Chapter Sixteen
The next morning Rebecca's aunt called her out of school because she felt so bad. She didn't understand what was going on. She was getting sick? God, she didn't need to be sick; she'd missed enough school as it was.
Her dad had to work that day, but her aunt stayed with her. Rebecca would've preferred to be left alone but her aunt was attentive for some reason. Maybe she just looked that horrible.
Chelsea, at least, would be taken care of, though the baby didn't seem to understand why she couldn't play with her sister. Tina had taken Chelsea out of the room when she'd found out how sick Rebecca was, but she kept coming back to check on her.
Whatever. The point was Rebecca wasn't used to it and it made her uncomfortable, and being uncomfortable and sick at the same time was not a good combination. It put her in a bad mood and eventually she got up to lock her bedroom door so she wouldn't have to deal with her aunt coming in and out. Why couldn't her aunt just leave her alone to rest? She might feel better if she got some uninterrupted sleep.
And she still couldn't shake the feeling that her sickness - or whatever this was - had something to do with Damon's sudden disappearance. And she wasn't just being pathetic and clingy; this was a physical thing, not a mental one. Something was wrong; she just didn't know what it was.
Later that day Elena, Bonnie and Caroline texted her to see if she was okay since she hadn't been at school. Caroline had been sympathetic. Rebecca couldn't tell if she was sincere since it was a text, but Caroline had been coming around; at least she was talking to Rebecca again. Bonnie and Elena had called to see if she wanted them to blow off the carwash fundraiser and came visit but Rebecca had said no.
She had other plans. Ones that involved getting out of the house. She was well enough to drive but her dad had the car, so . . . She called a cab and borrowed some money from her aunt.
When her cab arrived she told the driver she wanted to go to the Salvatore boardinghouse. Everybody in Mystic Falls knew where it was but not many people had ever been inside. Rebecca had never been inside but that was about to change. She was either going to talk to Stefan - maybe if he saw what was happening to her, she'd get some help from him - or his nephew/supposed uncle.
The driveway to the house was a little hard to find since the woods were overgrown there, but the driver found it and dropped her off.
"Here," she said, giving him the money. "Don't wait. I'll find another way home."
She waited until the cab was out of sight before she turned to the house. Rebecca remembered when she was little there had been a story about the place being haunted. Well . . . Now she knew - hoped - there weren't any ghosts, but there were vampires. She had to admit, seeing the house now, it was creepy in that old Victorian way, and it did look haunted. Not Amityville haunted, but still . . .
She knocked and then saw this drawstring thing - an old-fashioned doorbell - and she pulled it. A man, late thirties or early forties answered.
"Can I help you?"
"Uh . . . Yeah. I'm Rebecca, I know Stefan. Is he here?"
"No, he's at this thing for school. You don't look well, are you okay?"
"Ha, I think that's the question before the court. Uh . . . What about Damon, is he here?" Actually, she knew he was because she could feel him. She just wanted to know if this guy was in on whatever was going on, and if he lied then he obviously was. "I need to speak to him."
"He's not available."
"Not available? Okay, well, uh, you're his uncle, right? Zach?" The man nodded. "Okay, well, I happen to know you're lying, so if you could please move aside . . ."
"I'm sorry, but you can't see him. It's not safe."
Rebecca sighed. "Mm. Okay, we'll try this a different way."
She drew her arm back and punched him hard enough to knock him out. She was sure he was a decent enough guy but she'd tried being nice and it hadn't worked so . . .
She dragged him far enough into the house that she could shut the door. Then she focused all her energy on locating Damon. She probably would've taken in the décor if she'd had the time, but she didn't right now.
Her senses led her to a dark staircase and she paused before going down them. Why did staircases always have to be dark? Was it just to up the creepy factor?
When she reached the bottom she went through a small hallway and stopped at a door with jail bar windows. Wow, the Salvatore's had a dungeon type room in the basement. What was next? A moat with alligators that you needed a bridge to cross over?
Whatever. Focus, Becca.
Damon was in the dungeon room and he was sitting on the floor leaning against the back wall. He looked rough; had he been here all this time? And he obviously wasn't being fed; he was pale and he looked like he was wasting away.
"Damon?" she whispered.
A huge wave of relief went through her when he looked up; at least he wasn't dead-dead. But his beautiful blue eyes were dull, almost lifeless.
"What happened to you?"
"Vervain. Stefan dosed Caroline with it." Damon rose and walked to the door. "Uh . . . What happened to you? You look as bad as I feel."
"Thanks," she said sarcastically. "And I don't know. I woke up in the middle of the night looking like this and I knew something was wrong with you."
Damon probably would've commented on that if he hadn't been in this state of starvation. All he said was, "Are you gonna let me out?"
Rebecca bit her lip. If he'd been locked up for four days . . . He would be starving and he probably wouldn't be able to control himself, not even with her. But on the other hand, he was weak; she could probably take him if she had to.
"I want to."
God, but if she let him out, she was pretty much signing someone else's death warrant. Assuming he would kill someone - and he probably would because he was starving; he might kill more than one someone - it would be on her head, on her conscience. It would be her guilt to deal with.
"You have to run," Damon said. "As soon as you unlock the door you have to run."
Rebecca could tell if she had been anyone else, he wouldn't have warned her. But she was her, thankfully.
"As fast as you can, okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, okay. But you're just gonna chase me."
"The vervain makes it where I'm not as fast. You can outrun me." He didn't deny that the predator part of him thought of her as prey right then.
"Okay." She wasn't sure if he was telling her the truth or if he was just saying this so she'd let him out so he could feed from her. Or Zach.
She blocked the thought of Zach dying out of her head - she couldn't help him and get out of the house at the same time. The words 'collateral damage' pushed their way to the front of her mind and she winced at how cold and detached it sounded. Because he was a human; she shouldn't feel that way about him. But he had obviously helped Stefan do this to Damon, so if Damon killed him . . .
Damon placed his hands on the bars and she noticed the ring wasn't on his left hand. Stefan had taken it, apparently. So all Rebecca had to do was open the door and then get outside into the sun where Damon couldn't follow and she'd be safe. Rebecca reached forward and caressed his hand before she reached for the thick metal latch to pull it out of the lock.
It took her two seconds to unlatch the lock and then she took off down the hallway and up the stairs; she ran right into Zach and they both tumbled to the ground.
Damn it! She should've hit him harder. And what was wrong with him, anyway? Couldn't he see she was running for her life here?
"Move!" she said, getting back up. "Run!"
There, she'd told him to run, now what he did with it was up to him. She, however, began running again, down another hallway and toward the front door. She heard a sickening crack and was sure it was someone's neck being snapped.
Zach. She felt a twinge in her heart as something broke inside her. Something was wrong with her. She was willing to let people die? When had she started thinking that way?
Damon, she thought. Maybe he really was going to destroy her, like Stefan had said. Unwittingly, maybe, but the end result would still be the same. She wouldn't be the same person. But . . . No . . . that wasn't exactly right either. Damon was not the cause of her changing; her becoming a Slayer had changed her, made her harder in some ways. And her love for Damon made her put him first; she put the people she cared about before herself, that was just how she functioned.
Besides, Damon was the only one who knew who she really was; she had to pretend with everyone else. All of her normal friends wouldn't agree with the decision she'd made - to let Damon out - they wouldn't understand. Hell, she barely understood it and she was the one who'd done it. The only thing she understood was that she needed Damon in her life, and anyone who tried to take him away was no friend to her.
Rebecca made it to the front door and almost had it open when it was slammed shut, and she was pushed against it.
Ow, was her first thought, because her pelvic bone had been shoved against the doorknob. Damon's hands were fisted on either side of her head and his knuckles were white against the dark wooden door. There was a soft growling by her ear and it made her heart beat faster in fear.
She held perfectly still, waiting for him to decide what he was going to do. She wouldn't fight him unless she absolutely had to. If he let her go -
He latched an arm around her waist and jerked her to him while the other moved her hair out of the way. Then she heard an almost pained groan and she felt his fangs sink deeply into her flesh. It wasn't gentle like the last time he'd bitten her. This was pure, unadulterated need and hunger coming from him, and it felt like someone had stabbed her in the neck; it felt like it had when Stefan had bitten her. Stefan had been behind her, too, had jerked her against him, yanked her head to the side and had just greedily drunk from her. Like Damon was doing now.
God, he's gonna kill me.
She let out a little scream and brought her legs up to kick at the door. It threw them both backward and Damon hit the wall. It didn't make him stop biting - he just bit harder, only now he was covering her mouth so she couldn't scream, or breathe really.
Oh, God, yes, Damon thought as the red liquid he was drinking slid down his throat and began nourishing his now-starved body. Starving hurt like a bitch. It made him feel like his body was on fire and not in the good turned on sort of way. And whoever he was drinking from - his mind had shut out everything but the fact that he was hungry - had the most amazing blood. It was so good. Strong, powerful, but sweet and addictive. Holy hell, was it addictive. All blood should taste like hers.
And he was drinking from a her - he knew that much from the scream he'd heard. And she was a fighter - she'd had the strength to knock him around a little, though he wasn't at his best right now.
He drew her into the living room so he could get more comfortable, but the little thing had some fight left in her and she grabbed onto the wall of the archway and refused to move. He growled a little, animalistic urges taking over, and pulled harder and squeezed her tighter. He could break her if he wanted to, did she not understand that?
He heard a small whimper and felt satisfied when she submitted and let go. He brought her into the room. He moved with her, enjoying that he could again. The blood was flowing slower now, with him controlling it. He wanted to savor this in case he never had a chance to taste anything as sweet again.
This one girl wouldn't be enough. He needed more. He'd been locked in the basement for four days, starving. Stefan . . . He was going to kill Stefan.
Just then an intense pain washed through him and he yanked away from the girl he'd been feeding from. She fell to the ground, barely conscious. He cursed himself for getting close to the window - she'd pulled the drawstring and the curtains had flown open letting in the accursed sun. It had burned him, offensive thing that it was.
"Damn it!" Though he was already healing, it had still hurt.
He took a few unsteady breaths and took in the scene before him. The girl he'd been feeding from was bathed in the sunlight so he couldn't get to her again. Her neck was torn open and still bleeding and . . . The girl was Rebecca.
That's who he'd been feeding from? Who he'd been so . . . rough with? He'd pretty much ripped her throat open and it was still bleeding; it wasn't going to stop on its own.
She was awake, barely, and breathing steadily, but her heartbeat was slower than it should have been. And she was crying. Crying because of him. Because he had hurt her or scared her, maybe.
For the first time in a very long time he called himself a monster and cared. Cared because Rebecca didn't deserve a monster. She didn't deserve someone, who, when the chips were down would feed off the girl who loved him to save his own ass.
He watched her sit up and move unsteadily back against the wall. She was still bathed in light and he was still enshrouded in darkness; ironic, considering that would be the story of their life if they were to be together. But he wouldn't - couldn't - just leave her alone; he was far too selfish and he craved her attention - and now her blood - too much to go away.
He swallowed the leftover blood and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He felt an unfamiliar prickling in his eyes and blinked a few times. He felt like crying?
I do not cry, he told himself harshly.
You do now, the voice in his head said. Look what you did. The voice was taunting him, making him feel guilty and he desperately wanted it to shut up.
Damon had a lot to feel guilty for and he didn't want to feel it. But this, hurting Rebecca, he couldn't shut that guilt out. No, he . . . He should feel that guilt so he wouldn't do it again.
Ugh! This human emotion thing is for the dogs. It's stupid, pointless, and . . . Irrational. He needed it to go away.
Even as he was thinking that, though, he felt a wet trail slide down his cheek and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. It was a tear. A tear. He hadn't cried in he couldn't remember how long, but now . . . This girl, this little human girl that he'd hurt so bad - bad-bad - had drawn that response from him. That couldn't be good.
"Becca?" he called to her and he hated the way his voice broke, that she could make him feel that way. Unlike he'd thought before, she would be the one to break him.
Rebecca looked at him and he was immensely relieved to see there was still a fire in her eyes; he hadn't put that out.
She even smiled a little, though it was sad. "Haven't we been here before?"
Damon blinked in surprised. He knew she was talking about the first time he'd bitten her; he'd been too weak to resist then, too.
"Can you help me?" she whispered weakly. "Uh . . . Towel or first aid kit maybe?"
"Can you . . . will you come out from there? I can't go in the sun, I don't have my ring."
"I noticed," she said, smirking bitterly. "Why do you think I opened the curtain?"
So she'd known he'd be hurt from it? Okay, well . . . At least she had some sense of self preservation. He'd been beginning to wonder, what with her so willing to spend time with him and let him out when he was starving, knowing he would come after her.
"Sorry for that, by the way. I know it hurt, but, to be fair, you were biting me, so . . . Back to the original question: Can you help me?"
"And again: Will you come out from there?"
"Can you control yourself?" she countered.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, center himself. "Yes. I won't hurt you." He'd had enough to take the edge off, enough to keep her safe.
Rebecca moved slowly and he saw the tentativeness in her eyes, in her movements. She was making sure he was being honest and not just saying that so he could finish her off.
"I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, somewhat impatiently. "Now come on. You won't stop bleeding on your own."
He knew Rebecca had every reason to be acting the way she was; he had just attacked her, would've killed her had she not pulled the curtains open. But it hurt to see her be scared of him; he'd never wanted that. He'd never wanted to attack her either, but the need had been so strong, his hunger had been overwhelming.
At least she'd protected herself and he could heal her now. But wait, he was only assuming she would want his blood after what he'd done. Well, he'd force it down her throat if he had to; he wasn't just gonna let her die. He couldn't just let her die.
Once she was halfway out of the light he grabbed her arms and helped her up. He realized the reason why she'd been moving so slow was because she'd lost so much blood - he'd stolen it from her - she couldn't move any faster.
He immediately bit into his wrist and was relieved when she took his blood into her without much provocation. It took more than he was used to giving and more than she was used to receiving, but she took whatever it was he was offering. He knew it wouldn't give her strength back, but it would heal her and that had to be enough for now. Or . . . Hopefully it would be enough . . . He wasn't sure. Aside from the few times he'd kept someone around for longer than a night he hadn't used his blood to heal anybody other than Rebecca. He didn't know if it would make her feel better or worse; all he knew was it had saved her life before, 145 years ago, and it was healing her now.
He pulled away and watched as a trail of blood fell from her lips and down to mix with her own blood on her neck. He clenched his jaw and turned his head away.
Not her. I can't have her. Not again, not now.
"You need to go. Now," he said tightly. "Leave, go wash off. Do . . . something."
"I'll . . . go wash off. If I . . . stay in one of the rooms upstairs, you'll stay down here?"
"Until nightfall," he said unapologetically. "You know I need more."
"I know that." She nodded. He watched guilt play over her features. "I knew that when I let you out, Damon."
He watched her get up and struggle to go past Zach, who was dead now; the only reason Damon hadn't drank from him was because Zach had told him he had vervain in his system and that wouldn't have helped the situation at all. Rebecca glanced at the body, took a shuddery breath, and then walked on by. He wanted to tell her to wait, tell her that whatever damage he was going to do tonight - and he was damage-bound - it wasn't her fault. His actions would never be her fault.
But he kept his mouth shut.
He also wanted to call Stefan and let him know exactly what his actions had done. He wanted to tell him that if anything happened to Rebecca - meaning if she died because of something Stefan had done - if Rebecca died, Elena would die.
Rebecca was getting used to mixing her showers with blood and tears and that wasn't good. But there it was, story of her life now, she guessed. It wasn't pretty or happy, but it was real.
She cried softly, hoping Damon couldn't hear. He would never admit it out loud, but she could tell he'd hated hurting her - he'd hated that after the vampire part of him had been sated that it had been her that he'd found there, hurt - and she'd wanted to tell him she didn't blame him, that she'd known what could happen when she'd let him out. It had been a risk she'd obviously been willing to take.
God, I'm so tired, she thought as she shut the water off. She grabbed one of the fluffiest towels she'd ever touched and began drying herself off. She had to sit down in the middle of that because she ran out of breath.
She put her jeans back on since they weren't dirty - only her shirt was, and she knew not to put that back on. She put it in the sink and ran cold water over it. She left it there. She stepped out of the bathroom - which was really just a small room without a door that was attached to the bedroom- with a towel wrapped around her and into the bedroom. On the bed was a man's button-up shirt - Damon's obviously - and on the bedside table were a glass of water and two aspirin.
Damon's way of apologizing, maybe? Whatever it was, she was grateful. She slipped the shirt on and took her pants back off. She got under the covers of the bed and took the pills.
Exhausted mentally and physically, she drifted off into a fitful sleep. When she woke up it was because someone was shaking her gently. She could tell it was Stefan from the feeling she got from him.
"Ugh, go away!" she muttered, turning away from him.
This was all his fault.
"Where's Damon?" his voice brought her out of her not-so-restful rest.
"I dunno. Out."
"He's gonna kill somebody."
Stefan's voice was urgent so she looked at him. She could tell from the look on his face that he'd found Zach. She felt sorry for that; Zach shouldn't have had to die, but he shouldn't have locked Damon up either.
"Because you starved him," she said. "He's . . . I don't know where he went, he didn't say. Now go away."
"You have to help me find him."
"I don't have to do anything," she seethed. "Find him yourself. I don't feel good."
She pulled the covers over her head and relaxed a little when she heard Stefan leave the room. Finally, Jeeze.
She took a few deep breaths, but it didn't help. She was awake now and it didn't matter what she did she knew she wasn't going back to sleep. She sat up and waited for her head to stop spinning before she stood up. She slipped her jeans on and got her phone out; it was after ten, so she called her aunt and left a message. Just a short one telling her that a friend had needed help but she'd be home after school the next day.
Technically not a lie; Damon had needed help, he was a friend, and she would be home the next day.
She would've called her dad to explain but she hadn't wanted to get into it with him. He would've asked questions and she didn't feel like arguing. So Tina could relay the message.
God, Damon! She kept coming back to Damon. He was probably out there eating someone right now. She hoped it wasn't Caroline, or, if it was, that he left her alive.
She went downstairs on shaky legs and stopped to catch her breath at the bottom. Stefan passed by her and she saw he had a wooden stake in his hand. What exactly did he think she was going to let him do with that?
"You're not gonna kill him, Stefan," she said weakly. "He's out there feeding right now. He'll be stronger than you."
"I don't care. He can't do this, not here." Stefan sighed and looked up at her sympathetically. "I'm sorry if he hurt you."
She glared at him. "The only times he's ever hurt me was because of you, Stefan. Maybe you shouldn't have locked him up."
"Maybe you shouldn't have let him out."
"I had to!" she said sharply. "There's something wrong with me. I woke up last night and somehow I knew there was something wrong, that Damon was in trouble. It was . . . It was making me physically ill, Stefan. Being away from him physically hurts me. Imagine what it will do to me if you kill him."
Stefan looked at her with his intense forest green eyes like she was a science experiment and she was suddenly sorry she'd said anything at all.
"Do you keep your necklace on when you're with him?"
"He's not compelling me to feel that way, Stefan. Notice I said physically and not mentally. And as hard a concept as it is for you to grasp, an actual person loves him."
Stefan grasped her shoulders and she grimaced a little. Either he didn't notice or he didn't care, because he didn't let her go.
"Look . . . I know you think you feel that way, but Damon will use that against you. He's been alone for so long he doesn't know the meaning of that word, Rebecca. He doesn't know how to care about anyone but himself."
Rebecca felt red hot anger at his words because he was talking to her like she was a kid, which . . . Granted, to him she was, but she still didn't like it. She was angry, though, because his words sort of hit home. She'd noticed how Damon was, how there were a lot of things Damon didn't care about at all. She, however, was not one of them.
"I know it's hard for him, but he could love very well once and I'm willing to wait for him to relearn that. I'll help him. But he's never gonna get there if you keep doing things like this. If you provoke him, you know he'll react."
She grabbed the hand that had the stake in it, twisted, and then shoved it into Stefan's stomach. He grunted and fell to his knees. She ignored the pain she saw in his eyes because she knew she would feel guilty if she focused on it.
"I told you once before that I take care of what's mine," she said. "Don't hurt him again."
She twisted the wood and shoved it in deeper and then went around him to go to the front door. She couldn't stay here; not if Stefan was here because she might do something stupid like kill him. And as much as she wasn't his biggest fan she didn't want him dead. Or not really dead, anyway. The stake to the stomach had just been her getting a point across. Hopefully he'd understood and wouldn't try anything else.
When Rebecca opened the front door she froze because there was a fuming and afraid Elena on the doorstep. Confusion was added to the mix when Elena saw Rebecca.
"What're you -" Elena broke off when she saw Stefan on the floor. "What happened?"
"Um . . ." Rebecca took a deep breath and turned around to face Stefan too. "I stabbed him with a piece of wood . . . But he'll be okay. I didn't -"
"You stabbed him with a piece of wood!" Elena exclaimed. "Why?"
"Um . . ." Wow, time for truth telling, she guessed. "Stefan . . ." Then she looked at Elena. "Why're you here?"
"I wanted to . . ." Elena took in a shaky breath and looked at the ground. "I wanted to know what he was, but I guess now I know. And I shouldn't have come."
Rebecca heard the stake fall to the floor, and Stefan began stumbling around behind her.
"Elena, please -" Stefan began, but Elena was already beginning to go back to her car.
Rebecca followed her and got in the car with her and Elena looked at her suspiciously.
"Are you a vampire?"
"No, I'm not. I'm . . . take me to your house and I'll explain everything, okay?"
Elena started the car and they took off.
"Did . . . Stefan hurt you? Is that why you stabbed him? I mean, no offense, but you do look awful.
"Stefan didn't hurt me directly, but his actions did lead to me getting hurt, yes."
"His actions?"
Rebecca sighed. "Well, since you already know the vampire thing . . ." Rebecca grabbed the dashboard as Elena swerved. "Stefan locked Damon up and I let Damon out. He told me to run and I did, but I didn't get out fast enough."
"And?" Elena whispered.
"And he bit me." She looked at Elena, who was determinedly looking the other way. "I . . . got away. I drank his blood to heal me."
"He let you do that?" Elena looked at her now, surprise flickering in her eyes. Then she looked back at the road.
"Yes. Damon does a lot of things . . . Um, admittedly bad things, but hurting me intentionally is not one of them."
"Caroline?"
"He was feeding from her, Elena. He can't help that he needs blood to survive."
"But he was hurting her." They pulled up to Elena's house but they didn't get out of the car. "He was hurting her and you knew. You obviously know how to stop them, or hurt them at least. Why would you let him do that?"
This was the part that Rebecca was dreading; the explaining her actions part. She knew that to someone who wasn't her it would look bad.
"Okay . . . If you were me, you'd understand, but . . . A few days after school started I began changing. Getting stronger, faster, and then I met this woman named Diana. She told me I was a Vampire Slayer."
"A -"
"Vampire Slayer. I'm supposed to kill them. But I don't wanna kill anything, Elena, okay? I just . . . I told Damon I didn't want anyone to die; since I am what he wants it wouldn't be in his best interest to kill innocent people. He was behaving, sort of, but tonight he won't be able to control himself because Stefan starved him."
"And you let him out." Elena looked away, but Rebecca could tell she was trying to understand. "Because you love him?"
"That's part of it," Rebecca admitted. "But there's something, some kind of connection between me and Damon. I don't know what it is, but he needed my help, Elena. And I needed him. I was physically ill earlier because I knew something was wrong, that's why I didn't go to school."
Elena nodded, taking in that explanation. "That still doesn't explain Caroline."
"I told Damon as long as nobody died I didn't care," Rebecca said, almost mechanically.
"But why?" Elena asked, frustrated. "Why did you let him?"
"Because, Elena, human blood is the natural food source for a vampire! I'm not gonna make him give that up. It keeps him strong. He can control himself when he's not . . . starving. Even Stefan says he doesn't kill needlessly."
"But that doesn't make it okay, Rebecca. You should be stopping him!"
Rebecca didn't say anything because she knew Elena would react that way. No matter what Rebecca said, Elena would feel the way she did; Rebecca couldn't make her understand because Elena wasn't her.
Okay, so . . . what do you think? I was going back and forth about whether or not Damon would've bitten her, but I was also thinking that he was probably thinking with his predator brain and not his man brain at that point and all he would've thought about was that he was hungry and he had a food source, and he definitely wouldn't have been able to stop once he'd started.
And Rebecca . . . well . . . I've never been dinner for a vampire - lol - but I hope I got her reaction right. She wasn't mad because she'd known that could happen, but she was a little cautious, and A LOT mad at Stefan for being the one to lock Damon up. So . . . yeah.
Let me know what you think?