The Petrova Bloodline

Chapter 9

Izabelah's POV

Man I hated being ill. I was mostly better now, just with a cough that Rosie was worried about, but I was fine. Back at work, my flowers were blooming better than ever and the wards hadn't yet been broken, so Niklaus wasn't yet here. Biggest problem, was the fact that Damon had appointed himself as a shop assistant.

"Where do you want these...." He checked the label, "Crocuses and freesias?" He asked me, coming down the stairs with a big box of bulbs. That were for the garden, not the shop.

I sighed, coughing a little, and then made the box vanish from his arms as I sat down at the register. "Not in here. Look, I'm fine now, not light headedness, not sneezing or anything, walls are even back up, my Love. You shouldn't be here, or at least let me pay you."

Dae just grinned, shaking his head at me. "Nope. Until that cough goes, you're under my watch while your great niece is at work, and then you're her problem." He laughed, coming and standing beside me.

Hitting at his stomach, I waved my hand to both turn the closed sign to open and to unlock the door. "I'm my own problem, my Love. Besides, I'm old enough to be your mother."

"You also look my age, of about 25, oh wait, you stopped aging at 26, 'my Love'." He beamed, then paused when I started coughing again, reaching for my glass of water. "You sure that cough is normal? You should be better by now."

"I'm fine, Dae, trust me." I told him, smiling as a customer came in to pick up her order. "Hiya, it was the two bunches of Black Magicks and one of the white, yes?" I took out the bouquets, writing a quick receipt, and then taking the money. "Thank you very much, have a nice day."

"Izabelah, I have a question, and it is a pretty big one." Damon started, but I already knew what it would be.

"You want to know why, when I hate people with a passion, I own a shop where I have to talk to people on a regular basis. Because I love plants and money, kind of why if you had to do something job like, you would own a bar or something." I laughed, swivelling in the chair to face him. "You can get a chair from the kitchen if you want, by the way."

He just shrugged to slide down the wall to be at the same height as my chest. Great, he knew I was wearing a low cut top. "Perfectly good doing this. I was thinking, tonight, you, me, bottle of wine, picnic, go back up to the falls at sunset, like we did the first day we met."

I sighed. "Damon,"

"Don't. Don't even think about repeating yourself. You let me in the last few days, Izzi, and I know you like me at least half as much as I like you. I've been in that head of yours, remember? I held you as you cried, I cuddled you as you slept. Please, Izzi, one date. One date, and if I am certain that you don't want to be with me, I will let you call it quits on a chance at a relationship between us."

Oh... Don't, don't make me decide this right now. Why wouldn't you have waited until we'd dealt with the doppelganger? "Damon, I haven't had sex in over 1000 years." I muttered quietly, hugging my arms around myself. "Not since I was, um, raped, by my daughters father not long after she was born. This is why I can't, can't be, with someone."

"Oh, Izzi..." Dae breathed, sitting up on his knees and hugging me tight, making me feel secure. "It was literally after just a date, and maybe a make out session or something." I laughed a little at that, my face buried in his neck. "I promise you, that I am nothing like that, Izabelah. People like that disgust me, and if this guy was still around now, then I would happily kill him for you. As it is, I will ask, did someone make him pay?"

I pulled back a little, nodding. "Not until my daughter was about 17, and a boy I had practically raised as my own found out. Oh, he went right after him, and made his first kill, turning into a Werewolf." Nikky. Niklaus... "Just, I promised myself I would never let myself be weak enough to be drawn back into a relationship."