his mouth went dry as a familiar, inhuman rage filled him. His first instinct was to take it out on Bonnie, but he clamped down on that urge and turned back toward her instead.

  “I didn’t do anything to her. I’ve been with the Council all day. I’m just finding out about this now, so take your self-righteous bitching and cram it.”

  Bonnie pressed her lips shut and obviously took a moment to control her own frightened temper. Just the thought that she cared helped Damon resist ripping her throat out. As did the vervain she wore in her jewelry.

  “Fine. We need to find her.”

  “Tell me something that isn’t blindingly obvious,” he snapped and pushed back past her and out the door again. Bonnie clenched her fingers into her palms, biting back a scream of frustration, and followed him.

  Elena didn’t know where she was when she woke up.

  At first, all she knew was pain. Every part of her body hurt, and with the senses of a vampire, the agony was so much more intense than any she’d felt before. She wanted to weep, but she felt so weak she wasn’t sure that she could move.

  She was lying on concrete. It took her long moments to realize that, to understand what the texture her hands and cheek were pressing against was. It was unforgiving and cold underneath her sprawled body.

  When she’d become a vampire, Elena hadn’t thought she’d feel cold again. She could feel temperature differences, but the contrast between cold as a sensation that was as intense and honestly marvelous as that of a breath or a kiss versus cold as a horrible, sucking feeling was immense. Lying here, it had gone back from being a fascinating experience to something she wanted gone, and she shivered as she lay there, still too drained to even open her eyes.