Chapter Fourteen:

Fun for a Day

Gone. Yes, gone. Cal was gone. Not missing, but gone. Life wouldn't stop for me to grieve about it and I wasn't going to. I woke up the next day and began an unhealthy routine. I embraced the responsibility I had to take care of myself and trained harder with a new form of relentlessness. If Cal was going to shut off his emotions, than I would do the same. No one was going to be able to beat me after I grew stronger. I would take vampires out with a single blow if I had to. I was going to become the next freaking Buffy the vampire slayer.

Over the next couple of months, Ian taught me about valerian grenades and stake guns and crossbows. He instructed me on how to use them and what situations they would be used in. We took a vampire dummy to the woods a mile off from the old watermill bridge and practiced until the sun went down. He created all of the contraptions himself or, in the case of the crossbow, he modified them for vampire hunting. Most of them were fairly simple to use but the one I had the most trouble with was the stake wrist-cuff. When it's strapped to your forearm, you punch the vampire's chest and the pressure of the punch releases the stake. I could never get enough pressure. It got to the point where I spent all of my free time training so I could get it right.

At school the Monday after that Saturday night, Ben spoke to me at lunch. Well, he "spoke" to me. He told me about how concerned he was for my safety after he heard my thoughts about the night Cal attacked me. He said that he knew the spell to enchant a ring to remove the curse of the sun and moon, like what was used on Damon's ring to help him enjoy the sunlight. It would be a precautionary measure, he explained. Just in case it ever truly happens I wouldn't want you to suffer. I ignored his request and went on without it, without him.

One morning I woke up and was forced to realize that something wasn't right about the way I was living my life. By this point it was about May 2nd, 2012—a Wednesday. Damon was standing in the doorway to my room, leaning against the frame of the door.

"Wake up, little Evie. Wake up," he sang, way too perky for being six o'clock in the morning.

I rolled over and covered my head with a pillow. "Go away, Damon. I still have half an hour before I have to get up for school."

"Correction. There is half an hour until you would have gotten up for school."

"What?" I said as I glanced back at him.

"From now until midnight, we are going to have a day of fun. We can do whatever you want to do, anything at all. Hurry and get dressed. I'm giving you ten minutes." He stood up straight and closed the door as he went out into the hall.

What was that about? I got up from under my warm, cozy blankets and went over to my dresser to get more decent for whatever shenanigans Damon was planning on getting me into for the day. If I was going to get a mug shot, I wanted to look presentable. Rummaging through my drawers, I found a nice black shirt with elbow-length sleeves—a luxury I could take advantage of since the weather had warmed up—to go with my dark jeans and black high tops that I hadn't worn since I bought them the previous summer. On the surface, I didn't want to have anything to do with Damon or his wild antics as I would prefer to go to school and head to Ian's apartment afterwards. Deep down I knew that wasn't how I truly felt. A break from my life for a day would do me just fine. It could even be good for me.

In precisely ten minutes, my hair was put into loose curls, a light amount of makeup was applied, and I was out the front door. "Alright," I said with my hands on my hips. "What's the plan, Stan?"

"Maybe you weren't listening when I said it the first time. We're doing whatever you want to do. Don't ask me. I'm just the wheels and the life of this party mobile, as ironic as that might be. You're the one who has to start the engine." He folded his arms and put his back against the side of the Mustang. "Where to?"

I smiled and looked at the car. "Can I drive?"

He peered back at the car, then to me, and finally the keys. With a sigh, he tossed them to me and opened the passenger door. "Get in."

I caught the keys and almost skipped over to the driver's side. I swear I could see Damon smiling as I slid in and put the keys in the ignition. "First stop, breakfast." I revved the engine with a gleeful beam and sped down the street to the main road. If Sheriff McMillan or one of his deputies pulled me over, Damon could get us out of the ticket.

My stomach was set on the Grille but my heart preferred a change of scenery from the usual hangout spot. We ordered a couple of grand slams—pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and hash browns smothered in maple syrup—and took them to the park that I used to cut through on my way back home from school. We sat underneath my favorite tree by the duck pond and watched the new arrival of adorable ducklings bob across the water. Damon hadn't understood why I picked that particular spot and, for some reason, I felt the need to explain to him about my parents.

"When I was little, I used to come here all the time by myself and pretend I was something I wasn't. I'd play normal for a while, to get away from reality like most children do. My dad died before I even turned a year old. I'd daydream about what he'd look like and how it would feel to hear him call my name to go home before my mother had a cow. Then my mom died and I never came back until…" Until Cal came along.

"So it holds sentimental value." He deduced, nonchalantly draping his jacket over my shivering shoulders.

I nodded and leaned my back up against the tree trunk, clutching the leather close to me for warmth. "You could say that."

We lingered for a time after we finished our meal out of the takeout containers. Then we walked back to the car and drove off to our next destination with me still wearing his coat.

As I parked, Damon shook his head in regret. "You've got to be kidding me." He sighed.

I glanced through the windshield at the mall and stated, "You said we could do whatever I wanted and right now I want to go shopping. So, suck it up. You get to carry the bags." I got out and smiled vibrantly all the way to the double doors. They were barely opened when we came in but that didn't stop the shoppers. There were at least a few dozen other people who had entered as we did. I headed up the escalator and over to my favorite clothes shop where I normally went every year prior to the start of school to get a new outfit.

I was already in the dressing room trying on clothes when I heard him finally get up there.

"Do you know how long it took me to find you? A whole five minutes. I should have known you would have gone up the escalator. I had to walk at a normal pace which made it worse. Try to stay with me next time."

"Oh, cry about it," I replied towards the door with a snarky grin as I slid a sweet navy blue dress on. "Why don't you go find something to try on?"

"Nah. I'd rather see what you're trying on." A hint of unmasked desire escaped into the words. "Come on." He added quaintly.

I zipped up the back and glanced at myself in the mirror first to make sure it was decent. Then I unlatched the door and struck a pose like a model on the cover of a magazine. "What do you think?"

He whipped out his cellphone and took a picture of me with vampire speed before I had the chance to say anything. Once it was put safely back in his pocket, he smiled. "It's beautiful on you." He waved me back into the dressing room and continued, "Now hurry up and try on the next one."

Beautiful? Really? After I closed the door again, I looked at myself in the mirror once more and critiqued my appearance. He couldn't have been looking at me when he said that. I wasn't even close to being pretty, let alone beautiful. Regardless, I took off the dress and put on the next outfit.

We were there for over an hour. Damon kept snapping pictures of me posing in my different selections until eventually I ran out of clothes that interested me and put them all back on their hangers. It was great. I had loads of laughs watching Damon strike a few male model stances himself as he instructed me on what I should do. Half of the clothes were placed in the "it looked better on the hanger" pile while the rest made it to the "I really wish I had enough money for these" pile.

At the last moment, Damon snatched the second pile of clothes and disappeared out of the dressing room. Unsure of what the heck he was up to, I scooped up the other clothes and placed them one by one on the return rack that sat against the wall by the doorway. Done with that task, I stepped out into the store and rotated my head to search for him. It only took me a second to find him.

He gestured for me to come to him and turned his attention back to the cashier as he handed her a credit card.

"Damon, what are you doing?" I asked, gazing at the bags on the counter.

"I told you I would do whatever it takes to make you smile today from morning to midnight. You liked the clothes so I'm getting you the clothes." He nodded in thanks to the lady as he slid the card back into his wallet and the wallet into his back pocket. Then he picked up the bags with one hand and held out the other to me, beaming. "Let's go before I die from the agony of being thoughtful."

Next on the list of things to do was mini golf. It always felt like something you would take your kids to or maybe a date if you're going with a group of friends. I had hoped that perhaps Cal and I would go one time as a couple but Damon was a good alternative. He let me win even though I hit the stupid golf ball into the kiddie pond a few times. My skill was lacking but he was happy to fix that, wrapping his arms around me to place his hands over mine on the putter. I couldn't have imagined it any better. His voice was gentle and his breath was tickling my ear. But it wasn't a date. We were just having fun, two friends taking a break from their misadventure.

Then came the fishing. He couldn't understand "why on earth [I] would ever want to do a thing like that." We rented some gear from a man named Stubs—who kind of looked like Captain Dan from Forrest Gump—and went out on the edge of the water to cast our lines. That part was peaceful. Neither of us spoke until a fish got my bait and I tried to frantically reel it in without losing it. Again, he had to help me out. I was beginning to think he would be doing a lot of that.

Fishing was followed by a wonderful horseback ride—my appaloosa's name was Nessie and Damon's black horse was named Blacky which is purely original, without a doubt—somewhere in farm country outside of Wolfcrest. After that, we played basketball on a court at the public playground. That part was enjoyable even though I lost terribly because we were having fun and laughing. The afternoon came and we picnicked out by a huge body of water—bigger than a pond but smaller than a lake. Calm and content, I couldn't imagine anything bad happening on that day. Things were just too perfect to deny.

Mustang man brought us back to his place to commence part two of the fun and exciting activities. There was fencing, the kind with swords and white, protective suits; I won once and Damon won the rest of the time which was understandable since his senses and reflexes were better than mine by far. Preceding that was Damon's drinking game that involved Ping-Pong balls, cups, music and, naturally, drinking. He did all of the drinking, really. I had sparkling cider.

Somehow it turned into dancing. He took my hand and pulled me up from my seat without my knowledge. The song was one I'd heard in one of my favorite movies and, the way we were dancing, I didn't really know if I was with Damon or Patrick Swayze. There was twisting and turning. He must have seen the same movie because the moves were identical to the lead role. I knew some of the steps because I'd been in the musical which included the mambo but he was too advanced for me. What I didn't know, he tried to show me. It was hard. I was too mesmerized by his wondrous blue eyes. It was like staring at the horizon where the sky and the water finally met, colliding in shades of Melting Glacier and Cobalt around the edges.

The song changed, something from Depeche Mode, and we began dancing like a couple of crazy people. We were jumping around, spinning without control of our bodies. Damon pounced up along the railing and shuffled from side to side with his arms up in the air, shaking his hips. We laughed together as he came back down to join my pathetic moving—I wouldn't really call it dancing. He took my hands and showed me a few modern steps. At the end, we ended up only a couple of inches away from each other. That's when I saw the little ring of color around his pupils; it was the color of the leaves. Of Cal's eyes.

I took a step back and looked away, staring at the floor.

His hands tangled in mine. "What's wrong?" Concern. He was concerned about me.

Damon. Confusing, unpredictable Damon. Everything is wrong. "Nothing," I replied, glancing back at him with a forced smile. "Up for a game of Twister?"

I could see in his feigned acceptance that he didn't believe me but he grinned and said, "It doesn't seem fair to you but feel free to compete with my stamina if you'd like."

A few times, we ended up in an odd sort of pretzel form and we would collapse as one of us reached over to spin the spinner. Red kept popping up and soon it was almost impossible to stay upright. Sure, it was easy for him. He bent over backwards with ease. I wasn't raised to be a contortionist and was not prepared to win.

Twister wasn't the last thing we did. Oh, no. We played Scrabble and chess. Both of the games were almost untouched, or so they appeared. He creamed me in chess but I got him in Scrabble using the big, complicated words that he just couldn't comprehend. Occasionally, he would try to play something ridiculous like "pongo" or "zergnot" and then we would sit there for a good ten minutes discussing that it wasn't a word. He'd flash a heart wrenching smile at me, trying to melt me into compliance, but I didn't budge. This was one of the only games I was good at and I wasn't going to leave any survivors.

As the end of the day approached, Damon made us dinner and we lounged in front of the television watching old movies. He even sat through the ones that included some singing and dancing with my commentary on how cute I thought the male actors were. It was nice, a perfect friendship. Somehow we got talking.

"How old are you?" I asked out of the blue.

The question confused him. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I just want to know."

He stared at me with a quizzical brow, his mouth a straight, stern line. "I'm two hundred and thirty-three years old. I was twenty-two when I died." From the serious look on his face, he didn't want to tell me but then again it was a question that had to be answered. He didn't know how I would take the news.

"When were you born?"

"January 1st, 1779."

"Does that mean you lived through the American Revolution?" My voice perked up. That was the coolest thing ever!

When he realized that I wasn't frightened or disgusted by his age, he lightened up as well. "Yup. As soon as I was of age, General Washington handpicked me to be in his troops."

"Are you for real?"

"Mhm." He beamed, his ego slightly heightened by the positive attention he was receiving.

"That's so cool!" I grinned at him and, gradually, the corners of my lips turned down. "How come we never celebrated your birthday?" It would have been two months ago from yesterday and we hadn't even acknowledged the date.

A happy face turned reluctant, another familiar expression. "It's not important. I had my celebration."

My jaw dropped and I almost felt cheated out of an experience that I was meant to have. "And I wasn't even invited?" I asked astoundingly.

"I think you were a little busy riding the brother train to musical land." His eyes glued themselves to the television. "Let's just watch the movie." He suggested. Then during a particular love song that took place on top of an elephant, he held my hand.

At first it was sort of automatic. I leaned onto his chest and watched the movie without thinking at all. Then I realized what was happening and I got up. "I gotta go." I stated, then headed for the door.

He was on his feet in no time. "Why do you have to go? Your fun day isn't over yet. There's still plenty of time."

"I'm not saying I won't be back. I just have to stop by Ben's house. I completely forgot. I was supposed to visit him earlier before training with Ian but I…" Our eyes met and my words couldn't quite form. Once I pulled myself together, I opened the door and walked out with the keys to the Mustang. "I'll be back in about an hour, tops." I had to talk to someone before I passed the point of no return.

Damon stood in the doorway as I got in the car and drove away. He was very good about giving me what I needed, even if that wasn't what I wanted at the time. Separation from him for a moment was his gift to me. An hour with my thoughts.

I parallel parked by the curb and sprinted to the front door.

It gave way without a single move of my own forcing it to do so. Ben had heard my mind screaming as I came up the walkway and he met me by the step. "Evie, Evie, Evie. You never learn."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me in." I pushed past him and jogged up the stairs so we could talk in private away from prying ears.

He followed me up and closed the door as he came in behind me. Alright. Which part do you want to talk about? He asked, sounding almost weathered.

None of it. I don't want to talk about it at all. I decided you're right. I should carry that ring around as a precaution. You never know what will happen around these people.

That's your problem, Evie. You've forgotten. They're not people. They live outside of our world, doing what they want with whomever they want and we just have to accept it. He went over to his dresser and picked up a ring from on top. He turned about and handed it to me. I've already enchanted it for you. I figured you would want it eventually once something had happened between you and the big cheese.

Damon's different. I think I really like him, Ben, but I'm never certain. Every time I look at him, I think of Cal and it's not fair. I flopped onto the bed and sighed. My life is spiraling down a big black hole and the one person who really cares what happens to me can't tell me the truth. I know he's hiding something from me. I can see it when he speaks to me.

Why haven't you told him that you know about the night when you were supposed to forget?

I can't tell him! I just kind of want to roll over and die. I was doing great until today. Wake up, go to school, kick butt with Ian, do my homework, and go to bed. It was working for me. Then Damon had to start caring and—

Yeah, I know. Then you went head over heels for him. I know the feeling.

I looked at him with intrigue. Oh, really? And who is this mystery girl? Do I know her?

We're not talking about me. He gave me the ring and had me put it on. Now, what's the pompous going to do?

What do you mean?

You said it yourself. He's hiding something and at the moment he's the one your heart has set itself on. Don't you think you should find out what it is he's hiding from you? What if it's got somethin' to do with Cal?

Cal. It all comes back to the no-good son of a gun who decided to go heartless on me and prance off with some undead recruiter vamp from the British Isles. Not this time. Never mind about that. How does this thing work anyway? I shifted my hand in the light and let the metal shine. Staring at the gem in the center was like staring into the dark abyss, getting lost in an eternal midnight.

He took my hand and shook it lightly in the light of the lamp. The same as Damon's, I think. Any vampire who wears a ring like this can walk out into the light. All they have to do is keep it on their finger at all times. It doesn't work unless you're wearing it. No one else can take your ring and use it for themselves. Only you can be protected by it. Then he smirked. I added a boost of energy to help with the… cravings. It won't do much but it will restrain them enough to let you get out of a nasty situation until you have time to eat a bear or whatever. Also, if something tries to kill you using a wooden stake or anything that could puncture your heart you won't die.

What? You can really do that?

Well, we won't know for sure unless you become a vampire and test it out but I'm pretty sure. It should work.

Great. I got up and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, not knowing that this would be one of the last times that I would see him. With the delicate onyx ring on my right middle finger, I sped to the car without ever looking back. Not once. Today, I would give anything to see him again, to have a memory of seeing his face as I walked out the door. But I have nothing.

As I jumped in the Mustang and drove toward Moretti Manor, my eyes overflowed with tears as if I knew something awful was approaching. My mother used to call me her little weathervane. Once in a while I would have a moment where I knew there would be a knock at the door or a sudden rainfall and she would smile. To me, it was a coincidence. In fact it probably was a coincidence but that didn't mean anything now. I couldn't stop crying. Cal's name echoed through my mind and it took every ounce of what concentration I had left to get me the rest of the way there.

I stumbled out of the car, blubbering uncontrollably. When I walked into the house, all I wanted was to tell Damon. Maybe he could do something about it, take the pain away. He wasn't on the couch in the living room so I climbed the stairs to the second floor where I knew his room would be. From there I didn't know what to do. I cried out.

"Damon!" I called. It was pathetic sounding, choked out like a young one who had scraped their knees on the sidewalk while they were playing and cried for their parents.

"In here." His voice echoed through the hallway from the first door on the right past the landing that looked over the living room.

With my eyes only partially open, I trudged into his room. The instant I saw his form standing by his dresser, I ran to him and buried my face in his black, button-up shirt. Words escaped me. All I could do was sob.

He cradled my head with his left hand and rested it on his shoulder. His other arm wrapped around my torso to keep me steady, to show me that he had me.

Through the crying and the tears, a sense of peculiar detail filled my subconscious. I took a mental note of everything down to the last candle. I was in Damon Leonardo Moretti's bedroom. It's true that for a few women, that wasn't a big deal or anything like it but it meant a great deal to me. This was a place that he was willing to share with me in my time of need. He let me stand on the antique hardwood floor and inhale the scent of apple cinnamon from the candles burning on the dresser, the table, and on the nightstands. The candles were the only source of light apart from the moonlight that filtered in through the tree outside his window. His bed was humungous, maybe even bigger than a king-sized bed, with black sheets and throw pillows to match. It was the only modern piece of furniture in the room but it still managed to fit alongside those that no doubt came from his childhood. It was exactly what I pictured a vampire's bedroom to look like, complete with a crystal bottle and matching glasses that sat on a bar along the wall.

Then my thoughts grew more localized on my sense of touch and hearing. Damon held me so close that I could feel his muscles surrounding me in a protective suit of armor. As the sobbing grew quieter, he whispered, "I'm so sorry it had to end this way. I only wanted to see you smile. I thought that if we did everything you ever wanted to do you'd be happy. I should have known it would take more than that." He began to rock me gently back and forth. "Know that I will always protect you, no matter what it takes. Even if I have to protect you from yourself. I will never let anyone hurt you ever again."

Through the water in my eyes, I saw a memory. Our memory. Damon and I were standing in front of each other and he was confessing to me of the greatest thing I had ever hoped could have come from his lips. "I love you, Evie. And it's because I love you that… I can't be selfish with you. Why you can't know this. I don't deserve you…" I knew without Ben's helpful hints that he truly loved me, that this was real. Inside he was still torturing himself over a decision that was never his to make in the first place. He stood by every day hoping that I would see this for myself but dreading the day that he might take that first step and betray his brother.

Was his brother here? No. Would it have made a difference if he was? Maybe. But the truth was he still wasn't present. He couldn't claim his prize. Damon deserved a lot more than he gave himself credit for. He repeatedly saved my life from vampires and heartache that I couldn't count them anymore. He did it without any hope of praise or reward, thinking that one of the things that he would have asked for in return was far out of his reach.

In that second, I had decided. I don't mean the flimsy kind of decided that I seemed to be time and time again. I mean there was no way that I was turning back. Cal was a part of my life that no longer existed. As far as I knew, he was half way to Timbuktu and he could stay there. I wouldn't have cared. He wasn't my Cal anymore. He was a new, heartless, bloodthirsty wretch that stood loyally beside his master like a faithful pet. My Cal was gone.

No, instead my mind was set on only one man: Damon. He had spent the entire day giving me whatever I wanted regardless of what he thought of the idea. I would end the day by returning the favor.

I slowly stroked the arm that held my head and mildly pulled away until I could barely see his face in the dim light. My free hand twisted about his neck until there was nothing to keep us apart.

For a moment, we were seamlessly motionless. His eyes penetrated mine with a simple glance and we could communicate without speaking. It wasn't like Ben and I, the way we took advantage of his ability as a warlock to use telepathy at will. There was a bond that linked our minds together, forming them into one brain and one thought. We knew what the other was thinking because it was the same. There were no longer any secrets. It was only us.

His hand glided down my cheek to rest his thumb on my chin. Then a smile, a miraculous beam, filled his whole expression from his lips to his unwavering gaze. As he sluggishly leant his face closer to mine, my body pulsed, anticipating what was to come and enjoying the suspense. Nothing could have prepared me for it.