The Vampire Mate

Chapter 06

I groan placing a hand on my throbbing head. What the f**k happened last night?

"Morning sunshine." I jump up and run to the nearest wall pressing my back against it. As soon as I turned around I was face to face with the brown eyes I see every day. Alex? I then realise I'm not in my house but in someone else's - who I'm guessing is Alex and Damien's. I mentally swear to myself trying to remember last night but nothing comes to mind no matter how hard I try to think.

"Where the Hell am I?" I shout pushing Alex's chest to no avail.

"Well you're certainly not in Hell, trust me, I would know." Over Alex's shoulder, I see Damien smirking whilst leaning against a counter looking paler than when I first saw him. Which must a new record considering he always looks like he had been drained of colour- they both always look pale.

"Of course you would," I direct to Damien with a glare, "now why am I here?" My gaze now falls onto Alex wanting him to answer the question since I can't deal with something as idiotic as Damien with this headache.

"You should feel lucky that you're here." Damien quickly strides towards me from the other side of the room but Alex puts a hand on his chest stopping him from moving any closer.

"Why should I feel lucky? I was quite happy sleeping in my penguin pyjamas-" I look down to see that I'm still wearing them. My face heats up and I don't have to look in a mirror to know that I'm bright red.

"Your house was set on fire last night. My extremely friendly brother and I were walking and saw it set a light so we went in to see if anyone was trapped and you were still asleep. Prince Charming here tried to track down who started the fire but that didn't really work out." Alex explained pointing to a bag in the corner of the room. My jaw dropped. I have nowhere to live. I knew wanting to move out on my own would be troublesome but for a fire to just erupt in my house out of nowhere is just insane. Almost impossible considering I always make it a habit of turning everything off, except my phone charger, at 10 pm before I go to bed.

Alex stepped forward but Damien grabbed him. I was in the midst of having either a panic attack or going in shock and I'm pretty sure it was both. No tears had left my eyes which isn't surprising. I could probably endure the worst torture and not let a tear slip out of my eye. The only time I've ever cried was when I nearly lost Mia in an accident. Not even The Notebook or Titanic can let one slip, and yes I have tried.

But after that single thought of losing Mia made a brief entry in my head more thought about her started to spiral out of control. Did they get my laptop? How am I supposed to talk to Mia? What if she thinks I don't want to see her any anymore? A tear escapes my eye and drops to the floor, I won't even call it a traitor tear, I don't know what's happening, I can't remember if I had spoken to her last night, I can't do this. Why can't I remember a single damn thing?

Damien jogged out of the room and upstairs. I felt my body try to shake but I pressed myself harder against the wall to stop it. I need to calm the hell down. I do not want to show myself up in front of these two.

Alex places a hand on my back and walked me to the sofa where I had woken up. I sit next to him and my limbs start to shake, not sure if it was how cold it just got next to me or due to me panicking. "Everything is going to be fine," he says pulling my head to rest on his shoulder and rubbing my back. I didn't want to speak. I couldn't. Where was I supposed to live now? Instead of just leaving my head on his shoulder I wrap my arms around him and snuggle my head into the crook of his neck.

I heard two more pairs of footsteps come into the room. I didn't make an effort to see who it was and neither did Alex. Damien notices me cuddling into Alex and rushes over to us. Alex is reluctant to let go of me but Damien is still able to move me to him so that he can press a damp cloth to my forehead which helps soothe the headache. I can hear Alex talking to the other person who walked in with Damien, I think it's Mr Young.

"We have set up the spare room for you. If you want you can stay with us you can but if you'd rather stay with family it's okay," Mr Young says coming into view.

"My family don't live around here," I respond wiping away the one tear that had managed to fall with my sleeve.

"You'll have to stay somewhat close to the school since taking students in at their last year isn't an easy task," Mr Young suggests. Tell me something I don't know.

"How will she get there if she lives here?" Damien asks full of suspicion and dread.

"You have a car." Damien glares at his father whilst walks away upstairs.

Mr Young sighs and stares at the clock. "You three aren't going to school today, I'll come up with something to tell the school. Alex, look after Juliet and make sure to get some food for us. I doubt Damien will come out of his room." He walks towards the door and leaves making sure to lock it. Alex sits awkwardly next to me when we hear Damien shout.

"You heard the man, get some food I'm starving." 

I smile thinking if I was in his situation I would say the exact same thing. Alex mumbles something before grabbing his coat from the coat rack beside the door.

"I would stay away from him, I'll be back soon." Alex puts his hood up, even though the sun is burning outside, and leaves.

I decide to get dressed and pick up the bag that they packed for me. I dread to think of what they didn't pack but make my way down a corridor to the spare room, only just realising I don't know what door to go through. There are three doors on one side and one on the other. I'm guessing Damien is still in his so I try to listen to him but there's no sound. Holding my breath, I put my hand on one of the doorknobs and push the door open. Damien's body blocks the doorway and I realise that this is his room.

"Wrong door." He says through clenched teeth. Ugh.

"Sorry. Which is the spare room?" I ask.

"Do I look like an escort to you?"

"Damien," I start, "I'm not in the mood for your s**t so if you want to be a d**k fine but find someone else to irritate. I asked you a question and the sooner you give me an answer the sooner you'll be out of my sight and we will be the happiest people on Earth."

He drags me into his room and traps me against his wall by resting his arms either side of my body. "Do you have any idea what you're talking to?" 

"Well, you have the personality of a dog if that's meant to be a clue." 

He says something to me but my brain cannot process it. It was fixated on looking at Damien's eyes and the colour that looks like it was threatening the change. He smiles and I'm confused because I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. He takes a step back and the expression on his face slowly changes. "Do you remember us saving you last night? 

I shake my head. 

"Follow me," he says before walking out of his room. I do as commanded and follow him to the door next to his. "This is your room, don't make any noise or you'll regret it." I roll my eyes at him making him sigh. "Just hurry up and get dressed. You have five minutes to knock on my door when you're done or I'll get you no matter what you're wearing." He roughly pushes me into the room with my bag and closes my door. Who on earth did he think I was? I mentally slap myself for being so rude to him. He was the one who took me out of the fire and sort of didn't protest to opening up his home to me. I guess I should be a lot nicer to him for it.

The room had plain white walls with black carpet. The bed was huge with white covers and six black pillows. The dressing table was white with glossy black drawers and placed in the opposite corner of the room. The wardrobe was the same style but placed next to the bed. Next to the door was a small white sofa with two small black cushions screaming at me to sit on them. As I step further into the room that was bigger and more luxurious than my entire I notice a white bookcase and a matching desk.

"3 minutes!" Damien shouted banging on the wall. I certainly do not like that. I begin pulling clothes out of the bag and realise they managed to get quite a few nice clothes. I wore my black ripped jeans and a grey and white low cut top that stops at my waist. I put my ankle boots on that I forgot I even had and put my hair in a quick messy bun whilst walking over to Damien's door. Before I finish putting my hair up Damien comes out eyeing up my outfit his eyes stopping at the bare skin on my waist. I finished the bun and put my arms there to stop him from staring.

"We should probably go clothes shopping for you." He says.

"And whilst we're at it, we can get some duct tape to go over your mouth and keep you quiet," I say putting my hands on my hips. Again, I should stop being rude but I can't bite my tongue.

"I didn't mean it like that." He looks me up and down again. "You look nice." He mumbles something else under his breath as he goes back into his room. When he comes back out he hands me a dark camouflage print hoodie. I put it on guessing that this is him being nice and give him a small smile. He smiles back.

"That door is my dad's room." He points at the door by itself on the other side of the corridor. "And that door down there is Alex's room. If you need anything it's probably best to speak to him. My dad is always working on stuff and I don't care."

"Lovely," I say accidentally. I couldn't be bothered to argue with him so I'm more than glad he chose to ignore it.

He leads me to another corridor with three more doors. He points to the wall with two doors "The furthest one is my office. Never go in there, I would rather have you in my room dead and staining my carpet than my office. " He looks at me, "No noise, no going in my room, no going in my office and try to talk to me as little as you can. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir." He points towards the bathroom and lets me brush my teeth with a spare toothbrush. I walk back down the stairs to see him waiting by the door with his coat on.

"Going somewhere?" I ask him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yes, we are." I abruptly stop in my tracks and give him a questionable look. Not long ago he was telling me to not speak to him and now we are going out?

"Well, we're going to your house to see what survived or if we can find out what started it."

I hesitate. I'm not sure if I'm ready to see the remains of my house. He sees my hesitation and walks over to me.

"Come on we don't have all day." He throws me over his shoulder and carries me to the door. I struggle under his grip, which doesn't seem to affect him. The best part about this? I have the full view of his butt.

"Stop admiring me," he says before setting me down in his car.

"I was not admiring you." He shakes his head and slams the door shut. I put my seatbelt on and Damien gets in the driver's side.

"Don't get my car dirty or I swear I will snap your neck in so many places it may as well be a smoothie." He gives me a cold stare which I just roll my eyes at.

"I'll add it to the list of rules but, just to be clear, would you rather me go in your office or get your car dirty?" I give him a smile knowing that I am pushing him.

"I would rather you be quiet for just a few minutes." He starts the car and drives to my house.

It takes about 40 minutes to arrive at the black building which is somehow just standing. There is a fence around to stop people from getting in. Damien gets out of the car and walks up to the fence and, eventually, get out and follow him.

"What's that plan smartarse?" I say.

"Climb." I look at him shocked to see that he isn't joking. He puts his hands on my hips to help me up, but I slap them away making my own way up. The fence was about seven-foot-tall and when Damien was next to it he wasn't that much smaller.  I make it to the top quite quickly and swing myself over to jump down. Damien, however, puts his hand near the top and hoists himself over with ease making me feel poopy at my attempt.

We both walk into the house where my room was. A few things survived. Clothes not being one of them. My laptop looked like it made it as well as a photo frame with me and Mia in it.

"Looks like the firemen came just in time to save some things." 

"Looks like it," I say still looking at the photo. Damien looks over my shoulder and looks at the picture.

"Who is that?" He asks referring to Mia.

"My little sister." A small smile makes its way onto my face.

"You two look really similar. Just different eyes."

"I know." My smile gets bigger until I realise what he said. Different eyes? I look closer at the photo and we both still have brown eyes.

"What do you mean? We both have brown eyes," I turn to ask him. He takes a closer look at my eyes and shakes his head.

"No, they're definitely a blue." I hand him the photo and go to where the bathroom was to look into the shattered mirror. Brown.

"Damien, my eyes are brown," I say pointing at the mirror. He comes in as well and looks at the mirror then to me. His already pale face just got fifty shades paler.

"Damien?" I think he is just coming to the conclusion that he is colour blind.

"Impossible..." He tails off. "We need to cut today short." Hurries and walks out of my house. I follow after him trying to get some answers as to what has just happened, but I just get ignored. Maybe he is too dumb to pronounce what his problem him. As if hearing my thoughts, Damien turns around giving me his famous 'go on, speak more, I dare you' which I always love to challenge.

"What’s wrong? Did the circus reject you?"

"You just can't keep your mouth shut, can you?" He blocks me into a corner.

"No." I stand tall to show that I am far from afraid of him and I hold his intense stare - with my brown eyes.

He takes a step closer to me and pulls my head to the side. What the Fu-

His head fills the space between my neck and shoulder, and he bites, really hard. My neck feels like it's on fire. Every muscle, every vein, every artery in my neck is being torn apart like pulling a piece of Lego away from another Lego. I feel a sucking sensation until he abruptly pulls back with blood running down his chin. My hand flies to the spot on my neck and I feel the blood trickle down it. What the f**k was that?

"Shit." He looks at me with his ocean-like eyes full of shock and horror. Why is he horrified I'm the one that just got bit by him if anything I am the one who has a right to be horrified. I hold my breath to not scream at the pain he has left behind which is spreading to my head and giving me another headache. Can I please go the rest of the day headache free, please?

My stupidity will one day be my downfall.

I'm putting all of the pieces together - his cold skin, his flawless features, his eyes... how could I be so blind? This can't be true, they don't exist. They are fictional creatures to scare children into doing what they're told but no matter how much I try to tell myself that I'm not convinced. I have seen it first hand, I have felt it for heaven's sake.

He is a vampire.

Damien lunges at me and puts his hand on my forehead. I stay still, too afraid to move. My eyes stare into, but there's something different. There's no hatred in his red eyes: there's concern, worry, panic, guilt. None of which I understand.

"Forgive me, Juliet." Is all he says but his tone has so much more meaning. My vision starts to blur, and a headache starts to consume me. I use my last bit of strength, and Damien, to try and stand up straight unable to stop him from doing whatever he is doing to me.

"Damien..." I whisper.

"Just let it take you," he whispers before I completely collapsed in his arms leaving him with no other choice but to catch me.