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Chapter 10
Damon was walking fast enough that I thought he must have forgotten about me.
After ushering for the guards to disperse, he continued marching down the busy streets of Brooklyn. I wish I knew what time it was and I tried to keep alert for a clock somewhere but it was almost impossible to do that and keep up with Damon. I knew if he wanted to, he could have been gone a long time ago but I'm assuming he had to maintain his speed because there were humans around.
Foreigners who have no idea how lucky they are. I was one of them not too long ago.
I wondered about Luna and what she had meant when she meant I had the Mark of Eros.
What the hell is the Mark of Eros? How do I get it off?
Damon had gone into a panic when she had said that. If I was such a burden to him, I wondered why he wouldn't just leave me here amongst my people. I could find my own way back home somehow.
I needed someone to speak words to me. Someone to sit me down and tell me exactly what it meant that I had the mark and why had it made Luna change her mind about helping me.
"Damon," I called out, struggling to keep up," slow down!"
He came to a halt in front of a metal door stationed outdoor in between a sketchy-looking corner store and a laundromat.
Damon rattled the door and it opened without much resistance. We entered into the doorway to be faced with black stairs leading down to seemingly nowhere.
"What is this," I asked Damon struggling to catch my breath," where are we?"
Damon spared me a glance for a quick second and mumbled," you'll see."
With that, he began his way down the stairs and I scrambled to follow.
At the very bottom was a small hallway and another metal door.
Standing guard was a big and muscular, taller than even Damon man dressed in an oversized grey t-shirt and some shorts.
He nodded at Damon as if he knew him already and gestured my way.
"She's with me," stated Damon.
The guard's eyes went from a chocolate brown to a neon green color that made me jump back when they landed on me. He opened his mouth to reveal a thin and forked black tongue.
"This way," he almost hissed the words.
He lifted his scaly fingers and pushed the metal door wide open. I didn't hesitate to run after Damon and was met with neon strobing lights that gave me an immediate headache.
A club? He brought me to a club?!
Damon pushed past hundreds of dancing, sweaty bodies. I tried to not get distracted buy the people and focus on not losing my way. I followed Damon through the crowd until we finally reached the bar where he took a seat and signaled I do the same.
"Damon, what are we doing here-" I began but he completely ignored me. Instead, he was more focused on the bartender behind the bar who leaned over the counter, her big and perky breasts almost falling out of her top.
She had short blond hair and blue eyes that glistened even from a distance. She was tall and skinny and absolutely breathtaking.
"Hi handsome," her soft and luring voice could easily have me sitting here for hours just listening to it," Bloody Mary?"
She threw her head back and started to laugh and I could notice her teeth now. There were almost double the amount of teeth someone would normally have and each and every single tooth had a pointy tip at the bottom like small fangs.
I wondered what she was and wondered what the guard was too.
Damon reached into his pockets and pulled out some cash sliding it to the edge of the counter towards the girl.
"Double black out," he ordered, seemingly unimpressed. He turned towards me," what do you want to drink."
I'm not 21.
I remembered how that had gone with Luna and simply said," A coke please."
The bartender came back with our drinks and as she handed me mines, I caught sight of her fingernails that were long and resembled wood. Almost as if she were growing wooden branches where her nails would be. I gasped out loud and looked up to see that she was already watching me.
"It's smart to carry a meal around with you," she looked at me but spoke to Damon," that way you don't get too drunk."
"Ade, back off," Damon spoke calmly and I realized he knew her," she's a foreigner."
Ade's face went from shock to confusion as she turned to look at Damon.
"Why is she here if she isn't food," she snapped.
"I need to think, just back off," he repeated.
She turned her gaze back at me," watch your back little human," she spoke through gritted teeth, looking more horrifying than beautiful now," this isn't a safe place for you to be."
I swallowed in fear, unable to break eye contact. She looked away first and strutted to the other side of the bar where a bunch of guys were waving her down.
"Damon," I snapped," what the hell is this place."
It was almost as if the music had gone louder on purpose to drown me out because Damon ignored me.
"Damon, where are we-"
"We're at an Underworld bar," he interrupted me, staring into his drink.
I wanted to ask what an Underworld bar was but I already knew the answer. Between the bouncer and the bartender, I definitely was not in a bar with fellow humans.
"Why are we here? Why am I here-"
"There are humans here too, relax," he said that as if were meant to reassure me and maybe it did," they're called Crones. They are foreigners who know about our kind."
"Damon, what are we doing here," I repeated. I definitely did not feel like celebrating.
"To have a drink," Damon lifted his drink up before bringing it up to his lips to sip.
"What are we going to do? Luna doesn't want to help me, are we going to go back to the castle, what is the Mark of Eros, I didn't even know I had that-"
Before I could finish, we were interrupted by a loud male voice.
"Damon is that you?"
Damon turned back to look at the approaching man. He was tall and lean, with spiky jet black hair and matching eyes that had no pupils.
Beside him was a girl with the same hair and eyes as him. She was almost as tall and lean with skin as white and smooth as porcelain. She looked like someone but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"Mathoes, Elisabeth," Damon greeted, his body tensing up immediately," I should have expected to find you here."
I sensed the aura change as if something bad was suddenly about to happen.
"What are you doing on our side of the woods," the girl's voice was slick and smooth.
"Came to visit an old friend."
"A fellow Cold One, or was it a witch like your brother does," Matheos smiled as if enjoying himself.
"How are you Matheos," Damon didn't sound like he let that comment affect him," you haven't come by the castle to visit your cousin in a long time."
"How is our dear cousin," Elisabeth said," are you and Seth keeping her busy."
I immediately knew that they were talking about Isabelle and it clicked in that's who Elisabeth resembled.
Matheos's eyes lingered my way and he lost his smile, his expression turning predatory.
"I didn't peg you for the type to play with his food before he eats it," his fangs were slightly more extended now and the neon red lights reflected directly off his hungry eyes in a way that made me shiver. I felt Damon's sudden hands clamp around the bottom leg of my stool and pull me closer to him.
"She's a foreigner," his voice was calm and he didn't sound as cautious as I knew he felt.
Elisabeth skimmed her eyes over my neck, no doubt examining the scars," So then who's been breaking the law."
Damon chucked," As if you care about the law."
Her unamused eyes flickered back towards Damon," I care about the council who's going to have a hard time believing your side of the story when your human has more bites on her neck than a villager-"
Damon's voice was angry and authoritative when he snapped," I'm handling it."
I felt my throat clamp up and struggled to form the words that were at the tip of my tongue. I leaned into Damon's shoulder and whispered," I'm going to go find a bathroom."
Damon nodded without looking at me," be quick."
I scrambled to my feet, well aware of Matheos and Elisabeth who had their eyes glued to me.
I headed towards the end of the bar where Ade was pouring drinks and leaned in towards her," Hi, can you tell me where the bathroom is?"
Her eyes lit up in amusement and she smiled," what's in it for me?"
I stayed silent, wondering if she was serious.
She placed the newly poured drinks on the table towards a group of guys. One of them leaned towards me," she'll never tell you, she's a faerie, keep going this way, it's down that hallway, first door is the one for humans like us."
I noticed that he had the same bites I had on his neck.
I nodded, slightly confused," o-ok, thanks."
I pushed past dozens of bodies before finally finding the hallway and then the bathroom.
It was filthy on the inside with paper wet toilet paper covering most of the ground and faucets that were left on. Out of the three stalls, two were in use. Feeling the sudden urge to vomit, I pushed past that and headed towards the vacant stall.
After finishing up, being careful not to let myself touch anything, I began to pull up my pants when I noticed the stall beside me had two people in it.
From the small distance between them, I could tell that they were in a very tight embrace.
I quickly headed out back towards the sinks that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in ages. I washed my hands and examined my tired face in the mirror. I couldn't help but notice how ordinary I looked compared to Luna and Elisabeth and lest I forget Isabelle.
I sighed out loud and tried to run my fingers through my hair in an attempt to give it some more volume. In the mirror, I saw the door to the stall behind me open up slightly and reveal the figures inside. My eyes widened in shock when I saw that it was a human. Lips and teeth dug deep into her neck by no doubt, a vampire.
She had a smile on her face, her eyes rolling back in pleasure and she was panting something I couldn't quite hear. It looked like the bite was giving her intense pleasure and her hands wrapped around the vampire's head as if trying to pull him closer.
She grew louder with her moaning and I could make clear of what she was saying which was," more." I remembered the man at the bar with the bites on his neck and realized what Damon had meant when he said that there were humans in here too that knew about the Underworld.
They weren't friends to the Underworld, they were volunteers.
Crones.
I quickly left the bathroom and wondered if every human thing I decided to do from now on would be as scarring as this. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without being traumatized. I shivered at the thought of what could be next and began to head back towards Damon when I caught sight of an exit door.
It was wide open, at the very back of the bar, the red Exist sign flickering as if alerting my focus. It was unsupervised and I could see the outside from here. I could tell it led to an ally, I could see the bricks from the other side and they were almost inviting me.
I looked ahead of me to try to catch sight of Damon but there were too many people in the way.
I remembered what I had thought on the way over here. I needed to be home, I needed to get out of this life and forget I had ever been exposed to it.
I took a step towards the door, and then another and another until I was finally walking at a brisk pace and before I knew it, I was face to face with the fresh air.
I left my feet to do the thinking because my mind felt a twinge of guilt that I couldn't understand.
I stepped out and took in the breath of air that tasted like freedom. I looked to my right and left and wondered which way to go.
Was I running away?
No....just going for a walk.
If I happen to get lost....well.
Smoke on either side of the alley blocked my sight and I decided to walk towards the right. I wondered if I should be running, but I couldn't bring my feet to do so. It was almost overbearing the feeling of having ditched Damon back at the bar. It was so overbearing that I reconsidered and paused.
I thought of his face in the closet the night we had brought back the jester.
I felt his cold hands on my face as if he was really there. My heart began to throb.
Stop!
I forced myself to disperse of those thoughts. I moved my feet again and kept going until I passed the foggy smoke and was confused when it had led me to a brick wall.
I grew sudden panicked and searched the brick wall for a way out. It was completely blocked and I banged my hands against the cold hard surface but it didn't budge.
I spun on my heel and prepared myself to run past the fog again and towards the other side of the ally where I hoped the real world would await me but to my absolute horror standing right there were two figures. As if having planned the entire thing, they cornered me completely, their gaze fused with hunger, amusement, and something else that I could only describe as evil.
Matheos and Elisabeth.
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