Chapter 2
Caroline leans against the railing on their balcony of the deluxe honeymoon suite that they're staying in. It overlooks the Las Vegas Strip and was conveniently located near many of the bars and casinos in the city.
It figures Damon would take her to Vegas to teach her how to live.
She admires the sparkling ring on her fourth finger. It's stunning and she would have been thrilled to receive it under normal circumstances. Normal circumstances that do not involve a sulking, moody, boring vampire forcing it onto her finger in order to get an upgrade due to being 'newlyweds'. The vampire in question is lounging on the king size bed behind her flicking through television channels. He pauses as he reaches the adult movies and begins to browse them appreciatively.
"Why bother?" she calls out to him. He raises a brow in response to her ambiguous question but remains silent and continues with his former actions. She elaborates, "Why bother with the whole newlyweds ruse to get a discount when you could compel an even better room for free?" He puts down the remote and looks over at her. Shaking his head he responds,
"You're too young; you don't realize it yet."
"Realise what?"
"You've already discovered how useful the skill of compulsion is to us, but what you're yet to realise is how boring it is." She frowns in confusion,
"Boring?" He shakes his head in annoyance and meets her eyes,
"You don't get it. Either one of us could walk into any bank and compel ourselves a billion dollars. We could force a rich man to give us his fortune. We could made a multi-million dollar corporation give us every cent they had. We could get a trillion dollars in a matter of minutes with only a glance. And then what? What do you do with all the money in the world?" She mulls over his comments in concentration and starts to realise the truth of his words.
"But why try to trick them into giving us an upgrade?" He smirks,
"Because Caroline," he drawls lengthening her name, "it's all a game. We are the superior race and we can prove it by how much smarter we are, not just more powerful. It's all a game. Life, death, everything in between. It all melds into one. One big game. Until we die for good." She grins and tilts her head,
"How do you win?" He looks at her as if the answer is obvious,
"You win, Caroline, by doing the boldest, more risky challenges possible. You win by still being alive at the end of the day. That's how we keep score. With our lives." He turns back to the television and she returns to the balcony. Damon was so much stronger, so much older. He had been beating her in this game for a long time.
It was time to catch up.
"You said you were going to teach me how to be a real vampire. All you've done so far is pull a scam which humans pull every day and look at porn. When are my 'lessons', so to speak, going to begin." He pulls himself off the bed, approaches her and smirks. Pointing a finger at the setting sun he responds smugly,
"The moment the sun sets and the sky darkens, I'll show you what it means to be a vampire. I'm going to show you how to live." Her hollow laughter echoes around them and she smirks at him,
"You're forgetting something Damon." He looks at her in confusion and she continues, "I'm already dead."
And he laughs too.