Wayward Hearts- Book 4

Part 34

Damon let out a sigh of relief as soon as Enzo answered his phone, "Damon, mate, glad to hear your family hasn't staked you yet."

"Where is that bastard?" Damon wasted no time asking, "Tell me you know where he is."

"Happy to tell you; just outside of town to the west, old warehouse just off of route twenty. It's tucked away but you can't miss it," Enzo informed him.

"Got it," Damon started to hang up the phone but Enzo stopped him.

"Hey Damon," Enzo gritted his teeth together, "don't let that bastard leave alive."

"Wasn't planning on it," Damon hung up and started driving in the direction Enzo had told him.

It wasn't long before he found exactly where Wes had been hiding. He parked the car a little ways away so Wes wouldn't hear the engine and started to run towards the building.

Before he could reach for the door, an explosion seemed to go off inside the building. Damon was thrown away from the building and he landed in the bushes a few yards back. His eyes were wide as he watched debris fall around him. He was confused when he noticed that his ears weren't ringing from the boom of the blast. As if there wasn't any blast at all, just a blast of fire.

"Emma," Damon called out so quietly it seemed as if he was only speaking to himself, his shock wore off and he became more vocal as he stood up and walked towards the building, "Emma! Where are you?! Emma!"

Damon stepped through the entrance of the metal building. The frame and walls of the building had managed to stay intact, but inside each room was nothing but embers and charred wood. Damon waded through the still smoldering debris, hoping that Emma was okay. Not sure if she had caused the fire or if Wes had miscalculated something.

"Emma!" Damon called again.

He stopped walking when he noticed a body under a piece of sheet metal that had fallen. He lifted the metal and grimaced when he saw the charred remains of Wes.

"Too bad I didn't get to kill you myself you dick," Damon kicked Wes as hard as he could in the head and dropped the metal back on him without any care.

Damon heard a rattle of chains, followed by an aggravated grunt as someone tried to pull them. He rushed toward the sound and found Emma inside one of the rooms. She was in a hospital gown and still chained to the concrete floor. She looked frantic and crazed as she continued fighting with the chains, sobs racking through her body.

Not wanting to scare her, and become like Dr. Wes Maxfield, Damon approached her slowly.

"Em," Damon called her attention to him gently and quietly, she turned around and looked at him in shock as he knelt down next to her, "it's okay, baby, I'm here."

"D-D-D-" Emma's voice shook as Damon reached down and easily broke the chains around her wrist and another sob escaped her.

One of his arms wrapped around her while the other held both of her wrist as he examined the damaged the iron had done, he noticed that they weren't healing. He kissed each of her hands before he pulled her body into his and wrapped both of his arms securely around her.

He kissed the top of her head and nuzzled into her hair, "I'm here Emma. I'm so sorry."

Emma's psyche seemed to crumble in Damon's arms as he held her close.

_________

*Just before Damon arrived at the warehouse*

"Get the hell away from me!" Emma screamed at Wes as he maneuvered around her to lock her back in the cell, she fought against him, pulling on the chains as much as she could.

Wes ignored her and shoved her forward into the cell as soon as he linked the iron cuffs back to floor in the cell.

Wes stepped back, panting from the effort of battling against Emma's attempts to flee, "I am definitely going to go pick up some more iron injections. Unless you want to start cooperating. Maybe one day when I kick the bucket fifty years from now, I'll make sure to release you."

Emma let out a feral sounding scream as she continued to fight. She desperately pulled on the chains. When she saw that Wes was getting closer to her, she began to strike out towards him.

She could feel that she was stronger from not being injected with iron constantly, but she still couldn't break the chains and she didn't want to attack Wes with any magic until she knew she could defend herself. His lack of planning and lack of syringes was working to her benefit, but Wes hadn't noticed yet and she had been careful to conceal it from him.

But hearing Wes talk about how long she could be stuck under his thumb, being tortured day in and day out was her breaking point. She had reached a point of giving up on ever being found. She had started to give up hope that anyone cared. She could only rely on herself to end the nightmare.

Wes pulled his recorder out of his pocket and hit the record button, "Subject seems to be mentally breaking. A few days in isolation may prove helpful."

He clicked off the recorder and started to walk away,

"I'll kill you!" Emma yelled at him, "You are worse than any monster I have ever fought!"

"I did my research on you, on your past. A vampire killed your sister. Multiple people around you have died mysteriously, including your uncle, Bobby Singer," Wes stopped and turned back to Emma, "what I do is for the betterment of science and medicine. You're not even human, you're no better than a lab rat."

Emma felt a heat surge through her, hotter than she had ever felt before. It almost felt like it was radiating through her bones. Her body felt like it was white hot and searing.

Wes took a step back as he watched her irises turn the brightest orange he had ever seen. He began to reach into his pocket for his recorder again.

Emma let out another guttural, ferocious, untamed scream as the burning inside intensified. She closed her eyes, and less than a second later the fire inside her finally seemed to release her.

When she opened her eyes again, everything around her was on fire, but it was quickly smothering. She didn't understand what happened, but she couldn't find a sign of Wes anywhere.