Say You Remember Me

A month. A whole freaking A month we’d been looking for this so called Jeremy person—I was starting to think he didn’t even exist. And boy, was Damon determined to find him. Excuse me, not just find him; kill him. To avenge his dead, human lover, blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, my business was going down the drain. You know, when I agreed to join Damon on his vampire hunt I thought it would be fun and adventurous. The only thing I got out of it was a ring that allowed me to go into sunlight—and the sun still blurred my senses, by the way. Besides, Nicole got one, too, so it wasn’t that special.

Ugh, Nicole. She was okay, but it was annoying seeing an eighteen mature but fifteen year old girl sniffing around her sire. I’d hate to be fifteen forever, even though I had no recollection of my human years. Nicole had a theory about that. Since I hadn’t seen my headstone when I awaken, I hadn’t gotten my human memories back. She said if I ever found my headstone or the vampire who’d changed me, I’d probably get my human memories back.

Even though vampires that knew I couldn’t remember my human days said I was lucky, that they wished they could forget, I still wanted to remember. The only thing I had to cling to was the day I woke up in a casket under ground. That had not been fun. I had been so afraid, so confused, that I took off running around the graveyard, not even knowing about anything. But then Booth found me, told my about vampirism and all that good stuff.

After being such a scared little vampire girl for a few weeks, I decided I just needed to toughen up and leave behind whoever I had been. Get over it. And it had worked. No one ever thought I had a care in the world. I was a heartless, young vampiress with nowhere else to go. No one knew that when I made my first kill—a gangster guy—I had cried for days, disgusted with myself. After that, though, it never bothered me. It was who I was and no one could change that.

But, no matter how many humans I fed on or lovers I had, something was always missing. Deep down, I was still that confused littler vampire girl, though I strived to cover that. That little vampire girl came out when I had first met Damon. Despite his bitterness towards me, I felt safe around him. I couldn’t explain it. I wanted to be closer to him, but he was so hung up on his dead human girlfriend that he refused to notice me in the ways I wanted him to. It hurt. Not just my ego, but it really, truly, and deeply hurt.

Day sixty-seven of vampire-hunting saw us in Washington D.C at one o’clock in the morning. We were rolling around in Damon’s car, me sulking in the backseat, as usual. With her window down to catch scent of Jeremy’s scent, Nicole suddenly started whining like a dog who heard those silent whistles.

A foul stench filled the air around me. It burned the inside of my nose and I clenched my teeth. It was so strong, it made my head hurt. God, I had no idea D.C had such a horrible rank. I hoped whatever it was wouldn’t mask Jeremy’s scent. That would really put Damon in a dangerously mad mood. Yay for us who had to deal with him.

I whined in the backseat, my head pounding. What was wrong with me? Scents never bothered me before! But, oh, how painful was this smell! I longed to demand Nicole to shut her window, to block out the rank, but I knew she needed it open.

Images exploded in the back of my mind. Evil brown eyes laughing down at me. The feeling of suffocation. Black eyes gazing at me worriedly. A weapon striking some girl’s chest. Teeth sank in that girl’s neck. I felt the horrendous pain as if it were my own. It all made me claustrophobic; something I never thought possible for a vampire.

I let out a painful, confused scream.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Damon snapped.

I felt like I was suffocating, which was completely silly! I started breathing hard, raggedly, even though I didn’t need any of the air that tried, vainly, to enter my dead lungs. But my chest twisted in pain, more than even my neck. It hurt so bad, this mental pain! It felt like someone had just stabbed me in the lungs with a wooden stake.

I gasped for unnecessary air, panic washing over me. I let out a strangled cry.

The car slammed to a stop.

“Damon, I’ll lose the scent!” Nicole cried. She kept inhaling sharply, as if she were about to sneeze.

The door opened and Damon was pulling his seat forward. “Get out and follow it!” His voice was taking on a hysterical note as he snapped at Nicole. “Mary, what’s wrong?”

I tugged at my shirt. “I……can’t……breathe…..!”

Damon sighed in frustration. “You don’t need to breathe, Mary!”

I ground my teeth together. “It….stinks….”

“What does?”

I shook my head, still gasping.

A new image exploded in my head. Red. Blood. Everywhere. Inside a small house…..A girl running, trying to scream, a man with evil eyes chasing her down with a sadistic smile on his face, fangs protruding from his gums hungrily. He slammed her into things. Pulled her hair back, sunk his fangs mercilessly into her exposed neck.

I screamed again, clawing at my neck. It burned!

Damon peeled my hands away from my neck. He gasped.

“What….?” I gasped.

Damon stayed quiet for a long while. He growled in a dark, low voice, “Your puncture wounds are glowing…..”

“So….? What does….that…mean…?”

“It means whoever caused those marks in near.”

“No one’s bitten me!” I cried.

“When you were human,” Damon said. “Whatever vampire turned you.”

“Great.” Just what we needed. But we didn’t have time to track down my sire and get my memories, and I was in too much mental pain to do it myself.

Damon picked me up bridal style and carried me out of the car.

“Where’re we going….?” I asked, looking around the busy street.

He didn’t answer me.

I gasped as the mental scene of the evil vampire tearing into the girl’s flesh came rushing back in my mind. My neck burned painfully. Was that girl supposed to be me?

Words were exchanged between the blonde vampire and the dark haired human, but it was like the volume was really low. I couldn’t make out a single word they were saying.

The stench grew worse, now out of the Ferrari, as did the rushing images and mental pain.

There was a loud, pain-stricken scream.

Damon stopped inside a long, abandoned alley, setting me down against a wall. “Stay here,” he whispered.

I nodded, for once not about to argue with him.

Damon walked further down the alley, leaving me behind. I let my eyes close and leaned my head against the wall. But down the alley, I heard voices. One belonged to Damon and the other to a man I vaguely knew.

“You didn’t have to kill her,” Damon growled.

The other person laughed. “She got in my way, leading you right to me. Besides, that bitch was lucky she stayed alive this long.”

“Right, you have a thing about killing your own vampires,” Damon’s voice was dangerously low and full of seething hate.

The other man chuckled. “Oh, yes…..I remember you now. You were little Liv’s playmate in California for a while, weren’t you? You should really thank me, you know. That bitch was a handful.

“Thank you?!” Damon spat, his voice taking on a note of hysteria. “I loved her, you sick bastard!”

Again, the other man just laughed. “Vampires don’t love humans. Humans don’t love vampires. Never have, never will. Now get over it.”

I couldn’t just sit there and let Damon take on this psycho alone. I suspected he had finally found Jeremy and it was the man laughing at him now. I stood up, pushing aside my mental pain, and started for the depth of the alley. Damon had his back to me, blocking the man ahead of him. At the feet of Jeremy, there was a pool of scarlet blood. In the center of the pool lied Nicole, a stake in her heart. Her eyes stared up, unseeing.

She was the one who had screamed…..!

I walked stealthily forward. They hadn’t seen me yet. Unfortunately, a damned rat skittered right under my boot and squealed when I stepped on it. Damon whirled around, revealing a curious Jeremy. I gasped. Those eyes…..that evil smile….From the images I got of the human girl—that had to be me—I knew. It was Jeremy. And had killed me.

His eyes widened as I doubled over in mental pain, dry heaving. “You….you really are alive….But Booth said….your transformation….It was a failure…..”

“Booth….?” I gasped, my knees colliding with the concrete floor. I stared helplessly up at Jeremy.

He only nodded, in a daze. “I hired him to go to your grave, I had to go away, far away…..He was to bring you to me. You wouldn’tve remembered a thing, you would have been mine forever…”

Damon’s face twisted in pain. He stared at Jeremy to me and back. “What….you mean….she’s…? Oh my God….”

It was the first time I’d seen Damon so vulnerable, so human. He bent over, dry heaving, a horrible sound of pain escaping his mouth. He was freaking out.

“What…?!” I screamed. I was so confused and my head hurt so much. So much information was being thrown at me, and seeing Damon hysteric was scaring me. A part of my muddled brain was begging me to comprehend all this.

Jeremy was nodding, his eyes hard. “My genius plan was ruined.” He pointed an accusing finger at Damon. “You ruined everything. Again.”

“WHAT?!” I cried again, tears running down my face. I held my head in my hands, a loud ringing exploding in my head. I feared my head would actually explode.

But Damon said something then. It was just one word, spoken so softly I just barely caught it. His wild, pain filled black eyes set on me intently, he whispered, “Liv.”

A thousand colors exploded behind my eyes. Suddenly, the moment came to me…..The very moment I was murdered by Jeremy Huygens

I held onto Damon’s hand as we walked up my front porch steps. It was beginning to rain and I checked my watch. It read seven thirty. Everyone should be home soon, which meant Damon and I couldn’t have time alone for a while.

Sure enough, I received a text message from my dad. I read out loud, “Dan says everyone’s on there way, they’ll be home in fifteen minutes. He says no funny business.” I smiled at Damon.

Damon drew me closer to him by my waist. “Our business isn’t funny.”

I snorted a laugh. “Right, of course, what the hell was he thinking? Our business is concluded in under fifteen minutes.

Damon wiggled his eyebrows and smirked. “You offering?”

I shoved him playfully, unable to keep the smile from my lips. “No, I’m not. I’m tired; laughing and crying all day can do that to you. It’s been a long day. I’m going to sleep.”

“Sleep is for amateurs.”

I raised a brow. “Amateurs of what?”

Damon paused. “Nevermind.”

I rolled my eyes. “Good night, Damon.”

He chuckled. “Night.”

We kissed and I went into the house without a fuss, glancing back to watch Damon depart. I honestly did hope we would be together for a very long time. I hoped life—or him being a vampire—would get in the way of us.

I shut and locked the door and was about to go for the light switch when I realized something. Someone was in the house….I turned back hurriedly to the door, but arms grabbed me from behind and a hand covered my mouth.

“Didn’t bet on you being any smarter,” chuckled a sickeningly familiar voice.

I kicked and squirmed, but the arms only tightened. Mostly I was so surprised because the last I heard from Jeremy was when I chucked my other phone out the window. I had let my guard down. Which had been his plan all along. And I fell for it. Still helpless me. I hadn’t gotten any smarter.

“Uh-uh. You think I’d let you just slip through my fingers? After all I’ve done to get you? After how patient I’ve been?” I gasped as Jeremy grabbed my ass and took out my cell phone. He pressed me against the wall and changed his hold on me. He held my mouth with one hand and pressed his body against me to prevent the use of my arms. He waved the phone in my face. “Text whoever and make those fifteen minutes go away. We need more time to catch up, don’t you think?”

I glared as Jeremy shoved the phone in my hand.

“Just tell them you have to have more time to talk to your precious boyfriend about something important.” I caught the unmistakenable bitterness in Jeremy’s voice when he mentioned my ‘precious boyfriend’.

I shook my head. No.

Jeremy sunk his arm into my neck so I could barely breathe. “Do it,” he commanded, all the previous amusement in his voice lost.

I created a new message.

“And don’t even think about telling them you need help,” Jeremy warned. “I’m checking it when you’re done.”

I wondered why he didn’t just write the message and have me get the contact, but whatever. I texted Dan that I needed to discuss some things with Damon and could he check up on Mom, I was still worried about her. And I told him I loved everyone. It was probably the last anyone would hear of me….

“Nice,” Jeremy glanced at the message, sent it, and tossed the phone onto the couch.

I glared at him with such hatred it could have lit him on fire. But I wasn’t stupid enough not to be afraid. He would make me die a slow, painful death. I just prayed someone would get suspicious and call the cops. Though that was a longshot.

Jeremy smirked and his dark eyes glowed like a tiger’s. “You miss me, babe?”

I continued to glare.

Jeremy tightened his grip. “I asked you a question.”

“Hmm mmm mm mmwrr wii rr mm mmmm mmm mmmm, ooo iimm!” Which translates as ‘How can I answer with your hand covering my mouth, you idiot’.

Jeremy just laughed and I couldn’t help the shutter that ran down my back. He stroked my face and I shivered again. “I sure missed you. Being this close to you.”

I closed my eyes tightly, willing the nightmare to end.

I think it was right when Jeremy licked my cheek that I snapped. My leg curled and I kneed his gut. It took him by surprise long enough to where his grip loosened and I slipped out of his hold. I ran toward the door and thrust it open, shouting, “HEL—”

I felt the sting of someone slamming their fist in the back of my head just before collapsing to the floor. I distantly heard the door being slammed through the ringing in my ears.

Black spots dotted an angry face before me who was laughing in cold fury as he grabbed a chunk of my hair, forcing me to stand. I swayed on my feet, swearing I had a concussion.

“You little bitch!” Jeremy growled.

“You…” I tried spitting out a proper insult, but I was so light headed, my entire body felt numb and detached.

But through the numbness I felt the distinct burning of needle point canines sinking mercilessly into my neck. A hand slapped over my mouth as I took in a gasp to scream. In the next moment, Jeremy bit into his own wrist. Pulling his hand off my mouth, he shoved his bloody wrist in my mouth. I told myself I wouldn’t drink it, I would rather choke and die. But it was a lot harder to think that than actually do it. And after Jeremy saw I had swallowed some, he pulled his wrist away.

I glared up at Jeremy, spitting blood in his face. Without even a second’s hesitation, he backhanded me again. My head whipped to the side and I flexed my jaw. You know the really hardcore woman in the movie where she’s being attacked and she knows martial arts and has all these witty comebacks? Yeah. I was so not that lady.

I was scared. Scared of death. I was scared to laugh at Jeremy with a witty comeback. I was scared of losing the ones I loved the most. The most I could do was not break down crying and beg for my life. I had too much pride for that.

Jeremy licked his blood stained lips, smirking. “Mm, I forgot how good you taste….”

With the blood still lingering in my mouth, I could have vomited. As it was, I was glaring at Jeremy with a passion, but that only seemed to turn him on more. What was with me and guys who liked it when I turned them down?

Jeremy laughed. Then he sighed. “I wonder how such time our little text message bought us….It really is a shame to destroy something so beautiful….” He stroked my cheek with the back of his knuckles.

I shivered, throwing my head to the side to avoid his cold hand. “Just get it over with.”

“Oh, no, ma’am,” Jeremy chuckled. “A good gentleman never rushes through a lady’s first time.”

I had half a mind to spit on him again. I glared at him. “You disgust me.”

That only seemed to amuse him more. “Maybe.” Then he sighed. “So, darln’, how should we do this? Dismemberment? Tear your heart out? Chinese water torture? Human punching bag?”

I stared at him in horror. My legs shook and I swore I was about to faint. He really was going to do any, or all, of those terrible things…..Oh, God…..Oh, God! Someone help me! I don’t wanna die! I’m too young to die! I wanna live and have a career and get married and have kids who have kids then I’d have grandkids—I wanted gray hair for crying out loud!

A small whimper escaped that. Jeremy liked that. A lot. “Such a shame,” he kept murmuring.

Then don’t do it, I thought vainly.

I closed my eyes and waited for it all to be over.

A sharp pang that left a horrible after sting and ringing hit my cheek. “Look at me, damnit!” Jeremy swore angrily.

Maybe that was the key; get him angry enough to kill me quickly instead of agonizing torture. I kept my eyes shut and turned my head away from him.

He hit me again, but this time grabbed my chin to face him. I kept my eyes firmly shut. “Look at me,” he commanded furiously through clenched teeth.

Breathing hard, I kept my eyes shut.

“You’re trying my patients!” Jeremy shook me roughly. “Do as I say!”

I did the bravest thing I could have ever done. I opened my eyes, smiling defiantly, and said loud and proud, “No fucking way.”

Instead of being hit or shook, I was thrown across the room. My arm caught on something sharp, tearing through my jacket and creating a painful gash. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out in sheer agony. Hot tears stung my eyes as I tried to block out the pain, even as Jeremy hauled me by my hair to a sitting position.

“You stupid bitch!” he said in my ear furiously. I was panting to hard, my tiny gasps of pain were barely heard. But Jeremy soon stopped and stared at my blood soaked arm. He shoved me down on my back and laughed, bending over to lap up my blood like a dog lapping up water from its bowl.

I screamed, “Get off me, you sick—” but Jeremy covered my mouth with a bloody hand.

He was smiling and I could see his blood stained teeth. His eyes seemed to glow more, causing him to look more frightening. He licked his lips and moaned. “Mm, you really do taste luscious.”

I gagged, dry heaving.

Jeremy laughed, supremely satisfied by my disgust. He picked me up by my collar in a sitting position. My head had already been light from the concussion, then by the blood Jeremy took, and now from my arm. I doubted, even if I were saved that instant, I would survive. I’d lost too much blood. I was feeble and ineligible to even keep my own head up.

Jeremy laughed. “I’m just about finished with you.” He pinched my arm and I gasped weakly. “You feel that? Good. Then you’ll feel what’s coming next.”

He raised a pointed metal pipe. I could see the reflection of my face as the pipe came down. I didn’t even look like myself. The girl that was staring had pleading hazel eyes and her once pretty face was covered with blood and oncoming bruises. And she closed her eyes just as the pipe would pierce her skin….

The front door suddenly caved in and a tall, tense figure ran at Jeremy with impossible agility. I gasped as I was brought to my feet and shoved in front of Jeremy, the metal pipe pointing threateningly at my chest.

The figure stopped short, his hands curled into fists at his side. Black eyes glared hatefully at Jeremy and I could see, in the depths, how much he wanted to rip the other vampire’s head clear from his shoulders.

“Damon….” I breathed in relief. But my voice was weak and wispy and my eyelids kept threatening to close.

Damon’s expression changed for a split second to me. He had a look of horror and empathy in his eyes, wishing he could take all the pain I was feeling and just take me away in his arms. But he knew how impossible that was. As if severely angered by that, Damon glared at Jeremy and I could have sworn an animal-like growl escaped from deep within his throat.

“Let her go, you son of a bitch,” he growled, barely containing his fury.

“Whoa, whoa, bucko,” Jeremy laughed tauntingly. “Finders keepers and I saw her first.”

“She’s not a toy you can play with!” Damon shouted, taking two steps forward.

“Not what you thought when you first met her. And,” I gasped as the metal tip poked my skin. “I’d stop, if you don’t want to kill her.”

Damon stopped.

Jeremy laughed and grabbed my face. “And isn’t she just delicious?” he licked blood off my face. I whimpered in disgust.

“I wouldn’t know,” Damon growled through severely clenched teeth.

“You’ve never tasted her blood?” Jeremy gasped mockingly. “Oh, I guarantee it! ‘Sides, she’s no fun to me in this state. I’m bored.”

Time seemed to slow in that instant. Jeremy’s hold on me switched. The pipe drew sharply up and I could hear the fateful wiiissshhh of it as it sailed down……penetrating my lungs.

I gasped in horrendous pain and I distantly heard Damon shouting through the blood rushing in my ears and my immense shock. I choked on something—air, I guessed, as it wasn’t entering my lungs. I was harshly shoved forward and heard retreating and advancing steps in all the same, excruciating moment.

“Olivia!” a hazy voice yelled.

Strong arms caught my fall and I was being cradled tightly, but I couldn’t feel it because my body was so numb.

Hair was pushed out of my face with frantic, shaking fingers and someone continued to shout, “Olivia!”

I tried focusing my eyes on him. It was hard, with my rapidly shaking body and suffocation. But I was able to stare into the black eyes of the man I loved most. I tried to speak, , to tell him one last time how much I loved him. But what came out was a series of gasps, whimpers, and strangled screams.

Those black eyes were glazed over. Wait—Damon was crying? Over me? Oh, my, that was bad. “Olivia, please…..” he was begging in a panicked, but low voice. “Please, Olivia, hang in there. Stay with me….”

I shook my head when Damon made a motion to cut his wrist. It was too late to be changed into a vampire. And besides, however painful it was, I think I would rather die, like how it’s supposed to be.

Damon’s grip tightened. He knew, too, it was too late for me. “Damnit, Liv!” His voice cracked. “Don’t do this, don’t……Don’t leave me….”

Tears leaked from my clouding eyes. I wouldn’t leave him if I had a choice. Too many people had left him to be scared orphan boy with a brother who didn’t understand his pain. I choked on a painful sob.

Damon pressed my head under his chin, holding onto me for dear life. His arms shook, but that could have been my body spasms that were gradually slowing. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

I choked and a strangled cough escaped me. Blood spattered on Damon’s shoulder. My blood. I had a bad spasm after that, but then it was over. My eyes clouded over and, for Damon’s sake, I smiled. I was in the arms of the man who loved me instead of dying in the eyes of a psycho who got off on watching me suffer. Though horribly painful, it was a good way to die. And I was so thankful Damon was there and that he was with me.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

That was the end.

It all came back to me now. I was Olivia Ashwern. I was Damon’s dead human girlfriend.

Jeremy had been my boyfriend freshman year. When I found out he was a vampire, my mom and I had him arrested and moved to California.

My mom, Helen Ashwern, principle of my high school. Divorced my cheating father when I was a kid.

My dad, Dan Ashwern. Came back into my life when my mom fell into a coma after Jeremy attacked her. He introduced my to Simon.

Simon….My eleven year old half brother I never got the chance to really know. But he had gotten along with my friends great.

Stephanie. Quiet, empathetic, wise….Stephy. She had been engaged…

Juliet. Eccentric, bubbly, flirty Jewels. She introduced me to the band F.I.R.E, where I had scored as lead singer. She had kept a first relationship with Alex.

Alex….dopey, nerdy Alex. He was a new, instant friend. Juliet had tried setting us up when I found out Damon was a vampire and we broke up.

Damon. The man I loved with all my heart. Dark, dangerous, sarcastic, loving Damon. He had said something before I had died, something he couldn’t say to any woman for a long, long time…..

I love you.

I blinked, the visions gone. I was back in the alley, where Damon and Jeremy were tearing into eachother. I had fallen on my face, the concrete cool beneath my cheek. When I sat groggily up, Jeremy threw Damon into a dumpster. I whipped my head around. Damon was glaring at Jeremy, the dumpster dented.

My dead heart ached just by looking at him. I couldn’t believe all this time with him I hadn’t known it was him. That I was me. How could he have not known it was me?

These were all questions I’d have to ask later, apparently, as Jeremy and Damon were charging eachother.

I crawled over to Nicole’s lifeless body. A pang stabbed through me. She hadn’t deserve this, to die in an alley. “I’m so sorry…..” I whispered. Taking a deep breath, I tore my jacket off and wrapped it around the wooden stake in her heart, yanking it out easily. As soon as it was out, Nicole’s body turned to dust. I would mourn for myself later, I told myself. Right now, though, Jeremy had a seriously earned date with death.

Damon had thrown Jeremy in a wall and was mercilessly punching him in the jaw.

I saw the knife before Damon did. Jeremy smiled up at Damon with bloody teeth, the knife sticking out of his jacket sleeve. It didn’t gleam when the light hit it. It was made of wood.

“Damon!” I gasped. “Watch out!”

Damon knocked Jeremy’s hand away, where it had reached up to plunge the knife in his heart. Instead, the knife jammed into Damon’s leg. Damon growled in pain as Jeremy twisted the knife around.

In one swift motion, Jeremy kicked Damon off him, sending him flying into the busy street. Damon didn’t have time to get up before a car ran him over, stopping with the tires still pinning him down. This built up a traffic jam. And suddenly I was alone with Jeremy.

Jeremy stomped hotly toward me, knife bloody in his hands. “I’m going to kill you for good this time.”

Panic welled inside of me. The fear Jeremy caused me to have toward him was as fresh as it had been a year ago when he’d stalked then murdered me. I took a fearful step back.

Jeremy laughed darkly. “You’re still as weak as you always were. Funny, I thought making you into a vampire would change that.”

I glared at him. A wave of fury washed through me, strong enough to mask the panic. The day I’d died, I hadn’t the strength to take down Jeremy. I did now, though. Add that to the fury I had towards him for taking me away from everyone I loved, for turning me into a monster. “You’re wrong,” I told him.

I had the satisfaction of seeing Jeremy’s eyes widen in shock as I plunged the stake into his heart. He stumbled backward, clawing at it while gagging. I twisted the stake further inside him. “This is for Damon, you son of a bitch!” I growled, kicking him to the ground.

Jeremy lay there, staring up at me in shock, blood oozing out of him. I pressed my boot on his chest, crushing his sternum and rubs. I twisted the stake again before ripping it out sideways, nice and painful. Jeremy had been screaming in pain, but now he was silent. Age caught up with him and he exploded in a cloud of dust.

I was on the verge of hysteria. I had done it. I had killed Jeremy. I had ended my biggest nightmare.

Damon, I now realized, was there just when I stabbed Jeremy. He had let me have the victory of killing that sick bastard.

I turned around slowly, finding him there.

We stared at eachother in disbelief for what seemed like hours. Damon made the first step forward, I made the other. The thing I knew, we were running into eachother’s arms. Damon pressed his face in my hair and I buried my face in his chest, clutching him tightly. He clung to me just as tight, as if he never intended to let me go.

“It’s you,” he murmured into m hair. “You’re not a dream. It’s really you.”

I pulled away to look into his eyes, my hands caressing his face. My eyes were overfilled with tears, so I could have been mistaken in seeing the tears in Damon’s eyes. But I don’t think I was. There were no words I could say to him. He had lived the months without me. He had hunted Jeremy down to avenge my death. He had to deal with my death. He had to suffer more pain than I did when I was murdered.

He smothered me in a desperate, mind blowing kiss. He didn’t stop kissing me even when I found the words to say to him. Instead, his lips still against mine, he murmured, “I love you so much.”

There went the million butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t even get the chance to tell him how much I loved him. He captured me in another kiss, one in which he had no intention of ever letting me out of.

EPILOGUE-

I sighed in irritation as Damon led me to a secret residence. “Can I look now?” I asked, Damon’s hand still covering my eyes.

“Not yet,” he answered, holding my hand to guide me.

Ever since that day I’d killed Jeremy, almost a whole month ago, Damon never let me out of his sight and he was always holding me, as if making sure I was really real and wasn’t going to disappear. I left behind the life of Bloody Mary, happy to be in the process of reliving the life of Olivia Ashwern. I just had to get up the nerve to face my family and friends.

Damon and I had discussed this matter for a very long time. Since my mom, Juliet, and Steph already knew about vampires, I could tell them—though it might nor go over well at first, Damon warned me. F.I.R.E was out of the question. I couldn’t live anywhere near California where someone else might recognize me. But that didn’t matter. As long as I had Damon, my two best friends—I still wasn’t sure if Alex knew about vampires—and my parents, I was fine. I was also not sure if my dad knew about vampires, but my mom could tell him. As long as I was, in one way or another, alive, my dad wouldn’t totally flip out.

But this past month had been about me and Damon, as selfish as that sounds. Before, I couldn’t torture him into saying he loved me. Now, I couldn’t torture him to make him stop telling me. I didn’t tire of it, though. It was a beautiful three lettered phrase I adored coming out of his mouth each and every time he said it.

Now, I didn’t even know where we were. We had driven for a while and then when Damon found his spot, I had to close my eyes until we were walking out of the car. I’d even had to downplay my senses. No cheating was tolerated, apparently.

“Damon, c’mon!” I whined.

“Alright, alright,” he laughed. “Open ‘um.”

I blinked open my eyes. I stared in confusion at a school building. We stood in a hallway, just inside the double doors. “Damon, what….” But then it hit me. This had been my school. “Okay, but I still don’t understand what we’re doing here…..I didn’t exactly have fond memories of this place.”

“Sure you did,” Damon laughed coyly. “This is where we first met. This exact spot, in fact.”

I stared. It really was where I had slipped that rainy day. He had been a jerk. “Aw, aren’t you sentimental?” I teased. But when I turned around, Damon was just watching me with this weird smile on his face. “What?” I asked.

“We’ve been together….What, a month now?”

I rolled my eyes. “Get real.”

“Okay, okay. Not including the time apart, a year,” he said. We never discussed our “time apart” so I had no idea what to say to this. “And we love eachother…right?”

“Damon,” I said impatiently. “What’re you getting at?”

“Answer the question,” he said with a smile.

“I sighed. “Of course.”

His eyes took on a rather serious expression. “Liv, when I lost you……The only thing that kept me going was to kill Jeremy. I didn’t know what I’d do after I did killed him. But I knew I didn’t want to exist without you.”

This was news to me. I had no idea Damon had wanted to kill himself. “Damon…”

He kept going, though. “I have never loved anyone like I love you, Liv. And when you died…..I don’t ever want to lose you again.”

I smiled, stroking his cheek tenderly. “You’re not going to lose me, Damon,” I said softly.

“Well, the only way we can sure of that is,” In one swift motion, Damon was on one knee, gripping my fingers gently in his hand.

I took one step back. “What’re you doing….?” My voice was wispy and breathless.

He smirked confidently at my shocked expression and said in a low, sexy voice, “Olivia Ashwern, will you marry me?”

“Oh my God…..!” I gasped loudly as I saw the opened pink—my favorite color, he knew—velvet box. In it revealed a beautifully cut diamond, medium sized, inside a silver heart. The ring was simple and beautiful, just the way I liked it. Tears blurred my vision and I kept shaking my head in disbelief.

Damon chuckled. “No?”

I was fairly certain Damon Salvatore had never asked a woman to marry him. And I was the first; the last. He loved me enough to give into a human tradition—even though I wasn’t human. Well, more like right of passage. I knew I wanted, more than I had ever wanted anything, to spend the rest of my eternal life with him.

“Oh!” I gasped, realizing I was keeping him waiting. “Um, yes!”

Damon raised a dark brow. “Um, yes?”

I laughed, kneeling down to his level to wrap my arms around his neck. “How could I say no?”

Damon smirked. “Just to be sure…..That’s a yes, right?”

I rolled my eyes, kissing him deeply. “Yes,” I whispered against his lips.

“’K,” Damon murmured, getting back to kissing me while sneakily slipping the ring on my finger.

Suddenly, everything seemed right within the world. I would tell my two best friends and my mom about me being a vampire, though it might hit them hard at first. I’d be willing to bet Steph would be the hardest to convince. She was the one who loathed vampires. But even though I was a vampire, it was all right now. Because I wasn’t dead. Not really. I could still be with Damon; be the one woman who didn’t abandon him, in the end. I tried not to count my “death” as abandoning him. After all, I hadn’t known I was Olivia Ashwern myself. It still disgusted me, the things I did when I was just Mary, but Damon was making me forget day by day, just with his gleaming grin. It was so nice to see him happy again. The last I’d seen him, before I died, he had looked so heartbroken. It was amazing to see him smiling again.

And I would be smiling next to Damon Salvatore, my husband-to-be, from now through all eternity.

Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it a while.

-The Princess Bride

THE

END