PROMPT: Arranged marriage AU where no one is particularly happy about the union - especially the bride and groom.
- ADDT NOTES: The lore in this universe takes inspiration from the show True Blood, both witches and vampires have their own form of government, as well as vampire monarchs who rule over U.S. states.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or the characters, I make no money from this.

Bonnie strode towards Damon, her body taut and face contorted in fury. She looked stunning in a silk gold dress with runes painted onto her skin and the fabric moved against her like liquid. The Coven took their traditions very seriously, right down to the colours you wore up to a marriage. Yesterday, she wore green, a symbol of balance and luck, and today it was gold, for prosperity and success.

This was the first time they'd been alone - every other meeting was always filled with witches and vampires, but now the disgust he'd seen only in her eyes before was evident in the way she walked. She had the same expression as the day it was decided they would be married by the Authority and the Coven. The alliance between vampires and witches had always been tenuous at best, and this was the newest way to solve the issue; Damon, the Vampire King of Virginia would marry Bonnie Bennett, member of a prized bloodline, born with the power of a hundred witches.

Now, alone in the halls of the great manor where they would marry tomorrow, his future wife walked up and slapped him hard across the face.

"You may be the King of Virginia, but I will never love you," she seethed, "Don't ever expect me to bow down to you, vampire!"

"Good," he replied with a smirk, "I enjoy a challenge."

"You're disgusting," she spat, "If you even try to come near me tonight, I will set you on fire."

She strode away and the smirk from Damon's face fell. He wasn't any happier about this marriage, but the Authority forced his hand. They threatened to remove his rule over Virginia and install a new monarch - and offered to free his brother; Stefan was trapped in a coffin underground for thirty years now, desiccating away for an addiction he couldn't control. Once Damon was married, Stefan would be freed and the witches would help get his addiction under control. All that mattered in the end was getting his little brother out of trouble, even if that meant taking a wife after nearly two hundred years.

"Your wedding night sounds like it'll be quite the event," a voice chuckled and Damon turned to see Alaric with a mischievous smile.

"Don't be gross, it doesn't work for you."

"What's that famous line of yours again?" Alaric laughed, "Everyone wants a piece of the king."

"When you say it, it doesn't sound nearly as charming as it's meant to be. And there's a difference when it's an arranged marriage. For all I know I'm about to be murdered by my future wife."

"She won't risk it. Not with the Coven and the Authority breathing down everyone's necks. Klaus Mikaelson keeps snapping the necks of half the vampires who come near him."

"The sooner this wedding is over, the better," Damon muttered, "Come on. I need a drink."

Bonnie laid awake for half the night, trembling with rage and letting her thoughts run wild. She scorched half the room instinctively, too angry to keep hold of her powers; she eventually fell asleep after opening the sliding doors and let the night breeze carry out the burning smell of smoke.

She hadn't asked for this. She certainly never wanted to be a witch - the Bennett bloodline was powerful but rare, which made her extremely valuable. In fact, she lived a normal life up until her Grams died and then her magic suddenly erupted into spontaneous fires and flying objects. She went looking for answers in her family history, but all she found was the power of a hundred dead witches hidden in a decrepit Bennett house. No, she never wanted any of this.

And then the Covens offered her as a bride without her permission, worse they delivered her to a vampire. Lucy assured her this was a political arrangement, it was a matter of diplomacy and preventing any potential wars, but all Bonnie saw was herself being presented on a platter to a monster that probably wanted to rip her apart. Damon Salvatore may look like a man, but she knew what he really was.

Morning flew by in a daze - witches and attendants flew into her room and broke the tentative quiet she had for a while. She was fed breakfast and listened to countless itineraries and sat in a chair as stylists did her makeup and curled her hair. Bridesmaids fluttered around her excitedly, too enthusiastically for her liking, probably because they weren't the ones getting this death sentence; none of them were really friends, anyway, besides Lucy. Humans weren't allowed to attend the ceremony, but it didn't matter anyway. Bonnie lost her old friends years ago when the Coven took her away from home.

At the end, she stared at her reflection in the mirror - she looked beautiful. Her wedding dress was stitched with ornate fabric that shone in the light and it was so massive that it felt like being trapped in a sea of fabric. Expensive diamonds clung to her neck and dripped from her ears and there was a crystal tiara on her head, along with an ivory veil pulled over her face that also trailed behind her. Her hair was in a sleek bun with a few tendrils artfully framing her face and her makeup was elegant yet oddly natural. The Coven spared no expense, everything was ornate and radiant and perfect.

Lucy stood behind her and smiled. "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful bride."

"What about a happier one?"

"It'll be okay. You're getting married, nothing more to it. It's just a title. Doesn't have to rule your whole life. You still got me."

Bonnie turned around and grabbed her cousin's hand. "And I'm glad you're here. I couldn't do this alone, so thank you. We don't exactly have as much family around these days…"

"Hey, we got us two, that's plenty."

"Miss Bennett? It's time," an attendant said. Bonnie sucked in a breath - she knew what came next and it scared her just as much as the wedding ceremony.

"The bloodshare is only for a couple minutes. It'll be over so quickly. You'll be okay," Lucy added urgently and Bonnie nodded jerkily.

The walk through the manor was slow and almost tiring - three attendants helped lift Bonnie's dress and veil as she tried not to trip on the fabric. When they reached the grand staircase, Damon was standing at the bottom along with senior members of their respective governments. He was dressed in a black suit with a bowtie and his hair was clearly styled; she avoided his gaze as she descended the staircase.

He held out a hand as she reached the last step. "You look stunning."

She smiled thinly, aware that they were being watched and accepted his hand. "Thank you."

They would do this for the rest of her life, Bonnie realized as she walked with Damon - he would always be at her side. Marriage only grew bigger and far more frightening in her eyes. Her own parents' marriage had imploded not long after she was born, and besides that...she didn't exactly know many happy couples. Witches and warlocks had a tendency to be nomadic, preferring not to be tied to one partner.

She wondered what Grams would have to say about all this.

They were led to a giant dining room stripped of its furniture, but the wide windows showed their wedding being prepared outside, guests arriving and staff putting the finishing touches on the ceremony.

Bonnie was led to the centre of the room and Damon stood right across from her; everyone else trailed out of the room save for three witches who would help perform the ritual. One of them threw a black cloak over the two of them and then tied a red string around Damon's wrist before connecting it to Bonnie's. The binding of souls, they called it. It was a ritual only performed either in the most dire of circumstances to prevent someone from dying, or in this case, when you wanted to bind your life with someone else's. It meant to intertwine the very essence of who you were with another's, which was why very few people, even witches and warlocks, got to witness the binding.

The witches began to chant under their breath before a large bowl and dagger floated towards their hands where no string was attached. Bonnie pulled back her veil with shaky fingers as Damon took the dagger and then she held out her hand for him.

He brought the knife down and cut neatly into the inside of her wrist; she tried not to wince at the pain and blood dripped from her wrist. She then took the knife, blood still spilling out of her and copied the same movement on his skin.

Damon held up his wrist to her mouth and he looked nervous yet hungry. Black veins ran across his skin, his eyes pulsing red and she could make out the slight bulge of his fangs. She lifted her wrist to his face and she never felt so afraid in her life.

Just as she felt his lips touch her skin, she pressed her mouth against the cut on his wrist. Blood, metallic and thick, poured down her throat and the taste was nearly repulsive - except it felt horrifyingly intimate.

She could feel Damon's blood in her system but it was more than that, she could feel him. Hunger, longing, anger, trepidation, they were alien, they were not her emotions. Then she felt his other hand clutch hers - he was cradling her fingers gently, suckling on her skin, there was an eroticism here she couldn't outrun. And despite her better instincts, she drank even harder.

This kind of intimacy was unlike anything she'd ever felt before.

She looked up, and found Damon was watching her. And she knew he felt it too.

Damon could still feel the cut on his wrist. Though the wound had healed within seconds once the ritual finished, it still lingered somehow in his mind.

He could hear guests talking amongst themselves, settling into chairs, the orchestra was warming up. They would be starting soon. He glanced at Bonnie, who was picking at her bouquet of white roses, startlingly radiant and out-of-place in this old manor. The binding and the bloodshare had taken all the anger out of them and now he didn't know where they stood.

She caught him staring but instead of scowling, she sighed. "This is it, isn't it? No backing out now."

He nodded. "It'd take a miracle now to stop this."

"I can't believe I'm getting married at twenty-one," she mumbled, "I can't believe I'm getting married, period."

When Damon was a boy, getting married young was the norm. Now, of course, people frown and silently judge - but it wouldn't matter her age, not in a vampire's eyes. She was young either way. But she would grow older with him.

"It doesn't have to be a nightmare," he said slowly, "You will never love me? Fine. Then we can tolerate each other. There are worse marriages."

"If you make me look like an idiot, or dumb, or naive, I swear-"

"Bonnie," he moved closer and met her defiant gaze, "You are going to be my wife. For better or worse, that is going to mean something. We didn't ask for this, but we are in it together. We will make this work. I promise you that."

There was something on her face he didn't understand, but she nodded slightly. "Okay."

The blood on Bonnie's lips tingled as she watched the head of the Authority, Klaus Mikaelson, press the same blood to Damon's lips. They would complete the ritual with a kiss marked by their blood mixed together. The wedding was almost over and then the rest of her life would begin.

"Damon, you may now recite your vows," Klaus said.

"Bonnie Sheila Bennett, I give you this ring as a symbol of my devotion. You are the blood of my blood," Damon recited a vampire's vow, his gaze heavy and intense, "Your birth is my birth, your life is my life, your death is my death. I vow myself to you for eternity. You are mine, just as I am yours."

"Bonnie, you may now recite your vows."

"Damon Giuseppe Salvatore, I give you this ring as a symbol of my devotion. My magic, my power, I share. My life, I share. What was once mine is now ours," Bonnie repeated her part, memorized after months of rehearsal and studying. She didn't anticipate the intensity of Damon's eyes, though. "The bond between us will remain until the end of all magic. I bound my life, my heart, my spirit to you."

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," Klaus smiled and he looked like a demon, "You may now kiss the bride."

Damon stepped forward and slowly pulled her veil away from her face. Bonnie held her breath as he leaned forward and kissed her and the blood on their lips mingled together.

Reviews are much appreciated! May be continued.