A/N: Well, I said I had these chapters written, so the updates would be quicker, for a while at least. And yes, it gets dark, as you may gather from the chapter title. There may be triggers here, so be warned. It's "M" for a reason. Still, please read and review! Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own or operate "The Vampire Diaries."
Chapter 11: Into the Storm
March 2017
Lindsey walked back to the car to wait for Damon. They were shopping in Birmingham and he wanted to look at something, so she said she'd sit in the car and listen to the radio. Just as she approached the vehicle, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, followed by racking nausea - vervain. Before she hit the ground, she sent out a frantic cry to Damon along their bond, felt her daylight necklace being ripped off, and then, darkness.
"Ah, you're awake, little pet," a voice said, piercing her consciousness. Lindsey looked up to see an unfamiliar man hovering over her. The room was very dim, although her augmented sight could make out his features. He had a handsome face, but the stamp of cruelty was clear on it.
"Who are you? Where am I?" she said, her throat dry.
Her head seemed to explode as the man slapped her. "That's 'who are you SIR!' I, little pet, am your new master. I own you. You will refer to me as sir or master at all times." He continued speaking, but Lindsey wasn't listening. She called frantically for Damon, but couldn't feel him through the bond.
He slapped her again. "I asked you a question, slut!"
Lindsey eyed him and tried her bonds, but they wouldn't break. Still she remained silent.
"Your strength won't break these chains. Now, for the third time - and I am not a patient man - do you understand that you are to obey me, without question, at all times?"
Suddenly, Lindsey was mad, clear through. It was the same kind of white-hot anger that caused her to knock Damon upside the head with that iron skillet. She was going to speak her mind to this bastard, and she didn't care what the consequences might be. She narrowed her eyes at him and drawled, "Go straight to hell. Do not pass Go and do not collect two hundred dollars." And she spit on him for good measure.
He yanked her up by what she now knew was a collar and chain. He hissed, "I thought you were smart. You were supposed to be highly intelligent, but apparently, you're a fool." He dragged her to the middle of the floor by her handcuffed wrists and turned a hose on her. The water was ice-cold.
Damon heard - and felt - Lindsey's cry, and not caring who might see him, flashed into the parking lot by the car. "Lindsey!" He called for her, but nothing. Then, on the ground by the car, he saw her purse, daylight necklace and her wedding and engagement rings. He knew she would never take them off voluntarily. He picked them up and put them in his pocket and put her purse in the car. Someone knew their significance, which meant she was probably abducted by a vampire. He growled, "Somebody wants to die." He called for her through the bond once again: nothing.
Damon got in the car and got on his phone. "Stefan, get Caroline and Bonnie and get your asses to Alabama. Someone - probably a vampire - got Lindsey, and I need a locator spell. I'll meet you at the house in the morning." He clicked off the call.
Stefan looked at his phone, and then at Caroline, who looked back at him, wide-eyed. "Someone took Lindsey? As in abducted?" she said.
"That's the impression I got," Stefan answered.
"Wow. Guy must have a death wish, if he knows who Lindsey's married to."
"Ain't that the truth?" Stefan replied. He didn't even want to think about what would happen to the individual if Damon got his hands on him. "Call Bonnie. He needs a locator spell. Let's get packed and ready to go. I'll call Jakob and see if he's still on this side of the country. If he is, I know he'll want in on this."
"Call Elijah, too," Caroline said.
"Why?"
"Just trust me and do it."
Stefan nodded his assent and went upstairs to pack.
Damon was awake all night, calling to Lindsey through the bond, with no success. Where could she be? He went to the attic, to her office, to her computer. Even computer solitaire was preferable to thinking too much about who took his mate, and where. He tapped a key, and surprisingly, Lindsey's screen saver came on. He normally didn't pay much attention to that kind of thing - until now. He knew his wife loved to take pictures, and her years at the paper had turned her into a competent photographer. She used a digital camera, and her phone.
This screensaver was a slideshow of her photos. Some of them were pictures of the house, the maple tree in the fall, Little River Canyon, Lake Tahoe. The rest, unbelievably, were of him. She had a way of sneaking around and getting photos when he never knew it. She had pictures of him working on the old Camaro, leaning his elbows on the railing of the upstairs porch, a couple with Stefan when they were both laughing, of him whittling, or sound asleep on the sofa, a book open on his chest, and several with their temporary foster children. One in particular showed him in the rocker in the nursery, holding a baby, giving her a bottle. He watched the slideshow through three times - not to look at himself, per se, but seeing himself as Lindsey saw him. Did she really see him like that? He was racked with pain and longing for his mate.
Damon sat down on the futon in the attic office, and then stretched out. He couldn't sleep in their bed without her. He closed his eyes and before he realized it, he was dreaming about her. It was their first night together as lovers in Birmingham - 12 years before.
"Let me love you… I don't think you'll regret it," he said, and his heart nearly stopped when he felt Lindsey's small hands on his face and her mouth pressed sweetly to his. Sweet - that was the word. As he kissed her, touched her, ran his tongue across the pale, smooth skin of her neck, sweet is what he tasted. Before he was turned, Damon had a sweet tooth, but sugar was expensive, and his father frowned on desserts. But Lindsey was living, hot, melting sugar in his arms, under his tongue, in his nose. She moved against him deliciously, making small noises every time he touched her. She sighed as her hands found his back and she ran her short nails lightly down his skin, raising goosebumps, making him purr into her neck. His hands found her breasts under her shirt, and he growled in satisfaction. "They're so soft," he murmured.
"Is that a problem?" was her reply and Damon paused to look at Lindsey. She could hardly see him in the dark room, but he could see her face clearly, and there was doubt and a touch of fear written on it. No, Damon had no issues with a woman who felt and responded as a woman. He told her so and felt her relax. He knew in that moment that extreme tenderness was called for here. He had to make sure Lindsey felt beautiful, sexy - good enough for him to love. Otherwise, he knew she would just shut down again.
He entered her body, and stopped as he smelled blood. She was a virgin. Insecure, unsure Lindsey had given him her innocence. Damon wasn't sure he could deal with that. But she assured him she was all right, that this was what she wanted and he made love to her as gently as he could. She relaxed into his arms, and the next morning, he tasted her honeyed blood for the first time, then bit his own lip so she could taste his blood and heal the marks on her neck. He could feel her hands in his hair. She loved stroking his hair. They were together in a way he had never experienced being with a woman...
And then, Damon woke up, devastated that it was only a dream, but suddenly aware that was when their blood bond was first formed. It was the very first time he tasted her blood, which meant they were in love then. The knowledge was haunting. All those years he spent looking for other things that didn't matter, gave him nothing - when she had given him everything from the beginning. Damon missed his mother terribly when she died, but it was nothing compared to the actual ache in his heart for Lindsey. He missed his mate with an agony he had never experienced. If - when - he got her home, he was never leaving her alone again for any reason. Ever.
Lindsey was blue with cold, but she would rather die than give any sign of it. She could also feel the healing nicks and scratches on her head, her legs, her bikini area, where that pervert shaved her. Well, she lived with a bald head before when she was on chemo. She could live with one now. She was replaying movies in her head, songs, verses of Scripture - anything to keep her sane. She didn't doubt Damon would find her. The trouble was in not losing her mind until he did.
The pervert apparently loved the sound of his own voice, and had gone on and on about how he owned her, and it was perfect revenge on Damon, who had enticed his fiancee away from him. He droned on about how Lindsey was now his sex slave, so she might as well get used to it, and submit fully. Well, he had picked the wrong woman for that, she thought. Even though she was scared to death, she was also angry. She knew he wanted her to fight him. Only that wasn't going to happen. Every time he picked her up, she went limp and became dead weight. She just zoned out. Of course, it wasn't a problem for his vampire strength, but her very lack of any response frustrated him beyond reason.
He had some kind of X-shaped contraption in the cold, concrete room, and he chained her to it, face down, and raped her, probably ten times. She could feel blood running down her leg. At least she was a vampire and would heal. But he got no response - no screams, no whimpers, nothing. Then, he tried caressing her, but all that did was make her nauseated. The very idea of any man but Damon touching her intimately was repugnant, and she vomited blood all over the floor. Of course, then, she had the pleasure of cleaning it up, along with getting another icy bath.
He tied her up in a variety of positions, some of which dislocated her shoulders and knees, which healed, of course, but she could tell it was taking longer. It had been a while since she had fed properly - maybe the morning she was taken. She couldn't remember. He had given her two small cups of blood - about the size of a dose of cough syrup - and it wasn't enough to keep her body healing as it ought to. Lacing the blood with vervain didn't help, either. But she choked it down anyway.
Cold as she was, on the concrete floor, Lindsey was at the end of her endurance and she dozed off. Damon kissed her the first time in Nashville, after kissing her in her dream. She still remembered the way his mouth felt as he brought his lips to hers. He had the most incredible mouth, with full lips, beautifully shaped. So many men had thin lips, but not Damon. He found her tongue with his, and she had moaned with the feeling. He encouraged her to explore his mouth, and with the tip of her tongue, she felt the tiny uneven spot on one front tooth, where he had fallen as a boy and chipped his tooth on a tree root. Lindsey was glad he didn't get a cap on the tooth; she thought the tiny imperfection gave his smile a disarming sweetness - as if Damon Salvatore needed to be more disarming. She remembered hearing the soft crackle as his fangs dropped, and she pulled back, ending the kiss. But that kiss stoked a hunger in her body that only his lips - his body - could satisfy. When she woke, Lindsey leaned her head against the wall and yearned for Damon's arms around her.
Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie drove all night to get to Alabama the next morning. Damon sat on the porch and Stefan was shocked at his appearance. He was hollow-eyed and haggard. "Thank you for coming. I appreciate it," he said.
"She's family," Stefan answered, then said, "When was the last time you fed? You look awful. Go get some blood."
"Not hungry," Damon replied.
Caroline huffed irritably. "Go get some blood before you start looking at Bonnie like she's a steak dinner!" All she got for her trouble was one of Damon's best evil glares, which told Stefan how distraught his brother was.
Bonnie sighed and went to Damon. She took his hands in hers. "Damon, I am so sorry you're going through this. But we're going to find Lindsey, all right? And when we do, you need to be at your full strength so you can help her. Go feed, now, O.K.?" Her voice was quiet and she put her arms around him and gave him a hug.
He stroked her hair fondly. "Thank you, Bon-Bon," he said, and went to the cellar for blood.
Stefan and Caroline looked at her. "He's hurting. He didn't need you two yowling at him. Poor thing. Caroline, go upstairs and get me some of Lindsey's personal items. You know, hairbrush, stuff like that. Stefan, bring the luggage in, if you will, and let me get my grimoire out and start looking at likely location spells."
Suitably chastened, they went to do as Bonnie asked and she spread out a map on the kitchen table and focused on it. She held her hands over it and chanted.
"Anything, witchy?" Damon asked from the doorway.
She smiled at him. "She's alive and in the Southeast. I can't pinpoint where. Not yet. But let me try a couple of these spells. You say you can't feel her at all? How long have you been able to send actual thoughts to each other?"
"Only since that weekend in Atlanta last summer."
Bonnie patted the chair next to her. "Sit down and tell me about it. Anything could help." Which was true, but Bonnie was also extremely curious about how this new manifestation of their blood bond worked.
Damon grinned at Bonnie as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, but he sat anyway. "Well, it was when George Neville attacked her. She called for me through the bond. I don't know how she did it, and she didn't either, really. She said it was just instinct. So after that, we practiced using it. It still works best with strong emotions, but I can almost always pick up on her consciousness, let's say. I know kind of what's going on with her at any given moment. It's not telepathy, exactly. More like empathy. I pick up on feelings more than specific thoughts, unless she's making an effort to send something to me. She's better at it than I am, though."
Bonnie nodded. "That is helpful. How does Lindsey describe it?"
"Well, she's the writer, so it's better than my description. She said she sees the bond as like a rope of light connecting us, and when she sends something, it's like the message pulses up and down the rope. Like a sound wave or something, I guess."
"Hmm. Maybe she's on to something. Maybe it's some kind of energy field. That would explain why it doesn't work as well when you're separated." She patted his shoulder. "You look a lot better."
"Thanks. I'll leave you to your mojo stuff. Food's in the fridge, if you're hungry. Help yourself."
"I appreciate it, Damon," she answered.
Damon disappeared into the woods for a while, but came back when he heard a car pull into the driveway. The car wasn't familiar, but the driver was. Jake eased his tall frame out of the vehicle and went to Damon at the side of the house.
"Any word?" he asked.
Damon shook his head. "Bonnie's still doing her witchy stuff. The first spell didn't work. But she's alive. We know that much. I just can't feel her from here."
Jakob grasped Damon's shoulder. "She'll find Lindsey. I feel it in my bones."
"I hope you're right. Jake, I can tell you. I'm losing my shit, here. Lindsey is my wife, my mate - my world! I can't live without her. She's… She's everything. Everything! Anything good in my life? It's because of her. Without her, I'm the monster again. I won't live without her, Jake, I'm telling you."
His friend nodded. "I get it, Damon. I'm kind of partial to her, myself, so you know I'll do anything I can to help."
"Thank you. I know you were on your way back to Texas. Thanks for diverting."
"No problem. Elle would stake me if I came back without helping you. Let's find this mate of yours." They walked into the house.
Jakob was in Knoxville when Stefan reached him, and immediately agreed to meet them in Alabama. If they located Lindsey, he wanted to be in on it, for sure. Plus, he figured Stefan might need some help wrangling Damon. He knew his friend would be in a highly unstable frame of mind, and his brother would probably need all the help he could get. So far, they had managed to keep Damon from going on a rampage, but if they didn't find his mate, Jake wasn't sure how long they could keep him reined in, though. Damon was nothing if not a force of nature.
The afternoon wore on, as Bonnie tried different spells, with no success.
"Why isn't it working?" Damon asked Bonnie, as he prowled around the kitchen table. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, Damon. I'm sorry. I want to find her, too. But these are fairly simple locator spells I've been using. Let me check my grimoire. There are others."
"Just find her, witchy. FIND her!" he snapped and stormed outside.
Bonnie sighed, her eyes worried. Stefan, Caroline and Jake looked at each other. "He's on the verge of a breakdown," Stefan said.
"Not on the verge, brother. THERE!" came Damon's voice from the front porch. He wanted to drive to Birmingham and start tearing humans apart. Oh, when he got the bastard who had his Lindsey…
"Take a break, Bon," Stefan said. "Even in the state he's in, Damon knows you have to recharge. Have a bite to eat and get some rest. Maybe you can find something in the grimoire and we can try again in the morning. I don't want you running yourself out of juice."
She nodded, and checked an app on her phone. "The moon will be full about 5 a.m. I'll draw on that, and I'll find a more powerful spell. In the meantime, try to keep Damon from turning into a serial killer again."
Stefan shook his head. "Could be easier said than done."
Damon sat in the front porch swing and called for his mate over and over. No answer. What if they never found her? What would he do? What if they - no. He wouldn't even go there. He couldn't. There was no way she wasn't making it out of this. But he knew for certain that, if Lindsey didn't make it, after her abductor was tormented to death to pay for his crime, Damon would also die. Maybe he would find peace with her, or maybe he would roast in hell, but he wasn't living a day on this earth without his mate. End of discussion.
He stepped off the porch and went to where Lindsey's car was parked. He ran his hand along the hood, and then wandered to the edge of the woods at the back of the property, where he knew no one could hear him. He leaned against a tree and looked up at the stars. The moon wasn't up yet. Where was she? Alive, but that's all he could say.
Damon looked up again and cleared his throat. "Hey, um, you know, God, or whatever, I know you don't see much of me, which is probably fine with you. But you're the only one who knows where Lindsey is. And with all the crap I've done, you don't owe me a thing, and I know it. But Lindsey, now. Let's talk about her. If anybody ever deserved your attention, it's her. I mean, yeah, she turned, but hasn't she done everything to be a good person, in spite of that, to help people? I know we talked when she had cancer, and she made it through. Thanks for that, by the way. She needs some help now. I'm only asking for me a little. Mostly, I'm asking for her, because she deserves better than whatever is happening to her right now. And if you'd help us find her, and keep her safe, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks." He wasn't sure anyone heard, or cared, but he felt like he had to say it.
Stefan had gone out looking for Damon, and heard his soft words in the night. His heart broke for his brother, not for the first time. He looked up, too. "And that goes double for me," he whispered, then went back to the house, thoughtful.
Damon went back upstairs to Lindsey's office. He could feel her best up there, he thought, even more so than in their bedroom. This was where she wrote and created, and her energy seemed to linger here. He looked on her laptop again, and ran across a video someone emailed to her. It was from a co-worker. Apparently, they had been to sing karaoke somewhere, and the co-worker filmed one song of hers. He opened the file and waited while it downloaded. It was a cell phone video, and not great quality, but at least he could hear her sing. It was something.
Lindsey began, "This is for…" and her voice trailed off. "Well, I know who it's for, and he does, too." Damon checked the date - late 2011. That explained a lot. She must not have realized her friend had the song on video at the time, knowing how camera shy she was.
The music started. Damon wasn't familiar with the tune, but listened carefully as she sang,
"When you've finally made your mind up that the high life's gettin' old,
All the running after rainbows, chasin' fleeting pots of gold,
You'll find your key still fits the lock that opens my front door,
And I'll still love you, the way I did before.
When I said until death do us part, I meant just what I said.
I'll keep on thinking with my heart, forgettin' about my head.
But until the day that one of us walks through death's final door,
I'm gonna love you the way I did before.
When you finally see it's make-believe, the world to which you've run,
And it dawns upon your mind that in my heart, you're still the one,
It won't be too late - don't worry - just walk through the same old door,
And I'm gonna love you the way I did before.
I won't think about the way you've hurt me time and time again.
I'll think about the good times that we had, remember when?
All that mattered was the fact we loved each other, nothing more.
And I'll still love you the way I did before.
All my friends say I'll go crazy if I think about you so.
Well, I might as well go crazy - I've got no place else to go.
And even if you never come and darken my front door,
I'm gonna love you the way I did before."
Tears streamed down Damon's face as he watched the short clip. He could hear the heartache in her voice. How many times had he hurt her when he left her? Why had he ever left her, even for a day? He was wracked with remorse and sorrow and fear.
"She has a sweet voice," Stefan said from the doorway. Damon just nodded, and Stefan did something he had done all too rarely the past hundred years: he went to his brother, put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him. For all their past differences, Stefan was still his brother, and Damon was able to finally break down and vent his anguish. Stefan led his brother to the futon and Damon sobbed into Stefan's shoulder, as Stefan held him and did his best to give what comfort he could. Caroline and Bonnie appeared in the doorway, and looked at Stefan and then each other, wide-eyed. He shooed them away with a gesture and they crept downstairs, both of them sobered by the sight. That was a Damon neither of them recognized.
"I feel like flipping the switch. It hurts so bad," Damon rasped.
"You do that and Lindsey will snap your neck when we find her. And I'll hold you down while she does it," Stefan answered.
"Yeah," he said with just a ghost of his trademark smirk.
"She sang that song for you. You're such an idiot for not coming back here sooner."
"I know, believe me. Ric Saltzman told me that repeatedly. So did Liz Forbes, God rest her soul. Bonnie said if she had known what was going on, she would've kidnapped me and dumped me here. Even Vampire Barbie said the same thing. So yeah, it's me: Damon Salvatore, quantity one, type, prize idiot." He rubbed his face.
Stefan snickered. "Get some sleep. Bonnie wants us up early so she can do that spell." He stood and walked to the door.
"Stefan?"
He turned to face Damon. "Yeah?"
"Thanks. I mean it. Thanks," Damon said, his voice rough.
Stefan smiled. "You're welcome, brother," he said.
Song: "The Way I Did Before," words and music by Larry Gatlin, released on the Columbia album "Straight Ahead," 1978.
Yes, an evil cliffhanger. But I won't leave it for long, I promise! Now, just type a review in that little box and make a writer happy, won't you?