14. Unusual Oddities

Something didn’t feel right. Like…like I wasn’t lying on the couch anymore. Since when did it become hard and uncomfortable? It hadn’t felt like that last night. Was I sleeping awkwardly? I rarely slept on a couch, so that was possible.

            Annoyed by the difference, I forced myself awake only to find myself on the floor—the floor? I picked my head up. What happened last night that ended up with me not on the couch? My brows knitted together as I wondered. Had I rolled off the couch? I didn’t remember waking up to go to the bathroom or anything last night, so I knew I hadn’t gotten up at any point last night.

            But me lying on the floor said different. I tried to shove myself up but my hands stung. I hissed, examining my palms. When had I gotten splinters in them? My head tilted curiously. Why were odd things happening to me this morning?

I didn’t even pick my head up for a minute before I heard feet announcing someone’s presence in the living room.

            “Why are you on the floor?” Jeremy asked me. I popped my head up as far as I could.

            “I honestly have no idea,” I admitted.

            He offered me a hand that I gladly took. I winced a little bit, but I stiffly got on my feet. I stretched. My legs felt a little wobbly, but I quickly steadied myself.

            “Working again today?” I asked.

            “I kind of have to if I want to get paid,” he teased. “How did you get your hands like that?”

            “Honestly, I don’t know.” I looked over my palms. “I swear I had no splinters in them last night.”

            “Odd.”

When there was a long silence, I looked up. Jeremy’s face turned grave. My stomach dropped. Something was wrong. He was about to tell me something bad.

            “What is it?” I croaked. “Did something happen last night? Did the hunters find somebody?”

            “No.” I let out a breath. “You’re being put under house arrest again.”

            Okay, that wasn’t the news I was expecting.

            “Damn it. Why?” I stomped my foot.

            “You really want to ask that question, Fay?”

            “Possibly.” I folded my arms across my chest.

            “Since we don’t know who the hunters and the witch are, we can’t risk you going out.”

            “Geez, when do you people make up these decisions? When I’m asleep? It sounds like you are,” I said bitterly. “Anyway, you can’t risk me going out by myself.”

            “I get the feeling you’re about to try and prove a loophole.”

“If somebody was with me I could go out, right? I mean, the hunters wouldn’t be stupid enough to take me away if I had somebody with me.”

            “You don’t know that, Faith. People can be unpredictable.”

            “Jer, please, I don’t want to be cooped up again! Remember the last time we tried that? It didn’t really work out. I should be free to go out! I sound like a little kid.”

            “You do.” He laughed. “But I don’t think you’ll win this argument.”

            “Not even if I’m willing to be with her the entire day?” Damon drawled, strolling into the room. I saw Jeremy stiffen at the sight of the vampire.

            “I wouldn’t trust you two in the same room alone together.” Jer’s tone was clipped.

            “Elena can. She has before.”

            “That’s Elena. I’m not her, and I say you being with Faith is a bad idea. Just because you saved her before doesn’t mean I trust you any more than I already do.”

            “I’m not a bad influence on her, Jeremy.” Damon put a hand on my shoulder. Jer’s brown eyes narrowed at the contact. “I wouldn’t let her out of my sight. Besides…if she does go out, maybe there’d be a chance of her seeing her intruders from last night.”

            “I doubt it. Elena caught me up on everything. If Faith can’t remember what they look like, what makes you think going out in public would help her?”

            “Maybe she’d somehow remember their faces when she sees them.”

            “Easy, boys,” I said gently. “Let’s not fight, okay? I want to go out.”

            “I’ll let you if you go with anyone other than him,” Jeremy said sternly. “I’m sure Caroline, Elena, or even Bonnie wouldn’t mind being with you for a bit.”

            “Speaking of everybody, whatever happened to those self-defense sessions?” I asked curiously. “We’ve only done a few.”

            “We never felt the need to do more because we thought the threat was gone.” Jer shrugged.

            “Yeah, and look how that turned out,” Damon retorted. “I think Faith wants another self-defense lesson.”

            “Definitely,” I said immediately. Even though I knew we’d be in the woods again, it was at least outside of the house. That’s what I wanted—the lovely outdoors.

            “Hmm…” Jeremy pondered the idea for a moment. He sighed. “Fine. But it’ll have to be after work for me.”

            “You don’t have to go along,” Damon said. “Vampires are more than capable of doing things at a human speed. We can manage without you just fine.”

            “Besides, nobody is going to hurt me,” I piped to Jer. “You know Elena won’t let anything happen to me.”

            “See? Faith knows what she’s talking about. Relax, kid, she’ll be fine without you there. She’s got enough support as it is.”

            Jeremy muttered something under his breath as he sauntered out of the house. I pouted, my moral downed by Jer’s attitude. But he had to know Damon was right. Nobody would hurt me. Then again, there was room for error…

            What am I thinking? Of course nobody will hurt me during training. Elena definitely wouldn’t, neither would Damon.

            “What did you do to your hands this time?” Damon groaned. He slid his arms around me to look at my palms. I sighed, throwing my head back.

            “I don’t know,” I whimpered. “I wish I knew. Jeremy found me on the floor this morning.”

            “What did you do? Roll off the couch?” he snickered.

            “Probably.”

            Damon gingerly touched my splintered palms. He tried to pinch one out. I clasped my hands together, instantly regretting the decision.

            “It’ll be painless, I promise,” he whispered. “Don’t tell me you don’t trust me with something as simple as this?”

            I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt small tugs, but no sharp bursts of pain. I peeked an eye open. There was some torn skin but no blood or anything. I marveled at my splinter-free hands.

            “See? That wasn’t so painful, was it?” he crooned.

            Damon started kissing my neck. I held in my giggles. My stomach totally ruined the moment by growling. I grabbed at it, blushing. What an embarrassing way to end a moment that was just starting.

            “I think you should eat,” he mused.

            “Nah, really?” I retorted sarcastically. I twisted my head to look into his eyes. I had a hard time focusing.

            “Since you want to go out, why not let me take you out for breakfast?”

            “I hope you mean for me and not for yourself.”

            “Of course for you. Don’t worry; I’ll have my afternoon snack later.” His breath made me tremble as it brushed my skin. “Go on, get dressed. I’ll wait.”

            “But I don’t know where my stuff is!”

            “Then go search for something.”

            “Wow, you’re being quite un-gentleman like, not willing to go get a girl her clothes.” I sighed.

            I dragged myself around the house, wondering where in the hell my clothes were. Where had somebody put them? I made sure to check each closed door for activity on the other side. Elena and Stefan were probably still in the house, doing things that I didn’t want to think about or hear.

            Eventually, I found my clothes in an empty room. I pursed my lips as I dug for something casual. I considered a ruby-red, plunging neckline, long-sleeved shirt and jeans casual. I made my way out of the unfamiliar house and out the door with Damon.

*      *      *

I can’t say that breakfast was anything special. In fact, it was annoying. We had gone to a quaint little place, with annoying waitresses who liked to hit on my boyfriend—or at least, that’s what I considered Damon. I swear he was messing with her, flirting right back. That made me fume easily. He laughed at how steamed I got from watching him. I got the feeling that he was doing that to annoy me.

He wasn’t exactly boosting my mood.

            During that time, Elena had called, panicking because she didn’t see me in the house this morning. Damon assured her everything was okay, and I pushed for him to bring up the self-defense idea. I could hear from their talk that Elena seemed surprised that I wanted to continue, but she agreed nonetheless. That made breakfast a little more endurable, having something to look forward to.

            When we met at our usual spot, it was almost everybody like last time, minus Jeremy and plus Caroline. That was unusual, considering I thought she had other things to do, but she told me she was here for moral support, like Bonnie—and she was afraid to stay in her house alone, even with Bonnie’s magic protecting her.

            When it came to a showdown, Elena made Stefan volunteer to take me on. Apparently, she wasn’t fond of Damon going against me; Caroline sided with her on that one. I personally would’ve rather had Damon against me, with Stefan calling out instructions and my faults from the sidelines.

            Using a crappy stick he just ripped from the nearest tree, Stefan tried to scratch, stab, and knock into me with his “stake.” It didn’t make it fun for me, since it wasn’t really an actual stake.

When it came to actually defending myself physically, that’s where I struggled. I could tell Stefan was trying to help out, but I was still horrible. Twice he had me on my back on the ground, and the third time on my back he held me by my throat. When Stefan let me up, I could tell Caroline and Elena looked uneasy by how they moved. Damon looked like he couldn’t watch.

            “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Caroline whispered anxiously.

            “No, I need to do this,” I panted, rubbing my aching back. “It’s the only way I’ll be able to fight off the hunters.”

            “But what about a witch?” Damon called. “How can you defend yourself against him?”

            “I’ll just have to hope he doesn’t show up.” I shrugged. I looked at everybody. “Who’s next?”

            “Faith, maybe you should take a break—a long one,” Bonnie said carefully. “You look shaky.”

            “Nah, I’m fine.” I looked at Stefan, who was looking me over, trying to see what Bonnie did. “Who am I going up against now?”

            His green eyes immediately snapped to Elena. She took a step back, startled.

            “Me?” she sputtered.

            “She’s taken on brute strength enough. I think it’s time she tried to face something more of her own size.”

            “I think that’s a compliment.”

            “It should be taken as one.”

            I watched Elena. She was more of my size, probably as big as Brooke. I didn’t remember her being fat. How could someone overweight be a vampire hunter anyway, with the strength and endurance it took?

            Keeping my thoughts away from the she-hunter, I watched Elena shift back and forth, waiting to lunge for me. I clenched and unclenched my fists in anticipation. I doubted a showdown would be like this with one of the hunters, but I wasn’t sure about that. Sometimes it could be a traditional movie showdown: one pacing back and forth, the other waiting for their opponent to strike first…

            Elena charged, and somehow, I forced myself to run right for her. I felt reenergized when running, but in that split second, I felt heavily depleted. My legs fell out from under me, and I braced myself for the impact of the ground. A set of hands caught me before I hit the floor.

            “What was that?” Elena gasped as she pulled me against her. I didn’t feel up to moving anyway, my body felt eerily tired.

            “I—I don’t know. My legs gave up on me.” Slowly, I tested my legs. They were extremely shaky.

Funny, I had felt fine earlier. Was this from Damon taking blood from me so many times? Don’t be stupid, you would’ve felt that a long time ago. So if that was ruled out, then what was with the sudden energy drain?

            “I think that’s our cue to stop,” Stefan called to order.

            Everybody converged on me, trying to help me up. The boys were around the perimeter of the girls.

            “I can walk,” I said smoothly.

            I took a few steps and realized that I really couldn’t. I was suffering from jelly legs. I grimaced. I had to support myself against Elena and Caroline so I could stand upright. But that didn’t last long.

            “She’s not going to be able to walk back,” Damon said lazily. I yipped as he swept me off my feet. Instinctively, I grabbed onto him. “I’ll take her back home.”

            “Surely you’re going home with him?” Caroline asked somebody. I couldn’t see who it was because Damon blocked my view. “There’s no way you’re letting him be alone with her!”

            “He has been before,” Elena explained. “I trust him with her.”

            “What?” Bonnie and Caroline screeched.

            “Relax, guys; he’ll be okay around her. He saved her life, the least I can do is give him some rein.”

            “I thought he was never to be near her?” Caroline snarled.

            “That’s kind of impossible considering we’re living in the same house now.”

            “What do you mean?”

            I was out of earshot to hear Elena try to convince Caroline and Bonnie that Damon could be trusted with me.

*      *      *

            “Should we really be doing this?” I asked nervously. This wasn’t the smartest idea considering Stefan, Elena and/or Jeremy could be back any minute, but no, Damon wanted to have some quality time together. I wasn’t opposed to it because I didn’t want it—I really did—it was just we were keeping this a secret from everybody. I wasn’t sure what would happen if it was found out.

            Wait, Elena would rip Damon to shreds—and probably Caroline would join her.

            It turned out that my clothes were stationed in—of all places—Damon’s room. I bet he had moved them into here after Jeremy had put them someplace else, where they should’ve stayed. It was an extremely big room, his room, the size of a living room. The bed was overly huge, unnecessary for one person. It looked really plush, so plush that I would have to get a running start just to climb onto it. You could at least fit five in here probably, give or take. There wasn’t much color to the room, either.

            We were lying on the bed, my back facing the windows that poured sunlight into the room. It shone on Damon’s face. It made his eyes brighter. I smiled, looking down when he saw me smiling.

            “What?” he asked.

            “Nothing—just waiting for you to sparkle,” I snickered, looking back up at him.

            “Keep dreaming.” He messed with my non-splintered hands. There were faint marks from where my skin was a bit torn, but nothing was ridiculously noticeable. “I’d still like to know how you did that.”

            “Splintered my hands? Same here.” I messed with his shirt, rubbing the fabric.

            “Getting ideas?” he crooned.

I shot him a look. “Far from it. Do you have anything else in your wardrobe other than black attire and leather jackets?”

            “Such random questions.”

            “Well, unless you have something better to talk about,” I retorted lightly. 

            “I have something we can do that doesn’t involve talking.”

            He peppered kisses down the left side of my neck, scooting down to just above my collarbone. I beamed, already knowing what was going to happen next. I had to admit, being bitten by a vampire wasn’t so bad. To me, it wasn’t painful. I closed my eyes, waiting for the familiar pinch on my skin.

            It was gentler this time. My fingers knotted in his shirt as he stuck to my neck. I made a thrumming noise in the back of my throat; it was something close to a purr. For some reason, all my worries washed away. I didn’t care about the vampire hunters, or someone barging in on us. I was enjoying myself, but I knew Damon was enjoying himself a lot more than I was.

            “This’ll never get old, will it?” I mused.

            “Not for me. I don’t know about you,” he murmured, burying his face and fangs into my neck again. I winced. Usually after one bite he was done.

            My body relaxed. Was it bad that I wasn’t even considering fighting Damon off? Was it bad that I was still letting him take blood from me even though it was a really bad idea to do so, with the risk that he’d kill me? I didn’t think so, but I knew everybody else would say different.

            I hadn’t even realized the door was closed when it ripped open, slamming hard against the wall. That made me jump, but it didn’t faze Damon one bit. When I looked dazedly at our intruder, my limbs locked in fright. I had good reason to be afraid.

Damon and I were caught in the act.

            Elena was going to kill us both.

**Mmm, bad timing on their part. It was only a matter of time, though, right?**