A/N: Hey all you sweet and faithful readers. Welcome too to anyone that has never read my work before. I'd love to know what you think and help you escape the stresses in your life just for a little while as you read about our beloved Delena. I don't know if I will ever write for anyone else at least as of yet for no one has come close to how I feel for these precious characters and their journey. The cast of VD has been iconic in my life and helped me through a very dark time years ago when the show started.

Its my birthday today! Yeah! Novemeber 1st and like last year I wanted to give you guys something from my heart.

I had started writing this series years ago as a brand new fan fiction author and not known at all by anyone on this site. I fast discovered my love for writing and how much it soothed my health issues that I faced daily. Social anxiety and a ringing in my ears that could produce bad headaches too. So alone time became my safe place as much as I missed connecting with people socially it was like work to strain to listen and I came back from nights out wiped out emotionally and physically. So I stayed in more and learned to love writing and built friendships with fellow authors and readers over the years.

So this was story was my first ever FF then but I always felt a niggling that I should rewrite it at least book 1. I feel like I could give it more depth, more Delena and more moments to cherish as well as danger and excitement too. I love writing thriller romances and it showed in my very well received Captive of her Beauty that I am working on a sequel for as well. I have grown a lot as an author since I first posted this story years ago and since I am working on book 4 now I felt I owed it an overhaul.

I hope you like it and will follow this version to give more depth to those reading book 4 Aching Hearts Innocent Blood right now. This is my version of season 2 and forward.

Elena was panting, feeling the sweat slide in beaded drops down her sides under her clothes. She fought to pull her eyes open as she felt an unknown pressure, a body over her as she lay on the cold ground. Someone was straddling her, leaning over her. She could feel breath against her cold cheek.

But nothing about this person felt familiar. She didn't feel any warmth in their hands on her as they started to peruse her prone body. She felt cold, the shivers from her fear racing down her spine as she again fought to open her eyes.

Their were small granules of sand and rock beneath her open palms. Where was she? What was happening? How did she get here and why, why couldn't she open her eyes? There were voices, not clear but they were there. The heaviness on her did not move no matter how much she tried to push it off. Its weight was suffocating and she could hardly take in another breath.

Finally her eyes opened and she blinked rapidly, desperately trying to clear the hazy images in front of her. As they started adjusting to the darkness she could just barely make out someone in a hood.

They were the weight leaned over her.

Lips shrouded in the darkness around them, curled up into a wicked grin. Dark beady eyes stared at her from the shadows created by the hood. Those eyes were terrifying and she saw them fixated on her, hungry with lust. She sucked in a deep breath, fighting to escape, screamed and shut her eyes…

Then an instant later she felt pain, so much pain, as she hit the ground hard and the room she was in was spinning. She felt herself being dragged...by her hair and cried out, begging pleading to no avail. She was thrown down, her whole body felt the jarring of her muscles and bones as she hit the ground again.

His hand moved from his side with purpose, till it was leveled in front of him. Elena tried to see what he was focused on. She saw a shape in his hand, and heard a click a second before the echos of a gunshot hit every wall around her. Its sound deafening as it delivered its fatal blow and she saw someone fall but could not make out who.

Slamming her eyes closed again Elena screamed, squeezing them shut so tightly till the scene faded, the sounds growing quieter around her. Was it over?

When she opened them this time, the room wasn't spinning but there was the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. She could feel it too dripping down her face. She felt so weak and lifting her arm it felt sticky. Her whole arm was bloody. Elena closed her eyes tightly for the third time, willing the image away. It had felt far too real. What the hell was happening to her?

Every time she opened her eyes to try to escape there was something new there; each image more horrifying than the last. She heard crying and begging and it seemed like it came from her own mouth. The fearful cries echoed in the small, dark space as she fought to pull herself away from everything surrounding her.

There was no escape. No light. Nowhere to run, even if she could run.

Elena could feel a man's strong, bare chest against her fist as she pounded on it. Blinking faster, she saw there was no blood on her hands like before. The wall of muscle caging her in against him was immoveable, even with her fighting with all her strength. The man let her hit him, over and over as she sobbed.

The fear was different now, like she was being betrayed. Like somehow her mind conjured up that he was supposed to save her when instead he had never intended to. His head was low, near hers, she could feel his hot breaths against her face. Her eyes slammed shut again as he grabbed for her flailing fists and held her wrists in his hands. She was far too scared to look up at his face.

Elena awoke panting as she sat up fast. Her brown eyes adjusted to the dim light around her and she let out a heaving gasp!

She was in her room, in her own bed. Not trapped in the darkness, bleeding and tossed to the ground. Fighting a man's hands on her wrists, someone's body over hers, forcing her into submission was crazy. Everything had felt so real. SO vivid.

Soft brown locks were flung back and forth as her head moved and her eyes darted around her. She was alone and it was late, maybe the middle of the night. Her journal was laying open to her side on the bed, the pen tucked in the crease between pages. Had she fallen asleep writing? This was nothing but a dream, a horrible dark nightmare?

Elena fell back down into the softness of the pillows and stared up at the ceiling. She could hear the soft pattering of rain against her windows and the gusts of wind outside. The sky lit up all around her dark room as lightning flashed, showing shadows of the tree branches across her ceiling. It hadn't been raining when she went to bed. What else had happened?

She struggled to remember the previous day before shutting her eyes fast as thunder rumbled through the sky. She had gone with Rose, tricking her into turning herself in to Klaus to protect her friends. It had almost worked if Rose hadn't called Damon...and he had come running to stop her.

He didn't understand. None of them did. She couldn't lose them. Risk Klaus killing them all, just to take her away so he could break the curse.

Damon had been furious to say the least and had threatened to carry her out of there over his shoulder like an insolent child. She had balked, fought back and made him even more upset, physically fighting back at him before the enemy burst through the door.

More lightning, followed by deep booms of thunder ripped though the sky and the rain fell harder against the house, spattering on the panes of glass as she moved off the bed to hurriedly lock the windows.

Thinking back again, she had thought she was ready to turn herself over. But the moment they arrived, her heart started to pound and she was frantically trying to talk herself out of it. She knew she needed to protect her friends, Damon included.

However, faced with the strange men that wanted to take her away from everything and everyone she knew and loved, she felt herself shaking, even as she said she told them she was there and ready to go with them.

Damon was not taking it, any of it and she saw fury in his eyes at the men advancing on them. She had felt frozen behind him, and so so grateful he was there. Her words said differently but she knew deep down that no matter what she did, it felt like no one won. She either lost the people she loved to their own deaths at Klaus' hand, just like he killed Katherine's whole family. Or she lost them by her own death. Everything about either of those choices terrified her.

Stefan was in the tomb, trapped with Katherine of all people. She remembered that Damon guilted her that he might have been able to save his brother from that stupid predicament if she hadn't had him racing after her to save her life again. She hadn't wanted to be saved, she had told him over and over but he just refused to let her martyr herself.

She had fought in Damon's arms for the second time that day and he did not back down. He simply let her pummel him till she exhausted herself. She slumped almost into his arms as his eyes found hers. She was furious that he was refusing to let her see Stefan and she turned and ran up the steps out of the tomb, determined to sneak back to see him later once her damn bodyguard had left her alone.

There was a soft rap at her closed window and she whirled toward the sound. Moving across the room to the window Elena nearly jumped out of her skin as the lightning flashed again and she could clearly see a figure through the sheer curtains!

Damon…

Elena recognized his silhouette instantly. He had his head bent low toward the window, his whole body crouched down from springing up from the ground.

Unlocking the window she studied him huddled up on her window sill. "Hey," she greeted him coolly ignoring the rain dripping down his cheeks from the tips of his hair. He looked like a drowned rat and she knew he hated to get wet.

She wasn't going to let him in. She was still mad at him. Mad that he prevented her from seeing Stefan, and that they spent the whole ride home in silence after what happened at Slater's loft. He had even escorted her right to her door with nothing but snappy, barbed comments about how stupid she had been.

The raven haired vampire tilted his head up, his eyes shimmering in the darkness, the blue so brilliant against the whites of his eyes. He was startlingly attractive, even soaking wet and she pushed that lose and inappropriate thought from her mind instantly.

He was her boyfriend's brother, nothing more.

She had even told him he had lost her as a friend too after he had killed Jeremy in drunken despair of her pushing him away. He had admitted he didn't see the ring. The ring that had brought him back to life. Her brother would have been dead without that ring. So when Damon did finally admit that he hadn't seen it before he killed him she told him that had sealed his fate in her eyes. He wanted to be hated and he got his wish.

The rain kept falling all over him, running down in trails from his hair to his cheeks and jaw, sliding down his neck. Tracks of water spread all over on his leather jacket and soaking his dark washed jeans. He stared back at her, annoyance clear in his tone. She was standing in his way of getting into her room and she knew he would have to physically move her to get out the rain.

"How long are you going to punish me before you let me in Elena? It's pouring out here." His voice was low with impatience, holding just the faintest whine in its tone. Yet strangely despite his very obvious annoyance, he waited for her invitation.

She was already shivering from the cold wind swirling around her body. Wearing only a thin purple lace tank top and plaid cotton shorts, she felt the rain even sweep into the room, the wind carrying it to fall like mist all along her exposed skin.

Elena was enjoying this rare moment of power over him. He easily could have bodily moved her aside to get out of the rain but he wasn't. She thought she even caught him shiver as he stayed hunched up on the narrow ledge.

"Are you sorry for treating me like a child, Damon?" Her hands had moved to cross in front of her body over her chest. But his first reaction to her petulance looked to be a teasing, flirty look back at her, as his gaze fell to her cleavage created by her crossed arms.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, her hands going to her hips, her face a mask of shaky indifference. She hated his constant teasing at least she was telling herself she did. Lately he had been more annoyed and short with her than teasing in any way.

Dark blue eyes seared her own. "Sorry? Um no Elena. You were acting like a child. I saved your life. I'm not sorry!" He snapped at her, his words biting in its delivery. Damon sighed, his eyes holding her stubborn gaze. "Are you going to let me or what? This is how you treat the neighborhood watch, just trying to keep you safe."

"Yes fine Damon fine." She backed away letting him by and he swung his legs onto her window seat from the sill and stood up closing the window behind him, blocking out the cold gusts of wind. The loud sounds of the storm were now muffled by the closed window and he pulled the thick curtain across it before turning back to her.

"I am safe Damon. I can take care of myself." She wanted to sound tough but her heart always gave away how she really felt.

"You are safe now, Elena. With me."

She breath shook ever so slightly as she took a gulp of the cool air around them.

There were no more words between them. She knew he was here to guard her and prevent her from sneaking off to see Stefan. He would not just leave but obviously he didn't want to stay outside in the storm.

Elena watched him standing in her room, looking like he was trying to suppress shivers. She thought vampire didn't get cold. Maybe he was faking it for her to take pity on him. She cursed herself that it was working and she felt bad for leaving him out in the rain as long as she did.

Feeling chilled too Elena moved to slip on her robe laying on her chair. She strode quickly to the bathroom, grabbed up a few towels before turning back, nearly jumping out of her skin!

Thunder and lightning had been growing steadily louder, but this crack of thunder hit just as she spun to see him right in front of her and not across the room like before!

"Damon!" she cried out and felt her body waver. She placed a palm flat on his chest to catch herself from falling and a second later felt his hands curl around her arms to steady her. She could feel the roughness of the leather beneath her hand before pulling back again.

"Stop doing that!" she snapped at him as she saw a half smirk curling on his lips. Damon had blurred himself right behind her and was waiting with his hand out for the towels. Her body froze at his nearness. They had been toe to toe in the loft before, his head only inches from hers. She could feel his angry exhales on her skin then and as he held her balled fist in his hand moving even closer.

Closer, like he was now before she suddenly thrust the towels in his open arms and backed away. She struggled to slow her own breathing as she knew he could hear it racing now and how much faster it went as he was so close.

He chuckled wiping his face of all the water droplets and padding his head to dry it. "You can't say you didn't deserve it E-lena. Are we even now? You stop with the stubborn stupidity and I stop..."

"Being a jackass?" she finished for him with her own smirk on her face. She scoffed openly. "Even?" Not even close. But she did not voice the last part. But it felt good to call him on his crap too. She spun away from him to face the bathroom and brushed her hand over her face, wiping the stray damp strands of hair back. She was still shivering, her bare feet like ice on the cold floor.

He hadn't given her a snarky remark back and the only sounds as it grew quiet between them was the raging storm outside. Elena was debating having a shower to warm up she felt so cold. But she wasn't going to dare do that while Damon was still in her room. Curling up under her covers might not be the best idea either. So she stayed standing, shivering turned away from him not sure what to do.

A moment later Elena felt warmth on her shoulders and turned to one side to see him gently draping a towel around her. She gave him a terse smile pulling the corners of the towel in to wrap her more in it.

"Thank you," she managed to mumble, knowing he could hear the smallest whispers of any humans.

He was silent, pulling the soaking wet leather jacket off him. Elena moved closer and told him she could leave it hanging in the bathroom to dry by the vent. He nodded and passed it to her. She slipped into the bathroom, hung it up and paused at the mirror. She looked tired, her face seemed to be paler than normal and she stretched her skin slightly.

Her inner voice scolded her. What did she care how she looked with Damon in her bedroom? He had been there other times and it had been fine. It was going to be fine. Stefan had nothing to worry about since he was trapped in the tomb.

But he was with Katherine. The 500 year old bitch had been more than clear about her interest in getting Stefan back.

She shook her head, jarring her wandering thoughts. No, she trusted Stefan. He would never do that to her.

Taking in a deep breath Elena smoothed her hair back into a loose high bun and walked back out to face Damon. She had no idea if he was planning to spend the whole night in her room.

Walking out, the shadows in her room were playing tricks on her. He wasn't where she had left him and instead was curled up on her window seat, his long legs folded up toward the opposite wall. She saw he had taken her red throw blanket off her bed and had draped it over his shoulders. His eyes were closed, long lashes hiding her from his piercing gaze. He was asleep, or maybe he just didn't want to talk anymore.

She turned back to her bed, walking as quietly as she could and slipped under the covers. The soft white duvet crinkled under her fingers as she pulled it up to her chin. She wanted to sleep, but her eyes kept getting drawn to his sleeping form. That could not be comfortable like that and yet there he was all curled up on her small window seat.

Elena fought her inner voice, which seemed to be very aware of how uncomfortable she was around Damon, telling herself not to invite him to her bed. He looked like he would be fine there.

She knew Stefan had begged his brother to protect her, no matter what and she assumed that meant even from herself. So having him sleep in her room was a form of that protection and she was grateful for both of them and how much they cared about her.

Maybe this way she would not have any more of those vivid and horrible nightmares. The lightning flashed again, illuminating his prone figure as his head leaned more against the wall by the window. He was half sitting up in his position so his legs were not cramped. He was facing her but she could not tell if he was watching her back, his face hidden in the shadows.

No she would leave him. If he asked to sleep here then that would be another dilemma altogether but she wasn't going to go looking for trouble. Trouble found her quick enough all on its own.

Her eyelids started to droop as she turned and curled up more into her pillow. She was safe. No one would get to her, Klaus or otherwise with Damon protecting her. He would die for her. That thought alone had shook her to her core.

She watched as he pulled her behind him back at the loft. His muscles tensed the second the men burst in. She could see how determined he was. And then Elijah came in asking the other vampires questions. Damon had kept her back behind him and she was sure he was scrambling for another way out of there.

Elijah's hands darted out and he plunged them both into the chests of the vampires. Within the same second he ripped their hearts out and dropped them to the ground as the bodies fell.

Elena's eyes kept going back to the man, the vampire laying on her window-seat and she struggled to find sleep. Her mind was racing with all that had happened. She had seen Damon take a huge breath and tighten his stance, every muscle tensed and ready to leap at the Original vampire below. His expression, his rage, barely contained said with every fiber of his being...he would die for her.

Elena shivered at the look on his face as she moved more forward to try to pull him back. She could not watch him die for her. She couldn't lose him.

It felt like a lot had changed in those heart pounding seconds. He was ready to die for her.

They both had been ready to die too when she had been captured by Rose and Damon and Stefan both risked their lives to save her. She had run down the steps and had been so overwhelmed with relief. Elena had seen Damon waiting at the bottom on the stairs, his gaze fixated on her and she had run. Run toward him and yet Stefan had somehow intercepted them and she had felt guilty ever since then that she had not hugged Damon.

She had been such a liar saying Damon had lost her forever. If anything their friendship had gotten stronger and yet she was keeping him at arms length with her focus on Stefan and now this Klaus thing and before everything with Katherine. Damon had seemed more snarky with her too, sarcastic and casual like nothing mattered to him as all. But she could tell he was being fake. It was just a mask to hide the real vulnerability underneath.

She closed her eyes, willing sleep to come as the storm pounded outside. Morning would not be far away and then she would have to face him again. And Stefan and everything that seemed so messed up between all of them right now.

Elena drifted, feeling the sleep take her. What she didn't see was the breath of movement as Damon blurred in a second to her side and stood over her sleeping form. He gazed down at her and ran the back of his palm over her cheek. She didn't move, her heart stayed steady and slow in sleep. He stayed over her watching, staring, longing…

A few beats later Elena was moving, her head going back and forth on the pillow as a slight whimper escaped her lips. Damon frowned. He moved to place his hand on her forehead, closing his eyes to take him into the dream with her. Why was she scared? Where did she think she was?

He could smell blood, and could hear her whimpered crying in her dream state. It was fully dark around him wherever he was. He couldn't even see with his vampire vision.

The sound of clothes tearing raced to his sensitive eardrums and he almost fell back as he heard her cry out, loud before it was muffled whimpers again. What the hell was happening to her! Why couldn't he save her?

Damon was running his hands all around him in the dark trying to find where she was. He heard the sounds of bodies crashing together, hitting the wall too. The smell of blood was still so strong. Who was hurting her? How could he pull her out of this?

Just as he thought he might have found her in the dark he felt himself pushed back, hard and he fell stumbling with nothing to grab onto. It felt like a rushing of wind in his head whipped around them and this time he could see. But it felt like a completely different scene.

There were shadows, this time, not faces but shadows in front of him. He could make out Elena's hazy figure, her long legs looked bare as she was crying in the corner. She was panting hard struggling to catch her breath as she watched what was happening in front of her. Her face looked bruised, a huge cut was on her cheek, her hair matted with what looked like blood from what he could see! Holy f..

Damon saw it looked like a black button down shirt that was much to big on her was her only clothing too. Someone had hurt her? Beaten her? Stripped her of her clothes?! What the fuck had happened to her?!

The shirt looked like it could have been his, its buttons were torn and it had blood and holes in it. He saw her shiver at coolness of the air on her bare legs. Her hair wasn't just tangled but soaked too and she looked to be trembling, curled into herself.

Damon could not explain it but he felt fear. Her fear, like he was one with her own mind, not just a traveler in it. The fear was swallowing her whole, wrapping its twisted evil fingers around her. She was blinking rapidly maybe hoping that what she was seeing was not real.

Even Damon shut his eyes trying to will her away and to come to him in her mind. Away from the horrors he was seeing. But this image would not let go of either of them.

He could see make out Stefan standing tall, the muscles in his chest tight, his face a combination of determination and pure fear too. He held a tree branch, sharpened to a point like a stake at one end and he spun it in his hand and he walked away from her and toward where Damon had been stuck standing, watching unable to move to help either of them.

Elena was crying and gasping for breath as he followed her gaze and saw where his brother was walking..

Someone turned away from him was on his knees, chains around his wrists behind his back. His skin was glistening with sweat down, running in trails down his bare back. Dark hair was shimmering in the dim light. Damon could feel the pain in ELena's shared look with the hidden man.

"Close your eyes," the man kneeling choked out.

Damon could see tears as the person turned his head. His voice sounded so familiar…Then the man's head turned toward him and away from her as tears spilled silently down his cheeks.

Damon gasped. He was looking right at himself!

He was the man on the ground...on his knees with chains around his wrists! Why the hell was Elena dreaming this?!

Realization of what he was seeing hit him like a freight train and he froze in an instant ripping himself from her mind and she threw her head up almost hitting him in her panic. Elena's eyes were wide as her head darted around. She was panting so hard he had no idea how she was still breathing.

Her eyes focused, her face scrunching up as she whimpered and cried. His hands cupped her face, waiting for her eyes to find his. "Elena, its okay. It was just a dream...a nightmare."

"Damon?" she whispered shakily. He nodded to her and without another word she flung her arms around his neck and clung to him.

He held her, sitting up on her bed as she cried in his arms. It had felt SO real to him too. What the fuck was that? Was Klaus trying to get into her dreams in her head? Did he have witches? Part of him wanted to solve this. Go to Stefan in the tomb and ask him about it. Ask Bonnie, anyone. But the other part of him reveled in having his arms around her.

It was such a foreign feeling to be so close to her like this and he held on, telling himself that she had him, everything in him was hers, heart and soul. If she needed him he would be there and right now he was so glad he took the risk of coming up to her window to ask to be let in. He could have stayed under the awning of her house, away from the rain but he didn't take protecting her lightly.

Damon held her as she laid against his chest, her fingers had snaked up to grip the edges of his collar, holding on for dear life. He shushed her and rocked her, his head right by hers, his mouth by her ear. Murmuring over and over that it would be okay. He was right here...

A/N I'd Love to hear your thoughts on if this is even a good idea to redo this book. Let me know if you like it.

Please favorite, follow and take a minute to review. It always inspires me to write more and quicker when I know people are eagerly awaiting more.

This version might be much different than the original so I am debating deleting that one completely.