Chapter twenty three

"My strength is your weakness,"- Hate and Love by Jack Savoretti and Sienna Miller

Damon was waiting impatiently for Charlie to come home. He was happy that she had friends, but he didn't like sharing her. it made him sound like a possessive bastard, but it was true. Suddenly, his phone rang and he answered it.

"Hello?"

"Damon!" Caroline's voice rang in his ear. She sounded frantic and fearful. "You need to come to the grill. now!"

"What happened, Blondie?" he asked suspiciously. Was Charlie hurt? Did her heart fail? Damon's eyes widened at that possibility.

"Charlie's… missing."

"What?" Damon snapped, immediately running to the door. "Explain. Now."

"I left her alone for three minutes, and when I came back, she was gone. But her blood was on the wall of the Grill, I could smell it."

Damon felt rage build up inside of him and was about to direct it at Caroline. After all, she had let Charlie get taken. But he knew that it would only waist time, precious time. So he bit back curses at Caroline and instead hung up on her.

Five minutes later, Damon was outside of the Grill with Caroline. Indeed, his wife's blood was splattered on the outside wall of the grill. he knew the smell of that blood better than anyone. He cursed and punched the wall in anger. He broke his hand but it healed quickly. He left a hole in the wall though.

"I'm sorry," Caroline said quickly, a little scared. She knew that pre-Charlie Damon would already have her by the throat by know. He didn't know how post-Charlie Damon would react.

"It's not entirely your fault, I guess," Damon said through gritted teeth after a while. "Besides, ripping out your heart would take up too much time and Charlie considers you a friend. If I killed you- no matter how much I want to right now- she'd kill me."

Charlie had Damon whipped, and he didn't even know it.

Damon cursed again, and this time threw a nearby trash can at a car. It broke the windshield and set off the alarm. He was lucky that no humans were around to witness his violent episode, though he didn't care at that moment. His damn attackers had gotten Charlie, he knew it. Who else would take her?

Without another word to Caroline, Damon started walking fast away from the blood spattered wall with a hole in it. He was following the scent leading away from the Grill, one with his wife's familiar scent mixed in with an unfamiliar one.

Caroline decided not to follow the slightly deranged vampire, and instead called his more sane brother. Stefan would be able to help Damon better than she could, and despite Damon's words, she was sure that he still wanted to rip her heart out and shove it back down her throat.

Ten minutes later, Damon followed the scent to the town border. There, the trail went cold. He stood at the exact spot where the scent went dead. He could smell Charlie's perfume in the air- vanilla and jasmine. Her sweet blood mixed with that scent, and his mouth would've watered at any other time. But his fear for his wife was too great.

Who knew where Charlie was or how she was? she was injured, definitely. She might even be-

No, he couldn't think like that. he swore to himself that he wasn't going to lose Charlie, and he wasn't. he was going to get her back, and then he was going to tear the heads off of the people that took her from him in the first place.

"Does her scent end here?"

Damon didn't look at his brother as he walked up to him. he nodded once, thinking hard about where Charlie might be. They killed the werewolves that were living in Mystic Falls, and they had nothing to do with the attacks anyway. They were just trying to live a "normal" life.

"We'll get her back, Damon," Stefan promised him. Damon nodded in agreement with his brother.

"Yeah, we will."

Charlie's head ached as she woke up. She groaned slightly and touched the back of her head gingerly. There was dried blood, matting her curls. She pulled her hand away and looked around the place she was at. It was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing.

Slowly, Charlie stood up. She had been laying on the cold, hard floor. She made her way to what had to be a door, since there was light sneaking out from the crack below it. She had her hands out in front of her like a blind person. Eventually her hands came in contact with a wooden door, and after searching she found the door knob.

She shielded her eyes from the flood of light when she opened the door. Once her eyes adjusted, she slowly and quietly walked away from the room she was in. Charlie figured out that she was in a small, gross, dingy house, and it seemed that she was alone. She walked down the dirty hallway into an even dirtier living room. She noticed that the windows were covered my curtains, and that whoever owned the house had tried to prevent any sunlight from entering it.

Charlie noticed the front door and made a break from it. But before she could reach the door, an arm snaked around her waist and held her back. she thrashed in the arms but they easily kept her from breaking free.

"You wanna leave so soon, married? We haven't even gotten to have any real fun yet," a familiar voice said into her ear. She could feel the sad day drunk's hot breath on her neck.

"Don't bloody touch me," she growled, before turning around and kneeing Jason in the groin. He groaned and fell to the ground.

"You weren't kidding Jason, she is feisty."

Charlie stiffened at the unfamiliar voice and turned around to see more men in the kitchen, walking towards her. she automatically took three steps back, never taking her eyes off of the men.

"I know," Jason wheezed. "Isn't it hot?"

"Oh, Missus Salvatore is very hot." The man who had spoken earlier leered at her and she glared back.

"So, what are you?" Charlie directed her question at Jason. "Not a vampire or I think that you would've tried to bite me by now. You're stronger than a human, so that rules out a hunter. I'm guessing that you're a werewolf?"

"Very good, married." Jason leered up at her and stood up. "You definitely are smart, I'll give you that."

Suddenly, Jason punched Charlie in the face, sending her flying to the wall. She cried out in pain and held her hand against her bruised cheek. She whimpered in pain but held back the tears that were forming in her eyes. she wouldn't give these bastards the pleasure of seeing her cry. They weren't worth her tears.

"Jason, don't break her just yet," the man chided him, and Charlie got a better look at him. she could almost sense that he was the leader, just by the way he held himself. He looked middle aged, but she guessed that he was older, because of how timeless he seemed.

"Sorry Roger, but that really hurt." Jason shrugged.

Roger gave a half smirk before walking closer to Charlie. "Damon does have good taste," he said softly, his hand brushing her cheekbone. Charlie flinched at his touch.

"So, what did Stefan do, to make vampires, werewolves, and hunters team up and try to kill them?" she asked, successfully keeping fear out of her voice.

"That's a long story, Charlie- can I call you Charlie?" he smirked and didn't wait for her to answer. "We'll have plenty of time together to tell it, as long as you don't keep trying to escape."

Charlie gulped slightly. "He's going to kill you, you know," she whispered.

Jason laughed loudly and obnoxiously. "Yeah, right." He snorted.

"How about you let us worry about your husband and brother-in-law, Charlie?" Roger said before smirking. "I think that you should be more worried about you right now.

And then he sunk his fangs into her throat.

A/N: thank you to: BeckyBoo12221, SomebodyWhoCares, jacquline, dragonrain618, Be My Baby, and KimmyWSmith for reviewing!

I love reviews!

~Abby :D