Lost and Found (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 4: Completely Unblemished

Jade's view

"Not you again," the words were tumbling out of my mouth before I had a chance to think. That's usually what happens when I get scared, I go on autopilot. Sometimes I resort to violence, which I had been doing a lot lately, but more often than not I came out with some snarky comment.

Damon smiled sarcastically, "Funny."

He grabbed my arm and I pulled it back. I was getting just a tad annoyed and fed up of taking his crap.

"Do you ever notice how when a girl doesn't want you around they usually let you know?" I saw the corners of his lips turn up and a mischievous glint in his eye,

"Not until now." He took a step closer, the top of my head just measured up with his nose, and we were already too close, our bodies almost touching. Alarm bells started ringing in my head telling me that I was slowly but surely shifting into a dangerous situation.

Then I heard movement upstairs and remembered that I was already in one.

"Gotta go!" I said coyly before speeding past him to the front door. But unfortunately for me, Damon got there first and all but threw me onto a faded rose couch.

The pillows seemed to swallow me whole. I crossed my legs to get comfortable, feeling like a kid waiting for a punishment that was bound to come.

"You just sit tight la mia pietra preziosa." I looked at him quizzically.

"What are you on about?" Then I turned, sensing him more than anything else.

"My precious stone," The one with the green eyes answered for him. He walked in, tall and graceful, putting his anger on hold, "It's Italian." His gaze locked with mine for no more than a second, and then I looked away in guilt.

"So, the saint has stepped down from his pedestal to fight with the commoners!" Damon circled him in the style of a shark. Green-eyes looked straight ahead in a frustrated manner,

"Damon, please don't."

"Don't what hm?" Damon stood so that he was directly in Green-eyes' line of vision. They stood like that for a while, challenging each other, daring the other one to back down.

Finally, Green-eyes averted his gaze to me. I wanted to shrink back and simply disappear, but I couldn't do that, so I met his look with one of my own. One that said 'sorry'. He looked at his brother.

"I don't know what game you're playing Damon, but it has to stop, now!"

"OH MY GOD!"

We all turned; there in the archway was a girl with white blonde hair and blue gold eyes. We froze, not knowing the exact problem, while this beautiful stranger sauntered up to me in her skinny jeans, ripped white top(which I couldn't help noticing was very suggestive) and strappy high heels.

"What happened! What is all this!"

She tugged gently at my hair to reveal clumps of hard mud coming away under her perfectly manicured fingernails. I honestly wanted to burst out laughing right there and then, but I controlled myself. Instead I smiled and introduced myself,

"Hi, I don't believe we've met, I'm Jade. Onyx." I held my hand out to her and was surprised when she actually took it.

"Elena Gilbert," I wondered if this was the infamous Elena I had heard them fighting over earlier. Green-eyes looked horrified, as if having this girl here was the last thing he needed, but Damon was barely containing a smile. Elena ignored them,

"Listen Jade, it's great to meet you and all but I just can't stand around while you're looking like, well, let's be honest, a drowned rat!" I did laugh then, I couldn't help myself,

"Well, we might as well be honest with each other!"

"Exactly! Come on then." She took my hand and I let her lead me away, intrigued as to what this 'Elena' had to offer.

"Uh…I'm not sure that's such a good idea Elena!" Green-eyes called after us, but it was a half-hearted attempt, and we just carried on regardless. Next stop, the shower!

Damon's view

"If you're lucky, maybe I'll let you play with her too. But no more fighting," I wagged my index finger in front of Stefan's face as if he were a naughty child.

"What do you possibly hope to gain by all this?"

"What I hope to gain, my dear brother, is a little bit of fun," I placed my hands on his shoulders, "something I couldn't 'possibly hope' for you to understand." He shoved me roughly away and turned to go but I dragged him back, "So…? What do you think?"

He slowly twisted to look at me, "Think about what?"

I lounged back on the arm of the couch, "I admit she's not much of a looker but she's got spunk, you of all people can't deny that." I saw a spark fly behind those oh-so innocent eyes of his and I grinned.

"Leave her alone. Take her back where you found her and leave her alone," he almost growled. I put my hands behind my head,

"I can't believe that a saint like you would cast out an innocent girl like that!" I accused jokingly and inclined my head in the direction that the girls had taken. Stefan looked directly at me and said each word slowly and carefully,

"Just keep her away from Elena." I sat up,

"And how exactly do you expect me to do that? They've only just met and Elena's already giving her a make-over."

The door to the bathroom opened and we both turned to see a very unexpected sight. Elena strode out in a way that said she was proud of her handy-work. And so she should be. What she presented to us had in no way any resemblance to the Jade we had seen cowering in the couch cushions earlier.

Her skin had turned from a muddy brown to mother-of-pearl white. She wore faded grey jeans that were skinny but not too skinny, and a spaghetti-strap cami top, the colour was a slightly darker shade of blue, like Rhinestone.

"How ironic" I thought to myself, what was with this girl and stones?

I also noticed that she was still bare-foot, but what really caught my attention were the tiny little details about her face that I hadn't noticed earlier;

Her complexion was completely unblemished apart from a single prominent freckle at the corner of her left eye which I could see now were grey to the point where they were almost silver in the light.

But her hair was what struck me most! When I had first met Jade I had described her hair as mahogany with a hint of red showing through. Now I realize that that was all mud because her hair wasn't even brown.

It was completely red, nothing like ginger but not dyed red either. It was the perfect mix of both, and it was natural. Like fire. Earlier I had also said that she wasn't much of a looker, but when I looked at her now I knew that I had been wrong about that too.