A/N: Hello All. It was brought to my attention by 1beaut—thanks gurl—that chapter 9 for whatever reason vanished. So here is the re-upload. Please let me know if you still can't view it.
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.
Night had shifted into early morning. Damon pressed his foot harder on the accelerator flying through yellow lights before they turned red. Mystic Falls after dark wasn't like the big cities of the world where shady business transactions took place, and illicit behavior was prevalent. Things were quiet, eerily so as the town occupants rested comfortably in their beds behind locked doors.
Several times Bonnie questioned if she were making the right decision in going over to dark-eyed Salvatore's house. And she also questioned why she trusted him when she knew next to nothing about him. When someone went out of their way to protect your life a bond formed, misunderstandings could be patched up, and grievances could be settled. Yet, as Bonnie stared at Damon out the corner of her eye she couldn't escape feeling an immense sense of gratitude for what he did for her tonight.
Now, they were even.
For a second she wanted to ask him what he was thinking—if he was thinking anything at all, but Bonnie's opportunity passed her by as he made a sharp right on Damon's street and was vastly approaching the two-story Victorian.
Typically when Damon did stuff he hardly ever thought of the consequences because he was too caught up on how he felt. Damon didn't regret doing what he had to save Bonnie's life, but now he was delivering her over to his spearmint twin and something about this particular scenario bothered him immensely.
Things had become increasingly awkward when he and Bonnie walked out of Alaric's apartment. Bonnie had climbed into the passenger seat of Damon's car not sure what to say to him. They were in an enclosed space—alone, a rare occurrence for them. Bonnie chose the safe path and kept her mouth shut. It didn't escape Damon she had retreated within herself which prompted him to turn up the volume on the radio to block out the pestering silence. Doing that also afforded Damon the opportunity to regroup and overanalyze what he learned or didn't learn he should say.
Katherine was back looking to cause a whole hell of a lot of destruction. She specifically said she was after two things and two things only. Damon already knew what one of those things was, or more to the matter who she came back to Mystic Falls to claim. Yeah, that irritated him like falling ass first into a poison ivy bush, but it wouldn't be his life if someone didn't make their preference for Stefan known.
Damon pulled into the driveway of the two-story Victorian and killed the lights and the engine.
Bonnie twisted on the seat to look at him. "Thanks for the ride and for…tonight."
"Are you going to wig out on me now?"
No, she wasn't going to do that but she did swat his chest with the back of her hand. "I can't be mad at you because you didn't leave me to die. It's an admirable thing what you did for me."
Also sacred but Damon wasn't going to tell her that.
Bonnie finally found the courage to look him dead in the eye. Damon stared right back and she didn't wither or blink at his intense scrutiny. Not many people could do that.
He grinned. "Does that mean we can call a truce between us?" the dark vampire waved a finger between them.
Bonnie returned his grin, "No," she reached for the car door handle and slipped out of the vehicle.
Damon followed suit.
The front door of the house swung open and a figure clad in head-to-toe black strode purposefully towards Bonnie. When she was in reaching distance, Fell's Church Damon cupped her cheeks and did a visceral check for any wounds. He noticed a bit of dried blood coating her right nostril.
"You can go inside," he said.
Bonnie nodded her head but then shifted her eyes over to blue-eye Damon who kept his gaze locked on her the whole time.
She inclined her head and wordlessly strolled away.
The air grew thick with tension as the two Damon Salvatore's faced off for what felt like the millionth time in the six weeks dark-eyes had been living in Mystic Falls.
"It seems this Bonnie gets in as much trouble as my little redbird."
Blue-eyes folded his arms over his chest and leaned against his car. "Little redbird…funny how you're just now mentioning you have a girlfriend."
Dark-eyes glared at Damon. "She's not my girlfriend."
"But you care about her."
Dark-eyes shrugged. "It comes with the territory of knowing her. She's delicate."
Damon snorted rudely. "So I'm guessing my…er…Bonnie is hard-as-nails compared to the one you know?"
Dark-eyes grinned at Damon's slip and folded his frame into a casual stance by crossing his arms over his chest.
"The Bonnie of this world is remarkably strong but she's barely tapped into her potential. With my tuition she'll be unstoppable."
"Hmm…so that's your goal? Why you've been spending all your free time flitting around Bonnie because you're trying to turn her into some kind of bare knuckled warrior princess? You're going to leave one day and that's a fact you can't escape."
Dark-eyes glared at him.
"So I have to ask why do you care what she becomes?"
"Why don't you care?" Damon fired back at the lesser version of himself.
Light-eyes pushed away from the car. "I've never given Bonnie one reason to trust me. Yet she trusts you…"
Dark-eyes looked smug. "And you have a problem with that."
"I might," Damon bit out. "But…after tonight she might be seeing me in a whole new light."
Black eyes surrounded by thick lashes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
Damon began whistling as he walked to the driver side of his car. Of course the other Damon met him there and slammed his car door shut before he could climb behind the safety of his wheel.
"I guess I must have left out the part that I had to give Bonnie some of my blood to heal her," he winked at Damon and managed to push him away from the door.
Yet Damon stopped him from getting in the car by laying a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Did you take hers?"
"No, unfortunately we didn't get to that part," he said forlornly. "Yet," he added smugly.
And Damon would have liked nothing better than to knock every last one of blue-eyes top teeth out. Instead he merely tightened his hold on his double's shoulder satisfied when Damon began to wince.
"Make sure it doesn't happen. Ever."
Blue-eyes wanted to bait him so bad that his balls began to hurt yet he had already been slapped around enough tonight. He had his limits although he typically never exercised them until it was far too late. But what the hey?
Blue-eyes poked dark-eyes in the chest. "You see I don't think you're in any position to tell me what I can and can not do. I'll pull seniority if I have to and say that I've known Bonnie longer than you and I will continue to know her well after your old ass gets sucked back into the twilight zone. She might trust you, hell she might even like you, but you'll do something to screw it all up because," Damon shrugged, "that's what us Damon's of the world do. Destroy a good thing before it destroys us."
Silence and then, "Seems you do have a brain in your skull," Fell's Church Damon said.
"Shush, don't tell anyone. It's my secret weapon," Damon clapped his double on the shoulder and was finally permitted to get in his car and drive away.
Dark-eyes ambled away and slammed the front door to his house shut. He found Bonnie in his bedroom sitting on the edge of the bed facing the large window. He could smell the soap on her skin and knew she had washed her face and gotten herself presentable.
Yet as he observed her he couldn't help but look at her differently. Damon's blood ran through her system and Bonnie stood a strong chance of picking up some of his less than admirable qualities or she might feel indebted to him. He was certainly hoping it wouldn't be the latter.
Swapping blood with a vampire could open up a pathway of emotions and inner feelings that otherwise would have remained dormant. It was how he fell in love with Elena and how she fell in love with him because they drank one another's blood uninhibitedly for weeks or it might have been days. In any case, the effect had been profound.
Damon certainly couldn't have Bonnie drinking anymore from that putrid corpse. He sat down beside her on the bed and they looked up at the moon together.
"Sometimes I feel so powerful that I can barely keep my skin together, and then some days I feel so incredibly weak it takes twenty minutes of concentration to blink," Bonnie turned to stare at Damon. "With Katherine back I can't afford to be weak."
"I can alleviate that."
"How?" she sounded dubious and shot up from the bed. "She was able to hurt me without even touching me."
"From my understanding she had a witch working for her. So don't be too hard on yourself. You're young still and can't be expected to know everything."
"But I should know the basics in protecting myself or even sensing when another witch is near," Bonnie argued passionately.
Yeah, that much was true Damon could agree. There was nothing worse than being caught unawares. He would know since he had survived being possessed.
"Like I said, Bonnie, I'll help alleviate that. I can go after Katherine and eliminate the source. She sounds like fun to toss around like a football for a few hours."
Bonnie shook her head. "She's not your fight, Damon."
He rose from the bed and caught Bonnie by the elbow. "She became my fight when she messed with you."
Naturally he'd have to say something to make her heart melt just a tinsy bit. "You're very sweet," she complimented.
His face darkened. "There's nothing sweet about me. Most of everything I do, I do for my own end," Damon paced away from Bonnie.
She stared after him wondering what switch did he just flip.
"So are you trying to say that everything that's been going on between us…you're only using me for-"
He flashed back over to the confused witch. "No, I'm only saying that you should never forget what I am, Bonnie. I'm not human and I don't process things the way a human does and my actions certainly aren't human," he paused for a moment. "Do you want to know what I want to do to you right now?"
She gulped nervously and thought for a moment if it would be wise to ask Damon for clarification. He took her by the hands and backed her into the nearest wall. A breathless sound escaped her lips when her body made contact and Damon boxed her in, whispered in her ear.
"Put my head between your legs and taste your heat."
Bonnie's eyes widened and then she found herself giggling. When Damon pulled back the mischievous twinkle had returned to his eyes.
"I'm dangerous," he said at last.
She nodded in agreement. "That you are. And explicit."
Damon shrugged a brawny shoulder. "Comes with the package."
Her eyes shamelessly looked at the prominent bulge protruding from the center of his thighs.
"But I have to help you first," he slid a gold ring he wore on his right pinky off his finger and slipped it on Bonnie's index finger. "Use this to channel my energy."
She was confused by this. "Channel? How do I do that?"
"Close your eyes and concentrate," he took her hand and placed it directly over his heart. "Feel my energy and try to draw as much of it into yourself. I'll guide you."
Bonnie had no idea what he was talking about or how she was supposed to do this. She was used to trying to decipher chicken scratch on ancient paper written in a dead language. This was practical application in an area she had no expertise in. Yet she did as Damon instructed. Closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.
At first nothing really happened. Bonnie was too preoccupied with the sounds of the house, the mysterious creaks and groans it made coupled with the fire popping in the hearth. But then, like a match being struck, she felt a pulse of something cosmic. That force of energy drew her attention like a beacon, luring her closer, ready to ensnare her, blanket her. So the more she focused on it, Bonnie imagined reaching out a hand and pulling it directly into her own body.
She gasped at the onslaught of energy she felt cocooning her body. Spilling into her, filling her up with light. Her mouth fell open and her breath came out in spurts until it seemed she was only moments from climaxing.
Her head was throbbing softly now and she loosened her hold on Damon. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her with a semi-slumberous expression on his face.
"That was incredible," she breathed in awe.
He nodded and then buried his hand in her hair pulling her against him and crashed his lips into hers. He kissed her hard and thorough and kind of hissed when Bonnie's little hands ran over his hard length. He picked her up. She straddled his waist. And the next thing Bonnie knew, her pants were being unzipped and pulled down her legs, her underwear with it and a cold, frosty tongue parted her folds.
"Ohmygod," she croaked.
If he couldn't have her blood or give her his then he would do the next best thing to getting to know her intimately. Was this some type of twisted power struggle he just entered into with the other Damon? Perhaps, yet at the end of the day he was the one to earn Bonnie's trust and respect and as his reward he got to sample her nectar. And she was delicious.
Bonnie squirmed and arched against the bed at the foreign invasion because no one had ever done this before. Bonnie lifted her head to stare down at Damon to make sure that what was really happening, was happening. When he felt her probing gaze, Damon looked up and Bonnie gasped because there were blue-eyes staring back at her and not black.
No. No. No. She repeated in her head, snapped her eyes closed and groaned when that cold tongue began to swirl that tender bundle of nerves.
When she chanced looking back down again and the eyes that were boring into hers were midnight, she relaxed and focused on the tingling sensations that exploded all over her body.
Hands clutched the bedspread. Bonnie's legs began to tremble, and there was no way she would ever be strong enough to tell Damon to stop what he was doing.
Besides, he had no intentions of stopping.
Vaguely he felt fingertips caress his skin. Then long strands of hair shrouded his face and urgent lips were pressed against his.
Stefan moaned into the kiss and his body responded automatically to the one that was straddling his waist. This was a nice way to be awakened in the middle of the night. His wife beater was pulled up and over his head. Aggressive lips and teeth began nibbling and biting his neck. When he managed to peel his eyes open, he was met with a round face, dark brown doe-eyes, smallish lips, an oval shaped face and long brown…wavy hair.
Without thinking Stefan pushed Katherine off of him. She went careening backwards into the wall where Stefan rushed over using vampire speed. He wrapped his hand around her neck.
"What are you doing here, Katherine?" he snarled.
She smiled sweetly and allowed him to be rough with her. "I was trying to fuck you," she pouted. "You can pretend I'm Elena."
He scoffed and broke his hold on her, and pointed towards the door. "Get out."
Katherine who lost her shirt somewhere between sneaking into the boardinghouse and Stefan's bedroom, which really wasn't sneaking in since he and his brother never bothered to lock the front door, stood proudly before Stefan in her see-through bra. It wasn't a difficult task for Stefan to keep his eyes above her neck.
Katherine for her part looked tickled pink. "I've missed you, Stefan."
"Sorry, I can't say the same."
She groaned and pushed away from the wall. "Don't try to be an asshole. That's not the Stefan I know. The Stefan I know risked his life to try and save me, and he said 'I love you' first," she grinned in memory.
"You compelled me," was his argument.
"Your love for me wasn't fabricated although I'm sure you'd like it to be. You were very much in love with me then," she stared boldly at his semi-erection. "And you're still very much in love with me now. As evidenced by who you're dating. The poor man's version of me."
A tic began in Stefan's jaw. "Whatever you came back here for, you're not going to get. That said, I suggest you leave town, Katherine."
"Wrong again, Stefan," Katherine sing song. "I always get what I want, and I'm not leaving until I get it. Sorry if you don't like it but that's the way things are going to be."
Stefan licked his lips and his eyes went wild for a minute. "Your way or the highway? Bitch you haven't changed."
Katherine chuckled gleefully. And in the next instant, Stefan found himself on the floor holding his side with Katherine towering over him holding a wooden stake in her hand that dripped with his blood.
"Don't disrespect me ever again, Stefan. Or I'll use this to first sodomize you and then put you down for good," her eyebrows jumped. She fell gracefully to her knees and cupped his face forcing Stefan to look at her. She pecked his lips and felt him stiffen against the intrusion. "I love you, Stefan and nothing you say or attempt to do to me will ever change that. But you've hurt my feelings and the only way I can see you making it up to me is by dumping the doppelganger bitch. If not… I will bathe in the blood of her friends each and every single night. Don't believe me? Just try me."
Stefan grunted in pain as his wound began to heel and he saw the sincerity of Katherine's threat painfully reflected in her eyes. She kissed him again before strutting out of his room.
"I'm so glad we caught up, Stefan and oh," she said and pivoted around to face him again. "Game on."
There was nothing more humbling than having your ass handed to you in your own home in your own room no less, Stefan thought. He walked along the halls of the boardinghouse, shirt thrown over his shoulder. He wanted a drink—a real one because and his jaw and gums ached painfully. Elena, for her own safety had spent the night at Caroline's after spending a good half hour telling the blond that she wasn't the one who said all those awful things to her at school. But Stefan wanted to see Elena for his own piece of mind to make sure she was okay and had survived the night.
Damon, when he came in, debriefed Stefan on the night he had playing nurse to Bonnie and his encounter with Katherine. It seemed that chick was taking inventory of who she could screw with and how badly. So far the only people to be physically hurt by Katherine were Bonnie and Stefan. He really had no idea what that meant.
Just as Stefan made his way into the living room, a soft knock sounded on the front door. He thought nothing of it as he went to go answer the summons. If he still had the ability to blush he would have been the color of a tomato because standing on the other side was:
"Bonnie," Stefan greeted and reached for his shirt and hastily threw it on.
Bonnie stared at him with humongous eyes for a moment. "I'm guessing you were expecting Elena?"
He nodded and then stepped aside to allow her entry. Bonnie filed past him and walked into the living room that was thankfully empty of a certain vampire. She turned around to face the younger Salvatore again.
"Nice abs by the way," she complimented.
Stefan chose that moment to stare at his feet and rub the back of his neck. "Thanks. If you're looking for Elena she's not here yet."
"Actually I came here to see you."
Upon hearing that, Stefan lifted his head and looked at the young girl standing across from him.
"Oh? About what? I heard you had an encounter with Katherine last night…how are you doing?"
"I'm fine." Bonnie glanced up at the ceiling. "Is he here?"
"He's still asleep." Stefan would have heard Damon moving around.
Despite knowing Damon was sleeping a part of Bonnie kind of perked up at the prospect that he was in the same space as she was. Uh-oh, what in the world was going on with her? Last night she tumbled into mania and actually fantasized about blue-eyed Damon Salvatore being the one to go down on her, and now here she felt an anticipatory rush in knowing that if she wanted to, she could march up to his room and gawk at him with her own two eyes.
This had to be due to having his blood. She kind of felt the same way after Stefan saved her life; however those feelings were dull in comparison to how she was feeling towards Damon. Bonnie could only attribute that to the fact his blood was stronger since he fed from humans and not animals.
Regardless it pissed her off.
Ignoring the pull, Bonnie headed over to the patio doors and walked out to the back lawn. Stefan wordlessly followed after her.
"What's going on, Bonnie?"
"I have a favor to ask you," she turned to him again. Stefan stared at her expectantly. "I need help with training."
Three lines appeared on Stefan's forehead. "Training? You mean witch training? Damon has far more experience with witches than I do…"
Bonnie shook her head and waved a hand in the air to dismiss his words. "Look, last night Damon…the other Damon taught me how to channel power and I have this reserve built up and I need to see how to use it."
A knowing look washed over Stefan's face as he folded his arms. "So in other words you need a guinea pig."
Bonnie appeared sheepish for a moment. "Yeah. I would ask 'the Damon's'," she used air quotation marks to emphasize her point, "but one would annoy me to death while the other would try to seduce me. You're the one who I know will remain the most objective. I've never asked you for anything before and I promise not to whine or complain much…"
Stefan reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders to silence her. "Bonnie, I'll do it."
She waited for his words to digest in her ears. "You'll do it? You'll help me?"
"Yes. Besides you aren't the only one who should brush up on their skills. With Katherine around there's no telling when and where she might strike and we'll all need to be prepared. When do you want to start?"
"Today after school."
Stefan looked uncertain. He was supposed to head over to the hospital with Elena to check up on John. He didn't want to chance leaving her there by herself for any length of time. Alaric had convinced Jenna to stay with him for a few days, and Jeremy had been shipped off to one of his stoner friends' house. Katherine had an open invitation to the Gilbert residence to come and go as she pleased so that meant he'd have to step up his security detail in keeping Elena safe.
"I was supposed to head over to the hospital with Elena to check on John…"
"Oh, well maybe tomorrow then."
"No, this is important and I'm a man of my word. It shouldn't take much convincing to get Elena to cut a period and head over to the hospital earlier. I'll meet you back here at three."
Bonnie smiled. "Thank you, Stefan."
He bowed his head while he spoke. "You're welcome."
The two of them headed back to the house unaware of the face in the window that had been watching and listening into their every word.
"Bonnie, I can't believe you. The gala is in two days and you still haven't found a dress! You were right when you said it was an emergency. Seriously what have you been doing other than moonlighting with the other Damon Salvatore? Granted he's fine but that's still no excuse for schlepping on your responsibilities, Madame of being absolutely fabulous in a banging ass dress."
Bonnie was impressed Caroline said all of that on one intake of breath. The two girls searched through endless racks and aisles of dresses trying to find the one that screamed fierce bitch yet all they could come up with is 'I didn't place first in the Southern Belle pageant because of this lame ass dress'.
There was a point in time where Bonnie loved shopping until her feet literally started smoking with her two best friends—fashionistas in crime. Now she had far more important things to worry about. Looking trendy and chic had been placed on the back burner. Sure there were cardinal rules Bonnie wouldn't dream of breaking like: never leaving the house without a stitch of make up on, wearing a matching set of clean underwear. Yet doing things a seventeen year old girl was supposed to do seemed so trivial to her now.
With the gala mean mugging her in the face and nothing to wear, Bonnie called for reinforcements and enlisted Caroline to help her hunt down and select the perfect dress for the event.
Caroline frowned at some of the choices she skimmed through before heading over to another rack.
"Gah! It's like the designer stole this design from her two year old sister," Caroline frowned at one get up made of chocolate velvet fabric, and looked incredibly tacky and uncomfortable. "These dresses are horrible. Maybe we should head over to the bridal boutique."
Bonnie scowled so deeply that Caroline laughed unsympathetically.
"Fix that face," Caroline admonished. "I'm not saying go bye a wedding dress, but we might find a suitable bridesmaid's dress that should do you justice. Who's footing the bill for this anyways?"
"Technically I am, but I'm using the funds from the money marketing account I set up. My dad doesn't pay attention to stuff so long as he comes home and the lights and water is on, then he's satisfied."
"You're practically living alone in that house like a real adult and I have to hear the good Sheriff's mouth if I forget to put the dishes away after washing them. I'm like they're washed aren't they? I guess my best just isn't good enough."
Bonnie could do nothing but shake her head.
"But seriously, what do you do with Damon? I barely see him lurking around town and when I do see him he's wrapped around you like a python."
Bonnie allowed herself one small grin as she half-heartedly searched through a rack filled with pastel colored dresses.
"We talk."
"And?"
"Sometime's there's kissing involved."
Caroline immediately stopped searching the racks and drew closer to Bonnie, her face splintering with greed to hear more gossip.
"And?" Caroline elbowed her.
"And sometime's he makes me tongue-tied and crossed eyed."
Caroline's eyes widened and she threw her arms around Bonnie nearly choking her. "Skanky! You gave him your V card?"
"No!" Bonnie pinched Caroline who yelped loudly. "But he's gotten a lot farther than others have and that's all I'm going to say on the matter."
"I can't believe this. You like this Damon Salvatore but the one you actually know…you can't stand him."
"It's all a matter of perspective. I'm not seeing anything in here, Care. We might as well try your idea and head over to the bridal boutique."
The two girls made their way to the boutique on foot.
Caroline resumed their earlier conversation. "You say it's all a matter of perspective but, Bonnie as much as I love that you're exploring your sexual side I do have to caution you about getting too serious with Damon. He's going to leave one day and I'd hate to have to cross dimensions in order to track him down and beat his ass if he breaks your heart."
Bonnie laughed. "I'm not going to take it that far with him because of the fact he isn't here to stay," she said on a sigh. They entered the boutique which was blissfully empty. "He's been nice to me."
"Which I find hard to believe but if you're letting him round bases," she winked, "I'd be nice to you, too."
Bonnie popped Caroline on the shoulder. "Sometimes I really think you're a guy," Bonnie commented.
Caroline snickered.
A sales lady came out of nowhere and stopped the girls in their tracks. "Hi, ladies and welcome to Giselle's Boutique. So who's the lucky bride to be?"
Caroline pushed Bonnie forward. "She is and she has two grooms and has the daunting task of picking which one she'll actually walk down the aisle towards. So please do her justice."
The sales lady's eyes lit up like the Fourth of July as she began to tug Bonnie's arm. "We'll…aren't we blessed? We have a wonderful new, modern selection that just came in from New York…"
"Caroline," Bonnie growled as she was toted away.
What felt like hours later, Caroline yawned and then switched her weight from her right butt cheek to her left as she waited for Bonnie to emerge from the dressing room.
The door opened and Bonnie came out. The fabric of the gown swished against her legs as she stepped up on the dais.
"Oh, Bon…" Caroline fanned her eyes to keep her tears at bay. "You look so beautiful."
Even Bonnie had to admit she looked like a real Disney princess in the ball gown. She pirouetted for Caroline and then brought her gaze to the sales lady who was already counting up her commission in her head.
"Is this your dress?" the sales lady asked.
Bonnie nodded her head enthusiastically. "This is my dress."
The following day Bonnie dragged her sore body into the Salvatore living room. Her training with Stefan had gone the way she expected it to go. She had spent a majority of their session being knocked on her ass and knees and being taken by surprise. Trying to track a vampire sounded good in theory—in theory—she mentally reiterated but doing so in real life—priceless.
As usual she spotted Damon hovering near Elena as they went through Alaric's collection of torture devices and toys. She studied them for a moment taking note of the way Damon's eyes kind of lit up whenever Elena threw him a tiny smile, and that he constantly found some reason to touch her to draw her attention.
Bonnie felt her own skin tingle as phantom fingers grazed her flesh in the places where Damon touched Elena. Inwardly she growled and rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous.
She turned away from them and went upstairs to the bedroom Stefan said she could use to freshen up.
Once locked inside, Bonnie pulled her dirtied shirt over her head and stood in her sports bra and jeans.
Cold hands wrapped around her waist and Bonnie shrieked. Laughter tickled her ear and she spun around ready to slap the intruder across the face, but he caught her wrist in his palm and held it suspended in the air.
"Careful, gorgeous wouldn't want you to break your hand trying to slap my lips off my face."
Bonnie snatched her hand away from Damon. "You scared me."
He winked at her. "I figured that much."
"What are you doing here?" she questioned and then reached for the towel that was left on the bed.
"Elena asked me to stop by. She wanted to pick my brain on how I was able to deal with the Katherine of my world. She wasn't happy with the story I had to tell her."
Damon took it upon himself to unbutton, unzip, and pull down Bonnie's jeans who stepped out of them. He had seen her naked from the waist down twice already, but as his hands reached to strip her of her sports bra, Bonnie felt her heart take off in her chest.
His eyes darkened considerably when Bonnie turned around giving him the pleasure of watching the muscles in her back flex as she pulled her bra off. She quickly wrapped the towel around her body and began fashioning her hair into a ponytail.
"What's the story you had to tell her?" she questioned.
Damon sighed and took a seat on the bed. "Elena sacrificed herself in order to kill Katherine," he replied nonchalantly, ignoring that foreign pang that cut through his heart at the memory.
He lied backwards on the bed resting on his elbows. Bonnie sat down beside him. She was positive for as cool and unaffected as he tried to appear, Bonnie knew this was a hard topic for Damon to talk about.
"What happened?" she whispered.
"Katherine began affecting Fell's Church. Turning animals on their owners. Causing all kinds of chaos in her quest to kill Elena. She was successful, but Elena had Stefan's blood in her and she became a vampire. As a vampire, Stefan had given Elena Katherine's day walking ring. But Katherine had captured Stefan so Elena and her friends went to go rescue him, and I showed up attempting to be the dashing hero, but I soon learned that a mad vampire is an extraordinarily hard vampire to kill and she got the jump on me.
"I lost consciousness for a time and when I became lucid, Elena and Stefan were bound. She no longer had her day walking ring and tried to talk Katherine out of murdering the lot of us because her plan to unite me and my brother failed tremendously. And she wasn't too happy that we were once again fighting each other for the love of a woman who bore her face.
"While Katherine raved, Elena saw her opportunity to strike, but that meant she'd have to place herself in the path of the sun in order to snatch Katherine's day walking necklace off of her. So that's what she did. She had managed to unbind her hands and flew after Katherine, ripped her necklace off, and the both of them died in the sun."
There was the note of finality to his words but it was his eyes that told of the grief he felt at losing Katherine and Elena at the same time. Bonnie wanted to reach out and lay a comforting hand on him but part of her figured he wouldn't want that.
"Damon…you still love the both of them…don't you?"
He finally looked at her and whatever was in his eyes before had vanished now. He rose from the bed.
"Love and humanity are a vampire's greatest weaknesses, and unfortunately it's what keeps us alive." Damon bent and kissed Bonnie's cheek and walked over to the door. He paused before exiting. "I can't wait to see you in that gown you bought for the gala."
She sulked at him in disbelief. "Caroline showed you the dress?"
He tapped the side of his head. "She's an easy enough book to read. And I may have snuck a peek while you were out playing in the forest with Stefan."
Bonnie flipped him the bird to which he reared his head back and laughed heartily. "Don't take too long. Those people downstairs are increasingly boring."
Bonnie chuckled and hoisted herself from the bed. She sauntered her way to the connecting bathroom.
"Then go tell some jokes Eddie Murphy."
A/N: Finally we'll be getting to the gala where things will take many interesting twists and turns. And I had Katherine lay low this chapter but trust and believe she's not done wrecking havoc. Not by a long shot. Thanks for reading people. R&R! Love you guys!
