My breath was knocked out of me when I reached the other side of the portal. It felt like I couldn't breath.
I fell to my knees and tried to hold myself up, but I failed instantly. I scouted out my surroundings to see where exactly I was. As expected, the place was unfamiliar. We were on the edge on some island. I got a glimpse of what went on over the edge as we landed pretty close to it. If I didn't know better, I would think that Damon wanted me to go flying over the edge.
If I wasn't breathless before, I sure was now. The island we were on, was floating in the air and water came pooling out from within the rocks of the edges. Everywhere else you looked, was covered in the most green flora I had ever seen in my life. It was like a pure fairytale. Except for me not being able to properly breath.
"Sorry, the pressure is different here. I didn't think it would affect you like this." Damon said and pulled me up.
He had to hold me by the waist to keep my from falling again.
I was huffing like a train and I wasn't able to get hold of my lungs that felt non-existing.
"You have asthma." Damon said as he readjusted his hold.
I tried standing on my own but I take it that it only took more out of me. I started seeing a bunch of small black dots everywhere I looked and I felt my ears beginning to ring.
"I'm... going... to... faint." I said in between hitched breaths.
Damon picked me up and started carrying me to an absolutely considerably large castle. I only saw glimpses of what was going on around me as I couldn't exactly keep my eyes open for long enough.
I tried staying awake for as long as possible, but it wasn't as easy as you would think.
I could only feel the faint heart beat beneath my head. It only pumped like three times the entire journey, but nonetheless, I thought vampires where dead ?
I finally properly awoke when I was laid down on a couch and I could feel my lungs move again. I had an oxygen mask on my face that was helping all of that.
I swiftly sat up right and pulled the mask off before jumping to my feet. I still felt light headed from the lack of oxygen at this place.
"Woah, calm down." Damon said who came to view with the blink of an eye. "Are you always in attack mode ?" He asked and forced me to sit down again.
I didn't put up a big fight, since my limbs still felt like noodles.
I rubbed the temples of my forehead before seeking out my surroundings again. It was a really beautiful room. Not as old fashioned as I had expected it would be. The couch I was seated on was soft and velvety feeling, an emerald color. As I gathered from all the books against the right wall, I would say this was a study or maybe even a reading room.
The room had a few single seater couches that matched with the one I was sitting on. The door was painted a deep red to my surprise and there stood a great dark oak table in the centre of the room.
I stared out the golden curtains to reveal the gardens I had seen earlier. They were also filled with roses, like the meadow at the Academy.
"The sun is shining." I said carefully examining the movement of waves far over the edge of the floating island.
"What ?" Damon asked me confused.
"When we left Fell Grove, it was night. But here it's day."
"The sun never really sets here. Alva likes to feel the heat of the sun as we have no way of generating body heat."
"You have a remote for all of this ?"
"We have our ways." He said and handed me a cup of coffee.
I took a sip and it had the creamer I liked with no sugar.
"How'd you know how I like my coffee ?" I asked and glared at him.
"Rebecca really can't keep her thoughts in check."
"Just when I thought you were an obsessed stalker I'm reminded that you can milk my best friends mind for information."
I put the cup down on a placemat on a table and walked over to scan the books. I was a reader, as you could have guessed. It's a nice way of escaping the real world and to disappear into a fantasy world. I scanned over the hundreds of books and found one that sounds familiar.
"Wuthering Heights, an old classic." I said aloud and turned to book in my hands.
"I bought it from the writer herself."
"You knew Emily Brontë ?" I asked in a surprised voice.
"Mhm." Damon said taking the book from my hand and opening on a page that was signed specifically to him.
"How old are you ?"
"Old enough." Damon said and place the book back in it's place.
"Yet you sound more modern ?"
"I learned to adapt."
I crossed my arms over my chest and kept on walking down the row of books. I reached the end and turned around to rest my back against the wall behind me. I glared at him, not breaking eye contact for a good minute.
"Are you going to keep smothering me with coffee and books or are you going to show me where this prisoner is that caused you vampires such a great deal of harm."
He grabbed his jacket that was hanging on a coat hanger and led me out the door. I was stunned with the hallway. It was wide enough to place another living area.
The walls were made of stone but decorated with a lot of paintings. People in the paintings did indeed look like royalty.
We took a few turns and I lost count of how many. If I had to make a sudden escape, I would for sure be lost in here. To me it would be like a maze.
We reached a door and went down spiralling stairs. It felt like they would continue till we reached hell, but it was getting colder rather then warmer.
I shivered and hugged my body. I could see my breath coming out in tiny clouds from the cold.
Damon stopped in his step and put his jacket around me. I did accept it rather then deny it. It put my arms through the sleeves and pulled the front close to keep myself warm.
Why is this place so freaking cold ?
"Sorry, it's easier to keep people locked up here when its this cold. When vampires haven't fed in a while, it makes them unable to properly move."
"So you freeze your prisoners ?" I ask and stop stepping down the stairs.
He eventually stops after two steps when he realizes I have stopped. He turns to me and stairs into my eyes for a while. His eyes never fail to amaze me. It really is supernatural how the pigments of color move.
He took my hand and started leading me down the stairs again.
"I'm starting to think you use this as an advantage against me."
I will never admit this to anyone else, but I love the feeling of being able to hold someone's hand without the fear of invading his thoughts. And another thing, with Damon it's like there is some kind of warm static feeling in his hands. I have no clue what it could be. It might just be a vampire thing.
We got to the bottom and the place was only lit with a small torch on the far east side. I couldn't make it what was going on around me.
My heart started racing.
"Are you scared of the dark ?"
"I'm not. I'm scared of what's in the dark."
I looked to see that Damon's eye were flowing in an orange/yellow shade. I couldn't decide which color it was exactly.
I got tired and annoyed by not being able to see clearly. I remembered the lighter I had stashed in my jeans pocket and dug it out. I evidently let go of Damon's hand which made him watch me cautiously.
I lit it and drew my power from it to create bigger flames that lit up the room instantly.
I motioned my flames to the torches that were placed on either sides of me and held a burning source ready in my hands.
We walked closer to a group of people who turned out to be the entire group from the diner, Luke, Asmund, Aiden, Alexis, Bearn, Alva, Harry, Erik and Calder.
They all nodded in greeting on our arrival.
"Damon, I started to think you would never show up." Calder spoke.
"Father."
So my theory was right after all.
I threw a two more balls of flames to light two other torches which made the sell in front of me clear. There were very thick metal bars that separated us from a man curled up in a ball. He sat motionless in the right hand corner against the wall.
"This smells horrid." I said as I scrunched up my nose and shook my hands, taking out the flames. "Can we just get this over with."
"Straight to the point then." Luke said and unlocked the gate of the sell.
"Don't worry, I'll go in with her." Damon spoke to Alva.
This whole mind sharing thing they have going on really can be a pain if you know they are speaking of you when you are standing right in front of them.
I shook my head and I know that I had a disapproving look on my face.
Both Damon and I stood in the sell with the prisoner now. The gate made a loud mettle clang noise as the closed and locked it again. This made the prisoner lifting his head to look at me. He turned his body to get a better look, but was still seated.
He was very pale, almost purple looking. His hair stood up in all kinds of directions as he had washed it months ago.
"Alice..." the man spoke in a very scratchy voice and smiled at me. His teeth were black from rotting after all this time.
I looked at Damon who avoided eye contact and only looked at his father. They were for sure busy with a conversation with the mind link.
"You know who I am ?"
"But of course. How's John ?" he was still smiling as if he knew something.
"Who is this man ?" I asked the audience we had.
None of them answered me and only looked at us with pure curiosity. Like we were putting on the biggest show of the year.
"What did he take ?" I asked them again, getting impatient.
"He took a very powerful talesman. It's filled with years of gathered dark magic. Enough to lay waist to continents." Bearn spoke.
"We need to know who it's for. He serves a witch, we need to know who." Alva says.
I walked closer to the person with the foul odor and I was about to touch him before he interrupted my thoughts.
"I could give you answers... of your family. Your long lost daddy and why he left you all those years ago. Don't you ever wonder what happened to them all, your family ?" He made a pouting face and it annoyed me how he thought he could manipulate me.
"I'll see for myself." I said and grabbed hold of his hand.
A premonition of the future.
My mother... there where two of her. She had a twin ? Yet one was dark, her aura all... wrong. Flashing white lights leading to war, death, burning lands, pain, a dark ruler, and army of supernatural creatures who are forbidden to ever reach to human world because of all the havoc the reek... Giants, stomping children to death... blood flowing from the creatures feasting on the innocent...
I pulled away for a minute to gather what I just saw. I panted from the fear this man gave off.
"Alice ?" Damon asked worried of my well being.
"I'm fine." I said and grabbed the man again.
My mothers twin, she's the one who causes all of this and sets the monsters free. She made a tear in the portal ways between realms... she rules over all and kills whoever tries to stop her.
I let go again and grabbed him again, instantly.
This is a vision from the past.
Bearn was carrying a baby in his arms to a door. My mother opened the door with a man along side her... I was the baby... I played in the living room where people burst through the door... It's Bearn and his men. They're taking the man away and he resists screaming to my mother for help. She's being held by a man, forcing her to stay in place as she tries to help the man. She yells out in terror.
I run out to the porch to see Bearn ripping the mans heart out and a scream "daddy !"
Bearn killed my father. Alexis stands next to him as he hovers over the mans limp, dead body.
"What is this ?!" I ask the man on the ground.
"The truth dear."
I grab his arm again.
This is a vision of the present.
The way this man knows everything is because he is a shifter. He's been spying on all these people, Bearn, Alexis, Damon even myself.
Bearn and Calder stand in a study discussing that Damon should try and get close to me because I am vulnerable to him.
Bearn says, "Alice can never know the truth of what she is or where she comes from. It would ruin her."
I stand with heartache consuming my body. I can feel tears filling my eyes and falling down my face.
"Like what you've seen ?" The man asks with a disgusting smile on his face.
The man stands upright now and leans against the wall. He finds my pain very amusing and that infuriates me.
I stride up to him and grab him by the throat.
"What, is the princess going to kill me ?" He starts laughing.
I grip his throat tighter and go closer to whisper in his ear, "You know nothing... Disintegrate"
The man yells out in pain as his body starts to crack in a hundred places and he starts to burn from the inside out as his body falls into tiny pieces of ash on the floor. I placed a death curse on him.
I take a few steps back as I stare at the damage I have done.
I take off the jacket Damon gave to me earlier as quickly as possible. I want nothing to do with any of these people after I know that they've been keeping the truth from me.
I hit Damon with his jacket against his chest to try and inflict pain, even though I know he wouldn't really feel any pain, and I stride out the door with tears still pooling down my cheeks.
"Alice, wait !" Damon yells behind me as I walk to the stairs.
He grabs my hand and my instincts let me yank my hand away and slap him across the face.
"Don't ever touch me again !"
"What did you see, Alice ?" Bearn said as he and Alva came closer to the scene I just caused.
"I know the truth of the past, present and future. Guess we both have secrets. Now we're even." I said and sped walked up the stairs.
"Alice !" Damon yelled after me again.
"Give her some time Damon." Alva told Damon and everything was a blur from there on as I tried to find my way around this place with endless turns, hallways and doorways.