- Boone -

Rose – everything about her was somehow simple.

All right, she was a 400 year old vampire that had been on the run for half an eternity, but when choosing between Katherine, a selfish bitch and Shannon, an arrogant cow and Rose, then Rose was the most normal girl Damon could have imagined. She had brown hair and delicate, girlish features, freckles and soft lips. When she kissed him warm shivers ran through his body. No more and no less.

She gave Damon hope that he was more than just the obsessive shadow of a woman. Hope… just the thought of it made the already icy skin of Damon Salvator pale. How could he have hoped! They said that he would lose all of those human weaknesses, didn't they? Then how come he felt hot jealousy rising up in him and anger like blazing fires in his stomach whenever he saw Shannon with another man? Why did he feel cold emptiness where his heart used to beat and why did he writhe with pain when he thought of roses ashen body?

It was what he told the redheaded stranger tonight. The unfairness of having all the animal instincts and needs but still having to bear the burden and feel all the emotions a human would. "I'm not human. And I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the world." he had cried out into the night.

There had been a time when everything was easy. Shortly after his transformation he had given in into his animalistic desires – his nature. It was before he met her. It seemed impossible now to go back, to let her go.

Shannon. She was the light where Katherine had been the darkness. He was forced to give up Katherine and her spitting image Elena. It had been easier with Elena than with Katherine, he had needed centurys to forget her and only a few weeks for Elena.
Maybe he just saw her as a second chance, as a hint of fate to leave all the drama with Shannon behind him and lead a life with Elena that Katherine never cared to give him. Instead she became the parody of his past, she made him look like a fool choosing his brother like Katherine had. "It was always Stefan." the vampire had confessed him on one of her kind moments. She had spit it out to hurt him and she had. It hit him icecold. Maybe, he thought, he still wasn't over Katherine.. or Elena. Still both were a lost cause.

It was different with Shannon. He didn't seem to be able to forget her. Not even when they were half a world apart – he in Mystik Falls and she on the island.

It was as if his own compelled vision possessed him. She was more to him than a step sister, or a lover. She was his.

Maybe they should return to this tropical island in the middle of the pacific. Unfortunately that didn't turn out like he had imagined the first time. 40 easy snacks and a longlegged beauty all alone with him? It wasn't as easy when the woman you loved thought you were human and moreover somewhat guileless and nice.

In fact the only snack he could enjoy at first was Joanna. Who would have thought that this stupid folks cried after every little human life lost?

It was easier on the other side of the island. Panic and chaos helped him along. It wasn't even necessary to compell them. They accused each other. Ana-Lucia was full of distrust and aggression and the others followed her blindly. A few kidnappings later and they killed each other without a second thought and he had no problem getting blood. He made no difference between "us" and "the others" – as long as the blood was still warm when he got there.

In the end it was Ana-Lucia who shot Shannon for him. Not that he had to do much for it. That was the funny thing about Ana-Lucia, he didn't have to convince her. She was paranoid enough. Maybe it was his doing that some of the branches cracked and that Shannon felt the strange need to follow Walt's image. But really Ana-Lucias finger was loose enough around the trigger and it was all thanks to her that Shannon bled out in the jungle.

Now that Shannon was one of his kind it should be easier. She pulled through the predatory phase and was back to her annoying old self. She didn't cry anymore, she didn't need him to watch her every move, to guide her, take care of her.

He just wasn't sure if he was glad about it or not.