Chapter Two
Damon woke up panting, again. His bedroom was barely lit by the moon's bluish–white hue. His king sized bed's sheets were tangled around his body. A cold breeze smacked him on the face and he looked up to realize his window was open, the white curtains billowing in the indigo night. He got up from the bed and in the blink of an eye he was at the window. He leaned on the window frame, it was cold. Well, not for him but certainly for a human. Like Elena… He couldn't seem to get her off his mind which was something he desperately needed to do if they were going to work out this– so-called by Elena–friendship.
He looked down from his room to the street. Circles of yellow light made a pattern on the charcoal road. The cold air had stopped and it seemed to be still. He yawned; he was getting tired these days, always so sleepy. It wasn't normal. He almost turned around to go to bed when he smelled something. It was a familiar scent, it wasn't of anyone he knew but he had definitely smelled it recently. And then it hit him. Dark-haired girl with the pouty ruby lips and sassy attitude. She was at the Grill and Damon had sensed some "inhumanness" on her. So she wasn't human after all, just some sleazy, conniving night creature probably out to kill Elena. Damon grabbed a shirt from his closet and swapped his pajama pants for a pair of jeans. He ran downstairs, careful not to wake Stefan, and went outside into the night to hunt for the mysterious girl he had seen at the Grill.
He sensed a trail and decided to follow it. What did he have to lose? He walked stealthily on the shadowed side of the sidewalk. Trees lined it and they acted as great camouflage for this hunting vampire. The trail covered the entire Main Street where he had seen the short-haired girl with the mint-green eyes that looked eerily like Victoria's. He ignored his melodramatic thoughts, shifted into hunt mode and focused on the trail that girl (definitely vampire) had left. The trail ended in front of the "tourist" section of the town where the hotels were. A fancy hotel in small, hick-town Mystic Falls, Virginia's standards, emanated golden light from its surrounding gas lamps and ballroom chandeliers. Without thinking twice he walked through the glass doors and entered the hotel. It was kind of a dump compared to the hotels Damon had been inside of but it would do if someone slightly important needed to stay in Mystic Falls, which would be a bad idea for anyone. Not that Damon cared about anyone. The lobby was empty. The front desk was also empty. He looked at the casino and —bingo— it was full of joyous old people, depressed and drunk middle aged adults praying to get lucky and some kids pretending to be cool and grown-up. Idiots, thought Damon.
He sniffed the place but the trail had ended outside. He walked towards the elevator and pressed a random button— seventh floor. The elevator ascended and halted with a clank. The doors opened and he saw long black hair, light blue eyes and a pouty red mouth.
"You came," said the honey voice that now that Damon noticed sounded slightly southern.
As always, Damon showed no emotion, especially surprise: the one he was feeling most at the moment. "Why wouldn't I?" he said stepping out of the elevator and placing a hand on her shoulder, his hands centimeters away from her pulse. But just when Damon lowered his hand she slapped it off and turned around, her wavy long hair swishing on her lower back. She was not an inch smaller than him, almost his height actually. She walked along the carpeted hallway and Damon followed. At the end of the hall, she quickly turned around to face Damon. Taken by surprise, he had kept walking and had bumped into her. Her nose was dangerously close to his face. She stared at those piercing blue eyes of him without making any sound. Damon had a lazy grin on his mouth and a million thoughts and questions crossed his mind. Who was this girl? What was she doing in Mystic Falls? Did she know about Katherine or Elena for that matter? But most importantly: Was she a vampire or something else? This fuzzy, blank void was all she was putting off. No vibrating hum that distinguished her as a silly human, no steady, thumping pulse so deep it sounded like a drum that catalogued her as a werewolf and no cold swishing and fluttering that classified her as a vampire, there was just that wretched blank void of nothing. It was so silent.
"If you were human I'd drink you right now," whispered Damon in her ear but she didn't shiver or tremble like the usual human girl's reaction to his pulchritudinous charm, proving she was some sort of night creature, maybe a witch, although he was betting on vampire.
"Maybe I am human. Why would you say such a thing, Damon Salvatore?" she said licking those glossy red lips of hers.
Damon didn't miss a beat. "I don't know, but what I do know is that I've never met you, which is a tragic situation, but that's beside my point." He stepped closer towards her and rested his hands on the doorframe. "The real point is how do you know my name, hot stuff?"
She smirked. "You can't sweet talk me, Salvatore." The off southern accent he had heard before was as thick as ever on these words.
She placed a hand on the tarnished metal doorknob and Damon gripped her firmly by the shoulder. She made no movement to this but just stopped moving altogether. "Why are you here?" asked Damon one more time with a frightening voice.
She turned her head and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "You'll see, sweet pea."
The doorknob creaked and the door swiveled open, revealing a long and lean pale girl with wispy black hair to her shoulderswearing a blood red peasant blouse that bared her shoulders and neck.
If Damon hadn't been resting himself on the door frame he'd have fainted or something because the girl he had seen before on the perfume cart, the one that had look uncomfortably alike Victoria Bugiardini, was standing ten feet away in a dingy hotel room clutching some silk fabric.
"Victoria?" whispered Damon in a voice no human would have been able to hear.
"It's me, Salvatore," said the mint-green eyed ghost. "Alessandra."
Damon had a small brain shutdown but he quickly recovered himself. Of all the things he thought and all the things he could've said he only mentioned one. "I see you've cut your hair," he said, his voice breaking at the end.
Victoria rushed towards him and in less than a second, literally, she was hugging Damon as tears rolled down her lucid cheeks. "I've missed you so much," she said in between sobs. Then added: "God that sounds so cliché."
Damon and Victoria burst out laughing, hysteria had overcome them and they were half-laughing and half-crying. Damon rubbed Victoria's back while she compulsively tugged at strands of his hair while she silently cried.
After a couple of minutes of just standing there they let go and Damon held Victoria at arm's length, drinking in her sight. He placed both hands on her warm cheeks. Tears pooled on top of Damon's fingers but then spilled over them.
"It's alright, isn't it?" she asked straightening the collar of his shirt.
He smiled at her and nodded. "But… We've got to talk… a lot. You know that, right? You have some explaining to do."
She glanced at the door. The mysterious girl from the Grill was standing there with her arms crossed and her pouty lips in a grim expression. Damon looked at her. Now he knew she was obviously a vampire. Tragically, so was Victoria. Otherwise how could she have lived all these years?
"What's your name?" he spat at her starting towards her but Victoria held his arm and stood between them.
"Hey, it's cool," she said giving Damon a pointed glare. Damon felt a freezing feeling go down his entire body. It was those eyes. The mint green pools of icy pain. "She's my friend, Damon. We met a couple of months after— after I was turned."
Damon turned his glare from the mysterious girl to Alessandra. "You were turned?" asked Damon bringing his hand to Alessandra's cheek.
She nodded slowly and shared a strange look with the girl. Damon ignored it and turned to the girl. "So, what's your name?"
"Natalie Joulihann."
"Care to elaborate?" asked Damon walking around the hotel room.
"Elaborate on what?" she snapped at him, crossing her arms. The faintest of veins were barely noticeable on her face and her almost-white eyes got a darker shade of blue.
"On your species… Look, I'm trying to be polite. I already know you're a vampire but fine, if you want me to be rude that's perfect, actually."
Damon fell on one of the beds and patted the space next to him, winking at Victoria. She glared at him.
"Damon, Natalie is my friend. She has stood by me for a long time… a dark time," she said softly walking towards Damon. She sat crossed-legged on the bed and turned to Natalie. "And Natalie, Damon is also my—friend. You have to learn to like him, or at least pretend to if you want to be my friend."
Natalie glared some more at Damon but her face softened on Victoria's. She ran towards her and hugged her. "I'm your bestest friend ever and I only want what's best for you but…" She let go of Victoria and stared at Damon who grinned mockingly at her. "If he's your—friend then I'll have to put up with him. But the second he lays a finger on you I'm going to kill him."
Victoria smiled and hugged Natalie tightly. "Thanks, really, that's all I'm asking."
"Well, then let's go to the boarding house," said Damon, in a second already at the door. He turned to look at Victoria. "Stefan's gonna freak."
Victoria smiled devilishly at Damon and in less than a second they were gone, leaving a raging Natalie alone in the room.
A knock on the door woke Stefan up from his sleep. Elena was curled up underneath the sheets and did nothing but stir a little. Silently, he got up from the bed and sped to answer the door. It was probably Damon, although it'd be weird of him to knock. Maybe he had a body and needed help hiding it.
He turned the knob slowly and opened the door. Surely, Damon was standing right in front of him with that stupid grin of his that made all the girls in the world melt. But there were others with him. Two girls. Both pale, both dark-haired and both with light colored eyes. Maybe sisters. He looked closer at them and saw that even though they looked pretty alike one of them had very light blue eyes whereas the other one had mint green eyes. Where had he seen those before? They were uncomfortably familiar.
Damon broke the nightly silence. "Good evening, dear brother. I brought visit," he said grandly. He pushed Stefan out of the way and let the girls enter. They both had luggage. Who were these people Damon brought, thought Stefan.
"Um Damon, can I speak with you… alone?" he asked.
Damon turned around and pretended to be offended. "Oh brother, how rude of you, don't you remember this lovely gal?" he asked pointing at the one with short hair.
Stefan racked his brain but no answer came, even though the girl was familiar. "Why this is Victoria Bugiardini."
It took a while for the name to register in Stefan's mind but when he remembered he speed ran towards her and attacked her first with a bear hug. Then with questions on how was she alive, at her answer, who turned her, at her answer, "We need to find out." Typical Stefan. But then suspicion crept in.
"You're not with Katherine are you?" he asked tentatively but at the same time a little accusatorily and slightly designated as if expecting a yes.
Victoria looked confused. "Who's Katherine?" she asked genuinely. "Is she a vampire?"
Damon and Stefan exchanged a look. "Yes… was. Is?"
"We don't really know, you see," intervened Damon with a malicious grin.
Victoria smirked back. "Well, whoever she is, she's not worth racking our brains to find her if she left." Her smile and gaze was hypnotizing.
"Well, as long as she's gone… party time!" suggested Damon plopping on the couch between Stefan and Victoria. Natalie on the other hand, hating being left out walked around the couch and stepped in front of the three of them with her booted feet planted firmly on the floor.
"If you're done reuniting and socializing," she said with fake eagerness. "I'd like to find my room and a shower. I don't know about you but I'm darn beat!"
Victoria smiled apologetically at Damon and Stefan. "Sure thing, Nat," she said pinching her arm. "Where can we sleep?" she asked Stefan. Apparently, he was the most responsible, organized, clear-minded… and cute of the two of them, and Victoria knew considering she had been practically raised with them, Natalie thought.
Stefan stood up and took our luggage upstairs. He was such a gentleman, Natalie thought dazedly, making her trip on Stefan, earning her a shy smile from him and a murmured "sorry". Her stomach flipped like a freshman drooling at all the senior boys. She was so pathetic, she thought cursing herself.
Stefan led them to a room on the top floor. It was pretty big but dusty. In need of a soul, if they had souls. Stefan placed their luggage near the door and told them if they needed anything they were at home here. Natalie smiled at him and flipped her hair flirtatiously. Scoring herself a blushing Stefan and… a scowling Victoria.
"What?" asked Natalie innocently.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" barked Victoria placing her hands on her hips. "Were you flirting with him?"
"Yes, why?" said Natalie defensively. Her long black hair waving down her back. "Jealous much?"
"What? Absolutely n– Can you smell that?" asked Victoria suddenly, forgetting the Stefan incident.
"What are you talking about I can't smell any– Yes, I smell it!"
"It can't be…" said Victoria with a disbelieving frown. "It's…"
"Human," they both whispered at the same time.