(A/N) Hey everyone, sorry I took so long. I was having the worst writer's block ever, and I was a little busy. But I'm back now. Thanks for the reviews for last chapter, I love reading what you guys have to say about my work. Alright, so just a quick recap of last chapter: Damon turned Elena into a vampire and then he was attacked and vervained.
Everyone caught up now? Good. Enjoy and review. :)
~ooOOoo~
"You feed or you die, there is no door number three." - Damon Salvatore.
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Damon's head lolled to the side as his body began slowly drifting into consciousness. His entire body was over-run with a dull, venomous burning that pulsated steadily through his bloodstream. His eyes automatically opened as he saw the brief red glow of closed eyelids, and he was met with a light so bright he squinted. He blinked several times, a blurry image regaining slight focus as an iron door with bars. He knew exactly where he was.
Everything came rushing back to him so fast, he cringed from where he was laying. He had turned Elena into a vampire, and became blinded to obstacles because of his vengeance. He could remember vividly the literally blood-bursting pain that Bonnie had induced on him, Caroline's saucer-widened eyes as she saw her best friend lying in a crumpled heap with blood, his blood, around her mouth, and the vehemence Stefan was holding towards him when he jammed the vervain tranquilizer into his back from behind.
Damon couldn't say he regretted yesterday's events - was it even the day after everything had happened? He had no idea how long he had been out for - because he didn't, and he never would. If anything, turning Elena would be a wake-up call for her, and she would snap out of her delusion of how people should act, and the world around her should be. And if it didn't work, Damon would gladly put her out of her misery for the second time, with no chance of resurrection.
He tried to push himself off of the rock he was propped aimlessly on, but the second he tried to move his arms, it felt like a huge force was bearing down on his muscles, rendering him immobile. This wasn't something he could fight, so Damon knew immediately it wasn't the vervain keeping him down. Bonnie must have put a spell on him.
"Finally, you're awake." A drawling voice floated through the bars. Stefan. Damon's mind growled at him. He squinted, his eyes easily making out the large forehead and frownlines of his brother's face. They were much more noticeable than usual, and Damon couldn't help but smirk, but then he frowned again, remembering his current predicament.
"Don't you have any other tactics?" He spat sourly, feeling the vervain's energy radiating off the plants and making his throat itch. "And what's your goal by putting me in here anyway?" Damon asked, this wasn't going to change anything, he would find a way to get out, and then he would be free to do as he pleased, he would evade them the next time.
"I'm going to get the real you back." He said surely, sounding so firm in his belief that this man in front of him, laying in the cell after turning his ex-girlfriend into a vampire, wasn't his brother.
"Why does everyone think I'm broken!?" Damon would have screamed loud enough to shatter glass, but the vervain was keeping his voice down. "I'm not." His lips twitched very quickly into a dry smile. "Get that into your heads!" He hissed.
Stefan sighed, gripping the bars in his fingers. It was obvious he was frustrated with Damon saying that he was always like this, but Damon was equally frustrated - if not more - that Stefan and everyone else would deny the truth and ignore the monster in front of their eyes. "Maybe it's because you're off the deep end-"
"So what, you're gonna Lexi-fy me?" Damon cut in harshly. He was not a Ripper, he was a vampire, he didn't need any of Lexi's special methods to help him. He didn't even need help, it was like Stefan was projecting his own problems and life onto him, expecting every vampire to turn out a Ripper once they consumed a drop of human blood. He was like that with Vicki, and Damon wanted to rip his head off.
"Good luck." He said snarkily. "I've bent that system before." He bragged. Stefan never could, because he always had something to come back to, and it always ended up working, but since Klaus was Damon's thing to "come back" to, it wouldn't work. Klaus would accept him, humanity, slightly twisted version of humanity or none at all.
"And maybe it's because you turned Elena into a vampire." Stefan said suddenly, lifting his head to stare him in the eyes. Damon bore them back, not giving him a single trace of emotion or guilt he was searching for. "Of all the idiotic things you've done, I can't believe that was one of them." He was remaining calm for some strange reason, while he imagined Elena crying and screeching hysterically that someone needed to fix her, or it wasn't supposed to happen, and she didn't want it.
"So, it was bound to happen anyway." Damon shrugged idly. She was surrounded by vampires, him, Stefan, Caroline, Katherine - not that she would be any help - and the easiest solution if she got hurt, was giving her blood. It was faster than what any hospital could do, and she should be grateful instead of whining that someone had saved her.
"Yes, by me, when she was ready to spend eternity with me." Damon's head snapped up, painfully jarring his neck - he could feel the weight beginning to lift off his chest - and he forced himself to sit up. As Stefan's words reached his ears, he couldn't help but think that this was all because Stefan was jealous that Elena had wanted him. Stefan was always jealous of him, but Stefan used to get everything while Damon didn't. That exposed Stefan as a spoiled little brat much more than any words could. "Not by you on one of your no-humanity rampages."
"My humanity's on!" Damon yelled, straining his throat.
"I don't believe that." Stefan shook his head, and Damon bit his tongue painfully to keep himself from ripping it into him. He would rather do it when people were around to listen. "You would never do anything to hurt Elena." He said.
"I would now." Damon shrugged, groaning as he moved slightly, scraping his back against the rock. "She's just a walking incarnate of Katherine, and I'll keep saying it until someone other than me wises up and realises it."
"Elena's completed her transition, just so you know." Stefan told him, his tone implying he was supposed to care about it.
"Good." Damon nodded, and Stefan moved slightly, his eyes shifting as he thought he had found a shred of humanity, but Damon was about to ram him head-first into a brick wall. "Now maybe she'll stop being such a pain in the ass when it comes to my bloodlust. Or vampires in general." Damon said, watching as everything about Stefan changed once more, becoming sombre once more. "And I hope she suffers with it." He spat.
"What happened to you?" Stefan asked in despair.
"Nothing." Damon's face was hardened. "This is the real me, and you know it." He had been at his worst in 1888 with all the Jack the Ripper business
Stefan sighed deeply, rummaged inside his pocket. He poked a vial of blood through the bars, dropping it down into the cell. Damon's nose crinkled at the smell of animal blood, and he made no move to go over to it. He wouldn't touch it even if he was on the brink of death. He had never ingested such a low class of blood, and he was not about to start now. "I'm going to get you back." Stefan said surely.
"You mean the watered-down good version of me?" Damon asked, and not waiting for a reply or a nod, he continued. "Good luck with that, little brother." He smiled at him. Stefan scoffed, shaking his head at him, and then left. Damon scowled at the sound of fading footsteps. He had to walk away from the truth instead of facing it, that was ultimately why he failed at being a vampire. He couldn't handle the truth that a vampire needed human blood, so he walked away from it and started drinking animals.
Damon's phone rang, snapping him out of his thoughts as the sound vibrated around the room. His hand shot into his pocket, silencing it quickly so as to not let Stefan know he still had it. But then again, his brother was in a hurry to get away from him, and so weak, that he probably wouldn't be able to. But what made him laugh, was why nobody bothered to take his phone away.
"Hello?" He said, coughing as his throat began rubbing him like sandpaper. He groaned in pain. It was a paradox, what was done to get rid of the burning, would hurt him even more.
"Damon it's me, I-" Klaus stopped, and then he asked in a more concerned - more concerned than Damon had ever heard him - tone: "What's happened to you?"
Damon coughed once more, trying to find his voice. "I turned Elena into a vampire, and revealed myself and now I'm vervained and locked in a cellar with them trying to "get the real me back"." He explained.
"What does that even mean?" Klaus asked, sounding dumbfounded.
"They mean the puppy-dog version who does everything Elena says and doesn't kill for fun." Damon whispered snarkily, trying not to aggravate his throat. "But, since I've given her eternal life, I'd rather skip the eternal servitude and morality sessions."
"How did they even get you into the cell?" Klaus asked.
Damon swallowed, trying to find a comfortable position. Once he settled into a moderately comfortable nook in the rocks, he started to speak. "Bonnie made my brain explode-"
"Bonnie, the little bitch." Klaus hissed in intervention. Damon couldn't have agreed more, but he had more important things to contend with, and hating on Bonnie in silence really wasn't going to do anything about the spell - or whatever it was - that she had put on him, or anywhere else.
"-And Stefan vervained me from behind." Damon added.
"I thought you were drinking it?" Klaus asked.
"I am." Damon said in annoyance. "It must have been some pretty strong stuff." He explained. "And the irony of it all, he's given me a teeny bit of animal blood." He reached over and nudged the pitiful ration with his foot, kicking it far away from his sight. He didn't even want to look at it.
"I wish I could help, but I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment-"
"With hybrids again?" Damon cut in, feeling a little jealous.
Klaus sighed, clearly detecting it in his voice, but strangely he didn't press. "No, with Rebekah actually, she keeps running off." He said.
"Give her a leash." Damon chuckled.
"I've tried that, and she's taken her dagger so that isn't an option." Klaus growled.
"Well, do what you need to do, I'll be fine." Damon said. That would probably be a lie, but with Bonnie helping Stefan with his plan to humanity-fy him, he didn't want to see Klaus get hurt. Nobody would be able to kill him, but Bonnie could still channel the power of a hundred dead witches, and it would still hurt him, and give Stefan enough time to- Enough Damon!
There was a long pause down Klaus' end of the line, before he heard his voice, and he sounded nervous. "Damon, I..." He trailed off, and Damon became worried.
"What?" He asked.
"Never mind." Damon could tell Klaus was shaking his head. He was intrigued now, what could be so important that would make Klaus nervous? Klaus didn't strike him as the kind of man who would be nervous about anything, and it was odd to say the least that Klaus was suddenly brushing it off like it was nothing. "I'll come and help you as soon as I'm able." Klaus promised, and Damon smiled at his tone, it was pure spite and vindication. He was sure heads would roll in Chicago, but what would happen to everyone who had hurt him, or was going to try... Well, it made Damon feel safe, added to the fact that Stefan wouldn't try to kill him, no matter how much he wanted to.
"I'll be here." He said dryly, hanging up the phone and ending the call. As he settled down in the darkness, he frowned momentarily. Now he would be thinking up all kinds of solutions as to what Klaus was going to say to him, but that would have to wait. Somebody was standing outside the cell, their soul trembling with anger and betrayal. One whiff of Chanel perfume told Damon exactly who it was.
"Caroline." He chimed with a grin, hearing her sharp in-take of breath from being found out. "No lurking without a permit." He sang as she came into view. Silver tear tracks were staining her face, and it sickened Damon to know that this girl was wasting her tears for someone who deserved the fate she was going to endure.
"How can you even look at yourself right now?" She said in a voice that was worn down from crying, and Damon rolled his eyes.
"Not easily, there's no mirror in here." He grinned at her, and her nostrils flared, her back straightening. "Don't tell me you've gone back to Dumb Blonde, carebear?" He teased her, coughing as the scent from the vervain plants began drying his throat out once more.
"What happened to you?" Caroline asked, and Damon groaned. It was the question to describe his life since he turned into a vampire and had gone through many personality changes in order to find his true self. Stefan was the one to ask it the most back then, especially after Elias, but now everyone was asking that to him. Everyone except Klaus. "You're an even bigger jack-ass than usual." Caroline's snip brought Damon back to reality, and he sat up.
"Why thank you." He smiled politely and Caroline's face hardened, although her teary eyes made the "threatening" stare more like an act, than a heartfelt action. "And nothing's happened, I've just broken out of my bubble, and by broken out of my bubble, I mean I'm done listening to all you idiots and your moral high-roads."
"Did you come to glare, gloat, or actually say something useful?" He asked, suddenly curious as to why Caroline was there. Was she taunting him with the fact that she freedom to feed and be a vampire? Given that she only acted like one when she needed to be, or was she coming down to try and shame him for what he had done?
"Elena's devastated you did this to her, Damon." Caroline's voice wasn't laced with the hard-edged venom that he had been expecting, instead she sounded... sympathetic? If that was even the right word. Did she think he was just acting this way because all of Elena's constant back and forth with how she felt for him and denying it and then accepting it only to go back to square one, was upsetting him? He was only upset when his mother died, it would have to take a lot more to get him to shed a tear now.
"And I'm supposed to care?" He waved Caroline off dismissively, but she stayed firmly on her spot, seemingly determined to try what Stefan couldn't. Get through to him. There was no getting through to him anymore, they already had. They had peeled back all the old layers, riddled and infected with stupid feelings and trivial human concerns, and what they found - the man that was now sitting in the cellar - was the cold, hard core of Damon Salvatore.
And if they didn't like it, screw them.
He'd play their stupid games, but he knew he wouldn't break first, they would. Because they didn't want to hurt him enough to kill him, he had nothing to be afraid of, and he certainly didn't fear any of them. Elena least of all, of course she was a vampire now, but her emotions were heightened and she was no doubt sobbing about unintentionally killing an animal or something, while Stefan was running around after her, leaving Caroline and Bonnie to hold down the fort.
"You should." Caroline said like it was a mandatory requirement, Damon ignored her. She was just as stupid and shallow from when she was human. Nothing had changed, if anything, the most annoying traits about her were amplified. As she stood looking at him, waiting for a response that she wasn't going to get, Damon discreetly eyed the necklace that was hung around her neck. "You love her-"
"Loved. Past tense, honey." He said, still studying her necklace. The chain was solid silver from the looks of it, and there was a pendant big enough to grab onto. "And be honest, you'd prefer her with my brother anyway, so it's useless trying to get me to feel bad about what I've done, because I don't." Caroline scoffed and began to walk away, but as she did, Damon's chance at escape was going with her.
With a surprising burst of speed he didn't know he had, he easily overpowered the vervain and leapt at the door. Caroline wasn't fast enough as he stuck his hands through the bars and grasped a hold of her necklace. Her hands flew up behind her to grab at his wrist, but he expertly twisted the chain as hard as he could. Caroline choked and struggled, but Damon wasn't going to let go. If he could bring her close to death, she would open the door for him.
Blood began trickling from her neck as the chain cut deeper and deeper into her skin as Damon kept twisting it relentlessly. He wasn't going to give up yet. He yanked her closer to the bars, resulting in her blood dripping onto his fingers and a cry escaping her mouth. "Let me out, Caroline." He hissed into her ear. She wasn't budging, she was still trying to fight him off. "I said, let me out." He hissed once more.
Getting no results except the latter, Damon roared in frustration, almost garrotting Caroline with the necklace. The chain was knotted up firmly around his fingers, and the gap between them and Caroline's neck was gone. She cried out in surprise, both hands tightening on his wrist in panic, as Damon pulled harder and her head was nearly severed from her neck.
Damon suddenly stumbled back as something broke the tether between him and Caroline. He stood up to see his brother at the cell door, eyes shooting sharp daggers into him. He heard a rush of air, and then Stefan speaking to him in a patronizing tone, similar to that of a four-year old being told not to touch the grill while it was on. "You just won't stop, will you?" He asked in disbelief.
Damon smashed his hands into the door, feeling his bones shake from the sheer force, but unfortunately, it didn't have the desired effect and he was still trapped. "You have no right to trap me in here!" He yelled.
"I do if you're tearing up half the town." Stefan told him, and Damon shook his head. It was not Stefan's business who he killed, and no civilian - save the Founder's Council of course - was smart enough to figure out that the murders were caused by a vampire, and that that vampire was none other than the head of the Founder's Council. "And you turned Elena into a vampire." He reminded him coldly.
"So that's how it's gonna go, huh?" Damon smiled slyly and rested his heavy weight on his heels. "I do something stupid in your eyes and you always find a way to bring Elena into it." He observed, Stefan stayed silent, so he continued. "You think it's gonna make me regret everything, you're wrong. I don't regret any of it, and I should have started sooner." He said mercilessly.
Stefan smashed his fist into the concrete wall beside the cell door, careful not to let Damon out because of a stupid mistake, and yelled out in frustration, trying to grab him through the bars, but Damon stayed out of his reach, taunting him. "Don't think for a moment that I won't kill you!" He roared, his fangs extending and the veins beneath his eyes popping.
"You can't." Damon gloated smugly and Stefan bitterly accepted defeat and stopped trying to grab him. "I'm stronger than you think, sure I'm down with vervain, but I could still take you on." He swore. "I've tapped into the Old Powers again." He smiled, Stefan couldn't even attempt to harness them in his dizziest day dreams, a lot of it came down to mental strength, not just human blood, as Elias had told him before introducing him to the idea of shape-shifting. "And even if you did kill me, you'd be wracked with guilt about it and would go off the deep end yet again."
"That's exactly why we're snapping you out of whatever this-" Stefan gestured towards him like he was an animal in a zoo. "Is, my way." He said firmly.
"It won't work." Damon sang happily, knowing he held the cards where he was concerned. They could chase their tails, but they would slip up along the way, and leave some kind of flaw for him to work with and gain his freedom.
"Yes it will." Stefan swore, nodding in determination. "Because I refuse to believe that you would turn Elena purely because of the arguments you've had lately."
"Are you that blind?" Damon snapped at him, coming closer to the door. He didn't care if Stefan could grab him, he had had enough strength to nearly kill Caroline, he could at least snap his brother's hand with what strength he had left. "Don't make her out to be the victim in all of this, she's just as much to blame as I am." He pointed out. "If she hadn't pushed my buttons, she wouldn't be in this mess and I'd be free to kill whoever the Hell I want."
Stefan's face suddenly turned smug, and he folded his arms with a smile on his face. "Alaric's coming soon, and when he does-"
"Oh, you didn't hear?" Damon cut him off in a simpering, sweet tone. "Alaric's dead." He said, not a trace of emotion in his voice. "And that's dead dead. Not ring-dead." He confirmed.
Stefan's mouth hung partially open, before he shook his head and rounded on him again. "You...?" He asked in disbelief, Damon nodded without the slightest hint of remorse. "Why would you do that?" He asked. "He was your friend." He emphasized the word "friend" but Damon didn't have any. He only had Klaus, and he wasn't sure what label to give him yet, he was pretty sure Klaus felt the same way about him.
"He was in the way, and I was by Elena's school, so I figured, why not? One less problem to deal with." He said spitefully. Stefan said nothing, and walked away from him for the second time that day. "Hah, walk away in denial instead of facing the truth?" He called to Stefan's back, watching him disappear from the stony corridor. "It's just like you Stefan!" He called again.
"At least I'm not ashamed of who I am!"
Damon chuckled to himself and paced around the cell, trying to get the feeling back in his legs. He was sweating from the lack of air coming through the cellar, and the vervain didn't help. Inhaling it's scent was like a human breathing in carbon monoxide, and not breathing was a difficult task. It wasn't a necessity for vampires, but Damon rarely went without breathing since he was around townsfolk nearly day. Choosing not to breath was an option for vampires who lived in solitude, or who were trying to play dead to the point of being transported to the hospital to get a quick meal and a blood supply.
Feeling extremely bored, Damon strained his ears to hear whatever was being spoken upstairs. It always helped whenever he had a slight upper hand on those who were trying to hurt him.
"H-He killed him..." Elena's broken voice stuttered, and Damon smirked. Stefan had dropped the bombshell that Alaric was dead, and by the sounds of it, he didn't sugar coat it like nearly everything else he told her. "Oh my God." She gasped.
"Elena, he's not stable right now." Stefan said softly, and Damon guessed that Stefan had stopped her from marching down to the cellar and trying to kill him for killing her last remaining guardian.
"Alaric was the only person Jeremy and I had left to take care of us, Stefan!" Elena was wailing through her tears, and Damon took pleasure in the fact she have looked a mess; her emotions were running wild with her, and she had no control over them. "Damon even killed him, again! I-" She broke off mid-sentence, and grunted in frustration. Then there was a smash.
"Elena, there's still a chance he could come back." Stefan said slowly, and Damon scoffed. Now he was sugar-coating it. She wasn't special, she wasn't this divine entity that needed worshipping and protecting from danger. " Damon started the fire, and he's a vampire." He pointed out, although Damon was positive Alaric would not be back.
"Let me talk to him." Elena said suddenly, standing up from the chair she had been sat in. Damon was in no position to talk to her; he was in a cell with no chance of escape, and he didn't fancy cramming himself through the window just to get away from her, and result in looking like a box. "Stefan, I should be able to get through to him." She said gently. "He loves me." She sounded so sure that it sickened him, and put a whole new spin on the word "idiotic".
"You wish..." He muttered bitterly.
"Elena, just leave it to me Stefan and Caroline." Stefan was saying softly, and no doubt stroking her face softly. "It's too dangerous for you." He warned her.
"What are you doing?" Elena asked, and Damon heard the presence of another body join them in the parlour.
"I'm re-administrating the barrier spell I put up around the house." Bonnie's voice said, and Damon growled. Even if Klaus had swept through Mystic Falls on a warpath to get him back, he wouldn't have been able to get into the house. "And I've found a spell that will send Damon to sleep." She informed them, and Damon knew he was doomed as he smelt sage burning above them.
Lights flickered all around the house, and a light breeze from the small window began whistling through the cellar. "Ex ignea puteos Inferno hoc deuia nec iumentum, et faciam eum dormiatque in quaestu pro sanguine prohibere eum." Bonnie began chanting in a foreign language, amplifying the small malfunctions that were going on around him, and Damon felt his eyes droop. "Quod docti sunt oculis tantum videre prædam enervat." The spell went on, and Damon's legs instantly gave out, becoming a deadweight as he thudded to the ground. "Spiritus terrae ad te clamavi super hoc animal ad quietem."
The last words of the spell faded into his mind, and everything went into a pleasant haze of darkness.
~ooOOoo~
Damon was lifted from his sleep-ridden thoughts with a thud. He sat up, startled, and looked around hurriedly. His vision was extremely blurred, but he could tell in an instant that he wasn't in the cellar anymore. He could see mixtures of greens, blues and purples and the fuzzy outline of dark rocks. As he fought with his eyelids, he heard... water rushing? What was going on?
Everything came to slowly above him, and a dark shape flitted around the blue wave of the sky. Damon blinked and stood up, coming face to face with a place he thought had died along with his mother. He soon realised the dark shape was a blackbird, the blackbird he transformed into. It cawed out to him over the sound of rushing water, and took flight again, unfurling it's wings and flapping away.
Damon was right in the middle of The Falls, where he used to go with his mother when he was human. The grass was deep green, the sky was bluer than lapis lazuli, and the flowers were a kaleidoscope of different colors, pinks, lavender, reds and blues as far as the eye could see. And the roaring waterfall, ever present in it's majesty, was pouring forth brilliant blue water, topped with foam crashing down into the large rock pool below.
He saw the large log where he used to sit, and walked over to it, running his fingers over it. He used to come here all the time when he was younger, it relieved some strain from his life since his father was constantly victimizing him and beating him - although when he had gotten older, and a head taller than Giuseppe, the old coot had stopped - while he favoured Stefan and quickly distincted the two brothers. Stefan was the favourite, the good boy, and the Golden Child. Damon was the Devil in human form, a mistake to humanity, and the Unwanted One.
Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face, and felt light pressure on his shoulder, and a gentle voice. "Damon." It whispered, and he smiled. He'd know that accent anywhere. He turned and saw the familiar blond hair and shining eyes that he had become so acquainted with.
"Klaus?" He asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Nobody knew about this place's sentimental value to him, so how was he here?
"Damon, wake up." He said suddenly, and Damon's brows furrowed in confusion.
"What?" He asked.
"Wake up, Damon." Klaus' tone was slightly more urgent, and Damon swore he saw glimpses of fear in his eyes. "They're going to kill you." He warned him. Who was going to kill him?
Damon just shook his head. "I don't-"
Klaus suddenly grabbed his shoulders, tight enough to bruise and crush bone, pulling him forwards. "Damon wake up!"
The echoing urgency in Klaus' voice made Damon's eyes snap open abruptly. His eyes adjusted a little quicker than usual. He was definitely in a different room; it was much dimmer than the cellar, and he could just about make out a Persian rug near the fireplace. It didn't escape his notice that it had a fire poker burning in it. Damon tried moving his arms to get his bearings, but they were too heavy, he couldn't move his legs either.
He blinked rapidly, his vision finally clearing up. He was in the parlour, and the curtains were drawn. With a growl, he looked down at his hand, and his ring was missing. His wrists were shackled tightly to the arms of a chair and his ankles were shackled to the legs of the chair. Stefan had also found Mason Lockwood's werewolf transformation chains and made good use of them, bounding his body to the chair so he could only freely move his head.
"Stefan..." He growled to an empty room. "I'm gonna kill you." He swore. What right did his brother have to do this to him? If everybody hated him, why were they trying so hard to keep him in their lives? Damon knew the answer in an instant, he used to be the one that saved everyone without question, that was why they wanted him around. It wasn't for anything else, he was just a bug that they could flick away once they were done with him.
He'd show them all.
"Stefan's not here, Damon." Damon groaned internally at a voice. He forced himself to turn his head towards the source, and found Elena sitting in an armchair - his armchair - across from him. She looked like she had only now stopped crying, and the odd thing was, she wasn't bearing him down with angry eyes, she was looking at him with desperation. "He had to go and hunt." She told him softly.
"What's going on?" Damon snapped at her. "Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be sobbing to someone about how unfair and mean I was to you?" He smirked at her, but the desperation in her eyes didn't falter. Damon knew she was trying to get through to him, being the only person that could before, but she held no power over him anymore, and if she was going to find that out the hard way, then so be it.
"I don't know." She shrugged, and Damon then figured out quickly that she had no part in tying him to the chair. Elena then pushed herself off the armchair, and walked over to where he was, resting against the arm of the sofa directly opposite him. "And I'm here because I want to be." She said, raising her chin in a form of defiance. Damon wasn't going to stop her from being there, he didn't care about that, he just wanted to know what the hell was going on.
"I turned you into a vampire." He said cruelly, watching Elena's eyes flicker with now very sensitive emotions. "Something you didn't want, much less ask for. In the literal sense anyway." He added. Then he said more forcefully: "Why are you here?"
Elena sighed again, and walked over to him. She took his face in her hands, and he let her. "I just want answers, Damon." She was almost pleading with him. If she was a normal person, she would be tearing up the house and trying to kill him right now, but instead she wanted answers? When Stefan had forced him to turn, he didn't want answers, he wanted vengeance.
"Fine." Damon said softly, giving over. If she wanted answers, she was going to get them. He looked directly into her eyes, brown connecting with blue like they once used to. "I did this because you're an annoying, whiny, little bitch who needs to grow up and face reality." He said harshly. Elena recoiled, releasing his face in horror. She stepped back from him, but that wasn't going to stop him. "You need to know what it means to be a vampire before you go slandering me off about being a psychopathic murderer." He growled at her.
"Which is exactly what you are." She was looking down, clearly hurt and betrayed that he would fake their once-there-connection. That was gone, just like his feelings for her.
"No I'm not!" This time, Damon could yell, and he kept on yelling. It was the only way to make her see sense now. Turning her into a vampire clearly hadn't done the job. "I'm a vampire!" He flashed his fangs at her, and she took a step back. "I hunt, and I kill." Elena shook her head in desperation at that, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She was only upset because she was losing control over him. Control that Klaus now held. "It's part of the package, and if you can't handle it, come a bit closer and I'll gladly rip your heart out."
"What's gotten into you?" Elena asked, her voice rising as anger was visible on her face. Damon smirked at that. "You're acting like a child!" She yelled at him.
"More like frustrated man." He countered. "I've had it with you, I've had it with everyone, I've had it with this town!" He smacked the back of his head on the chair and groaned. "Every five seconds, someone's yelling at me for acting like a vampire." He growled. "I don't care if it bothers anyone, I am a vampire, so I will be a vampire. Not the watered-down sparkly delusion you're thinking of." He said a little more quietly.
"Is that why you did this?" Elena said softly. She was still hoping she could get through to him? He had a last resort, but if that didn't work, he would just kill her when he got free. Just like everyone else.
"I did it so you would suffer." He grinned at her, as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I killed Alaric, purely so you would suffer, and guess what Princess? He ain't coming back." He said harshly. Elena suddenly started shaking her head and panting rapidly, mumbling "no, no, no" to herself over and over.
"B-But, y-you're a vampire, the ring will-"
"I roasted him to a crisp." Damon boasted, and her eyes widened in utter shock. "And all his students too, not before making a meal out of some of them of course." He licked his lips in remembrance, and Elena stood there, frozen. She let out a pitiful sob, and collapsed to the ground as her legs gave out. She began screaming and sobbing into her hands, and Damon could never have pictured anything more annoying.
"Go ahead, sit there and cry like a little baby." He spat at her.
She sniffled, wiping her tears away with the corner of her sleeve. "You think grieving someone's death makes me weak?" She asked in shock, looking up at him through teary eyes.
"Yes, I do." He nodded. "You grieve everyone's death, which is exactly why you won't last two seconds as a vampire out in the big, wide world without any help." He told her. "But of course, you'll have it easy with a support group while the rest of us had to learn the hard way." He knew that was the reality of it, whenever poor little Elena couldn't handle something, everybody flocked to her, but when he and Stefan were adjusting to being vampires, they didn't have help. Damon didn't until Elias did anyway, but he brought out the sadistic side in him, while Lexi brought out the good side in Stefan. Neither of them made things easier or a cushy ride through it for either brother, they just helped them find themselves along the way.
"Is that what you think?" She asked indignantly, her voice still laced with tears.
"It's what I know." He growled. "To everyone you're this precious trophy, the crown jewel, but to me, you're nothing but an annoyance who needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth." She took a step back and more tears spilled over her eyes.
As his last words sunk into her, the front door slammed shut, and Stefan stormed into the parlour, eyes blazing at him as he wrapped Elena into his arms, silently gloating that he had her again, but he didn't care. Stefan could have her, he had Klaus.
"Don't listen to him, Elena." He reassured her gently while stroking her hair to calm him down. "He's being compelled." He said, and Damon felt like smashing his head against the chair again. Everyone chose to believe the alternative because they couldn't face the truth, even though Damon had given it to them over and over.
"What are you talking about Stefan?" Damon shifted in the chair, flexing his fingers as they were becoming numb from the shackles cutting off the blood flow. "I've made it pretty clear several times that I'm not compelled, and my humanity isn't off." He said.
"It's the only explanation." Stefan said to himself and Elena, ignoring Damon. Damon's nostril's flared angrily, and he nearly screamed out in anger. It was like he was trapped in a bubble, yelling while his insults and epithets fell on deaf ears.
"Did you not hear what I've been saying?" Damon asked incredulously. Stefan, and now Elena, had advanced hearing, he of all people should have heard. Damon wouldn't be at all surprised if Stefan's brain was twisting the words around so it sounded different to him. "Or is there a rock concert going on in your head?" He spat snarkily.
"Klaus compelled him to act this way." Stefan held Elena at arms length, completely ignoring Damon. Elena looked at Damon with a hint of confusion, before flitting her eyes back to Stefan. Damon leaned back in the chair, Stefan was half right, Klaus hadn't compelled him, but merely opened his eyes. "With me, it was the blood that was doing it, but Damon has control, it's the only way he would do this." Stefan explained.
"Hello?" Damon sang idly, sick of being ignored. "I'm chained to a chair right here." He said sarcastically. Stefan was speaking like he wasn't sat right there.
"But Damon's been on vervain." Elena said, at least she could think rationally about things.
"No, the last time he drank it was before Tyler bit him, and his werewolf venom burnt out all the vervain in his system." Stefan explained. Damon furrowed his brows at that. How did Stefan know that? He hadn't been bitten before, had he? If so, Damon was certain it wasn't possible. His body may have been burning, but his body temperature wouldn't have burned the vervain out. "He was a liability to be compelled."
"Sound logic there, Stef." Damon commended him sarcastically, with a smile. "But it's wronger than wearing stripes and tartan together." He countered. "God, I sound like Caroline..." He groaned.
Stefan finally turned to look at him, folding his arms. He was looking at him like he was beneath him. "Prove it." He challenged him.
"How?" Damon asked incredulously. "Do you want me to strip naked and give you a lap dance or something?" He said, grinning as Stefan and Elena cringed. He then bore his eyes into his brother's, leaning as far forward as the chains around his chest would allow him. "I'm. Not. Compelled." He spat each word at them with venom, and Stefan's eyes fell. Damon cheered on the inside, he was finally understanding.
"Then it must be something other to do with Klaus." Stefan said, now speaking to him rather than himself or Elena. Damon grinned, Stefan was getting closer to the truth, but he was going to tunnel in the wrong direction and would never find the treasure. Not unless Damon told him. "You've been acting differently since you confronted him in Chicago." Stefan said. "He's corrupted you."
Damon smiled eerily, laying back in the chair. "When did you figure that out?" He asked smoothly.
"I put two and two together." Stefan said while Elena stood there, absorbing all this new information. "You would never hurt Elena, Klaus has influenced you, this isn't you." He said.
"Yes." Damon hissed out agonizingly. "It, is." He spat.
"No it's not, Damon." Stefan shook his head. Damon's rage was getting so strong, he felt like he would be able to tear through the chains and rip the pair of them in half. They were so smug, it was unbelievable. They actually believed everything they said was the truth, but Damon was going to prove them wrong. "It's Klaus' influence over you-"
"Hate to break it to you Stefan, but he hasn't influenced me at all." Damon spat. That was truth in itself, Klaus had opened his eyes to the way of others, but him hating them was all on his own grounds. Klaus had never said he must hate them, or tempted him. Not at first. "My thoughts, my feelings, my actions are all my own, not his." He glared at Stefan. "And I've done much worse than killing." He began flaunting his secret right in their faces. "Well, worse in your books anyway." He smiled.
"You've been with him?" Elena asked in shock.
"More than been, Elena." He smirked at her, and Stefan groaned in disgust while Elena looked heartbroken. Not that he cared. "I am with him. So much so that I know he loves it rough." He chuckled at them.
"Alright, we have to do this now." Stefan said suddenly, and Damon was confused once more. "Elena, call Bonnie and get her to hurry up with the barrier spell, it's weakening again." She nodded and rushed off using her newfound vampire-speed. "Caroline!" Stefan yelled, knowing she could hear him from where she was. "Get the vervain from the cellar!" He called to her, and Damon heard shuffling from upstairs.
Stefan then ripped one of the shackles of off Damon's wrist, grabbing it in a tight hold. Damon hissed at him, baring his fangs. He wasn't strong enough to fight his brother off, which made him wonder exactly what he had used to sedate him yesterday. "What the hell are you doing!?" He growled, fighting his steel grip.
Stefan punched him around the face, and he was stunned momentarily, not noticing that Stefan had taken hold of the curtain. It was one thing to get slapped by Elena, but when it was his brother, it was different. "We're going to force your infatuation to Klaus out of you." Stefan wasted no more time, and yanked the curtain open, exposing Damon's unprotected flesh to the sunlight.
Damon screamed in pain as his arm began to burn up in flames.
~ooOOoo~
(A/N) Sorry if this sucked, I think it was alright. Now, a lot of you may be wondering why I haven't had Klaus in there tearing up bodies yet, or why I made Damon say to him he could handle it on his own, it's because it's vital to the next chapter - people are gonna hear some surprising stuff - that Klaus stays away until then. Besides, Bonnie had put a barrier spell up, and no, I did not add that in as a last minute idea either, ya little scamps. ;-P
Also, I'm so very sorry if this wasn't up to your usual standards, I'm only human, although people wonder... xD. There'll be very minimal action next chapter, but it's 'cause I'm mostly gonna focus on the things that are being said next chapter. :)
Okay, before anyone spots it and says anything, I put in the fact that Bonnie could channel the witches, because I couldn't remember if he knew or not, seeing as this is set from pretty early on in season 3.
Now I've got ya guessin' and dyin' of suspense, review with your thoughts and I'll see you next time.
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Latin Translator (I did it with Google translator, but then who doesn't?)
From the fiery pits of Hell this beast does roam, make him sleep and stop him in his quest for blood. Eyes that are trained to see only prey will weaken. Spirits of the land, I call on you to put this beast to rest. - Ex ignea puteos Inferno hoc deuia nec iumentum, et faciam eum dormiatque in quaestu pro sanguine prohibere eum. Quod docti sunt oculis tantum videre prædam enervat. Spiritus terrae ad te clamavi super hoc animal ad quietem.
