Chapter 4 – Vampire Bait
I found myself wandering through the little town known as my personal hell. I wasn't exactly sure where I was heading, but with all the painful memories running through my head – I honestly didn't care. I had put on a brave face for so long that my resolve was cracking under the pressure. Being here was supposed to be a fresh start, not a prelude to more pain.
My phone started vibrating in my pocket so I pulled it out to see what was going on. It stated that I had a text message from an unknown number. I glanced around cautiously before looking back at my phone and opening the text. "Miss me?"
I snapped my gaze back up to look around. I was near the edge of the woods, but other than that there wasn't really anyone around. I looked down at the test message once more and one name ran through my head. Katherine. I needed to talk to Damon.
I jogged back into the town square and hailed a cab. That fact alone amazed me. A town this small had cabs. Ha-ha weird.
"Where to?" he asked.
"The old boarding house out by-"
"Yeah I know," the guy responded before he pulled away from the curb.
After the short drive there, passing one car coming away from the house, I tossed my money at the guy and jumped out seeing that Stefan was still standing there. I couldn't see his face from where I was standing, but I stopped walking. I glanced around at the dark woods feeling like I was being watched.
"Jay what are you doing here?" Stefan asked a worried look on his face. I'm not sure why he was worried – something on my face must have given it away. "Jay?"
"I got this text message," I muttered shoving my phone in his hands. "I have to talk to Damon."
"Who sent this?" Stefan asked. I could tell by his posture he had gone into protective mode. It made me feel a little better that I still elicit that emotion out of him.
"I think it was Katherine, but I'm not sure. So I need to talk to Damon."
"You're not telling me something," Stefan replied looking from the phone up to me. "Besides that's not the best idea right now," Stefan replied glancing around at the ground before his eyes landed back on me. "Come inside."
I followed Stefan into the house and stood there awkwardly as he shut the door behind me. He then moved around me so he was standing in front of me.
"Stefan, if you just let me talk to Damon I can be gone in a minute. You won't have to suffer being around me for much longer."
"That's not it and you know it," Stefan lowered his voice almost like he was trying to keep someone from hearing. "Jay-"
"It doesn't matter anymore," I whispered back before pushing past Stefan. "Damon!"
I walked into the living room and saw the back of Damon's head as he lay sideways on one of the loveseats in the room. He was staring at the fire that was going and what looked like a glass of scotch in his hand. I glanced around the room for a minute and took in the almost museum-like feeling to it.
"What do you want?" Damon asked in an uninterested tone, not turning around.
"You said you needed help and I'm willing to do that in exchange for something."
"Can't we talk about this later?" Damon asked rolling his eyes as I walked around to the front of the seat so my back was to the fire and he was looking at me.
"Now seems like a pretty good time." I glanced over at Stefan who had arrived and was standing next to me giving Damon a look that a scornful mother would give. "Okay what happened?"
"Don't look at me like that," Damon muttered directing that at Stefan.
"Are you crazy?" Stefan responded.
"Save the lecture. Look-" Damon was cut off by a loud crashing noise that had come from behind me and Stefan.
I turned to look at Stefan only to find Stefan wasn't there. I looked down and saw that some vampire had Stefan pinned to the ground before he stabbed him with a piece of broken glass.
"Stefan!" I shouted causing the vampire's gaze to turn to me. My eyes widened before I felt someone pick me up and set me back down behind said person – at vampire speed none the less. That person ended up being Damon as he threw the vampire off his brother before tossing that vampire across the room. I ran over to Stefan who was lying on the ground in pain as he gripped the glass.
I slid down to my knees and put my hands over his on the glass and helped him try pulling it out. Blood was seeping from the wound and some had found its way onto my hands momentarily causing me to freeze before Stefan's groan caught my attention. Every time we moved it he groaned in pain causing me to flinch back in hesitation. I glanced up to see that Damon had been watching us intently before he moved to attack the other vampire once more throwing punch after punch. I finally got a good enough grip on the glass and yanked it out causing Stefan to shout in pain. Stefan picked up the glass shard as he stood up, pulling me up with him.
"Go!" he told me sternly as another vampire jumped through the window and charged at me and Stefan only this one was a woman. Stefan swung the piece of glass at her, but she caught his arm before wrapping her other hand around his neck. I needed to help and every time I tried pulling out some power it didn't work. I noticed some splintered wood lying on the ground so I reached down and grabbed a particularly sharp piece.
I went up behind the female vampire and stuck it in her back. She let out a scream before she tossed Stefan across the room. I started backing up when her angry glare landed on me. The vampire ran forward at vampire speed towards me, but as she reached out for me Stefan appeared with some more splintered wood in his hand before he shoved the piece up into her heart. Stefan then grabbed me and pulled me away from the dying vampire. We ended up over by Damon who had sent his vampire sailing across the room where he landed by the fire.
The vampire quickly jumped up and surveyed the scene around him. I found myself squished between the Salvatore brothers, Damon standing slightly in front of me and Stefan with his hand out – both were in a protective stance. All the vampires were breathing hard as the mysterious one glanced from his dead counterpart to me and the Salvatores. His eyes locked with mine before he bailed out through the broken window.
"Damn it," Damon muttered as Stefan put a hand to his wound.
"I remember them," Stefan stated looking up at Damon. "From 1864. They were in the tomb."
"Yeah…about that," Damon replied. I looked up at Damon a shocked look on my face.
"The tomb's open?" I asked looking between them.
"Yeah. Where've you been?" Damon asked. I rolled my eyes as Damon moved away from us and towards the dead vampire.
"Are you okay?" Stefan asked softly. His tone almost sounded like it used to whenever he had talked to me back in Scottsdale.
"I'll live," I replied looking up at him. I opened my mouth to say something else but his phone rang. I nodded before walking over to where Damon was standing as he watched me and Stefan.
"I know that look," he muttered leaning down so his mouth was right next to my ear.
"You seem to know a lot lately," I answered turning to look at him. We were closer than I had anticipated. We were so close I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Damon smirked before pulling back. I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding, before I knelt down and started picking up the broken pieces of glass from the window the vampires broke through.
"Could you help me out a little bit?" Damon asked Stefan as soon as he was done talking to Elena on the phone. Damon was in the process of stuffing the body either up the chimney or into the fire.
"Well as awesome as all this is. I should probably be getting home," I spoke up after throwing the last piece of glass into a trash bag.
"I'll take you," Stefan responded only to be stopped by Damon.
"Actually I'll take you," Damon corrected Stefan. "You said you needed to talk to me so we can talk while you," Damon said pointing to Stefan, "clean this mess up."
"Damon-" Stefan started but was cut off.
"Stefan," Damon responded before turning away from his brother.
Damon grabbed my shoulders and led me out of the house and towards his car. I watched he glanced around ready incase anyone decided to attack again. Most of the ride was quiet until we pulled up outside my house. Lightning lit up the sky as Damon turned to me.
"You said you could help. Help with what?"
"Well I assumed you meant Katherine. I can find her for you. In exchange you help me disappear – without killing me."
"Why would you want to disappear?" Damon asked a suspicious look on his face.
"Doesn't matter. Can you help or not?"
"Not. That ship has sailed. Someone beat ya to the whole finding Katherine thing."
I rolled my eyes before getting out of the car. As I got out the wind was blowing really hard whipping my hair around my face. As I closed the door I turned around to find Damon standing in front of me.
"Why do you want to leave?" he asked raising his voice over the sound of the wind.
"It hurts too much to be here. I just need to leave!" I answered trying to get around him.
"Because of Stefan?"
"Don't try to figure out things you wouldn't understand, Damon."
"You're just like her, you know that? Katherine! You only stick around if things are going your way and if they don't you bail to save your own skin!"
"You don't even know me!" I shrieked as a loud cackle of thunder and lightning hit overhead. "You have no idea what's happened!"
I shoved him back before jogging up to my front door. I opened it and ran in before slamming it shut behind me.
"Hey where are you going?" My dad asked as I came bounding down the stairs in track pants, tennis shoes, and a windbreaker.
"Running."
"Jay, it's raining cats and dogs outside."
"It's the only way I can think."
"Why, what's going on?" my dad asked situating himself in front of the door so I couldn't leave.
"Okay, so this hypothetical witch, not me, is having problems with her hypothetical powers. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Is there anything this witch can do to fix the hypothetical problem?"
"That hypothetical witch needs to start practicing again and take her craft seriously before she gets herself hypothetically killed," my dad answered looking at me with those piercing 'I-know-what's-going-on' eyes.
"Right. I'll let her know that," I answered going to move around my dad only to get stopped again.
"Jay I'm serious. You remember the last time this happened?"
"Yeah dad I do. Mom died…there you happy?" I hissed pushing past him and out into the pouring rain.
"Jaycee!" I heard him shout after me, but I kept going.
There is nothing more soothing than running through the rain. Between the pounding of my feet against the pavement and the rain against everything else – it was my time. But when there was a lot of me time my mind finds itself picking through old memories.
"What are we gonna do today?" I asked as I moved through our expansive kitchen.
"Well I was thinking we could go check out the trails up in Flagstaff and still come back in time for tonight," an older woman responded as she moved the eggs around in the frying pan. She was about 5'8 with long chestnut color hair and dark green eyes.
"Why what's—Oh. The full moon." I took in her posture as I said that and knew I had hit a nerve. "Mom I'm sorry I forgot."
"It's fine. I just need you to be ready for tonight," she sighed. "Your Uncle Richard was supposed to be here to help me out, but once again he is a no show. Said something about problems at home."
"What's so different about tonight?"
"It's the Harvest Moon."
"That should have been my first warning," I muttered as I ran. The rain was steady but there was a lot of it. The constant pounding of the rain had soaked through my clothes by this point. I had left the hood down on my jacket meaning my hair was soaked. I could hear my phone ringing in my pocket so I quickly found the nearest porch and hid out underneath it. I pulled out my phone and the zip lock bag it was currently occupying. I glanced down at the number before answering.
"Hey Ty, what's up?"
"Dinner with dad," Ty answered simply.
"Ouch."
"Yeah, and I need you to come with me. I really don't wanna be alone with him, Jay."
"He's your father, Tyler. I have to live with mine so you gotta suck it up with yours."
"Jay, I'm begging you," Tyler pleaded. I glanced out at the woods that were across from the house I was ducking under. Squinting I was able to catch the outline of a person wearing a raincoat with the hood up.
"Ty, I have to go," I answered absently before snapping my phone shut. I slid the phone back in the baggie before stepping back out into the rain. I looked around for the guy once more but found he was no where in sight. I turned to start jogging again only to come face to face with the guy in the raincoat. I quickly turned to start running the other way only to come face to face with another coated individual.
"Don't scream," a voice said right next to my ear before an arm wrapped around me and yanked me off my feet.
They were vampires. After I had made that initial assessment the world disappeared in a blur before I found myself in the middle of the woods. I'm starting to figure out that me and these woods have a very bad relationship. I glanced around for any of the vampires, because I knew there was more than one – I felt them. My powers really picked a bad time to give out on me.
Through the pounding rain it was hard to see or hear anything. I couldn't see any of them, but I could feel them which meant they were close. Probably watching me as I squirmed. My head whipped around causing my wet hair to slap me in the face when I felt another presence enter my range. I was about to call out to the person who had just appeared, but a firm hand on my neck led me to do the opposite.
When the mystery person got closer and I got a good look at his face my blood froze. Stefan! I struggled against my captor until Stefan's gaze landed on us. He went to walk forward, but something stopped him. I felt the vampire behind me push my head to the side before his teeth grazed my neck, but not biting into it. The vampire must have gotten the reaction out of Stefan he wanted before I felt a searing pain erupt from my neck.
I let out a strangled cry and struggled to get away before I was tossed carelessly to the ground. My hand immediately went up to my neck as I glanced up to Stefan who was coming towards me. He was stopped by some vampire stepping in his way. I watched as Stefan doubled over crying out in pain and once the vampire moved out of the way I saw he had staked him right in the gut.
"Stefan!" I cried out causing him to glance over at me in pain. Before I had a chance to move Stefan and all the vampires were gone leaving me on the muddy ground alone bleeding from the neck. "Stefan!" I screamed at the trees around me before climbing to my feet.
I reached into my jacket and pulled out myself phone, not caring if it was gonna get wet at this point. I dialed the first person who came to mind.
"Hello?"
"Elena," I sniffed holding onto my neck as I tried to walk but abandoned the idea when I realized I had no clue where I was at.
"Jay? Are you okay? What's wrong? Where are you?" Elena said quickly nearly making my head.
"I don't know where I'm at. They have Stefan, Elena. They took him and I couldn't do anything," I responded trying to find the right words. I heard muffling on the other side of the phone before another voice took over.
"Are you hurt?" the distinctive male voice asked.
"He bit me," I answered. I heard the phone click and the line went dead. He was just gonna leave me out here!
Thankfully that wasn't the case because a few minutes later the blue eyed Adonis was standing in front of me. I opened my mouth to say something, but Damon grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my neck leaving the blood to flow freely from the wound and down my neck onto my clothes. Damon was staring intently at it which was making me nervous for obvious reasons.
"Damon-"
"What in the hell were you thinking?" Damon asked before he brought his wrist up to his mouth and biting into it.
"Whoa! Hold up there cowboy. It wasn't my fault and if you're doing what I think you're doing then you can just stop."
"Jay, you need to drink it. You're gonna die if you don't." Damon sighed in aggravation when the wound on his wrist healed.
"Okay I don't know what planet you're on, but obviously I'm fine if-" I cut myself off when I started feeling lightheaded.
"Jay," Damon said forcefully biting into his wrist once more and pushing it towards me.
"Dam-" I was cut off by Damon thrusting his wrist to my lips and holding it there until the blood made its way into my mouth and down my throat. I struggled against the vampire until in a sudden burst of energy he was thrown backwards into a tree.
"OH now it works!" I groaned bringing my hand to my mouth and wiping it with the back of my hand.
"Your welcome," Damon groaned standing up.
"Your welcome?" I yelled at the vampire. "You just unwillingly gave me vampire blood, Damon! What in the hell am I supposed to do if I end up dying?"
"Don't die," He replied simply shrugging his shoulders. "Now, come on."
I didn't get to respond before I was swept up into his arms and the world was a blur once more. My eyes were firmly clamped shut to keep the rain out of my eyes as we moved at super speed through the trees. Once my feet were firmly back on the ground my eyes snapped back open. I opened my mouth to give Damon a piece of my mind only to find he wasn't there. I looked at my surroundings and found that I was standing on an unfamiliar porch.
"Jay!" a familiar voice spoke in relief. I turned to find Elena standing there her front door open and a towel in her hand.
"Elena," I responded as she quickly came over and wrapped the towel around my shoulders.
"Come on, you must be freezing."
"Thanks," I muttered allowing her to lead me into the house.
"We're about the same size so I have some clothes that will fit you," Elena rattled off as we entered the Gilbert House. I glanced around curiously before my eyes landed on a mirror. I gazed angrily back at my reflection, my neck was covered in blood as was the collar of my windbreaker and tank top underneath. But what angered me the most was the remnants of blood still around my mouth from Damon.
"Elena do you mind if I jump in the shower really fast?" I asked turning to look at the young woman in front of me. I couldn't ignore the fact that I was shaking and I was covered in blood.
"Of course," she whispered leading me up to the bathroom.
I was in and out quickly, throwing on the clothes Elena had graciously left for me on the counter. As much as I really wanted to hate this girl she was just too damn nice for anyone to absolutely hate her. I think the main reason why I strongly disliked her was because she was dating Stefan. I'm just gonna have to fix that little detail.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and I know I usually write little notes back to those who reviewed, but I thought I would just say all together thank you for your lovely reviews they always make my day!
***PLEASE READ THIS***
Okay, so at this point I'm begging! On my knees, hands folded begging for a beta. Cause I was kinda iffy on this chapter with keeping people in character and I would love a beta to be able to help me out! If you're interested please do not hesitate to message me! And in your review (if you leave one) let me know if I'm keeping people in character or if I'm totally off base! THANKS!