See I don't always take an eternity to update my stories, I promise. Thank you so much everyone who gave feedback on my very belated last chapter.
I hope you all enjoy this one, I actually had two different directions planned for this chapter but this one seemed to go better with the whole story.
Chapter Nine: Truth and Lies
So you can save your petty explanations, I don't have the patience.
Before you even say it I know.
You let your pride and your ego, talk slick to me.
That is not the way I get down and look at how you lose your composure.
Now let me show you exactly how the breaking point sounds.
Faith grunted as her bag slipped from her shoulder for the fifth time since she'd got out of the car. Bonnie and Elena watched in amusement as she threw a mini hissy fit and adjusted the buckle of the strap before pulling it back onto her shoulder. They waited until she caught up with them before continuing their journey into the school before the first period bell rang.
Elena's brow furrowed as she watched Matt and Caroline talking at the other end of the hallway, "Did I miss something?"
Faith smirked as she hiked her bag further up her shoulder, "They're halfway to banging."
Bonnie smacked her on the arm for her lack of tact before carefully telling Elena, "They've been … hanging out."
"It's kind of weird don't you think?" Elena asked glancing between the two of them as they shared an awkward glance.
"She needs someone nice like him as opposed to a homicidal vampire like Damon."
Faith nodded in agreement, "Ahem, sister. We should all just stay away from Damon…far far away."
Elena raised a brow as the petite girl trailed off into her own thoughts, "What exactly happened between you and Damon?"
"You mean before he bruised up all my ribs or after he took a huge chunk out of Bon Bon?" Faith tried to divert the attention back to the witch who gave her a knowing glance.
Elena winced and turned to the other girl, "Yeah, how are you doing with all that?"
"Still a little freaked out, Damon attacked me. I could be dead right now but I'm also grateful to Stefan; he saved my life and…Have you seen him?"
Faith cut in front of them to cross to her locker before throwing Elena a mock pouting face, "She's avoiding him."
Elena glared at her before tugging off her scarf with one hand whilst the other opened her own locker, "I'm not avoiding him. He told me he was leaving, for all I know he's already gone."
Bonnie gave her a sympathetic look and tried to assure her, "He wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."
"Yes he would. He thinks he's protecting me; clean break and all that."
"Maybe he is." Faith threw up her hands in a defensive gesture when both girls gave her scathing looks, "I'm just saying; goodbyes aren't exactly comforting."
Bonnie mentally agreed with her but choose not to say so to Elena and instead asked, "So what are you gonna do?"
Elena shrugged in reply, "What am I supposed to do? I already begged him not to go, if I ask again I'm being selfish. It is what it is."
"Well maybe it's for the best."
Faith winced, "Why would you say that?"
Elena stopped in her tracks an incredulous look on her face, "What? Why?"
"Well what could have future could you have had with him if he'd stayed?" Bonnie defended herself.
Elena was stopped from answering when one of the banners in the hallway floated down in front of them, the corner stabbing into Faith's eye causing her to curse and grip the paper tightly in her hand. Elena tugged the banner off her and noticed it read 'The Promise Your Future'.
She turned to Bonnie for an explanation, "Did you?"
Bonnie was a little amazed at the timing of it herself, "No, I swear."
Elena let out an aggravated huff and hit the banner out of her way as she stormed down the hallway to her class. Faith turned to Bonnie, one of her hands still pressed against her watering eye.
"Did you?"
Bonnie scowled at her, "You know I didn't." She paused and winced when she got a good look at the other girl's eye, "You need to get that looked it."
Faith pouted but allowed herself to get steered down the hallway to the nurse's office, "The nurse scares me."
Faith gazed around the abandoned area and shuddered slightly when the Gilbert vampire compass spun around before staying pointed in one direction. With a sigh she turned her attention back to the phone in her other hand and spoke to Damon on the other end who'd been saying her name continuously for the past two minutes but she'd chosen to ignore him in favor of watching the compass.
"Why am I doing this?"
"Because I asked you to and you love me."
Faith could actually picture his smug smile as he spoke and replied, "I think you're seriously over estimating the depths of my feelings for you. I'm doing this so you'll leave Caroline alone."
"So you admit you have feelings for me?"
"Damon! Stop being annoying." Faith resisted the urge to stomp her foot in annoyance.
"Relax; I'll be there in a second." Without another word he hung up the phone.
She rolled her eyes and muttered mockingly under her breath, "Relax, I'll be there in a second. Stupid vampire-" She turned and gasped when she came face to face with Damon, "Not cool!"
He snickered and tugged the compass from her lax fingers, "You can give me that now."
"Why did you need me to do this?"
He raised a brow at her annoyance, "I didn't. I asked Caroline but you got jealous and needed to come help me yourself."
She set her hands on her hips and pursed her lips in anger, "Because I was going to leave you alone with Caroline. She's not your pet, Damon!"
"Oh, don't get pouty. Now off you go."
She gaped at his shooing motion and stomped after him when he turned his back and headed into the warehouse behind them.
"Who are you looking for anyway?"
Damon ignored her as he listened carefully outside the door before very slowly opening it. He then made a big deal about stepping to the side and letting her walk under his outstretched arm before following her and letting the door close with a quiet click. She near jumped out of her skin when a cool hand slipped around her own and struggled to free herself before Damon hissed at her to stop it. She settled quickly when a noise sounded off to the left and found herself clutching Damon's hand tighter in response. She let Damon lead her as she could barely see through the darkness which was why she flinched back with a scream of fright as a gun sounded several times and Damon dropped to the ground with a groan of pain. She went to run back in the direction of the door but instead came face to face with Logan Fell who smiled back at her.
"Faith! You look great."
She whimpered when he griped her arm and began dragging her back to where Damon lay, "Logan? You're a vampire?"
Instead of answering her he threw her to the ground where she fell against Damon's legs who hissed in pain as she did so but managed to wrap an arm around her waist to tuck her behind him. His protection did little to shield her though as Logan began to circle them, the gun still gripped tightly in his hand.
"I have tons of these wooden bullets so nothing funky."
Damon groaned and pulled himself up into a sitting position very aware of Faith pressing herself into his back, her hands clutching his shirt, "You don't wanna do this, trust me."
Logan simply lifted his gun in response and shot him again in the arm, "That's what you get."
Damon dug his fingers into the wound to pull the bullet out as he asked, "For what?"
"You made me like this."
Faith gasped quietly at this, "Damon turned you into a vampire?"
Damon shook his head at her, "I killed him." He then turned his attention back to Logan, "I didn't turn you."
"See I know what you and your brother are." He began playing with one of the wooden bullets between his fingers, "You see I've been watching you. I knew you'd show up here and I'm glad you did because I have some questions."
Damon sneered briefly in response, "Me first. Who turned you?"
"How should I know!"
"You didn't notice anybody given you any blood lately?" Faith asked incredulous because surely the man hadn't been compelled if he was a part of the council.
He scowled and leaned over Damon's shoulder to get a better look at her, "Last thing I remember was me about to stake his brother and then he killed me. That's it! Until I wake up in the ground behind a used car dealership on highway 4." He moved back to get a good look at Damon who was still struggling with his bullets, "Someone buried me."
"It happens."
"You bit me. It had to be you."
Damon scoffed, "You have to vampire blood in your system when you die. I didn't do that. Some other vampire must have found you; gave you their blood."
Damon fell back against Faith in exhaustion, his head coming to rest against her chest and she grew worried at how much paler he looked already. Wriggling she settled his between her legs, keeping them bent so should Logan make a move she could try and shove Damon off her and out of the way. She looked around them frantically for any type of weapon she could use to get them out of the warehouse and into the sun.
Logan failed to notice Faith's preoccupation as he asked, "Who?"
"That's what I wanna know."
"Dude, it's not like the welcome wagon was waiting with a blood cake and handbook!" He grouched as he waved the gun about, "It's been a learn as you go process. You know one minute I'm a small town on the rise news guy and the next thing I know I can't get in my house because my foot won't go through the door."
Faith winced at that, "Oh, you need to be invited in."
He smiled back falsely at her, "I know I live alone."
Damon made a sympathetic sound before letting out a little chuckle, "Aw, that sucks."
"So now I'm at a motel; watching paint review, eating everything in sight including housekeeping."
"Could be worse."
Faith tightened her grip on Damon when Logan's face darkened in anger and hissed in his ear, "You are not helping right now."
Logan's hand began to shake as he worked himself up into a frenzy, "I'll I can think about is blood and killing people, I can't stop killing people. I keep killing and I like it. I'm conflicted."
"Welcome to the club." He then paused as something occurred to him, "Wait a minute, the cops only found one body."
"I left one, I was tired. I've been hiding the rest of them, they're right back there. They're just piling up."
Faith grimaced, "Ew."
"You're kidding."
Logan seemed to drain of all energy after his big revelation and settled down on a step, "Why am I so overly emotional? All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend, all I wanna do is be with her and bite her and stuff."
"Well you probably love her and everything that you felt before will probably be magnified now and you're gonna need to learn how to control that."
Faith nodded her head frantically, "Yeah, lock that crap down. There will be no biting of my aunt!"
Logan rolled his eyes at her before perking up, "What about walking in the sun? I'm a morning person. You can walk in the sun, which by the way is pretty cool. The council will never suspect you, that's not in the journals."
"The journals?"
"The Founder journals?" Faith asked and shared a confused glance with Damon.
"Yeah, the founding fathers passed down journals to their kids. C'mon man, you gotta tell me. How can you walk around in the sun?"
Damon hesitated and instead countered with, "Who turned you?"
"How do you walk in the sun?"
"Who turned you?"
Logan jabbed a finger in their direction, "You know I've been really nice so far but I will kill you." He stopped and looked at the dark haired girl with them, "Or better yet I'll eat her."
"Then you'll never know and I'll give you before you could take a step." He stumbled to his feet with Faith's help making sure she was still firmly behind him, "You're not answering my question."
Logan leveled the gun at his chest as he too rose to his feet, "You first."
"Seems we're at an impasse then doesn't it?"
"I have things to do…people to kill. I guess I'll need a little head start."
He shot off four rounds, three of them making their way into Damon's chest and stomach causing him to fall back onto the floor. The other bullet had grazed him and lodged itself into Faith's side. She screamed in pain and quickly gripped her side to try and stop some of the blood flow. It didn't help and she watched morbidly as the blood oozed out from between her fingers before her vision started to go black and she crumbled to the floor.
The next time she woke she was laying on something decidedly softer than a warehouse floor. Her eyes fluttered open and squinted into the light before she spotted Damon furiously ripping off his bloodied shirt as he ranted into the phone.
"Well, I'll be right there."
He snapped the phone closed harsher than strictly necessary before pulling on a new shirt. Faith attempted to sit up but ended up yelping in pain as her ribs protested loudly to the movement. Her yelp caught Damon's attention who immediately abandoned buttoning his shirt and made his way to her side.
He pressed a hand gently to her injured side to ease her back into her previous position, "Hey, I haven't healed you yet, you wouldn't drink my blood when you were out."
She shook her head disgusted at the thought of ingesting his blood, "I don't want it."
Damon started to argue but took one look at her face and reconsidered, "Fine, but you have to let me see it so I can wrap it."
"Fine."
She tensed as he carefully pushed up her tank top up to the edges of her bra but then grew confused at the look on his face before coming to a realization as his fingers brushed softly against her ribs far away from her bullet wound.
"Was that when I-"
"Swatted me out your way to try and kill my friend?" She interrupted, "Yeah."
He swiftly brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit into the skin there and then held out it out for her to take, "Take it."
"I said I don't-"She choked when he thrust his wrist onto her mouth anyway, his fingers pinching her nose so she was forced to swallow down the mouthful of blood before she could wrench herself away from him.
"Why would you do that? I said I didn't want it!"
Damon shrugged unconcerned, "Deal with it."
Faith scoffed in disbelief and tried to remain indignant even as her body grew sleepy from his blood causing her to slump back onto the pillows, "Feeding me your blood doesn't make up for what you did."
Damon was silent for a few moments before quietly replying, "I know." He then kissed her on the forehead as he moved off the bed, "Sweet dreams."
A few hours later Faith let out a satisfied moan as she stretched along the bed before remembering that she was in Damon's room and sat up with a gasp. Noting that he was nowhere to be found she let out a sigh of relief and decided that she should get a move on if she wanted to continue to avoid him. Spying her shoes by the door she slipped them on, grabbing her jacket from the door handle as she did so and made her way out of the room. She was sure to be quiet in case he was somewhere downstairs, wincing when the front door let out a look creak as she opened it. Stepping outside she collided with someone else standing on the porch.
She frowned as she spotted Elena frantically digging in her jacket pockets with tears streaming down her face, "Hey, what's going on?"
Elena jerked back from her before realizing it was her cousin and threw herself into her arms with a sob, "Please drive me home. Please."
Faith lay a comforting hand on her back as she pried the keys from Elena's fingers, "Okay."
She kept a wary eye on her cousin as she climbed into the passenger seat before she pulled out of the Salvatore driveway. She waited until they were a good few miles away from the house before broaching the subject of what had Elena so distressed
"You wanna tell me what happened?"
"I look like her, I look like Katherine!"
Faith whipped her head around to stare at the other girl, "What?"
Elena opened her mouth to respond before gasping as she pointed in front of them, "Watch out!"
Faith tried to swerve the car to try and avoid the man in the middle of the road but they crashed into him anyway and then the car flipped from the impact before rolling down several more times. She threw out an arm against Elena's chest to try and stop the other girl from jerking forward but they both did anyway, Faith smashing her head against the metal frame whilst Elena hit the side of the car hard knocking her out.
Faith had no such luck of passing out as she whimpered and tried to hold back tears and a scream from the pain. A cracking sound filled the silence causing her to look out of her smashed up window the best she could from hanging upside down and watched horrified as the man they'd hit straightened out his broken bones and was now making his way towards the car. This time Faith couldn't hold back her scream.
What is it you want me to tell you?
I am not the failure.
I would rather live and let be but you came with the right kind of threat to push me to let you.
No, you can't intimidate me, you disrespect me so clearly.
Now you better hear me, that is not the way it goes down.
