"Believing the strangest things. Loving the alien. You'll pray till the break of dawn, believing the strangest things..." David Bowie
by Jessica French (Midnite363@aol.com)
****
Scotland 1745
"Well, I just don't want to go tonight, Damon. I have no interest in parties, only a week after my brother's funeral. I have had my say, I am not going. Go if you wish, I am sure Char is going, you will not be lonely. You would not be even if you were alone..." Shannon trailed off and buried her nose in the closet, looking for a gown to put on. A week since her brother's funeral and her last dream with Malachy. She had let Damon take his last drink of her blood, she would have to die tonight.
The thought made her stomach roll and bile rise in her throat. Dead, she was going to be dead by morning. She had spent the days of last week with her remaining brothers, with her father and with Damon. She was not sure if Damon suspected anything, and if he did he was not letting on.
She already knew how she would do it. She actually had two days to make up the week that Malachy predicted as the amount of time before Damon's blood in her veins ran to thin and dead would be dead. She wanted to take no chances though, this was not suicide, she reminded herself for the hundredth time. Though it would look like it....
An impatient sigh interrupted her thoughts and her hand stilled on the dress at hand. She turned and gave an annoyed grunt right back at the lump in the bed that was Damon Salvatore.
"If you make me go by myself," he said in his beautiful Italian accent, "people will think that you are not interested in me anymore. I would be open to all the vixen's romantic advances. We would not want that, would we?" He pulled the stiff white sheets across his chest and gave her a pouty look that made her stomach roll again, but this time in something other than sickness.
She smiled and went to the bedside, going on her knees on the ground beside him and running a hand up through his tossled, dark locks. "And you will enjoy every minute of it. Don't you dare deny it." She smiled up at him and moved to rise, thinking it far time she dress herself, it was almost dusk, and she would have to carry out her plan.
Damon's hand fastened on hers, preventing her to rise off her knees. Her smile faltered and she looked him in the eye, "What is it?"
He only looked at her, held her eyes as he pushed cool metal over her finger. He remained silent, but dropped his eyes, releasing her from their hypnotic spell. Once his eyes left hers she was able to look down at her hand.
Her left hand, was now adorned with a thin gold circlet with a small blue stone. Her stomach rose again, not sickness or love, but panic. Her mind went into over drive, continuously murmuring, Oh no, oh no, no no no...
"Marry me."
Plain, simple, innocent without his usual turn of sarcasm or coldness. "The stone is lapis lazuli, and it is the stone on my ring as well." His left hand came into view, the hand that always held his own heavy silver, engraved ring with slightly larger blue stone. "It protects against the sun. With this ring, I can go anywhere, without it, if the sun touches my skin, I burn. I have seen it happen, not a particularly nice event to witness." His hand twitched, and he drew it back under the covers. "Even if you do not wish to be my wife, keep the ring, you will need it sooner... or later."
When Shannon looked up to his face his eyes were dark, no light shone in their depths. It was a very eerie look, he had on his face. Perhaps he knew.... Her hand clenched to a fist, Do not be ridiculous Shannon, she told herself firmly, The man just asked you to marry him. Give him an answer!
"I will have to think about it, Damon." She offered him a smile, "Thank you for the ring, it is a beautiful piece of work." She ran a finger over the stone lovingly and then bent her neck up to kiss him gently on the lips.
When she pulled back, slightly breathless, he held her chin and said softly, eye searching her face for some answer, "It is very old. Take care of it." Then he rolled across the bed and his feet hit the floor with a soft thump. He moved into the small privy closet and shut the door. A few second later she heard the splashing of water.
She rose quickly and grabbed a random dress from the closet. Stepping into it, she hopped over to her shoes and slid into them. She had grabbed a front lace dress and she pulled furiously at them and finally managed to fasten them tight enough so she held no fears of spilling out of the top. She surveyed the room in one quick sweep and then rushed out the door. Down the stairs that led to Damon's room, hitting the dirt of the courtyard a flat run she fled to the stables, becoming winded at the crest of the hill that looked down on the barn and field.
There he stood. Tall, and strong, his tied hair glimmering like copper and fire. She ran to him, calling his name.
Toby was dressed in his usual attire of dusty shirt and tan breeches. He turned, when he heard his name, pulling the tuft of straw from his lips and letting it fall from the ground. "Lady Shannon..." he began and was cut off as she hurled herself into his arms, her own going tightly around his neck.
"Oh Toby," she murmured into his neck, which smelled of hay and oats and man. "Toby."
Not one to startle easily, the behavior of Shannon had sent him reeling, "Well, now. Shannon did something happen? Your father?" He jerked back at the thought, but was quickly relieved when Shannon shook her mane of tangled black waves.
"Nothing of the sort," she said to him. She pulled back, taking a few steps, putting a foot between them, "I only came to say 'good-bye.'"
"Good-bye! An where do you think yer goin?" Toby's brows were in his hair with amusement and astonishment. "Hmm?"
She only shook her head, "Will you be at my father's gathering tonight?"
He nodded his head stiffly, "Aye, I am to be quartering the horses of the guests as they arrive."
"Good. Good, then you will see what I mean. I know, I am acting strange just... trust me Toby. Trust me, and know.... know that whatever happens that you are my best friend, and I love you for that. And that nothing is truly gone as long as it is not forgotten. Do you understand?"
Now truly startled he only nodded.