Chapter One
Sitting down at the bar in the Mystic Grill, Damon raised his hand to get his attention of the bartender. He looked around, catching the eye of Caroline who was sitting alone at a booth not too far from him.
When she was human, she had been good for a bit of fun. Now that she had been turned, she had…changed.
It was a good change.
Caroline glared back at him, her dead eyes piercing him. Damon gave a small wave and flashed a smile. The bartender sat down Damon's drink with a nod, Damon picking it up and sauntering over to Caroline's booth.
"What do you want, Damon?" Caroline asked, sitting back in the booth and crossing her arms.
"Just to say hello to an old friend, of course," he responded sliding in across from her. He sat back in the booth, drinking slowly, never taking his eyes off her.
Caroline rolled her eyes at Damon and sunk in deeper into the booth.
"Damon, may I help you with something?"
Damon laughed, "My didn't we get feisty when our new fangs grew in?" He leaned in closer. "How's that diet of bunnies and puppies going," barely a whisper.
Caroline sighed, pursing her lips together and leaned in, almost meeting his face. "Just fine, thank you. Great on the conscience." she sat back again, looking away from Damon.
Damon sipped at his drink staring at her.
"Will you STOP staring at me like that? It's creepy" Caroline said, still not looking at Damon.
"I'm not the only creepy thing here, Caroline," he said, a small smirk settling on his dark features.
"Seriously, Damon. What do you want? What could you seriously want from me?" Caroline closed her mouth quickly when she saw the familiar hungry expression on his face. She may have been compelled most of the time they dated, slept together, whatever you want to call it but still recognized when Damon wanted to rip her clothes off.
Damon licked his lips, looked down at Caroline's chest, and then back at her face.
"Why don't we ever hang out anymore, Caroline?" Damon asked mischievously.
Caroline continued to ignore him.
"Come on Caroline, aren't you dying to find out if it's different?"
In spite of herself, she looked at Damon, confused, "If what's different?"
Damon rubbed his mouth with his hand, and whispered "If…..it's different," raising one eyebrow for emphasis.
Caroline sat, her face scrunched up in confusion until realization settled in. If she wasn't dead, she'd be blushing.
"Damon, you're disgusting". She grabbed her bag to leave and Damon's face softened a bit.
"Caroline, I'm sorry. Let me try this again…. Please" He touched her hand lightly and Caroline was surprised by the shiver, or as close to a shiver you can get dead, run up her arm.
Against her better judgment, she sat back down.
"Do you have something valuable to say? Or just make innuendos and dead girl jokes?"
"Go out with me. Like on a date. I should have done this when you were human but…. I was preoccupied. We can go out to dinner, hunt bunny rabbits, go shopping - whatever. Your call"
Caroline looked across at the crazy, murderous, so bad for her, but very, very sexy vampire across from her. Caroline twiddled her blonde hair through her fingers, eyeing Damon as he stared at her over his glass.
"Fine. Dinner. Here. Pick me up at seven at my house. Don't be late." She grabbed her bag, flashed Damon one last confused look and walked out, pushing the strap of her purse over her shoulder.
She opened the door to the Mystic Grill, Matt walking in as she went out. He grabbed the door and held it for her, coughed, and muttered a 'hey" and walked in head down. Caroline sighed and watched him walk over to the door to the backroom. She saw Damon sitting staring into his glass, a strange expression on his face. As the door closed, she realized what the expression was - he looked sad.
Damon looked down into his glass, empty besides the ice. He was surprised Caroline had said yes; he was surprised he had asked her in the first place. His phone beeped and he pulled his phone out of his leather jacket.
"Where are you?" the text read, from Stefan.
Damon hit the button that put his phone to sleep. He really didn't want to deal with the happy couple right now.
What he wanted right now, no, needed was blood. He had been living off of the bagged stuff for weeks. He hadn't hunted for fresh human blood in so long. But, something tugged at him.
If Caroline, a baby vamp compared to him, could handle bagged blood and the fake stuff from animals - why couldn't he?
The blow from the rejections of Katherine and Elena had rattled him. More than he liked. An eternity of this tortured soul shit was getting old. He got out of the booth and walked towards the front doors. He walked to his car, opening the door and got in quickly when he saw Elena, her brother and her aunt walking down the sidewalk, headed for the Mystic Grill.
Damon watched them walk in. turning his attention away and back to his car, he stuck the key in the ignition and drove off, mentally cursing his feelings for Elena. He drove, almost on autopilot, to the Salvatore home. A lot had changed since Stefan and he had returned. The lives lost - many at his hands - was mind boggling and slightly unsettling. Shaking the thought out of his head, Damon climbed out of his car.
He knew Stefan would be there, probably wanting to talk about his feelings. Changing his mind, he got back into his car and drove off.
Caroline was hungry.
No, starving. Drinking only the blood of animals was getting tough. She had given in a couple times and stolen from Damon's stash, and what was worse was that she didn't even feel bad about it. She had to admit, there where parts of being a vampire that were bad ass.
She walked into her kitchen, searching for something that could help with cravings. Opening up the fridge, she saw the usual- OJ, milk, yogurt - she wanted blood. The mere thought of it made her crazy. She could feel the changes in her face - and she knew she needed to feed - and soon.
Taking a deep breath, she walked out her back door and ran to the nearest woods. She felt her senses, already heightened because of the vamp blood, tense up on high alert. Ready for the hunt.