**Chapter forty six**

Always saving me

*Damon*

Damon scanned the party, looking for Hailey. He knew that she was with Elena, but he hadn't seen any sign of her since she left him. Just then he saw Stefan and Elena together, no Hailey with them. Damon walked up to them, despite the obvious dislike in Elena's brown eyes.

"Isn't Hailey with you?" he asked bluntly, imagining the worst in his head.

"She left to go find you almost an hour ago." Elena informed him.

Damon shook his head. "She left me about twenty minutes ago to go find you." He said.

"I haven't seen Hailey since we came here." Elena said, before comprehension slowly dawned on her face.

"Shit." Damon cursed, knowing what that meant. Someone had taken her. Again.

The problem was Damon didn't know if her taker was the tomb vampires or her stalker. "We can split up." Stefan offered, though there was a good chance that Hailey wasn't at the party anymore.

Elena ignored her boyfriend and glared at Damon. "How could you let this happen?" she snapped.

Damon rolled his eyes, but inside he felt as guilty as sin. "I'm not her keeper." He replied coolly, though he kept scanning the crowd over Elena's head.

Stefan watched his brother carefully. Only he knew that his brother's "Who the hell cares?" attitude was real.

"You know, you save Hailey from death a hundred times, but then you act like if she died, it makes no difference to you. Pick a side, Damon." Elena hissed, before walking off. Stefan followed her.

Damon took a deep breath, guilt washing over him in waves. He had to think. The tomb vampires would be the obvious choice, but he knew that Nicolai would find a way to stop it. Then he thought about the text messages, and the answer came to him.

Derek.

No matter what Hailey said about him, there was something that Damon didn't like about Derek. It wasn't jealousy- or complete jealousy- it was what he saw in Derek's eyes when he looked at Hailey.

It was obsession.

Damon walked up to a random waitress, who smiled seductively at him. Damon didn't pay her any attention. He just stared into her eyes. "Have you seen a girl, around seventeen, with black hair, bangs, and really bright green eyes? She has a tattoo on her wrist, a Chinese symbol." He compelled.

"Yes, ten minutes ago." She repeated in a zombie-like tone.

"Was she with a boy?"

"Yes, she called him 'Derek.'" The waitress answered.

Damon pulled away, and the waitress blinked, dazed. "What happened?" she asked.

Damon ignored her and walked away. He knew who to look for, and Damon would find him.

And When Damon found Derek; he was going to rip his heart out.

*Hailey*

I woke up with a killer headache. My arms and legs were tied to a chair, and I had a rag stuffed into my mouth, making me gag.

"She awakes." Derek announced, appearing in front of me. He looked twisted, holding a gun in one hand and a wooden stake in the other.

I tried cursing at him, but I couldn't with the rag in my mouth. He smirked at me, and started sharpening the stake. "It's your own fault, Hailey. If you would just stop lying to yourself, then none of this would be happening." Derek told me.

I ignored him, and tried undoing my restraints telekinetically, but I couldn't concentrate with the pounding in my head. "If I let you speak, will you be a good girl?" he asked condescendingly, and I glared at him.

Derek laughed. "You've never been a good girl, Hailey." He said, but pulled the rag out of my mouth.

"You sick, twisted fu-" Derek cut me off when he punched me in the face.

"Don't you talk that way to me, you little bitch!" he snarled, catching me off guard, as my cheek burned in pain.

"I'm so, so sorry, baby." Derek said instantly, and my eyes widened. He was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"I'm doing this for you, you know. You have a choice, baby." Derek told me abruptly, sitting down on a small bed next to my chair. We were in a small bedroom.

"What choice?" I snapped, my head and cheek both pounding in unison.

"We can be together, like we were meant to be. It's that vampire, he's messed with your head. Don't worry about it, though, Hails. I'm going to take care of him, and then we're going to be together." Derek informed me.

I gave him a disgusted look. "Like you could take on a very pissed century and a half old vampire. Damon's going to snap your neck like a twig, and I won't even think about stopping him."

"Wait, you know?" Derek asked, bewildered.

"Of course I know." I snapped.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Of course you know, you little slut. You probably let him drink your blood, like a common whore." He said, before slapping me.

My cheek burned, and I gasped in pain. Derek instantly looked astonished. "I'm so sorry, baby." He apologized again.

"You're like fucking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I gasped out my earlier thought.

Derek kissed my lips softly, and I struggled to get away. "Don't fight it, baby." He whispered, as his hands slid up my dress.

"No!" I shouted, struggling so much, I caused the chair to fall over, and my head smacked against the floor.

Derek glared at me, going back to dark, twisted Derek. "You know, this is in case you choose that goddamn murderer over me, Hailey." He spat, picking up the gun.

I let out a shaky breath, the pounding in my head more intense than any hangover I had ever had. "Fine, kill me. But remember- Damon's going to kill you no matter what." I said calmly.

"Baby, I'll kill him before he'll even get the chance." Derek said confidently.

I laughed humorlessly. "Do you know anything about vampires? They're about a thousand times stronger and faster than you. You don't stand a chance." I said, smirking despite my aching pain.

"We'll just have to see about that." Derek said, before pulling my chair up. His hands instantly went for my chest. Derek's touch was rough, hard, and inexperienced. Plus, it just plain hurt. It also felt wrong, that they weren't Damon's hands.

I managed to loosen my legs out of the rope, and kicked Derek away from me. "Damon! Damon!" I started screaming.

Derek punched me in the mouth, and I started to bleed. It hurt like hell, but I knew that Damon could smell my blood. I started to laugh hysterically, slightly crazy at that point. Derek stared at me like I was insane. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"You're gonna die." I whispered, tasting my own blood.

Just then, the door flew into the room. Damon appeared in the doorway, looking angrier than I had ever seen him in my life. Derek ran to get his stake. He held it up, but Damon ripped his heart out of his chest like it was nothing. Derek's body fell to the floor, and Damon dropped his heart next to it.

Damon snapped the thick ropes binding me to the chair, and pulled me to him tightly. I buried my face into his chest, my head and face still aching. "If you say 'I told you so,' I'll hit you." I mumbled into his shirt.

Damon just pulled away enough to kiss me on my swollen lips. When he pulled away, we both looked at Derek's body. "You aren't mad that I killed him?" Damon asked me, keeping me close to him.

"Please, I promised him death. If you didn't kill him, I would've." I said, rubbing my temples. A new pain had joined my aching ones. It wasn't like the pain I had gotten from Derek hitting me, it was similar to the ones I get when I had a vision. But it was different too. I felt nauseous, and just wanted to go home.

"Can we leave? I'm so tired." I said, rubbing my arms. I was freezing.

Damon nodded, and silently handed me his jacket. I slipped it on, as he pulled the sheet from the bed, and wrapped Derek's body in it. "What are you going to do with it?" I asked.

"I'll take care of it. Let's just get you home." He said.

The nausea and strange headache only got worse on the car ride home. It was silent, but I didn't mind. I was exhausted. We got back to the boarding house, and I walked straight up to Damon's room. Damon went to call Stefan and give him an update, and take care of Derek's body.

I got changed into one of Damon's shirts, and then washed my face. I put my hair up, before crawling into Damon's bed, and waited for him to come back. I wouldn't be able to fall asleep by myself for days.

I heard a noise near the door, and stiffened. It was probably just my vampire boyfriend. "Damon?" I asked, sitting up. I looked at the door, and froze in shock. There was a man there, but that man wasn't Damon. He had dark hair and very familiar eyes.

"Dad?"

~LMF~

A/N: is Hailey seeing ghosts now, or has she officially gone crazy?

Thank you to: vdemily, SomebodyWhoCares, jacquline, Samantha meyers, KimmyWSmith, and Kelsey for reviewing!

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~Abby ;)