The Bourbon Diaries ✢ The Vampire Diaries FanFiction ✢ TVD FanFic ✢ TVDU FanFic

Chapter Thirty-Five - Raid Vaziri

Present day

Outskirts of Albemarle, NC

Of all the ways Raid expected to react when he walked into Stef's room, he did not expect himself to react the way he did. After letting him inside, Stef had walked into the centre of the room, turned to face him, dropped her hip, crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow. She was already preparing for a fight. So he did something he probably shouldn't have done. He immediately laughed.

Stef wasn't prepared for his reaction. "What's so funny?" she asked, drawing her chin inwards, her eyebrows coming together like he'd just lost his sanity.

At least she now looked confused. Raid was still trying to work out his own inside joke as he said between bouts of laughter, "You just... your expression... the way you're standing..." He lost his breath as his laughter overtook him.

Self-consciously, Stef uncrossed her arms and shuffled herself into a more open, relaxed pose. "What was wrong with the way I was standing?"

"Nothing if I was being sent to the principal's office." Raid was buckled over, his hands on his knees, trying to force his laughter to subside. He finally managed to push himself upright after taking a deep breath.

"Unlike you, I wouldn't know," she drawled, rolling her eyes.

She was right about that. Maybe the laughter had been evoked by a flashback, but if he was on a mission to find out what he loved about her right now, it certainly wasn't going to be because she resembled his old, grumpy-ass teachers. "You're always on your guard. Don't you ever just relax?" Suddenly he had an idea. He walked forward, taking her by the arm, guiding her until she sat down on the corner of the bed. He knelt behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

She immediately jolted forward, turning her head. "What are you doing?"

He replaced his hands on her shoulders, forcing her back towards him. "What did I just say about being on your guard?"

This time she didn't resist, she simply pouted. "I'm not always like that."

He felt her shoulders briefly tense as he massaged his thumbs into her muscles, but the tension melted away as quickly as it arrived. "With my help, you won't be," he said. Perhaps it was any excuse to have his hands on her, but the moment she sighed and dropped her head back, giving in to his touch, he couldn't help but crank up his skill level. He used his magic to heat up his hands. He smiled as her sigh became a grateful, gentle hum of submission to him. "Talk to me," he said.

Her eyes closed, she spoke like she was in a trance, her soft voice too captivated by his hands roaming over her shoulders. "Mmm, what about?"

"You."

"You already know me."

He swept her hair over her shoulder, stroking his hands up along her neck, his fingers slipping underneath the chain of her daylight necklace. He noticed it had two clasps, reducing the risk of it breaking and falling off. She really was cautious. "I've missed a lot." He looked around at her face, a blissful smile painted on it. He hoped he wasn't about to ruin it. "Aren't you missing a lot too? Don't you miss Mystic Falls? Your parents?"

"I see them sometimes. Briefly. I can't risk seeing them too often."

There was that word again: risk. "Phoenix said you haven't told them you're a vampire."

Stef opened her eyes, sighing. It was not a sigh of pleasure this time. "They have a terrible history with vampires. I'm not as strong as my mother. So many died protecting her life. I wouldn't survive losing anyone I loved."

"You're stronger than you think," Raid reassured her, his fingers working their way towards Stef's collarbone, sliding against the neckline of her top but not venturing under it. "Besides, you're already losing them by not seeing them. You're just making the choice to lose them."