The Perfect Getaway
(part 3)
(Damon's POV)
It seemed impossible to me that I could be given such a wondrous gift as being allowed to have this time with the girl that I loved. It seemed impossible that I had not only won the lottery in terms of women, and that I had achieved such a great victory over the mess in my heart that Katherine left behind, but that she had made the conscious (and forever) choice of being with me.
This escape at the lake house had been the one thing we both had needed for some time. If it wasn't the universe trying to tear us apart at the seams, or Caroline and her nagging voice in Elena's ear, it was her brother giving her the stink eye for her efforts in trying to further his education.
We had definitely needed this time together. After the dinner, we both fell asleep, stomachs full to the brim, and hearts content with everything that I never thought I deserved, or would even get in being in the shadow of my seemingly "perfect" brother.
In sleep, my hand had traveled to hers. When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that our hands had remained together even in rest. Sticky from being pressed together for so long, I gently extracted it from hers, and got up to walk back out into the living room.
We both needed to hunt (or get some blood bags from the local blood bank) but the options were scarce. The hunger that we vampires felt, was much stronger and urgent than a normal human when they got hungry. I felt as though I could rip the head off any poor, wandering soul that happened across the place, but I knew that would only serve to bridge a gap between Elena and I, and that was something I couldn't afford after all this time of trying to make her love me.
Rubbing a hand over my face, I had half a mind to call Jeremy and have him make himself useful by bringing some of our blood bags, but before my hand had even traveled down to my pocket where my phone was, the distinct, soft footsteps of Elena's, reached my ears.
"Hey," she smiled. "Good morning."
"Morning," I said, turning my head briefly to look at her.
She was still dressed in the oversized shirt of mine that she had elected to wear to bed last night. One of the downfalls of our relationship was that she now felt as though she had free reign to raid my closet and wear whatever shirt met her fancy.
"How did you sleep?" she asked, coming to stand beside me.
"Like a baby," I replied smoothly.
"Good. Is something wrong?" she asked after a beat.
"I um, I need something to drink," I said, putting emphasis on the word so she would know how serious it was quickly becoming. "And so do you."
"Oh, okay," she said, realization slowly crossing across that beautiful face of hers. "Do we have more of the blood bags?"
Not that we hadn't come prepared for something like this happening, but we had already gone through the meager supply that we had remembered to bring. Now when we really needed them, we were out.
"We finished two of them on the way here," I reminded her. "And then we finished the last one the day before."
Vampires could survive on human food for a short time, but it was the blood that we really craved, and it was the one thing that could prove to be the death of us if we didn't do something to satisfy that hunger that I could feel circulating in both of us.
"What do you want to do?" she asked.
"We could do the conventional method of snatch, eat, erase, but I know that you probably don't want that."
The one aspect of vampirism that Elena had flat-out rejected had been the notion that all vampires should follow legend and drink blood from humans. Even though I had tried to get her to see that we didn't do any actual harm by drinking their blood, that compassion chip she had on her shoulder, was a tough one to break.
"I don't want to hurt people, Damon," she whispered, her bottom lip jutting out as she tried to hold back her true feelings about doing that to someone.
I got it. I didn't blame her for wanting to spare someone the grief of having their neck serve as a blood bank, but what she didn't get, was that it was all erased with a simple mind compulsion trick that saved them the agony of knowing that a vampire had given them a temporary anemic condition.
"I know, I know. So what do you suggest we do?"
"I know that hunting animals isn't your preferred method," she began uneasily, "but it could satisfy you in a pinch, right? It could take away some of the hunger?"
"Yeah. Just throw me a couple of bears and mountain lions, and I'll be dandy."
"Damon-"
"It's fine, Elena. I should have brought more bags for us. We'll go out and do the bunny diet, and then when we get back home, we can treat ourselves to some real blood."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Even though I would have liked to have picked a fast victim and drained part of his or her blood, I knew that Elena would probably carry that guilt with her for the rest of her life, and I didn't want to be the reason for her carrying even more of that on her shoulders.
"Let's go, then."
To my extreme astonishment, Elena's compassion toward the suffering of humans, extended to the animal kingdom as well. It was absolutely infuriating to watch her as she hesitated on the perfect prey: A deer. A full-size buck that would satisfy that hunger that had been brewing inside of her.
Leaning down as though she was about to start a race, I could feel her start to shake as she imagined killing the defenseless animal. Her compassion had been crippling when she was human, but now as a vampire, it was damaging to her as she looked back up at me, as though begging me to make this somehow easier on her.
"Damon," she started to say, choking back on a soft cry. "It's an animal. It can't help itself if I-"
"Elena," I said gently, trying my best to be patient with her and help her through this process. "Breathe," I instructed, as I gently palmed her face, pushing her hair behind her ears.
"But I-"
"Look at the deer. Do you hear the blood rushing through its neck?"
Elena nodded, never taking her eyes off her prey. I knew that she was tempted to run and grab it, and I wanted that for her, but I knew that she would hold herself back until the last possible moment.
"Yes," she whispered.
"That's the carotid artery," I said, as I ran my hands up and down her slender arms. "It's the main port that sends oxygen from the head to the neck. If you bite down on that crucial artery, you'll end the suffering for the animal, and you'll be able to get your fill faster."
Elena nodded. "I know...I know."
Stefan had taught her all of this during vampire 101 when she first had transitioned, but somehow she seemed to have forgotten all of that during that time period.
"Then go get it," I urged. "You'll feel better once you do."
Nodding as though she were in a trance, Elena crept foreword a few inches, slow and precise as the animal that she was hunting, and then she pounced. The animal struggled needlessly for a few seconds, before going limp as she hit the artery that I instructed her to.
Even though I was suffering and needed to find something to satisfy my own cravings, I let her finish the deer completely, before moving on. It was clear from the sidelong looks she threw me as we continued walking in search of our next prey, that she felt guilty for draining it dry without including me in on the little feast.
"Damon-"
"What?"
"I'm sorry that I didn't let you drink some. I mean, you were the one who wanted this. You were the one who suggested we go out, and I just sat there and drank like some out of control crackhead."
"Elena, stop. You needed that blood more than I did. We'll find another deer, or better yet, a bear, and we'll feast on it together."
"Together?" she asked uncertainly.
"Yes."
It didn't take us long to find something else to set our sights on. This time, it wasn't a bear like I envisioned for us, but a mountain lion that was stalking something for itself, having no idea that a vampire couple was behind it, ready to pounce.
Deciding to spare Elena the grief of performing the kill, I went ahead and did it myself. Once I beckoned her over to the carcass when I successfully ended its life, she didn't waste a second as we both got our share before admitting we had satisfied ourselves, and went back to the lake house.
It was almost disappointing to realize that we had to leave to go back to our regular lives in Mystic Falls. Being able to escape from all the petty drama that centered around us with everyone from Caroline to even Jeremy, had been an escape that we didn't even realize we needed until it had been right upon us.
I could tell just from looking at Elena that she was disappointed. I didn't blame her.
We were both silent as I started the car up and rolled down the dirt driveway and out onto the normal town road. Sighing deeply, she looked over at me before reaching down to grasp my hand as it rested near the console.
Smiling softly, I allowed the touch as I turned onto the highway, the quickest way to ensure that we would get home safely. The drive didn't take as long as I initially envisioned, and for that I was grateful. We were both whipped from the journey, and just wanted to get a good rest in before resuming our lives.
"It feels good to be back," Elena admitted, speaking for the first time since we had left the lake house.
"If you say so."
"Stop," she said, grinning.
"You want to be back here?" I asked incredulously. "With Barbie whispering in your ear about me, and your brother acting like the universe revolves around him?"
"I can't help anything to do with Caroline, but I'll talk to Jeremy and see if I can make him understand a few things."
"Good luck."
Walking through the foyer, we immediately turned to the staircase in the hall and started up to deposit our things in our room. Passing through the hall, Elena stopped short. Nearly running into her, I was about to ask whether or not something happened, before her soft gasp answered the question for me.
"Jeremy's gone."
