DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters created by L.J. Smith or the producers of The Vampire Diaries.
Sorry. This is not my native language. Hope you forgive me for all my mistakes and enjoy anyway. And if you would like to correct me just go ahead. I really need to get better!
"Elena!...ELENA!" The hysterical nuance in Bonnie's voice got Damon's interest. That's just what he needed. A little distraction. No one's reaction was as good as Stefan's, when it comes to Damon harassing people. But now that he's gone, boredom was capturing his mischievous spirit.
In the main hall of the Salvatore boarding house, Elena and Caroline were already running down the stairs. Damon entered the big hall from the kitchen...going unnoticed by the others. "What happened, Bonnie?" Elena questioned breathless.
"You...you have to leave...right know!" Terror was written all over Bonnie's face. Glancing at Elena, she pressed her back against the door, as if she tried to keep someone or something out.
A cold shiver ran down Elena's spine. Now, how to get out the information that hung so obviously in the room? Bonnie was so damned frightened, that she was nearly hyperventilating, instead of telling everyone, why she was freaking out.
Before a question that might be helpful could form in Elena's mind, Bonnie took her head in her hands and pushed both of their foreheads gentle against each other.
After four seconds Elena's eyes opened wide. "What...?" Elena stumbled backwards.
"Show me!" said Caroline, taking Bonnie's hands in her own, leading them to her head.
"My god, what should I do?" Shaking, Elena didn't seem to realize the exchange between the other two girls anymore.
"You need to leave! And Caroline, you will go with her. She needs somebody to guard her." Bonnie demanded.
"No, I need both of you two to protect my brother! Stefan will try to use him to lure me out." Elena pleaded.
"You can't go all by yourself." Caroline stated.
"But..."
"No but! Go, get you belongings and then let's get out of here! Bonnie is totally capable of keeping him away from Jeremy" Caroline pushed.
"And Elena...Take this!" Bonnie gave her a little plastic bag with instant tea in it and an empty piece of paper.
Elena crooked her eyebrow.
"Just take it and don't loose it. I'll tell you later what to do with it. There was no time to finish it. Now go!"
"I'll get my purse really fast. Wait here for me" Elena spurted away.
She ran into Carolin's room, who just recently moved in. Caroline couldn't stay at her house any longer. The risk was too high to get killed by the hands of her mom.
Elena took her purse and was happy that Caroline moved in on first floor. She silently opened the door to the backyard and ran over to the garage. Damon's car was parked outside. She knew he intended to cruise to the Mystery Grill later, after dropping her off home.
She hoped Damon's irresponsible habit of leaving the key in the car would not fail her now. But who would dare to steal Damon's car anyway.
'Right...I do!' She flinched. Finding the key in the keyhole she wondered about how lucky she was. "Urgh, he will kill me for that" She started the 1967 Chevy Camaro and slammed her foot on the gas pedal.
Too late Caroline combined that the noise outside, which she heard using her special senses, and the absence of noise Elena was supposed to do in her room, meant that things go different than planned.
Elena was already driving too fast to outrun her, when Caroline finally arrived in the backyard. Dust kept her from even seeing her leave. "Shit Elena... Why are you so damn stubborn?"
Elena started to breathe again, when she noticed that Caroline hadn't stopped her and the boarding house was out of view. But just to be sure, she kept her foot on the pedal for a little longer.
"I like how you speeding things up with us." Starving clear eyes of a carnivore met hers in the back-mirror. Before she could manage to scream and jerk the steering wheel around, Damon came forward from the backseat, steadying her grip on the wheel with one hand, and bringing his face close to the spot, where her neck and her shoulder were joining.
"I knew I smelled a different shampoo on you." he stated, when he let go of her and jumped into the front seat.
"Damon...when did you..."
"...noticed that you are about to steal my car? Sweetheart, maybe I really should kill you!" he pressed his lips firmly together and squinted.
"I didn't mean to, but,.. Hell I almost died from heart-failure because of you just now."
"Must be my good looks!" he smirked. "So tell me, why and where we're going?"
"We?" Elena sighted. But as fatal as the situation was already, she was happy about having the bad ass with her.
"Stefan showed up last night and gave Bonnie a hell of a vision about something he wants.
"A vision? Last night? ..." The wry look on Damon's face told her, what he was suggesting.
"He wants a spell to get rid of all, what is left of his humanity. He likes his bloody new lifestyle and hates his lingering human feelings. Unfortunately, that is a conflict, that eats away his sanity."
"Tell me something new."
"Bonnie got a pretty good vision on her own, about the consequences, if he should get, what he's asking for."
"Go on."
"If his humanity is leaving his physical being, Bonnie believes he would become even stronger than Klaus. She thinks that all the emptiness in him will increase his lust for blood immensely. Like a disease it will make everyone he turns just as empty as him, and in no time the earth is dead and filled with insatiable creatures. Stefan don't know or is not interested in the consequences. He just want to stay sane, to not accidentally walk out in the sun without his ring."
"And why are you running away?"
"It seemed that my blood is kind of important in the whole plot, because being with me changed him. That I guess makes me somehow responsible for all the trouble he sees himself in. If he gets me..." She sounded despondent.
"Ah common Elena, don't get wimpy. It's my job to make you feel that way." With a smug expression he touched her shoulder to comfort her.
"Another question: Why do you think does he bother the kindergarten-witch with it? Could it be that Klaus smells a rat and choose to hold the throne a little longer by not sharing the skills of his underlings?"
"Bonnie really improved a lot lately, just for you to know!" Elena hissed. "I just don't understand, how he wants to get Bonnie to help him."
"She wouldn't sent you away, if the former bunny-eater hadn't something against her, or would she?"
"No, I guess not. It must be something very threatening, She was so frightened back then."
Three hours later Elena stopped the Chevy in a small town for gas, food, and a restroom. She blinked up in the sky. The sun was shining so warm and bright, making her not want to believe she was actually running away to escape from Stefan, who once loved her, and now tries to bath in her blood.
Damon filled the tank while she shopped for some food and went for little girls.
In the restroom she splashed some water in her face to cool down, when suddenly a men gripped her throat from behind. "Got you."The pressure on her airway increased fast and she almost didn't hear him whisper in her ear. In the mirror she could see an unfamiliar face of a male next to her own before her vision started to go black and a tingling numbness was spreading in her body. Then all of a sudden the grip loosened. She heard a loud cracking sound.
Her body felt way too heavy, to keep standing on her legs all by herself, so she sank down and bumped her right cheekbone against the sink.
Damon had a gut feeling that something wasn't right here, as if somebody had been following them. When he heard her heartbeat speeding up and a voice whispering deadly words, his legs were already taking him to her.
...
"A human?... Well that's unfortunate... for you!" he grinned and buried his teeth in the man's flesh while breaking both of his arms.
"Now tell me why you're here."
Elena moaned when her consciousness set in again. She saw Damon pressing a man way up against a wall looking very pissed. 'Funny, I never thought that looking down on somebody can be so scary.' But the men, whose feet lost contact to the ground, experienced it first hand.
"I don't remember..."
"Okay... again, why are you here?" This time Damon's blue-green eyes turned into a piercing white-blue. Elena knew he was about to compel the guy to answer him. She saw it before. Shivering slightly, she watched them.
"A women who looked just like her..." The man moved his head slightly in Elena's direction, without breaking the stare at Damon. "... She ordered me to wait in front of your house, to follow her, and get her, if possible."
"Elena.." Damon turned to regard her with favour "...It's you turn to beg me, to spare this low-life."
Without really giving her a second to think about it, Damon bit down on the mans neck, drinking the last blood which was keeping Mr. Low-Life barely alive. "See, you had your chance..." He stated apologetic. Licking the blood from his lower lip, he stared at her without blinking.
Elena assumed right, that Damon was in a trance of blood. She tried to get to her feed. He then finally managed to snap out of his anger and thirst, and got a grip on himself. Helping her on the passenger seat of his car a minute later, his senses let him marvel again at the smell of her blood running down her cheek.
He gently lifted her head to the side and licked the blood away. 'Strange how easy it is not to bite in her face for more of this heavenly stuff.' he thought.
"Damon?" Snapping out of it once more, and adjusting his confused eyes to hers he breathed out. "Elena...I'm s..." before he spoke out loud his apologies his eyes became snotty as usual "... Wouldn't it be a waste? For being your knight in white armor that's just what keeps me saving you, sweety" With that he stood up, walked around the car with a kick-in-the shin-look plastered on his face, got into the driver seat, and started the engine.
Five hours later on the way to nowhere, Elena still thought about the feeling of his tongue on her cheek. She stopped breathing and with an open mouth and closed eyes, she tried to understand what she felt back then.
"The source is sitting next to you, if you wanna have some more." He slightly pursed his lips and smirked.
"Shut up. I was just falling asleep."
"Ok but if your face is flushing much more, then your wound will reopen, and I will get some more for sure."
After ten minutes of silent driving, Damon tried again to make conversation.
"What did you got from Bonnie?"
"Oh you're right, I totally forgot." She lifted her sitting bones to reach into her pocket.
"Really? A teabag? You're screwed."
"Will you ever..." "Nope!"
With that settled, Elena took a frustrated look at the piece of paper. 'Strange, something is written on it now.' She was sure, it was blank when Bonny gave it to her.
-Elena? Are you okay?-
"That is Bonnie's writing!...I...I think I have an idea ...Do you have a pen?"
"Look into the glove box."
She found one and started to write on the same paper while Damon stopped the car.
-Bonnie?-
After some seconds of waiting she felt stupid for thinking that Bonnie would get her message this way.
"Maybe I was wrong." Elena looked at the little plastic bag with the instant tea in it. 'Nothing special about that either.' she thought disappointed.
"I think, there you have your little magic chat. Hope the provider will charge you in $ not in toads for that." Damon nodded towards the paper, that Elena had laid to the side.
-Thank god you're still alive. I was sooo worried.-
-I'm fine.- Elena wrote back.
-First of all, don't write me where you are or where you are going to, okay, not even if I ask you!-
-Ok-
-When you turn the paper it will be blank again-
-Got it. What's the tea good for?-
-Did you opened it yet?-
-No, should I?-
-NO!-
-I first need to finish the spell. Therefor you need to put the blank paper on the tea. You will know when I'm done.-
-Ready!-
Elena did exactly what Bonnie asked for.
First nothing happened. Then silvery blue symbols appeared on the paper and faded away. Cold flames suddenly burst out, unexpectedly without burning it all to ashes. At last a hand-print became visible, which could have been Bonnie's. It faded away as well.
"Nice show...if I would have been a six year old birthday boy..." Damon showed his best sarcasm-face.
"Do you think it's save now?"she ignored him.
Bonnie's writing re-emerged before he's got to answer.
-Okay all set. Here are the instructions:
Open the teabag, mix it with water, and drink it all.
Whatever happened don't say a word for at least 24 hours.-
Meanwhile Elena opened the package. Some of the powder escaped right then, making the air all dusty. Damon had to sneeze when he inhaled some of it. Elena then filled the purple coloured powder in her water bottle and shook it well.
-That should do it. But Elena, after drinking that, Stefan will not know, that you exist any longer.-
-He will forget me? I... I need to think about that. What about Kathrine? She seemed to help Stefan and had send somebody after me.-
-What? They were on your heels already? How did you escape?-
-Damon!-
-Don't tell me...And I wondered already, why he didn't rip apart people, to get to know where his car is.-
-Kathrine?- Elena wrote a tiny bit impatient.
-Uhm, you know I have the feeling, that she will drop the grudge against you the second that you are out of Stefan's mind. Don't worry Elena, you will be a part of him forever, just a very hidden part. And that means safety for everybody. Elena I know you are over him. Let him go.-
"Ja Elena, let him go." Damon chuckled after reading the last exchange between the girls and got a deadly look for it. Smiling, he lifted his hands and shoulders, then placed his index finger to his sinful curled lips, to show cringingness.
-By the way, since you are not alone. Don't let Damon get in contact with the tea.-
-Uhm...why?- Elena wrote back and began to pray.
-DID HE DRINK IT?- Bonny was fast in getting, that it was too late already for her advise.
-No. But when I opened the package, it got a little dusty in here...I think he inhaled some of it because he sneezed.-
-Why does he breath anyway, he is dead!...Sigh...
...Just give me a minute to find out, how that would change our situation.-
...
Elena looked at Damon who checked out his canines in the back-mirror, letting his tongue glide over the left one.
"You're a big tease you know that?" And he smiled as a reply.
-Okay, Emile's book said that the charm, if used as a powder on supernatural beings, will press forward the true nature of these creatures. Witches meant to find out, if they could trust their usually abnormal costumers. They needed a way to know that their charms would not be misused.
...Elena you still have your necklace, have you?-
-Yes. So you say that Damon will just become a little bit more Damon?-
-I really can't tell... With the necklace you should be fine and I really don't like you to be all alone out there, but, on the other hand it is maybe better to send him away. I think you have 1 hour left, before the spell is changing him. And remember, you have to stay away from here at least 24h. And not a word after drinking the potion.-
-Okay, thanks a lot Bonnie.-
...
"So...you plan to abandon me here in the big cold forest and take my car with you Kathrine...uhm I mean Elena?"Damon asked innocently.
"Hm, you really make me think about it. But..." she started with gritted teeth.
"A-are you crazy, there is no 'but'? I was kidding. Of course, I'll go. You have no idea with whom you deal with."
"I know you Damon. You wont hurt me.
"In an hour I'm fucking dangerous, because the real me is not as pleasant as my features pretend. I'm going and you will get out of here, you hear me?" With that he was gone and Elena stand there alone and baffled.
She really doubted that the idiot would come back, after waiting half an hour, sitting on a boulder at the side of the street.
'Okay, seemed to be just me then.'