Chapter six

"I've got the salt skin."- Salt Skin by Ellie Goulding

Kingston, New York

Eleven months ago

"Who is Kyra with?"

Charlie's eyes snapped up to see one of her friends, Kyra, with her tongue in a familiar man's mouth. Charlie frowned, Kyra was a little loose when it came to sleeping with men.

"I don't know, but he's hot." Bridget said, eying up the man. Trina brushed a black curl out of her face, as she checked out Kyra's new boy toy.

"I think he was dating Brenna Louis about a week ago." Trina said, as she sipped her drink.

"Isn't Brenna missing?" Bridget asked.

"Exactly." Trina said, and Charlie rolled her eyes. she loved Trina, but she was suspicious of everything and everybody. Her parents were conspiracy theorists and that trait got passed down to her.

"That's Damon Salvatore. He was flirting with me at the bar about a month ago." Charlie said, as she sipped her drink.

"Well, when Kyra throws him aside, I think I'm going to take a crack at him." Bridget said with a smirk.

Charlie watched Damon again, frowning slightly. She had had only a few brief conversations with him, but he seemed like the kind of guy who broke hearts. She looked away, and stood up.

"I'll be right back." she told her friends, standing up. Charlie walked over to the bar and ordered another drink.

"Hello again, Charlie."

She didn't look up, as Damon smirked at her. "Hey, Damon." she said, as she paid for her drink.

Charlie looked up, and her hazel eyes met his ice blue ones. Charlie was frozen for a second, at how shattered he looked. but when she blinked, it was gone.

"Who broke your heart?" she whispered, her eyebrows furrowed.

Damon raised an eyebrow at her. "Excuse me?"

She shook her head, and grabbed her drink. "Nothing, forget I said anything."

Damon watched as Charlie walked back to her friends. There was something about her, he just didn't know what it was. he couldn't describe it at all, if it was good or bad. He only knew that Charlie Mathews was very different.

"Your place or mine, Damon?"

Damon looked at the sexy red head he had been making out with. Kyra, he thought her name was. "Mine." he smirked at her, before following her out of the bar. Just like three girls before her, Damon planned to feed on Kyra. he wasn't going to kill her- like he had with Brenna Louis- because he planned to stay in Kingston for a while. He needed to pace himself. He also planned on finding out what made Charlie Mathews so different.

"So, you mentioned yesterday that you think werewolves are behind Stefan's attack?" Charlie said, as she dug into her lunch.

"No, you're not getting involved." Damon said, causing her to frown at him.

"Damon-" she started to argue, but he silenced her.

"Charlie, I don't know what's behind Stefan's attack. I thought werewolves, but the attack seemed like vampires. But whatever it is, I don't want you involved in it." Damon said, stealing some of her fries.

Charlie pouted, and Damon rolled his eyes. "Sorry wifey, batting your long eyelashes and pouting isn't going to work this time." he said dismissively, and she sighed.

"Fine, you'll tell me eventually." She shrugged, and Damon raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, and why are you so sure about that?" Damon asked, and Charlie smirked at him.

"Because if you ever want to have sex again, you'll tell me." Charlie smiled mischievously, as she stood up. "Now come on, I don't want to be late for this council meeting."

Damon groaned as he followed his wife out of the grill. "You know, that threat is getting really old really fast." He commented, as they walked to his car.

"Yet it always provides results." She mused, before stopping suddenly in the middle of the parking lot, her eyes wide in pain.

Damon was instantly in front of her, holding her face in his hands. "Charlie! Come back to me, Char." He said it like he had been through these moments before. He had.

Charlie blinked a couple times, resting a hand on her chest. "That one lasted longer than usual." She stated, as Damon pulled them out of the road.

He didn't respond, his teeth gritted. Her little moments kept getting longer. That wasn't good at all. they drove silently to the Council meeting, Charlie acting like she didn't just have one of her moments in the middle of the road. It infuriated Damon, how she played off everything. The moments, the pills, everything.

"Damon, I didn't know that you were back in town!" Missus Lockwood greeted them, before her eyes wandered to Charlie.

"Hello, I'm Carol Lockwood." She said politely, offering her hand to the young woman.

"Charlie Salvatore." She smiled kindly, shaking her hand.

"Charlie's my wife." Damon informed Carol with a smirk, his arm snaking around the small girl next to him.

Carol's eyes widened in surprise, just like everyone else. But the mayor played it off better. "Congratulations. I had no idea that you were married, Damon." she said, not pegging Damon Salvatore for the marriage type at all. no one did.

"We got married for months ago." Charlie said, flashing her ring. Damon smirked slightly; Charlie loved showing off her ring. Especially to women who flirted with him. it was as if she was silently saying, I got the ring, so suck it bitch.

"Charlie's here to join the council." Damon informed Carol. He didn't see how it mattered, but Charlie had insisted.

"She knows?" Carol asked Damon, who nodded.

"Well, welcome Charlie." Carol said to her, and Charlie smiled politely back. the couple followed the mayor into the meeting, where the other council members were gathered. Charlie and Damon stood in the back, as the meeting began.

"There have been attacks on the towns surrounding Mystic Falls-" the mayor began.

"Vampires." Damon whispered to his wife.

"The only difference from vampire attacks, is that these attacks were like actual animal attacks- the victims were torn apart." Carol continued.

"Werewolves." Damon said to Charlie.

"But the victims were drained completely of blood." She finished.

"I have no idea." Damon said, and Charlie bit her lip to stop from smiling.

"Who caused them?" one of the council members asked.

"I have no idea, we just have to make sure that whoever caused them doesn't come to Mystic Falls." The mayor said.

"Too late." Charlie and Damon whispered at the same time, both knowing that whoever caused the attacks, attacked Stefan.

After the council meeting, Charlie and Damon went home. Damon was stumped on what was causing the attacks on the victims in the other towns. He just wanted to make sure that whoever did stayed away from his wife and didn't try to finish off his brother.

Damon walked up to his room, to see Charlie curled up reading a book. He leaned against the door, watching her as she read To Kill a Mockingbird for the umpteenth time. She mouthed the words slightly as she read them- she knew that story by heart.

"You know, your staring is creepy." Charlie said to him, without taking her eyes off of her book.

"Why don't you just let me change you?" Damon blurted out.

Charlie sighed, and closed her book. "Do we have to do this now, Damon?" she asked, looking exhausted. But Damon had already pulled the fight out, and it just wasn't going to go away.

"Yes, we do. It would fix everything, Charlie. Yet you're being stubborn about it." He argued, as she got out of bed.

"Damon, I told you why I don't want to become a vampire just yet. I don't want to leave my mum, my friends." Charlie said, looking into her husband's accusing eyes.

"Either way, you're going to leave them, Charlie. But if you do it my way, you'll have me." he said, as Charlie looked away from him.

"Damon, it's not as easy of a decision as you're making it sound-" she sighed.

"Yes, it is, Charlie. You know why you won't become a vampire? Because you've given up. What did you expect to happen when we got married? Even if you got better, you would still die eventually and I'll live forever." Damon exclaimed.

They were repeating the same argument they always had. It always ended the same way. Damon stormed off and got drunk, and Charlie cried into her pillow. Then Damon would come to bed later, slightly drunk, and pull her into his arms. Then they would just push their fight aside. It was still there, they just pretended that it was.

But this argument wasn't going to end like those. At that moment, Stefan walked into the room, raising his eyebrows at the loud voices. "What's going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing, Stefan-" Charlie said, but Damon cut her off.

"Let's just tell him, Charlie, he's going to find out sooner or later." Damon said, his temper getting the better of him.

"Damon, don't." Charlie warned, her eyes wide.

"What's going on?" he asked warily.

"Charlie's dying, brother, and she's just letting it happen."

A/N: Charlie's secret is revealed.

Thank you to: KimmyWSmith, Marina164509, vdemily, SomebodyWhoCares, and nette0602 for reviewing!

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~Abby :)