Chapter 10

When Elena became aware again, she was holding Damon down with all of her strength gorging on him. He had started to grow weak, but made no attempts to stop her. Her clothing had been burned in the fire that sent her body flying. So she was nearly naked, wrapped around Damon with her skin buzzing and her body tight with a need for so much more than blood. Damon's hands moved slowly over her back, like a weakening caress, even as his skin grew even paler than it usually was.

She and Damon were on the forest floor, her belly was full and if the burning tension inside her was any indication, they were just about to have sex. Her body buzzed with desire for him, even as she was now completely aware again. Her stomach cramped with an agonizing need mingled with paralyzing shame.

The guilty need she had felt for Damon in the early years of their friendship was nothing….nothing…compared to this.

His blue eyes glittered as they moved over her face. They had fluttered open when she went still in his arms. There were trails of blood smear all around Damon's face and neck. She had done that. She threw herself up and away from him, afraid of what she'd done and ashamed of what she wanted to do.

Horror and tears blinded her as she clung to a branch high in the nearest tree. Her friend. Damon was her friend. Not her lover. Elijah was her heart. Oh god, Elijah. Against her will, her skin still burned from the contact she had just broken.

Damon didn't even see her move. One second she was there, the next she was gone.

His eyes scanned the dark forest around him and then he heard her, from ten feet up. Her voice broke the silence of the tattered forest around them.

"Are you alright?" She was asking him that. She had been thrown miles in an explosion that had ended up flattening God knew how many acres of Salvatore land only an hour ago. Her first question, when she could think clearly again was about whether someone else was okay. Same old Elena.

"Well, I've had better days, but yeah, I'm fine." He tried to stand then, and swayed a bit. Then she was by his side, supporting his weight.

"I took too much." Her voice seemed to choke on the words.

"I hurt you. I'm sorry." She dropped to the ground again a few feet from him, her face was a mask of agony. She offered him her wrist and he shrugged it away.

"Please. I'm fine." He grinned a bit and rolled his eyes, but it all fell flat as he worked toward standing and failed on the first try.

He would've fallen flat too, if she hadn't been there to catch him.

In a strange twist of fate, she carried him back to the boarding house. He was the one that pointed out the irony of that to her as they moved through the broken trees and shattered landscape.

XXXXXXXXXX

They got Damon some blood and he was going to be fine. Or at least she kept telling herself that. He was still wise cracking when they walked through the door together, his way of reassuring her. He even insisted on walking the last portion of the distance, and did manage to pull it off with pride pushing him forward, it seemed.

He'd said, "You will not be carrying me over the threshold of my own home with God and everybody watching. Sorry, Super Girl. That ain't gonna happen."

But everyone in the room saw the markings on him and knew what she had done. Her stomach clenched at the thought.

She caught a glimpse of Milla on the way up the stairs. The little girl was lying on the floor at her father's feet. Her color looked better already. She looked at her watch. Twenty one more hours to go. Maybe little Milla would be OK too, now.

She excused herself, saying that she would clean up. Avoiding Elijah's eyes proved a real challenge as she left the room.

Peeling off the jacket she had borrowed from Damon to cover her lack of clothes, she took a good long look at what was left. The tank shirt was basically gone, tattered. Thank God for a nice bra, she supposed…but still. Her pants were a lost cause. Heart breaking. These were her favorites, too.

When she emerged from the shower, she found clean jeans and a pink t-shirt laid out on the bed. Elijah sat beside them on the bed, waiting for her.

"Milla?" She asked, refusing to look up as she pulled on her clothes.

"Milla's doing better. She's turned in with her father for the night. I think that little girl is going to be fine now. She's already much stronger and the grey is fading very quickly. I think she'll look like a different child by morning." Elena sagged with relief and Elijah went on.

"My concern is for you. I felt that explosion rock the entire house. Are you alright?" He came close and wrapped strong arms around her, running a hand down her back as if to reassure himself she was still in one piece.

She nodded, her head lowered, her nose pressed just below his shoulder. "Yeah, it was pretty intense."

"Bonnie said before she left that Jack and his people should be free to go where they want now."

Thank goodness for Bonnie and her tendency to wrap things up into tight little packages. Elena had not looked forward to trying to explain to anyone what she had seen and what they had been done – accomplished.

"She also told me that it was pretty bad in there." Elijah raised her head so she would have to meet his eyes. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She pulled away, avoiding his scrutiny. He knew her too well, would see too much. She knew he would want to see what she had seen, and she couldn't show him just a little of it. She would end up showing him everything. Her eyes stung at the thought. That couldn't happen.

"Not really, Elijah. I would just like to sleep for now." And so they settled on the bed together with Elijah wrapping his arms around her as she slept.

XXXXXXXXXX

She woke alone and felt grateful. Facing Elijah was more than she had the strength for at the moment. It was when that thought occurred to her that she knew what she had to do, even as she felt like her heart was breaking.

Elena heard Milla move from her bed next to her Dad and pad around her room a bit. The little girl appeared on the stairs wrapped in a soft white robe that covered her nightgown.

Elena was leaning on the stair rail and smiled up at the girl. Glowing green eyes looked back at her. They had been pretty before, but were beautiful now. Smooth pink cheeks dimpled as the girl returned the smile.

"Miss 'lena, does you have cereal? I'm hungry." A small hand rubbed her belly expressively over the pink flowered nightgown she still wore.

"I don't know sweetheart. Why don't we go look together?" She held out her hand and Milla took it with a smile.

She didn't know who to thank for Milla being alright. Instead she thanked every god that she could think of. Her hair was glowing and a soft brownish color with natural blonde highlights. Milla had become frankly the most beautiful little girl Elena had ever seen. She might be prejudiced though, being a new god mother and all.

Jack came down a few minutes later and found Milla demolishing a bowl of cereal at the kitchen bar. It made his heart sing. For months, no matter what he offered her, he'd barely been able to get her to eat. He didn't know what he had done to deserve his little one being healthy, or this friend that had been willing to do so much for someone who barely knew them, but he was gratitude and joy made his heart pound.

He poured himself a cup of the coffee and went to settle in beside Milla at the counter. Elena met his eyes and grinned, looking down at Milla expressively, her joy seeming to mirror his.

"Good morning, Mills" Milla looked up into her daddy's face and her little brows scrunched up with worry.

"What's wrong Daddy?" Jack didn't realize that there were tears there were rolling down his cheeks until that moment.

"Not a single thing, sweetheart. I'm just happy."

Elena settled into onto the stool beside him at the bar and glanced at the clock. They had four hours left.

"Jack, I need to talk to you for a minute." She met his eyes, then pointed at one ear and put a finger to her lips. She didn't want to be overheard. Got it. He nodded.

She pointed at a pad of paper in front of him. Pen in hand, she wrote, I need wheels, a bike. Fast. Does someone in your pack have one for sale?

He took the pen from her hand and responded, Everything I have is yours. Please take mine.

She shook her head emphatically as she wrote. Just need to borrow until I can get somewhere and buy my own.

He nodded. Then she wrote You don't owe me or anyone else anything. Milla being safe and healthy is enough for all of us. Don't carry some debt with you, K?

He still didn't understand, so he asked the questions he'd been afraid before to put voice to. Why did you help us? I didn't really expect, when we came here that you would…. He couldn't even finish the thought, even on paper.

She appeared to consider that for a moment, she looked fondly at Milla's head, soft gold highlights playing in the caustic lights of the kitchen.

One smile from her and I lost my heart. It was love at first sight, Jack.

He nodded. That he could understand and believe. It also brought him some reassurance to know that this powerful creature loved his daughter that way. Milla would be safe. An entire wolf pack and a vicious female vampire all a phone call away….

Before anyone else was awake and stirring, Jack took Elena outside and introduced her to his bike.

"You ride, right?"

"Yes. My dad taught me when I was twelve."

"This isn't a dirt bike, Elena."

"I'm not some silly human female biting off more than she can chew, Jack." She grinned.

Yeah, ok, point made.

Jack unloaded the bike and pulled off the cover without flourish, but Elena gasped anyway.

"Oh, my. It's a Harley Softail Custom. Black matte paint. It's beautiful, Jack. Are you sure you want to do this? Even for a few days…."

He shrugged. It was paid for and didn't even rank on his list of priorities.

"No big deal. Take it for as long as you need. When you're ready, let me know and we'll arrange delivery back to New Mexico. I'm not using it right now. I have responsibilities." He meant Milla.

The bike had leather side bags. Elena had plans for them.

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At the one hour countdown mark, Elena began to paw through the bag that Elijah had brought. There was an extra change of clothes in there and she needed them. She didn't know where he was, even now. Everyone had been up for several hours. Only Jack knew of her plans, and he wouldn't be saying anything.

Headed for the door of her room, thinking to get these things in the side bags, Elijah stepped in suddenly. He leaned against the door, watching her and she flushed guiltily.

"What's going on, Elena?"

"When the pack rolls out, I'm going to follow them to the state border, to make sure they are able to cross it without problems."

Crossing his arms, he shook his head. "Why would you need a change of clothes for that?"

She looked at her feet for a moment before she forced the words past the knot in her throat.

"I'm leaving, Elijah."

From the corner of her eye, because she didn't have the courage to look directly at him, she saw him blanche.

"It's just for a little while. I'm working out… something. I have to do this alone."

Elijah had been here before, watching someone he loved walk away. The eyes she turned on him, the ones that wouldn't meet his, seemed cold.

"I need a day, a week, a month…I don't know. Just to get my head straight."

"And you can't do that with me?" His voice was strangled.

"I'm so sorry." She didn't touch him. Shame wouldn't allow it.

"I love you, Elijah. That won't change in a few days." All she could really think about was being gone. Being near him reminded her too starkly of her betrayal.

He didn't respond. What could he say, after all? He had hoped….so much. He had expected this, after all. Guilt and pain, as he faced the inevitable, threatened to squeeze the life out of him.

"Then go, Elena. Know that I love you and everything I have done has been for you." His words rang with sincerity, but it was a false at best, an outright lie at worst. He had pressured her to stay with him for his sake alone. Now he was paying the price for his selfishness. He could hardly hold her to any promises she had made when he had lied to and deceived her so much himself in the last year.