Ok I might be going a tad overboard with the Bamon interaction but I just love their friendship on TVD right now. I'm trying to balance it out but if you want more from a character(s), just PM me and I'll see what I can do Reviews and fav's make my little fangirl heart so happy so if you like my story please let me know. And if you don't like it, I really do want to know why and how I can make it better.
xoxo
Chapter 4
He handed the phone back to Elena but before he said could say anything, Bonnie came into the kitchen.
"Ready?" she asked Elena
"Yep!"
"Ready for what?" he demanded
"I'm staying at Bonnie's tonight" she told him.
"What? Why?"
"Because I'm upset, Damon!"
"Upset about what?" he asked, confused.
"You left me in the woods and I got lost! I would have been out there all night if Klaus hadn't found me. And you still won't tell me the truth about what happened to Bonnie this morning."
"I'm sorry I ran off, ok? I didn't think you'd get lost. We weren't even that far away from the house. And for the last time, I don't know what happened to Bonnie this morning!"
"Yes you do! Or at least you have some idea about why it happened"
"Elena…"
"No, I'm not talking about it until you're ready to tell us what's really going on"
"So you're just going to run away to Bonnie's? I thought you said we were in this together"
"How can we be in this together if you won't even trust me enough to be honest with me?"
"This isn't about trust, Elena. This is about keeping you safe"
"You said it yourself a minute ago! I'm a vampire who's surrounded by three other vampires, a witch and a hybrid. I think I'm good"
She said it in an annoyingly familiar snarky tone that grated on his nerves.
"You know what? I think you should go to Bonnie's tonight" he told her.
"Fine, I was going to anyway"
"Fine!" he knew he sounded like a petulant child but he didn't care.
Caroline bounded into the room with a duffel bag in her hand "What did I miss?"
"Nothing, we were just leaving. Let's go" Elena told her angrily.
"Wait, where are you going?" Klaus asked Caroline.
"I'm going with them" she replied
"But…"
"No buts. You disappeared at the crack of dawn this morning and then wouldn't answer your phone all day!" she shouted at him.
"I had errands to run, Caroline" he said through his teeth.
"Oh please, you're in cahoots with him" she gestured to Damon with her bag "and don't even try to lie and tell me you're not."
Klaus looked furious but said nothing as the three girls trooped out the back door.
He turned to Damon and scowled "Damn nosy women"
"I need a drink. And where the hell is Stefan?"
"I'm here" Stefan said as he entered the kitchen "The girls made off with a few bottles of Dom"
Damon examined his brother and raised an eyebrow "You look weird"
Stefan shrugged but said nothing.
"You were drinking human blood" Klaus stated without hesitation.
"I have no idea what you're talking about" he said it assertively but Stefan's green eyes flicked away and Damon knew Klaus was right.
"Coming over to the dark side Stef?" Damon asked with a grin.
"After today, I'm thinking I'm going to need more than squirrel to stay alive and be helpful" Stefan confessed.
Half of Damon cheered inwardly at his brother's sudden change of heart but he knew he would have to keep an eye on him. Stefan had control issues when it came to human blood. Once he started, he had a hard time stopping and bodies turned up with their heads missing.
"You can wipe that look off your face, Damon. I'm taking a few little sips a day to start. I'm not going to go ripper"
"Mmm-hmmm" he replied, unconvinced.
Bonnie was trying very hard not to ask Elena if she was ok every ten seconds as they walked to Bennett house but the girl looked utterly melancholy. She tried to imagine what it must feel like to be tied to another person so completely but she couldn't even begin to fathom the connection.
"Elena I…" she started
"I'm fine Bonnie" Elena cut her off
"Um no you're not" Caroline said
"Well I'm going to pretend to be fine for tonight, ok?"
"Ok but you kind of suck at pretending" Caroline told her
"I just…I'm so mad at him but all I can think about is being close to him. Being away from him feels…wrong" Elena said glumly "and I don't want to be some weakling who can't live without her boyfriend, even if my boyfriend and I have some magical bond that makes me do whatever he wants me to. Ugh, did I actually just say that out loud? But seriously, it's not enough that I get killed and become a vampire. Noooo, I have to be 'sired' to Damon. And then I find out my uncle, who accidently murdered me, burned our house down and told everyone I'm dead. Which I guess I technically am but still…God my life is so weird!"
"Feel better?" Bonnie asked.
She was glad that Elena had gotten if off her chest. She'd been watching her stew since this afternoon when she'd shown up minutes after Damon left and asked if she could stay the night with her. Finding out her uncle had faked her death and torched her childhood home had just been the icing on the cake.
"Not really"
Caroline rummaged through her bag and dug out a bottle of champagne. She snapped the top off and handed it to Elena
"Here, drink this. You'll feel a million times better"
Elena took a swig and passed it to Bonnie.
"Does this bottle say 1962?" she squinted at the label in the moonlight.
"It sure does" Caroline said with a wide smile.
"Damon is going to kill you" she said and took a tentative sip from the broken neck before handing it back to Caroline.
"No because Elena is going to say she took it. Right, Elena?"
"That's the plan. You were right Care, I do feel better" Elena said and took another drink.
"If drinking a $3000 bottle of champagne doesn't make you feel better, nothing will"
Bonnie grinned at them "This is fun. I mean, I'm not glad that Damon and Klaus are being secretive jerks but we haven't really had much girl time"
"You're right, this is fun" Elena said and linked arms with her and Caroline "I'm so glad we have each other"
"Me too" Caroline agreed happily.
By the time they reached the house, Bonnie was more than a little tipsy and Caroline was breaking out another bottle of absurdly expensive champagne.
"Hey! Don't break glass in my house! Use the cork" she said before Caroline could snap the top off.
Caroline rolled her eyes but smiled and flipped the cork out with a 'pop'. Elena found the stereo and turned on music. She danced her way over to Bonnie and grabbed her hand. She laughed as Elena twirled her around before breaking away to get more champagne.
"I love this song!" Caroline said and turned the volume up.
Bonnie ran to the kitchen for glasses and by the time she'd returned, there were two half-drunk vampires dancing around her living room. She was about to tell them to settle down but it had been so long since she'd let loose and had any fun at all. In fact, she couldn't honestly remember the last time she'd done something just for the fun of it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em she thought. The three of them danced and giggled until the third bottle of champagne was gone and Bonnie wasn't sure which was spinning, the room or her head.
"Ok, I'm done. I don't have vampire tolerance. I need sleep" she said and stumbled onto the couch.
"Hey I called the couch!" Elena said and collapsed down next to her.
"Alright but someone has to carry me to bed then. I forgot how to stand up"
"Here" Caroline offered her hand and Bonnie let her pull her up.
She slung her arm around Caroline's shoulder and let her friend half drag her down the hall and dump her in the bed.
"Thanks" she said and promptly passed out.
She was splayed out on his bed wearing nothing but his favorite black lace bra and panties. He was hovering over her, whispering her name and all the things he wanted to do to her.
"I love touching you 'Lena" his voice was low and husky, sending little shivers down her spine as he ran his hand up her thigh and over her abdomen.
"And you look so sexy all laid out on my bed. Know what I want to do? Tie you up and never let you leave. Would you let me do that?" he purred.
"Yes…" she heard herself murmur "you can do anything you want to me"
"I was hoping you'd say that" he whispered in her ear as he pulled her arms up over her head.
Bonnie heard her front door squeak open and slam shut. She groaned and fought to open her eyes. Her head felt like someone had hit her several times with a brick and she was fairly certain she was still a little drunk.She pried her lids open and pulled herself out of the warm bed, vowing to inflict pain on whichever of her vampire friends that had decided to leave in the middle of the night. Padding quietly into the living room, she saw Caroline fast asleep on the floor next to the empty couch.
"Elena?" she called quietly.
There was no answer so she wrapped a blanket from the sofa around herself and walked out onto the porch. Elena was making her way across the grass in her bare feet with nothing but a t-shirt and pajama shorts on.
"Elena!" she hissed "What are you doing?"
Her friend didn't acknowledge her. She just continued walking slowly and unsteadily through the night. Bonnie shook her head as she yanked on boots and raced to catch up to her.
"Hey" she said and put a hand on Elena's shoulder.
Elena shrugged her off and kept walking.
"Elena? Can you hear me?"
Still no reply.
She must be sleepwalking Bonnie thought.
She'd heard it wasn't a good idea to wake sleepwalkers because they might freak out on you and a freaked out partially-asleep vampire seemed like a really bad idea, so she opted to follow her. It didn't take long to figure out that they were headed for the Salvatore house. Deciding she should know what she was walking into, she reached out to Elena's mind with her own. It wasn't something she'd tried on a person yet, having just found the spell yesterday, but it had worked ok with the squirrel. She knew she probably should have expected it but she sucked in a breath of surprise at the things Elena was feeling. No wonder they spend so much time in bed she thought before quickly ending the connection. Now she was at a complete loss as to what to do. Elena wasn't waking up and she hadn't brought her phone so there was no way to call the house to wake Damon up. And she was afraid if she went back to her house, Elena would be at Damon's door before she caught up to her again. An idea hit her suddenly. Bonnie knew it would make Damon mad and he would probably rather she just let Elena wander into his bed. She also knew that letting that happen would make Elena feel even weaker and more helpless than she had earlier today. She couldn't let that happen to her friend. Since their very frank discussion about the Blood Bond, she'd sensed that Elena was grasping desperately for control. The sleepover had been a good idea and they'd had such a great time. She could actually see the weight on Elena's shoulders lift as the three of them danced and laughed. She wanted her to be able to hold on to that at least until morning. With a heavy sigh, she stopped for a moment and dug around on the ground for a big enough stick and snapped it in half over her knee. Cringing, she dragged the sharp end across the tender flesh on the inside of her wrist.
"Hurry the hell up, Damon" she whispered into the dark as blood flowed steadily from her arm.
The screeching in his head woke him from a very pleasant dream and Damon snarled viciously.
"I'm going to kill her" he said to no one as he dressed quickly and flew from the house.
There were very few things he'd seen in his life that had actually stunned him into silence but the scene he came upon in the woods stopped him in his tracks. Elena was walking across the grass, looking a little drunk, and Bonnie was trailing after her with a bleeding arm. It took almost a full minute for his brain to realize his witch was slowly bleeding to death on his lawn.
"Jesus Bonnie! What the fuck?" he flashed to her side and bit into his wrist.
Taking his outstretched arm, she drank a few drops of his blood and pulled away to look at him sheepishly.
"Damn. I really thought if I woke you up she would wake up, too"
He turned back to Elena who was still walking at a wobbly snail's pace towards his house.
"She's sleeping?"
"Yes and I'm afraid to shake her awake"
"I'll do it" he said and moved to grab Elena.
"No!"
"Why not?"
"Because she's dreaming about you"
"So?" he said it casually but his heart soared. She was dreaming about him at the same time he was dreaming about her. It didn't even occur to him to ask how Bonnie knew Elena was dreaming about him.
"So she already feels pathetic because she can't stand being away from you and if it's you that wakes her up, she's going to feel even more pitiful."
"Should I just let her keep going then?" he said, waving his hand at the scantily clad girl walking barefoot across the grass.
"No…" she thought for a moment "I think you should pick her up and take her back to my house"
"Then what?" he said disdainfully, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Stay at my house until the morning"
"And what, sneak out before she wakes up?"
"Yes" she said decisively
Damon glared at Bonnie in the dark "You're lucky I like you"
He chased after Elena and swept her up into her arms. Instantly she curled into his shoulder and mumbled his name.
"You're never going to make anything easy for me, are you?" he said quietly to the sleeping girl.
"Thank you, Damon" Bonnie said earnestly
"Yeah, yeah. You know Stefan is supposed to be the hero, right?"
"Not in her story" she told him "You're not exactly a knight in shining armor but you are definitely her hero"
"You don't think I ruined her life?" the question had been rattling around in his head since she'd turned and it seemed that he was just exhausted enough tonight to say it out loud.
"No, I think you saved her. I wouldn't wish vampirism on anyone but her uncle keeping her locked up like that…" Bonnie shook her head sadly "she was never going to get to really live, have friends, fall in love. Grayson would have kept her there forever and she would have stayed out of loyalty to him. You kidnapping her, it gave her the chance to have a life"
"But this life…"
"Is better than being a prisoner in her own home with a man who did nothing but lie to her" Bonnie interrupted.
They'd arrived back at Bonnie's house and Damon felt his stomach clench. He was lying to her the same way her uncle had. He'd told himself this had nothing to do with her and he was just keeping her safe but he knew the truth. He was afraid she would hate him for what happened and afraid he wouldn't be able to make her understand. But seeing as she'd just tried to walk two miles wearing nothing but her pajamas in freezing weather while she was asleep, he figured he probably owed her the truth. Making his way to the living room, he set her gently down on the couch and pulled the blanket over her.
"I was dreaming about her, too" he told Bonnie as he followed her into the dining room and sat down across from her at the table.
"You were? Was it…I mean…were you…?" she struggled for words.
"Are you asking me if we were naked?" he asked and grinned lewdly at her.
"Yes" she replied and blushed.
"Yeah, it was a pretty steamy dream"
Bonnie blushed again "I think you called her to you"
"You think I did what?"
"Not on purpose or anything but I think your dream called her to you. She was…having a similar dream"
"How could you possibly know that?"
"I wanted to see where she was going and I found this spell yesterday that lets you get a read on what another being is feeling so…yeah" she said uncomfortably.
Damon shook his head and wondered if there was anything she couldn't do. She was getting more powerful by the day.
"Sometimes you and your magic freak me out, Witchy. Do you have any more of that brandy? Or maybe some of my extremely rare champagne?" he asked her, thinking this conversation was definitely going to require alcohol.
"Ahhh, the champagne is gone" she looked down at the table guiltily "But I still have the brandy"
"You drank all five bottles?" he said, slightly annoyed. He'd had to compel several people at a very prestigious auction house for that particular champagne.
"Five? No, there were only three"
"Looks like Stefan managed to hide a couple. I hope you girls enjoyed your nine grand worth of booze"
Bonnie smiled widely "We did"
He rolled his eyes at her "How 'bout that brandy? It's four in the morning and you woke me out of a really intense sex dream."
"Only if you promise to stop talking about your sex dream"
"Deal"
She rose and poured him a brandy and got herself a glass of water before sitting back down at the table across from him.
He took a long swallow and listened to be sure Caroline and Elena were still sleeping. Damon stared at the floral table cloth for a several long moments and chose his words carefully.
"I'm going to tell you what's going on and you're going to tell me whether you think we should involve the other two. I wanted to do this without you but it doesn't look like it's going to work out like that. I'm going to need your help" he told Bonnie.
Damon saw the shock pass over her face quickly before she braced herself.
"Another trip down memory lane?" she asked.
"Yeah but this story is considerably more bloody. I don't even know where to start…." he took another drink of the brandy and wished that it was bourbon "I guess we'll start with Rebekah, Klaus' sister."
"Klaus has a sister?"
"Don't interrupt. Yes, Klaus has a little sister named Rebekah. She and Stefan were madly in love and all the two of them ever wanted was to be human together. About 70 years ago, they found a coven of witches who claimed they could make a cure to vampirism. Klaus and I tried to tell them it was bullshit, that there's no such thing, but they wouldn't hear it. They convinced Rebekah that they needed her Original blood to complete the potion so one night she snuck off to help them finish it. If she'd just waited one more day…Klaus and I managed to snatch one of the coven members and used our special brand of persuasion to get her to tell us what they really wanted. They wanted her blood so they could connect themselves to all the vampires in her blood line and control them. Their plan was to create an army of vampire slaves to kill anyone who tried to stop them from taking power from other covens. These witches were by far the most power hungry freaks I've ever come across. The leader, Diana, coveted one witch's power in particular" he gave Bonnie a pointed look.
"My great grandma, Amelia's?"
"Bingo"
"I don't get it though. Why would she need Klaus' sister to control the vampires?"
"Because she's an Original and every vampire's bloodline connects to one of the five original vampires. So you control Rebekah, you control every vampire in her bloodline. That's a lot of damn vampires."
"So what happened?"
"They took Rebekah down and hid her somewhere. There's a blade that when you dip it in a special kind ash from a white oak tree, it can take out an Original. It doesn't kill them, but it puts them to sleep until the dagger comes out. They got their hands on the dagger, used it on Rebekah, and then they hid her body. Klaus, Stefan, and I spent weeks looking for her. We tore apart half the eastern seaboard trying to find her. We finally had to admit that we weren't going to find her before they performed the ritual. We all agreed they had to be stopped, even if we had to kill them all. Amelia put her magical feelers out and was able to tell us where they were. She insisted on coming with us. I should have stopped her but I didn't. We needed her."
He stopped to finish the brandy and wiggled his glass at Bonnie. Amelia was a touchy subject for him, it stung to think about her and talking about the night she'd died wasn't something he'd ever discussed with anyone. She got up and set the bottle on the table in front of him. Tipping the bottle gratefully at her, he poured a generous amount into the glass and took a long drink before he continued.
"When we got to that creepy little chapel, they'd already started. Amelia did everything she could to talk them out of it but, I'm telling you Bonnie, they were crazy. They really thought they deserved to be all powerful, that they were the only ones who had earned the power. They called her a traitor to her kind for not killing me and Stefan. That kind of pissed her off so she drained their power. They just started dropping like flies, grabbing their heads and screaming. Once Diana was down, Amelia told us to finish it" he hesitated before taking a deep breath "So we did. We killed them all. Klaus…he was pissed that Rebekah wasn't there and he ripped them to pieces. Once he'd finished his exceptionally bloody temper tantrum, Amelia told us to burn it down so the magic wouldn't linger."
"That's what I saw in my vision, isn't it? The aftermath"
Damon nodded "Apparently there was a survivor and near as I can tell you saw what she saw in the ten minutes it took us to go get the gas to burn the place down"
"What happened to my great grandma?"
"All that magic…I guess it was too much. I should have never let her take them all. We should have just started killing them. She seemed fine at first. A little shaken up but I thought that was understandable. Once we got her back to the house she collapsed. She made me swear I'd take care of your Grams and then she died in my arms"
Bonnie's large green eyes were filled with sorrow "You've never told anyone that, have you?"
"Nope" he replied and finished the brandy. Memories of that night wound their way through his brain, bringing back long forgotten feelings of guilt and anger.
"I won't pretend to understand how you can commit mass murder, Damon, but you did what you had to do. Who knows what they would have done with an army of vampires? My great grandma wouldn't have helped you if she thought there was another way."
"I just finished telling you that I helped slaughter at least 30 people and then stood by while my friend tore them limb from limb, and you're justifying it?" he asked bewildered "Suddenly your friendship with Elena makes perfect sense"
"No…maybe…I don't know. All I know is that my great grandma didn't ask just anyone to take care of her teenage daughter, she asked you. She could have sent Grams away to family or to another coven but she wanted her to stay with you. I know you think that all the things you've done make you evil but that's not what I see when I look at you. I see my friend who would do anything to help the people he cares about. I see the man who loves Elena so much he would rather walk away from her than cause her even a moment of pain. If that makes you evil then I guess I'm evil, too"
Damon shook his head at her in astonishment. All the other Bennett witches he'd known had come to him later in life but this one he'd known since she was in diapers. She was different than the rest. Bonnie really knew him and, for whatever reason, she trusted him. Even when she was a kid, she'd been eerily comfortable around him. When she was really little, her mother had tried to poison her against him and the place that had become her second home. Abby told her the big house was filled with monsters that would eat her alive. The warnings had been summarily ignored and soon after, Abby had disappeared. Bonnie had flourished; growing into the smart, powerful young woman sitting in front of him. She'd found her happy place learning to cook in his kitchen. Even when his humanity was hanging by a thread and his temper bordered on lethal, she had never stopped coming to their cooking lessons. The true test of her resolve had come when Stefan died and some part of him had snapped. He'd started killing at random, coming home drunk, bloody, and pissed off most nights. The only thing that had kept some small part of his humanity alive had been Shelia and Bonnie. They refused to give up their weekly dinners and their promises to find a way to bring Stefan back had kept him going for years. A month or two before Sheila died he'd started to doubt their assurances. He became hostile and angry at his best. On his bad days, Ted Bundy would have been impressed. He'd been known to toy with a person for hours before finally killing them. Still, the witches wouldn't give up on him. Damon had been a breath away from flipping the switch entirely when Sheila found the spell to bring his brother back. She and Bonnie had dragged him back from the edge and helped him when he deserved it the least. And here he was again, asking for help from a Bennett witch. He swore to himself that this one wasn't going to die on his watch.
"Ok Witchy, so you've heard the truth and you're not freaking out. How do you think this is going to go over with Elena?" he was counting on Bonnie to tell him the truth.
She thought about it for a long minute "Blood bond or no blood bond, I think Elena would forgive you almost anything. She knows what she signed up for, Damon. She gets you and I think you need to tell her about all this, if for no other reason than she's going to be our secret weapon. No one knows she's alive except for us and her uncle."
"Why does that matter?"
"I don't know for sure yet. I'm still sorting through all the readings. But, as I'm sure you know, after you left Elena came over. You were both so upset about the bond that I decided to dig through all the grimoires I have to see if there was any way to break the bond. Before you ask, there's not, but I learned a lot about what a blood bond means. You and Elena have an almost psychic connection. All either of you needs to do is think about the other to know where they are"
"That works with you, too" he told her.
"It does?"
"Yep. That's how I found you digging around in the dirt like a crazy person today"
"Huh…I guess I've never needed to find you before so I didn't know" she said and looked intrigued
"What about the thing that happened tonight?"
"You called her to you in your sleep. I assume you could do it on purpose too, if you wanted to."
"Ok so what else did you find?"
"Well you already know the part about being able to tell her what to do…" she said evasively
"Come on Witchy, spit it out. I know there's something you don't want to tell me"
"There are a few entries where the sire died and the bound vampire…well they just withered away into nothing"
"I'll just have to not die then" he said more confidently than he actually felt.
"And there were more than a few that talked about the sire being very possessive of the fledgling. Like you might want to take her somewhere and keep her there, just the two of you. Have you felt like that?"
Damon could hear the anxiety in her voice "Yes but I promise you, I'm not going to take her away. I want her to be happy, really happy, and it's not going to be real if I make her leave with me"
"I didn't mean to insinuate that you would…"
He held up a hand to stop her "You don't want to lose her. Believe me, I get it"
She nodded "I'm glad we talked about this, Damon"
"Yeah well, you know how I love a good heart to heart" he stared down at the glass in his hand for a moment "Listen if something does happen to me, you have to make her keep going. You can't let her shrivel up and die just because I'm not around"
"Nothing is going to happen to you" she said in that strange, overly calm tone that both pacified and made him a little nervous.
"Bonnie…" he chided
"Ok fine, if something happens then I'll take care of her. But we're not going to let anything happen to you"
He looked out the window and hoped she was right "Sun's coming up. How long should I stay?"
"You can go whenever you're ready. I'll text you when she's awake and tell her to go talk to you. I'll explain things to Care"
"That's it?" Elena stared at Damon, her mouth agape.
"What do you mean 'that's it'?" he said sounding bemused.
They were sitting on the couch in the living room and Damon had just finished telling her the sad, bloody tale that Bonnie had warned her was coming.
"I don't know. I mean, that's horrible but I knew who you were before I fell in love with you. I knew what I was getting myself into, Damon."
The look on his face was priceless. He looked completely blown away that she hadn't run screaming from the room. She might have laughed if they weren't having a conversation about mass murder.
"You are, without a doubt, the perfect woman for me"
"Well obviously" she said with an exaggerated eye roll
"So I had a dream about you last night" he told her, casually changing the subject.
"I had a dream about you, too" she blurted it out before it struck her what his next question would be.
"Yeah? What about?" he asked suggestively
Elena felt her cheeks flush red and she was suddenly fascinated by the ornate rug on the floor. It was by far the most unbelievably erotic dream she'd ever had and all she could do was shrug at him. Being with Damon had awakened a side of her she'd never known existed. With him she could be sensual and powerful but even still, she couldn't bring herself to describe the dream out loud.
"Did it involve rope and a broken headboard?" Damon asked
Her eyes darted up to meet his "How did you…?"
"I may have inadvertently pushed my dream on you through the blood bond"
"Um…what?"
"I don't know. Bonnie explained it better. Basically we had the same dream and it was my fault but I didn't do it on purpose"
"Oh…well…" she wasn't sure what to say.
"We can talk about that tonight" he offered
"Yeah, ok" she said, relieved "So what are we going to do about the pack of vengeful witches that are apparently after us?"
"They're after me, not you"
"Only because they think I'm dead"
"True. Klaus and I are working on a plan but it's in the early stages"
"Ok, what's the plan so far?" she asked
"Kill everyone"