Eat Your Heart Out

My brothers ran toward us, one of them grabbing me away from Damon and the other putting himself between Jeremiah and me. I reached back to grab Damon’s hand – to try and drag him in, but my brothers had already dragged me away and we were quickly moving up the steps.

I saw Eric’s face, taunt and angry, on one side of me before I was thrown onto the couch. Aiden’s face was red and way too close for comfort. “What the hell happened why we were away?” He shouted.

~~

He stared at me, a wry smile playing across his lips. The two of us were now alone, after her brothers had come out and, quite literally, carried her back into the house. I frowned.

“We are much alike, you and I,” he stated, his right hand twitching a little, “however, the difference between us is that I will end up back with her.”

I snorted, crossing my arms against my chest. “Doubt it,”

A flash of anger crossed his face, but he instantly cooled down. “I don’t. Kris and I have a deep…connection. Those scars – don’t widen your eyes, I know you’ve seen them – they are my creation. My way of claiming her.

“Let me tell you a little story. I tried marking her once, long ago when she was about eight – but somehow some idiotic vampire decided that it was a great idea to heal her. It didn’t heal all the way, though. There was always a pink outline of where the bites used to be. Her brothers beat me to her, and I was unable to take her away again. Then, a couple years ago, I found her – up in New York.

“It was almost too easy to slip into that school, to compel her, to bring her home and mark her once more. I convinced her that the scars were always that dark. “ he let out a dark chuckle. “She probably doesn’t remember most of anything, I was careful with my tracks. One night, however, she slipped away, while she remembered anything and she went straight to her brothers.”

He was moving closer to me, almost nose-to-nose at this point. “But she is mine. And I will get her back.”

His story had stirred something deep inside of me, past the point of anger. “You don’t deserve her.” I hissed back.

“Ah, but neither do you. We are both bloodsuckers, my friend – both have mangled pasts that deserve nothing short of death. But, you must understand - I don't care if I deserve her or not. I just want her. And, you should know, that I'm used to getting my own way." The smirk on his face grew and my eyes narrowed at him.

This was not going to end well.

~~

"What the hell were you doing with BOTH of them there?"

"Look, Jeremiah showed up on his own, Damon was just trying to -"

"I don't want to hear it. You knew our rules. Why didn't you call us?"

"I didn't know that you were home -"

"We would've come home in an instant! You were supposed to call if anything happened!"

"Aiden, please calm down -"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do little girl! Eric and I have already done so much to keep you safe and you threw it out the window!"

"Actually, Aiden, she didn't -"

"Shut up!"

"Leave him alone!'

"You shut up too!"

"Aiden! Calm down!"

"Calm down? We've already saved her from this type of catastrophe once!" he shouted grabbing my arm. "And yet she keeps putting herself back into the same situation over and over again!"

Eric's mouth drew into a straight line and my eyes widened. 'It's not a dog bite' echoed its way through my mind.

"You told me it was a dog bite," I hissed, dropping my eyes.

"What?"

"You told me it was a dog bite," I said again, raising my eyes and meeting his, narrowing them down into
slits. "If it's not a dog bite, then what the hell is it?"

Aiden sucked in a breath, realizing what had slipped out - but I wasn't surprised.

Eric touched his brother's shoulder, causing him to relax. Slowly he sat down across from me, picked up my hands, and removed my rings. "There's a memory, that...that we took from you about ten years ago, and replaced it with the dog one." He leaned forward, locking his eyes on me, his pupils pulsed and I realized he was compelling me. "It's time that you remembered."

Aiden grabbed Eric and ripped him away from me, but it was too late - new memories were running through my head. A train station, some man in mostly black, intense blue eyes, drinking something, shouts, my brothers' faces. Even though this is what they had blocked, I still couldn't see anyone very clearly - and I think a part was still missing.

"She's too young."

"She's eighteen - and she deserves to know the truth!"

"It is our job to protect her! And that includes protecting her from people like us."

"Who is the man? The one with the blue eyes?" I interjected before they could keep going.

Both looked at me and Aiden's eyes hardened. "Damon," he hissed. "Damon is the reason that you're scars exists."

I stared at them for a moment, before focusing the scars. Surely that can’t be right. My brows furrowed as I thought about the memory again. “But…I was drinking something – he didn’t…drink from me…”

“How do you think those scars formed? Of course you drank from him – and he probably blocked him draining you.”

I could feel my head pulsing and hot tears filling my eyes. Surely not…Damon had been so nice to me, for the most part, this couldn’t be him.

But it would explain my uneasy feeling about him…

“How do you know?”

“What?”

“How do you know that it was him? This happened ten years ago. We met the Salvatores months ago.”

“The man hasn’t aged in I don’t even know how long – and I watched him walk away. Trust me, it was him. And you are never going to go near him again, got it?” Aiden hissed.

Slowly, I stood, turning away and walking toward the stairs. When I became even with the door, I ripped it open and hurried outside, knowing my brothers were close on my tail.

I grabbed Damon’s sleeve, pulling him around to look at me.

“Kris what’s-“

“Tell me it’s a lie. Tell me that they are wrong, it wasn’t you ten years ago. You didn’t do this to me.”

“What are you –“

“Tell me it’s not true!”

“Stay the fuck away from her!” Aiden growled pulling me away and back into the house, before he has a chance to answer. I tore away from him and up to my room. This couldn’t be happening. I thought everything was finally fitting together.

~~

“Why should I?”

“You were the reason all of this happened – the secret is out. Stay the fuck away and you –“ Aiden near shouted, pointing over at Jeremiah, “get the hell out of this town before I stake you myself.”

He raised his hands in defense, then turned and disappeared. I had a feeling this was not the last time we would see him.

I turned to leave, but was immediately slammed against the wall. “What happened while we were gone?”

I smirked while studying this brother’s face. His hair was slightly lighter than his brother, green eyes darker too. This was the one that I didn’t hear talk very much. I was slightly surprised by his strength. “Ask your sister.”

My jaw stung from his punch.

I slowly turned to face him once more, eyes narrows, pulse racing. “Ask. Your. Sister. Personally, it was a wonderful weekend.” Yanking free of his grasp, I turned away toward my own house. I slipped out my phone and sent a text to Kris.

We need to talk.