Chapter 35 ~ Panic and Anger

Damon ran upstairs into his bedroom where Stefan and Elena were sitting with Vella, she was still unconcious. He thanked them and asked them to leave to give him privacy. Both of them complied and went downstairs.

Damon sat on the bed beside Vella and began stroking her hair, tears slowly developing in his eyes. He couldn't stop playing that awful scene in his head, Tommy straddling Vella while she was half conscious and half naked. He was so angry and scared at that exact moment, he didn't want to keep thinking about it.

A few minutes later, Stefan came to the bedroom door carrying four bags of donated blood.

"I went out and got these earlier Damon, I thought she would need them."

Damon looked at his brother strangely, as if he wasn't really there.

"Damon? Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry Stefan, it's been a long night."
Stefan nodded. "I understand."

Damon took the bags of blood and laid them on the night stand, while Stefan left the room. He gently lifted Vella up and propped her up in the bed, poked a hole in one of the bags and began letting the blood slowly trickle down her throat. Vella seemed to rouse a little after the first bag was finished, so he fed her another. But when Damon finished, he was disgusted by the bites she had all over her neck and chest, so he bit his wrist and fed her some of his own blood, hoping the wounds would heal quicker that way.

Damon climbed in the bed and held Vella until she woke up a few minutes later, disoriented.

"It's okay Vella, it's me," Damon said to her soothingly, feeling her immediately relax in his arms.

Vella let Damon hold her, not uttering a word. She was so glad to be back in his arms, the memories of earlier were still fresh in her mind. Damon felt her shudder so he tightened his embrace. They laid there together for almost an hour without speaking.

When Vella was feeling strong enough physically, she decided to deal with the emotional pain.

"I'm sorry Damon."
Damon looked at her curiously. "What have you got to be sorry about?"

Tears began to form in Vella's eyes, but she tried choking them back.

"This whole situation is my fault."

Damon lifted his hand and gently laid it on her mouth, barely touching her lips.

"I knew you were going to blame yourself as you always do," he said seriously. "But this isn't your fault."

Vella gave Damon a weak smile, grateful for his support. She did her best to explain to him what she had learned from Tommy, doing her best to keep from crying, even though she was shaking furiously. Damon held her as tightly as he could, her sadness and fear upset him terribly.

Damon didn't say much while she told him the whole story, he didn't want to say something that might upset her further. However, the more he learned, the more upset he became. She stopped at the part where Tommy was on top of her, crying uncontrollably she couldn't go on.

"It's okay Vella, you're safe now. He won't hurt you again, I swear," Damon whispered gently.

The image of that vampire straddling Vella while she was half naked popped back into his head again. It infuriated Damon to no end. He vowed to himself that he would make him pay and it would be painful. He couldn't imagine anything in this world more heinous than what he had done.

Vella noticed Damon's change in demeanor as she looked into his eyes. More than anything in this world, she hated to see him in any kind of pain. She leaned closer and kissed him gently on his lips, his anger seeming to melt away.

Damon kissed her back gently, forgetting his anger and pain. He began making his way down to her throat, when Vella shuddered and pushed Damon away from her violently.

"Please don't," she said shaking.

Damon looked at her apologetically. "I'm so sorry, love."
Vella gave him a weak smile. "It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just fresh in my mind."

Damon nodded knowingly, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. They laid like this for some time, neither talking or even moving, but not asleep.

Thoughts were whirling through Vella's head like a hurricane and she couldn't focus on just one. Between her fear about Tommy and her anger towards the Founder's council, and especially Sheriff Forbes, she couldn't think straight. She really wanted to stay in Damon's arms forever, but she wasn't about to give any of them the satisfaction of giving up. She vowed to get rid of Tommy, punish the sheriff and have a peaceful wedding ceremony, even if it killed her.

"Damon?"

"Hmm?"

"How come you aren't out looking for Tommy?"

Damon tensed at the mention of his name.

"I wanted to be here with you, I knew you would need me."

Vella smiled at him gratefully. She was going to say that she would have been fine with Stefan, but she thought better of it.

"We need to find him and...kill him," she said stammering.

Damon squeezed her tightly for a moment, his face etched with pain.

"I don't want you to worry about that. I will be taking care of him tomorrow."

That was all Vella wanted to hear, now she could sleep. She cuddled up with Damon, letting her exhaustion take over she fell asleep quickly.

When Vella opened her eyes in the morning, she nearly jumped, remembering what had happened the night before. She noticed Damon wasn't in the room, but he seemed to have heard her wake because she could hear him running up the stairs towards the bedroom.

Damon walked in with a cup of coffee and handed it to Vella, who gave him a grateful smile and took a sip.

"Good morning, Damon."

Damon kissed her on the forehead and sat down beside her.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine actually."

Vella wasn't lying, she actually felt much better after a good night's sleep. She was still troubled, but she decided she wasn't about to let anyone keep her hostage in her own mind.

"Are you hungry?"

Vella thought about that question for a minute, she was hungry but she didn't feel like she could hunt.

"As long as you still have blood in the fridge I'm fine."

Damon looked at her strangely, but then his expression changed to one more serious.

"I'm going out with Stefan this morning. We're going to go search for signs of where Tommy might be." Vella nodded. "Elena is going to stay here with you. Stefan doesn't want her to be alone."

Vella looked at Damon suspiciously. She suspected it was Damon who wanted her to stay to keep her company while he was out. She was about to tell him she didn't need company, but she changed her mind, it was a sweet thing for him to do. She kissed Damon goodbye and listened for him and Stefan to leave before going downstairs.

Vella smiled at Elena. "Good morning."

"Good morning Vella."

Vella put her coffee cup away in the kitchen, gathered up her car keys and purse and was walking towards the front door when Elena stopped her.

"Where are you going?"

"I have some business to take care of. Please stay here."

Elena looked at her seriously.

"Do you think going out is a good idea?"

Vella looked at Elena angrily.

"Just stay here and don't leave! I will be back shortly."

Elena was stunned by her tone of voice, so she didn't say another word. She watched as Vella left the house, wondering if she should call Stefan or Damon.

Vella hadn't worked out her plan in her head yet, but she knew what the goal was, find Sheriff Forbes. She needed to know everything she knew and she needed to know now. Damon and Stefan may have overlooked the fact that she might now know their secret, but she hadn't forgotten.

Vella drove through the quiet morning streets of Mystic Falls until she came to the street she was looking for. She turned down it and drove about half way down the street and parked her car on the side of the road. She could see Liz's house from here. It was a simple red brick two storey house.

Vella wanted to walk up to the door and call her out, but she knew that wouldn't work. So she decided to do the next best thing, lure her out. She had never tried to influence an animal before, but now was as good of a time as any to try. She closed her eyes, probing with her mind until she felt the mind of a cat that was lying in the bushes by the Sheriff's house. It took some trying, but she managed to get the cat to jump up to the open window of the kitchen and start meowing.

It was a weird sensation, but it was almost like Vella could see everything from the perspective of the cat. She heard the sheriff shooing the cat away, so she got the cat to sit on her front step and meow, but not too loudly, she didn't want the entire neighbourhood poking their noses out their windows. The cat meowed only a few times when Vella could hear the sheriff coming to the door. She got the cat to walk a few feet farther from the door, she needed Liz to actually walk out of her house.

Liz walked out of her house to see what her neighbour's cat was meowing about. She stepped out onto the front steps and walked down the two steps to stand on the stone path that led to the sidewalk. The cat was sitting there staring at the sheriff.

Now was Vella's chance. She got out of her car, running vampire speed she managed to get up on the top step as the sheriff turned around to face her.

Liz looked at Vella with a shocked expression, her mouth gaping open in complete surprise.

"What..." she tried asking a question but Vella cut her off.

"Get in my car," Vella said glaring at her coldly.

"You must be insane!"

Vella gave Liz the most evil look she could give, without her vampire face.

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. Get in my car or else."

Liz snorted, "You know your mind control won't work on me."
Vella laughed mirthlessly.

"Don't you think I know that?" Liz shot her a confused look. "Just do what I tell you or I may have to do something I will regret."

"And what would that be? You going to kill me right here?"

Vella laughed derisively. "I like your daughter, but if I have to I will go find her. I'm sure she's at Matt's house," she paused for effect. "I've been invited there before."
The expression on Liz's face disappeared, replaced by a fearful one.

"You wouldn't?"

"For this, yes I would. I'm sick of playing little miss nice vampire."

Liz was going to refuse, but she couldn't, not when her daughter's life was threatened. She walked to Vella's car and got into the passenger side, while Vella got into the driver's side. She drove away towards the boarding house, taking the quietest roads.

"What do you want with me?" Liz asked with fear and trepidation in her voice.

Vella glanced at her quickly. "We will talk about that when we get back to the boarding house."

Liz was getting more and more terrified the closer they got to the boarding house, but she didn't say another word.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update, been so busy. I have also had a bit of writer's block. Hopefully next chapter will be up in a day or two.
Thanks for reading!