Disclaimer: See prologue.
AN: soooo we still have some readers?
and on another note, you should know that I have published my original fiction. epub anyways. It's available at Smashwords and is shipping to all retailers this week. I currently have 25% sample for free and it's only 99 cents to buy right now, if you're interested, let me know, I'll send you the link. or you can go to my profile page and follow the links. It's been "shipped" to all major retailers. The book is called Cursed. the author is C.D. Blaire so look for it on any ebooks site. let me know what you think.
thanks
... ... ...
Well I remember, I remember, don't worry, how could I ever forget
It's the first time, the last time we ever met
But I know the reason why you keep your silence UP, oh no you don't fool me
Well the hurt doesn't show, but the pain still grows
It's no stranger to you and me
Kenzie took a sip of her milkshake as she walked out of the Mystic Grill, letting out a small moan of pleasure. The one good thing about this town, the milkshakes, the bad part about it, even with her metabolism, she wouldn't fit into her cheerleader uniform soon. Almost worth it though.
"Now why does that moan sound so familiar?"
She scowled as Damon walked up to her and contemplated throwing her shake at him.
"Tonight's a full moon." Damon reminded her. "So don't do anything stupid."
"You're beginning to sound like a broken record."
"You know, I'm in there with Ric and you don't even come to say hi."
Her scowl deepened. "Earth is full, go home."
He grinned. "So, you want to be involved, how about helping me?"
"With what?" She suspiciously asked.
"There's a new person in town and we want to see if she's a werewolf."
Kenzie perked up a little at this. "Really? And what do you need me to do?"
"We need to get wolfsbane in to her drink."
Kenzie peered through the window, seeing where Damon was pointing and looking at the woman sitting at the bar, her back to her. Kenzie hadn't noticed her when she went to pick up her shake. "What do you have so far?"
"Ric was going to be drunk, and I'll be the savior."
She let out a small snort. "you exude bad boyness, how is that supposed to work?"
"Right and you have a better plan?"
She peered through the window again, watching the bartender go into the back and motioned for Damon to follow her around the back.
"I need you to compel the dude at the bar to take an extended break," she told him.
He gave his head a small shake. "you're telling me to go ahead and compel someone?"
She gave him a look. "Do I look like Elena? No. Morals? Not quite as strong here. Give me the Wolfsbane. Compel, go sit down and well, you'll know what happens next."
He shrugged, handing it over to her as they walked in through the back.
"Hey." The worker cried. "You can't be here."
Damon grabbed him. "Go take an extended smoke break, we'll see you later."
He walked away and Damon smirked with a quick raise of his eyebrows, walking back out. Kenzie looked around and grabbed an apron hanging on a hook and wrapped it around her waist. She tied up her hair into a bun before she slipped into the bar area, walking over to the woman who was alone at the bar.
"Hey, I just started my shift, can I get you anything?"
"No." the woman said with a smile, pointing to her drink, "thank you."
Kenzie nodded and stepped back, seeing Damon motioning to her and she picked up a tray and a pad of paper to write on as she walked over to them.
"Hey, what can I get you guys today?"
"Mackenzie?" Alaric said in confusion. "What are you-"
"Oh hey Mr. Saltzman, almost didn't recognize you outside of school. Would you like a refill on your drinks?"
"Sure, Mackenzie was it?" Damon asked with a smirk. "And how about one for that lady at the bar on my tab."
"Of course." She walked away, a customer holding up a hand to stop her.
"Hey can I-"
"I'm busy." She snapped, walking past him and to the bar, looking at the bottles of alcohol in confusion. She shrugged, seeing Damon's favorite brand of whiskey and picked it up, pouring three glasses. She turned around, holding one out to the woman.
"Hey, those nice gentlemen wanted you to have this."
The woman looked up. "no, thanks, I'm good."
"Are you sure?" Kenzie asked, putting on her best cheerleader smile. "I think they think you're cute."
The woman went to go say no again and Kenzie stepped closer, pretending to trip and sending the glass flying, the alcohol in it spilling across the bar and onto the woman who jumped up from her seat in surprise.
"I'm so sorry." Kenzie cried, pulling the wolfsbane out of her pocket and palming it as she grabbed a cloth and began wiping up the spill, grabbing the woman's drink so she could wipe underneath it and dropping the wolfsbane into her glass. "It's my first week, I'm so clumsy. Are you okay? Can I get you anything?"
"No thanks." The woman replied, grabbing her drink out of Kenzie's hand and moving a couple seats down.
Kenzie finished cleaning up the spill and watched the woman closely, waiting for her to take a drink. She pretended to be busy wishing she would just hurry up already, she hated pretending she was actually working. Finally she sighed, taking some drinks to Damon and Alaric.
"What do I do?" she mouthed.
"Five more minutes." Damon mouthed back.
She returned to the bar, stopping in front of the woman again. "I'm about to go on break, is there anything else I could get you?"
"Didn't you just start?" the woman suspiciously asked.
"No, I started a while ago, I was in the back doing stuff. Want me to refill your drink?" She reached out as if to grab it when the woman reached out and snatched her wrist, applying pressure to it. Kenzie gasped at the pain and saw Damon standing up, ready to move.
"Who are you?" The woman hissed. "You don't smell like one of them."
"I'm a waitress." Kenzie gritted out through clenched teeth.
"Who puts wolfsbane in every customer's drink?"
"What are you doing here?" Kenzie asked, narrowing her eyes as she dropped all pretenses.
"I'm looking for Mason Lockwood, know anything about that, little girl?"
"How about you let go of my wrist, bitch."
The woman leaned closer, a feral glint in her eyes. "I can kill you right now before your little Vampire can get here to save you."
Kenzie slowly lifted the knife she had grabbed in her other hand the moment the werewolf had grabbed her wrist. "Over me calling you a bitch? Hardly seems fair, considering that's what you are."
"You think I can't kill you before you try to do anything with little knife?"
"Or if you don't let her go, we see how well silver works on werewolves." Damon said from behind her.
The woman let go of Kenzie's wrist and sat back down on the bar stool, glaring hatefully at her, Damon and Alaric.
"What do you want with Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked her.
"He's my friend." The woman snapped.
"Well I'm sorry to inform you, you won't find him."
The woman looked outraged. "And why not?"
"You should leave town." He warned her.
"You're threatening me? On a full moon. How stupid are you?" She asked in disbelief.
"you think I'm afraid of you?" Damon sneered. "Besides, you threaten what's mine, you're lucky I haven't killed you yet."
Kenzie's eyes shot to him, trying to figure out if she should be outraged or what at him saying he was hers but she could always kick his face for that later.
"No, I don't think you're afraid of me and that's your vampire arrogance. You should be. I sniffed you out the moment you entered this bar along with your pathetic wolfsbane. I've been at this a long time and any other night of the month, the situation would be reversed but tonight is not the night to pick a fight with me. You've been marked."
She spun away from him and walked out, leaving the three in staring at each other in confusion before Damon chuckled. "Marked, ooohhh, I'm shaking."
"Hey, who are you?" the worker Damon compelled came out from the back and Kenzie undid the apron, handing it to him.
"Maybe you shouldn't leave your customers hanging. I've been waiting half an hour for service." She griped, walking out with Damon and Alaric.
When they were out on the sidewalk, Damon grabbed her arm, looking at her wrist where the bitch had grabbed her.
"That's going to bruise." He noted.
"Thanks Captain Obvious, I didn't know that."
"Now, now, no need to get all testy."
"What if she broke it? I can't do handsprings with a broken wrist. Stupid bitch."
"That was dangerous." Alaric said, "We shouldn't have involved Mackenzie."
"Relax." Damon said. "she was our best chance at finding something out. Now I say we find the bitch and kill her."
"Just let it go, Damon. Don't be stupid." Alaric told him.
"So what? Just let her get away? She hurt Redbird which is a big no on what not to do to piss me off and the 'You've been marked' What the hell kind of wolf throw down crap is that anyway?"
"Damon, look up! Just look up." An exasperated Alaric replied, waiting for the Vampire to do so. "If this werewolf stuff is true, one bite and you're dead. One bite! Alright? Don't risk it. Just go home, lock your doors and we'll deal with it in the morning."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, come on Redbird, I'll take you home."
They left Alaric and Kenzie rubbed at her wrist, glancing over at Damon. "I'm staying with you tonight."
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yes." She replied. "What if she shows up?"
"Then I'll deal. What are you going to do if she shows up, get bitten?"
"No, call for help or something? Please?" She looked up at him with big green innocent eyes.
"Those don't work on me." He told her.
She batted her eyelashes at him and he rolled his eyes.
"Fine, do what you want because you will anyways."
"Now you're starting to get it." She said with a big grin. "So, you still banging Rose?"
"You're kinda crude." He pointed out. "Gets me all hot and bothered and no, I haven't seen her since Richmond."
She nodded with a secretive smile and when they arrived at his house, he locked up the door and she gave him a satisfied smile.
"Know what gets me all hot and bothered?" She asked.
"Me?" He asked with a smirk.
"I thought you getting all possessive and saying I'm yours would piss me off but it got me all sorts of hot and bothered." She stepped towards him and jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he walked them down the hallway, an evil grin on his face. "So I'm thinking we could spend the full moon, locked up here, doing-"
She stopped when she noticed he wasn't looking at her anymore but in to the library and she turned her head to see the one person she didn't want to see.
"You just couldn't stay away, huh?" Damon observed.
"You don't answer your phone." Rose looked away, feeling embarrassed and awkward. Kenzie for her part didn't remove herself from Damon.
"What do you want?" Kenzie asked in a nasty tone.
"I wanted to apologize."
"For leaving Damon alone to deal? I should stake you myself." The tiny redhead snarled.
"You could try but you won't get far." Rose replied with a scowl.
Damon chuckled at the fire that always seemed to pop up in Kenzie wherever he was concerned. "So you don't have anywhere to go, is that it?"
Rose shook her head. "I'm sorry about Elena. I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't know that she had a death wish but I called you, I tried to make it right, okay? I'm sorry, Damon. And I have nowhere else to go." She finished after a short pause.
"you're not staying here." Kenzie looked at Damon with a scowl. "She is not staying here."
"Redbird's right, there is nothing here for you." Damon informed the older Vampire who was interrupted from replying by glass shattering in the living room. Damon quickly set Kenzie down, warning her to stay there while he and Rose went to investigate.
Kenzie followed after them into the living room, of course not listening to Damon's warning. The window was broken and Damon quickly moved to pull a sword off the wall as the three turned towards the growling that was coming from around them. Damon grabbed her hand, pulling Kenzie closer to him and she looked around, her eyes landing on a wolf, its teeth bared and front paws already off the ground, leaping towards them.
"Damon." She screeched, pushing him with all her might as the werewolf hit her, taking her to the ground. She screamed as its teeth bit into her, taking a huge chunk out of her shoulder, then it was crying in pain and running out the window after Damon stuck a sword through it.
He picked her up, using his speed to get her to the couch and gently lying her down as she sobbed from the pain.
"You stupid girl." He muttered, biting his wrist and holding it to her mouth.
She was crying too hard, her shoulder on fire from the pain and blood loss that she wouldn't take it at first. Damon grabbed her head, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"Redbird, calm down, I'm trying to help, just look at me, okay?"
She sniffled as she bit her lower lip to calm down and Damon reopened the wound on his wrist and held it to her so she could take some blood. When she was done, he stood up, leaving her on the couch to give her some time to heal and calm down.
"Did you compel her?" Rose asked.
He shook his head. "You can't compel her. She just knows to listen to me."
"Why would she do that?" Rose asked, "Surely you could have handled it. I was a split second away from pushing you away myself. She's fast for a human."
He smiled. "She is and it looks like she saved your life too then. She knows if it had bit me it would have been fatal, her I can heal." He shook his head. "She's still stupid though."
"Not stupid, just in love." Rose softly said, glancing over at the girl on the couch.
"That's impossible." Damon snapped.
"Impossible for someone to have fallen in love with you?"
"Impossible for-" He glanced over at Kenzie and doubted he could hear them but grabbed Rose's arm, pulling her further away just to be on the safe side.
"I compelled her to not have those feelings for me at a time when I could compel her so she can't have those feelings for me."
"Then you must not have done a good job because that girl is head over heels for you." She said with a smile.
Damon only shook his head, "You don't have any idea what you're talking about." He moved back to Kenzie who was now rolled up into a ball on her side, whimpering at the pain. He looked back at Rose. "Look, stay in a guest room, whatever, I don't care if you stay or not, I need to look after her."
Rose nodded, watching him pick her up and walk down the hall to his room.
Damon laid her down on the bed, gently ripping her shirt off so he could check on the wound. She was healing but it seemed to be healing too slow and he didn't know if it was his impatience or because it was a wolf bite.
"Am I one of them now?" She whimpered.
"What?" He asked, leaning closer.
"Am I like them?"
"A werewolf? I don't think it works that way. You're healing, you'll be fine soon."
"It hurts." She softly cried. "Why does it still hurt?"
"Because they took a huge chunk out of your shoulder. What the hell were you thinking?"
"I couldn't let it bite you." She cried, "You'd be dead and I can't lose someone else, not again."
He frowned, briefly thinking about this conversation with Rose before brushing it aside. "You're a stupid girl."
"No, I'm really not." She whispered.
"Stay here, I'm calling Caroline."
He left to go talk to her and when he returned, Kenzie was looking a lot better. She was stretched out on the bed, not curled up into a ball of pain any longer.
"She says Tyler was all locked up."
"I could have told you that. It was that stupid bitch from the Grill. She's dead, I'm going to kill her."
"And how do you plan on killing her, Redbird?"
"Does silver work because I will shoot that bitch up with silver all day long."
He grinned. "I'm sorry, I picked a fight with her."
"I don't think she was happy with me either." Kenzie reminded him.
"True but a werewolf bite won't kill you."
"So it's much better I pushed you out of the way."
"You're surprisingly strong for such a tiny little thing."
"I know." She used her good arm to reach out and grab his shirt, pulling him to the bed. "See?"
"I let you do that." He told her.
"I know." She softly replied. "Can we just- I dunno- lie here for a bit? I'm still not feeling well."
He complied, leaving his snarky and sarcastic comments behind for the time being, after all the girl had just taken what would have been a fatal werewolf bite for him.
"Are you feeling better?" He quietly asked, brushing her hair back and giving a small frown at her super warm forehead.
"My shoulder hurts a little still." She murmured, her eyes closed as she burrowed into his chest. "Thank you for saving me."
"I think this time you saved me." He said with a small snort.
"Kay." She murmured sleepily against him. Moments later, she was fast asleep.
… … …
Someone was humming and Kenzie opened her eyes, staring up at her ceiling. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep but the humming only grew louder and she slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She swung her legs over the side and stood up, determined to find out where that humming was coming from and tell them to shut up so she could go back to sleep, she was exhausted.
She walked out of her room and through the hallway, unable to find the source of the humming and she stopped, turning in circles until it finally hit her, it was coming from upstairs, in the attic. But who would be up there? She had never even stepped foot up there, only her father had, to put some boxes of old family stuff up there.
She turned around again and the steps leading up to it were already pulled down. Kenzie walked closer, her foot hovering over the first step before she shook her head, told herself to quit being so ridiculous and walked up the steps. The humming got louder and she followed the noise to the left side of the room, stepping around some boxes and stopping in shock.
The humming stopped.
"Hello Macks." The girl sitting in the middle of the floor didn't turn around, her long red curls trailing down her back as she sat hunched over something.
"Mads?" she whispered.
"I have something for you." She shifted a little to the left and Kenzie could see a tarnished silver box. Mads lifted it and music began to play, the same melody she had been humming just moments earlier.
"What is it?" Kenzie softly asked.
"Just listen." Mads whispered.
Kenzie moved to kneel down in front of her sister, staring down at the box in between them. The tarnished silver and the faded red inlay seemed so familiar, but how?
"Do you remember?" Mads whispered.
Kenzie began humming the melody as the song came back to her and she looked up at her sister, their eyes meeting for the first time. Kenzie gasped, the warmth and openness in Mads eyes disappearing, replaced by a cold, hard, dead look as emerald green turned to dark brown. Fiery Red curls shortened and turned to dark brown curls and she knew it wasn't Elena but Katherine. The 500 year old Vampire's mouth turned into a smirk as she moved closer to Kenzie, their faces now inches apart.
"It's time for you to remember." Katherine told her.
… … …