Stealing My Heart - Chapter 6
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own The Vampire Diaries.
A/N: Hi! I want to thank you all for the reviews, follows, and favorites! I really didn't expect so many reviews or follows. I can't even express how thankful I am!
"Hello?" Answered the stoic voice of the eldest Original.
"Caroline's been bitten by a werewolf, we're in Charlottesville. She's already passed out and I think it's effecting her quickly." Damon said, trying to mask the sound of worry in his voice.
"How was she bitten?" Klaus stated nonchalantly.
"How do I know? She needs your blood." Damon gathered the unconscious blonde off the asphalt with his free arm and started walking towards the hotel.
"Who says I'll give her any of my blood? She isn't my problem."
Damon dropped his act and replied with a voice full of emotion, "Please, I've never asked you for anything. I'll do what ever you want, just save her."
This surprised Klaus. He'd never heard the eldest Salvatore sounds so helpless.
'Could it be that he may of gotten over his infatuation with the doppelganger and moved on to the baby vamp?' Klaus asked himself. It definitely seemed plausible, he thought.
"Hmm, I don't know." Klaus replied, maybe he could use this crush to his advantage. "You say you'll do anything?"
"Yes. Anything, I promise! We're in the suite at the Hilton, just please hurry!" Damon yelled into the phone desperately.
Damon knew that he shouldn't agree to do anything, but the moment he had seen the bite on Caroline's abdomen, he knew. He knew that he loved her. He didn't know when it had happened, or when his love for Elena had melted away, but he knew that he would do anything to save the blonde.
"I'll be there in an hour, but remember, you promised anything." Klaus hung up and went to fetch his personal driver.
Damon slipped his phone into his pocket and flashed to the hotel.
Once inside, he gently laid Caroline's unconscious body on their bed. He went to the restroom and wet a hand cloth to clean the wound. He pulled her shirt up midway and gasped at the sight. The would was progressing extremely fast. Way faster than it had for Rose. He carefully wiped all the blood from the wound and dressed it with a bandage he found in the bathroom cupboard.
He glanced at the clock and saw that it had only been a few minutes since he got of the phone with Klaus. How was he supposed to just sit and wait, while the blonde lay dying beside him? He sat on the bed beside her and pulled out his mother's locket from his pocket. Staring down at his mother, he knew she would be so disappointed in what he had become. Not the vampire part, but the part where he treated everyone so badly. Most of all how terrible he treats woman.
Caroline's eyes fluttered open. "Damon… Please help..."
Damon wanted to start sobbing then and there. She sounded so terrified. He sat the locket on the night stand and turned back to the wounded blonde.
"Shhh, it's okay." He pulled her into his lap, so that he was holding her in his arms. "Klaus is on his way."
She nodded, "I'm so tired…" She said closing her eyes and slipping back to sleep.
He wiped away the tears that had slipped down his cheeks and shifted Caroline so the he could pull his phone from his pocket.
He decided that he should probably call Ric and let him know that he needed to come back.
"Hey, didn't expect to hear from you tonight. What's up?" Alaric asked, happily.
The teacher had just left a woman named Julie at her house and was walking to Damon's car.
"You need to come back to the hotel. Something happened at the club after we left and Caroline was bitten by a werewolf." Damon said furiously. He was passed the point of being scared. He was pissed and wanted to find the mutt that did this to Caroline.
"Oh, God. Is she going to be alright?" Ric asked, alarmed. He didn't want anything to happen to her. She was too sweet and young to die.
"I think so, I had to call Klaus. He's on his way." Damon admitted, "I can't just let her die."
"I understand, I'll be there in a few minutes." Alaric replied. He didn't like the fact that Damon had to call the Original.
"Okay." Damon hung up, and decided to call Bonnie. He knew Caroline would need someone when she woke up, and didn't think Elena or her mother would be a good choice.
"Hello?" Came the sleepy voice of a very confused Bonnie. "Damon? What on earth are you calling me for at two-thirty in the morning!?"
"I'm sorry, but Caroline needs you. She's been injured. We're in Charlottesville. You need to hurry." Damon said, he didn't want to explain to her the extent of the blondes injuries until she got to the hotel.
"What happened? Is she going to be okay?" Bonnie asked, suddenly wide awake.
"She should be fine. Just get here as fast as possible." Damon said glancing down at the younger vampire in his arms.
"What is she doing there? With you?" Bonnie asked, worried that Damon had done something to Caroline.
"Hey, I didn't do anything to her!" Damon said, hearing the tone of her voice. "Just hurry!"
"I found a new spell earlier. It should transport me there in a few minutes." Bonnie said, glancing at the spell book that sat on her bedside table. She didn't mention that it will probably drain the energy from her and that she had never used it before, so she wasn't sure that it was safe. But, it was the quickest way to her friend.
"Okay." Damon gave her the address and hung up.
He pulled Caroline closer to himself and brushed her hair away from her face. He really should've noticed how much of an amazing person she was before this happened. If he hadn't been off with some random woman tonight, things may of gone differently.
Damon was jarred out of his thoughts when the bedroom door opened revealing Alaric standing there with a worried expression marring his face.
He was surprised when he saw the position that Damon had Caroline in. He couldn't help but grin at how sweet it looked.
"How is she?" Ric asked, walking over to a chair in the corner of the room and lowered himself into it.
"I don't think she doing very well." Damon said, looking exhausted. "Klaus should be here in about thirty minutes."
"I wish there was some other way to save her. I hate having to rely on him."
"I do too, but there is no other option. I had to promise that I'd do something in return." The vampire admitted.
"What?" Alaric asked, wanting to know what he had to promise, thinking that it wouldn't be a small price.
"Don't know yet." Changing the subject, Damon said, "Bonnie will be here soon. She's using some kind of spell to get here quicker."
"That's good, she'll probably want someone she's close to when she wakes up." Ric nodded. "Do you think we need to call Liz?"
Damon shook his head, "I thought about it, and I don't think so. It seems like she's more of a hindrance to Care than a help or mother."
Ric blinked, "When did you start calling her Care?"
Damon was about to answer when there was a flash of pure bright light and they heard a crash come from the living room.
"That's probably Bonnie, do you mind going to get her?" Damon asked, gesturing to the slumbering blonde in his arms.
The teacher nodded and made his way to the living room.
A minute later he returned carrying the unconscious witch.
"What happened?" Damon asked, already knowing the answer from seeing the thin line of blood streaming from Bonnie's nose.
"Think she used too much of her energy for the spell. What do we do?" Ric asked, laying the witch down on the foot of the bed.
"I'll give her a little blood, she won't be happy about it, but she'd be even angrier if we let her sleep it off." Damon shifted Caroline down beside him and bit his wrist. He opened Bonnie's mouth and let a few drops of his blood run into her throat.
A few seconds later the witch opened her eyes and licked her lips. She grimaced and looked sternly at Damon, "You had to feed me blood?"
"Sorry, but you need to be awake when Klaus gets here." Damon said glancing down at his watch, "Which will be in about ten minutes."
"Klaus? Why is he coming?" She asked, not putting together what had happened.
Bonnie looked over at the blonde and paled. "Oh."
"I had no other choice." Damon said grimly.
Bonnie nodded and gabbed Caroline's hand. "I just hope she'll be okay. What happened?" She looked to the two men.
The boys both looked guilty.
"We weren't with her." Alaric said looking down at the floor.
"She called me after it happened and passed out right as I got there." Damon said, "I'm going to find that fucking mutt if it's the last think I do."
The witch was surprised at the protectiveness that was emanating off the vampire. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about him had changed.
"We'll find whoever did it." She said. "Do you two mind leaving the room? I'm going to put her in clean clothes, so that she's comfortable when she wakes up."
The boys nodded and both left the room. Making their way to the living room, Ric went and grabbed two beers from the fridge.
"Here, drink this." Alaric said tossing him one of the bottles, "It may make you feel a little better."
"Doubt it." Damon muttered, setting the bottle on the table in front of the couch.
He couldn't help but blame himself. It was really all his fault. He shouldn't of let the blonde come. Or at least stay at the club with her. This could've been prevented if he just wasn't so stupid.
Ric caught the flash of quilt on Damon's face.
"Hey, it's not your fault." Ric said, "She was probably just at the wrong place, at the wrong time."
"If I just would've been there with her, instead of being a freaking manwhore…" Damon said, sounding furious with himself.
"You realized it didn't you?"
Surprised, Damon looked up, "You knew how I felt before I even did?"
Ric chuckled lightly, "At first I though you just tolerated her, but then we came on this trip and you two started bickering and you flirting with her. Yeah, it was pretty evident."
Ric really wanted to tell his friend that Caroline felt the same way back, but he had given his word to the blonde that he wouldn't tell Damon.
"I didn't even realize it until I saw her on that alley floor. She just looked so terrified.. I don't want her to ever feel that way again." Damon explained.
"Are you going to pursue her?" Ric asking, curiously.
"I don't know. I doubt she'd want to go out with me. After all the shit I put her through when we 'dated' last time. You weren't in Mystic Falls yet, but I treated her really bad." Damon said sadly.
"Yeah, but your emotions were off, she probably understands that now that she's a vampire." Ric urged, he didn't know how else to get Damon to go after her.
"I'm no-" Damon was interrupted when there was a knock on the door.
"Thank God he's here." Damon exclaimed, relieved.
He opened the door to Klaus leaning against the frame.
"She's in the back bedroom." Damon directed the Original to follow him.
Knocking first, the two vampires and Ric entered the room.
Bonnie had changed Caroline into a pair of clean pajamas. The witch was now laying on the bed, sleeping.
'Must not of given her enough blood.' Damon thought to himself. He decided to give her a little more after everything with the blonde was settled.
He shook Bonnie's shoulder to wake her up and pointed to Klaus when she opened her eyes. The brunette sat up and glared at Klaus.
"I'm here to help, it might pay for you to be nice." Klaus stated.
He produced a small vial of blood from his coat pocket and handed it to Damon. "Make sure she drinks it all."
Damon uncapped the bottle and tilted the blonde's head back. After all the contents had drizzled into Caroline's mouth Damon asked, "How long will it take to start working?"
"Oh, it's already working, but she won't wake for about an hour in a half to two hours." Klaus said. He risked looking at the blonde for a moment. She looked so pale and fragile. Klaus didn't feel any romantic feelings for Caroline, but he thought that she would be nice to have as a friend.
That's one thing people always mistook about Klaus. He did feel normal human emotions. He was just exceptionally well at hiding them. The Original occasionally found himself lonely and bored. Now that Rebekah had been awoken, life were slightly more tolerable. But only slightly, his younger sister could be quite annoying.
That's the only reason he wanted to make more hybrids. He needed friends, or at the very least, companions. But, no one needed to know that. For now, them believing he was pure evil was his best option.
The Original straightened up and looked to Damon, "Can I have a private word with you?"
It was worded like a question, but sounded a awful lot like a demand.
Damon nodded, "Let's go downstairs. Let me know if you need me." He directed towards Bonnie and Ric.
Once downstairs Klaus said, "I'm not sure what I'll have you do yet, but be sure that you will pay me back for this favor."
"I know." Damon said solemnly. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd do if you wouldn't of came."
Klaus hid the surprise on his face, he didn't think that Damon would ever say that. He didn't blame Damon for falling for Caroline. She was very beautiful and had one of those personalities that anyone could like.
"Yeah, well, cant have her dying. Who knows, maybe you'll be useful one day." Klaus replied.
"Do you think you could find the werewolf that did this to her?" Damon asked the Original. He really didn't like asking him for anymore favors, but figured that Klaus was his best option.
Klaus contemplated it for a moment, "I suppose I can look into it. I know the pack that owns this territory. Killed one of their Alphas once."
Before Damon could even utter a thanks, the eldest vampire flashed away to his waiting car a few blocks away.
Damon blinked, he hated how Klaus was there one minute and gone the next. He sighed, he really wasn't looking forward to whatever Klaus had planned for him.
Taking a deep breath the vampire walked back into the hotel and up to the suite.
"It's been an hour, shouldn't she be waking up?" Damon asked no in particular.
Bonnie eyed him warily. He had been acting so weirdly since she showed up. When Damon had returned from his talk with Klaus he had climbed up onto the bed and pulled Caroline into his lap. The witch had almost protested, but Alaric caught her eye before and shook his head, giving her a look that had said 'I'll explain later'.
"Klaus said it could take up to two hours for her to wake up." Ric said from his chair in the corner.
"At least she doesn't look as pale as she did, and the wound is closing up nicely." Bonnie stated after examining Caroline's stomach.
"Can you go get some pancakes from IHOP?" Damon asked Bonnie, "You can take my debit card."
Bonnie's eyebrows rose quickly, she didn't think anyone but herself knew that the blonde loved pancakes. She shot a questioning look to the oldest Salvatore.
"We were talking about her mother on the way up here and she muttered something about eating a lot of pancakes when Liz is at work. I figured it was a sort of comfort food." He explained.
"Okay, I'll have to borrow one of your cars though." She said after a moment.
"I'll drive you." Ric volunteered. "I saw one on the way back from the zoo."
Bonnie looked confused, "The zoo?"
Damon chuckled looking down at the vampire in his arms. "Care's idea."
The witch decided to leave before Damon started acting any weirder. She stood up and asked, "Do you want anything while we're out?"
Damon shook his head. He was just trying to get the Bonnie out of the suite so that he could feed Caroline some blood. He knew it would make the young woman squeamish, so he came up with a task for her.
Ric and Bonnie left the room, and Damon carefully maneuvered Caroline so that she was propped up on some pillows. He debated on whether to feed her a blood bag or his own blood. After a few minutes of deliberation he decided to feed her his own. Since his blood was in her system when she turned, it could help heal her quicker and she wouldn't need as much as she would if she was drinking human blood.
Biting his wrist he carefully tilted the Caroline's head back and put his arm to her mouth. A second later the blonde latched on and started sucking. After a minute or so she opened her eyes, startled. She sat up as quickly as she could and groaned at the sting in her abdomen.
"What happened?" She asked, positioning herself where it didn't hurt as bad.
"Klaus came and gave you blood. How are you feeling?" Damon asked, laying his hand on the blonde's arm.
Caroline deadpanned, "How do you think?"
Damon withdrew his hand guiltily, "I'm so sorry I wasn't there to defend you."
Caroline's face softened at the sincerity in his words.
"It's not your fault. I shouldn't of gone out there. I'm so stupid." She said quietly.
"Don't say that. You're not stupid, just a little blonde." Damon said, winking.
Caroline looked up quickly with a defensive look on her face, but it quickly melted away when she noticed he was just joking around. She gave him a small smile, and said, "Haha, very funny." She stuck out her tongue and gently pushed him.
The blonde cringed at the pain she felt at the small movement.
"Are you okay?" Damon asked sounding worried.
"Yeah, just hurting a little." Or a lot, Caroline thought to herself.
"I was hoping that my blood would help that.." Damon muttered.
Caroline glanced at the vampire beside her, "That's why you were feeding me your blood?"
She was actually very thankful. When she had called him in the alley she had figured he would just leave her there to die. It's not like her cared about her. She was just a daft, annoying baby vampire.
"Yes." Damon stated.
"How long was Klaus here?" She asked, curiously.
Damon wasn't going to tell her that he had to promise a favor for the blood. She would just get too worked up about it. "Not long, he just brought a small vial of it and left."
Caroline could tell he was hiding something from her, but decided to just ignore it. For now.
"I need to use the restroom." Caroline said, wanting to check out her wound, privately.
She began to stand up, but fell back on the bed when the pain became too much to bare.
Within the second Damon was at her side, asking if she was okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just let me rest for a moment and I'll try again." She sighed. This was going to be really annoying for her.
Damon carefully scooped the blonde into his arms.
"Hey! Put me down this instant!" Caroline said, smacking his cheek. "I can do it myself."
"Caroline, just let me help you. It'll be easier this way and less painful." He said softly, gazing down at the blonde.
"Fine, but I'm not some damsel in distress." She huffed.
Damon opened the bathroom door and sat her on the side the tub.
"I'll be right outside the door, let me know if you need any help." Damon said, motioning to the bedroom.
He really didn't want to leave her alone, but he knew that she wouldn't allow him to stay.
As soon as Damon closed the door behind him, Caroline grabbed the hem of her shirt. She was surprised to see that she had been changed into her comfortable pajamas. Her face flushed bright red when she realized that Damon had to be the one who had changed her clothes.
Peeling back the white gauze on her stomach she gasped. Although it had healed immensely since she had drank the Original's blood and furthermore with Damon's, it still looked terrible. The torn skin was red and irritated and was tented a dark purple color. She sighed. It's probably going to be like this for at least a few days she thought.
"So, can you tell me what the hell has gotten into Damon?" Bonnie asked Alaric.
They were in his car and were on their way to the pancake house.
"I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Especially Elena. I'm not sure how she'll react." Ric said, seriously.
Bonnie rolled her eyes, "Is it really that serious?"
"Yes."
The witch sighed, "Fine, I promise."
Damon would be so pissed if he found out what the teacher was about to tell her.
"Damon loves Caroline." Ric blurted, not being able to hold it in any longer.
"You're kidding, right?" Bonnie asked, wide eyed. "Please tell me you're kidding."
Ric shook his head, "Not kidding. He is head over heels for her."
"Caroline can't ever know." She said sternly.
Dumbfounded, Ric said, "What? Why?"
"She thinks she loves him too. He would break her heart. I know he's your friend and all, but you know I'm right. He isn't good enough for her." Bonnie said adamantly. "Care deserves someone who will give her the world. That man-whore of a vampire will never do that."
By the time that Bonnie was done with her mini-rant Ric was fuming. What gave her the right to judge Damon? This should be Caroline's choice, not her friend's.
"Really, Bonnie?" Ric asked. "I'm disappointed. I thought you were a better person than that."
The conversation was dropped as they pulled into IHOP's parking lot.
Damon and Caroline were sitting on one of the couches talking about kittens (of all things) when the teacher and witch walked through the door carrying bags.
"Bonnie? Ric?" Caroline asked.
Seeing the confused look on her face, Damon hastily explained, "I called Bonnie, because I thought you would want a friend. Ric was coming back when I called him to inform him of your accident."
Bonnie sat the bags down on the coffee table and hugged Caroline. "Thank God that you're okay."
The blonde patted her back, "You didn't have to come."
"Yes, I did! You were bitten by a werewolf, Caroline. That's serious." Bonnie said.
Caroline rolled her eyes, "But, I'm fine now."
Bonnie dropped the subject, not wanting to upset her.
Caroline looked at the bags on the table and her eyes lit up.
"Pancakes?" She asked Bonnie.
"Of course." Bonnie smiled. "Thank Damon, he's the one the suggested it."
Caroline carefully flung her arms around the unsuspecting vampire. "Thank you thank you thank you!"
"Hey, it's no problem." He chuckled, who knew she loved pancakes so much? He stored that information away for later.
Bonnie looked at the two with a sour look on her face. She really didn't want the two together. She quickly schooled her features to a look of happiness and started passing out plates for the pancakes.
A/N #2: I know that things are happening relatively fast, but it's still going to be a little while before our favorite vampires are together. I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and of you have a moment, I'd be very grateful if you would review! I haven't really thought of a plot or storyline for this story, it's basically writing itself, so if you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know and I'll try to add them in!