Prologue: Gone

"Sometimes the hardest words to hear are those left unspoken." -Unknown

Damon sat at the bottom of the stairs and held his head in his hands. Droplets of now cooled water from his still damp hair ran down over his fingertips and dropped onto the floor. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the pain that had settled into his chest as he tried to comprehend the reality of the morning. He shook his head and held in a silent scream as he heard her words from the night before still ringing in his ears. Forever. Such a simple word, yet when he had heard it, it had seemed to change his entire world. No one had ever truly wanted him forever, and as he felt the hole in his chest rip deeper, he knew no one probably ever would.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked as he made his way down the long staircase of the Boarding House behind the disheveled figure of his brother that sat just a few steps below. Damon didn't look up; he just shook his head and slowly lifted the piece of white paper that he had crumbled into his hand. Stefan looked at him for a minute and then took the piece of paper and felt his heart sink deep into his aching stomach as he recognized the handwriting that flowed over the tattered page. He took in a deep breath and then let her words run over him and consume him just as they always had.

I'm Sorry, I love you, Please Forgive me. Love, Elena

Stefan closed his eyes and folded the piece of paper into his hand. He let out a deep breath as he ran his fingers over the creases of the page and then turned back to look at his brother who still had not bothered to turn around or move any muscle for that matter.

"Where did you find this?" Stefan asked, his voice sounding distant and filled with pain. Damon tightened his jaw as he felt his teeth grind painfully hard together and finally turned to face the distraught image of his brother behind him. He glared at him with rage filled eyes and licked his lips quickly before he nearly spat out his response.

"Why, Stefan? You wanna make sure she left it for you? The fact that she's gone doesn't even matter to you, does it? All that matters to you is that you won, that is all that has ever mattered and all that ever will." Damon seethed as he stood and slowly made his way down the rest of the staircase.

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked with a slight edge in his voice as he watched Damon grab his leather jacket from behind the door and throw it on quickly onto his broad shoulders. Damon turned and shook his head at his brother. He looked up at him with the same disgust and hatred he had looked at him with the last time he had left their home over one hundred and fifty years before.

"I'm going to do what you are too afraid to do. I'm going to go find her, and I'm not coming back until I do." He said quickly and then without another word or glance in his brother's direction he was gone and only the sound of the door slamming behind him was left ringing in Stefan's ears.

Stefan stood in silence on the stairs for what felt like an eternity. His brother's words swam in his head and intertwined with Elena's as he gripped her letter still in his hand. As he turned his head to finally return to his room, a glimmer of light reflected in the morning sun and caught his attention. He looked closer to the hallway table where he saw the light reflecting off of a beautiful silver chain. He swallowed as he ran his eyes over what had once been Elena's necklace…the necklace he had given to her only a little over a year before. He closed his eyes and let out a ragged breath as he suddenly realized who the letter had really been for.

Elena stood shaking on the cold pavement as she waited quietly in line to board the greyhound bus that was parked only a few feet in front of her. She tried to focus on the mindless chatter of the people around her, but no amount of overly dramatic drivel from the college co-eds that surrounded her could overpower the echoes of the night before that pounded in her brain and consumed her heart in a deep aching pain she had never felt before. The memories played in her mind so vividly that it hurt to let herself remember, but she knew that she had to. The night before would be the last memory that she would have with him and as she waited to board the bus to take her far from the only place she had ever known as home, she gripped to it to give her strength and solace in the dark midnight shadows. Only twenty-four hours ago she thought she would have all the time in the world to walk the halls of the Salvatore Boarding House. She would have all the time in the world to wander into his bedroom every night and pretend it was an accident she had found herself there, all the time in the world to tell herself that he was just something she needed to get out of her system and all the time in the world to pretend that she was still in love with the man she knew she should love, the man that was the right choice…the man that just happened to be his brother.

But all of the time in the world ended faster than Elena could have ever imagined and all the time left in the world could not repair the damage she had done to the only two men who had ever truly loved her and had put their lives on the line for her more times than she could remember. She had played a game she thought she could win, but she had been wrong. She had not only lost, but brought down nearly everyone she loved with her. Now there she stood waiting to run and praying that she would get out of this town before anyone noticed she was gone. She knew he would notice she was gone right away and he would probably come looking for her. She told herself that it was best if he didn't find her. She would leave town and find the normal life that everyone had been telling her for years she needed and he would possibly find the peace that Katherine and a century of loneliness had stolen from him. She told herself he was better off without her, they both were, they deserved better than a repeat of the love triangle they had endured when they themselves had been human. This was right, she told herself; this was what she needed to do. But no matter what she told herself it didn't keep her heart from begging her to turn around and her soul from searching the crowds of people around her for those icy blue eyes that had stolen her heart and never given it back.

The line in front of Elena slowly began to move and finally she boarded the large, overcrowded and definitely dated bus and took her seat in the back next to a large fogged over window that had more dents than her brother's first car. She tucked her satchel underneath her seat and closed her eyes as she heard the other passengers settling in for the long trip ahead of them. Just as her eyes fluttered closed she heard his smooth velvet voice fill her mind and the night before suddenly wrapped around her like a painfully hot summer night she couldn't find reprieve from. His skin was against hers, his mouth claimed her body and her heart was in his hands.

"Damon, please don't stop." Elena begged as sweat poured down her face and dripped onto her bare chest that shook and struggled to breathe as Damon moved painfully slow above her. Damon groaned low in his throat and slid his hands down the length of her trembling arms and gently lifted them above her head. He intertwined their fingers and pulled himself deeper inside of her, eliciting a groan from deep inside of her that seemed to wake the animal inside of him that craved her in a way that shot both pain and pleasure through his entire being.

"God, Elena." Damon moaned as he pulled deeper inside of her once again and then crashed his lips down against hers in a hungry kiss that captured the screams of pleasure that had begun to rise in her throat.

"Damon…I…." Elena moaned as she dug her nails into Damon's palms and lifted her hips off of the bed to meet his. Damon groaned and pushed deeper and harder inside of her as he looked down and locked his eyes with hers. So much emotion was held in those beautiful doe eyes that had nearly controlled his entire existence since he had entered this sleepy little town and now as he looked at her under him, in his bed, moaning his name, he knew that no matter what happened he would never regret returning to the place that had nearly destroyed him so many years before.

"I love you Damon." Elena moaned as she felt her body begin to tighten and her heart pound faster in her chest. Damon's movements slowed and he looked down at her through hooded eyes that still seemed full of surprise and disbelief. Elena nodded her head as she pulled his body closer to hers and gripped his hands tighter.

"I love you…" She repeated once more. Damon stared into her large beautiful brown eyes and saw the truth and love that he had been waiting to see for months and felt his chest tighten. Desire rushed through his body as emotions he hadn't felt since he had been human poured into his system and caused his indestructible body to shake nearly out of control against hers. He lowered his head to hers and slid his lips across hers as he swallowed the emotion that threatened to overtake him. He opened his mouth and took her lips into his mouth and kissed her with all the love he had been hiding and denying for so long and finally felt the ache in his chest lighten just a bit.

Elena had never been kissed with such emotion before that the feel of Damon's mouth against hers nearly took her breath away. There was something so intimate and yet primal about the way that his lips moved against hers that she couldn't help but wrap her body around his even tighter and move her hips against him in a way that left no space between them until they moved as one.

Finally, Damon pulled his lips back from Elena's and stared back down into her eyes and slowly pressed his forehead against hers. He slid his hand down the side of her waist and hooked his fingers around her hip as he pulled her against him. He licked his lips as he breathed hard against her mouth as he tried to form a sentence amidst the building need that was quickly overtaking him.

"I love you Elena…God I love you, but I want you just for myself." He whispered as he moved harder against her. Elena moaned as her body began to tighten and hum around her. She arched her back toward him and swallowed hard as she tried to hold back the waves of sensation that slowly began moving over her body.

"I am yours, I promise Damon. Forever, I'm yours." She whispered and as her eyes locked with his, he knew that this time she was telling him the truth. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and pushed deep inside of her once again. Elena groaned and just as she felt her body begin to shutter and shake beneath her, she turned her head to the side and moaned.

"Please Damon." She begged. Damon groaned and just as he felt himself falling into the bittersweet darkness, he licked his lips and let his mouth trace a wet line down the length of Elena's smooth delicate throat. He sucked gently just over her jugular for a moment causing the area to bruise…marking her favorite spot and then slowly let his fangs slide out from his gums and then deep into her soft skin.

"Damon…oh my god." Elena moaned as her body convulsed again and she clung to him as if he were her lifeline, she finally felt complete. He was inside her, filling her, making her whole again as he was drinking her in and deep down she knew that she was making him whole again too. She lay in his arms trembling and felt safe and complete in the fantasy that had overtaken them once again.

It only took a moment, however,…just one moment for the heaven that had seemed to surround them to crash into a million pieces, but that moment seemed to last for an eternity. Just as Damon's mouth was moving from the soft curve of Elena's neck, the door to his bedroom flew open and crashed against the wall behind it. Damon quickly flew up from the bed, but it was too late. Stefan was standing in the doorway staring at the two of them with his eyes filled with a rage that Elena had never seen before. Elena quickly pulled the sheets up around her as Damon approached his brother. They spoke fast and Elena could not understand them, but before she knew what was happening, she heard a crash and glass was shattered and blood splattered against the eggshell colored walls. The men yelled and cursed each other as they fought, but after a few minutes the fighting stopped. With a heaving chest Damon stood at the edge of the bed covered in blood and wounds that were already healing before Elena's eyes. Stefan stood back at the door and stared down at Elena as if he had never seen her before. He stumbled backward and she finally saw tears in his eyes as he tried to steady himself.

"I loved you…I always loved you. I thought after this summer I'd lost you, but you swore you still loved me. I knew something was going on. I knew that something had changed, but you swore to me Elena. You swore you loved me, you swore I was the only one for you and that you felt nothing for him. You lied and I fucking believed you! I believed you because I loved you and now here it is. Now I find you here in his bed with your blood on his mouth and tangled in his bed just like all the whores before." He struggled to say. Elena looked down at the bed sheets and saw her blood dripping down the front of her body and onto the sheets around her. Suddenly she felt dirty, cheap and filled with a guilt she had been repressing for the past few months all too well.

"Stefan, I…" She started, but Stefan cleared his throat and she looked up to find him with his hand up and shaking his head. He looked at his brother and then back to Elena.

"You are better than him. He will never love you like I did Elena. He will use you and then throw you away when he is bored with you. I just hope for your sake you don't let him drain you dry before he does." He said tightly and then before Elena could speak again, Stefan disappeared out the door. Elena looked at Damon and then down at the sheets…the fantasy was over and now everyone knew. Damon didn't even try to stop her as she got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. He looked both stunned, angry and for the first time ashamed as he remained locked in place at the edge of the bed. Before she closed the door she watched as he began to pull his clothes on and shake his head to himself as he ran his fingers through his tousled onyx hair. Tears strung Elena's eyes as she looked at his perfection even in the midst of the destruction of his bedroom. She locked the picture of him standing before her in her mind as the tears began to run down her cheeks, she knew what she had to do. She couldn't be this person anymore, she couldn't cause this much pain, she couldn't be her again, they deserved better than that.

Elena opened her eyes as she felt the bus begin to move slowly and make its way toward the dimly lit highway. She tried to get herself comfortable in her seat, but nothing could stop the ache that seemed to tear her chest open and cause each heartbeat to feel like a knife going through her. She thought back to three months before when Stefan had returned from Klaus' compulsion. She remembered the desperation in his voice as he had begged her to stay and for them to start over again. Now looking back she realized she should have thought about her decision to move into the Boarding House for much longer than she had, but at the time it had seemed as if there was no other choice. After a summer of destruction she found solace living in the home of the two vampires that had vowed to protect her for as long as she would let them and she also knew she couldn't leave Stefan after everything he had been through. He needed her to make him feel human again after months of living as a monster, but what Stefan didn't know is that Elena needed something from him too. She needed him to save her from the one thing that she didn't have the courage to admit to him...she needed him to save her from the things she felt while he was gone.

I'm back! I'm so sorry for my long absence but writers block has been killing me. I promise promise I am trying to work on my other stories, but my muse has not been kind. I had an idea for this story and decided to run with it so please let me know what you think. This will be a smutty and yet romantic delena fic and I hope you guys like. I promise to work on my other works and if you have ideas or anything please feel free to PM me. Also please click the button below and review, it inspires me. REVIEW! Thanks and thank you especially to you all that are still reading my work. I love you all and thank you for your support! Nikki:)