Moonlit Seduction
DG32173
Sarah: Here's Chapter 2 of Moonlit Seduction. I'm so glad everyone enjoyed the first chapter! I hope my lovely readers continue to enjoy this! First I'll reply to reviews and then it's on with the story!
REVIEW REPLIES
YAZMIN V: I agree: Damon and Elena are made for each other. Thank you so much for the compliments!
housesbabe1: I'm glad you thought the beginning was amazing.
jairem: yeah, I agree. Elena really should have spewed her frustrations with Stefan's inability to tell the damn truth to Damon. It would be so hilarious, especially if Stefan overheard it but was unable to defend his actions.
PattyFleur87: I still can't believe you're hooked on my stories. But this is the second time I've seen you review to say that. Here's more!
Sere'sLight: I'm glad you liked what I've come up with. Here's the next chapter!
zikae218: thank you so much for the praise. You don't have to wait anymore because here's the next chapter!
Chapter 2
Comforting Companionship
After spending nearly an hour dancing with Damon as he hummed our song, he decided to light a fire in the hearth in the living room. Now he's seated on the loveseat facing the hearth and I'm curled up next to him, my head resting in his lap. I don't know how long we've been like this, each taking comfort in the silent companionship of the other.
I'm on the brink of falling asleep. Being in Damon's presence has always been a great comfort to me, even when he was being a badass vampire and hell bent on hurting people I've known my whole life just to get to me. I don't know why that is so. I mean, I should have been afraid of him. But, even then - even when his humanity switch was firmly in the "off" position - I somehow knew that he would never be able to go through with hurting me directly. Even when he had my back pressed to his chest, forcing his blood on me and threatening to turn me into a vampire, I knew he wouldn't be able to go through with forcing me into that state against my will. It didn't stop me from being pissed as hell about his choice of actions. But it was really my fault to begin with. He had decided I had earned his trust for some damn reason. And I went and threw that precious gift back in his face by looking him in the eye and lying. I knew just how hard it is for him to bring himself to trust someone, especially after everything that has happened to him in his long life. And I didn't appreciate that priceless gift until he took it back.
Taking off my necklace and challenging him to compel the truth from me was a dangerous move on my part. He could have compelled me to do any damned thing he pleased and I would have been helpless to stop him. But, for some unknown reason, he chose to give me a second chance. Things between us were shaky and I know that he was keeping a close eye on my words and actions, making damn sure that they matched up. After the opening of the tomb, he came too damn close to flipping his switch again to avoid facing the pain of Katherine's betrayal. But I wasn't going to stand by and let that happen. I had worked too damn hard to bring the man out of the monster the first time. I wasn't going to let him slip back into the monster's frame of mind. So I busted my ass to keep his humanity switch firmly in the "on" position. I think I just might have broken that switch in the process, making it permanently stuck as "on".
I close my eyes and sigh in contentment when Damon starts trailing his fingers through my hair. We've both been wrapped in our own thoughts since we took our positions. I can tell his thoughts are just as tumultuous as my own. So much emotion radiates off of him that even I can sense it, for all that I am a mere human. He once told me that emotions are heightened just as much as everything else when a human becomes a vampire. He told me that's why many vampires keep their humanity switch "off", to avoid the extreme emotional rollercoaster they'd otherwise be trapped on. He said that a human's version of that rollercoaster might as well be the kind made for little kids compared to the extremes vampire emotions can go to.
"You know, your presence has always been soothing to me," he says, voice soft so as not to ruin the moment.
"For all the horrible things you've done to people I've known my whole life, I don't know why it's so, but I can say the same about you," I murmur, keeping my eyes closed.
"Oh?" he asks.
"I've never been afraid of you, Damon. I've only rarely been afraid of the danger your chaotic personality represents to the people around me. Something deep inside of me has told me that you will never hurt me directly. You may hurt those around me to get to me, but something has always told me you would never lay a finger on me with true intent for harm," I explain. "Even that night you caught Stefan and me trying to retrieve Emily's grimiore without you, when you forced your blood on me and threatened to turn me, something inside of me told me that you would never have gone through with it, no matter how angry and hurt you were. Something told me that you would never take the choice from me, no matter what Stefan chose to do with the grimiore."
He's silent for several minutes after that and I sense that he's caught in an internal debate about what to say to that. Finally, he sighs. "The choice of whether to finish transition or not was taken from me by Stefan. He was so determined not to spend eternity alone and didn't give a damn what I wanted at the time. Emily didn't tell me about the tomb until after I was forced to complete transition. She wasn't going to take that choice from me," he says softly. "Even in spite of finding out about the tomb, I held a massive grudge against my brother for so blatantly ignoring my decision not to finish transition up until the moment I saw you and realized you were human. The choice to become a vampire is one that has consequences lasting to the day you are killed permanently. That decision should never be taken from another, no matter what your reasons may be for doing so. You're right in that I would not have gone through with turning you. But I had to make it clear to both you and Stefan that betraying me has enormous consequences. While I may not have forced you into transition, there were other things I was quite willing to do at the time to get my point across had he not complied to my demands to hand over the grimiore."
I open my eyes and watch the flames licking at the loges for several long minutes, thinking over what Damon just told me. "As I said, I hadn't wanted to lie to you about being able to trust him," I say. "But he put me in a situation where I felt my only options were to do so on my own or have him compel me to do so. He was that desperate to keep the grimiore from you. I have never been so scared of someone in my life." I bite my lower lip as I decide if I really want to make this request of him. Finally, I sigh, deciding that I need a way to protect myself from vampire mind games that won't remind me of dark memories every time I look in the mirror. I refuse to go so far as to ingest vervaine. I've given my blood to both brothers to heal them of massive damage inflicted on them by other vampires. I just didn't realize the price of doing so with Stefan would be so damn severe. I had given Damon my blood to heal him from the broken bones Lexi's boyfriend had left him with during our trip to Georgia. In case I need to use my blood to heal him again, I can't ingest vervaine. "Damon, I have a favor I'd like to ask of you."
"You're not one for asking favors of anyone," he says softly. "I'm extremely curious what you want me to do so badly that you'd ask for a favor. I'm all ears."
"I want you to get me something else, some other kind of jewelry, to wear that I can put vervaine in to protect myself. This necklace Stefan gave me holds too many dark memories for me to feel comfortable wearing it anymore. And I don't want to ingest vervaine because what if you need blood to heal from something and I'm the only one who can help you because there's no blood bags around?"
"Like I said in Georgia, your blood is more potent to Stefan and me than you realize," he says softly. "More potent than the blood of anyone else in this world. I only agreed to drink it then because I wasn't willing to risk that guy coming back for more or any other vampire showing up and me being unable to protect you. The situation would have to be pretty damn dire for me to drink your blood again. It took every last ounce of self-control I built up over the years to pull away before I seriously hurt you." He sighs. "But I have a funny feeling you're going to insist on keeping your blood vervaine-free. And I hate seeing you walk around the boarding house without that damn necklace around your neck. So I'm going to grant your favor, not only because of that, but also because I have something I've been wanting to give you. I had this feeling you wouldn't accept the gift before now." He reaches his hand into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulls out a white velvet jewelry case. "Before I give it to you, there are several things you should know about the jewelry set in this case."
"What?" I ask.
"First, the set once belonged to mine and Stefan's mother. She gave it to me just a handful of hours before she died giving birth to Stefan." I open my mouth to protest being able to accept it, but Damon puts his hand over it. "She told me that when I met the girl I would give this set to, I would know it. I never even thought about giving it to Katherine. But from the moment I first laid eyes on you, I kept picturing you wearing it instead of that tawdry piece of junk Stefan gave you. I feel that she would want you to have it."
I sigh. "You said there are several things I should know about the set," I point out when he falls silent for several minutes. "What else should I know about it?"
"About a decade after I was forced to finish my transition, a witch came up to me in a tavern. She told me softly that she worked with the restless souls of those who had left things unfinished when they died. She told me that my mother had come to her in a dream and asked her to cast some enchantments on the jewelry set she had left me as well as pass on a message. That is the only reason I believed a word she had to say. No one but Stefan and I knew about the set Mother left me. And I'm sure he had long forgotten it by the time we turned. I only showed it to him once, when he was twelve and I was nineteen. I had him swear on our family name to tell no one about it before I showed it to him. I knew from the minute Mother gave it to me that Father would never have let me keep it had he known it was in my possession, even if it was Mother's final wish that I have it. Anyways, I let the witch take me to a private room so she could further explain what Mother had told her. She first gave me the rather cryptic message. She also told me that the set was actually several centuries old and had long ago been enchanted against all forms of damage. Then she explained the enchantments my mother had insisted be placed on the set. I wasn't very happy about one of them but I couldn't very well argue with the dead. Particularly when it was my Mother who I would be arguing with." He reaches a hand into his shirt and pulls out a beautiful white-gold three-dimensional heart-shaped pendant with sterling silver inlay hanging from a platinum chain. "This is one of the four pieces of jewelry that make up the set Mother gave me," he says. "The others are a pair of earrings and a locket that match this pendant. The earrings and locket are yours to wear. Once you put them on, only you and I will be able to even touch any of the four pieces. At least this way, no one will ever be able to snatch your protection against vampire mind games from you. The second enchantment the witch placed on the set is that we can use the locket and this pendant to locate each other if we become separated. It's easiest to do it by holding the locket or pendant over a map and concentrating on each other. But, in the instance that there are no maps readily available, we can use them as a sort of compass by concentrating on each other. You are never to take your part of the set off, Elena." He sighs and turns his face away from mine. This tells me that the next enchantment is what he was upset about when it was placed. "The final enchantment that the witch placed is that once you put that jewelry on and I'm wearing the pendant, the jewelry will form a kind of empathy link between us. We will each be able to know exactly what the other is feeling emotionally at any given time. We may not know the reason behind the emotion, but we will be able to sense each other's emotions. As I've never been one to share my emotions with others so freely, I wasn't too pleased about that enchantment when it was placed. But I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised to find that I actually wouldn't mind sharing an empathy link with you."
I suck in a sharp breath at Damon's admittance. That alone tells me just how much he cares about me. That little voice inside of me that tells me I can trust him unconditionally is now telling me that his feelings for me are a whole lot more than the mere friendship he has let me believe they are. It's warning me that I could very easily destroy him in a way that Katherine never could. I have to tread carefully from here on if I take this gift. But that little voice is also telling me that doing this will make everything 'right' again. "I don't know what I've done to make you trust me so damn much that you'd be willing to share your emotions with me in such an intimate way," I say softly. "I'm not sure if I'm grateful or terrified that you feel you can trust me with knowing exactly what you're feeling at any given moment. I've never had someone place that much trust in me before and it's more than a little overwhelming. And the fact that it's you who trusts me so much is even more mind-boggling because I know damn well how hard you fight to make it appear like you care about no one but yourself, trust no one but yourself. It's terrifying that someone who has every reason to doubt the world around him trusts me enough to form an empathy link with me. But at the same time, it's gratifying that you feel I'm worthy of that much trust. I don't feel like I've done anything particularly deserving of such a gift. In fact, I know that I've done many things that should have given you the exact opposite reaction."
Damon chuckles. "Elena, you're a good person. You're kind, you're thoughtful, and you place the whole damn world before yourself. You do whatever it takes to try to protect those you care about, even if it means risking death yourself. You try your damnedest to find something good in everyone around you and when you think you've found something that's the least bit redeeming about someone, you bust your ass trying to save that person from the dark path they are walking. Hell, you even make me want to be the better man when, for the past hundred-and-forty-five years, I've done my damnedest to become irredeemable. You are as honest as you possibly can be. You're so damn loyal that it's actually one of your faults rather than the good thing it should be. When something you do to protect someone has negative consequences elsewhere, you blame yourself because you think that if you had done such-and-such differently, things wouldn't have gone wrong. Hate to break it to you, Elena, but on some things, the choice you made actually had much better results than the choice you didn't make would have had. That is one of your biggest faults. And I'm determined to break you from that way of thinking. You're the most amazing person I have ever had the honor of meeting. But even you have your faults. In your case, the faults are taking traits that would otherwise be good so far that they are actually damaging. Now, I want you to accept my Mother's jewelry as my gift to you. The earrings and the locket already have some dried vervaine in them."
I sigh. "I take it you're going to insist," I say softly.
"I am," he says.
"Then I have no choice but to accept," I concede. I carefully sit up and take the box from his hand. I open it and blatantly admire the gorgeous jewelry for several minutes before taking first the necklace from its bed. I hold it out to Damon. "Help me with this, would you?" I ask.
"With pleasure," he tells me, taking the necklace from me.
I turn my back to him and lift my hair out of the way. He strokes the skin of my neck with his fingers a lot more than necessary to fasten the platinum chain around my neck, but he's Damon. He'll do whatever he wants no matter what anyone else wants him to do. Once he's done, I turn back to face him while I fasten the earrings to my ears, grateful that I had taken out the ones that I had worn for Miss Mystic Falls in the stop we made at my house so I could change into something more comfortable.
As soon as the second earring is fastened in my left ear, I suddenly get hit with a tidal wave of emotion. I realize that this is what Damon deals with day-in and day-out. I stare at him in awe. He simply smirks at me, arching an eyebrow. I realize he's challenging me to decipher what his emotions at this moment are. And he knows damn well that I have never backed down from a challenge in my life. I'm not about to start now. I take a steadying breath and close my eyes before letting myself be swept up in the current of emotion the jewelry is echoing from him to me. The first one I identify is surprise. I suspect he's surprised by my method of identifying his raw, intense emotions. I'll explain my reasons for this method later. Next to come at me is worry. Probably a combination of his brother's loss of control, my safety, and the danger represented by the vengeful vampires we inadvertently released from the tomb is behind that. Following worry is peaceful lull in the 'current'. A sense of security and comfort washes over me in that lull. Apparently he wasn't joking when he said that my presence is a comfort to him. I let the 'current' of his emotions lazily guide me on to the next emotion. Damon's rather limited patience wears thin and nearly snaps during the process. This causes the 'current' to pick up pace as well as adds some 'turbulence'. I just smile at his aggravation with my method. Once I'm past the section of the emotional 'river' held by comfort and security, I'm startled to find that the next 'emotion' leaves an arid, bitter feeling in my throat. I open my eyes and stare at Damon.
"Thirst," he explains. "A vampire's thirst for blood is tied to our emotions as well as our body. A vampire becoming overly emotional can have some pretty dire consequences. Today was jam-packed with emotions for me. So I'm rather thirsty."
I frown at him. "Go get a blood bag then," I order.
He chuckles. "I can hold off a while longer. I'm rather enjoying the experience of watching and feeling your method of understanding my emotions," he replies.
I sigh, knowing that he wouldn't take chances with that part of him, not while he's around me. If he says he can hold off, he means it. I close my eyes again and let his emotional 'river' sweep me back into its 'current'. The arid, bitter feeling in my throat is not as bad as I had originally thought. I know Damon makes sure to keep on top of his feedings, especially after what happened in Georgia where he had to feed from me to heal his broken bones. I shove my thoughts away and let myself feel what Damon's emotional 'river' is trying to get through to me.
Once I'm past the arid, bitter section that signifies his thirst for blood, I suddenly find myself caught in a series of rapids, whirlpools, and gullies. The 'current' keeps getting faster and faster, almost as if I'm in a real river and rapidly approaching a waterfall, only it doesn't appear as if it's ever going to come. I panic and fling myself out of the little trance I had put myself in to analyze Damon's emotions. I open my eyes to see that his side of the loveseat is vacant. I don't bother testing for residual heat because there won't be any, even if he had just stood up. I raise my hand to clutch the locket he gave me just to make sure that it hadn't been a dream. My fingers curl around the cool metal and I let out a sigh. It's not really of relief, because knowing that one of Damon's emotions puts him through that wringer is horrifying. But something tells me that whatever that emotion was, it could actually become a good one if a certain event takes place. What that event is, I haven't a clue. I close my eyes and consider going back into the trance to discover what, exactly, that emotion was. But my instincts are warning me I have to tread very carefully around the topic of that emotion. So instead of allowing myself to be swept back into that turbulence, I send up a quick prayer that the brothers have something for humans to eat here before getting off the loveseat and making my way to the kitchen.
I'm startled to find Damon standing in front of the stove, cooking. "I figured you'd be hungry by now," he says, half-turning to wink at me before turning back to the pans on the stove. "I happen to be a pretty good cook so I figured I'd make you something to eat."
"The only ones who live here are vampires, who don't need human food," I say slowly, making my way forward to take a seat at one of the two place settings on the island counter. "The most I had even dared hope for was some bags of chips."
"Before Mother died giving birth to Stefan, she had instilled in me a love of the culinary arts, along with numerous other types of art as well," Damon replies. "Only a handful of years after I was forced to complete my transition, I started losing interest in the goings on around me. I decided that if I wasn't going to take off my ring in a nice sunny spot out of sheer boredom, I needed to pick out an eternal hobby. Once I realized that my sense of taste had been heightened just as much as everything else upon transitioning into a vampire, I decided cooking would be my eternal hobby. Another reason I chose it was because it's a way of honoring my mother's memory. She was a whiz in the kitchen. And I was the only one who was given the honor of learning her personal recipes." He turns to throw a quick smirk at me. "As I said in Georgia, on a healthy diet of blood, my body functions pretty normally." He turns back to what he's cooking. "Stefan refuses to learn to control his inner vampire. His diet of animal blood has driven it completely mad. You should know that he has only managed to last a decade, tops, on that repulsive diet before something happened to get the taste or scent of fresh human blood to his senses. He then loses all control and goes on a murder-spree, killing his victims so horrendously in his effort to get every last drop of blood in their system that even I am horrified by such brutality. And, Stefan, you shut up. She has every right to know what you're like. I'm not telling her details, but I could." He's silent for a moment, listening to whatever Stefan's saying down in the basement. "Believe whatever you want, brother. Just remember, I'm not the one who has lost even her friendship because of a complete inability to tell the damn truth. I've always been as honest as I could be with her. You heard damn well what we've been talking about up here. She can't even stand to wear that piece of junk you gave her to protect her from vampires. She's so thoroughly disgusted by your lies that she asked me to give her something to replace it. Now this conversation is through. I don't want to burn the meal I'm preparing for Elena." Throughout the bickering between the brothers, I get a sense of triumph echoing from Damon through our jewelry. Something tells me the triumph is felt for much more than just seeing the 'good brother' reveal just how dark his true colors really are. But after my experience with that mystery emotion that is tearing Damon apart, I'm hesitant to pry too deeply. The trance-state I had used to understand his emotions earlier had been a vital part of the self-defense lessons Jeremy and I had dropped after the crash that killed our parents and could easily have killed me as well. When we were taught how to put ourselves into a trance-state, we were told that it's damned useful when we have been going through stressful situations, one right on top of another. It can be used to sort out emotions, to simply clear our heads, or even to get in a state where we can easily identify what we truly want. It's been months since I was last willing to fall into a self-induced trance. I had forgotten how powerful the experience can be. "Elena," Damon amused voice breaks through my musing. "You really need to stop getting lost in thought. Or at least warn a person before you do so. You didn't hear a word I said just now, did you?"
I feel my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "Sorry," I tell him. "I find I'm doing that a lot lately. What were you saying?"
He chuckles. "I said many things before I realized you had zoned out on me," he replies. "Some of which aren't important right now. But I am curious where you learned how to put yourself into a trance-state like the one you used to read my emotions. You were coming very close to falling back into such a state just now." He slides a plate in front of me holding some sort of stir-fry, steamed vegetables, and what I immediately recognize as home-style baked macaroni and cheese. "Bon appétit," he tells me.
I pick up my spoon. "About five years ago, Mom and Dad located a rather unorthodox martial artist who was willing to train Jeremy and me in self-defense. He claimed that we were too old to learn everything he knew," I say. "We'd have had to start training from the time we were toddlers to be able to master it all. But he agreed to teach us a number of useful tricks to protect ourselves. He taught us how to force ourselves into a trance-state as a form of extreme meditation. It's been useful for many things besides just finding 'inner peace'. About six months before the crash that killed my parents, he said that we were well on our way of mastering the things he was able to teach us. He said that the rest of the journey to mastering what he was training us in could only be done on our own. He … I think he had a touch of the gift of prophecy because he took me off for a one-on-one training session just a few days before he left Mystic Falls. While he was training me, he talked to me about many things to watch out for in the near future. He wouldn't explain what he was talking about, only that I would know for myself when it came to pass. He told me that at times, he gets strong feelings about the future of another and that those feelings have been disturbingly accurate every single time. He told me that over the course of training me in particular, that sense he has was becoming increasingly stronger. He told me that he had decided to tell me what his sense was warning him about my future that day because the strength had become so powerful he claimed it was on par with getting hit by a bus. Which he admitted to having occurred to him at one point in his life. He would never tell any of us his name. Jeremy and I were only to call him 'Master' while we were his students. He was very secretive about his person life and the detail about him getting hit by a bus once is the only thing I know about his past. He made a lot of references to 'taming a crow' and 'a wolf disguising itself as a sheep' when he was explaining what his sense was telling him. I took care to write down everything he told me that day in my journal entry that night. Even now, when I think I finally understand what he was actually referring to with those two phrases, some parts of the prophesy still elude me. And some parts I don't even want to think about because I had nightmares for weeks after hearing it all." I smile slightly as I recall what Master did when he was done sharing the prophesy. "And just when I was about ready to have a panic attack from it all, he physically threw me into the river we were walking the bank of. He told me that I must either learn to swim through my trials as if they were the river he threw me in or I will sink below the surface chained to a boulder because of them. When I made it back to the shore, he handed me a diamond that looked like it was of high quality and a rose quartz that had several noticeable flaws. Both were uncut. He told me to examine them closely and I'd be surprised by my findings. He even provided a gem-cutter's magnifying glass for me to use. As I examined them, he told me that one gem represented the crow and the other the wolf." I shake my head. "It took me a while to realize what he meant by being surprised. Where I thought that surely the flaws in the quartz would be irreparable, I found that they were only on the surface. A little care and attention to detail while cutting it would completely rid it of those deceptive flaws."
"And the diamond?" Damon asks softly.
"The diamond had only appeared to be of high quality," I tell him. "When I put it under the gem-cutter's magnifying glass, I discovered so many hidden flaws that I realized that it would completely shatter if I tried to have it cut. Master told me I could have only one of the gems to keep. I gave him back the diamond. The quartz was actually worth a lot more. I still have the quartz tucked away in my room. I never got it cut because, to be honest, I love the lesson it represents: something may look faulty and worthless at first glance but enough care and attention to detail can make it worth much more than the truly faulty stone trying to pass itself off as a perfect diamond. " I smirk at Damon. "Ever since that day, I've found that I much prefer quartz to diamonds. Maybe one day I'll have the quartz cut and set into a piece of jewelry, but I'm going to make a firm request that the flaws be left in place. If I can't find a jeweler who will fulfill my request, I'm going to leave it uncut. I like the flaws because they give the quartz a lot more personality and hidden potential than if they were gone." After that, I eat my rapidly cooling meal in silence. Damon does the same, lost in thought over what I told him. When I finish, I put my silverware and plate in the sink. "You know, you and Stefan remind me of the lesson Master taught me with the quartz and the diamond," I tell Damon.
"Which gem represents me?" he asks.
"You remind me of the quartz. You have a lot of noticeable flaws on the surface. But I've found that, like the quartz, beneath those flaws is something worth a whole lot more than the diamond that represents Stefan," I tell him. "And, like the quartz, I discovered I'd rather you kept those quirks." I'm interrupted by a huge yawn. "Well, I've had a long day that was probably just as full of emotional turmoil as yours. So I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna take the set of rooms next to yours. G'nite, Damon."
I leave him there, stunned speechless by my admittance. I grab my duffel bag from the chair I had put it in earlier and then climb the stairs to the set of rooms next to Damon's. I'd rather not enter the wing that holds Stefan's room. I quickly get ready for bed. As I climb under the covers of the massive canopy bed, I find myself smiling in spite of all the hell I had gone through today. In spite of the danger that I can still sense in the air, I feel at ease. Maybe it has something to do with finally starting to face and untangle the complex web of emotions that Damon causes to rise up within me. Whatever happens from here on, I know that Damon will do his damnedest to protect me or die trying. That much devotion directed at me should be overwhelming, but I find it to be comforting. There's a smile of contentment on my lips as I drift off to sleep.
