A/N: And here is chapter 2. Please read and review. All feedback is very much appreciated!

Chapter 2

It was only the hunger that was increasingly consuming his mind that gave Damon any idea how much time had passed as he hung there in that dungeon. Katherine was ignoring him, forcing him to watch as she toyed with Stefan's mind, and Damon could do nothing. He had already spent too much of his strength furiously and futilely trying to break his damn chains. Now he was only growing weaker and more desperate as his body clamored for blood.

Stefan, on the other hand, had gotten a couple of glasses of blood courtesy of Katherine, and Damon was pretty damn sure it was human blood. He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing in terms of them getting free, especially since he preferred that both of their minds be intact when they finally escaped.

"Damon, have you come up with a plan yet?" Stefan asked him for about the hundredth time.

"No," Damon growled.

"How about mine then? We go along with her until she lets us out of here. Then we turn the tables."

It was hard to think past the hunger, but Damon knew one thing. He no longer trusted Stefan (if he ever had in a situation like this). Katherine had had too much time and opportunity to mess with his little brother's head. Stefan's plan might sound good in theory, but Damon didn't think it was the kind of plan that would work on Katherine. And it required him letting her into his head, which he was definitely not going to do because he was certain that if he did, he would never get her out again. "That's not . . . " Damon stopped as he heard footsteps.

A moment later Katherine opened the door, and this time she wasn't alone. She had two human girls with her. They looked to be about Elena's age, one blond and one brunette, both pretty and clearly terrified. Damon could hear their blood pumping through their bodies, calling to him, and he closed his eyes, well aware of what was probably going to happen next. What he would do.

"Are you hungry, boys?" Katherine asked. She shoved one girl forward with each arm. "Dinner is served. Don't say I don't take care of you."

Damon forced his hunger down. "Why don't you unlock these chains? We can have a civilized meal," he quipped.

Katherine tilted her head and smiled at him. "Where would be the fun in that? I want to see you work for your food. So have at it. Let's see how you do. Both of you." Her eyes turned to Stefan then.

Damon closed his eyes in despair. He knew what she wanted him to do, and he knew that he would do it. He was desperately hungry, and he needed to survive until he could somehow turn the tables on Katherine. When he opened his eyes again, he locked his gaze on the blond girl, compelling her to walk toward him. "Don't be afraid," he told her, watching as she pushed her hair back from her neck for him.

Shifting forward as much as the chains would allow, Damon gave into his bloodlust and felt his face change. He buried his fangs in the girl's neck. He could feel her blood pumping strongly, and the taste was exquisite. It had really been a long time since he fed from a live human, and he had forgotten just how much better it was than blood bags. Or maybe it was just that he was so hungry. He could feel the strength coming back into his body and his mind clearing as he drew in the girl's blood.

But Damon kept a small amount of his focus on the girl's heartbeat the whole time, and when he heard it slowing too much, he exerted every bit of his hard-earned control over his bloodlust and pulled away. He strongly suspected that letting her live would prove a futile gesture, but he wasn't about to give Katherine the satisfaction of watching him kill the girl. Unfortunately, with his hands chained above him, he had no way to catch her as she fell, so he could only watch – guilt running through him – as she fainted at his feet from loss of blood.

Katherine had watched the whole scene gleefully. "Not bad, Damon," she said, head tilted as though she were evaluating him. "Impressive control, although I can't imagine why you bothered to spare her. Let's see if your brother can do better."

Damon watched as Stefan called the brunette toward him. He couldn't see the girl's face, but he could see her terror in the lines of her body and his heart sank when Stefan did nothing to alleviate that terror. "Stefan," he said softly, knowing his brother could hear him. "Make it easier on her."

Stefan gave no sign that he had heard, burying his fangs viciously in the girl's neck and ripping her skin, but Katherine shot Damon an angry look. Damon ignored her. He tried again to reach Stefan. "Listen to her heartbeat, Stefan. You can stop before you kill her."

In a second Katherine was in front of Damon, and she hit him, hard. Damon's head snapped back, and he could feel that his lip was bleeding from the force of the blow. "Don't interrupt your brother's dinner, Damon," Katherine snapped.

The brunette had collapsed in front of Stefan, and to Damon's dismay, he couldn't hear her heart beating. Stefan had killed the girl. His brother's name slipped from Damon's throat, his voice coming out slightly strangled. "Stefan. Stef," he repeated. Damon couldn't see the slightest bit of remorse in his brother's eyes, and that scared him because that wasn't like his brother. His broody, animal-blood-loving little brother should be feeling guilty right now, and it was quite obvious that the only guilt in the room was resting in Damon's heart. And damn it, why did he suddenly care about human lives anyway? He told himself that he was only worried about Stefan.

Katherine had turned away from him toward Stefan. She was clapping. "Well done, Stefan," she said. "Let me just clean up your brother's mess. . . ." She bent down, and Damon closed his eyes as she snapped the neck of the blonde girl he had fed from. The girl's death had been inevitable, he told himself. He had done what he could. But he still felt vaguely sick.

Katherine stepped away from the blonde and crossed the room to the door. She opened the door and ushered in a tall vampire. She led the newcomer across the room to where Stefan was chained. She kicked Stefan's victim's body away from her and pulled a set of keys from her belt, handing them to the taller vampire. "You've done well, Stefan," she said. "Unlike your brother, you proved yourself today."

Damon watched as his brother's chains were unlocked from around his wrists. He wanted to laugh that Katherine was too short to unlock the chains herself, but he had enough sense of self-preservation left to keep quiet. Katherine caught Stefan as he fell forward at the sudden release of his arms after days in chains. "Come on, let's get you out of here," she told him in a soft voice.

Stefan looked across at Damon as Katherine led him toward the door. "What about Damon?" he asked.

"Damon's being mean to me," Katherine whined, and Damon couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Really? Wasn't the woman five hundred years old? "He can join us when he's ready to cooperate," she added in a more serious voice.

"Okay," Stefan said. He turned away from Damon as he let Katherine lead him from the room. The other vampire followed them out and locked the door after them.

Damon was left alone to stare at the bodies of the two dead girls. They weren't exactly the best company, and he couldn't help but wonder if Katherine would have freed him, too, if he had just killed the blonde. He didn't think so, but he knew that if she offered him his freedom in exchange for one human life, he would take that deal. He wished he believed that Stefan still had enough control of himself to come back for him.