Eternity in Fear

Tracey felt very confused as she felt someone’s arms wrapped around her and a soft, comfortable surface meeting her back. Her eyes fluttered open slowly as she took in her settings. One of the sexiest men she’d ever seen in her life was hovering over her with a dashing smirk on his face and amusement bringing his vibrant blue eyes to life.

Wait a minute…her memory was quickly returning…that wasn’t a sexy man…that was a monster! She shrieked as she scooted upward on the couch, banging her head into the wooden edge of the armrest.

Damon shook his head. “Doctor’s orders say you need rest. You took a pretty bad hit to the head.”

Tracey was already beginning to hate his dark, inappropriate sense of humor. She glared defiantly at him as she sat up in a more comfortable position. “How did I get here?” she demanded.

Damon laughed, “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you? Like I would ever take a demand from you.”

“You know what? I don’t care what you had in mind for tonight. I’m leaving!” she declared, shoving her way past him and heading to the foyer, which should be hard to find for a girl who’d never been in the house and who had a head injury…

Using his vampire speed, Damon flew ahead of her and leaned up against the large wooden door, blocking her from her own freedom. “How were you able to find your way to the door so easily?” he asked, confronting the issue head on.

Her eyebrows furrowed briefly, almost as if she were unsure whether she should actually give him that information. “You don’t deserve to know anything about me,” she growled, trying to get past his strong build. Clearly, he didn’t have a problem blocking her feeble little human attempts. He would almost even consider it to be…cute.

“Why must humans be so slow at comprehending things?” he asked dramatically.

Once again a look of confusion plagued Tracey’s mind as her brain raced to try and solve his puzzle. He rolled his eyes, growing impatient and greatly desiring some fun. “You can’t have the upper hand against me now that you don’t have ‘Casper’ anymore,” he mocked, finishing off with a malicious smirk and mischievous eyes.

Tracey’s eyes grew in size as a look of horror washed over her face, instantly paling her complexion. That was her last defense! She glanced down to her exposed stomach, noticing that her bejeweled ghost wasn’t dangling in front of her bellybutton anymore.

“Do I need to…force you to answer the question?” he asked with an amused tone, savoring the look of regret and fear seemingly permanently etched onto her face.

Cautiously, she stared back up at him and replied, “No, I’ll tell you…”

Damon nodded and grabbed her arm roughly leading her back into the room with the couches and fire. “I always was a fan of story time,” he smirked, staring intently at the girl, rather curious as to what she had to say…how she knew about this place…and the Vervain.

Four large mugs rested on the table in front of Elena. She needed something to calm her down – since Stefan seemed to be far too distracted to do that – so she resorted to drinking tea. Normally, she would only resort to the tangy beverage when she had a terribly sore throat, which goes to show how bad this situation had become.

Matt was just about ready to clock out for the night, so Caroline headed over to the booth to chat while she waited. “Where’d Tracey go?” she asked, scanning the Grill.

Elena sighed, “I think she’s with Damon now. He…found her outside. She ran out for some reason when we started talking about her, well, you know…the accident.”

Caroline scrunched up her nose in disapproval. “Are you sure letting Damon of all people take her was a good idea? I think after these past couple months we can all tell it was a vampire who attacked her.”

“Wait, when…when did this happen?” Stefan inquired, slightly slurring his words. And it was about time too…Elena had watched in borderline horror as her boyfriend downed far too many shots for him to still even be conscious.

“I think it was like four years ago,” Caroline replied, trying to recall the exact date.

“But, Damon and I weren’t in Mystic Falls at that time…and all the…the Tomb Vampires were still locked up,” Stefan mumbled.

Elena’s eyes darkened in concern. “Could it be possible that there are more vampires that we aren’t even aware of?”

The only answer the three of them received was an absolutely nerve-wracking silence.

Stefan stood up abruptly and was a little off balance. “Hey, Elena, I think I’m just going to head home on my own. I feel terrible letting you s-see me like this,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes locked on the hardwood floor below.

“It’s not a problem for me to drive you home, Stefan,” Elena said reassuringly, intertwining her arms with his to help him walk a little straighter.

“No,” he shook his head vehemently, “please, Elena, just give me some time. I’ll…I’ll call you tomorrow, ok?”

Elena backed up, respecting his wishes though not really agreeing with the matter. “Alright,” she said dryly, watching him stumble out the door.

Elena said her goodbyes to Matt and Caroline and headed out into the parking lot, alone and feeling an odd sense of betrayal.

Running as far as he could into the woods, Stefan paused, angrily taken his rage out on an innocent tree trunk nearby. He didn’t like who he was becoming…and he refused to let Elena witness this. It was already bad enough that she had to find out about the whole vampire business. He couldn’t let her know about this too.

The sound of crunching leaves and laughter registered easily in his mind, thanks to his supersonic hearing. He quickly determined the location of the foolish couple, hoping to have a good time in the middle of the woods.

Stefan didn’t think…his mind went blank as his eyes turned black and his fangs hungrily descended. He leaped down from the tree he was perched in and attacked the unsuspecting man from behind, savagely biting into the flesh and digging until piercing the vein and letting the wonderful taste of human blood refresh his deprived taste buds.

How could he have gone so long without this wonderful taste? It seemed near impossible…he wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t been the moron who’d endured it in the first place. The man’s body dropped to Stefan’s feet with some blood still lingering around the wound.

The woman, who had been reaching into the trunk of their vehicle for something, spun around and came face to face with Stefan, looking near demonic with blood covering his lips and chin, eyes still as black as night.

Her eyes narrowed and her mouth was opening, but all of it seemed to be happening in slow motion to Stefan and his vampiric speed. In a flash, he was behind her with a hand firmly wrapped around her jaw and his teeth happily between her layers of soft flesh.

Eventually, her body went limp in his arms and she breathed her last breath before she too fell to the ground. Stefan threw both of the bodies into the fire that had been prepared and savored the smell of burning flesh before heading back to the boarding house.

No one could ever know about what happened tonight…if Elena ever found out….

Tracey tried to keep her stare focused anywhere other than looking into Damon’s eyes. She didn’t really feel comfortable opening up to this evil being, but it’s not like she had much of a choice.

“After y-you attacked me that night, I was taken to the hospital so that they could stop the bleeding and help me recover. I know what I saw that night, even if I was a little high, but no one believed me…although the sheriff seemed to be interested in what I had to say, my parents wouldn’t allow it. They were too embarrassed from the ‘scandal’ so they decided to move north to Pennsylvania. Before we left, a guy named Zach Salvatore contacted me and invited me to this boarding house. He said that he believed my story and showed me his Vervain garden, explained how it could be used against vampires. That night, I decided to go get my bellybutton pierced and made sure that both the original piece and my newest ghost piece were filled with Vervain.”

Damon shouldn’t have been surprised. Zach always was paranoid of vampire attacks…leave it to him to help her out. “Good story,” he muttered.

Tracey ignored his pointless comment and realized that Zach should be somewhere around here since this was his house. “Where is Zach, anyway?” she asked.

Damon grinned. “Oh, you didn’t hear? I killed him. And if you’re not careful,” he paused as he leaned in close toward Tracey, “I just might end up killing you, too.”

He took great satisfaction in hearing her heartbeat so roughly against her ribcage. He knew that at some point he would have to compel her to forget that he was the one who attacked her, for obvious reasons, but for now he couldn’t deny it. He was thoroughly enjoying the effect that he had on her.

But, regardless of all the “fun” they were having together, Damon knew that Stefan would be returning soon – he could sense it.

He really didn’t plan on really using Tracey as a sex slave. That was one thing he learned from his time spent seducing Elena – that was something he wanted to be real, something he could easily do in time without compulsion.

However, things needed to be done around the house before Stefan returned…things that would be perfect for his new temporary human slave to do. Tracey suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable under Damon’s intense gaze.

And she had every reason to feel that way, especially with the horrible plan Damon had in mind.