Damonic

Chapter 4

Oh, hey! So, I know it has been like... a year since we have updated this story - but guess what? We are back, and ready to give you some more of Cass and Damon! SO without further adieu I give you... *drumroll please* CHAPTER FOUR! 

Please enjoy! 

-ChaeWinacott & Lana_Sky

_______________________________________________________________________________

To say it was a long drive would be a massive understatement.

Sure, Gabriel had claimed that it would take at least an hour to get wherever the hell we are going—but it felt longer than that. Or maybe it was just overall discomfort that had me feeling as if this trip was taking a million years?  Halfway down the road leading from the orphanage I started to sweat.  Tiny, prickly drops roll down my back beneath my sweatshirt.

Twenty minutes later and my vision begins to blur—turning the landscape of trees and long road into a colorless, formless blob, like some kind of Picasso. And a little after that…I can’t breathe. 

The feeling always starts the same; this little prickle just under my ribcage, whenever I play too hard, or get so angry I fly into a rage.  The sensation is numbing, like being jabbed by a hypodermic needle. Just this brief sharp pain…

Right before my entire chest tightens, holding my lungs captive in the process. 

A long time ago, I had googled the proper medical name for the condition, but I’d be damned to remember.  A hole in the heart is what the doctors called it—a ‘pain in the ass’ was my term. I was born with the defect and would probably have for the rest of my life.

All that matters now, is that I need the tiny white pills the doctors had prescribed since the age of five to manage it—but, as I tore through the bag Damon had given me, I couldn’t find them anywhere.

The little brown bottle was missing—and without it, I was in for a whole lot of trouble.

I wheezed, digging my nails into the upholstery of the seat in front of me, hoping that the pain might push some of the feeling back into my numb fingers.

No luck.

The numbing sensation is already spreading…

Through my chest…  Up to my arms.  Down to my fingers…

“Cassabell, are you alright?”

The grayish blob I assume to be Gabriel turned to face me.  From his smeared features, I guess he’s worried.

‘Fine’ I try to gasp, but the word won’t leave my chest.  It’s sort of just hanging there, sticking to the inside of my throat.

In the end I settle for just shaking my head.

No.  I am not fine. 

The next moment the car is swerving to the side of the road and comes to a sudden halt. 

“Damon,” I hear Gabriel growl, but if he says anything else I don’t hear it.  All other sounds just congeal into a wordless murmur that brushes my eardrums. Helpless, I inhale, trying my hardest to keep my breathing slow and even—just like the nurses had taught me back in the days when hospital visits had been the norm. 

Nice and easy…

But it’s not too long before I realize that the old trick isn’t going to help me this time. It’s as if there’s a hole in my chest, deflating my lungs like broken balloons. Both windows are up, and I feel overwhelmed and hot.  I can hear my own pulse; it’s pace rapidly increasing by the second. In a panic, I dig my nails into my palms.

I can’t breathe.

 “Cassabell!” Someone shouts above me as I go limp against the back seat. 

Whatever you do, I scold myself, don’t you dare scream…

It’s a struggle to fight down the urge to shout—I only manage to get two words out.  “N…need p-ills…”

 “Pills?”  Though I can’t see Gabriel’s face, I can sense his alarm.  “You know anything about this?”

Damon answers in only one word.  “Shit.”

My vision goes completely black by the time I hear the door wrench open and cool fingers slip around my waist to pull me out onto a hard surface that crunches beneath my skin like grass. 

“Breathe dammit,” I hear Damon order. 

If only it was so easy.

I wheeze, fingers blindly pressing over the space above my heart as if to coax it into beating normally again.

Come on Cass, I plead with my body.  Don’t do this…

“She said pills,” I hear Gabriel mutter.  “…probably back at the orphanage.”

“I’m on it,” Damon says, sounding fiercely determined. 

I didn’t have the time to consider just how Mr. Perfect was going to go all the way back to the orphanage in time—let alone grab my pills and make it back. 

I was much too busy passing out to care about the logistics. 

But…right before I do, my vision clears just enough for me to make out something odd glinting in the sky just above the row of dark trees lining the road. 

Something so crazy I know I have to be half-delirious with oxygen deprivation. 

Because, I think…there’s a big ass bird, with glowing, massive white wings…

Flying through the sky.