Like Fire
by AlexisKeller
Chapter 02
"And he didn't say anything else?" Damon clarified. "He just left?"
I nodded, crossing my arms in front of me, not quite sure how to proceed in this situation.
Thank God I had found Damon waiting for me by the doorway of the ballroom. He'd just raised his eyebrows and tapped the back of his wrist, indicating he'd been there for some time. Ignoring that, I'd pulled him away from the ballroom to relay the details of all that had happened and watched as he grew increasingly wary.
"Hey," he said presently. "It was going to happen eventually. They'd know sooner or later, wouldn't they? I don't think he's figured it out yet, but if you need to sing, it can't be helped, you know?"
I just nodded slowly in response.
To be fair, he wasn't wrong.
But no matter how confident and assuring I'd tried to act in front of Stefan, the truth was that I was a little... uncertain. Everyone had been talking up the Originals so much—within good reason, of course—that I wasn't all that sure I was a good backup in case we got into trouble with them.
What if my singing didn't affect them the same way? It was already difficult to sing to people who were strong-willed than most. What if all this just ended up turning into a huge mess?
Don't, I told myself. Just think positively right now.
"You good?" Damon asked.
It took a moment but I was able to confirm, "Yeah."
"And you said Caroline's with Klaus?"
"Yep."
Contrary to the face he made, he chose to only say, "Good enough, I guess."
"And what about Stefan?" I found it pressing to ask. "Any idea where he is?"
"Probably snooping for clues. I'm more worried about the fact that I just spotted Matty Blue Eyes with Barbie Klaus."
My eyes widened at that. "What? Matt's here? Wait, Barbie Klaus?"
"Yeah, Klaus's sister. You probably saw her standing on the stairs with the fam? Anyway, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume Matt has no idea he's hanging out with a problem."
"Where did he go?" The fact that Matt was human and may or may not know what he was dealing with had me worried in an instant.
"Don't know, but let's start looking."
"Got it."
"Not here either," muttered the older Salvatore as he exited the large living room on the first floor.
"We need to hurry. What if he gets hurt?" I could feel a headache coming on just thinking about the possible situations he could've gotten himself into. "And he's in none of these rooms."
Damon looked like he always did before he was about to throw out a not very helpful one-liner, but his expression brightened as he looked over my shoulder. "Oh, hey there. Looks like we missed one."
I turned to see that he was right; there was a door at the end of the hall on the right and with hope, I began walking towards it. I had taken maybe only three steps before I was pulled back from Damon's hand on my arm.
Confused, I turned to him for an explanation to see his expression was much more vigilant than it was a moment ago. All he did was put a finger to his lips to silence me as he walked past, completely in stealth mode.
Uh oh.
That definitely meant something was happening.
I waited where I was as I watched him stand in front of the door, clearly listening in to whatever was happening behind it. Not a moment in, he gave me a look that I couldn't possibly think meant good news.
Was it Matt? What was going on? I couldn't hear whatever it was that caught his attention, but I guess that was one of the perks of being a vampire.
I could feel my palms almost itching with the need to move and do something, but I didn't. If Damon had stopped me, there was definitely a reason for it.
So if he was listening in on something he thought that was important, I had to let him do that.
We stood there for a good minute, and I focused on what I could hear. The dull background noise of laughter, chatter and music as the dance went on downstairs. Sighing, I hoped to God no one came upstairs to find us there because I really couldn't think of any good excuse at that time.
And that was when I heard it.
The faint cry of pain from somewhere far away.
It wasn't at all hard to recognize Matt's voice.
Whipping my head behind me, I scanned the area where the hall went past the open doors of the balcony to a series of rooms in a narrower hallway. We'd been through all the rooms there thoroughly and they'd been empty. However, I realized, our view of the hall and the balcony was currently obstructed from where we stood and I knew that if he had somehow found his way there, we couldn't possibly have seen it from where we stood.
That's when I heard it again and I knew he had to be exactly where I couldn't see. Stepping back softly, I allowed Damon to continue standing there in silence however long he pleased and hurried towards the balcony hoping Matt was okay.
He was not.
Down on his knees in pain as his hand was held in what looked to be a little too firm of a handshake, he was crumpled in front of the very Original vampire I'd encountered downstairs.
He'd already guessed there was something odd about me. Oh, God.
This was bad.
This was really bad.
But like Damon said, it really couldn't be helped; so that's when I started humming.
Like clockwork, he dropped Matt's hand and turned to me, completely stilling. His eyes settled on me, glazed over, entranced and completely rapt with attention.
That was normal.
What wasn't normal was how the look only lasted a couple of seconds at most as his expression turned incredulous.
Oh, no. This was exactly what I'd been afraid of.
He was strong. No, he was very strong to be able to fight it at all, let alone that quickly.
Maybe that was where being a thousand year old vampire came in handy, I thought to myself as I stopped humming abruptly and realized with a sinking sensation that there was nothing else I could do.
Except maybe minorly incapacitate him for a moment like I'd just done.
Goddamn it.
"What the fuck?" The Original muttered to himself in disbelief at what had just happened, his eyes still expressing his surprise.
Suddenly, Damon was standing in front of me and I gasped at the suddenness of his appearance, before quickly out a grateful prayer for his timing. Matt took that moment to get up, scramble away from the vampire and stumble towards us as he clutched his hurt hand.
"Go. Take Matt too," Damon murmured to me without turning around, keeping his stance ready and alert in front of me. "Stefan is at the stairs waiting for you. Give me ten minutes and I'll bring Caroline. We're getting out of here."
Feeling the odd sensation of eyes on me, I looked from the back of Damon's head to the Original vampire who was watching me intently through this.
Look away, I told myself. God, look away.
Why couldn't I look away?
It was almost like a light switched on when I saw the clarity dawning on his face, "Fucking hell, you're a siren."
Well, there was no use denying it now.
"Hey," Damon cut in sharply, bringing the vampire's attention to him. "Eyes on me, man. I've got something to tell you about your lovely mother."
The Original's body language seemed to go on higher alert at that, and Damon half turned to me before repeating, "Go, Eve. Both of you, get out of here."
Matt shuffled closer to me and I realized with the way he cradled it, he'd definitely need to have his hand looked at. Damon clearly had this situation.
I nodded, tearing my gaze away from the Original vampire and did as Damon said.
NOTE: Kol's chapter up ahead.
Hope you're all doing well. Do tell me what you think of the story so far! :)