***Hello me fellow readers J so sorry it took this long to get this chapter up, as you can tell it's longer. I worked real hard on this chapter, wrote it a couple of times before I got the right emotion. This is a really intense chapter be forewarned- mention of incest/rape! I don't own Vampire Diaries, belongs to Harper Teen publishing and Lisa Jane Smith. Since she no longer has the right to write it, Fell Church will live on in her fans' works!

Chapter 8

Prince walked along a long dirt country road. It was close to midnight and she had just come back from an unsatisfying hunt. There were so many distractions, feeding seems least important to her now. She will go out to the city, her favorite place to be, and wait for the right moment to strike, but not tonight. Tonight her head was to swollen with voices. Not her own, of course, that's what was so bone chilling about this night. The eleven people she called her family were now tormenting her with how close they were getting. And she had to admit it that she was frightened. It was a fear that had been hiding deep inside her tiny body for as long as she could remember. It had now surfaced to its full potency. The fear was the true death. Not her own but the death of her reason for coming to America. The name tugged at her heart, yet she refused to say it.

Just then a loud cry of a crow soared above her head; she looked up to see in the Damon Salvatore in the dark. The fear tugged again as she walked closer to him.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Tempy" Damon said in his usual cool yet cold tone, skillfully flashing his eyes at Prince; that always made her heart skip a beat.

"What the hell are you doing here, and don't call me that!" She snapped at the man twice her size and shuffled around him.

Damon turned around, not letting her rudeness ruin his plan. Smiling, he caught up with her easily.

"I'm here because I wanted to talk to you about something."

Prince ignored him and continued to walk up the dirt drive way. Damon noticed then that her face was somewhat distracted, and her eyes were glossy with hunger.

"You don't look well, have you been feeding daily?" Damon questioned looking down at her.

"Oh Damon please don't parent me," Prince breathed, shaking her head as they rounded the corner.

"I'm parenting? I'm simply asking a question as a very experienced vampire. I know malnourishment when I see it. I do live with my brother." Damon said, his composure calm and concerned.

"Well Stefan is a pussy of a vampire-"Prince began to insult.

"Hey, I'm the only one who can say that about Stefan." Damon's tone gave way into his wavering composure. "You have such a way with words for a little girl." Damon shook his head.

"I'm not a little girl!" Prince fumed, jumping in front of Damon.

Prince stood before Damon, her brows furrowing, fists balled up at her sides, and her red lips, that seemed almost black by the moon light, puckered. Damon had to admit her stance wasn't threatening. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she was just a twelve-year-old human girl. Then her face grew softer as he continued to stare at her, before him her eyes and lips gained five-years. He wanted to say how beautiful he thought she was; how she seemed to glow for him. Instead this came through his teeth before he could catch them.

"How tall are you, four-foot eight?"

Prince's softened expression turned grim, her lips curled and Damon caught a glimpse at her rounded, deadly canines. The image of her being innocent and twelve vanished in an instant, she was now a fierce vampire with a human half. Damon couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated, but then the crush of her power brushed him lightly. Just a light touch and he felt he had been pushed in the stomach. Not caving into her power, he waited until she had retreated. "Why hadn't I given her a blow back?" Damon questioned, but when he thought about the action it tugged in a painful way at his heart.

"Who can't fight back?" Prince mocked. "And I'm four-foot ten!"

Damon stood straight up again before he spoke. "I don't hit girls," he said simply.

"Is that so?" Prince snickered putting her hands on her hips.

"It's just not how I was raised."

"Good answer." Prince gave him a sly smile and turned on her heels to walk up to the run down farm house they were now standing in front of.

Damon paid its rotting wood and depressing look no attention; instead he walked up behind Prince towering over her.

"You know for a young Italian girl, you are very rude and hateful. I wonder is it that the fact that you had no proper up bringing, or my blood," said Damon whole-heartedly.

Prince's body went tense as a whole and jumped around to face his pale face and dark eyes, which were illuminated by the bright porch light. Her lips were trembling in shock; her grey-blue eyes were staring a hole into him, he wasn't bluffing.

"Oh yes I remember, quite vividly in fact," Damon said clearly, lowering his head. His voice grew quieter, yet smoother.

"What?" Prince whispered incredulity.

Damon closed the gap between them, their chests pressing together. Prince tried to conceal the redness of her cheeks, but there was no room to turn her head away. He smirked as he continued to speak.

"I feel so dumb for not seeing it before. The way my body screamed around you, I should have known then. Our blood is connected and it's because of me. Not only that you're faster and stronger, your auburn hair is redder then I remember." Damon ran his fingers through her hair; Prince didn't flinch away. "Your eyes are grayer. You look younger then you should, and you're too perfect to be half human." Damon finished his speech with his forehead resting on hers staring into her grey orbs.

"Maybe that's why you think you're in love with me, I mean you've gone so long without it," Prince's voice trembled as she lost her train of thought. Her heart was skipping beats as she continued to look at his eyes and lips.

The blow of doubt hit hard, but Damon quickly recovered.

"You think just because I saved your life by sharing my own with you it made me fall in love with you? I'm somewhat insulted by this, Temperance. I don't know exactly why I didn't remember you in these ten years, but I always knew there was someone, whom I've met, that was important to remember. It was in the back of my mind."

"Damon, you don't know the severity of what you're telling me. I'm sorry I shared the word with you but this isn't one of the life time soap operas, you share your feelings and then get the girl that makes your heart sing? It doesn't work that way!" whimpered Prince.

"Why can't it? Is it your brothers? Your sisters? I'll kill them for all the things they've done to you," Damon said coldly.

With tears on the lid of her eyes, she tried to speak. "Damon just let it go, please. You're not going to like what you'll find if you continue like this, loving me. It will only get you killed in the end."

Prince had her hand on the door handle, looking away from him with much effort as the tears fell. Damon put his warm hands on her cheeks trying to get her to look at him, but she was fighting him with her eyes closed.

"Prince please, I don't understand why you cry like this. Prince please tell me why." Damon pleaded.

"It's because of me." A voice Damon hadn't heard in ten years spoke from three yards behind him, he hadn't felt his approach.

Prince stiffened; gaining her role as a Huntora back. She switched places with Damon, pushing him to the door and pulling out a .357 revolver at her oldest brother Fortunato Huntora.

"Nice gun, sis. Where have you been hiding it? Cause when I hit you with my car, you had not a single weapon." Fortunato mocked, waving his pointer finger in a scolding manner back a forth clicking his teeth. "Very sloppy, Temperance. Very sloppy indeed."

Prince didn't falter, choking on her fear as she faced the cause of her misery.

"What do you want, Fortunato?" Prince spoke his name with venom.

"Oh to answer your boyfriend's question is all." Fortunato took five steps forward and Prince clicked the safety off.

"Silver bullets, they explode with they enter your body. If I hit your heart you'll never heal and die- slowly." Prince voice was full of venom and hate now.

Fortunato's gray eyes flowed like liquid silver, burning with as much fire as his sister's. Swiftly, he turned his own weapon at her; a gothic style crossbow loaded with a wooden arrow, glistening in the moonlight was a silver arrow head. Yet Prince did not let the venom slip away from her voice.

"Hm, a crossbow, I'm impressed brother," said Prince sarcastically.

"But I didn't come here to torment you, as much fun as that would be, I have other motives." Fortunato grew nearer.

Prince pointed the gun at his knee. "One more step and you'll be crawling back to Natalie and Drew," she threatened.

Fortunato stopped where he was not far from the porch.

"I do have a crossbow," Fortunato mused, waving it.

"Then I'll shoot your knees and cut your eyes out," Prince said without any expression at all; she then pulled out a five-inch long silver dagger with gold and jeweled handle. "Try me."

"Then I'll get out with it. I came here to speak with Damon if you don't mind."

"Yes, I do mind." Prince didn't move away from Damon.

"Prince," Damon called her name tenderly, putting his hand on her shoulder gently and moving her to right to stand her next to him before she could argue.

"Say your peace then leave my territory," Damon said coldly.

"Oh this is your territory? Well then I best then." Not sounding concerned of the illegal intrusion, Fortunato went on with his mimicry. "You see Damon I'm the reason life for my little sister will never have an easy life, let alone love. Do you think just because you're four-hundred years older than me you can love her? Nothing is that easy, Damon, not as long as I live."

Damon was confused by this, what did he mean not as long he was alive?

"Oh so don't know as much about Huntora's as you let your brother to believe!" Fortunato laughed.

"How do you know of what I've said to him?" Damon said getting defensive.

"I know everything." Fortunato flicked his liquid silver eyes toward his nearly identical sister.

Damon, seeing the eye contact, reached for Prince and yanked her behind him with more force than intended. Not bothering to argue, she placed her revolver so it was still facing Fortunato. Damon didn't like where this conversation was going.

"You see, Damon. Huntora's inter-marry. The girl your hiding was to be my bride."

By this information Damon felt appalled; his dark eyes grew wide with disgust.

"I know, I know incest is 'wrong' but if we don't, our kind will die off. Vampires are of course sterile and human men and women don't possess the gene for the offspring to be born a Huntora; it's a science really."

Damon was too horrified to respond, to which Fortunato went on.

"So our father arranged us, like he has done many time before. Then you come along and safe her life. I was going to get another bride that part didn't bother me much, but you saved her." Fortunato beamed the last sentence and began to pace. "You saved her by giving her your blood, which is the biggest don't in the book. So now she isn't even a Huntora anymore! Her genes have altered to being closer to vampires. With that being said she is completely useless to me by this point, which infuriates me. Cause I can't get a fertile wife unless she is dead, our culture is so old fashioned. Now comes your part. Because you saved her life, she influenced you to forget, which worked up until now. And now you have the audacity to fall in love with her! As if that weren't bad enough she has always loved you. Would do anything for you, the only reason why she gets the beating she does is because she's in loves you. You do know that right? She is alive because she fights back so hard all because she loves you so much. she even thinks you-"

BANG!

Fortunato crashed down to the grass screaming in agony, clutching his shattered knee cap. Damon turned his head to face Prince, who was panting, tears falling down her cheeks.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH! Si cagna I'm andando a cazzo ti ammazzo! Adominato! marmocchio, burbante! figlio d'un cane!" Fortunato went on to insult.

Damon, driven to the point of hostility, crouched and launched himself onto Fortunato, pinning him to the ground. He clasped his hand tightly around Fortunato's throat, their fangs fully extended.

"How dare you insult a lady like that, especially my lady," Damon spat close to Fortunato's face tightening his grip on his throat, Fortunato was beginning to gasp for breath.

"You're worthless, you sick fuck! I should rip your throat out right now. Or maybe I should kill you with your own weapon shooting you in the eyes, then your heart; I'll even rip it out myself to make sure you die. I don't know what kind of pedestal you think you're on that gives you the right to beat up your little sister almost to the point of death, but you better find other one to perch yourself on cause I'll end you the next time you threaten Prince. Or any other of those people she calls family," Damon rebuked sinisterly.

Fortunato, despite the lack of oxygen, began to laugh.

"You two are so much alike it makes me so sick I could spit at you." Fortunato laughed. "But Damon, you say I've beat her to the point of death, I've done a lot worse than that, man," Fortunato said in an airy voice, still chuckling.

With pure hot rage, Damon increased the pressure of his hand. And with a sickening snap, Fortunato's neck broke under the pressure. Dark thick blood like burgundy corn syrup rushed out his open mouth and he lay limp.

Damon stood up rage still pumping hot through his veins. Remembering where he was he turned back to Prince on the porch. As he grew nearer to her he pulled her into his arms and soothingly petted her dark ruby hair. The smell of her winter orchid scented hair began to smooth out his rage. Prince was crying silently, letting herself be held by Damon's warm embrace. Slowly she deposited the gun and knife back into their proper holders and moved her arms behind his leather jacket so they were locked around stomach, her head barley reaching his upper chest.

"He won't be happy when he finally wakes up; we better get going before Natalie or the others come," Prince said in a tired voice.

Damon nodded. Not saying a word, they were gone in the blink of an eye.

***************Footnotes: Si cagna I'm andando a cazzo ti ammazzo (you bitch I'm going to kill you). Adominato (filth), marmocchio (brat), burbante (Rascal/rogue), figlio d'un cane (Son of a bitch)

Please review; I really want your feedback. I plan on changing the title to "Winter Orchids" since, when I put up this story, I didn't have a title for it. So don't freak when you can't find it. Stay tuned for chapter 9, that is if you want to see what becomes of Damon and Prince. *wink*