A/N: Still not done with summer reading… Almost done, only a few small things to do. I really wish that I could just write forever… no job… no school… Perfection… I must really apologize that this has taken so long and that it has basically stopped the story for a while. I hate that I haven't been able to write as much in the past couple weeks and hate even more that you all most suffer. So I'm going to quit typing so you can read.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries.
Damon stepped one foot on to the deck, keeping the other braced on the dock as he held the boat in place as best he could and helped me on board, never releasing my hand. Once Damon came the rest of the way onto the deck and he finally let go of my hand, he wordlessly began to mess with the sails, tying this rope, pulling that one. He untied us from the deck and raised the anchor. While he was working, I took a seat at the front of the boat with my legs tucked underneath me. I was facing the inside of the boat so I could watch Damon, but I still had a view of the bay around us.
Damon angled the sails to catch the wind, and we began to drift away from the land and into the open water.
Damon came and sat next to me. I turned my body toward him and put my feet over his legs with my knees bent to arch over his thighs, and I tucked my head into his shoulder. Damon sat up for a second to allow me to wrap my arms securely around his torso. Damon draped one arm gently across my shoulders and the other hugged my knees closer to his chest.
We didn't say anything, just held each other. I felt Damon's fingers lightly stroking the ends of my hair and the outside of my left thigh, and I traced little circles on the side of his ribcage. This was peaceful and calm. The water around us was clear blue, not the murky brown that it would have really been; it reflected the coming sunset, the darker blues and pinks mixing with the clear blue of the water. The boat's gentle bob over the swells of the waves was lulling and soothing. The wind was softly sweeping around us, filling the air with a light salty aroma.
When the shore was barely visible on the horizon, I fixed my gaze on Damon. He was wearing his black button up shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbow and his black jeans. The top of his shirt was unbuttoned so I could see the tops of the well toned muscles underneath. His chin was decorated with stubble, just a little more than a five o-clock shadow. His dark hair was tousled slightly by the wind and falling into his eyes. He was staring down at me with those piercing, deep crystalline blue eyes. We just locked our eyes together, both of us lost in the depths of the other, and if this wasn't a dream or Damon, I would think I was being compelled.
"How are you?" I whispered quietly, finally breaking the silence.
"I'm fine," he said with a smile to help verify his statement. "I'm almost ready to attempt my escape. I haven't heard anything on Stefan which might cause some problems but…" He shrugged slightly.
I reburied my face in his shoulder. "What is the plan exactly?"
"Pick the lock, find something to use for stakes; then I find Stefan, kill anyone that gets in my way and steal the first car I can find to get me home to you," he explained nonchalantly.
"You make it sound easy," I huffed. To me, it sounded crazy. Damon had said before that there were a lot of vampires, and he was just going to take them all on? And who knows what state Stefan would be in? Damon could struggle with a fight if he had to help Stefan. It sounded dangerous and down right stupid. "You shouldn't be doing it alone, Damon. Let me help you, please. It's too dangerous…"
"I can't protect you and deal with Stefan, Elena. They want you anyway. You need to stay hidden. I can't worry about you…I just need to know you are safe now and will be safe until I can protect you again myself," he said with a strong resolve.
"I can't change your mind at all…?" I asked a little dejectedly.
"I promise you, Elena, that Stefan and I will get out of here as alive as we were when we came in," he said into my hair, his cheek now resting on the top of my head. A breath of a laugh escaped me, even though I tried to stop it. I pulled myself closer to him.
"I'll hold you to that promise."
"I know," he answered, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
I looked around the deck again. "So do you have a boat?" I asked him, wanting to get off this heavy subject.
"I have a house right on the water, Elena. It would make sense that I have a boat." He paused and looked around our little sailboat. "This, however, is a far cry from it."
I laughed. I would expect that. "Show me?" I requested.
Without an answer, the scenery around us morphed. The sun had completely vanished from the sky. It was replaced by a glittering sea of stars. The dark water around us and sky were covered in these beautiful sparkling diamonds. We were no longer sitting on a small bench at the bow of our boat, instead we were sitting on a large, dark couch, much higher off the water. A silver rail enclosed this sitting area we occupied. A round wooden table stood on each end of the couch, a wine glass full of light gold bubbling liquid on each one. A long rectangular wooden table the same length as the couch was in front of us. The floor was a deeper color wood, a mahogany perhaps. A spiraled stair case led down from this little overlooking platform. I turned back to Damon and was shocked when I saw him. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a white shirt and a dark red tie. His tie was loosened a bit and the first button of his shirt was undone. He looked sharp and relaxed simultaneously. His hair was no longer thrown around his eyes but back in place and framing his face perfectly.
"This is your boat?" I asked him. I peeked over his shoulder and the rail to see that we were at least fifty feet above the water. I pulled my head back quickly; the water seemed too far away for comfort.
"Yep, down to every last bolt," Damon answered. "Would you like a tour, Elena?" he asked, his eyes doing that flirting thing and raking over me like he was thinking about biting my neck.
I moved to sit up but noticed I wasn't wearing the same thing I was on the other boat. Instead of a pair of jeans and t-shirt, I now wore a deep red full length evening gown, the same color as Damon's tie. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline. Tiny white jewels created a floral pattern that covered the top of the gown. The gown was split up to my right hip with little pick-ups every couple of inches. The dress flowed down to my ankles and rippled all around my feet. Lifting it just a little, I saw a pair of simple and elegant silver strappy heels on my feet.
"What am I wearing? And why am I wearing it?" I asked, completely confused. "It's beautiful but… why?"
Damon laughed a little in the back of his throat. "You'll see later. For now, I'll show you around."
We stood up and made it over to the staircase. I stopped as I looked down at the rest of the yacht. We had a view of the entire deck. To the stern were a few wooden chaises with gold cushions facing out to the water. Each had a small table like those next to the couch we had been sitting on. The rest of the deck was open. We descended the stairs and Damon led me straight through a glass door and into another sitting room. This one was equipped with another dark couch with gold pillows facing a flat screen TV. These wooden floors were covered with a large gold rug.
"This is the living area," Damon said. "Not much to it. You never really need a lot on a boat. It creates it's entertainment. Skiing, fishing, swimming…" He shrugged.
As we began to walk to the next room, Damon wrapped his arm around my waist so that his fingertips brushed against the exposed skin of my hip. Every time he moved his fingers left a feather-light touch that sent waves of electricity through my entire body. It was amazing what he could do to me with just a small graze against my skin.
"This," Damon informed, "is the dining room."
A round oak table big enough to hold six people stood in the middle of the room set for dinner with gold plates and glasses. Black napkins laid next to the plates. The chairs had black seats with gold trimming. The walls had artwork of golden swirls on a red background. A small chandelier with four branches hung from the ceiling.
"Then," Damon started, moving toward the next door, "we have the master suite."
He opened the room to reveal a larger room than I had seen on the boat so far. Most of the space was filled with the bed, though there was still room to move about comfortably. The bed had a plain black comforter with gold and red twisted trimming. Above the head of the bed was a small porthole that showed the water, and instead of a normal ceiling, it was just glass, so you could lay on the bed and gaze up at the stars. There was a door on each side of the bed that I assumed to be closets.
"And then, through that door," Damon said pointing to the closed door a few feet away from us, "is the passage to the kitchen and then the stairs down to the servants' quarters."
"Servants' quarters?" I asked.
"Typically I sail with a crew of three, the captain, his assistant, and a cook," he clarified. "Depending on how long the voyage will be, I might bring along someone to keep everything straightened, but usually I try to keep the number of people to a minimum."
I nodded my understanding. This boat would be hard to maintain alone, but everything was so peaceful; too many people would destroy the atmosphere.
"There's one last stop on our tour," Damon said as we began to make our way back to the deck.
Damon guided us to the bow of the ship to another spiral staircase. We walked up the steps to a room above the living space we just walked through. This was the bridge, full of dials and gages and different color lights. In the middle of the room stood the helm, a giant wooden wheel. It looked a little out of place in this room with all the high tech equipment, but it fit with the rest of the boat. The entire room was open with three-hundred sixty degrees of windows so you could the water and boat from every angle.
Damon moved behind the wheel and rested his chin on top. He watched me as I moved around the room, lightly touching every button and lever, and glancing around at the endless waters around us. Damon seemed amused watching me explore everything.
"Wow…" I said once I had looked over everything.
"Just a little houseboat to travel around in when I'm in town," Damon said, sounding almost indifferent.
"Little houseboat?" I asked, shocked. "This isn't even a boat; it's a ship."
Damon laughed. "I will show you a real ship later, but that will have to be saved for another dream," Damon said, not giving anymore information.
"So we've seen everything?" Damon nodded his response. "Then are you going to explain to me why we are dressed up?"
Damon said nothing just came up to me and put his arm around my waist again. His fingers were no longer just brushing against my hip. He was now tracing little things across my skin. I felt him draw some circles, a couple of triangles, once he spelled out his name. It was driving me crazy, but I couldn't find the strength to stop him.
We were almost to the stern of the boat when the boat shook a little.
"What was that?" I asked, looking around the waters for any signs of waves or something else that could move the ship like that.
"I don't know," Damon said. He was now standing closer to me, the protective stance he always took.
The boat shook again, move violently this time. The chairs and tables were being thrown about, on their sides, over the rail.
"How is this happening?" I asked frantically.
The boat was starting to tip to the left side. Damon starting moving us back toward the door of the interior cabin. One of the tables from the upper deck came falling down to crash where Damon and I were just standing. Suddenly the boat shifted back to the right, and I fell to the deck and started slipping with the ship.
"Damon!" I shouted as I tried to grab onto something, anything. I felt the deck disappear under my feet, then my legs. Then I felt the water around me.
"Elena!" Damon was yelling. "Elena! Elena!"
I saw him jump over the rail and into the now raging waters. I felt the water washing over my head time and time again as Damon struggled to make his way to me.
"Elena!" he kept on calling. Every time he said my name, it changed. His voice sounded different, but it could have just been the water that was flooding my ears.
"Damon!" I tried to call once more before I was sucked under the powerful torrents. I was being pulled further and further under to an unknown, frightful destination.
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