Damon heard her, and swore under his breath. He hated how he seemed to turn into an emotional mess when he was around her. And still he couldn't stay away.
He already doubted his own parting words, and Kirya's angry shout didn't make it any better. He just didn't understand her. He had been with so many human girls in his long life, most of them had declared their love to him. With one of them, he'd even believed that he loved her. But no matter what, sooner or later they would realize the truth: He was a vampire, and nothing they could do or say would change that fact.
That one had tried. Oh had she tried, but in the end she had run off screaming like the rest of them.
And then there was Kirya... She was strong, independent, yet still so vulnerable. She had never talked about love. Not that Damon minded. He cared for the girl, but not in that way. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, hell, even his idiot of a brother had looked her over twice when he'd first met her.
Damon wouldn't mind having sex with her, in fact he had planned on it, but he saw her more as a friend. Someone he could always count on.
And then she had said that she trusted him. She'd said it in a way that made it completely clear that she meant it. And even if he didn't like to admit it to himself, it had freaked him out.
When he looked back at his past "relationships" the "I love you" had always come first, and then after some time the trust issue started to show its nasty face.
Either the girls would claim that they trusted him, maybe even believe it themselves. Those were the naïve ones. The others would keep on pointing out, how they could never trust him. The result was the same every time. Damon would do something, usually kill someone and they would be gone.
But Kirya had jumped over the first step, hell she'd jumped every step placing her life in his hands on so many occasions that he had lost track. And when she'd finally voiced, what had been so obvious right in front of him, at least the periods where she was Kirya, he had acted like a fucking teenager. She was right. He was a fucking idiot!
He turned around, about to head straight back to her apartment, but stopped in his tracks. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. With the temper she was showing lately he would probably be lucky if he got to say a word before she came at him with a stake. She would without a doubt cool down soon enough, but untill then he would give her some space.
He chuckled. Damon Salvatore; weary of a human girl.
Already in a better mood he set off to find a bar and a bottle of whiskey.
The sun shone brightly in the afternoon, not a cloud visible in the sky. It was late in september and even though it seemed that the summer would never stop, there was a slight chill in the breeze, that spoke of a soon to come change in the weather. People were bustling in the streets, sitting on the waterfront, relaxing in the parks. From a distance it would seem that they had no care in the world.
That would soon change.
In an old building in the outskirts of Chicago a small group of men was gathered around a large table. Every single window in the room was covered, making it impossible for even the tiniest ray of sun to enter. It also made sure no random passerby's would see what went down in there.
They had all waited patiently for this day. They had slowly put their plan together and made all the preparations. It had been hard, especially since the secrecy was so important. No one could know. No one could even suspect what would be going down.
The men looked at each other.
"It's time," one, their leader, said. He looked around taking his time to watch his accomplices faces, making sure no one had second thoughts. His gaze ended at the latest addition to their group.
He did not like him, and it wasn't only because of his annoying nature, and quick sarcastic remarks, those only made it worse. No, the real reason for the leaders dislike of the new man was that he wasn't a man at all... He was a vampire.
It would probably seem ironic that an anti-vampire group had acquired a vampire member. And in many ways it was. Yuki Nakamura was, however, an essential part of the overall plan.
The vampire threw him a lopsided smile.
"Rock'n roll!"
The leader of the group ignored the remark and pulled out a cellphone. He pressed the number he'd put on speed-dial a long time ago. With the attention of every single individual in the room hanging on him he spoke the words:
"The mission is a go."
Few seconds later a distant rumble began.
Kirya had calmed down. Her two-hour nap, along with the fact that her hangover seemed to have lifted, might have something to do with it. She eyed her clock. 6 pm. Wow, where did the day go?
She got out of bed, her stomach growling, demanding her to eat something. A quick look into the fridge told her that tonight had to be takeout. The past days events had made her neglect her grocery shopping.
Not thinking she pulled on the leather jacket she was still holding, picked up her cell, wallet and keys and left the apartment.
The weather was fantastic, and she found herself smiling and nodding at people she passed.
When she reached her favourite diner, she ordered the usual. A big homemade burger with cheese and extra bacon. Her thoughts started to drift to Damon and his outburst earlier.
absent-mindedly she took a bite of the burger, while exiting the diner.
Now she thought of it, she realized that she should have seen it coming. She probably understood Damon better than most, and sure as hell she understood him better, than he understood her.
He'd probably encountered multiple women wanting him to be their personal Prince Charming, wanting him to be or at least act human, something he was definitely not. Afterall he was more than a century old, and looked like a god.
Deep in thought she slowly walked down the street towards her apartment.
He'd probably felt that when she said she trusted him, she had pulled down all those clichés over his head.
It was understandable, but it still hurt a bit to think that he would jump to that assumption. When had she ever said or acted like she wanted to change his actions? wanted to change him?
Something made her look up from the pavement, a tiny flicker of motion to her left. She searched the street with her eyes. A dark silhouette moving quickly away caught her eyes. Hadn't she seen that guy before?
She never found out.
A resounding boom squashed her hearing, just before she was thrown backwards by the blast, when her apartment, 200 meters further down the street, erupted in a ball of fire...
Damon's super hearing heard the first explosion, and even in his drunken state his attention spiked. He was on his feet and out in the streets two seconds later, when the second boom resounded and the third... and the fourth...
As the building next to him was shattered by a massive explosion, he only just managed to throw himself to the ground behind a car, when debris and smoke filled the air. What the fuck!?
People screamed. Tires screeched, and cars crashed to a stand still as their drivers tried to avoid the mayhem, mostly without luck.
Damon slowly got to his feet a bit dazed.
A middle-aged man ran past him, screaming: "We're under attack! We're under attack!"
Damon had a hard time concentrating. His senses was overwhelmed. People were bleeding, and there was so much noise. Unconsciously he let a hand run through his hair. His fingers became sticky, and he regained focus enough to realize that his skull probably was fractured from the impact with the concrete, when he had dived for cover. It slowly started healing.
He looked around. The explosions seemed to have stopped, but they had been thorough. As far as he could see large clouds of smoke rose above the crushed buildings all around him. Above him the elevated rails encircling Chicago downtown, called the Loop, missed a gap of tracks. About 20 meters of wrenched iron had landed across the streets, crunching several cars under its heavy weight.
But even in the middle of all this chaos, Damon found his mind starting to focus again. A single name filled his mind... Kirya...
So what do you think? I'd really like to have a couple of reviews before I write/post the next chapter. Inputs as to what should happen are more than welcome as well as ideas to how Damon's and Kirya's relationship should evolve...
Have a nice day (or night)...
Over and out...