Another chapter! It's kinda short, but I really wanted to end it at this cliffhanger, and I really couldn't think of a filler.
So here you go. Chapter 12! :)
"What do you mean Stefan's gone?"
"He got out, he's not downstairs. He's not in the house," Damon said in a jumbled mess, that she really had to strain to hear exactly what he was saying. "Which means he's blood hungry with a whole town of humans at his disposal."
Now, that certainly caused some problems.
"Okay, you need to calm down," Elena said, getting reluctantly off the bed. She really just wanted to go to sleep. "We'll find him."
"How? He could be half way across the state by now," Damon's voice was raising, as he started pacing the room. "How in the world did he get out?"
"Damon..." Elena whispered, trying to get his attention back on her, but he just kept pacing, pretending she wasn't even there. "Damon..." This time he turned to face her, staring at her with pleading eyes. "Everything's going to be okay. We're going to find him."
"You weren't there with him in his darkest ripper days, Elena. I saw him when he was at the lowest point a vampire can be..." Damon explained, and she could see the sadness in his eyes as he reminisced about his past. She'd never heard him talk so openly about what had happened between him and his brother after Katherine had turned them. "He was almost wiping out entire towns, killing hundreds of people."
"That doesn't mean it's going to happen again," Elena reasoned with him. "He was only on human blood for one day."
"Yes it does, Elena... he's been hungry for human blood and he'll stop at nothing to get it." Damon was pleading with her to understand. And she understood that he knew more about it than she did, but she didn't want to have the giving up attitude that he did. She still believed that they could find Stefan and make him better. "The only thing that is somewhat comforting is that I took away his ring."
"So that means our best chance of finding him is when the sun comes out and he has to stay in one place?" Elena asked, finally understanding the situation.
"Exactly..." Damon wandered off. "But it does pose some complications."
"That if we wait until sunrise he could be many miles away from here..." Elena filled in the blanks. She said them out loud, but it was hardly necessary because Damon just nodded in agreement. "So what do we do then?"
Damon moved to sit on the bed, placing his head in his hands, while running his hands through his hair. "I haven't figured it out yet."
To be honest, Elena was completely dumbfounded by the whole situation. She didn't know what to do about finding Stefan, he got lost twice already in the last 2 days. How does that happen to one person? After all the events that had happened today she was extremely exhausted. She started swaying where she was standing, and had to shake herself to keep herself awake.
However, the action didn't go unnoticed by Damon who was now looking at her with concerned eyes. He stood up again, coming over to her. He placed his hands on her upper arms, causing her to look up at him. "You're tired."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Elena replied sarcastically, before waving off his comment. "I'm fine. Really."
"This is hardly the time to be sarcastic, Elena."
"I've had a lot going on today. Sarcasm is the only thing I've got going for me right now," Elena whispered, feeling his hands stroking up and down her arms. "So are we going to find Stefan now or in the morning?"
"Elena..." Damon whispered; and she could tell that it was his 'I can see through your bullshit and I'm not buying it tone.'
"Don't Elena me," She said, just as he was reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of her face, he tucked it behind her ear before his finger trailed down her cheek. His thumb just ghosted over her cheek but it had an overwhelming amount of power over her.
She found herself crumbling under his penetrating gaze. Another wave of tiredness washed over her and she let her eyes fall shut just focusing on the sensation that his fingers were causing on her face. His thumb moved down to her lips where he traced her bottom lip with his thumb.
This caused her to look up at him with a heated gaze. "This bickering over whether or not you're tired is really stupid, you know?"
"I know," she whispered. She knew exactly how incredibly stupid it was to be fighting about something so trivial, but everything seemed to feel better when they were fighting even over something so stupid. "But it feels easier than thinking about anything else."
"Hey, I get it." Damon smirked, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm the master of deflecting."
And for the first time since they'd found out that Stefan was missing they both smiled. It wasn't the happiest of moments, but it just seemed appropriate at the time. Damon seemed to be pleased that she had finally smiled and leaned down to place a kiss on her lips.
She accepted the kiss willingly, allowing herself to be swept into his all to waiting arms. He wound his arms around her waist, picking her up off the ground and placing her on the bed.
Elena pulled her lips from his just as she placed on the bed. "I like this form of deflecting even more."
"It's because I'm such a stud, right?" Damon smirked, as she smiled up at him. "You know what? You don't have to answer that, I already know the answer."
"You're too cocky for your own good," Elena pointed out, laughing as he started placing kisses all over her face.
He didn't respond but his eyes were lighting up as he kissed her face. She was letting out shrieking laughs as his hands were starting to tickle the sides of her body. Her laughter became infectious as he started laughing along with her.
"Damon! Damon! Stop!" Elena shrieked, thrashing from side to side as he tickled her. "I surrender!"
He smiled, stopping in his tickling war. He moved his hands up to hers, intertwining them above her head as he leaned down to place a soft kiss on her lips. She yawned into his kiss despite herself, and realized that she really needed to get some sleep or she'd be a walking zombie tomorrow morning.
"Time for my girl to get some sleep," Damon said, sweetly, moving off her to lay by her side.
She rolled over on her side. "I like it when you call me your girl. It's sweet."
"I'm glad that you think so," Damon whispered, before moving off the bed despite her protests. "I'm just getting you something more comfortable to sleep in."
Elena smiled at his thoughtful gesture, and filed it away in her memories for whenever they had a fight and she needed to remember why she was with him in the first place. She pulled her dress over her head, dropping it on the floor so that she was just left in her bra and panties.
"Maybe I'd rather just sleep naked..." Elena's voice was suggestive and sexy.
It caused him to turn around, his gaze settling on her half-exposed body. He was lingering on her sexy tanned legs that seemed to go on for miles. She snapped her fingers to get his attention back to her face.
"You know I can't resist you when you're naked." Damon tossed a t-shirt of his her way. She caught it reluctantly in her hands, disappointed that she wasn't going to be getting any action tonight. "And you need all the rest you can get before tomorrow."
"I guess I'm just going to miss the fact that I was planning on spending all night in your bed cuddled up with you, most definitely naked." Elena choose that moment to pull the shirt over her head, covering her body. "I was also planning on spending the entire day with you, naked again of course."
Damon's eyes were now hungry as he looked at her.
"We could spend the entire day, rolling around between the sheets. Naked." She felt the need to repeat the word naked in order to get a rise out of him. "Oh and maybe on other surfaces of the house too."
Damon was on top of her in a second, kissing the side of her neck.
"Oh well..." Elena sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "Too bad we have to go to sleep."
"You're such a little minx," Damon muttered against her neck. He started peppering kisses along her neck, up to her cheek and then to her mouth where he placed soft kisses against her lips. "You're lucky I like you or I'd kick you out of my bed."
"You'd never kick me out of your bed, you'd miss me too much," Elena reminded him, beaming a smile up at him.
"I hate it when you're right," he pouted down at her, and she leaned up to kiss the pout right off his lips. He responded to the kiss wholeheartedly, pressing his lips tightly against hers. When he pulled back he let out a sigh. "But that, I can't hate."
She shook her head, smiling the entire time. Her arms curled around his back pulling him close to her. They sat there in silence, staring at each other as time passed on. It could have been hours and neither would have noticed. It just felt so good to be wrapped up in each other's arms again. The thought of Stefan was driven out of their minds for the moment as they lost themselves in each other.
"Go to sleep," Damon whispered, pressing one final kiss on her lips before rolling off of her.
He started taking off his clothes, starting with his suit jacket. "You probably already know this, but you look really hot in a suit," Elena whispered, leaning over and taking his ear between her teeth, pulling on it.
"You look really hot in my shirt," Damon said, loosening his tie. "Although I'd rather it be on the floor."
"I could always arrange that," Elena drawled seductively into his ear, her hand gliding down his chest as her tongue flicked over the shell of his ear. "I don't think I'm tired anymore."
"You're driving me crazy, Elena," Damon whined, taking his tie off completely before starting to unbutton his shirt. However, she got to it first unbuttoned them slowly before pushing it off his shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. "Do you really think we can fix him?"
And just like that, the sexual atmosphere had been whisked away as Damon filled it with worry. She looked at his face and it showed how truly worried he was for his brother's safety. She stopped taking off the rest of her clothes and put her hands on either side of his cheeks forcing him to look at her.
"Yes, I do," Elena urged. "He's going to be fine. We're going to find him in one piece, and hopefully no bodies to be found. We're going to fix him. I promise."
Damon just nodded before letting out a huff and falling back on the bed. He threw a hand over his eyes, while his other hand wrapped around her waist pulling her towards him. She went willingly, landing on top of him with a leg on either side of his waist.
"Are you going to be okay?" Elena asked, softly, the concern for his well being was heard clearly in her voice. "We can still go look for him now you know? I don't mind."
"No, we should get some sleep. Maybe he'll be here in the morning."
Elena rested her head on top of his chest, snuggling her face into his bare skin. Their arms wrapped around each other, finding comfort in the other's embrace. She placed a kiss on his chest as she closed her eyes and finally drifted into a much needed sleep.
Stefan had been wandering around for what seemed like ages. It was still dark outside so he didn't need his ring which he had pretty much tore the house apart looking for. He had wanted human blood so bad that he had managed to get out of basement where Damon had locked him. He still didn't know how he had been able to do it but here he was. In the deepest, darkest woods of Mystic Falls. Not a human being in sight.
He'd been planning on going to the first place that had a big crowd of people so that he could get his first target without it being too noticeable. But the only place he could think of was the Founder's Party, and there was no way he could show up there. Especially when Elena was there, he couldn't imagine hurting her twice.
So, instead of finding a human he'd made his way to the woods where he looked for a nice animal to eat in order to hold him over. He'd thought about going over to another town, but he had decided against it at the last moment.
This had given him a large amount of time to think things over. He'd finally get control over his blood lust and start being a better person, especially for Elena. He had to admit that he still had feelings for her but she seemed so blissfully happy with Damon that she probably wouldn't even notice if he had tried to get her attention.
Stefan was startled by a sound amongst the trees bringing him out of his thoughts. He whirled around looking for any signs of an intruder but the leaves just rustled in the wind. He had just began to relax when he heard another sound. This time coming from his other side. He spun around again and this time there was a figure standing there in front of him.
His jaw dropped at the sight of someone from his past.
"Hello, lover."
