Forever Young

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.

Author: Egyptian Kiss

Pairing: Damon/OC

Rating: MA

Summary: Kendria Fell was Mystic Falls queen before she left for a 4 year education at NYU. Now that she's back with an architectural degree in hand, she plans to build her life anew. Werewolves, vampires, and jealous sisters aside;Kendria is about to discover a centuries old family secret.

Chapter Nine

"Who the hell are you?" Kendria barked, holding a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

A vicious smirk etched across the woman's face and in the next moment she was standing in front of Kendria, her swishing bob the only sign she had moved. The face of the woman had a classic, sophisticated look. Black veins spider webbed out from her eyes as they bled black, and her two tiny fists came to clamp down on either of Kendria's shoulders. One hand landed right beside the bloody column of her neck, black fingernails digging like needles into the tender flesh.

"I'm your few-times-great-grandmother, Ophelia," the woman said, adding a malicious giggle to the end of her statement as Kendria gasped in unexpected pain. "You're not as pretty as I thought you would be. I'm not really sure why there's been such a fuss over you."

Thousands of pinpricks of pain shot through Kendria's upper body and she felt her skin tighten, her breathing grew harder, and her vision tunneled to Ophelia and the satisfied grin on her orange-red lips.

Kendria cried out in pain as the claw-like nails wrenched deep into the wound at her neck, and a small pulse started in her lower abdomen. "Stop!" she cried, body struggling against Ophelia's iron hold. Another vicious giggle, another pulse – this one bigger.

"You don't want to play with me? I'm lots of fun," Ophelia simpered.

"Get your hands off me," Kendria growled, and with a violent shove, she sent Ophelia hurtling into the kitchen archway and clattering into the darkness. Time slowed down and speed up in that moment; a surge of power filling Kendria's muscles as Ophelia's nails were wrenched free, and then that pulse inside subsided.

Reappearing, Ophelia gave a humph, making show of fixing her clothes, and stood arms crossed, a fat-lipped pout gracing her features. "Klaus was wrong; you are no fun at all. I don't even know why he wanted to come find you. I'm more than enough Fell for him," she said.

Ophelia Fell, her supposed-to-be-long-dead relative, was sitting in her living, and Kendria just could not stop staring, despite her previous exhaustion. The vampire before her looked like a woman, yet acted like an untamed child. Another part of her brain registered the Klaus comment, but it was best to tackle one thing at a time.

"Why are you here? Better yet how the hell did you get in?" Kendria asked, assuming her confident, Fell face. Nothing could train a woman for a female face off than having Blaire Fell, professional socialite and stone cold bitch, for a mother.

"I'm family dear, and your magic makes you special – not quite human. I only need permission to get in to a human household. Why am I here? I came to get a lay of the land and to see if the rumors were true. Apparently, one of my descendents broke the seal on our family magic. You know, it's just shameful that you are cavorting with those Salvatore brothers. Thanks for interrupting my eternity, by the way. I had plans to take Klaus to a third world country this week and drink it dry – now that vacation has been waylaid. Now it's all about you, and you know what I don't like Kendria, my dear?" Ophelia asked, her expression turning from psychotically bubbly to a stormy malevolence, she broke into a march and came to stand in front of Kendria. "I don't like other people taking my spotlight. See, I lived on the sidelines my whole life, and now that I'm dead, I refuse to go back to that simpering, smiling, simpleton that life once made me. So do not be mistaken in thinking that because we are related I will take kindly to Klaus's currently divided attention."

Kendria stayed silent. Ophelia's voice had taken on a manic edge, and she refused to test her strength against a vampire. God, if only Damon had come home with her, at least she wouldn't be alone in this mess.

Tilting her head in curiosity, Ophelia pierced Kendria with her eyes, "Consider this your warning. I don't share with others, others share with me." Taking a deep, long sniff, Ophelia's eyes closed in a shudder, her black veins rolling outward again only to recede, and finally those big eyes opened back up, perfectly human looking, and she smiled darkly. "I have your scent for life now. Thank you for having me. See ya soon."

Walking boldly passed her, Ophelia nodded her head in mock pleasantness and Kendria returned it with a hard, cold smile, and a harsh, assessing glare. "Next time call first." The apartment door slammed, "Bitch."

Taking a deep steadying breath, Kendria faced her apartment, noted a half-full glass of her best vodka in one of her favorite crystal glasses that currently sported a bright, orange-red lipstick stain. Bitch. Kendria rubbed her aching forehead and her energy began to drop, her body sagging as she locked up for the night and went to bed. She hoped Damon would come by, but she was too tired to stay up and wait for him.

Pulling her clothes off and leaving a trail from her bedroom door to the side of her bed, Kendria finally allowed herself to think of the night's happenings. She wondered where Klaus was and just what kind of trouble she was now in with her great-to-the-umpteenth-power-bitch-of-a-grandmother was going to become. What did she mean about the magic, was it all true? Was the wine glass thing not a fluke? Too tired to think about it, Kendria slipped under the covers. Damon would just have to find a pleasant way to wake her when he got in.

Waking up to the blare of her cell, Kendria shot straight up in bed; her hands clutching the comforter to her chest. Glancing around in the sunlit room, Kendria frowned at her alarm clock which read 9:00am in digital red letters. Where was Damon? Had he never come back last night? Her phone recaptured her attention as she clamored out of bed and snatched it off the dresser by the door. It was Rebecca.

"Hello?" Kendria answered.

"Do you know what that stupid idiot we call a brother did last night?" Rebecca shouted, her voice filling the room as it grew in volume.

Dear God, it was just too damned early in the morning for this, Kendria thought. Sighing, she walked back over to her bed and dropped onto it. "What did he do now?"

"Mr. Action-News decided to take one of Dad's classics from the garage. And then he wrapped it around the tree and now, he's missing."

"What?" Kendria asked alarmed.

"The sheriff called to tell me that she found Dad's car wrapped around a tree and Logan's wallet was in the passenger seat," Rebecca said exasperatedly.

Despite all his faults, Logan was still her brother, and Kendria gripped the phone a little tighter at the thought of him lying dead in a ditch somewhere.

"What's Liz planning to do?" Kendria asked.

Rebecca sighed from the other end of the line, "She's putting out a missing person's and she and few deputies are going to scour the woods where the car was found. I have to call Dad and tell him about his car. Just when I think things are going well for me you and Logan have to come back to town and ruin everything." Click.

Kendria stared at her phone in disbelief for a few seconds before she got out of bed. She'd have to get in a shower, grab something to eat, go down to the sheriff's office, and figure out where her brother was.

Turning the shower on, Kendria stripped off her clothes and waited for the room to fill with steam, the mirror fogging over, and finally she stepped under the hot spray of water. Her mind wandered back to Damon. First her brother goes missing and now Damon was MIA. Lifting her face to the water, Kendria pictured him in his leather jacket and that sexy smirk that twisted her up in side.

'Kendria, come.' The sound of his voice whispered through her mind like a dream. Frowning in alarm, Kendria jerked back the shower curtain and saw that there was no one in the room. Brow furrowed, she drew back the curtain and took her time rinsing the conditioner from her hair. 'Kendria, come. Now.' This time the voice was stronger and Kendria stepped back from under the water and barely caught herself.

Hastily turning off the shower and wrapping a fully cotton towel around herself, Kendria hurried to get out of the bathroom. As she passed the fog covered mirror, she screamed at the reflection; staring back at her was her own image and a drugged up Damon, slumped against the floor, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Damon?" she whispered out loud. When she turned to see him behind her, there was nothing there. "I'm officially going crazy."

Shaking her head, she walked back into the bedroom and changed quickly into a satin violet romper and roman-style sandals. She pulled her long, wet hair into a messy bun and grabbed her keys, sunglasses, and a granola bar on her way out the door.

The hallway was empty as Kendria made her way to the stairs and out the lobby doors. She slid into her car just as her legs gave out and her eyes closed in pain. 'KENDRIA, I need you…come.' Her breathing came in short pants and her eyes stayed closed, those haunting, icy blue eyes pierced the throbbing.

Taking a deep breath, Kendria opened her eyes, started the car, and headed toward the boarding house. Her whole body was humming with the need to find him. Maybe this was a vampire thing. Or a gypsy thing. Whatever it was, Damon needed her.

The boarding house came into full view and she noted no cars in the driveway, not even Damon's. She parked close to the front doors and hopped out. Strands of hair whipped around her face as an unsettlingly cool breeze tore through the air surrounding the house. Each step closer she came to the house, the more strongly the wind blew in her face. Kendria turned her face against the harsh burn of the gusts sweeping in almost horizontal bursts, and knocked loudly on the front door.

'Come.' His voice ordered, softer than before, almost faint.

Not stopping to consider breaking and entering, Kendria heaved the door open, the wind increasing her struggle, until finally she tumbled through the doorway and into the parlor. The formidable oak giant swung shut on its hinges and shuttered angrily as the wind cut off.

Getting her barring, Kendria stood upright and she felt that slow pulse inside and she could hear the constant whisper of Damon's voice. She walked as if in a dream toward the basement and when the doorknob leading down appeared too strong, that pulse grew and then ebbed as the lock clicked open.

"Damon?" Kendria called, following the dreary staircase down and stopping when she heard the raspy breaths behind a barred wooden, cell door. Moving closer, Kendria peered inside and then screamed aloud when Damon went from seated on the cement floor to standing directly in front of the barred window in the door.

Cringing with the movement, Damon leaned heavily on the door for a moment. "Open the door, Kendria."

"What happened? I woke up this morning and you never showed up. And then I started hearing your voice in my head and I thought I was going insane," Kendria asked, sliding the locks out of place and wrenching the wooden door open.

"Just get me out of here," Damon said, staggering forward as Kendria caught him.

"Woah, careful. Let's go. I'm parked right out front," Kendria huffed, attempting to hold the bulk of his weight.

"I need blood," Damon said and then the distinct sound of someone approaching from above made Kendria freeze. "That's Zack. Son of a bitch. I should've killed him when he was bratty teenager."

"Damon," Kendria whispered in chastisement even as she hurried to help him ascend to the ground floor. "Did he do this to you?"

"Long story short, no. But he helped," Damon growled and they paused on the top step when they heard Zack moving around in the kitchen. "Mind if I take just a nip, real quick?" Damon asked Kendria softly, his hand brushing baby hairs off her neck and his lips meeting warm flesh.

"Don't bite too hard," Kendria requested and then she felt the pinch of sharp fangs digging deeply into her still bruised shoulder. The gush of blood sent a rush to her head and her legs locked to keep her standing. When the world started to swim a bit, Kendria slapped at Damon's hand, the one that hand come up to support her waist, and she felt his mouth lift from her throat, and a tongue laved over it to catch the messy trails of blood.

"Delicious," he whispered, pecking her cheek before he set her down on the top step of the stairs, her body sagging in depletion. "You'll be fine. Stay here. I'll be right back."

"Where are you –" Kendria was cut off by a swift breeze as Damon departed and the sound of a loud crack, a thud, and the fridge door opening met her ears. A moment later, Damon reappeared, smiling and in control, a bag of blood held to his mouth as he fed. Blinking rapidly, Kendria shook her head to clear her tilting vision. "I feel dizzy."

Damon held up a finger to signal "just a sec" and drained the contents of the bag, tossed it to down the stairs, and picked her up into his arms bridal style, "I can fix that." Bringing a wrist up to his mouth, he savagely ripped into his veins and forcefully placed it against Kendria's mouth. She struggled for a moment, only because of the uncomfortable position and because Damon had never made her taste him this way before. She looked into his eyes, trying to zone out, and when he pulled away and helped her to her feet, she felt good as new.

"What's going on?" Kendria asked, following him to the entrance and she watched with wide eyes as he sauntered up to the door only to hiss and blur into the shadows. The smell of sizzling flesh and burned hair filled the entryway and Kendria rushed to his side. "What happened?"

"My brother, the saint, and a couple of his witchy friends have decided to teach me a lesson. He thinks he can lock me away and deal with me later. Fortunately for me, Steffie's unoriginal, something I more than make up for. We're going to sit here and wait till the sun goes down and then I'm going to hunt down my little brother and have a brotherly chat," Damon answered, his teeth gritted from the pain of his burnt hand and face. "He stole my daylight ring."

"Damon, I can't stay here all day. My brother's been missing since last night. I need to help find him." Kendria told him. She smoothed a gentle hand over his already-healing face and kissed his hand.

Something flickered across his face before Damon leaned in and pulled her into a long, slow, searing kiss. He was saying something with his kiss, but Kendria wasn't sure what it was – desperation, anger, need, passion, pain – all of the above. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him till the sun went down, but she had her own brother to deal with.

"Are you going to be okay here?" Kendria asked.

Nodding, he released her, straightened his shirt, donned his smirk, and said, "I'm always okay. Once the sun goes down and I get my ring back, I'll come find you. If you're brother's still missing, I'll be able to find him."

One last kiss and Kendria hurried to her waiting car, and it was only as she was pulling away from the boarding house that she remembered Zack was in the kitchen, and then another moment to realize she completely forgot to tell Damon about her crazy ancestor who just came back to town. That would have to wait until later, Kendria decided.

Three hours of searching the local woods and Kendria was about ready to give up. The sun was starting to set and the sky was a blazing tangerine with whirls of pink and purple, and the search team was about ready to give up. The giant trees created a cover of shadows the deeper Kendria went, and when she came to a copse of trees, she saw something that chilled her. Turning her police-issued flashlight on, Kendria shown the light on the barks of the trees and saw blood smeared across the trunks. Getting closer, Kendria's breathing quickened and she held the plastic flashlight tightly to her chest. Reaching the circle of trees and foliage, Kendria looked between two tall, thick-trunked trees and screamed. Her voice echoed through the woods and she heard the crunching of branches as boots and police dogs made noisily in her direction. There, lying among the loam was her brother, Logan, lying face down, head to the side, torn up and ravaged, but decidedly whole. His blood was splattered over the bark, his blood was soaking into the ground, and a gut-twisting shiver ran through her body, as Kendria dropped like a lodestone to the moist soil and forest debris.

"Kendria!" Sheriff Forbes called. Her authoritative tone gained a small response.

"I'm here," Kendria called mildly, her eyes glued to her brother's corpse.

The sound of tromping feet greeted Kendria as the search team arrived, and Liz dropped down to the forest floor beside her with an emergency blanket at the ready. She turned to see Logan's mutilated body and bit back a cry of her own. The blanket went around Kendria's shoulders as deputies swarmed the grove and back up was called in.

"Come on, up we go. I'm going to take you back to the station," Liz whispered reassuringly, her motherly tone too much for Kendria to handle without breaking down.

Shivers started to race up and down her spine as Kendria fought off sobs, and she kept seeing flashes of Logan in her mind. His life was a reel of snapshots in her mind: Logan getting his first article published in the school paper; Logan graduating college; Logan fighting with their father before leaving Mystic Falls; Logan coming back – Logan lying torn and bloody on the forest floor, his favorite blue, pinstripe shirt shredded, his khaki pants stained with blood.

"Kendria? How are you doing?" Liz asked gently, as they pulled up in front of the station. She tilted her head inquisitively as she cut the engine, and Kendria gave her a nod.

"Ok," Kendria said. She looked up as the street lights came on and saw Damon standing on the sidewalk outside the car. Something in his expression said he knew, and Kendria practically tore off her seatbelt and vaulted out the passenger door and into his arms. She started to sob heavily and her body relied on his strength to keep her from meeting the ground. His protective, strong arms wrapped around her and his lips pressed against the top of her head and his hands roamed her back soothingly.

"He's dead, Damon. My brother is dead," Kendria cried, her fingers gripping him till they were a mottled red and white. "I don't know what to do."

"I'll take you home," he said, and she heard him exchange a whispered conversation with Liz Forbes before taking her keys and settling her into the passenger seat.

They were heading toward her apartment until she remembered she hadn't told Rebecca yet. "Oh God. I have to see Rebecca."

Damon glanced at her from the driver's seat. She noticed he had changed and his ring was back on his finger. His face was grim, but when she met his eyes, he forced a smile.

"We'll talk to her first thing in the morning. Right now you need to eat, shower, and go to bed. Damon's orders," Damon said, and Kendria curled up closer to him, absorbing his comfort.

The street outside her apartment building was usually well lit, but one of the lamps was out in front of the entrance. The usual night shift doorman had vacated his post, and Kendria's skin started to pebble with goose bumps. Something was wrong.

Damon parked her baby and insisted on carrying her to the building, as they drew closer, Kendria saw the usual doorman, Frank, slumped in his chair, a piece of paper pinned to his chest, a red spot blooming on the note.

"Oh my God. Is he dead? Damon?" Kendria started to hyperventilate even though Damon shushed her, and he tore the note pinned to Frank's slumped shoulder and read it.

"Nobody's safe. See ya soon, Ophelia," Damon read aloud and all the blood drained from Kendria's face. Frank must have tried to stop Ophelia from entering the building. Cringing, Kendria buried her face in Damon's shoulder. "Ophelia? As in Ophelia Fell? Care to share, Kendria?"

"She was in my apartment last night when I got back and she was completely deranged. She's a vampire. Frank's dead. Logan's dead and now Frank too. Do you think…" Kendria gasped for a calming breath, "Do you think she killed Logan too?"

Damon ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair and sighed. "I don't know. Maybe. I'd have to check out the body. I'm going to get rid of this guy. Go upstairs, get changed, lock your door, and I'll be up soon. Don't invite anyone in." His fierce gaze ordered compliance, and Kendria nodded as she watched Damon heft her night doorman over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

In a blur he was gone and Kendria rushed inside her building and up to her room. She raced up the stairs to her apartment and speed to open the door. Turning to lock it behind her, Kendria heard the sound of shuffling feet. A hand came down over her mouth and Kendria shrieked in terror before something hard connected with her head and it was lights out.

Author's Note: Well I'm official out of school for summer. I just finished my last final yesterday and I thought I'd start off the summer with an update. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I appreciate all the reviews and I look forward to more. Until next time, Egyptian Kiss!