Chapter 15: Wedding Bell Blues
Summary: Gwendolyn gets married and a string of wrong turns occur.
PLEASE read and review. Sorry I haven't updated. I was on vacation and away from my computer.
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Sunday rolled around quickly.
Damon watched from the hill top as the servants prepared for the wedding. Gwendolyn had decided she wanted an outside wedding. She had told Damon that after this day she was marching to her permanent prison and she wanted to feel the warmth of the sun for the last time. Flowers covered everything that you could see. Birds sung, but the song was mournful.
Gwendolyn walked outside and looked over the setting. She wore an expensive white gown; it was beautiful, but the girl inside it was sad and angry at the same time. Her hair was curled and pulled back and a vale sat atop her head.
The wedding began at noon. Damon watched as she said her vows, frowning throughout the entire experience. Every so often her gaze would travel to the woods, just beyond the house, as though she thought a white knight would ride in and rescue her.
"You may kiss the bride." Damon heard the priest say.
Rio lifted the vale and leaned forward for a kiss, but Gwendolyn turned her head and the kiss was planted on her cheek. Everyone clapped, obviously not seeing her slight turn of the head.
The guests walked to their carriages and then headed for Rio's home where the reception would take place, but Gwendolyn remained outside for the moment. She sat down in a chair and began to sob.
Damon wanted to go down and comfort his little sister, but it was crucial to his plan for her to not see him.
Where had these brotherly instincts come from? Perhaps if Stefan had been a girl, the contempt wouldn't have been so strong.
Damon laughed, he knew better.
The reason he sympathized for this child was because she wasn't the one who killed his mother. And while girls need protection, boys do not. As Stefan grew stronger he could do things on his own. If Stefan had been a girl none of this would have happened. They wouldn't have quarreled over Katherine, and they certainly wouldn't have killed each other.
Finally, Giuseppe tapped her on the shoulder. She walked, head held high, to the carriage. pushing her father away as he tried to comfort her. She still had her dignity.
Damon had drank his fill of blood today and shifted into the form of a crow. He flew after the carriages, and when they arrived at Rio's home, he perched in the tree waiting for the night.
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Damon had watched through the windows as the guests had danced about. But when the sun's early light flowed over the hills the guests departed.
Gwendolyn had barely danced. For the most part she sat down in her chair and frowned.
"Let me walk you out to your carriage." Damon heard Rio's voice.
"Thank you, son." Giuseppe replied. He walked over to his daughter and planted a kiss on the top of her head, "Do not hate me." he whispered in her ear, "I did what I thought was right."
Gwendolyn did not respond.
The two men walked outside.
Giuseppe's carriage was parked around the way.
"I want to thank you for this wedding you've given us." Rio said.
"It was no problem. But Rio you take care of my little girl." Giuseppe smiled.
"Oh, I will, sir." Rio replied.
Damon saw his hand reach for something inside his coat pocket.
"It's just a shame, you won't be around to see it." He held the dagger above Giuseppe's heart.
"What are you doing?" His father asked frightened, but paralyzed.
Damon grabbed Rio by the shoulder and threw him to the ground. The dagger skidded across the cobblestone street.
Rio looked up, angrily, teeth bared, trying to see what had disarmed him.
"Damon?" he asked.
Damon was already pulling him to his feet.
"It is you." Rio said, as the bit of morning light touched Damon's face, "But you died. Stefan put a sword through you. Dead people don't came back."
"Perhaps not." Damon replied, "But I am the same as you."
He slammed Rio against the wall, grabbed him by the throat.
"You would marry my sister to gain my father's fortune. Some things never change." Damon growled.
"Damon?" came his father's voice. Amazement laced in it, "You've come home."
His father talking to him, made Damon let down his guard and Rio head butted him.
Damon stumbled backwards, but righted himself instantly.
Rio ran for the dagger and retrieved it.
Damon stepped in front of his father, "If you want him you go through me."
"With pleasure." Rio launched himself at Damon, driving the dagger towards him.
Damon dodged it and prepared himself to fight.
Rio stopped and looked down at the knife, "This won't work on you." he laughed, "How silly of me." He put the dagger in his belt holster. Then reached up and grabbed a thick branch that was attached to the maple tree. He broke off a staff that was bigger than both of Damon's wrists together.
He looked insane and he charged at Damon. Damon moved, but it was not fast enough. The splintery end of the wood entered his right leg. Damon hissed in pain and pulled the bloody wood from his leg.
Rio was laughing like a mad man and the laughter took Damon over the edge. He whacked Rio in the head with the wood and Rio body flew backwards. Rio landed in a heap before Giuseppe.
"My son." he said, he held out his arms to await an embrace.
Damon was mesmerized, but held his ground. Did he really think Damon was going to run into his arms? No. Save that for Stefan, Damon thought bitterly.
His father's expression changed. He now realized that the old hatred between them hadn't faded.
"Will you never forgive?" he asked.
But before Damon could answer Giuseppe was coughing up blood. Damon was thrown out of this dream world. Rio was alive and he had driven the dagger into Giuseppe's abdomen. His head was bleeding profusely, from when Damon had whacked him with the wood.
Damon was on him in a second, and with a shard of splintered wood, he stabbed Rio through the heart. The other vampire slumped to the ground, this time he wasn't coming back.
Damon looked at his father. His brown eyes were fading fast.
"Damon." he said, and winced in pain.
"Don't speak." Damon replied, "You'll only worsen the pain."
His father ignored his request and spoke, "I am sorry, Damon."
"Sorry for what?" Damon asked.
"For everything I ever did to hurt you." Giuseppe said, weakly.
"It is forgotten." Damon lied, "Now rest, old man."
"Goodbye." Giuseppe murmured.
Damon sunk his fangs into Giuseppe's throat and drained him quickly so that the pain he felt from the stab wound would cease. But as he did this something strange happened. He saw through Giuseppe's eyes.
His father's memories flashed through him.
He saw his father's childhood. Saw his mother before he and Stefan were born. She had been so vibrant and full of life. But Stefan had taken care of that rather quickly. He saw his birth and his life. He watched as he and his mother played in the orchards. He saw her pregnancy with Stefan, all the pain she endured. He saw her funeral, which he did not want to relive. But then something else was reveled to him. His fathers love for him. A love so strong it nearly shattered him. Then Damon saw his own funeral his father's pain for the death of his sons. But surprisingly most of the tears were shed for him rather than his brother. His father felt that he had failed him.
"Damien, what are you doing?" a female's voice pulled him from his feeding.
Damon let go of his fathers neck.
Damon turned and looked at her.
Gwendolyn's face was covered with fear
Damon wiped the blood from his lips, not knowing how to respond. He had never been caught by someone he did not intend on killing.
"You...killed my father and my husband." She mumbled.
"I..." for once in his life he was at a loss for words and it could not have come at a worse time.
"What are you?" She asked, a look of disgust on her face.
"Gwendolyn, I'm..." he broke off.
Faster than he thought possible, Gwendolyn picked up that large piece of broken maple and launched herself towards him, "Get out of here...you beast!" She swung it at him.
Damon was not about to get wounded again, if she would not allow him to explain that was her problem. She would spend the rest of her life not knowing.
Damon's body melted into a crow and he soared into the sky, but he still heard her shouting.
"You're a monster, do you hear me? A monster!" She collapsed on the ground in a shaking heap.
As Damon flew he thought over what had just happened.
He thought of what he saw inside his father.
My father shed tears for me because he thought he had failed me.
Well you did fail me, old man, he thought as he flew.
Ever since that child was born you have displayed favoritism.
St. Stefan, the perfect one.
I do not need your tears or your shame.
He decided to store away what he learned deep inside himself and never open it again.
He had all eternity to live and enjoy himself, and he didn't need his father's words in the back of his mind providing a conscience for him.
