Chapter Text
Fourteen year old Damon was running back to the house, hoping not to be late for dinner. And hoping the bright grin on his face wouldn’t be taken the wrong way. He was just in too good of a mood not to smile right now. He’d just gotten his first kiss. Not that he could tell anyone that. Emily was a colored witch. He’d be beaten black and blue and she’d probably be killed if anyone found out. Even without the witch part. There was just something about kissing her that felt so much better than he ever imagined it could be. Like it made him feel strong, powerful, energized. Maybe first kisses were always like that though, but this just felt different.
All those thoughts flew from his mind when he saw his father backhand his little brother as he came out of the woods strong enough to knock him down, so he rushed over to see what he would be taking the blame for this time. Stefan was only seven and he would protect him if at all possible. Just like every time, Damon was grabbed by the arm once he took the blame and dragged into the drawing room, with the doors closed, for his beating. His mother just reminded his father that dinner was almost ready so not to take too long. Damon resisted the urge to sigh. That just meant he would get extra licks for making them late for dinner. And this day had gone so well up to now. Unfortunately, it was about to get worse.
Giuseppe knew better than to hit Damon in the face or anywhere that it would be obvious. Stefan was getting to the age that he asked too many questions. Plus Damon was to the age to be spending more time in town where others would ask questions. But that still left plenty of area free and he started by burying his fist in Damon’s gut. A couple punches to his sides later and Damon hit the ground which was when his feet got involved. Kicking and stomping the ungrateful little brat. About the time Damon felt a rib crack, not for the first time, it felt like something rising up inside him and suddenly his father was flying across the room and hitting the wall with a sickening crack. Not just the crack of splintering wood, but also broken bones.
Damon knew that no one else would come running to help. No one dared come in this room when his father was in that mood. They would just assume that Damon was the one to hit the wall if they heard it at all. Damon pulled himself over to his father to check for a pulse and breathing, knowing it would take a bit longer for him to heal. When it was clear that the man was dead, he started freaking out. How had that happened? What had he done? He didn’t touch him and there was no one else here so how did he fly across the room? And what was that feeling of something exploding out of him? Was that…magic? Did Emily infect him with magic somehow when they kissed? And now it killed his father and he had no idea what to do about it.
When he heard his mother’s voice call that dinner was ready, which was usually the cue for a few more good kicks for making them late, he knew he had to act fast. Come up with something quickly. His eyes lit on the window and he pulled himself to his feet, still favoring the one side, but he always healed quickly, so he was at least able to move by then. He got the door open and then with a great deal of effort, got his father’s body over and tossed out the window. Then he jumped out himself and arranged the body to look like he fell off the roof. Surely the sheriff and other founders would believe that, even if his mother didn’t. His brother was gullible enough that he would believe anything Damon said.
Scene staged, Damon ran into the house as best he could yelling about how their father had fallen off the roof and he wasn’t breathing. Their mother came running out, wiping her hands in her apron and found him laying there looking like every bone in his body was broken, and blood leaking from his mouth and ears. She covered her gasp as she backed away, looking fearfully at her oldest son. She knew that Giuseppe hadn’t gone back outside. And he was laying just outside the drawing room, meaning Damon had thrown him out and somehow broken his body so badly. There was nothing natural about that and she felt a bone-deep fear of the demon that had done this. Her attention was drawn by Stefan coming to see, and she turned and swooped him up in her arms, heading into the house before he could see the horrible sight, calling back over her shoulder for Damon to ride into town and get the sheriff and the undertaker.
Damon blinked the tears from his eyes at that look from his mother, even as a spark of anger ignited. She’d never protected him, even threw her own sins on him too, and had the nerve to fear him for protecting himself. But the fact that he was terrified of himself too, of that power in him, meant that he didn’t blame her as much as he should have. Instead he just headed for his horse, taking quite a bit of effort to get on. The broken bones always took a while to heal and he would be more than a little tender for a couple weeks on that side. He was well used to hiding his injuries though, and managed to get to town with no one the wiser. He went for the sheriff first, interrupting his own dinner with his family, and told him his story that he’d filled in on the way. Giuseppe was checking the roof for leaks before dinner and he slipped and fell. Nice and simple. His mother had been inside cooking and saw nothing so she wouldn’t be able to dispute his story, nor would Stefan. All they could say was that they saw him go into the drawing room with his father before that, but that was easily avoidable, by saying they went back out after.
The sheriff, since the man was already dead, told the boy that he’d be by after supper and bring the undertaker with him and invited him to join the Forbes family for the meal. He did notice Damon moving rather gingerly, but Damon just claimed to have fallen off his horse in his haste to get there in the dusk dark and that was that. Sheriff Forbes had no reason to doubt him. The Salvatores were one of the richest and most well respected families in town. They owned most of the land in the entire area. Doubting the word of a Salvatore wasn’t to be done lightly, and this boy was the head of the family now. At fourteen, he was just barely old enough to inherit. Maybe, if he played his cards right, he could become a mentor to the boy who would clearly need one being thrust into such an important position so young. And over the course of the meal, he thought he made decent headway there for all that Damon wasn’t talking much. Understandable, having just seen his father die.
Lily spent the time while Damon was gone thinking over her options while coaxing her youngest to eat. The boy was understandably upset even if he didn’t know or understand about his father’s death yet. He had no idea the precarious position they were in now. As a woman, she would get nothing but house room after the death of her husband. Everything would fall to Damon, and he could technically even kick her out if he wanted to. No one would believe that he’d killed his father. That a little slip of a boy like that could break every bone in a man’s body with barely any injury to himself was ludicrous. And claiming the unnatural would have the entire family under suspicion. They would all be burned as witches just to make sure. Or at least she would be and then Stefan would be alone in the world.
No, she only had one option. She had to back the demon up. Hope that would keep him from turning his unnatural powers on her. Hope that would keep him from driving her away. She had nowhere else to go. She would protect her baby from him as best she could though. Keep him from getting too close. Remind him as much as she needed to that the demon had killed his father. And she didn’t doubt that he would kill her as well for her part in his suffering. He just needed her to finish raising Stefan first. As soon as he was finished eating, as much as he /would/ eat, she sent Stefan up to his room. She didn’t want him to have any part in what was coming. What was taking that boy so long?