Benito drove us to the airport. He didn't say anything the entire drive until he opened the door for me. I was startled by him.
"Gracias," He held out his hand for me to take. I grasped it tightly, meeting his dark eyes. "You saved my father and me."
"You're welcome." I replied releasing his hand.
"If you ever need anything , please let me know." He answered lowering his eyes. He quickly walked back to the drivers' seat and got in. Damien and I glanced at each other without saying a word. That had been a nice gesture from him. I hadn't expected something like that.
"What is going on?" Damien asked me as soon as we were seated in the airplane. "You hate the school and now you want to stay one more year?" he sounded skeptical.
"Does it really matter?" I told him with a frown. My eyes were on the little window next to me. I reached over it and opened it up.
"Of course it matters. Tell me, Alexandra. I will find out. Sooner or later." Damien's voice made me look at him.
"If I bite someone, I turn into a vampire. He is trying to turn me into a vampire." I whispered to him. Damien didn't look one bit surprised. Her tone made me look at her. my lips turned downward. "And the Sire bit my mom when she was pregnant with me. You knew?"
"I figured it was something serious. There had to be a reason he was trying to come after you."
"It doesn't freak you out?" Now I was confused because he didn't look one bit scared or worried. On the other hand, I was stressed out about the whole thing. "I'm going through a bloodlust phase." Maybe the blood loss had affected his judgment. I wasn't entirely sure.
Damien settled back into his seat and shrugged, "We will deal with it, if it happens. For now you focus on not biting anybody. Besides I'm not worried. You didn't bite me." he smiled widely at me. His eyes wrinkled with delight. There was also a possibility that he had hit his head really hard.
"That's because I like you Damien. Imagine what I will want to do to Selena?" I grumbled and that only made Damien burst out laughing. "Or someone that angers me?" Damien rolled his eyes but kept chortling to himself.
"You won't bite anybody. I know it." he grasped my hand tightly. "So relax and enjoy the flight because when we get home it will be much more difficult. We will discuss what you will do when you turn nineteen."
"Fine." I shrugged rolling my eyes at him. "If you say so but remember I did warn you." Damien settled into his chair and closed his eyes. I leaned against my hand and stared out the window. One thing was for sure, I was not going to spend one more year at that school. I would leave as soon as I could.
When we got to the airport, Professor Rogers was waiting for us with Eric, Uther and Louis. There was nothing expressed on their face.
"Thank you guys for picking us up." Damien greeted them. I didn't glance at or greet any of them instead only walked past them. The smell of blood had hit me hard as soon as I had walked into the airport. There were so many Ordines around. It didn't help that they were in close proximity to me. The image of me suddenly sweeping on them and biting their neck was not helping either.
"Nice to see you too." Louis grumbled behind me.
"We had a rough time in Belize. There is a lot to tell you." Damien replied politely. Eric led the way to the car. I kept some distance from all of them as we walked to the car. There were two cars waiting for us. The smell of blood was hitting me really hard. I opened my mouth to breath a bit easier. It helped slightly by diluting the smell.
"I'll drive one and take Alex with me." Damien held out his hand. Eric hesitated and was about to protest-
"You three go in one SUV but stay behind us. Understood?" Damien raised his eyebrows. He nodded at his hand so Eric could give him the keys.
"Yes, sir." Eric replied with a tight jaw. His lips were pursued as he met my eyes. I wonder what was going through their heads. Professor Rogers knew some of it but not all details unless Damien had told her.
"See you on campus." Damien answered tilting his head so I could get into the SUV nearest to me. Wordlessly, I got into the passenger seat.
"They smell." I told him before he could make an unnecessary remark about my attitude.
"You could try to be nicer." Damien replied in a low tone. He seemed to be trying to not berate me.
"The Ordines smell good." I answered lowering my eyes to stare at my hands.
He didn't answer but instead turned on the car, "Breath through your mouth." he commented as he pulled out of the parking spot.
"Yeah thanks for that tip, Damien." I replied sarcastically doing my best to not roll my eyes. "Really helpful." The words slipped out before I could stop them.
He sighed loudly but didn't say anything else.
"What are you going to tell them about me? Everything?" I asked finally lifting my eyes from my hands.
"That you need to be watched carefully." He cleared his throat but his hand did tighten around the steering wheel.
"And-?" I arched an eyebrow.
"That you need to be watched carefully because vampires are after you. As for the bloodlust-" he cleared his throat awkwardly. "It won't be mentioned. I think you can handle that."
"Glad you still have faith in me." I replied with a shaky breath. Damien reached over and grasped my hand.
"I trust you okay? If you need anything you can always reach me. I just need you to be taken care of." He replied, I turned to look at him but he was focused on the road. He didn't bother to glance my way. "You can't turn into a vampire. Your Uncle-"
He had never really discussed when they had fought my Uncle. He had only ever said that my father had taken care of it because that had been his brother. It had made sense that my father had been the one to kill his brother. Damien now sounded unsure in telling me about him.
"He was elusive and intelligent for a Newborn vampire. I can imagine that you would be the same."
"You mean dangerous?" I tried to clarify.
"Yes, he was the most dangerous and evil vampire- I had ever encountered. Fighting him was terrifying. I thought that I would never come out of that alive. He was a good friend of mine and the fact that he became a vampire did not make it any easier. I don't want to go through that with you. I don't know if I would be able to-" he hesitated, and his hand tightened around mine. I turned to him in surprise because he sounded so unsure in being able to do the deed. That was truly surprising and most definitely unexpected.
"You have to promise me that you will kill me if I become a vampire." I told him trying to meet his eyes but he was so focused on the road in front of him. "You made me promise you that if you became a vampire that I would kill you." We had spoken about this years ago when I had been sixteen years old. I had been old enough to comprehend but too young to realize that there was much more going on.
I finally knew a lot of it now. I couldn't help wandering if there was much more that I didn't know.
His other hand tightened around the wheel but he hadn't released my hand. He had a death grip around my fingers.
"Promise me?" I repeated until he looked over at me. His eyes seemed stricken with grief at the idea of having to get kill me. "You made me promise you." I snapped back at him. "Now you have to do the same. That was the deal. You said-"
"I know what I said." He shouted back at me. I had pushed his buttons. "And don't think for a second I don't regret any of it. You are too young." He huffed loudly, releasing my hand. "It wasn't easy for me to make any of these decisions and having you ask me..."
"You made me promise you when I was younger." I retorted angrily. "What is the difference?"
"I shouldn't have made you promise that. You were a kid. I'm sorry." He sounded remorseful about it. "I am truly sorry. I now understand why your father couldn't kill your Uncle. He was family." There were a certain aspect about my father and Uncle that I knew. My father had captured my Uncle and kept him locked up by feeding him blood. My impression about the situation was that my Uncle had been fed wolf blood because it had been easier at the time. He had escaped, and had tried to seek revenge on my father for what he had done. I didn't know all of it and was sure that there was more to the story.
Before going to the school, I thought I was invisible and the best Slayer out there. I had been raised to think that I was unbeatable and better than anybody else. A Matheson Slayer was the best. Greatest of all time. And now it felt like all of it didn't matter.
All the training I had been through was getting to me. I had started after my parents had been killed. Damien had pushed me into being able to fight and defend myself. All his friends had helped out in my training.
It had been engraved into me that because I was a Matheson, I would be the best Slayer in the world. Everything would be handed to me because of the blood that ran through my veins.
Now-
Everything was different and it felt different. I wasn't who I thought I was. The news that the Chief had given me, it had shattered me. It had shattered my world. My arrogance now felt stupid. It had changed my view on everything. I wasn't grateful for the tough uncaring girl that I had become. In fact, I hated it.