Chapter 11
He verbally attacked her and the two locked eyes
"Actually yes"
Holding his eyes she shared her own story. How from shy, loner, quiet fighter and loyal she became a beard to someone's humanity.
"I let him walk all over me"
Even though his gifts didn't work on her she let him use her fears and hopes and aspirations against her until she was molded to what he thought she should be
"I always mocked women when they molded themselves according to what their boyfriends wanted of them"
She said with an ironic frown.
"Until danger came"
And the old Bella woke up inside her. She chose to meet James and like the saying goes, she got too close to a vampire and got bitten.
"They saved me but I will always carry the mark"
That was the time she truly submitted to him
"When Edward left me, it destroyed me. It took me months to go back to being who I once was"
"And yet you opened your house to me"
He pointed out
"I didn't know what you are and besides it wouldn't make a difference. Last time I checked vampires don't need permission"
"Actually we do"
"Damn"
Bella shrugged and took the last bite of her salad. Damon took a long sip of his blood and shook his head amused
"Anything else I should know?"
"You're the kind of person vampires live for. Most of us are just killers. All we want is to feed and destroy. We leave a trail of misery behind and think nothing more of it once we've moved on. It was blind, stupid luck for you that I was trying to die Otherwise—"
He paused for the last sip of his lukewarm blood and forced it down
"—let's just say you'd make a damn good snack, Bella."
Her eyes narrowed as James' voice rang through her head. He had said the same thing when his coven interrupted the Cullens' ball game.
She'd escaped. That was what she clung to. What she had to keep uppermost in her mind. She'd finally found a way to stand in the light. And she wouldn't go back into the darkness.
"At least I'm done with my demons. Are you?"
Slowly she stood up, picked up their plates and deposited them in the sink. Picking the discarded bag from the library and walked to the winding staircase and spoke without turning back.
"If you plan to be gone by morning, I have sneaking suspicion you'll need this"
Slipping the ring she had found earlier from her thumb she put in on a sea shell shaped bowl on the small table by the stairs and walked up the stairs to her room and then the balcony where she fell in an unceremonious heap of limbs on the dirty balcony floor.
Why had she opened up to him? Why did she even care? How had Damon Salvatore had become so important to her in such a short amount of time? Just how pathetic could she be?
Damon sat dumbfounded at the chair holding the empty mug.
"Well... that went well"
He snarked to himself. He was angry and upset with himself for opening up to a stranger. No, that wasn't it. He was annoyed that he had been weak. No, that wasn't it either. God what was wrong with him? She had helped him, quite selflessly, at a time that he wanted to die and that's how he re-paid her? By hurting her?
Just because she nailed exactly on his feelings about his brother and the annoying square his pretty simple love life had been?
The organ that had once been Damon's heart twisted in regret. Maybe he should have never have turned his emotions back on. With a tired sigh he stood up and reached for his ring.
"Fuck this all"
just as he left the house he reached inside him for a little switch and pulled it off. Smirking coldly he decided to cruise the large city.
"I'm back"
As he walked away from the sleeping lane the house stood on he felt a tiny sensation of something lurking there. He shrugged it off and blurred away.
