Chapter Text
From the pain... Chapter III
"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace." ― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary
"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment." ― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
"If you want to be happy, do not dwell in the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present." ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
He watched as Red Bird munched on some leftovers she got from her fridge. He was quite certain they were old. It was like she didn't care anymore. Even him could appreciate fresh food was way better than something old, reheated food.
She simply ignored him like he was another piece of furniture in her crappy apartment. Another person doing this type of transgression to him would had felt it on their necks. But with her, he just simply stared. Every move and nuance. She was dead on his arms and now she was still a breathing human.
He didn't quite understood how or why. He will found out for sure, but right now he was content just to watch her do her thing.
So much history between them, since that night at the library. She would not remember it he knew that, but still it was part of their story. His Little Bird, always his. Now she was washing the few dishes she used.
The next thing he heard was an anguish groan. Damon perceived the strong scent of fresh blood. Her apartment reeked of blood, her blood. But now it was fresh, sweeter. He reacted on instinct. In less than a second he was by her side searching out what happened. Why did he smell her fresh blood again?
"It's not even morning, yet! Again so soon! Why?"
Red Bird huddled down low in pain. Like the predator he is, Damon approached her carefully. He didn't want to scare her and made her move away. She was obviously in pain. Then he saw it, the long red streak in her arm. It looked like a claw opened her skin. Raw, exposed to him.
Before he could grasp what he was doing his hand touched her injury. Red Bird watch him with fear in her eyes. He slowly licked his finger now coated with Red Bird's blood. So Rich! Powerful! Enticing!
He was hungry. Hunger was acting dominating him. It felt like another person doing the movements. Grabbing up Red Bird, forcing her to expose her neck. Feeling her constant pulse calling him, hypnotizing him. Her blood so psychically rich. Addicting! He will be satisfied and full. No more hunger, no more pain. It was like watching the scene through a looking glass. He was near and afar at the same time. Damon felt his fang elongate, the anticipation and the thrill to have his prey on his arms. The knowledge, the gratification he needed was less than a second away.
A psychic call came in.
"Damon, please don't do it. If you want my blood I'll give it to you, but not like this please."
Red Bird's sing song voice call. To the utter despair of his monster within, the inner little Damon who is still chained heard her voice. He rattled his chains so loudly that the monster snarled at him.
Damon blinked and reluctantly let her go. He remembered why he hadn't drink her blood. Why did he made that choice. Muted memories of another red head with similar powers and a broken heart came upfront. He was no longer seeing his Red Bird. It was another woman who he claimed to love for selfish purposes.
He scented the maiden's druid blood and he wanted her power. He wanted to nourish his monster with it because he new the monster will sleep longer. With it he could control it better. Almost five hundreds years ago he didn't stop like he did today. He was more of a monster, an animal. Couldn't control his ravenous hunger. Damon hadn't discovered his powers, not yet. He only wanted to eat. To keep drinking his nourishment. Humans desired riches, gold, power. They didn't now how weak they are. He had bitten and killed the maiden. A maiden so eerily similar to his Red Bird.
Red hair, green eyes, pale skin. Her last words a curse upon him. In Gaelic words she banished his capacity to recognized true love. He will desire what others have, but he would never recognized the one soul born for him. He will not think about it, he will only remember the passion and distorted love he felt for his maker. He had doom himself and any other woman who dare to truly love him. Who dare to choose him first.
He recoiled from Red Bird's presence. He transformed and flew away. It couldn't be? What was his Little Bird suffering his doing? Why on earth all those memories came back? He hadn't thought about that druid witch on ages. He hadn't even realized why he always look for red heads when he didn't wanted blonds.
Damon didn't pay any thoughts about the curse. Had he doomed his Little Bird? NO! He didn't love her. All of her pain, her magical injuries has to have another reason. Maybe a hex on her.
After drinking his dinner and somewhat satiating his hunger for Red Bird's blood, Damon returned to the apartment. He found her sitting on her couch with an old book between her hands. The scent of fresh blood was gone.
Damon studied her, Little Bird changed her clothes again and the typical sound of the wash-machine was part of their actual ambiance. She looked like she was waiting for him. Red Bird stood up walked toward him and offered an old book. Damon did his usual smirk and in an almost insusceptible way he said no to the offer.
Red Bird only looked up to his eyes for a second, turn around and left the old book on the couch. She didn't say any words. He only watched her go to her tiny laundry. Red Bird never looked back. Damon took the damned thing and read it. A sense of inevitability and anger came up word after word. He did recognized the story. He lived it after all, he was pictured like a charming prince when he was not. He read how a maiden saw him through her innocent eyes ignoring the urgent calls and her instinct to not trust him. Seducing her was part of the game. Damon wondered why did he picked her? Why did he invested on her so much time? Why he wanted so much her blood?
She was a druid, a witch. Call it whatever you may he craved her power more than anything. Her blood mixed with her magnificent power called to him. The monster who lived under his skin rejoiced all this process. Damon loved that hunt, when he finally touched that delicate neck and tasted the nectar, he oh so much coveted he felt pure bliss. He hadn't felt that since Katherine. He felt some sort of relief.
Her power connected with him. Damon saw who was her and the druid maiden knew she was about to die. That's how the curse came to be. The maiden did something not noble. She broke some rules and that had side effects.
Soft footsteps heading toward him. Damon, looked up and watched Red Bird intently. Side effects, last night he saw what those two word meant. Apparently he did this to his Little Bird and still something was not right. A piece of the puzzle is missing, that much he was aware off.
"Now you know everything of my ailment Damon. Now you know that I don't have definite answers. I only knew it was an old vampire and a druid innocent girl."
Pregnant silence descended upon them. It seemed like an eternity. Little Bird turns towards the door, picked up her keys and went out. Resplendent light came in within the mere seconds it took the door to close again. It was no longer night, it's was time of the sun to shine. I did not do this to her! I did not!
Denial is a gruesome thing…
Little Bird returned after a some hours, time enough for me to think everything through. The missing piece bothering my senses. The maiden I killed wasn't from Red Bird's bloodline. Damon is an expert when it was a blood thing issue. He knows the difference not only the magical ones, but the mundane and normal ones too. Five hundreds and plus years give one that kind of knowledge. The powerful blood he drank that time was entirely different from Red Bird's. If he was the one responsible for the curse, the logical thing is a descendant from that witch would be the one with the curse on her.
McCullough line or the MacLachlan line were not mixed whatsoever with that witch bloodline. He would have notice it with that tiny speck of blood he tasted from Little Bird.
"Does this story has a meaning to you? Are you the one?"
He knew what Red Bird was asking. Damon studied her his woman-child had grown up, but at what cost. He smirked only to spite her. He wanted to see her angry. For some wicked reason he wanted to provoke a reaction. He was sick and tired of the constant blank expression on her face. Damon wanted his Songbird back. Unbelievable! Missing her!
He did missed her on his travels through the continents after their last adventure on the Dark Dimension, the place where he almost lost her.
Damon stood still silent looking at her. It was like time has stop between them. It was like a bubble no sounds came towards them. No nature or human alike. Just the two of them on their own terms. Once upon a time they did have a similar moment. Little Bird saw him, the real him and he turn away from that.
She let a sad sigh escape from her lips.
"I guess it's pay back time. Isn't it?"
Red Bird was looking at him but her eyes were lost in her memories. He could fairly guess they were painful memories and for some strange reason he knew for certain he was the cause of those memories.
She took a couple steps towards him. Little Bird's eyes returned to their cocooned present.
"Damon, I'm willing to die for you. I do. Even if you're the cause of this curse."
"I'm..."
"Don't please. No lies, not at this moment."
"How could you be so certain it was me the monster depicted on that old witch story?
Her eyes brimmed with tears. Little Bird was fighting her hardest to not cry in front of him. That effort only caused him to admire her more. Wait! Now its admiration? What other things will he realized on this awful day?
"You haven't denied it, You haven't smirked. Damon, you said nothing. Silence it's another form of acceptance. Sad and ironic don't you think..."
She fidgeted a little, her dark stuffy clothes only enhanced the red of her hair and her paleness. Her deceiving fragile complexion. How wrong they were about her. He knew about her inner strength. Damon only reached and grasped the reality of Red Bird's real beauty. Cliche as it is, her strength makes her beautiful, her soul make her tempting, her power makes her hypnotic, her blood makes her enticing, her heart makes her… irresistible.
"What is sad Red Bird?"
Yes, definitely beautiful.
"Don't you see it? We are willing to die for each other, but we are not willing to say the truth to each other."
Red Bird took a pause and a single tear fell out of her eye. Damon had to fight his instinct to wipe it away. His protective instinct came out roaring from his inner self. Even the chained little boy was screaming. Protect HER!
"But the thing is, Damon. I had a moment of weakness."
Her words make him ignore the little boy. He just tilt his head a little, waiting for her.
"After a year I called Elena.", Damon tensed up immediately. Red Bird kept talking in a bit of a rush now pacing between her couch and him.
"She was mad. So mad! I understood and expected that, but I called to ask her to call you back home..."
Back and forth between the couch and him. Again and Again… It seemed like desperation was winning. Red Bird at that moment was the teenager he once knew. The woman-child that called him. The same one able to compelled him. Not a proud moment for him, but that night on campus was seared in his brain. Damon felt some regret because now he is the only one able to remember it.
"I want to be alone, that's why I went away. I didn't want anyone to see me like this. I didn't want my family to suffer this with me. They don't deserve it. I'm the one that accepted my gift when Honoria asked me. She warned me, you know. Honoria Fell told me about the responsibility, the dangers everything and I still said yes. Because… because I couldn't see my self without them. I would've been incomplete… "
"Red Bird, breathe."
She stopped for a second breathed once and started to pace again.
"I didn't mind dying. I accepted it. I lived with it. Even if no one believed me I knew my life would be short…. Then this thing started to happen. At first little bruises with a bit of pain. But with time it progressed to the point I stopped breathing. So painful Damon, so much pain. I didn't mind it either. I found that old book and I didn't mind it either. But today on my weak moment, I learned from Elena, I would become an aunt soon. It's a girl, and they say she could be born on my birthday. That's tomorros and I realized. I need to live Damon. I need to live desperately because I don't want my niece to have this fate."
Now tears were coming down unstoppable. Suddenly Little Bird stopped pacing, walked toward him and grabbed him by his leather jacket. Looking up at him. So much sadness and pain.
"Do you get it? I don't want my niece near you. You were near to one of my ancestors, you are near me and if I don't survive this night somehow you'll be near my niece."
Harsh words came out from her mouth. It was a bit unnerving. Damon realized it was the first time Red Bird was telling him the truth without him using any trick or compelling it from her.
"I need to live through this night, to reach my birthday Damon, this thing has to stop with me. I want for my niece the life I'd will never have. I want her the picket fence with children running and playing. I want her to have a loving partner. Who'll love her and respect her. A doting father to her children. I want her to live freely, no otherworldly worries. Damon I need to live!"
Damon did what only he could have done. He put his hand on Red Bird's back neck and brought her to him. He leaned down and kiss her. She responded with the same intensity she said her truth. It was a desperate dance between them. Damon felt the drought on his soul disappear.
"Say it Red Bird. Say the words."
"I..." Pain came to her features and the scent of fresh blood came to be.
"Love..." Another painful cry from her. Damon was waiting.
He remembered the witch clearly and those tragic words, the curse. Damon remembered clearly the witch wasn't a McCullough, he did remember the rebel little red head that lifted the curse from her family. How proud she was when she told them. "You no longer will torment us." The witch had said, the strange compulsion that made him come back to search the one with the curse on her went away to only reappear on Red Bird. Very few women were born from the McCullough line. It was the reason it was so hard for him to accept the truth. The curse were for women, with certain gifts and those were rarely repeated through time.
The witch didn't lifted the curse, she just changed it and condemn a fellow druid with it. Through time and space, linked to him more accurately than before. Yes, he was the monster who did this and he was going to fix it. A crazy idea came to his mind and let his soul to connect with Red Bird's soul, like that night were he felt he found his home, his nest.
"You." The final cry came from Red Bird lips. Damon kept kissing her ignoring the siren call of her blood.
Through their mind link requested her to said the same words as he.
"Red Bird, please repeat the words I'm about to say. I need you to infuse them with your magic, used your life source, use my life source for it."
Damon didn't knew if it would work, but if she died this night, he will go with her. He then said the words he had heard so many times on his life. Words he once thought he will tell to Elena. Words that now are for Red Bird and only her.
"With the love in my heart, With that love that is ours, I call upon the power of the Earth and the Stars. Binding I seek, Eternal love you will offer to me. Souls intertwined will be. So mote it be!"
The effect was swiftly and immediate. Two souls became one, two lives became one. The youthful and human warmth came to him, the regal certainty and long lasting knowledge went to her.
"Damon what…?
With the effect of magic and the tragic desperation between them, the human act he didn't need to do came to be. The blood exchange between them sealed the binding spell. Now they belong to each other, if she dies he goes with her and if he dies she goes with him.
For the first time the feeling of home was more palpable to him than ever. The blinding beauty of the moon came barreling towards him. His eyes opened to the inner truth he didn't care to admit since he fist lay eyes on Red Bird. Even the annoying little boy was doing his happy dance. The scale on his eyes had fallen, the truth was so clear know. That night at the library he had found his soul mate.
And at that moment he utter to her the three words his soul craved to say. "I love you, Bonnie. I love you."
A thunder was heard on Charon town, the unseen lighting came down on them. The curse was broken and the witch who cursed them finally rest in peace. The mischievous witch who condemned the McCullough women sigh relieved. The light her soul was waiting appear and she finally went to her destiny. He only needed to admit the truth, that he love the woman who chose him first.
The two lovers accepted their reality. It took a long journey for both of them realized they were meant to be.
The vampire admitted after his five hundred year, he truly fell in love. It wasn't obsessive like Katherine or sadly like Elena. It was a true love. Damon found the person who chose him first. Only now he did understood his soft spot for the sometime annoying woman-child, the teenager who seemed to have an old soul within her. The teenager who was capable to see him. The teenager who became the woman standing with him watching the sun came up.
"Happy Birthday!" She survived the night.
Months later, on the hand-fast celebration of his Little Brother and Elena, he had a quiet moment with his brother. They didn't say anything. What more could be said. Each one had what they craved and wanted since their tragic story came to be. They watched the girls laugh whole hardheartedly.
With the binding he didn't have to drink so much blood anymore, his heart had a steady pace. Red Bird had a vampiric stunning look and still she was human. It was symbiotic between them and they didn't mind. They were happy. They haven't try if he could survive the sun without his ring, but that would be for another time and story.
Bonnie turned and threw him a kiss. The Fiery Red hair shined under the evening sun, her soft blue dress gracing her curves, no shoes and dancing with scary Meredith and Elena. She looked like a pixie. His pixie. His Little Bird. He smiled...
Yes, he love her. Simple as that.
x`x`x`x`x`x` THE END x`x`x`x`x`x`