Chapter 9: Questions
***AUTHOR'S NOTE***:
Okay, 2nd author's note and I ask for you guys to READ THIS ONE if you want to know a little bit about me and my disease. I have the unavoidable tendency of wanting to make my stories literate, detailed, and incredibly LONG. I mean with every paragraph, I've always had the thought that it should at least be 3 lines long. It's a disease and I hate it. Well, forgive me. Please enjoy this chapter. READ RATE REVIEW!
Damon's POV
"What are you keeping from me, Stefan?"
"I'm keeping nothing from you, Damon. And even if I was, I bet you would already figure it out." Stefan roughly explained as she held Elena wrapped in his right arm. I raised my eyebrows at him and stared deep into his eyes that lack emotion. I was kind of wondering why he was hiding something from me, and was it important enough for him not to tell me? And that's what drew me to think about what happened a while ago, when Elena came to the boarding house.
The moment practically replayed on my mind: I'm here looking for Stefan. I just wanted to tell him something important. It's kind of a plan for tonight's main event. I tried to gather up all the information I can get and fit all the pieces on my head to figure out the jigsaw puzzle. Elena came to the boarding house and asked if Stefan was home to tell him something important, about 'something' that would happen tonight. I'm not entirely sure if the performance that happened a while ago was what she considered as 'tonight's main event', but if it was, it meant that it involved the 'Juliet' girl that Elena and Stef were just talking to.
"Believe what you want Damon, there's nothing going on." Elena protested as she grabbed onto Stefan's arm tighter.
"Oh, isn't there? Well, if you don't want to tell me what's going on, maybe I could just, I don't know, talk that girl you were talking to into telling me stuff." I menacing smirk crept to my face as I leaned in to both of them closely. I watched how Elena's face shifted from nervous to uneasy. I could see her eyes flickering in disbelief that I would even try and manipulate her into telling me the truth.
"You're not gonna go near her, Damon." She ordered in a commanding voice. She pulled away from Stefan and took a few steps toward me with her hands balled up in fists. I placed my hands on her shoulders and squeezed them carefully. As I expected, Stefan, being as he is, defensively took a step and a low growl built in his throat. I rolled my eyes and left my hands on Elena's shoulders.
"Easy, Stef, no one's killing anybody. I swear. If there were any lives lost tonight via vampires, it'll be on me." I turned to Elena after sending my message to Stefan. "And Ms. Elena, I just want to ask you one question. What is she that makes you overly defensive enough to threaten me? Hmm? What is she to you? Just a friend, I don't think so. Are you gonna tell me what she is, or do you want me to double the pain you'll feel when something happens to her?" And in a flash, Stefan got a hold of my neck and eventually my back was flat on the wall. He had a hand around my neck I knew what was coming for me next. The people began turning their heads to our direction with gasps. 'Why are these brothers fighting?' I could see pure fury behind Stefan's green eyes, and I'm pretty sure he could also notice the arrogance and bore hidden beneath mine.
"If you ever threaten her again, I swear, I'm going to kill you." The pressure on his hands choking me was enough to kill a human. "Are you really sure you want to go through with this again?"
"No Stefan, I don't want to go through with this again, but I'm pretty sure you don't either, not in here anyways." I removed his hand softly from my neck and straightened up my face. I looked behind me to see that there was a small dent and a crack on the wall. What a damage, Stefan. I thought and looked back at him. His fury started to fade. I fixed my shirt and put my arm around his shoulder, and as I've expected, he shrugged it off.
"Come on Stef, I was just kidding with the whole threatening thing. I would do no such thing to hurt Elena that much. I'm just playing the game. You gotta play the game if you wanna win the price. And seriously, people are watching."
"I don't care, if you threaten her again, I swear, may it be real or fake, I will make sure you won't do anything like that again."
"Sure, sure." We carefully walked back to Elena's before this news goes to Carol. I saw Elena's face appear behind other covered faces under colored masks. I saw the anger in her chocolate brown eyes. I casually walked back to her with my hands in my pocket. Stefan was ahead of me and as soon as the space between him and Elena were close enough, they shared one, long kiss right before my eyes, again. I felt my forehead crumple and I didn't know why. I could feel something in my stomach that felt like as if there was someone that drove a silver knife right inside me. Was I jealous? No, I couldn't be. I don't do jealous. Not with her, not for Katherine, not for anyone. Their lips parted and Elena faced me.
"She's Bonnie's cousin, that's why I couldn't jeopardize her identity with you." She told me, tongue tied. Oh, so that girl with the golden voice was the Bennett witch's cousin. Whoa, she looked more appealing than Bonnie. I guess cause' she doesn't give me a constant headache whenever she's around. I raised my eyebrows at Elena and she continued her explanation.
"I don't want you meeting her because you might blow everything off, and we, Stefan, Bonnie and I, think that she's one of Emily's descendants who were given powers. We don't want her knowing about herself cause' she might do something horribly stupid with all the stuff."
"So, let me get things straight, the girl you were just talking to was the witch's cousin. And you don't want her to know about me cause' I might expose to her what she really is? Well, I just have a few things to say: One, how could you think so low of me? I wouldn't blow off a secret like that. I mean, I would, but for the right diabolical reason, but…" I paused as she crossed her arms on her chest. I continued, "Anyway, that's one. Two, why would you even think I would expose the secret to her? If she figures out she's a witch, then that would double my headache when she gets pissed off. I won't let her have that chance." And Elena just rolled her eyes.
"I don't want you anywhere near her, understand? I don't want her to know, I don't want you and Stefan to fight, and I don't want you to have those witch-caused headaches you get. Things will get messed up, and she's all too new to this. Think about what Katherine might do if she finds out about her. It will destroy Bonnie, which will make me blame you, and we'll eventually have you destroyed. All those things will only happen if you talk to her, so my advice to you is don't."
"Oh, will I? Who are you, Katherine? I'm not afraid of you, and I do whatever it is that fits to what I want." I smirked and brushed my fingers on her face. She immediately swiped my hand away and it fell to my side. But despite everything that I have done to piss her off, she could still handle not being furious enough to damn me to the deepest pit of hell. Yeah right, like I wasn't going there already. She looked over her left shoulder and I saw Stefan nod to her direction. She put her hands on either side of my face and stepped closer.
"Why are you doing this, Damon? Why do you want to let the past repeat itself? I don't want to hate you, and I'm pretty sure Stefan doesn't want to hate you too, cause' you're his older brother. But doing this, it all counteracts everything you've done to make you a better person. You make me not want to forgive you. You make me want to not have you as a friend. Why do you want that?" She asked me with a tinge of disappointment as her voice broke. I could see the desperation of change in her eyes that just begged me for a sudden change of heart. I sighed and closed my eyes as I gently removed her hands from my face.
"I'm not a good guy, Elena. There were just a couple of times that got the best of me, and it made me think otherwise. I'm not a hero. I try to be, but it's not for me. I'm sorry, Elena." I gave her warms hands a gentle squeeze before setting them down gently. I got away as fast as I could, striding along the crowds of people. I thought about where she could've been, but I was too self-absorbed at trying to figure out what she was that I forgot to see where she went to when she disappeared. That's when I heard lone footsteps walking in an echo-filled hallway. Her heels clicked on the floor, and I think I know where she might be.
I followed the sound of her footsteps as I glided through the dance floor, to the hallway leading to the Lockwood's Patio. It was a long corridor and I observed everything I heard and saw. The music's noise became lower and lower, until everything was silent, except for the chirping of the crickets. Then, I heard a heartbeat echoing right at the end of the hallway. The beating got louder as I took steps forward, lurking behind the shadows at the other side of the patio. I was so close that I heard her breathing, and her gasps and sighs of awe. That's when I suddenly saw her.
Her hair was a dazzling dark brown that fell in waves behind her back and on either side of her shoulders. They weren't straight tresses, and they weren't curly too. It was just right in between. Half of her face was disguised by the enigmatic red mask that was covered with lace and sequins, with a peacock's feather for additional design. It matched her dress in the shade of blood, quite an intriguing color, isn't it? It made her look pale under the moonlight, especially with burgundy red lips dipped in the rosiest of shades. She brushed her fingers against the marble fountain in the middle of the patio, as she wore a small smile on her lips. I observed her from an unseen distance. I couldn't admit it myself, but she looked… interesting.
I took a step forward and unfortunately, I stepped on a branch. It made a snap, and in reflex action, she turned around. I had to avoid her sight so I immediately moved to another spot where I could see her closer. She seemed to ignore the noise, but she went back to admiring her surroundings. She took a spin and gazed at the stars. As her neck tilted up, I couldn't manage to not notice her perfectly flawless neck. It was tempting, as I could hear her pulse from right here, beating from her carotid artery. It was one small move for me, she wouldn't even know anything, but as to what Elena warned me… I won't do it.
Right behind the bushes, my eyes trailed down from her neck, to her collar bones, then to her chest. She wore a silver necklace with a letter E on it, and a familiar flower dangled from it. Or should I say… herb. That girl was wearing a necklace with fresh vervain on it. It was still lavender and I could smell it from here. She had vervain, and that could only mean one thing: Someone who knew about vampires gave that to her, and I think I've got an idea on who it is.
My mind trailed to Stefan, and Elena, being sneaky behind my back, hiding things about 'Bonnie's Cousin'. They tried to keep me away from her. I remembered what Elena told me a while ago when I threatened to harm the girl. Juliet was it, her stage name. Stefan and Elena kept on devising plans to keep me away from her, and even gave her some vervain in utter desperation. It boiled my undead blood.
I took another step forward, but something hard crashed into me and shoved me to the far concrete wall on the other side of the patio that was covered with oak trees and thick bushes. It stung my back as it made contact with the wall. I heard the girl's heartbeat speed up, and eventually her footsteps and her ragged breathing. The door of the nearby bathroom closed and I lost her.
Then it made me focus on what had hit me. It was something hard. It was something inhuman. It was her. I stared into deep brown eyes under a black laced mask with a red flower at the side. Curly brown locks fell from either side of her face. Light pink lips smirked menacingly, as she pressed her body towards mine, gentle, but firm as it kept me from turning away from her. And yes, I did mean her. I can't believe she returned.
"Hi Damon, I'm back." It was Katherine.