Vlad & Veronica
Losing Veronica Excerpt

(Author note: This is the Epilogue in Autumn's Awakening and a chapter in Vlad & Veronica.)

Excerpt (Unedited - work in progress)

Veronica slammed her hand against the dungeon wall and cursed, “God damn it, this is getting tiresome! You would think people—read idiots—would learn to leave me the hell alone.”

But no. Every year or so one of her husband’s enemies—and to be perfectly honest—Vlad had a lot of enemies…would kidnap her for bait. This time they wanted to clone him.

Like that would work.

The man would walk through hell for her, cheerfully annihilating everyone who got in his way. Since she tried to curtail his more violent tendencies, he used the excuse to vent a little.

And her very scary husband was nobody’s fool. Veronica knew Vlad could sense a trap from three countries away. Pulling at the hair on her head in an attempt to alleviate her headache, she looked around the small cell as she’d done every few minutes since she’d been roughly pushed through the door. What? Did she hope something would appear? Did she hope her captives were vampires and like her husband could and would conjure up some creature comforts for her? No such luck. There wasn’t a convenient key, nor was there somewhere to sit except on the cold, stone floor. Hell, they hadn’t even left her a pot to piss in.

Sighing, she turned her thoughts back to her husband. Since they’d met and become freaking vampire soul mates several hundred years ago, he’d had plenty of practice getting her out of dungeons. This was what? —The fiftieth attempt. And why for once couldn’t someone kidnap her that had more than a passing acquaintance with modern plumbing and houses with heat? She was sick and tired of being thrown in the dungeon.

Glancing down at her watch, Ronnie decided she’d been in this hell-hole for about three hours. Add another hour for the snatch and grab and subsequent imprisonment and that meant that anytime now Vlad and Igor should be breaking down the castle walls. Literally. Vlad never went for subtle when he could destroy things in a more theatrical manner.

Rubbing her temple, she leaned back against the wall and tried to calculate how much longer she’d have to maintain. The longest time someone had managed to hold onto her was six hours and twenty-five minutes. The least amount of time had been right at half an hour.

Pathetic really.

She’d managed to hide from Vlad for almost two days and yet none of her supposedly organized kidnappers had been able to keep her from Vlad for even a fourth of that.

Hell. She sank to the cold stone floor and rested her aching head on her knees. Who was she kidding? Fifteen minutes was too long.

The biggest downside to being one-half of a vampire true bond was the separation sickness. Anytime she and Vlad were more than thirty or so feet from each other they both started to get sick. If kept apart long enough—they’d both die.

But yesterday they'd used strips created by their American scientist friend, Eve. She had created the sublingual strips for her sister, Jezebel. The strips gave them twenty-four hours of time. Vlad could go his way and she could go hers. They could have a little space. Vlad wanted to help rescue clones and check on one of the ancients, and he wanted her a safe distance away.

So, they’d used a strip and now their time was up.

She had no interest in finding out just how bad this was going to get.

Veronica wanted to go home. Not for the first time, she cursed her own supernatural powers. Being able to heal with touch didn’t do her a hell of a lot of good in this type of situation. No, she was the softer side of their partnership. Her husband was the one with all the violent arts. He could make someone’s eyes bleed with just a look.

It was a pity she didn’t get at least one power that could help get her out of messes like this. Hell. Or even let her summon a blanket. She hated being kidnapped. Soon the headache would start and then nausea would make it worse. Ultimately every cell in her body would throb with an unholy pain.

Like now.

Ronnie fought the wave of misery, desperate to keep from throwing up. From past experience, she knew the smell would make everything worse. It would also be nice if she could heal herself with her abilities. But no. That didn’t work.

Sliding down to curl up in a fetal position, she tried to concentrate on something else, on anything else. Vlad. Just thinking of Vlad eased the pain a little. She brought her husband’s face into focus. Concentrated on remembering every strand of his dark, curly hair and the look of love in his eyes every time he looked at her. He was growing his hair longer than he liked it, for her. She really liked the way he looked with longer hair.

Of course, she hadn’t thought he was so wonderful the first time they met. Handsome? Yes. Husband and soul mate material? Ah, that would be a definite no.

She was sure he felt the same about her. He thought her too headstrong and impulsive.

When she found out he had to suck on human necks to survive, she really wasn’t interested. Until she realized she was in the same boat. Veronica shuddered. Thank God he took care of that little thing for her. She didn’t have a problem sucking on various parts of Vlad at all. But she really didn’t like feeding on others. Ugh!

Ronnie let her mind drift back a few hundred years to the time they met. It was as good a way as any to escape her temporary prison. She sent her husband a mental poke before she closed her eyes, Damn it, Vlad. Hurry up!