I had a hard time writing this chapter. So please forgive its awfulness.
I skittered backwards away from who I now assumed was Damon. Before I could get far, I bumped into something soft yet hard and stopped when I felt a sticky liquid trail down my hand.
"Stay there." growled an irritated voice. I froze in the bleak blackness and waited, but nothing happened. After a few moments of staying there in darkness waiting for my death, I began to wonder if this was how Damon hunted.
Did he wait until the heart was so scared that it was pumping double the adrenaline and blood before he drained his victims dry.
"Shh" Damon hushed, his tone of voice was definitely one of irritation. "Calm the hell down. It can hear your heart beating"
I remembered the giant wolf outside the door and took a few deep breaths, feeling my heart return to a normal rate.
"Now…" Damon said "Don't move."
After he had finished his sentence, there was a crack of light and I could see Damon's outline once more, he was standing by the barely opened door, eyes glowing red.
After a few seconds, the wolf popped its head through the crack and glanced around.
Before it even had the chance to run, Damon took the open door and began pounding it violently against the wolf's head.
The wolf couldn't escape because it was pinned between the other unmoving door, so Damon kept up his pattern of swinging the door open and then slamming it back against the wolf's skull.
Within a matter of seconds, there was nothing left of the wolf's head except for the brain matter and skull fragments left on the carpet.
Damon swung the door fully open, letting light into the hallway, and giving me my first glance at his face.
He was beautiful. More than beautiful actually.
He had pale skin, and an angular face, complemented by sensuously shaped eyes and a shock of black hair. He was built for stealth and agility. I could tell by the sinuous, serpentine, look of his muscles beneath his black shirt. He gave me a sexy smirk and leaned back against the door, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well aren't you a cute little thing" He commented, flashing me a sexy smirk. His fangs were gone and his red eyes had been replaced by blue eyes the color of calm water.
His eyes looked me up and down slowly, a small smile tugging up his lips, before his eyes met mine.
"You should probably go get yourself cleaned off" He said coolly.
I frowned.
Not at his suggestion, but because he was completely different than I had expected. He had saved me, and now was suggesting that I go and take a shower.
Where was the violent death that Gabriel had warned me about?
"Um, that would be right behind you. And on you… a little" Damon said in response to my thought.
Great, another mind-reader.
I hesitantly looked behind me, afraid of what I might see since I was still sprawled on the carpet.
Above me, was a girl. She was hanging.
There was a thin piece of razor wire wrapped around her neck, holding her up on her tippy-toes and some more razor wire tying her wrists together in back.
She was completely naked and covered in blood, it was dripping down her legs and onto my hair and hands. Her eyes were open in wide-eyed terror and there was a large hole in her stomach the size of a fist where blood and other innards were hanging out.
I made a sound that resembled a scream, a cry, and a whimper all in one as I tried to get to my feet and run away.
It wasn't working out too well.
"Alright. C'mon, walk it off" said Damon's velvety voice as cold hands wrapped around my arms and hoisted me up to me feet.
I stared at him, trembling uncontrollably, and took a step back.
He had done this to her.
Damon rolled his eyes dramatically and pointed at the hanging corpse.
"Actually, I only put her out of her misery. My brother is the one who brought her in here and hung her up. He has to use the razor wire because the smell of blood is the only thing that brings me out of my room. She was already bleeding out when I reached her"
I felt my heart pounding like an energizer bunny again, and took a shaky breath, which turned into me shaking all over.
"Alright, alright. Here we go" Damon coaxed, as he led me to the large doors that led out of the east wing. He none to gently kicked the giant wolf out of the way so I could pass, and then led me to one of the guest bathrooms. He took three towels out from one of the cabinets and then disappeared. Leaving me alone.
Just as I was about to settle down and take a deep breath, he reappeared with some of the clothes that Gabriel had bought me yesterday.
There was a clean pair of underwear and a new bra, along with a deep blue long-sleeved shirt and some black cargo pants.
He then, walked passed me and turned the shower on, moving the dial over to warm so that it produced a thick steam. When I only stared at him blankly, he sighed and pointed towards the shower.
"Well go on" He demanded.
I snapped out of whatever reverie I was in and scowled at him.
"I'm not taking a shower with you in here" I said disdainfully.
Damon rolled his eyes and walked to the door. "Yeah, whatever. Make it quick" He said before shutting the door behind himself.
I stared after him for a few minutes, before stripping off the bloody clothes and stepping into the warm shower.
Either this vampire was a very good actor, or Nathaniel and Gabriel had lied about their brother. Neither of the options seemed promising.
I sighed, pouring shampoo into my hands. This just kept getting more and more confusing.
When I was done with my shower I went to the kitchen.
To say that I was surprised to see Damon in there, cooking, would be an understatement.
He glanced up at me over the frying pain and raised his eyebrows.
"How do you like your eggs?"
My jaw went slack for a few seconds and I felt like my brain had just shut down. What the hell was happening right now?
"Fried is fine" I replied, taking out one of the barstools and sitting across from him.
"You keep getting this shocked expression on your face whenever you look at me. I'm wondering why that is" Damon said softly, glancing back at me.
I fumbled over a response and finally settled for "Your brothers just told me that you were…different than this" I said lamely.
Damon chuckled as he dropped two eggs on my plate. They smelled amazing.
"I'm not surprised" Damon admitted "My brothers and I…don't…get along, I guess you could say"
"Why not?" I asked as I stuffed my mouth with eggs.
Damon shrugged "Bad blood" he winked as he said this.
"Whose fault was it first?" I asked. Damon worked his jaw as he thought.
"Both. I guess. We had a falling out sometime ago, and we haven't forgiven each other since. Rather than deal with Gabriel's constant glaring and childish remarks, I decided to just board up my side of the castle and stay there."
"So why come out now?" I asked. Damon raised his eyebrows up and down maniacally.
"It's been awhile since we've had a house guest" He replied caustically.
I snickered as the kitchen doors burst open. Gabriel and Nathaniel stood in the doorway their eyes locked on me, seeming to take inventory and make sure I wasn't injured, before their eyes flitted to Damon.
"Hello little brother" Damon said to Gabriel "I suggest you take better care of your pet next time you decide to leave the country"
I was about to retort that I was no one's pet, but Gabriel cut me off.
"What are you doing here, Damon?" There were no words to describe the venom that seethed through Gabriel's voice as he said this. It was pure hatred.
Damon looked around, feigning confusion. "Excuse me, but I believe that I have as much right to this castle as you do" Damon paused to smirk venomously at Gabriel before he wiggled a finger at the vampire. "And I believe you have some explaining to do, Gabriel dear"
"Shut up, you sick son of a bitch" Gabriel hissed. Damon's smile widened and he tsked at his brother.
"Now, that's not polite language to use in front of a lady"
"Damon, stop it" It was Nathaniel this time.
Damon barked a laugh that quickly turned into a snarl. "Stop what." He demanded "It's not my fault that our dear brother Gabriel is incapable of telling the truth. Or doing something right."
What was he talking about?
Nathaniel seemed to be asking the same question as he glanced unsurely between Gabriel and Damon.
"What's going on?" Nathaniel asked. I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at Damon and Gabriel.
I didn't like secrets.
Damon laughed aloud and turned to me conspiratorially "Well then, you're really going to hate this family. We were built on them"
"Seriously, what the hell are you guys talking about? Why am I always out of the loop" Nathaniel hissed.
Gabriel and Damon didn't seem to hear him. They were too busy glaring at each other.
Gabriel's pretty eyes were beginning to swirl with red, and Damon's eyes were already full-blown red.
"Why don't we go sit down and talk about this calmly, without resorting to violence" I offered in a wavering voice. "Or- or, we could discuss other matters like the giant fucking wolf that attacked me this morning"
Ah, that did the trick.
Gabriel's head snapped up and he stared at me as Nathaniel seemed to take closer inspection upon my well-being. Damon simply rolled his eyes and flicked his wrist dismissively.
"Now, that's a bit overdramatic, the beast didn't even touch you" He sighed.
I narrowed my eyes at the vampire "I would still like to know what it was doing here. And how it got into the bloody castle in the first place"
"Maybe a little Felling History Lesson is in order first." Nathaniel said wearily, he ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.
From that, I guessed that the Felling history wasn't a happy history.
"Have fun with that" Gabriel said hurriedly as he quickly left the kitchen.
"Yeah, I have some hunting to do" Damon murmured before walking out of the kitchen.
Nathaniel and I turned to each other.
"Well, that doesn't sound too good" I joked. Nathaniel crinkled his nose and nodded for me to follow him.
"It's not" He said grimly
"Okay, so as you already know, we're vampires. And as such, we have different laws and forms of government than humans do. We are ruled by a king and a queen along with their Council. The Felling's have always been a family of nobility in the vampire world. Right now, Gabriel and Damon are a part of the Council. Where Gabriel is happy with his position under the king, Damon is more…ambitious. His ambitions have created some tension between us over the years though."
"How so?" I asked
"Gabriel was…married once. We also had another Felling brother" Nathaniel said in a hushed voice. "None of us knew until much later, but Gabriel's wife had been having an affair with Damon. She was as ambitious and cunning as Damon is, so they got along well. Damon saw the development as a way to influence the king and to get into his good graces. When Katherine, Gabriel's wife, told Damon something about the king that could be taken as treasonous, Damon reported her. To the king, it would look like Damon's loyalty to him was so fierce that he would even condemn the loved one of a family member- to Gabriel, it was the blackest form of betrayal. Gabriel never forgave him and in retaliation, he devised a way to get revenge, by plotting the death of Damon's most beloved brother, Jonathan. He succeeded. After that, Damon locked himself in the east wing where he stayed in his room for the duration of a hundred and fifty years or so. Until now."
I stared at Nathaniel in horror.
Jesus Christ. Gabriel had his own brother murdered for the sake of revenge! That's…evil.
And, Damon! He's a sick manipulator. If this had happened while they were humans, both of them would be condemned to death. Nathaniel's explanation left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I didn't want to live here anymore. When Damon had said that there was bad blood between them, I didn't take him so literally!
"And then there's the problem with the wolves…" Nathaniel trailed off unsurely.
I turned to him with hardened eyes. "What problem?"
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