Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries. I wish I owned Damon, he's just so HAWT! Or at least Paul Wesley. I do, however, own this story and all the original characters that will appear in it as the story goes on. Thank you.
Author's Notes: Sorry for the pause everyone, I was suffering from some serious writers block. Thanks for the reviews! I read one that said that Damon wasn't quite as sarcastic as he should be, so I will definitely work on that. If he doesn't get at least 10% more sarcastic, than I guess sarcasm isn't really my thing and I apologize. Enjoy the chapter though, and I hope that everyone likes it!
Chapter 9- Recovery
The first thing that Dani saw was the dwindling fire place. Her vision was a bit blurry, so she blinked a few times to focus her sight. She felt sore all over her body and it took a moment to remember why she was feeling that way.
Gasping in fright she bolted up only to be stopped by a pair of arms that held her in place. Panicked, she started thrashing and hitting against whoever was holding her down. "Let go of me! No! Let go you-"
"Dani, Dani stop! Dani, it's me! It's Damon!"
Panting, Dani looked up into Damon's bright blue eyes. Suddenly, she started to cry great heaving sobs as she grabbed onto him. "Damon…Oh God…He tried to…I killed…Damon!"
Damon held Dani close as she cried. He rocked her back and forth, glancing over at the dead body of Mr. Zena. He would get the story from her later, but before that…
Damon tipped Dani's tear stained face up to his, looking in her eyes. "Dani, I know that you've been through a lot, but I need you do something for me." He raised his slashed wrist up to her face. "Dani, I need you to drink my blood."
Confused and a little disgusted, Dani shook her head. "What are you saying Damon? I…you…I can't! Why would you…"
"Dani, I know that this is confusing, but I need you to drink the blood. You've lost too much already. You won't make it to the hospital. Please Dani, drink the blood."
Dani pushed his arm away. "Damon, no…"
Growing impatient, Damon caught Dani's face between his hands. Staring into her eyes, Damon said, "Dani, do you trust me?"
Silent, Dani stared into Damon's eyes for a moment. She saw a mixture of things that she couldn't name, but she knew that without a doubt that he wasn't trying to hurt her. So, she nodded.
"Good. Now drink."
Dani looked at the gaping wound on Damon's wrist. She hesitated for a second before putting her mouth around the wound. She almost gagged as the coppery taste of blood entered her mouth. She swallowed a few mouthfuls before the taste got better. Her head started to buzz and her body seemed to hum as she continued to drink. After a few minutes, Damon gently pulled his arm away from Dani, both of them panting slightly from the exchange.
Wiping her mouth with a shaking hand, Dani glanced at Damon. He leaned back against the wall, looking at her. "Feeling better?"
Surprised, Dani felt that she did feel better. "Yeah. What did you do to me?"
Damon sighed. "It's a long story."
"You're a vampire?"
Damon nodded as he took another sip of his beer. Dani was sitting against the wall beside him, her untouched bottle in front of her. "But you can walk in sunlight."
Damon held up his hand and waggled the finger sporting a ring with a lapis lazuli gem on it.
Dani looked between him and the ring, her face blank. "That's a nice ring and everything Damon, but sunlight? Can we get back to that?"
Sighing, Damon explained, "This ring allows me to walk in sunlight. A witch cast a spell on it a long time ago, and the spell protects me when I'm out in sunlight."
"That way, people have a harder time believing that you're a vampire, right?"
Damon nodded. "That's right. And it sooo much fun keeping people guessing." He said, flashing her a wicked smile.
Dani chuckled. After Damon had given her some of his blood, he made her sit against the wall while he went about cleaning up. That is, cleaning up Mr. Zena. He had picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder, as if he didn't weigh a thing to Damon. Where he put the body, Dani didn't know, and she didn't want to know.
After coming back to the sitting room, Damon rolled up the rug that had been stained by Zena's blood and moved that out of the room as well. While he cleaned, he told Dani about what and who he was. Dani had listened quietly, unable to interrupt since it seemed like she had trouble talking. Damon was a vampire! A vampire! It was so outlandish, and unbelievable, and…fantastic!
She never thought that she'd meet anyone like Damon. She always thought that the world was made up of more than science, or religion, or manmade objects, and now she was sitting in a room with an actual vampire!
She sat there in stunned silence while Damon mopped the floor and brought her a beer. He had discarded his shirt a while ago, being that it had soaked up some blood from Mr. Zena. Dani didn't notice howeve,r since her mind was too rattled by Mr. Zena's attack and Damon's coming out of the coffin.
"Ok, so how old are you?" Dani asked, continuing the questioning.
"Why do you need to know? Do you go for older men Dani?" He waggled his eyebrows playfully.
Dani blushed, and slapped him on the chest lightly. This was around the same time that she noticed that Damon was shirtless, which made her blush harder. Damon grinned, and caught her hand before she had a chance to pull away. He placed it right above his non-beating heart, leaning close to whisper in Dani's ear.
"What's wrong Dani? I can hear your heart pounding in your chest, which is making all that blood rush up into your pretty face."
Damon caught Dani's brown eyes with his blue ones and held them. Dani couldn't seem to look away from him. She had a vision of herself as a mouse who was being hypnotized by a dangerous snake, lulled into a false sense of security before the snake ate her. If it were possible, she blushed harder at the thought of Damon 'eating' her, sucking blood or otherwise.
Damon crowded her with his body as he stretched over her, his lips skimming her skin from her ear to her cheek. Dani shivered as she became aware of Damon's mouth getting closer to her own.
Her breath came short in her chest. "Damon…"
"Shh. For once Dani, just shut up."
His head came closer to hers, his lips hovering above hers. She felt the brush of his soft lips touch her when the door banged open. Dani jumped and rammed her face into Damon's in the process. Her forehead banged against his and her mouth crashed into his, her lower lip coming up to meet his teeth. She cried out in surprise and pain as her lip was cut open.
"Damon! Dani?" Stephen's voice called out from the front of the house.
Damon cursed, and for a moment it looked like his eyes went red around the edges, but it quickly disappeared. He smirked down at Dani. "Just like a little brother huh? Interrupting big bro while he's getting lucky. I'm going to have to noogie him for this, and I'll have to throw in an Indian Burn while I'm at it." He noticed the blood on Dani's lip. He lifted his hand and wiped it away from her lip with his thumb.
Dani watched as he raised his hand to his face, and locking his eyes on hers, sucked his thumb into his mouth. He moaned lightly as he sucked Dani's blood off of his finger. He saw Dani watching him and grinned as he removed his thumb from his mouth.
He leaned in close once more and kissed her lightly on the lips. He pulled back a bit to whisper, "We'll continue this later," and stood up. He pulled Dani up with him and turned towards the sitting room entrance to welcome his brother.
Stephen walked in a second later and took in the scene in front of him. Shirtless Damon: check. Dishelved, blushing, innocent girl Damon was taking advantage of: check.
"Will you please put a shirt on?"
"Why? Jealous of my far superior appearance Stephen?" Smirking, he continued, "You shouldn't be you know. Girls love the whole 'I'm sensitive' bit. Sure, I'm more fun, and good looking, and older, and better in every way, but when it comes to sensitivity Stephen, you have it nailed."
Stephen tapped his foot against the floor. "Are you done?"
"No I have one more, just a minute." Damon cleared his throat. "The neighbors called, and they were wondering where their dog, Mr. Jiggles had gone. Since I don't eat mongrel, I thought I'd ask you."
Stephen sighed, deciding to ignore Damon as he looked at Dani. "Are you alright?"
Dani nodded. "Yes, thank you. I was in a bit of trouble earlier, but I'm all right now."
"Mind telling me about it while Mr. Abercrombie and Fitch finds something to wear?"
"So you admit that I have a hot bod, huh?"
"Shut up Damon."
Dani told them what had happened after Damon got fully dressed. She recounted how she came in the house, went to the kitchen and found Mr. Zena there. She told them how he had received a call from his 'employer' right before he attacked her. She didn't remember much after that, which she figured was because of the adrenaline rush and fear.
Stephen asked her if she remembered anything significant that Mr. Zena had said before he attacked her.
"Well, before he took the phone call, we weren't talking about much, just that he was working during a town holiday. Then he got the call, and when he hung up, I asked who it was, cause it was after twelve and I was wondering who would be calling so late. He said that it was his employer, which was odd to me cause I knew that he owned his own law firm, you know? Anyway, he said that it was his employer for his other job. I asked what he did at this 'other job'. He said that he was a spy."
Stephen glanced at Damon. "Did he say what, or who he was spying on?"
Dani nodded. "Yeah. He said that he had been sent to spy on Damon."
"Did he say why?"
"He did, but…Jeez, what did he say?" Dani thought for a moment before she remembered. "Oh yeah, he said that his employer wanted to keep an eye on him and… to make sure that Damon knew where his loyalties lied. He also said that his employer wasn't too happy with what he had been reporting."
"Did he say anything about spying on me or Elena maybe?" Stephen asked.
Dani thought, but shook her head. "No, he just said that he was sent to spy on Damon. He didn't say anything about anyone else."
"Hmm," Stephen mused. "Ok, and what happened after that?"
"Well, he got up from the table and walked to the counter. He was talking about how his employer wanted something done, and then picked up and knife, and said that she wanted him to kill me."
Stephen's head snapped up. "She? Dani, did he say that his employer was female?"
Dani nodded. "Yes. He didn't say much after that because he attacked me, and I kil…I ki…He died."
Damon noticed that Dani's hands were shaking, so he took her hands in his and squeezed them reassuringly. Dani smiled at him gratefully.
Stephen got up and paced the length of the sitting room a few times, processing the information that he had learned from Dani. There was no doubt that Katherine was the one who had sent Mr. Zena as a spy, but why would she only be interested in Damon? Why not both of them, like last time? Then again, she had been alive and free for the whole period of time that they had been alive. She had known where they were, and could have contacted either at any point.
He looked over at the couch, where Dani and Damon were sitting. Damon was holding Dani's hands in his and was whispering words of reassurance to her, telling her that everything was alright and that he wouldn't let anything hurt her. Dani was looking up at him with a look that he had seen on Elena's face many times before. It was a mixture of trust, faith and… love. Dani loved his brother, and from the way that Damon was looking at her, he wasn't too far off himself.
Suddenly, it dawned on him. Why Katherine had killed Jon, why she had sent someone to spy on Damon, why she had ordered Dani's murder.
"Damon."
Damon looked away from Dani to his brother.
"Damon, come with me to the hall for a minute. We need to discuss something."
Damon followed Stephen out of the sitting room, telling Dani to stay put and that he'd be back in a bit.
When he was sure that they were far enough away from the sitting room, Stephen turned to Damon and said in a low voice, "I know what Katherine's after."
"What?"
"You."
Damon blinked at him. "Well, isn't everyone?"
"Dammit Damon, this isn't a joke. It explains everything! Look, she killed Jon because he was a threat to you and he tried to kill you. She sent a human spy to keep tags on you, to see if you had changed from when she last knew you. He tried to have Dani murdered because she probably knew that you cared for her."
Damon frowned. "You can tell that?"
Stephen looked at his brother for a second, bewildered. Damon's frown deepened. "What the hell do you look so surprised for?"
"You didn't deny it."
"What?"
"You didn't deny that you cared for Dani. Usually you'd give me some sort of snarky remark or sarcastic comment. Never would you actually admit it." He suddenly grinned. "I can't believe that I lived to see the day that Damon Salvatore would genuinely care for someone other than himself."
Damon grimaced. "Please tell me that we're not about to have a 7th Heaven moment, cause if we are, I will give you such a noogie that your hair will actually burn off."
Stephen just grinned at him. Damon slapped him lightly across the face, trying to dislodge the idiotic grin.
"Damon has a girlfriend, Damon has a girlfriend…"
Snorting, Damon turned away from Stephen, hiding the smile that graced his handsome face as he made his way back to the sitting room and back to Dani.
