A.N: Well, here I am. Sorry for this long delay. But I've been trying to reconcile school with parents, friends, writing and trying not to fall down everyday so it's been a busy month. I ended this chapter about two weeks ago. I tried to translate it last week, but I hadn't the official version with me so I coulnd't.

Thank you for all your wonderful reviews. They make me smile a lot. I hope you like the chapter. It's been a little fun to write, but chapter 10 will be much more fun. Can't wait to write it :D. Please, if there are any mistakes, tell me, because I hate when there are mistakes.

Another thing I wanted to say. Do you remember the little fic I had in mind (check the last note)? Well, I'm going to write it, because I had some favorable reviews from my spanish readers. I'll write it at the Easter holidays. If you want me to translate it, I will gladly oblige. Just please, tell me.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 9

Elena's POV:

After Stefan's visit, I was in a sort of catatonic state, where I acted on an automatic way. I didn't feel calm, but I wasn't too worried either. It was like all my worries and fears were hidden behind a shield and I didn't know when it would break open.

"Your aunt is asleep after realizing all this just was a little twisted joke of her niece and her nephew. Don't worry, she hasn't taken it too badly. The only thing is… you and Jeremy are grounded for two weeks." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. I still didn't understand how he did that. It fascinated me how he could manipulate human's mind so good.

That afternoon, after Damon calmed me down after Stefan's visit, he and I had worked on how to retire the… how had he called it? Compulsion, yeah, to retire Jenna's compulsion so she wouldn't believe I was a hallucination every time she saw me. We had worked on the Jeremy and mine joke's idea where a 'friend' of Jeremy's had also participated. I had also asked Damon to make her forget the story I had told her in the morning, the truth. After all, Jenna didn't believe the story and I didn't want her to be involved in this mess that was more from Supernatural than from reality. In fact, the only thing that was left was the Winchesters knocking on my door, stake in hand.

Damon sat down next to me on the couch. He looked exhausted while he closed his eyes and titled his head. For a moment, he looked asleep. Could vampires sleep?

"You okay?" I asked while I turned on the couch to face him.

"Yeah. Stefan's compulsion wasn't too strong… he and his stupid animal diet." He made a face of disgust. "But replacing all the memories of the past few days with some brand new ones is a little tiring. Besides, it has left me a bit hungry."

"Do you need… blood?" I asked doubtfully

"No, Elena, I need a salad." He opened his eyes to glance at me skeptically, to look at me amused in mere seconds. "Why? Are you offering?" He asked as he got a little closer to me.

"Whoa. Easy." I said I pushed him slightly. I knew that, with my strength, I could not prevent him from getting closer to me (or doing whatever he wanted with me, in short), but he allowed it, anyways. "I wasn't offering, but if you need to… feed, you should, because if you go on like that, you'll hurt someone."

"How cute!" He said while his hand was reaching for my nose to caress it with his index finger's tip. "Always caring about everybody." He said it as he had just had a revelation, like he wasn't expecting it. I just shrugged and let it go. "But you're right. I should feed. We could order a pizza, what do you say?"

I frowned and glanced at him confused. Didn't he need blood? Why did he want a damn pizza?

"Pizza?" I finally asked.

"Yeah, you're right you've eaten pizza twenty-four hours ago. We better phone the Grill to order any other food."

"Errr… Sure." I didn't feel like cooking anyways. I still didn't know what did that have to do with his… blood thirst.

Damon grabbed his cell phone and phoned the Grill (it seems that he knew the number by heart) and ordered something to eat (I didn't get it because he talked so low I didn't know how the person at the end of the line had caught it).

While we waited for the dinner to arrive, I started to set the table with Damon's help. It was pleasant. For the first time in a long time, I felt… normal, if we left the aside fact that a ripper vampire wanted me to be the rebound of the vampire who had turned him and his brother in vampires, everything was pretty normal: me setting the table with a… friend? a buddy? Whatever. Well, setting the table to have dinner and a normal night watching or doing any other normal things, you get my point.

When about five minutes had passed, Jeremy entered in the kitchen. He looked like he was leaving. Panic took over me. What if Stefan caught him? He had done too much damage to my aunt. "Where are you going?" My voice was a little higher because of the fear.

"I'm meeting a girl I met at the library." He said shrugging while opening the fridge door to grab a coke.

"What? You can't go out. If I'm grounded, so do you."

"Yeah, but that was to fix Jenna's head. I've done nothing so there's no way in hell I'm staying in."

"Jeremy, please. Stefan could go to catch you. You shouldn't go out!"

Jeremy ignored me and headed to the doorway saying. "Your lips are moving but I hear nothing." And he left without giving me a second glance. I stayed there, standing in the middle of the kitchen staring at the doorway.

"Looks like someone's too affected by the teenage." I heard Damon saying behind me. I turned around to look at him.

"Yeah, well since our parents died a few months ago, he's been like that. Just before… Stefan kidnapped me I found out he's doing drugs. God, he surely has gone to see Vicky and her friends, the wasted. In the library… sure. I wonder how long it's been since he visited Mystic Falls' library." I would have gone on complaining about my brother if Damon hadn't interrupted me.

"Wait." He said. "You said he's doing drugs?"

"Yeah, why?" I asked confused.

"What kind of drugs?" He asked as he stepped closer to me.

"Well, that day I found marijuana and a few ant depressives. I don't know what else he could have taken… What? What's the matter?" Damon was now barely a few centimeters away from me with an amused and calculating glance. I wondered how he got to mix two really different emotions in the same captivating glance.

He chuckled. He was surely laughing at my expression. "You know, you should thank your brother that he wants to escape this cruel world using chemical products."

What? Had he really just said that? Seriously? My brother's ruining his life and I gotta thank him? Could vampires get wasted?

"Why the hell would I…?" The doorbell interrupted me.

"Dinner's here…" Damon said in a sing-song voice while he licked his lips.

I still couldn't understand how that was going to relive his… thirst. It was Damon who went to open the door, which revealed Vicky Donovan, my ex-boyfriend's sister, who, when she saw who had opened the door; looked a bit disappointed (she obviously was expecting Jer to open the door), but disappointment was quickly replaced by a happy glance and a seductive smile so evident that made me roll my eyes. Vicky Donovan wasn't known because of her modesty nor being a prude precisely.

"Have you ordered a dinner?" Vicky asked biting her lip while she scanned Damon's body with hungry eyes. A pang of… jealousy? No. I couldn't be jealous. Damon wasn't my boyfriend and he couldn't be either. Who was I? Bella Swan? In the end things didn't end up too good for her: she and her family were almost killed in most of the books. I didn't want that. I wanted a normal life, have a normal boyfriend, goi to the college, get married, have children, grandchildren, get old and die. That's how things are supposed to be, and that's how the gotta go on. But, yet, I didn't like the way Vicky stared at Damon. Although the worst is that Damon invited her in with a charming smile that apparently melted Vicky. When they entered in the kitchen, Vicky gave me a glance full of disdain and set the bags with food on the counter. When she was done criticizing me in her head she turned around to talk to Damon. "Well, that's all. Can I do something else for you?" I rolled my eyes again. I swear I could see Vicky winking… And, again, Damon surprised me smirking widely at her, but this was different from any grin I had seen before. It was a hungry grin, similar to Vicky's, but Damon's hid something darker and more threatening. While Damon's eyes scanned Vicky's body, the sight of a cat that got its prey popped in my mind. He was getting closer to her little by little while saying:

"Actually, I just need one more thing. Elena, maybe you should go to the living room."

What! Did he seriously think I was going to let him to make out with Vicky Donovan in my house? Okay, it was official: Damon was wasted or something like that. I kept staring at him in disbelief for at least a minute until I was able to regain my voice. "What you want to do, you do it out of my house." I said with a cool voice trying not to show any emotions.

"That's not a problem for me. We can go to the porch." Damon said like it wasn't a big deal and shrugging. He grabbed Vicky's arm and started guiding her to the backdoor.

Vicky, on the other hand, wasn't as understanding as him.

"What? I don't wanna go to the porch!" She protested while she struggled against Damon's grasp and shot me a murderous glare.

Damon stopped to turn on his tracks. When he spoke, his pupils widened and plunged Vicky into a kind of trance. "Yes, you do." He said with a calm and cold voice. Then his eyes got back to normal and Vicky looked like herself again.

"I'm thinking," she said casually, "why don't we go to the porch?" It was like the idea just popped in her head.

Damon smirked and did that eye thing, lifting his eyebrows while smirking a little. I don't know, it's hard to describe but Vicky looked really pleased and followed him to the porch with no more objections.

I was still standing, in the middle of the kitchen, like an idiot before what I had just seen. I guess that was an example of how vampires played with human minds. With a simple glance they could get you to do whatever they wanted. Amazing.

I was taking the food out of the bags Vicky had brought when I heard a soft moan from the porch. I couldn't believe they were doing… that in my porch! I mean, I have neighbors, for God's sake! I really hoped no one heard or saw that, because I think I'd die.

A few minutes later Vicky entered in the kitchen and came closer to me. "Could you give me a gauze for my neck, please?" Wait a moment. Had Vicky Donovan just talked to me nicely asking for something saying 'please'? Has Hell frozen or something? It was then when I noticed her neck's mark. It looked like mine: two red, bleeding dots that indicated where she had been bitten. Her mark was slightly different though: she had two round, perfect dots; mine were slightly irregular and were surrounded by a bruise. Meanwhile, Vicky was still standing in front of me, waiting with a light smile for the gauze I hadn't given to her yet. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I said:

"Err… yeah, sure. Hold on a second. I'll be right back with it." With clumsy, slow movements, I moved away from her to head to the cupboard below the stairs, where we kept the first-aid kit. I took a couple of gauzes and a little of Band-Aid and handed it to her. "Do… do you want me to help you to put them on?" I said doubtfully. That situation was so awkward and weird.

"Oh, that's not necessary." She said putting the gauzes on her neck ignoring the Band-Aid utterly. "Well, I'm leaving. Enjoy your meal!" She said with a last smile before disappearing through the door.

I turned around to see Damon, who had finished taking the food out of the bags like none of that had happened.

"That was the reason why you wanted to order food? Because you wanted to feed on the distributor?" I said in disbelief.

He shrugged. "If that wasn't the reason, what else would it be?" He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Did you really think I was going to fuck her in your kitchen or at the porch?" He added glancing at me, clearly amused. My face went red.

"No!" But I said that too fast and too loudly.

"You're lying." He said with an evil smirk. He was enjoying it. "Were you jealous?"

"But why did she moan?" I asked defensively.

He chuckled and glanced at me sympathetically. "I guess my little, ripper brother wasn't too gentle when he did that to you, right?" He said pointing the bite-mark on my neck. I shook my head. "Let's see how I explain you this…" He muttered. I approached the table were our food was at the same time he did. "You see, when we bite humans, they can experience two types of reaction depending on their 'donating' is willing or not." He stopped for a second to evaluate my reaction. "When the donor isn't willing the body reacts to us causing him/her pain, a horrible pain." I nodded, remembering the pain I had felt when Stefan had bitten me. "But when the donor is willing, what he/she experiences is pleasure. It's a very intense experience, that bears a relation to sex. In fact, when we have sex, whether it's with a human or with another vampire, we usually end up biting or exchanging blood. As you can guess, that girl was a willing donor."

I was processing all that new information. Now it all had a little more sense. But, yet, I had a doubt:

"And how do you 'know' the donor is willing? I mean, you have to say something like 'I let you bite me', like when you have to be invited inside a house?"

"That's one people don't usually ask." He said. "You don't have to say anything, just stay still and not fight the vampire. It's like a switch that turns off and another one turns on instead. Pain is replaced by pleasure. When vampire and donor have an emotional bond, the experience is even more intense." Damon looked now lost in his thoughts, like he wasn't here with me anymore.

"You talk like an expert." I said carefully. "Like you had felt it thousands of times. From a human's point of view, I mean"

He gave me a sad smile. "Yeah, well, that's a long story, like all. I better tell it to you another day."

I recognized that tone instantly. It's the one I use when I don't want to talk about my parents' death. Despite my curiosity, I let it go. We were eating in silence until I remembered what he had said about Jeremy.

"What did you mean when you said I had to thank Jeremy for doing drugs?"

He stopped eating and began explaining:

"When your brother said that, despite Stefan's compulsion, he wasn't sure you were dead, I suspected he had resisted compulsion, but the problem was I didn't know why. But when you told me about the drugs… well that explains it."

"But how?" I asked.

"Compulsion is based mainly on the brain's manipulation. Drugs kinda do the same: they liberate certain substances that even make us see things that aren't there, but our brain 'sees them'. If Jeremy was under drugs' influence when Stefan came here…"

"Then his brain, might have resisted his compulsion." I finished his sentence. It was incredible that something that was so harmful to Jeremy had resulted so… advantageous. It was crazy, in fact.

"It's just a theory. It's not like there are tons of believable researches and treatises, you know."

"Yeah, I guess so…"

We went on eating in silence. The two of us lost in our own thoughts. When we were done, Damon helped me to set the dishwasher and I announced I was going to bed.

"Awesome. Let's go." Damon said heading to the stairs.

"Ha, ha. Good joke." I said sarcastically. "You're sleeping on the couch." I said with serious face again.

"I gotta watch you." He said innocently and pouting adorably.

"How are you gonna watch me if you're sleeping?" I asked narrowing my eyes.

"I don't need to sleep." He explained like it was something obvious. It looks like he forgets it isn't. I looked at him with mock horror.

"Ugh. That's worse. You're gonna watch me in my sleep, like Edward Cullen."

He pretended to be offended. "Please, I'm far much more attractive than my brother's cinematographic version. Besides, I don't sparkle like a disco-ball."

"Sure, Dracula. But that changes nothing. You're not going to my bedroom."

"C'mon, Elena." He said approaching me until just a few inches separated us. My pulse quickened, but not because of the fear, like with Stefan. "I promise I won't bite you, although right now you want me to." He added while his eyes scanned all my body and went back to my eyes. Suddenly, I wasn't as confident as before.

"You're not trying to compel me, right?"

His face winced again offense, but this time it looked real. "No! I'm just trying to reason with you. You'd be much safer if I were in your bedroom. Vampires can be really stealthy when we want to." He warned me. "You wouldn't even see it coming." He finished.

I knew he was right. And I hated that fact. "It's not fair." I ended saying. "You take advantage of my fears to get your goals. Sometimes I wonder if Stefan is the only one I should fear or if I should also watch my watcher."

"What can I say?" He said with a cocky smirk. "You flatter me."

"I'm sure I do." I said while I headed to my room with Damon right on my heels.

God, that was going to be a really long night.