Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Twenty-Five

I'll admit this, Damon looked good in a suit. The jacket was black, a simple, button-down white shirt and red tie underneath, slacks to match and shiny shoes certainly made him appear to be the classically dressed gentlemen. Some men, I'd found looked uncomfortable and very much like fakes in well tailored suits such as these. Damon was not one of those men. He looked perfectly at ease, exuding an air of confidence that, coupled with his pre-existing good looks was, well...kind of sexy.

"Evening Miss Hawthorn," he said, his tone more formal than I'd ever heard it before. His bright blue eyes widened and I suddenly remembered pupils dialated when you saw something you found attractive. My heart dropped into my stomach at the thought. That could not be it. I wasn't ugly, but Damon couldn't possibly think of me that way. "You look beautiful."

I felt my heart skip a beat against my will and a blush rose hot up my neck. He's just being polite, I thought to myself. "Thank you," I eyed him again and smirked. "You don't look so bad yourself." I tried to smile nonchalantly but I didn't think I was fooling him at all.

If he knew that though, he did not give any hint of it. Damon just smiled, "Thanks." He held out his arm to me and I just stared blankly at him. "Humor me? I'm from another time and place remember?"

"Actually no," I said as I slipped my arm through his and allowed him to escort me. "I've never asked how old you are and you've never told me."

Damon's thin black brows rose up in surprise. "Really? I thought it came up at some point."

"No, it hasn't, why don't we cover it now?"

"Fair enough," he shrugged. "Just don't freak out on me?"

"That bad?"

"Oh yes," Ife piped from behind me. "This grandpa's older than me!" Ife swerved around us, beads in her hair tapping together. "I'll see you two in the dining room!" And in a flash she was gone around the corner.

"Damn," I commented. "Must be terrible if she ditched us, probably didn't want to see my reaction."

"Maybe," he whistled. "That woman moves fast."

So it wasn't just me that seemed to notice it. "She does indeed, I swear she can make herself invisible sometimes because of it. One moment she's there, the next she's gone." I recalled the day I was nearly shot, one moment she was there next to me waiting for Doc to do this thing, next second she was gone. "So, how old are you exactly?"

Damon developed and interest in the railing as we moved down the stairs. "I celebrated my one-hundredth birthday last month."

"What?" I exclaimed, foot missing a step and reeling forwards. I would have fallen down the stairs had it not been for Damon's arm. "You can't be that old!"

"I think I look pretty good for my age," he joked but my expression killed the attempt pretty quick. "But here it is, one hundred years ago last month, Johnathan found me after..."

"After what?" I prompted.

We crossed the last of the stairs and I noticed that the main level was eerily quiet. I heard chatter, but it was centralized, not scattered. "Well when I came to this country from Ireland, they really didn't like us."

"They?" I asked, puzzled. I'd never heard anything like that before, I knew America in that era hadn't been very pro-immigration but I hadn't heard it prompting any violence before.

"Other Americans, immigrants. One night I was a little...well I was a little drunk. And being prideful and stupid I walked into a bar that prohibited the Irish from entering, got my ass kicked too. But that night a vampire by the name of Dublin, saw it."

"Dublin?" I repeated trying to put the pieces together. "Like the name of the city? That doesn't make sense. I'm going to assume he'd gotten over around the same time you did, immigration from European countries was big. Most Irish at the time were Christian and gave their children names accordingly. That couldn't be his real name."

"I don't think it was," Damon agreed. "Gangs were common in that era, vampires without covens fighting for territory and Dublin was one of them." A dark sort of light flashed into Damon's eyes before he continued. "Anyways, despite that fact that the other bar goers handed my ass to me he liked my guts. So when they tossed me out Dublin followed, bit me and shoved his blood down my throat."

"Why did he feed you his blood?" I interrupted, the chatter growing louder and louder as Damon led me to a wing of the manor I'd never entered before.

"That's what triggers the change, the exchange of blood." He said this with the same casual air that sometimes startled me. These crazy, mythical topics for me, but to him, they were normal, every day topics. "A bite only does half the job, though it does some kickass healing on broken bodies. I'm sure I had a few broken bones after that fight."

"I would know," I muttered. My heart was still beating because of it.

"I suppose so," Damon muttered. "Well anyways, after the Change was complete I didn't want to stay in with Dublin. I hated the violence of the world. So I wandered around the country, hiding in dark places by day, moving by night and after a while I stumbled upon the Robur coven. Johnthan wasn't the leader yet, but he and his wife Caiyun had some good standing. They took me in, taught me the ways of the vampire world and about fifty years later they formally adopted me."

"Wow," I felt stupid for just saying that but I couldn't think of any other words to describe it. "That's amazing. The world must have been so different back then." The chatter got louder and my bewilderment at Damon's past stopped cold and I tightened my grip on his arm. Breath short and heart loud as thunder in my hears.

"Ow," he said tonelessly and I released my grip, startled.

"Sorry!" My heart beat even faster as we walked closer, I, and suddenly, and insanely wished I was dodging bullets again, at least I'd know what to expect there. The person behind the gun wanted me dead. The vampires I was about to meet, I had no idea what they wanted with me. Did they want to befriend me? Tear me apart and drink my blood? Learn about me? I had no way of knowing and that was terrifying.

Damon leaned over and I felt his cool lips brush my ear. "Easy," he said and I shivered, though I wasn't entirely sure if it was due to being cold or him being so close. "It's going to be fine, just square your shoulders and smile."

I pasted a grin onto my face but I was pretty sure it was not going to fool anyone. "Alright, let's do this."

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New chapter! Got a little bit of background about Damon! What did you guys think of it? He got blitzed by a gang leader-for lack of a better word? And itty-bitty cliffhanger here, forgive me! (Or don't!) Next chapter we get to see the Cruor Luna! Please don't forget to VOTE and COMMNET!

Write on! =D