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Bloodstreaks
Chapter 4: Insanity 101

He had all of eternity to just stand there. Time was one of the few gifts bestowed upon him and his undead state and right now, he could literally feel every second slide by like droplets of blood trickling down a very parched throat. Seeing her quenched his undying thirst to feel something- anything.

She was ignoring the sudden boos from below her. The humans were agitated that their entertainment and booze had stopped. She didn't seem to notice though. She only saw him.

"Get up here," she mouthed, her eyes sparkling.

Damon felt his lips slide to the side in a small, amused expression. "No, you come down here," he mouthed back.

Elena seemed to give his silent words some consideration before she gracefully slid off the stage, moving fluidly between the throng of people separating them. Before he could really register it, she was standing before him, a soft scent permeating through the disgusting smells of human. It was the scent of honey and something floral.

His lips parted to say something; he had imagined this moment for years, and now the time had come and he was absolutely wordless. Uncertain. Too many questions.

"Shhh," she held up a finger to his lips, brushing against them softly before crashing her own lips against his, no hesitation.

If any words had finally formed in his brain, they sure as hell just escaped him all over again. He felt her moist lips against his, the aftertaste of tequila mixing with a sweep of her tongue against his teeth. This felt so familiar, and just so damn right. Just like the old days, when his Elena was still that little, pent up ball of human hormones outside that motel in Denver. But this time, it was only certainty. Both knew this was okay, this was right.

His arms felt their way to her waist, under her shirt. Breathlessly they were suddenly hitting the wall on the other side of the room, away from the dance floor. The fog machine had started and the blur of two vampires seemed to go unnoticed in the crowd of fist pumping and hip swaying. She pushed against him, their bodies flying into a secluded hallway near the fire exit, but lips never parting, bodies never untangling.

She gasped slightly beneath his chest as their hearts raced. His eyes darted to her very much exposed cleavage. She licked the tip of one of his now visible fangs and then slowly pulled back, looking up at him with those warm eyes that he had missed too much.

"Elena," he breathed, surprised by his own voice and the way it seemed to drip with desire. It was too hard to hide it. He was so angry with her, for leaving him in such confusion, yet right now, all he could feel was passion for the one girl he was certain he loved and would never stop loving.

She smiled then and shook her head in a sly manner. "Oh Damon, you're still so easy to fool."

His eyes immediately darkened and he was now the one pushing their bodies to the opposite side of the empty hallway, hand at her throat.

"Katherine."

He couldn't stop pacing back and forth in the ridiculously large hotel suite of the historic Roosevelt Hotel that was of course very fitting for the spoiled vampire he was currently stuck in the room with. He didn't really want to be here, but she had the information he wanted- or so she claimed.

Katherine was watching him, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she tipped back her glass of 6'1" handsome model man from the hotel pool, still a little warm. "Oh Damon, stop pacing, you'll get carpet burn."

Damon ran a hand through his unruly dark hair, giving his daylight ring a little twist as he stopped abruptly in front of his ex-lover, aka the woman who tore his heart into a billion pieces and then some. "Okay, can you just rewind—"

Katherine sighed as if her patience was running thin, uncrossing her legs slowly. Damon knew she was pulling her usual tricks, and he too did not have the patience right now. "Katherine—"

"Okay, geez Damon," she placed her glass down next to her and smiled shortly. "No need to get all frustrated with me. I'm your friend," she paused as her smile widened. "Unless you want something more."

Damon rolled his eyes before throwing a smirk at her, "Okay, I get that you're super horny right now but all I care about is why you're pretending to be Elena and dancing around at a sleazy club. It's a little desperate, even for you Katherine."

The older vampire frowned, "Why are you so mean?"

"Why are you avoiding my questions?" He shot back.

Katherine finally sighed and threw a lazy hand out in front of her to check the tips of her fingernails, inspecting them for any sign of imperfection. Once pleased, she spoke again, this time her voice without a hint of flirtation, "I've been following her."

Damon's brow furrowed in confusion as he stared incredulously at the woman before him, "You've been what?"

Katherine shrugged casually, "Yeah, I mean, remember our little phone conversation twenty-five years ago post-dead-Jeremy?"

Damon nodded, not too keen on stirring up those memories.

"You said you thought dearest, loving Elena was acting a bit too much like moi," Katherine smirked, "which I thought would have been a huge improvement. But you didn't sound all that pleased, and honestly, I was a little curious as to what you meant even though I sounded like I didn't give a crap about you and Stefan's lover problems."

"Right," Damon responded dryly. "You told us it was not your problem."

"Which it really still isn't," Katherine emphasized. "So you should really thank me for being such a good snoop."

Damon raised an eyebrow, "Right. If you really have any sort of valuable information."

"Oh, of course I do," Katherine responded, her voice now dancing, her eyes lighting up. "You should know me by now, always the useful little detective, at your service."

"You told me you had no idea why she was acting that way," Damon cut in, slightly annoyed at their roundabout banter.

"Well, I didn't back then. But after I talked to her—"

"You actually spoke to her?" Damon's attention was suddenly 100% on the evil bitch sitting so bemused in her little armchair. He really wanted to wipe that smile off her face, but she had, had contact with her.

"As I was saying," Katherine took another sip from her glass, "after I spoke to her somewhere in Atlanta, she was acting all crazy and distraught and I basically thought she had finally lost it from being pulled in both directions between you two Salvatore brothers."

Damon shot her a glare.

"But alas, it really had nothing to do with the two of you at all," Katherine finished cheerily. "She was straight up seeing things, feeling things…things that weren't her."

"What do you mean?" Damon was now right in front of the older vampire, hands resting on either side of her chair and leaning dangerously close. She was purposefully leaking him bits and pieces and he was growing impatient. He just needed to find Elena, to see her.

"You weren't that far off when you said she was acting like me," Katherine responded, suddenly looking very serious, smile off her face. "She could tell me things about my life that I had never told anyone else during my time on this earth. She could tell me in such detail…" she looked away from Damon's prying gaze, a slightly sad shadow passing through her usually confident eyes. "She could tell me how it felt. It was like…she was me, through and through."

Damon didn't know what to say. His thoughts were racing, his mind unable to form a proper conclusion. Katherine noticed this and stood up so that their noses were almost grazing. "But of course, she wasn't me, because I'm still here," she placed a finger at his chest and pushed him back slightly so she could walk around him. She needed a drink, something less bloody, more alcoholic.

As Katherine was pouring herself a glass of amber liquid from the wet bar, Damon couldn't help but let his forehead wrinkle in utter confusion. His immediate response was to say the bitch was lying, as usual. But somehow, her words felt reasonable. What was the point for Katherine to lie about this? Besides, the vampire probably hated the fact that someone else could really know her inner feelings. She wouldn't let this be known fact unless it was true and she needed to figure out why.

"You're awfully quiet," Katherine broke his train of thought, reappearing in front of him, offering him a glass as well. He took it swiftly.

"So you're saying, Elena is suddenly like, the Katherine-whisperer," Damon concluded skeptically and felt slightly insane himself once the words left his mouth.

"She also mentioned Tatia," Katherine continued. "You remember her? The Original brothers telling you about the originator of the Petrova line that they both pined over?"

Damon nodded, remembering.

"Well, it just seems like she's all sorts of Petrova now," Katherine finished, downing her drink in one throwback of her glass and shooting him a dazzling smile. "And that's all I know and I think that's enough about Elena. I'm bored already."

Damon frowned, moving towards her, too many thoughts clouding his mind. "You're not telling me everything," he growled under his breath.

"Please, I don't really care about hiding any information from you, Damon. I just think we haven't spent any quality time together in a while—"

"Why did you continue to follow her all these years? How come I haven't run into you when I was on her trail too? Why didn't we just—"

"What? Work as a team?" Katherine looked like she wanted to snort. "Save Elena! Ra, ra, ra!" She rolled her eyes. "Oh Damon, you know I'm good at making myself known only when I want to be known. Besides, I just wanted to keep tabs on her because she makes me feel a little…vulnerable now, actually," she bit her lip, looking concerned. "I don't like it that she knows me."

"And all your evil, demonic thoughts?" Damon smirked.

Katherine gave him a dirty look. "If you must think so lowly of me. Anyways, her situation interests me. It's hard to find something that interests me these days."

"Then why are you making yourself known now, Katherine?" Damon hissed, taking a few steps closer to ensure that he was now physically towering over the svelte vampire before him.

Katherine smirked up at him in response, "Ah, finally asking the right questions Damon. Perhaps Elena should learn from you."

"Katherine," Damon repeated, impatience laced thickly in his tone.

"Fine," she tilted her head slightly, crossing her arms protectively in front of her tiny waist. "A little snooping might have told me that the Originals are in town, and I need you to go meet up with them."

"What?" Damon gave the woman a look of disbelief. "Like I would help you!"

"Ah-uh, Damon, you'd be helping your beloved Elena," Katherine reminded with a raised finger before she leaned closer towards him. "I'm pretty sure little Elena being in town at this time is no coincidence. There's a meeting going down, and I, being not on such great terms with these elitist freaks, really, really would like to know what they're going to be talking about."

Damon opened and closed his mouth, not very sure what snide remark he should make about how no way in hell he would help the she-devil in front of him, yet simultaneously his mind was screaming Go!

The next words that left his mouth didn't really surprise either of them.

"When are they meeting?"

Katherine gave him a satisfied smile. "This I don't know yet, but come on! We can totally figure this whole thing out. Team Us!" She gave him a half-hearted cheer.

Damon rolled his eyes, gaze filling with distrust, "What's in it for you?"

"What can I say," Katherine gave him a half shrug, shifting her weight to one heel, "Mild curiosity? Shameless prying? I guess…this problem hits close to home," the other vampire revealed with surprising honestly. Damon's glare fell and he simply watched her.

"If I had to bet on what's going on, I'd say this has a little mixture of witchy magic, Petrova blood and maybe a dash of simple insanity," Katherine concluded before continuing, "And I just need to make sure that whatever goes down doesn't screw me over in some weird bloodline witchy magic way."

Damon snorted, his expectations met. Of course Katherine was looking out for herself. He put down his drink and grabbed his leather jacket that had been thrown carelessly on the king size bed. "Of course," he muttered, sliding his jacket on. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go do some co-snooping."

Katherine gave him a coy smile, "I like what I hear."

"Please, I'm doing this for Elena," Damon retorted icily, before heading towards the suite's double doors.

She was gazing intensely, head tilted up as if shooting daggers through the window she was trying to peer through. The sounds of Hollywood bustling behind her and the hum of street vendors fluttered to her ears. The curtains were moving gently as the breeze snuck in through the slightly open window she was looking at. Their voices carried easily to her alert ears. She tucked a strand of straight, chestnut hair behind her ear out of old habit, allowing a small frown to appear on her face.

What was her doppelganger thinking? Telling Damon so much? She hadn't spoken to her usually more evil lookalike in a long, long time and was surprised Katherine had even managed to follow her to Los Angeles and even knew about her impending meeting with Elijah.

Damon was specifically one of the main people she did not want knowing that she was slowly spiraling into some sort of tri-polar personality craziness. She honestly didn't even know what to call it herself, but she sure as hell didn't want the people that she cared about most near her.

She still couldn't control it, whatever it was that brewed within her. Sometimes it felt like she had everything under control. Her head would be clear, her thoughts her own, her memories vividly very much Elena Gilbert's. But suddenly, all of it would just melt away, as if her very soul would extinguish and the rush of hate would fill her.

Then, she would want to kill. No mercy, no conscience, just kill.

She would always see that familiar face, identical to her own yet so very different in disposition- Tatia, perhaps. Those bloodshot eyes filled with such emotion, her hands reaching towards the mirror as if hoping to claw her own eyeballs out of their sockets. But her fingers would always be drenched in blood, leaving streaks of blood running down her reflection's face.

And every time she saw this woman appear in her mind, this woman that she knew was very much a part of her, she would snap, be lost in fury, and people would die.

Elena Gilbert gave one last look upwards, as if hoping that if she stared intensely enough he would somehow appear by the window, just to give her a little glimpse of him.

He did not appear by the window though, and it hit her then that this was not some fairytale story where miracles and great timing happened. This was the very grim reality of her life, where castles were replaces by the occasional three star hotel with the complimentary breakfast coupons. Where the horse-drawn carriage was the smelly cab with suspicious stains on the backseat. Where her ladies in waiting, or prince charming even, were replaced by broken bodies twisted and torn by her very own hands.

Elena Gilbert felt a sad smile tug at her lips as she reflected on how drastically different her life had turned out compared to how she had envisioned it would be once upon a time; Matt Donovan and the white picket fence and a huddle of children. Elena Gilbert gave one last rueful look at the hotel window before letting herself disappear back into the shadows.

Please don't come looking for me.

AN: I guess I lied about a D/E reunion for this chapter! But Team Datherine or Kamon (whatever they're called) are closing in! Hopefully this wasn't too confusing and if you can all remember Tatia Petrova from the Originals briefly mentioning her in Season 3 as the Original Petrova whose blood was used in sealing the hybrid curse. More reveals in Chapter 5- I promise! Please R/R, much love!