Chapter 14

The air was suddenly filled with the smell of blood, and a short gasp of pain from the one that bled told him that it had been a searious gash, that probably would cause great damage, if not even death. He spun around, unable to resist his urges, and had his fangs viewed in a devilish grin, but stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the one that bled.

Nyx was panting, sweat running down her face as she held a knife pressed against a wound in the chest, struggling with keeping it there, as the man desperately tried to get it out. Nyx twisted around the knife in the wound, causing him to scream, a dark and terrifying sound that made Angel back of for a moment, his senses caught the sound of a tone so low that human ears could not detect it.

The moment later, he burst into a million pieces of ash, which instantly was caught by the wind, driven away into other places.

Angel didn't even move a muscle at this. He had seen so many vampires – and humans for that part to – die, that he had gotten used to it.

Nyx wiped away the blood from the knife and placed it in her belt, hid underneath her jacket but in such an angle that she could grab it in the blink of an eye. Walking slowly towards him she stopped a few yards away, looking at him with eyes that did not show what she thought.

"Why?" He asked.

"I don't have a searious death-wish, I'm a fighter," came the simple answer. "And by the way, the battle was supposed to be fair, and cutting off my throat isn't something that I call fair."

"Fair? What's fair? Really, there's nothing like a fair battle," Angel commented sarcasticly.

"True, though I preferr when the odds are better. Especially when they're suiting my purposes."

The cold smile that played upon her lips told him that she had something going on, and he sharpened his senses just in case. But he didn't have to worry. She turned her back against him and begun walking back towards the house.

"Have a nice hunt," she said, though something in the way she said it bothered him seariously.

There was a sort of secret ill-willing feeling all over her, and he litterally fell down on the ground as he tried to read her mind. She had built up a strong defence-wall to keep him out from there, and he was greatly surprised. This woman was stronger mentally than his mother, who had so many more years in training. Maybe he had even met his superior when it came to that. He didn't know, but wanted to find out.

The hunger made itself reminded inside him, and he knew he had to feed. Smelling the air like a cat – using the flehmen-syndrome, he soon find something interesting. Without a second thought, he went there.

* * *

"Your little test failed," a voice said from the shadows, walking slowly towards a tree.

"Of course it did," the one who sat upon a branch in the tree said with an irritated tone. "What else would you expect from him? His mother is mortal, and that makes him weak."

"Why do you keep on picking down on him because he's half mortal? You were born as a mortal as well, though changed …"

"Mortals are weak," the voice cut off the other one.

"You have no idea how wrong you are. Sure, we don't have any supernatural powers, though we can at least live without killing. We don't have to kill to eat."

"Oh really? And I who thought that you loved eating beef. But I guess I was wrong then."

The blush on the first one's cheeks told the other one that it had won.

"At least I can feel things. I've still got my soul," the first mumbled.

"What's a soul, really? Just some rubbish that people talk about. There's nothing like a God or Devil, it's just things that the mortals have thought of, a hope in a life after this. Sure, there's light and darkness, though they are no "Gods". They are persons who will fight for their cause, and when one of them dies, the other side wins. Though the world will always be the same. A new era is coming, though it'll still end in the same way. Vampiric world-domination. My kin will always prevail, no matter what."

"It will not! I'll do everything in my power to…"

The voice was abruptly cut off when the other held up a hand in the air to tell it to be silent.

"Someone's approaching."

They both melted into the shadows, the one on the ground having a harder time due to the fact that only the one in the tree wore black. Though hiding behind some bushs, they both stayed out of visible range until the person that walked past suddenly stiffened and stopped dead in her tracks, looking straight at the one in the tree.

"Can't I even have one day over here without meeting you?" She muttered and then kept on walking. "Isn't it enough that you come uninvited to people's house in the middle of the night?"

The one in the tree just smiled mysteriously as a message was sent to her mind.

'But Bonnie, we both know that I've been invited by your lovely little friend Elena. And we who had such a nice time last night…'

He could see how she clenched her hands in anger, though pushed down her urge to seariosly wound the other one. A few seconds later Bonnie had fully walked away from the place and the one that had hid came out of the hiding-place and looked up at Damon.

"Now what was that about?"

"She challenged me and lost. Now she's mad because of it."

Elena gasped for air and felt the anger building up inside of her.

"You broke into her home and drank of her blood?"

"I've been invited, forgot that, dear?" Damon said with a devilish grin.

They both knew that Elena had in fact invited him to Bonnie's house, when Elena had fallen in love with Stefan and had wanted to find out who her future husband would be. By a ceremony she had invited him, though Damon had taken his chance and stepped into the house. For a vampire had to be invited to a house where a human lived, but once invited he could come and go as it suited him.

"Stay away from her," Elena warned.

Inaudibly Damon landed on the ground and walked towards her, so that they finally only stood a few inches away from one another.

"Or else?"

Damon's voice was cold, and in his black eyes sparkled something dark and dangerous, something that told her to flee, but she stayed, knowing one thing that would get him down on the earth. Still her heart beated like a hammer inside her chest, even after all these years she couldn't stop the feelings of fear that tore her inside out.

"I'll tell Angel how to stop the prophecy."

"Do you think you'll live long enough to tell him? Or most importantly, do you think that my little brother lives long enough to see you again if you tell Angel the truth?"

Her eyes widened and the iris shrunk into an almost nothingness as the truth went up to her. The beating of her heart seemed to stop for a second, then to increase as a wrath begun to burn deep inside her.

"I don't care what you do to me, but if you ever touch Stefan I will kill you. If I've come back once, I can do it again, even if it only means by killing you. I don't know how, but don't you dare…"

She stopped herself, to angry to say something more. Anger was filling her up, and if she had claws, she knew she would have tried to rip his face into shreds. Not that she would have succeded, she knew he was much faster and deadlier than her. The strength inside him had been obvious to her even from the very first moment she saw him, that there was something that kept on calling to her, telling her that this man was nobody that you played with.

"I am not afraid of you," Damon simply said. "And believe me, I will kill my brother, one day or another. But first, I'll take care of your little red-haired friend. Because I am someone who finishes what I started."

Damon then turned into his crow-form and flew away, leaving Elena standing with anger and fear pounding inside of her, and then she realised something.

If Damon made truth out of his threats, the chance of destroying the prophecy would be elliminated.

Elena burst into an quick run, if she wanted to help saving the world, she had to find Angel and get him to stop Damon from killing Bonnie. Because if he did, nothing could stop the demons from taking over the world.