Chapter Eight: Fight Night

"Elena," Stefan approached her in full football gear. Despite the festivities around them, Stefan looked serious as usual and more than that, he actually appeared nervous. Elena wondered whether Damon had told Stefan that she now knew the truth. However, the reason for his nerves became clear when he spoke, "I was wondering whether… you know, as kind of a good luck charm… you'd wear this." He handed her a small silk covered box. Elena glanced to the side and saw Matt watching them with jealousy etched across his face. She looked away.

"Oh, um, I wasn't expecting this." She said breathlessly.

"Well it's sort of an heirloom and, well, I thought it'd suit you. It's supposed to be a good luck charm and a, uh, gesture of friendship, if you like." He put a little inflection on the word friendship, as if he was reading her mind. And perhaps he was, Elena couldn't be sure. But she appreciated that Stefan was trying to respect her wishes and opened the box accordingly. Inside was an unusual silver locket with a small red stone set in it. As she lifted it to her face, she caught a whiff of something.

"Is that… lavender?" She guessed.

"No, it's a herb… smells nice, huh?" She nodded with a smile and looked into his handsome face.

"It's beautiful Stefan, thank you." He had better taste than Damon anyway, what with that huge ugly crystal he'd placed into Caroline's care earlier. She moved her hair out of the way so that he could fasten it around her neck. It felt cold against her skin once it settled there, and she turned and kissed him on the cheek. "Have a goodnight." He smiled and stalked off in the direction of the bandstand. Elena touched the necklace again wonderingly. That was when Bonnie approached.

"Have you seen Caroline? She's going to kill me but I couldn't get away from Grams earlier." She said.

"No, but you're one dead psychic." Elena quipped, her mood improved by Stefan's gift despite herself.

"Oh, don't joke about that please. I keep having these dreams where I keep seeing the same numbers… 8, 14, 22. I feel like it could mean something, you know. Something bad." Bonnie said worriedly, glancing around herself.

"And I think you've been drinking your Grams' best brew too much lately." Elena smiled, "Good luck with the routine, Bon."

Tanner riled the crowd up accordingly until everyone was shouting 'Go Timberwolves!' at the top of their lungs, underage kids sipped at alcohol they'd snuck out from their parents' cabinets and Jeremy canoodled with Vicki, much to Tyler's annoyance. It was some time into the rally that the fight broke out between them. Jeremy threw the first punch, only to be pulled back by Vicki. Tyler merely shoved her aside and went at Jeremy, as Elena hurried towards her younger brother. She'd known this fight was coming, but she was no happier to see it finally come.

She hadn't made it all the way over there when Tyler smashed the bottle. He was aiming for Jeremy with it and the gasps of shock and protest around spurred her onto a run but before she could get more than three steps closer, out of nowhere, there was Stefan. He grabbed the bottle by the jagged edges and tossed it away, shoving Tyler easily before he could get any closer to Jeremy. Vicki stormed off, and Elena seized her brother.

"What the hell was that, Jer?" She demanded of him. He merely batted her hand away and stormed off after Vicki, as usual leaving Elena standing there feeling stupid. She sighed and turned back to Stefan. His hand had been cut by the bottle. Unsure of what the protocol for vampires and bleeding actually was, she merely decided on the spot to pretend she remained ignorant of Stefan's true nature. "Are you okay? Your hand…"

"It's fine." He moved to hide it, but not before she glimpsed what was no more than a scratch. Remembering her thoughts of the night before, Elena decided to try to find out how easy it'd be to get the truth from Stefan.

"You cut yourself." She said, injecting uncertainty into her voice.

"No, see," He wiped his hand on his pants and then showed her his palm, "It wasn't my blood you saw." His palm was fully healed now, with no trace of a sign it'd ever been cut. Elena looked up at his face.

"Oh." There was an awkward pause, and then she admitted to him, "Jeremy wouldn't speak to me." It was not the first time she'd complained to Stefan about these slights by her brother, but it was the first time she'd mentioned it since she'd known the truth about he and his brother- or at least, some of the truth. Still, she reminded herself, Stefan had been a good friend to her lately and this was a good way of being nice to him without having to actually face him just yet. He took the bait.

"I'll go after him, he might listen to a guy." Stefan seemed just as glad to escape the awkward moment as she was and was after Jeremy like a shot. Elena watched him go, feeling torn.

The party atmosphere was most definitely over now. Most people were already heading back to their cars, night spoiled by Jeremy and Tyler's fight. Longing for the days when Jeremy was a smart and creative kid with nice friends and a cute smile, Elena gave up and headed back to hers. She didn't feel like speaking to anyone and had regretted since her arrival her decision to actually show up when she had so much on her mind. When she got back to the parking lot, though, she found Damon waiting for her by her car. For a second it occurred to Elena that she should be running hard in the opposite direction from him, but all her spirit had left her when Jeremy had shoved her away. Instead, she simply ignored him as much as was possible for somebody who was leaning up against the bonnet.

"Did I miss all the fun?" Damon asked her teasingly.

"You shouldn't be here Damon." Elena yawned. She hadn't slept at all the night before thanks to him and she had no interest in missing out on yet more sleep for the same reason. Before she could open the door though, she found him standing in front of it, blocking her. Disconcerted, Elena blinked up at him. "Look, stay away from me and from my friends, okay? I promised already that I wouldn't spill your secret."

"I need to talk to you." Damon was staring into her eyes, and Elena stared stoically back. His pupils dilated rapidly as she met his gaze but for once she didn't feel like she was drowning in it. He didn't break his stare and she was determined not to lose this staring contest. But then Damon sniffed and his eyes travelled to her throat, where her new necklace sat against her olive skin. "Vervain." He spoke the word softly.

"What?" Elena frowned.

"Let me guess: Stefan gave you that necklace." Elena nodded, "Elena, it contains vervain- it's a sort of ward against vampires. It stops us from being able to compel you." So that'd been what he was trying to do- he had been trying to compel her to stay and talk to him, but it hadn't worked. She touched her necklace again, real gratitude to Stefan flooding through her.

"Good," She said savagely, "I don't want you doing to me what you're doing to Caroline." Damon looked surprised at the venom in her voice. Elena herself was unsure where the anger was coming from, yet something told her it might have to do with the huge vat of knowledge he'd dumped on her the previous night without further ado. Damon's stare was steady.

"Fine. I don't need to compel you anyway." He shook his head and turned to walk away.

"What did you want to talk about?" Elena cursed herself as the question left her mouth- she'd given in already, proving him right. Damon smirked at her as he turned around.

"Actually, I was going to speak to you about your pseudo-boyfriend. You know he's a bore, right?"

"You came here to try and get a rise out of me about Stefan?" Elena rolled her eyes, "Why do you even care if I date him or not?"

"I don't. I just wanted to warn you- once he wants something, he won't stop going after it until he has it. Very predictable. So you know… nice necklaces are pretty much a staple."

"I'm quite sure he only gave me this necklace to protect me from you" Damon didn't challenge this. He leaned in closer to her instead, so that their faces were mere inches apart. Elena's breath caught in her throat.

"Maybe I'm not the one you need protecting from." Elena blinked and Damon was gone.


Damon was angry. Elena had him on the question of why he cared whether she was dating Stefan or not. Why did he care? He didn't, he reminded himself. He only cared because she reminded him of Katherine, and he was desperate to get Katherine back. The fact that in reality he thought of Katherine and Elena as two very different people, no matter how alike they looked, didn't come into this. Damon was heading towards Caroline when his senses informed him that Stefan was behind him, in the shadow of the school building.
"What do you want?" He snapped at his younger brother, wheeling around.

"You shouldn't have come tonight, Damon." Stefan said harshly.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" He demanded of the air around himself. "Caroline wanted me to come and so I did. I haven't even bothered you."

"Your being here bothers me." Stefan retaliated. Damon rolled his eyes. He was quite tired of all the petty arguments with Stefan now.

"You are everywhere I go! If you want me out of my life then you would let me get on with things instead of harassing me every five minutes, telling me what I can and cannot do," Damon ranted, "Sorry if my presence ruined your pathetic attempt to be human."

"The reason I'm harassing you, Damon, is because I know that this is all an act- you're here because you want to be, you don't give a crap about Caroline! You go around acting like you don't give a damn but the fact is, I know you do."

"Uh, no I don't Stefan- I'm a vampire. I don't care about any of these people and neither should you. I'm done with this hero act of yours- you can't save me because there is nothing to save!"

"If that was true you wouldn't be behaving yourself- your humanity is still there, Damon, underneath this." Stefan said flatly. Furious, Damon felt himself changing as he came up close to Stefan. He was tired of his brother trying to push him around- it didn't work, and it was nothing more than an annoyance to him. A door opened nearby and a teacher left the building- a middle aged man in the Timberwolves gear, so Damon took him to be a coach.

"Behave? I'll behave however I want to, I don't need you to tell me. If you think there is anything here for you- you're wrong." He seized the man who was still too far away to hear what they were saying, and ripped out his throat with his teeth. The blood gushed into his mouth and he drank greedily for a minute, enjoying the feeling as the blood trickled down his waiting throat. "There is nothing here for you to save Stefan- my humanity or whatever? I don't need it. You can keep it." He tossed the coach's body on the floor. He could feel the hot blood around his mouth and dripping down his chin but he didn't care. He turned and stormed away. He could hear explanations of shock and horror behind him as more kids came across the body of the man he'd just killed, but he didn't look back- he couldn't afford to be caught at a time like this anyway.

His anger with Stefan's interference and Elena's ignorance was still ringing in his ears when the stake went through his stomach. He'd somehow been so lost in his rage that he hadn't noticed that Zach was waiting for him. Growling in pain, he lunged for his great-great-nephew, but before he got anywhere, Zach had stuck a syringe in his chest. The last thing he knew was pain before he passed out from the vervain that was now in his system.