Hey, everyone! I'm so sorry it's been so long, I'm back in school, and in my last year so I'm crazy busy, and was stuck on this chapter forever. I hope I still have some readers out there! As always, comments are always appreciated.
Luna has this memory of when she was three or four, her family is sitting on the grass and she's twisting her fingers through the blades and pulling it out in fistfuls. The sun is beating down on her, warming her face and bronzing her skin.
"Better put some sunscreen on you, munchkin!" Her mom pipes up, pulling a bottle of white lotion with a sun on it out.
Luna in her own world ignores her mother and lets the blades of grass flutter between her fingers and onto the earth below.
Kaitlyn squeezes a dollop of sunscreen onto her palm and begins to rub it into her fair-skinned daughter.
"We can go get ice cream after this, and then head to the beach" her mother offers, a soft, sweet smile on her face.
"Yeah! Yeah!" The bright-eyed child cheers, a toothy grin full of childlike wonder and happiness filling her face.
"I thought you would like that" her mother responds, a content look adorning her features as she continues to rub in the lotion.
Luna giggles, the soft laughter filling the air and wafting throughout the park.
"Love you, mommy!" The little girl squeals happily, kicking her feet in the air and digging them back into the dirt.
"I love you too, Luna" Kaitlyn replies, her eyes filled with hope and love.
That's the only thing that Luna could think of. All the memories she has with her mother and all the moments she will never forget.
She could feel tears filling her eyes as she looked at the sheriff's body before her, and couldn't help think of all the moments she never got to share with her mom.
All the things a mom should be there for, and all the memories she'll never get.
And now Caroline won't get them either.
A piercing scream followed by heart-wrenching sobs fill the air, as Caroline collapses onto her knees beside her mother's limp body. Her knees cracked onto the stone below making Luna flinch.
"I-I'm sorry" Luna tries to spit out, her bottom lip wobbling as her vision blurs with tears.
A larger hand squeezes hers, comforting the pale girl. Luna looks over at Damon, his eyes are filled with confusion and sadness, something Luna can relate to.
She tries to talk but the words get stuck in her throat, and she's choking on them.
Damon shushes her softly and used his free hand to cup her face.
"It's okay" he murmurs, wiping away a tear with his thumb.
Caroline stared at her mother, she couldn't believe she was gone.
No. She wouldn't accept this, not after her father had left too. Her mother was all she had left. And even though they fought like cats and dogs, and never seemed to agree it didn't mean she loved her any less.
The blonde, filled with determination and sadness, quickly bit into her wrist with her protruding fangs till blood seeped down her arm.
She then swiftly pulled back and held her wrist against her mother's mouth, smearing blood on her lips.
"Come on, mom!" Caroline screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Luna stared at the girl before her, not quite understanding what she was seeing.
Veins the colour of wine sprang from Caroline's eyes and down her cheek, like delicate spider webs. Her eyes, usually a vibrant green and blue mixture were dark, a blood red or deep black that Luna couldn't quite distinguish without getting closer.
Which was the last thing she wanted to do.
Caroline's fangs were still out, like pointy porcelain just visible under the curl of her lip that dripped blood down her chin and onto her lipgloss covered lips.
Luna knew she should be scared, and part of her was, but most of her was curious. She wanted to get know just exactly what Caroline was.
She had known for awhile now that she was different, and what happened with the white light was only further proof of that.
And now, for once in her life, she wasn't alone.
Caroline was different too.
Luna looked up at Damon, who seemed to be watching her, analyzing and studying her reaction for what, she wasn't sure.
But she realized that he didn't seem surprised or scared, or anything really.
It was like he saw it every day.
Damon watched Luna, how her eyes widen in surprise (mixed with a tinge of fear) when Caroline bit into her wrist and her face transformed from a cheerleader into a monster. He watched every small muscle movement and every breath that came out ragged or completely hitched in her throat. Because he knew one day she would see him the same way she saw Caroline. Probably worse.
And if she was scared or disgusted, he wasn't quite sure what he would do. The thought of that made his chest tighten, and his grip on her hand become almost painful.
He couldn't lose her. Wouldn't.
A gasp broke the empty silence filling the room and drawing the pair's attention.
Luna couldn't believe what she was seeing: the sheriff's eyes were open and the colour had returned to her face.
She was alive.
Luna looked at Damon, searching for an explanation, or shock at least.
He simply shrugged, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
She could swear she saw a twinkle of relief in his eyes, but as soon as it was there it was gone.
"Mom!" Caroline said, pulling her up into a hug and squeezing her tight.
Her mother looked around, taking in her dead friends and coworkers on the floor, and clung to her daughter tighter.
"W-what happened?" Liz stuttered, her daughter's blood marring her lips.
Caroline turned to Damon, looking for answers he didn't have.
Damon sighed and walked over to the pair huddled on the ground, bending down till he was balancing on the balls of his feet. Only then noticing his injuries had healed.
"Listen, Liz-" he started but was cut short by her frightened whimper.
"Don't come anywhere near me" Liz spat, pushing herself back against the stone wall.
Hurt flashed across his face for a moment, but not long enough for anyone to notice.
"He won't hurt you" Caroline promised, rubbing her mom's arm.
"He's a vampire!" she yelled, her voice cracking.
Damon squeezed his eyes shut, his undead heart clenching in his chest. He could feel Luna's gaze on him now, almost so intensely that it was burning his skin through his shirt.
She would never look at him the same again.
Luna couldn't hear anything but the pounding of her heart in her ears, it was so loud that she thought her heart might explode in her chest.
Damon was a vampire.
She couldn't help but let out a laugh. A vampire? A sparkly, forever-teen, fluffy haired vampire?
Damon turned his head towards the giggling girl behind him, shock in his eyes.
"A vampire?" she snorted, licking her dry lips and leaning against the wall.
"They are dangerous, bloodthirsty, monsters," the sheriff said, venom filling her voice.
Caroline looked down at her mother, wiping the blood from her own lips with the back of her hand as she spoke, "No, we aren't mom"
Liz looked at her daughter, tears of sadness and horror filling her eyes.
"No," she cried, "not you. Not my baby"
The young blonde hung her head in shame, she was everything her mother hated.
"She saved your life," Damon said, rising to his feet and swinging his arm wide to gesture to the broken and bloody bodies on the floor. "If she wasn't a vampire you would be just like them right now, dead."
Liz couldn't help but flinch when he said dead. The white light had killed them all in a matter of seconds. She looked over at the thin girl leaned up against the wall like a porcelain doll.
"It was you." She spoke, her voice hard and eyes narrowed. "What are you?"
Damon's eyes slid over to the fiery girl, he too wanted answers.
But Luna couldn't give them.
"I…I don't know," she said, her hands pulling into fists to rest on her thighs.
Damon sighed again, "We have to clean up this mess"
Luna stood shakily, using the wall to support her. She was weak and tired now. Two things she hated.
Elena had woken Stefan's, whose injuries had also healed once the light had swept across the stone room, and managed to pull him to his feet.
"Take him home, Elena," Damon said softly, gesturing to his brother. "I'll get rid of the bodies."
Elena nodded, sparing a glance at Luna as she made her back up the steps disappearing into the forest.
Luna didn't miss the fear in Elena's eyes when they met hers.
She was the real monster.
"We have to deal with Liz," Damon said cooly.
"She's my mother, we don't have to 'deal' with anything." Caroline hissed.
"She knows about us."
"So does Luna" Caroline sneered, glaring at the teen behind Damon.
"Don't touch her," Damon ordered, his voice becoming deadly.
"She killed them all! And tried to kill my mother" Caroline exclaimed, rising to her feet.
"They were trying to kill us…she didn't know what she was doing." He reasoned, folding his arms across his chest.
"Which is it, Damon? She was protecting us or she didn't know what she was doing?" the blonde asked, stepping closer to the raven-haired man.
"You better watch yourself Barbie, I'm older than you, and that means stronger"
Caroline let her fangs pop down and her eyes darken. "Just let us go, Damon."
Damon took a threatening step forward, letting his own fangs lengthen, only to be stopped by a small hand on his arm.
"Damon…" Luna pleaded, "just let them go, please?"
Damon clenched his jaw, stopping in his tracks. "Luna, you don't know what this could do. If she tells-"
Luna cut him off, stepping closer, till her chest was pressed against his arm "She won't" turning her head to look at the sheriff "will you?"
Liz gave her a curt nod in response.
Damon glared at the young vampire, "Fine. Get out." he ordered, shifting subtly to shield Luna from Caroline's gaze.
The young blonde quickly pulled her mother up and sped out of the room in flash. Leaving the smell of flowery perfume as the only trace she had ever been there at all.
Damon turned back to Luna, his fangs hidden once again.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly, his hand reaching up to cup her face, and his thumb gently brushing against her cheekbone so she could feel the rough skin of his finger pads.
"I should be asking you that, you're the one who got shot…a lot" Luna half-joked, her eyes meeting his.
"I'm fine" he replied, "just a flesh wound" a small smirk falling into place.
"Because you're a vampire?" she asked, her voice small and quiet, but her eyes big and wondering.
The blue-eyed man only nodded as he continued to brush his thumb against her smooth skin.
"Are you afraid?" he questioned, leaning in closer, almost daring her to say yes.
"No.," she said honestly
"Why not?"
"Because you would never hurt me." She whispered
Damon didn't say anything, he couldn't. Because he knew she was right. After a moment he pulled back, letting his hand fall to his side.
"I'm going to get rid of them and clean this up, sit tight okay?"
But before she could reply he sped off in a blur of black and blue, a haze of colours she couldn't separate or distinguish from one another.
Damon's muscle car pulled up outside Luna's house, she could feel the rumble of the engine in her throat as she sat in the passenger seat.
"I don't want to go home." She said, speaking for the first time since they got in the car.
"You don't have to" Damon reassured, his hand moving to rest on her thigh before he thought better and placed it back on the steering wheel.
"But I do" she cried, her voice cracking and her head hanging down "he's already going to be so mad…"
"Who?"
"John."
Damon's grip tightened on the steering wheel as he spoke, "You can stay the night at my place again, I wouldn't mind"
Luna shook her head, unbuckling her seatbelt "I don't want to hurt you"
Damon laughed, "A little thing like you? Trust me, I'm pretty unbreakable. I'm a vampire, remember?"
Luna looked at him, no fear in her eyes, just curiosity. "How could I forget?"
"Come on, it will be fun. Salvatore slumber party, anyone?" Damon grinned playfully, his tone light compared to the tension in the car.
"I can't," the teen said, regret filling her throat as she opened the car door.
Damon's hand reached out to grasp her arm lightly as she turned to leave, "Call if you need me, I can be here in a flash. Literally" he said with a laugh, although she could tell he was serious.
Luna nodded, sparing him one last glance before making her way towards the house she could never call a home.
Damon waited till she was inside the house, before slowly and reluctantly driving down the road, back towards the boarding house.
As Luna closed the door behind her, softly, as to not arouse the sleeping occupants in the house she made her way towards the staircase with delicate footsteps.
A light flickered on in the darkness, illuminating a shadow of a man in a chair in the living room.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Luna paused, her small foot in the middle of stepping onto a hardwood step and swiveled on her other foot to face him.
"I-I…" she started, not sure how to explain the last twenty-four hours.
"Well? I'm waiting" He said, standing as he spoke.
He was eerily calm, not a shred of anger or hate in his tone. Which is what scared her the most.
She swallowed hard, rubbing her arm as she spoke "I was at a friends"
"And so, what? You just decided not to come home? You think that's acceptable young lady?" he asked, anger starting to bubble up to the surface.
"No! I-" Luna was cut off with a smack to her face that sent her to the ground, causing her to bang her head against the edge of the stair.
The irony is, she was more scared of this man than any vampire or so-called monster. And even then, no one told her to stay away from him. No one warned her about the burly man with angry fists that could move so fast they would blur. No one told her that he was more dangerous than any creature could ever be.
After that, Luna blacked out the rest. And when she woke, images of fists and kicks flashed before her eyes like clips in a film, like they didn't belong to her. Yet she was numb.
A laugh fell from her lips, a bitter broken laugh that only added to the silence but not at all filling it.
She laughed and laughed and laughed, till her throat hurt and the blood on her lips had long dried.
She's not sure how long she lay, laughing on the floor as blood dripped into her hair, turning it an ugly burgundy colour.
"What's wrong with me?" she asked aloud, to no one in particular. If not only to hear her voice echo off the walls. To the feel the safety in being alone.
Her phone became heavy in her pocket, almost like she just realized it was there, her hand, adorned with already-bruising knuckles and split skin slid into the fabric of her (Elena's) shorts to pull it out.
Without thinking, she opened up Damon's number and sent a text.
I need you.