Latest Chapter up. Hope you like it. Please let me know you thoughts and opinions. - I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Chapter 3

Damon POV

"Nice place... for a dick."

Alaric and I walked up the path to 71 Penate drive, Groves Hill. The shades were drawn and their was a single light on near the front room. I could hear movement coming fom inside and narrowed it down to only one occupant.

"If things get tricky I may or may not be able to get in."

Alaric pulled out a set of fine lock pickers and set to work on the door. He spoke over his shoulder at me. "Yeah, how does that work? You always have to be invited in?"

"By the owner or person of entitlement. Few grey areas with hotels and cabins and what not. Kind of got to play it by ear. Oh, move out of the way." My patience had worn thin and Alaric was taking too long. I clenched the door knob and twisted, crushing the locks inside until they broke away with ease. I swung the door open and went to step over the threshold.

I came up against the invisible wall that had been mocking me for a century and a half. Alaric walked in front of me with ease. "I thought you said this house wasn't owned by anyone?"

"It's not. It's empty but that doesn't mean I don't need to be invited in." I gave him a hard smile and waited until he spoke the magic words.

A sly smile curled at the edge of his lips, potential smirk approaching. "So, ah..." He was relishing in the powerful moment of control of my entry. Another reason why I would have happily murdered him again.

"Ric, I will rip that finger off and shove it up your ass and kill you a thousand times over."

"Come in."

I smacked the back of his head and watched in satisfaction as he looked back at me with pure annoyance. "Is that how you act on a first date, Ric? No wonder you're still single."

The house was John's squatting territory. No one, not even the Council had been informed of his staying area since his return to town, which made it all the more easier with damage control for me. There was movement in the kitchen at the end of the hall way and Alaric and I moved closer towards it.

As soon as we got there I grabbed John, who had been washing dishes in the sink, and spun him around to face us.

"Damon." His voice was calm as if he';d been expecting us sooner or later.

"John." I heard his wrist snap in various places before I tore his finger off with the ring on it. His yell echoed throughout the house as his hand covered the bench in blood. I eyed the finger with disgust and pulled the ring off, ignoring the lure of the vervain filled blood. That at least ruled out one way to kill the bastard.

"We're going to ask you a few questions," I bent down to his huddled form on the floor with a smirk pulled across my lips, "If you behave, I'll kill you quick. If not..." I stepped down hard on his shin and felt the bones crush beneath my boot, his yell just as pained as the loss of his finger.

"What do you want?"

Alaric stepped forward. "Where's Isobel?"

He let out a gurgled laugh and continued to nurse his injuries. "Isobel? She left you to become a vampire, Ric. Do you really think she's going to want you back?"

I lifted by foot again, hovering above his other leg.

"Wait, wait. Philadelphia. That was the last place I saw her. Honest."

"And what do you know of Katherine?"

"God, you boys are two peas in a pod, you know that? Both of your women leave you and you're still messed up about it. One of you, for more than a century."

I fought the urge to rip his head off then and there.

"Katherine's around. She'll show when she wants to. Until then, you're all just ploys in her game. She told me herself Damon; she knows you're here... she doesn't care."

I gave him a hard smile and snapped his neck before I tore it off and threw it in the corner. Alaric stumbled back a bit in shock of my bluntness before he composed himself.

I pocketed the ring. "Find some matches. No one wants to live in a deceased estate."

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

I paced back and forth in front of Stefan's cell, frustrated completely by his stubborn attitude. I'd come down here hoping to have seen an empty blood stained bottle, yet it still remained untouched near his feet. I peered through the bars at him , but before I could speak a cruel smile played across his lips. "You know, Damon hasn't fed me in a while. I could be at those bars and at your neck in less time it would take you to blink."

I wasn't buying it. "Yeah, you could. But you won't."

He looked directly into my eyes. "Please just go away. I don't want you here."

Enough of this. I gave him a hard look then threw open the stiff lock with more force than necessary. His eyes snapped up as I strolled casually into the room, growing panic flooding his features. "What are you doing? Get out of here!"
I bent down and snatched up the bottled blood, holding it towards him. "You need to drink this."

"You're taking a stupid risk by being in here. I could hurt you." His eyes were hard but the fear for my safety was winning the war as he struggled with himself.

"Then I'm stupid." I knew who he was and it wasn't this person. Damon was right. The human blood had left his system and his brooding was self inflicted. Nothing was persuading him or forcing him to do anything. Nothing but his damn morals.

"Elena, get out of here or you'll regret it." His anger seeped into his words as his shoulder's began to shake with rage.

I stood my ground. "Drink."

He was on me in a second, pinned back against the stone wall, the blood knocked out of my hand and across the room. "I said GET OUT!"

My bravado was long forgotten as his fangs pushed their way out, his eyes turning the shade of a demon. All the events came swarming back faster than I could form words, and my nightmares made themselves known as I relieved each of my attacks. His eyes were intent on mine, but continued to flash down to my throat. The cruel smile made itself known again as he saw my re-surfacing fear.

I swallowed back hard and began settling my breaths. With each rise and fall of my chest, I regained my confidence, only enraging the wild Stefan even further. He's not going to hurt me. He's not going to hurt me. He's not going to hurt me.

I knew I was only trying to convince myself but it felt futile.

At the same moment that Stefan seemed to slightly shift away I was yanked by my arm out of the cell, the door echoing loudly as it slammed shut. Damon stood solid at the cell door with his back to me as he slid the lock in place.

"No, Damon. You have it all wrong. Stefan was-

"Forgive me for saving your ass from a blood crazed vampire, who was standing only a breath away from your neck." His breathing was hard and matched his barely restrained anger as he spoke.

"He's wasn't going to hurt me, Damon." My voice was a mere whisper, slightly unsure if believed my words.

He spun and headed for the stairs without a glance towards me. I followed after him stumbling slightly on the rough floors. I followed him into the living room before he spun on me, fury radiating off him in waves. "I thought I told you to stay on this side of the door."

My anger matched his as he spoke down to me. "He wasn't going to do anything."

"Really, you sure about that? I could taste your fear in the air the moment I opened the front door, Elena. Tell me that you weren't afraid of your neck being torn open, again."

I dropped my gaze from his, knowing he was right.

His words came out softer but still marred with anger. "I won't see that happen to you again."

I sagged my shoulders and walked over to the couch. There was no way I could convince him otherwise of what might have happened down there. His words had put an end to our argument. For now.

I heard a clinking of glasses before he came over and lifted my feet easily with one hand, sitting himself on the couch before placing my feet in his lap. "Other than coming up against a blank wall against Mr Righteous, you're still here."

"Were you expecting anything else?"

His hand began to draw lazy swirls on my ankles as he spoke, "No."

"So, how was your 'errand'?"

"How angry would you be if your uncle suddenly... disappeared?"

I eyed him for a moment, waiting for an explanation before I actually considered it. "Relieved. Why?"

His lips quirked before he responded. "I may or may not have killed him in order to get information from him." He paused with his drawing on my legs and looked across at me.

I could feel the shock layered on my face but... did it really affect me that John was dead? It didn't and I knew that as soon as it penetrated my ears, but Damon's bluntness of simply killing him had me coming up blank. I had begun to believe that his days of senseless killings were behind him, and that he asked questions first. However I knew deep down that he wouldn't have done it unless there was no other alternative.

"Was it really necessary?"

My calmed voice surprise the both of us as Damon eyed me curiously before a smile curled at the edges of his lips. "I didn't see any other options, no."

A sudden sense of relief washed over me causing me to feel weightless. John was really gone. He knew everything about the world that I had managed to hide from everyone for the better and had threatened to expose it... Now the fear was gone. It almost didn't seem real, even the way Damon and I were talking about it so casually.

"I take it from your moment of euphoria that you're not overly depressed by the matter." Damon's hand continued small strokes up and down my leg.

I let a rueful smile take form on my lips, "Well, just because he's blood, doesn't make him family. Everything he did was off and he brought nothing but pain and chaos back into this town when he returned." Curiosity morphed my face into one of question. "What information were you looking for?"

He lifted my legs up and got up from the couch, his eyes never meeting mine as he spoke. "Just wanted to know who his sources were, and his knowledge of Isobel... and Katherine."

His words were casual and vague, but I could sense the anguish it caused him when it came to the matters of Katherine. The knowledge of her never being in the tomb hung over him like a dark cloud, and I couldn't bear to see him this tormented.

I pushed myself off the couch, "Damon-

"I'm fine, Elena." He kept his back to me and went to walk out of the room, trying to end our conversation once again.

As I reached him I grabbed his arm and turned him to me, seeing his face carved from stone, making sure he kept his emotions at bay. "Talk to me, Damon." I kept my hand on his arm and slightly moved closer to him, my eyes intent on his.

They searched mine for a moment and I watched for a fleeting moment as his wall crumbled, letting his raw emotions expose themselves. I reached my hand up to touch his cheek when the wall slammed back into place, his face masked again with a blank determination.

I sighed and let my hand drop from his arm. I wanted him to open up to me. I wanted him to have someone to talk to, since he clearly didn't admit to having any friends and he genuinely enjoyed bottling up his feelings. Katherine was a touchy subject, however my concern for Damon shook me to the core on what would happen to him if he saw her.

I did not want to lose him.

"Elena, you're already on a mission to save one of the Salvatore brothers and look how that's turned out. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can help both."

"Why do you treat people this way?"

He leaned in close, letting his breath fan across my lips and curl into a smile, "Because it's fun."

I wasn't fazed by his attempt of typical Damon defence. "You mean, because it's easier than the alternative. You know, actually caring."

His smile faded slightly and with a smug look from my behalf I watched him turn his back and walk away from me, essentially letting me win the argument.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Elena POV

Once again I was outside Stefan's cell. It had been a few days since the grand opening of the cell door, and Damon had made sure that I obey his words by remaining on the safe side of the door. He hadn't spoken more than a few words to me since our last conversation and I didn't expect anything less from him.

Stefan on the other hand was looking more withered than I'd ever seen him. His body reminded me of the mummified tomb vampires I'd seen whilst getting both brother's out. His skin was a light grey and hugged his bones like a man had been starved for months rather than weeks. I had walked away many of the days with tears brimming my eyes at the sight of him and his unrelenting stubbornness. It was utterly useless.

I tried talking to him on more than one occasion and only today did he finally speak back. "Talk to me, Stefan. Why are you doing this?"

"I'm making the decision I should have made years ago."

"What are you talking about?" I tried not to let my eagerness reveal itself as I pressed my forehead to the bars. He was finally speaking to me.

"You have to feed in order to complete the transition."

"I know that."

"It was a choice I shouldn't have made." He was silent for a moment as I thought about what that must have been like for him. "How can you even look at me?"

My hands came up and curled themselves around the bars. "We need to be able to talk about these things, Stefan. I need to hear them. Drink the blood and come upstairs. We can talk about this some more."

I wanted him out of there. I was prepared to do anything to get him back to me. He bowed his head and didn't speak another word. I hated seeing all this pent up guilt take control over him. I loved him because of who he was, his morals, and his pureness. However the further he went down this road, who he is, his pure heart and even his morals faded further into darkness, leaving behind only the pain and guilt causing him to further suffer. I finally resigned myself from the iron bars and trudged up the stairs I climbed numerous times each day.

I saw Damon reading a book in the study and flopped down in a chair across from him. He kept his eyes on his book as I scanned the ceiling length shelves cluttered with old bindings. "Stefan eaten yet?"

"I thought you didn't care."

"Chalk it up to morbid curiosity." He dropped the book into his lap and looked at me intrigued.

I thought over it. "He's getting there. He's spoken to me, at least. But he's got a lot of guilt that he has to deal with... it doesn't help that you've spent the last one hundred and forty-five years punishing him for Katherine getting caught."

His eyebrows rose in slight confusion, "This is my fault now?"

"No, it's no one's fault, Damon. I'm just saying you're not exactly innocent." His eyes narrowed and his jaw slightly hung open in protest. "You've made it your life's mission to make him miserable."

He leaned forward in his chair, slight protest raging inside him with questioning eyes aimed at me. "Let me ask you a question. In all this important 'soul searching' and cleansing of the demons in Stefan's past, did you ever manage to hear the rest of the story?"

"Just that he should never have turned. I assumed there's more."

"Yeah, that's an understatement."

...

1864

The quarry was still and cold as the night, no animals disturbing the dark silence that had settled long before the sun drifted down. There was nothing without her, nothing in the next life. She was gone and I was what was left. This had all been for her, and for what? So I could see her being carted off to be burned? No. I would not see this through. I sat the waiting for the end to finally take me, and I kept my fear silent as I waited for it to end. Dying was my only option... the fear of it was inevitable.

A noise of rustling bushes sounded from behind me and I turned my fearful eyes and saw that Stefan was no longer alone. Unya, Mr Balakavis daughter was walking in a trance beside Stefan. He had an excited look on his face as his eyes glowed with brilliancy, his arm tightly around Unya's shoulder as they approached me.

"What are you doing? Why is Miss Balakavis here?"

He gestured to her, "I brought her for you. She's a gift. He looked into her eyes intently, "Have a seat, please." She sat down with her back to me and let the moonlight bring her body out of the shadows.

My breath caught as I saw the gaping wound seeping with blood on her neck. Her clothes were stained where it had escaped onto and I felt instant repulsion at the sight. I looked back at Stefan who waited expectantly for me to do something.

"What have you done, Stefan?"

"Damon, listen. I went to see father, he came at me. I didn't know my own strength... there was blood everywhere, he was dying. The blood was too strong. I needed it. I had to have it."

I felt anger slowly surfacing itself as I processed what he'd done. "You've fed."

"Yes," His eyes lit up with pure excitement as though I'd realised one of life's great mysteries. "And it's incredible. My body is exploding with power, Damon."

"No..." It painful listening to his words. I heard nothing of his so called brilliancy of his new findings, all I wanted was for it to end. He had fed, and now he'd finally turned... just like Emily said.

He continued on, eager to persuade me, "I can hear things from far away, I can see through the darkness," He came up close to my sullen form, "I can move like it's magic. And the guilt? The pain? Damon, I can turn it off like a switch." He clicked his fingers for emphasis. "Katherine was right, it's a whole other world out there."

I eyed him with betrayal and pulled myself up, "Katherine is dead, Stefan. There's no world without her."

Stefan grabbed me tightly locking my face to his, giving me no escape. His eyes pleading and earnest. "You can turn that off too. You don't have to feel that pain anymore."

I tried to unhinge his unrelenting hold on me, "I don't want to."

He easily held me, "You're weak. You'll be dead soon." He shook me hard, "You need this!... You'll die."

I felt my resistance failing as I looked at my brother helplessly, "No, I can't."

He gestured for Unya to stand and come towards us. She did without so much as recognition or question and stood before me, her eyes glazed over with an odd smile on her rose lips. Stefan turned back to me and I watched slightly feared as fangs poked down near his teeth, his eyes morph into something I'd only seen on Katherine. A slightly hysterical look was about him as he showed me how easily it was to drink human blood.

His teeth sank down and he began to draw in pulls of blood from the wound. Frozen as ice, I watched as blood trickled down his chin as he gestured to the open wound on Unya's neck. My struggles weakened under his strength and the situation turned from one of fighting Stefan to being pulled towards the mouth aching aroma of the blood.

Tentatively I parted my lips and placed them lightly on her drenched neck, closing over the wound. At first it was the horrible taste of metal and rust but as soon as the first drop hit the back of my mouth, it was like tasting a sweet dark honey that seemed to fill me entirely with pure need and a hunger I couldn't understand.

I dropped my lips and felt my teeth begin to sharply shift. It felt as though a blade had pushed its way from my gums and rooted themselves in place. The skin around my eyes began to move as my eyes glazed over in a haze of red. All I saw was the glowing lure of Unya's blood, and I sank my newly acquired fangs deep into her neck and drew heavily, wanting the only thing that seemed to ease this new thirst.

...

Elena POV

"From the moment Stefan tasted Human Blood, he was a whole different person."

I sat stunned in the high back leather chair in the study, watching and listening profoundly to Damon's words. He had gotten up and poured himself a drink and continued with the breezy and carefree attitude as he told the story. I was so transfixed by his words that I had only barely noticed that this would have taken a toll on Damon, and his casual bravado was definitely keeping things at bay.

"I suppose I should thank him, it's been one hell of a ride." His signature smirk came to his lips a moment before he downed the remains of his scotch.

"He said he wanted to die. That's why he's not feeding. Now I understand why but..."

"His choice. If you're stupid enough to make it, so be it."

I stood up from my chair, feeling my frustration spike. "Don't do that." He looked at me with confused eyes, "Don't pretend that you don't care." Every time, it was like coming up against a blank wall. Damon would give me sneak peeks at what he truly felt on rare occasions and then others, he'd hold out on me. I understood why and his reasons for it, but I'd thought he'd come further than trying to use his uncaring persona on me to try and cover up that I knew he cared for his brother. I left him with his empty glass and headed towards the front door.

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Damon POV

I stood outside the cell door for a while after Elena had left. It had me angry and hostile when she'd left knowing that she assumed this entire thing was my fault. These were Stefan's demons not mine. The guilt he felt was brought up by him. He was the one who was pathetic enough to going on some martyr mission based on some life crisis.

I peered through the bars at him. "Little boy lost."

He kept his head down as I looked him over. His body had begun the rotting process and it wouldn't be long before his veins withered and began to rub together like sawdust. Only an idiot would try a noble and feeble attempt of starving themselves, which fitted Stefan's personality to the point.

"Thank you for keeping her away lately. I don't know how she can stand to be near me."

"Pushing her away is only going to make her more persistent the next time. The only way out of this is that bottle. Drink it or don't drink it, either way I don't want you rotting away a floor below me... it's starting to smell."

A grim smile touched his lips but he kept silent.

"You brood too much. Nice little half story by the way, brother. I especially like the part about all the guilt that has been coiled up inside for all these years. Everything on this planet is not your fault." I could feel my frustration and anger balling up and revealing itself in my voice.

Stefan's head lifted up and looked at me with his ears eating each word.

"My actions, what I do, is not your fault. I own them. They belong to me. You're not allowed to feel my guilt."

"Do you feel guilt?"

I shrugged, "If I wanted to... it's there."

He nodded and pondered my words in his head. I thought back to our transition.

"Do you know that Emily waited until after I turned that she'd been successful in protecting Katherine with her spell? She didn't want me to know about the tomb. She thought it would impact my decision."

"Emily didn't want either one of us to turn. She said it was a curse. She was right."

I ignored his last words, "Witches, judgy little things."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I had kept the secret of Katherine's survival to myself until last month when I used his help to crack open the tomb.

"Because I didn't want you to know. Because I hated you, and I still do."

"I know." He nodded and immediately assumed it was because of my vow of an enternity of misery because he turned me.

"Not because you forced me to turn."

That had not been what he expected, however his curiosity was fading. "Then why?"

I looked him dead in the eye. "Because she turned you. It was just suppose to be me, Stefan... Just me."

Somewhere within him he already knew this. He had been the constant reminder throughout my long life that the woman I died for did not only have eyes for me. It also enraged me further to know that he had been able to continue on without her, with ease, as well as the fact that he was willing to die when he has someone more powerfully beautiful and amazing than Katherine ever was, begging at his self imposed cell to stay alive.

He was taking his entire life for granted all because of some slightly painful memories.

"Stefan, you know deep down inside yourself that you're being a self-imposed pathetic drama queen. Elena is spending every waking moment trying to connect with you and help you out of, whatever you want to call it, and you're willing to kill yourself. Be a man, get cleaned up, and mend your errors. Elena doesn't deserve to be in love with a guy whose willing to end his one opportunity to be happy over past problems."

I slid open the lock and swung the door open, kicking the forgotten bottle of blood into his lap. "There's more animal blood outside the door. Come upstairs when you've finished it."

I walked out and left Stefan to make his choice. It took only twenty minutes for him to walk into the living room when I was mid pour of a scotch. His transformation was back to how I'd seen him last week; no more grey decrepit mummy skin with hollow eyes, however there was still a slight haunt simmering below the surface.

"Thank you, Damon."

"No, Stefan, thank you. You're back on Bambi blood and I'm the big badass brother again. All is right within the world." I gave him a hard smile and lifted the glass to my lips.

"No I mean it... Thank you." A small smile touched his lips. "You were right."

"Stefan, I'm always right. Without doubt. Just one thing though..." I flashed in front of him in an instant, my sarcasm and humour vanished. "Just know that if it comes to this again, I will let you go through with your martyr missions. If her blood is spilt at your hand... there won't be anyone to stop you from carrying out your death."

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Has Stefan really gotten over his Hunger lust for Human blood?

Next chapter up soon.

Please Review. Criticism is appreciated as I need to find the faults in my writing.