Phantom

5

Bonnie felt as though she would start crying at any moment, but she held the tears in for fear that they would only make him murder her. She didn't want to die, but she had a terrible feeling she would anyway. One wrong movement and she would die, she didn't have to be told this, she knew just like she knew that she had never been so scared in her life.

Outside, a bolt of lightening lit up the sky and huge droplets of rain hit the pavement like stones. The ones that hit the window cracked like stones against the glass and Stefan wondered if the pane could hold up against the onslaught, and if it didn't he would get Bonnie out of here. The predatory part of him could sense how dangerous Damon was right now, and how desperate the situation had become. Another rumble of thunder sounded and he knew the storm was close to Fells Church.

"Don't try to fight me," Damon told her softly, tiredly, as if he were already exasperated by her desperate attempts to escape, "You know there is no point..." His firm grip only crushed her little bones further, but he would make her stay with him whatever the cost – however much pain he had to cause her for her to realise that. Tears had never stopped him from getting what he wanted before, so why would they make him pause now? Even when her sadness dripped onto the floor as she scrambled on it like a dog he felt nothing but an overwhelming darkness. This was what he had wanted from the beginning, after all.

She wanted to run from him, but now that would be impossible with her obliterated ankle. She didn't want to think about how long it would take to heal, if it was too damaged to heal, she only wanted to get away from Damon as fast as she could. Why was Stefan not doing anything, she wondered vaguely, gritting her teeth against the newest burst of pain to go through her leg. Why was he just standing there and just watching while his brother tried to kill her? Of course, she knew that vampires weren't human, and they might not have human values, but surly he could not just stand there and watch her struggle with everything she had and do nothing? She tried to catch his eye, but Stefan would not look at her.

Stefan found himself unable to move a single muscle and wondered how much was Damon's doing, and how much was his fear. His instincts were screaming something at him, so loud he shouldn't have been able to resist it, but he did not want to put himself in a position where he was making things worse. Who knew what Damon would do, if he tried to intervene? In this state, Stefan knew Damon would have no qualms about killing him in same second. He didn't want to be such a coward, but he knew well the level of pain his brother could deal when he really meant to hurt someone.

"That's it," he whispered in her ear, "be a good little girl and lay yourself down... stay still for me... good, just like that... yes..." Damon leant close and snapped his teeth loudly, smiling wolfishly with an expression on his face that seemed as if it had never been human – without humanity, a manifestation of cruelty and basic instinct. He could smell the anxiety as it rolled off her skin, the scent of fear forming in cool droplets on her forehead, and he hear every delicious pump of her blood through her body; it really was delicious, the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, it sang to him. Her neck was throbbing with it, he practically see the skin rising and falling as it flowed a few millimetres beneath her skin.

Bonnie knew she couldn't have prepared for this, but she had been studying spells in her grandmother's book for almost a year now. She knew the spell to stop all this, but that fact did not prevent the remorse from draining her insides like Damon would soon be. Had there been signs? And if there had been, would she have been strong enough to do something about it? Even now, she did not know if she could have done anything. The fact was, she loved Damon more than she had ever loved anyone else, and if she was going to die at anyone's hands, she had to admit that she would prefer it be at his. His dark light had filled her like a fierce glow, and she was stronger because of him. What would she have been without him? She would have been nothing but one third of a threesome that really was only about Elena. She knew that her life had really started when she first saw him, and she knew that her life would end with him staring into her eyes. "Please, Damon," she begged so quietly it was but a movement of the lips.

"Stop talking." Damon told her, breathing onto her face as he bent down for another stolen kiss. His lips pressed so tenderly to her's that it would be sure to leave her's swollen. Her tears were salty and he managed to catch and taste each one that fell.

What else could she say? Her mind was blankness, a white emptiness that was fathomless and complete. There was nothing she could say to stop him now, that much was clear on his face, which was as angular and perfect as ever. He was a fantastic predator, she thought wryly over the frantic beating of her heart, because she had come willingly to him and now he was going to kill her.

"Please don't kill me..." she whimpered as quietly as she could, shutting her eyes tightly against what she feared would come.

"Be quiet and I won't have to," he said simply, pulling at her trousers until he had them past her knees.

She screamed as another bolt of lightening lit up the sky and a shadowed figure streaked across the lawn.

TBC