Elena opened her eyes and groaned.
There was light coming in from the west, through the window. But Elena had never wanted to stay in bed more. Her muscles ached from constantly tossing and turning, and her skin was damp from the much too warm air. She tossed the blankets away from her body and yanked her knotted hair out of her face.
Damon strolled in from the walk-in closet, buttoning up his dark blue shirt.
"Morning, sleepy head," he chuckled.
"What time is it?"
"Almost eight," he answered, sitting down in the chair beside the window. "By the way, did you know you talk in your sleep? You wouldn't shut up all night. My name came up a few times, though."
She sat up and kneaded her forehead with her fingers. "It doesn't feel like I slept at all. Or maybe I did, about two hours ago." Elena looked at Damon, who was sipping some light brown drink and gargling it like he was rinsing his mouth. "What did you do all night?"
"Listened to you have a conversation with yourself, basically. Then I called Stefan, told him almost everything—of course I left out the part where you and I made out and are now living together—and he said that he was on his way up. Bit of a challenge giving directions to a hiding place in the middle of nowhere, though."
Elena sighed and got out of bed to yank the lilac curtains closed. The sun was completely burning her eyes. She wondered if this was how she would feel all over if she didn't have a daylight ring.
"Get dressed. I'm not going to be seen anywhere with you while you're looking like that." He assessed her wrinkled pajama shorts and tank. "You need any help with that?"
"I'll manage." She went into the closet to her rack. Damon had given her the larger space; the rest of his clothes were still in his suitcase in the corner. Half-heartedly, she picked out a standard pair of jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt. She combed her hair and slipped on some shoes. When she was finally done, her and Damon went downstairs to the kitchen.
There was only one other person in the kitchen standing by the stove when they came in, but it wasn't one of the witches. It was a man with sandy hair, who seemed oddly familiar, until he turned around.
"Ash?" Elena gasped. "What are you doing here?"
He laughed. "Joanna's my foster mother. Omelet?"
"Um, sure." She sat down in one of the stools as he slid a fluffy omelet from the pan onto her plate. "So then you know that she's a…you know?"
"Witch?" he asked her, and then proceeded to lift up his sleeve, exposing a tattoo that matched Lucy's ring, and every other place they had seen that mark. "Yeah, I'm sort of part of the whole community thing. And I know that you and Damon are vampires."
Damon uncorked a bottle of tequila and poured it over a glass of orange juice. "So are you swimming in that gene pool?" he asked.
"You mean, am I a witch too? No, I'm not. Joanna isn't even related to me. Like I said, she's just a friend of the family."
"Now, now. Don't deny your heritage too soon. I mean, look at you. An average busboy with arms bigger around then his head, here in the middle of magical and extraordinary people." He looked at Elena. "Sounds like somebody else we know."
"Please excuse Damon," Elena said, wiping her fork on a napkin. "He's still being house trained."
"At least you don't have to deal with Pauline," Ash said, leaning his elbows on the counter. "Talk about nightmare."
Elena cleared her throat as Pauline walked into the kitchen and went straight to the coffee pot with Joanna behind her.
Joanna put her hand on Ash's shoulder. "Morning, honey. Now did you offer our guests breakfast?"
"Yes, mom," he teased.
"Don't worry, Joanna, he is a perfect gentleman," Elena assured her.
Joanna ruffled Ash's hair. "I think he might have acquired that from his job at Charlotte's. I would have promoted him by now, but he's just so good at it."
"So you're the owner of Charlotte's?" Damon asked, gesturing to her with his glass.
She nodded. "That restaurant has been passed down through the generations of witches. Charlotte was the founder of Vindico, ergo the name."
"Well, did you know that that place is a vampire sanctuary?" he demanded.
"Of course we do," Pauline interjected. "Do you think that anything can go on under that roof without us knowing about it?"
Ash exchanged a look with Elena, and she smiled.
"Actually," Joanna added. "That was my mother's idea. You see, we've formed somewhat of an agreement between the vampires. With Charlotte's and vampire country, we offer them prey, as long as they don't kill, and they leave our family alone."
"Wow. Vampire country, too," Elena commented.
"If you draw a line between Charlotte's, vampire country, and this house, then they form a triangle. Or in other words, our sanctuary."
"From people like you," Pauline addressed Damon and Elena.
Ash groaned. "Just shut up, Pauline."
Elena giggled, and Ash winked at her.
Elena closed the bedroom door behind her and dialed Caroline's number.
"Hey, Elena," Caroline picked up as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "I talked to Stefan. He told me where you guys were. Big stuff, right?"
"Yeah, I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet for me," she answered, dully. "But there was something I needed to talk to you about. How much did Stefan tell you?"
"Nothing really. All he said was that you guys met some witches related to Bonnie, and that you were staying with them."
For a moment, Elena wondered why Damon left out so much information when he called Stefan. But knowing Damon, any answer she had would probably be wrong, and the real answer would probably surprise her. So she decided it would be best if she just left it alone.
"What? Is there something else?" Caroline asked.
"A lot, actually. These witches are the ones who took the White Oak stake. Apparently, they have a sure-fire plan to use it on Klaus and keep the rest of us alive."
There was pause. "Really?"
"Yeah, I know right? It's…surreal," she mused. Then she realized that there was something in Caroline's voice, a note of sadness underneath the surprise. "Are you okay?"
Caroline sighed. "Why is this such a big deal? Klaus left the country. He wasn't bothering us anymore."
"Caroline, this is Klaus, okay? He's tormented us ever since we first heard his name. We can finally end this. Don't you want to give Tyler his freedom back?"
"I'm thinking about Tyler here. What if this plan doesn't work? Tyler will die."
Elena was about to answer, when an idea crossed her mind. "This is about Klaus, isn't it? You don't want us to kill him, because deep down…you have feelings for him."
"What?" she demanded, and her voice was too high-pitched. "Are you judging me, Elena? It's not like your record is perfectly clean. Don't tell me you haven't had a thought about Damon ever."
She bit her lip. "Okay, I'm sorry. I was out of line."
"Me too," Caroline said, apologetically. "And you're right. This is the right thing to do. How can I help?"
"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Elena stood up and walked toward the window. "Do you think you can get a hold of Tyler? We need to gather as many hybrids as possible."
"Why?"
"I'll explain it all later. Just get Tyler and the rest and bring them down here."
"You got it," she told her. "See you later, Elena."
As Elena hung up the phone, Caroline's words repeated over and over again in her head. Don't tell me you haven't had a thought about Damon ever. Why would she bring that up? Of course she never liked Damon, but it wasn't like her to be so snappy and cynical about it. And then again, she had just talked to Stefan.
Did Caroline and Stefan talk about her like that just all the time? Even considering that made her furious. If Stefan had a problem about her and Damon, he should just come to her, not Caroline. Who was he to spread their personal problems around to her friends?
Don't tell me you haven't had a thought about Damon ever. No mater how angry Stefan was making her, she still couldn't get those words out of her head. Did the kiss in the forest count as thoughts, or was it worse? Was it her fault that even a simple touching of Damon's lips sent her heart fluttering wildly, that it caused her to rethink every choice she's ever made….
Did that count?
Her musings were cut short when she suddenly became aware that she was not alone. She whirled around.
"Knock, knock," Lucy murmured as she entered the room. "You mind if I come in?"
"It's your house."
She came in, remembering to shut the door behind her, and leaned against the wall beside Elena. From the looks of her, Elena briefly wondered how old Lucy was. She could easily be her same age, but different than any other magical ally they had ever had. Lucy was a fresh mind, someone cool.
"So what's with the snarky leather jacket?" she asked, casually.
"Damon?" Elena smiled. "He just takes some getting used to. Trust me, you'll learn to lo—tolerate him." Her stomach flipped when the word almost came through her lips.
Lucy eyed her suspiciously, as if she knew there was something going on there. But she let it drop. "So, I heard you were having some trouble with your transition."
"Who told you that?"
"I talked to Bonnie. She's almost here by the way, but that's not the point," she explained. "I…. we want you to understand that our magic is a bit different than what you've seen. Stronger. I can help you along, if you want, with the small things."
She shook her head. "You can't help me. It's never going to be easy for me. I've accepted that."
"Have you? I know you want to be able to heal others. That's just your compassion. You think being a vampire requires give and take."
Her eyes widened. "Can you make my blood heal?"
"No, I can't do that," she admitted. "But there are other things I can help with. Haven't you ever wondered why you never remembered the times you were compelled?"
"Yeah. But as far as I know, I've never been compelled. There's no way of knowing," she replied, but in the back of her mind, she was thinking about when Elijah compelled her to tell him the location of the moonstone. If it was true that all of your human experiences with compulsion come back to you as a vampire, then that would have resurfaced at some point in her transition.
"What if I told you there was a way of knowing?" she questioned, mischievously.
Elena stared at her, deliberating.
Lucy smiled, and gestured to the chair. "Sit down."
Bonnie sighed. "According to Lucy, we're about an hour away. Just stay on this road."
"Okay," Stefan answered, flatly, his eyes fixed on the asphalt rolling beneath them. He had practically been ignoring her the entire long drive. Bonnie was getting frustrated with him.
"Who do you think Katherine was working for?" she asked, hopefully, so that maybe he would start talking about the elephant in the car. "Should we have just let her go that easily?"
"I think," he said, emphasizing the word think, "that she can't do anything until she finds the missing page of the grimoire. At that point, we should implore the situation more."
"At that point?" she repeated. "So we're supposed to just not worry in the time being? This is Katherine, working for a bigger Katherine, who is looking for a weapon spell. This could literally end a million different ways. You know that don't you, Stefan?"
He smirked that inferior smile. "Which is why I have a plan. We just have to find the missing page first."
Bonnie didn't answer because she realized that Stefan probably understood that the page could be practically anywhere around the Earth. He wasn't going to argue. Obviously, Stefan knew this, so there had to be an important reason for him to suggest it.
"So did you mean it when you said you'd follow her out of town?" she asked suddenly.
He hesitated. "There's nothing left for me in Mystic Falls anymore, Bonnie. I've realized this. And I accept it."
"Nothing left? What about your girlfriend or your brother?" she demanded. "Do they not matter to you anymore?"
"Elena's and my relationship will never be the same after what I've done. She'll pretend that nothing's wrong on the outside, but she'll never forgive me. Neither of them will. It's better that I just let them be together instead of it happening behind my back."
She bit her lip. "Elena will forgive you. When things like this happen, she's the one who looks past everything and makes the rest of us see reason. Just give her some time. In fact, do whatever it takes."
He glanced at her. "I hope you're right, Bonnie."
Lucy watched the minute hand on the alarm clock tick, and this time the little hand moved with it. She buried her head in the pillows and groaned.
"Elena, we've been at this for almost an hour. Please tell me you've thought of something."
Elena, her eyes shut, leaned forward and inhaled once more in the heavily scented smoke that came from the burning leaves Lucy had set beside her. She'd told her if she breathed in the smoke and replayed in her head every memorable moment she had had as a human, from most recent to her early years, the compulsions would come back to her easily. So far, it wasn't working.
"No, nothing yet," she tiredly answered her. The more she tried, the more she realized how much she wanted these memories. "I'll try one more time."
Focusing with all her concentration, she smelled the flowery smoke and thought about a date she had with Matt one time in sophomore year. She remembered every little detail she could, but there was no response. Then, just when she was about to give up, something happened.
It was a warm, fuzzy feeling inside of her when Matt's face popped up. All of a sudden, a trail opened up. It was like a train of thought that when she brought up more memories of Matt, it led her to more fuzzy feeling. She must be getting close.
"I've got something," she alerted Lucy.
"Shh," she warned. "Just concentrate."
It was obvious that Matt was the key for the moment, so she stuck with him. Every moment they had shared together flicked through her head until she reached one of their last nights as a couple. It was the night her parents died, the night of the bonfire.
The warmth went wild on her as this memory played, but it wasn't aimed at Matt anymore. It flipped like pages of a book to the end of the party. And then, unexpectedly, the memories played without her help. It was like watching a movie on the inside of her eyelids.
She was talking to Bonnie on the phone, telling her about the decision she had made to end things with Matt, when Damon showed up.
Her first thought was to ask him what he was doing here inside her head. But then he spoke directly to her.
"Katherine?" he murmured, breathlessly.
"No," she answered quizzically, glancing behind her to make sure she was the one he was addressing. "I'm Elena."
At this point, nothing in this memory was familiar to Elena. She remembered perfectly this night, because it was one of her worst nightmares. Until now, she was under the impression that she was aware of everything that had happened. But that wasn't true, because this memory had been compelled from her brain.
"I'm sorry," he continued, now more like the Damon she knew. "You just really remind me of someone. "I'm Damon, by the way."
"Not to be rude or anything, Damon, but it's kind of creepy… you being here in the middle of nowhere."
"You're one to talk. You're out here, all by yourself."
"It's Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here," she disregarded him. "I got into a fight with my boyfriend."
"About what?" he wondered, and then held his arms up as if he'd pondered too much. "May I ask?"
"Life," she answered simply. "The future. He's got it all mapped out."
"And you don't want it?"
"I don't know what I want." Elena watched her say this with a sense of dread. How many times had she answered Damon with I don't know? And every time, he had probably remembered this moment.
"That's not true," he murmured. "You want what everybody wants."
"What? A mysterious stranger that has all the answers?"
He chuckled, nonchalantly. "I've been around for a long time. I've learned a few things."
"So, Damon," she smiled, seductively. "Tell me. What is it that I want?"
He walked forward, closer than the normal stranger would. His blue eyes were intense, and the memory Elena felt like her legs would give out. Nobody had ever looked at her that same way.
"You want a love that consumes you," he said, softly. "You want passion, adventure, and even a little danger."
It was a moment before she found the air to speak. " Well, what do you want?"
"Uh…" He searched for the words.
Headlights flashed from behind her. She turned around to identify the car. "That's my parents."
When she turned back around, he was extremely close to her. His eyes took on a different entrancing glow and she couldn't look away.
"I want you to get everything you're looking for," he told her. "But for right now, I want you to forget this happened. "Can't have people knowing I'm in town yet." He winked. "Goodnight, Elena."
Suddenly, the headlights behind her glared brighter and brighter until their brilliant yellow and red light filled her entire vision. When the lights died out, a new scene was going on in her head.
She was watching her and Damon again, standing in her bedroom. He was holding up her old vervain locket that Stefan had given her, and his eyes were puffy and red. This was a surprise to Elena.
"I just have to say something," he insisted. "You just need to hear it."
Her memory self waited, warily, afraid of what was coming next.
"I love you, Elena," he said, his voice was strong and sure. "And it is because I love you that…I can't be selfish with you, and why you can't know this. I don't deserve you. But my brother does."
He leaned forward and gently kissed her forehead. When he looked at her face again, there was a single silver tear melting from the blue ice in his eyes. His pupils shrank to practically the size of a needlepoint. Then, in a second of blurry colors, wind, and heavily scented smoke, he was gone, and the necklace was on her neck.
Before she knew it, she was back in Lucy's house, sitting beside the window. Outside, the sun had almost disappeared behind the never-ending tree line.
"Did you see anything?" Lucy urgently asked.
Elena couldn't answer. Her whole body was numb, yet somehow she was aware of her hands shaking in her lap. The scenes she witnessed were gone, yet somehow she still heard Damon's voice, like an echo.
A beautiful echo.
Damon watched the glowing embers of the fire dance inside the giant fireplace of the second living room of the witches' house. He took a sip of his bourbon as Stefan walked into the room.
"When'd you get in, brother?" he asked emotionlessly, without taking his eyes off the fire.
"A few minutes ago."
He turned around. "Well, Elena's sleeping upstairs, unless you two have already had your joyous reunion moment."
"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Stefan went to the corner where a cart of alcohol sat and poured himself a drink identical to Damon's. "Refill?"
"I'm good," he retorted, lifting the glass back to his lips.
Damon stared at his brother while he sat himself down on the low brown suede couch, waiting for whatever bull that would come from his mouth. But he'd been through hell the last of a couple days, aside from a few moments, and was prepared for anything.
Or so he thought.
It was a while before he finally spoke. "Look, Damon, I don't know why you took Elena on this trip. I don't know why you've become hell bent to take her away from me since the day you met her. And I'm not asking."
Damon swallowed. "Get to the point."
"I've done a lot of thinking while sitting alone back at home, and even made a few mistakes, but I'm ready to put everything behind me and start over."
"Finally, your brooding has paid off," he remarked, thinking that Stefan was referring to their brotherly relationship. Then it hit him. He wasn't talking about them at all.
His eyes turned dark, as if the blue skies were covered with storm clouds. "You really think that's going to work, Stefan? Bonnie's already told me what happened. Nice job, brother, sleeping with the enemy. You really know how to keep a healthy relationship. Wait a minute, have you been stealing notes from my ten point book?"
Stefan chuckled, but it didn't affect his menacing expression. "Joke all you want, Damon. Elena's still my girlfriend and there's nothing that can change that once I clear out this wedge that formed between us. Not even you."
"You want me to stay away from Elena? Really?"
"Actually," he stood up and laid his hands on Damon's shoulders, "yes. And maybe right now you're denying it, but you'll end up doing what you know is right. You wouldn't do anything to hurt your baby brother, would you, Damon?"
The whole room turned red in the bubbling fury of Damon's anger. But, as he thought about what Stefan said, he noticed what was beneath the anger. Hopelessness.
For the first time in his life, Damon Salvatore was giving up. Stefan was right. There was no way he was going to be able to stand next to Elena and feel what he felt for her without thinking of his brother, and how unfair he was being to him. It was an unspoken rule. Finder's keepers, loser's weepers.
Damn it, Stefan, he thought to himself. As of now, no matter how hard he tried not to, he had to admit that Elena belonged to Stefan. And there really was nothing he could do about it.
He didn't feel any differently about her, but he had to honor his brother.
She laid alone in the darkness, without a chance of falling to sleep.
Elena had never been so completely overcome with emotions before. They filled every portion of her body, tingling like millions of tiny bubbles. She tried to remember the last time she had ever come close. Maybe it was the night that she told Stefan she loved him for the first time, and even then, there hadn't been this overwhelming and thrilling sensation.
Every part of her felt different, from her toes to the tip of her head. Her eyes saw a new world, her ears heard only sweet sounds, and anytime she opened her mouth, she only wanted to say one thing.
It was like her heart was a candle. Earlier it burned a slow, dull flame. It wasn't warm, but it was steady enough. Then it went out as soon as she remembered the things Damon compelled her to forget, and it was replaced by wild, hot burning fire. This new flame warmed her more, held her up like a hot air balloon with no intention of ever coming down.
She clutched the blanket between her fingers, unsure of whether to accept this happiness or not. Was it the right thing to do?
Then the candle warmth floated to her brain, and she saw reason. How could it be the right thing to do if it wasn't what she wanted to do?
And this time, she was sure of what she wanted with all her being. This time, she knew.
AN: Eight down and 14 more to go! Hope you liked this chapter and the ones to come. I'm really excited for what's to come for Damon and Elena with these new complications! Also, as I am following the same traditions as the show, my mid-story finale is coming up! Chapter ten will be exciting just like a mid-season finale and then there will be a short break (not a month like the show) but a week or two! Let's get excited, people!
Alright, alright, here it is! Chapter nine synopsis:
ON THE HUNT-Stefan, Bonnie, Elena, and Damon go searching for the missing page of the grimoire in dangerous locations. Elena confesses something personal to Damon and is quite surprised at his reaction. Caroline urges Tyler to help her gather the hybrids, but complications soon arise.
