Disclaimer: I don't own the vampire diaries, pr any of the characters. If I did I wouldn't be a software engineer to keep the lights on.
*buzz*
Elena was in the middle of straightening her hair, whoever it was texting her could wait a few minutes.
*buzz*
She rolled her eyes and clamped the hot iron on the next section of her hair, sliding it down smoothly and gently. It was probably just Damon texting her an unsolicited wake-up call, or Caroline with her daily drama. Either way, she knew it wasn't going to be Stefan, so she really didn't care. Unclipping the next section of hair, she heard her phone buzz again. Three texts in a row, and she finally caved.
Carefully putting down her straightener on the edge of the bathroom counter, she walked into her room and grabbed her phone from the dresser. Her phone must have been blowing up during her shower too, because she has 8 unread texts, all from Bonnie:
7:24am: Elena, are you going over to the Salvatores' again today?
7:36am: Have you heard from Damon Today?
7:40am: Damon isn't answering my calls, could you tell him I need to talk to him?
8:00am: Hey if you aren't going over there could you try to call him? I'm sure he would be thrilled to get a call from you *barf*
8:10:am: Or just shoot him a text?
8:20am: tell him I need to talk to him about a locator spell
8:22am: Elena are you ok?
8:23: Elena should I be trying to locate YOU?
Wait. Locator spell? Was Damon trying to find Stefan without her? Bonnie knew about this and didn't tell her? Ignoring any potential anger at Bonnie, she assumed this was all Damon's fault.
She shot back a quick text:
8:24: I am on my way to the boarding house. Was in the shower. Will tell him.
She gave up on straightening her hair, she had to get over to the boarding house as soon as possible. Throwing her half-ironed hair into a messy bun, she wiggled into a pair of black leggings and threw on a long tank top that was just long to be an insurance policy for if her underwear accidentally were showing through the fabric. The last thing she needed right now were snarky comments from Damon about the pattern of her underwear. A swipe of deodorant, a dab of lip balm and two flip-flops later, she was rushing out the door and into her car, barreling toward the Salvatore home.
As she pulled up to the driveway and bolted out of her car, she dabbed a bead of sweat off of her forehead. The balmy summer Virginia air and the anger of not being included in Stefan's rescue created the perfect environment for stress sweat. The boarding house key Stefan gave her was the easiest to find on her keychain, since it was heavy, old and a bit too fancy looking. She wasn't going to knock today, she didn't even want Damon to know she was coming. He always had his way of slithering through these types of arguments, making excuses and convincing Elena it was ok, so the more she could catch him off guard, the more likely she was to stand her ground.
She bounded up the stairs, each old, hardwood floorboard creaking with the heavy and determined force of her steps. As she turned down the hall toward Damon's room, she saw the door creaking open. Anticipating the confrontation, she closed her eyes and tried to strengthen her resolve, putting on her most stone-cold serious face and taking a deep, confident breath.
"Damon" she hissed as she opened her eyes. Instead of her aggressive gaze falling on the older, more annoying Salvatore brother, she found herself standing in front of what had to be the 1000th woman in the line of Damon's hookups.
The woman was absolutely gorgeous, no surprise. Damon was objectively attractive - Elena couldn't deny that - and gorgeous boys get gorgeous girls. A pair of Damon's silk boxers rested on her curvaceous hips, and one of his black t-shirts hung loose on her shoulders, with the v-neck showing off her Victoria's' Secret model boobs that struck a chord of envy in Elena. Instead of being surprised at the angry, slender Gilbert girl in front of her, she stared at Elena with a confident smirk on her lips. Even this annoyed, Elena couldn't bring herself to take out her anger at Damon on a stranger. As much as she didn't want to become a vampire, she really wished she could compel this girl to leave the house right now.
"Um.. Hi I'm Elena. Are you finished in there? Because I really need to get in to-"
"Um who else would you be? Katherine?" Elena was now blocked from entering the room as the stranger closed the distance between them.
"First problem, I could see the human blood pumping through your jugular a mile away. Not to mention in that little vein popping out of your angry little forehead. Second, if she was anywhere near Mystic Falls, I would have staked her by now" The woman raised her eyebrows at the word 'staked' and Elena gulped, realizing she was not only standing in front of an unfamiliar vampire, but a vampire who knew Katherine. Who then by proxy, knew that Elena was a doppelganger.
Realizing her best bet was to remain confident, she stepped to the side and quickly walked into Damon's room. The silk curtains were still drawn, and the lofty room was only dimly lit by the light glowing from an overly ostentatious chandelier. Damon's room was full of dark and heavy furniture, silky fabrics, and smelled like a mixture of sandalwood and oak. She didn't see him on the bed, so she checked the walk in closet before walking into the bathroom. The amount of black v-necks and black skinny jeans in his closet made Elena roll her eyes.
"Elena, if you wanted to get into my room that bad, you know you could have just asked, the invitation is always open" The singsong tone of the woman's smooth voice seemed eerily familiar, and did she say 'my room', seems a little forward for a woman she had never even seen in the house before. The expansive bathroom, with a shower the size of a small bedroom was empty too. Damon must have left his flavor of the week in bed while he went out to get more blood bags or something.
"Ugh of course he isn't here. Do you happen to know where he is?"
"He? You mean Stefan? Of course he isn't here, he's M.I.A with Klaus-"
"Fine, I'll go find him myself if you won't be helpful"
Elena turned around and started dialing Damon's number as she started walking down the stairs to get to her car. Before she reached the front door, she swore she heard the ringing upstairs. By the time she was opening her car door, the dial tone stopped and someone picked up the phone.
"Miss me already Elena? I mean you are the one who just stormed out of my room" the soft voice purred lewdly through the phone. Now, she was mad at this stranger. What kind of game was she playing? She slammed her car door closed, racing back up the stairs.
"I don't know what game you are trying to play but I am not playing it today. Where is he? This isn't funny. What did you do with him?"
"Elena, calm down. I'm working with Bonnie on this. Just let me throw on some jeans and we can go over to Bon-Bons."
She opened the curtains flooding the room with the bright morning sun. But her alabaster skin began to fry the second it touched the light. With vampire speed she closed the curtains and sighed with relief.
"Well, looks like whether you're coming or not I need to be paying our favorite Bennet Witch a visit. My daylight ring is clearly broken" She rubbed her hand and realized there wasn't a ring there at all.
"Wait I'm not wearing my ring at all. Where the hell is it?"
"Maybe it fell off while you were … in bed?" Elena tried not to think about what kind of sex would knock a ring clear off her finger, but she was sure playboy-Damon was capable.
"Well don't just stand there, help me find it!"
"What does it look like? "
"Do you have some kind of doppelganger amnesia? You know exactly what it looks like. Silver, blue stone, large, old, SALVATORE CREST IN THE MIDDLE"
She knew that ring. That was Damon's ring.
"There is no way that is your daylight ring. That's Damon's ring. It would be too big even for your ring finger. Why do you want his ring?"
"OK Elena you have clearly lost it. It fits my ring finger just fine, it's MY ring after all. " As she gave Elena the finger, using the ring finger instead, she looked at her own hand. The cocky facade cracked completely, and this black-haired blue eyed stranger looked like she was going to faint.
"Well if this doesn't smell 'witchy' I don't know what is, because that is not my hand" The hand looked so delicate so -
"No wait- am I a-" In less than a single human blink, the long legged woman was in front of the huge antique mirror by the closet.
"Well hello Miss Salvatore. You know Elena, I know I probably should be more worried about this but I mean have you seen me? In terms of witchcraft going wrong, things have definitely bit us in the ass worse than this. Well, not this fine ass but-" She was now stripping down in front of the mirror, staring at her own ass.
Elena turned away, both incredibly confused and uncomfortable. "Who the hell are you? Why are you in Damon's room, and why are you stripping in front of me"
"Elena, there is nothing embarrassing about the naked female body.. Especially a hot one. But if you insist, fine." She rolled her eyes and put on a silk robe. "Look, I don't know an easy way to say this but, I'm Damon. It's me"
"This is really funny- did he put you up to this? This no time for jokes!"
"No Elena Gilbert listen. Calm down for one second. You're human, you don't want to give yourself a heart attack. Yesterday Bonnie and I tried to do a new type of locator spell to find Stefan. It didn't work and I came home. Now I know for a FACT that it didn't work."