Read Online The Vampire Diaries: Bound By Blood (Kindle Worlds Novella) by J.R. Rain - Free Book Online

no mistake, Max … you knew full well what you were getting yourself into.”
    “Why would I volunteer for this?”
    “Because you are stronger than you think, Max. Much stronger. Come, I think a short demonstration is in order.”

Dear Bloody Diary,
    I spent this evening at the Mystic Grill, but there’s no sign of this elusive detective, either in his office or the apartment upstairs. I did detect a camera pointing at his office door, which opens out onto Washington Street. Had he been watching me? Did he know I was looking for him? Did I even care?
    Actually, yes. I very much care. If there is even a chance … the slightest modicum of possibility, that I could be stronger than Klaus and his gang of Original pricks, then I am going to pursue it. The detective, so far, is my best lead. Which sounds ironic as I write this.
    I’ve been doing more research, scouring our vast collection of ancient texts here at the boardinghouse … and have so far found only one mention of Elementals. They were likened as Earth spirits. More importantly, the book, which is here by my bedside, has indicated that Nature will use Elementals as it sees fit, to restore balance.
    Yes, I’d already suspected this. Vampires are an abomination of nature, a cancerous, blood-sucking plague. Hell, Mother Earth has been doing her best to get rid of us for centuries.
    Well, she can keep trying, because I have no intention of going anywhere … especially if I can get my hands on this detective.
    I have ways of making him talk. Oh, yes.
    D. Salvatore

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
----
     
    We were walking down a side street in the process of taking me from an agnostic to a believer … in my power over Nature, in the existence of vampires, and that an archangel was apparently going to teach me how to fight evil.
    It was a quiet evening and surreal, too. I was buzzing a little from the caffeine. My every sense seemed to be heightened, so much so that I was beginning to doubt that it was from the effects of the mocha latte.
    “You’re tuning into Nature, Max,” said Michael easily. We were strolling side by side—and this could be further proof of my disintegrating psychosis—but Michael seemed somehow taller.
    Yeah, I’m going nuts.
    “What, exactly, does that mean?” I asked. “Tuning in with Nature?”
    “Max, think of yourself as an extension of Nature … a very important extension. And think of yourself as having woken up from a very long sleep—”
    “Well, I feel like I’m dreaming now.”
    “On the contrary, Max. You have been sleepwalking through life, until now.”
    “Until the meteor’s arrival.”
    “The meteor is only another instrument, Max. In this case, an instrument to awaken you from your deep slumber.”
    “I’m just a private eye, and not a very good one. My career peaked long ago. And my appeal peaked even longer ago with the ladies, if the truth be known.”
    “You are so much more than all that, Max. But most important, you are an honest man. A good man. And a humble man. Walk this way.”
    I blinked, slightly startled. I had been unaware that we had left behind the residential street and were now standing alongside a field just outside of town. An old shack sat in the field, silhouetted against the twilight sky. Michael stepped away from the roadside and began crossing the field. “Hurry along, Max.”
    Except … I didn’t hurry along. I stood there, debating. For some reason, I had a very strong precognition that should I follow Michael across the field and toward the shack my life would forever change.
    For better or worse, I hadn’t a clue which way to turn.
    Michael stopped and turned and waited for me, his eyes expectant and patient. A warm wind swept down the road. It swept over me and my body tingled from head to toe. That old feeling of longing returned, that feeling that I was separated, somehow. That I was missing something.
    “You are missing something no longer, Max. You are home now.”
    “I don’t