Bloody Rhapsody (Damon Salvatore Love)

14. Meeting with a Vampire

  

Tick...Tick....Tick

  I can't bring myself to look away, to ignore the steady ticking of Zeke's dinning room clock. It pounds in my ear, a perpetual reminder of time passing. Of noon coming all to quickly. I nibble on my lip as I imagine the upcoming encounter for the umpteenth time since last night. What was I thinking?

  "Why did you say noon?" Zeke turns my thoughts into words.

  "I don't know!" I groan, standing from the dining chair and turning away. I have to stop watching the seconds go by, I am only driving myself crazy.

  "I wasn't really thinking?" I shrug as I begin to pace. "I panicked" I conclude, waiving my hands in defeat.

  "Do you really think he will show up?" He sounds doubtful.

  While I am sitting here dreading every passing moment, Zeke is struggling to contain himself. Perched on the edge of his chair, he rhythmically taps his finger against the table. He has been ready for this since he woke up. Bouncing out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning. Last night he seemed equally frightened of them as I am, but this morning he is so eager to be able to ask his questions. He keeps flipping back and forth between wanting to trust them, and wanting to know how to turn them to dust. It's beginning to make my head spin.

  "He'll be here" I nod, thinking back to how positive Damon sounded on the phone. There was no hesitation, he will be here.

"How are you so sure?" He skeptically asks, I only shrug in response not wanting to try to explain. "Why Damon?" his persistent questions eating away at my fragile nerves.

"Like I planed for that!" I snap. "You were right there when I called Elena, how was I to know he had her phone!"

  The more I talk, the more hysterical I begin to sound. My words running together, my voice raising in panic. If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to question what I am more nervous about. Confronting a vampire, or the fact that the said vampire is Damon.

  "I guess," he trails away, "I wonder why he had it?" He sparks back to life with yet another question.

  "I'll make sure to ask" I sigh, trying to settle my jitters, and plop back into my seat.

   My mind not being able to focus on anything other than the moment at hand. What will he say? Even more important, what will I say?

  I absent mindedly pick at one of the many strings hanging from the bottom of my shorts, an old pair of light blue jeans that I cut last summer when the weather got to hot to bear. With a wrong twist of my finger the string lets loose, falling freely to the hardwood floor. Damn, I curse as I realize I'm just making the already worn material fray more. I pull the sleeves of my long, two sizes to big, black sweater over my fingers trying to bind my fidgeting hands.

  "That's if he ever gets here!" Zeke grumbles in frustration.

   I roll my eyes at him, his ceaseless fidgeting only making my own anxiety worse. He squirms on his seat for a moment before abruptly standing up and storming to the window. Peaking out from behind the curtain he stairs intently out into the street, trying not to blink to ensure he doesn't miss a thing.

  "So do you have a plan?"

  "Well, not really," I eye him carefully as I debate whether to tell him what I am thinking.

  "But," I decide I better before I don't get the chance. "I kinda, think maybe, you should hang back" I coax the words out of me, they feel heavy on my tongue.  I know he isn't going to like this, but after much thought I truly believe it will be best.