Make love to me, Joseph.

She turned into his arms, naked and eager, running her hands over him, making him groan with pleasure. He made love to her over and over again until he finally scared her because he couldn't stop… "Damon, stop this, you are scaring me!"

He drove into her deeper and deeper, while she begged him to stop… "Damon, please stop!"

While she told him he was dreaming…" Stop it, you are dreaming!"

And threatened to call the doctor… "If you don't wake up, I'm going to call a doctor!"

He didn't want a doctor, he wanted her. He tried to roll on top of her again, but she held him down, and put her hand on his forehead…. "Please wake up! Damon, you are scaring me."

Damon? Why was she calling him Damon? No, he was Joseph.

And whispered gently in his ear… "Dammit, you are dreaming! You are smiling in your sleep! Now, wake up!"

It was the curse that got through to him. She never swore, therefore something was wrong with his dream. Something was wrong…

He forced his eyes open and gazed at her beautiful face, struggling to reorient himself. She was bending over him, her hands grasping his shoulders, and she looked worried. "Katherine?" he whispered as he locked his fingers fiercely around her wrist.

"I'm Elena."

He blinked, dazed. "What?"

"I said I'm Elena."

"You are Elena." He tightened his hand around her wrist. "Yes, you are Elena."

"Yes, I'm Elena, not Katherine," she said soothingly. "It's okay, Damon, you are awake."

"Damn right."

He used his hold on her wrist to pull her off her feet and down onto the bed. The manoeuvre was conducted with the precision of a judo throw. One instant she was upright, the next she was flat on her back. The shadowy bedroom spun around her.

Before she could reorient herself and come up with a plan for dealing with the situation, Damon was on top of her, one muscled thigh pinning her leg to the quilt. He captured her other wrist, anchored it beside her head, and took her mouth with a ruthlessness that stunned her senses.

The kiss was incendiary, literally. The fiercely exhilarating fire of turbocharged passion burned in the atmosphere. Damon was running hot. He was still fully jacked from his dreamscape. That made for a lot of heat. But it was the return of the breath-taking sensation of intimacy that shocked and thrilled him. Something very strange had happened between them. His intuition warned him that the more time that he and Elena spent together—not just having superheated sex—the more powerful the bond would become—at least on his end.

Damon freed one of her wrists so he could untie the sash of her robe. His palm closed over her breast. He moved his mouth down to her throat.

She slid her hand up under his T-shirt and clawed at his muscled back. He was burning up with a psi-fever.

"Damon," she whispered.

"You are not Katherine," he growled. "Say it. You are not Katherine."

"Not Katherine," she gasped. "I'm Elena."

"That's right. You are Elena. Elena sleeps with me now. Only me."

He yanked opened the top of her nightgown and kissed her breasts with a hungry, desperate reverence. At the touch of his tongue on her sensitive nipples, she cried out. He released her other wrist to unzip his trousers. He fumbled the hem of her nightgown up to her waist. Then his hand was between her thighs.

"Wet and hot," he said against her throat. "That's how I like you."

She reached down and circled him with her fingers. "Hard and hot. That's how I like you."

His laughter was low and dark and wicked. "We were made for each other, Elena Gilbert."

Maybe, she thought, but probably not. This wasn't love. They hadn't had time to fall in love. This was raw passion fuelled by the bond that had been forged in Megan's and Damon's dream experience. She knew she could not trust her emotions tonight, but in the heat of the moment she did not care.

Damon got his pants off and then he was back on top of her, driving into her hard and deep. She pulled him close and wrapped herself fiercely around him.

Her release swept through her in seconds. She heard Damon groan as he followed her over the edge and into the effervescent seas that awaited them.

The first thing she noticed when she awoke a long time later was that she could not move. Damon had her pinned to the bed with one heavy arm wrapped around her midsection and a muscular leg thrown across her thigh. She lay still, partly because she knew that if she tried to move she would awaken Damon and she was not at all certain she wanted to do that. Not yet, at any rate. She had things to think about and she needed to think without distractions.

Now that the chaos of passion had resolved itself, the first thing she ought to do was take a cold, hard look at what had happened between her and Damon. Memories and impressions stirred her senses. Sex with Damon just now had been as disorienting, thrilling, and ultimately disturbing. He had called her Katherine. Was he dreaming about Katherine?

Now she tried to do just that, calling up the little details that she had missed during the passionate encounter. The way his fingers had closed around her thigh. The way his teeth had grazed a nipple. The way his tongue…

"You awake?" Damon asked.

"Yes."

He flopped onto his back and lay still.

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him. In the shadows she could not make out his expression, but she was sure his eyes were closed.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Define okay," he mumbled.

"Tell me about your dream."

He raised his arm and looked at her with half-closed eyes. "It was just one of those dreams."

She put her hand on his bare chest. "Tell me."

"Can't let it go, can you?"

"Nope."

"Going to throw it in my face again and again, aren't you?"

"Yep."

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"You called me Katherine," she said softly. "Did you see her in your dream?"

"Yes," he answered neutrally.

"You were smiling in your dream. What happened?"

"Jealous?" He stroked the curve of her head.

She sat bolt upright. His arm slid down to her hips. Aware that she was nude, she grabbed the sheets and held them to her breasts.

Jealous! Was she jealous because Damon was dreaming about Katherine? She was not his wife or even a close friend, she reminded herself. So why should she be jealous?

She cleared her throat. "I wasn't quite sure what you meant. Things have been a little intense lately. In situations like this, emotions can get overheated."

"And your point is?"

"I'm not jealous because you saw Katherine in your dream," she said. "For heaven's sake, we are practically strangers."

He frowned. "You said you don't want us to be short term. As far as you are concerned, this is not a weekend hook-up."

"That's right," she said quickly. "At least for now."

He moved his warm palm up over her hip, along the curve of her waist, and pulled her down across his chest. One of her legs lodged between his thighs. She felt a familiar pressure and knew that he was getting hard again.

"We sleep together, Elena," he said. "Do you know what that makes us?"

"No," she said.

"It makes us lovers."

She caught her breath. "Lovers?"

"Yes. Lovers."

He slipped his fingertips along the rim of the cleavage that divided her derrière. Without warning, he rolled her onto her back and came down on top of her.

"What do you think you are doing?" she whispered.

He kissed her. It was a thoroughgoing kiss. He did not let up until she sighed and softened against him. By the time he pulled his mouth away from hers, they were both breathing hard.

"Lovers," he said again, making it a statement of fact.

"Okay," she said. She took a deep breath. "Lovers."

He looked satisfied. "Glad we got that cleared up."

"You can tell me about your dream now?"

There was a short silence. Then, with a low, lazy sigh, he rolled to one side. He gathered her against him and kissed her ear.

"It's complicated, Elena. Are you sure you want to hear it tonight?"

"I most certainly do want to hear it tonight," she declared firmly, pulling herself up against the pillows. "I want to know what happened in your dreams."

"You are not going to understand or believe any of this, Elena. You will think I'm crazy. Sometimes I think I'm crazy."

"Try me."

He sighed. "Alright, here it goes. Have you heard of past life memories or reincarnation?"

Elena was silent for a moment. This wasn't what she had expected to hear.

"You mean reincarnation as in rebirth?" she finally asked cautiously. "What has it to do with your dream?"

"I remember my past life." He closed his eyes. "Joseph's life. I'm Joseph reincarnated."

Elena frowned, turning the concept over in her mind. She had never paid much attention to the so-called reincarnation. She had always considered such things a matter of fad. Fads came and went. They might be interesting, but that was no reason to take them seriously. Damon was the last person she would have thought would believe in reincarnation. It was disconcerting to find out that he did.

"What makes you think are Joseph reincarnated?" she asked cautiously.

"I'm Joseph reincarnated," he rasped, "I know it."

"Please, Damon, don't snap at me. I'm trying to understand."

He muttered something and sighed. "I know. Elena, I don't have any good, easy, simple way of explaining this."

"When did you first begin to think you are Joseph reincarnated?" she probed gently.

"You don't have to treat me as if you think I suffer from delusions. I felt an odd shifting inside my dream since I came back to Mystic Falls. It was no big deal at first. The shifting wasn't painful, but it was curious. It felt like time was bending. Shifting and bending and merging. Somehow I faded, I was displaced…and I changed."

"You changed?"

"I saw Joseph's face for the first time in the past twenty-three years," he said in a dark, hoarse voice. "I'm Joseph. Joseph is me."

"You are not making any sense."

"No, I thought it didn't make sense too. Why am I having recurring dreams of Joseph and Katherine when I haven't met them?"

Her heart skipped a beat. Reincarnation had once been as unreal to her as ghosts, woo-woo for flakes and those who dealt in fiction. But at his point she wasn't going to dismiss anything as impossible. "You are having the recurring dreams because you are Joseph reincarnated."

"The dreams are the past life memories."

"That's why you are so convinced that Joseph didn't kill Katherine," she whispered.

He nodded grimly. "I still couldn't figure out what happened to Katherine and Joseph that night. But my instinct told me that I…Joseph didn't kill Katherine. He loved her."

Elena looked at him but said nothing.

He sighed again. "I know you won't believe me."

He stopped talking, waiting for the other shoe to drop—waiting to find out if Elena was going to buy his explanation. He had told her the truth, he reminded himself. She might not believe him at all and she would probably run away as far as possible from him.

To his surprise, she kissed him and he couldn't help but kiss her back. Even now, he wanted her. He had wanted her from the first moment he had laid eyes on her.

She leaned into Damon, her body clenched and unclenched as she threaded her fingers through his hair and hung on. He touched her breast, gently at first, harder when she reacted almost violently to the caress. Heaven above, he wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything else in this life.

"I believe you, Damon," she whispered against his throat, her lips barely kissing his as she spoke. "But please don't see me as a replacement for Katherine."

"No," Damon said, his voice low and rasping. "You are not a replacement."

The wave of relief that swept through her was so strong and intense. Don't get too excited, she warned herself. Damon did want her, she knew that without doubt. Physically, at least. Perhaps he wanted her body. Perhaps all they had ever shared was physical love.

"You are Elena Gilbert," he said as he pulled her close. "You are the one I need now."

Elena sucked in her breath as he sprawled heavily on top of her.

"I want you," Damon rasped. "I want you so damn much, Elena."

"Damon," she cried out softly as his palm closed over her dampening female flesh. She arched against his possessive touch and clutched at his shoulders. "Yes, Damon."

"Stay with me," Damon muttered thickly against her lips. "Don't leave me alone. Not now. Stay with me."

She felt his hardness pushing against the apex of her thighs, and a raw ancient need began to build to a crescendo inside her. She arched against him, her body seeking, craving, entreating.

"Stay with me, Elena," he murmured against her mouth. "Don't leave me alone."

"I won't."

This was everything she wanted. This was real and intense and wonderful.

She was in love with him.

She was in love with Damon Salvatore.

The knowledge came out of nowhere and slammed into her violently.

She loved him. His stubbornness, his arrogance and the way he smirked. She loved everything about him.

He kissed her hard at the same time that he sank into her.

She gripped the muscles in his back, feeling as if her world spun and twirled with each thrust. She gasped his name.

"I'm here, Elena. Stay with me. Right here."

He held her tightly when the world finally exploded in a sharp burst of vivid light and colour, then he thrust into her one last time with a harsh, exultant growl while he found his own pleasure.

After a few moments he shifted his weight from her and would have risen, but she held him tight. For a long time they stayed there in a silence broken only by their shallow breathing.

Finally he rose up on one elbow. "Thank you for believing in me."

She smiled. "You are welcome."

"I just want you to know one thing," he said.

She raised her lashes halfway and yawned. "What?"

"Being Joseph reincarnated doesn't change my feelings for you, Elena." He twined a strand of her hair around his finger. "I still want you as badly as I did the first night I met you at the Grill."

"Is that right?" She looked pleased.

"I'm serious."

She gave him a sweet smile. I love you hovered on her tongue, but she couldn't say it. She knew he wouldn't be ready to hear it, that it would make him feel uncomfortable, or worse, obligated to say words he didn't mean in reply.

So she contented herself with telling him how she felt with her hands and her mouth and her body.

They made love again, this time slowly, gently, without the fierce urgency of before. It was still just as overpowering, and extraordinary.

Damon was alone in his bed when he woke up. Then he saw her standing near the bathroom door.

Elena was bending from the waist, head upside down, towelling her hair dry. She was in bra and panties, nothing else.

"I thought you have gone," he said softly as he sat up on the edge of the bed.

In one fluid motion, she stood up straight and flung her damp hair away from her face. "You are awake."

"So are you."

"I did some thinking while having shower just now." She picked up her blouse and pants. "About what happened to Joseph and Katherine that night."

"I had a few thoughts of my own when I woke up." He got to his feet and paced to the bureau where he kept his shirts. He opened the drawer and pulled out a crew-neck grey T-shirt.

"You woke up with a flash of intuition?" she asked. "Tell me."

"I have been working on the assumption that John was the suspect because Katherine had chosen to be with Joseph. But Katherine preferred to be a star in Hollywood. She didn't like Mystic Falls, by all accounts."

"And your point is?"

"Katherine would eventually leave Joseph." He put on his T-shirt. "John was in Hollywood when Katherine died. He was trying to negotiate a movie contract for her."

"John knew Katherine would eventually leave Mystic Falls." Her expression sharpening. "He knew her relationship with Joseph would end."

"Joseph knew it too."

Elena frowned. "If Joseph knew Katherine would leave, he would be upset or even angry. It could be the reason he killed Katherine, couldn't it?"

Damon shook his head. "No. Joseph didn't kill Katherine. He knew all along that Katherine wasn't contented to stay in Mystic Falls. But someone might not like the idea of Katherine leaving Mystic Falls."

"Mason Lockwood."

"I did a background search on Mason Lockwood." He pulled out a folder from the second drawer. "Mason and Katherine met in Richmond. They even dated for a while before they broke up."

"Why did they break up?"

"Mason moved to New York to play for NBA but Katherine refused to leave Richmond because of her career. But they saw each other again in the Charity Game Day when Mason came back to Mystic Falls to play for Mystic Falls High School." He showed her a newspaper clipping. The picture showed Mason and a beautiful brunette smiling over a trophy.

She glanced at him. "That was Katherine?"

"Hmm, hmm."

"She was stunning," Elena whispered. "No wonder every man falls over her heels."

"You are stunning too, Elena."

She looked up and found Damon standing only inches away from her.

She opened her mouth to speak.

He stopped her with a finger to her lips. "You are incredibly beautiful."

Elena's heart swelled.

"And sexy as hell."

Looping her arms around his neck, she said. "And you are incredibly gorgeous and handsome."

He laughed softly. "I would love to kiss you and make love to you the whole day but we have something important to do."

"What are we going to do?" Elena asked.

"We are going to the Charity Game Day."

x x x

No more waiting.

This was the right moment.

The shadow couldn't wait any longer.

Both Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore had to be rid of.

Elena Gilbert couldn't blame anyone apart from herself. She looked like Katherine.

The bitch had to die but she was not alone.

On her own, Elena Gilbert wouldn't have been a problem. She was nobody. It was hard to see her as a serious threat. One way or another, she could be dealt with.

But Damon Salvatore's presence complicated the situation. He seemed to know a lot more about Joseph and Katherine. If he kept on digging, questions would be asked.

No doubt about it. Damon was a major problem which had to be removed eventually.

Both of them had to disappear from this world.

Then the secret would never be exposed.

The shadow was very good at concealing secrets.

Secrets were meant to be kept. The shadow kept a lot of them. The shadow was good at hiding them.

X x x

The Charity Game Day at Mystic Falls High School had arrived. Fans of Tyler Lockwood were screaming and tempers on the court were flaring. The loud and passionate fans had been waiting in line for hours prior to the game started. The referee threw the perfectly round orange rubber ball in the air for the tip off and the game began. Both teams came out very aggressively. The encouraging cheers from the pumped-up fans were really driving both teams to give it their all

Tyler was at the black painted free throw line with the potential to win the game. He shot the ball and made the first free throw just like he had done many times before. The time came for the second free throw and there was a huge silence in the nervous crowd. He shot the ball and it was in the air for what seemed like a lifetime. It rattled around the orange rim and then went through the white roped net. His fans went wild in the stand.

"Did you see that? Tyler was awesome!"

Damon smirked as he heard what the young blond said. "Tyler's good," he commented quietly. "And not bad on the eyes, either. Tall, dark and gorgeous." He glanced at Elena who was walking beside him. "I can sure see why he makes your heart beat faster."

Elena sent him a swift look. "We are just friends. There is nothing more to it than that."

Damon just grinned. "I know."

She rolled her eyes. "Be serious, Damon. We are here to talk to Mason."

"He is over there." Damon glanced across the arena where Mason was standing.

Mason frowned when he saw Damon and Elena coming toward him.

"Hi Mason. I'm Elena Gilbert. Remember me?" Elena asked politely.

Mason gave her a fleeting smile. "I do remember you, Elena. I didn't expect to see you here."

"I'm Damon. We met the other day," Damon said. "Can we talk?"

Mason's eyes narrowed, and he divided a suspicious look between them, ending on Damon. "I know who you are. But I'm not interested to talk."

"It's about Katherine," Damon said.

Mason's jaw tightened. "I don't really want to discuss her. Especially with you."

"I'm sorry about Katherine, Mason," Elena said, trying to start a conversation. "Losing a friend is a cruel tragedy. I know how it feels about losing someone you care."

Mason looked her over, his expression doubtful. "I don't believe you knew Katherine."

"No," she admitted.

"Then what's your stake in this?"

"We want to know more about Katherine." Mason seemed about to pose another question when she said, "You two dated for a while before you moved to New York to play for NBA."

He shrugged. "Long distance relationship doesn't always work."

"But you still loved her," Damon interrupted. "You two met again in the Charity Game Day."

"What do you want?" Mason growled. "I want nothing to do with the Salvatore."

"Katherine screwed around with you while she was seeing Joseph." Damon said. "That's why you were pissed."

Mason's mouth compressed. "It was a long time ago."

"Tell me something," Damon said "Did you know Katherine had plans to go to Hollywood?"

"Katherine had always wanted to be a superstar," Mason said.

"But she was planning to leave Mystic Falls," Elena said. "She was going to leave you."

"You were pissed not only because she was toying both Joseph and you," Damon said. "You were pissed because you knew she would dump you again to go to Hollywood."

Mason's face worked. "What are you trying to imply, Salvatore?"

"We don't think Joseph killed Katherine," Elena jumped in. "We believe both of them were murdered."

"Murdered?" Mason looked startled. "You two are out of your mind. Everyone in town knew that Joseph killed Katherine in a jealous rage and then he committed suicide because of guilt."

"No, Joseph didn't kill Katherine," Damon said. "They were both murdered."

"I don't believe that," Mason said. "Who would kill them both?"

Damon just looked at him without saying a word.

Mason looked bewildered. "Hold on a minute. You two come to me asking questions about Katherine. What's going on here? Don't tell me you think I had anything to do with Katherine's and Joseph's deaths."

"Katherine cheated on you.," Damon said, his voice cold and firm. "You were pissed with both of them."

Mason's features clenched into an outraged mask. "That's bullshit."

"Where were you that night when Katherine died?" Damon asked.

"I don't remember."

"Katherine was screwing around with you at that time and you couldn't remember what happened that night when she died?"

"I said I don't remember," Mason hissed. "That was thirty-five years ago."

Elena nudged Damon's arm, her way of saying to let her ask the questions since his, as predicted, seemed to rub Mason the wrong way.

"Mason, we are trying to figure out what happened to Katherine and Joseph that night," Elena said. "You loved Katherine. Don't you want to know who was her killer?"

Mason turned livid. His hands clenched at his sides. "Katherine died because of Joseph Salvatore. I'm telling you now, I don't want to talk about Katherine. She's dead. End of story. Now beat it."

With that, Mason turned and walked away. Damon watched him disappeared into the crowd.

"What are you thinking?" Elena asked.

"Don't think I can remove him from the suspect list at this stage," Damon said. "But we don't have anything solid to prove that he was the killer."

"Maybe I can talk to Tyler to find out more about Mason."

"No."

She glanced at him. "Why not?"

"Because I don't like the idea of you being alone with Tyler Lockwood."

"How many times do I have to explain this to you?" Elena spread her hands. "We are just friends."

"If you say so. I gotta tell you, Dr Gilbert, Tyler won't look at you like that if he isn't interested."

"Like what?"

His jaw tightened. "Like he wanted to carry you away and never let you go."

"You are imaging things," Elena snorted. "Let's get out of here."

"Sounds like a good idea."

He wrapped a hand around her arm and led her through the way back to where he parked his Camaro.

Maybe he caught the small flash of light in the trees on the opposite side of the road. Or maybe it was just dumb luck. Whatever the reason, he reacted before the logical side of his brain could present a laundry list of reasonable explanations.

He wrapped one hand around Elena's upper arm, taking her down onto the ground as he threw himself on top of her. A millisecond later, a bullet slammed into his arm. He winced.

He heard the screams and saw Elena's blank expression of horror and incredulity.

"Damon!"

He glanced down at his arm and saw that the sleeve of his T-shirt was soaked with blood.