Eat Your Heart Out

The next morning I woke early and slipped out of the Salvatore house before anyone could catch me. My brothers were coming home, and I had to make it look like I had lived in the house. It was about 8:00am when I finally slipped into my own home.

The emptiness consumed me at first – almost with a suffocating affect. Taking a deep breath, I hurried upstairs, trying to shake off the weird feeling that I just had. Quickly I put up my new clothes, changed out of my pajamas into some black skinny jeans, a white shirt, and my new red Vans. I pulled my hair half-way up, because the temperature outside was still pretty chilly for early spring. Satisfied with my look, I headed back downstairs.

As I walked through the first floor, I turned on the main lights, which helped ease the feeling inside of me. After inspecting each room carefully and finding nothing, I started to clean. The cleaning wasn’t really a hassle, but I needed the house to look lived in. Damon, however, will probably blow this secret wide open.

My mind danced back to the conversation the night before, and a small smile came to my mind again. However, it quickly dove into a frown. There was no way that they were EVER going to let me leave the house alone with him. Hell, the man would never get into the house because no one would invite him in.

I froze, pondering over that last though. Did I really want to put myself in that kind of situation again? The first time really didn’t work out so well.

Memories of my first date with Jeremiah raced through my mind…well, the bits that I remembered anyways. Meeting him at the high school to watch the play, him driving me to the diner for dinner, waking up in the ally in great amounts of pain, touching my neck and it coming away bloody. What if this date went the same way, or worse?

How well did I know Damon anyway?

Why is he interested in me?

I laid my head down on the counter I was cleaning, then picked it back up and washed it off. Great – I was now talking myself out of one of the best things that had happened to me in a long while.

After finishing up the house, I grabbed my phone and checked the time, which almost gave me a heart attack. It was 11:40 and I worked from noon to five today. I raced back upstairs to grab my bag, wallet, and keys, then ran to the front door ready to fly into my brother’s car and speed over to the grill.

However, when I opened the door, I smashed into what I thought was a brick wall.

“There you are. You ran out quick this morning.”

“I have to go to work,” I said, not making eye contact and heading to the car.

He easily grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” I said, trying to free my arm, “I have to go to work.”

Pulling my chin around so I had to look at straight into his gorgeous blue eyes, he asked a different question. “Is something wrong?”

I pulled out the phone and showed him the time. “It’s 11:43am. I have to be at work at noon. It takes me 15 minutes to drive to work. See why I’m running?”

He nodded but didn’t let me go. “You’re brothers home yet?”

“No, and don’t do anything without me here.” I ordered ripping my arm free. “I’d rather not come home to a war.”

He sighed and nodded, letting his grip loosen so that I could slide out and head to the car. I was backing out of the driveway in seconds, watching Damon stare back at me. I felt slightly bad about how I treated him, but he was right, something was wrong. I was scared. I was scared of him – and that he was just going to be another Jeremiah.

~~

Work was going smoothly until the end of the day. The crowd in the building was small, but the barstools were starting to fill. I really didn’t mind, because it gave me something to do and kept my mind off of what was going to happen whenever Damon was to come over.

“Sweetie, another Scotch for me please.”

Wordlessly, I filled another glass and handed it to him. The man had been here for a while and was now looking tipsy. “Last one, Mr. Anderson – you’re too drunk too early.”

“Aw, common honey! It’s been a long day,”

“And you’ve been sitting here for most of it. Last one.” I turned around and saw that a new customer had come in and was near the door, head tilted toward the window. I slipped into the kitchen to find someone to help him.

“Hey Matty,” I said, patting his shoulder.

“Hey Krismas, what’s up?”

I wrinkled my nose at the name and continued. “There’s someone at table 5, and I’m a bit full at the bar.”

“Alright,” he said, grabbing his pad of paper and pen then following me out.

I started to clean off part of the bar, watching Matt talk to this guy. I was fine until the man turned his face to talk to Matt.

He was never going to leave me alone. How did he find out where I worked? Maybe he didn’t know – after all, this is the most popular place in town.

Slowly I moved so that my body was hidden well behind a couple of the bigger men at the bar. My mind raced through anyone that I could call and I could only come up with two possibilities – and I was pretty sure only one of those two would help me.

I slipped my phone out of the left pocket of my apron and sent a text and quickly as I could.

To: Damon
Please come to Grill.

After making sure that it was sent, I pocketed it once more and turned my attention to Matt, who had just walked up.

“What’s up?”

“He may come up to get a drink here in a bit. Be careful, there is something weird about him.”

I nodded. “What did he order?”

“Cheese and Chili fries. Really random for 4:30 in the afternoon.”

“You are so judgmental of anyone who orders here,” I said with a giggle. “So what if he wants a heart attack for a snack?”

“Hey now, you can tell a lot from what a person eats. We’ve had this discussion. Remember Four -Course Visitor?”

I snorted at the memory, shaking my head. “Go get the man his food. Thanks for the heads up.”

He smiled back and disappeared into the kitchen.

I let out a small sigh, trying to calm my breathing. Maybe he wouldn’t come up until after David and I switched at 5. Maybe he still didn’t know that I was here.

While taking care of everyone else at the bar, I would glance quickly out of the corner of my eye to make sure that he didn’t surprise me. However, because I was paying so much attention to make sure that Jeremiah didn’t sneak up on me, I completely missed someone new stepping up to the bar.

“So I’m guessing that this is either an apology for earlier or a preparation for later.”
I jumped and turned to see Damon smirking at me from the end of the bar. He chuckled when I jumped.

I walked over to him, trying almost too hard to be casual, which he noticed. “What can I get you to drink?”

“Bourbon. What can I help you with?”

I glanced at Jeremiah once, before turning around to grab his drink. He quickly turned to look and see who it was, before turning right back round.

“Protection?” I whispered, setting his drink in front of him.

He lifted his drink and tipped it toward me, acknowledging my request, before downing it with ease. “So this man, just doesn’t get it does he?”

“Er, that’s the nice way of putting it, I guess.”

“Then what’s the harsh way?”

“He’s convinced that he owns me,” I stated, refilling his glass.

“Owns you…like a possession?”

“Right. And when your ‘possession’ breaks up with you…you get into a mess like this.”

His right eyebrow slowly rose as he took a sip of his drink. “You have some past.”

“And you’re looking at the tip of the iceberg.” I told him, before I could stop myself.

“Will I ever get to know the rest?”

“Possibly,” I said giving him a smirk, although inside I was already mad at myself for saying too much.

“Kris! I’m not paying you to flirt! I’m paying you to serve drinks!” I heard David shout, making me jump. He laughed, patting my shoulder with one of his big hands. “Just teasin’. As long as the latter is always happening, I don’t care what you do.” He gave a slight wink, walking down to help someone out.

“There are days that I hate working with all guys,” I mumbled, pulling out my phone to check the time. Damon snorted into his drink.

“5:02!” I shouted, removing my apron and running to the kitchen to put it up. I walked back out, said goodbye to Matt and David, then walked over to Damon.

“Ready to go?” he asked, still slipping on his drink.

I nodded, leaning against the stool next to him. I did a quick sweep over the place, watching the people come in and noticed that there was someone missing from the table closest to the door.

“You know, I’ve always thought bar tenders were unnaturally sexy, and you prove it,” someone purred from behind me.
I jumped and spun around, trying to figure out who said it, even though I recognized the voice. There were two men in front of me that were now eyeing me – and a unwanted face at the end of the bar, stripping me down with his eyes.

I took a step back and Damon gently touched my arm, reminding me that he was there. He stood suddenly, moving his hand from my arm to my waist. “Let’s go, hun,” he stated, moving me toward the door.

I quietly moved forward, knowing that we were being followed the entire time. Damon walked me toward my car, opened it and, after making sure that I was in, mumbled, “Lock it, I’m right behind you.”

I nodded and took off toward home, Damon right on my tail, and a third car behind him. It was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

When I pulled up, I opened my car door, only to have Damon come flying in front of me, less than a second in front of Jeremiah, who was laughing. Damon’s eye met mine, and he pulled me closer to him, blocking me completely off.

“So even after me, you still go for bloodsuckers.”

Apparently, I thought to myself, resting my head on the nice chest in front of me.

“What makes us so different, huh? Why would you rather be with this dope than me? I took care of you, remember? I was there through everything – I even made the pain go away. I promised that I would change you and teach you, but you tried to end it with me. Now you are just going to another?”

“It’s different,” I said, not daring to move.

“How would your brothers feel, huh? After everything that they have tried to do so that you wouldn’t be hurt again – never change over to be like us? To make sure that there aren’t three Carneils roaming this earth forever?”

I felt Damon’s muscles tighten around me. I wasn’t sure if it was about Jeremiah giving away his secret so quickly, or my family being reveled.

I could hear the laughter happen again. “You didn’t tell each other any of this, did you? I’m sure Kris figured you out quick, but she didn’t tell you about her family? It’s a great story my friend,” he said patting Damon’s shoulder.

I let out my own growl. Jeremiah then started to walk around, making sure that he could see my face. “Here’s the deal, bub.” He started, addressing Damon. “She’s mine, and there are two ways that we can do this. Give her to me now, or I kill you and take her.”

“No deal,” Damon said smoothly. “Haven’t you ever heard of ‘finders-keepers’? She’s my find.”

Jeremiah’s jaw clutched and then a muscle twitched.

I braced myself for the blow when the front door opened. Two voices shouted, “What the hell is going on out here?”