The next morning I woke up and there was a big bunch of black roses on the kitchen table. No shit, how the fuck did it get in. I sat up and there was another used syringe on the bedside table and my wrists were covered in little cuts from being in the barbed handcuffs. Oh that someone likes to play hard and fast. A voice in my head said " Don't be so trusting, baby, that I don't remember what can be done to you after a heat, now I have full access to the whole house. and you can't stop me. "

I called Adam and told him about it. He suspected that Damon was somehow traveling with shadows and I should get as many shadows out as possible. But there's no way to get all the shadows and there's always a shadow spot. Fine has to be ready, not asleep but on watch. That's the best way to get through it. I wasn't sleeping, I was wandering around the house and the ranch all the time, and there was always a lamp or a mirror broken somewhere where I was trying to get light and remove shadows. Black roses and their petals were strewn on the beds, some beds had spiked shackles and others had empty syringes on the bedside tables.

Damon was talking in my head, mostly teasing, taunting, haunting. He was sending the feeling of being hunted again. I endured this for three days, then I got in my car and went for a drive. " Oh baby, a road trip, how interesting. Aren't you driving pretty fast? You should be careful not to have an accident. Are you such a good driver?" I looked in the rearview mirror behind me came an SUV, fine no problem. Sports car versus SUV, everybody knows which one wins. But the SUV turned after 10 kilometers.

I had just passed one of the petrol stations when Damon said " You should probably have stopped for petrol and a bite to eat. You'd get more mileage out of it." There was no one behind me. Fine, he was looking through my eyes with some kind of guide I guess he was a telepath and pretty strong. No problem. The comments went on and on, and it soon became clear that it had nothing to do with my eyes. Shadows. Fuck, I wonder if he can get into the car with shadows. But I don't have a shadow anywhere but in the trunk unless he's getting under the seat now. Let's just get on with it.

I was running low on gas, so I decided to stop at the station to fill up and get something to eat. I got myself a stuffed bagel and a soda and a large coffee. Damon said " It's a good thing you're eating, you'll feel better soon. Let's see how much longer I can play with you before I have to get real. " Oh, that guy could be creepy when he got to it. But I tried to ignore him and concentrated on eating my food in the car. I had checked my car before I got in to make sure he wasn't lurking around. The bagel was tasty and the coffee and drink did the trick.

I started to drive and Damon said in my head " Think about it baby, what if there was something extra in your coffee? Think carefully about how you feel and watch for when it hits you." There was nothing in the coffee, Damon was just trying to make me nervous. Let him try. I made one more backup plan. I found a place to rest and opened my trunk, first the tranquilizer gun in the front seat and then I opened the whole storage system and took three shots of adrenaline. I gave myself one and felt my rage flare up. If there had been something in the coffee, it would now have no effect. There you go.

When I got in the car, the tranquilizer gun was gone from the front seat. Oh, fuck me with that one. Well, there were woods and shadows where Damon could have come from. I started driving and he said in my head again " That's an impressive collection of stuff. Just opened it in a pretty sneaky way and then this tranquilizer gun. There's a hell of a substance here. It'll work on you too. you'll probably get a taste of it sometime, baby. Whether adrenaline helps against this drug."

I kept driving and tried to ignore the comments. The next time I stopped at a rest stop to take a piss the tranquilizer dart flew right over my shoulder and sunk into the tree in front of me. I turned around and no one was there. Damon said "Isn't this a nice game? I'm in two minds about whether to use this gun on you or not. If it's strong and you sleep like a million years and I have to wait to deal with you, but then again, you've got the rage on display and those adrenaline shots, so you could be in a pretty good mood. yeah I will in a minute, now baby I can't really wait any longer. Oh yeah, you should talk to Adam and you'll know where you're going." I called Adam and he told me that the Chicago medbay had been destroyed, every incubator and a lot of antibiotics and stuff used on me, no anesthesia or sedatives after the fever meds, and all the dental stuff. Every single thing was destroyed. Samuel was injured Damon had treated him really badly and Colin had his hands full treating Samuel. Oh, fucking hell I thought to myself.

I kept going until I had to refuel again. It was oh night and I found a convenient petrol station that was open at night too. I was hungry and I thought I'd get a proper lunch for myself again. I locked my car and started to walk into the petrol station. I went through the door and started going through the shelves. There was a sort of clicking sound behind me but I didn't pay any attention to it. I gathered myself a drink and something to eat, thinking I'd have a slurry while I took my purchases to the counter. There was no one behind the counter.

Fine must be in the back room, they always come out when they see there's a customer. I went to the slurry machine and found it wasn't working. Let's go without then. I heard footsteps and turned around. Damon. He was standing a few feet away from me, looking at me like a piece of meat, with no emotion whatsoever. I asked, " Where is the seller?" Damon nodded towards the back room and said " A little cleansing never hurts, the door is locked by the way so you can't get out, and as you can see, bars on the window. Now there's nowhere to run." He took a few steps towards me and I backed away.

Fine. I'm a fucking flea. The flea. I'm undefeated in fight clubs, have been on a fight club boat, two European gigs. I can't be beaten by a fucking salvatore. Damon looked at me with satisfaction when he saw I was going to fight. I attacked him and he retaliated. Damon is twenty kilos heavier than me, a hell of a lot stronger, centuries older, more experienced. And I made my cardinal mistake. I thought I could fight Damon with my bare hands and still win. I had been on the run for several days, I hadn't slept, I hadn't rested. I was running on almost pure adrenaline and rage. And as Damon himself had taught me, when I'm in a rage, I'm so fucking careless.

So I was soon flattened against the wall with Damon holding me tightly in place so I couldn't move at all. I felt him push the needle pleasurably into my upper arm and press the plunger slowly and still rubbing after giving the injection. " Did you know what, baby? That's the stuff that was in your tranquilizer jelly originally. You remember how good it makes you feel helpless. Now we just wait for it to kick in properly and then we can play. Or I will."

I could feel how triumphant he was and the medicine started creeping up on me within 7 minutes even though I was in a rage. Damon said " Look baby, this isn't what rage is for. I've created it that way. Oh, you're starting to calm down really nicely. soon I'm going to get a little more processed for you for the trip and then, then I'm going to enjoy myself. You wouldn't believe, baby, how much I've always looked forward to this. My moment of glory. How wonderfully blissful it makes me feel." My muscles no longer obeyed and Damon turned me to face him and looked into my eyes. He turned me over one of the tables and exposed my neck. I felt him push a needle deep into my brain and inject something. The mimosa in my head groaned and fell into a heap. Mirella fell asleep too.

Fine. I was kind of hoping that one or the other would be awake because both would be useful. I was already in a pretty zombie phase when Damon helped me up and started to take me to his car. He had the whole car in the parking lot and I didn't understand how. He put me in the back seat with the spiked handcuffs and closed them. They had a strong spring mechanism, so you couldn't get out of them very easily. He gave me another injection directly into my vein and I felt the drug come on even more and I couldn't get a grip on my rage. He put me in a seat belt and got in the driver's seat himself and started driving.

He said, after he'd been driving for a while and noticed I was still awake. "I suppose you're wondering now how I move from shadow to shadow. I don't move that way. There was an old tunnel under your ranch and quite a few secret rooms. I can hide in the shadows, and blend in, but I don't travel between them. See, a little compulsion can work wonders and make Adam believe I was actually always there. I have to admit such a thing. It was amusing though, when you tried to remove all the shadows, I just in the heat looked for the end of the tunnel in the house and made sure it was open and had a little look at the secret passages. There is always a logical explanation. You can worship me and give me new abilities, but I just want to tell you the truth. How stupid you were. "

Well, that's good to know for future reference. I'll take it from here. Find all the fucking secret passages and tunnels. We drove to the airport and I figured the further this takes me the better chance Adam or whoever has of finding me. He pulled the car into the parking lot and looked at me through the rearview mirror. He said " Oh baby, this is going to take time, but forever is a long time. I get to play with you for as long as I can. Yes, you will probably take quite a bit of handling, but oh when I get to show you my renovated shed. And all those toys. Listen, baby, after I treat you to a few of my new toys you'll wish it was just a stabber and a rib crusher."

He got out of the car and came over to me. I was still in a helpless state and he unlocked me from the restraints and seatbelt and walked me into the plane. There was a table with spiked handles welded to it. He closed the door and took off my clothes before putting me on the table naked in the spiked chains. Then he started to jelly my abdominal cavity. I could feel and see the thick orange jelly dripping there and Damon was carefully stroking and rubbing it everywhere. I could feel the medicine starting to be absorbed and my head was getting cloudy, I was getting to the point where I was about to pass out. He rubbed my stomach for a long time, even though the jelly had been drained there days ago. He kept on rubbing and rubbing, so hard that I wasn't completely unconscious. Finally, he sat down and I let my consciousness pass.