Ten minutes later Bonnie's heart jumped as she felt Damon's presence outside her apartment. Indecision ran rampant in her mind as a gentle tapping rang out. Tapping at my chamber door She thought, thinking absurdly of Edgar Allen Poe. She walked to the window and hesitated. The large crow perched outside. Steeling herself, she opened the window.
"Come in," she muttered in a choked voice as she stepped back. With a flap of rainbow coloured wings the bird flew in, landing on her couch. She watched in amazement as its shape blurred and transformed into the sleek vampire that despite his casual appearance lounging on the couch still look and more importantly felt dangerous.
Damon smirked and gracefully lifted himself from the couch and moved towards her. No, moved wasn't the right word for that. He stalked towards her. Bonnie felt the fear course through her as much as it had when he had pinned her to that wall in the alley. She also felt the arousal. Damon chuckled slightly.
"We need to talk." Bonnie said, fighting her body's natural fear of the predator and her arousal for the man in front of her. She didn't know where that errant thought had come from but the more she thought about it, the more she realised it was true. She may be afraid of what Damon could do and what he had done and undoubtedly what he would do again. She tried to ignore the part of her mind that whispered to her that she had liked his fangs against her neck, that she had enjoyed the way he could have done anything to her and she would have been absolutely helpless. Yet in spite of that she also found that below that she could see the man behind the vampire. It was the man she was attracted to she reasoned. After all it had been the man that rescued them from Kalus in the end and it had been the man that had kissed her at that party and the man that had kissed her in the alley – though to be truthful she hadn't been at all objecting to the vampire that had let his fangs graze across her neck.
Damon chuckled again. "Are you sure about that? I could kill you now." He said as he grabbed her roughly by her red curls. Bonnie let out a surprised yelp as she was pulled against Damon's chest. She noted however that Damon wasn't truly trying to hurt her. Yes, he had her head at an awkward angle and her heart was pounding in her chest as she realised that his teeth were sharp against her jugular. She noted how his grip on her hair was deliberately light, not pulling any of her hair out or even restraining her much. "Or I could kill you in your sleep" He smiled cruelly "you have after all given me an invitation."
Bonnie stood slowly meeting Damon straight in the eyes. "You wouldn't though." Bonnie stated proud that her voice was steady. Damon however smirked.
*****
Grabbing the girl he now watched had not been at all part of his overall plan, but it had highlighted – and rather interestingly so, what he had heard from skimming her thoughts. She had yelped when he grabbed her – which was only to be expected but he was sure her heart had not been pounding in fear as his teeth toughed down on her jugular.
"You're probably right." Damon conceded before adding "you're much more fun when you're alive." Surprisingly, Bonnie took a daring step towards him.
"I said we needed to talk. We do. I'm not afraid of you, Damon." Bonnie said, continuing to surprise him.
"Really?" He asked, "Because your heart pounding and jumping all over the place whenever I get near says differently. Damon said, smiling to himself as he backed Bonnie into admitting her thoughts about him. Bonnie blushed, teasing him a little more as the smell intensified as her checks heated with blood.
"I-I-it wasn't fear. I trust you. If I didn't you wouldn't be here right now. I know you wouldn't kill me – hurt me, maybe. But not kill me" Bonnie started. Damon knew she wanted to continue and so he backed off slightly taking two full steps back. "I think I... I think I like you." Bonnie finished looking away from him. This again took Damon by surprise. Bonnie had always been the emotional one but to openly admit that she liked him... He took one step closer to her and stopped waiting for her response. She looked up into his eyes taking the remaining towards him.
Damon leaned down, thinking all the while he was acting more like St. Stephan with every passing moment. Their lips met briefly, tenderly. He pulled away quickly turning for the window. He couldn't, just couldn't let himself become like St. Stephan. He was a creature of the night – not only that but he owned the night. Just because Bonnie was mistakenly in love with him did not mean that as he, king of the night – the only vampire in known existence to not only able to manipulate the weather where he was, but could transform into three different animals. Although it was true that the third one was only a lower form of his wolf – a normal fairly large dog, but occasionally it was fun to be able beg his way into his victims' home...
*****
Bonnie stepped towards Damon closing the distance he had deliberately created and found herself being kissed gently and... If she didn't know differently, tenderly by the same sensual mouth that had threatened her only moments before. Another nagging thought told her that that mouth had also probably killed earlier as well. She pushed the thought brutally out of her mind. He didn't need to kill... This time her thoughts were cut off by the sudden loss of contact as Damon spun and moved almost too quickly towards the window, shape blurring as he flung himself out of it.
Bonnie stared after him in confusion. She had thought that perhaps she had penetrated all of his defences. Once again her traitorous mind told her that it wasn't a defence that she had to penetrate – it was his very nature she had to penetrate. She shook herself as the form of a crow disappeared into the night sky.
Leaving the window open hopefully – she tried not to shiver at how cold it would be in the morning; Bonnie walked slowly to her room, dried her hair and all together just got ready for bed. As she slid between the covers she realised just how late it was. Overcome by exhaustion both physical and mental, she fell into a deep sleep.
When her alarm went off the next morning, Bonnie still felt tired but she knew she had to drag herself out of bed for work. She went through her morning routine of Cleaning, eating and showering before sitting in front of her vanity. As she brushed her hair, her fingers grazed over a small scab on her neck. Carefully she pulled her shoulder length red hair back from her neck. Staring at her in stark contrast to her usually pale skin were two precision scabs just over a centimetre apart. Bonnie let out a strangled cry, realising that while she had slept, Damon had stolen from her and yet left her completely unharmed – she didn't even feel slightly dizzy. Her neck was slightly tender, but she was physically fine.
Brushing her hair out, she let it hang straight, her fringe framing her face on one side easing gently into layered sheets that effectively hid the marks. Bonnie shivered as she shit the window and proceeded to lock the house before work. As she turned from locking the door, she felt it. He was watching her again but looking around she saw only the normal Jackdaws and Sparrows in the trees. No crows and no wolves on the street. Still, she knew he was around somewhere.
The walk to work was uneventful but as soon as she walked into her office it seemed she was swamped with new information. Normally she was able to enjoy a quiet few minutes before someone on her team needed her to authorise some test or they had new information that they needed her to approve before they could release it to the families affected. Not today though. Today as soon as she walked through that door, she had an entourage of people following her. Finally, annoyed she asked for quiet and got it immediately. Scanning the crowd around her she picked out Andrew – head of the lab side of things.
"What happened – robbery, missing kid, murder?" She asked him listing their most common dealings in ascending order.
"Murder, Miss." He said. She hated it when they called her Miss. Unfortunately it came with the job. Bonnie turned to look for the coroner, knowing he would be waiting to tell her all the gory details.
"Girl in her early twenties. She was found in a back alley behind the 'Sunshine' dance bar early this morning. "Slit throat, skin under her nails but no defensive marks." He said catching her look. Bonnie sighed. There were few people who slit the throats of their victims and left them otherwise unmolested. However mostly they were crimes of passion. Bonnie efficiently delegated her team to do various field jobs before she set to work on the mound of paper work that had come with the case.
