ALIVE | K. SALTZMAN; BOOK ONE

33

˗ˏˋ CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE ˎˊ˗

"You've got to stop almost dying, kiddo." Kalila's eyes opened slowly, turning less foggy by the second. Damon was by her side, gripping her injured hand, only it didn't hurt. "Welcome back."

"You gave me blood?" she asked as she groaned, sitting up with Damon's help. He nodded.

"Yup, you got bit by a nasty one. Stefan was still out of commission so they had to bring you to a hospital, but I just sped up the rest of the process."

"That's awfully kind of you," Kalila pouted sarcastically, but squeezed his hand still. "I don't mean to get into life-threatening situations on the regular. Just sort of happens like that."

Damon scoffed. "Well, you missed out on all the action." Kalila cocked an eyebrow, intrigued. "Uh huh. Turns out Elena convinced Jenna so hard that Katherine found out they were 'still together'." He used his fingers to put quotes around the sarcastic words. "And compelled Jenna to stab herself. It was a whole thing."

"God, is she okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she's fine. Although, if I have to guess, Alaric will be here in three, two..."

Right on cue, the door opened harshly, revealing her dad to be behind it. "You heard him coming."

"Guilty," he admitted before turning to face the wrath of her father.

"Where do you get off not telling me that my daughter is in the hospital?!" he yelled, the anger poking out through the veins on his neck. It was all directed towards Damon, but he did get a quick look to make sure she was okay. She just laughed, rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of the situation. "What if something happened to her and I had no idea?!"

"'Ric, my guy. She's fine."

"That's not the point, Damon!"

"Dad-" She tried to interrupt him, but he kept going.

"Kalila is all I have left! The next time she gets so much as a scratch on her, I want to know about it."

"Okay," Damon said, giving in. "I will take the blame for no one calling you when there were four other people who could have called that brought her here before I ever got here."

Her dad relented at that, his shoulders slumping as he let out a sigh. He just nodded at Damon's words before he went to his daughter's side, grasping her hand in his. "Dad," Kalila laughed. "I'm okay, really. I only ended up at the hospital because Stefan took a literal vervain bath and couldn't heal me." She squeezed his hand. "I'm fine."

"Okay, Kal." He just smiled with watery eyes. "Okay."

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

Her dad stayed with her for most of the night until Jenna got out of surgery and Damon told them he would compel her doctor to discharge her, so he left to go be with his girlfriend. Now, Kalila was getting changed into the clothes that someone had brought her to the hospital during the time she was whacked out on snake venom.

Suddenly, there was a knock, and she looked up to see Stefan in the doorway. "Hey," she smiled as soon as she saw him. "What are you doing here? I was just about to come over to your house."

He shrugged. "I figured. But I just wanted to be the one to find you and say thank you."

"For?" she teased, smiling as he playfully rolled his eyes.

"For saving me from being a crispy vampire." He laughed as he spoke, a smile painted on his face as he came to sit down next to her on the bed. "But seriously. I was unconscious, but even I know you were a bad ass today. Even if you did end up with the snake bite casualty."

She held up her hand, perfectly healed with no scar in sight. "Snake venom really does make you feel like less of a bad ass, you know." She smirked. "Besides, I think my dad is getting a little tired of me playing the hero. His blood pressure has to be through the roof by now."

Stefan laughed before his face suddenly turned serious. "So, about earlier..." he trailed off as he grabbed her hand. "I believe you wanted to know where you and I stand."

She smiled, squeezing her hand. "Yeah, I did want to to know that, actually," she teased as he scooted closer to her on the bed.

She thought back on all that they had been through, and it all started with Jonathan Gilbert's journal. She had been beat down, kicked around, and thrown across too many rooms to count, but they weren't bad memories because Stefan was in all of them. She had risked her life to save Stefan's, and she would do it again in a heartbeat, regardless of whether or not there was any vampire blood to make it all better.

"And I just want to say that I have absolutely no idea." Despite his words, she smiled, because she felt exactly the same way.

She thought about the night she ran into a fire to save his brother. The way he looked so afraid that she wouldn't make it back out, but the way that he let her go anyway because she had to be there for her friend. The way that he came to her after and told her he would die if anything ever happened to her. That was the very first night she realized she really knew Stefan was in her life for good.

"Yeah?" she giggled.

"Yeah. And I would really like to find out." He grabbed her other hand.

She thought about how it felt to kiss him. The way that his hands would hold her body gently despite the fact that they had the power to break her. The way it could it be the most passionate kiss, or just a simple little peck, and how she never, ever wanted him to let go.

"Do you want to find out with me, Kalila?"

She thought about the pure fear she felt when she saw Stefan floating in the bottom of the well, and how there wasn't a single question that she would jump down there and rescue him. That she would die if anything every happened to him, just like how he knew it would be with her.

"I would like that more than anything, Stefan."

His lips met hers in seconds, his hands grabbing at the sides of her face, cradling her cheeks carefully. Her eyes fluttered closed as she moved to sit in his lap. One of his hands moved to her hip, helping her straddle him with ease as he squeezed the skin. "Kalila..." he breathed out as they separated, his forehead resting against hers.

"I know," she said, leaning in once more.

After all, she was still waiting to be discharged.