Infection
4
Damon turned from Bonnie and met the glazed expressions of the Phantom's as they sloshed through the murky waters of the sewers. There was no life in their eyes, no intelligence, and no real awareness of where they were or what they were doing. They were zombies, plain and simple, and if there was anything he hated more than the living dead he had yet to meet it. It was not just because they were impossible to have a conversation with. Zombies, as a species, had no free will. It didn't matter how strong they appeared to be, how menacing and bad-ass. He only had to dispose of the controller to return all of them to the grave, and he had been killing things for centuries.
"Run," Damon ordered her quietly, as if trying not to upset a smooth expanse of water with the heavy need to have her far away. She paused, unsure perhaps, and he glared at her with all his power routed to his eyes, "Run, dammit!" He could hear the creatures behind him coming closer, and he knew that soon he would have to turn from her to fight them off, though letting her out of his sight felt as though it were leaving her unprotected. He felt the zombie's hand on his neck, no doubt to attempt to break it, but he tore at it with his teeth.
Bonnie had never seen Damon look as inhuman as he did then. With zombie flesh in tatters around his mouth, he looked exactly like the monster he was meant to be, and nothing like the man she knew he was. She knew that he wanted her to escape, to flee, but she was frozen by the sight of so many monsters converging at once. Even when his turned frantic, her body felt paralysed and even her mouth ignored the many requests she sent to it. She watched, unable to do anything, as the shuffling creatures converged on the him like a tidal wave of bodies, using their mass to drown him. She knew she couldn't do as he said this time, not even if the situation was utterly hopeless, because to run away was to forsake him to this end – it was something she could not do.
Her hand shook as she reached out to touch him, and she had to fight every instinct she had not to snatch her hand away when he snapped his glistening teeth close enough to her skin to feel that warmth of his breath. She could do this, she knew she could, she only had to believe in her ability to fix this. This time, she thought, it was her who would save the day. Bonnie's hand lay flat on Damon's chest as she muttered the incantation.
"Bonnie, be careful..." Stefan began, taking a weary step closer, his face showing his scepticism even more clearly than the tone of his voice. Bonnie felt like baring her teeth at Stefan with her teeth, just as Damon was baring his, because he was a coward and wouldn't miss a beat if these creatures killed Damon. If she had had time to hurt him like his attitude was hurting her, she would have punched him with everything she had and driven a stake through his heart. He acted as if he were compassionate, but when Elena was not involved he was as cold and detached as a wolf hunting for dinner. He was maddening; She'd never been so frustrated by anyone like she was frustrated by him.
"Would you be quiet for one minute!" Bonnie shouted, not having to turn around to see the surprise that must have been written on his face. What – did he not think that sweet little Bonnie didn't have a limit to how much of his annoying need to control the situation she could take? She hoped that he at least had enough sense not to give an answer.
A heat that was so much warmer than Damon's usual body temperature grew beneath her palm until it seared her skin like fire. She poured all of herself into the enchantment, every little piece of her love and her life, and as it was absorbed into Damon, she felt that at least if this didn't work, and it killed her, she would be with Damon in whatever afterlife awaited the vampires. She crumpled by his body, still with her hand on his chest, and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye – she'd always hoped to be beside Damon for eternity, even if it was only in spirit. If she could just hold him until the darkness took her she would be forever grateful. She gripped the shirt he was wearing felt her body shake with the sadness that would soon be the last thing she knew.
"Wake up!" she screamed, thumping Damon's chest with everything she had, "Breathe!" The emotion inside her was so strange that it took her a moment to diagnose what exactly it was, "Dammit, Damon! You can't be dead! It shouldn't be so easy to take your life! Fucking wake up!" Her tears covered her face like the thickest layer of sweat anyone ever had, and it fell on Damon's pale face in giant droplets. It seemed too abscure and idea that she could not get her head around it. How could he be dead when she was still breathing? How could life go on without his dark-light to guide her? No, no, no! This could not be it for them – there had to be more.
Stefan came up from behind her and laid a heavy hand on her shoulder, as if that would be any comfort to her now. Part of her was surprised he had even dared, but the other part was unthinking and blind with rage. This was all his fault, Damon's voice whispered in her ear, and he needed to pay. Before the instruction to her brain was sent, she found herself with her fist in Stefan's stomach, feeling as though with just a little more effort she could punch a hole right through him. It only took her an instant to formulate a plan in her mind how she would kill him.
TBC