**Chapter nineteen**

The attack

*Hailey*

It seemed like years before I finally pulled away from Damon. It was pouring down on us, but neither of us seemed to notice.

I stared at the large smudges of mascara on Damon's shirt, and touched one lightly. "I ruined your shirt." I stated my voice rough.

Damon shrugged like it was nothing. "It's fine- it's Stefan shirt."

I laughed, which seemed to please Damon. "Come on, there's a bottle of bourbon at my house with our names on it." He told me, throwing an arm around my shoulders and leading me to his car.

I smiled, and leaned into him. My chest still felt heavy, but I felt better after crying. I felt even better with Damon with me.

Suddenly, Damon stopped walking, and I frowned up at him. "What?" I asked in confusion.

He held a finger up to his lips, and kept scanning the area around us. I looked too, but all I saw were trees.

"Damon-"I started to say, but was cut off when he covered my mouth with his hands.

"There's something out there."He breathed into my ear, and I stiffened. They were here, those bastards who killed Ava. And now they wanted to kill me too.

I was ready to fight, to avenge my best friend, but Damon- as if reading my mind- gripped my wrist tightly.

"Don't you even think-"he said to me, but then something suddenly launched themselves at him.

I gasped escaped my lips, as a vampire growled and fought Damon. His eyes were red, his face veiny, and his hands kept going for Damon's throat. But Damon looked unimpressed, and easily kicked the vamp off of him.

I watched, frozen in shock and awe, as Damon threw the vampire at lightning speed into the trees. He didn't even spare me a glance before disappearing after him.

A normal person would have gotten into their car and drive as fast and as far away as possible, but I wasn't even in the same galaxy as normal. My fear was pushed aside by my anger and my need for revenge.

I took off running after them, my wet dress sticking to my legs. I kicked off my heels while running, and the random branches around kept jabbing into my feet.

I just spotted Damon staking the vampire in the heart, when I was suddenly yanked by the arm, hard, and thrown into a tree.

I heard a crack, and then lights started popping in my vision. The back of my head burned, and I tasted blood in my mouth where I had bitten my tongue. But it was the blood that was dripping down my neck that worried me.

"Oh, shit." I muttered my vision still blurry. I tried to stand up, but then I was gripped by a tall woman with fangs protruding from her mouth.

Before she could rip my neck open with her teeth, her head was missing. I froze in horror, as her decapitated body fell to the ground. Her head was a few yards away, and I tried not to look at it.

"Are you okay?"

I felt the strong urge to vomit, as Damon pulled me to him, scanning me for injuries. His hand prodded my head, and he stiffened when he brought back blood.

It seemed to take how pale and half-dead I looked to bring Damon's self-control into check. He wiped my blood on his ruined pants, and then bit his wrist in one fluid motion.

"Wh-what are you doing?" I muttered, swaying on my legs.

"It'll heal you, trust me." Damon said, bringing his wrist to my lips.

I gulped down some of his blood- disgusted with myself that it actually tasted good- and when he pulled his already healing wrist away, I felt much better.

"We need to get you out of here." Damon told me, already pulling me towards his car. "There are more coming."

"No, Damon." I said defiantly, stopping in my tracks. "They killed Ava- I'm not leaving here without even a little revenge."

Damon rolled his eyes. "You're going to get yourself killed, Hailey. I'm going to drop you off at your house, lock you in your closet so that you don't try to come after me, and then I'll take care of the rest." He said, dragging me along, despite my fighting.

"I think you forgot to factor in when the tomb vampires kill you." I told him dryly, managing to pull my wrist away from him; it ached slightly from his pulling.

He rolled his eyes at me. "In case you forgot Hailey, I'm a vampire. I'm much harder to kill than you."

"That doesn't make you invincible, Damon." I argued, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Why does it matter to you, Hailey?" he yelled agitatedly.

"Because I care if you live or die, Damon!" I yelled out in anger, not even noticing a small tree crack down the middle.

A strange look passed through Damon's icy eyes, as I struggled to control my anger. He opened his mouth to say something, when I was suddenly dragged by my hair away from him.

Being dragged by the hair at vampire super speed wasn't very fun. I cried out in pain, as it felt like my hair was going to be ripped out of my scalp.

I fell to the ground, my scalp aching, as Damon tackled my attacker. I forced myself to get up, and looked around for a weapon. I saw a broken branch a few feet away, and grabbed it.

Damon managed to pin the vampire down to the floor, but it looked like he was going to break free. I didn't think as I ran forward with my makeshift stake, I just let my anger and vengeful personality fuel me.

I used all my strength, and a little telekinesis to shove the branch into the vampire's heart. I watched, disgusted yet a little intrigued at the same time, as the life literally drained from the vampire.

Damon watched me curiously, as he stood up. I looked around the darkening woods, feeling like I was being watched. The rain was still coming down at a steady pace, and my legs were covered in mud.

"We need to go. Now." Damon said, grabbing my hand. He was gentler than before, but his voice was still urgent.

I let him pull me along, but kept scanning the area for more vampires. Killing my first made me feel badass, and as weird as I sounded, I wanted to kill more. I wanted to kill the one that took Ava from me.

"I'm not leaving, Damon. Not until they're all dead." I told him firmly, my eyes stopping on him for a few seconds.

Damon seemed like he was going to argue, to threaten to throw me over his shoulder again, but he just sighed. "I think there's only a couple running around. As soon as they're dead, we're leaving before you start acting like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and you want to go after the rest of the tomb vamps."

"Why not? We can just end It now-"I started to say but was cut off by a blur running straight for me.

I raised my hands and held the woman vampire in place, and Damon decapitated her. I shivered slightly; I would never get used to him ripping people's heads off.

"Can you knock it off with the head ripping?" I asked, as he carelessly kicked the head out of sight.

"What's wrong Buffy? You can handle staking vampires, but decapitating them freaks you out?" he smirked, appearing at my side again.

"Yes, it does. And if you call me Buffy again, I'll start referring to you as Edward." I retorted.

"Fine, truce." He muttered, as we both started looking for more vampires. I smirked at him, but then my eyes widened when Damon doubled over in pain.

I barely saw a tree branch sticking out of his back before there was a hand around my neck.

"I would tell you that the families will pay for what they did, but I think you already know that. Don't you, you little psychic?" I heard a male voice purr into my ear, as his finger stroked my jaw.

I couldn't respond, as his grip on my neck tightened, and I couldn't breathe. I started gasping for air, and a cruel laugh rang in my ear before his hands let go.

"Your boyfriend isn't exactly in any shape to save you, is he?" he murmured, before turning me so that I could see Damon. He was still on the ground, but there were more wooden stakes sticking out of him. Another man stood behind him, looking amused.

"I gotta say Damon, Victoria was always hot, no kidding- don't tell Nicolai I said that-"he told the other vampire, who smirked and nodded. "- but I thought you and your brother were always team Katherine."

The lack of oxygen might've been messing with my mind, but I had heard the names Victoria and Katherine before. Hell, I was pretty sure that I was related to one of them.

"So why wouldn't you be going for that Gilbert girl? The one who looks just like her? Oh, but Stefan's already hitting that, I forgot." Both of the vampires snickered, and the one holding me tightened his grip on my neck.

"So because Katherine's look alike was taken, you went for Victoria's? seems a little unhealthy to me, but hey, to each their own." The vampire continued a huge smirk on his lips. I felt very dizzy, and unconsciousness kept gnawing at me. I was going to pass out soon, and then I would be killed by these jackasses.

Through the fog in my mind, I barely registered what Damon had told me about becoming a vampire. You needed to die with vampire blood in your system, and I currently fulfilled one of those.

I couldn't even think about becoming a vampire in my current state. I wasn't even a legal adult yet. Did I really want to be stuck at seventeen for eternity? Elena didn't even know that I knew about vampires, so it would be a pretty big surprise if I just suddenly became one.

"Uh, uh, uh, Salvatore. You make one more move and I will snap her neck before you can even blink." The vampire holding me warned, and Damon stayed stock still on the ground where he had been trying to get the strength to fight.

The vampire laughed bitterly. "You know, this past year I've been hearing all these stories about the big bad Damon Salvatore. Yet, here you are, risking your life for a human. A hot human, but still a human nonetheless." He cooed, pushing my soaked hair away from my neck.

"Can we just move this along, Dante? She smells amazing." The other vampire said impatiently, and I shuddered slightly.

"Patience is a virtue, James." Dante said sarcastically. "Just let me finish off Salvatore, and then you can go crazy with the hot psychic look alike."

It was the mention of killing Damon that cleared the fog away. I felt energy within me burst- like it had the night I confronted Damon- and then Dante and James went flying.

The rush of oxygen brought my instincts back. I gulped down air, as I waved my hand at Damon. He groaned in pain as all the stakes flew out of his body.

"Are you okay?" I asked, helping him stand up.

"Are you okay?" he countered, concern in his eyes.

I just shrugged, but I still felt woozy, like I might pass out. "Ask me after those two dicks are dead." I smiled slightly, just as James appeared, looking pissed off.

Damon met him halfway, and they were fighting so fast I couldn't even tell who was who. I raised my hands and just managed to hold James still, when somebody sunk their teeth into my neck.

It was like when Damon bit me, but worse. More painful. It was more like the biting from my visions. Dante bit down as hard as he could, and I felt so lightheaded, and like the life was being drained from me.

Suddenly, Dante's teeth were gone, and I was in Damon's arms. His bleeding wrist was at my lips again, and I swallowed a few gulps of his blood.

I felt better, but unconsciousness was still fighting to take me over- and it was winning. The last thing I remembered before passing out in Damon's arms, was seeing James and Dante's lifeless bodies, their heads still attached to their bodies.

~LMF~

A/N: this might be the last time I update this week. I might be able to slip in a chapter between tonight and Friday, but I'm super busy this weekend.

Thank you to: colleenrawr, HawthorneTree, jacquline, Samantha meyers, AudreyDarke96, Pinkbeca, and Carrie9586 for reviewing!

As always, review! Review! Review!

~ Abby!