PART TWO – FOURTEEN
Damon sighed in gentle relief when Ashley returned to her human form. He wouldn't say it out loud, but when he'd first seen her shift into the monster and had let loose a roar of rage, Damon had never felt so much terror in his life. And the roar hadn't even been directed at him, but at Anya – who Ashley had once again let flee. Damon couldn't blame Anya for fleeing, he had as soon as he'd been freed from the Bitch's ropes. But at least he'd ran straight away, hadn't hung around. Not that it had mattered, the... Ashley, was it Ashley? had stuck with him as he ran for his life.
It had been Kayline who'd called for him to stop him from running for the village – not that he'd thought he'd get there – where others who didn't know that vampyre's and originals existed lived. Because they would have done just as he had.
Fled. In terror.
Because Ashley in her demonic form was a sight to behold... and look on from a place you knew she couldn't reach you. If you could find such a place.
In her human form she was... well, there wasn't a word that described her. Black hair and eyes that when the light hit them right, you could see swirling deep blues and deep purples dancing. Damon could have laid there for hours watching the colours move and shine in her eyes. Her waist length hair framed a slender, but well toned body. Not that her physique mattered, Damon had a feeling that even if Ashley had been one of the most obese beings on this earth, she'd still be able to move as she did, with grace and speed, be as strong as she is, and even as beautiful as she is. Because there was one thing Ashley could never be in anyone's eyes: ugly. For a moment, it made Damon wonder whether the only reason Ashley liked him was because he was her 'mate' as she'd called it. But then, if that was true, why had she avoided him at the start?
Catching Ashley in his arms as she suddenly fell forward, Damon was about to ask what was wrong when he felt it. The tingle at his neck, the strange feeling inside of... something happening, wings spreading, but it paled to what he felt now. A slight stab. Not enough to pierce his flesh, but that wasn't what concerned him. It was the fact that the stab had come from the direction of his purring demonic angel. Hit him on the side opposite to his heart, lower down. Over Ashley's. Through Ashley's.
Denial shot through Damon. But then a sudden calm settled over him when he remembered that only an angel or another original could kill this beautiful being that was his. But when he looked up, four things happened in quick succession.
Fear hit Damon stronger than the terror of seeing Ashley when she'd shifted. "Angel," the word was only a little more than a breath of air.
A magnificent winged man hovered just behind Ashley. Wings and blade were a glorious sun rise of yellow and blue. The man's angelic face held no expression. The blade that the angel held fell to the angel's side before it disappeared. Just disappeared, as in, one second it was there, the next it was gone. The floating angel's eyes never left the wound it had given Ashley as it spoke in a voice that made Damon want to bow down to it's wishes. But he wouldn't, no matter what the angel asked because... the urge to shake Ashley for letting the angel stab her was strong, but he withheld the urge, not wanting to harm her any more than she already was. How had she not heard the angel appear? How had any of the vampyre's not? They had better senses than him, and Ashley more than them. How had they not heard the beat of wings Damon could hear as the angel hovered over them?
"Æsc, Ellengæst of Æ," then the angel spoke modern English. "For breaking the law, your punishment is death." Then he vanished, like his sword had, as though killing was a day job. At least that explained how the other's hadn't heard the angel appear.
But then the second thing happened. Images appeared in his mind. And Damon knew they came from the being in his arms. She wasn't dead yet. The relief that swarmed him then made him feel light headed.
Jayden and Micah.
A phone.
Five men standing in the elements.
And then the third thing made Damon's heart pound. Ashley went limp. Passed out, Damon decided. She couldn't die. They'd just started to get along. As fear tried to claw it's way up Damon's throat, shoving his relief out the window, Damon turned to see that the vampyre's had been slowly approaching while the angel had hovered over head. He called out for two of them, as he did, Damon was aware how empty of emotion his voice was, but, at that moment, he couldn't bring himself to care. "Micah. Jayden."
All the vampyre's turned to look at Damon when he spoke. Nine vampyre's and two wolves. Micah came over and took Ashley from him. Good thing too because Damon suddenly felt like he needed to sit down.
Micah was over five hundred years old, according to Ashley who laid limp in Micah's strong arms. His blond hair trailed down the vampyre's back like a well tamed snake, and his dark sea green eyes were watching him carefully. Micah was shorter than Damon as he was only inches taller than Ashley who was an entire foot shorter than him. Although, that was different when she was in her demonic form. She must have been at least ten and a half feet tall as the large humanoid like lizard creature. And in that form, she was twice the width of her human form also.
Looking back at Micah, Damon remembered his shock at finding out that the new bar owners had been vampyre's when Ashley had first told him. But, once Ashley had said that, it almost made sense with how they acted. How they moved. How they looked. Damon wanted to smile at remembering his friends words of how he wouldn't mind having the blonde waitress as his girl. Back then, Damon had felt confused when the girl – Maize – had turned to glare at them. Now he knew that it was because she'd heard their conversation.
Suddenly remembering that Ashley had showed him images as another wave of dizziness swept over him, Damon told Micah and Jayden what he saw. "Ashley showed me an image of you two, her phone and then five men standing in fire, water, a–"
"Air, earth, and spirit," Jayden said, moving forward slightly. "Her Brotherhood."
Jayden was one of the two vampyre's that had joined Ashley in school. The other, Catherine, wasn't around. Or at least, she wasn't now, she'd arrived with the nine vampyre's and obviously at some point during the fight, she'd disappeared.
Jayden was nearly half a foot shorter, and not as broad as Damon, but that didn't matter because the black haired male was a vampyre. He had Ashley's genes inside him. And any with an originals genes in them was a clear do-not-mess-with-them-if-your-human. Looking into Jayden's midnight blue eyes showed confusion. Damon knew that their had been a couple of times when Jayden had just wanted to get rid of him. Like when Ashley had finally agreed to tell him what he wanted to know and Jayden had called him a "boy" once he'd got into the car. Back then, Damon had wanted to show Jayden just how much of a "boy" he was by punching the guy in the face, hoping to harm him. Only Ashley in the car and the wanting to know what the hell was going on had stopped him.
Now, though, he was glad he hadn't. Because now, Damon knew that the guy would have won hands down – if Ashley hadn't been around. It was almost funny to know that a smaller, less strong looking person could stop even the largest of men with a glance. But now, Ashley was... unconscious, Damon could only wonder whether or not Jayden would stay back.
As another, more forceful wave of dizziness assaulted him, he hoped the guy would wait until he was feeling better at least. God he wanted to puke and sleep. In which ever order. Right now, he really didn't care, his head was starting to thump as though someone was repeatedly hitting him with a bat.
Jayden's movement had caused the others to move closer. Kayline moved a little closer when the others stopped. "Damon?" Kayline asked concerned. "Are you okay? Your swaying."
Kayline was one of the kindest people– vampyre's Damon had ever met. She had dark brown wavy hair that fell just below her shoulders, and had sky blue eyes. As usual, Kayline was wearing long sleeves. It was strangely confusing to know that physically, Kayline was in her thirties and Jayden looked to be around Damon's age but both were actually much older.
"Will Ashley be okay?" Damon asked, feeling Ivey come up to his side.
Ivey. Ashley's food. Ashley's feeder. Ashley's vampyre. Damon remembered not the pain, but anger at seeing Ashley at this males throat. To be honest, Damon didn't believe Ronnie's words of Ashley being like a mother or a sister to them. Sucking at a member of your family's throat like that... No. But Damon did understand what Ronnie had explained. They were family and friend and the only way to keep Ashley alive was for her to feed on one of her vampyre's. She could feed on humans. If she drained several a day dry. Drained them so that they would die. And so, Damon had decided at that moment that he could suffer with her at another's throat if it saved countless lives.
Damon felt Ivey's arm slide around his waist and once Ivey had pulled Damon's weight onto him so that Damon didn't have to focus as much on staying on his feet, Damon realised that he really had been swaying. But even with Ivey holding him tight so that he was now standing still, Damon's head still swam in circles and thumped like the bass from a rap song.
Ivey and his twin Rose appeared to be mid-twenty, five-foot-six, Gothic royalty. Nick had come up to Damon and his friends one time after training and had started talking to them. At that time, he'd also told them the names of the others at the bar, calling Ivey and Rose and Goth Prince and Princess. Seconds after saying their nicknames, the "Goth princess" had come over, spoke in Nick's ear and Nick had then quickly left them to return to work.
As Damon felt his body shut down on him a little, giving more of his weight to Ivey, he guessed that it was the vampyre genes that made it easy for Ivey's shorter height to hold him still so easily. Both the twins had black hair and while Rose had a deep purple strip in her fringe, Ivey had a deep blue strip. It was almost as though the pair were trying to keep Ashley on them. Their eyes were cat green. And they had a number of piercings each.
"She's alive Damon," Micah answered Damon's question. "When she dies, we all die. You'll know when she dies."
Comforting, Micah, thanks. But he didn't say it out loud, knowing that the vampyre was actually trying to give some form of comfort.
Watching, Damon saw Ronnie move over to her husband. Ronnie seemed to have been made for her mate's short height as she stood at four-foot-eleven, blonde curly hair that was the same length as Kayline's, and green eyes looked to be worried as she waited, looking at Ashley.
Turning to see the rest of the search party who'd come with Ashley to find him, Nick was standing next to Maize and Galina who held hands and Roven and Grey – the wolves – were standing to the sides, keeping an eye and ear out.
Nick had blond hair from his mother, but his hair was straight where hers was curly. His green eyes were flecked with gold, and for once, Damon couldn't see humour in the guy's eyes, only fear and worry as he too, looked at Ashley in his step-fathers arms.
Maize had always seemed to be the silent strong one. And that was what she was now. She stood like a soldier waiting for her orders to come with her blond hair in it's bun, and pale blue eyes that were emotionless except for the slight tightening around them. Even though she was holding hands with Galina, it was clearly more for Galina's comfort.
Damon could feel the vampyre that looked to be ten had her mental shields slammed shut so tight that not even a breath of air would be able to get through. Her emerald eyes showed the same story as her four-foot-eleven body language did, she looked as though as she was sitting at the bar bored. Her pure red hair was tight ringlets as they fell to her mid-back. It was still strange to remember that this girl was actually a little over two hundred years old. And had been under Suresha's command for most of it. With that thought, Damon knew that he couldn't blame the girl for closing down the way she did, if she hadn't when with Suresha... Damon pushed the thought away, he didn't want to know.
That was when the fourth thing happened. A burst of pain hit Damon over his heart, through to his back. Like a knife stabbing him over and over. Again and again.
Someone shouted in pain. Others shouted in panic and worry.
Suddenly the pain spread.
Damon tried to breathe, but it felt as though a blacksmith had arrived, deciding that he was a piece of metal that needed to be melted. The blacksmith pushed him onto a bed of white hot coals, and then, he changed his mind and threw Damon into a freezer. The sudden change was... there weren't words. But as Damon tried to live through the sudden change, the thumping in his head became harder, quicker until Damon couldn't tell the difference between being punched, and not being punched, slammed or beat. As the pain built and built... Damon shut down. No longer able to cope with the amount of pain and with everything that had happened within the past hour.
The last thing he heard was Kayline shouting in worry and fear. "Damon!"
Icy hands held him. Dragged him into darkness. Damon allowed it because the coals cooled, the ice warmed and the fists disappeared. Darkness was good.
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