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The Founder's Day Parade was today and I got ready with Elena. Jenna had helped Elena and I into our dresses. My dress was a light brown and had beautiful flowing detailing on the bottom. The dress was definitely constricting but at least it was cute.
As Elena and I arrived at our school we saw Stefan and Damon, standing there. They were talking but as soon as they saw Elena they stopped and just stared at her. She looked exactly like Katherine, so I'm not surprised.
Elena glanced at me before turning to them. The two of us smiled and curtsied at the boys. Part of me wondered if they missed the past.
Damon's eyes lingered on mine after they trailed down and up my body. He discreetly motioned away from Elena and Stefan with his head and eyes like he was saying 'let's talk over here'.
I smiled and nodded before I followed him away from Stefan and Elena.
The two of us ended up somewhere more secluded, behind a classroom building. Once we stopped I questioned out,"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. I just wanted to be able to talk freely with you without having Stefan around," He replied, pacing around. A hand ran through his hair as he looked around cautiously.
"Are you guys still fighting?" I asked, still confused. They seemed fine a moment ago.
Damon stopped in place. "He doesn't like me being with you. He thinks I'm not good enough for you," He admitted with anger and sorrow evident in his tone.
I walked over to him and snaked an arm around him and softly whispered into his ear, "As much as Stefan likes to believe he knows us, in actuality he doesn't. He doesn't know how you make me feel."
He turned to face me, a small smile forming on his lips as he caressed my cheek. While he was doing so, I placed a hand on top of his and smiled warmly back at him.
I sighed contently before I noticed he was leaning in to kiss me. Obligingly, I leaned in toward him, allowing our lips to meet. The kiss was gentle. It wasn't rough or needy; it was soft and savory. We were just enjoying each other's presence through the kiss.
⋆
Later on, we headed out to the parade. We were holding hands which wasn't something I would expect us to do, especially in public. While part of me was hesitant, the other more dominant part of me didn't care.
As we were walking through the crowd we spotted Bonnie. I exchanged a 'hello' with her before smiling and waving to Elena. Elena smiled and waved to me back.
Damon took it upon himself to walk in front of Bonnie and do the same in almost a taunting manner. Elena replied to his action by rolling her eyes and looking elsewhere before turning away to wave at other people.
Damon then turned around and stared at Bonnie. I knew this wasn't going to be good. I could sense the tension starting to rise between both of them.
After silently praying to myself that this situation wouldn't take a dark turn, I turned my attention to Bonnie who looked at Damon with annoyance and raised her eyebrows at him as she snarled out,"What do you want?"
"Just watching the parade with Arina," He commented cooly. Bonnie began to leave which caused Damon to abruptly add," Where are you going?"
"Away from you."
"I wanna say something to you," He quickly mentioned with a hint of nervousness evident in his tone.
"Just leave me alone," She said with annoyance. Bonnie clearly didn't care to hear what he had to say.
He ignored her and sincerely spoke,"Thank you. The device that Emily spelled could have killed me. I don't take what you did lightly so...thank you."
A small smile spread across my face as I looked at him with appreciation for taking the extra step at fixing things with Bonnie. He must've seen how upset it made me that she and I were in the best of terms, mostly because of him.
However, Bonnie's un-phased facial expression remained that way as she stated plainly,"I did it for Elena and Arina," Bonnie glanced at me before glaring at Damon.
"I know that, but I'm still very grateful. And...I owe you."
The two of them stared at each other for a moment and I felt happy that they could somewhat tolerate each other even if it was just for a second.
"Enjoy the parade," He ended the conversation before looping his arm with mine. The two of us walked off and enjoyed the parade together. I shot Bonnie one last smile before walking away with Damon.
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After the parade, Damon and split up. I went home and I changed my clothes back to something more casual. Quite honestly the dress was killing me. I didn't know how women back then could stand wearing them day after day. After I had changed, I went to the mystic grill to meet up with Elena.
When I entered I found Elena talking to Damon. Damon and I made eye contact causing him to immediately motion for me to come over.
As I got over to them I heard Elena say,"So, I think you should stop with the flirty little comments and that eye-thing that you do."
I stared at the two of them and furrowed my brows as I mumbled to myself,"I love the eye-thing though..." It was uncertain as to whether or not he would react to what I said.
Sure enough he did and smiled, doing the eye-thing, signifying that he heard what I said. He then turned to Elena and questioned innocently," What eye thing?"
"Don't make me regret being your friend okay?" Elena stated adamantly before looking over at Jeremy who was sitting alone. She then glanced at Damon and I quickly before walking over to Jer.
I turned to Damon and asked,"Mind telling me what they're talking about?"
Having a vampire boyfriend definitely had it's perks. One of which was eavesdropping. Normally I wouldn't want to invade their privacy but part of me was still worried about Jeremy.
Damon nodded and listened in on them. When Jeremy finally got up and left Elena, Damon turned to me and explained," That little punk is not willing to try and fix his relationship with his sister."
"Talk about ironic" I thought to myself before I pecked his cheek softly.
"I'm going to go to the town square and get a nice spot for us to see the fireworks. I'll catch you there?" I stated excited.
Damon nodded his head and said, "Yeah. I'll see you there."
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I was at the town square later looking for Stefan and Elena. I couldn't find Damon and he wouldn't answer my calls after we hung out at the grill. I had a bad feeling. As soon as the fireworks went off at town square I felt excruciatingly sharp pains in my head. I struggled to ignore them as I pushed forward searching for Damon through the throngs of people.
I soon found Stefan and Elena. Stefan was on the floor, holding his head. He must've felt the same pain as me, but worse. The two of them were accompanied by Alaric's presence.
I placed a hand to my head and grimaced before shouting with panic,"Do you guys know what's going on?"
"I don't know what happened, he just dropped," Elena explained as Alaric helped Stefan get up.
We all headed to the stairs and Alaric finally explained,"Yeah, he's not the only one. The cops have gotten everyone who's gone down, injecting them with vervain."
"What?" Elena and I stood there looking at Stefan in shock.
"They're rounding up the vampires," Elena concluded in shock.
I furrowed my brows. I wasn't a vampire. Yet I felt the pain...They're rounding up supernatural creatures. For whatever reasons it's just not as extreme. In fact, the excruciating pain had dialed down to a burning sensation in my head. I could push through this.
"This isn't good," Elena commented before turning to Stefan and worriedly asked him,"Are you okay?"
"It was like needles were piercing my skull and it just stopped," Stefan explained.
Alaric looked at Elena as he added,"I saw at least five vampires go down. They're taking them to your family's old building."
"It's the Gilbert's device. It has to be," Stefan and I said in unison.
"But how did he get it to work? Bonnie unspelled it," Elena admitted with confusion.
"Maybe she didn't," Alaric commented.
Elena looked at Alaric and hostility retorted,"She did, we saw her do it!"
Stefan glanced at Alaric then to Elena as he said,"No, no, no, he's right. Think about it. We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that could protect people against vampires."
"So we could protect you," Elena reiterated.
"...And Damon. Vampires. Where is Damon?" I questioned out frantically when it hit me. I felt my heart racing and my throat tighten as I ended my sentence. I was fearing the worst.
"I don't know," Alaric answered as he looked at me with sympathy.
I tuned out the rest of the conversation as I stared at the ground, tears forming in my eyes and my hands forming fists. Elena placed a hand on top of one of mine and stated softly,"Let's go."
The three of us were walking when Stefan suddenly stopped us and exclaimed." Wait, wait, wait, I can hear them. The building is on fire."
"What?" I uttered out with wide eyes. This couldn't be happening.
"The building's on fire!"
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We arrived at Grayson Gilbert's Office and found ourselves facing John Gilbert.
"Where is Damon?" I spat hastily glaring at him. Elena roughly held me back before I could get up in his face.
"With the rest of them, where he should be. It's over for Damon," John replied calmly.
"No...Shut up!" I shouted out in denial, shutting my eyes tightly.
"You're crazy!" Elena yelled at her Uncle.
"Why? Because I'm doing what should have been done a hundred and forty five years ago? This is the right thing, Elena," John explained his distortedly logic to her.
I opened my eyes and saw Stefan staring at the building. John looked at him and said,"Go ahead, you won't make it out. It'll save me the trouble of killing you myself."
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves down and centered myself. I could feel tree roots in the ground and in that moment I could hear the people in the building. I could hear Damon. He was saying something but my hearing was muffled.
Without saying anything to Stefan, Elena, or John, I sprinted to the emergency door.
"Hey, you can't go in there!" I turned around briefly and saw Bonnie. I then saw Stefan arrive from behind.
I ignored her, turning my attention back to the door as I opened it.
"The fire will take you out," Bonnie admitted worriedly to me.
"I'm not leaving him there to die when I know I can do something," I adamantly spat out before I rushed to another door and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. I screamed out of frustration and pain as I felt the fresh burn on my hand. The fire had heated the door handle.
"Arina, he's my brother! I'll get him," Stefan shouted, announcing his presence.
I sighed in defeated, knowing he would be able to get Damon successfully so I placed my singed hand on his arm and hoarsely barked,"You better bring him back, Stefan." I then stepped away from the door so Stefan could get to it.
"I will. Now wait outside," He calmly replied before going into the building, thanks to Bonnie doing a spell.
I placed a hand to my mouth as I let out a muffled cry and I exited the building.
As Bonnie was finishing her spell she stared at Elena and I. My now bloodshot eyes widened as I stared at her. My voice cracked as I uttered,"Bonnie?"
Elena then added,"Bonnie...Bonnie, what is it? Are they gonna be okay?"
Time felt frozen in place as soon as I saw Damon emerge with Stefan. Both Elena and I ran to them.
"Oh my god!" Elena shouted with relief.
I didn't say anything and neither did Damon. He pulled me into a tight embrace and I felt my eyes spill tears onto one of his shoulders.
When we pulled away from the embrace he wiped a few falling tears away from my face and kissed me. We didn't need to voice how thankful we were to see each other. We could both feel it within one another. I kissed him back, not caring that Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena were staring.
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After Damon and I shared our moment he told me he would meet me at my place. While I was waiting for him to show up I found it weird that Ander wasn't home because it was way past the ceremony and the fireworks.
I sent him a text asking him where he was, praying he was safe.
When I heard my phone ring and saw it was Ander, I immediately picked it up and quickly asked,"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" He questioned, dumbfounded by my question. "There's something I need to take care of though," He added.
"Okay. I'll see you home soon." I said before we exchanged goodbyes.
As I turned around I found Damon standing in my bedroom and I gasped, startled. "Look I know you were invited and all but please don't do that," I shakily spoke. I don't think my heart could handle any more surprises.
He pulled me into a hug and cheekily mentioned," Sorry. I just love giving you a hard time"
"I know you do," I replied, smiling to myself as we pulled away from the hug.
"Did you finish what you needed to do?" I asked him, part of me hoping he would tell me what he needed to do.
"Yeah. Unfortunately I had to be a bearer of bad news. I had to tell little Gilbert that Anna was killed," He explained sorrowfully as he slowly moved to me.
"Oh no..." I said in shock. I know she kidnapped Elena, Bonnie, and I and used me as a blood bag for her mother, but at the end of the day she and Jeremy were in love.
"Yeah, I know," Damon agreed softly before cupping my cheek and moving my face so I was now looking at him. "That kind of situation really puts things in perspective. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
We stared at each other for a moment in silence. I breathily exhaled, understanding where he was coming from before leaning and kissing him lightly.
To my surprise, he needily leaned into the kiss. His strong arms looped around my figure, pulling me as close as he possibly could to his body. My eyes opened slightly as I felt his hands softly grab my hips. I assuredly murmured out to him, "I'm not going anywhere. You're not going to lose me."
His lips which were now flushed a mild pink from interlocking with mine, moved to my pulsing neck. Before Damon planted a kiss he softly murmured out, "How do you know?"
My eyes glanced down at him as his lips hovered near my neck as I replied, "I see a future with you."
Several gentle kisses were planted on my neck before he raised his head to look up at me. His head moved to the side as he curiously questioned out, "What do you see in the future?"
I smiled softly at him as I answered peacefully, "I see us living somewhere peaceful and we're happy."
His eyes brightened as I spoke to him and when I had finished speaking he replied, "I like that."
My forehead pressed against his as I murmured out, "Me too." I stared down at his lips which parted slightly before looking up and seeing how dilated his pupils were.
In a brief moment, his lips met mine once again. I couldn't help but let out a gasp as his lips moved rough but passionately against mine. My heart felt like it was racing as we ended up stumbling backwards, refusing to break the kiss.
I suddenly felt myself hit my bed frame. I pulled away from the kiss, gazing into his eyes for a moment as we both heaved out heavily before I felt him press up against me, causing me to slowly fall backwards onto my bed.
I smiled at him as I lightly yanked on his shirt, making him topple on top of me. After positioning himself so he was hovering above me his facial expression shifted to one of concern as he cautiously voiced,"Are you sure about this?" He knew where this was going and wanted to make sure I was comfortable with doing this.
I nodded my head to him and breathily answered, "Yes."
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The two of us were breathing heavily, laying in my bed. He had an arm wrapped around me as I laid on his chest. I felt myself slowly drifting off from exhaustion but before I could fall into a deep sleep I heard my phone ring loudly. I groaned out of annoyance to which Damon must've grabbed it and looked at the caller ID because he grumbled out, "It's Elena."
My eyes opened as I took the phone from Damon's hand and annoyedly answered, "Hello?"
Damon furrowed his brows, listening in on the conversation. He was most likely just as curious as I was.
"Arina! You need to come to the Mystic falls Hospital now! Caroline is over there and now John is being brought over," my friend frantically cried out. Her voice shaking as she spoke.
I jolted up in bed. "What happened?!" I shouted with worry.
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Word Count: 3073
Author's Note: Book one is finally complete. I hope you enjoyed this book. Thank you once again for all the the views and favorites. I enjoyed writing this story and look forward to having you all read the next one. (: