"How did..." was all I could manage to get out. I was frozen to my spot on the floor.
"Your friend here seems to have missed her dose of vervain today. Lucky for me." he smiled and then rushed towards me. Another scream came out of me as he sunk his teeth right into my neck. For a moment he drank from me and then quickly pulled away, still holding onto me.
"Now I know why they don't want anyone else around you. They want you all to themselves!" he was panting and gasping, then went back to sinking his teeth into me. Before he got much further and made me more weak I managed to elbow him in the ribs then backhand him in the face which must have caught him by surprise because he let go of me.
I spun around looking at him. I was thinking of taking off but I knew he'd catch me. I was hoping someone had heard me by now but no one was coming!
"Tell me, love...do they all take turns with you?" he was smiling and slowly walking back towards me "Let's see...maybe the girls get a go at you first. Then maybe Stefan..." he was baiting me "and what about Damon?" I faltered at the question and he knew it.
"Ahh I see...so Damon is the only one that gets to play. No matter. That's all about to change sweetheart. You'll be all mine again….." he was mere feet from me when a voice came from behind me.
"I don't think so. I like to keep my toys to myself." it was Damon. No sooner had the words left his mouth, he sped down the rest of the stairs and shoved Klaus down the hallway. I was happy to see him, unfortunately Klaus got back up and to him faster than Damon had anticipated and Klaus shoved Damon up against the wall.
"See now, that's why you shouldn't be drinking that vervain shit. Yeah you'll eventually get used to it, but it weakens you. Don't worry Damon I won't kill you yet...I'll make you watch as I take a few more bites out of your girl here and then I take her away."
Damon was still pinned up against the wall and I couldn't think of anything or do anything. I was starting to panic watching Damon try to fight Klaus to no avail. This was it, I was going to die and Damon would watch.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I only barely heard footsteps coming down the steps. I turned and saw Jeremy running down with the stake in his hand, the one I was told to carry with me at all times. Thank god he knew enough to grab it!
He didn't say anything, just yelled as he ran down the hall and towards Klaus. He's a hunter so I knew he'd hold his own at least for a little while until more backup came.
He and Damon fought for a good few minutes with Klaus. They held their ground pretty well, but it was clear that Klaus was stronger. I was worried for them both but a bit more so for Jeremy, he was the human out of the two and one wrong move could kill him.
"Violet!" Damon yelled out "Get out of here and call for help! Now!"
But I didn't want to leave. I couldn't leave them here not knowing what was going to happen. I barely had a moment to think before Klaus threw Jeremy back against a wall and knocked him out cold, and kicked the stake down the hallway further away from where he and Damon now stood.
"One down, one to go" Klaus turned to Damon "And you're weak...so it won't be hard."
"Klaus leave him alone." I warned as he got closer towards Damon.
Damon wasn't looking so good. Between fighting with Klaus and the vervain he was barely able to keep himself up but he sure tried.
"Violet I told you...to leave." Damon breathlessly told me.
"She's not stupid, she knows I'll just catch her anyway." Klaus shoved Damon up against the wall.
"Now we have to deal with you. We can't have you making any phone calls can we? I know just the thing..." and as the last word left his lips he shoved his hand right through Damon's chest and squeezed at his heart.
Damon's eyes grew wide and he screamed out.
I began to panic. I couldn't let this happen to Damon I couldn't lose him! I'd already lost Jeremy to someone else I wasn't about to lose Damon to Klaus.
I looked to my left and ran over to one of the cell doors that had a piece of jagged metal sticking out and sliced my arm open.
"HEY!" I screamed. Both vampires whipped their heads around, smelling the blood dripping from my arm.
"I said leave him alone. He's not who you want. Let him go. He's weak, he still won't be able to call anyone. Leave him alone and I'll go with you. I promise."
I was shaking from the adrenaline and praying to whatever god would listen to me that Klaus would take me up on my offer.
He stared at me for a minute, his fangs already out and his eyes black. He already terrified me and seeing him like that made it worse. I tried to keep my composure but the blood kept dripping from my arm and I was just starting to feel the blood loss a little.
To my surprise he released Damon, leaving his heart in tact, but Damon fell to the floor regardless from weakness. Jeremy and Caroline were still passed out not far from him and it was clear none of them were moving anytime soon.
"I knew you were a smart girl." Klaus walked over to me "You know I'm strong, you don't want your friends hurt. I knew you'd give in." he replied, pushing me up against the wall.
"I wouldn't dare hurt you. I'm not going to kill you Why would I, when you taste so delicious?" he moaned, running his fingers through my hair "You'll stay with me..." and then he kissed me. I was definitely not expecting it. I couldn't do anything but stand there while he did, he was too strong. I was losing ground and I knew it. I was getting angry at myself for ever thinking I would be able to take him on.
When he pulled away from the kiss we stared at each other for a moment. I was still in shock but I didn't dare move. We didn't notice until we heard that someone else had come down the stairs.
"KLAUS!" Stefan yelled from the bottom of the stairwell. Behind him was everyone else from our circle of friends.
"If you want to take her out of here, you'll have to go through all of us first." he told him, no one moving from their spot on the stairs.
As Klaus and Stefan were exchanging words I looked to my left and noticed Jeremy had apparently woken up sometime between the kiss and now and managed to to grab the stake that Klaus had kicked out of his hand earlier. I gave him a look and I hoped he knew that meant "wait" and turned back to look at the situation going on to my right.
"That won't be a problem. Just more of a minor nuisance than anything really." Klaus chuckled. Before he broke away from me I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. I had a plan and this needed to work exactly right so I'd hoped that he'd take the bait. Klaus looked up at me with a genuine smile on his face.
"Don't worry, love. I'll be right back." ughhhh he really thought I was falling for him. I let him walk halfway down the hallway and I turned towards Jeremy who threw the stake to me.
"Klaus!" I yelled out "Wait!" I ran towards him.
He turned back towards me but didn't see the stake behind my back.
"Please wait..." I whispered and I pulled him in for a kiss. I heard a few gasps from those on the stairs behind him and tried my best to keep it up.
We pulled away and he looked amused.
"What was that fo-" before he could finish, I slammed the stake right into his heart. His face grew alarmed for only a moment before his entire body turned gray and he fell to the floor, lifeless.
I was shocked at myself for being able to pull it off. For a moment I was actually proud of myself, but as everyone came running towards me I began to panic a bit. I had just killed someone. I had never had to do that before. I've seen people killed around me, but I never had to do It myself. It was an evil vampire, sure. But it was still killing someone.
I ignored those feelings for now as everyone came up to hug me and make sure I was okay. Jeremy gave me the biggest hug out of everyone and even kissed me on the cheek. Bonnie was there but she didn't make any noise or face at it. I think she knew how happy he was to see me and didn't care.
"Oh my god I can't believe you did it! He's dead!" Jeremy replied. Everyone else had similar responses as well.
I turned towards Stefan who'd already given me a hug.
"Stefan...Damon is in bad shape. Please get him and bring him upstairs and have him eat something." he knew I meant blood. He nodded and went to get Damon with the help of Alaric.
Caroline had finally woken up after all of the commotion and was upset with herself that she'd let it all happen and apologized profusely.
"Caroline, really it's okay. I'm okay. If anything it was for the best, he's dead now." I reassured her while putting my hand on hers. "Please don't feel bad. I'm just happy that you're okay, and that everyone is okay." and I meant it. I was thrilled that no one else had gotten hurt or lost their lives. We lost Marcel and I felt bad about it, but I would always be grateful to him for saving me. I knew deep down that this may not be over and someone else may take Klaus' place but for now I just wanted to relax and take it all in.
Alaric and Stefan took Klaus' body from the house to the woods and burned it. It took them less than an hour to go there and burn it and come back. Apparently Klaus' body was so old it burned fast. Everyone stuck around for most of the evening and Elena ordered food for all of us. I hadn't eaten much because I was still shook up from everything that had happened and I still couldn't get the image of stabbing him out of my mind. There was also something else I couldn't get out of my mind. Damon almost dying. I hadn't realized until then how much I cared about him. Truth be told I had gotten closer to him than anyone over the past year. He seemed to be the only one who understood a lot of what I was going through. He hadn't been down for most of the night, he was still recovering.
People started to trickle out by 10pm and the only people left were those that lived there, Elena and Stefan, and then Bonnie and Jeremy decided to stay the night in Jeremy's old room. I had also decided to stay, I wasn't sure I wanted to be home if I had nightmares. I felt odd yet again being the single one but I ignored it.
Everyone headed to bed but I found my way to Damon's room. I hadn't seen him in hours and I wanted to check and make sure he was okay. I know Stefan said he'd checked on him and after some blood bags Damon slept for most of the rest of the day.
I slowly opened the door to his room thinking he was probably still sleeping but again he was just laying there. He looked much better than I'd seen him in days but still not his usual self. I'd guessed that the vervain would take another day or so to get out his my system.
I closed the door behind me and quickly walked over to his bed and sat down next to him.
"How are you?" I asked.
"I'll live." he sighed "The question is, how are you?"
"I'm fine." I answered quickly, trying to ignore the voice inside my head that was telling me I wasn't.
He sat up and turned towards me.
"You did killed him. I knew you could do it." he cracked a small smile.
"I got lucky." I repeated what he said back to me weeks ago during training.
"No. You're smart. That's why you've survived with minimal help from us. Most humans wouldn't be able to but you can."
"Well...thanks. All of this complimenting me stuff is getting weird though. Let's talk about something else." I replied.
"He kissed you..." Damon trailed off.
"Yeah he did." Was all I responded with.
"You kissed him..." he just stared at me.
"I did." I didn't know what else to say.
"I didn't like it." he retorted. It was an odd response and I wasn't sure how to respond.
"I didn't either. I just figured that second one would throw him off, and it did."
"So...what, was he in love with you or something?" he asked.
"I'm….not sure? I don't think so. Not REALLY in love with me anyway. I think maybe he thought he was. He was lonely, Damon. I think he just wanted someone. But he was so possessive and scary sometimes. For a while I didn't even think of leaving him though. Thank god his blood finally left my system or who knows what would have happened."
"Thank god for that." he huffed out.
"I'm going to ask you again..." he started "Are you okay?"
I didn't say anything for a moment and looked away. I didn't know what to say!
"That was the first time you've killed someone. That usually takes a toll on someone. Most of the people in our small little circle tend to forget how that is for a human. Even if the guy was evil." he told me.
He knew. I didn't even have to say it. He knew.
"Every time I close my eyes for longer than a second...or every time I stop for a minute to just think that's all I can see. Stabbing him. And his face...I shouldn't be feeling like this. He was using me as a human blood bag but I just...I just don't know, Damon."
"It's normal to feel that way. You can talk to me you know. Or anyone here. You know that." he put his arm on my shoulder. I really didn't realize how close we had become. I felt comfortable with Damon. Safe. And he seemed to know me better than anyone.
"I know I just...I guess I need a few days to process everything and maybe I'll start feeling better. It's not like I can see a shrink. If I tell them a 1,000 year old vampire wanted to take me because I have special blood they'd lock me away faster than I could blink."
He smiled at me and shook his head.
"Maybe you should stay here tonight...just in case you need someone? I know you were planning on one of the guest rooms but...you never know. And bunking with Jeremy and Bonnie would probably be a little too weird. I don't think they're into threesomes." he retorted.
"I don't want to bother you I know you're still not feeling well. I'll be okay it's not far from the rest of you guys." I told him.
"You're not a bother. I'd rather you be close to us anyway. The guest rooms are on the other side of the boarding house. That's too far away."
I was going to decline but I sat and thought for a moment. He was right. I didn't want to be alone. I really would have liked to have had Jeremy there but yeah...he and Bonnie and myself would be a disaster.
"Okay I'll stay. Thanks Damon."
A few moments passed with us just lying in silence until Damon spoke up.
"Violet...are you okay?"
"What do you mean? I'm fine! You're asking me this again?" I replied.
"You've been through a lot. We haven't had time to talk about anything really since you got back. I just-I want to make sure you're okay."
"I'm fine Damon, I swear." I reassured him.
"He didn't...Klaus didn't hurt you while you were there, did he?" he asked.
"Well I mean he fed off of me daily that shit hurts...well not when it's you for some reason but with him yeah it hurt." I answered.
"I'm so sorry..." he whispered. "Did he...did he do anything else?"
"Like what?"
"Violet...did he touch you? Sex or anything?" his voice was still low but not as gentle as it was a few moments ago.
"No...no that didn't happen." I answered. I didn't want to tell him about the other two times that Klaus had kissed me. And how that second time I kept kissing him back.
He didn't say anything but nodded his head.
"I'm tired. Let's go to sleep, okay?" I said.
We both laid down in the bed. Damon didn't try anything that night, he just let me lay there next to him. He wound up putting his arms around me and I didn't protest. I felt safe and comfortable and I quickly fell asleep.
Unfortunately that safe feeling didn't cross over to my dreams. The events of that day played out all over again except this time when I stabbed Klaus as the stake plunged into him, he turned into Jeremy.
I screamed and bolted upright in the bed in hysterics.
"Violet! Violet hey it's okay! It was just a dream! You're here with me shh!" Damon was holding onto me trying to calm me down.
It took me a moment to realize that the dream was just that...a dream, and that I was fine and Jeremy was fine and no one was hurt.
"I'm sorry." was all I could say, tears beginning to run down my face.
"Don't be." Damon brushed the tears off my cheeks "What was it about?"
I told him the details of the story and by the time I finished I was shaking and crying harder. The image was practically burned into my brain.
"Damon...will you go and get Jeremy for me? Please? I need to see him. I know he's fine but I just...I need to see him." I asked.
"Yeah of course." he got up and walked out the door.
Jeremy walked in a moment later looking alarmed.
"What happened? What's wrong? Damon said you had a nightmare?" he sat down on the bed.
For the second time that night I explained the dream and it was still burned into my brain. I was still shaking a little and crying. He pulled me into a hug and we stayed that way for a while. His arms around me had an immediate calming effect and I didn't want to let go, but we couldn't stay that way forever.
"I'm sorry about everything." he practically whispered "I feel like this is all my fault."
"How do you figure it's your fault? None of it has anything to do with you Jer." I pulled out of the hug.
"I just feel like...like I shouldn't leave your side anymore. That if I were here with you then this wouldn't have happened. But I'm here for you, always. And I'm going to make sure I start spending more time with you."
"Jeremy that's really sweet, but you can't. First of all none of this was your fault. I'll own up to my shit and say it was my fault. I shouldn't have gone down there. Second of all you physically cannot be by my side every moment of every day. That's impossible." I replied.
"Vi he still would have gotten out and found you anyway!" he whined.
"Jer, stop. It's not your fault, it's not Caroline's fault, it's no one's fault. But these nightmares are no joke." I frowned.
"I'll stay with you for a few nights." he responded.
"Jeremy, no. You need to spend time with your wife. You guys seem like you're doing better, I don't want to screw that up. I'll be okay. I can ask the girls for help, or Matt or Tyler..."
"Don't ask Tyler. I don't like the way he looks at you sometimes." he replied.
"I doubt he'd do anything Jer. But yeah that gets weird. I can ask Damon, he's been helping." I told him.
"So...speaking of Damon, there's two things I want to ask you."
"Uhh...okay." I was a little nervous about where this was going.
"First question: What are you doing sleeping in Damon's room, anyway? You have been with him a lot...is there something going on between you guys? Because I have to tell you Damon is not the guy to mess around with he's bad. Really bad." he was talking quick and his voice was raising.
"What? No...I came in here to see how he was doing after everything that happened yesterday and I just fell asleep. I don't think he wanted to wake me up." I purposely skirted around the 'Is there something going on between you guys?' question and I was hoping he didn't prod any more.
"Okay. Good." he sighed.
"You had another question?" I asked.
"Yeah...you kissed Klaus?" his voice got quiet again.
"Well technically he kissed me first..." I tried to lighten the mood.
"Violet..." he actually looked like he was about to cry.
"Why are you so upset?" I asked.
"Why? Why did you do it?" his voice cracked.
"I had a plan. I needed him to be confused. Trust me it wasn't pleasant." I held onto his hands.
"I didn't like it. I didn't like seeing you kissing him." he dropped his head.
"God you sound like Damon. I know, I kissed the crazy evil vampire. I think you guys have done much worse, am I right?" I was getting frustrated. What was with these guys? I didn't like the kiss either but it was easy to forget about once I remembered that I KILLED AN ORIGINAL VAMPIRE BY MYSELF!
"Damon? Why would he care?" his head whipped back up.
"I have no clue. You tell me. You're both my friends and you're the only ones who've brought up the kiss." I pulled my hands back.
"Well..." he trailed off for a moment, seeming to look for the words "I guess we just don't want to see you get hurt."
"Well I thank you. I know you care about me..." I replied but he cut me off.
"And for some reason so does Damon..." he sounded angry.
"What? Is it that hard to believe that other people like me?" I smiled.
"You're just too nice. You give everyone the benefit of the doubt and that's why everyone likes you. Even Damon. But I'm serious when I say be careful with him. He's still a vampire in the end."
"I know Jer. I won't let him hurt me, trust me." I told him.
"Yeah and if he does you'll just kick him in the balls again." he laughed.
"Damn right!" I grinned.
"I'm okay now, you know. I just had to see you to make sure..." I trailed off.
"I can stay longer if you want." he told me.
"No really, it's okay. It's late, you need sleep." I reassured him.
"I really don't like the idea of you staying in here alone with Damon." he warned.
"Jeremy...I can hold my own against Damon. You've seen that firsthand."
"Yeah you're right. But you come get me again if you need to, okay? Bonnie will understand." he hugged me.
"Yeah I will, I promise." I replied.
"Goodnight Vi." he said quietly as he closed the door behind him.
I heard the muffled voices of him and Damon on the other side of the door. Their talking was quick so I had guessed it was arguing but I didn't want to get into the middle of it. Thankfully it only lasted for a minute and Damon walked back into the room.
"Boy he really doesn't like me, does he?" he asked.
"What did he say to you?" I smiled.
"That if I laid a hand on you that he'd rip my head off and then have Bonnie set me on fire." he sat down on the bed next to me.
"Aww that's sweet of them." I joked.
"Are you okay?" he asked again.
"Yes Damon I'm fine. The dream isn't bothering me anymore." I said.
"But something else is..." he started.
I didn't really want to bring it up, but I was tired of keeping things bottled up. I already had enough secrets I had to keep from people I wasn't sure how much longer I could before I exploded.
"It's just—I'm so tired of all of this, Damon. I feel like it's never ending. Someone is always going to be after me. I'll never be able to enjoy my life because I'll constantly be on the lookout for someone after me." I sighed.
He sat there for a moment searching my face. I felt slightly awkward that I actually told him how I was feeling and he hadn't said anything. He just sat there. Then after a few moments he stood up and began pacing the room, running his hands through his hair. He looked nervous and I didn't know what was happening.
"Damon...is everything okay? What's going on with you?" I asked.
He stopped pacing finally and then sat back down on the bed.
"Vi..." he took a breath and then continued "maybe we can fix that."
"What are you talking about?" I was confused.
"Maybe if...maybe if you were like me, maybe that would stop things? Maybe if you turned it would-"
"If I turned? Are you talking about me becoming a vampire?" I was shocked.
"Well, yeah...that's what I'm talking about. Maybe it would stop them from coming after you and you could still enjoy your life."
"Th-that's not the life I want, Damon."
"Why not? It's not so bad, it has its perks!" he grinned.
"Damon...I don't want to have to kill people and eat them in order to live. I don't think I could do that. Plus I want...I want to grow old with someone. I want to have kids...and grandkids. I want all of that. I wouldn't be able to have that if I were a vampire." he started to protest but I put my hands up "Damon please, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm exhausted, can we please just go back to bed?" I didn't even realize that I had used the term "can we go back to bed?" at the time. It just seemed to flow out of me and I didn't think it was odd until after I said it.
"I-yeah. Yeah that's a good idea. I'm sorry, forget I even brought that up. You're right." he crawled back into the bed "Let's get some sleep."
The thought of becoming a vampire had never even crossed my mind before. Which was strange considering most of my friends were vampires. I never thought about how I'd be one of the few that would grow old and they'd all look the same. That then made me think about how I wanted a family someday and that wouldn't be possible if I turned. All of the thinking about it was making my head spin and I just wanted to sleep. I was slightly afraid of having another nightmare but my exhaustion won out and I fell asleep pretty quick.