CHAPTER 4:
My eyes flutter open as I hear something like ruffling coming from downstairs. I quietly hop out of bed, tiptoeing to stand at the door, listening. A crashing sound emerges, and before I know it, I'm racing out of the room and down the stairs.
"What do you want now?"
Damon's harsh tone slaps me in the face as I enter the kitchen. I freeze, and I'm face to face with cold blue eyes. As Damon takes me in, he sighs.
"I thought you were Caroline," He tells me, a hint of regret on his face.
"Sorry, I-I heard someone moving downstairs, and I-I thought that someone had broken in," I tell him, biting my lip as I play with my hands nervously. I don't know how to act around him. I hardly know him, and I've spent the night in his house. How does one go about? Plus, Damon's tone is annoyed, and, to be honest, he scares me when he gets angry. I may have only met him yesterday, but I quickly caught onto the fact that he's very unpredictable when he's angry. I need to buy a "How-To-Act-Around-Mood-Swing-Shifting-Hosts".
"You heard that?" Damon asks, frowning as his gaze assesses me suspiciously.
I nod nervously.
"It must be your transition," he says. "No human could hear that," his eyebrow raises.
I blink, not knowing how to respond. I had forgotten about my transition, unfortunately. I just wanted to act as if I'd never heard such a thing.
Act as if my life isn't ending as I know it.
"I thought a Pureblood was a human born to vampires," I ask, his comment coming back into my mind.
"Well, technically, yes," he says, and I blink, waiting him to continue. "But, as you get closer to your birthday, the signs will start to...become more obvious," he says warily.
"Signs?" I ask, frowning.
"Symptoms, if you want. As your body recognizes that your twenty-first birthday is inching closer, it will begin to show symptoms, or signs, of your impending transition,"
"Oh," I nod. "Is it alright If I could go outback near the lake?" I ask him suddenly. There's nothing to do around here, and I'd like to go outside at the least.
"I'll come with you," he says, nodding.
"Why do you have to come with me?" I ask, and regret it when I see Damon's jaw tightening.
"Because there is a group of vampires that wants you dead," he says bitterly. "I'm not going to just let you go prance around the grounds alone."
"Alright, I get it," I mumble, following him outside.
The back of the estate is absolutely breathtaking.
I feel like I've stepped into some magical fantasy land. The sun hits the lake perfectly, reflecting itself and the sky above. All around me, green plants and trees rest on hilltops, plush and rich with the aroma of nature.
There's a small creek down a ways that's buried underneath a field of willow trees. Damon and I walk there, and all I'm doing as we walk there is staring up at the clouds. Once we arrive, Damon sits beside me, and I'm laying on my back in the soft blanket of grass beneath us.
"Can I ask you something?" I ask him, and when I look over at his face, I see his lips pursed.
Not good.
"What?" he snaps, and I shake my head.
"Nevermind," I say, stuttering. "It's not important,"
"Elena," he says exasperatedly. "I'm sorry, what is it?"
"I was just wondering," I say softly. Will he get angry? "How did you transition?"
The atmosphere between us instantly becomes thick, a sheet of fog between us, and I could literally take a knife and cut through it. I don't know what made me ask that. Curiosity? I suppose. I don't want him to be upset. Damn, I shouldn't have asked him, I shouldn't have pried on his personal life, his past, I-
"It was 1864," he says suddenly, and I'm floored by the fact that he didn't shove my curiosity away.
"I was 24, and I was in love," he says, and my breath hitches in my throat.
Damon, in love?
"She was the most beautiful woman that I'd ever seen. I had never seen anyone as beautiful as Katherine Pierce. She was dangerously playful, very seductive," he smirks to himself. "But she could also be very manipulative and selfish."
"Enter my little brother, Stefan. Ah, Stefan. She couldn't make up her mind between the two of us. She had been secretly seeing the other, and neither Stefan or I were aware of it. But eventually, she told us her secret, and it made me love her all the more,"
"Katherine had spent the last three hundred years running from her past. She had been orphaned when she was seventeen, and she had watched everyone that she loved die in front of her. Even Stefan and I,"
Wait...
"Katherine fed us her blood almost every night. One night in particular, however, She was taken from us, and I begged Stefan to help me save her. It was his fault that she was taken in the first place," Damon hisses, and sympathy washes over me.
"We were shot, Stefan and I, trying to save her," he chuckles, but his laugh is off. "Luckily, Katherine had fed us her blood that night, and it still lingered in our systems. I'm sure you can guess the ending,"
"She turned you two," I say, feeling sympathy for Damon.
My mind is reeling. Damon was in love with a woman who couldn't make up her mind between him and his own brother. He was toyed around, manipulated, but most of all, hurt.
But that's not what surprises me the most.
It's the fact that Damon has actually confided all of that private and personal information with me.
"Yes," he nodded.
"And your brother," I say softly. "Where's he?"
"He's right behind you." An unfamiliar voice says.
I whip around, and standing in front of me, is a man with bronze-colored hair that's styled upward, and warm, hazel-green eyes.
"Stefan," Damon says, his voice distant.
"I see you've brought some 'company' for us," Stefan gives me a tight smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
My skin crawls at the way he says 'company'. He says it like I'm every bit as none.
"Stef-"
Instantly, Stefan races over toward me and I'm knocked hard onto the ground. My head throbs as I screw my eyes shut, waiting for the blow, for his fangs to pierce my neck.
But they don't.
I sit up, coughing, and am shocked when I look up to see Damon standing in front of me, retraining Stefan by his shoulders.
"Damn it, Damon!" Stefan hisses as he struggles against Damon to break lose toward me. I find myself scrambling up against a shed. "Let me go!"
"No!" Damon snaps. "You are not killing her," he says darkly, and even I swallow with fear at the arctic bite in his words.
"Why not?" Stefan growls.
"Because she's a Pureblood, Stefan!"
I watch as Stefan's green eyes widen, shock lingering in the color of his eyes.
"I don't believe you," Stefan shakes his head instantly.
"Well, believe this," Damon snaps, and I yelp as he snatches my wrist and hoists it in front of Stefan's face.
"She's a Pureblood," Stefan breathes in awe, and my hand falls to my side as Damon releases my wrist.
"Yes, so we can't kill her," Damon hisses.
"But-"
"Stefan," I turn to see Caroline at the door, motioning for Stefan to come and see her.
"I'll be right back," he grumbles to us, and suddenly, a blur moves toward the house, leaving Damon and I alone.
"What is so special about a Pureblood that you can't kill me other than the fact that I'm wanted by a group of vampires?" I ask, getting sick of hearing "She's a Pureblood" and "We can't kill her". Why? Just because I'm marked for death by a group of vampires? If so, why does it matter if Damon kills me or them? I'll be dead in the next month anyway.
"It's a very complicated thing, Elena," Damon sighs. I can tell that he's getting frustrated because he's not doing a very good job at trying to mask it.
"Damon, I want to know," I say boldly, and Damon rams me into the side of the shed.
"Don't push me, Elena," he hisses, and I swallow as my heart contracts in fear.
"What is your problem?" I nearly shout at him once he backs away from me. "One second, you're open and vulnerable, and the next your murderous," Damon's mood shifts are getting to be a loud drum, pounding on my head. He constantly shifts between the two like a metronome on full-blast.
"Forget trying to be nice," Damon hisses. "Because it will never be good enough for you."I whimper as I feel his neck pierce my soft and sensitive skin.
"Ah! Damon!" I shriek as my eyes begin to water, and before I know it, I'm balling against his harsh assault.
"Da...mon..." I breathe and my eyelids suddenly way a ton as I feel my mind slowly shutting down, and everything fades to black.
I shoot up in bed, gasping for air.
"It's alright, you're safe,"
I look around frantically. My eyes land on Stefan in front of me, sitting on the edge of my bed. Caroline is standing beside him and Damon is in the far corner, looking pissed.
What's his problem?
"Wh-What happened?" I shake, blinking rapidly. I don't remember anything that happened. I only remember being outside in the blazing sun with Damon.
"You don't remember?" Stefan says softly. I shake my head nervously. He takes a deep breath.
"Damon bit you, and he nearly bled you dry," Stefan says softly.
"What?" I breathe. Oh, My God. I almost died? But-but then that means that- I...I-
No.
"How am I not dead?" I ask. If I was nearly bled dry, surely I would have eventually died from blood loss.
"Due to your transition nearing, your body has taken to healing itself. You're still immensely injured, but it's healing thanks to your blood." Stefan says, and I nod. Caroline immediately gets up to walk over to Damon, then excuses herself.
"Wait, so you're saying that I almost died, and that I'm pre-transitioning?" I gasp. And because of Damon? I shoot a look at him in the corner, and judging by the returning cold look he gives me, I know that it's true.
I cannot believe that Damon nearly killed me.
I immediately want to go upstairs to my room and sleep. This whole day has overwhelmed me. I can hardly move. I don't want to ask Damon to help me upstairs, so I decide on option number two.
"Stefan," I breathe, looking up at him. "I'd really like to go upstairs to my room,"
"I'll carry you," he offers, moving towards me. He pauses just a few inches away from me. "If you'd like."
I nod, ignoring Damon's scoff.
"Thank you," I smile at Stefan.
"What the hell happened out there?" Caroline glared at Damon, her voice sharp and angry.
"I lost control," Damon snapped. He didn't need to explain himself to her. He couldn't. Because he didn't even know the answer himself.
"Do you realize that you've almost killed her?" Caroline asks him pointedly, and Damon turns to face her, his eyes blazing fire.
"I do realize that, Caroline, thank you." he hisses, his eyes piercing Caroline's. "It won't happen again. Trust me. I'm not going to pretend to be her friend, pretend that everything will be okay in the end, because it won't! It's time to just wait for them to come and take her."
~Two Days Later~
The streetlights of New Orleans glowed brilliantly as the two vampires stood impatiently on the sidewalk, waiting for the sound of a car. They had been waiting there for ten minutes.
"You told them eight o'clock, right?" the brunette man, Elijah said. A sliver of doubt echoed in his uncertain voice.
"Would I lie to you, brother?" the blonde woman, Rebekah, replied, hurt and accusation looming in her voice.
Just as Elijah was going to reply, headlights from a car ascended over the horizon.
"Well, look who it is," Rebekah smiled sheepishly, shooting a look of pride toward her brother.
The black SUV pulled along the side of the road near the two. Two men who looked in their twenties stepped out, nervous.
"Mr. Mikaelson, Ms. Mikaelson," muttered the boy with caramel hair as he bowed down to the siblings of the Original Family.
"Well?" Elijah wondered, his eyebrows raised as they poured into that of the two men before him.
"What is this news that you have dragged us out here to blabber on about?" Rebekah sneered.
"Calm, sister. Give the men a chance," Elijah put his hand up, silencing his sister.
After what seemed like decades, the brunette boy, seemingly the elder of the two, stepped forward.
"We received a call a few days ago. Salvatore, he-he found something-" the brunette boy explained gently, but suddenly stopped.
"Oh, enough of this!" Rebekah spluttered, eyes wide with impatience. "Spill the bloody beans before I tear out your throats!"
The brunette boy's eyes dilated, fearful no doubt. And before he could reply, his younger brother finished for him.
"He found a Pureblood. A young girl."
Rebekah and Elijah's eyes widened, large drops of sea blue and chocolate brown. Rebekah's mouth dropped, as Elijah quickly recomposed himself.
"What?" Rebekah gasped.
In the corner of his eye, Elijah caught sight of the elder brother swallowing nervously.
"It's true," The elder brother said.
"Why wouldn't he make contact with us?" Rebekah wondered. Salvatore was her head employee. How come he didn't notify her that he'd found a Pureblood?
"It doesn't matter." Elijah said. "They have a Pureblood. That's the important thing. You two must find her, and bring her to us." he snapped, and the brothers flinched in fear.
"You two have one week. And if you don't return with her, you will deeply regret it." Rebekah said quietly, despite her blazing blue eyes.
The two brothers nodded, and with that the Originals swiftly departed the scene.
"How are we going to find this girl?" the younger brother wondered. Salvatore had moved locations nearly every month, and nobody knew where to. Otherwise the Originals would've taken his unit out and captured the girl.
"Do not worry, brother," said the elder brother, determination looming in his eyes. "We will find her. And we will kill her,"
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