The Woman I Love
DG32173

Sarah: and here is what is going to be the longest chapter so far, considering how long the companion chapter is in Setting Things Right. This story and that one are like two sides of the same coin. That side of the coin features Elena, this side features Damon. Same major events with different minor ones that take place when they aren't together. They are meant to be read together so that you get the full picture of what's going on. So, go read that one once you're done here if you haven't already. I hope you enjoy.


Chapter 6
Decade Dance

I'm smirking to myself as I drive the Camaro to Elena's house to pick her up. Stefan is slumped in the passenger seat, dressed in one of the outfits he wore in the fifties. He is totally sulking because I'm going to be Elena's date to the dance and he's just going to be there to help me kill her vampire-stalker. Good times. Then my phone lets out the beginning of the song She's My Girl by Billy Gilman. It's the song I chose to play when Elena calls me. I immediately pick up. "What is it, kitten?" I ask.

"Please tell me that you're almost here," she begs.

I immediately pull over, sensing that I'm going to have to run to the rescue. Stefan gives me a 'what the fuck?' look, but I ignore him. "What's wrong?" I demand, concerned.

"He's here," she whispers.

Before I can answer I hear her phone clatter to the floor followed by her shrieking in fear. "Stefan, drive my car to Elena's house. If there's so much as a scratch on the Camaro when you get there, you're dead," I tell him, opening my door. I climb out, slam the door, and take off at max speed for Elena's house, so not giving him time to argue. I'm not letting him take the glory for saving my girl. I only take enough time to actually open the front door before bursting in and slamming the bastard away from Elena with my body. He vamps out the door before I can catch a look at his face. I don't even consider going after him before I pull Elena into my arms. God, that guy's fangs had been too damn close to her neck for comfort when I slammed into him. "Are you okay?" I ask, gently checking her over for any damage. She winces when my hand brushes her right shoulder. I slide the halter strap closer to her neck and examine her shoulder. "Well, you've got a nasty bruise forming," I tell her. I raise an eyebrow at her. "Do you want some of my blood to heal it?" I ask her. She nods slightly. I bite into a vein on my wrist and hold it out for her. She doesn't hesitate before latching onto the bite and drinking deeply from it. A sense of peace mixed with desire settles over me as she drinks; as it had the other two times she drank my blood. I refuse to let myself get lost in it though I so want to. I gently pry my wrist from her lips after she has a few swallows of my blood. I watch as the forming bruise fades away within seconds.

Then the Camaro pulls into the driveway. She raises an eyebrow at me. "You trusted Stefan with your car?" she asks dryly, knowing full well how much the Camaro means to me.

"Well, considering your life was in danger and I wasn't about to let Stefan dive in for the rescue, I really had no choice," I reply just as dryly. I quickly take in her outfit. The fifties-style dark princess look suits her perfectly. "By the way, you look absolutely stunning this evening."

"Thanks," she says, a light blush staining her cheeks as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "We should get going. I want to get a few dances in with you before things get crazy."

"After you, my dear," I say, resting a hand on her lower back and motioning toward the front door.

She chuckles. "I'm surprised you bothered actually opening the door rather than charging through it," she tells me as she makes her way outside.

"Are you kidding?" I ask incredulously, right behind her. "That door's made of wood, in case you've forgotten! One, my clothes would have gotten torn. Two, the last time I charged through a wooden door hurt like a bitch and I was left picking splinters out of my skin. Not fun, I assure you." I lock the knob and close the door behind us before following her to my car. "Backseat, baby bro," I growl at Stefan. "No way in hell Elena's going in the backseat and there is definitely no way I'm letting you drive my car when there's not an emergency going on. So move it unless you want to walk to the dance."

He growls at me but uses his vampire maneuverability to climb over the partition between the front seats into the back. Elena and I slide into the front seats and Elena fastens her seatbelt. Even though I've been driving pretty much since cars were invented, it's better that she use the seatbelt for safety precautions. I raise an eyebrow at her precautions but nod my understanding. If something were to cause this car to crash, Stefan and I would be the only ones walking away just fine because we're vampires. Elena, however, is human. She could be seriously injured or even killed in a crash. Better safe than sorry. Once she's safely buckled, I pull out of her driveway and head for the school.

"Remember, I have to lure him away from the crowd," she reminds us as we draw close to our destination. I groan. "I'm serious, Damon. I don't want any witnesses to what's going to happen. I'll lure him to the cafeteria, as planned. That's where you two will get him. The guy with the hoodie I'll point out is just a distraction. Don't bother with him, just get into place. Once it seems like I don't have any protection, he'll begin his game by calling my phone. Don't jump in until he's completely focused on me." I give her look full of disbelief. "Damon, you two have repeatedly told me that the hunt is often more 'fun' than the kill. He wants to toy with me, make me completely panic, before going on the attack. Don't ask how I know this, but it'll be a tough fight, even two-on-one, if you don't take him by complete surprise."

"What do you mean by that?" Stefan demands.

"Cut it, Stefan," I sigh as I pull into the school's parking lot. I quickly find a spot and turn off the car. "She can't tell us right now how she knows what she knows. I've grown to accept that she's got an uncanny ability of being right about many things and I can't ask about it just yet. Let's just get to the party."

Elena and I get out and meet at the front of the car. I wrap my arm around her waist and guide her inside, leaving Stefan to lock the car and catch up. Almost as soon as we step foot in the gym, Elena's girlfriends spot us and make their way over. "Be prepared for some intense rage," Elena warns me before her friends are within hearing distance. "They don't like you."

I smirk and wink at her. I can handle rage. "Elena!" Caroline shrills, causing me to wince. That I can't handle. Ow! She's loud! "What are you doing here with him? I thought you were with Stefan!"

"Elena, have you lost it? Or did you forget everything he's done?" Bonnie demands.

Elena sighs. "Guys, I know what I'm doing," she assures them. She grins wickedly and I know she's about to do something a little cruel. "Caroline, why don't you dance with Stefan? He and I broke up a few days ago and he's single now."

I laugh when Blondie immediately takes the offer and grabs my brother to drag him away through the crowd to the dance floor. Stefan has a look full of betrayal on his face as Elena smiles innocently at him. "Really, Elena," the witch says softly, glaring at me. "I don't know what you did to convince Grams to open that tomb, but I don't trust him to stick to his word."

I scowl darkly at that. But before I can lash out, Elena cuts in. "Bonnie," my girl sighs. "Just trust that Grams and I know what's going on. We've both accepted that some things just need to happen and can't be prevented. Just trust that Grams went into this knowing full-well the cost. I promised Damon I would help him open the tomb. You know damned well what happened last time I broke a promise." The witch turns ashen at the reminder of the event. The only thing I can think of that would make her pale like that is the crash that killed Elena's parents. "I don't want to take that sort of chance again."

"I just hope you know what you're doing," the witch sighs. She glares at me again. "Stick to your promise, Salvatore." Before I can retort, she walks away into the crowd.

A slow song starts playing and I hold out a hand to my girl. "May I have this dance, my dear?" I ask, letting my eyes twinkle mischievously.

She smiles warmly at me and places her hand in mine. "Of course," she replies.

I guide her onto the dance floor. Once there, I pull her into my arms, resting my hands lightly on her hips while she wraps her arms around my neck. She smiles at me as I expertly lead her through the dance. As soon as that song ends, "Great Balls of Fire" starts. I grin, wink at her, and proceed to show her exactly how the swing was done in the fifties. She manages to keep up in spite of our inability to find time to practice since we got back, though she's struggling to catch her breath when the song ends a few minutes later. Cheers and applause erupt around us and I'm brought back to reality to notice that the other dancers had gathered around us to watch the show. A number of girls are telling their boyfriends that they need to learn to dance like that.

"I think we made an impression," I chuckle as I guide her towards the refreshments table, where her brother is serving punch.

Only halfway there, though, Elena spots the kid her vampire-stalker gave his hoodie to. "Showtime," she mutters below the general noise of the gym.

I groan. I had just spotted Anna at the refreshments table looking decidedly out of place in her modern day clothing. "And just when I spot Anna playing buddy-buddy with your brother," I grumble. Elena nods towards the kid she had spotted and I nod once. "Be careful, Elena," I warn her before going to find Stefan so we can get in position.

I find him making small talk with some kids he knows. I tap him on the shoulder, and he turns to me. "It's time," I tell him softly.

He quickly excuses himself from the humans and we make our way out of the gym. He leads me straight to the cafeteria, where we take up positions just inside the kitchen. Stefan looks like he really wants to ask questions, but I shake my head, making a cutting motion across my throat to tell him to keep quiet. I can hear footsteps rushing in this direction and a masculine chuckle of amusement. If we were to start talking, we could ruin the whole trap and put Elena in more danger than she's already in.

Finally, the cafeteria doors burst open. I glance through the window in the doors separating the kitchen from the cafeteria in time to see Elena allow herself to get cornered by her stalker.

"You know, I'm tempted to keep you around. You're so much fun to play with," he comments.

He raises a hand to touch her cheek and I bite my tongue to keep from growling. Elena jams a sharpened wooden pencil through the vampire's hand with enough force to break all the way through. He screams in pain and raises his other hand to slap her. "Yeah, well, I don't play nice," Elena snaps, jamming a pencil into that hand, too.

"You bitch," the guy snarls, hissing as he carefully pulls the pencils out of his hands. I nod to Stefan to tell him it's time. "You're going to pay for that."

"Actually, you're going to pay for messing with my girl," I drawl as I grab him by the arms and throw him across the room into a Pepsi machine. "I don't like sharing what's mine."

He hits the machine with enough force to knock three Pepsis out of it. "Nice shot, Damon," my girl chuckles. "We can have a free drink after this."

"Thank you, my dear," I say, throwing her a quick wink.

Stefan grabs a push broom and snaps the wooden handle in two over his knee. "You're going to answer a few questions for us," he says as he approaches the vampire from one side.

"If we like the answers, we'll make your death quick and painless," I add, moving to the other side of the vampire to block his escape. "If we don't, we'll see just how much pain you can handle."

He recovers from the daze that the force of my throw had left him in. "1864 all over again, huh?" he chuckles. "And this time with a human look-alike."

"Why are you after Elena?" I growl, grabbing the broom-handle-turned-giant-stake from Stefan and jamming it into the guy's stomach.

"She looks like Katherine," he says through gritted teeth.

"And how do you know Katherine?" Stefan asks.

"You thought you two were the only ones?" Elena's stalker asks, chuckling. "Man, she had you fooled. You were so far under her spell you don't even remember me."

"Answer the question," I snarl, twisting the handle enough to cause him to cry out in pain.

"You'll have to kill me," he growls.

"Your wish, my command," I say, pulling the broom handle out of his stomach and ramming it through his heart. As soon as he's dead, Elena comes over and picks up the Pepsi bottles. "Okay, now we just have to get rid of the body," I say.

"Wait, who's that?" Stefan asks, looking towards one of the doors leading out of the cafeteria.

"I'll take care of it," I say, vamping through the doors to discover Elena's history teacher walking away. I vamp in front of him. "You saw nothing happen in the cafeteria tonight," I compel him.

"I saw nothing in the cafeteria tonight," he says in the monotone that signals compulsion is working.

"Go back to the party in the gym and forget that you ever came this way. Dance with Jenna Summers at least for one song. I know she'd like that," I continue to compel him.

"Go back to the gym. Forget I came this way. Dance with Jenna," he repeats.

"Now go," I say before heading back to the cafeteria just in time to hear part of Elena's little speech to my brother.

"– means that somewhere inside of you is a tiny part of you that trusts your brother. Fighting over me isn't going to do anything to solve the issues you and Damon have with each other. I'm my own person, Stefan. If you value that I have my free will, then you should be man enough to accept the choices I make with that free will. Damon did compel me during the road trip, yes. But not to be his. He compelled back a memory he had taken from me. He didn't want to return it and I'm betting he felt like returning it would be cheating. I insisted he tell me the truth. So he made me remember our real first meeting," she says, obviously infuriated by something he said to her.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan demands.

"The truth is, brother, that I laid eyes on her first," I say matter-of-factly, walking into the cafeteria. "You may have saved her life the night her parents died, but I met her on the road as her parents were coming to pick her up."

"Impossible! You weren't in town then! I would have known!" Stefan snaps.

"You're pretty good at convincing yourself of whatever lie you want to believe," I retort, moving to Elena's side. She passes me a Pepsi. "Thanks," I tell her. "Stefan, you didn't want to believe that I was back, so you ignored every obvious sign I let slip until I showed up on your balcony. Not even you can ignore the proof of your own eyes. Don't you wonder how I already knew about Elena that night? How I knew her name?" I ask, twisting open my Pepsi. I take a sip as it quickly becomes apparent that Stefan's not going to answer. "We have to take care of the body."

"There's the school furnace," Elena suggests.

"The school actually has one?" I ask, raising my eyebrows in surprise. I didn't realize Liz was serious about it when she gave me the two keys to the school.

"It's a pretty old school," Elena admits. "The main body of the school was actually the first official high school this town had. They've just added wings on and new buildings as the town grew."

I grab the body and toss it over my shoulder. "Lead on, Miss Gilbert," I tell my girl with a smirk. "Steffie, you can go back to the dance. We don't need you for this."

"I think I'll come with you," Stefan says.

"Don't say you weren't given an out," Elena warns him as she leads us out of the cafeteria.

I make quick work of locked doors in the path to the furnace, Stefan complaining about vandalism each time under his breath. "You know, Stefan, I did say you could go back to the dance. That option is still available to you," I point out after the fifth locked door I force open. "If you're going to insist on staying, you should at least keep the commentary to yourself. Elena doesn't have a problem with my methods."

"This is vandalism," he protests.

"Dude, we're vampires," I point out unnecessarily. "We need to get rid of a body that will raise a lot of questions if discovered. The school has a working furnace suitable for our purposes. Deal with the petty vandalism we need to do to get there or go back to the party. Either way shut up."

Elena sighs as she reaches a door near one of the exits leading outside. "And now we need to get through this door to get to the stairs to the basement," she says. I consider busting it open too when her next words stop me. "It's always locked and only a select few town officials and even fewer school staff have a copy of the key. They used to leave it unlocked until a bunch of kids drunk from spiked punch at one of the dances made their way here and thought it was a good place to hang out and get high. One of them fell in the furnace during the high and the only reason any remains were recovered was because his screams reached all the way to the gymnasium. By the time rescuers got here, only his skeleton was able to be saved for burial. His friends got jail time for reckless endangerment and negligent homicide."

"Nasty way to go," I say softly. I reach into my pocket to pull out my keys.

"You're joking! You actually have a key to the school's basement?" she says, obviously impressed.

"The secret council decided that if I'm going to be the 'vampire hunter' of the council, then I better have a few ways of disposing of the bodies," I say, checking through the new keys added to my keychain for the right one. "And considering the penchant this town has for idiotic teenagers, it would be unwise to leave the door with a broken lock," I continue, sticking the key in the door and turning it. I push the door open. "C'mon, let's get rid of the body and you can tell me more about it."

Elena follows me inside and Stefan brings up the rear, shutting and locking the door behind him. "The guy's friends blamed their actions on the cold weather. That year is still the record-holder for the coldest winter Mystic Falls ever had. Also the deadliest winter Mystic Falls ever had," my girl says.

"Oh, really?" I ask, intrigued by this news. I begin making my way down the spiral stairs into a darkness so pure my eyes can only make out the outline of what I'm looking out. Even vampire eyes need some light to make out detail.

"Yeah, about a third of the population at the time died that winter. It was winter 1943-1944, if I'm not mistaken," Elena replies, following me. I take it slow since she has to feel for each stair as she makes her way down. I want to be able to catch her should she miss a step and start to fall. "A lot of the normal animals you find in the woods in the winter had died from the cold, which left the predators going hungry. One of the strangest series of deaths is attributed to a mountain lion you can find stuffed and on display in the town library. A lot of young children left unattended to play in the snow in one of the parks at the edge of town had gone missing, only a trail of blood that led into the woods and the tracks of something being dragged. A teenage girl, about fifteen, volunteered to act as bait for whatever was hunting the children. She's was on the small side, only about four foot eleven. She refused to be dissuaded from her plan, saying that she'd rather she risk death so that the killer was caught than have more kids go missing. So the police set up a parameter and she acted like a little kid having fun in the snow. It took several days of patiently waiting in the proper park at the right time. Just when they were about to give up, the girl insisted on one more try. And that's the day they caught the mountain lion in the act. She always kept one eye on the woods as she was acting like a kid. Just as the sun was about to set, a mountain lion stalked out of the woods. It was the biggest mountain lion this area had ever seen, or so they say. I just know that the displayed cat is very large. Well, everyone was so shocked by the appearance of such a big cat that it managed to latch its teeth onto the girl's leg. Her screams made everyone remember there was a life at stake. It took a .50 caliber bullet fired from a hunter's rifle into the lion's brain to stop it. Old Lady Grace – her name is now Grace McCallen – still walks with a nasty limp on her left leg and if you ask her, she just might show off the scars the lion left her with. She's going on eight-one now. She's survived three types of cancer, one of which being breast cancer that came at her twice. She's gotten hit by no less than four drunk drivers, car on pedestrian each time. She survived a crash where her car stalled half on the train tracks and a cargo train took out the back half of her car and came so close to her that all the skin on the back of her right shoulder was torn away by the friction. She's had so many mishaps that she now says that if she has survived a life full of near-death situations like she has, God himself will have to come down to earth and walk her back to heaven."

"Sounds like Old Lady Grace just too damn stubborn to die when she's supposed to," I remark, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs. I flick the lights on for Elena. "That is one long staircase. And you said a kid's screams were heard from here to the gym?" I ask, surprised by the lungs that kid had.

"He was on an early form of ecstasy. It magnifies the senses as well as makes you ridiculously happy, or so I'm told," Elena replies, stepping down next to me. "Apparently falling into the furnace was enough to wipe away the happy times. Not to mention the gym was a lot closer back then. The room we use as a gym now is part of one of the added wings. The old gym was bulldozed because it was getting way too dangerous to be in and the costs of having it repaired was a lot more than bulldozing it was."

"I'll say," I mutter as Stefan finally joins us. "Well, Miss Gilbert, which way now?"

"We're almost there," she says, taking the lead again down what is obviously the main corridor of the basement. Two right turns and she stops next to a door with a dull roar coming from the other side. "Most of what had been the school back in the forties was torn down and only a small part was kept as the main part of the school as it is today. And we're here. You use the same key as for the door that leads down here."

"By the way, if students aren't allowed down here, how do you know where everything is?" I ask as I step forward with the key to unlock the door.

"Descendant of the Founding Families," Elena replies, rolling her eyes. "The only thing kept from the Founding Family kids, I've noticed, is the truth about the supernatural world. I don't have my own key to get down here, but Dad brought me down here once. He told my why this area was kept locked at all times. Well, one reason. Dad let me borrow his car keys to drive his car when mine was in the shop for a week. He forgot to take the keys to the school and its basement off the ring before giving it to me. Caroline, Bonnie, and I got into a lot of mischief down here that week."

"Naughty girl," I chuckle. I open the door and wince at the heat. "Were you ever caught?" I ask loud enough that she hears me over the noise of the furnace. I carry the body towards the furnace.

"We came close to being caught on several occasions," she admits. "On one occasion, Sherriff Forbes and someone else were down here in the same room as us and we were all trying to breathe as little as possible in our hiding spots. Caroline came very close to getting all of us caught because she was hiding under an old teacher's desk and had gotten a twitch in her arm. She knocked the metal in the desk, Sherriff Forbes heard. Whoever she was with told her it was probably a rat. There are a ton of those lurking down here. They left and we waited a good ten minutes to make sure they weren't coming back before coming out of hiding. It was one of the few times I could hear my own heart beating."

"Get the furnace door, would you?" I ask, slinging the body off my shoulder. Elena grabs the leather gloves I spotted lying on a metal table in the room and slips them on so that the hot metal handle on the furnace door won't scorch her hands. Then she opens the furnace door for me, all of us wincing as the heat held within the furnace is released. I quickly check the body for anything that won't burn to ash quickly. I pull out a set of car keys. "New ride," I say with a grin when I notice there's no rental tag attached to the keys. I check the manufacturer. "Hmm, Ford. Not a fan. Hey, Steffie, you got a new set of wheels," I say, tossing the keys to Stefan. My brother catches the keys with one hand, shaking his head. I find the guy's wallet in another pocket and slip it into my own pocket for later perusal. I continue checking pockets, using my extreme speed to check under his clothes for hidden goodies without Elena catching me at it. "Okay, all clean," I say finally after finding nothing else worth holding onto. "Now, time to get rid of the evidence." I pitch the body headfirst into the furnace and Elena shuts the door on it. "Steffie, go take your new wheels and go home or something. My girlfriend and I want some quality time. And that's not a request, it's an order," I say, letting my tone tell him I won't accept any arguments.

Stefan scowls but proceeds to vamp away. "We should get out of here," Elena says. "You may be allowed down here but I don't have a key, which means I'll get in big trouble if I'm caught down here."

"I'll just say you're with me," I chuckle.

Elena rolls her eyes. "'Damon, the council didn't give you that key so you could take your teenaged girlfriend down there,'" Elena says in a very good impersonation of Liz Forbes' voice.

I groan as I would if it were Liz who said that. "'I understand that, Liz. I just wanted to show her a good time,'" I quip back. Then I turn serious as I say, "You know, it's remarkable how good you are at impersonating Liz."

"I'm told I'm a pretty good mimic," she replies with a small smile. "I used to sneak up on Caroline all the time when she was doing something she shouldn't and demand to know what she thought she was doing in Sherriff Forbes' voice. It would freak her out every time. And she could never let her guard down on that stunt because just when she started thinking it was me again, she'd turn around to see her mom behind her and I'm across the room. I love impersonating my friends' moms when they're doing things that could get them in trouble. I have a harder time with male voices, but I've gotten very good at recreating female voices."

"Fascinating," I murmur. I move to her to wrap an arm around her shoulder and lead her out of the furnace room. "So, what other doors does this key open?" I ask.

"If you have the key to get down here, you can get into any room in the basement. They all share the same key. There are three staircases connecting the basement to the first floor of the school. It's a maze down here. And not the kiddies' kind, either. Caroline, Bonnie, and I got lost down here for a couple hours one night. We all later claimed we went to hang in the woods near the waterfall that the town gets its name from, just the three of us. We worked that out while we were trying to remember how to get out. Nobody really goes out to those falls except the three of us, anyways. We used to test our fearlessness by seeing how high we were willing to dive from. I was the only one stupid enough to jump off the top. It was a rush every time."

"A dangerous rush," I point out. I release her shoulders long enough to shut and lock the door to the furnace room. Then I wrap my arm back around her shoulders to lead her to the stairwell we came down. "Diving from waterfalls has led to many deaths. The undercurrent is very powerful at the base of a waterfall."

"We knew that. That's why we wore life jackets every time we went diving," she says. "We were crazy, not stupid. We stopped rock diving the very first time one of us was injured. Caroline didn't push out far enough from her perch at about the halfway point of the falls and her foot hit an outcrop about twenty feet below her starting point. She broke her ankle from that dive and that's when we decided that it was just too dangerous to continue diving. We had grown careless and Caroline paid the price by having to wear a cast on her foot for two months. She said that the only downside to that was the pain she was in. She loved the attention she got for the bright pink cast, but the pain was the pain she went through as the doctors worked to realign her bones. One bone had jutted clean through her skin. It was nasty. I had to drive us to the hospital because Bonnie was too busy getting sick from the sight of it. And I had just gotten my license and was able to drive solo."

"Have you ever broken a bone?" I ask curiously. There's a lot I don't know about her, and I find that each glimmer she reveals makes me want to know even more.

She chuckles. "If you x-rayed my body, you'd find so many healed fractures and breaks on my skeleton that you'd wonder how I'm still able to move. The only things I haven't broken or fractured are my skull and my spine. I've even had a broken nose," she says. "I may be fearless in my friends' eyes but I'm also very accident prone. I even broke my left kneecap once."

"How do you break your kneecap without someone breaking it for you?" I demand as we arrive at the spiral staircase. "Ladies first," I say, feigning politeness. Just because I can't see details in the dark doesn't mean I won't be able to see up her skirt as I climb the stairs behind her.

She sees right through my polite façade. "You just want to look up my skirt," she accuses even as she takes the stairs first.

"Damn right I do," I chuckle, flicking off the basement lights and taking to the stairs behind her. "Now, answer the question."

"The answer is simple: starting off learning to skate in rollerblades a size too big," she replies, continuing the long climb. "My driveway and I became very close friends when I was four. The incident you're referring to was the first day I put on the skates to teach myself. I had to have those skates because they had Dracula on them and they didn't come in my size. But I refused to be deterred by any other designs. I wasn't leaving the store unless those skates were coming with me. My parents gave up and bought them. I put them on in the driveway as soon as we got home. I tried to stand up and did a face plant. There was a rock in the driveway and my knee went straight down on it. Dad later swore the rock must have been made from diamonds because of how badly it shattered my kneecap. All I knew at the time was that the stupid rock hurt me to the point where I couldn't put my skates on for a long time and I had to wear this heavy, hard thing around my knee and walk on crutches. I was very annoyed. By the time I was able to put the rollerblades back on, they actually fit. I was very unhappy when my feet grew too large for the skates and I had to pass them on to Jeremy."

"Dracula skates?" I ask, highly amused.

"I've always had a thing for vampires," she replies. I can hear the smile in her voice. "Which is a little weird, considering the history the Gilbert family has with your kind."

"Ah, but you're not purely a Gilbert," I point out.

"True," she replies. "You know, I think I might be descended from Katherine, from before she was turned. It's the only possible explanation for my looking just like her."

"Except for your birthmark," I remind her.

"You have this thing for my birthmark, don't you?" she demands, though I can hear her grin in her voice.

"It's cute," I reply.

"You know, it's extremely annoying to know that while I'm fumbling around in the pitch black darkness here, you can see perfectly well," she remarks.

"My offer to turn you still stands," I point out.

"Like I said, I'll have to think about it," she replies. "I've got this mission I'm on to worry about for now." As she moves to take the next step up, her foot slips and she's left teetering. I'm instantly behind her, holding her gently as she works to regain her balance. "Thank you," she says.

"Being a vampire would really improve your clumsiness," I whisper in her ear.

"It's not clumsiness. It's being-a-human-who-can't-see-where-the-hell-I'm-supposed-to-put-my-damned-foot," she replies. I feel the heat rising from her body as I hold her against my chest for just a bit longer than she needs to be able to find her balance.

"Yes, well, being a vampire would help with that, too," I say, chuckling as I carefully stand her upright. I make sure she's steady on her feet before pulling my hands away.

"You just want me to be a vampire so you can show me all the crazy ways two vampires can have sex," she says and I can practically hear the eye roll that accompanies those words as she continues up the stairs.

"Maybe. Or maybe the thought of you growing old and wrinkly is too disturbing to contemplate for long," I retort, falling into place behind her.

"I highly doubt I'll have to worry about getting wrinkles," she says, and I know by her tone she's grinning. "I'm just not so sure that I'm ready to give up on being human just yet."

"So, any other mishaps you care to share?" I ask.

"Well, there was this one time I wanted to spend the night in the tree in my front yard when I was seven. I was so determined to do it I ignored the weather forecast. I woke up to find the first snow of the year falling heavily around me around midnight. I ended up spending only half the night in the tree and came out of it with a nasty case of the flu. Then there was this time when I was six that I went ice skating for the first time. I hit a rut in the ice and did a superman."

"A superman?" I ask, raising my eyebrow at the use of the term.

"Basically where you go up into the air as you fall forwards only to land in the hard surface equivalent of a belly flop. Cracked a couple of ribs on that one. Not much the doctors can do for cracked ribs, so I was put on bed rest until they healed. Oh, then there's the fiasco I pulled off the summer I turned nine. I tried to turn a bed sheet into a bungee cord. Not the smartest move I've ever pulled."

"What happened?" I ask.

"Well, I tied an old bed sheet to a sturdy branch in the tree in my front yard. Then I tied the other end around my waist while I was perched on the branch. Then I jumped off the branch, so sure that the sheet would act just like a bungee cord. I ended up with a cracked pelvis bone and a broken ankle. I've been taken to the hospital so many times that I know every doctor working the ER by face, name, and a whole lot of miscellaneous trivia about their lives. The fact that I haven't been in the hospital since I was released after surviving the car crash is actually quite a big miracle. I still go to the chiropractor from time-to-time for the pain I'm told will be a regular occurrence for the rest of my life."

"I can do a pretty mean massage," I offer.

"What about acupuncture?" she asks and I know she's smirking.

"That, you'll have to find someone else to help you with," I reply.

"The massage therapists at the chiropractor's office seem to think that it's all about inflicting pain to get rid of the pain. After one go with them, I decided acupuncture was a lot better for my sanity. And it actually helps a lot."

"Next time you're in pain, let me know and I'll show you how a massage should be done," I promise.

"How about as soon as we're out of this pit of darkness and somewhere I can lay down?" she asks. "Spiral staircases never did sit well with any of my old injuries. The only reason I'm still moving is because I know that if I stop, I won't be able to move without a lot more pain."

As soon as the last syllable leaves her lips, I immediately scoop her up in my arms, making her yelp. "You should have said you were in pain," I tell her, taking the stairs at a much faster pace than she had been able to manage. "I'm perfectly happy with carrying you."

"Damon, didn't you hear me?" she demands. "I said that if I stopped moving, I won't be able to move without more pain." As if her body is defying her mind, her arms wrap around my neck.

"I'll give you a massage when we're out of here," I promise. "And you will never want me to stop. Besides, I was about to scoop you up anyways, with the snail's pace you were going. While I can see in this pure darkness, it's not like being able to see on a cloudy night in the woods. There is absolutely zero light in this darkness. So all I see is enough to make out the outline of what I'm looking at. Even my eyes need some light to make out details."

She sighs, knowing damn well that I'm not going to put her down even if she puts up a fight. "Just get us out of here. I want to be able to see again," she mutters, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Close your eyes," I warn her as a plan forms. Even with just being able to make out outlines of my surroundings, I can still vamp up the stairs.

"It's dark," she points out.

"Windburn on your eyes will be very painful," I reply. "Only reason I don't get it is because I heal faster than the wind can burn me." I wait until I'm sure she's listened before taking off up the stairs at top speed. At the top, I rearrange her body so I can hold her with one arm so I can unlock the door and exit into the school's hall. I fetch my keys and lock the door behind me. "If you want to open your eyes, do so slowly. I don't want the lights here to blind you," I tell her.

She slowly opens her eyes an increment at a time. "So, now where to? The dance has to be over by now," she says.

I pause and listen to the sounds in the school and on the surrounding campus. "You're right; the last of the chaperones are just getting in their cars now. Apparently, there's a student body cleanup crew that will come back tomorrow to clean up everything," I tell her once I've identified the different sounds I hear.

"Wow, so we have the whole school to ourselves?" she asks, chuckling.

"As soon as those chaperones pull out of the parking lot, you and I will have the campus to ourselves," I reply.

"Do you by chance have any other keys that the council gave you?" she asks.

"I've got a key to the school so that I can get to the furnace. I have keys to town hall and its archives, including the archives not open to the public. I also have a key to the library," I say, wracking my brain as I try to remember each key Liz gave me. "I got a key to get into the sheriff's office, but not to the cells. And Liz and Carol both gave me a spare key to their places, should I need to come to their houses for anything. Very generous of them, don't you agree?"

"Very generous, especially considering they don't know that you're one of the very creatures they want dead," she replies.

"Now, unless you fancy some very naughty role playing that takes place in a school, let's get out of here," I say, carrying her towards the exit down the hall.

"Right now, I just need this pain to be gotten rid of," she groans.

"Why don't you take those painkillers that you were prescribed?" I ask. "And don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I saw them on your bathroom counter."

"Because they make me fall into a dead sleep for several hours and do little to ease the pain," she replies. "I just haven't gotten around to disposing of them properly. I sometimes take one if I'm having trouble sleeping because of the pain. I usually just schedule an acupuncture appointment when the pain becomes too much. I tried telling the doctors the reactions I'm getting from the pills, but they don't listen."

I think over what she has told me as I shift her to one arm so I can unlock the doors so we can get out of the school. I consider the deal I've been thinking about offering her since she let slip about the pain she's in on the stairwell. As soon as I lock the school up behind us, I decide to make it. "I'll make a deal with you," I say, carrying her through the vacant parking lot to the only car left: mine.

"What?" she asks, waking up from the light doze she had fallen into.

"You stay at the boarding house with me tonight and I'll give you a proper massage and I might even treat you to breakfast in bed," I say. "I'll make it alright with Jenna, if you're worried about her concern over your whereabouts. Tomorrow's Saturday, so you don't have school to worry about. We can spend the whole day together."

"Make it okay with Jenna and I can go along with that," she says after thinking about it for a moment.

"Done," I say as we arrive at the Camaro. "Think you can stand so I can unlock my car?"

"Let's find out," she sighs. I carefully set her on her feet. She grips my arm as she tests the pain she's in with an upright position. I can see in her eyes just how much pain she's in, so a burst of pride floods through me at her next words. "I can manage it, but not for long," she says.

I wrap an arm around her waist to provide support while I use the other hand to unlock the car. I help her gingerly climb into her seat. As soon as she's safely in and buckling up, I close her door and vamp around the front to climb in the driver's seat. I start the car and pull out of the parking lot.

"I'm going to need to borrow your phone," I tell her. "I don't happen to have Jenna's number on my contacts." Elena reaches into her mini-purse and pulls out her phone. She looks up Jenna's name on her contacts list and hits send before passing it to me. I put the phone to my ear and wait for her to answer.

"Elena?" Jenna asks.

"Actually, it's Damon," I correct. "Elena's letting me borrow her phone since I don't happen to have your number. Listen, Elena's going to spend the night at the boarding house with me."

"Is she okay? Is something wrong?"

"Everything's okay, really," I assure her. "She's just sore from all the dancing and I offered to give her a massage. I just want to spend the whole day with her tomorrow away from the Gilbert house for a change. She'll be perfectly safe with me."

"Are you going on a date with her tomorrow? Where are you taking her? Maybe I should come to chaperone you two," Jenna says.

. "Now, Jenna, that's poking your nose where it doesn't belong," I tell her. "And here I thought you were with the history teacher."

"Who told you that?" Jenna asks defensively. "Who's passing around such rumors?"

"Deny it all you want, Jenna. I've got eyes in my head and I can see you two are smitten with each other. So, I just called to let you know that Elena's spending the night at my place. I'll bring her back safe, sound, and in one piece tomorrow evening," I say.

"You better or I'll kill you," Jenna threatens.

I laugh at that, because Jenna doesn't know that I am very hard to kill. "You act like you don't trust me! I'm hurt!" I tease. "I didn't let anything happen to Elena on our road trip, remember? I brought her back safe and sound and in one piece then. And that was three days she was out of your sight with just me to protect her from the big bad world. One night and most of a day will be a piece of cake compared to that!"

"I don't know why, but I like you. You take care of her and remind her how to live. Tell her that I have got to be the worst legal guardian in the world to allow a grown man like you date my seventeen-year-old charge. But I like you well enough so I'll allow the sleepover. I really shouldn't be allowing the two of you to get in the habit of spending the night in the same bed every single night. But it's not my place to step in and protect her from every little thing. She has to live her life and learn from whatever mistakes she makes along the way. Don't tell her this, but I think dating you is one of the smartest choices she's ever made. Have a good night, Damon."

"Alright, I'll tell her. Have a good night, Jenna," I say before hanging up. "She said to tell you that she's got to be the worst legal guardian in the world to be allowing a grown man to date her seventeen-year-old charge but she likes me well enough so she'll allow the sleepover," I tell Elena. "She also said she really shouldn't be letting us get into this habit of spending the night in the same bed every single night but it's not her place to step in and protect you from every little thing. She said you have to live your life and learn from whatever mistakes you make along the way."

She sighs. "Believe me, I've learned from a lot of mistakes I've made and I know that this thing between us isn't a mistake," she says softly.

"And I'm sensing that we're back on the topic I promised not to ask about," I grumble.

"You must have Spidey Senses," Elena remarks dryly.

"A comic book reference? Seriously, Elena?" I groan.

"I happen to like Spiderman. Though I prefer the Green Arrow. I used to dream about growing up to be to be just like him. I even had my parents enroll me in archery classes. I've got a longbow tucked away in the back of my closet along with a quiver if real arrows. Not the plastic arrows they taught me to use in the archery class. My dad insisted that if I were to learn to use a bow, I had to have wooden arrows with real feathers and arrowheads."

"Dangerous toys you have, my dear," I remark dryly. "I have to remember to be more careful next time I snoop in your closet."

"Dad showed me how to hunt game with the bow and I used to bring fresh meat home every weekend," she says, ignoring my comment about snooping in her room. She knows that I'll do my own thing even if she doesn't like it. "There were several times I needed to call my dad for help when I brought down a deer. I never messed with wild hogs or bears, though. I didn't want to end up mauled by what I was trying to hunt. Dad wanted to teach me how to use a gun, but Mom put her foot down on that one and I wasn't all that eager to learn modern weapons. Before they died, I was trying to convince my parents to let me learn how to wield other medieval weaponry. Mom was having enough trouble standing by and letting me learn the bow. She didn't want me to mess with things that could chop a limb off. I was slowly working her around to it by first going through the self defense classes she insisted Jeremy and I attend. Then the crash happened and both Jer and I let the classes slide as we dealt with the loss of our parents in our own way. Jer got into drugs and I just … shut down."

I quietly think over what she has told me tonight and everything that's happened to her in the time I've known her. "You should consider picking up those self-defense classes again," I say after a few minutes lost in my thoughts. "With your luck, you'll need the skills they will give you."

"I don't think you'll want me to take the classes with the instructors who teach it in this town. They're all guys and when a student is not doing an exercise right, they get up close and personal to show them how it's done,"

I flex my jaw at the thought of another guy putting his hands all over my girl. I quickly decide I'll teach her self-defense myself. "I'll teach you," I tell her decisively. She chuckles, obviously knowing it would come to that. "And maybe I can rope your history teacher in on the training. A hunter is bound to know a few ways to defend himself without a weapon. You'll have to do some fast talking to keep him cool."

I glance at her in time to see a question flash across her eyes. I have a strong feeling that the one she does ask isn't the first one that hit her mind. "When will we start?" she asks.

"In the morning. Tonight, you're getting a massage and we'll see what happens after that," I say, winking at her as I turn down the long driveway leading to the boarding house.

I park in my usual spot before getting out and vamping around the front to open Elena's door for her. She winces as she tries to get out. "I think I'm gonna need a little help," she complains. Considering how fiercely independent she is, I know she's in severe pain from that one sentence.

I immediately scoop her up in my arms. I lock the car and shut her door before carrying her inside. I ignore Stefan when he asks why Elena's here and proceed to carry her up the stairs and down the hall to my room. Little brother doesn't take a hint and follows us. As soon as I gently set her on my bed, Stefan grabs my arm. "Why is Elena here?" he demands.

"Apparently you're too obtuse to figure it out for yourself, so I'll spell it out for you," I say darkly, wrenching my arm from his grasp. "I'm going to give my girlfriend a massage to ease the pain that still pops up from time to time as a side-effect of the crash that killed her parents. And then she's going to spend the night with me. Any more idiotic questions?"

Stefan's eyes trail from my face to hers. I'm about ready to punch him when his eyes trail down from her face but his expression grows murderous upon seeing the scar. He shoves me into a wall with a hand to my throat. "You bit her?" he demands fiercely.

"So you saw the miracle scar that shouldn't be there," I say smugly. "Was wondering when you'd notice it." I reach a hand up and pry his hand off my throat and quickly have that arm pinned painfully behind his back. I lean forward to put my lips to his ears. "I didn't just bite her," I hiss. "I fed on her. And she fed on my blood at the same time. She loved it. Should I describe the three different situations for you? I'm sure you have enough imagination to be able to picture it perfectly. The first time she begged me to feed on her. She's mine now, brother. You had your chance." I shove him toward the door with enough force to slam him into the wall next to it. "Now, get out of my room so my girlfriend and I can have a little quality time. And shut the door behind you as you go."

Stefan turns his eyes to Elena but she keeps her eyes on me. "Are you okay?" she asks.

"He just wishes he could hurt me," I assure her, stripping out of my jacket. I then lay it in a chair. "You can leave anytime now, Stefan. Unless you want to stay for the show, of course. I'd love to show you the ways I can make her scream my name."

"Bastard," Stefan mutters below Elena's ability to hear.

I smirk as he leaves the room, slamming the door behind him. "That was cruel," Elena comments, but I can tell she's not all that mad.

"I know," I chuckle. "Now, you need to strip so I can do the massage properly. Your clothing, while stunning, will just be in the way."

She smiles and gingerly gets to her knees so she can carefully slide her dress over her head and toss it in a corner. My eyes widen at seeing she had gone without either a bra or panties tonight. She winces as she repositions herself so she can take off her shoes, which follow the dress into the corner. "Okay, now what?" she asks.

I smirk. "You were pretty brave to leave the house without any panties, my dear. Particularly so considering you had a general idea of what would go on tonight," I say.

"I was hoping for a hallway rendezvous with my boyfriend but, alas, that will have to wait for another time," she chuckles. A thrill of pride runs through me at hearing her call me her boyfriend. "So, now what do I need to do for the massage?"

"Lie flat on your stomach. Put your head on one of my pillows," I say. "I'll be right back."

I head into the bathroom to pick out a massage oil to use on her. "What are you doing?" she asks, not bothering to raise her voice. She knows damn well I'll hear her.

"I keep some massage oils in here in a warmer," I call back, opening the warmer so I can choose from the variety of massage oils I made myself. "I just need to pick the perfect fragrance for you."

"I'm not even going to ask why you have them," she sighs. I can easily picture the eye roll that goes with her words. I finally narrow my choices down to two scents.

"Actually, they have nothing to do with sex. I sometimes hire out my massage skills when I'm feeling particularly generous. There's even a massage table in the attic somewhere. I'm not usually so generous as to risk getting the oils on my bed. But for you, I'll make an exception," I say, carrying my choices back into my room to have her choose. "Now, I'm stuck between these two, so you tell me which one you prefer." I say, unscrewing the lid to the first bottle. "This one is piña colada," I say, carefully holding it forward so she can smell it.

She takes a deep breath in through her nose. "Smells good. Remind me not to try drinking it," she chuckles.

I chuckle as a twist the cap back onto it. Then I open the other. "This one is supposed to be reminiscent of spending a day at a beach untouched by humanity," I say, holding it forward for her to smell.

She sniffs and her expression just screams 'heaven'. "That one," she says. "Use that one."

"It's my personal favorite anyways," I say, setting the piña colada on my nightstand. "I make these oils myself," I tell her, pouring some of the chosen oil onto my hand.

"Really?" she asks in surprise. "I'm starting to wonder if there's anything you can't do."

"I'm going to need your arms out from under the pillow, Elena," I chide.

She sighs and obediently pulls her arms out. I immediately begin with her right arm, starting at the shoulder. "So, tell me, Damon, is there anything you can't do?" she asks, letting my hands, warmed by the oil, work their magic on her and sooth away the pain that's obviously been building up for several days. Maybe even since the most recent crash she was in.

"I've dabbled in a lot of fields, but I have to admit that I'm no good at sculpting," I say. "That requires a lot more patience than I care to express."

She chuckles. "I should have known it would be something that requires lots of patience," she says as I gently massage each of her fingers individually. She closes her eyes and obviously luxuriates in the attention I'm paying her body. "Okay, I'll admit it; you're damned good at giving a massage. I think I'm going to save my money from here on by getting you to give me a massage instead of getting an acupuncture treatment."

"Very wise of you," I say with a smirk.

"So, you just admitted to sucking at sculpting. What hobby do you enjoy most?" she asks.

"Surprisingly, the answer to that is cooking," I say, applying more oil to my hands before moving on to her shoulders. I'll do her left arm after I work my way across her shoulders.

"You're a vampire. You don't need to eat human food," she points out.

"Doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. I guess it comes from my Italian heritage. That, and my mother loved to experiment and try new things in the kitchen. She passed that love of the culinary arts down to me before she died giving birth to Stefan," I say.

"Tell me about your mother," she says.

"Well, for one, I inherited my looks from her," I say, continuing to massage her pain away. "I think Father hated me mostly because every time he looked at me, he saw her glaring right back at him. As I said the other day, Gemma once told me that I was the spitting image of her when I was a teenager. Mother would have been proud of me for quitting the Confederate army. I shared her hatred of slavery. Father was furious that I would abandon my country. But in truth, the Confederacy abandoned the country. I stuck to being a true American citizen. I didn't abandon my country, my state did. Anyways, Mother was a whiz in the kitchen. Even though I was only seven when she died, she started teaching me her personal recipes from the time I was old enough to walk and take simple directions. Not even Gemma got the honor of learning Mother's recipes. My grandparents on both sides came to America from Italy, so that makes Stefan and I true Italian-Americans. It also meant that we ate like Italians. Pasta was the main food we had every day. But Mother made sure to add a few dishes from other cultures to every meal, which she had learned from her friends. Father indulged her every whimsy. She was his whole world. Mine, too, for that matter. I think you and she would have gotten along great."

"Oh?" she asks, not expecting me to say something like that.

"You're a lot like her: caring, loyal, generous. And she was just as willing to risk her life for those she loved as you are. When I was five, I climbed in the pen we kept a bull that was so mean he would attack even other cattle, even the sows. I can't remember what I had accidentally thrown in there, but I was determined to fetch it myself. I remember that I had just picked it up when I heard my mother screaming my name. I turned to look at her but the bull was between me and her. He had caught scent of me and wasn't very happy that I was in his pen. Things happened fast after that. The bull was preparing to charge me, and then he was charging, horns aimed right at me. Just when I thought I was going to end up gutted, I was shoved out of the way. Mother had vaulted the fence in her skirts and tackled me out of the bull's path. She ended up with a broken leg when the bull had stepped on her. But the handlers managed to lasso the bull and hold him back long enough for more of our workers to pull Mother and me out. Father was on a warpath because I had been told many times not to go near that pen. Mother stood up for me, reminding him of things he had done in his childhood that had my eyes as big as saucers. Her ferocity in the face of his temper reminded me of the stories I had been told of mother bears fighting off anything that threatens their young. The only thing I inherited from my Father is my temper. The only times I saw Mother angry was when someone or something was intent on bringing some sort of pain to her loved ones. And then she was even fiercer than Father could ever dream of being. Old Gemma once told me, after I was turned, that I had inherited the best of Mother and the worst of Father."

By this time, I'm down to her toes. By the intense twitching her legs are doing, she's extremely ticklish. Good to know. "I think you've done enough," she says. "I'm feeling so much better now. Thank you, Damon."

I chuckle as I pull away. I knew from the moment her legs started twitch I wouldn't get to finish massaging her feet. "Glad to be of help to you, Miss Gilbert," I reply. "Okay, I did you a favor, now I'd like one in return," I say, trailing my finger up the inside of her right leg from ankle to thigh.

She lets out a moan of pleasure. "What favor would that be?" she asks breathlessly.

I turn her over, so not caring if I get massage oil in my Egyptian cotton sheets, and quickly straddle her so that my erection, bound by my jeans, is pressed right against her core. Giving her a massage had been a huge turn-on. "I've been very restrained these past few days," I say, leaning forward so I can raise her arms above her head to pin her wrists beneath one hand. As I do this, I lay down against her until my face is inches from hers. "I've resisted taking you over and over in your bed because I know your screams of pleasure would have woken up Jeremy and Jenna. I think I deserve to be rewarded for that restraint. Have you lying naked in my bed is a very big turn-on, as I'm sure you've noticed," I say, shifting my hips enough to make her eyes roll up in pleasure. "May I have my reward for being so restrained?" I ask, making my voice into liquid seduction.

"I think this situation is a little unfair," she says with a smirk.

"Oh?" I ask, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Well, you're still dressed. That's more than a little unfair," she tells me. "And your reward would be a reward for me, too. I've been fighting very hard to keep from jumping you without a care of who witnessed us. I say we both deserve a reward for being so very restrained. If Stefan doesn't want to listen, he can go hunt Bambi or something."

"I agree with that sentiment," I say before giving her a searing kiss.

Only when her lungs are nearly out of oxygen do I pull away and release her hands. She quickly unbuttons my shirt and shoves it off my shoulders. I pull it the rest of the way off and toss it to mingle with her clothes. While I'm doing that, Elena busies herself with unbuttoning and unzipping my jeans. She smirks when she finds out I had opted to go commando as well. Then she leans forward to lick off the pre-cum forming at the tip of my dick. I throw my head back and hiss between my teeth at the sensation. She chuckles and uses her hands to shove my jeans off my hips, fully revealing my assets. I look down in time to see her lick her lips and glace up at me. I watch her with hooded eyes, more than comfortable with my body. She winks at me before turning her attention back to my dick.

She leans forward again and encases my head with her mouth. I groan and thrust my hips forward reflexively. She relaxes her throat so she can take me in fully. She hums her pleasure and my hips twitch as her throat and mouth vibrate against my dick. I lean back so that I can brace on my hands, knowing instinctively that whatever she's about to do, I'm going to need to brace my body for it. She brings her teeth down to rest gently on my dick. She slowly pulls back until just my head is in her mouth, gently scraping her teeth against my length as she goes. I moan at the sensation. She bites down just slightly, but it's enough to make me gasp. She then proceeds to alternate between suckling and nipping at my head, drawing forth gasps and moans like I've never had a blowjob before. Elena puts a whole new spin on the term 'blowjob' and I think I'm addicted to it. When my dick is pulsating with my need for release, she deep throats me again. She's purring her contentment and that's all I need to be sent over the edge, shouting Elena's name as I freefall through the most explosive release I've ever had. I'm left with barely enough strength to stay propped up. She slowly pulls back, using her tongue to clean my cock as she goes until I'm completely out of her mouth.

"That was…," I start when I find my voice again.

"My first blowjob," she admits with a chuckle.

"No, seriously?" I demand, floored by the admission. Dear God, if that's what she's like on her first try, I can't wait to find out what she can do with experience.

"Apparently I did a pretty good job," she says with a smirk.

"More than 'pretty good'," I say, shaking my head with admiration at her skill. "I've never had a blowjob that good."

"Well, I rewarded you for showing restraint. Now where's my reward for my restraint?" she asks with a grin.

"Let me catch my wits, woman," I groan, easing up so that I'm straddling her hips again, my jeans halfway down my thighs. "I need to get rid of these jeans," I decide. I carefully climb off of her before flipping on my back next to her and kicking out of my jeans. Once I'm free of them, Elena grabs them and tosses them to join the rest of our clothes. I make up my mind to let her take the dominating position for the next round. "Now, Elena, do you trust me?"

"Unconditionally," she replies automatically, as if it was a no-brainer.

"I want to try something a little different with you," I tell her. "Now, straddle my hips."

She raises an eyebrow at me but obeys. "Tonight's the night for me to try new things, I see," she comments.

"Baby, I plan on showing you all the ways sex can be turned into an art form," I purr. While I'm drawing closer to saying it every second, I'm not yet ready to call this love-making on my part. I know it is on her side. Her scream in that motel room in South Carolina was enough to prove that much. "Now spread your legs a little wider." She rolls her eyes but obeys. She's obviously eager to learn anything I'm willing to teach her. She gasps when I slide a hand between her legs to run pad of my thumb over her clit. I groan at finding her more than ready to do this. "God, you're already so wet," I breath in awe. I take a deep breath to re-establish control over myself. "Now, what I'm going to show you is a position often referred to as the cowgirl. It's one of my personal favorites, and I'm sure you'll understand why soon enough. But, first, I have to make sure it doesn't hurt you that much when you mount me," I say. I slip a finger into her slit, causing her to hiss at the slight release of the pressure that had obviously built up during the blowjob she gave me. I begin to pump, curling and straightening my finger as I do so. I soon add a second finger and add a scissor action to the curling while pumping. She throws her head back, shamelessly baring her throat to me when she knows I haven't had any blood today. I swallow thickly but maintain the pattern. I soon slide a third finger in to stretch her even further. As soon as I decide she's ready, I pull my hand out and lick her juices from my fingers. The scent of her arousal grows stronger as she watches me enjoy the taste of her. "Now, I want you to lift yourself up and slide down on me," I say when my fingers are relatively clean. "I'll help guide you." I place my hands on her hips and gently guide her forward and down so that I'm completely sheathed in her core. "Now, Elena, it's up to you to set the pace," I say, leaving my hands resting lightly on her hips. She stares at me in shock. "I can't do it from underneath," I explain. "This is one of the very few male submissive positions I actually enjoy. I much prefer to dominate. But from this angle, I get a good show while you set the pace." I briefly raise my hands to her breasts before returning them to her hips. She blushes as she realizes exactly what I'm talking about. She gives me an annoyed look. "Elena, you said you trust me. So trust me when I say you're going to enjoy this as much as I will. And feel honored that I'm willing to do this position with you. I assure you; I don't let very many people dominate me in the bedroom."

"I'm sure you don't," she concedes before taking a deep breath. "Okay, what do I do?" she asks.

"Use your legs to lift up and slide down," I instruct. "If you need to balance yourself, brace your hands on my chest. You know damn well it won't hurt me." She shifts slightly, causing me to hiss. She raises an eyebrow at my sensitivity but doesn't comment. She then places her hands on my chest, deciding she needs the help to balance. "Take your time, Elena," I say softly. "I know this is a new experience for you. Take your time to get adjusted to it. But try not to shift around too much while you're doing so," I come as close to begging as I ever come.

"Do my ears deceive me or did you just beg?" she asks.

"I do not beg," I quip back. She shifts slightly and I hiss again. "Okay, I sometimes beg. But only when the infuriating woman I'm with insists on torturing me."

"I already swallowed a bellyful of your pleasure," she reminds me.

"I can handle going all night on most occasions," I point out.

"Well, you're already up for one more than you were able to handle the last three times we were together," she chuckles. "Maybe you're getting your strength back."

"Elena, you can start anytime now," I say pointedly through gritted teeth, squeezing her hips a little tighter to remind her she's in the dominating position this time.

She smirks. "As you wish," she says, carefully rising up until just the tip of my head is inside her before slamming back down. "I know I'm breaking our unspoken agreement, but is your brother listening in?" she asks as she picks up a pace of slowly rising and rapidly slamming back down.

I groan. "You're in bed with me and you're asking about my brother?" I demand.

"I'm just curious how into self-torment he is," she replies. "I'm not going to go back to him."

I hear the scratching of a pen on paper coming from Stefan's room and my brother muttering that if we're going to do this, the least we could do is keep it down. "Apparently he likes torturing himself even more than I thought he did because he's trying to do homework in his room and muttering that the least we could do is keep it down," I reply to my girl.

She rolls her eyes. "How about we turn it up instead?" she asks, smirking slyly at me.

"What do you …?" I start only to cut myself off with a load moan as she consciously tightens her inner muscles on an upward slide.

She relaxes her muscles for the downward slide. "How's that?" she asks, repeating the new pattern.

"More," is the only intelligible thing I manage to get out.

"I think I like playing the role of dominatrix," she admits, increasing the tempo.

"I draw the line at being tied down," I manage to get out around my moans and gasps.

"Not even with a collar and leash?" she asks innocently, in obvious reference to our conversation from the other night.

I moan at the kinky image that provides. "Dammit," I groan, closing my eyes.

She freezes. The damn woman freezes! I open my eyes. "Keep your eyes open, Damon," she says, returning to the interrupted pattern. "Close them again and I'll stop again."

"Bitch," I growl, managing to keep my eyes open.

"I thought you said I was a succubus," she reminds me.

"You're both," I groan.

She chuckles. "I can handle that. Now, I think I'm catching on to how this position works. I'm going to try something," she says, lifting a hand from my chest.

I follow her hand with my eyes as she raises it to gently massage her right breast. After just a moment of that, though, she raises her index finger to her mouth to moisten it. She then places it at her collarbone and gently trails it down her front, through the valley between her breasts, over her stomach, all the way down to her clit. She keeps up the pace as she does this and I keep my eyes on her finger, fascinated by what she plans on doing. She begins gently massaging her clit as she picks up the tempo another notch. My dick was already pulsating. Now she gasps as her inner walls start squeezing tighter. I can see her forcing herself to keep her eyes open so she can watch me while I force my eyes to stay open so I can enjoy the show. The tension mounts as we spiral higher and higher. Our explosive orgasms occur simultaneously on a downward fall. She cries out my name while I moan hers as my dead seed floods into her core, filling her. She collapses against me, sprawling out over me. She tucks her face into the crook of my left shoulder. I bury my face into the crook of her left shoulder, vamp out, and gently scrape my fangs over her scar. In response, she turns her head so she can bury her teeth into my neck, breaking skin, and allowing my blood to flood her mouth. I use a lot more grace to carefully line my bite up perfectly with the scar before breaking through her skin. I raise an arm up to wrap around her waist and bury the other hand in her hair. We feed from each other for several minutes before I pull away, sated. She reluctantly pulls away from my neck, placing a kiss on the spot as it heals. I make sure to keep my eyes focused on my bite on her as it heals. It heals right back to the state of scarring it had been before.

"Fascinating," I murmur.

"What's fascinating?" she asks.

"I made sure to line this bite up perfectly with the scar so that after I finished feeding from you, I could watch what happened as my blood healed it. It went right back to the stage of scarring it was at before I bit down, which is actually further along than it was the other night. You're going to end up with a lifelong scar from this, but I believe it will fade down to where it's not discernable as a vampire's bite," I reply. "I have a little theory I'd like to test next time."

"What theory?" she asks.

"Well, the spot the scar is at is the same exact spot used when two vampires mark each other as eternal mates. A vampire feeding from another vampire is a lot more personal than a vampire feeding from a human. Anyways, there is only one way for a vampire to acquire a scar that wasn't there when they were human," I say.

"And what way is that?" she asks obediently.

"The eternal mate mark is a set of identical scars on each of the mated vampires right where this scar is located," I say, gently tracing her scar. "No other bite can match those scars. This scar is an impossibility, it just shouldn't be there. Not when you had my blood in your system to heal it into nothingness. If my theory is correct, then somehow I've marked you, a human, as my eternal mate. Which makes absolutely no sense. It's never been done in the history of vampires. One vampire always had to sire their mate before the mark could be left permanently."

"And how are you going to test that theory?" she asks.

"I'm going to have to bite you somewhere else next time while you drink my blood and see if it heals as it should or if it also scars," I say.

"In case it scars, choose a spot that's easier to hide next time," she groans. "And 'next time' will be some other time, cause I'm tired."

"So am I," I admit. "So, we'll test this theory out another time. Unless you're hungry for something more substantial for humans than vampire blood and dead sperm, we should get some sleep."

"Food tomorrow, sleep now," she replies.

"If I'm going to help you with that nightmare, you'll need to take off your necklace," I point out.

"You do it. Too tired to move," she grumbles. I chuckle and move the hand in her hair down to unfasten the clasp holding her necklace around her neck. I gently pull the necklace away and stretch to set it on my nightstand. I stretch a little further to flick off the lamp. Darkness rushes in, though my eyes are keen enough to see right through it. "What makes you so sure this is an eternal mate mark?" she asks softly.

"It would explain away a number of things that have been puzzling me these past few days," I reply. "Anyways, there's this legend passed around among vampires about a human girl one day being born who will wear the mating mark while still mortal. They say she and her mate will bring about a new era for the world in which vampires no longer have to hide what they are from mankind. Many vampires take that to mean that we will dominate the human race or enslave them or something like that. I'm not a fan of that theory. I, along with a small minority of others, take it to mean that humans and vampires will find some sort of coexistence."

"Sounds like an awfully big task this legendary human is going to face," she mutters.

"Supposedly the legend came about after an extraordinarily powerful witch made a prophecy about eight hundred years ago. Vampire males have been on the hunt for the human girl who could wear the mating mark ever since, each determined that he should be the one who had a hand in creating that new era," I say.

"What about you?" she asks.

"Me? I was more focused on getting Katherine out of that tomb. But I keep finding myself considering just leaving her down there. I keep finding myself remembering all of her faults when I think about her now. And the times I think about her are getting fewer and fewer. And that's only cropped up after the first time I fed on you. Eternal mates are notoriously exclusive to each other, to the point that they sometimes go so far as to attack anyone trying to hit on them. And it's worse when someone's hitting on their mate."

"So what does this mean?" she asks softly.

"I've decided that I just need answers from Katherine. If that scar really is a mating mark, then I'm pretty much tied exclusively to you for the rest of eternity. Not such a bad thing, all things considering. We are going to open the tomb; I get my answers, and then send her packing. Or maybe even put a stake through her heart myself. Depends on the answers I get."

I feel her smiling softly against my neck. "I could get pretty used to the thought of having you exclusively mine," she remarks. "Pretty intoxicating, considering how many girls you've bedded to become the sexual expert you are."

I gently tug at her hair. "I thought you were tired," I remind her.

"This conversation is more interesting than sleep," she replies.

"Well, that may be. But Stefan's growling at me to tell you that he's trying to sleep," I remark.

"Stefan can growl all he wants," she retorts. "He's a vampire, just like you are. He doesn't need sleep. If he's this sick of you and me already, he can just pack his bags and leave Mystic Falls."

"Tell her that while I don't need sleep, dreams are a lot more pleasant than reality right now," Stefan growls in his room.

I chuckle. "He said to tell you that while he doesn't need sleep, dreams are a lot more pleasant than reality right now," I tell her.

"Well, Stefan, you can stop dreaming about me being yours because it's never going to happen again. You had your chance and you blew it," Elena says, speaking no louder than when she was talking to me.

"Damon, the day you leave her behind, I'll be there to catch her tears. I know you," Stefan growls, shifting his position and making his bed creak.

I laugh. He just doesn't get it. "I'll have you know, brother, she and I are joined at the hip now, quite literally at this precise moment," I say delightfully.

"Did not need that image, Damon," Stefan groans.

I chuckle. "Get used to it, Stefan. If you didn't want the image, you wouldn't have stayed in the house earlier. If you're that upset about it, go sleep in the woods or go on a hunting trip. It's the weekend after all. You don't have school tomorrow anymore than she does."

"You just love rubbing his nose in this, don't you?" Elena giggles.

"Absolutely," I reply candidly. "Now, while I'm quite willing to keep this up all night, you need sleep, Miss Gilbert. You're still human and humans have a ridiculous need for such a thing as sleep."

She sighs and snuggles impossibly closer. "Fine," she mutters. "Don't you dare leave me in this bed just to make me breakfast in bed. Wait until I wake up on my own then you can prepare the whole breakfast in bed routine."

"Elena, I wouldn't risk leaving you in bed alone because I have to use my full concentration to keep your stupid nightmare at bay and replace it with pleasant dreams of us," I tell her with complete seriousness. "As much as I would love to be able to surprise you with breakfast in bed or something equally pleasant, I can't do that while your nightmare insists on trying to butt its way into your sleeping head. And since we're doing things differently tonight, we might as well go the whole way and let you pick out what dream I'm to give you."

"Have you ever been to Italy?" she asks after spending a moment thinking about it.

"Elena, baby, I've explored over a hundred countries on this planet, and Italy was the first place I went when I decided to travel abroad," I reply wryly. "I have been to Italy several times, most recently back in 2005."

"Venice. Show me Venice," she says decisively.

"Very well," I chuckle. "A dream trip to Venice it is. But first, you have to go to sleep so I can produce the dream."

She forces her body to relax against mine. I feel her eyelashes against my neck as she closes her eyes. After a few moments, she slips into the realm of dreams. While she's still in the stages of sleep before dreams occur, I carefully pluck her velvet flower from her hair and put it on my nightstand. Then I close my eyes and dive into her mind to shove aside her nightmare and take her on a grand tour of Venice as it was back in 2005.

Sarah: as long as the corresponding chapter was in Setting Things Right, this one's actually longer by nearly a full page on Word. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. Please review.