Chapter Fifteen

When Ella woke up there was sun streaming through her bedroom window, filling the room with its bright light. It took a few moments for the previous night's events to catch up to her. When they did she sat straight up in bed, a gasp caught in her throat. Ella's heart pounded against her chest as panic overtook her, her frightened eyes flew to the window again; she half expected to see the same eyes she'd seen earlier, watching her through the glass.

"Don't worry," a voice spoke from the other side of the room. "You're safe."

Ella's head whipped around quickly, her heart leaping into her throat. She was relieved however to find that it had been Damon who had spoken. He was sitting in the chair in the corner, wearing the same clothes he had been when Ella had gone to bed. A guitar lay across his lap, Ella's eyes narrowed when she saw it.

"What are you doing with that?" she asked, her relief at his presence evaporating.

Damon shrugged. "I was just looking at it. I didn't peg you for the guitar playing type."

Throwing back her quilt, Ella got out of bed; she was standing in front of Damon in three strides and snatched the guitar out of his hands. "Don't touch it."

"I'm sorry," Damon said as Ella returned the guitar to its place in the corner of her room.

Ella sighed. "I'm sorry too. The guitar is my mother's; I learned to play because she used to play. She would sing me to sleep with that guitar when I was little, before she...died. Playing the guitar is how I remember her."

"I didn't know."

"I know and it's all right. You can go home now Damon. Its daylight I don't think I need to be protected anymore."

"I'm not leaving," Damon shook his head. "I told you I'd help you figure this thing out and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Why?" Ella whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Honestly?" he asked. Ella nodded. "I don't know, I just feel like I need to help you. Part of me feels like I know you, that I owe you something."

"You don't owe me anything Damon."

"I know," he nodded slowly. "But I'm going to help you anyway. We'll figure out how you can control your abilities and I'll teach you how to protect yourself."

"Thank you," Ella smiled slightly at her unlikely saviour. "Now you need to get out."

"What?"

"So I can get changed you goof," Ella laughed. Her laugh was sweet and soft and it filled Damon with a strange joy. He always wanted her to be like that, innocent and happy and that scared him.

When he had told her he wanted to help her he wasn't lying, but it wasn't a completely selfless act. He wanted to find out why it was that he felt so drawn to her, so protective of her. The only way he knew how to do that was to get close to her, maybe then he'd be able to figure it out.

A short while later, once Ella was showered and changed she and Damon left her house. They drove in silence for a while, Damon had insisted on driving even though it was Ella's car, before Ella couldn't take the silence any longer.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The Grill," he answered.

Ella frowned. "Will it even be open yet?"

"It'll be opening soon," he explained. "Until it opens I thought we could just sit in the square, it shouldn't be too busy at this time and it'd be a good place for you to practice."

"Oh!" Ella suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" Damon asked, his glance darting about, looking for whatever had startled the young woman.

"I was supposed to meet Jeremy at The Grill today," Ella explained.

Damon was silent for a beat before he asked; "You like him, don't you?"

"That's none of your business," Ella snapped, flushing scarlet.

"Maybe not, but there's something you should know," he explained. "It's one of the few things I know about the Fae."

"All right," she sighed, not liking the tone of his voice. It implied that she wasn't going to like what he said. "What is it?"

"Do you know what imprinting is?"

"Like in Twilight?"

"For lack of a better example yes," Damon rolled his eyes.

"Is that what's happening between me and Jeremy?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"From what I've witnessed, it's in its early stages, but yes. At this stage you still have the ability to stop it from happening. You need to understand something Ella, when a Fae falls in love it's for life. There's no going back. If you fall in love with Jeremy then that's it, you will be in love with him until the day you die."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily," Damon answered. "It can be an amazing thing if the feeling is reciprocated. If the object of your desire feels the same way it will be the most incredible thing you will ever witness or feel."

"But?"

"If the feeling isn't mutual or if something happens to the person you love or they break your heart in any way it can have a devastating affect on a Fae."

"What kind of an affect?" Ella asked, suddenly scared.

"I don't know," Damon shrugged. "That's all I know, but I know that you will never get over the person you love."

Ella lapsed into silence, she wouldn't admit it to Damon but she had the feeling that it was too late. She knew that she had told Jeremy she liked him, but she knew that it was much deeper than that, there was no turning back for her now. Jeremy however still had his free will, she wouldn't force this imprinting thing on him, it wasn't fair.

Even if it meant that her heart would always be broken she would distance herself from Jeremy. Whether or not he loved her had to be a decision he had to make on his own no matter the consequences for her.

TBC...