Find Me

Chapter Four

It was late and the sky was growing dark already. Persia had been out with Tyler, Caroline, Bonnie, and Matt for the evening and Matt was walking her home now that it was dark. They laughed together as he told her stories about the group when they were growing up. They were just approaching the square when Matt's phone rang and he looked down to check it.

"Crap, it's my mom. I'd better take this," he said and stepped away from her to answer it. She sighed and waited for him impatiently; it was getting cold out. She moved to sit on a nearby bench while she waited for Matt to come back. Within a minute, she heard voices approaching and crouched further into the bench; she recognized their voices. It was the two men from the woods!

"You know what's going to happen if we don't bring her back with us, Zeke."

"And you know what's going to happen if you don't shut your mouth! We'll get her, Kyle, but when I feel like it!" Persia felt her heart rhythm escalate and knew they had to know she was there by now. They turned and looked in her direction, wicked sneers on their faces, and she whimpered out loud as they took two steps toward her. Damon suddenly stepped in front of her, once again out of nowhere.

"I thought I told you two to leave. You boys should know better by now than to get in my way. Go back and tell him she's not available to him. Now."

"This doesn't concern you, Salvatore," the one called Zeke snarled.

"You do realize that I'm older than all of you, including your boss, right?" The two looked at each other and took a step back from Damon.

"This isn't the last time we'll be meeting," Zeke said as he stepped back into the shadows and disappeared with Kyle. Damon turned to Persia, frustration evident on his face.

"What did I tell you about talking to strangers," he said, standing in front of her.

"I didn't speak," she said, fear in her voice and he realized she was shaking.

"Persia? You're safe; they're gone." She looked up at him with frightened eyes.

"Why do they want me," she asked, her voice a breath of air. Matt came back then and Damon slipped out of sight.

"I don't know," he whispered just loud enough for her to hear him, "but I'll find out." He kept a close distance, following behind her and Matt like an invisible body guard until the sound of Persia's heart beat returned to normal. Why he cared about her at all was a mystery, even to himself. She was just some girl! But the fact that she'd come to him in a dream and asked him to protect her couldn't be explained, and that bothered him. What did she need protecting from? Zeke and Kyle? The man they worked for? Someone else? He didn't know, but he did know he didn't want to see her hurt. Even as he thought those last words, he was shocked to find that it was true. He was protective of her...

What the hell is wrong with me, he thought to himself as he climbed the tree outside her bedroom window to make sure she was safe.

Damon knocked on the door and waited for Persia to answer it. She'd left him a message this morning that she wanted to talk... eyeliner on her bedroom mirror that read 'I might have found something. Knock on the door and you can come in instead of skulking outside.' Persia opened the door and moved to the side to let him enter.

"I had a feeling you'd get my note. It's kind of creepy that you actually did see it, considering it was in my bedroom, but I'm sure it's not the first time you've looked in my windows." Damon rolled his eyes at her and turned to look at her.

"I also wiped the mirror clean, in case I'm not the only vampire around town who's peeking in your windows while you're in your jammies." Persia shook her head vehemently and held her hands up in front of her.

"Oh, I'm still not ready to hear that word yet... how the hell did my life get so weird? Wait, you were in my bedroom?" Damon held up his hands in front of him in a sarcastic gesture.

"Welcome to Mystic Falls, Princess. What do you have for me," he asked, ignoring her last question. Persia walked down the hall toward the kitchen.

"Not much, honestly, but I went through my Grandpa's things the other day after we talked about it, and I have a picture from a little over a hundred years ago. I thought maybe it'd jog your memory." Persia picked an old photo up off the counter and handed it to him, moving to the cabinets over the sink.

"Coffee," she asked him, pulling down two mugs, not waiting for him to answer.

"Yeah, sure," he mumbled absentmindedly, picking up the photo and looking at it. A young woman sat in a chair, two men behind her, each with a hand on one of her shoulders. Her left hand rested on her swollen belly, and there, on her middle finger, was the gold filigree ring with ivory overlay that Persia was wearing now. That was her. The woman. She's the one he'd seen wearing it in Philadelphia that day. She'd lifted her hand to push a strand of hair out of her face the wind was playing with and the sun had flashed on the ring, which bore the symbol of some group or secret society or something ridiculous like that that was rumored to actually be just that; nothing but rumor.

"Damon!" His head snapped up and he saw Persia's gray eyes watching his every move, her expression curious.

"Sorry, what?"

"Did you remember something," she asked. He quirked his mouth in a noncommittal way and raised a shoulder.

"I half remember a bit of nonsense that doesn't help me at all because the important parts are the parts I can't remember." Persia narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

"What does that even mean?" He sighed, setting the photo back on the counter.

"It means I remember seeing it that day, but I don't remember what exactly that symbol means, or why I care so much. It was a waste of time on both our parts." He took a deep drink from the coffee mug she set in front of him before looking back up at her.

"Okay, well, I guess I'll have to keep looking, then," she said.

"And next time youwant to get my attention- I have a cell phone. Stop leaving messages where anypsycho can find them," he said sarcastically, grabbing her phone and enteringhis number into it. "Just text me that you found something."