Two Brothers

*previously*
"What's your name?" I asked the vampire then, trying to fill the void of silence.

He didn't answer. Instead, he turned to face the wide, open doorway leading out into a hallway and leaned casually against the counter next to me. "Hey, brother. Where have you been?" He said to no one. His voice sounded bored, but I could see that the arrival of this new person excited him. I frowned in confusion at first, seeing no one, then a tall teenage boy about my age or probably older entered the kitchen. He frowned when he saw me perched on the counter.

"Damon. I was looking for you."
*previously*

They were very similar in appearance, both tall with dark hair and blue eyes. The vampire's brother appeared very serious, though, not at all like Mr. Cocky standing next to me. I wondered if I could escape now, if maybe the brother would help me. But maybe the vampire's brother was also a vampire. I looked him up and down, trying to determine whether he was human or not. He sported a black hoodie and jacket and dark jeans, giving away nothing other than his overly serious demeaner.

"Are you Katelyn?" He asked me, his eyebrows raised with concern. He seemed to be trying to reassure me of my safety, though I really wasn't so sure of that particular thing right then. Not with the vampire who'd just recently drank my blood leaning so close to me.

He took a step forward, slowly, trying not to alarm his brother, it seemed. The vampire, Damon, crossed his arms almost lazily, and leaned closer to me, his body language portraying his claim over me.

"Yeah, I'm Kate. How'd you know?" I was extremely aware of Damon's closeness, and I resisted the urge to jump off the counter and run toward the possible safety of his brother.

"Aw, come on, Stefan. We were just having some fun. You could join us if you want." Damon invited. His voice sounded friendly but his body language was threatening. He laid his arms across my shoulder, stroking my neck with two fingers. Stefan saw the bite marks on my neck and frowned at his brother.

"I'm going to take you home, okay?" Stefan said to me, moving closer. There was a long and tense moment then before anyone moved, the brothers having a battle of wills with their stares.

Then, like the flip of a switch, the mood snapped back to its semi-safe normalacy, as the battle was called a truce. Though, had it been a serious matter, I felt sure the younger brother would have lost to the older and I knew they both knew it, as well.

"Alright, whatever. I'll take her home." Damon removed his arm from my shoulder and and pulled me off the counter abruptly. I nearly fell, but Damon lazily caught me with one arm.

"You're a real party pooper, you know that?" Damon said to Stefan. His voice was both playful and annoyed, and I wondered what Damon would have done with me had he been left to his own antics. Stefan frowned at Damon, but let us past as Damon half led, half dragged me back to his bedroom on the second floor.

As soon as we entered, he let go of my hand and seemed to be looking around the room for something. I made no move to escape, knowing he could catch me quite easily if he wanted.

Damon bent over and grabbed my workout tee off the floor from the other side of the bedroom. It was torn at the neck. "You'll just have to borrow something of mine." He said after a moment, and he smirked at me. He crossed the room and opened the door to a walk-in closet. I followed him automatically and peered into the closet. I sucked in a gasp of air. Damon was gone, the closet empty but for a multitude of dark-colored clothes.

"Here." I spun as Damon's voice came from behind me, our positions mimicking that of earlier, with him standing beside the open door. I wished he would stop doing that in front of me. He was wearing a black shirt and dark blue jeans now, and he held out a bright red t-shirt for me. "You can keep the shirt. Just a little reminder of our time together." He smirked at me and I knew that that was as close to an apology for my ripped shirt as I was going to get. I snatched the shirt from his hand and turned away from his staring blue eyes as I pulled it on over my head quickly.

Damon grabbed my elbow when I was fully clothed and led me back down the staircase. Looking around, I got a chance to see that his house could easily be classified as a mansion, with its huge hallways and high ceilings.

Stefan stood beside the front door, looking like he was contemplating a rescue attempt. I gave him a weak smile as Damon brushed past his brother, with me in tow. Damon opened the door and I hoped briefly that he would burst into flames as the bright morning light hit his face. Damon noticed my staring and he smirked at me before stepping confidently out into the sunlight. I sighed. I hadn't really expected any spontaneous combustion, but still, it definetely would've solved my problems.

"You didn't really think I'd just walk out into the sun, take two steps and then burst into flames, did you?" Damon asked, smirking at me still.

"Not really." I said, my voice resigned.

"I can take her home, Damon." Stefan exited the house and stood beside me.

Damon sighed, his eyes pointed skyward in exasperation. "Are we really having this conversation again, Stefan?"

He still had a firm grip on my elbow and I squirmed just a little, my bare feet growing hot on the warm concrete. I was going to have to really clean and disinfect my injured foot when I got home. If I got home.

Damon's mood flipped again and he released me. "Okay, you take her home. I need to go out of town for a while, anyways." Stefan gave his brother a look that said, 'what are you up to now?' and caught a set of car keys that Damon tossed at him.

"You'll probably want to borrow my car," Damon smirked at his brother. "Since I know you're not gonna want to just run Katelyn home." By 'run' I assumed he meant at super speed. Which meant that Stefan and his brother were similar in more ways than just looks. Damon gave me a grin, and then blurred from my view without a sound. My mouth dropped open and I gaped like a fish at the empty space which had just previously been occupied by Damon. I'd known that he was fast, sure. But seeing it firsthand was frightening, to say the least. I pulled my arms around my waist.

Stefan looked at me with sympathy. "The car's in the garage, this way." He made a move to touch me, but I dipped my shoulder away and jumped to the side automatically. My arms were held out in front of my body defensively. Not that I was planning on hauling out on him or anything, just a reflex I had recently gained.

Stefan frowned and took a step back. "I'm not going to hurt you." It wasn't that I didn't believe him, I did. From the confrontations I'd seen between him and his brother, they were nothing alike. Stefan seemed to actually care about my feelings, or at the very least my well-being. Whereas Damon had just plucked me off the street and held me hostage (I assumed) all night while drinking blood from my neck.

"I'm just going to take you home. I promise." I stared at the younger vampire's dark blue eyes, admiring them at first, until I was reminded of Damon's light blue eyes turning dark red in a frightening change.

I shook my head, feeling slightly dizzy, and took a shaky breath. "Yeah. Sorry."

Stefan nodded knowingly and gestured with his hand, slowly this time, trying not to alarm me, toward a large garage nearly the size of my house, just a short walk down the concrete driveway.

"Um, I..." I hesitated for a moment, then continued. "I had a pair of flip flops last time I checked. And a shoulder bag."

Stefan's gaze dropped to my bare feet, then quickly back up to my face. "Oh, right. I am so sorry." I just stood there awkwardly, not sure how to respond to his sincere apology. "I don't suppose you have any idea where they are?"

"Damon?" My expression was resigned. I was probably never going to see my favorite flip flops and my shoulder bag again, not to mention all the stuff that was actually in the shoulder bag. My wallet and my iPod being two of the more valuable things in it. A charm bracelet from my best friend being the thing I was most worried about.

"Damon." Stefan sounded as though he was used to his brother doing things like kidnapping girls and losing their shoulder bags and flip flops.

I stood on the tips of my toes and tried to keep any expression of pain off my face. Seriously, you try standing on a injured foot. And then, try standing on the tip of that injured foot, the muscles pulling tight against a tear in the skin on the sole of your foot. Stefan looked at me, his expression concerned. Okay, so I was probably completely failing at trying to keep the pain off of my face.

"I'm just going to lift you up, okay?" My expression turned flighty and fearful, I'm sure, and Stefan took another step back. "You just-- You look like you're in pain, so I just--" He said, trying to put me back at ease.

I decided to trust him, since he was the 'good brother', after all. And plus, my feet were on fire. "Okay, sure. Whatever."

In a moment I was lifted carefully off my feet and into Stefan's arms. He started walking smoothly toward the garage, his gait not at all jerky. I wondered if that was a vampire thing, or if he was just naturally graceful.

Still, I felt quite secure, not at all like when his brother had held me. With Damon, I felt that at any moment he could drop me and not even blink about it. Stefan's arms were solid and at the same time gentle. I felt sure he wouldn't drop me. I mean, as sure as I could be about the mythical vampire brothers I was beginning to believe I was imagining. Things like being kidnapped by a good-looking (okay, very good-looking) and egotistical vampire and being held hostage overnight only to be released the next day with the help of his equally good-looking vampire brother just didn't happen in real life.

I felt a sudden urge to pinch my arm so I would wake up from this crazy dream. I acted on that impulse and pinched my left arm, just above my wrist. The sharp stinging flash of pain was a disapointment and a reminder that this was actually happening.

"I'm sorry you aren't able to just wake up from this nightmare." Stefan apologized. "I would change that. If I could."

"No. It's not your fault." I avoided looking at him. Instead, my eyes inspected the outside of the vampire brothers' over-sized garage as we got closer.

It was Damon's fault, the thought struck both our minds.

Stefan opened the door to the garage while holding me with one hand seamlessly. A cold breeze brushed my arm as the door swung open to reveal a dark room. Stefan's arm was a warm against my legs. My brow furrowed. Wasn't a vampire supposed to be cold, or something?

"You can put me down now." I told Stefan. The cement floor of the garage looked clean and cold, a relief for my aching foot. Stefan looked at my foot, which had stopped bleeding by now, thank God. He gently settled me onto my feet, holding my arm until I was steady.

A sudden brightness filled the room. I looked quickly to Stefan. His arm lowered from a lightswitch on the wall. My eyes roamed the garage then, and I wondered what bank Damon had robbed. The garage was lined with a long row of sleek black sports cars. The ones that I could identify right away were two porsches, one a shiny black and the other dark red. There was a black convertible camaro, and a black lamborghini.

What can I say? When a 19-year-old male lives with you, things are inevitably going to rub off.

Gerry's like a charity case type thing. Gram runs a half-way house for teens. She's always taking in troubled kids and giving them fresh starts. The latest one, Gerry, is one of the easier kind of rehab cases. He just needed a place to stay, I think, and a little TLC. I get the sense that he had it bad back at his old home. We'll see how it goes, though. He's only been staying with us for about a week and a half, and sometimes the bad stuff doesn't show up till later.

"We're taking the red car." Stefan said, reminding me that I was still in the company of a kidnapping vampire's brother.