Cut and Dried
Summary: Damon and Elena run into an enemy with a definite ax to grind. Can they save each other before it's too late, or will the past do more than just haunt them… Post 3.2
Pardon the delay. Can't say no to the boss. Anyway, when last we met, Bonnie was explaining that the spell will work, but it'll drain Damon dry and it just might rip the wood chips out through his heart…
Chapter Seven
"Ok," Damon said, sounding as subdued as Elena had ever heard him. "I vote no on tearing out my heart."
"The witch who attacked us could manipulate every individual piece," Elena tried.
"Elena, I'm still pretty new at this," Bonnie responded, a trace of impatience in her tone. "I mean… I'm getting better, but some of this takes years to learn."
"I know. I'm sorry," Elena said quickly. "I'm just… frustrated." Scared.
Bonnie sighed. "I know. I'm doing the best I can."
"So tell me about the spell."
"I have to connect the spell to an object, which then has to touch his bare skin, so I'll make it and send it to you. Once you have it, I think it should draw the wood chips toward it, so hopefully away from his heart."
"So glad this is a guessing game," Damon murmured.
"How long will it take you to make it?" Caroline asked loudly so Bonnie could hear. Like Damon, she'd been using her vampire-hearing to listen in.
"Not long. It's pretty easy to make."
Caroline immediately hopped up, all bouncy, helpful cheerleader. "I'll go compel a UPS person then. They'll pick it up and bring it straight to us."
"Thanks, Caroline." Elena looked in her direction but she was already gone, and had apparently taken Tyler with her.
"If it will take down a vampire that easily," Damon cleared his throat, then grimaced, "why haven't you used it before."
Elena raised an eyebrow at that. Bonnie and Damon had certainly had their issues and Bonnie had been more than willing to take them out on Damon's brain one aneurism at a time.
"What did he say?"
"He wants to know why you haven't used it on him if it's so easy to make."
"It has to touch the person, and apparently, a vampire can feel the spell coming from a mile away. Any witch who's tried it, the vampire either just leaves, or rushes them and rips their head off."
"Ah," was all Damon said.
"Ok, Bonnie. Thank you. Caroline is sending a UPS driver to make a pick-up at your place."
"Tell Damon he owes me."
Before Elena could pass on the message Damon replied, "Tell Witchy, if this works, I won't tear her head off for making it in the first place."
"He says ok," Elena reported, earning a weak glare from him. "And thanks again, Bonnie."
"I'll see you soon."
Elena tucked her phone away and sighed, if not in relief, then at least at the knowledge they had some sort of plan.
"Someone wanna fill in the guy without super-hearing?"
Elena turned at the sound of Alaric's voice and realized he was the only one who'd been getting a one-sided conversation. She quickly filled him in and watched as his frown grew more and more pronounced.
"This is a bad idea."
"I either turn into a buffalo chip or I die. Can't say I'm a big fan either," Damon agreed.
"Guys, it's all we have." Elena looked back and forth between them. Damon just waved a hand in Alaric's direction as if telling him to keep going.
"Elena, if this doesn't kill him, he's going to be a blood-starved maniac. He'll drain anyone he comes across until he's had enough blood."
"He won't. We'll be here to help him," she explained.
"There's no way we can be here." Alaric sat forward in his seat to emphasize what he was saying. "Elena, he'll kill you and he'll kill me and he won't care, not until after we're dead and he's not hungry anymore."
"He won't." Elena put as much certainty into her voice as she could muster. She hazarded a glance at Damon and saw he was looking particularly grave.
"He's right," Damon stated plainly. "If I'm that desperate I can't guarantee I'll even know it's you."
Elena stood up so that for once she was the one towering over him. "You didn't kill me before and you won't now." Damon had been dying, hallucinating, and confused and still he'd stopped himself.
"This is different. I wasn't starving then."
"No, you were sick, crazy and seeing things."
"What are you two talking about?" Alaric demanded. "Did he hurt you?" He looked ready to leap out of his chair and stake Damon while he was down.
"No, he didn't," Elena stopped him, "and that's the point. He has more control than you think." She gathered up her courage to say what came next. "He has more control than Stefan has."
Alaric was already shaking his head. "Elena, you can't take that chance. And it's not even necessary for you to do it. Bonnie will send whatever it is she ties the spell to. We'll leave a huge blood supply right here and he can set the spell off by himself." He looked at Damon. "We should take your ring, too. It'll keep you in the house until you get yourself under control."
"And if the spell kills him?" Elena shot back angrily.
"Then we'll know that too if he doesn't come out at nightfall."
"Wow," Damon muttered. "I can feel the love."
"I'm not leaving him," Elena said stubbornly.
"Ok, I am awesome!" All eyes turned to see Caroline practically skipping back into the room. She looked a little windblown and had obviously run most of the way. "Not only did I get a UPS guy to arrange an emergency pick-up at Bonnie's, I compelled a pilot to go get it!"
"What?" Elena and Alaric said it at the same time.
"Don't worry," Caroline's tone was placating. "He was a doctor or a lawyer or something just going up for a pleasure cruise in one of those little two-seater planes. I told him to go to the airport closest to Bonnie and get the package from the UPS guy, then he's going to bring it right back here."
"That's…," unethical, disturbing, "quick thinking, Caroline. Thanks." Elena gave her an appreciative smile. If it got the spell to them faster, then it was worth the guy giving up his day off.
"Great. So, the spell thingy's on the way, and Damon'll be fixed up in no time." Caroline smiled, clearly pleased with herself. "Anything else I can do? I've kind of got a… thing." She was already edging toward the door, and Elena had to smile. Caroline always had too many irons in the fire, and all of them seemed to involve decorating for something or other. Elena used to be the same way, but that was another lifetime ago.
"Go ahead. We've got this," Elena said.
"Are you sure?" Caroline looked toward Damon doubtfully. Elena followed her gaze and saw that Damon was ignoring everyone. In fact, he looked asleep, except Elena knew there was no way he could actually rest given the state he was in.
"We'll be fine. Ric and I have this. We'll use the spell and everything will go back to normal." Except it was never that simple and they all knew it. But it was nice to pretend. Elena thought that much of her life seemed to follow that same track ever since vampires had come back to Mystic Falls. In truth, she really just wanted Caroline to be gone when the spell arrived. If vampires reacted badly to it, then Caroline was too new to be safe. She might not have the control Damon did.
"Ok, great. Tyler's waiting downtown, so…"
Elena nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. As Caroline headed for the door, Elena returned to Damon's side. She once again sat on the floor beside him. She didn't take his hand as she had before, but she felt better being close. She tried not to think about why that was, but she had to at least admit it was true. She wanted, maybe needed, to be there with him when he was hurting so badly.
Damon had many faults, but cutting through the layers of pretense and deceit was not one of them. When he decided it was time or just because it suited him, he brutally swept away everything else clouding any issue and just laid it out there for her to see.
When I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt while he was gone.
Ever since he'd said that to her, she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. When they were in the mountains and the moon had risen, she'd been so afraid for him. Even more so when the wolf had chased him and she'd been unable to follow. The thought of losing him had been unbearable. Looking at him now, remembering how hard he'd tried to protect her from the witch, how careful he'd been with her the night before when she was hurt, it made her feel… loved. Maybe she didn't feel the same way about him, certainly not how she felt about Stefan, but still, she would be heartless if she didn't feel something for him.
What that something was? That was up in the air.
"I wasn't kidding, Elena," Ric said into the silence. "There's no way I'm leaving you here with him when the spell's set off."
"This is not negotiable." Elena looked at him straightly. "I didn't leave him when he was sick and I won't leave him now."
"It's suicide and you know it," he shot back.
"Will you two please shut up?" Damon moaned. "You're giving me a headache, which until a few minutes ago, was the only part of my body that didn't hurt."
"Then tell her to leave," Alaric ordered.
"Just do what I would." Damon shifted slightly on the sofa and gasped at the pain it caused. "Throw her over your shoulder and go," he added through gritted teeth.
"That's not funny," Elena snapped.
"Please," Damon said more quietly, and it was such an odd, un-Damon-like thing to say. She didn't know if he was asking her to go, or if he just wanted them to be quiet. His face had that drawn look of people who'd been in pain for a prolonged period of time. Whatever it was, she and Ric both fell silent, and they settled in to wait.
Elena blinked and realized she'd fallen asleep. She could feel fingers in her hair moving in a slow soothing circle. A second later she became aware that she was still sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa and her head was resting against Damon's hip. He must have realized she was awake because he removed his hand and set it gently at his side, his fingers just brushing hers where her hand was resting on the cushion.
Elena snapped upright, eyes wide. "Did I hurt you?"
Damon's composed expression didn't change. "Yes. It's a great trial to have a beautiful woman fall asleep on me."
"I didn't mean to-"
"In case you haven't noticed," he cut her off smoothly, "I have no problem complaining when I'm not happy." He closed his eyes tiredly. "I'd have let you know."
Elena sighed. "How long was I asleep?"
"A little while," he answered. "Ric wanted to move you, but I told him to leave you alone."
"Where is he?"
"He was starting to snore, so I made him go away. He went to find a bed while we wait."
Elena just nodded. Alaric had spent the night before in a car crash and then looking for them. Today hadn't been any easier on him. It was no wonder he'd fallen asleep. "Did you rest?" she asked.
"I have a stake trying to poke a hole in my heart, so… no."
Elena felt a fresh flush of guilt for leaving him alone to wait. "Sorry I wasn't better company."
"It gave me time to think." His smirk grew. "And your nose has this cute little crinkle when you're dreaming."
"It does not." Elena raised her hand to give him her normal playful smack and just managed to stop herself.
"Thank you," he murmured, and as always, Elena wondered how he did that without seeing her.
"What were you thinking about?" she asked.
"I was thinking about where to find a new rug since the witch ruined the one she landed on. Funnily enough, arterial spray doesn't come out."
Elena rolled her eyes, although she smiled. "How did you get to be so," fussy, uptight, fashion-conscious, "particular, when you say Stefan has the sensibilities of a colorblind hippie?"
Damon, however, did not seem amused. As a matter of fact, he seemed unusually serious. "It's about control, Elena," he said very quietly. "As a vampire, Stefan's natural state is a Ripper. He sees what he wants and he takes it, all impulse. When he's on the wagon, he's not a killer, but that tendency is always inside him. He's nice and boring, but he still follows his heart, follows whatever pleases him, or interests him. It's why he's been to college so many times. It's why his room is a collection of little souvenirs from here and there. He fights his nature, but it's always there, and it's always a battle. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses."
"And you?"
"I control my emotions, and I control the bloodlust. I choose where and when to let them loose." He smiled wearily. "Don't get me wrong. I like to let the monster loose, but I choose when and where. It doesn't control me. I may have been passive as a human, but Stefan took my last human choice from me. One of my last thoughts as I turned was that no one would ever control me like that again."
"So you're OC about your house and your clothes?"
"I like things to be a certain way," was all he said.
Elena had often wondered about his designer tendencies. She knew he'd been raised to be a gentleman. A certain level of dress and a home worthy of his station would have been as natural to him as breathing.
It was more than just his upbringing, though. Elena had been surprised when she'd seen his room. Damon had seen to it that the furnishings were elegant and luxurious, yet simple, a mix of starkly modern amenities with carefully chosen touches from the past. It wasn't just control for Damon. It was comfort.
The vampire tried to control him, but he fought to control it. His lost humanity, his emotions, warred with everything he was now, and he controlled that, too, to the point of shutting them down completely. His life demanded that he never stay long in one place, that he hunt to live, a never-ending unpleasant and messy experience. When his humanity was taken, control and comfort were all that were left to him.
"When Stefan's off the wagon, he's very helter-skelter, following whims and instincts. Me…," Damon smirked, "when I'm not being nagged by bossy brunettes to be the better man, I'm still a control freak. And when things don't go the way I want them to go, people die."
Elena had to think about that. When he'd first arrived she'd thought of him as a reckless, impulsive killer. Now… she could see what he was saying. He had plans within plans and when those plans were thwarted, he lashed out trying to reassert some control. When Zach helped lock him away, Damon killed him for his interference. When Emily refused to help him with the crystal, he turned on her descendant, Bonnie, reasserting his dominance, his ultimate control over the witches. When she and Stefan found the grimoire first, he'd threatened her and used her to get what he wanted. When Katherine had rejected him and then Elena too had refused his advances, he'd immediately and brutally killed Jeremy letting her know who was really in charge. Most recently, before the showdown with Klaus when no one was listening to his doubts, he'd force-fed her his blood so that, no matter what, his plan to keep her alive would work.
"Is that what happened with Bree? Your plans didn't go the way you wanted and you killed her?" Elena held her breath, wondering if he would admit what he'd done.
"More or less," he said, and Elena had a feeling that was all the explanation she was ever going to get.
Elena tucked her hair behind her ear, trying to gather up her thoughts that were going a mile a minute. When that got her nowhere, she sighed. Understanding all of the facets that made up the mess that was Damon Salvatore would take a lifetime. "So that's all you've been thinking about while I was asleep? A new rug?"
"No, actually." Damon opened one eye and looked at her. "I was thinking that I pity any crime scene team that ever comes into this house."
Elena laughed and shook her head. "There aren't enough black lights in the world to light this place up."
Suddenly, Damon stiffened, as if his entire body went on high alert. "I think our spell is about to arrive," he said tightly.
"Are you all right?"
Damon clenched his teeth. "Bonnie wasn't kidding. I…"
"What is it?"
"Whoever has the spell is lucky I can't move, because I really wanna tear their head off for bringing it anywhere near me."
"Just hold on," Elena urged. "I'll be right back."
"You just want the spell before Alaric wakes up."
Elena stopped and looked at him seriously. "I'm not leaving you." She'd meant it before and she meant it now. Damon simply blinked and accepted it just as he had when he'd been bitten and ordered her to leave.
Elena heard a car pulling up out front and hurried to the door. She threw it open and saw a pudgy, balding man in his fifties getting out of a taxi. He came to the door and said, "Are you Elena?"
"Yes." The man had a dazed look in his eye, and had definitely been compelled.
"This is for you." He held out a small bubble wrap mailer with a lump at one end.
Elena took the package from him. "Thank you very much. You can go home now."
The man just nodded, still looking slightly dazed and headed back to the taxi. Elena supposed the compulsion wouldn't wear off until he was back at the airport where he'd started. Hopefully, he would have a pleasant memory of a nice flight on his day off.
Before going back to Damon, Elena made a quick trip to the basement and brought up as many blood bags as she could carry. Elena hurried back into the great room and dropped the blood bags right beside Damon. She then tore open the bubble mailer and peeked in. Inside was a rock, a common, ordinary, probably-from-the-gravel-driveway rock.
Elena looked up and saw that Damon was staring at her, a dangerous glint in his eye.
"Damon?" Elena asked nervously.
"Just give me a minute," he warned. Damon closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating, and Elena had the uncomfortable feeling he was trying to curb his instinct to just kill her and dispose of the spell.
"We have to do this," she said, trying to keep her tone nice and even despite how much she suddenly wanted to run.
"Just do it before I can think about it," Damon ordered abruptly. "Do it now."
Elena tipped the envelope up and let the rock fall into her hand. She stepped closer to him and every step she took, Damon seemed to draw back. He was grimacing, clearly in agony, but despite knowing this had to be done he was trying to scoot away from her.
Before he actually gave in to his fight or flight instinct, Elena hurried forward and placed her empty hand on his chest over his heart. "This will be over in just a minute."
He placed his own hand over hers. "Unless it kills me," he said tersely.
"It won't." And that was all she was going to say on the matter. "Ready?"
Damon gave the barest of nods and released her hand, grabbing the sofa cushion beneath him. Elena pulled his shirttail up and tried not to be sick at the sight of the open wound that Damon had been forced to endure the entire time they'd been waiting. He had to have been in horrible pain, and still he had talked to her as if they were simply having a normal, everyday conversation.
Elena took one last look at Damon's gray, pain-filled face and set the rock low on his belly below the incision Alaric had made. For several seconds nothing seemed to be happening. Then Damon fell stock still.
"Elena, get back," he ordered.
Elena hurried to put some distance between them and just as she stumbled into the opposite sofa and sat down, Damon lurched wildly. The rock floated up and stayed about a foot above his abdomen. He arched his back and let out a low guttural cry.
Suddenly, the rock began to spin and Elena saw small wood chips begin to come out of the wound. A few seconds later, Damon fell back to the sofa. His mouth opened in a silent scream and then right in front of her eyes, he began to fade away.
It was as if the life was literally being sucked out of him, like watching one of those time lapse films. In a matter of seconds, his skin began to cave in on itself. His cheeks began to hollow, his beautiful hair turned dry and lost its deep color and his entire body seemed to shrink. She remembered seeing the dried up vampires in the tomb and at the rate Damon was going he would look exactly like them in under a minute.
Elena's heart was beating so hard it hurt, but the only thing she could think was that he might be turning into a desiccated husk, but at least he was still alive. If she could get blood back into him, he would be fine.
For just a moment, a hysterical laugh tried to bubble up. She'd spent her entire summer trying to figure out how to find Stefan and dry him out and now all she could think about was how quickly she could get blood into Damon.
The rock that held the spell fell and landed on Damon's dried corpse. Elena immediately sprang off the opposite sofa. She grabbed the rock and flung it away from him, then snatched up one of the blood bags. She opened it so that the tube could be used like a straw. She tried to press it to his lips, but his teeth were clamped shut. She used her free hand and grasped his chin, trying not to cringe at the feel of his dry, paper thin skin. She was afraid she would break his jaw, and to her horror she heard a crack as she opened his mouth enough to force the tube past his teeth.
As soon as the tube was in, she squeezed the bag and forced the blood into his mouth. She looked up and nearly dropped the bag when she saw his eyes open, blood red and staring at her.
Damon reached up a desiccated hand and took the bag from her. Elena immediately backed away. He sat up slowly, staring at her the entire time. He finished the bag and tossed it away.
In the year they'd known each other, Damon had looked at her many ways. He'd looked at her like she was a nuisance, a science project, a necessary part of some scheme, an enemy, a friend, a lifeline, a lover.
Right now, he was looking at her as if she was one thing.
Lunch.
The wrap-up's all that's left. Shouldn't be too long…