Author's note. Massive apologies that I have left this series for so long. I could have wrapped it up in only another chapter or so but this was the ending I had always had for it.
Captive of her Beauty got immensely popular and real life hardly let me write two stories at once and people still wanted more updates on my Our New Beginning Series too.
So again so sorry it took so long to come back to this. I do hope there are people out there that will read it even after so long. I am also debating rewriting the earlier books in this series since these were my first ever fan fictions back a few years ago already and I know I could write them much better now from all the experience I've had since then growing as a writer. But maybe I will leave them to show how much my writing has changed. I'm not sure yet. Eternally Blood Bound was the first fan fiction I had written and I wasn't known at all then as an author.
Special thank to Carol for her beautiful collage for this story! I didn't even know of that option when I started this series years ago and I will make one for the other books yet too.
I wrote all this in one day here this afternoon. Stress writing while struggling to parent my teen daughter.
Enjoy and happy reading!
He waited...for the burn, the rush of fire on his skin to devour him whole and wipe his broken heart and body from the face of the earth.
He had nothing left. Nothing. Everyone he loved was gone. All his hopes and dreams for the future were gone. Elena was gone. His babies were gone. Stefan was gone.
Damon lifted his head from its bowed state and opened his tired and bloodshot blue eyes.
He wasn't burning.
Scanning the wide expanse of sky above him he saw that the clouds were completely hiding any sunlight behind them. It was probably still mid afternoon, but not one speck of sunlight shone down to burn his exposed skin.
Cursing under his breath he snarled and stood up. He spun fast and violently kicked at the brickwork on the front porch of the boarding house. The poison ravaging his body of all its strength somehow didn't stop him from kicking till his foot felt numb and he had broken the smooth ornate wall to pieces.
He wanted to die and he couldn't even do that as fast as he needed. Stupid cloudy day!
His thoughts were consumed with images of his Elena. Her pale skin, blue lips, her lifeless body hanging off his arm. Her beautiful brown eyes sealed shut, her lips so, so cold and her face just empty of everything that was her.
"Elena," he cried out, falling to his knees again and picked up a piece of the brick. He hurled it hard into one of the windows, shattering the glass. "Elena, please...please come back to me," he begged.
Damon stumbled back into the mansion, slamming the door behind him and nearly tripped over his own feet before falling against the table where he thought he left his expensive bottle of bourbon. Where the hell was it? His vision was going from clear to blurry and he wasn't even drunk.
He was dying, he knew that. But he sure as hell didn't want to die from the damn werewolf venom. He wanted to take his life the way he wanted to, not the way the fucking Original wanted. That one last thing he could control, when the rest of his world spun out of control and was ripped away from him... right in front of his eyes.
His vision cleared, long enough for him to see the bottle wedged between the couch cushions.
He was not nearly drunk enough for what he was about to do.
His muscles were betraying him and he could barely stay standing, but threw himself toward the couch and grasped the bottle in his fist. Ahh the liquid felt so good down his raw and dry throat. He felt his organs like fire in his body and he didn't even feel the burn of the alcohol that was strong enough to strip a few layers of skin as he gulped greedily. Swallowing a few more times, his head fell back.
This was where Elena had dreamed that he was holding one of their babies and as he rocked them against his chest. She had said the fire was crackling in the darkness of the night while Damon had been dancing and swaying. She dreamed that she walked up to him and they held each other and their baby between them as they danced to sooth their little one to sleep.
Damon let out a sob at the memory of her dream and the ache it left him with that he would never hold his Elena again.
He hadn't even held his children yet. His twins. He had only felt their little heartbeats in her beautiful belly. It had been a miracle that he was going to be a father and now that was all just gone...just like the bourbon in the bottle he still had clutched in his good hand.
"Elena, noo," he sniffled and choked on his tears that had been running steadily down his cheeks since he fell to the couch.
A lock of his hair fell to his brow and he pushed it back with his bloody, poisoned hand. His raven black hair was wet and streaked with blood.
His blood had been all over her as he held her as the cabin burned...as Klaus walked toward them and Damon pulled them both to the dock, backing away. She had buried herself against his blood soaked body, curling in as close as she could be to him and away from the Original coming to take her away.
Damon could still feel her arms around him, her head against his bare chest, just like so many times back in the tomb days ago. He had been her anchor, her reason to live and he had protected her with everything that he was.
He would have died for her and almost did. But now she was gone and there was nothing left to live for.
Nothing meant anything anymore. Not without her…
And Stefan...damn it, he was gone too. His lifeless stare had chilled Damon to the bone. The empty look in Stefan's wide dead eyes was ingrained in his head permanently. His baby brother did not deserve what happened to him at all. He had tried to save Katherine of all people and she had done what she always did...saved herself by stealing the cure that Caroline had stolen for Stefan and then run to survive and left him to die. She didn't love him. She had never loved anyone but herself.
She had run, knowing Klaus was going to kill them all and take Elena. She didn't care about losing her precious Salvatore boys again and just left them. He hated her beyond what he ever thought possible. She was the reason for every fucking thing they went though in the last few days. Her and Klaus. The immortal Original wanting to take Elena to use her and his babies for his own power.
"Damn you Katherine! Damn you Klaus!" Damon screamed into the empty room. He stood up and swiped all the decanters off the drink counter and they crashed to the floor. He lifted the table and flipped it upside down, breaking it apart. Spinning around he ripped books from the shelves and tore pictures from the wall.
"God damn it Elena!" he sobbed, throwing the empty bourbon bottle into the fireplace and it shattered to pieces with a loud crash. He felt renewed strength as he tore apart the room, throwing the couch upside down, tearing the leather on his favorite chair to shreds and ripping anything off any surface. He was panting hard when he collapsed to his knees in the destroyed room.
The parlor now looked like his barely beating heart.
Damon remembered her looking around it in awe of the huge space and the period pieces all around. How transported back to another time the whole room looked. He had told her when they made love the first time too how much he knew at that moment that she would be the one to bring him back to life. Her innocence in that moment stepping down the steps into this room, her wonder and childlike awe of where he lived intrigued him and he was as smitten with her as he said Stefan was.
Now the room looked like he felt. Everything was broken, shattered beyond repair.
He knew where he wanted to die and could feel his strength fading fast. He had no idea how he even had the strength to rip apart his precious parlor. He moved slowly across the floor and saw what he was looking for on the rug near the fireplace.
Damon crawled on his hands and knees, ignoring the glass slicing into his palms. He paused picking up what he needed. Flipping open the decorative box the vampire lifted out the perfectly made stake they kept for emergencies.
Having what he needed he closed the box, tossing it back on the floor littered with broken glass and all the decorative pieces from all over the room. He closed his eyes slowly, hanging his head as more tears slipped down his face.
He suddenly felt a hand on his cheek and his eyes flew open! He lifted his gaze and saw her, his Lena looking back at him!
"Elena?" he rasped out, hardly believing his eyes. He blinked and strained to focus as she went blurry in front of him. Squinting and blinking again he saw she was still there.
He watched her smile sadly at him as he nearly jumped back as he could feel her hand under his still caressing his cheek. He could feel her...was she really there?
"You're dead baby," he whispered to her. "You can't be here."
She clearly winced at his statement. His love was quiet and she didn't deny it. Was he hallucinating?
Elena looked so much different than his last image of her. Her skin was soft and pink, not dark and pale like before. Her lips supple and petal soft as his hand moved from her cheek to tug her bottom lip gently with his thumb. He heard her whimper softly as his hand cupped her face, his fingers weaving between the strands of her smooth brunette locks.
He felt more pain tug at his already dying heart. She looked so real, so alive and as beautiful as he had ever seen her. Could this possibly be real?
It felt as real at their kiss in the tomb...when the wolf forced them to make out in front of Stefan…
He just barely brushed his lips against hers and he felt her body shudder against his. He felt her lips moving, slowly and tentatively like she had no idea what to do. Damon moaned softly against her mouth. She felt so good.
He opened his eyes as they kissed, just in time to see Stefan collapse against the wall in the tomb. Damon's heart wrenched at the thought of what this must be doing to his brother but the wolf had warned that he better put on a good show or that animal would hurt her again. So despite Stefan's anguish, he was going to really kiss her. Just like he had always dreamed. He took one last look at Stefan who's head was in his hands but his eyes absolutely glued to them from across the dark room and shut out his brothers pain to focus on Elena.
Oh God forgive him, he thought as he opened his lips and the taste of her flooded into his mouth. He had kissed her so hard before and his mind, despite being aware of her, was very focused on his plan to kill Brody. He had barely recalled how she tasted then and this time he savored every emotion, touch, sound and feeling. His eyes widened in surprise to find her already open mouthed ready to let him in. She was so delicious; like strawberries, and vanilla and more fruity deliciousness.
He moved his hands down her neck to her shoulders trailing them down her back. He felt her tremble again at his touch as he met her tongue so soft in her mouth with his. Damon groaned in pleasure, his senses going into overdrive. He could taste the bourbon on her lips and sucked in her bottom lip hungrily. She smelled of bourbon and blood and he smiled. His favorite combination.
"I am here Damon, for you." She spoke so softly he could barely hear her as he pulled himself from his thoughts.
He moved in closer, resting his forehead to hers studying her face, just daring his vision to fade. She didn't disappear. He moved in even closer and gently pressed his lips to hers.
Damon moaned in pure bliss at the taste of her on his tongue. She was there and as he opened more, tenderly tangling his fingers in her hair, he felt her arms wrap around his neck.
He fell back against the broken couch behind him, pulling his love into his lap. Her kisses felt so perfect, so warm and soothing...so unreal.
His breath was ragged as he pulled back, caught in the trance of her bright brown eyes. "I need you so much Elena. I need you to be here. I'm lost without you..." He was smoothing her hair from her face as he gazed lovingly at the woman he loved more than anything. He could barely feel the pain of the poison right now.
She shook her head back, her hair falling in waves down her back. "I am here Damon. I love you… I love you so much."
Damon smiled at her, thinking he would never see her again. "I love you too baby. More than you will ever know." He reached for her again as his hand looked like it went right through her. What the hell?!
His eyes squinted to see clearly, thinking he imagined what he just saw. But she was fading away. He moved to grab for her, to hold on any way he could as she looked hazier every time he blinked.
"No, no Elena. You can't go!" he cried out. She was smiling as her face just vanished in front of his eyes. In a flash he jumped up, reaching though empty air.
She was just a hallucination. She wasn't really there. She never had been. Feeling her, touching her, kissing her had not been real.
Previously back at the Gilbert Lake House...
He ripped the stake from his gut, jumped to his feet and pulled the syringe from his pocket. He pulled her hair back and plunged it into her neck before pulling it out and letting it fall to the grass. He knelt by the dead brother wishing he had been faster. Damon had just ran thinking he lost everything. His love, his children and his brother. He had to find him before it was too late! He hung his head, wanting to fix everything.
His head flew up in the next second and he scrambled up looking madly on the ground...where the hell was it?! His eyes finally focused and he grabbed for the handle of the dagger and held it up. Blood...Klaus' blood all over it from when he plunged it into his heart.
Elijah scraped his finger across the red wetness and pushed it between the young blonde vampire's lips, wiping all the blood off both sides of the sword. He fell to the ground between the two young people and just waited...
He wasn't sure how long it was that he just sat there waiting when suddenly there was a gasp and choking sound and Elijah let out a deep breath as the blonde vampire sat up in shock, his eyes so wide and his breath heaving out of him.
Stefan looked around wildly. What the hell had happened?! He blinked and realized he was sitting, his arms behind him, supporting him more than they had been for hours. He saw Elijah just collapsed on the ground, his suit wrinkled and his eyes as equally wide at him. "What… how…?"
Elijah merely looked at him holding up his red sticky hand. "Blood, I got my brother's blood." Stefan seemed completely stunned and wiped his lips feeling the substance against his mouth.
He was healed, cured? He turned his head and felt no pain. Then his head fell down to the arm that had been destroyed by the bite and he watched in amazement as the veins faded, and receded and his skin turned back to its normal color. He sucked in a breath and pinched himself just to be sure. Oh my God. He wasn't dreaming!
He looked back at Elijah and his gaze fell down to Elena. "Elena?" he breathed out remembering Damon cradling her in his arms. Crying over her, trying to get her to breath for ages. "But Elena..." he trailed off.
Elijah held up his hand, shaking his head. "Its all my fault if she doesn't wake up," he whispered.
"Wait what?" Stefan's head shot up from looking down at her pale and so still body. He pulled himself to his feet. It felt amazing to be able to stand, to feel strength in his muscles. He could hardly believe it. He took a few shaky steps forward till he could kneel at Elena's side. "She's asleep?...not dead?"
Elijah nodded to him. "Yes I gave her a drug, back at the cabin, once she fainted when Klaus threatened to burn down the cabin. It had a delayed reaction time, hours later. It would make her appear dead, slow her heart to nothing and still keep her and the babies alive."
"Are you being serious right now?" Stefan gasped. "She is alive?...even Damon's babies are both alive!?" He could not get out of his head the devastation on Damon's face, tears streaming down his cheeks as he had his ear to her belly and realized his babies were gone. Stefan felt tears in his own eyes that his brother's family would be okay. Wait...where was Damon?
He jumped back to his feet, feeling strength in his body more than he had in days. "Damon! Where's my brother?" He looked back to Elijah.
"Your brother ran. Just before Klaus took off." He saw Stefan ready to run too. "I'm sorry Stefan. It had to look real. He had to believe it. I told you before that the only way we could stop him was if we nullified one of the ingredients in his spell. He needed Elena alive...so now that she isn't, she will be safe. She can leave here, be cloaked and protected."
Stefan threw his hands up in the air. "You mean that my brother. My SO love with this woman and his miracle family big brother, thinks Elena...his children...and I are all DEAD?!"
Elijah nodded slowly.
"Well we need to find him. He will be reeling in pain. He will kill himself!" Stefan cried out panicked.
"I tried to stop him Stefan I did. But I couldn't tell him in front of Klaus and his reaction had to be real or Klaus would not have bought it."
Stefan was already picking up Elena in his arms, his arms under her legs and back.
"Wait where are you going?" Elijah stood up too. Completely exhausted from everything but still hating that things had gone so wrong.
Stefan adjusted her in his arms so her head was more against his chest and not falling down limply off his arm. "I'm bringing Damon's family back to him. He has to know there is still hope!"
Damon collapsed back to the wood floor, his head in his hands. He pulled at his wet hair and growled deep in his throat. No, no he couldn't lose her. He smashed his fist against the dark wood and felt pain tear through his hand and up his arm. He slammed it again and again till he saw blood staining the wood and he lifted his good hand to see his knuckles bleeding and not healing.
Falling back he felt something behind him and curled his bloody fingers around to lift it up. It was the stake, now stained red with his blood dripping down the side of it.
The dark haired vampire stared at the smooth piece of wood with the bead of his blood running down it. It was so sharp and so delicately crafted. He turned it around in his hand and then stood back up. He stumbled up the stairs to his room and pushed open the door.
His bed was still unmade, the signs of the fight he had with his brother still around the space. Even the bathroom still looked like it did just after he had stepped into the bath with her when she was too weak to hold herself up.
Elena's purple bra and lacy boy shorts were still on the tiled floor, his jeans still hanging off the counter, his black button down in the sink where he tossed it after she had nearly slipped under the bubbles as he helped her into his tub.
Stumbling forward into the bathroom, his fingers gripped the edge of the counter as Damon's eyes fell closed at the memory of her bare back against his chest, his head sinking down behind him in the bliss of having her so close to him.
His head fell back against the hard porcelain of the tub, his eyes fluttering closed, feeling her leaning her bare back against him as she drank from him. His resolve in being the gentleman was getting harder every second she was against him so intimately. Stefan would kill him if he walked in on them right now. What the hell was he doing?
More memories of being so close to her came flooding into his head...
Damon poured water from a wine glass he had sitting out over her head to wash her hair. It was full of tangles and blood. He pulled his fingers delicately through her hair to untangle it as much as he could and then poured the soap into his hands. He thought he heard her moan as he started massaging the shampoo in her hair and her head fell back into his hands.
He had whispered to her to trust him and then slowly turned her around in the water, feeling it swishing around them. Her hands were over her bare breasts as the bubbles had melted away more and more the longer they were in there.
He could hear that she was nervous being so close to him. Her heart was pounding hard and fast. But after he soothed her with his words he could hear it slow down. Her eyes were on his and he almost gasped aloud as he felt her legs over top of his.
He wanted her so much. He wanted to pull her into his lap and kiss every inch of her. She was so close to him like this and it made his jeans even more uncomfortable. But he swallowed the hunger deep within him and thought more of her feelings; how vulnerable and weak she was and all she had been through. No, this was not the right time as much as he wanted it to be.
He stroked her cheek tenderly thinking about all she had done to try to save them. She had risked her own life trying to shoot and stab Brody and kill him to save them all. He had never seen her stronger in his life and wished so desperately that she was his...
Damon's undead heart clenched painfully for more time with her. His chin quivered as he tasted his tears at his lips. Moving backwards out of the bathroom, he fell crying silently onto his bed.
He barely had a day of them being happy and in love. Her choosing him and wanting forever with him. It had felt surreal how happy he was. How it felt everything was finally right in his world. He had a family, another chance to be a dad after being turned so many years ago. He had a woman that loved him beyond what he ever dreamed.
She had finally confessed her love...love he had for her since the moment he met her. But she had fought her feelings for him so long. He had waited and after the hell they survived in the tomb with the werewolf, she had that next day finally admitted her true feelings. Elena thought Damon had died when his car exploded and she told him later that was the moment she truly knew she couldn't live without him.
Damon sniffled, curling up on his bed and buried his nose in the pillow she had slept on. His body had betrayed him in so many ways, his vision, his speed and senses and he could feel the blood in his throat...but despite all that... he could smell her on his sheets.
He inhaled deeply, curling his knees up, not caring that his boots were on his bed, the blood from his broken body smearing on the clean crisp sheets. He felt more pain rip through his stomach and fought though it and focused on her scent. It was glorious, like light to his dark and heaven to his hell in that moment.
The pillow was getting soaked in his tears as he let go. He had never been this emotional in his whole life, human or not. He had always held it in or lashed out in anger, but never succumbed to grief like this. He cried for his precious girl, his babies and his brother. He cried that this was how it was going to end.
Damon wanted to stop feeling. He couldn't take it. It hurt too much. He blinked, wiping his hand over his wet cheek and felt around for the stake he brought with him.
It was time. This was where he wanted to die.
He curled up on the side of the bed she had been sleeping on, turning his head to inhale once more, to envelope his weak senses in nothing but her. He took it in...it was all he had left of her and lifted the stake to his bare chest, his knuckles white around its base.
The dark black lines were almost at his heart, his hand burning and looking like a bloody messy mass of flesh from the poison. The black lines had snaked their way up his arms and he was sure were circling his head as well. He felt blood coming up his throat and leaned to gag and throw it up before pulling himself back up. The blood dripped down from his lips and he leveled the stake, ready to slam it into his heart.
"I love you my angels," Damon breathed out weakly. "I'm coming to be with you… Daddy's coming..."
He lifted the stake above his heart, steadying it as it was shaking in his hand. He gritted his teeth focusing to still the trembles in his body.
He was just about to plunge it down into his chest when he was surprised he picked up the sound of a door being slammed and someone calling his name…
"Damon! Damon!" the voice called again getting louder and he sat up, dropping the stake. He could swear it was his brothers voice!
Straining to hear, he was quiet waiting for the voice again. It must be another one of his hallucinations.
Fuck, now he was hearing Stefan alive just like he imagined Elena was too!
He nearly jumped out of his skin when the next second there was a loud crash and his door was swung open, almost breaking the hinges off and Stefan stumbled into his bedroom!
Damon could hardly believe what he was seeing and shook his head back and forth waiting for the images in front of him to fade away again. "Stefan? What?" He had no idea what to say.
"Damon! Oh thank God you are okay!" his brother gasped out and raced into the room.
It was only once he was right in front of the bed that he saw what Stefan was cradling in his arms.
He stood to his knees on the bed as Stefan laid her down gently, her limp body wrapped in his leather jacket.
"Elena?" His brain must be playing tricks on him, because no matter how many times he blinked... she was still there, laying on his bed. She was still so pale, her lips still blue, her wet hair in tangles around her head.
Damon pulled his gaze from her to look back up into his brother's worried green eyes. He reached out and touched Stefan on the cheek, his hand shaking. "You're...you're not alive. This isn't real."
He jolted back as Stefan grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Damon, it is real! I'm here! Elena's here!"
The elder Salvatore shook his head again and felt more sobs. He wanted it to be real So. Damn. Badly. "You're dead Stefan! I saw you die!" he cried out. He pushed him away, not wanting to face the next moments when his brother would fade away like Elena did before.
"No Stefan! You are all dead! I just want to be with you all. Leave me alone!" He felt more tears slipping down his cheeks. His brothers image was shaking his head. Damon grabbed the stake back in his hand and moved to slam it into his chest!
But the next second it wasn't even in his hand and he saw Stefan had snatched it from him and hurled it across the room to shatter into pieces against his wall.
"NO! Damon I am right here! Elijah gave me Klaus' blood in time. I am really here. No werewolf bite. No poison. You are not hallucinating!" He turned his arm and Damon could see where the bite had ravaged his skin and now there was nothing but smooth flesh.
"Elena is alive too! Elijah gave her an injection to slow her heartbeat to look like she was dead." Stefan was shaking him again. "Klaus needed to believe she was dead so you could escape with her."
Damon's mind was struggling to process all he was hearing and seeing. "She's alive?" he breathed out and Stefan nodded, his lips curling up into a smile.
"Yes brother. She is." He saw Stefan looking around his room with more worry in his eyes.
Could he dare to believe it was true? He looked down at Elena and crawled on his knees toward her. His hand was shaking as he slowly moved to touch her cheek. It was still cold, like death. How was she alive?
Damon laid his head to her chest. Her shirt he had put on her back at the cave where they made love was soaking wet and covered in blood. How did Stefan know she was alive? It ripped him apart to see her like this.
He pulled her into his arms, her head falling back off his arm. She looked just like he had seen her before he attacked Klaus.
His brother sat down beside them on the bed. "It's just the drug...Elijah said she will wake up soon. He gave her an antidote back at the lake already Damon. Trust me I am as in shock about this too and can't believe I am here talking to you."
Damon's eyes were locked on his brother, alive and talking and moving around like he had never been bitten. It did not feel like it was real. But she was in his arms. His Elena was going to be okay! He trusted Stefan and let it in, the relief that she was not leaving him. He trusted Elijah too and everything Stefan said made sense.
"Our babies?" he choked out and felt his body shaking in the fear that they were gone. His head moved to her belly, as he moved her to slide off his lap to lay beside him as he scooted lower. "My angels..." He couldn't hear any heartbeats. Damon looked up at Stefan through his tears, his lip quivering.
"They didn't make it? When she drowned?" he whispered. But Stefan shook his head and laid his hand on her stomach, beside where Damon's head had been.
"No brother. I can feel them. They are alive. The beats are just so so faint. Elena's heart too. Your family is alive Damon. All of us."
Stefan was beaming widely through tears of his own before his smile dropped as Damon let out a pain filled cry, leaned over the side of the bed and threw up more blood.
Damon felt searing heat radiant through his chest and blood pushed its way up his throat more and more. In his shock of seeing them there he hadn't even felt any pain, like it was numb. But now he felt it stronger, the pressure building as was laying so still daring to believe what Stefan had just said. He cried out and turned his head to the floor and gagged and threw up again.
His vision swam and he saw Stefan in front of him, kneeling on the floor at the side of his bed. His brother was alive, Elena was laying right beside him and he was being told that she would wake up. But now he felt things fading more and more, his eyelids too heavy.
Stefan was shaking him again. "Damon! Damon...where did you put the cure. Klaus' blood?"
Damon squinted as things started to go black. The cure? He didn't have the cure.
"Damon! I gave it..."
But he fell into the blackness calling out to him, as he turned away from his brother like in slow motion... to seek out Elena again. He felt his head fall to land of the skin of her belly again, his arms pulling her closer as his eyes rolled back in his head.
They were alive were his last thoughts as the darkness consumed him. She was going to wake up. But he was dying...
If you read this and want me to continue please take a minute leave a review, favorite or follow. I will see if people do still want to know the end to this series. There is a lot of action and excitement and romance to come. Lots of questions answered and spells revealed and plots to explore.
This Damon is more emotional and in touch with his feeling than canon Damon might have been at this stage in the show being only mid season 2. But from everything that has happened and all he has faced through all 3 books so far, lots of emotion has been bubbling to the surface.
I'm happy to update this book every few weeks or go back and forth between this and the Captive of her Beauty sequel The Bond of Family which is next to be started.
I would like to honor my readers by giving them this final book for the Eternally Blood Bound series...if people are still interested.
Have a safe and relaxing weekend.