Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries is copyright (c) L.J. Smith and all others associated with legal rights.
Author: I made a vow to myself that I would publish one new Bamon story before the year's end and so here it is! Thank you all who've discovered my past Vampire Diaries fanfics and have been adding them to your favorites collection! Makes me so happy knowing that even after all this time, readers are finding them and enjoying them! May you enjoy this one-shot I wrote about Damon and Bonnie. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think by leaving a review afterwards. Thank you much! :)
"A Feast with Damon"
"Are you positive you want to do this, redbird?"
Bonnie McCullough nodded with determination shining in her wide brown eyes. Even her soft, pink lips were pressed together as she wore her more serious expression, to show Damon Salvatore that she was capable of watching him feed on another human.
"If we're going to be together-together, then I should understand every aspect of your life," Bonnie explained. In all the time she had known the centuries-old-vampire, she hadn't be on a hunt with him... well... ever. Today would change that.
Damon couldn't resist smirking over the way Bonnie described their relationship status. Together-together. It was adorable and so like her. The others didn't think it was so "cute" but it didn't matter what they thought. Only Bonnie's feelings were of any real concern to Damon.
"You're certainly more accepting about my ways than others who shall be nameless," he remarked, taking an obvious jab at their collection of friends who weren't around. Today was a day for just Damon and Bonnie. He made sure of it. "Are you ready?"
Bonnie snapped out of her no-nonsense, adult-like composure and her bubbly self took over. She threw her hand up as if raising it to answer a teacher's question, and she replied, "I'm ready!"
Grabbing the keys to his car with one hand and clasping Bonnie's gentle, delicate hand with the other, Damon spirited them away.
The woods were dark, so dark that Bonnie almost thought it was night time, rather than the middle of the afternoon. The chirping of crickets and the occasional songs the birds sang in the branches above reminded her that there WAS life out here in this forest. The high branches and leaves that covered them was like one, giant canopy which blocked out much of the sunlight.
"There are people that actually come all the way out here?" she asked as she glanced down to watch herself take a couple of tentative footsteps along the ground, making sure she wouldn't have a klutz attack and trip over something.
"There are," Damon stated as he was perched upon one of the branches directly above Bonnie. "Humans are such naturally curious creatures. They can't resist the unknown."
Despite his stature, he used his Power to ensure that his weight would not cause any part of the tree to snap beneath him. Not only would that be ungraceful, but it would cause his on-coming prey to hear him and run away. He couldn't have THAT now.
Bonnie couldn't argue with that, although she wouldn't have ever thought to come all the way out here by choice and certainly NOT by herself unless absolutely necessary. She may have become a lot braver over the years, but she wasn't exactly ready to face the unknown head on by herself.
"Try using your powers to sense anyone nearby," Damon suggested as he leaped down from the tree branch and landed right beside the red head without so much as making a single sound. Lifting a hand, he brushed the tips of his fingers along her shoulder blades, causing Bonnie to shiver in delight.
"W-What?" she asked, her cheeks flooding with warm, her mind divorced from the darkness of the woods surrounding her.
Damon knew he was teasing her and it wasn't helping that he was touching her like this. He just always adored the way she reacted to him, so full of admiration and devotion. There was never any real resistance toward him. In a way, it should bother him how easily he could lead her on, but on the other hand, he KNEW his feelings for Bonnie were genuine. He flirted with others from time to time, but his undead heart only belonged to his maiden.
"You are a psychic, no? See if you can concentrate on sensing anyone," Damon suggested, pulling his hand away from her in hopes that she would be able to focus better.
Bonnie took in a sharp breath once his hand was gone. She felt cold without his mere touch, but she decided to do as he asked. She had been needing to better develop her natural abilities ever since they blossomed during high school. It would be a waste not to be able to handle them. If her friends were to get into trouble and she was the last line of defense, she would have to step up her game.
Closing her eyes and clasping her hands together (not that it would help, but she needed to do something with her hands), she sifted through the darkness in her mind. The sounds of nature around her was soothing. The crickets and birds continued to make their noises and the wind occasionally blew through the treetops.
Bonnie felt like a search engine on a computer looking up a subject.
Searching... Searching...
That was when she heard a human voice.
A gentle voice – faint, but audible. Female.
So hungry... Should have brought those energy bars...
Bonnie opened her eyes and gasped.
Damon flashed her his killer, bright smile.
"Congratulations, my little songbird," he said as he caressed one of her cheeks with the back of his knuckles. "You've found lunch."
He turned his back to her but before walking ahead, he glanced over his shoulder at her and asked, "Care to join me?"
Bonnie had a bewildered look upon her face. Would she join him? Duh! That was the reason why she came along! It was the reason why she asked him in the first place! She couldn't allow herself to be squeamish over the thought of her undead boyfriend drinking blood. She would have to get used to it, whether he was out alone or she happened to be in his company when it happened!
Leaning forward, she quickly followed Damon as he ventured deep into the forest. The darkness threatened to swallow Bonnie up at times, but she refused to allow her fears to overcome her. The air was growing colder all around her, and while she tried to keep up with Damon's long strides, she wrapped her arms around herself.
Once again, she heard the woman's voice.
What was that sound?
Bonnie skidded to a halt while Damon kept on walking.
"Wait," Bonnie whispered, but the vampire simply kept moving. She wondered if he HAD to kill all of his victims?
Suddenly, Damon was nowhere in sight. The treetops shook above her and revealed slivers of sunlight on the ground for mere moments, until they stilled and the shadows took over once more. That was when she heard a terrified scream and it was accompanied with frantic mental thoughts.
A MONSTER!
Bonnie whimpered, but instead of freezing in her spot or backtracking, she forged ahead.
"Damon!" she cried out as she moved her legs as fast as she could. She didn't have to run very far, however, because she stumbled upon Damon just as he bore his fangs and sunk them deep into the side of a blonde woman's neck. She was a little older than Bonnie and was wearing clothing appropriate for hiking, although it was obvious it wasn't geared for vampire protection. Damon's inhuman strength was more than a match for her, and the two went down to the ground, where he cradled her in his arms. His mouth was pressed against her slender neck, where a single trail of blood was seen dripping down her skin. The woman's eyes were halfway closed but she was staring defenselessly at the leaves above her. Bonnie had let out a small "EEP!" but the damage had been done, and Damon was now feasting.
A teeny, tiny voice in Bonnie was telling her to get Damon to stop, that this was wrong and immoral. But the rest of Bonnie's insticts told her "no." She would not interrupt a vampire's feeding. She would never see Stefan do this unless it was upon an animal. Damon would never lower himself to drinking animal blood. It had to be human and it had to be fresh. Bonnie could still recall the disgusted reaction she received when one day Elena asked Damon to consider blood bags from blood banks.
"Think of it like drinking sour milk. It's not fresh if it doesn't come straight from the source, princess."
Bonnie quietly took a seat on the ground, sitting just a few feet away, as Damon continued to drink. She was marveling in morbid fascination over the way the woman's body would once in a while twitch in Damon's arm but she wouldn't make any move to get away. She was completely under his spell while he slowly drained her of life.
"Are you... going to kill her?" Bonnie asked innocently as she noticed the woman's chest struggling to rise and fall with any kind of steady breathing. Could she do this? Could she watch someone die like this and not lift a single finger to prevent it? Elena and Meredith would have tried to stop Damon by now. They wouldn't have even come along with this, certainly not Meredith since she was the hunter-slayer of the group. But Bonnie was more... open... to certain things in life. It worried her best friends but at the same time they expected it by now.
Removing his fangs from the pierced neck, Damon lifted his head and sat up, revealing bloodied lips and red stained teeth. His black eyes were radiant, so full of life. It made Bonnie's chest swell with excitement.
"Do you expect me to kill her?" he asked her as he carefully laid the woman flat on her back. Her eyes were closed now and apart from the wounds and evidence of blood on her skin, she merely appeared to be sleeping.
Bonnie chewed on her lower lip as she stared almost forlornly at the woman.
"If... you had to..." she began almost cautiously, "then you would... Wouldn't you?"
"You wanted to see what it was like," Damon pointed out as he used the back of his hand to wipe away the blood from his lips that couldn't be licked away with a sweep of his tongue. "It could always be more ugly."
Bonnie nodded slowly, knowing Damon and Stefan could be much more brutal when it came to fulfilling their hunger – Damon more so. But to ask her if someone could live or die? No matter how much she walked on the wild side (or tried to), she couldn't choose someone's fate like that.
Not while you have your humanity, redbird, Damon said telepathically with a hint of consideration. He already knew the answer to his own question, but wanted to hear and see the reaction for himself.
"When she comes around, she will remember nothing of the encounter," the vampire assured her as he stood up and patted away the fallen leaves and dirt that might have sullied his pant legs. Meanwhile Bonnie breathed a sigh of relief before getting up off the ground. She thought about what Damon said about her humanity, and how she had it.
As if he didn't? He had some. Most people did, in one way or another. There were monsters out there who were completely heartless and soulless. As harsh and cruel as Damon could be many times against his friends and family, he wasn't completely without any sense of compassion. He was capable of caring and even loving.
Damon gently clasped her hands and she automatically slipped her fingers through his. As they proceeded to leave the area, Bonnie couldn't help but look over her shoulder at the woman one last time. To know that she would live did make her feel better, but it made her wonder if she had been the vampire taking her blood instead of Damon. Could she have much self control for being so young?
Damon would be her teacher. He would be the one to sire her and he would show her how to take just enough blood to keep herself fulfilled and keep her victim alive.
Bonnie beamed proudly.
She was young and beautiful, and she loved danger, but she would not land herself in a coffin. Oh, no. One day, she would be having a proper lunch with her boyfriend – blood, fangs, and all.