Lexy cringed at the sound of someone retching in the corner and closed his eyes in a futile attempt to calm his stomache. The large wooden ship they were on seemed almost ancient and the sicknesses going around the humans made the situations even worse.
"You know, one of the elders back at my village spoke of a time when humans ruled a world of golden daylight while the night people hid in the gutters among the fringes of everything! Most humans didn't even know of their existence, they were just myths. Wouldn't that be grand, Lexy?" Blair's lilting accent made her words seem almost musical. She was from Salvatore and had not yet lost that amazing innocence of one who had seen only the good in life.
"Fanciful talk of an old man. Don't let them," he jerked his hand to the side where a werewolf and slave-manager sat watching the humans wearily, "hear your talk of a human world."
"It is true," she paused to consider her words, "but you are right. I shall not speak of it again."
"Good. The last thing you want is to be accused of treason. People have been killed for much less."
"I know. I miss my family, so I talk of myths where I would not have to miss them. I could always be with them. I am still glad that you were chosen as my mate though, Lexy. I could not imagine mating with anyone but you." She cringed thinking of anyone else being able to touch her so intimately.
Lexy smiled tenderly at Blair and put his hand gently against the rough fabric covering her slightly swollen middle.
**********************************
"It's perfect!" Krell exclaimed. He put his hand over Leah's mouth as she was about to protest. "Quiet, quiet. Just hear me out first, honey."
She nodded sullenly and his hand fell away when he jumped up in his excitement.
"You know that this is the perfect opportunity to find out information that no one has ever heard about him. My sources say that the war is almost upon us, and the outcome rests on which side he chooses."
"Okay, I get all that, but why do I have to be the one to do this? You know I wasn't planning on accepting him."
"Because of his offer! Because of how high up in the circle you are! Because of your powers! Most importantly, because of how much he seems to want you. All of these things seem to point to you as the perfect candidate, can't you see that?" He looked imploringly at her, as if willing her to see his unreasonable and dangerous point of view. Leah shuddered.
"No! He is heartless, a monster, and you seem to want to place me in his deadly grasp. Are you going to let him know how to kill me too?"
Leah sighed as a few hours later she found herself on a private jet heading halfway around the world to meet and marry a man she had never even set eyes on. Normally, just being on any sort of plane would have been thrilling, only the extremely rich could afford them, but right then she was filled with such a dread that she was sick to her stomache.
"This is going to save the world...." She said quietly, reminding herself again why she was doing this. Leah ran a hand through her black hair and grimaced at the grainy feel of it. It had been dyed only earlier that day, so the red underside provided a startling contrast to the natural blackness of her hair. She resolutely braided it and slipped her elastic over the end to keep it in place and out of her face.
The plane came to a smooth quiet stop and she slowly stood, stretching out muscles tense from stress and sitting in one place for so long. As she walked out opening, she realized that beside the plane on the track was a long car thing with extremely tinted windows.
"My chariot, I presume." She muttered, angry at all the wasteful extravagence, angry at herself for liking it so much. Suddenly, the door smoothly opened presenting a black-haired man who climbed out with the grace only a vampire could possess. Leah couldn't see his features, but she knew instinctively it was him as he walked towards her with the grace of an animal stalking it's prey.
"Mr. Salvatore?" Leah walked slowly toward him, eager to get it over with now that she was finally here. He took off the black sunglasses that obscured his eyes from her, and slowly looked her up and down.
"Leah...." He smiled slowly and she was struck by the sheer beauty of this man who was by all accounts a thousand years old. He had odviously been turned in his mid-twenties, and was somewhat short. Only about an inch taller than she was. So short that she found herself staring into his eyes. She shivered. They were black and seemed filled with the stars of ages.
"Call me Damon." He said widening his smile and holding his arm out to her.
