Chapter 10 – Define: Dead.

"Can you clarify 'dead' please?" asked Damon.

Bonnie's face showed no emotion whatsoever. "Dead - in a state of non-life, characterised by the corpse-like appearance, and lack of bodily functions such as breathing. You could have just googled it."

"That doesn't make anything clearer! Vampires look like corpses – no offense, I've been there – and they don't breathe. So do you mean 'rotting in a coffin' dead, or 'smoking hot vampire' dead?"

"Why does it matter?" she asked. "Either way, you won't be alive."

"Well, you see, I would like to plan my funeral in advance." he began. "Stefan would make it so boring and –"

The only reason Damon stopped talking was because Bonnie had started pleading with an invisible force that seemed to be contained only inside her head. "No, no, no, no, no. Please no! He didn't kill her, I did!"

The change in subject was so abrupt that Damon was dumbfounded. He raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to take a stab in the dark – and god forbid if I impale an innocent bystander with my random stabs – and guess that this guy is talking to you in your head."

"Yes. But be quiet, you're only going to make this worse. He wants me to kill you, and being so annoying and smelling so food-like isn't helping your case."

Damon shrugged. "Friends don't let friends eat friends. No matter how delicious. So I think you're pretty safe on that front."

"You know better than anyone else that it can't be helped sometimes! That you have to… you know… drink blood." Bonnie's words were filled with agony, and there were tears forming in her eyes.

"No." he disagreed "I know better than anyone else that it can be helped."

" No, don't question my logic, just believe it." He added as he saw her start to disagree.

Bonnie didn't say another word; she was too busy fighting with the whole of her being, to keep Zeklos out of her mind. Zeklos being Lilith's fiancé. He was pushing at her, with an invisible power, trying to cripple her will with his own.

Bonnie, kill him. Now.

No.

I never said you had a choice. Kill him. Now. A wave of power washed over Bonnie's mind as he said those words, but she fought hard, pushing him away.

With her own massive blast of energy, she forced him temporarily out of her head. GET OUT! She felt the bond between them explode, and then a weird sensation like the air was rippling around her, or like a chord had been severed within her mind, and then she was finally free of him.

Bonnie breathed in a sigh of relief, her chest heaving with the effort of her mental battle. She knew it wasn't over, but for now she could relax. Well, after she gave Damon a piece of her mind.

"What the hell was that?" Bonnie yelled.

"What was what?"

She was absolutely outraged by his ignorance. "I was going through hell, and all you could think about was yourself!"

"I didn't know what else to do!" he retorted. "Everything about me is immature, sadistic, sarcastic, flippant, and creepy. How can anyone expect someone like me to know what to do when the most important person in their life is going through a trauma? People like me just shut down and become absorbed in ourselves."

"Are you being immature, sadistic, sarcastic, flippant, and creepy right now?" Bonnie asked seething.

"Just a little. But that's not the point."

Bonnie breathed in deeply, gathering what little patience she had. "I don't care what the point is right now. All I care about is the fact that you weren't there for me when I needed you most."

Damon held up a vial of dark red liquid. "Do you want to reconsider those words? I have exactly what you need right now. Blood."

Bonnie was so surprised, that for a few seconds, all she could do was stare blankly at the small object in Damon's hand. "But… where did you get it?" It was a mystery she would never find the answer to without his help.

"Well, I was a vampire, so of course I was fascinated with blood, even my own."

"So you carried it around with you?" she asked.

"Yep" he replied flippantly.

"So why didn't you just use it to change yourself?

"I was going to tonight, that's why I had it with me." He said, like she should have guessed. Which she should have.

"Will you be able to get more?"

"Nope."

"So what you're saying…" Bonnie murmured. "Is that you're going to give up your only chance to be a vampire again, just to give me a little blood?"

"Well we couldn't have you dying, now could we? Drink."

She shook her head. "You're being flippant again."

"You know you'd die without it." He sighed. "You have to feed to complete the change. So hurry up and drink it."

"But—"

"Just drink it before I change my mind."

"No." said Bonnie.

"No? I basically offered you my life and you say no?" he was shocked at her refusal.

"What kind of person would say yes?"

Damon put his head in his hands and sighed in frustration. "Someone who isn't insane." He muttered. "Someone who values their life, and the massive favour I am doing you."

By now, Bonnie was absolutely dying of thirst, she could barely hold back from leaping at Damon and tearing into his throat. All she wanted to do was drink in the warm, red liquid that flowed through his veins. The feeling was disconcerting and she had no idea how to control it.

With shaking hands Bonnie took the vial. She uncapped the lid and raised it to her lips. "Thank you." She said before tipping its contents into her mouth.

"Cheers." Damon muttered, pretending to clink imaginary glasses together between them, as his last hope of ever becoming a vampire, disappeared down Bonnie's throat.

The blood was cool and refreshing on Bonnie's sore throat, and after a few moments she felt like herself again. She also wondered why Damon did what he had done. So she asked as much. "You do realise you could have just offered me your wrist or something, right?"

Damon stared back impassively. "I know."

"Then why didn't you?" asked Bonnie.

"Because" he replied calmly "You wouldn't have let me, not to mention that I have vervain in my blood."

Bonnie was taken aback. She knew she would have said no, but somehow she had thought that Damon wouldn't have known. The fact that he didn't try to force himself on her spoke volumes about him. He knows me! She thought ecstatically. He knew me well enough to know my response before the question was even asked. All Bonnie could think about was how much she wanted to kiss him, to feel his arms close around her, and hear him murmur the words she was desperate to hear. I love you.

But instead, Damon turned his back on her and fell to his knees.

"Damon?" said Bonnie. "Are you okay?"

"Fine and dandy." He sounded exhausted. "Just great."

Bonnie knelt down and put an arm around Damon's shoulders, which he hastily shook off. Bonnie was hurt, she had thought that they were getting to the point where they were more comfortable around each other. Here she was, trying to be nice and thank him for what he had just done, and here he was, not even acknowledging her; shunning her away, even.

Bonnie stood and turned away from him, fuming, only to hear a muffled thump a moment later. She whirled back around to find him sprawled on the ground, his face turned to the side, and blood dribbling out of his nose.

She looked around frantically, trying to find someone to help. But there was no one there. "Help!" she screamed hysterically, "Help!". She scrambled to Damon's side, and rolled him onto his side so that he was facing her. His cheeks were pale, and there was a thin glistening of sweat across his forehead. Bonnie slapped his cheek, and shook him, but to no avail, he wouldn't wake up. She checked his pulse, and found that it was very weak. Something about the way the colour was draining rapidly from his skin, and how he wasn't breathing, made Bonnie think that this was more serious that your usual fainting spell.

Acting purely on instinct, she carved at her own wrist with her teeth, making a cut. She didn't hesitate before putting her wrist to Damon's lifeless lips. The blood dribbled into his mouth, and after a few moments, he swallowed.

Bonnie felt the pull of more blood being drawn, and realised that her plan must be working; he was getting stronger already. The scene was so similar to that of a few months ago – though with a bit of role reversal – that Bonnie felt a stab of nostalgia for the time she was human.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she barely noticed that Damon had stopped swallowing. Bonnie pulled her arm away from his face, watching as he coughed and spluttered as he tried to breathe.

Taking in a gasping breath, Damon turned his head to look at Bonnie. "Well that defeats the purpose of our earlier exchange, doesn't it?" He joked. "Although I have to say, blood tastes a lot different when you're human. It's not as… tasty. I was expecting it to taste the sa—"

His words were cut off by Bonnie kissing him. It was only a peck, but it was enough to have both of them at a loss of words.

Instead of speaking, Bonnie helped Damon to his feet, where he stood steadily, and then took a few shaky steps before walking more confidently in the direction of the boarding house.

Bonnie followed after him, trampling across the damp grass, and then through the door. Damon continued on his way up the steps, not pausing to wait for her. Bonnie had expected him to find his way to the nearest chair and plonk down on it, not head upstairs. "Wait, where are you going?"

"To my room. Don't follow." He answered.

Bonnie stayed where she was, watching him walk up the stairs, until her suspicion got the better of her. She grabbed his shoulder. "Don't think that I don't know what you're doing." She said. "I'm not letting you go anywhere alone until my blood is out of your system."

Bonnie started to yank him down the steps, but stopped halfway when she saw Elena standing at the foot of the stairs, staring at Bonnie and Damon in horror. Bonnie knew what she must be seeing; Bonnie as a pale, magnificent vampire, dragging Damon down the stairs with blood splattered all over her right arm and staining Damon's skin from his mouth to his chest where Bonnie had spilled it.

"Bonnie! What happened?" She yelled.

Damon answered for her. "She had a little mishap involving a revenge obsessed vampire. No big deal."

"No big deal?" Elena fumed. "She's a vampire!"

"And you're a hypocrite."

Elena's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

Raising an eyebrow, Damon replied "You were a vampire; your boyfriend is a vampire, I was a vampire, you have kissed and done god knows what with a vampire. Who are you to judge?"

"I'm not judging!" She protested

"Elena" Bonnie said calmly "I'm not going to stand here and watch you two argue. Go get Stefan."

Elena left the room in a daze, leaving Bonnie standing alone with Damon. Damon tried to get up the stairs again, but was dragged straight back down. He scowled, staring darkly at Bonnie.

"Why do you want to be a vampire so bad?" She asked.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "I thought you would know by now."

"No..." Bonnie frowned.

"Never mind then." Damon made yet another attempt to go up the stairs, and this time Bonnie let him. Damon felt a rush of pride at his victory, but it was short-lived, as Stefan walked into the room, followed by Elena. Damon rolled his eyes at their serious expressions. "Oh, for the love of God. Can't any of you actually let me up the stairs? This is getting ridiculous." He huffed.

Stefan completely ignored him, instead turning his surprised face to Bonnie. "You're a vampire?"

Damon, refusing to be ignored, cut in. "Well done Sherlock Holmes, you have successfully identified her as one of the undead. What clued you in, huh? Her massive blood soaked fangs? Or the fact that she's looking at me like I'm the entrée?"

Stefan pretended Damon hadn't spoken. "Bonnie?"

"Or" Damon continued. "Could it have been that you finally learned how to observe the world around you? It had to happen sooner or later."

"Pity it wouldn't happen for you." Stefan retorted.

Damon opened his mouth to argue. Bonnie hastily reverted to the earlier topic before he could make things any worse. "Yes" she said. "I am a vampire."

"Who turned you?"

Bonnie looked nervously at Damon, who was staring at the floor. Well he was no help. "Look, never mind that at the moment, the most important thing is that we keep Damon from killing himself. He has my blood in his system."

"Yes." Stefan agreed. "We should take turns keeping an eye on him."

Damon abruptly halted his blank staring to glare at Stefan. "I'm on suicide watch? You have got to be kidding me!" He exploded.

He stalked off upstairs only to be followed by the ever persistent Bonnie. They stood outside his room for a while, before he stormed inside and flopped down in his desk chair.

Bonnie followed him into the room. "It's for your own good, you know."

"You may think it is" he replied "But you're thinking about what you want for me, not what I want for me."

Bonnie smiled tentatively "You'll thank me one day."

"No" Damon murmured quietly "I don't think I will."

2350 words, Wow this was a big chapter. I only made it so huge because I felt horrible for making you guys wait so long. I know I said I would be turning out the chapters more often, but I really let you down. I just really don't have the time anymore, my life is so hectic.

I'm not going to stop writing this story; it will just take a bit longer to come to fruition, that's all. So don't despair, you'll still get you fix of Vampire Diaries goodness... just not as often.

I would never give up on this without letting you guys know, and I have no plans for doing so in the foreseeable future.

There have been some MAJOR changes to my storyline. I had never planned for Bonnie to become a vampire, it just kind of happened; I really, really hope I haven't wrecked my plot by doing this... But we shall see how that goes.

Well anyway, my sincere apologies for the delay, and I hope none of you give up on me!

Love Kate