8. Hot In My Chest

Damon's POV

I won't lie to you. I don't know what everyone is thinking about me right now. I don't know if they can see my expression and tell me what I am thinking deeply.

But I am concerned about one thing.

I am freaking frightened.

I am not frightened because of the ongoing scandal between me and Serena. I am not scared about what I did with her.

Goddess knows why I am not even feeling any amount of regret about it.

If nothing I am feeling instead a very powerful urge and craving deep down within me to just be with her in any way I can.

It's crazy and it feels abnormal.

But it's how it is for some strange reason.

Looking at her sitting beside me with that majestic, smooth, beautiful, pale face of hers, flashing me those stunning crystal-like irises is giving me some sort of calmness I never expected to feel whenever I'm standing right in front of the man before me known to be my father.

I know I am in deep trouble. I know I have messed things up. I can tell that my mom is already listing up the number of wolf punishments she is going to dish out to me by the time I get home.

This I can tell because of the calculative gaze in her eyes as she continues to scrutinize me deeply with those mischievous squinted sparkling orbs.

"I asked a question, Damien. Aren't you listening to me?" my father's voice booms loudly, shaking and trembling the walls of the Blackthorn Mansion, forcing me to look away from her as quickly as I can.

I take a deep breath and stare at the ground before relaxing my back against the sofa with frustration.

I am done with this shit.

I can't do this anymore. I am so done with him shouting and screaming at me in that manner as if I am some sort of toy he can just order anyhow he wants.

I am a grown-up now and he shouldn't be the one making the decisions for me. He shouldn't be questioning my motives or my intentions. I should be free to do whatever the hell I want. I am freaking 19 and 19 is not a child's play in the country. Everyone knows that.

I am not even supposed to be leaving with my parents. I'm supposed to be living in my apartment. Living my own life on my terms, but well, he never agreed to that, no matter how much I pleaded.

"I don't care about anything," I reply immediately, casting him a nonchalant expression, and this makes him step backward, not quite expecting my reply.

I know I am screwed far beyond anything I can imagine. He's going to kill me. This is one of the highest stipulated rules he has always been enforcing in my head for only Goddess knows how long right now.

I just freaking went against it, and now the news is all over the supernatural world, and everyone is beginning to give my family the kind of impression that my father detests to the core.

His reputation is slowly pummeling and it is all because of this silly act of mine. This act that he has warned me to never perform in my life till I meet my grave.

I scoff.

But hell I don't care. I don't know why I am not regretting this at all.

I turn my head to look back at her.

She looks extremely scared. She's unable to look up and I can tell that this is because of her father. I know what the man is capable of. But I dare not involve my mouth in this discussion.

I am not going to say anything. I'm just going to allow the adults to decide what should be done about this. There is nothing I can do. The deed has been done and it wasn't my fault.

I didn't just throw myself upon her like that. She seduced me, and I didn't have the power within me to resist.

But I am not going to tell them that. I don't want all the blame to shift to her as if she's the cause of everything. For some strange reason, I suddenly care about her well-being, and I do not like the hurt expression I see on her face.

What the hell?

I don't know how I move closer to her and wrap my arms around her shoulder patting her comfortingly.

"Hey, relax a little bit, okay? You shouldn't be this scared."

What the fuck did I just do??!!!!!

Am I crazy??

Lord. in front of my parents??!!!!!!

What the hell am I thinking??!!!!

My freaking enemy!!!!!!

Aaargh!!!! Lord!!!!

I feel the supreme power of all our parents' auras fill up the entire room, forcing me to quickly remove my arm away from her shoulders.

I know it. My mom, my dad, and Serena's father must be so angry and infuriated by what I just did.

What the hell was I thinking? I seriously didn't have to do that. I will only be making things worse for her and probably for myself.

Serena is not left out of the entire show.

She is looking at me right now and the expression she is giving me makes me know that she is shocked beyond measure. She mustn't have expected me to do that.

I am even shocked. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't explain what changed. I have always seen her as my greatest enemy. Someone I needed to torture. Someone I needed to make to regret ever coming into existence. Someone I'm supposed to be frustrating every single day of her life.

Why the hell am I suddenly caring about her well-being and her emotions?

I quickly look away from her and relax back against the sofa lacing my fingers together and staring at the ground.

My father shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. From one look at him, I can tell he's thinking of how to analyze the situation.

"This cannot go on right under my watch. I cannot bear the castigating stares and the impressions I am receiving from all the other leaders of the supernatural empire. It is getting on my nerves and I cannot bear it. You have disappointed me, Damien. This cannot go on. How many times do I have to freaking tell you that the half-breeds are off-limit? Even if you wanted to bed a vampire, there are many purebred vampires everywhere. Hot, beautiful, and sexy enough for you to lay. Why this disgusting, wretched, vile being?"

Those evil, hard words of his strike me deep down in my chest. I feel a sharp pain in my heart as if a spear has probably been pierced deep into me and it makes me flinch.

Why the hell will he have to say that about her? She is none of those.

I don't know how I get up abruptly from my seat.

"You have no right to say those evil things about her!!! she is none of that!!" I scream out loudly back at my father, pointing at him, and he looks at me with shock, his eyes wide.

Within a few minutes, I finally realized what I had just done, and I blinked my eyelid rapidly.

I gulp down hard and slowly drop my hands. "I'm sorry I said that, but I mean what I said. She is also a being with emotions, and you should consider that before saying harsh words like that." I say and finally, sit back down against the sofa.

Every individual in the room is staring at me as if they can't believe what they have just heard.

I avoid their gazes, however, and turn towards the only person that matters most to me at the moment.

Wait. did I just admit that she matters most to me right now? I think to myself as I look at her.

I must be going crazy!!!

Goddess. I have never seen such a beauty in my life.

Her eyes are wide, and her curly blonde hair is scattered and ruffled against her face in so many ways, as though she has not cared about her hair for a long while now.

My left hand moves of its own volition, taking hold of each strand and brushing them back behind her ear.

She looks frozen. She blinks slowly with unexplainable shock on her face.

"Have you gone mad, Damien?" my mom's voice screeches loudly in the room, forcing me to turn sharply and look at her.

She gets up immediately from her seat, about to walk up towards me, but my dad stretches his hand, signaling for her to sit back down.

"Don't worry," he says softly.

I look at them confused. Sometimes, I wish I could read through people's minds and know what they are thinking so that I can decide my next course of action.

I don't like the way he is staring at me right now. It is creating an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Have I already used my own hands to make things worse for myself?

"Do you know what?" he says out loud, forcing every individual in the room to look at him. "I think I have made my decision and that is how it is going to be. The deed has been done, and the news is all over, both in the physical and the supernatural world. Everyone is going to be looking at us in ways that we do not want, so to make things look even better so that our reputations don't get tarnished, I suggest that we both marry them off immediately. That is the best and only possible solution to save our reputations presently. Trust me I am not interested. I am not happy with this arrangement but we freaking do not have a choice. I certainly do not want the next heir after my son to be a fucking half-breed!!"

" Then that is not happening!!!" Serena's father suddenly says sharply, sitting up in his chair after being quiet for such a very long time.

My father turns to look at him with shock.

"And why will you say that? It is the only possible solution that we have right now."

"My daughter is still too young to be thrown into a marriage at this young and tender age."

"So she wasn't young when she decided to do the parental deed behind your back. Is that what you are trying to tell me? You, too, should know that this is the only possible solution as a leading elder of the vampire clan. Think sharply. You are smarter than this. If we leave them to go about the way their life is with the scandal getting wider and wider, everyone is definitely going to look at them as sluts, and they won't be respected, so will our reputation be buried in the mud, and you know that. But if everyone looks at them as a happily married couple, they will just assume that it must have been their means of getting heads over themselves before the main arrangement has been made. Do you get the arrangement now?" he requests, and I look at Serena's father, rubbing his fingers against his chin and thinking about what he had just said.

"Honey, it sounds like a very good plan." Serena's mom is saying as she continues to rub her hand against his, trying to persuade him and calm him down for a while.

I am still caught admiring the affection between Serena's Mom and Dad when a sudden strong aura I never expected to feel choke the living hell out of me coming directly beside me.

I quickly turn to look at Serena to see that she is trembling violently. And from what I can detect from her...

She is freaking extremely angry.

It forces me to shift a little bit away from her as I look at her with a worried expression.

What the hell happened to her?

The next thing she does takes me off guard.

She gets up from her seat, and when I look at her, her eyes are no longer that sparkling crystal blue that they had always been.

It is glowing extremely blood red right now bearing the exact traits of her father being the strongest reigning vampire elder.

Goddess I have never seen her reveal her vampire traits up till now.

I need to admit. It is stirring up some sort of feelings deep down within me.

Some surprisingly strange feelings I never expected to feel at this point.

She is so beautiful. Like I said earlier, she is a perfect masterpiece.

However, her next words shake me out of my reverie when she immediately speaks with a hiss.

"Never in a million years will I be belittled to stoop so low to marry your disgusting, hard-hearted, inconsiderate bastard individual of a son!!"

" Serena?!" Her mom shouts.

Okay. I know I should have expected that.

But I did not see that one coming.

And it makes me feel hot in my chest.