Chapter 10

"So, are you going to tell me what we're doing out here?" Jessenia asked an hour later, needing to rest because the hiking wore her out.

They went through countless trees and found a dirt trail that followed up to a nearby hill. Damon guided her by the hand the entire time, being mindful of logs, huge tree trunks, holes and branches. Now they were sitting on top of the hill, the sun slowly beginning to set on the horizon, and it was breathtaking. She looked over at him, waiting for him to answer her, but all Damon did was just stare out at the sun, making her wonder how he could even be in the daylight.

"Okay fine, don't answer me. How do you walk in the sun then?" She tried again, plucking some grass and fingered it. "Because I thought vampires fried in sunlight."

"They do." Damon slowly turned to face her, the sun reflecting off his beautiful blue eyes, captivating Jessenia. "But I'm different, obviously."

"How? What are you only half vampire or something?" That wouldn't surprise Jessenia after everything Meredith told her.

Damon chuckled, deciding he did owe her a little explanation, but he wasn't about to tell her how he walked in the sun. "We're out here because I figured taking you back to my place and ravishing you in my bed was a little too soon. Unless of course you disagree with me?"

Jessenia looked away from him, feeling her cheeks flush and lost count how many times it happened. "I wouldn't let you ravish me anyway." She stated, wanting to make it perfectly clear she wasn't about to have sex with a vampire.

That piqued Damon's interest, his eyebrow raising. "Is that a challenge, Senia?" He scooted closer to her until their upper arms brushed together. "Because I LOVE a challenge."

"Has anyone ever told you your arrogance is annoying?" She asked sweetly, scooting away from him and sighed when Damon wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her beside him. "Not to mention overbearing."

"I've been called worse, doll." Damon stated knowingly, splaying his hand against her side and gently grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes again.

"Why did you bring me here?" Jessenia knew she probably wouldn't get an answer, but Damon would have to answer her sooner or later. "You did this for a reason. I'm asking you, very nicely, not to keep me in the dark and just tell me why I'm out here with you."

Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, Damon slowly looked down and admired her for a few moments, running a finger down her cheek with his free hand. "Fine, if you want to know so badly, I'll tell you." He leaned back to lie in the grass, pulling her with him so they could stare up at the blue sky. "I want to know more about you, Senia."

"There's nothing to tell." Jessenia broke free from him and began to stand up, only for Damon to stop her by grabbing her arm. "Let go of me, Damon."

"What's so bad about me wanting to know more about you?" This girl was one big mystery, a puzzle that he wanted to unravel. "How about I compromise with you?" He released her arm, showing her that he didn't mean her any harm, just like he promised.

Jessenia looked skeptical, not understanding what he meant. "What kind of compromise?" She was almost afraid to ask, hating her curiosity.

"You've been asking me questions and I keep avoiding them." Damon said pointedly, not bothering to deny or hide it. "So for every question I ask you, you can ask me one. And we both have to answer them, no matter what." He was making a lot of deals with this woman, but if that's what it took to gain information, then so be it. "Is that fair?"

This could get very complicated if Jessenia agreed to it because Damon could ask her absolutely anything. Jessenia was a horrible liar too so he would know she wasn't being truthful. Did she really want to get to know Damon Salvatore that badly? Jessenia already answered her own question the second she agreed to spend a whole twenty four hours with him alone.

"Okay."

Damon smiled widely, pleased with her answer and grabbed her hand again, guiding her back down to sit with him in the grass. "Since I'm the dashing gentleman, I'll let you go first." He offered, not releasing her hand.

"So I can ask you anything and you'll answer?"

"Is that a question?" Damon smirked, not able to resist that small jab.

"No, no it's not." Jessenia chewed her bottom lip, trying to decide what question to ask him out of the million that she had. "Why did you bring me out here, Damon?"

Not answering her right away, Damon pulled her with ease to straddle his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist and even kept them above the waist. Jessenia was breathless, everything about Damon consuming her and she couldn't stop it. Her jade eyes completely gave her away and Jessenia knew it, but she couldn't help how she felt. Maybe it was because of the dreams; maybe it was because he hadn't killed her…she didn't know.

"Besides to show you a good time and break your fear of being out of your house, I want to get to know you, Senia." Damon answered truthfully, leaning forward and wasn't surprised when she instantly lowered her head. "I didn't overstep my boundaries by doing this, did I?"

Why did he have to have such a playful voice that sounded incredibly sexy? "It's fine." She cleared her throat, her hands planted on his broad shoulders and Jessenia couldn't help wondering what he was hiding beneath those clothes. "My turn huh?" When he nodded, Jessenia grew even more nervous and blinked when Damon pulled something out of the small bag he took with them. "What is…that…?"

"You're on edge and, if your heart doesn't slow down, you're going to end up in the hospital." Damon stated bluntly, pulling two plastic cups out with a huge bottle of bourbon, one of his favorites. "This will not only help you calm down, but it will also stop me from wanting to bite you."

That got Jessenia's heart beating even faster, her breathing increasing as well. "Oh…"

Vampire, he was a vampire and she was out in the woods with him alone! Was she completely out of her mind? He could drain her dry and get rid of her body; it wouldn't be hard for him to do. She took the plastic cup he handed over to her and could smell how strong the liquid was, not a big drinker. She was still underage too so technically what he wanted her to do was illegal.

Damon could hear her heart rate increase and placed his hand right over it, trying to figure out a way to calm her down. "Drink." He ordered in a whisper, his mouth right by her ear and pulled back to throw back the shot he'd poured himself. "I'm not going to hurt you, Senia. You have to trust me." How many times was he going to have to say that before he finally got bored and just ended up attacking her?

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, lowering her head and set the cup aside, the fear overwhelming her suddenly. "I-I can't help how I feel. I wish I could just trust you, but after what happened, I don't know if I can. You really scared me, Damon. I thought you were going to…kill me."

A few tears slipped down her cheeks and Jessenia felt embarrassed that she was actually breaking down while straddling Damon's lap. Damon frowned, wishing he could compel her to take the memories of what he did away because it would solve this current problem. He was never going to kill her, that was just his subtle way of getting her to spill her secret. Damon supposed he could've been a little nicer about it, but that's not who he was and refused to monitor his behavior.

"Jessenia, look at me." He ordered, raising her chin until her bloodshot eyes met his. "I am not going to hurt you." One thing Damon never did was apologize, but he was doing so right now in his own way. "Now breathe in through the nose and out of the mouth slowly and drink."

Leaning forward, his lips brushed against her tears, tasting the saltiness of them and bit back a groan. Jessenia did what he wanted, grabbed her cup and slowly sipped the liquor, feeling herself slowly start calming down along with her heart. Damon could feel it go back to normal against his palm and nodded, satisfied that she actually listened to him. Maybe this deal wasn't a lost cause after all.

"It's your turn." Damon wasn't taking her question about what was in the bottle seriously, wanting to do this right. "Ask me anything."

"How are you able to walk in the sun?"

Jessenia had asked him that earlier and Damon dodged the question, so she figured it couldn't hurt to ask again. Holding up his left hand, there was a beautiful silver ring with an oval cut dark blue stone, some kind of silver mark on the top with the letter D in the middle of it. It was on his middle finger and looked centuries old, but it fit him and his style perfectly.

"Your ring?"

Damon nodded, watching as she took his hand to get a better look at it. "As long as I have this puppy on, the sun won't burn me."

"But…"

Damon held his finger up, smirking and took another shot of bourbon. "You had your question. It's my turn. Fair is fair." He reminded her smugly, aquamarine eyes twinkling. "So, I know you wanted to come here to meet your dad and everything, but after all that time being away from him, why didn't you just stay in Maryland?"

"I knew this was a mistake…" Jessenia whispered, taking a few deep breaths and looked up when Damon grabbed her wrists, pressing them against his chest. "I can't talk about it. It's too painful…"

"That's why you need to talk about it because keeping it bottled up inside isn't good for you." Damon wasn't backing down this time, seeing how tortured Jessenia was and for some odd reason he actually cared. "Now start talking."

Jessenia could see the sensitivity in his eyes and knew he was right. "My mother…Can I have another shot first?" She suddenly asked, hands trembling slightly.

"Of course." He poured some more bourbon in her cup, watching her carefully because once again her heart was racing.

Jessenia took a long sip this time and looked down at the dark liquid, a few tears falling. "I found out about Logan being my father on her deathbed. She was sick for a long time and…suffered a great deal. She wrote a letter to me and I didn't get it until her funeral." She took another sip, the alcohol making it smoother for her to open up. "She left me here all alone without any answers. She said Logan wanted nothing to do with me and now I'll never know because he's gone."

"Jessenia…"

"I know it wasn't your fault. You didn't turn him into a vampire, I know that. And he had to be stopped from hurting other people." It took several days for Jessenia to come to grips with what happened to her father. "Meredith explained everything to me about what happened and why Alaric killed him. So what did he do to you to make you attack him first?"

"Is that your question?" Damon cleared his throat awkwardly when she nodded. "Well first, he ended up shooting me several times with wooden bullets to try to get information out of me. Didn't work out too well. I'll admit right now, I'm very vengeful when attacked and I wanted to kill him. But I didn't." He explained, probably reiterating what Meredith told her, but the Fell woman didn't know everything and Damon wanted Jessenia to have the whole story. "What did your mother die from?"

"Lung cancer. She smoked for years and got high. Never did hard drugs, just marijuana."

"Ah a pothead as they call it in today's world." Damon joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Jessenia couldn't laugh, not while talking about her mother. "So what exactly happened to make Alaric kill him?" She asked, finishing off the cup of bourbon since Damon only poured the equivalence of two shots in it.

"He ended up kidnapping one of Elena's friends, Caroline, who I was seeing on and off. Logan wanted to turn her into a vampire because he was angry for what happened to him. Luckily, Stefan and I found him, saved Caroline, but he got away. Alaric ended up staking him after standing up for Jenna Gilbert, who was Logan's ex. Logan got pissed and tried attacking Alaric, he was just defending himself." Damon elucidated, leaving out the reason why Logan escaped because he really didn't feel like reliving THAT nightmare again.

"Caroline…" That was the blonde she had befriended recently. "So she's a vampire too." It wasn't a question, the super speed definitely told her the answer.

"She wasn't changed until later, that night she remained human."

"Who changed her?" Jessenia couldn't help asking, nodding when Damon raised a brow at her.

"I fed her my blood to heal her. She got in a bad car accident and ended up with internal bleeding that would've killed her. I…didn't want her to die because she was a friend of Elena's." Damon knew that would probably open up a can of worms, but he wasn't about to lie to her either, not fully anyway.

Jessenia took the bottle of bourbon and poured some more in the cup. "Elena..." Why wasn't she surprised? "You feel something for her, don't you?" It was more of a statement than an actual question.

"My turn." Damon shook his finger at her.

"Technically, you didn't answer my question about who changed Caroline. You said you saved her by giving her your blood, but that doesn't mean you changed her." Jessenia argued swiftly, setting her cup down and decided to slow down a little now that she'd had the awkward dead mother conversation. "So, who did it?" The question about Elena could wait.

"You caught that huh?" She was very observant, which could be problem in the future, but for now Damon would amuse her. "Her name is Katherine Pierce." The same woman that changed him and broke his heart. "Now it's my turn. Have you ever smoked?" He smiled, watching as she let out a huge breath of what sounded like relief.

"No, never wanted to either, not with how much my Mom did." She answered promptly and looked out at the sun setting on the horizon, knowing it would be dark soon. "Before we go further with this, you do realize it's going to be dark in about an hour or so, right? And no, that is not my question for our deal."

"Yes I'm aware." Damon tilted his head slightly, noting the concern in her tone of voice. "Scared to be alone with me in the dark?"

Busying herself with drinking more bourbon, Jessenia contemplated that because, the truth was, half of her did and the other half didn't. "Bad things happen in the dark, Damon." She settled with that, hoping it didn't anger him.

If anything, Damon was amused. "Then you have a choice to make." With ease, Damon stood up from the grass, forcing Jessenia to instinctively wrap her legs around his waist since she'd been straddling him, holding her close. "We can either stay out here and I'll build a fire…" He dipped his head, putting his mouth by her ear. "Or go back to my house to continue this." Pulling back, Damon locked eyes with her, knowing her mind was probably going a million miles a minute, possibly even a second. "Now choose."