Sorry again for the delay – hopefully this chapter will make it up to you. Please R&R, and I will dedicate chapters! :)
This chapter is dedicated to 'Darkness is mystery' for being my review-ee for the second chapter!
3
Damon's Point of View
I'd never run so fast in my life. I didn't even think as I ran, I just ran. When I arrived at the boarding house, I could see Elena's car in the driveway.
Repeating a string of swearwords in Italian, I rushed into the house – hoping I wasn't too late.
I entered the room where I had left Stefan earlier, and saw Elena crumpled on the floor. She had blood running from a gash in her head, but it didn't look serious. She was staring wide-eyed at Stefan as he advanced towards her.
"Stefan…" she tried to make him focus, but I could tell Stefan's animal instincts were already switched onto Primed And Ready. And that was all I needed.
I leapt out of Stefan's blind spot so that I was clearly in his vision. He snarled and leapt himself at me.
"Elena, get out of here!" I shouted, before failing to defend myself and landing in a heap on the floor. In the next second, though, I was standing up and pushing Stefan away.
"I don't want to hurt you, brother", I said – and with a shock I realised what I'd said. And I'd meant it. However, Stefan ignored me and charged for me again. I stepped out of the way and let him crash into the drinks table, and then I picked him up by his collar. "I said I didn't want to hurt you", I repeated, but this time my voice was as sharp as knives. "That doesn't mean I won't."
And with that I threw him across the room where he slammed into the wall panel and fell the ground with a loud THUD! Nevertheless, he got up again, only this time he had even more animal fury contorting his face.
"Merda!" I swore, and braced myself for my brother's next attack.
He slammed into me, and we kept fighting until it became more like a natural instinct to me and I didn't even have to think about blocking Stefan's attacks. During the fighting, I hoped Elena had made it out. I didn't know what I was going to do when Stefan finally won (– he'd had human blood recently, and running on bloodlust is a dangerous thing – trust me, I know).
Elena's Point of View
After watching Damon and Stefan fight it out for a minute, I decided I needed to help. This was Stefan we were talking about, and Stefan wasn't being Stefan.
I could tell as soon as I'd walked in that he'd had human blood. His chin had been dripping and his mouth had been bloody. And his face – it had been twisted into animal hunger, and his predatory snarl had had frozen me to the spot. Stefan was no longer Stefan.
Stefan had thrown me when I'd tried to stop him feeding on me, and then I'd watched the brothers fight it out. But even Damon's "Elena, get out of here!" hadn't made me move.
What did make me move, strangely, was my stubbornness. I was determined to help, and I wasn't going to give up without a fight.
While Stefan and Damon were still fighting, I slipped into the basement and began searching.
The bolt of a steel door came open and I opened the door. I gasped as I saw what was inside.
Vervain. Stocks and stocks of vervain. There was fresh vervain and liquid vervain, and it literally filled the whole room. There were boxes and boxes of it that took up the whole room, so I grabbed the closest form of vervain I had to hand: liquid vervain.
I rushed upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. When I got back, Damon had just been thrown to the floor and I could see the animal fury burning in Stefan's eyes. Then he saw me.
Stefan turned towards me, and, before Damon could stop him, he was rushing towards me.
Instinctively, I chucked a vial of vervain in his face. He took an involuntary step back as he squinted his eyes closed. Without hesitation, I stepped forward and poured a second vial down his throat, and then I stepped back again.
Stefan blinked at me in surprise, his eyes red from the vervain I'd spilled on his face. Then his knees folded in and he slowly fell to the floor.
Damon stared at me in surprise, but he nodded knowingly.
"We need to get him downstairs", he said rationally, all of his normal cockiness gone. I nodded and helped Damon lift Stefan down the stairs and into the cellar, though I'm sure Damon didn't need my help.
We found an empty cell and locked Stefan into it. Stefan was still conscious, and he looked at me with a desperate 'Why?' expression, temporarily himself again.
"Because you're not you", I answered his unspoken question. "I'm doing this for you, Stefan."
Then I walked away.
A week later
Elena's Point of View
"Let me out of here, you bastard!" Stefan was swearing at Damon, who was – to be fair – drinking human blood right in front of him.
"Stefan, there are ladies present", Damon tutt-ed him.
"Fottiti, testa di merda!" Stefan shouted back, banging on the door of his cell.
"Temper, temper!" Damon shook his head, gave a smug smile, then took another sip of blood.
I wasn't fazed at all by the brothers' arguing. Instead, I could feel fear deep in my gut, insistently nagging me.
"Damon, I don't understand", I interrupted. "Shouldn't the human blood be out of his system by now?"
Damon hid his smug smile for a moment and addressed Stefan formerly.
"How much blood did you drink, brother?" he asked patiently.
"Vaffanculo! Vai in culo!" Stefan swore, getting angrier. He was obviously too angry and hungry for human blood to be able to think rationally.
Silently, Damon turned to me, all signs of arrogance gone.
"He needs help", I said quietly. Damon just nodded.
Thanks for reading! – now please review! :) next chapter a.s.a.p. as always. Thank you x
