Chapter X

A Place to Spend the Night

The cold shadows fell away with the last remnants of light. We were left standing just outside the police station feeling very exposed. I trembled against Damon as the first few drops of a cold rain hit my skin. In a matter of moments the storm increased in intensity threatening to soak us.

"We can't stay here long." Damon whispered. There's an empty building not far from here. We'll pass the night right under their noses."

I continued to shiver, my short sleeved shirt exposing my arms to the rain and wind. I didn't argue with his decision or ask questions, I simply allowed him to lead me away a rushed pace. Anyone nearby would think us just trying to get out of the rain, not fugitives escaping the law. Well maybe that's a little dramatic, technically it was only Damon that was wanted, I was supposedly innocent in all this.

To my waterlogged relief he was right, shelter was close. He approached the door with all the confidence if he lived there. He reached for the door knob and I heard a chink of metal breaking, I'm guessing that the door was locked, was past tense, Damon had his own set of keys. He walked in as if it was perfectly alright for him to be there and I followed.

The room beyond was empty. No one had been here in years. All that remained of it's previous occupants was ugly tattered floral wallpaper, a three legged coffee table, and an old beat up couch that looked like it's spent the better years of it's life in a junkyard. A thin layer of dust coated everything. Dirty light from the street lights drifted through broken windows accompanied by a chilly wind. I could here the soft scratching noise of the unseen creatures lurking in the darkened corners of the room.

Damon, ignoring the less then livable conditions, went to the couch and fiddled with it. In no time he'd drawn out it's hidden mattress. "Charming." I joked in a sullen voice unsuccessfully bringing humor to our situation.

"Sleep." He commanded. I was in no mood to protest. With a feeling of crawling disgust I curled up on the shabby mattress couch…thing. Trying to keep myself as warm as possible. It was impossible to sleep with the cold gripping me, the unknown creatures mulling about the room, and Damon's constant pacing. Would he ever stop. The floor creaked loudly against the patter of rainfall, making me all the more nervous.

"Stop pacing I can't sleep."

His footsteps ceased. Now I was left with only the sounds of rain, my chattering teeth and his shallow breathing. Relaxing a bit I felt sleep drift around me, that is until I felt the bed sink down beside me. "What are you doing?" I hissed a Damon suddenly self-conscious.

"You didn't think I was going to sleep on the floor did you?"

"I…um, well…shouldn't one of us keep watch or something? What if the cops show up or Zak or something?"

"Don't worry about it." He grumbled shifting his position. The mattress moved and I was all too aware of how close he was. I think I would have had an easier time sleeping through his anxious pacing.

I must have been more tired then I thought. Sleep soon took me unaware, pulling me into it's cold embrace. It wasn't long before I was choking on nightmares again.

I woke up in the morning and first noticed that I was warmer then before. Drowsily I tried to stretch, but I could barely move. My eyes shot open in sudden alarm. Had we been discovered during the night? It turns out that the way I woke up made even less sense.

A plush blanket was wrapped around my body, well that explained why I wasn't shivering anymore. It had the distinctive smell of something new. Like the way new shoes have a unique smell, well this blanket had that too. It must have been Damon who'd gotten it, why I couldn’t even imagine. This mysterious new blanket, however wasn't the reason for my inability to move.

I tried to wriggle free of whatever held me and in the process heard I faint grunt. That's when it clicked.

"Damon?" I hissed finally realizing that while we slept he'd encased me in his arms. I don't know whether I was more scared, confused, or annoyed. "Damon!" I called again, louder this time.

He gave a sleepy "What?" He had no idea that I was in his unbreakable grasp.

I suddenly felt all the more shy about waking him up. "You're.. um.. could you.. let me go?"

"What?" He yawned again begging to shake off the sleep.

"Le'me go." I whined trying again to get free.

That seemed to wake him up. He pushed me away and jumped up like he'd just been shocked with 1,000 volts of electricity. I slid off the couch bed with a surprised yelp and sat up dazed. He glared at me accusingly, like it was my fault.

"What?" I challenged. "I wasn't the one who had you in a death grip!" He looked away in what appeared to be shame and I felt bad at my snappy words. "The blanket was nice." I added trying to change the subject.

"You were cold." He shrugged.

"I don't suppose you got food while you were out." I crawled back to the bed and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. He sat down on the opposite side and held a bag up in front of him. "Donuts!" I cheered snatching the bag from his hands greedily. Two were left in the bag but the frosting stuck to side of the bag hinted that there had been more. (None of the donuts in the bag were covered with the sticky chocolate.)

The demon liked chocolate, I added that to my short list of what I knew about him.

"Coffee?" He waved a white Styrofoam cup in front of my face. "It's cold." He warned pushing it into my eager hands. I didn't care. I drank the half cup that was left. He'd gotten to that first too. He watched me eat with a hinted amusement.

"What adventure to you have planed for today?" I asked.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." He scolded

I swallowed and sneered at him. "What are we doing today?"

"I think we should stay low for a while." He sighed and gazed out the dirty broken windows at the gray sky. "I'm sure they're looking for us again."

"So we're just going to stay in this excuse of a house?"

"Unless you'd rather go back to the tunnels?" He offered slyly.

"But I love this place!" I protested.

"That's what I thought." He chuckled a small smile crossed his face. I gave a small smile in return. I loved his smile.

A few hours later I was slumped over the couch hanging upside-down. "I'm bored." I complained loudly dragging out the word. "There's nothing to do."

"We could play tic-tac-toe again?" Damon suggested sitting beside me. He paced a lot.

"You cheat!" I stated not even looking at him. I don't know how he did it but every time we played he won. Not that it's a big feat but really that game ends in a tie more then half the time. We didn't tie once. Either I really sucked at that game or he cheated. I didn't want to believe the first possibility.

He looked at me offended. "I do not!" Sarcasm laced his voice.

"Cheater." I muttered.

"I'm a demon, we don't have to play fair." He smirked.

"What's for lunch?" I asked casually ignoring his comment.

"I've seen a few rats around here."

"Gross." I coughed.

"You have your tastes, I have mine." His face was cast in perfect seriousness.

"You don't seriously…" Disbelief colored my voice. Damon shrugged in answer to the question I couldn't bring myself to say. "Damon, that's gross." I squealed. "Now I'm starting to wonder about what you've been feeding me."

His face broke into another breath taking smile. "I'm kidding. You have to stop taking people so seriously Naomi. Rats are about as appetizing to me as they are to you."

I stopped my glaring. He'd said something that puzzled me (again). "What did you just call me?"

He looked to me just as confused. "Naomi, It's your name."

"I know what my name is. I just didn't know you did. Whenever you've called me something it's always been girl, I think you might have even used human once or twice maybe even mortal, but never my name."

"Not true." His voice was low and had a sharp defensive edge. "But I could always go back to calling you those name if you wanted." Then I remembered the tunnel, when I was about to get hit by the train, he'd called me by name then.

"Naomi's fine." I assured him. Silence followed.