A Forbidden Love (edited)

Witches to Burn

"No!" My voice echoed over and over again. I was like a broken record. I was stuck on my knees, tears were streaming down my face and I clutched desperately at my ears trying to block out the voices screaming at me from this grey sea.

Out rose my mother. For a moment she was like the kind woman from my childhood. If only for a second I wished to run to her. I wished to hold her tight and hide from my demons. The thought quickly shook free, I knew better. I'd learned my lesson here. These people would only give me pain. I was nothing to them. I was nothing and wished so desperately to be everything.

"Oh Viktoria," her voice was chiding, "How could he ever aspire to be anything when you never were? It's funny how clearly your father and I knew you were an abomination."

The car there was Damon. His eyes were bright. Jovial. "Dame?" My voice was a rasp.

He barely acknowledged my words. Instead he came to my back. He was pressed into me, his voice whispered sultry against my ear. It was teasing and soft. Husky and so very Damon, "I have something to tell you. Wanna know?"

Suddenly, we were face to face. I was twirling. My hair was in curls down my back, a beautiful cascade. The ceiling above was glass, it was a night full of stars. The city around glittered and I knew it as the place I so long had called my home. New Orleans.

"What?" I couldn't help myself. Of course I wished to know, even as I knew only pain would follow. It is nice to dream, to hope.

Everything began to be enveloped in that grey fog again. His beautiful baby blue eyes faded, until they were only darkness. The music swelled, the youth tunes beginning to join together.
"I never felt anything for you."

I withdrew my hand from his and the music stopped. Now it was only Damon and I in a sea of grey. This was a cruel joke. Damon would never be like that with me. I knew we were once drawn together. He'd never take that away.

"What? You think it's not true, Viktoria? You don't believe you were nothing?" His voice rose into a taunt.

I laughed to spite him and put my hand delicately on his shoulder to remind him. "Of course I don't think it's the truth. You were so smitten I'd never see you saying that."

Now his voice was a purr a taunt on it own. His hand feather light glided over me as he whispered in my ear. "I used you."

"No. What could you gain from me?" My heart hammered. I didn't want to know the answer.

That wicked smile appeared. "Everything. You think I didn't know the power you held? I have used you for anything you can name. Leverage against your brother. Information. Sex. Anything you can imagine, name it and I've used you for it."

I couldn't speak. It was a nightmare, but why did his hands feel so real?

"You know why you thought this was wrong, Viktoria? That voice inside your head that's always said danger! Danger! It's because you know I've never felt anything for you. I never loved you."

My heart stopped. Then resumed slowly. "You told me-. Damon you told me-."

"What?" He smiled as if it was all falling into place, "I told you only after your brother tried to murder me. I needed safety. There are only two people I've ever felt anything for... and you don't fit their description. Girls like you have only ever been tools to use for me."