A/N: Hey there! Hope I didn't keep you guys waiting too long for this installment. Once again, it's a little bit different than what's come before, but I've got to take some time to set up the next few steps of the story. And thus, Chapter 4! :)
Elena's eyes widened in a panicked stare. She turned to Damon, searching his gaze for a way out of their mess.
His returning stare was an ocean blue mix of lust and fury. "Outside. Now," he mouthed and signaled the rear door with an arch of his eyebrows.
As Elena sprinted at full speed out of the back of the house, Damon raced to the front to halt Stefan in his tracks. "Evening, brother," Damon said as he met Stefan just outside the front door.
Stefan paused and eyed Damon cautiously. "Damon," he greeted his brother warily. "Why aren't you out hunting with Elena?"
From her perch in a tree behind the house, Elena listened to the conversation tensely. Her heart might not beat as it had when she was human, but her insides were churning. Shit! This is not supposed to be happening.
Damon didn't miss a beat. He folded his arms and leaned against the pillar to his right. "Well, that, baby bro, is because she didn't want to go hunting tonight."
Stefan curled his fingers tighter around his car keys and glared at Damon. "And when are you worried about what she wants, Damon? I thought all you wanted was her safety."
"I can be," Damon paused for effect, "persuaded," he intoned with a dance of his eyebrows.
What the hell is he doing? Elena clawed at the bark of the tree nervously.
"Can't you ever be serious?" Stefan moved closer to his brother, his every step a challenge. "She needs our protection, brother. Now more than ever." Stefan shook his head in frustration and made to move past Damon. "I thought I could count on you for that. Isn't that while you're still here?"
Elena still clung to her tree tightly, not quite able to relax yet. 'Still here'? What was Stefan saying? Damon wasn't going anywhere, was he?
Damon blocked Stefan's motion with a hard bump from his shoulder. "Don't be mistaken, Stef," Damon's eyes were alight with anger. "She's only in this mess because you were the one who was too worried about respecting her decisions to keep her safe. Now you get to live with that. Forever."Damon watched his brother's shoulders drop in defeat. Oh little Steffykins, ever the self-loathing martyr.
The younger Salvatore's eyes were filled with despair when he brought himself to meet Damon's steady gaze once more. "I know what I've done," he said, pain dripping from every syllable. "I just need to see her, Damon. I'll convince her to go hunting." He took a raspy breath and shifted uncomfortably. "She needs to get stronger. It's my duty to see that happens. I owe it to her." Stefan brushed past his brother and entered the boarding house.
Damn, that was even easier than I thought. Damon couldn't disguise the cocky smirk playing on his lips as he followed his brother inside.
On her secret perch, Elena finally let her shoulders drop. Crisis averted. How had Damon turned things around on Stefan so easily? Stefan should be ripping Damon limb from limb, but was instead sulking into the boarding house at human speed. That was really a low blow, Damon. She made a mental note to kick him for it later. With her superhuman strength, she could finally make it hurt. Elena found herself smiling at the thought.
No. Stefan. I should be thinking about Stefan. With a sigh, she leaped down from her branch and rocketed up the back stairs and into the bedroom she had taken over for the last six weeks. She planted herself on the bed just as Stefan rapped softly on her door.
Stefan peeked his head around her door, a gentle smile on his face. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," Elena smiled back and beckoned him to come closer.
On his way to her bed, Stefan seemed to register Elena's figure-hugging apparel. "Wow, you look stunning." He placed a quick kiss on her lips as he came to sit beside her. "What's the occasion?"
Elena's guilt slammed into her with the force of a freight train. She was dressed up for Damon; there was no way to avoid that. She could pretend it had been an apology or write it off to newborn vampire emotions, but Damon was the root cause no matter how she rationalized it. She offered Stefan a weak smile. "I guess I just wanted to go out for once."
He stroked her hand with deep affection. "I know it can't be easy being cooped up in here all the time."
You wouldn't be so understanding if you knew what I'd just done with your brother. "I'm doing okay." She tried to smile again, but wasn't sure if it was convincing.
A pained look took over his face as Stefan reached out to stroke her cheek. "You're doing more than okay. You know how proud of you I am."
Oh Stefan, stop! You can't be proud of me. Not after this. Tears threatened to spring from her eyes, but Elena bit them back.
Evidently taking her reaction as sadness over her new condition, Stefan pulled Elena into a tight hug. "You're going to get through this, Elena. I promise you."
The tears were falling now; there was nothing she could do.
He stroked her hair and tried to still the girl crying in his arms. "You've gotta be strong just a little bit longer. Go hunting with Damon, practice drinking blood, and you'll be back with your friends in no time."
How could Stefan be pushing her to go with Damon? I should tell him. I just need to come clean and put everything out in the open. Elena pulled herself out of Stefan's embrace and studied the lines furrowing across Stefan's forehead, the deep sadness in his eyes. How could she make this worse on him? How could she inflict more pain on the person who was already suffering so much for something she had asked him to do in the first place? She had told him to save Matt. It wasn't Stefan's fault that she was a vampire; she had chosen to die and would make the same choice a thousand more times if given the chance. No, she would persevere for him and one day when he had forgiven himself, she would tell him about her transgression. He would see that she had stayed with him and that he was her one true love.
Elena sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Okay, yeah, I'll go," she told him.
A smile brightened Stefan's somber expression and he seemed visibly more at ease. "You're doing the right thing, Elena," he said reassuringly. Stefan leaned in and wrapped her lips in a long embrace with his own.
She felt no sparks. It was nothing but contact between dead, cold skin.
A short time later, Elena was clad in an outfit deemed acceptable for hunting and found herself once again in the passenger seat of Damon's car. They were traveling out of Mystic Falls, but thankfully in the opposite direction of their last journey. Elena was still revisiting the moonlit lake in her dreams, but felt no desire to return to the scene in reality. She broke the silence that had been pressing on them since entering the vehicle: "So, where are we off to tonight?"
"Somewhere a little more domestic," Damon offered in response.
Elena crossed her arms in frustration. "I've had a rough night, Damon. Just tell me where we're going."
"Me-ow, put the claws away, kitty cat," Damon intoned with a raise of his eyebrows. He looked at Elena to see if she would laugh, but she gave nothing away. "You need to practice getting around the 'no entrance' policy associated with our condition." Another glance at Elena revealed her little doe-eyes bugging out of her head.
"Damon!" she gasped. "Are you saying we're going into someone's house to feed on them?" She searched his crystal blue eyes. "You can't be serious."
He flared his eyes at her, removing his gaze from the road ahead. What part of 'you're a baby vampire and don't know what's best for you' doesn't make sense to her? He was sick and tired of Elena trying to call the shots. Following her ridiculous ideas only led to compromising situations that she pretended to regret almost immediately. She couldn't keep moaning his name in pleasure and then run back to Stefan the very next second. He swallowed his growing rage and put his eyes back on the road. "You're doing this, Elena."
She turned her body to face Damon and set her hand lightly on his arm. Elena noticed his eyes flick to her touch, but he pulled them away quickly. "Please, Damon," she pleaded, "I can't."
"You say you can't do a lot of things Elena," he shot her an icy glare for emphasis, "but then you go ahead and do them anyway." He shrugged her hand off his arm and turned away from the wounded look in her eyes.
Elena slumped back in her seat, resting her head on the cool window pane. Shit. He's right. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't-"
"Save your apologies," he cut her off with his curt tone. "You don't mean it anyway."
Her hands became fists pressing firmly into the seat beside her. "That's not fair. You know I don't want to hurt you."
The hurt in her voice was almost enough to make Damon believe her, but his anger continued to smolder and he couldn't resist shooting another zinger in her direction. "You say you don't want to hurt Stefan, either, but you sit there crying in your room letting him think you're a poor little baby vampire trapped in a cage. But I know why you were crying Elena. I know that you couldn't bear his sweet little nothings when your body was still burning from my touch."
Elena was stunned into silence. What was she supposed to say to that? 'I'm sorry'? 'I know'? 'I'll do better next time'? Next time? No. There will be no next time. She decided not to say anything and only turned to look at Damon.
She couldn't lie to herself: she missed having his silky locks wrapped tight around her fingers. She missed the feeling of his hard, muscular stomach pressed against her while he wrapped her in his embrace. She missed the tenderness in his kiss and the way just one brush of his lips had set every pore in her body aflame. To Elena, all of these seemed like only physical desires; something on the level of hunger or fatigue. She could go a few extra hours without eating or stay awake even when she was tired, so why couldn't she resist Damon? Why couldn't she just say no?
Damon felt Elena's gaze crawling slowly over his body, but couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye. He should be running far away from her. She had chosen Stefan and continued to use every chance she got to rub that in Damon's face. The rage he had been feeling for the last six weeks was at an all-time high, yet all it took was a glance at her chocolate eyes filled with longing for him to forget everything else. She made him ridiculously weak, yet somehow stronger at the same time. He had never felt more powerful in his extended life than he had with Elena in his arms and their bodies entwined. Ugh, when did I become such a sap?
Damon pulled the car to the side of the road. "We're here," he said without inflection.
Elena lifted her head off the window and looked around. The large, white house was the only one within sight. It had two stories, a wrap-around porch and a barn and silo in the field to the rear. "A farm house?" she asked.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Damon smirked.
She couldn't help but smile at Damon's particular brand of sarcastic humor. "Okay, stupid question," she admitted. "Why are we at a farm house?"
"There are several advantages," he said as he slid out of the car and sped around to open Elena's door for her. She stepped out and eyed Damon curiously as he continued. "No neighbors to worry about," he said, careful to avoid mention of blood or uncontrollable urges, "and they almost always have dessert."
Her eyes widened. "You mean, like … the barn animals?" She knew that feeding on animals might be more humane, but she couldn't compel those poor creatures not to feel pain.
Damon let out a genuine laugh and ruffled her hair. "Quit thinking like a vampire," he chuckled. "I meant pie."
Elena let out her own chuckle of relief and felt the tension from before begin to ebb away. How Damon could make her laugh about pie at a time like this was a marvel to her.
As he had before their previous hunt, Damon asked Elena to close her eyes and focus on her surroundings. "How many heartbeats can you hear?" His whisper came close to her ear and sent a little shiver down her spine. Damon repressed a chuckle as Elena scrunched up her face to intensify the power of her concentration.
"Just one," Elena said after a moment's pause. She looked into his icy cool stare for reassurance. "I can do this, right?" she said weakly.
His returning smile radiated nothing but confidence. "Go get 'em, tiger," he whispered.
Elena laughed and punched him playfully in the arm. "You're so cheesy tonight!"She grabbed his hand and tugged him up to the front porch of the house. She tried to ignore the tingles running up her arm from where their hands connected.
Damon eyed her grasp on his hand curiously. He knew he shouldn't let her tease him like this, but Elena needed his comfort right now. The little thrill he got from her feather-light fingers wrapped around his would just have to be a minor side effect. So fucking whipped, he chided himself again.
The pair paused briefly in front of the house's navy blue door. "Can you take the reins on this one?" Damon asked Elena cautiously.
She nodded minimally. "Yeah," she said with the tiniest tremor in her voice. "I can do this." Elena rapped on the door and shifted slightly from side to side as she waited for a response.
A middle aged woman in a simple blue dress answered the door. She eyed the vampires warily. "Can I help you?" she asked in a voice heavy with suspicion.
"That's our car out there," Elena said as she motioned to Damon's vehicle with her free hand. "Our battery died and we were hoping we could use your phone to get a tow truck?"
The woman in the doorway didn't move. "Don't you have cell phones?"she asked.
Elena silently kicked herself. "Umm… yeah, but the batteries are dead in those, too…" Elena said with a grimace.
Damon was howling with laughter on the inside. This was about the lamest excuse she could have possibly thought of. Maybe they should have role-played this out first. She could be the hot little housewife and he could be the dark, mysterious man begging to get inside…
The woman in the doorway didn't seem too convinced by Elena's story, so she tried again. "Can we please come in to use the phone?" Elena practically begged, "It will just be a minute."
The woman released a small sigh. "You can," she said finally, pointing to Elena, "but he has to wait out here." She eyed Damon up and down, frowning over her leather jacket and tight, black shirt.
Shit. She's not ready for this. Damon pulled lightly on Elena's hand, about to tell her they would be better off at the next house, when he heard Elena say what was easily the stupidest thing she had said in the last twenty-four hours: "Sure. No problem." Damon's eyes flared at Elena like never before. He had half a mind to yank her off of the porch and drag her by her hair to the boarding house where he could keep her locked up and unable to act on her increasingly idiotic ideas. But before Damon could stop her, Elena had crossed the threshold of the home and was now completely out of his reach.
She turned around and gave him what she meant to be a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine," she soothed.
"Elena," Damon hissed. "Come back. You shouldn't be doing this."
But Elena turned her head and strolled into the house and away from Damon's hand that still ached for her touch.
A few minutes later, a woman's scream pierced the night.
A/N: Whoomp, there it is! I know, no smut this time, but I promise it'll come again soon :) Was it Elena's scream, or was it the woman who owns the house? Will Damon be the white knight, or the dark, twisted punisher? I'll have that all worked out in Chapter 5, and hopefully you won't have to wait too long to see that chapter. Thank you for reading this far! I hope you are still enjoying the story :) It's been fun to write and I would love to hear what you all think about it.
P.S. Thank you yet again for all of the enthusiastic feedback. You guys make me so excited to write more!