Chapter One
Summer 1850
"No Stefan!" exclaimed the young dark-haired ten-year old in the Victorian house's backyard. "You need to climb the tree!"
Stefan, the lighter-haired one looked at his brother with pleading eyes. He had always been afraid of heights. "I don't know, Damon… I don't think I want to play anymore."
Damon rolled his eyes at his brother and marched towards the big oak ten feet from their actual backyard, perfectly out of their father's view. "Now watch and learn, little brother," he said in a condescending tone. Damon reached the tree and jumped until his hand caught an abnormally shorter branch. He propped himself easily upon it and sat with his feet dangling in the air, his eyes held a gleeful gleam. "See, Stefan? You can do it!" he said excitedly, even though he sometimes grew tired of his brother's shyness and lack of adventure in him.
Stefan had a grim look in his face and was looking paler than usual; at last he gave up and ran towards his brother. "I'm sorry Damon but I can't do it… I'm afraid."
Damon scoffed. "You're not afraid of father," he said.
Stefan looked confused for a second then looked up at his brother who was looking at him expectantly. "Why would I be afraid of father?" he asked. "He's caring, he teaches us, he feeds us and he—"
"He doesn't love us!" yelled Damon, and Stefan swore at that moment he could see tears swelling up in his older brother's eyes.
"What are you talking about, Damon?" he asked softly. "Of course he loves us… he's our father."
"That doesn't prove anything," said Damon defiantly. "Not all parents love their children."
Stefan and Damon just sat there not saying anything. Stefan thought of how Damon's attitude had changed since mother's death, he wasn't the same anymore. "This is about mother, right?" he asked standing up on his tiptoes to reach his brother.
"It's not," snapped Damon but Stefan saw him wipe his eyes with his blouse.
"Damon Salvatore get down from that tree this instant!" yelled a deep man's voice and when Damon turned to see whom it was he saw his father. The bane of his existence, the big bad wolf, the boogey monster, the skeleton in the closet of Damon's life, the monster under the bed… that was Damon's father, in his opinion.
He saw his father stand straight as a soldier on the house's back door standing next to a small pudgy man with a young girl with jet black curls that tickled her cheeks; she smiled at him from the door. Damon looked at Stefan anxiously and jumped from the branch landing perfectly on his feet without a scratch.
"Damon!" Stefan exclaimed at his brother's stunt. "Be careful, you might hurt yourself."
Damon shook him off. "Enough rubbish, there's a girl over there and she looks about our age, maybe she will be our friend," said Damon, still with pure innocence in his soul.
Stefan turned to the direction Damon was pointing at and he in fact did see a girl about their age. They both ran, Damon slightly in the lead, towards their father. They both stood panting a little but when they saw their father they stood up straight and stared at him with respect. Their father did not smile or showed any sign of affection, instead he turned towards the pudgy man at his side.
"Reverend, thank you for your visit today, this is my son Stefan…" he said proudly and for a second he seemed to forget about his other son: Damon. "And my other son Damon, he said not nearly as proud as he was with Stefan but Damon just shrugged it off, he was used to his father's behavior.
The reverend looked at both boys with a smile on his face and ruffled their heads. "Such strong looking lads, you've got here. I'm sure they're very nice boys."
Stefan and Damon were trained for this kind of occasion and just looked at the man and smiled and said: "Thank you, sir."
The reverend laughed like Santa Claus and placed a hand on the girl. Damon couldn't help noticing how shiny and black her hair was and how it curled to her back in onyx ringlets. She had creamy white skin with a tinge of rose and her eyes were a strange icy mint green he had never seen before. She had a scheming smile which she shot at him, and Damon couldn't help blushing a little. "This is my daughter Victoria. She will be your neighbor along with me of course," he said and peals of that joyous laugh filled the air. "I trust you will become good friends," he said taking Stefan by the chin affectionately and giving Damon a warm smile.
Mr. Salvatore looked at the reverend with a forced smile. "Excuse me, Reverend; I have to check if the mail is here. I'm expecting a very important letter and the mail usually arrives at this hour," he said and retreated into the house with a small nod.
Damon turned to Victoria who smiled at him broadly revealing two missing teeth in the front. "Hello, my name is Damon Salvatore and this is my brother Stefan Salvatore," he said.
Victoria smiled at both of them and shook their hand formally. "Well, as you know my name is Victoria Alessandra Bugiardini the third," she said proudly and his father chuckled.
"Yes, Victoria's grandmother and mother both shared the same name," he said a little sadly and Victoria looked down.
"I'm sorry if it's something I said," blurted Damon sheepishly.
The reverend looked up at him and smiled. "Oh, it's not your fault, m'boy," he said. "It's just that Victoria's mother passed away shortly."
"I know the feeling," said Damon who looked at Victoria sympathetically, he knew what losing your mother felt.
"Our mother passed away too," said Stefan. "It was not much after I was born so I don't remember her well."
"She was the best mother ever," whispered Damon and Reverend patted his cheek softly. "I know, lad. I know."
Right then Giuseppe Salvatore returned with letters in his hands. He passed them until he saw a royal blue envelope the color of lapis lazuli, his father had many around the house, and he said they were… souvenirs, whatever that meant. He opened the lapis lazuli colored envelope eagerly and took out an amber colored parchment with emerald manuscript. He read the letter quickly, raking through the words and when he finished reading the letter a predatory look flashed across his eyes. He usually got this looks when he got letters like this one or sometimes when he saw things in town… I think certain people seemed different to him… at least that's what he told his sons whenever they asked.
"What is it, father?" asked Stefan and Damon couldn't help thinking that if it was him he was asking his father would've slapped him in the face for "insubordination".
He glanced at his clearly favorite son and he hesitated. "Nothing to worry about, son. Everything is under control." He gave Reverend a glance which he seemed to understand because he nodded fervently.
"We'll be out in a moment, children… er, you can go and… play," said Giuseppe rushing to get inside and out of the children's earshot.
The adults where out of sight and Victoria was patting her pink, ruffled hoop skirt while she looked at the floor.
"So, do you want to play Victoria?" asked Stefan and Damon seized his opportunity. "Yeah, we were climbing that tree but Stefan was too scared."
Victoria giggled and Stefan glared at Damon while this one smirked. "I wasn't scared! And you heard what father said."
"Who cares about father?" asked Damon with a roll of his eyes. "You're such a stick in the mud, Stef," said Damon smiling at Victoria who giggled even more.
Suddenly Victoria broke the silent. "Well, if you are not afraid Stefan I dare you to climb that tree," she said with a slight Italian accent while she pointed at the oak.
Damon laughed but Stefan just glared at both of them. "Father said we couldn't climb it," he whined.
"Technically, he didn't. He just asked me to get off and it was just to meet Reverend and Victoria," he said turning around to walk towards the tree. He took five steps and Victoria lifted her skirts and skipped next to him while Stefan just stood there like a statue.
"Do you think he'll do it?" she asked genuinely curious as to whereas Stefan would really do the dare.
Damon just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. You never know with Stefan. Oh, and you talk funny," he said giving her a loop-sided grin that would become his trademark.
She blushed a little. "Yes, I lived in Italy before I moved here," she said matter-of-factly.
"Really?" exclaimed Damon. "Our family is of Italian descent, hence the surname Salvatore."
"I noticed."
Damon looked at her and smiled when a blur whizzed past them in the form of Stefan. He had reached the oak and was jumping trying to reach the low branch. Victoria and Damon ran towards him with eager smiles on their faces.
"Are you going to do it, Stefan?" asked Victoria, her accent thickening with the excitement in the moment.
Stefan looked at her and grinned, a grin Damon hadn't seen before. And it made Damon feel… queasy? All Damon knew was it didn't make him feel well but Victoria didn't noticed and only ushered Stefan with her hands. Stefan jumped once and his fingers grasped the old wood. He dangled and trashed from the branch. His face was red because of the heat of the moment. He was about to give up when a voice broke the silent.
"Go on, Stefan! You can do it! Just prop yourself up… with strength Stefan!" she yelled eagerly wanting Stefan to feel self-accomplishment at climbing the oak by himself.
Stefan looked at Victoria and smiled. He swung back and forth on the branch and brought his skinny legs up the branch and he was hanging like a sloth from the branch. Victoria burst out laughing but egged him on. He propped himself finally on the branch and sat. When he noticed what he had done he yelled a very proud: "I did it!"
Victoria and Damon clapped at Stefan's success and Damon instructed his brother on how to climb up the rest of the tree. When Stefan had reached the second branch in a remarkably fast time Damon was already starting towards the branch to climb it himself. Victoria hung back with a sad face.
"What's wrong, Victoria? Come on and climb the tree," he said innocently clueless at Victoria's skirt.
She looked down embarrassed. "I can't, I'm wearing a dress."
"Oh," murmured Damon, a faint blush creeping up his cheeks. "Oh, rubbish!" he said switching from embarrassment to carelessness. "If you want to climb the tree you're not going to let a silly skirt prevent you from doing it… right?"
Victoria scrunched up her nose. "I guess so," she said a little tentatively. "Oh, alright I will do it!" She bunched up her skirts to her knees and walked towards the oak where Damon sat on the lowest branch and Stefan was making way for the third one. Victoria jumped and her hands grabbed the branch easily, but her skirts fell to her ankles and she glared at them. Sometimes, at times like these, Victoria really hated being a girl. She wanted to play but her father didn't permit her to wear trousers. Right now she wanted to trade her clingy, tight dress for comfortable stretchy boy pants. When she felt her fingers slipping she felt pair of cool hands grab her and pull her up while she gained momentum by stepping up the trunk. In a second she was on the branch with her dress all bunched up her ribs and the metal parts (the dress wasn't like big girls' dresses, she didn't have to wear that big metal hoop thing they passed off as a dress although it did have a small semicircle of metal at the top of the dress that made the fabric form a dome type style) stabbing her stomach and making it really difficult to breathe.
"Ow! Stupid dress, it's hurting me!" she exclaimed trying to sit straight on the branch.
Damon held a desperate look. "I'm sorry, I'll help you down."
Victoria hated to admit it but if she stayed any longer on that branch the metal was going to penetrate her skin and she was going to die of either internal organ bruises or fatigue. She nodded a silent agreement and she jumped from the branch while Damon slowed down her fall.
Stefan was already on the fifth branch and Damon was looking down disappointedly at Victoria who was arranging her dress. Damon jumped down and landed clumsily next to Victoria who shrieked at the sudden appearance of the dark-haired boy with the penetrating blue eyes. Gosh, why am I talking like this?
"What are you doing?" asked Victoria breathlessly and Damon laughed. "Nothing, I'm just going to play with you… I mean since you can't climb the tree without hurting yourself."
Victoria smiled brightly and he returned the smile while he heard a rustle in the leaves. He looked up to see his younger brother with his back to him sitting droopily on a branch.
It would be later in life when he would notice what this had meant to Stefan.
Damon woke up panting from his sleep. He thought about the strange dream and was surprised about it. That incident had happened a hundred and fifty years ago… or something. It had been a while since he had seen Victoria and he didn't want to remember anything that had to do with her.
He sat on his bed and pushed away the white sheets. He stood up and went to take a quick shower. The boarding house's bathroom was rather small but it worked. He put on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. It was summer and unusually hot for Mystic Falls. He would have to work his "magic" to keep the sun from hurting his eyes, plus sunshine… gross. He walked down the hall and stopped next to Stefan's room. He heard murmured voices and decided to use his super hearing.
"Oh, Stefan…," said a bubbly female voice, definitely Elena.
"I'm serious, I'm giving you this gift whether you like it or not!" said Stefan in a laughing tone. Apparently Elena thought Stefan's gift was ridiculous. What gift of Stefan's wasn't? He asked himself. He kept walking when the conversation turned boring and… "romantic", yeah right. Wait, he stopped himself. Elena hadn't "slept over" last night, had she come early in the morning? What time was it? He sonic speed-ran to the kitchen and checked the clock on the wall. One o'clock, it read. He hadn't done anything last night to keep him from sleeping. It was weird of him to even sleep at all, then why had he woken up so late? He remembered the dream and shuddered, he so did not want to think about…
He plopped on the couch near the ash covered fireplace and started playing with the laces of his Doc Martin boots. A few minutes passed and he noticed he was hungry. Sure, he had some left-over blood on the fridge and he was trying to be nice-ish and had tried to kill people less but he was up for some nice, warm, fresh blood… from a young damsel no less. It was more fun this way. He stood up from the couch and grabbed his keys to his Ferrari. He crossed the front lawn and got in his car and drove off until he saw someone suitable… but there was already someone suitable. No, he told himself. Elena was with Stefan and he had to accept that, even if he didn't really accept it. It was a bright, irritable, sunny morning and children were playing on the streets, couples were strolling their babies and old people were fanning themselves on their porches and drinking lemonade. Could this get any stupider? He rode down another street filled with stores of all kinds. There were even more people here and Damon was getting strangely claustrophobic. He didn't usually go out in the day much so it was kind of queer for him. Huh, queer, he laughed. Down the end of the street where it was more desolate he saw a young girl, about fourteen, with auburn hair and light brown eyes. She had tanned skin but you could tell it was from a vacation and her skin was really paler. She was sitting on a bench under a tree, hunched over a thick book. Perfect.
Yum, that girl had tasted just right. He didn't know what was it about blood but sometimes it was just what he needed to make an annoyingly sunny day into a somber afternoon. After he had finished with the girl he had gone to the cemetery to think. He thought about Elena… a lot. He thought about Katherine… a lot. And he thought about Stefan… weird enough… a lot, too. He thought about how his brother had gotten Katherine even though she hadn't really chosen any of them but had "gotten herself killed" to then return as a crazy ex-girlfriend off to kill the reason of existence of hi— Stefan. He pushed those thoughts away, Katherine was an evil psychopath and Damon didn't love her anymore, Stefan on the other hand…
It was about six in the afternoon and the store street was empty but of teenage couples walking and flirting and kissing and his eyes stopped over a girl looking at a perfume cart on the sidewalk. She had pale skin and dark jet black hair cut into a messy bob that its tips tickled her bare shoulders. She was wearing a blood red (how ironic) peasant blouse that exposed her pale shimmery shoulders. The girl looked up as if feeling his eyes on her and what he saw froze him to the bone. He saw a pair of mint green eyes, a smirky pout and a sense of recognition and understanding in her eyes but in a second she was back to talking to the salesman who was practically drooling over her. She had seen him and he had seen her, but that wasn't the issue… because the last time he saw that face it was on a ten-year old girl visiting his dreams.
Back at the boarding house he found Elena and Stefan talking on the couch in serious tones and when he entered the house and saw them they stopped talking abruptly. They were talking about him. Well, screw them, he thought.
"What?" he snapped after they did nothing but stare at him as if he were a stranger that had barged into their house. Well, sorry to brake it to you but the closest one to a stranger here is Elena, he thought.
"Where have you been?" asked Elena with her caring voice that held a slight tinge of accusation in it, yet it filled Damon with a tingly feeling in his stomach.
"Nowhere," he said softly and walked to the stairs when Elena's voice interrupted him.
"Damon," she said and her voice held so much care and warmth it was hard to believe she didn't love him back.
He looked down at her; she was standing barely inches away from him. He leaned down towards her and he heard her heart beat faster, which amused him every time. "Excuse me," he said in the softest tone ever and unfortunately for Elena the most seductive one too. She sighed and stepped aside and he flashed her that bright grin that was gone in a second. He walked towards his room and he could (super) hear their preoccupied voices. He didn't want to use his powers too much but he did catch some phrases like:
"Where the hell has he been?"
"Do you think he went to see… you know?"
"Maybe he went to get a… snack?" Oh, he laughed at this one.
"I'm worried, Stefan. Really worried—"
At this one he shut them off. He hated it when people were worried about him or felt pity towards him. He could handle himself perfectly. He had done so for the last hundred and fifty years. And he especially hated Elena being worried for him although it did mean she thought about him, but then again, what girl doesn't? He thought about that for a moment… Elena. He checked his alarm clock that he just used as a regular clock and the bright red numbers flashed seven o'clock. God, what was wrong with him? It was a Saturday night at seven and he was at home. Stefan and Elena had probably gone over to the Grill but he tuned into them and felt them downstairs in the living room. He grabbed his leather jacket and walked downstairs, Elena and Stefan were kissing and Damon felt a slight pang but he still didn't miss the opportunity.
"Oh, I was going to invite you guys to the Grill to grab something to eat but I see there's enough eating around here, don't you think?" he said with a mocking grin.
Elena glared at him and returned the sarcastic smile. "Really? Because last time I remembered vampires don't eat human food so I don't know what you would be doing eating chicken wings."
"Oh, believe me… vampires do eat human food," he said winking and leaving a gaping Elena and a sullen Stefan in the living room so they could resume their eating.
A rock song was playing in the background and teenagers were either playing billiards or talking. There were three people at the bar: a middle age-ish man with brown hair and a button-down shirt and a stained tie, an over make upped blond lady with a tease and a teenage girl about sixteen in the middle chair. She had really long black curls that ended on the small of her back, sun kissed skin, extremely light blue eyes and the most exquisite pair of ruby lips he had ever laid eyes on. The girls was pretty, and she seemed to know it because when he sat next to her and flashed her one of his knee buckling smiles at her she smiled back in a flirtatious way. But what he felt next shocked him, when he was around humans he felt this warm humming that meant that the creature before him was indeed human. But what the girl put off was just a white noised void that he only got when he was around vampires, witches or werewolves.
He looked at her and she looked back, still wearing that beacon of a smile she had. She flipped her long black hair over her right shoulder. I was sitting on her left and that meant she had left her pale, succulent neck all exposed… in front of a vampire… a vampire whose only weakness was young human girls… then again, this girl definitely did not put off a human vibe. He bore his eyes into her, trying to reach her mind, but again, all he got was a blank void.
"Alright, what are you? What are you doing here? And what do you want?" he blurted out without any embarrassment. He was getting tired of these stupid vampires or any mythical creature popping up in Mystic Falls because what they usually wanted was either revenge on the town, the death of the Salvatore brothers (mostly Damon) or Elena's death, sometimes all three.
The dark-haired girl' eyes narrow and the most conspicuous smirk crept up her lips but she dropped them abruptly for a confused, ditzy one.
"What do you mean?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice that he did not buy.
"You know what I mean, are you here for her?" he said putting an emphasis on the "her".
She smiled devilishly but then the smile turned almost genuinely sweet. "Maybe," she said. She got up from the stool grabbed her purse and strutted out of the bar, leaving Damon dumbfounded… and angry.
After the door closed before her Damon stood up quickly and followed her but when he opened the door to the empty street and parking lot he was left staring at the mysterious night that hid the secrets of many. He was determined to find that girl, who she was (more specifically what she was) and who she was after because no one just happens to come to Mystic Falls for no reason… he had learned that multiple times.
He got in his car and drove as fast as he could towards the boarding house and barged in as if the key to the universe was inside it, which it probably was considering Elena was sleeping on the couch, tragically on Stefan's lap.
Stefan looked up at him and he looked rather tired… more like downright exhausted. "What's wrong Damon?" he asked half- tired, half-interested.
Damon looked at him seriously. "I think there's a vampire in town," he said and Stefan threatened to jump at Damon but he suddenly remembered Elena was on top of him and that would have been a frightening awakening.
"What?" he asked breathlessly.
"I met a girl at the Grill. She had black hair, white skin and really soft blue eyes, almost white and really red lips."
"So…" Stefan egged on.
Damon glared at him. "So… she didn't give off any human vibe so I assumed she was a mythical creature, most likely a vampire."
Stefan looked preoccupied and he glanced at Elena who moaned and stirred.
"We'll talk about this in the morning. I don't want to risk her subconscious hearing it and developing into a cryptic nightmare or something," he said patting Elena's head and he couldn't help but stare at her vulnerable state. She was sleeping and the look of peace in her made me want to carry her up to my bedroom and just watch her sleep and then in the morning watch her wake up.
"Damon?" Stefan asked snapping me back to reality.
"Sure Stefan. Whatever you want," he said and Stefan couldn't help thinking he wasn't talking about talking about the vampire in the morning.
Summer 1855
Victoria ran and ran and ran. No way was she going to let Salvatore catch her. Ha, he was going to be surprised that she beat him to it. The wind was messing her curls and it was very hard to run with a full metal hoopskirt and an extremely tight corset. Her emerald green dress was billowing around her ankles. She was running barefooted against the cool, damp afternoon grass.
"I'm going to get you, Alessandra," said a smiling voice that made her heart flutter a little bit. Obviously and unequivocally, the voice belonged to Damon Salvatore. He was gaining speed. She was faster than him but she wearing the stupid dress with the thousand pound metal hoop skirt was slowing her down. She laughed.
"In your dreams, Salvatore!"
She ran faster turning to the left when she passed the oak tree but when she thought she was going to lose Damon he grabbed her waist as he tackled her and they both fell to the ground. She landed on her back and so did Damon. They were lying on the grass, side-by-side laughing like mental people.
"Told you I was going to catch you," he said panting from the race.
"Don't call victory yet, Salvatore," she said turning to her side and propping her head on her left arm. "I want a rematch… without a dress this time."
He raised an eyebrow and smirked at me. "I think people would notice if they see me chasing you around the backyard naked."
She punched him on the arm. "Very funny, but seriously, I want a rematch, without the metal hoopskirt and this tight corset."
"No problem," he said, regaining his strength. Good, he would need it. "Though I'm still going to win."
"No you won't, I'll make sure of that," she said with a smirk. She stood up and brushed the grass off her dress.
"Keep telling yourself that," said Damon standing up but not bothering to brush the grass from his clothes.
They stood there smiling at each other and Damon put a hand over Victoria's bony shoulders. If anyone saw them right then they would've turned it into a scandal.
The dream switched into the same backyard, and same tree, only this time, it was night and the moon was nowhere to be seen. The starts twinkled like tearful eyes. Damon was sitting with his back on the trunk of the old oak plucking the grass around his stretched out legs. Victoria appeared out of nowhere and sat next to him. She was smiling devilishly whereas he looked rather bashful.
Victoria's white dress sparkled in the starlight that shone as brightly as the moon. A strand of black hair fell into Victoria's face all the way down to her chin. Damon lifted his hand and tugged at the strand and hid it behind her ear. A faint blush was almost visible against the limited light.
Damon Salvatore leaned down closer to Victoria Bugiardini, who he now called Alessandra because she hated it.
"What are you doing, Salvatore?" she asked in the most whispered and softest tone ever.
His eyes bore into hers and the same blush that crept into her cheeks made Damon's neck heat. "This," he said as her soft lips greeted his in a languishingly awaited kiss.
"Alessandra!" Damon yelled as he remembered the tragic ending to the innocent, forbidden love story.