Nothing To Lose

21- Chains

It turned out the page didn't have anything useful. But Alia's grandmother did. She told us that she could easily reverse the spell, but we would have to come visit her because she was 'too frail to travel long distances'. We all agreed instantly; the only things in the way were Elise and Riley. We would have to find a way to convince Elise to come with us and promise not to kill me on the way. And then there was Riley who was very against letting us go all the way to Utah, especially when that meant missing more school.

"Riley, this is more important than school," I snapped at my sister, irritated by her attitude. We were currently in my room while Damon, Tristan and Alia stayed downstairs to watch Elise in case she woke up early. Riley had sent Monica to her friend's house for the night.

She sighed and brought her palm to her forehead. "How long is it going to take to get rid of the curse? Do you think if you left today you could be back in time for school?" It was two in the morning which meant it was technically Saturday.

"I don't know; Alia's grandma didn't say." I replied. "But I can makeup whatever I miss when we get back and Damon will help me. Please Riley!"

She groaned. "Don't make me the bad guy Tally. You don't even know if Elise will go along with it."

"If she doesn't than we can just paralyze her again and drag her there against her will," I compromised.

Riley thought about it for a minute. "How come Alia and Damon can't take her. Why do you need to go?"

"Because I'm pretty much the cause of all of this; if it weren't for me, Elise wouldn't be a problem that they feel they have to deal with." I argued. Why couldn't she just let me go?

She crossed her arms. "I don't know."

"You know what? I don't care. I'm going even if you say no. I'm eighteen so you can't stop me," I snapped at her before basically stomping downstairs to where Damon and Alia were sitting. I sat next to Damon and he wrapped his arms around me, placing a kiss on the side of my head.

He pulled me onto his lap. "How did it go?"

"Awful," I complained, snuggling into him. I was exhausted after everything that had happened today and the only thing I wanted right now was sleep. "But I'm still going no matter what she says."

He frowned slightly. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," I responded, trying not to fall asleep.

Alia jumped up. "I'm going to go pack. You guys can watch Elise right? I mean she should be asleep for a while and even if she does wake up, I doubt she'll be able to get out of those chains." Just in case she woke up, we had taken the precaution of chaining Elise to the couch.

"Yeah, you can leave," Damon told her and I nodded. She gave us a small smile as well as a wave before leaving.

I sighed. "I hope this works and we can finally get some peace." Damon's chest shook as he chuckled.

"Me too... I was thinking about quitting my job at the high school, but I don't know where I could find another one at this time of the year." He announced suddenly.

I looked up at him. "Why would you quit?"

"So I'm not your teacher anymore. Then we could have a public and socially accepted relationship and no one would be able to blackmail us with it..." He trailed off. I stayed silent as I thought about it. Honestly, what he was suggesting sounded amazing. But I knew it wouldn't be that easy; he would need to find another job and it would be hard to find a teaching job in February- there were only three months left of school.

I hesitated before replying. "There are only three months left; surely we can keep our relationship a secret that long."

"Yeah, but I don't want to," he complained.

I sighed. "I don't want to either, but where else would you find a teaching job? Come on, it's just three months."

"You're right," he grumbled.

I nodded. "Of course I am. So are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Not with her in the room. She can probably still hear us," Damon said, cocking his head towards the chained up Elise.

"Okay. I love you," I mumbled randomly, my drowsiness returning.

I felt Damon's hand on my back, rubbing it. "I love you too. You should sleep, you look tired." I started to protest, but a yawn slipped through my lips. I smiled sheepishly.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt... Are you sure?" I asked, not being able to keep my eyes open.

He chuckled. "Yeah, I'll wake you up if she wakes up."

"Okay." I felt Damon lightly kiss my forehead before I fell asleep. Who knew a vampire would make such a comfortable pillow?

I woke up disoriented. I was in my bed and Damon was lying next to me while sun shined in through the window. Had last night been a dream? I blinked a few times and looked up at Damon's sleeping face. He had both arms around me and my head was lying on his chest.

"Damon," I spoke, my voice husky from sleep.

He cracked open his eyes and looked down at me. "Are we in your room?"

"Yup, do you know why?" I asked as we both sat up. I climbed out of my bed and stretched, realizing I was still in yesterday's clothes.

Damon shook his head slowly. "I don't know... The last thing I remember is falling asleep on the couch downstairs."

"You fell asleep?" I exclaimed. Without waiting for an answer I ran downstairs to see if Elise was still there. I could hear Damon right behind me.

I reached the living room and saw the couch was empty other than the chains that Elise had been tied up with. Where was she? I ran into the kitchen and stopped. Alia, Elise, Tristan and Riley sat at the table eating.

"What's going on?" I asked hesitantly.

Elise looked up and replied first, "I see you're finally awake. It took you long enough."

"How come you're not chained up or trying to kill me?" I exclaimed. My sister was eating waffles with the girl that hated all of us.

Riley answered my question. "When I woke up, she was on the couch not chained up and there was no one with her. But she didn't attack me or anything; she just explained that she wants to try the spell that Alia's grandmother knows."

"How can we trust her?" Damon snapped, pulling me towards him.

Elise groaned and rolled her eyes. "I don't want to kill her, but if it's my only option than I will. However I'm not opposed to trying this."

"Does she know that we killed Erin and Minion number one?" I asked Riley. Wouldn't that kind of affect her judgment of us?

Elise snorted. "Of course I know. I was paralyzed, not unconscious. I saw everything and I feel bad for them, but they had it coming." And we were supposed to travel with her?

"Right," I muttered. Then I turned to Riley. "Did you think about the whole letting me go to Utah with them thing?"

She nodded. "Since you were going to go either way there's really no point in me trying to stop you. So just get it over with, and your plane leaves at six."

"Six? Why so late?" I asked, grabbing a waffle and drenching it in maple syrup.

Riley raised her eyebrows, "You get off work at five, right?"

"Oh, yeah... Wait- what time is it?" I asked; my hand suspended halfway to my mouth, a bite of waffle stuck on the end of the fork I was holding.

Tristan checked his watch, "Eight."

"I have a half hour!" I quickly shoved the bite of waffle into my mouth before running upstairs to get ready for work. Not only would I probably be late, but I would also have to apologize for missing work yesterday. It wasn't really my fault I forgot- I had a lot going on!

I was probably still going to be fired.

Hey quick note, I finished editing this story (finally!!!) so updates will be a lot more frequent. As in once a day.... And I'll probably be posting a new story soon so watch for that :D