Has darkness taken over me, consumed my mortal soul?
All my virtues sacrificed, can Heaven be so cruel?
I believe it would justify the means
It had a hold over me
Blinded to see the cruelty of the beast
It is the darker side of me
The veil of my dreams deceived that I have seen
Forgive me for what I have been, forgive me my sins
Within Temptation – The Truth Beneath The Rose
Chapter 40
It's a wonderful afterlife
New York, 20 years later
Damon Salvatore blinked his tired eyes in order to clear his blurred vision; his hand was trying to reach for the bottle that should be right next to him. To his annoyance, it was almost empty, just like the other ones lying around the alley. The night was damn cold, so all the other drunks had gone under the bridge to warm up by the campfire. Damon didn't care about coldness, just like he didn't care about anything anymore. He had nothing left to care about. He emptied his bottle and leaned against the brick wall, hoping to pass out.
The last five months had been a living hell, much worse than the war. If he would have known five months ago what he knew now, he would have never let Stefan to talk him into completing his transition. Yes, his brother had promised that everything would be alright, they would be a family. Not quite. It wasn't enough that Damon had lost Katherine; he had lost his brother as well. He couldn't recognize Stefan anymore; the monster was all that was left. Damon doubted that his leaving meant anything to his brother; Stefan was too busy of slaughtering the same people they had called their friends and neighbors.
To Damon, feeding was nothing except an unnecessary evil, he certainly didn't enjoy it. Sadly he was too much of a coward to end this misery. Perhaps this was no more than what he deserved, spending endless nights in a filthy alley with his bottles. He had known what Katherine was, he had seen her killing a man, but he had still loved her and wanted to spend the eternity with her. He had wanted to become this…thing. Well, he had gotten what he had wanted, bravo for him. His life or afterlife was just freaking…
"Come here, little darling," a man's voice suddenly said, cutting off Damon's bitter thoughts. He looked up and noticed a shabby looking man in his late forties; he was holding a hand of a dark-haired little girl. She couldn't be older than 6 or 7 and judging by her nice dress, she certainly wasn't from this neighborhood. The man was practically dragging the girl to the alley, apparently he hadn't noticed Damon.
"Will you help me, sir?" the girl asked shyly. "I can't find my mama."
The man grinned; it was very obvious what he was planning to do to the girl. Sick bastard.
"Oh, don't you worry, sweetheart, I'm going to take a good care of you…"
"Get your hands off her," Damon snarled and jumped to his feet. He was a bit drunk so his moves weren't exactly smooth, but at least he managed to stand up. The man grabbed the girl and lifted her up before facing Damon.
"Find your own," the man demanded threateningly. "I saw this one first."
Damon growled and revealed his vampire face. The man's eyes widened.
"I-I…we can share…"
Damon zoomed in front of the man and snapped his neck. Unfortunately he was too angry and drunk to realize that the man was still holding the girl, his dead body fell on her.
"Shit!"
He yanked the body off the girl; she was lying on the ground, looking at him with her blue eyes. If he wouldn't have known better, he would have thought that she looked annoyed.
"It's alright," he said as calmingly as he could. "You're safe, everything's alright now…"
"Hardly," she interrupted him coolly and stood up. "You just killed my dinner."
Her words didn't make any sense to Damon, she was probably in shock.
"It's alright, there's no reason to be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you."
The black veins appeared beneath her eyes, she smiled so widely that he could see her fangs.
"No offence, honey, but you couldn't even if you would want to; I'm much older than you."
Damon gasped in shock.
"Jesus Christ!"
The girl raised her eyebrows.
"Sure, why not. I've been called worse."
Damon was unable to speak; all he could do was staring at her. This couldn't be possible; she was a little child… She looked around and carelessly kicked one of his empty bottles.
"You are staying here?" she asked.
Damon was still unable to speak; somehow he managed to pick up a cigarette from his pocket. He had stopped smoking after coming home from the war, but for some reason he had started it again after arriving to New York, probably because he had found a pack of cigarettes from his first victim here.
"Can you spare one?" the girl asked, her tone was careless.
"What?"
"A cigarette."
"Oh…sure…"
"Thanks," the girl said when he handed her a cigarette and automatically offered her light. "My, my, a gentleman."
She sounded amused. They both concentrated on smoking until Damon was slowly getting over his astonishment.
"You…are a vampire?" he muttered.
"Yes."
"Right… How old are you?"
She frowned.
"It's not very polite to ask a woman how old she is."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
She let out a sweet little laugh.
"Relax, I was just teasing you. Do you have a name, baby vampire?"
"I'm not…" Damon started, planning to protest being called a baby vampire, but for some reason he decided against it. She looked at him expectantly. "Damon."
"I'm Eva," she said. "Nice to meet you, although I believe you owe me a dinner."
She turned her back on him, eyeing his modest "home". All he had was his bottles and a filthy blanket.
"Well, this is…nice. Perhaps a rug and few paintings would help…"
"This is all I deserve," Damon muttered before he managed to stop himself. Eva turned to look at him.
"Gloomy, are we? May I ask you a personal question?"
Damon shrugged.
"Why not."
"Are you alone?"
"What?"
Eva sighed.
"Are you alone? Family, lover?"
"No," Damon murmured. "There's no one."
"In that case, I have a proposition for you, if you are interested."
Damon had no idea what she was planning to say, the whole situation still felt unreal to him. He was actually talking to a little girl who was a vampire. Who the hell would make a child a vampire? It took a moment before he realized that she was expecting him to say something.
"What…what's your proposition?"
She tilted her head and looked at him intently.
"You and I have similar features, would you agree? We could be relatives."
"I guess so."
"Alright, here's the thing. As you can probably imagine, some things are difficult for me because of my appearance, so I've been looking for a partner, someone to be my father."
Damon's eyes widened.
"What?"
"So far I've used humans, but I would like to try a vampire. I have a nice house; I can offer you a roof over your head, nice clothes and guidance. What do you say?"
"Wait, wait, you want me to be your…father?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Pay attention, baby vampire, I want you to play the part of my father, not actually be one. Yes or no?"
"Why me?"
She shrugged.
"As I said, we have similar features and I have a soft spot for cute baby vampires, even if they smell like you. No offence."
"None taken," Damon muttered and tried to sniff his sleeve as imperceptibly as possible. He did stink; he couldn't even remember when he would have bathed or changed his clothes.
"What would I have to do exactly?"
"It's very simple, all I need is someone to take care of things a child can't. I'll explain everything if you decide to accept my offer."
Damon gazed at the innocent looking little creature standing in the cold dark alley. She didn't belong there. For some incomprehensible reason, he wanted to pick her up and wrap his arms around her.
"You…don't have anyone?" he asked.
There was a glimpse of sadness in her eyes, but it was gone in a second.
"No, but I have myself. That's enough."
"I know what you mean. Lead the way then."
She raised her eyebrows.
"You accept?"
He nodded.
"Yes. Just call me pa."
"I don't think so," she huffed. "We have to go through certain ground rules, but first you really need a bath. Come."
She hopped gracefully over the body lying on the ground; he almost tripped while trying to follow her example. He wasn't sure what the hell he was doing, but he really didn't have anything to lose.