Dana was finally getting to have a semi-normal day.
She wasn't sure how she'd managed to pull it off. When she'd walked into Stacey's home the day before she hadn't even been greeted by the elderly lady. Kol had sped off immediately after her short words, and she hadn't seen him since.
That was how she found herself at the Grill, lounging in a booth while she waited for her only human friend to get on his lunch break. She tipped her glass of water back, the cool liquid sliding down her throat, but not providing any sort of satisfaction. The glass slammed back onto the table when she set it down. Dana's finger skimmed along the rim of the glass, her eyes focused on it, but her mind elsewhere.
She had told Kol he would have his revenge for the coven of witches the Chasseur clan had exterminated long ago. She had little right to promise him the life of the nine individuals that she assumed were traveling together. It was a foolish thing of her to say. Especially to the highly unstable and unpredictable Kol Mikaelson.
Dana tilted her head backwards. Perhaps it hadn't been the best decision she'd ever made. Granted, Kol was going to get his vengeance regardless of what she assured. Still, it had calmed the storm brewing inside of her. The one that stirred every single time she thought of the Chasseur family.
So imagine her surprise when a very familiar man slid into the booth opposite of her.
She would be lying if she were to say she weren't shocked to see him. But she was. She immediately tensed at the sight of the man she hadn't seen in a good two years. He was someone she had constantly trusted growing up, someone who had always been a pro at keeping promises.
"Zack," Dana greeted warily, eyeing him cautiously.
Zack hadn't changed much in the two years that had passed. His hair was still that same shade of auburn he'd inherited from their mother, and his gray eyes were as steely as ever as they should be. She knew that when he stood he would still be lean and tall, the only one who had ever been able to beat her in a race growing up. His full mouth still even had that slight pout that had forever been there.
"We need to talk," He stated gravely.
Her eyebrows shot upwards at his words, "What? Not here to threaten to kill me?"
Zack leaned forward, resting his forearms on the top of the table sitting between them. "I don't think I need to threaten you. You already know that we will."
Something flashed in the depths of Dana's eyes. She slammed her fist down on the table, nearly cracking it due to the force she put behind the hit. That drew attention of others in the Grill, but she wasn't bothered by the eyes that were on her and Zack.
"Then why the hell are you here?" She ground out, voice close to a snarl.
Zack watched Dana, the way that the veins around her eyes darkened and nearly popped out, the way her eyes darkened to a deeper color. Her lips parted and that was when he saw the fangs residing in her mouth. It was his reminder that this girl was no longer the girl he once knew. She was something else now, a creature that fed off of humans and took their lives. One who would turn feral if not put down.
"Because Dana," Zack narrowed his eyes, "I promised you I'd do my best to keep you safe."
The switch was almost instantaneous. Dana was suddenly a normal looking girl again, her eyes right back to their normal color, and her teeth no longer showcasing fangs.
"So you've decided to come and be the valiant older brother to warn me to flee town? Or are you going to go ahead and do me in order to spare me the torture my own family would inflict?" She sneered, leaning back into the booth. Her fingers tapped against the tabletop, watching her older brother carefully now. "Wait…" something dawned on her then, "you were the one who text me, weren't you?
"They have different tricks now Dana…and no I didn't forewarn you about anything," Zack said slowly, wondering what his little sister would do if he were to truly anger her. Growing up she had been always had a slightly short-temper and an overly smart mouth, nothing that couldn't have been handled with a little training. But it appeared to him that transforming into a vampire and being around others of her kind had caused that smartass attitude to resurface.
"New ways to torture and kill." A mocking smile graced Dana's lips as she said, "How pleasant."
"It's not a joke Dana. Nothing is how it used to be."
"You're right Zack," Dana said, sounding nearly giddy as she leaned forward, "Now I know a very pissed off vampire who has a few bones to pick with the Chasseur family. And he is a thousand times worse than any vampire we have ever dealt with." She considered Kol a deadly force of nature. True, she had only barely caught a glimpse of what Kol was capable of, and she couldn't imagine what the rest of his family was like. Still, she'd seen enough to know that they had never met a vampire like Kol Mikaelson.
"None of this is going to get through to you is it?" Zack leaned back, shaking his head almost as if he were disappointed in her. "Well, I suppose you'll find out when we see each other again Dana." Zack slid back out of the booth, as graceful as he could get as a mere human.
Dana watched her brother disappear, the smile that had played on her lips slowly turning downwards into a frown. Zack wanted her just as dead as the rest of her family did, except for Daniel perhaps. Out of all them he probably wanted her dead more than the rest, so she assumed by the way he'd shot at her yesterday.
That stung more than Zack's words.
"Who was that?"
Matt stole the seat Zack had formerly occupied, drawing the vampire from her thoughts. She sighed and said, "My older brother."
Surprise registered in Matt's too blue eyes. "You have a brother?"
"Two actually, and a little sister," Dana murmured, "We're ah…not exactly on very good terms."
"Why is that?"
Dana scanned Matt's face. How was it that she had come to trust him in a way? He was only human, then again it had only been a short two years since she'd been human herself. "They're ah…the hunters. Part of the Chasseur clan." She coughed out, finally admitting what Kol had already figured out.
Matt's eyes widened considerably. "So you were a hunter?"
His disbelief almost wounded her. Almost, but not quite. She sniffed indignantly. "Yes. I was. That's how I met Damon actually."
This was how she ended up launching into the story of how she'd met the eldest Salvatore brother. Her family had been tracking down a vampire who had been leaving corpses all around New York. At the time Dana had been on a fairly tight leash, and it had been her luck that she was the one to find Damon feeding on some poor girl. Unfortunately her cousin, Galen Chasseur, had been with her at the time as well. Galen was, and always had been, a nuisance in every single possible way. He was an awful hunter and she often wondered why her parents would send him with her.
And instead of doing the sensible thing and taking Damon down, she knocked her cousin out and turned to face the vampire and spilled a secret she'd been keeping for a while.
In the end they had come up with a fairly decent plan. She would bring him in to her family, and all would be good for her with the rest of the Chasseur's who had begun to doubt her loyalty to the clan. While providing a good cover for her, she would loosen the vervain stained ropes loose enough for him to escape.
Everything had gone according to plan. He had escaped, inflicting some damage to Dana in the process so her family didn't suspect anything. She suffered through a broken arm before meeting a vampire one afternoon on a hunt, a vampire who had offered his blood to heal her.
When she had returned home she found her father waiting. He had been positively furious to see her now fully healed arm. He had thrown accusations at her, calling her a disgrace to the Chasseur family. He lost his temper, for James Chasseur had always had a temper. It wasn't the sort of temper Dana had, nor was it like Kol Mikaelson's temper.
Dana had managed to find her way back to the park she'd met the vampire who had healed her. To her surprise he was still there, sitting on a bench and reading the paper as if nothing was wrong. Nothing besides a beaten and broken down girl who he had found as perhaps the saddest excuse for a vampire hunter.
Then she had done something that her father would have ended her for. She dropped to her knees and she had begged the vampire to turn her. He had questioned why, and she had explained. She'd always been enthralled by vampires and she had grown to hate murdering innocent supernaturals, especially those who had really done no wrong.
She told him that she no longer longed to be a hunter, but to be the one they hunted. To her, the Chasseur clan was a disgrace. She was not a hunter. No, she was nothing besides a beaten and broken down girl that would forever dishonor the Chasseur family.
So he agreed. Reluctantly, but he had agreed. Then he had disappeared from her life, and she had been left alone with a daylight ring she'd salvaged from a vampire her family had staked earlier in the year. It was enough to get her on. After managing to feed herself, she had returned home to gather a few things.
But as soon as she had, she had realized she couldn't enter the household without being invited in. And that was how Daniel had found her. He had answered the door and questioned what she was doing. She despised the look that had dawned on his face once he realized she couldn't enter the house on her own free will.
She positively could not stand the disappointment that flashed through his familiar blue-gray eyes.
"Leave." Daniel had said, his voice remaining utterly emotionless.
"Daniel I-" Dana reached a hand out as if to comfort him, but it hit the barrier that separated the siblings.
"I'm giving you once chance Dana. After this I'll tell Mom and Dad." And the two of them knew what would happen after he told their parents. They would hunt Dana down and there would be no forgiveness as there had been for previous faults of hers. There would be no questions asked. They would kill Dana as ruthlessly as they had any other vampire.
"Goodbye Daniel," Dana murmured, a torn look flashing through her eyes before she turned on her heels and sped away.
"So Daniel is your younger brother?" Matt questioned.
Dana shook her head, eyes slowly traveling towards the window to stare outside. "No. He's my twin brother."
She could understand the betrayal Daniel had felt. They were twins, always joined at the hip as they grew up. They did everything together. Everything from training to making their first kill. But she didn't want the same life he wanted. She didn't want to kill supernaturals. She wanted to live a life free from the confines of her family's rules and regulations.
"Oh."
That was all Matt said. All that Dana needed him to say. She didn't want sympathy; it was a path she'd chosen on her own. She had condemned herself, and honestly she wouldn't have it any other way. At this point she was fairly happy with herself and who she was as a person.
"Yeah." Dana drew the word out, slumping further in her seat. She probably should have been telling Matt about Kol, but she didn't want to see the look that would register on his face if he found out that she had willingly been hanging around Kol.
And here we find out how Dana became a vampire. I wanted something along the lines of her stooping as low as begging for a vampire to change her. To show how desperately she wanted away from the life her parents had built for her as a hunter. Something like that O.o
karenluevano98 ~ Thank you! I'm glad I'm doing a good job of portraying Kol, I wasn't sure how well I was doing xD And I can't really see Dana and Elena being friends either. Although there may or may not end up being Elena/Dana conflict in chapters farther off in the future ;D
romanticolors ~ Don't worry ;D They won't! And if I remember correctly there will be more Kol/Dana in the next chapter xD
Tori Buzolic ~ As always thanks for reviewing! And just wait! There's more twists to come :D
