Children Of The Damned

Eliana

I left my bedroom window open on purpose the night of the basketball game. I knew that if Richard had compelled Matt, he would do it again, and when I called his phone number, I wasn’t surprised when he answered in that same level, monotone voice that Stefan warned me people under compulsion developed.

But this time I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew that Richard would have compelled Matt to keep an eye on me so he could get all the information he needed to get to me. I knew he wanted me, whether it was to kill me or turn me or keep me for himself, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for things to get even more desperate than they already were.

“Hello,” Matt answered the phone, all emotion absent from his voice. I acted like there was nothing wrong, and tried to sound chipper.

“Hi, Matty! Are you going to the basketball game tonight?”

“Are you?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, taking the bait.

“Then I’ll go too.” The absence of Matt’s personality in his voice made my stomach clench and sent goose bumps raising up along my arms.

“Great, Matt. I’ll see you there.”

I hung up and closed my bedroom window, going into the bathroom, turning on the fan and the water in the bath to drown out the noise of my next phone call.

“Stefan?”

“Ana.”

“I needed to talk to you about…our science project,” I said, making up something to say in case Damon was in the room with Stefan.

“I’m alone. Damon went to the blood bank.”

“Oh, ok. Well, I called Matt. He is definitely being compelled. And whatever is going to happen, it’s going to happen tonight. I am going to the basketball game, and I have a feeling Matt is going to tell Richard all about our discussion. I think he is going to be there. So if you could come too, and kind of help me watch out for him, that would be greatly appreciated.”

“Do you think that I would let you out of my sight for even a second. I care about you too much to let you put yourself in danger alone, and besides, Damon would kill me if anything happened to you.”

“Well, thank you for the support, regardless of the reasons. I am going to get ready. I’m going to go all Buffy on you. I’m talking stakes slipped in my boots and the whole nine yards.” I laughed, but it came out forced and scared sounding. If Stefan noticed anything, he remained silent.

“I’ll come pick you up. That way you won’t be alone for any amount of time. Can you be ready in twenty minutes?”

“Yes.”

“See you then.”

He hung up, and I turned into a hyperventilating mess. Quickly, I pulled myself together as best I could and changed into skinny jeans and knee high leather boots with no heels. I needed to be able to run if I had to, even though it wouldn’t get me far if I was going to run from a vampire.

I slipped a stake into each boot and put another in my purse with my cell phone and two vials of vervain infused alcohol and a lighter.

I put my hair up in a no-nonsense ponytail and put vervain pepper spray in the pocket of my coat. Then I paced in the foyer until there was a knock on the door. I looked through the peep hole to make sure it was Stefan before I opened the door.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

As Stefan drove, my fingers drummed on the door of the car. It wasn’t until my forehead started to hurt that I realized my eyebrows were furrowed deeply over my eyes. I rubbed above them with my thumb and middle finger in an attempt to force them to relax.

Once in the gym, my ears were overwhelmed by the squeaking of sneakers on the waxed floor, the blowing of whistles, the chanting of cheerleaders, and the cheering of fans. It was all I could do just to manage following Stefan up the rows of bleachers to a space that was relatively empty of fans.

“Matt’s not here,” I said, whispering so my words would be drowned out by the deafening noises in the gym. Stefan nodded in response to show that he had heard me.

I put on a calm façade and tried to split my attention between scanning the crowd of faces and watching the game so I could know when to cheer. I wanted to at least try to blend in with the rest of the fans, to look like I had really just come here to watch the game and enjoy myself.

Tyler Lockwood made a basket from half court, earning a cheer from Caroline and her fellow cheerleaders, topped with high kicks and back hand springs.

My phone started ringing in my purse. I retrieved from the bottom, my fingers brushing against the stake while searching for it.

Matt Donovan.

“Hey, Matt, where are you?” I asked as I answered the phone.

“Hello, beautiful,” a voice sickly sweet said into the receiver on the other end.

I stood up fro my seat in the bleachers. Stefan had been conveniently distracted by a teacher. I had a bad feeling that he had been compelled, which could only mean that Richard was watching me right where I was at this very moment.

I walked down the rows of bleachers, heading away from Stefan as quickly as possible. I stopped in the hallway by the locker rooms, where the noise from the gym was muffled by the metal doors.

“What did you do?”

“I wouldn’t be making any demands right now, sweetheart. You don’t have any cards to play with.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s just say that if you don’t come out to the back parking lot within the next two minutes, your little human boy toy won’t be around for the next football season.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

“Get to the parking lot. I don’t have all night. And neither does Matt.”