Chapter Eight: Casual Affair
Looks innocent enough, doesn't it?
But sometimes there are dangers involved that never meet the eye.
No matter where you meet a stranger, be careful if they are too friendly.
Hey, a casual affair that could go anywhere and only for tonight
Take any moment, any time. A lover on the left, a sinner on the right
Break involuntary ties, a secret so the spies could never find us out
Stay for as long as you have time
So the mess that we'll become leaves something to talk about
~Panic! At the Disco
The rest of Nilin's first week back in Mystic Falls went pretty slow. Elena and Jeremy were still in school for another week and Jenna worked during the day. That left Nilly alone and with a ton of free time on her hands. The situation was just asking for trouble.
Every morning she'd wake up to say goodbye to everyone, they would apologize for leaving her alone, she would make a joke and tell them it was fine, then they were gone and the house was empty. It was always too quiet in that house. Nilly never liked the quiet, so she'd blast the stereo until she couldn't hear herself think. But then the neighbors started to complain, and Nilin was forced to stop doing that.
Instead, she'd leave the house and walk into town. It had become routine. She'd usually take a book with her in hopes of actually reading it, but that never happened. Why? Well, because everyday Damon would find her. She thought it was just a coincidence. Mystic Falls was only so big. But then it became a daily occurrence and Nilin realized that there were no such things as coincidences.
He'd invite himself to sit with he and her books were never finished. Now the guy she promised to stay away from was occupying a good chunk of her time. Needless to say, Elena and Stefan didn't find out about any of these conversations. Nilin justified this by saying that they weren't lying to anyone, just not mentioning it to them. And Damon agreed. No harm done.
There conversations usually started with something simple. Whatcha reading today?... Well, don't you look stunning today… How has your morning been?... You know there's no need to scare the living crap out of me, a simple hello would do… But where's the fun in that…
But then it always shifted to Damon asking Nilin questions. It was strange. She'd answer them, of course, because they seemed harmless enough. That thought always popped up in her head, why the hell was he talking to her? That was the only question that never got answered.
One day, he showed up with a red rose so beautiful you'd think it was fake. He must have come up behind her, because on that day Nilin was determined to spot him before he could scare her.
She didn't have eyes on the back of her head though. So when Damon brushed the rose petals across the nape of her neck, she gasped and jumped into the air. And then, of course, he laughed at her, causing her cheeks to turn red.
They only got redder when he presented her with the stunning flower. "Where'd you find this?" Nilin asked, spinning it between her fingers and marveling over it.
"I picked it on my way here," he said, smiling at her.
"Well, it's beautiful. Thank you."
He continued to smile at her as he laid his arm on the bench behind Nilin's head.
"So, tell me..." he began, starting the questioning already.
Nilin was still spinning the rose stem between her fingers as he talked. She didn't really hear the question because she was too busy wording hers. If this thing between them was going to keep going on, then he couldn't be the only one allowed to ask questions. "Why do you want to know so much about me?" she finally said, keeping her eyes on the bright red petals. She didn't look up at him, because she was a wuss and afraid of meeting his eyes.
"Because I find you very interesting," he said nonchalantly as if the answer didn't need a second thought.
Nilly snorted and rolled her eyes at the flower, "Sure.".
The more she heard about this Damon Salvatore, the more she knew that there was something going on here. At the least, the man must have something— anything —better to be doing. It just didn't make sense, and this wasn't her shoddy self-confidence speaking. Her gut was telling her something was off. She was pondering this while she rubbed the glossy soft petals between her fingers, when suddenly a strong hand grabbed her chin and pulled her head up gently.
Damon forced her to look straight into his midnight eyes. "I'm serious, Nilin. There's something about you that intrigues me," he said, pulling her face closer to his.
Her hear took off in her chest as she sat there frozen. Nilly couldn't think. There was no oxygen getting to her brain because she was holding her breath, waiting for Damon to make a move. Then Elena's words ran through her head over and over again. She shouldn't be talking to him, let alone allowing him to pull her mouth closer to his.
She quickly slid backwards on the bench. His hand fell from her chin, as he sat up straight again. There was an amused grin on his lips as if this was all very funny to him. Nilin finally remembered that humans need to breathe in order to stay conscious and took in a deep lungful of air.
"I'm just a small town girl," she spoke up, needing something to end the awkward silence. "There's nothing interesting here at all, sorry," she shrugged a little.
"Don't sell yourself short, beautiful," he smirked.
Nilin laughed, trying to make a joke of this all, but Damon was watching her again. Her chuckling subsided as he slid over to her, on the advance again. This time he had her cornered, she had already retreated to the end of the bench and now there was no where else to go.
"I'm just making sure you don't get your hopes up," she mumbled, her voice sounding shaky.
Damon smirked, his eyes darting to her mouth for a moment. Nilin bit her bottom lip as he leaned in closer to her. "That's very kind of you," he said in a husky voice that caused Nilin's heart to sputter. "But I like to think that I've been around long enough to know what I'm getting in to," he told her.
Nilin took a deep breath to clear her head. He was pushing her around again in that passive seductive way of his. "Are you sure about that?" she wondered, digging her eyes back into him. She wasn't going to let Damon bully her anymore.
The space between them on the bench diminished. He smirked, his fingers running along her jawbone. They were so close she could feel his breath, it gave her goosebumps.
His fingers felt cold on her burning skin. Nilin released her bottom lip from between her teeth and decided that she needed to do something, but she didn't know which instinct to listen to— flight or fight. Before she could make up her mind, Damon took matters into his own hands. The gap between them closed completely as he shot forward and kissed her.
His lips pushed against hers lightly at first, as if they were feathers. But the feathers sent a jolt threw her body, causing her lips to tingle on his. Unconsciously, Nilin found herself leaning into him and closing her eyes. Another, stronger shock went through her body, causing her heart to frenzy as the electric current reached the tips of her fingers.
Damon must have felt it too, because suddenly his soft kiss deepened. He leaned towards her now, pushing her back on the bench. He pulled away slightly and then put his other hand on her other side of her cheek. Holding her head between his hands, he kissed her again.
It actually hit Nilin in that moment of what was actually going on. Her eyes snapped open as she pulled away form him quickly. "Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute," she huffed out, feeling out of breath and lightheaded.
Damon had turned away from her quickly. "That shouldn't have happened," he spoke. She glanced down and noticed how his his hands were clasped into fists.
"Uh, you kissed me," she accused, feeling a little insulted. "I mean, you're right and all. That probably was a very dumb thing to do, but you should have thought about that before you acted," Nilin rambled on. He wasn't answering her though. No witty comebacks or sarcastic comebacks. "Damon?" she said, placing her hand on his shoulder. He was ridged, his knuckles white. Nilin pulled at his shoulder to turn him around.
"Damo-" she started to ask, but stopped.
The glimpse she got of Damon's shocked her. Something was wrong with his eyes, but before she could see more he ripped himself out of her grip and stood abruptly, his back towards her. The sudden movement scared Nilly. She stayed sitting on the bench, one hand over her heart and the other balled in her lap.
"What the hell?" she snapped at him, the confusion and embarrassment evident in her voice. He turned back around, his face normal smirking. "Are you okay?" she asked, toning her voice down a few notched.
"Of course I am, nothings wrong," he assured coolly.
He was smiling at her still, but she didn't return it. She sat there, her cheeks still burning with the sting of rejection. He was right, they shouldn't have kissed, but it was a low blow to hear it. "What was that all about then," Nilin demanded.
"What was what all about?" Damon shot back with a grin.
It took Nilin a minute to get over the initial shot to her gut. Was it that bad that he had to pretend it didn't happen? Nilin couldn't look him in the eye anymore. Her eyes found their way to the red rose in her hand. She had been squeezing it so tight, a thorn had pricked a small cut in her finger. Nilin lifted her hand up higher to get a closer look at the tiny puncture wound. It welled up with blood slightly and Nilly put her finger to her mouth to stop the bleeding.
When she looked up to say something Damon was gone, no sign of him at all. She looked around frantically, but he was gone. As if he hadn't been there at all, the only evidence that he was there was the rose in Nilly's lap and her still rapid heartbeat.
If there was any way she could feel even shittier than she already did, she'd like to know. What else did she expect though? Nilin knew something like this would happen when it came to Damon Salvatore. If she wasn't the stubborn, proud person that she was, Nilly would tell Elena that she was right. But Nilin was overly stubborn and extremely proud so she wasn't going to believe that.
She went home sluggishly dragging her feet and still not understanding what had happen. There were more questions than answers, which just seemed to be the overbearing theme of her life.
There was something pestering her though. This small part of her that actually really, really, really liked the idea of kissing Damon. That was the same part of her that called the roll in her stomach butterflies and thought the putter her heart gave at the thought of him was cute. Nilly didn't waste much time squashing that part and eliminating any of those thoughts.
As she got ready for bed that night, Nilin placed the rose on her windowsill, not completely sure what else to do with it. And after a restless few hours of tossing and turning she still couldn't managed to fall asleep, the kiss still on her mind. She couldn't turn her brain off long enough to fall asleep. So at some point in the night, Nilly lifted her head, flicked on the lamp and pushed the covers off her. She got out of bed, grabbed her guitar, plopped herself on the floor and softly started strumming away.
Damon sat on the large leather couch, drink in hand, his feet perched on the edge of the ancient coffee table. He had raid the rooms of the boarding house, looking for something worth drinking. It was obvious that his plain brooding brother had been staying here for a while. The house was as boring as him. Stefan hated the fact that Damon was here, so that's why he stayed.
Damon stared at the dark fireplace, useless in the summer months of Virginia. He was waiting for the alcohol to blur his thoughts. It was taking a while though, one of the lovely perks of being a vampire. That just gave his mind time to run free.
It had been a strange day, to say the least. He had never come that close to his control unwillingly breaking before. A century long to develop and tune his self-control had allowed him to tame the wild bloodlust side of him… when he wanted to, that is.
He could still feel the sting of Nilin's blood in his nose. It made his jaw ache. He tossed his head back, downing the rest of the whiskey in his glass, to counteract the discomfort.
Yes, he was curious about the latest brunette who blew in to town but that wasn't all. She could possibly be the key to accomplishing the whole reason why he came back to this god awful town. But he seemed to have hit a dead end with that one. All because he miss judge her reaction… well both of their reactions.
Frustrated he slammed his glass down on the coffee table almost shattering it in his hand. He couldn't let some human girl screw up his plans, not when he was so close to getting what he wanted. He had to remember Nilin was just a part of it. He needed her to get to the girl he really wanted, Katherine Pierce.
He finally knew where Katherine was and what the key was to getting to her. All Damon needed was the ingredients and he'd finally have her back again.
She'd been trapped in a tomb for over a century now, under the old Fells Church property that had burnt down in the 1860's. His memories of that night were still hazy, but he remembered enough. Damon thought she had died in the fire that burned the church down. He thought he had lost Katherine forever. She was the first girl he'd ever fell in love with, but so did his weakling of a little brother. It was a tragic love triangle that led to both brothers dying to save her, and in the end, ultimately becoming vampires.
How romantic, Damon thought with a dark sarcastic smile. What had Katherine even seen in Stefan? he wondered.
The same thing Elena sees in him, whispered a voice in his head. Damon snorted a laugh. Once he had Katherine back Stefan could fall off the face of the earth for all he'd care, along with Nilin and Elena.
Damon sat up quickly, leaning his elbows on his knees. He needed the witch's necklace. Nilin could get if for him. But then again, he already tried Caroline and that didn't work out well. Maybe he needed to take another approach to this, and getting it himself clearly wasn't the answer, even though he asked nicely. That had ended painfully.
Getting that damn necklace was the goal here. It was that or finding another way into the tomb. Nilin was his ticket, he knew he could use her to get the others to become… more persuadable. They wouldn't risk the life of sweet darling Nilin for a piece of tacky jewelry, now would they?
Maybe a hostage crisis might was in order.
Author's Notes:
Uh-oh. What devious plans does Damon have rolling around in his head? Find out Friday, when the next chapter is published. Thanks for reading. Favorite, Follow & Review.
RLS