Chapter 21 — Dark Secret

On July 20, 2017, Selene celebrated her seventeenth birthday. It was quite a modest affair. At noon she met Sara and Jennifer on the beach and introduced them to Damon, who went there with her. Sara and Jennifer's boyfriends also came, and so those three couples had a great time splashing in the water, eating ice cream, playing in the sand, and sunbathing, all the while talking about various topics.

In the afternoon, Selene ate a celebratory dinner with her aunt and other members of the Council of Sorceresses, all of them wished her happy birthday and brought some gifts. Eleazar was still angry with her, but tried to be a little nicer that day, and Selene also noticed that he was dating Maria. She was glad that he had a relationship with another person after all. The last thing Selene would want is for Eleazar to shut himself up completely to other possibilities and refuse to taste happiness in another person's arms.

Even though she didn't have much time, after dinner Selene decided to meet with Damon again, at least for a minute.

"Happy birthday." he greeted her, handing a small, nicely packaged box.

"Thank you." Selene replied, tearing the paper apart. In the box was a beautifully decorated music box depicting a couple dancing among the trees. The figurine of the girl had black hair and a pink dress and the boy also had black hair, but was wearing a black jacket and pants.

"It's us." Damon pointed at the figurines. "When I saw this music box on display in the store, it immediately reminded me of us and knew I had to buy it." he added with a smile. Having been on the surface for quite a long time, Damon has recently started to do all sorts of jobs, as it was getting harder and harder for him to just steal money.

"It's gorgeous, thank you again." Selene threw her hands on his neck, hugging him tightly, while being careful not to hurt him with a rather heavy music box, which she held in one of her hands..

Damon hugged her back as tightly against him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we have to go back." Alice spoke up, coming out from behind the trees.

"Go ahead, I'll meet you tomorrow." Damon said, meeting her eyes.

"Okay." Selene kissed him goodbye, which he immediately reciprocated, then she and Alice headed home, staring back few times. When she looked the fourth time, Damon was gone, only the branch of a nearby tree swayed slightly, probably touched by his hand.

~~~~~~

The next day Selene started with breakfast as usual over the summer, and then had another lesson with aunt, Rita and Deborah who wanted to try how the power of Elemental control would affect her gift of psychokinesis.

"Deborah's gift is based on the action of the element of Fire and Water, namely ice, which "freezes" bodies, and fire, which heats up the temperature. Your task will be to stop her gift from working." Rita said.

Selene took a deep breath and nodded her head to indicate she was ready. Deborah looked at the plant standing nearby. For a moment nothing happened, but Selene felt its temperature rise as she focused on the plant. When caught fire, Selene extinguished it with one hand movement before could destroy plant inside and on surface.

"It's really amazing." said Deborah, surprised.

Then Selene repeated the same thing with freezing, and the effect was the same.

"No doubt you are much more talented than I thought." Deborah congratulated her, smiling heartily.

Rita and Meredith agreed with her, nodding their heads. Selene has really made great strides in a relatively short amount of time. In fact, she was already able to almost completely control her gift, and all she had left was to train to make her even better prepared for any eventuality of a fight. Selene was happy about her progress, with a year remaining until her eighteenth birthday, and she was practically ready to face Alistair. Selene wasn't afraid of it as much as she used to be, because could clearly feel the power flowing through her body and, most importantly, was able to control it and use to fight and protect not only herself, but also others. She also stopped having nightmares with Alistair in the lead role. In her spare time, Selene, with Alice and Teresa, prepared various magical potions using the Book of Magic. This knowledge was not needed for Selene for her future fight, but more for the life as a sorceress she was about to led. Of course, it was not known whether Selene would use this knowledge, after all, she could die at any moment, but was hopeful and wanted to learn more.

When the lesson was finally over, Selene rushed with Alice into the garden, looking forward to seeing Damon again.

~~~~~~

Salvatore was sitting at the table with Johann, who had returned to the Underworld for several months after spending many fruitless ones by following Damon.

"It's about time you go back to the surface again." Salvatore said to his brother.

"I know, but I'm in no rush to go there... I think you know how I don't like people, and there are too many of them in Los Angeles, and at any time. Besides, I haven't seen anything suspicious so far, and doubt I'll find something now." Johann replied, with a clearly dissatisfied face. Day by day he liked less and less the way his older brother was ordering him around. Maybe he would go to the surface by himself, instead of always sending someone else? In this respect, Salvatore really behaved like Alistair, and Johann began to wonder if his older brother would really be a better ruler of the Underworld than him.

"You don't want to, but you have to. You're going there today, we've wasted enough time. Previously you managed, now you will do even better. We have to be absolutely sure Damon's not up to anything." Salvatore said in a slightly raised voice.

"Well, I can't say no to my brother I guess." Johann replied, resigned. He totally didn't like the idea of going on the surface again, but still didn't have the courage to stand up to his brother.

Having finished his meal, Johann got up from the table and left the cave, making his way to the portal leading to the surface.

~~~~~~

When Selene saw Damon, she lunged at him with great joy. Even though he sat here and waited for her every day, the stone fell from her heart at the sight of him. She still feared that Damon's demon brothers would take him to the Underworld with them and somehow make him forget about her.

"You are here!" Selene exclaimed happily, wrapping her hands around his neck, snuggling against him lovingly.

"Of course I am, as always, my dearest." Damon replied, wrapping his arms around her waist.

They sat down together on a fallen bough and enjoyed each other's presence for a long time. When it was time to say goodbye, their lips connected together in a delicate but passionate kiss. But suddenly, at that moment, they heard:

"Leave her! Leave my niece alone!" Meredith ran from behind the trees, ready to attack.

"Aunt, no! He won't hurt me. Damon loves me, and I love him..." Selene lunged toward her and held back the hand, which was already forming a ball of light.

Damon stared at the woman in horror. He knew right away that she recognized him.

"What are you talking about, you stupid girl? This murderer? Let me go! I've been looking for him for seventeen years... He killed your mother, Namida." replied Meredith, breaking out of her embrace.

"What?? What are you talking about?" Selene stiffened and looked immediately at Damon.

"I know the structure of his aura. He left so many particles of it on your mother's dead body that the blind could have found him. My gift has never let me down, its him, can't be otherwise." said Meredith, close to fury.

Damon closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"When were you going to tell me?" Selene asked him, clearly bitter and disappointed that he had lied to her. A dagger pierced her heart and tears welled up in eyes.

"I... I was a completely different demon back then. Please forgive me. I was just afraid you wouldn't want to see me..." Damon replied, stuttering slightly.

"Get out of here!!!" she screamed, also feeling rage slowly sweep over her.

"But Selene..." Damon began in a pleading tone.

"Can't you hear me? I said get out, otherwise... I'll kill you myself. Revenge was not only my aunt's dream, but mine as well. Go while I still can control myself." Selene interrupted him brutally.

"Are you letting him go? Are you crazy? We can't do that. He has to pay for killing my sister!" Meredith rose angrily, still trying to free herself from her niece's embrace.

Alice joined them and didn't even speak, cause she read Meredith's mind on the way here, and gave him an equally angry, disappointed look.

Damon, seeing that the situation was getting more and more dangerous, began to step back. There was so much anger in Selene's eyes that he actually chose to run away. After a few minutes, he disappeared behind the trees.