Chapter 4
Elena POV
The rain pelted down hard against the classroom windows as I tuned in and out of Mr Alaric's lesson. His words sounded jumbled as I tried to understand what topic we were discussing but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep my thoughts focused on anything but Stefan.
"Sorry I'm late."
My head snapped up so quickly to the sound of that melodic voice as he entered the classroom with drops of rain dripping from his jacket and hair. His eyes found mine and his smile stretched as he saw my longing eyes.
After a few murmured words from Alaric and a fleeting glance to me, Stefan sat down next to me. Keeping his eyes to the front of the classroom to feign interest, his hand found mine under my desk. I felt instant relief as his fingers locked with mine and squeezed gently. Was I dreaming?
Class came to an agonising end and I was finally in Stefan's arms outside the classroom. I breathed in his scent as I clung to his chest and his arms wrapped around me like a cocoon.
I pulled back and searched his face. "You're here."
"I'm here."
For the rest of the day no one could keep me away from Stefan. My classes flashed by and I was greeted at each door by Stefan, proving that it was real. That he was back at school. His blood crazed days over. I fell asleep in Stefan's arms in my bed and finally greeted sleep with ease.
My dreams however, were ones I had never had before. Knives stabbing continuously into my neck, my body immobile as my head screamed in pain. It felt like I was trapped for days, stuck in the endless torture. Each stabbed was like thick needles laced with acid.
I woke groggily to find my eyes brimming with tears and my sheets damp with sweat. I reached around to search for Stefan but he was nowhere in sight.
I stretched my aching body and headed into the bathroom. The first sight to reassure myself was my smooth, intact neck. I looked like a corpse. My skin was shallow, holding a tinge of greyish paleness to it, and there were large bags underneath my eyes. My hair was in stringy lumps as I hung heavily from my head. There was no physical damage of my dream actually happening but something stirred deep within me that some part of last night felt horribly real.
Pulling on my clothes I dialled Stefan's phone. It rang out and sounded a beep, indicating voicemail. "Hey, it's me. Give me a call when you get this."
As I pressed the end button I instantly wondered why I hadn't said 'I love you'. Each time I left Stefan a message I always ended it with those three words. I shook my head. Maybe I was just tired.
Damon POV
"Morning brother."
Stefan almost bounded right into me as he descended the stairs with a bounce in his foot. I expected him to take more time to adjust to his overcome of guilt, it seems I was wrong. "And good morning to you too, Stefan. Good night I take it?"
A chuckle escaped his lips as he threw himself onto the couch, "Oh, you have no idea, brother."
I felt my teeth clench behind my smile at him. It was hard coming to terms with Elena and Stefan's physical relationship; I hadn't expected anything less, however I didn't expect it to be shoved into my face. What went on in their relationship was none of my business; however it was definitely something to be envious of. I hoped Stefan cherished every moment with her.
"I'm surprised to see you two separated so soon. With all the waiting around Elena did for you, I wasn't expecting to see you alone for at least another few days."
"I'm letting her gather her strength back." His eyes closed shut with a smile playing at his lips as he chuckled slightly at his own words.
I couldn't be in the room with him a second longer, before my composure broke. I got up from the seat and headed towards the stairs, making my way towards my room. "You should go get ready for school. Why you decided to endure it over again escapes me completely."
He sat up from the couch, laughter swirling in his eyes, "You know why."
I did know why.
Stefan POV
My mind and senses were completely at ease as I pulled up into the car lot of the school. My engine purred to a halt as I killed placed the gears in neutral, Elena's head turning to the sound. The night's memories flooded my mind and I matched her grin as she walked towards me. I hopped out and watched her admire my red 356 Porsche 1600 coupe.
"Nice car."
I looked down at it. Yes it was. I had bought the car personally back in 1959 fresh off the market. I had re-modelled its engine a few times over the past decades and had kept it hidden from the rest of the world for a while now. "Yeah, it seemed a bit of a waste to keep it locked away in the garage."
I cupped her face and placed a soft kiss on her lips. The lure of her blood below the surface struck me slightly. I had fed already but the taste of her still lingered and tormented me as I held her a breath away.
"To be honest, I didn't expect to see you here today. I thought one show at school and you'd be fine not to come on a Friday."
"You know, I woke up this morning and I was feeling great... and I figured its time for me to get back into things."
She smiled at me, "I missed you this morning."
I wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on top of her head, "You looked like you needed some sleep. I couldn't bring myself to wake you."
I pulled back and grabbed her hand, noticing slightly as her eyes unfocused and a slight shiver rolled through her.I wasn't planning on pushing her for information, even though it was impossible for her to remember or even feel what I had done last night.
She looked up at me. "Does this mean you're okay? With all the cravings?"
"Yeah, the worst is over, so..." I brushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear, exposing the side of her neck, "All I want to do is spend more time with you."
She let loose a coy smile, "I'm okay with that."
"Hey, I just got to grab my stuff from the trunk. I'll meet you in class."
A curious expression clouded her face but she brushed it away, "Okay, see you in class."
I watched her leave then headed around to the back of my car, popping the trunk. A few empty blood bags surrounded my bag as I reached into lift it out. I had been smart enough not to steal from Damon's personal stash, and had gone to the blood bank at the hospital. I packed in two filled bags into my pack and shut the hood. Lowering my sunglasses I headed off towards the school doors, slightly inhaling the blood pounding beneath the passing student body.
Damon POV
I heard the front door open as I was walking through the hallway towards the study. I poked my head around the side to see Stefan ditch his bag on one of the marble benches.
"How was school?"
He turned mid step and continued to walk backwards towards the main area of the house. He shrugged, "Fine."
I followed him as he turned away and continued heading off. "Yeah? Same old, same old?" He stopped, knowing that I wasn't planning to end the conversation on one word, "Nothing new? No stories to bring home?"
He stopped and looked me over as I walked closer to him, "You're making small talk, why?"
I looked at him and spoke with a light prodding tone, "You seem awfully chipper lately, less doom and gloom... no more pep in your step." I bounced a little to emphasise how he'd been this morning.
"And, so?"
I sighed and looked at him with a condescending glance, shrugging, "I don't know Stefan, I don't want to brag or anything, but... I feel I'm responsible for this new and improved you. Finally no more guilt."
"No offence, Damon. But I'm going to let Elena hold all the credit for the way I'm feeling at the moment."
"Mm... no. It can't just be Elena's company that has put this mood in you. I know this mood. Blood." It was the effects of human blood.
"Ah," He patted my shoulder and casually backed away, "I hate to burst your bubble but I'm clean."
"Yeah, not possible."
He turned and faced me still heading backwards. This Stefan was experiencing the effects of blood. He hadn't gained control of his urges or maybe he had, and was simply bypassing all the effects I'd seen a few weeks ago. Maybe he could handle this.
A cocky smile touched his lips "Not only is it possible, but it is quite true."
I looked at him with a knowing smile and briefly closed my eyes, staring at him dead on. "Stefan...Let's be serious for a second." I was not buying this. I began walking towards him slowly, reading his responses as I spoke. "You spent the last century and a half being a poster child for Prozac, and now you expect me to believe that this new you is nothing to do with human blood."
He shook his head and shrugged, "I'm clean."
He began walking away "You're lying." I was playfully shocked. Saint Stefan never lied like this.
He shrugged once more but did not turn back to me as he spoke, "Believe what you want."
One thing was for sure, I didn't trust Stefan.
Silently, I followed him with my senses. He stopped at the bottom of the main stairs, looking around to see if I was going to follow him before he made his way to the cellar. Deciding to make my move then, I followed his trail after him. Walking down the stairs after him I stopped in the door way to see the cooler open and filled with hundreds of blood bags, Stefan standing over it about to reach in.
"Well, well. He's a liar and a thief."
Elena POV
I pushed open my bedroom door and dumped my bag near my closet. Just before I went to throw myself onto my bed I saw a small dark smudge on my pillow. I lifted it up to examine it and saw the slight tinge of red on the splotch. Was that blood?
I went to my mirror and lifted my hair high above my head, looking for any scratch or cut indicating the blood was from a wound on my neck. I smoothed my fingers along both sides of my neck only feeling smooth skin. Nothing. Maybe it was from a previous accident and it had been there for ages.
I went back to the bed and stripped my sheets from the bed, thinking it was time for a clean bunch. Throwing them in the wash downstairs I ran into Jeremy who was flipping through his phone.
"Hey, how was your day?"
"Same old, same old, Elena. How's Stefan going?"
Jeremy had found out a few days before Stefan's capture by the tomb vampires and had been quick to understand that Stefan wasn't like the evil vampires in his video games. He understood that Stefan and Damon were both vampires and that yes, Damon was sometimes vicious, but would never harm me. I sighed at the absurdity of my life conversations and sat down opposite him.
"He's doing a lot better now. He's getting back to his old self."
"Yeah I saw him at school today, although he got a bit weird when Tyler tripped over in basketball."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Tyler fell over and grazed his knee and Stefan kind of went still and made up some excuse to leave early."
Jeremy didn't know how bad Stefan had been during his last few weeks of torment, as I didn't exactly want him to be hesitant about whom Stefan exactly was. I knew Stefan wasn't like that and I felt I needed to keep his appearance untarnished, not wanting to cause unnecessary problems with what the few people knew him as.
"Strange. No he's doing much better."
My phone beeped and I pulled it out to see a message from Caroline.
Don't forget – Miss Mystic Falls Competition dance rehearsal tomorrow at noon.
I let out a groan and Jeremy looked at me questioningly. "Dance rehearsal's tomorrow for the Miss Mystic falls thing." I dreaded tomorrow more strongly as ever.
"Why are you doing that anyway?"
I was quiet for a moment and Jeremy immediately understood why I'd entered. Mom had encouraged me to enter each year. I knew that I hadn't been involved with any of those things much this year, not only because of the vampires but I didn't feel connected to any of it anymore since she'd died. My mom had really enjoyed the towns traditions and events which quirked my interests intently and I still saw it as an honour. She believed in community, family, honour and loyalty. It was the legacy she left to me, she would have wanted me to do it.
I hadn't even thought about it since I'd entered with Caroline. I was going to have to plead Stefan into being my date and have him come with me tomorrow.
Suddenly drained I left the table and grabbed a clean set of sheets from the linen closet before heading up to my room to make my bed up.
Damon POV
Stefan turned to me, regretting his obvious path to the blood. Did he really expect me not to find out? The look on his face told me so. The blood bags weren't mine but I had a good guess as to where he'd gotten them from."So... When were you going to share?"
He looked down at the bags and stepped to the side, "Go ahead. Help yourself." He kept his cool and calm composure as he had upstairs but I knew he was silently trying to figure out how to get out of this without me thinking twice about his little... problem.
"No, no. I'm talking about the fact that you're a closet... blood junky."
"So I'm drinking blood again." He shrugged. "What's your problem, you wanted this. I have it under control."
"Under control?" Was he serious? "You robbed the hospital." I uncrossed my arms and headed into the room.
He was unfazed. "What's your point?"
I shrugged. "Fine, whatever man. Drink up. Just remember our plan to keep a low profile. Hey, why don't you just walk up to Sherriff Forbes and ask her to tap a vein."
He looked at me with a bored expression, "Have my actions negatively impacted you?" He sucked in air through his teeth, "Imagine what that must feel like."
"Yeah, what does Elena think about the new... you?" I was fuming on the inside. If he hurt Elena once more...
He shrugged. "Nothing's changed I'm still the same person."
"Clearly." He was the complete opposite.
"Elena doesn't need to know anything yet." How could he be so calm about this? We'd just been down this road. It was a fresh wound.
I looked at him in all seriousness. " You've been off the human stuff for years, Stefan. If you're having issues controlling it-
"I'm not having any problems."
My eyes burned and I let my composure slip slightly. "Who do you think you're talking to? Beside the fact that I have much more years of experience with this than you, didn't we just go down this path last week? I know what you're feeling. That Jeckle and Hyde feeling... There's that switch that sometimes goes off and you snap. You snapped a few weeks ago and nearly tore Elena's head off. Right now is not a good time for me to be worried about you snapping."
He looked at me with no processing of my words, "I know that it pains you to see this... but I'm fine. Okay? I'm fine. So please," He reached into the cooler and grabbed an O negative blood sack out, "do me a favour... and back off."
Elena POV
Stefan told me the music playing was Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz as we held our hands up towards one another without touching. Carol Lockwood told us all this rehearsal was crucial as we were all going to be performing it in front of the entire town on the day of the competition. Our palms were barely touching as we circled gracefully around one another, Stefan and I trying to keep from laughing as we pulled straight faces as we danced.
As Carol loudly instructed us to place our left hand out and circle one another, keeping eyes intent on one another as we did, I giggled. "This is ridiculous."
Stefan smiled a sly smile at me, "You're only saying that because you don't know how to do it."
"Sorry only one of us was around when this dance was invented."
"Ouch." Stefan smirked and broke the distance between us, grabbing my hand and spinning me until I landed in a dip. I laughed out loud at the sheer fun of it.
"Oh no, no,no ,no,no. "Carol Lockwood was quick to chaste us, "There's no touching during this part," She seemed to be reigning in the craziness at someone stepping out of line of her perfect choreography. "The dance is about the simple intimacy of a near touch."
Stefan let me get back up to an upright stance and put some distance between us, a smirk pulling at his lips.
"Very nice, Amber. And again, people."
Stefan leaned forward his palms out towards mine, "If you ask me, the near touch is overrated."
I looked him over, "You seem to be in a good mood."
He looked at me with a questioning glance, the smirk still in place. "Is that a bad thing? Would you prefer me to be brooding and tortured?"
I was slightly taken off by his ability to joke about his last few weeks of self torment. "Hey I'm not complaining." I leant forward towards him.
"Oh," he backed up a little and feigned seriousness, "no touching."
############################ ###############################################
Sooo what do you think?
Next chapter hopefully up by tomorrow.
Please Review!
