Excerpt: A DARK AND STORMY ROAD TRIP (Baby, Don't Hurt Me)

“Good,” the man in the shadows said in a silky tone. “Shall we fly, then?”
She was already transforming, her bones shifting and feathers sprouting out of her skin. Her vision became sharper, clearer, and finally clicked into perfect focus as the transformation completed itself. The golden eagle wasn’t her true form, but it was closer to it than the human body which made her feel so horribly limited. It was such a weak body, vulnerable to all types of attack, and not possessed of any particularly redeeming features. Sure, opposable thumbs were useful, but compared to flight, or vision this sharp…
She’d never be human again if it were up to her.
She tried not to think about the fact that it wasn’t up to her, and that she was a slave, as she stretched her wings and launched herself into the sky. Behind her, her master launched himself into the air as a black falcon, and hovered above her in the air. She pointed the way, following the twisting concrete river below her, all but empty of cars and trucks in the early dawn light.
She had to find the vampire. That was the condition – him for her freedom. It had taken her almost two centuries to locate him to a country, let alone to have him this close to being within her grasp. It was maddening that he still managed to elude her.
He would not elude her much longer.