Chapter 26 — Hunting

First, Damon patrolled the area around the Monroe family estate, straining all his senses, and when didn't sense even a hint of the presence of demons, he sat down on a tree branch and watched the area. Damon's main goal was now Salvatore. He had never liked this haughty, annoying demon, but when found out that he was the one who had killed Selene's father, hated him even more than usual, and knew very well that Salvatore would not give up and would want to complete the mission at all costs, so Damon had to kill him. Salvatore had always competed with him and certainly wanted to sneak into Alistair's favor now, after all, the game was all about taking over the throne of the Underworld, so he was a very dangerous opponent. Damon knew Salvatore all too well and was sure he would do absolutely everything to achieve his goal.

"Now they will probably attack one by one, slowly, sneakily and from hiding. They know there are too many sorceresses in the house, and quite powerful too, to launch one decent, direct attack." Damon said to himself, considering every possible tactic for the enemy. "I'll be ready when they come." he added, jumping to the ground.

~~~~~~

After such an open and intense attack of demons, the remaining sorceresses and wizards arrived at the Monroe house: Council leader Elisabeth, Eleazar, Maria, and Deborah. Johnathan, Isabelle, Rita, Alice, Tess, and Teresa were still on the alert. Everyone practiced in combat and in using their gifts or magic spells, various potions and spells were prepared, and talismans were hung in various places in the house or garden. Those last ones certainly wouldn't stop the demons, of course, at least not for long, but any form of protection was needed now.

Damon hung around the house from morning to night, carefully examining every angle, and met Selene in the afternoon. After a month of separation, their meetings were even more wonderful, and their lips were barely pulling away from each other. Their bodies craved an even deeper rapprochement, but both Damon and Selene knew they could not give in to that lust. The meetings had to be short, and only in the garden. They had to be constantly careful lest Meredith or any of the uninitiated caught them. Fortunately, Damon and Selene were lucky that Alice and Rita continued to be on their side and kept their meetings effectively hidden from the eyes of others. Fortunately, Selene felt the presence of her lover even when they were not meeting, after all, Damon was always around the house, and several times she saw him through the window in her room.

But the everyday goodbyes were more painful because the threat was still hanging over those two lovers—the fear that one of them would soon lose their lives at the hands of Salvatore, his brother, and his friends. Therefore Damon and Selene wanted with all their hearts to make the best of their time.

~~~~~~

Salvatore crept into the garden, taking advantage of the fact that Damon was at a meeting with Selene, and some of the talismans hanging around were slowly losing their power. First of all, he wanted to find out what the situation was in the house, so crept among the trees slowly so as not to move even the branches and not to make a noise. Suddenly Salvatore saw the girl walking along the lawn. She was tall, slender, with slightly dark complexion, black eyes, and brown hair. When the girl looked up at him, fear flashed in her eyes, then she stepped back and narrowed those lovely, black eyes.

"What a nice meeting. Haven't we seen each other before?" Salvatore looked at her carefully, for he was sure that knew her face from somewhere.

"Yes, we did... My mother chased you away some 500 years ago, after you tried to kill me." the girl replied venomously.

"I see you have a good memory. Luckily, Alistair brought me back to life. I guess you dreamed of me in your worst nightmares, didn't you?" Salvatore smirked at her.

"It's hard not to remember a face like that." she grunted, focusing eyes on him.

At this moment Salvatore felt the warmth flowing through his body. The temperature was clearly rising and the girl was staring at him, so he realized quickly that it was her doing. So Salvatore looked straight into her eyes and used hypnosis, which worked immediately. The girl went numb from head to toe and the feeling of heat in his body vanished quickly. Salvatore breathed a sigh of relief.

"Pyrokinesis, right?" he approached her with a smile of triumph. "As you can see, hypnosis effectively neutralizes your gift. Ah, and I remembered your name... You are Deborah." Salvatore ran his hand along her neck, causing the girl to shudder. "Guess I should finish what your mother interrupted me with..." he whispered, bringing his lips to her ear.

At the same moment, a branch of a nearby tree moved rapidly.

"What a pity..." Salvatore moved towards the wall, sensing the approaching sorceress. "But no worries, we'll definitely meet again." he added before disappearing into the bushes.

Soon after, the terrified Teresa emerged from behind the trees.

"This demon didn't do anything to you? I just had a vision..." she ran up to Deborah, who had just escaped from the hypnotic torpor.

"He didn't make it... But the worst thing is that I know him quite well." Deborah replied, breathing deeply.

"How is that? From where?" Teresa asked, totally surprised and a still a little panicked.

"About 500 years ago I met him. He wanted to kill me, but luckily my mother was nearby and chased him away... I hoped he wouldn't come back, but I guess Alistair wanted to bring him back. Until now, I only dreamed of this demon in nightmares, so when saw him there, I thought that I would die of fear..." replied Deborah. "His name is Salvatore." she added, trembling at the mere mention of him.

"I know. I've seen him in my vision...also, Damon told us who he is and what he can do when we fought them that afternoon few days ago," said Teresa, calmer now. "Don't worry, we won't let him hurt you." She put arm around her and they both slowly moved towards the house.

~~~~~~

Salvatore returned to the Underworld in a very good mood.

"Why are you so cheerful?" Chris asked him grumpily.

"Let's say I met an old friend. What happened to you?" he asked in turn.

"Johann has some important business for you." Chris replied, so Salvatore walked over to his brother.

"What's the matter?" he asked, looking at him and frowning.

"Marco was behaving strange lately... I think he fell victim to the charm of one of the sorceresses." answered Johann, clearly nervous.

"Well, to the Lake of Darkness with him, and that's it. Do you really need me to come up with this?" Salvatore muttered dissatisfied.

"It's not that simple, because before I looked back, we lost him. Chris followed Marco, but he quickly lost track." his brother replied, lowering his head as if preparing himself for some kind of terrible punishment.

"What?" Salvatore shouted, grabbing his head. "Am I dealing with a bunch of idiots?!" he kept on shouting, at each one individually. Chris and Johann only stood in silence, apparently having no excuse for their mistake.

"Okay. First we will deal with our mission. The elimination of the "chosen one" is now a priority matter. Marco can wait, he is our least problem. Of course, if we will catch him in the meantime, so much the better, but it won't be our main goal." Salvatore announced finally, breathing deeply, becoming a little calmer.

Then the three of them started planning another ambush.

~~~~~~

The next day, around noon, Selene and Damon met again in the same spot in the garden.

"I'm tired of still having to hide..." Selene sighed. "I'd love to shout to my aunt in the face that we love each other, I'm meeting you and I'm not going to stop." she said, looking into his eyes.

"I know... It is also unpleasant for me, but what can we do about it? Anyway, now we need to focus on how to defeat Salvatore and his gang. We'll take care of everything else after that." Damon replied.

"Do you think we can make it? Defeat Salvatore and the others?" Selene asked, hugging him.

"I'll do it for sure. I won't let any of them come any closer to you, not even a centimeter, especially Salvatore. I won't let him go alive...he will die by my hand. I swear it," Damon replied, putting his arm around and hugging her back.