Ta-da and we are finished!! Quite interesting how it all played out, but here's the final chapter...



Chapter 11: Damon
Screaming... Yelling... Stefan saying her name...
"Katherine!" Then father...
"Nothing wewe feel for her is real...she's a vampire." The words coming from his mouth were what fully awoke me from my sleep. No! A voice screamed in my head. I bolted out of my kitanda and ran into Stephan's room. There were men there grabbing her. I ran to get her. Not my love... please not my love... The fool pinned me to the wall.
"No, get off me," I cried, shoving father. He had me, though, under his grasp. My eyes sought out a dumbfounded Stefan who was shirtless, Katherine's newest bite still fresh on his shoulder. My eyes were bloodshot with anger and hatred. Stefan's eyes were pleading, which was not a surprise considering this was Stefan. I gathered all my strength, knowing I had to get her. I would be nothing without her. She was all I had. The only one I could trust apart from Adelaide. Stefan had been kicked off that orodha about three dakika ago. I couldn't believe him. He knew that if the idiot ever found out, he would drive a stake through her. I made him promise and he had promised. I pushed father off me and ran out. Father made no attempt to run after me, but Stefan did.
"Damon! Stop Damon!" Stefan cried. I didn't look back. Father's "comrades" were locking her up in what looked like a jailed carriage. Far from luxurious. I was appalled and in an absolute fit of fury. "Please Damon, hear me. Please!"
"No!" I said, finally turning on him. "How could wewe Stefan? We were brothers I thought. Best friends. Ones who could trust each other." Stefan's eyes widened and sadness filled them. I felt a surge of upendo and passion for Katherine travel through my blood.
"Damon, I didn't know this would happen! Trust me when I say that."
"Trust you," I laughed darkly. "You Lost my trust Stefan. It's a hard thing to get back."
"Damon, I'm sorry. Please. Why would I ever try to harm Katherine? Ever."
"It doesn't matter what your intentions were. The fact is she's gone."
"Damon I-"
"You didn't just lose my trust, wewe Lost any kind of brotherly affection we had for each other. Your idiocy, Stefan. Your mistake."
"I know, but I thought father was-"
"A better man? Would understand?" I've been telling wewe from the beginning. Father is a fool. He hated me for not trusting him. For not going kwa his rules. He was afraid of that. He still is. I quit the Confederacy, kwa my own terms. I didn't tell father about Katherine because I know things, Stefan. That he wouldn't understand. That he would me zaidi than happy to drive a stake through her. It doesn't make a difference to him. Whether the vampire killed his sons au loved his sons. In his narrow mind where not much can fit in, a vampire is a vampire!" Stefan shook his head, once again trying to plead without words, but I wouldn't have it. Not this time, not ever. Any liking that I had for Stefan washed away from me. I glared at him and in his eyes I saw shame, apologies, and how much he didn't plan this. But it didn't matter. Nothing did anymore. I turned back to the carriage and saw it moving away, I had the urge to run after it and get my upendo back when I saw movement in the woods. Familiar movement. I gasped and turned back to Stefan, giving him a last look of loathing. Then I ran towards the woods, quickly. I found her, clutching the reins of a small black horse. Her face was solemn and she shed a few tears when she saw me. I brushed them away with the tip of my finger.
"Katherine," she alisema her voice quavering. "I'm so sorry." I nodded, resting her head on my chest. She sighed.
"You have to leave. wewe can't stay here. I can't kubeba losing wewe as well."
"I know. That's why I have the horse. I'm leaving right now."
"Oh Adelaide," I smiled softly. She smiled back, through her tears. I remember how she had smiled through her tears during the first time I kissed her. "Can I kiss you? Again? To say good- bye?" I had to ask her, to make sure she wanted me to. Adelaide dried her eyes and nodded. I looked at her for several seconds, breathing in her scent. Then I closed my eyes, tilted her chin up and pressed my lips against hers. It wasn't like the first kiss. This one was full of passion, of strength, of loss, of grief. I was no longer kissing what had seemed like a vulnerable child. I was kissing a strong young woman. A clever woman whom I loved. Whom I was losing. The kiss could have lasted hours, days, months, years, centuries. Through it I saw a different life, one which envisioned myself together with her forever. But then I heard her gasp and turn around.
"Pearl," she whispered as she watched the woman who had always been a mother to her drop down. "They're taking her." She almost ran toward her, but I caught her around the waist.
"Are wewe mental? wewe must go now!"
"But..."
"They'll get wewe inayofuata if wewe don't." She nodded; mounting the black horse, her eyes locked on mine.
"I upendo you, Damon."
"I upendo wewe too, Adelaide." And with that, she turned the horse and rode away. I watched her ride off, until she was all but a speck in the distance. I knew she was salama and I frowned. I turned back to where the jail carriage was moving. I frowned. There was a way, I knew there was. I could see Katherine again. I would see her alive and in my arms again. There was a way...