11. Lay All Your Love On Me.

When the Elders had finished their speech, the doors at the other end of the hall opened and we walked in together.

Damon said in my mind, " Darling, you look gorgeous, and I can't wait for our wedding night. It's going to be intense, I promise."

I replied, "Thank you, yes, it will be a unique wedding night." 

There would be more vampire rituals. I noticed that there were big monitors in the hall so the guests could see what we were doing. Some guests came with us to a smaller hall.

First, we walked around holding hands and greeting guests, Damon shaking hands and me curtseying. Everyone praised Damon for what a good choice he had made and what a good husband he was.

Then came a special ritual called Encountering the Past. So now they lined the former torturer women up and Damon had to choose which of the women from the past he would introduce his new wife to. Since I was a virgin and untouched, I had no one, and the ritual didn't involve me having anyone. A virgin and a pure one at that.

The women weren't all beautiful, and that was probably the point. They had had no one except by force. Damon always said one sentence and there seemed to be some power in it because, as soon as Damon said it, the woman would wince and almost look like she was hurting.

The phrase was, "I shall no longer acknowledge thee as part of my past, my life, or my future."

Then he usually introduced me, so I did. I said nothing, but Damon wanted me to show off my vampire side properly. It did turn my hair white, my dress stayed the same, but my eyes were black, and my nails were black poisonous. I did when the women still noticed how strong and incredibly young a vampire I was, and now I was Damon's chosen one. It seemed to be even worse for them. The women went elsewhere, and I even saw a few leaving the party.

Then we drank wine, from the same cup, a symbol of our union. Well, Damon drank me again. This was part of my role to be a wife and obey. Damon said it to me in my mind.

He gave instructions and commands in a haughty, crisp voice about what we were going to do, but he didn't talk down to me at any point. He even publicly praised my beauty.

I had to keep my role, not to look Damon in the eye too much, not to show too much emotion. Remember that I was literally a virgin sacrifice just joined to a vampire who would decide my fate. That was the role everyone wanted me to play, and I did.

I could have been better at it if I had had time to get to know the role beforehand, but Mr. Salvatore, or in fact Lord Salvatore, had not wanted to give me, Lady Salvatore, too many advantages. He enjoyed watching me keep my role.

 There were all kinds of action. Damon always told me what to do, and I obeyed. Then we socialized. My heart was still kicking in between, but not so bad anymore, and it started to calm down. Damon grunted contentedly beside me.

Damon was talking to the other vampires, and I was the good little wife next to him. Some jealous women had been Damon's girlfriends and the way he looked at them was almost like he wanted to kill them, but you couldn't see that expression when he looked at them.

I saw that look flash across his face and I didn't understand it, but I didn't wonder. I learned there to criticize only women's clothes as we walked together. Remembering the powerful telepath next to me, I didn't think too much of anything.

Then it was time to sign our wedding book. So it was like a guest book and everyone signed their names in it with their blood.

And of course, I didn't write, but Damon first took his blood by pressing a pen against his vein. It was a kind of syringe, almost. Drawing his blood, he wrote his own name: Lord Damon Salvatore.

Then he pressed the pen against my vein. It hurt surprisingly hard, but I was quiet and Damon wrote my name, Lady Mimi Salvatore, too. He also signed our wedding certificate in the same way, but with a different pen. But in our blood.

We held hands together and his grip was no looser at any point. I could almost feel my hand going numb, but I didn't express it at all. As the morning wore on, turning to afternoon, my heart kicked less and calmed down, and I realized that the soothing rhythm was a familiar one, Damon's heartbeat. 

 Our hands were together until about 2 p.m. There were no clocks here, but I have a pretty good internal clock. Our hands naturally came apart, and the elders came to check. I now had a red scar on my palm.

The wound had healed, but the mark would never come off my palm. It was true. Our hearts were now beating at the same pace and our blood was common. We were literally each other.

I now understand why this is such a rare ritual and why few people do it. When in today's world you don't really commit to anything anymore and now human marriage seems almost like a joke.

We had marks on our palms that we belonged to each other, as humans repeat a sentence and give a ring to each other so we joined our blood, our lives. We literally took each other. 

Damon had told me that if I had been a human bride, the mark wouldn't have been made and the blood wouldn't have been combined, but the ritual would have been more like a human wedding.

He told me about the potions that had been given to me and they kept the human victim calm and not panicking at any point. Damon said that the vampire and his bride would have retreated to the wedding chamber early on and there would have been no witnesses.

In the morning, depending on the vampire himself, he might have come out alone and they would have taken out the body to be burned, or the vampire and his newly turned bride would have come out.

But we'd have a different story.

 Then the rituals of conquest began, which meant Damon would always beat me. The first was the blood of the Elders. We both had a big jug of blood, about three liters, and a crystal glass. The Elders poured their blood into it so the jug was full. This would be the strongest blood you could find around here.

This would strengthen and possibly give new abilities to both me and Damon. Whoever drained the jug the fastest would win. We sat down at the table, and when the gong rang out, we were ready to begin. Luckily, I was thirsty for blood and now it was time to bring out the vampire side of me again.

 I poured the blood into a glass and tasted it. It was strong, and I couldn't drink it quickly. It tasted of the power of the three elders clearly and I drank as fast as I could, sipping as Damon poured the glass full of blood, drank it all in a few gulps, and smiled dangerously.

He clearly expected me to drink as much as I could, because it entitled the winner of these tests to have the blood of the loser and Damon wanted my blood to be perfect. I felt the power of the blood soaking into me, strengthening me.

And strangely enough, I could feel Damon in my head. He was doing something and then he put thick iron chains around Mirella's coffin and whispered, "Sleep on, beautiful. It's not your time yet."

 He sounded dangerous when he spoke to Mirella, as if he saw her as one woman who had abused him. Damon drank glass after glass and looked at me with a lazy, dangerous look. I had finished almost three-quarters of the jug when Damon tipped his jug upside down as a sign of victory.

I finished my glass, and the Elders declared Damon the winner and there was a scoreboard with both of their names in every competition. They took my name out of it. The winner's name would just stay. 

Then the next thing was a physical fight, and the winner got to pick the weapon. Damon made us fight with sticks. At that point, I wondered if I should lose on purpose, but I had no chance of winning because I didn't know Damon was the champion here.

I took the stick in my hand and tried to strike; it felt clumsy and the force of the blow jolted my hand as Damon parried and with lightning speed struck my knee. Even through the thick skirt, I felt it and I cursed harshly in my mind. Damon was ruthless, fast, and powerful.

He had no mercy and let's just say that although I was no good at it, fighting in a heavy wedding dress, slows me down, is difficult and these shoes were not fighting shoes while Damon's clothes did not slow him down at all.

Eventually, he struck my legs from under me, and I submitted, not looking him in the eye as he pressed his knee against my chest and the head of the cane against my throat. I turned my head to the side and released my grip on the cane. They removed my name again.

 Next was a test of speed or dexterity. We both had a wall in front of us with small delicate jewelry, or some kind of ornaments attached. There was a table next to the wall and a basket.

The name of the task was to pick up the ornaments and put them in the basket as fast as you could and they had to be intact. We had three minutes, and the wall went up over ten feet.

Time started, and I tried to be quick but I couldn't be too rushed as these were very fragile and delicate, when the gong rang out again it was clear that my name would be removed again as Damon had almost completely cleaned his wall, he could levitate. I didn't know that either.

Then it was time for the last test and there was no need to do that as Damon was in the lead and had already won. It would then be time for the wedding night. But first, the winner got to take and enjoy his prize, which was my blood.

 They brought in a platform woven from wood with flowers on it after everything was cleared away, and we waited. They put the platform on the table and I had to lie down on it.

Damon came up to me, stroked me on the knuckle of his fingers by my heart, and said, "I shall now claim my victory over my wife, and drink her lifeblood directly from her heart. She thus gives me the right to her heart blood whenever I want."

Then he bent down, sank his teeth effortlessly into my heart, and drank. Slowly and with clear pleasure. Everyone could hear him drinking throughout the room. Apparently, there was some magic in it. He did what a winner should do. This was his prize, and he was clearly enjoying my blood.

Eventually, my eyes blurred and my heart rate was already quite fast, then it weakened. This caused Damon to sink his teeth more firmly into my heart. He lifted my hand and pressed it against his own chest so that I could feel his heart still beating steadily and strongly while I felt my own weakening.

The pain in my heart faded, and my consciousness was quite hazy. I felt that moment when my heart stopped, a few seconds before the darkness took me completely.