Hello again. Here's chapter three, a whole 1000 words longer than the last one (hopefully that's a good thing). Thanks for all the reviews so far :)


It was after noon before Elena woke up, shocked at how long she had slept. With a groan she padded through to the bathroom, only to groan again at the bedhead hair. Ugh. If only Jeremy could see her now, a far cry from her usual sleek self and lost in the wilderness. He'd be amused for years, and have plenty of ammo for blackmail.

She gave a wry grin at her reflection before taking a quick shower and checking her phone for messages. The area must have a signal, if not a particularly strong or steady one, since she had a number of messages from her aunt Jenna, Bonnie, and Jeremy, each one more concerned than the last. Rolling her eyes, she decided to take advantage of the signal to send a text to Jeremy explaining where she was, that it would take a while for her to reach them and for pity's sake, not to freak out if they couldn't reach her, the signal was crappy. Having soothed her conscience it was time to placate her growling stomach. It had been early yesterday that she had last eaten and she was positively starving. Now to play hunt the kitchen.

The floorboard outside the room creaked as Elena stepped outside and locked the door, slipping the silver key into the pocket of her faded skinny jeans that she had paired with a red tank top under a dark zip-up hoodie and her favourite pair of converse. She intended on leaving today, especially after discovering someone had been through her things whilst she was in the shower. She shuddered at the thought, and double-checked the door. Yep, definitely locked.

There was no sign of other life as she walked down the long hall and down the stairs. Zach wasn't even around to offer nervous reassurance. Again she was forced to wonder if she was the only guest here. No, scratch that, the only person here.

She found herself standing in the foyer that she had entered last night with archways leading off in both directions. Well, might as well explore. She wandered through into the parlour and stared in awe at the large room that could easily have held her entire home and noted the liquor cabinet in the corner which seemed to be well-stocked.

Returning to the foyer a set of steps leading downstairs that she hadn't noticed before caught her eye. Curious, she stepped toward them. There was something strange about it. What, she couldn't quite put her finger on. She took a step further and curled her hand around the cold iron banister.

"Looking for something?" asked an amused voice.

Elena whirled around in shock, unable to keep the guilt off her face. Or the surprise at seeing the most ridiculously good-looking man she had ever seen in the flesh. He leaned against the wall on his side, with his legs crossed at the ankles, arms folded, looking the complete picture of ease, with a raised eyebrow as he awaited her response.

"I-I was looking for the kitchen," Elena stammered, pointing over her shoulder nervously. It was the truth... sorta, kinda, maybe... not really. But he didn't need to know that. Judging from the confidence that was oozing from his lean body he must be the 'master' of the house that had Zach so tied in knots.

"Of course you were," he said drily, pushing himself off the wall. Elena could feel herself blushing as he approached; convinced she had been caught out in her snooping. "You must be Elena."

His icy blue eyes were impossible to look away from, making her jump as he brought her hand up to his smooth lips. "Pleased to meet you."

Elena had temporarily frozen, but quickly pulled herself together. "And you are?"

"Damon Salvatore." A smirk settled on his face and Elena got the feeling it was an expression she would be seeing a lot of. Realising they were still standing close together she quickly took a step back, running a hand through her air in a wasted attempt to dispel the atmosphere that was slowly building. He gave a secret smile as if he knew exactly what she was doing.

"So..." he drawled. "You were looking for something good enough to eat? Find anything?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow in a teasing manner with a self-satisfied look on his face as Elena's eyebrows rose.

She gave an internal nod to herself. He was that type. The cocky, self-assured, womanising type. Briefly, she wondered what he would be like if he had inherited an ugly gene, whether he would still be as confident as he seemed to be now. "No, not a thing," she replied coldly.

"Well," he took a step closer so he was invading her personal space, his breath fluttering the hair around her face. She swallowed deeply. "That would be because the kitchen is that-a-way." He slid an arm around her, placing a hand on each of her shoulders and pivoted her on the spot to face an open door, which she could have sworn had been closed before, that revealed the gleaming countertops of what was obviously a kitchen. "Now, do you think you can make it over there without me holding your hand?"

She rolled her eyes before replying sweetly, "Yes, thank you Damon" and shrugging out of his grip. He held his hands up as though in surrender.

"Any time. You need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

Oh, I won't, Elena grumbled in her head as she stomped across to the kitchen. She turned back to make a point to Damon that she had made it to the room safely but was surprised to see he had already gone. Shaking her head, she entered the kitchen only to find a blonde slumped over the breakfast bar, her hair spilling across the shiny marble surface. She was lying so limply that Elena began to feel alarmed, but just as she was about to prod the girl on the arm she let out a loud snore.

Okay then. Elena tiptoed past the girl to the fridge to rummage through the contents. It surprised her how well-stocked it was, considering just last night she had been the only guest. And Damon certainly didn't keep that fit body by pigging out. Elena shook her head trying to shake out that last thought. Mind you, maybe he works off the calories. She eyed the blonde sleeping soundly. 'Finding staff', yeah right, Zach and maybe pigs can fly.

She lifted out a packet of bacon, butter and pinched a couple of slices of bread. Normally she would only have cereal for breakfast –or in this case brunch- but her stomach was crying out for something more substantial, especially if she was going to be hitting the road again today. She closed the door gently with her foot, quite keen to avoid waking up the other girl.

It was easy enough to locate a frying pan and within a few minutes Elena was leaning against the counter, tucking in to a bacon sandwich as though she hadn't eaten in months. Could she perhaps make some sandwiches for the trip? Hopefully food was included in whatever price they were going to charge her for the room. If it was, then she was certainly planning on taking advantage of it. Maybe she could even persuade Damon to give her some fuel for the car since she was pretty sure her tank was nearly empty. And even if Damon didn't have any spare, he seemed the type to have a few tricks up his sleeve. She was sure he would be able to siphon some off his own car. The only problem was whether or not he would want to help her. It didn't look like he would unless there was something in it for him, but of course she would reimburse him.

While Elena was working out how much exactly this trip was likely to cost, the blonde had woken up and was sniffing the air appreciatively.

"Whatcha eating?" she asked as though it was perfectly normal to wake up in a kitchen. Who knows, maybe for her it was. Her long blonde hair was a tangled mess and her blue dress was wrinkled from slouching. Her fingers played with a sea-green scarf that was wrapped around her neck.

Elena gulped down the last of her sandwich before replying. "Bacon sandwich. You want one?"

The girl wrinkled her nose in disgust before tilting her head. "Yeah, alright."

They got chatting as Elena made more sandwiches. It seemed the blonde was a keen gossip, and it didn't take long for Elena to find out that Caroline had been picked up by Damon at a bar, after she had broken up with her no-good boyfriend who was probably 'shacking up with some trailer trash'. Elena had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at Caroline's sneering tone. She wasn't one to judge, but it looked like Caroline's ex wasn't the only one moving on quickly. There was a rather large hickey peeking out from under Caroline's scarf.

"I mean, would it seriously be too much trouble just to make an effort every once in a while?" Caroline asked, throwing her hands up in the air expressively, rolling her eyes.

"Speaking of making an effort I really have to get going. I'm supposed to be meeting my friends for summer break. Actually, I'm already twenty-eight hours late," Elena winced.

"Ouch," Caroline sympathised. "That's waaaaay beyond fashionably late," she joked.

"Tell me about it. I'll see you later; I've got to go back." Elena made her way out, quite pleased that she had made a new friend, although Caroline would probably open up to anyone but Elena genuinely liked her.

It took a couple of tries with the key in the locks before Elena found the right room. At first glance everything seemed to be where she had left it. Relieved she gathered up her clothes out of the wardrobe and began stuffing them back into her hold-all. As if it wasn't hard enough to fit everything in the first time around, now she had to do it again. Her skin crawled as she thought of someone being in the room, going through her stuff whilst she was in the shower next door. A blush spread its way across her cheeks as she realised her underwear was in the drawer in the bedside table. Apparently nothing was private. She couldn't wait to get out of this place.

She hitched the bag on her shoulder, gave the room another once-over to make sure she hadn't left anything and then proceeded downstairs. It all seemed like a really bad movie. The foolish heroine ending up stranded in a strange place, with strange people. So she would indulge her flair for the dramatic. Hopefully she could just leave, never to return.

Reaching the foyer she let her bag fall to the floor with a loud thump. "Zach?" she called. "I'm ready to leave now." Elena pulled out her wallet and dug out the cash she had withdrawn before her trip that had been intended for fuel, food and tacky souvenirs from petrol stations on the road. Hopefully it would be enough.

When she looked up though, it wasn't Zach she came face to face with. Damon was standing in front of her, perfectly comfortable in his all-black ensemble. On any other guy it would have looked as though they were on their way to a funeral but he seemed to inject life into the colour, as weird as that sounded. Elena flinched at his sudden appearance. Did no-one in this place make a sound? The silence was deafening.

"May I help you?" he asked silkily. How the hell did he manage to make that sound flirty?

"I just need to pay for the room, then I'll be off," Elena replied stiffly. There was something off about him. The way he suddenly appears, swiftly and noiselessly... Don't be daft Elena. You're probably getting paranoid from driving alone all that time.

He tilted his head, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "Yeah, you're not going anywhere."

"What do you mean?" Elena asked warily, her senses shooting into overdrive.

"That is your car outside? The mini?" he asked although it seems to be more of a rhetorical question since Elena's the only one he isn't familiar with. As Elena nodded, wondering where he was going with this, he continued. "The one with the flat tyre?"

Her face morphed into a horrified scowl before changing into a smug smile. "We'll see about that."

She threw open the front door and marched over to her car as Damon watched on, with a semi-puzzled, semi-amused expression. True enough; the front tyre was practically resting on the steel rim of the wheel. But curiously she didn't lose her satisfied expression.

Instead she popped open the trunk of her car and removed a suitcase, then the base, followed by a spare tyre that she rolled along the gravel, pausing only to tie her hair back and toss Damon her own smirk. He merely looked back, his brows furrowed in a dark glare, as he turned on his heel and let the door slam behind him. Elena rolled her eyes. She guessed he was pissed off at not getting another night's rent from her.

Dismissing his moderate temper tantrum, she set to work, hefting a car jack across to the front. It was times like these she was grateful she had dated Matt, who had been keen to share his love of cars. Those many hours of boredom were now paying off. A short time later, she stood back to survey her handiwork and returned the contents of the trunk to where they belonged. She ran back inside and grabbed her bag, tossing it in the back seat of the car. Damon had missed his chance to accept the rent.

Satisfied, she turned the key in the ignition. Only to hear the engine cough and splutter. She sighed as she banged her head against the steering wheel. Damn it.


Okay so in this chapter you saw the beauty side of Damon. Soon you'll see the beast side. Please review and let me know what you thought!