A vow of love

24

"Shane!" his eyes fiercely fixed on the cars approaching behind them. "It's going to be alright, Claire, I promise" he looked at their son in her arms, horror written on his wife's face and reached under his jacket pulling out his gun. Anger and darkness rose up and seized his throat. Shane hadn't been in such a deranged state since Claire had entered his life, but right now, his wife and son, the two most important things to him, were in life-threatening danger, and Shane let the demon surface.

The three black cars were approaching fast, Shane had no idea who would dare attack them at their son's discharge from the hospital, but whoever it was, he would pay with his life for the audacity to scare his wife. Damian showed his displeasure with a piercing cry and Claire held him to her chest, trying to soothe the baby. "Take the side road, the narrow streets, we have to separate them!" Shane ordered coldly and Claire turned to look at the traffic, watching in horror as their driver tried to balance the car between the narrow streets.

"Shane" she turned to look at him, squeezing Damien tightly. "It's going to be okay my love" Shane distractedly leaned down and kissed her head. "Shane, can you hear me?" he ignored her and Claire bit her lip. "Shane!" she screamed and he finally looked at her. "You have to promise me something, Shane?" his brows sank and he narrowed his eyes. "Claire, everything will be fine, we'll get out, my father is on his way with our men..." she shook her head and he frowned even more, he didn't like the look on her face at all.

"Shane, I know we're going to get away, but I want you to promise me that if we don't..." her voice broke and she took a deep breath, looking at Damian. "If we don't make it, I want you to save Damien" her gaze flicked to his, determined, serious and full of fear. "I won't do anything like that Claire, me, you and our son will be home in just a few minutes!" he growled and removed the gun's safety.

Claire bit her lip and turned back, the cars still following them, scraping the walls of buildings as they weaved through the narrow streets, knocking over trash and buckets in their path. Her heart was pounding and her blood was rushing, and her arms were desperately clutching her crying son to her, as if that would help her carry him somewhere else, somewhere safe.

And then everything happened fast, terribly fast. She looked back, then forward and her eyes widened. "Shane!" her cry was drowned out by the deafening sound of gunfire and the crash of metal on metal. Claire instinctively cowered, wrapping her body around her son like a protective shell. "Claire!" Shane's voice was distant and hazy. Her head hit the front seat, her body jerked, and then everything went black, and the last thing Claire heard was Damien's cry.

"Don't touch her!" Claire moaned and tried to raise a hand to her head, which was throbbing painfully. Opening her eyes slowly, she looked around and her gaze fixed in horror on Shane, who was struggling to free himself, tied to what looked like a wooden post or column. "Damien?" Shane turned to look at her, then he was hidden from her sight, and a face she never thought she would see again filled the space and her eyes grew huge.

"S..Stefan?" she grunted and he grinned at her. "Good to see you Claire, I have to admit I've missed you a bit" Claire blinked in confusion. "But you...I thought...Shane said your plane..." he sighed and shook his head, then stood up and Claire watched as he started pacing back and forth. "Yeah" he stopped in front of Shane with his back to Claire and she bit her lip trying to free her hands. "That wasn't easy to do, sneaking away from your people and then blowing up the plane to make it look like I was inside" he put his hands on his hips and bowed his head.

"But it was fun watching you guys" he turned his head slightly, letting it hang on his shoulder and Claire shivered, meeting his crazed gaze. "You were so beautiful when you were pregnant" he turned back to Shane who was silent giving him a murderous look. "Stefan, where's Damien?" Claire asked slowly and Stefan turned slightly towards her, humming and clicking his tongue. "Where is he really?" he asked and his eyebrows shot up.