Not overly pleased with this chapter, BUT I got it out a lot quicker than I expected I would. Anything the readers would like to see in the next couple of chapters before ish really starts to go down?
Also opinions on the chapter in general? o.O
The next day approached rather quickly, much to Dana's distaste. She'd spent the day before explaining to Sherriff Forbes that she'd danced with the dead boy at the party and then had come straight home. Otherwise she couldn't imagine who, or what, could have killed the poor boy.
After her gran had finally calmed down to the point where she'd quit threatening to call them, she felt herself able to relax a little. However, now she was back to checking her phone every few seconds in case she were to get an unexpected text or call.
Dana attempted to push those thoughts from her mind as she casually moved through the woods. She was honestly in no hurry to reach her destination which she knew wasn't far from her current location. Getting this all over was her ultimate task, not to mention the curiosity playing in the back of her mind due to the slip of paper resting in her pocket.
"I was beginning to wonder whether you would show." A bemused voice tickled her ears and she easily pinpointed the voice just to her right.
Kol was leaned against a tall oak tree, arms folded over his chest. His brown hair was mussed as if he'd just rolled out of bed, and his dark eyes seemed to be torn between total amusement and slight agitation. If it weren't for the fact that Dana knew better, he could have passed for a normal boy.
But Dana did know better, and Kol was far from normal.
"I'm not fond of the idea of having to wake up to a dead body on my grandmother's doorstep every morning." Dana replied testily. "If you know what I mean." Hooking her thumbs through her belt loop, she returned his steady stare.
A spiteful smirk tugged at the corners of Kol's mouth. "You enjoyed your little surprise then." It was certainly much more of a statement than it was a question. It was almost as if he expected her to find it as funny as he did. Little did Kol know that by leaving a dead body on their porch was the wrong thing to do when it involved Stacey Quinby.
However Dana kept her lips zipped tight and watched him with wary gaze. She didn't trust him, not even.
"We could have a bit of fun, you and I." He stood up straight, allowing his arms to drop down to his sides as he sized the younger vampire up.
Today Dana had opted for her usual attire instead of jeans and the old t-shirt she'd worn to the party. She wore skinny jeans, her shirt the color of smooth cream, and a black leather jacket she'd had for a few years.
"Something tells me our ideas of fun are different."
Kol tilted his head to the side, eyes nearly brimming with vicious amusement. "From what I saw the other night I believe I can disagree."
"That was a one time thing. Nothing else." Dana's voice took on a sharper tone, one she knew she probably shouldn't be using with Kol. She knew she'd purposely killed that man, but who said Kol needed to know that.
The next thing Dana knew Kol had her backed up against a tree, one hand tightly clenched around her throat. His fingers dug into her esophagus, his head tilted to the side. "I could just compel you."
Dana's lips curled at the corners as she said, "But what's the fun in that?"
"Asides from watching you do something you claim to be innocent of?" Kol questioned in an innocent tone that Dana knew was fake.
"I never claimed to be innocent of killing people." She argued. "Just that I don't kill for fun." She glared at Kol, trying her best to ignore the feel of his fingers at her neck. Dana knew what he was doing because, surprisingly enough, she would have done it herself.
He kept a firm hold on her throat, clenching tightly enough to make it uncomfortable, but not tightly enough to completely cut off access to air.
Kol's lips curled in near disgust, his hand loosening on her neck before he stepped back to examine the girl before him once more. "I'll pick you up tomorrow at two." With those final words he was gone in a blink of an eye.
Therefore leaving Dana alone.
She tilted her head back against the tree, the bark scratching her scalp. Her fingers plucked her phone from the pocket of her jeans, a feeling of subtle relief flooding her veins when she saw a blank screen.
With a sudden scowl she shoved the device back into her pocket, damning her own paranoia. This is what resulted from her upbringing, the paranoia that was ever so constant and always there.
Dana knew it would more than likely never go away, not with her fears still out there, roaming the earth.
The Grill wasn't as busy as Dana expected it to be when she arrived. It seemed, here of late, that she found herself coming here more and more each day. Not only that but she also had found herself befriending Matt Donovan, who reminded her so much of someone she knew.
She spotted Matt sitting in a booth with another man whose face she could see from where she stood, meaning he had to be on break if he were socializing.
Within just a moment she was sliding into the booth beside Matt, still feeling rather disgruntled from her encounter with Kol.
Matt didn't really seem the least bit surprised to see her, the man on the other side of the booth, however, watched her with a slight smirk.
That was when Dana got a decent look at him.
"Not you again." She said, crinkling her nose when she realized where she recognized him from.
"You two know each other?" Matt's eyes flickered between the two, his mouth slightly agape at the newly discovered information.
A sigh slipped past Dana's lips as Damon Salvatore's mouth quirked into that ever so famous smirk that she'd seen him wear before.
"You could say that." He leaned back into the booth in that ever so Damon-like way of his.
Dana rolled her eyes as she tapped her fingernails against the table-top. "We met in New York about…two years ago."
What a run in that had been.
Matt opened his mouth to say something, but then he looked over at Dana in surprise. "You're here earlier than usual."
"Oh. Yeah." Dana didn't usually arrive at the grill until a little after eight o'clock and it was just now seven thirty. Of course, to be fair, she hadn't really wanted to home after her lovely chat with the Original vampire. "It's been an interesting day."
"How so?" Matt asked suspiciously, his blue-eyed gaze burning a hole in her head.
"I have the tendency to get myself in sticky situations."
Damon laughed at her words, earning himself a glare from the younger vampire. "She's right about that."
"Whatever." Dana scoffed. "You only knew me for a few hours at the very least."
"But that was quite the situation you got yourself in." Damon mused as he brought a glass of alcohol to his lips, tilting it backwards to finish the rest of the beverage off.
"What the hell are you two talking about?"
Dana feigned innocence then as a smug smile quirked at the corners of her mouth. "I saved Damon's ass."
"And in return I covered for hers."
Matt gave the two a totally blank stare. "That explains nothing."
Someone's phone started ringing then, Damon's as it turned out to be. Dana watched in interest as he answered, a boy's voice coming from the other line. Damon gave out a few curt answers to whoever this 'Stefan' character was, and hung the phone up. He then bid Dana and Matt goodbye before sliding out of the booth and leaving the establishment.
"You know…" Dana started to say, arching an eyebrow at the blonde boy beside her, "Damon doesn't really seem like the type of person you'd keep company with."
"He's not." Matt answered with an unhappy expression that matched his tone. "He just needed something."
"Something to do with this Elena girl, right?" Dana smirked as a fairly surprised look registered on the blonde boy's face. She lightly tapped her ear in response. "Vampire…enhanced hearing…it makes it pretty easy to eavesdrop on conversations, especially phone conversations."
Understanding passed across his face and he nodded to answer her question. "Yeah…Sticky situations huh?"
Dana noted his quick change in subject, but didn't comment on it. Matt seemed uncomfortable talking about it just by mentioning Elena's name, whoever she was. To be honest she didn't care enough to ask.
"Kol." Dana answered bitterly, a scowl spoiling her former smirk.
"Mikaelson?"
"Mikaelson." Dana confirmed. "He thinks we could have fun."
"Is that why there was a dead body at your doorstep?" Matt didn't seem the least bit surprised, and the way he'd talked it wasn't anything particularly unusual.
"Yep. Gran threatened to-" But before Dana could get out word just who her grandmother had threatened to call her cell was playing a familiar ring tone. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall call…" She murmured under her breath and answered the phone with a short greeting.
After a quick conversation with her grandmother she was slipping her phone back into the pocket of her jacket and sliding out of the booth. "Sorry Matt, gotta go. Gran wants me home to help with a few 'chores'." In other words meaning she was still pissed off about the dead boy. Not that she could blame her grandmother. Dana wasn't exactly happy about the dead body Kol had left them. It drew too much attention.
Matt's lips quirked into a small smile as if he knew the former part of her Dana's thoughts as she moved a little farther away from the booth. "See you later, and Dana?"
"Yeah Matt?" She paused in her steps, turning her head to look back at him, the boy she felt she could perhaps call a friend.
"Good luck."
And so Dana meets Damon...or meets him AGAIN I should say. I wanted them to have already met before because it ties in with Dana's past and her character in general, which will all be revealed later.
Meanwhile a review...will spark motivation to actually write because I currently have zero motivation. :)
