Chapter 2
Damon Salvatore was walking through the woods, enjoying the snow and reminiscing back to the year 1901, when the snow had been equally beautiful. Something else caught his attention suddenly, a smell cutting through the cold, crisp air. Blood. He followed the scent for some way, knowing he was getting closer as the smell got stronger. He was shocked to find a small child, huddled into a tree, with blood all over her head and ragged blue dress. If it weren't for the quiet patter of her heart beat, and the quick, shallow sounds of her breathing, Damon would have honestly thought she was dead. Her skin had an unhealthy, grey tinge to it, and her lips and fingers were blue from the cold. Damon sped towards her and threw himself to his knees in front of her. He took his coat off and wrapped the child in it, trying to coax some warmth into her. He stood up, looking around for any sign of where she might have come from. Finding nothing, he put one arm under her shoulders, the other under her knees, and he lifted her as if she were as light as a feather. In fact, she was, and that worried Damon, although he wasn't sure why he cared so much for this unknown child. She was so small, he mused, that he could hold her with just one arm, if he'd had to. Holding her tightly to his chest, he focused on the gentle thump of her tiny heartbeat, and sped back to the mansion.
Arriving back, Damon immediately placed her on a sofa by the fire. 'Stefan!' he shouted for his brother, who arrived into the room presently. 'What's going on, brother?' he asked, before catching sight of the unconscious child on the sofa. 'Oh my God, Damon. What did you do?' Damon was bent over the child, trying to get her to wake up. He waved one of his hands dismissively at Stefan. 'I didn't do anything, you idiot. I found her in the woods. Go get a cloth and some warm water. I need to clean her head to see how badly she's injured.' Stefan sped off without another word and reappeared almost immediately, crouching carefully next to Damon in front of the girl. The brothers gently cleaned the blood away from her face and body, and were horrified to find her tiny limbs marred with scars and burn marks. Her head had a particularly nasty cut which although no longer bleeding, looked to be threatening to restart at any minute. 'What's happened to her?' breathed Stefan. Damon didn't look away from the tiny figure on his sofa. 'She's been unconscious since I found her.' He said. 'She must have passed out from blood loss or the cold?'
Just then, the girl's eyelids began to flutter, and the brothers were met with two, large, scared green eyes. They instantly filled with tears as the girl began to panic at the unfamiliar situation and two strange men looking at her. She made to get up but Damon gently pressed her back. The small movement seemed to be too much for her, and she fell back unconscious once again. 'I'm going to take her upstairs to bed, Stefan.' Said Damon. 'When she wakes, I'll give her some blood to help her heal. I can't let her suffer.' Stefan nodded, but expressed worry at giving a child vampire blood. There was no way they could let her become a vampire so young. 'Well, we will just have to keep her alive, brother. How hard could it be?' retorted Damon, already picking the girl up. He sped carefully upstairs and laid her on a large, comfortable bed in one of the spare rooms. He tucked the covers carefully around her, and pulling up a chair to the side of the bed, took one of her tiny hands in his and stroked it gently, waiting for her to wake.