Chapter 6
Charlotte woke up the next morning a bit annoyed. Another night ruined by the stranger that she had recently met. Who did he think he was? He couldn't just toss her around like a doll that he could manipulate and compel at will. She had had too many bad experiences with those kinds of people. Those that would say and do anything to get their way. Damon was no different. If any good came of the experience it was this: 1) she now knew vampires could compel people and 2) vervain worked against compulsion. Charlotte wrote a mental note to herself to stop by and thank the lady that had given and advised her on the vervein. Otherwise she would have probably spent all night trying to figure out what to do with it.
As for today, Charlotte had a few errands to run. She couldn't spend time worrying about what had happened, life didn't stop for anyone or anything. She sighed as she sat down at her table and stared at the pile of mail she had accumulated over the past couple days, most of them were bills. Charlotte had never relied on anyone to keep her up, it wasn't easy at times. In fact, sometimes she had to cut down on a few luxuries in order to keep herself afloat but she had always managed, she knew better than to put her fate in anyone else's hands. They had always let her down.
Sure, many people had advised her to find a nice guy to settle down with, start a life, but that was easier said than done. Most of the guys Charlotte had invited into her life were just useless, manipulative d-bags who wanted to try to use her or control her. They never truly understood her. In the end, after many many arguments, she decided: it wasn't worth it. This thing called 'love' that people so desperately craved, was a myth. Something made up so that people could have hope. A beautiful fantasy. Well, Charlotte was a realist, and here was the reality. The heap of bills in front of her and errands to run that was reality. She had accepted it long ago. Charlotte sighed as she finished her breakfast and got up to go get dressed. Just in case, she made another cup of vervain tea and drank it before she left the safety of the apartment.
About a half hour later, Charlotte stood in front of the post office with a couple of envelopes in her hand. Most of her bills she could pay online, but a few required them to be mailed. This happened almost every Sunday and her presence at the post office was well known. She had even made a couple acquaintances with those mailing packages. However, today felt different somehow. Almost as if there was some other presence in the air. Looking around she saw no one out of the ordinary but couldn't shake the feeling that something was different. After looking around about ten times and discovering nothing she decided she had to be imagining it and continued on.
Next, was the library. Charlotte loved books; it was one of her most enjoyable passtimes. She walked over to the book return and dumped about 2-3 science novels into the open slot and began to walk away. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. Turning around she walked through the doors of the library and went into a section that had never appealed to her before: Fantasy. As a teenager, Charlotte had tried a couple out and found their distraction from reality to be quite interesting. All the dystopias and ideas of a better or contrastingly different world filled her with zeal. The adventures that characters went on were thrilling, however there was almost always a romantic couple. Not that this was a bad thing, Charlotte had simply discovered that it filled her with unreal expectations. For every single relationship she had been in, Charlotte hoped to find something nearly as passionate or romantic as the relationships written in the novels. But now she realized them for what they were, just as much fantasy as the novels they were written in. Since then, she had stayed away from that section altogether. It was unrealistic.
However, she had seen something that she believed to be fantasy, something that was impossible, unrealistic. If vampires were real she needed to find out what else was. On one of the shelves she found a rather thick book on mythical lore and checked it out. Quickly she hid it in her bag before moving on to her next stop. Once again, as she was walking to her car she felt a strange presence and quickly spun around expecting to see someone there, but the rest of the parking lot was empty. A bit hastily, she unlocked her car not feeling entirely safe, started the engine and drove away.
For the rest of the day, Charlotte drove around to various locations to do what she needed to do. She checked up on her friend who had been sick from work who told her about her stomach bug she had had and that she would be well enough to work tomorrow. She got some lunch around 2 at a cafe, drove around a bit more then finally decided it was time to go home. On her way she recognized the flower shop at which the woman had given her the vervain and realized that she needed to thank her.
She parked on the street curb and walked into the shop, recognizing the distinct aroma of flowers as she stepped over the threshold. Looking around, she searched for the lady she had met the other day. Behind the counter stood a much younger woman who was just selling a bouquet of roses to a man. Once he was done Charlotte stepped in line and approached the worker.
"I'm looking for one of your employees, she was here the other day." Charlotte told her.
"Do you know her name?" the worker asked.
"Um, no but she was an older lady, probably in her forties." Charlotte described the best she could, there weren't many distinguishing features on the lady that she could remember.
"That doesn't sound like anyone who works here." the worker replied.
"Maybe she was your manager?" Charlotte questioned.
"Nope, my dad runs the place,hun, and most of our workers are college kids. Must have been another shop"
"Thank you." Charlotte replied out of politeness and walked away. She wasn't mistaken. This was the exact shop she had entered not a day earlier. How could the worker not remember the woman, and, more importantly, what had happened to her? She walked outside even more confused. Suddenly she heard a slight noise coming from an alleyway behind the flower shop. Cautiously, she made her way towards it. As she approached, she heard another noise, this time it was a groan. She turned the corner to see what it was and stood shocked at the scene before her.
Lying on the ground, groaning in pain was Damon. Standing above him, was some man she didn't recognize. He was dressed from head to toe in a fancy suit, tailored to perfection. As soon as the men saw her they froze. In the moment of complete silence, Charlotte contemplated what to do. Should she turn and leave while she still could? Yet she couldn't ignore what she'd seen. Damon hadn't exactly made a good impression on her but something inside her wouldn't let her leave him. Her heart beat heavily in her chest as she stood her ground. She was pretty sure, Damon, and the other guy who must have been a vampire too, could hear it. Suddenly, any choice she had of leaving flew out the window.
"Ah, look at what we have here." said the man in the suit. "Come here" Charlotte could tell he was compelling her, but she had drunk some vervain earlier today and it had no effect. If she left now she would give herself up and was fairly sure she wouldn't make it far. So, Charlotte did the only thing she could do. She walked forward.
She walked until she stood right in front of the man in the suit, her heart racing. Damon, who also knew she was still on vervain from last night stared at her with wide eyes, probably wondering as to what she was doing.
"Oh, you two know each other. How sweet." the man mocked noticing the way Damon looked at her. "At least now I have leverage to get what I want" He then turned Charlotte around until she was facing Damon and he was behind her. Brushed away her hair so all of it hung over her right shoulder, he nonchalantly traced a finger down her neck.
"She looks quite delicious," he tempted Damon. "Tell me what I want to know"
"Go ahead," Damon coughed quite beaten up already and there were a few trails of dried blood on his face. "She means nothing to me." straining a bit, he managed to stand up and look the man in the eye. Charlotte began to doubt her decision not to leave while she could.
"Then you won't mind if I have a taste." Before Damon or anyone could even move Charlotte felt a prick in her neck as the man sunk his teeth into her artery and began to drink. There was nothing she could do, she was completely frozen. How she'd imagined a vampire bite to be like in stories was nothing like this. She was completely helpless, and she hated it. Damon stood there with his eyes wide for a couple seconds before making a decision. It happened so fast that Charlotte could barely comprehend what was going on, all she knew was that she was losing strength quickly. Suddenly, the teeth in her neck disappeared as the man was dragged off her and pinned against the wall. Unable to stop herself, Charlotte slumped to the ground as her head spun a little. She managed to register the picture of Damon and the vampire rolling around and fighting each other. The man in the suit seemed to be a bit stronger. Eventually, the situations were reversed and the man had Damon pinned down by his neck.
"This could have been a whole lot easier if you just cooperated." he told him as Damon choked under his grip. Carefully, Charlotte managed to stand herself up and put one hand on her bleeding neck. Not entirely sure what she was doing Charlotte approached the two wrestling vampires. The one in the suit had his back to her. Either he didn't register her as a threat, or he was more focused on Damon because he made no move as she approached. With one hand on her neck she casually tapped him on the shoulder. As he turned to face her, she put all the strength she had left into punching him straight in the face. Surprised, stunned, or both, he fell back a little and his grip on Damon's throat loosened. Seeing an opportunity, Damon quickly got up and snapped the man's neck as he crumpled to a heap on the floor. Then he turned to stare at Charlotte wide eyed at what she had just done his face smiling. Charlotte was smiling too but for some reason his face was no longer clear. In fact, there was now black at the edges of her vision and it was steadily growing. The next thing, she knew Damon was vamping over to catch her before she fell and everything went dark.
