Chapter 4 Four

The knock on the door had me forcing my head out of my lap and wipe my tears. A woman dressed in a maid's uniform stood at the threshold with a tray of food in her hands. When she saw me, she gave me a soft smile and entered. I thought she would be scared to face a vampire without any security as no one else was with her, but she confidently strode over to me and placed the tray on the bed in front of me.

"Master ordered me to bring you some breakfast. I hope you like fruits and vegetables and the regular bread. We don't have food for your kind, " she said, without any hint of guilt or remorse. I had a feeling she hated me just as much as Damon did if not more.

"Thank you. And don't worry, it doesn't matter." I told her. I can't drink blood anyways, I thought.

She didn't say anything more, just gave me a pointed look before walking out of the room. Once she was gone, I eyed the tray sitting in front of me and sighed. I felt nausea build up inside me as I stared at the vegetables and bread, what in Hell's Angels was he thinking by giving me vegetables? Did he thought he was being funny by tormenting me in such a way? He could've had the decency to give me some meat.

Aren't you allergic to meat as well?

I was not sure if I was allergic to meat or not. I knew I was allergic to blood and a single drop now had the power to kill me, but I wasn't sure if I single morsel of meat would have the same effect. But did I dare try it? What if it killed me? Perhaps I should be grateful that Damon was keeping me on a vegetarian diet as it was better to be safe than sorry.

With hesitant fingers, I picked up a carrot and took a bite only to cringe at the bland taste of the vegetable. Hell's Angels, how did humans ate this stuff? No wonder so much fast food included chicken, which was spicy and delicious. However, there was nothing I could do as I was a prisoner and even if I asked Damon to give me chicken, I knew he wouldn't.

Knowing that I had no other option, I ate everything that was given to me and sat back against the headboard, thinking about what to do next. Damon had said that he had prolonged my life for a few days and after the time limit was over, he would have the witch perform the spell again until he decided to kill me. However, that did not change the fact that the curse was still there and unless I did something about it, I would cease to exist. But the curse had no cure, at least not that I knew of, so I was helpless, and it was only thanks to Damon and his witch friend that I was alive right now.

Perhaps I could run away and find that witch for myself and enlist her help. But she would not help me as I was the one thing she hated in the world. Vampires and witches could never get along and this feud had been going on for millennia. I did not know how this feud came about, all I knew was that it existed and it left me with a huge disadvantage.

"What am I going to do?" I said to myself as I got out of bed and begun pacing. It felt good to walk around without my bones and blood screaming in pain. I shuddered as I recalled the excruciating pain my body had to endure a few days ago. Maybe now I owed Damon my life, only he would be too happy to take it. I wish he wasn't a vampire hunter, my life would've been a lot easier, but my life hadn't been easy... it hadn't been easy in a long time.

As I thought about what to do, I walked over to the window and looked out to see that I was as far from civilization as I could possibly be. How much had I run and why did I not see where I was running to? I shouldn't have ended up here; I should've stayed at a place which was familiar to me. Now I had no idea where to run to which would not have me killed at the hands of a vampire hunter.

"No, I can't run. He will catch me, " I muttered to myself.

"You bet I will." I turned around to see Damon standing there, wearing a white shirt with black jeans. Water dripped from his hair making me feel thirsty. Snap out of it! He is the enemy.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, wondering if I really had the right to ask him considering I was the one who was in his house.

"Long enough to know that you need an escape route and you are never going to get it." He walked forward until he was standing right in front of me. He placed two fingers under my chin and tilted my head up so he could trap me with his gaze. "Mark my words, Tempest; you can never escape from me now. You don't know a thing about me so you have no idea what happens to the vampires who I deal with, so don't bother thinking let alone trying to escape because I will make you wish for death if you do."

"You keep threatening to torture and kill me but so far you haven't done anything like that, " I said as soon as he let go of me. "In fact, you brought in a witch to save my life and you just gave me food. I may not know you but I do know of your kind and your kind is never that generous to vampires."

Damon smirked, fury sparking in his eyes. Maybe it was dangerous to provoke the beast, especially when there was nothing I could do to tame it.

"You really want me to torture you, Tempest? Is that what you want? I am more than happy to oblige you, you filthy leech." Disgust poured from every word and I could see in his eyes that he was thinking of ways to inflict the more damage on me.

I shook my head. "No, that's not what I meant. Of course I am grateful to you and all you have done, even if you say you did it for your own selfish reasons. But it does not change the fact that you saved my life, albeit only temporarily. And I am no longer in pain because of you..."

"That's because I plan to make you suffer in my own way, and I want you to scream and cry because I am responsible for it, not someone else, " he argued.

"Even so, you could've let me died. I am sure you have other vampires to catch and kill instead of wasting your time with one who was already dying. So I don't why you saved my life and though I do not know you, I do know that no one is stupid enough to let the enemy live and breathe in his house, " I finished.

His eyes narrowed. "Are you calling me stupid?" I gasped when he wrapped his hand around my neck and squeezed. I tried to wrench his hand away but he only tightened his grip causing me to kick and slap his hand as panic crawled up my spine when it became difficult to breathe. He squeezed a tighter before letting go and shoving me far enough from him, causing me to fall, my head colliding with the edge of the bed. Stars danced in front of my vision and I could feel blood trickling down the side of my head which came in contact with the bed.

I watched him march out of the room, slamming the door on his way out. Tears burned my eyes as pain had me hissing and wincing when I dragged myself on to the bed. Perhaps I was wrong about him and he really did save my life just to torture and kill me in a way that was worse than being cursed and having become allergic to blood.

"Guess you can only wait for him to kill you now, Tempest. And you thought the curse was the worst thing that could happen to you." I laughed bitterly as I mocked myself and how I was going to die knowing that I was the one who provoked my killer into killing me. Fantastic! I was a bigger idiot than I gave myself credit for.

Blood trickled down in steady streams and I did not know how to stop it. If I had fed, then I wouldn't be worried about bleeding to death as my body would've had the energy to heal itself. But since I hadn't eaten in four days, my body refused to heal itself.

As I sat there pondering over my future which did not exist, Damon came back and stood in front of me. I stared at him as he returned my gaze with his intense one, wondering was he here to finally torture me like he promised. What kind of torture devices did he have? Judging by the intense hatred he had for me and others like me, I had a feeling I was in for a lot more pain than I thought.

"Why have you not healed yet?" He asked, his eyes staring at the blood.

I shrugged. "I can't. I don't have the energy."

"So what will you do if you can't heal?" He enquired. Why was he so curious about all this? His job was to kill me, right?

"Wait until I bleed to death. Maybe you should let me go outside, it'll save you the mess, " I said.

"And you are not afraid to die?" What was with this man? Why was he talking to me?

"I should've been dead three days ago." Was all I said. I didn't know why I wasn't doing anything to stop the blood from flowing or to stop the throbbing in my head; I just knew I did not care about it.

"It's like you are human. You cannot drink blood; you cannot heal on your own and I am pretty sure you no longer have the strength and the agility of a vampire."

"I don't know, but I am pretty sure you are right, " I agreed. "You should be happy; I'll be far easier to kill now."

"I can kill you easily anyways. And besides, I like my victims who are feisty and difficult. Torturing you and killing you will not be as much fun as it would've been if you had your powers, " he remarked. If he was expecting me to get offended, then he was mistaken. After what had happened to me, I had almost given up hope and now I did not care if I lived or died.

"Alright." I paused. "How long will this spell last?"

"A few days. I am going to take more information from her regarding this, " he replied. I couldn't help but be surprised at how civil Damon was being with me. It was as if he had a three sixty degrees' personality change. Was he really the same man who was nearly strangled me and made me bleed just a few minutes ago?

"Why?" I questioned.

"For my own knowledge. I need to know everything about this curse and the spell my friend is using, so in the future if I come across anything similar I'll know what to do, " he said.

"Great. It's nice to know I am going to be your little experiment; that's why you haven't killed me, right?" There was no secret now, I knew what he wanted from me. He was keeping me alive in order to see how my situation was going to turn out. I really was an experiment.

"Well, it's good to know that there are no hard feelings." He took a deep breath and smiled, an actual smile, one that was not filled with malice and hate. "Let's take a look at that wound now. Since I am keeping you alive in order to study you, I need to make sure you do not bleed to death."

"And here I thought I was supposed to be the cold-blooded one, " I muttered sarcastically as Damon moved closer to me. Why did he have to smell so fucking delicious?

"I can do it myself. I'm sure the bleeding will stop on its own. Since I am being human, then the blood should begin to clot, right?" I said, pulling my head away when he tried to touch it.

"You're not human, Tempest. Don't you dare delude yourself into thinking that." His eyes darkened and I knew I had said the wrong thing.

"Forgive me for committing blasphemy against your kind. Leave me alone, Damon. I'll be fine in a little while." I told him, feeling loneliness slithering up my legs, aiming for my heart. What was the point of him trying to fix my wound when I was going to die anyway? What kind of a sick person did that?

"I cannot do that." I looked at him, wondering what he was talking about. "Leave you alone, I mean."

"Why? I am not longer a threat to you. In fact, you are the one who is after my life now." I pointed out.

"Yes, you're right. You should be the one who should be afraid. But like I said, need to make sure you don't bleed to death, " he parroted.

"Then send your physician. I'm sure he can do a better job than you, " I snapped. I just wanted him gone.

"Tempest, I said let me take care of it." He tried to grab for my face again but before he could do that, my hand balled into a fist and before I could control my actions, I ended up punching Damon square in the face. My eyes widened as my hand fell away, uselessly, as if it didn't just hit my potential murder in the face.

And I watched, mesmerized, as Damon locked his eyes with mine, rage burning hot and cold in them.

Mighty Angels of Hell!