A vampire in love with a human.

Elena POV

My skin felt like it was burning. Literally peeling off of me. My hands were covered in blood- my blood. I pressed a hand to my stomach protectively, to catch hold of the silver handle of a knife. "No," I whispered. My mouth pooling, blood came streaming out. Coughing and sputtering, I fall ungracefully to the floor, my vision blurred, only to see a shadowed figure walking towards me. "Wh..o?"

"Hey Elena , long time no see," - Jeremy. I could make out his arm reaching towards me, thinking it would be to help. How I was wrong. The next thing I felt was a fist punching me in the stomach just below the knife. More blood seeped from my mouth and now my nose as well. "Jer. Stop," one last breath and I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.


Damon POV

I loved her. That much was clear to me; even Bonnie had noticed a change in me. It was obvious to everyone except the one who really mattered – Elena. So here I am, sat in the lounge with my half- full glass of bourbon, relaxing. Well I was relaxing, but that was until I heard her scream.

I didn't even think, dropping my glass, allowing it to shatter upon impact on the floor, but I didn't care. I was up the stairs in seconds, throwing open the door waiting to find an imposter. How wrong was I?

A scene was unfolding in front of me. Both bedside tables were on their sides, along with the objects which typically resided upon them which were strewn across the floor of the bedroom. There were little dots of red on the ripped white bed sheets. In fact, the place was a mess. I took a step in and noticed that I was crunching on something. Peering down I saw glass shards sheeting the floor, obviously from the destroyed mirror of her vanity table. While I took in all of these factors I didn't even think realise that Elena was in fact nowhere to be found. Shaking myself mentally.

"Elena?" I spoke into the darkness. Out of nowhere, something was flying straight towards my face. Thankfully my reaction time is extremely fast, so the soaring object flew straight past me, smashing against the wall behind me.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I could hear her, and yet I could not see her.

"Elena. You know I won't hurt you," I said, almost in a whisper.

"NO! Keep away!" her screaming was getting louder and louder.

Entering further I scoped out the room until I could see her huddled the other side of her bed in nothing but her bra and panties, and even they weren't fully intact. Her hair was a mess and she was desperately clutching her leg and her stomach, between throwing objects in my direction.

"Get out! Get away from me! NO!" she shrieked as I slowly made my way towards her. As I closed in to her she thrashed and kicked at me with one leg.

"Stop Elena! I won't hurt you. You know me!" gripping her arms tightly, I shook her but she wouldn't stop. To keep her from hitting me or even harming herself, I twisted her sharply in my arms so that her back was pressed firmly against my bare chest as the thrashing continued.

"Let me go! Please! I won't tell! Jer, please!"

I kept my grip, as she began to calm down, whimpering.

"Jer, I'm sorry, just please don't hurt me anymore." Her pleading voice would forever be engrained into my memory. So much pain and suffering, so much fear.

I stroked hair soothingly, my chin resting a top of her head. "Elena. It's Damon, I won't hurt you."

"D…damo…n" she wept while I held her.

"Yeah lena, it's me. What happened?" her body was shimmying out of my grasp and turning. Her tear stained cheeks were smudged; eyes bloodshot and a large gash graced her forehead. She reached behind her, taking hold of the bed post and started to pull herself up from the floor. However the attempt was in vane as she cried out and dropped to the floor once more that moment she tried to use her legs. I caught her effortlessly, before she had the chance to hit the floor. More tears leaked from her eyes as she clutched her stomach tightly.

"It hurts, Damon, it hurts so much." she curled up into a ball in my lap, with her right leg straight out in front of her. Her head rested on my chest as I cradled her to me.

"Shhh, it's okay. You're going to be okay." With this, I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her petite form from the ground, gaining me small wince from her quivering lips. Carefully I carried her out of the door and down the corridor to my bedroom. Gently I sat her on my bed while I swept into the bathroom and filled a large bowl with warm water. I reached underneath the sink for the ice box, which I withdrew and poured into another empty bowl. Once full of ice, I topped it with cold water and carried both, plus two cloths, back into the room. She was bent at the waist, sobbing and gripping her leg in pain. A large purple bruise was prominent on her beautiful olive skin, the whole right hand side of her stomach.

"Oh Lena," I crouched next to her, pushing against her shoulders, so that she was lying flat on her back. Dipping one of the cloths into the warm water, I wrung it out slightly and then brought it to her head, dabbing it gently, to take away any weeping blood and to wipe away the sweat gathered over her skin. After putting that to one side, I dove my hand into the ice water and cupped five pieces of ice in my hand where I placed them into the other cloth and wrapped it up. I slowly guided the handmade ice pack to her stomach, causing her to wince severely at the temperature. I could see tears trickling from her eyes down her cheeks.

"Shh… shhh, princess. I know it hurts, shhh…" I finished with her stomach and carried the bowls back to the bathroom. Reaching for the first aid kit, I took it back to the bedroom where Elena hadn't moved. Opening it I found many rolls of bandages. Unrolling them, I began wrapping them from her knee, all the way down to her ankle and around the base of her foot. Once I was finished, I helped her sit up and turned her so that her head was rested on my pillows. I quickly grabbed an extra pillow from the laundry cupboard in the hall and placed it on the bed. From my wardrobe I took one of my shirts and walked back to her.

"Sit up a bit, kitten," she reluctantly complied enough that I could wrap the shirt around her and button it up. When done, she lay back down while I propped her leg on the extra pillow and pulled the covers up over her.

"Sleep Elena, you'll feel better in the morning," bending down to place a kiss on the cut on her forehead. I turn to walk out of the door to a spare room.

"No!" I turn on my heel to see her beginning to shake again. "St…t…ay, please," she said quietly. I was shocked but was more than happy to grant her wish. Creeping around to the other side of bed and climbed in beside her. She was cold and shivering, but I never would have noticed just how much until I felt her wriggling to me and snuggling into my side. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her and drew her closer to me as her eyes closed.

"I love you Elena." I kissed her cheek and slipped into a deep, perfect sleep.