A/N: Hii, sorry for the late update! I didn't feel like writing a lot yesterday, but here's chapter 9! :D

I hope you like it and please review!

xoxo Ascha

Chapter 9:

Mystic Falls, Virginia 1864

"Ah, Mr. Salvatore! How nice of you to come," Thomas Fell said joyfully as Damon and Elizabeth were invited inside the Founder's Hall. But Thomas Fell soon noticed the unfamiliar Elizabeth and looked wonderingly at her because there was something about her that seemed… wrong. And as the town's reverend he knew that this strange feeling of his might be a warning from the good Lord. "I don't believe I've met you before Miss…?"

"Pierce. Elizabeth Pierce," Elizabeth said kindly. "I arrived in Mystic Falls with my younger sister Katherine yesterday. We… lost our family in a tragic fire, but the kind Salvatores have gladly taken us in. I really must say, Mr. Fell, that this town is very beautiful."

Mr. Fell smiled and let the young couple fully inside. Elizabeth quickly yanked Damon to the ballroom where she insisted on dancing with him and he gladly accepted her request. He had had a hard time taking his eyes off her ever since she arrived and felt like they had a connection.

"May I say that you look quite astonishing today, Miss Elizabeth…" Damon said, smiling in that charming way that made Elizabeth blush and giggle.

"Well, thank you, Mr. Salvatore. You look very dashing as well," she said, enjoying the smile on his lips that unfortunately reminded her of Elijah. She tried shaking the thought away, but she just couldn't. She couldn't forget a man like him or like his brother. "I fancy a drink. Would you please fetch me one?"

Damon nodded, gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek, and then left to fetch her, a drink. She sat down at the nearest table and tried once again to shake the thought of the two Originals out of her head. But she wasn't only missing the two brothers. No, somewhere inside her, the monster was longing to be released and have its freedom. There were times where she and Katherine had let go of their calm state, but it wasn't truly the same as when she killed with Klaus.

"A glass of bourbon for my lovely escort," Damon said cheerfully, handing Elizabeth the drink. "I thought you could use a strong drink."

Elizabeth nodded. He was very much right about that…

"Damon, do you ever find it hard to… be a good role model for your brother?" she asked, wondering if he too had those kinds of problems with Stefan.

Damon nodded and sat down next to her, taking a sip of his glass of bourbon before he said. "Father has always been very displeased with almost everything I do. I once went to Harvard University, but I chose to drop out after merely one and a half year, because I didn't find it… satisfying. But I have noticed that Katherine does not seem very pleased of you being around."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement and sighed heavily. Sometimes she felt like it was all her fault that Katherine had changed so much the last many years. She loved being a vampire – maybe a little too much sometimes. And now she felt like she had to prove herself to her sister by showing that she was able to make both of the Salvatore brothers fall in love with her without getting her heart broken in the end or without making both of the brothers angry.

"Don't worry, Lizzie," Damon said, making Elizabeth freeze. No one had called her that the last many years. "She is just acting out. That's all."

"Huh?" Elizabeth said, making Damon chuckle a bit. "I apologize. I just… It's just hard to raise your sister after losing both of your parents. But tonight I don't want to worry. I want to…"

"Dance again?"

Elizabeth giggled, but nodded and quickly took a sip of her drink before she went back to dance with Damon. She truly did like him and wondered if she belonged with a human like him instead of a vampire like Klaus or Elijah. He reminded her of the time when she was human and lived a completely normal life.

But being with Damon and doing normal things with him wasn't what she truly wanted to do for the rest of her life. She still wanted to travel, explore the changing world around her, and maybe – only maybe – would she then settle down with one man, who accepted all of her and not just one side.

"After the ball, I would like to show you something…" Damon whispered gently in her ear as they danced slowly together. Elizabeth smiled and almost couldn't stop herself from saying. "But it will be dark outside by then. Will you protect me, Mr. Salvatore?"

She heard a light chuckle escape Damon's lips as he nodded and placed a kiss on the back of her hand. They continued dancing the rest of the night, talked and gossiped about the other founding families, and then as the night finally ended, they went for a little walk through the woods, because Damon wanted to show Elizabeth something that she would never forget. He took her to the cascading waterfall that was glistening in the light of the shining stars tonight.

"Oh, this place is simply beautiful!" Elizabeth exclaimed in delight as they reached the flowing river that ran from the waterfall and through the woods. She looked at Damon, who stood next to her with a smirk on his lips, and giggled as she continued. "Do you always take your dates here or is it just to impress me?"

"No, it is merely to impress you," Damon said chuckling. "And I'm especially fond of you, Miss Elizabeth. You seem like quite an interesting young woman."

"Oh, that I am!" Elizabeth teased and suddenly took her shoes off to Damon's amazement. She quickly sat down at the shore and gently dipped her long legs into the cool water. "Are you going to join me or just stand there, Mr. Salvatore?"

Damon smirked, but he quickly yanked his shoes off as well, almost falling in the act, and he sat down next to her, while she was completely dazed by the sight of the stars tonight. For 391 years she had lived, but she had never truly looked at the stars like she was tonight.

"I sense something is troubling you…" Damon said, taking Elizabeth's attention away from the stars.

"Is it that obvious?" she said in a sad tone.

Damon looked deeply into her eyes and she looked into his. For a split second Elizabeth actually considered compelling Damon into stop worrying about what she was worrying about, but she didn't want to do that. Not to him. He had been nothing but nice to her and lived up to the term "gentleman" just like Elijah did even though Elijah was a vampire version of it.

"Is this about the man you were engaged to?"

This time Elizabeth swallowed hard, because she defiantly didn't want to talk about Klaus and she constantly worried about what he was going to do to her when he found her and her sister. That was why Elizabeth didn't want Katherine to draw too much attention by making two human brothers fall in love with her. It was just as dangerously as making two vampire brothers fall in love with you.

"May I ask what happened to him?" Damon asked though.

"No you may not!" Elizabeth said, suddenly feeling very annoyed of him and his curiosity. She was about to get up and leave, but Damon grabbed her hand and the feeling of his touch made her stay. She met his gaze and could see by the way he was looking at her that he was not going to budge on this subject. "As you wish… I had a bit of a… disagreement with my fiancé about him taking certain advantages of my sister…"

"Certain advantages? You mean sexual ad–"

"No! God no… I would never let a man do that to my sister!"

Damon sighed and tried comprehending what she was saying to him and figure out what she meant by "certain advantages". But how else was Elizabeth supposed to explain this to him? He would probably freak out if she said that she was a vampire and that she had been engaged to an Original, who besides being an Original was also a hybrid.

"What I meant was that he… wanted her to marry his brother, whom was a very… bad man," Elizabeth lied. She didn't know what else to do, but Damon seemed to buy the story and sighed heavily. "I didn't wish to see her miserable, so we went home and then… then the fire started."

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Damon said, pulling her in to him and giving her a soft kiss on her cheek that made Elizabeth feel bad. Thank you very much, Elijah, she thought angrily. Because of you I actually feel guilty about lying to him! "I promise you, I would never let that man get near you again. Or your sister. You both deserve someone better."

Elizabeth couldn't help but smile. "Like you?"

Damon met her dark brown eyes with his sky-blue ones and smiled. "Yes, like me."

They both leaned in for a kiss, but as they did, they suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the woods. The noise stopped Damon from actually kissing her, but while he couldn't find out where the noise came from Elizabeth could and she was not pleased to hear it. She tuned in on the noise and could hear the sound of Katherine draining a man from blood.

"What was that?" Damon whispered.

"Nothing. Just nothing," Elizabeth lied, not wanting him to find out the truth about her and her sister. "It's probably just a deer."

She leaned in to kiss Damon and caught his full attention as soon as their lips touched. Damon found it very hard to resist her and pushed her down on the ground, pressing his lips to hers once more, but this time in a more passionate and delicate way. Elizabeth locked her legs around his waist and pressed him closer to her, wanting to feel more and more of him as their lips met and parted fervently.

"This is so… very… wrong," Damon whispered joyfully as he kissed Elizabeth on the side of her neck and trailed down to her cleavage. "Someone will see us."

Elizabeth could hear that Katherine was getting closer to them, so she quickly sat up – maybe a little too quickly, because Damon suddenly fell backwards and into the river. She couldn't stop herself from giggling of the sight of the young Salvatore completely soaked in water. But she handed him her hand and yanked him up as if he was as light as a feather, which he in reality was to her.

"Wow, you are very strong!" Damon exclaimed as he was pulled up.

Elizabeth smirked. "Of course I am! You think I spend all day knitting?" she teased.

Damon actually did think that, but he didn't say it. He just shook his head, squeezed the water out of his suit, and went back home with her. Unfortunately, Giuseppe Salvatore was also home tonight and he did not look pleased to see that Damon had ruined his best suit.

"What happened to you, son?" he immediately asked as soon as they stepped inside.

"Oh, we went for a little walk in the woods and he fell into the river, that's all," Elizabeth said, still giggling of the sight of the soaking wet Damon. Giuseppe shook his head of his son and just ordered the maids to fetch some dry clothes for him. "Thank you for a… very interesting night, Mr. Salvatore, but now I must go to bed…"

Damon gently kissed the back of her hand and as he said. "Goodnight, Miss Elizabeth. May you have sweet dreams tonight..."

Elizabeth smiled and lowered her voice as she said teasingly. "Oh, I will, Mr. Salvatore… I will."