A/N: Thank you for the recent favs and alerts, guys. And a huge thanks to the ever so loyal reviewer, babyshan.

Shout out to David, Eddie & Yson too, thank you. =)

Summary: Actions have consequences, because for every action there's a reaction.

Chapter Eleven – Like Explosions In The Sky

"Alright, man. I'll see you tomorrow," Matt nudged his shoulder into the door, leaving Mystic Grill for the night and started the lonely trek home. He held a bag of containers full of left overs against his hip, taking in the night air when a scream ripped through the stillness. Matt froze and remained still for a few moments, hoping it was his imagination but when it happened again there was no question that someone was in trouble, and without time for a second rational thought he started running.

Matt came to a corner and found himself heading down some steps and into an alley not far from the Grill, his stomach flipped like a cartwheel and his eyes grew at the sight of blood. He took slower more cautious steps into the darkness and saw the body of a girl slumped against the stone cold wall, eyes vacant, skin grey and sitting in a pool of red.

A few feet away, Matt heard heavy breathing and saw another girl crouched in the corner, her white dress and bare feet grubby and her long wavy hair all around her like vine, spilling over her shoulders. The naïve teenager stepped in front of her and crouched down, his eyes studying the blood that stained the front of her dress when he gripped her shoulder.

"Are you hurt?" He shook her gently, ducking his head a little lower to see her face. "Hey, miss. Are you okay?"

"Get away, don't look,"

"Let me get a look at you," Matt fell backward on his backside when she turned to face him, revealing her blood red eyes.

"Help me," She cried, veins fading away along with her fangs.

Matt scurried backward, eyes wide with horror as she moved towards him. "Your face, you're a demon." He said.

Lily stopped as Matt met a wall and stood to her feet as he did, closing the distance between them. "Help me," she repeated, this time with a slow and steady voice as her pupils grew.

After a second, Matt's fright turned to concern. He pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her into him. "Are you okay? We have you get you out of here,"

"Take me home," Lily compelled.

"I'll bring you home with me, get you cleaned up." Matt rubbed her shoulders, trying to warm her ice cold skin. "We need to call the police and an ambulance for your friend,"

"No," Lily said, looking at him as they walked away. "We must go now, I cannot be seen,"

"Okay,"

Matt got her home and cleaned up, offering her an outfit of his mother's old stuff because he couldn't bring himself to give any of Vicki's things away, his mom's clothes were a little out dated but that got knocked down the list of priorities.

He couldn't remember at what point he had ditched the food but he was regretting the haste of his heroic fail when he found that all he had in his cupboards was canned peas and Easy Mac. Matt concocted what he could, not that she ate much that night.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Lily,"

He smiled. "I'm Matt,"

"He did what?" Elena cried into her phone, looking over her shoulder to make sure Bonnie was still in the bathroom. "He did what?" She repeated; this time whispering.

"He didn't get to do anything, I interrupted before things got…complicated,"

"He's unbelievable, Stefan. I knew they were spending too much time together. He's messing with her head," Elena's voice came through the door as Bonnie leaned her ear against it, her best friend called that whispering?

Bonnie leaned her back against the door, fingers curling around the handle as she listened to Elena go on to make excuses for her, she was fragile and vulnerable, she couldn't think straight, her grams was gone and Damon was playing on her state of mind.

She shook her head at Elena's words, as predicted Stefan had squealed to his partner in crime but, there was one minor detail that was missing in their plan to rescue her from Damon's perpetual charm and diabolical plan to take advantage. Bonnie wanted him to. Yes, it was wrong on so many levels that she couldn't even begin to make sense of it, but she'd grown fond of his self-medicated humour and his failed attempt to distance himself from humanity. In the privacy of her own mind, Bonnie hoped Elena wasn't the only reason for that.

There were so many layers to Damon, secrets of the heart and the more time the Bennett witch spent with him, the more she wanted to be the one who peeled back those layers and discovered his secrets.

Bonnie rushed to the sink and opened the tap as Elena ended her call, turning to the door as her best friend who meant well pushed it open. "Hey,"

"Hey, Bon. You've been in here a while, everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, just trying to wake myself up,"

Elena smiled and walked in, leaning against the sink. "You know you can talk to me, about anything, don't you?"

Bonnie nodded. "I know,"

"Okay," Elena pushed off the sink, offering a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Ready for school?"

Bonnie dried her hands and then hooped her arm with Elena's. "Yes,"

"Finished discussing me with your girlfriend?" Damon asked rhetorically, crossing the room to fix him a glass of bourbon. "Did you do a little character study? I'm not as complex as one might think, you know,"

Stefan turned to face his older brother, with a matching smile. "We're worried about Bonnie,"

Damon feigned concern. "I'm worried about her too. Do you know she's been watching Sabrina the teenage witch for tips?"

"Bonnie's been through a lot," Stefan noted the eye roll and the long swig Damon took of his drink. "She's vulnerable,"

"No, she's a witch, when is everyone gonna realize that?" Damon growled.

"Damon,"

"Stefan," Damon said, with his eyes wide and tone hostile.

Stefan watched his brother intently and then gave a revealing sigh. "Never mind. I'm, uh, I'm gonna go see Anna. She might have been keeping Lily this whole time,"

"Skipping school? And here I was thinking you were the good brother." Damon resented Stefan's silence, he knew the look all too well, his brother was analysing him with that intense eye thing he did. "Stop it,"

"You like her company don't you?"

"Don't be so nauseatingly sentimental, Stef," Damon swirled his glass, staring at the tornado at the bottom of it to avoid eye contact with his brother, because if the Salvatore's were good at anything it was spotting deceit in each other's eyes.

"I didn't see it before. I was busy figuring Uri out. I see it now though," Stefan smiled sincerely then.

Damon saw the change in his brother's attitude and it went from accusing to approving, which pissed him off. "See what? How bad your hair cut is?"

"The fact that you're not bored with Bonnie by now says something, Damon,"

"Who said I wasn't bored? I'm giving Bonnie the tools to protect this sorry town so I don't have to, as soon as the witch Michael Bay's someone's shit, she's out the door,"

"I'm not buying it,"

"That's convenient because I'm not selling it," Damon picked up the crystal glazed bottle and walked past his brother. "Speaking of bored," He gave Stefan a terse smile and left the room.

Uri watched from afar as Bonnie climbed out of Elena's jeep, they were laughing and joking but the witch's eyes were far away, her smile was more of a reassurance than a genuine emotion of being happy. He tied his hair into a pony tail and pulled his long jacket together to shut out the chill, he was cold enough.

A smile played on his lips when Bonnie paused and turned around, her eyes searching the faces in the crowd. It was almost as though she was scared to find him because she didn't look long before she turned back and continued towards the Grill, jumping out of her skin when Barbie and Ken came behind them.

The brothers were vampires, they'd never believe that he'd left without getting what he came for, and if he were them he'd do everything to find whatever it was they wanted, so that he could sit behind it when they came to collect with a smile on his face. The truth was, whether they liked it or not, every vampire needed a witch to survive, to protect and to find. It wouldn't be long before Bonnie and the Salvatore brothers tracked Lily down, leading him straight to her.

He just had to be patient, but after waiting over a century for a witch powerful enough to open the tomb, Uri was sorely lacking in that particular skill.

"Oh, beautiful, do we need a nudge?" He asked aloud as she disappeared behind the door.

The sun had finally set and for Ava that was always when the fun and games began, only this time she was in limbo since she'd witnessed Stefan kill Uri, her purpose disintegrated and fell at her feet, without Uri was no Lily and just like that she'd lost her family.

Uri had never let his guard down before but for some reason he not only allowed a connection to be made with Bonnie, he let Stefan too close and paid for it. Ava felt the blood rush to her eyes, the mere thought of the witch's blood igniting fire in her own. It was their turn to pay.

Damon wiped the blood from his lips, unsatisfied with the quality he grunted and leaned forward, cupping the store clerk's face and giving her the eye. "Confessions are not my thing, so you're gonna forget everything that just happened, understood?"

"What confession?" She asked.

"Good girl," Damon answered his phone when it vibrated in his pocket, still holding the woman against the wall. "What?"

"Lily was staying with a woman called Mrs Flowers, Anna says it's the last time she saw her. I'm gonna check it out,"

"You do that," Damon said as his fangs retracted.

"…Damon, what have you done?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Damon,"

Damon cancelled the call and returned it to his pocket. "Hey," he said, gripping the middle aged woman's shoulders. "Go away,"

"Good night," She said quietly, picking her bag and keys from the floor before she stepped out of the shadows, continuing to the car park where she was heading when the vampire had grabbed her.

Damon thought he'd feel better after breaking his no blood pact with Bonnie, he thought it would bring back that high he got from being the carefree vampire, but as he walked towards the Grill all he felt was guilt. Damon stepped into the Grill with the sole intention of drowning it in alcohol when he saw Bonnie at a table with her friends, without even knowing, she'd become his biggest buzz kill.

Bonnie had got under his skin with her slyness and now he couldn't ignore her like he used to, he couldn't walk past them with a flying offensive comment and drink his night away.

Damon backed out of the door with a roll of the eyes when he heard Bonnie make an excuse to her friends about needing fresh air, then he heard her footsteps behind him.

"Damon,"

"Bonnie," Damon replied, with practiced impassiveness.

"Damon," Bonnie called again. "Wait a minute,"

Damon stopped and turned to her. "Shouldn't you be inside with your friends?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Bonnie asked, hugging her elbows.

"You mean apart from interrupting my pensive walk under the moonlight?"

Bonnie smiled, her gaze falling away from his. "Yeah,"

"Well, you are a little annoying. You have judgy eyes and your tone of voice sometimes…" Damon offered a winsome smile and walked back. "Coming with?"

Bonnie looked up at him and nodded.

Ava watched a tall dark haired man walk the witch home, she hadn't seen him before but the pair seemed to know each other well, well enough to know he was with a witch, Ava could care less, she had nor the patience or the time to wait for him to leave her alone. She was a vampire, it was her basic nature to leave a trail of casualties wherever she went, apologising or feeling guilty served no-one, it was what it was.

Ava gave them a fair distance, far enough away not to be spotted in the peripheral but close enough to follow the witch's scent.

"Did Elena lecture you, warn you away from me after last night?"

Bonnie swallowed, her stomach somersaulting. "No, nothing happened last night,"

"If you say so," Damon frowned, he wasn't the only one who felt the attraction between them and he certainly weren't the only one feeling things they shouldn't, he'd felt her emotions the night before, courtesy of drinking witch blood.

"Listen, Damon, I have this really strong feeling,"

"Here it comes,"

"There's something about Uri,"

Damon stopped just two houses short of Elena's house. "Come again?"

"I trust him, when we touched, I felt something. I don't know how to explain it,"

"Are you a complete idiot? Uri's a vampire who brought a group of people here to eat half the residents of Mystic Falls, and did you forget his plans for your little friend?"

"I know all that, Damon," Bonnie said, her voice quivering slightly. "I'm not pretending I understand it, but my gut is telling me that he's not completely bad,"

"What is it with you and Elena, always trying to rescue the villain," Damon turned to walk away, feeling the out of reach sting of his own words.

"Damon, I'm trying to talk to you,"

"Why?" Damon asked, turning back. "Huh. Why me?"

Bonnie fought the urge to close into herself and instead raised her head, staring him squarely in the eyes. "I don't know, I thought,"

"You thought what? That we were friends, that we connected," Damon swallowed, brows pulled together when taking in her petite frame and the way she refused to break eye contact. "Laila's gone and do you know why, because Uri took her. He and Stefan fought, he brought Uri back unconscious and when our backs were turned he snatched her."

"No…"

Damon closed the gap between them in one fluid motion, his blue eyes bright and the tone in his voice menacing. "Stefan drove a steak into your new friend because he threatened you, Uri told Stefan that he wasn't going to stop killing until he had you, until he had your blood,"

Bonnie stepped back, startled by Uri's confession and Damon's reaction to it. "I can't, I just felt this…"

"You don't know what you feel, that's the problem. And when you do feel, you're too afraid to own it,"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Good night, Bonnie," Damon turned his back on her.

"Damon," Bonnie had the words there in the back of her mind but she refused to summon them to her tongue, she couldn't. But, as he walked away and she reached out, she felt herself jerk back and then a familiar sharp pain travelled through her neck.

Ava gripped Bonnie from behind, one arm around the waist while the other gripped her shoulder and bit down into her flesh, the blood and the witch's screams instantly intoxicating her. Ava was going to drain her of every drop when she was ripped away with a force so strong that she felt herself flying backward, dark haired and handsome was a vampire. Well, this wasn't a dynamic she'd seen before, not one that worked.

He ran to her, grabbing her by her scruff and ramming her into the side of a truck. "Who are you?"

"Your mama," She said, spinning him around and slamming his face into the window. "You've been a bad boy,"

Bonnie held her neck as it bled, spilling over her hand and ignored the dizzy feeling as Damon and the girl vamp fought. He could hold his own but she clearly had the upper hand and Bonnie wasn't going to let anything happen to him.

Bonnie focused what little energy she had left on the girl while she and Damon exchanged blow for blow, breaking everything in their path and as she lifted Damon by his neck, Bonnie took pleasure in bursting the blood vessels in the bitchy vamp's head.

Lady fangs dropped Damon and fell to her knees, digging her fingers into her head as though the pain from that would compensate, in the midst of trying to recover, Damon ripped out a car antenna and pushed the girl on to her back.

"Who are you?" He asked, slowly pushing the antenna into her chest, adding agony to her aneurysm, she refused to talk and he pushed further and further going for her heart.

"Damon, look out," Bonnie screamed, a figure passing her eyes so fast that she couldn't make out the face but before she knew it, Damon was being hauled by his scruff into the air like a shot put. "Uri," Bonnie whispered.

Uri picked up Damon, noticing a large pole going through the space between his shoulder blades to his chest. "Something tells me if you weren't injured, this wouldn't be so easy,"

"So you're Uri," Damon choked. "Gotta say, I thought you'd have better hair, a ponytail, really?"

Uri smiled in spite of the situation. "I like you,"

Damon slammed his fists against Uri's temples, landing on his left knee and right hand, and without a moment to recover began pulling the asthma inducing instrument out of his body. He flung it away, running into Uri and catching him in his midsection.

"Uri," Bonnie yelled, pinning the girl against the truck with a force naked to the eye that had her screaming out in pain, but her cries did nothing to break into their smart ass comments between blows, that is until Bonnie clenched her fist, making Uri's friend gaps for breath. In the end it was her silence not her screams that caught his attention, and forced him to retract his mid launched fist from Damon's face.

Uri turned around, smiling at Bonnie. "Looking pretty as ever," her steeled silence irked him; Ava had ruined his hard work. "I was just helping him up," He added, dusting off Damon's jacket. "There you go,"

"Damon for your friend here," Bonnie said.

Uri stepped aside and Bonnie ran to Damon to hold him upright until he healed, they both watched as Uri walked over to his friend. Bonnie released her hold and she fell on her face.

"Good news," Uri said. "I've found my sister, my real one. I'll be back for you soon, petal,"

"Over my dead body," Damon snarled, taking a step in front of his witch.

"Well let's be honest, someone already beat me to it, so I guess it's over your dead-dead body," Uri watched Bonnie intently and then hauled vamp girl over his shoulder, disappearing into the night.

"Arrogant dick," Damon growled.

Bonnie smiled weakly, taking a shaky step back as everything around her started spinning.

"Bonnie," Damon called out as she fell backward and sped behind her to lower her gently to the floor. He pushed her hair away, grimacing at the nasty bite mark and without thinking twice he bit into his wrist and pushed it against her lips. "Drink,"

Bonnie choked as she swallowed, the metallic taste making her gag instinctively, it was when she opened her eyes and saw Damon's face that she stopped struggling and her wound healed. He wiped the blood from her lower lip with the pad of his thumb.

"Thank you," Bonnie mumbled taking his hand and letting him pull her up to her feet.

Damon remained quiet, tilting her head to check the bruise again. "It's completely healed." He said, with his voice hushed as he watched her with hooded eyes, the heat building in his belly tying him in knots as his need for Bonnie intensified. Thank you, he thought.

Uri slammed Ava against the stone wall of his already crumbling hideout, ramming his fist into her chest and squeezing her heart. "As promised," Uri smiled, his obsidian black eyes surrounded by blood. "Give me a reason to squeeze this until it bursts in my bare hand,"

"I thought that vampire had killed you," Ava gasped, her hands gripping his wrists tight. "Please, I was avenging your death,"

"You saw the witch kill me, did you?" He asked, fingers clutching the muscle tighter.

Ava's breathing quickened and the tears glistened in her eyes. "I blamed her for your wavering focus,"

"Wavering focus?" Uri repeated, his voice a low deep throated growl. "She is my focus, without her," He hesitated at the very thought. "Saving Lily will mean nothing. I made it clear as an STD that I wanted nothing to happen to Bonnie." Uri let go of her heart and wiped his bloody hand on her tank top as though it were a towel. "Next time, I will kill you, Ava. No questions asked."

"I'm sorry, Uri,"

Uri sighed, moving a strand of hair behind his ear. "I've lost Bonnie's trust, thanks to you. Now I'll have to use force," He gave his back to Ava, a smile now lingering as he thought of Damon. "or incentive."

"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?" Elena asked, storming towards Bonnie and pulling her into a hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine,"

"Damon," Elena glared at the back of him as he poured himself a drink.

"What she said," Damon muttered into his glass.

Elena crossed her arms. "She could've been killed,"

Stefan rubbed Elena's back. "Hey, the important thing is she's okay,"

"Hello, I'm over here," Bonnie said, waving her arms as her friends directed their glares at Damon who seemed to be mastering the ability to shut out the noise, or in this case Elena and Stefan.

"Why are you so angry, Elena?" Damon asked, stepping down to walk over to her, this banter had become a pattern.

Elena swallowed, eyes averting his gaze. "I don't think it's a good idea that Bonnie spends so much time with you,"

"Enough," Bonnie stormed to the middle, her tiny fists clenched. "Elena, I know you're looking out for me but when did you become my mom?"

Elena opened her mouth to speak and then clamped her jaw shut, the dip in her neck hollowing. "I'm not, it's Damon, he has been messing with your head. It's what he does,"

Bonnie bit her tongue, fighting the urge to accuse Elena of jealousy. They'd all seen it; something lingered between Damon and Elena every time they were in the same room together, because there was a familiarity between them that Elena didn't even know she had with him. As much as she loved Stefan, she hadn't quite worked out what his brother was to her. "I know what I'm doing," Bonnie defended.

Elena's shoulders slumped as she saw Stefan's face and noticed him back off, she'd overstepped out of fear of losing her best friend to Damon, she'd felt the magnetism that was the Salvatore's but Bonnie was always there to come back to. She wouldn't be if she was wrapped up in it all alongside her, with Bonnie being one of the only people that could keep her grounded in reality; she could feel that slipping through her fingers.

And, at the back of Elena's mind there was no ignoring Damon's recent lack of time to make innuendos at her and tease Stefan about their complicated friendship, he had no time to when Bonnie and her magic was keeping him so occupied.

"Bonnie, I'm sorry,"

"Did it ever occur to you that Damon is actually helping me? I'm learning more about myself than I ever could on my own, and tonight if Damon wasn't there, that vampire would've killed me,"

"You're right," Elena swallowed, hesitantly looking in Damon's direction. "I shouldn't have,"

"The point is we were right about Uri, it's not over." Stefan said, finally.

Damon resented Bonnie coming to his defence, it wasn't something he was used to or wanted to get used to, he looked out for himself and no one else, he didn't need the witch using her newfound self-empowerment to rescue him because then he'd owe her whether she wanted him to or not.

"I don't actually care what any of you are talking about and to be perfectly honest I could do without the teenage tirades, thank you," Damon downed his drink and left the room, stepping outside.

Bonnie followed Damon out without even a side glance in Elena and Stefan's direction; she wanted to know what was going on inside of Damon's head. Bonnie opened the front door, the strong breeze taking off in her hair as she stepped out, her eyes settling on Damon.

He sat on the wall, his legs hanging on either side. "Bonnie Bennett, very sexy backbone,"

"Stop, Damon," Bonnie sat on the wall, looking up at the sky after a wistful glance in Damon's direction. "Thank you, for earlier,"

"We already did that," Damon flung his leg over and stood up. "You can go back to trusting Uri now,"

"Don't be like that," Bonnie caught Damon's arm.

"I'm leaving before your infuriating personality drives me to drink, and I'm not talking about whiskey," He nodded at her silence, his eyes on her throat, watching her swallow as she weighed up his words.

Bonnie let go of his arm, but her eyes held his gaze for a long moment and she felt the heat rise beneath her skin. "Are you okay?" Her heart flipped, Damon hadn't answered her question, he'd remained completely silent but she saw the dance in his jaw when his eyes dropped to her lips. "I trust you, Damon. And, I'll help you bring Uri down, like I was supposed to in the first place." Bonnie was almost against his chest when she joined him standing, still, he said nothing. "I kept something from you." Her gaze fell to their feet. "When I did the locator spell, I didn't see Lily's location, but I saw a hideout, I saw Uri. I'm sorry,"

Damon ground his teeth, his piercing eyes wide and his skin ashen, anger rippled through him that her trust of Uri trumped her trust of him. He strode to the door and gripped the handle to open it, stopping himself when he heard her heartbeat hammering in his ears.

"And I'm not afraid…not anymore," Bonnie whispered, confident in his ability to hear her even though part of her didn't want him to. She hoped he understood what she meant, because it wasn't anything to do with what they'd just talked about.

Like a speed of light, Damon was standing in front of Bonnie, towering over her, eyes red, veins pulsating, teeth baring themselves but his ploy didn't work because Bonnie didn't flinch, she'd meant what she said, and the monster melted away.

Damon's lips crashed against Bonnie's and her hands instinctively flew up to his chest, but she didn't push him away, she pulled him in, her long, slim fingers tangling his shirt. Her heart pounded against his chest and his kiss said he wanted to be loved. In that moment when the cold left her body and the heat of his mouth replaced it, Bonnie felt like she was made to make his body warm.

He skimmed his hands up her neck, running his fingers into the thick of her hair. Tilting her mouth up to his as she sighed, Damon captured her lips breathlessly, and she revelled in the softness of them, her fingers gripping him closer when he slid his tongue inside to brush tentatively against hers.

The wet of his tongue silencing her fears of being in like with a vampire, she let go and bit on his lip purposely, feeling her body tingle with lust when he sped to the wall, pressing against her it, crushing his body into her as he deepened the kiss.

She opened her eyes as Damon pulled away, his brows pulled together with a wary look growing in his eyes, she felt him tense against her and reached up to softly stroke his cheek, and then moved her hands up his arms slowly, tipping her head up to him, exposing her neck.

Damon felt her trembling against him, her kiss dared him to be more than a vampire, she dared him to be just Damon, her Damon and suddenly he wanted her more than anything, he knew if he wanted he could make their growing attachment about sex, but she saw him and he didn't want her to lose sight.

His eyes lingered and without a word, without giving himself or Bonnie a chance to be who they'd become used to being, he leaned in slow, pressing his lips against her neck tenderly, brushing and licking, until their lips met again, passionately as he sucked in her lower lip, his skin heating when he heard a gentle groan from her.

Their emotions erupted through their pores, their skin figuratively caught fire and their hands explored, pulling, grabbing and touching. Bonnie was almost completely lifted from her feet as he held her around her slim waist. It was hate, lust, a mutually tender affection and it was truth, the truth of their feelings finally coming to the surface, now that it was out of the bag, there was no putting it back in.

After all, a kiss was never just a kiss and neither of them knew what would happen once it was over.

But there was explosions in the sky that night.

~ End Chapter.