I knew something was up. More like different. Stefan was not his usual broody self. In fact, he was kind of… excited… about something. Probably something boring. I watched my brother as he practically skipped into the house, a huge grin plastered onto his face. And when he saw me, the smile did not go away. It widened as he hurried over to me with his vampire speed.

"Damon," he said, breathless and awed. I looked up at him from my spot on the couch, annoyed by his overly-chipper mood.

"What," I asked when he did not go any further.

"I found her," he exclaimed, his excitement only growing. I grew confused and intrigued at the same time.

"Who? Katherine?" I scoffed. He shook his head violently, irritation starting to show on his face. We both knew that Katherine was not in that damned tomb, like Emily said. No, we found her sleeping her way through Chicago's underground in '73. We were pissed as fuck as we heard her whisper sweet nothings into some poor guy's ear. Instead of confronting her, though, Stefan and I ran the hell away from her. We never wanted to see her face again. That was the day I decided to stop torturing my brother; after all, it did not matter that we had supposedly loved the same bitch back in 1864. She was a slut, and using us to get her blood fix, I saw that clearly in Chicago. I came back to the present to see Stefan looking into my eyes, a serious look on his face.

"No, Damon," he said. The twinkle in his eye was back. "I found her."

Oh… Shit. He found her. His Colophon.

Most people know a 'colophon' as an author's emblem, or an author's tag. But that is only the partial truth. I absolutely despise the books, but the only thing that Twilight got right about us supernatural freak shows was that we can "imprint", as they call it. Albeit, in the books, it is a werewolf thing in the book, but in the real world, everything supernatural has a Colophon. Colophon for us means a human that is, essentially, a 'soul mate.' But I don't have a soul, so I don't get one. I have been bad for too long – and enjoyed it – to even think about changing for a fucking human. Once you find the One, you become compelled to always be near them, to change your ways, to become more human. Blech. Just the mere thought makes me shudder of having to even deal with that – being so whipped that you can't even think straight. Why would you put up with that? Why the hell would you do that? I would probably never know. This was all because a shaman a long fucking time ago cursed the vampires and the werewolves. Apparently, just to smite us and our hunger for humans, he put some bullshit curse on top of our curse. And this curse said that when we find our Colophon, we will never feed on them, hurt them. We will automatically fall in love with them. Stefan had that stupid grin on his face again. I wanted to slap it off him, smack some sense into that boy. But I could not do that. Instead, I asked questions.

"Who is she?"

"Caroline Forbes," Stefan responded gleefully. I nearly choked on my own spit. She was the child of a Founder, which meant only bad things would ensue. Her parents probably knew about vampires and hated our guts. This was not going to go over well with the Founders. "Want to meet her? She invited me to hang out with her and her friends at the Grill." For a second, I considered not going. But then I thought, what the hell, it couldn't hurt. Besides, there was a fully stocked bar that I could get to. We stood up and left the Boarding House. We took my car and headed into town. Parking in the lot outside of the diner, we hopped out and walked in. The dim lighting and the bar were what caught my attention first. I then heard a magical sound. It was a woman's laugh, but it sounded like music to my ears. I turned toward the direction of the sound, wondering who had bewitched my senses. A small, young brunette girl stood amongst a group of friends near a pool table. She had chocolate eyes, and she looked like a carbon copy of Katherine. They were all drinking. Why was she drinking? She had to be about seventeen! An extremely painful thud hit my chest. I looked down to see if anyone had hit it, but there was no one around. Then it happened again, this time even more painful. I grabbed my chest and waited for the thudding pain to go away. It did no such thing. I grunted in pain. I needed to get to the bar to drink. Stefan looked back at me, confused at first.

"Damon, what's wrong," he asked. I shook my head. The pain had subsided a little bit, but the thudding in my chest was still there. Suddenly, a blonde girl from the group I was looking at approached us.

"Stefan," she said, with a huge smile on her face. My little brother returned the smile with just as much fervor. Oh.

"Caroline," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a hug. After a few seconds, they separated. Stefan pointed to me and I waved. "This is Damon, my brother." She smiled at me before turning back to Stefan. I zoned out at that point. I needed a drink. Badly. I walked over to the bar and ordered bourbon. I needed something strong, something to dull the thumping in my chest. Which was now at a consistent pace. I blew out a heavy sigh and sipped on my drink as soon as it got into my hand. They did not even I.D. me. Like they needed to. I felt a hand on my back. It was small, and warm, but it made me feel as if I was on fire. I turned slowly to find the mystery girl staring at me in awe.

"Sir, are you okay," she asked. Her voice was that of an angel. I could barely breathe in the presence of her beauty. It took me a second to realize that this unearthly creature was speaking to me. "I saw you grab your chest earlier. You looked like you were in pain." I was touched – this woman was an angel. She cared for a random stranger. I nodded my head – mostly to clear my thoughts – as I stared at Katherine's doppleganger.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said, sipping on my drink. The thumping was not going away anytime soon. The girl lifted her hand so that it was level with my chest.

"May I?" she asked hesitantly. I smirked.

"Sweetheart, if you wanna touch my chest, you can." I added a wink for good affect. She chuckled and shook her head.

"My dad's a doctor," she explained, before the light in her eyes went out a little. She dropped her hand. "At least, he was." She looked down at her hands. I could tell that she was upset. I suddenly had the urge to whisk her away and make her forget that there was evil in this world.

"What's your name," I asked instead. What the actual fuck? Where are these feelings coming from? I thought. She looked back up at me, a sudden shyness overcoming her.

"I'm Elena. Elena Gilbert." What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman. I felt compelled to be around her all of the time, like I needed to be in her presence constantly. I smiled at her, genuinely this time.

"The name's Salvatore. Damon Salvatore," I said, sticking my hand out for her to shake. When she placed her hand in mine, I brought it up to my lips. Elena laughed, and then I knew. Well, shit, I thought. I guess I do have a soul. She removed her hand from mine, and then placed it on my chest, examining the damage. I knew what she would find – my heart was now beating. Which was my brother was going through now. She smiled before removing her hand – the hand that caused a fire to swell, burn, and churn inside of me. I just knew that it was her.

"Well, Mister Salvatore," Elena stated matter-of-factly, "You are as healthy as you probably ever going to be." Someone called her name from her group of friends. She turned to look over at whoever it was. I was too transfixed on my Colophon to notice. She was so magnificently beautiful. She was the epitome of perfection in my eyes. Shit. I was already falling for this woman. That was fast. I never asked for any of this! She turned back around, and my breath caught in my throat at her smile. It was radiant. "Come with me." Elena stood up and took my hand. I could not resist; I would do anything for that angel. And now I was whipped for her. I did not even know her, and I was already whipped. Fucking curse. I walked with her up to the table where her friends were with my drink in my hand and Elena's hand in the other. Stefan was there with Caroline, a blond boy who looked at me with envy written all over his face, a dark-skinned girl who reminded me a lot of Emily, and a tall, skinny boy with similar features to Elena's. I smiled at the group. When I caught Stefan's eye, he knew. I could tell he knew from the way he smiled and nodded at me. I might have been a bad person, but after Chicago, my brother helped me out. I nodded in defeat at him. He knew this was bound to happen sometime. Neither of us expected it to be on the same day. "Everyone, this is Damon Salvatore," Elena's voice rang out. She turned to me and introduced me to her friends individually. The dark-skinned girl was named Bonnie Bennett, a witch most likely. Then there was her brother, Jeremy Gilbert, and it looked like he was Bonnie's Colophon (yes, witches are subject to this curse, too). Lastly, there was Matt Donovan. He had a firm handshake that I matched equally if not with more zeal. I had a suspicion he did not like me. The feeling was mutual. The group played pool and munched on some fries for a while before Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie said that they needed to leave for their slumber party.

"Do you want me to take you," I asked Elena. She turned to me, smiling widely.

"Thank you, Damon," she said. I let her lead. It was clear that she was a little tipsy. I wanted to make sure that she got to the sleep over safely. She unlocked her car at the doorway while I threw my keys to Stefan, who caught them while not even looking away from Caroline. He would take care of my baby. I escorted Elena to her car and she handed me the keys. I opened the door for her, shut it once she was in, and hurried over to my side. I would finally be alone with my Colophon. I started her car and began to drive away from the Grill.

"Where to," I asked as nonchalantly as possible. I really wanted to know where she would be tonight if something went wrong. Elena smiled and pointed towards Elm Street, which I turned onto.

"It'll be another right, then a left, and it's the third house on the right," she said. I followed her directions and stopped in front of the house that she instructed. I turned off the car after parking on the side of the street and turned to her.

"Elena," I said, nervous. Okay, what the actual fuck, I thought to myself. I am Damon. Fucking. Salvatore. I have killed people. I don't get nervous. After mentally kicking myself, I turned back to her. She was looking at me expectantly. "Why did you come with me? I'm a complete stranger to you." She smiled, shrugged, and giggled.

"I feel safe around you, Damon." I was not expecting that answer. I swallowed thickly as I turned to face forward. She pulled out her phone, pressed a few keys, then put the phone into my lap. I looked at her in confusion before I read the screen.

First Name: Damon

Last Name: Salvatore

Cell Phone Number:

I looked back at her, even more confused. Normally, I would have gotten the hint. But I was so consumed by Elena, by her smile, her laugh, her sweet scent, that I could not begin to wrap my head around what she was doing. "Damon, I want your number in case of emergency." That was when it clicked. I smiled and punched in my number. Handing it back to her, I sighed.

"You have a party to go to," I said, opening my door. Elena made a move to open hers, but I ran around the SUV before she could. She gave me a confused look, and I felt guilty all of a sudden.

"How did you do that," she asked. I dipped my head and looked back up into her curious, innocent eyes. I smiled sadly at her. After all, it was her future.

"All in due time," I said, offering my hand to her. I walked her to the front door, which she unlocked. It was her house, then. I stood on the stoop as she entered. She put down her purse and turned back to me.

"Thank you, Damon," Elena said with a smile. Then she did the unexpected – she kissed my cheek. I stood there in shock, touching my cheek, as Elena giggled and closed the door.

I had it bad.