By the Light of the Moon
DG32173

Sarah: here's the sister-fic to Moonlit Seduction. I hope you enjoy Damon's viewpoint of that story!

DISCLAIMER
If you recognize it and I hadn't claimed it in another story of mine, then you can safely assume that I don't own it. If I do own, I'll claim it before the chapter it appears in. This is the only disclaimer for the whole fanfic.

WARNINGS
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! Starts in Season 1 after Miss Mystic Falls but before Isobel. Rated M for my sanity, not that I have any. Damon's viewpoint. Also, be prepared to see Damon venting a lot of his frustration with his brother's actions at the start of this chapter. Due to Stefan's refusal to acknowledge him, Damon will be giving a pretty much one-sided monologue for the majority of that venting.

SUMMARY
Damon watches as Elena's relationship with Stefan goes through its death throws due to Stefan's inability to tell her the truth. He decides this is the perfect opportunity to step in by the light of the moon and sweep her off her feet and into his arms for eternity. Much to his surprise, it's actually working. Damon/Elena

SHOUT-OUT
Again, I want to express my immense gratitude to VDfan2107 for his help as my beta-reader as well as his helpful suggestions that inspire my muse.


Chapter 1
The Start of Something More

I watch my brother through the barred window in the door to the vampire holding cell he's in. The same one he had imprisoned me in for three long days in an attempt to desiccate me. "How's it feel to be the one who's been betrayed by someone you thought you could trust?" I ask him. "Sucks, doesn't it? Yeah, well, you've betrayed both Elena and I too many times. It was about time we showed you how it felt." He stays silent, his back to me. But I know he's awake. The vervaine Elena injected him with is putting him through hell, but he's fighting like crazy to keep from crying out in pain. "Go ahead, pretend to ignore me. I'm going to say my peace whether or not you want to hear it. I've done a lot of rotten things to Elena since showing up in her life. I've been the reason people she's known her whole life have died. I used one of her best friends from infancy as a walking Happy Meal and tried to kill the other in a fit of rage. Hell, I even ripped someone's heart out while she waited in the car. I didn't tell her that I ripped Bree's heart from her chest, but something tells me she knows that I killed the traitorous witch. But the one thing I've never done to Elena was lie to her face. I've omitted important parts of the truth and misled her that way. But I never tacked a lie onto anything I've told her. I never tricked her into thinking that I'm perfect because I know damn well I'm not. I even hinted to her that she and Katherine share a remarkable resemblance, though she obviously didn't pick up on it."

He continues to refuse to talk to me, but I can tell by the tension in the air that he's listening. "You, however, have lied to her so many times I'm betting she's upstairs wondering if she is a complete idiot for believing you time and again only to find out that you have lied to her time and again. As I told her, I'd normally be thrilled to have you on the human stuff. But apparently the changes she's made in me are pretty damn immense. Because I don't like the fact that you're on it. And not just because your lack of control can easily put the secret council on our trail. No, I don't like it because you are a risk to the innocents in this town who have no clue that everything they've grown up believing is one big charade. Take that Amber girl you were so deadset on draining the life from that you threw me into a tree when I tried to pull you off her. She didn't deserve to die, not like that, not that young. You better be damned grateful that I managed to compel her to think some animal attacked her and get some of my blood in her before she lost consciousness." I rake a hand through my hair. "A mere six months ago, I wouldn't have given a damn if she lived to tell the whole damn town that you're a vampire or if she died. I give credit for that change to Elena. She's been busting her ass trying to redeem me from all the shit I've done over the decades. And, apparently, whatever she's doing is working."

I look at the plastic bottle of deer blood in my hand. "I brought you something," I tell him, tossing it through the bars. It lands on the ground next to him. "You won't be any good to anyone desiccated. But it's up to you. Either drink that deer blood or desiccate in there. Because the only way I'm letting you out of that cell is once you're firmly on the animal diet again. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm going to need your help to deal with those tomb vampires. Teaming up with the teacher to rescue you from them is one thing. Taking them down completely is something else entirely. And until they're taken out, they are going to be a threat to Elena, Jeremy, Jenna, and every other person in this town. They're out for vengeance for what this town did to them in 1864. They don't care that the actual people involved in the act are long dead and gone. They don't care that the majority of the members of this town don't even know about what happened that night. They are angry and vengeful. They want someone to pay for them being deprived of freedom and blood for a hundred-and-forty-five years. They would prefer many people pay. They don't care that the people living here now are innocent of that crime and that the majority of them don't even know about vampires and witches and so on. All that matters is that the people of Mystic Falls call the town that tried to kill them home. And that's enough reason to kill every last person in this town. I'm going to need more help than just the teacher to help me take them down. Whether Elena wants you to stick around after that is up to her. But, as I'm sure you recall, she was not pleased to find out that she had believed yet another of your lies."

I study him as he remains completely motionless. "What happened to the brother I had that was so damned honest that he ended up getting us both killed? Is that what made you decide that you can never tell the truth to anyone?" I ask. "Hate to break it to you, Steffie, but what happened in 1864 happened nearly a hundred-and-forty-five years ago. It is 2009, little bro. You don't have to spend eternity feeling like you have to repent for every damn thing that ever happened to both of us. That's your problem: you can't let the past go. Wake up, Steffie. The past is the past. It can't be changed, no matter how much we want it to be. All we can do is live one day at a time. Think about it this way: if we had done things differently in 1864, we would have probably lived to a ripe old age and died long before Elena was born. Even if we had done things differently in the years since, we probably would never have met her. Don't know about you, but she's the only person I've ever met that could be called an earthbound angel. She's been busting her ass trying to redeem us both of our pasts. But you are fighting her so damn hard that you're not even budging. The more I get to know her, the more I want to be a better man. The more I want to be able to feel worthy of the friendship she has been gracious enough to gift me with."

I sigh. "Stefan, she gave you a helluva lot more than mere friendship. She gave you her heart. She even gave you her virginity," I remind him. "And what have you done to repay her for those precious gifts?" He stays silent, but the tension in the air intensifies. "I'll tell you what you did. You lied to her face so many times she's left analyzing every word that leaves your lips, trying to detect the faintest hint that you're lying to her again. You've kept things from her, things she has every right to know. Her efforts to pry the truth from her sound a helluva lot like torture. You won't believe how many times she's come to me in tears over catching you in yet another lie. From what I gather, she and her brother were raised to value honesty above all else. Your inability to be honest with her is tearing her apart inside. She hasn't said as much, but I've got eyes. I know her a helluva lot better than you do for all that I'm just a friend and you're her boyfriend. Sure, my methods of learning more about her may have been underhanded and may piss her off every damn time she discovers another incident where I went through her things in her room while she was out. But at least I'm putting forth the effort to learn more about who she is and who she was before her parents drowned. You? You haven't even bothered to even consider that she's not just the doom-and-gloom persona she's been portraying since her parents died. You watched her over the summer and decided that she has always been like that. Wake the fuck up, brother. You should know better than anyone the sudden death of one parent, much less both of them, is enough to drive someone off the deep end. The spark of fire that's been flaring up in her lately is a taste of who she was before her parents drowned. Did you know that she places the blame of what happened that night squarely on her own shoulders? She blames herself for being the reason her loved ones died that night because she broke a promise." Stefan stiffens at that. "Sounds like a pretty damn familiar scenario, doesn't it? Hmm… where have I heard of that happening before?" I ask cruelly. I snap my fingers. "Oh, that's right!" I say, as if I just remembered. "You broke a promise to me in 1864 when you went to Father to try to 'reason' with him. You promised me that you wouldn't say a damn word to Father about anything remotely relating to vampires. But you broke your promise. Because of that, Katherine was captured, we were shot through the heart by our own father for trying to rescue her, and then you killed Father in completing transition. Not to mention you further betrayed me by forcing me to complete the transition when I wanted to die more than anything. It wasn't until I first laid eyes on Elena that I finally found it in myself to forgive you for both betrayals."

I shake my head at him. "Well, Elena was supposed to attend Family Night that night because Jenna was in town on a visit. She and Jeremy both promised to attend. But, according to her diary entry several weeks later, she had grown tired of being the good girl who did what was expected of her. She wanted to party. Then she got the invitation to the party in the woods. So she broke her promise to her family and skipped family night so she could party. She wanted a taste of the wild side for a once, a taste of what it's like to do what she wanted rather than what the world wanted her to do. She got repaid for that taste with the deaths of her parents, who she loved just as much as she loves her brother and her aunt. Ever since she woke up in the hospital and overheard a nurse and a doctor arguing about whether to tell her about her parents' deaths or not, she has been living through grief, guilt, self-hatred, and self-blame. A lot like you, my brother. But when I read her journal entry about Georgia, I discovered that she was finally ready to let her parents rest in peace and cast off the demons that have been haunting her. You won't believe how surprised I was that I was the reason she was ready to 'start living again rather than merely existing'. Her words, not mine. A few days later, I checked back with her journal and you won't believe my surprise to see more than half the words of the entries since then blurred by tearstains. From what I could put together, her tears were your fault. She and I had both seen the disappointment in her that appeared in your eyes whenever she started letting her inner fire burn brighter in her attempt to learn to live again. You have no idea how much that disappointment in her attempt to get past her demons had damaged her self-esteem. No one can handle carrying around those demons forever. Not without major consequences in other areas of their life. You're a prime example of that."

"How?" Stefan croaks.

"And he can actually speak," I say sarcastically. "I was wondering if maybe the vervaine had your tongue. You, Steffie, have let your role in what happened that day in 1864 consume you with grief and guilt. You betrayed my trust by placing your trust in a man who had done nothing to deserve it. He may have been our father, but he only held that role because his blood ran in our veins. You were the reason the girl we both thought we loved was taken from us. Because of that, you tagged along when I went to 'rescue' her. Your broken promise to me got us both killed by the very man you thought you could trust. Then, when you made it back to town after you woke up in transition, you had no idea what was going on with you because Katherine didn't take the time to train you in the ways of vampires while you were still human as she did me. Father further destroyed your trust in him by trying to kill you again. Your vampire instincts took over because he was a threat to your life. You ended up plunging the stake into him. As he died, you fed on his blood. The sheer stress from all of that caught up with you and you lost your sanity. You never did have much self-control because you were never chastised in your life for any of your mistakes because I took the blame for anything you did wrong. What Lexi should have done was train you in self-control and how to control the vampire within you. She didn't. I was too torn up at the time to bother with the brother who had broken my trust. You've allowed yourself and your inner vampire to fall into nearly a century-and-a-half's worth of bad habits. While I'd love to take the time to break you of those habits, I don't have the time to do so. So I have to get you back onto that revolting diet Lexi insisted you live on. Once we take care of those tomb vampires, I'm going to drudge up all the memories I have of the training Katherine gave me in the ways of vampires as well as every damn thing I've learned in training the vampires I sired and I'm going to force you to learn self-control and I'm going to train you in controlling the monster that took up roost in your soul the second father shot that musket ball through your heart. I'm going to do what Lexi should have done. I'm going to break you of those bad habits that have been going on too damn long. When I'm through, either you're going to be able to manage as a proper vampire that can control themselves even around a bloodbath or I'm going to have to stake you myself to put you out of your misery. Lexi's no longer here to baby you and, if you'll recall, I never did, not even when we were humans. Elena's only seventeen. It hasn't even been nine months since her life went to hell. But she's ready to shove her demons aside and move on with life. You're a hundred-and-sixty-two. Your life went to hell nearly a century-and-a-half ago. And you're still letting your demons rule you."

I shake my head in disappointment. "Hell, Jeremy's sixteen. He's lost his parents. He's lost the girl he's loved his whole life in a way that she's not coming back from. His sister had her boyfriend's nasty older brother meddle with his mind and take away the memory of how his girl has died without asking him what he wanted. Sure, he's holding a grudge against his sister for her betrayal of his trust. But I can tell that he will move on from it, given time. And sure, he got into drugs to block out the pain of losing his parents and nearly losing his sister all in the same night. But now he's handling it. He's not letting his demons get the best of him. He's been knocked down time and again, but he's gotten right back up every damn time. You got knocked down once and you gave up. Think about all the hell the Gilbert kids have been put through. At the young ages of fourteen and sixteen, they lost both their parents at the same time. Parents who loved them and who they loved in return. Elena could easily have died in that crash as well. They handled the loss in their own ways. But by the start of the school year, Elena was starting to let go. Jeremy took a little longer, but he's two years younger than her. Elena had already been testing her wings, so to speak. Jeremy was still firmly in the nest. Neither of them was prepared to have their parents taken from them so tragically. Jeremy was starting to recover with the help of Vicki. Hate to break it to you, but you are just as responsible for what happened to that girl as I am. You locked me up and starved me of blood for three long days. I managed to break out but I was ravenous. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was stubborn enough to live through me draining her to the point of death. I brought her back here so I could use her to amuse me while waiting for the return of my ring, which you took. I warned you that night when you and Zach spiked my bourbon that there would be consequences for pissing me off like that. That those consequences was the death of Jeremy's girl in front of his eyes, we're both equally to blame. I'm not the only one who did things that hurt Elena. I did terrible things to people she grew up with. I'm behind the deaths of people she's known her whole life. But you have done things that have hurt her just as much. My actions were directed at those around her. I hurt her by hurting those she knew. You, however, hurt her directly. You lied to her face more times than I can even begin counting. You can't bring yourself to trust her enough to tell her the damn truth. She's your girlfriend, Stefan. Trust is a major part of a positive relationship. But your inability to trust has turned your relationship with that amazing young woman into a negative one. You can't bring yourself to tell her the truth about anything. And she no longer trusts a word you say."

I sigh. "You could have had the world with her," I tell him. "But you use one incident of misplaced trust as an excuse to trust no one. An earthbound angel gave you her heart and her virginity. But you betrayed her with your inability to be honest with her. And this last lie was one of the biggest you've told her and it very nearly resulted in disaster at what should have been one of the biggest events of her life. You should know this: she went through with attending Miss Mystic Falls as a contestant to honor the memory of her mother. It was Miranda Gilbert's dream to see Elena crowned Miss Mystic Falls, not Elena's. But Elena's decision to believe you when you told her that you were on animal blood and safe to be her escort blew up in her face and could very easily have resulted in completely ruining her attempt to honor her mother's memory. You better be damned grateful I stepped in to escort her in your place in order to keep her from being completely humiliated. Lying to her was bad enough. Completely abandoning her in front of the town? Dick move, Stefan. Now, drink the animal blood. Or don't. I'm going upstairs to check on how she's holding up."

With that, I turn away from the heavy iron door and make my way upstairs. I find Elena in the foyer, sipping at a glass of my bourbon while staring up at the moon through one of the windows. Her necklace is in her hands again rather than around her neck. She takes it off when she's in the boarding house, preferring to carry it in her hands or, more preferably, a pocket. I can understand her reasons for doing this, but it doesn't mean I like that she does it. I watch her. The room is only lit by the nearly full moon shining through the windows. The effect on Elena is so breathtaking it's a good thing I don't really need to breathe. It would be downright mind-boggling if it weren't for the sadness in her face and eyes. Elena's listening to Good Girl by Carrie Underwood, which is playing on her IPod on repeat cranked up. My guess is she's comparing herself with the good girl in the song and finding that the similarities are even more uncanny than her resemblance to Katherine. That's saying something, in my opinion.

I let her stay lost in her thoughts, though I know damn well that she knew the instant I walked in the room simply be the fact that her body had relaxed, the tension and stress lifting as if I had taken all of it from her shoulders. I admire the effect the gentle moonlight has on her. She closes her eyes when Stefan cries out in pain from the vervaine. But I eventually get fed up with how furrowed her brow is getting. I walk over and yank the card attached to the earbud in her right ear, successfully yanking it out. "You're going to get brood lines on par with St. Stefan's if you keep going down the path your thoughts are heading," I say. "So spill. What's troubling that pretty head of yours?"

She sighs, turns off her IPod, and turns to me. "No one can ever get brood lines to match your brother's," she tells me. "But if I'm not going to sink into despair, I need to vent to someone. And right now, you're the only one I can vent to. My journal's not helping. Bonnie's not speaking to me because I refuse to cut you two out of my life. And Caroline's busy dating Matt. Her help in picking out my dress for Miss Mystic Falls was the most time I've spent with her in ages. Jeremy's not talking to me because I had you erase his memories of the night Vicki died."

I turn her towards one of the sofas and put my hand at the small of her back to guide her to the sofa. She flops down on it. I lift her feet so I can sit there and put them in my lap. "You said you need to vent, so vent," I say, fiddling with the strings of her sneakers. "I'm all ears."

She sighs and rakes a hand through her hair. "Where to even begin? There's only so much I can take and my stress-o-meter is so far past the red zone it's a miracle I haven't cracked," she tells me.

"Why don't you start at the beginning," I suggest.

She closes her eyes. "Well, the first event, the one I feel started the snowball effect on the stress-o-meter, was my decision on May 23rd. I chose to break a promise for the first time in my life. I didn't want to be the 'good girl' who attended Family Night because that was expected of her. I had been getting the ever-increasing feeling of being trapped by the 'good girl' routine I had spent my whole life perfecting. I wanted to break free, kick up my heels. I wanted a taste of what it would be like if I lived my life for me rather than everyone else. I wanted to go to a party with my boyfriend of the time. So I did. Then Matt ruined the whole damn night by talking about the future he envisioned for us. And I got that feeling of being trapped again. Because this whole damn town expected me to fall in love with Matt, marry him, have his kids, and all that crap. I had been having a blast until he started down that line. I told him exactly how that line of talking made me feel. I demanded to know where he got the damn idea that I even wanted that life he had planned out all the way to what would be on our tombstones. I told him that, sure, I was dating him. But I only did it because I had fallen into the habit of being the 'good girl' who did what everyone else expected of me. I chewed him up and spat him out. Then I turned on my heel and called my parents for a ride home and then I called Bonnie to vent my frustrations. In the end, I wanted out of the 'good girl' life I had habituated myself into. And my parents lost their lives for what? A party that had been ruined because I started feeling trapped all over again? If I had chosen to go with Caroline instead of asking Matt to go, I would have had a blast, lived it up, and it would have probably been close to sunrise when we finally called it quits. Or I could have just stayed home for Family Night like I had promised. Either way, my parents would probably still be alive. And I probably would never have met your damn brother. Both of which would have been pluses."

"What about me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at her.

She opens her eyes. "I get the feeling that you and I would have met no matter what I chose to do that night," she tells me honestly. "You had come back to open that tomb. That means you would have been sticking around after you arrived in town, whenever that was. Mystic Falls is a very small town. We would have crossed paths, I'm sure of it. Who knows? I could have lost my virginity to you had I done that night differently." I smirk at that thought. She closes her eyes again. "All Stefan has ever done was lie to my face time and again. I should have known from the instant I found that picture of Katherine in his room that I could never trust him to tell me the truth. I foolishly thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd see that the consequences of lying to me can be pretty severe. I should have known that going back to him would have made him think that I'd always forgive his lies." She takes a shaky breath and I can almost smell the tears she's trying to keep from surfacing. "I can't handle any more lies. I'm already lying to everyone I know about what's going on with my life. I need people to tell me the damn truth so I know what I need to do to protect my loved ones. My parents raised Jeremy and me on the basis of 'Trust for Trust'. To be able to give your trust to someone, you have to be able to receive their trust in return. Jeremy repeated those words to me when I found out he read my journal. He pointed out that, as the saying points out, trust works both ways. I couldn't trust him with the knowledge of what's going on. And he couldn't trust me to tell him the damn truth. When he pointed that out, I realized I was getting as bad as Stefan. I was getting to the point of becoming a compulsive liar. And that's one thought that scares the hell out of me. When you told me Stefan lied about being back on the animal blood diet and I saw for myself that I just can't believe a word he says, I felt my heart breaking. I'm no longer certain about anything he's told me. I know he told the truth about my adoption, but I had to pry it out of him in a manner that made me feel like I was pulling his nails out to get to the truth. I should have realized then that he doesn't think I'm strong enough to handle it when someone makes me face the bitter truth about something in my life. Well, seeing him throw you into a tree when you were trying to pull him off Amber was like getting ice water thrown on me. The rose-tinted glasses were snatched off and I could see the bleak reality: Stefan Salvatore can't be trusted. It's as simple as that."

"What are you going to do about it?" I ask.

"There's only one thing I can do about it and be able to live with myself afterwards: I have to cut him out of my life. He could so easily turn on me and lie to my face about it. And he's such a good liar that I won't be able to know whether I should believe him or not. You've done horrible things to people I've known my whole life. You've omitted huge parts of the truth at times. But you have never looked me in the eye and outright lied to my face. In my opinion, telling someone the truth is a sign of respect. You have always respected me enough to tell me as much of the truth as you could at the time. I sometimes wonder if Stefan even knows what the truth is anymore or if he believes even his own lies. I'll help get Stefan back on animal blood, but then I'm going to tell him to get out of my life before I completely lose all patience with him and stake him myself. One way or another, I need to get him out of my life. I don't want to kill your brother because even with all that lies between the two of you, you're still brothers. You're all the family the other has left. Family is a powerful bond and not one that should be taken lightly. I don't want to take him from you Damon, but I can't handle hearing anymore of his lies." She bites her lips, obviously debating whether she should tell me something or not. "Stefan was behind my lie about being able to trust him to help you get the grimiore. He half-strangled me with the necklace and I was so terrified he would yank it completely from my neck and compel me to lie to you that I promised to lie. After what happened the night my parents died, I swore to myself that I would never break another promise. But that was one promise I shouldn't have held up."

"I figured he had something to do with your lies," I admit. "At the time, I only wanted to make you understand just how betrayed I felt because of your lie. But later, when I calmed down, I realized that you would not have broken my trust in you unless Stefan somehow had his fingers on the strings. I've seen just how much you hate lying and liars. I've been wondering when you would finally reach your limit with Stefan's lies."

"I've been playing the role of the good girl," she says. "I've been doing what everyone expected of me. 'Date the good guy. Keep the bad boys at arms reach. The more miserable you are, the brighter your smile.' Well, the one everyone was fooled into believing was the 'good guy' is nothing but a compulsive liar who's probably forgotten how to tell the truth without having someone rip into him to get it. You're the one everyone thinks is a bad boy. Even you've come to believe that. But you're not as bad as you like to think you are. There's good in you. As for hiding my misery… I'm not going to let myself continue down this miserable dead-end road. I'm going to take my life back in my own hands and stop doing what others expect of me. I'm going to live my life in a way that makes me happy."

"And what makes you happy?" I ask.

She frowns and I'm surprised by her next words. "To be perfectly honest, I don't really know. I've spent so much of my life doing what will make everyone else happy that I have no idea what makes me happy," she tells me with a sigh.

"Well, you seemed to be having a blast in Georgia," I say, smirking at her. She opens her eyes. "C'mon, Elena, you just got through saying that you want to live your life for yourself. What do you want to do right now? Take it from someone who knows: life is best lived in the moment. Tell me the very first thing that pops in your head."

"Dancing," she tells me. "I always loved dancing. I miss it."

I smirk and slide out from under her feet so that I'm standing in front of her. I offer her my hand. "Dance with me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at her.

"We need music," she tells me, placing her hand in mine.

"Elena," I say, pulling her to her feet. "We do not need music. You and I, we have our own little song that no one else hears." I pull her against me, my left hand on her hip and my right hand holding her left. She places her right hand on my shoulder. "Close your eyes and listen." She obediently closes her eyes and listens. But I can see clearly that she's doing it wrong. I give her a chance to figure out what I meant. But it quickly becomes apparent I'm going to have to point it out to her. "Elena, you're doing it wrong. Don't listen with your ears. Listen for the song with your heart."

She frowns in confusion but obediently tries it my way. I start slowly guiding her in a dance that goes to the melody that plays in the back of my head whenever I'm near this beautiful woman. Her beauty goes beyond just her looks; it goes right down to her soul. I can see in her expression when she figures it out. I start humming the melody as we continue to dance. She opens her soft brown eyes to smile warmly at me. I wink at her before spinning her out and pulling her back in. I proceed to show Elena the full extent of my dancing skills, continuing to hum the song that belongs to us.

I have a strong feeling that this is the start of something more than I ever thought I'd ever be worthy of having.

Stefan

I grit my teeth as Damon's hint that I have lost Elena with my lies is proven true by her words. I close my eyes, trying in vain to ignore them. But when they start dancing, I can feel the tears seeping out from under my eyelids. I find that I vaguely recognize the song Damon starts humming. But I only know it in bits and pieces. It's the song I hear in the back of my head when I'm near Elena, but it's as if someone had broken the record into many pieces, tried to glue it back together, and only then played the song for me. Hearing Damon hum the song as it should be played proves to me just how badly my copy of it had been broken and fragmented. Damon and I had been hearing the same song in the back of our heads when near Elena, but the record I got the song from was damaged badly before I ever got my hands on it. Damon had gotten the pure form of the song from the orchestra as it was recorded. I get the feeling that this perfectly symbolizes our individual relationships with Elena. Damon had referred to her as an earthbound angel. I have to agree with that sentiment. I had gotten her heart and her virginity. But I didn't realize just how precious those gifts had been until she took her heart back. I know that if she could, she'd take her virginity back as well, but that's impossible.