Lost and Found (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 3: Confusion

Jade's view

I forced myself to make eye contact with my pursuer and immediately wished I hadn't. There was a glint of something cold and hard in the darkness, something that had me inwardly shudder. All the while Damon was tensed, like a panther, watching his prey, which made me all the more nervous and ready to run. His gaze ran over me, calculating my every move, and then his attention returned to my face. He cocked his head slightly to the right and the corners of his lips turned up in a cruel smile; it was an unsettling look that made me want to fidget, but I resisted.

Suddenly, a wave of heady dizziness had me clutching at the window frame. Chunks of splinters came out in my right hand and when I looked back a mottled gap, the size of my fist, stared at me like a toothless grin. I looked from the smiling sideboard to Damon whose head was still cocked in that uncomfortable way that made me want to scream.

He righted his head with a satisfied smirk before explaining, "You're going through the change," a wide grin spread across his face, "which means you need to sleep to complete it."

I panicked.

Sleep meant helplessness, and I couldn't be helpless with Damon around. If he wasn't bluffing, and the look he gave me was a victorious one so I guessed that he wasn't, then I needed to get somewhere safe, and fast.

"Not if I can help it," I muttered under my breath.

Damon snorted. "I don't think you can."

I wanted to hand him a witty reply but my head was already filling up with a thick and steady fog. So instead I tried to use what I had to my advantage, I held my hand out, slowly and deliberately, in front of me and let the splinters fall through the empty air, to a point where they were almost floating.

I knew that Damon was distracted by this seemingly random action, which was my intention, so I took the opportunity to get to my feet at an unnatural speed. Damon was crouched over the top of the small stair-well though I didn't remember seeing him move at all.

Everything was going too fast, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to string together any two coherent thoughts. For a few scary seconds I stood, swaying slightly from left to right. I was supposed to do something next but I had forgotten where I was, let alone the next step to my great escape.

My eyelids felt as though lead weights had been attached to them and they started to flutter, fighting against the lethargic feeling that was spreading through my sagging body.

"Jade?"

The sound of his voice, however soft it may be, made me jump which woke me up briefly. My eyes opened and I turned, but in doing so, it made the whole world spin.

Then I can only guess that I somehow lost my balance because after that it was just a blur of colours and the feeling of the ground being pulled out from under me.

Damon's view

Standing at the edge, what did I expect her to do, use her head and take a step back? She had just taken the final step to becoming a vampire, and with everything being so new to her renewed senses, she was bound to go a little light headed. I just didn't expect her to go over the edge.

As soon as her useless form tripped forward time slowed and I raced down to catch her. I had a few seconds to position myself, and then I had an exhausted eighteen year old girl in my arms.

The mud had dried and knotted her hair and her torn clothes were dripping cold water onto me, ruining my leather jacket. Her eyes opened a crack and I saw a look that said Oh crap! Before she drifted back towards unconsciousness.