A/N: Keeping it moving of course.
Chapter Eleven: Brave
Helping Damon get rid of Colin's body happened in flashes. I remember bringing the rug my mother liked downstairs and unrolling it. I didn't feel bad because my father had been trying to sell it for years and it was clear my mother wasn't coming back for it. Personally, I didn't feel one way or the other about it. After the rug was on the floor, Damon pretty much took care of the rest. The body and the heart were both rolled inside. Damon went and got his car from up the block and parked it as far back as he could.
"Why did you park so far away?" I asked.
He picked up Colin's torso. "If I'd parked in your driveway, he'd have heard me and gotten away. Grab his legs."
Logical. "Where are you going to bury him?"
Damon looked at me. "Do you really want to know?"
I found that I didn't.
Though I was pretty sure Damon didn't need me to do anything regarding the disposal of Colin's body, I did it anyway. The trunk was open when we walked through my backyard to the hidden part of the driveway, and with one big heave, and a stumble on my part, Colin was inside of Damon's trunk. He pushed me softly back towards the house and slammed the trunk closed.
"Pack some things." He told me.
"What? Why?" I asked.
"The originals want you, for whatever reason." Damon said."There's a witch out there spelling vampires so that they can get inside your house. Using magic to bewitch you is one thing, using magic to make it so that a vampire can get inside, period, is next."
"No one else has an invitation except you." I pointed out. "And no one else is getting one."
"Another witch's magic was inside your house without the witch itself. Your house is your power base. Even if Colin had gotten inside, the spell on him should've broken immediately just for that reason. From what I could tell, it didn't. My guess is that Jonas probably planned on Colin being killed here. Your house barely smells like your magic right now. You aren't staying here."
I stared at him as he walked around to the front of the car. "Go in the house and stay there. Lock everything. I'll be back in three hours."
The engine of his nineteen whatever roared loudly and then he disappeared out of my driveway. I ran into my house and closed the door, locking it and all but screaming protection and warding spells. Even though I was covering my house in all of the basic defense magic I knew, I still didn't feel safe. After pacing a circle in my living room, I went into the kitchen and grabbed the cleaning supplies.
Pine Sol washed the smell of dead vampire out of the hall. I scrubbed the blood out of the floor and scrubbed harder for it to get out of the walls. I didn't know if I should be glad that the mess had only been contained to one area, or pissed that there was a mess in general. I'd been careless, no, I'd been stupid. I should've never answered my door in the first place. It wasn't like I was expecting anybody, and I knew I didn't recognize the signature of the aura when I got to the door.
I wrung the sponge out and dipped it back into the water.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. Sure it happened to the best of us, but I knew better. What did you say to that? What would've happened to me if Damon hadn't been so close? What would've happened if my magic hadn't reached him? I was back to square one with more than just my friends, my magic had failed me.
No, I'd failed it.
Fear rendered me useless. Damon could give me all the training in the world, but if I kept succumbing to fear, I'd be dead either way. I scrubbed harder and harder with my anger at myself, pushing the sponge and working my arms so fast they burned. The blood was long gone, but I was still scrubbing at the floor and the walls, still scrubbing away at my weakness. I cleaned the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, I wiped down all the wood in the living room. I vacuumed the hallway rug with a vengeance. I was angry, I was mad, I was-
A knock stopped me.
It was Damon, had it really been three hours?
He looked around. "Did you pack?"
I shook my head. "No. I'm staying here."
I'd made the decision while he was gone. I wasn't going to run from anything. That last bastard had gotten the best of me, but nothing else would.
Damon rolled his eyes.
"Thanks for helping me today."
"No problem." His voice was dry.
I grabbed the door and pulled it forward. He used his hand to stop it.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"You aren't staying here." His voice was final.
And I didn't care. "Yes, I am."
"Why, so something else can try to kill you?" he asked. "No. Pack some shit and let's go."
"I'm. Not. Leaving." I told him. "If something else wants to try, let it."
I turned around and headed into the kitchen. The lights flipped on and the sink started itself. I was beyond pissed off, heading right into rage. I didn't even want to see another vampire let alone leave with one. My hands shook as I dumped the water outside and headed towards the sink clean the bucket. Damon twisted the knob slowly, turning the water off.
"Damon get out of my way."
He only looked at me.
I didn't have the patience for this. "I already thanked you for saving me. What else do you want?"
"Funny, you thanked me and yet all I'm getting is misplaced anger." He pointed out.
I turned out of the kitchen and walked towards the front door. "You can leave now."
"Actually, I kind of like it in here." He said as he looked around. "High ceilings, nice remodeling, stainless steel appliances."
"Get out, Damon."
He was walking toward me now. "A paint job could do these walls justice. Off white gets kind of plain after awhile, even though everyone thinks it goes with everything."
"Damon get the hell out of my house." I hissed.
"Those couches would have to go too." He went on. "I'm more of a black leather guy myself. Colored furniture was never really my thing."
"I don't care what your thing is. Get. Out. Of. My. House."
He was in front of me in seconds. "You know if you were even half this angry when that vampire was sinking his fangs into your neck," he touched my neck for emphasis. "You probably wouldn't have needed to beg for help."
I slapped him. Hard.
Damon licked the inside of his bottom lip and nodded. Then he grabbed me by my arm and was pulling me upstairs. I pulled against him and struggled as hard as I could, but I couldn't break free of him. I shouted at him to let me go and I could hear him chuckling as I did. Bastard vampire.
He got to my room and opened the door. No sooner than I felt terrified about him actually being able to enter it, did he throw me into room so hard I stumbled forward and landed on my bed. I stood and whirled around.
My cheerleading duffle bag hit me in the face. "Pack a bag, Bennett."
"Fuck you." I said so low it vibrated in my chest.
"Not while you're this angry." Damon folded his arms. "Pack."
I threw the bag down and headed towards the door behind him. He kicked it closed and locked it.
"I don't have time for this." I shouted at him.
"Really?" he asked. "Got somewhere else to be? Here I was thinking you were too busy being fed on in the hallway. I didn't know you had other plans."
Pain. I wanted to inflict pain on him. I wanted Damon to suffer for the shit he was saying to me, for the shit he always said to me. I was so angry, I could feel my face getting hotter. A pulse throbbed in my temples and beat with my magic. Damon needed to leave, seriously.
Now.
"Damon." I tried. "Please just leave. It's not-"
"Oh shut up." He rolled his eyes. "Save that shit for someone who cares about your wants. I'm not going to leave you here in danger, no matter what you think. Stop bitching and moaning and pack a goddamn bag."
"I'm sick of you talking to me like that." I said to him. "I'm sick of you always talking to me like I'm a child."
"You are a fucking child." He spat. "Getting mad and lashing out when someone tries to do you a fucking favor. Children do that shit. Weak people do that shit."
Snapping.
"You think you can take on anything because you're pissed off? You haven't learned shit. You're still that same little girl with her nose in the air and a legacy she can't handle. That vampire made an asshole out of you today and had I known it was that easy for him to do it, I never would've saved you."
Snapped.
It was like my room was caught in a tornado, so much of everything was flying around. Damon knocked away things that flew at his head with ease, keeping his eyes only on me. I raised swung my arm and sent my magic at him, shoving him against the wall. My hair floated around my head and whipped at my face. The sound of wind was so strong in my ears it was deafening. I focused on Damon's chest, right over his heart, and pictured that spark I'd touched in the woods that day.
Damon planted his feet flat against the wall and shoved himself away from it. The whole movement looked like someone inside of an anti gravity chamber, and it probably would've been hilarious some other time.
Damon collided with me and took me to the floor. As soon as he touched me, it was like everything in my room wanted to kill him. Drawers from my vanity popped out and hit him in the head. My old baseball bat from the softball team I'd been on during the summer flung itself at him. I wanted him to pay for saying what he'd said to me. I wanted him to suffer for being so right.
"You think you're the only one who's ever been scared?" he shouted at me. "You think you're the only one who's lost their own strength?"
A hot stinging burned in the corners of my eyes. I wanted him to shut up.
"We've all done it Bonnie!" he kept shouting. "In one way or another, we've all been there. You think you're so special that you get to blame yourself for what happened to you today? Fine!"
And then he was off me. He tore at the paper that was sticking to him and brushed off the other random things that had blown on him. Damon's jaw was clenched so hard it twitched as he stared me in my eyes.
"Sit here and blame yourself." He said. "Think about what you could've done better, think about what you shouldn't have done, and beat yourself up about it. Analyze and run it over and over again in your mind. When it's over, ask yourself if you can go back in time and change it, then grow the hell up when you realize you can't."
He slammed my door as he left.
The wind in my room died down and all of the noise came to a stop. I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, closing my eyes against the anger I felt. I didn't think about what Damon said, I didn't think about what I felt, I just breathed. I let my mind escape everything that had happened in the past two hours and lay motionless on the floor until my fists uncurled and my shoulders didn't feel so tense.
When I sat up, there was a pressure in my temples and a tingling in my shoulder. After a few seconds of looking around my wrecked room, I slowly reached for the duffle bag Damon had thrown at me. I used my bed to get to my feet and stepped over my old pompoms. I got a few sweat shirts, tank tops, an old green flannel shirt a few pairs of jeans, and my favorite pair of Converse sneakers. I grabbed underwear and the travel kit I used sometimes when my dad wanted me to visit him on his trips. I picked up all of the papers, made my bed, and cleaned as much as I could.
I knew Damon would still be outside when I got downstairs, but seeing it made me feel…better. He'd been standing against the car with the trunk open and his arms folded, nodding when he saw my bag.
"Just a couple of days." He said.
He took the bag from me and put it in his trunk. When he closed it, he walked around to the driver side as I got in passenger side. I stared straight ahead as he pulled out of my driveway and headed down my street, listening to the sounds of the car.
As Damon pulled onto the main street that went throughout Mystic Falls, I let my mind wander. A vampire had gotten into my house and, while that still pissed me off to no end, he'd had help. Help from someone who probably bore a huge grudge against me for what had happened to his son.
Someone who'd been killed because of me.
Well not directly. He'd grabbed me to restore my magic to me, I'd still been sketchy on how he'd taken it, and to tell me how to kill Klaus. Stefan had thought what anyone else would've, and acted the same way. I'd heard the snap and I'd seen the body. As his magic returned my own, I'd felt him die. It wasn't something I'd told anyone before, but it'd happened. It was common amongst witches whose powers had interacted with each other. It was a cold feeling, one that went down the spin and tingled between the shoulder blades.
It'd been worse when Grams died.
The point was that, having felt him die, him being alive was impossible. Him being alive with magic was even more impossible than that. It was something that was unheard of, a violation of the worst kind. The only encounter with an immortal I'd ever known was my own great aunt, and even her being alive was debatable. She appeared alive, but died a little every day. Her magic had been saturated into her house. It had permeated the air and sank into the walls. She may have been alive, but she was bound to that house. Was Jonas bound somewhere with Klaus and Rebekah? Had they found some way to cheat death like their mother had?
Damon made a left and continued down the street. I knew where he was going.
"Not Elena's." I said in a monotone voice.
He turned and looked at me. "Why not?"
"We had a fight. I'm not ready to be around her."
I expected him to say something along the lines of "get over it", but he didn't.
"Caroline's then." He said.
"I almost burned her alive." I said. "I don't really want to be around her either. Besides, she'll end up calling Elena and trying to help us work it out."
"You almost burned her alive?" Damon smiled. "How?"
"A sunlight spell from the book you gave me."
"She wasn't wearing her daylight ring?"
I nodded. "She never takes it off. It's probably the reason she wasn't burned to death."
"You didn't tell me that." He said.
"I came to, but it happened the same day you fought Stefan."
Damon pulled over on the side of the street. "Is there anyone you do want to be around?"
"Not really."
"We've got rooms at the boarding house." He said.
"Everything can get in the boarding house, Damon." I pointed out. "Even the Originals."
He shook his head. "After you had your vision, we had Elena sign the deed again. The house is hers."
"Why isn't she staying there?" I asked. "It'd be easier to keep an eye on her."
"It's only for emergencies." Damon replied. "Besides, you know how she is. She grew up there, family memories, doesn't want to leave Jeremy. All that shit."
That sounded like her. I sighed. "I don't really have any other options."
"The house is big enough that you won't see me unless you want to." Damon said.
"What about Stefan?"
Damon shrugged. "He might drop by, he might not. His focus is Elena so that's where he'll be most of the time."
Stepping inside of the boarding house with the intent to stay made the whole place new again. I could notice the ceilings and floors without immediately being rushed into the den. I could appreciate the paintings and classical appeal the place owned. Damon walked past me and up the stairs with my bag, I found that I'd never really paid attention despite that I'd been up there plenty of times.
The bedrooms were still in classic tastes, but the bathrooms had been remodeled. The room Damon led me into was something out of a magazine. Hardwood floors went from wall to wall and gleamed like a Pledge commercial. The bed was so huge it'd take a day for me to crawl to the other side. The cherry oak bedpost curved by the edges and had elaborate designs carved into it. There was a huge window on the left wall of the room that would stream sunlight in and blind me whenever I woke up. The bathroom was dark and modern with marble sink and huge mirror. The shower looked sublime.
I caught sight of my reflection and winced. My hair was a wreck, sticking up in random directions on the sides. My clothes were wrinkled and my shirt was torn by my neck. The puncture wounds on my neck looked hideous on my skin, torn around the edges and stinging the more I looked at them. The blood had dried into a crusty dark patch on my neck, adding to the overall mess that was the left side of my neck. I sighed.
"I could heal that for you." Damon said, leaning in the doorway.
I shook my head. "That's okay."
"You can't walk around with neck wounds, Bonnie. Remember who your friends are."
Again, he was right. The second I showed up to school tomorrow with bite marks on my neck, all bets were off. If I didn't let him do anything about it, I might as well go stay with Elena. After I explained everything, it's where I'd end up anyway.
"Fine." I said.
Damon walked over to me and pushed my hair over to my other shoulder. He tilted my neck a little and frowned at what he saw.
"What?" I asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No." he shook his head. "Just an inexperienced vampire."
I rolled my eyes.
Damon pushed his index finger into his canine and came away with blood. I'd never been too keen on the idea of using blood as a form of healing, but even I could admit it was pretty handy in most cases. Damon touched my neck softly, pausing when I winced, then rubbed his blood into my wounds. His touch was soothing as he rubbed his fingers in circles against my skin. I found myself leaning into it, relaxing as the pain in my neck slowly ebbed away. I leaned against the sink and tried to breathe evenly as a warm feeling started just under my belly button.
He moved his hand.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. His own eyes had darkened, but not in the vampire way. He was so close to me, close enough that I could smell the faint scent of the cologne he wore. I could see where the muscles in his chest strained the black quarter sleeve short he wore. I caught a glimpse of us in the mirror on the wall behind him, and saw that he almost completely eclipsed me. Our feet were almost touching. His jaw was clenching.
I looked back at him. "Thank you."
"No problem." His voice was deeper.
And then his lips were on mine again, just like they'd been that night. It wasn't as urgent this time, neither of us was under an influence. It was soft and curious, exploring each other and testing boundaries. At least that's what it felt like on my end. Kissing a vampire I didn't particularly like, but enjoying the feel of him against me. He was so tall and encompassing, occupying all of the space in front of me. His hand traveled up to the nape of my neck and his thumb brushed my cheek. I couldn't remember putting my hands on his waist, but I could feel them moving just und his shirt and around to his back. I couldn't get over how warm he was, warmer than I thought the dead could be.
Damon stopped and pulled away, eyes searching mine. I let myself fall into the gorgeous blue that was his and found myself wishing he'd kiss me again. I didn't know where the thought came from, but only that I didn't disagree with it.
He stepped away from me. "You should get some rest."
It couldn't have been later than eight thirty. "I'm not tired."
"After the shower, you will be." He smirked.
Damon scratched his head and stepped out of the bathroom. He started listing off things in the house, where the kitchen was, where his room was if I needed him, where the tv was in the den. I only had one question though, and even though I knew I'd sound stupid, I asked it anyway.
"Why did you stop?"
It cut him short. Something passed in his eyes, it was brief but I caught it.
He shrugged. "I've got a bad habit of kissing emotionally sensitive girls. You've been through a lot today."
Damon disappeared from the room and closed the door. I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. Granted, I'd been attacked and helped toss a body into a trunk, but I felt fine. Maybe I was still in shock from everything that had happened to me today or maybe my coping skills had gotten better with everything that'd been happening, but I felt fine. I was calm, my neck felt better, and my lips were still tingling from when he kissed me. I could still feel his hand on my neck, still feel him over me. If I was a brave girl, I'd have caught up with him and kissed him again.
If I was a sane girl, I'd question all of this.
Damon had a point. While I hadn't been drinking, I was emotional. Or at least I had been earlier. I had a million and one thoughts that had followed me all the way from my house to his, and the only time they really stopped was when he kissed me. Now that he wasn't, Jonas and the Originals and the lack of safety in my own home came rushing back.
I closed the bathroom door and stripped out of my clothes. The shower was so perfect, I could've stayed in there forever. The water beat against my skin and relaxed the tension in my shoulders. When I reached up to touch my neck, the wound was completely healed. I rinsed myself off and got one of the thick black towels that hung on the rack. When I was dry, I wrapped the towel around myself and stepped into the bedroom. I got dressed in a sweat shirt and underwear and lay on the bed. I'd considered all of the possibilities of how Jonas was back, and I came up two.
The first was that they'd had another witch resurrect him. If that were the case, then there was way more going on that just the vision I'd had. If another witch was involved, if other witches were involved in general, then I needed to step up my magic. What happened today was unacceptable and was probably due to my lack of paying attention.
The second option, and probably the most feasible, was that Jonas had never really died. It wasn't a stretch. If he was powerful enough to take my magic, who knew what else he could do with his powers. It wasn't like the concept of being dead for awhile and then waking up was foreign. Jeremy had a ring that did it. If someone could harness the magic in that ring or something like it and more powerful, they wouldn't die either.
As soon as I lay on my side, exhaustion pulled at me. While I wanted to stay up and analyze the different scenarios in which a witch could come back from the dead and still have magic, my body was worn out and this bed was comfortable. It amazed me how a day could start out so normal and end so weirdly.
My last thought before darkness pulled me under was wishing I was a brave girl.
The next morning when I came downstairs, Damon was standing outside. When I went to join him, he tossed me my keys.
"You got my car?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Could you have come up with a better reason for why I was dropping you off at school?"
Good point. "Thanks."
There was an awkwardness that hung in the air. I didn't have to be at school for another hour and Damon…well, who knew what he had to do exactly. I wanted to talk about the kiss, and the one before it, but I wasn't good at bringing up things like that.
"Why can you feel me use magic?" I blurted.
"Hell if I know." He leaned against the door.
"Are you always aware of it? Have you been?"
"Yes and no."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"It means that was I aware of it before you bonded with nature in the woods? No. Afterwards, yes."
"So you knew when I almost burned Caroline?"
He shook his head. "I felt the magic. I didn't know what spell you were using only that it felt warmer than the rest of them."
"My spells feel warm?"
"Most spells do." He said. "It's life Bonnie. Magic is life."
I nodded. "I wonder why you're the only one who can sense it."
"We don't know that I am."
"Stefan didn't come running through the woods with you."
His eyebrows raised. "Good point."
And we were back to square one on the subject. If we'd ever really left it. Maybe I didn't get an answer because that wasn't what I really wanted to ask.
Damon agreed. "Why don't you ask what's really on your mind."
I stiffened. "What do you-"
"Don't." he chuckled. "Everyone else around here can play dumb if they want, but you're too observant."
Okay then. "Fine. You kissed me. Twice. Why?"
"You kissed me back. Twice. Why?"
Shit. "I was angry."
"So was I."
"And I'd had a pretty bad day."
"What a coincidence."
"I'd been drinking." I said.
Damon nodded slowly. "It didn't mean anything. Shit happens."
Wow. "Really? Shit happens?"
He turned to look at me, eye to eye. "Was this supposed to be the part where we admitted an underlying attraction to each other? Can you say that's what it is for you?"
Sort of. In a small way. Maybe. "No."
"Same page then. Don't read too far into it." He said dismissively.
I know I'd always said it in my head, but for some reason my feelings were hurt. Suddenly getting to school earlier wasn't such a bad idea.
"I'm gonna go." I said.
"School doesn't start yet."
"Homework." I said, walking towards my car.
"You could do that before you leave."
"I work better in my car." It was the stupidest thing I'd ever said.
Damon was by my door before I got to it. "Don't go home."
"I thought that was pretty clear by my stuff still being upstairs."
"I mean for anything." He said. "If you think of something you forgot, just leave it."
"Right." I said, not looking at him.
He moved away from my car and I got inside. I watched him watch me through the rearview mirror as I pulled away, then disappear into the house as I made my turn. I knew better, I did. Damon kissed girls all the time, probably Elena if I connected the dots. Of course it wouldn't mean anything to him and what would I want it to mean if it did? He was right in what he said.
So why did I feel bad about it?
There were some students when I got there, those who rode the early buses that came at like seven in the morning. I was surprised to see Jeremy there, especially since Stefan had been driving him and Elena around for the past couple of weeks.
We smiled when we saw each other. "I texted you last night. Did you get it?"
I opened my phone to a blank screen. "I forgot to plug it up last night. It must've died on me."
"It wasn't anything important." Jeremy said. "I just wanted to ask if you'd help me with my project."
"Since when are school projects not important?"
"Right. It's for art." He said.
"Go on."
"I have to draw someone." He said. "Elena's hair is too complicated and I've already draw enough pictures of my parents."
"Elena's hair is too complicated?" I laughed. "It's the simplest hair ever."
"That's what I mean!" He groaned. "I'd get so bored, I'd probably end up coloring it purple."
"So you want to draw me?" I asked as we sat down on a bench.
"If you don't mind." He said, scooting a little closer.
I smiled. "And what's so interesting about my hair?"
"It does everything. Just the shadowing alone is enough."
"Anything else?" I laughed.
"Your eyes are greener." He said.
I blinked. "Yeah, the magic did that."
"You've been doing magic?" he asked.
Think fast. "Just practicing it, really. I've been experimenting with new spells."
"Like a sunlight spell?" He raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"You heard about that, huh?"
"Only that it worked despite Caroline wearing her daylight ring."
I shrugged. "Still haven't exactly figured out why that is."
A light bulb went off in Jeremy's head. I saw it in his eyes. "That's how I can draw you!"
"Trying to figure out a sunlight spell? Seems pretty boring."
He gave me a look. "No, Bonnie, doing magic."
I looked at him. "I don't know about that, Jer."
"Come on!" he turned to face me. "Think about it. It's not like you have laser beams shooting out of your hands or anything. I just want to capture you in the moment."
I saw the look in his eyes and saw the artist bursting out. If I shot him down, nothing he drew would be as good as the idea he had right now. He had a point as well. It wasn't like any magic I did, save conjuring fire or light, would be visible.
"Sure." I said. "Why not?"
"Seriously?" he beamed.
"That's generally what sure means." I smiled.
"Are you always this sarcastic or am I that lucky."
"Both."
Jeremy was back to sitting close to me again, and I realized he was almost as close as Damon had been yesterday. The only difference between the two was that I had room to move and Jeremy wasn't looking at me like…like…Damon had.
Jeremy had the idea that we could drive somewhere open and I could use my magic like I did that time with the spirits. He told me that if he could get that picture of me standing in the middle of wind, it would be perfect. Lately all the magic I did resulted in some kind of wind. It wouldn't be too hard to do.
"When are you free?" he asked. "Is tomorrow good?"
Tomorrow was Friday, I was mad at my friends, and I had no plans. "Sure. After school okay?"
"Yeah, definitely!" he said. "Maybe we could go to the Grille afterwards."
And there it was.
In the split second between him asking me and my answer, a few things went through my head. The first was that this was my best friend's little brother. While I'd always thought of him as adorable, attractive had been a fairly recent development. The second was that he was the first guy to ask me out since Luka, and that last part ended tragically. I had to move on. The third was that this was a guy who was actually interested in me. He knew me, had always known me, and wanted to spend time with me. There was no ulterior motive, no awkwardness, and no pretenses.
And it would probably mean shit.
"Yeah." I said. "The Grille sounds awesome."
One of Jeremy's friends from class stopped to talk to him, and I told him to go ahead. After telling him I was sure at least twice, he finally told me he'd text me and left with his friend. But not before a look back at me.
I stood and dropped my phone on the ground. When I bent down to pick it up a pair of boots stepped into my line of vision.
"Excuse me." I said, picking up my phone and standing.
"Oh no," the voice said. "It's no problem at all."
My eyes shot up to the very alive eyes of Jonas Martin. They still held the warmth they always held to them, but now there was steel beneath it. I stood frozen and staring into the eyes of the man who'd died in Elena's bedroom. The man who'd taken my powers as a punishment for dealing with vampires. The man who undoubtedly blamed me for the deaths of him and his family.
And then he was gone.
A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading the story, you're awesome of course. We got a little romancy here, which I kind of liked, and then Damon shut it down, which is typically him, but we still kind of got there. If you're wondering what Damon means when Bonnie asks him why he stopped, please refer to the Damon's Pov chapter and read the dialogue between him and Alaric. Bonnie is staying at the Salvatore place for a few chapters. Everyone else on the show has, so I figure why not Bonnie. Besides, with Stefan guarding Elena and Bonnie really not talking to either one of her friends, it gives her and Damon a lot of alone time. And we all want that now don't we? Also, I'm finding that I wrote Damon and Stefan's relationship more from the books perspective. If you remember (or if you've read) Damon, Stefan, and Pop Salvatore were NOT on the best of terms. So if I seem a little off, that's where I got it from. ALSO my characters are a little OOC (out of character right?) but I hope it's tasteful. I really want these characters to be honest, so any of your input can and will be taken seriously. Also, Jonas is back baby. BACK! How he's back, why he's back, and what are his plans for Bonnie remain to be seen. Trust me though, all will be revealed in time. Read, Review, Flame, Twerk. I love it all.
Thanks for reading!
