Well... as the saying goes, "it's better later than never"! So, here am I! Hehe. Um, yeh, sorry for the long wait but hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter =} And thank you for all the support!

"So here's the plan. I feed on you, lure the God messengers towards me and bargain your life. We all clear? Perfect," Damon said in one breath, not even sparing a glance at Matt.

"Well, it's not like I have got a say in that," Matt muttered.

"Oh, get over yourself." Damon grimaced at his whining. "Think that you're doing a good deed."

"Yeh, right..." Matt agreed sarcastically.

Suddenly Damon's face lit up. "Oh!" And then a predatory grin appeared on his face. "Here they come," he sang in anticipation.

Before Matt could react, Damon's fangs were already deep inside his neck, ripping it wide open and leaving him wondering if he was a sane person for entrusting a psychopath with his life. Even more so - a vampire.

He staggered on his feet, the whole world spinning around and only when he reached the ground in slow motion did he understand that Damon let him, or more accurately, his neck, go and was whistling for the house owner to get outside.

"Yoo-hoo! Anybody home? Big, bad vampire out here," he sang out in a mocked tone.

Suddenly the doors flew open and Pastor Young appeared in the threshold. He looked towards the ground where Matt was breathing heavily, while clutching on his bleeding neck. Matt supposed one good thing of this whole madness was that in this state he didn't need to do much convincing that he was scared and incredibly hurt. Leave it to Damon to go all out on him.

"Let him go. The boy's innocent," Pastor Young said, in a what he appeared to be trying, firm voice.

Damon looked around casually and then just turned back. "Well, that's the point. Give me Stefan and he's all yours." Pastor stared at him with horror filled eyes. Having no patience with him anymore, Damon grabbed Matt by the scruff of his shirt, nearly chocking him and held him in his grip like he was a toy to be tossed around. That moment, Matt really questioned his sanity for going with this plan. Maybe Elena was right...

"Come on, Pastor. You know I'll kill him. I want to kill him." An evil grin appeared on his face.

"Go away! You are not invited in and I'm not coming out!" Pastor shouted out and the next moment Damon was shot in the chest, thus falling to the ground with a loud groan.

Matt looked horrified for a moment and opened his mouth to speak. "Da-" He started out but was silenced by a hand on his mouth, where Damon was now pinning him to the ground. Matt looked at him with wide-eyes, not sure what to think.

He could hear steps nearing them and guards mobilizing but then he was met by a bleeding wrist of Damon's. He looked at it questioningly and then back again at Damon.

"What?" he mouthed out.

"Drink, dammit," Damon cursed through his teeth. "Or do you want to bleed out?" He was looking like he would pass out any second so Matt didn't waste time and took a few sips in. He was opening his mouth to thank him but felt a sting in his neck where the wound had been. His hand flew towards it.

"Ow. What was that for?"

"Can't let them think I helped you." Damon smirked at him weakly and passed out.

Matt watched how Damon was rolled over, guns pointed at him for any kind of danger he still might posses and then dragged away. His only thought was how he was going to tell Elena that.

When she read the message, Elena thought her heart was going to stop.

It was like the night of them all dying all over again. He was once again in mortal danger and Elena was nowhere near to help him. Liz glanced at Elena from her peripheral vision as she saw the girl's distress.

"What was it? Was it Matt?"

Elena let out a shuddering breath, trying desperately to take hold of her nerves. She closed her eyes. "I need to get to Pastor Young's cattle ranch," she said after a minute.

Liz titled her head to the side, sighing. "Elena. I can't let you do that. You heard what they said-"

"Yes, but now there won't be anyone to tell me that because he might not survive it!" Elena turned to look at Liz, her eyes pleading. "They caught him, Sheriff." She took a breath in. "Please, you have to take me there."

Sheriff Forbes looked at her like she wanted to be anywhere but there.

The car stopped in the shadows the forest was giving the road a few yards away from the barn.

"I can't get closer than that."

"I know," Elena said. "Thank you." She smiled softly at the Sheriff and proceeded to get out of the car, but was stopped by a hand.

"I'm going to get all the backup I can get and come back for you. Please be careful."

Elena could see the concern and uncertainly if what she was doing was right in Liz's eyes. Elena wanted to assure her, but she was desperate if anything, enough to jump out of the moving car, if needed, to get to that barn, so she only smiled politely, thanked her and got out of the vehicle.

She slowly crept inside the barn. The air was thick inside and she could hear coughing all over the place. The smell pricked on her nose and she immediately recognized it. Vervain. Vervain was being ventilated through the cages. She took a few more steps inside when she spotted a slumped figure in one of the cages. She ran towards it.

"Stefan! Oh god." She slammed herself against the bars, trying helplessly to reach for him but he wasn't moving at all. Fear took upon her. "Stefan!" she called out again.

"He's fine," a rasped voice came from one of the other cages. "He's just unconscious."

She flinched from the sudden noise and spun around to face the voice. "Damon!" She breathed out in relief when she saw him still conscious and alive, but she quickly saw just in what state had he been alive. She looked over his worn out appearance and couldn't help feeling the rage swell inside her. What had they done to him? A voice shook her out of her musings.

"I thought I killed you." Elena looked around to see Rebekah in one of the cages near Damon's. Her eyes widened.

"Ignore her," Damon gritted through his teeth but she could see that even that action alone required him additional strength to do. "Elena, what're you doing here?"

If it was any other time, Elena might have stopped to think over the fact that her own life killer was sitting only a few feet away from her but now she devoted all her attention to the matters at hand.

Damon watched Elena cautiously as she knelt beside the bars of his prison. She took them in a firm grip, tugging at them but they appeared to be unmovable. She huffed in frustration of not being able to find any weakness in them.

If the situation had bee any less severe than it was, he might have stopped to think how silly and beautiful she looked, trying to win a war against steel. But the situation was that severe. "Elena, get out of here."

She breathed out and slumped in place. „You were right."

„What?" Damon's eye twitched at her stance and somehow defeatedly determined voice. He followed her every movement: how she started fidgeting about, tugging on her sleeves.

"I'm only human and I probably don't have the power to go against the council alone," she continued on, rolling her one sleeve up her arm. An uneasy feeling was starting to creep inside his stomach as he was beginning to register just what was Elena about to do. He narrowed his eyes at her. "But I do have a way to help you." She stopped fidgeting and let her bare arm drop on her knees. And then with a gathered resolve looked up to meet his eyes dead on. "It's by giving you strength to fight your way out of this." She slowly raised her hand and pulled it inside his cage, between the bars.

He grimaced at the smell of her. „Elena," he started out in a warning. "What do you think you're doing!?" he forced out through his teeth.

„Getting you out of here," she said in a firm voice, her eyes unwavering.

He was starved. Starved and exhausted. So much that it took him impossible amount of strength to resist the temptation. To not just indulge himself. God, she had no idea what she was doing to him. "I'm not going to drink from you."

"Damon, you have to. You need to get your strength back so you can get out of here!" she cried out in desperation. "It's not the time to be stubborn."

„I'm not being stubborn, Elena," he panted out. Dammit, the vervain and Elena's pleas were killing him here. Quite literraly. "I'm not drinkining from you," he breathed out and met her eyes with such an intensity that she had to stop breathing for a moment. "Forget about it."

It was true. He craved her like a starved beast he was, but he couldn't get any of that satisfaction. He craved her blood but he also loved her. And he would rather rot in hell itself than put her life in danger. Because of him no less. And it didn't help him in the least the fact that it would cause him psychical pain to be forbidden to be near her after finally getting a taste of her.

„You need blood, Damon," she insisted on in a pressing voice.

"Oh, please, Damon. Just take the damn blood. She's even offering! At least something good coming out of her," Rebekah's voice echoed through the cell. "Or give it here. I won't refuse you." She smirked, showing her teeth at her. Elena felt her heartbeat quickening.

"Shut the hell up, Rebekah, or I'll make you." Damon showed his teeth at her with his last bit of strength.

"Fine!" she spat, looking at him with disdain. "Then let us all die because your bleeding heart can't take the poor Elena's blood."

Elena took a few deep breaths in. She would rather die herself than agree on something with Rebekah, but she had to agree, at least to herself, that they were on the same page. At least this once. "Damon, you need to feed," she said it very calmly but she was starting to loose patience.

For a moment he only looked at her and she thought that he might give in, but then he stood up. Staggering along the way. She followed him suit and stood up herself. Trying to read his mood. He raised his head and met her eyes. "I won't need it."

She furrowed her eyes in confusion but before she could react, the doors of the barn flew open and guard came rushing in. "What're you doing here? How did you get in?"

She felt momentary stunned to the place but then proceeded to guard Damon's cage with her body. "I'm not leaving here."

The guard was momentary fazed but then shot out the vervain dart in her leg, making her yelp from pain and stumble to the ground.

It was not like vervain affected her, but it still stung.

She could hear Damon shouting her name and feel the guard quickly approaching her but he never reached her. Instead of grabbing her, he let out a strangled yell. Elena looked over to see the horror before her eyes. The man which was posing to be a danger just a few minutes ago was being drained dry, his neck bent in an awkward angle. Damon was feeding hungrily and mercilessly. And it didn't appear he had any intend to stop before he finished every last drop.

"Stop it," she breathed out, looking wide-eyes at the sight. He ignored her and just continued to feed. "Damon, stop!" she yelled out. And just like that, the body was dropped to the ground, Damon wiping the dropping blood from his mouth. The horror in that was that the body looked anything but alive. Still, she needed some kind of confirmation. She rushed over to the man's body only to be stopped by Damon's dismissing voice.

"He's dead."

Elena could only stand rotten to the spot while she watched Damon take the bars in his both arms and bending them to the sides to get out of his cage.

Damon stormed off the barn as soon as he was sure that everyone who needed saving was saved. It was proving to be difficult for Elena to keep up with him, but she was hot on his heels.

„You didn't have to kill him," she started out, her voice furious. As soon as her mind understood what had happened, she felt her blood boil. She was furious with him. Why did he have to keep doing things like that?

„Sure I did," he replied offhandedly. He was still trying to get away from her and after a while Elena gave up, stopping. But she did raise her voice to shout out loud enough, even if vampires didn't require it, to his back.

„Why did you kill him, Damon?! I offered you my blood. Willingly! You just had to take it, then there would be no need to kill an innocent man."

He stopped. „An innocent man? Really, Elena?" He had a look of disbelief on his face. "That King of the Innocence wanted us all vampires dead. And if you haven't noticed he was very keen on continuing the job."

She swallowed, determined not to let her succumb to this twisted truth. „We c-could have imprisoned him...or chained him up...not killing him!"

„No. He attacked you, I needed to feed to free everyone out, so I fed till he dead. End of story. Now get over it," he pointed out harshly.

She let out a humorless laugh. "Is that what you think I would do? Get over another death that you caused?"

"Yes," Damon agreed in a heartbeat. "Because you know he had to die." He looked his gaze to hers and she just couldn't say another word. She pressed her lips together, shaking her head.

They stood alone, out in the open with this huge distance between them, more emotional than psychical, and she couldn't take it anymore. She cracked first.

„Why-!" she started out in a raised voice, but then got a hold of herself. She tried again, after sighing in defeat. "Why didn't you just take my blood?"

„I'm not talking about it now," Damon dismissed her at once.

„No, but I am!" She took a firm step towards him. „Why don't you just take it?" She shrugged her arms helplessly at her sides.

Damon narrowed his eyes as he was looking anywhere but at her. „Do you even understand what it means to feed on a person you care at least a bit about?" he asked in a lower than normal voice.

Now it was Elena's turn to frown in confusion. "What do you mean? It's not like it's anything new for you to drink human blood. From people you know-"

„Do you know what it means to kiss a stranger?" He interrupted her, turning his head to face her. Her heart skipped a beat at his intensity. "A friend? What about someone you secretly desire, who makes your skin tingle in anticipation?" He took a step towards her and she wished she could take a step back. Which she did, but he continued to stalk her, never letting his eyes leave hers until her back hit the side of the car. She gasped. "What if it's someone you love so much it hurts to even think..." he continued on, drawing patterns on her face with his gaze and Elena could feel her skin burn. "What if you...add the two together. The craving desire and the feel of loving someone. How much it magnifies? How much until you can't stop yourself? That burning desire intensifying a couple dozen of times, making you stop thinking altogether because all you can see is the burn of the love filled eyes."

His eyes made her heart stop inside her chest. He was making it impossible to look away from him. They were burning with need, desire and so much love, that it was overwhelming her.

"Damon," she breathed out, not sure entirely what she wanted to say after that.

„I won't feed on you, Elena. Don't ask me again."

He glanced downwards, watching as her lips parted on their own accord, forming unrecognizable words and then he was gone, leaving her exhale a shuddering breath and hold onto the cold surface behind her for support.

Elena was sitting inside Matt's kitchen, nursing a cup of tea in her hands while she let her thoughts drift to events of the day and a few hours ago when she went over to the boarding house to visit Stefan.

Stefan didn't get hurt too badly psychically, maybe because he was mostly out of it, but you could see exhaustion in him. She cared about him and didn't want the awkward situation they were into right now put a drift between them in such a way that it would be impossible to even care for each other's health.

"I'm glad we managed to get everyone out. Even if the council now knows of everyone. Still, at least we go out tonight." She babbled on, her voice trembling. She hated this. She didn't even know how to talk to him anymore. It was like a big wall between them which didn't let anything pass.

Instead of answering Stefan just kept silent. It made Elena sigh.

"I just... wanted to know if you're okay." Elena tried to take a few steps towards him, but he interrupted her.

"I'm fine," Stefan said in a raised voice, but then lowered it when he saw Elena flinch and stop dead in her tracks. He smiled sadly at her. "I'm fine. I just need to get my strength back."

She lowered her eyes to the ground, nodding in understanding. "Okay. Yeh, sure, I'll leave you to that. I was just about to go visit Matt anyway." She gestured blindly in the direction of the doors.

Stefan gave her a soft smile, which made her heart constrict. She took a deep breath in and reciprocated with a small smile of her own. "I'll be going now then." She hurried to walk backwards and stumbled upon something solid. When she turned around, she was met with an expression of Damon's she couldn't quite grasp.

It was all too much too soon for her to handle. She quickly cast her eyes away from him and with a polite "excuse me" left the boarding house.

"I suppose the things are just going to get louder after today," Matt said as an afterthought while sipping on his own tea.

Elena smiled softly. "Yeh, I suppose so." Her eyes then drifted to the patch on his neck. She furrowed her brows.

When Matt noticed, he was quick to add. "It's fine. It's just a scratch, he made sure to heal me beforehand."

It seemed like she was half-listening, half-not, swallowing, she nodded. "Why did you help him tonight?" she asked.

„Him, you mean Damon?"

„Yeh."

Matt put the cup back on the table. „He saved my life."

Elena sighed. „I know, Matt. But you still could have died that night." She put a hand on his forearm, looking him deeply in the eyes.

„Me and Jeremy already knew that when I took you out of town. I don't blame him for helping you first."

Elena looked at him for a moment longer, but then decided to drop it. „You know what, it doesn't matter now." She proceeded to drink again.

It would have been a lie if Matt said that he wasn't conflicted. Conflicted he was. And a lot. On one hand, it might have been the right thing to do, but on the other... he was not yet sure if letting Damon near Elena was a good idea. Though he knew, that he could trust him with her life.

More than he could say about himself.

So maybe that's all the answer he needed. He sighed. „He didn't just save me once, you know," he said in a faint voice.

Elena narrowed her eyes. „What, what do you mean?"

Matt took a breath and just went for it. „Back at the Mikaelson party. Damon didn't just suddenly went crazy." He looked at Elena pointedly to which she just looked more confused. "I mean," he corrected himself. "He might have, but that was not the only reason."

„What... what are you talking about, Matt?" She closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I don't understand."

„I went to the balcony because I heard a voice calling me," Matt began again. "But it was a trap. Kol had me pinned and Damon... well, he pulled him away. That was the moment he flew off the railing." He finished and looked back at Elena to see the words sinking in for her.

„Oh my god."

Her eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily. She had to grip the sides of the table to not fall out of her chair.

„Elena? Are you alright?" Matt asked in concern. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell her after all...

„No, I"m not alright," she shot back, laughing bitterly. „ Don't you see? This is what Damon does. Me and Stefan both hurt him deeply that evening but he still came to help you. And none even noticed. None even knew! Because..." She shrugged helplessly. „He would never tell." She shook her head, putting her lips together.

„Everyone keeps saying that he's this... monster, but he's not! They just don't see the good in him and judge him!" Her eyes were shining with unshed tears and she didn't know whether it were from her own helplessness, frustration at Damon that he could be so... Damon or at everything all at once.

„Then why don't you give him a chance?" Matt asked softly.

Elena turned to look at him and all he could see was sadness in her eyes. „I can't, Matt...and it's not because I can't accept him. It's because..." She took a deep breath in. „I don't know if I can accept myself."

to be continued...

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