"You mean more hunters?" Jeremy groaned, unable to stop himself.
"They'll help you Jeremy, they'll help you understand who you're dealing with. They'll help you see that those things you call family are monsters. Your sister died and the sooner you bury her the easier—
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jeremy spat. "I heard you the first hundred times. "She's still my sister, I know you probably hold a grudge since she killed you—
"Are you so far gone that you can't understand what's wrong with that?" Connor's ghost demanded. Jeremy shrugged. He'd been seeing Connor for a while now, he was used to the anti-vampire rants. He'd learned to tune it out like racial slurs from a grandparent stuck in their old ways.
"So who's this new hunter, what's he look like?" Jeremy asked, getting dressed for school, hoping Matt wasn't listening in. He didn't exactly want the whole world knowing he was taking tips from the one and only person his sister had murdered.
"You'll find out sooner or later I'm sure, hunters tend to stick together, he'll see your mark." Connor replied. Jeremy rolled his eyes, he didn't know why but lately Connor had been coming through a lot more often, mostly just to annoy the absolute shit of our Jeremy by spewing his anti-vampire bullshit, but every once in a while he said something useful.
"Is he here now?" Jeremy asked.
"Oh, he's here. I'm sure he'll make his presence abundantly clear soon."
.
.
Is this what her life had come to? She thought as she lay next to Damon, her eyes tightly shut, her body as close to him as it had been when she'd fallen asleep. It was the best sleep she'd gotten since the last time they shared a bed, in fact it was pretty much the only decent sleep she'd gotten since then. She'd been awake for over an hour but she didn't want to be, as soon as she got up or woke him they'd end up with a ten foot barrier between them for the rest of the day, and possibly for the rest of her undead life. She hated living like this, walking on eggshells with him. It wasn't them. They needed to get out the tension, sexual and otherwise.
She risked a glance at him from under her lashes, and couldn't stop the grin that spread on her face. He was so relaxed that it was almost painful for her to see, to know that he was hardly ever like this. A strange sense of pride filled her chest at the notion that she was the one who made him so calm and she suddenly wondered if that was the sirebond. She let out a small huff of frustration. This sirebond bullshit was really starting to taint everything she thought and felt and she was sick of it.
She was going to find Katherine, the problem was she didn't know where to start looking, and the one person who probably could help her the most was sound asleep beside her, painfully oblivious to her plan, and it had to stay that way. Before she could linger on the thought any longer her senses kicked into overdrive and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was here.
"How cute." Drawled Rebekah, leaning in Damon's door frame.
Damon had her by the throat before Elena could blink and she poised herself for attack.
"Don't strain yourself." She scoffed, flicking Damon's arm off her. "I was just complimenting how you two look together." She grinned, "sire and siremaster, it's so sweet." She laughed. Elena tried to keep herself under control, but her rage was bubbling just beneath the surface. She clenched her fists, attempting to stay calm. Not only did she hate Rebekah, but she had just ruined what could have been a blissful morning.
"What do you want Rebekah?" Damon's voice was cold and demanding, clearly he was still holding a grudge for yesterday.
"Just making sure you have intentions of upholding our deal." She shrugged. "So what's on the agenda today?" She asked coyly, traipsing around him, trailing a finger on his bare shoulders. Elena tried once again not to let her jealousy and rage shine through.
"You dropping in on me every morning wasn't part of the deal Rebekah, get the hell out." He spat, inching closer to Elena as inconspicuously as he could manage.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch, I can see you were busy, I'll come back later." She smirked, staring Elena directly in the eye. Elena had half a mind to break Damon's bedpost and stab her in the chest just to get a little satisfaction out of her day, but she decided against it, antagonizing Rebekah wasn't exactly on her to do list, and Damon's bed was not a casualty she was willing to overlook.
"And when I come back I want to know just how big your little brother's mark has grown." She quipped before slipping out of the room. One moment passed before Damon turned back to Elena,
"Not the wakeup call I'd been hoping for." He smirked, picking up a t-shirt and throwing it over his head with ease.
"Me either." She confessed, feeling a little guilty about ambushing him in bed last night. "I don't know about you, but last night was the best night of sleep I've gotten in what seems like forever." She started, taking a hesitant step towards him. "I know we can't be together, but I won't hate you for giving me a good night's sleep. I won't hate you for anything, but I really couldn't ever hate you for that." She gave him a small smile and peeked up at him through her lashes, threatening to undo him.
He had to admit, last night was amazing. He'd barely woken up at all, and when he did having her in his arms was the most soothing comfort he could think of. He was too tired to feel guilty, too comfortable to push her away based on principal. It was innocent, it was as innocent as Damon could possibly be without torturing himself, and if he was confident that neither one of them would give into temptation he would've agreed to her sharing a bed with him wholeheartedly. The fact that she was standing there practically begging him to sleep in the same bed with her, to let her sleep in his bed was hilarious to him, well it would be if it wasn't so fucking frustrating.
"I'm holding you to that Elena." He made sure to latch his eyes to hers, just so she knew exactly how much he meant that. Their bodies were just inches apart now and both thrumming with desire, he could practically feel the sexual tension rolling off her in waves. It was too much.
"I've got some stuff to take care of." He started, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. He let his fingers linger on her cheek and she leaned into his touch, refusing to break eye contact. She nodded in understanding. "Rebekah won't be back, so don't worry about her, but just in case I'm thinking we might want our favorite hunter on the deed to the house." She gave him a small smile at his remark.
"He'll probably set the record for most real estate in Mystic Falls."
"Probably." He answered.
.
.
"This is disgusting!" Caroline shrieked, snapping the neck of another soon to be vampire. Ex-con and soon to be vampire. "I mean how many more of these people do I have to turn?" She demanded, stomping across the parking lot.
"As many as it takes, love." Klaus smiled at her. It only infuriated her more. She cocked her head and put her hand on her hip, unwilling to take that as an answer.
"Is there any reason I'm the only one of us covered in blood?" She spat.
"Would you prefer me in blood? Just say the word, there are thousands of people who probably have it coming—
"Uhg you are impossible!" She shrieked again, throwing her hands up dramatically.
"Where do you think you're going?" He called after her, somewhat concerned she was leaving so soon.
"In case you haven't noticed, I've left a pile up of murderers in the middle of the parking lot so I was thinking I'd move them to your trunk." She said while completing her task at vampire speed.
Klaus only smiled at her, the smile she hated the most, the one that riled her up, egged her on and reminded her what a maniacal killer he was. She stalked over to the passenger side and slammed the door shut, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, refusing to look at him while he took his sweet time getting in the car.
"You are such an asshole." She muttered, unable to help herself. Klaus had almost become tolerable before he went all psycho and killed Tyler's mom, not to mention the dozen of brand new friends Tyler had become so attached to. Now he was insufferable on every level. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to need him on their side right now, including her.
She was currently the only thing preventing Klaus from going full speed ahead in his revenge plot to slowly kill his last hybrid, a fact that she was constantly reminding him of.
"You should work on your manners." He commented brightly, unfazed by her apparent disgust.
"You should really work on not drowning people." She snapped back. It wasn't clever, but it did the job, his smile slid off his face as quickly as he'd put it on. She hated him, now more than ever. In her quest to convince him not to kill Tyler he'd recruited her as his personal slave, being his company in his quest for the cure, and she made it as miserable for him as possible without him backing out.
She guessed it might not be so bad if she was reaping any benefits. For instance if she knew that Tyler was alive somewhere that might help her motivation. Klaus claimed to know just exactly where Tyler was hiding, but she was just about ready to call his bluff. The problem was she didn't want him to know that she didn't know either. They were at a stalemate, both of them knew it, but not really. It was easier for her to pretend that someone knew that Tyler was alive and well and hiding, even if it was Klaus.
Spending so much time with him hadn't softened her impression of him in the slightest, nor had it helped her find out anything new about the cure. He was almost more wary of her as she was of him, but it didn't stop him from basically holding her ransom.
"Would you take it, if you had the opportunity to?" He'd asked her a few nights ago as she sat by the fire, flipping through journal after journal he'd asked her to search through. She'd guessed it was a way to keep her there longer, and maybe shut her up but she looked through them anyways, just in case there was something useful there. It could have been a peaceful night, if Klaus hadn't been watching her from twelve feet away the whole time. Whenever she looked up he was reading, but she felt his eyes on her.
"Excuse me?" She asked.
"I mean Elena's going to get the cure, but if there's enough for more than one vampire, do you want it?" He clarified.
Caroline had been stunned into silence because the truth was, she didn't know. A year ago she would have jumped at the opportunity, and some days she still would. But being a vampire, it was her thing now. She was good at it. Sometimes she kind of even liked it. Not that she would ever admit that to Klaus.
"Why, are you going to kill someone for me to get it?" She retorted, but he ignored her.
"I didn't think so." He said smugly before returning to his reading with a big shit eating grin plastered on his stupid psychotic face.
The words had haunted her for days, and the more she thought about them the more confused she got. Before she turned she wanted to live a normal life. She wanted to marry a guy like matt and have kids and a dog with him and live in Mystic Falls until she died. But now things were different. She didn't want a life like that anymore, not just because of what she'd become, but also because of who she'd become. She'd gotten so used to the idea of forever that it seemed so farfetched to be anything else. It'd gotten her thinking about it and she was afraid that maybe she didn't want to go back.
It got her thinking that maybe there was something her and Klaus had in common after all, which made her want to barf.
.
.
Caroline sat in Klaus' armchair, waiting for the new vampires to wake up while Damon, Klaus and Stefan continued chit chatting. She was impressed with the way they were interacting, very few petty remarks were thrown, and no stakes at all. Between the three of them she was sure someone would be picking splinters out of their gut tonight.
But the conversation had gone quite smoothly. Damon and Stefan were waiting when she and Klaus arrived. Stefan shot her a quizzical look, but she ignored it. Later she would assure him she was fine, but right now she was too annoyed to say so. She made herself busy unloading the still dead murderers from the truck after she was sure the conversation between the three vampires wasn't going anywhere particularly murderous.
At first they'd just talked logistics about Jeremy's mark and the vampires he'd have to kill. It was decided that as long as Caroline was picking out murderers no one had any protests. She suspected that Klaus just wanted to go on more road trips with her, which was why he didn't insist on a more convenient way. She rolled her eyes.
When Rebekah came up everyone was pretty stiff. Apparently Damon had stricken a deal with her that he would share information about the cure with her in exchange for Elena's safety. Stefan and Damon wouldn't even look at each other throughout that conversation. Caroline was positive Klaus would lose it when Damon said he intended to follow through, but instead he nodded and assured him that he would keep his sister under wraps. Caroline had a sneaking suspicion that sooner rather than later Rebekah would find herself right back in her coffin. She deserved it though, after what she did to Elena. Caroline shuddered at the thought. 37 stakes was too much to even imagine, especially for a newbie.
It wasn't until Damon began asking about the future that Caroline's interest really spiked. Things were beyond tense when he started talking about post-cure life. It wasn't like Damon to think so far ahead, in fact it was kind of impressive.
"Well considering the last time I left her protection to the likes of you two she ended up at the bottom of a river—
"Thanks to your sister." Damon retorted.
"Where she died, thanks to your brother." Klaus countered. Stefan tensed and looked like he might say something, Caroline almost did on his behalf, but they both opted against it.
"We'll call it a draw then." Damon quipped, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, preparing for a negotiation.
"I should take her with me, and kill both of you before we leave." Klaus said smoothly.
"Motivation to find the cure just went out the window." Damon replied dryly.
"However she's quite difficult, and you do seem to protect her within an inch of your life." He shrugged, swirling around his drink. Klaus was playing with him, but it didn't look like Damon was taking the bait. He seemed unfazed.
"If you cross me I will take her from you, rip both your hearts out and never compel her to forget that she saw it happen." He said gravely. "Since that's a lot of work I'd be willing to leave her in your care, but don't cross me, or she'll be gone and you'll be dead before you can blink." Klaus threatened, stepping up to Damon. Damon pursed his lips, and Caroline rolled her eyes again. She was getting really tired of all Klaus' graphic threats.
The conversation might have come to blows if the newly transitioning murderers hadn't started twitching on the floor. Fortunately Damon gave Klaus a stiff nod, seemingly for the sake of prioritization and tossed a blood bag Caroline's way.
"Then let's get this cure."
.
.
Elena sighed, pulling her hands from the professor's.
"It's not working." She conceded. Shane shook his head.
"You have to try harder, imagine that it's a line you have to cross, a mental image you have to conjure, it will help." He insisted, but she shook her head, she was exhausted. After Damon left the boarding house she headed to Jeremy's where Bonnie was deep in concentration.
"I'm almost there Elena, I think I can make this spell work." She said excitedly. Bonnie's new powers were great, but they set of big red warning flashers in Elena's mind, she was worried for her friend. But she seemed in control and they really needed her to keep practicing. As long as Shane could keep an eye on her she'd be alright, at least Elena really hoped so.
"What spell Bon?" She asked, opening a blood bag from the fridge and pouring it into her favorite childhood mug as inconspicuously as she could manage.
"I think I can use your doppelganger blood to find Katherine. I mean I thought about it and you're her descendant, and maybe since you're a vampire now the connection will be stronger, and with this spell I'm almost positive it'll work." She grinned.
"Bonnie that's incredible." Elena grinned. In all honesty, the sooner they found Katherine, the better. If she could break this sirebond without the cure she would. "Thank you." She said softly, hugging her friend. She hadn't seen Bonnie this excited about magic for a long time, and while she worried it was good to see her happy.
When Shane came in to check on Bonnie, he and Elena had gotten to talking about the sirebond and he offered to help. While she was reluctant to trust him he was doing great things for Bonnie, and she didn't doubt that he knew a thing or two about sirebonds. For the entire afternoon he'd been trying to get her to picture different things in her mind, to tap into the sirebond and its' existence to overcome it, but it was mentally exhausting and frustrating.
"Elena I can help you overcome this." He insisted, relighting the candles in her living room that were supposedly setting up some kind of powerful energy. Jeremy was in the backyard with Matt, practicing his aim and Bonnie was in her old bedroom, working on the spell. She was momentarily stricken with guilt, everyone was doing this for her once again, and she wasn't even bothering to try with Professor Shane.
"Okay, one more time." She agreed. He grinned and took both of her hands, sitting across from her and she closed her eyes.
"Alright, imagine—
Before he could say a world the front door burst open,
"Hey Jeremy, got some new ex-murderous friends for you to kill." Damon said, strolling into the living room, but he stopped short seeing Elena and Shane. He looked at them critically for half a second before addressing Shane.
"I didn't know you and Bonnie had apparently taken up residence here too." He said snarkily.
"Nice to see you too Damon, Jeremy's out back." Shane said tersely. Damon looked between the two of them once more and caught Elena's eyes, silently asking her if she was alright. Her heart fluttered in her chest and she nodded. He hesitated only one moment more before exiting, presumably to hand over the baby vampires to her baby brother.
Elena dusted herself off; she was flushed, just from the way he had looked at her.
"That's not the sirebond you know." Shane commented, blowing out the candles.
"Excuse me?"
"The way you two connect, it's not the sirebond. I've seen dozens of them and the way you two connect in unlike that kind of bond, I understand why you're fighting it so hard." He said. She stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was being genuine, but a crash outside prevented the conversation from going any further.
"Come on Jer, right in the heart." Damon coached. The sight of what was happening in her own back yard made her sick to her stomach. Her little brother was grappling with a newborn vampire while five others were being held down by Damon, Stefan, Caroline and Klaus. Her heart started hammering hard. She knew it was a little irrational for her to feel like this, Jeremy had been training for this, he wanted this and he was prepared, however watching her little brother kill someone made something inside her snap. She just wanted this to be easy for him.
"Just snap its' neck first!" She shouted, and before she knew what she was doing her overprotective instincts kicked in and she was in the thick of the fight, grasping the head of the vampire until the neck snapped. Before she could move away grey veins bloomed under the surface of the vampire's skin, signifying its death. Jeremy pulled his stake back out of the vampire's chest and another was already coming at them.
"Elena, he needs to do this on his own." Stefan chastised her, attempting to pull her from the fight. She shook him off, but not until after he'd dragged a few yards from where her brother was.
"Stop! Why are you making this hard for him, all he has to do is stake them, we can snap their necks first!" She shrieked. She felt herself losing control, her anger growing by the second.
"But where's the fun in that, love?" Klaus sneered. She spun around to look at Damon, who was pointedly avoiding her gaze by looking at Jeremy. She started back towards her brother.
"Get away from Jeremy Elena, he can do this." Damon argued, releasing the vampire he was holding. Elena looked back to her little brother, drenched in vampire blood, three corpses littering the ground around him with another charging at him. Her body tensed, suddenly aware that she was rooted to the ground, she wanted to go to Jeremy, but the sirebond wanted her to get the hell away from him right now, she was fighting it, but she still couldn't move. She shouted in aggravation, shooting death glares at Damon, who still refused to look at her. She struggled for another few moments, her eyes glued to where Jeremy was, he didn't seem to be struggling at all, in fact he was doing really well. He was killing the vampires almost as fast as she could do it, which was saying something.
She stared in wonder as he little brother killed the last baby vampire, and then he charged at her, devoid of any emotion but rage and burning hatred for what she was. He never would have gotten to her. Not with Caroline, Stefan, Klaus and Damon watching, not to mention the fact that she saw him come at her. Though she was hardly prepared for his attack she could have disarmed him. She wasn't crazy thirsty like the other newbies he'd just killed, she knew how to focus. Fortunately she didn't have to, Damon had her brother pinned to the ground before he could get within five feet of her.
"Get the hell off me!" Jeremy screamed, struggling against Damon. Elena stayed rooted to the spot, her mind desperately trying to catch up to the situation.
"Not until I'm sure you won't touch your sister." Damon snapped, but she could tell it was taking him a bit of effort to keep Jeremy pinned to the ground.
"The only person I want to kill right now is you, so get off me dick!" Jeremy shoved at Damon and he relented, cautiously letting him up, a maneuvering the stake from his grasp.
"A little bloody, but not bad." Stefan commented, rolling over one of the dead vampires with the heel of his shoe.
"Here I'll help." Caroline blurred towards Stefan, hauling bodies over her shoulder before blurring away. Stefan did the same and the whole ordeal just boiled down to a blood stain in her grass, nothing more. Klaus seemed to have disappeared as well, leaving Only Damon, Jeremy, Shane and Bonnie in the yard.
"Elena-" Damon started but she held up a hand and cut him off.
"I'm going to clean up, this…stain." And she blurred away, presumably to gather cleaning supplies.
.
.
"Hey Tyler, it's me again, just seeing if you were okay." Caroline paused, chewing the inside of her cheek, hot tears prickling beneath her eyelids. She was mad at him. She knew he was upset, she got it, she too had lost a parent and she knew that they weren't even really together right now but she still cared. I mean she cared enough to spend every waking moment of her life entertaining Klaus just so she could have peace of mind. She was beginning to think that maybe Klaus had killed Tyler and just wasn't owning up to it. "I know you need your space but you need to call me back, I need to know if you're okay or not and if you are, you shutting me out isn't helping anything." She paused again. "Just call me back Tyler." She sighed into the receiver. "Please."
"You okay?" Stefan stood in her doorway and she jumped a little. You'd think with her vampire senses she would have heard him come through.
"I'm fine." She insisted, wiping her face on the backs of her hands. He frowned and crossed her bedroom sitting on the side of her bed and silently rubbing her shoulders.
"He'll turn up." He insisted. She scoffed.
"Yeah if he isn't already dead." Stefan frowned at that, pulling her into a hug as her sniffles turned into full on sobbing and she clung to him. She cried because she didn't know where Tyler was, because she wanted him to be okay, and because she didn't miss him the way she thought she would, the way she should. And that scared her more than anything else did.
.
.
She's not your sister. She's a monster, a killer. Her basic instinct is to drain you, to kill you.
Jeremy washed his hands again, turning up the hot water in the bathroom sink, trying to get the last of the vampire blood from under his finger nails. Usually he wasn't this hygienic, but he needed it off him, now.
She's a monster, wearing your sister's skin.
He scrubbed harder, his head throbbing and his heart racing. Bonnie had sat with him all evening while Elena showered upstairs and cleaned the stain off the lawn. He was trying desperately to hold onto the part of him that knew she was his sister, but the moment Bonnie and Elena had left he found himself wanting to chase after his own sister.
Your sister deserves to be put to rest, to move on. This monster is not her. It's hurting her, keeping her from moving on.
"Fuck." He cursed, shutting off the water and gripping both sides of the sink as he breathed in and out, trying desperately to get a grip on his thoughts. They thoughts had never been like this before, and he'd never ever started to believe them.
"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" Jeremy looked up, startled by Connor's voice, and saw him in the mirror behind him.
"Shut up." He muttered, deciding to wash his hands again. He paused, realizing he hadn't even told her about the other hunter in town. He'd meant to warn her…at least he thought he had meant to.
"She's not your sister anymore Jeremy, and the sooner you see that, the easier this will be for you." Conner said.
"SHUT UP!" Jeremy shouted and he threw a stake across the small bathroom with so much force that it stuck in the wall, but Connor was already gone. He stared at the stake and his eyes widened as he realized he didn't even remember picking it up.
.
.
Elena picked her poison, downing a couple glasses of Damon's good bourbon while running a hand through her hair. She'd calmed down over the past couple of hours. It took her two showers and a pep talk from Bonnie, but the rage wasn't rolling off her in waves anymore, so that was a start. She was still pissed at Damon, she was pissed that he'd used the sirebond against her, that he'd ignored her and that he didn't tell her his plan was just to let vampires charge at her little brother.
She got it now, Jeremy was prepared for them and if one had started to get the upper hand there were 5 other vampires around to intercept. She'd overreacted, but it was her little brother, and he was doing this for her, she wanted it to be easier for him. She knew Damon was only trying to prepare him in case he actually had to fight a vampire off without backup, however she still didn't like it.
"Taking the edge off?" Damon crossed the room towards her, pulling his own tumbler out and filling it.
"Rough day." She sighed. It was hard to be mad at him when she was this exhausted. She wondered again if feeling like this was partially the sirebond. Professor Shane's words from earlier replayed in her mind and they gave her a little more hope.
"I didn't know you had to work with Shane to help Jeremy overcome his hatred of vampires." He said casually, taking a swig of his drink before pouring another. She studied him for a moment, making eye contact. He was worried. It softened her just a little, before it irritated her.
"He said he could help with the sirebond. He was helping me learn to overcome it with my mind." She replied, that seemed to catch his attention.
"Is it working?"
"Too soon to tell." She shrugged.
"I don't trust him." He said with finality.
"He's really helping Bonnie, I think he could help." She insisted.
"I don't think you should practice anything with him, he could be dangerous. Who knows what he's really doing in your head." Damon countered, taking another drink.
"Is that an order?" She sneered at him, her eyes narrowing in anger. He stared her down, refusing to break eye contact.
"Elena." He stated clearly. "The last thing we need is Professor creep-o infiltrating your mind." He insisted, but she shook her head.
"What makes you think I'd let him?" She demanded. She was done being treated like a child around here and she was done being ordered around by Damon.
"He's dangerous." He argued.
"I'm a vampire, I think I can handle him." She snapped.
"I'm getting you this cure okay, I get that you want the sirebond gone, believe me, but we already have a way, let's just focus on that—
"Why? So you can order me to stay put again and watch my brother murder another group of people?" She balled her fists against her sides. "I finally have the ability to do something Damon and if I can get around this sirebond another way I'll do it—
"What about being human?" He replied.
"What about it!" She shouted. "I died!" He looked taken aback for a moment, but composed himself quickly.
"So has about 90 percent of Mystic Falls, but it can make you human Elena, isn't that what you want?" He asked. His question sounded rhetorical, but she knew better, he wanted her to say it.
"What I want is for you to look at me like I'm not a child!" She paused, letting her words sink in. "Stefan looks at me like I'm a broken toy, like I'm not worth anything unless I'm human, unless I'm cured. When you look at me you don't smile anymore. You look at me like I don't know what's good for me—
"Because you don't Elena! What part of sired do you not understand?!" He shouted. "Until you're human neither of us will know if anything you feel is even real."
"You're wrong, I know what I feel!" She screamed back. "And right now I feel like you're an asshole! I bet that doesn't make you happy but that's how I feel, case and point, Damon."
"It's not the same Elena and you know it." He shook his head turning his back to her. "Look, we need to focus, we need to find the cure and—
"I don't want the fucking cure." Her confession surprised even her, but she tried not to let it show. She'd thought about it a lot and she'd decided that if she could get around the sirebond without the cure it would be worth it, to save Jeremy the trouble and to not have to worry about Klaus or Shane or anyone. She hadn't really thought about what it would mean to be human again. The truth was these past few weeks she'd really gotten the hang of the vampire thing. She wasn't helpless anymore, and she didn't want to be ever again.
On one hand, yeah, she wanted to grow up, decide if she wanted a family, go to college. But all of that went out the window the second she met the Salvatore brothers and part of her knew that. If she was lucky enough to get out of Mystic Falls in one piece someday it would be nothing short of a supernatural miracle. And even if she got to leave she never really would be able to live a normal human life. She would always be looking over her shoulder, waiting for something to go wrong. Or maybe she would miss the way Damon perched so gracefully in her window at night. She would definitely miss that.
She'd gotten used to supernatural, it was her world now. In a way it always had been. And even if she did get the cure, she would turn again. Whether it was to protect what was left of her makeshift family or because she found a grey hair, she was suddenly so clear. She wanted to be with Damon, and that wasn't something she could do without forever. It definitely wasn't something he could do without either. Aside from getting rid of the sirebond, the cure would be wasted on her, utterly wasted. Damon turned around to look at her.
"You're just upset—
"Don't tell me how I feel Damon. Contrary to what you might believe that's the one thing you aren't in charge of." She whispered, reaching out to lay a tentative hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, his gaze burning into hers. She felt her stomach swish with the intensity of it, the desire began to pool low in her belly.
"I'm getting the cure for you, and then you can decide what you want, and I won't stand in the way, no matter what it is." He played with the tips of her hair absently, "Until then I'm going to keep you safe, no matter what you say." He said softly, deciding he was done fighting, but not giving up his position.
Elena looked into his eyes for a long moment, and decided she wasn't mad at him anymore. He had let down a wall for her, and he was being so careful with his words, trying not to command her to do anything she didn't want to. He was trying to be a good person and the last thing she wanted was to make him feel even more conflicted about doing something he thought was right. For once she wished what was right lined up with what made both of them happy.
"I know you don't think it's real." She whispered, laying her hand flat over his heart. "So I'll wait for you." She paused swallowing thickly, "We will get rid of this sirebond, and when we do I'll still be here, feeling what I feel. Until then, just hold me okay?" It was lame, but it was the best she had. She was tired and she wouldn't sleep if he wasn't there, she couldn't.
Damon realized a long time ago, that there was nothing in the world he wouldn't give this girl. In fact there were very few things he didn't want to give her, and after a day like today his resistance was wearing thin. Actually every day that the sirebond existed his resistance wore thinner, and he was ready to accept that. It just meant he needed to find the cure, and soon. He needed to find it before he did something Elena would never forgive him for.
"Okay." He whispered, and he let her lace her fingers through his, deciding not to feel guilty as he led them up to his room.
.
.
A/n: Thanks so much for the reviews I absolutely love hearing feedback. I know there was alot of scenes in this one, let me know what you think of them! Please review I write so much faster when I'm motivated. :) Thanks so much for reading!
-Onalee