"Elena, I need to see Damon. He knows where Katherine is, I know he does and he's a lot stronger than his brother. He could be your only lifeline when Klaus comes and he's coming. If you grow too attached to Damon, it could lead you into more misery than you need." Aria explained, her eyes piercing Elena's in a serious stare.
Elena shook her head. "No, you can't see Damon. He's not stable, if you turn up there's a risk of him running again. If he's as strong as you think he is, he needs to stay in one place." She was defending him, worried that he would run off again and cause more damage to himself than he had days previous.
"Damon is a strong link in this. He knows things about Katherine that he won't tell you. Plus he's a good manipulator," she said, her smirk rising upon her lips once more.
"I'm not taking you." She was putting her foot down. If anything, Damon needed to get over the last few days in peace and Aria would not help that. "I know you won't go on your own either because he wont talk unless I'm there to prove your innocent and not wanting to rip your heart out, which he will do to you without thinking. He's done it before."
Aria let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine but the longer you take to let me see him, the closer Klaus gets and he's not coming alone, Elena."
"I'll believe that when I see it, Aria" Elena waved slightly to the bartender as she harshly got up, stepping away from the bar and exiting the grill. She felt Aria's gaze burning into her back. She made her way across the parking lot, finding her car and stepping into the warmth. With a swift movement, she had the car started and was driving along the dark roads of Mystic Falls to get home.
If she were a vampire, she would have heard it. Smelled his presence. He chuckled darkly watching her car speed along the roads from a distance, a smaller figure at his side on the hills on the outskirts of the city.
"You seem happier." Stefan commented as he sat himself down on the couch opposite Damon, watching his brother as he drank from his scotch glass.
"Well done little brother, gold star on your sticker chart," Damon replied sarcastically, Stefan rolling his eyes as he sat back against the material, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "Oh don't start with that look."
"What look?" he replied simply.
"The 'you suck Damon, I hate you' look," he informed as he stood up, walking towards the table resting behind the pieces of furniture and placing the glass down in its rightful place. "Its not very attractive, frowning gives you wrinkles you know,"
Stefan watched as his brother retrieved his leather jacket from the back of the chair in the corner. He swung it over his shoulder without a care in the world and walked out of the boarding house like nothing had happened a few hours ago with Elena. Stefan knew they had worked something out, he heard the tail end of their conversation. Their kiss. Everything. If his heart could break any more, it would have been in small shatters on the ground.
"Bourbon, give me the bottle." Damon told the bartender, compelling her in a second as if it were second nature. He lounged into his usual bar stool, leaning his leather-clad elbows against the cool wood of the bar. It wasn't long before he noticed her out of the corner of his eye. She was a few stools down and sipping an amber liquid herself. He was still Damon after all, so he moved down to sit next to her, smiling in that charming way he had down to a key.
"Such a pretty girl, such a harsh drink,' he commented smoothly. He had no idea she was a vampire. Something about her came off as positively human. Unlike Elena, he failed to notice the ring placed on her finger, for all he knew and cared, it was the latest trend coming out of Forever 21. He never took notice at Elijah's ring anyway. Aria's face turned to him and smiled, showing her teeth. She watched as Damon's face dropping as he witnessed her fangs falling from her gums. Nobody was around. He never knew it was possible to inflict the vampire composure without highlighting the veins that burdened their appearance. Somehow, she managed it.
"You must be Damon." She said, her tone matching his, taking him by surprise. Usually, girls would be jittery around him, nervous of the attitude he inflicted, and this time it was the other way around. "You have the most perfect timing. Elena wouldn't take me to you. She just left.'
"Who are you?" he asked, ignoring her comment completely even though the first thing that popped into his head was if she had hurt Elena.
"Ariana but please call me Aria," she said with a trademark smile, the only difference from the previous one, her fangs had vanished without notice. Her hand was outstretched to him, waiting for his to take the empty space between their skin.
"Ariana who?" he asked, shrugging her hand away from his side with a swift push of his.
"Ariana," she paused, letting him down the first glass of bourbon and filling a second before continuing. "Ariana Katerina Petrova"
He was choking on the fiery liquid, feeling it burn in his throat as it slid down. She laughed simply, letting him find the air in his lungs and preparing for a fight. He was silent for a moment before grabbing her arm and leading her out of the Grill, into the alley where he had managed to kill many before. This time, it was his face that had the vampire composure, his sharp canines shown and his eyes dark.
"What's your real name?" he scowled, pushing her against the stone wall of the back of the building.
"Ow, that hurt. Please do not do that again." She avoided his question as he had her statements inside, her voice dry and bland, no sign of emotion in her. His hand was tightly wrapped around her throat, something that would pain an average human, an average vampire at that but she could breathe easily. She could still operate in such power that the roles were reversed within seconds, Damon against the opposite wall, his face going blue with the lack of air. Her hands were bony, she was thin, if someone had seen her in the street, you would find it hard to imagine her snapping even the smallest twig. Damon was a twig to her, a twig she stepped on in the woods that simply cracked into pieces. "Do you really think that's a good idea Damon? You're a child in my eyes. You realize how old I am? how much stronger I am compared to you?"
He tried everything in his power to push her off him but she was overwhelmingly strong. She looked no older than Elena.
"Are you going to behave? Or will I have to bring out the vervain?" She saw the slight nod and smiled sweetly, dropping him to the floor, letting him thud against the concrete. He struggled to catch his breath, heaving coughs falling from his chest. He felt physically sick, her consticting grip still burning into his skin but he got up, onto his own two feet again, she was leaning calmly against the wall he had her against moments ago. "You really are weak."
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice hoarse from the power over her grip against his throat.
She sighed loudly, almost dramatically. "Ariana, Aria. Katerina. Petrova" she was mockingly slow in letting her words out. "Do I need to spell that out? Or did your daddy give you enough education to be able to figure that out on your own?"
He chuckled, pointing at her as he gained his composure. "Cocky, I like you"
"You shouldn't. Not yet," He stared at her, gazing over her features in the way she was doing to him also. He was surprised he was still alive with her around but then again, she would have killed him by now if she had wanted to.
"How can you be a Petrova? Katherine's a vampire, we can't procreate." Damon had no idea of Katherine's history before she had been turned. No idea about the child she conceived.
"You can before you're turned though. You know, when a girl loves a guy and all that," she told, smiling still. Her smile was too at ease, it was sending Damon insane. "Katherine had a baby, which would be me, out of wedlock. Shocking, I know but I'm not going into the story again. Ask Elena, she'll fill you in,"
"You've met Elena?" The venom was dripping off his words. You could see the protectiveness in his eyes at the mention of Elena. "What did you do to her?" his voice was louder now, Aria simply standing there in silence. "Answer!"
"Nothing, my gosh, a simple girl like me harming a relative? Never" she said sarcastically but as she saw him step forward to lunge once more, her hand flew in front of him, colliding with his chest and pushing his back against the wall again, a loud growl forming in the back of his throat. "I didn't touch her, okay? She went home after being so protective of you that it made me gag. She is safe there if you remember not being able to get in the first time you met her. Voodoo charm that we have against us that makes it impossible to enter a human's house."
He ran a hand through his raven locks, a sign of frustration. "Aria, what do you want with us? Why are you in Mystic Falls?"
"Klaus is my father, kind of. I know what he's doing and when he's going to do it."
Damon's blood ran cold. He felt a shiver run down his spine at the very mention of the name Klaus. He hated that man for wanting Elena dead and he hadn't even met him yet, he didn't even know what he looked like. "Follow me," he demanded of Aria, walking calmly out of the back alley way and towards the edge of the centre of town, a large group of trees in the distance leading to the boarding house. He waited a few feet in for her to catch up.
"As creepy as it sounds, I don't need to follow you. I know where you live." With that she darted off, a simple blur left behind her. Damon followed suit, speeding off to the boarding house after making sure no human's were in sight. Within moments, he was at his front door, rolling his eyes as Aria leaned carelessly against the wooden frame.
"Stefan's home isn't he?" she asked, playing with the end of her poker straight hair. He simply glared, pushing passed her and opening the door. "Sure, I'll come in."
Damon strode into the parlour, Stefan looking up from his book that he had found at his brother's quick return. He was about to question him, when Aria entered his eye line, her black boots clicking against the wooden flooring.
"No time for introductions, this is Stefan. Stefan this is Aria, Katherine's daughter, Klaus' minion," Stefan sat like stone, his eyes the only part of his body moving as he followed the girl positioning herself on the arm of the couch, Damon messily pouring a large glass of bourbon.
"Where's Katherine?" she asked breaking the silence and making Stefan stand up, the veins in his arms pulsating in anger.
"If she's related to Katherine, she's lying. She's nobody."
"Damon, I'd go check on Elena, quickly." Her head snapped to the side almost as if her neck could turn right around. "Run"
He took no chances. When it came to Elena, he had to move. The glass shattered against the floor as Damon's outline was left in the position of his stance. He sped his car down the long dirt driveway and towards the Gilbert's, not a single clue of what he was walking in to. He heard a voice as he turned into her street, his eyes darting around the area. It was dark and still, he saw nobody but slammed on his break outside Elena's house. Slamming the door violently, he rushed to the back of the house, climbing the tree outside of her bedroom and pushing himself through the already opened window.
"Damon!" Elena was stood at her mirror, a towel wrapped around her petite body, water dripping onto the floor from her hair. Damon froze at the window seat as he saw her barely covered. He swallowed deeply, his eyes moving to the floor. "Damon, what is wrong with you?"
"Klaus, she said he was here." He moved to the bathroom door, pushing it open violently only to be met with the humid steam that was left over from her shower. He looked behind the shower curtain as if it were a bad horror movie, in her closet back in her bedroom before inspecting Jeremy's room, which he found to be empty also.
She watched as he frantically searched through her brother's closet, pushing clothes side and making scrapbooks of his drawings falling from the shelves, holding shoes and whatever else Jeremy stored away. "Damon, no-ones here. He wouldn't be able to get in."
He turned looking at her standing in her brother's doorway, her hand wrapped tightly around the top of the towel keeping herself covered. "Son of a bitch," he muttered slamming the door loudly, making Elena jump.
"She found you," Elena concluded, walking back into her room, Damon following. He sat on her bed, his head resting in his hands as she grabbed clothes from the back of the chair she had left them on while showering. His eyes only moved when he heard the door squeak in alert she had pushed it closed. He could see her through the crack in the door, the dip of her back, glistening in its damp state. He gulped as he watched the white towel skim over her olive skin, her long wet hair covering it moments later as she moved her locks out of the way as she pushed a black tank over her. He heard her move, turning his head back to the floor as the door opening, Elena emerging in shorts that she must wear to bed. The mattress moved as she sat next to him, her smooth legs crossing over one another.
"I told her not too." She whispered.
"When do vampire's ever listen?" he asked, his blue orbs fixated on the ground below his feet.
"Never," she said, a small laugh escaping her lips. "I should have warned you, I should have told you what Katherine told me in the tomb,"
"Yeah you should of,' he replied sharply, his head popping up to meet hers. "You should have told me the second she did or Stefan. Aria or whatever the hell her name is could be lying. For all we know, she's just lead Klaus to us. She's could be a decoy.'
"Or she could be telling the truth," Someone had to have a little hope and he was shocked that it was her. Normally Blondie would come out with something like that, even Stefan on the odd occasion. His dark brows furrowed, a crease forming in his forehead.
"How can you even think to believe her?"
"She says she can help and something in me believes her, Damon. I need that one bit of hope to help me know that we'll get through this. Not just me, Stefan and everyone else but me and you. She told me not to get close to you, not know but I'm not believing that. She can help us, hopefully.' Her voice was unsure, he could sense it. She was uncertain of believing Aria but had the glimmer of hope that this was a life line, sent from someone to help them through this hell. The hell that is Klaus.
"She's strong Elena. I could barely breathe when she had me against the wall. She's definitely older than me but stronger than Katherine. Maybe she does know Klaus but I won't believe her being on our side, not after Katherine and her little stunt at the Lockwood's." he shook his head, a scowl on his face. If he could do anything it would be to protect Elena and her loved ones, even if it included Sabrina and Stefan.
She didn't say anything after that but simply rested her head on his shoulder, her hand against his forearm. Eventually, she broke the silence, Damon still in the same position he was in moments ago. "Are you scared?"
He looked down at her, his eyes catching her natural beauty in the dwindling light of her bedroom, the only source coming from the bathroom where she had failed to switch the light off. He found his arm lifting and moving around her shoulder, bringing her small frame into the side of is. "Scared? That's an understatement. I'm terrified."
In the time she had known him, not once had he admitted fear. "Klaus is strong, he's an original and can probably do things that I can't imagine. I can change into a crow, what goods that going to do?" his mind flashed back to the day in the graveyard, the moment he had spotted her for the first time, sitting against a headstone.
"You can change into a crow?" she asked, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
"Is it that funny?" he asked, his eyes falling on her fill lips. He saw her nod and he couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, it scared the shit out of you though."
"When?" she asked, her memory unable to fall that back in the time she had known the brothers with the many events that had occurred.
"Remember the day you met Stefan? You went to see your parents and there was this creepy bird on top of a grave?" he wondered, seeing her frown for a moment before nodding. "You said hello bird when it wouldn't leave. That was me"
What he felt next was a slap against the side of his arm, Elena laughing gently. He turned, a hurt look on his face as he sat her kneeling on the bed closer to the pillows. "What?"
"That scared me so much, you dick!" she said through her giggles, leaning back against the headboard.
"Would you have rather seen a hungry vampire?" he wondered, a wide grin showing as he watched her gleeful mode.
Her laughter subsided and she was looking up at him soon after, her eyes still showing the smile that had left her face. "Yes," she said with a nod, surprising him.
"What?"
"I would rather of seen you as yourself than a bird. It would of made my life a lot easier than finding out the way I did with Stefan plus crows are pretty ugly" she said shrugging slightly as he moved to sit up beside her, moving her bear from its position in the middle of the bed and placing it against his stomach.
"Are you saying that I'm not ugly?" he asked smugly, Elena rolling her eyes, her front tooth sinking into her bottom lip lightly.
"You're not horrible to look at," she said quietly, his cocky grin erupting on his face as he moved the small bear, his arms moving across it. It was then that he heard a light tap against the window and his head turned in the direction. Elena didn't hear it, she as still looking at her hands when he shoved the bear towards her, slowly going towards the darkened window. In attempt to hide himself, he stood at the wall, his eyes patrolling the garden, as far as he could see anyway.
"What is it?" Elena asked, Damon holding a finger up to silence her as he moved closer to the glass separating them from the outside world. He couldn't see anything but he could smell someone. Someone who hadn't washed in weeks from what the smell was like. Another tap came across the window, as if a rock was hitting it but nobody was there. Only someone with a great aim could throw from a far and hit the window as lightly as they were doing. Someone with a light touch when needed but a strength that could break through glass easily. They couldn't get in, he kept repeating that to himself as he flashed towards the opened window, closing it quickly and locking it sharply.
"Damon," Elena's voice was full of fear as she called his name from the bed in the middle of the room. She was going to move to step towards his side when he waved his hand to make her stay still.
Quickly his eyes darted around the surroundings once again. From what he could see, there was nobody until he moved his eyes back to where they had started. A bright pair of almost yellow eyes were in the distance, piercing through Damon's. Seconds later, Damon closed the blinds and curtains with the fastest instance, turning to Elena.
"You don't leave here unless someone is with you,' he said, walking to the bathroom and turning the light off, closing the door after. Moving to her bedside table, he flicked the lamp on and removed his jacket, throwing it to the end of the bed. "Someone has to be here whenever you, Jeremy or Jenna is too,"
"What? Why? He isn't here," she said frowning at his actions.
"Someone's watching the house Elena." He said, his voice harsh. "Where are Jenna and the kid?"
"Jenna's is staying with Ric and Jeremy's with Bonnie." She told him, catching her phone as he tossed it to her. "Tell Jenna to stay at Alaric's, I'll handle Jeremy,"
Without questioning him, Elena phoned Jenna telling her to stay where she was as Damon matched her actions with Jeremy. A breeze ran through her room and she moved under the sheets of her bed, curling into the warmth it gave off even as she first entered it. Damon hung up seconds after she did and turned to her, moving to the window seat and sitting on it, resting his legs against it.
"Damon" Elena's voice was quiet but it made him turn all the same. She had pushed the opposite side to her bed's sheets down, signalling him to move beside her instead of sitting where he was. He studied her face, not sure if he should move but she nodded her head in a fashion that told him to. He kicked off his shoes, covered in mud from rushing through the woods with Aria and crawled into the bed next to her, immediately feeing her move to his side, fear radiating off of her.
"Its starting isn't it?" she asked, her arm draping over his taught stomach, feeling his arms wrap around her moments later.
"Mhm" he muttered simply, his grip around her tightening as he realised his fear of losing her was stronger than it had been with his confession that night weeks ago. Damon lay awake the whole night, listening more to the noises that came from outside. After hours of silence, his eyes moved to Elena's sleeping figure. Her fingers were bunched around his black shirt, attempting to be as close as she could to him. Her breathing was even, her chest rose and fell in a smooth rhythm, indicating that she was deep in slumber. His hand moved gently to unclasp her grip from the material, replacing it with his hand, her fingers clasping around his gently right away.
The pad of his thumb ran gently over the skin that covered her knuckles, his head tilting to the side so it was against the comfort of the many pillows she had conjured up over her time in the house.
He made himself a promise that he wouldn't let Klaus near Elena, pushing himself in front of her, risking his life rather than hers. His eyelids grew heavy, sleep catching up with his already fatigued body. He could lay awake for hours if he forced himself too but he would be no use to her tired, confused. His cheek was soon resting against her head that lay against his chest, his chest moving in slow movements identical to hers. They slept, hands entwined, the idea of Klaus not being far from them twisting into their dreams.
You guys really know how to make a girl feel bad for having no talent! With days of attempting to think of an idea, one finally came to me and I didn't even use it! This is 9 pages long and it seems so much longer in my opinion but it's the longest chapter yet and there will be more mainly because you guys are too awesome to leave behind, plus there hasn't been any smut yet! Please review with the thought that the more reviews that come the quicker the next chapter goes up (: