"Handcuffed twice in one day, you've really outdone yourself this time, Damon" Elena said sarcastically, she was trying her best to keep calm, but it was difficult when Damon kept avoiding her questions. She had got most of the vervain off one of the chains and had moved onto the next one.

"What can I say, I aim to please" his casual smirk helped her to not think about what was going on, because really she hadn't a clue what was going on, other than someone had brought her to a basement and chained Damon to the wall.

The dim sunlight that had shone in through the frosted glass window was now dying down further, and she could see was the slight shine of the metal and half of Damon's face that wasn't in the shadows.

He tugged his wrist forward slowly, to test it out, hissing quietly at the small trace of vervain that was left. He pulled his hand back again then tugged the chains forward with more force. The chains rattled, then with a satisfying snap they broke free from his wrist. Elena stepped back, with a relieved sigh after finishing off the other chain.

Again he tugged gently at first then yanked the chain forward until both his wrist were completely metal-free.

"Can we go home now?" Elena asked, she wasn't able to see the door but she knew it wouldn't take too much effort for Damon to break through the window and get them out of there.

"Not exactly" she stilled for a second, hoping he was just joking or yet again trying to prove a point before he broke them out but it didn't look like he was joking. He moved towards the window and climbed onto a discarded chair, to reach the window. "Stand back" he instructed, before smashing the glass, sending shards flying across the room and dropping down like a snowstorm of sharp and deadly snowflakes.

Elena had thankfully moved to the far corner of the room, feeling her headache come back as she saw Damon put his hand out the window. Though when his hand went forward it seemed to be stopped by in invisible barrier, he turned back to her, jumping gracefully back onto the ground, "I don't think we'll be going anywhere"

"How is that possible?" she said, stepping around the glass fragments and towards the window, testing it for herself. Her hand smacked against something she could see and nearly made her cry out in frustration, "What did you do?" she asked turning back to Damon, her hands firmly in place on her hips.

"We're trapped in her because of a spell, Elena, I didn't do this" he said, if he wasn't so pissed of at Katherine he might have felt offended.

"You must have done something to make someone lock you in here"

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the only one locked in. So what did you do to make someone lock you in here?" he asked trying to get her to understand what it was like for him. To always be the one accused when something went wrong. And yes, he did know why they were her, but he wasn't ready to take full responsibility for it, or tell her who locked him in or else Elena would never say she loved him. She was stubborn like that.

Her hands dropped to her side, feeling slightly ashamed, after all Damon had been trying so hard to change lately and still she couldn't give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I'm sorry" she said, moving forward but he refused to meet her gaze, "I shouldn't have said that, I'm just tired and for a while I thought everything was back to normal, then something like this happens" she was on the verge of tears, and she hated crying in front of people, somehow it was worse in front of Damon. She didn't want to seem immature, she had tried so hard this last year to prove to everyone she didn't need someone to look after her, or try protect her, she could do that herself, but there's only so much a person can take.

He looked up at her then, and pulled her into his arms. Something that seemed so natural but at the same time shocked her, she was always the one to hug him, not the other way around. His familiar fragrance of bourbon and some unknown Italian cologne made her relax, his hands warming the places of her skin where he touched, through the thin cotton of her shirt. Her head fit perfectly against the crook of his neck, her hand clutching onto his shirt, because when everything was falling apart around her, she needed something to hold onto, and today Damon was her rock.

"I'm going to get you out of here, I promise" he whispered, at the time Elena didn't know what he was truly promising but he did. He was going to make her love him, even if he thought he didn't deserve her love.

…

Caroline felt an uncomfortably silence descend between her and Stefan as she drove him to the Boarding House. She was about to reach for the radio but decided at the last moment that he probably wouldn't want to listen to the latest Miley Cyrus song while he was trying to plan out how to find his girlfriend.

"I didn't know she was going to disappear, OK?" she said defensively, the silence driving her crazy.

Stefan turned away from burning a hole through the windscreen to look at her, his eyebrow raised in confusion at her sudden outburst, "I don't blame you Caroline, Elena's your friend, I shouldn't expect you to monitor her every move"

"If it's any consolation, I know that Damon won't hurt her" As much of a jackass he was to Caroline she wasn't oblivious to the fact that he would risk his own life for Elena.

"So everyone says" he said solemnly.

"Then maybe you should listen to them" she said hesitantly, "Elena's a big girl; she can take care of herself"

He was quiet for a long time, so long that she thought he wasn't going to respond until finally he said quietly, "Damon cares about her alright, far more than I like to think about. I'm not worried about her safety because he'd probably be better at protecting her than I am. I'm worried that she'll realise that he loves her. I know it's selfish of me to not want Elena to spend time with him and I should have more trust in her, but I also know Damon" he said with a look that clearly showed he needn't explain further.

Caroline was taken back, while she knew Stefan wasn't stupid and would know there was something between Damon and Elena, something they themselves couldn't describe; she didn't think he would ever outright admit it. "Elena loves you, Stefan and after all that Damon's done to her I wouldn't be surprised if she hated him" she said after parking in front of the Boarding House.

"There's a thin line between love and hate" he reached for the door handle, but turned back to say, "I'm just hoping she doesn't realise that before I find her"

…

Damon had found a flashlight in a toolbox; moments later he found seven scented candles in a cardboard box along with old clothes and stuffed teddy bears. He pulled a lighter from his pocket placing the candles around the room.

For the first time, Elena saw the whole basement, it wasn't quite big and there were only a few boxes and an old sofa in the whole room. The scented candles filled the room with a vanilla aroma, Elena curled deeper into the sofa, ignoring the broken springs that made up the lumpy sofa.

"Well?" Damon asked, motioning to the brightened room.

"Better" she nodded in appreciation.

"Why am I sensing a 'but' coming up?" he asked, scrutinizing every inch of her face for what she wasn't saying.

"It's just if we're going to be in here for a while, why use up all the candles?" she wanted to add, where is this person who put us in here and why aren't they coming to gloat? Instead, however, she bit her tongue.

"I don't plan to stay too long" he said with a casually shrug but still blew out six of the seven candles to please her.

He dropped onto the sofa beside her; his arm draping around the back, "Looks like it's just you and me" his eyebrows rose, smiling slyly.

"Yeah, I guess we were stuck with each other for a week anyway"

"Stuck with? Now that's offensive"

She rolled her eyes, smiling, "Please, you're probably counting the seconds to get away from me"

His head inclined, trying for the life of him to figure out what was going on in her head. There's no way she could have been serious, did she really not have a clue about how he felt about her? "If I could choose anyone to spend the rest of my eternity of seconds with I would choose you" the burning desire and bluntness of his words made her body tingle; warmth spreading all the way through her.

"Stop it, Damon" she begged, it was easier out in the real world, with all the distractions of reality, to simply walk away from him or try to set him straight, but here, here in this enclosed space, with no room for ignoring feelings she felt trapped.

"I thought you wanted me to be a better man, all I'm doing is being honest" he needed to tell her, he couldn't let her die, he couldn't watch her starve to death; he had to tell her what only a month ago he had made her forget. "I know you think someone like me isn't capable of feeling, but lately I can't stop feeling, I can't turn it all off anymore"

She couldn't let this happen; she needed to stop him before he said something. Something he couldn't take back, again, something that may possibly turn her whole world upside down.

She placed her finger firmly against his lips, leaning forward on her knees. "Let's not do this now, please" she was growing more anxious, her lips trembled as she tried not to think of what he was planning to say but somehow she knew what he would say. Only she didn't think she could handle hearing him saying those words out loud, she'd spend most of the past year trying to avoid this. She had seen him hurt so many times, and most of those times were because of her, because she refused to love him back, all because she couldn't hurt Stefan. Only Stefan wasn't here. The walls seemed to get closer, the room seeming a whole lot smaller.

He took her hand, taking it away from his mouth and holding onto it firmly as his crystal blue eyes looked into hers, looking glassy in the glow of the candlelight. "I need to tell you this, Elena. You deserve to know this. I lo-" the rest of his sentence was cut off. Her lips covered his, pressing down forcefully, her eyes shut tight.

The passion was raw and untainted with the uncontrollably need to save him, to save herself. His words meant more to her than his actions, and hearing him say what she thought he might, would destroy everything they had; they would never be the same. There strange friendship or whatever it was they had would be over and she couldn't risk losing him.

He knew he should have pulled back, but this is what he had imagined, this was his dream; to have Elena want him, to kiss him not Stefan. It killed him every time he had to watch them together, knowing that it should be his arms she was in.

His arm wrapped around her waist, instinctively he never wanted to let her go. He wanted this to last, forever. Though she wasn't planning on letting go either, her hand clutched his shirt, her whole body shaking; she couldn't let him finish that sentence.

Slowly her eyelids relaxed, her urgent kisses became slower; she was sort of disappointed because when she kissed Stefan it wasn't as passionate or intense as this. Her hands moved up to his shoulder travelling the length of his neck to entangle into his dark locks as his tongue glided along her lips, begging for entrance.

The need to savour this moment was overwhelming to him, so when her lips slowly parted their tongues fought for dominance meeting one another's with the equal amount of unrepressed desire.

Somehow she had ended up on his knee, in the desperate rush to interrupt him. So when a loud bang sounded from across the room and both of them looked around in shock, Elena would have fell backwards if Damon's hold hadn't been so tight.

Elena was taking laboured breaths, her eyes wide as she looked around her for what had made the gunshot noise. Damon stood, lifting her with him to his feet and placing her behind him, moving into a protective stance before her.

She couldn't see anything from the single dimming glow of the candlelit but Damon seemed to have, as his shoulder muscles tensed beneath his shirt.

"Damon?" Elena asked, "What's going-" on? She wasn't able to finish her sentence however, her words silenced as a women stepped out from the shadows.

She moved with the authority of an aristocrat. Her golden eyes emphasising her rich chocolate coloured skin, were now locked with Damon's and narrowed ever so slightly. Her head tilted upwards with confidence, and even though she was wearing a plain top and jeans they seemed out of place, like she should be wearing clothes from a whole different era.

She looked around thirty, though her eyes seemed to hold the knowledge of a lot more years of experience. She was beautiful. Except for the scowl that now seemed to be engraved into her bone structure.

"I should have known it was you behind all this" Damon said, his fists clenching and unclenching.

The woman's cold eyes continued to stare him down, with a look that gave Elena déjà vu. She had seen that look before. Bonnie.

She knew immediately this woman had to be a relative, or more like an ancestor of Bonnie's, she had no real proof but somehow she just knew.

"What do you want?" he asked, voice strained, he was doing everything he could to stay in place and not let his instincts take over. Because right now his instincts told him one thing; kill.

"I want you to suffer" her voice was like smooth honey, sweet even when uttering cruel words, "Just like you made me suffer"

"Come on Lucy, let's keep the past in the past" he said with a singsong voice, wondering why these damn Bennett witches always tried to ruin his happiness.

"Luciana" she corrected, with a distasteful glare, "Katherine may not care if you get out or not but I've waited too long for this moment to just let you walk away."

"Oh really?" Damon asked with a shrug, "And who says we wont get out?"

"Me" she turned her unrelenting gaze upon Elena, "Let's start by telling Elena about your little deal with Katherine, shall we?"

Confused? Don't worry if you are it will all be explained in the following chapters, let me you what you think!