Eat Your Heart Out

He stood quietly in the brick hallway, listening to the constant rumble of the subway under him. He had chased her this far, and his source was supposed to have already met him here. His patience was quickly wearing thin as he leaned against the cool brick wall. Fully dress in black, hands stuffed into his pockets, his cobalt eyes watched the swarms of people rushing in and out of the gate. He didn’t worry, however, she would come and she would learn never to be late again.

Focusing his eyes on the stairs once more, he listened carefully for footsteps coming up it, and, when hearing none, furrowed his brow and let out a slight growl. It was now ten minutes passed the agreed time to meet – and he did not like waiting. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine what her face would look like after seeing him again. Would she be excited? Happy? Disappointed? Shaking his head to free the last though, he opened his eyes once more. That’s when he heard the scream.

Damon jumped off the wall and looked toward his left, opposite of the staircase. The scream was much too high to be his messenger; it was some sort of youth. He took a couple of steps toward the corner and listened again. He heard footsteps this time, but they were small and fast.

A strong, familiar scent reached his nostrils first, letting him know that whoever was coming was hurt pretty badly.

A small girl, no older than eight, appeared from around the corner, bleeding profusely from her left wrist and her small, pale neck. She was crying, her brown hair a mess, and a look of complete panic in her dark blue eyes. She just about ran straight into his legs, apologized, and kept going to the stairs.

He reached over and grabbed her right arm before she could get away, pulled her back toward him and kneeled down so he was eye level with her.

She screamed and immediately tried to pull out of his grasp. With his free hand, he covered her mouth and forced her to look at him.

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I want to help you. Do you know where you’re mom and dad are?” she shook her head hard and kept trying to pull away.

“Quit it,” he ordered pulling her back. Even though she was young, it was still hard not to just finish her off, especially with the amount of blood flowing from her. He forced himself to breathe for a moment, trying to keep his fangs from dropping down. She started whimpering, but she stopped pulling away.

With a quick glance around, he faced her again. “I’m going to help you, okay. We have to stop the bleeding.” He took a deep breath, denying himself the pleasures of drinking her blood. Even for him, something about killing children was just wrong.

With a dead lock on her eyes, he compelled her. “You are going to drink what I give you. When I stop giving it to you, you will faint back on the ground and remember none of this okay?”

She gave a nod and he slowly removed his hand. He bit his own wrist and offered it to her and she drank. She didn’t need much, so after about 30 seconds, he pulled it away. Her eyes immediately closed and she was completely out. He whipped the blood around her mouth away, stood, and walked to the stairs. He heard two more sets of feet running down the hall as he descended.

“Kris, oh God, Kris!” He heard when the pair stopped running.

His attention turned from that to the blonde woman looking nervous at the foot of the stairs. A smirk appeared on his lips, and his attitude now a mixture of anger and hunger. “Elizabeth,”

The woman looked at him, biting her lip. “Look, I know that I’m late. Some things came up –“

“I don’t give much of a damn as to why you are late. I want to know the whereabouts of a Katherine Peirce.”