It took me a few moments to realize where I was when I woke up the next morning. The soft glow of the early morning sun lit up the curtains, but didn't come into the room. I lay on my side, propping my head on my arm and looked at Damon. He was on his back, deeply asleep, his face pointed towards the ceiling. I couldn't help but notice the smirk that plastered his face even though he slept. I lightly traced his cheekbones and the curve of his jaw. As my wrist slid over his lips, his jaw opened and sought the two small punctures that were there from last night. My eyes closed part way at the momentary ecstasy that ended too soon as he stopped and loomed over me. "Good morning," he breathed. "Much better than eggs and toast," he added, making me laugh at that morning so long ago.

I kissed him gently, barely tasting my blood on his lips. "I should have known you were awake," I muttered as he bent down to nuzzle my neck.

I groaned and pulled his head up. "I have to get ready for school."

He rolled off of me and lay on his side. "You're serious?"

I stood up, gathering my clothes as I went. "I still need to graduate. Then I can worry about real life later," I said and slipped into the bathroom. Inside, there was one of my favorite outfits, complete with undergarments neatly folded on the counter. I opened the door and poked my head out. "Why did you bring clothes if we were just going to talk?"

He grinned, "I may have had a hidden agenda."

I shook my head with a laugh and took a fast shower. When I came out, Damon was dressed in the same clothes from yesterday. "Okay, serious question."

"I'm listening."

"When I see Stefan, how am I supposed to act?"

"Be as normal as you possibly can. Even when you're around me and Katherine." I stiffened at that, a jealous pang coursing through me. Then again, I knew he felt the same way when he saw me with Stefan. "They think they're going to catch us off guard, but we're going to be ready for them. Just remember, when she's around, I'm going to play my part. Not everything I say is true. Understand."

"Yes."

He kissed me lightly. "Good."

His arms wrapped around me and I relaxed into him. "I don't want to go."

"You're the one who wanted to go to school," he chided as he stepped back to open the door for me.

He walked with me to my car and waited until I was on the road before disappearing. When I got to school, I was late to my first class. I was very grateful for the fact that Damon had chosen a long sleeved shirt to hide the bite marks on my wrist. Even though they had healed from the blood I'd taken from him before going to sleep, they were still slightly visible. Especially the ones he had reopened for "breakfast."

Walking from class to class felt like a dream; everything was very surreal and I was never sure if my feet ever hit the ground. Yet, I always reached my destination. Before my third class, I was startled back to reality when Bonnie pulled me into the nearest bathroom and just looked at me. "What's gotten into you?"

I smiled at that statement, resisting the urge to say something Damon-esque. "Bonnie-"

"Are you aware of the fact that you're still with Stefan and you obviously just slept with Damon?"

"How did-"

"You're practically glowing, that's how I know. And the fact that you don't have any of your school things. You're aura's a different color than it normally is."

"You can read aura's?"

She nodded, "I've been practicing a little, it's not hard to learn. Don't change the subject, Elena."

I smiled lightly. "I had to try. Look, I found out a lot of things that I think you should know, but we can't talk here."

"My house?" she asked. "Dad drove me to school so you can take me home."

"Deal," I said and we walked out of the bathroom. Both of us stopped dead at the sight of Stefan leaning against the opposite wall. "Hey," I said, cautiously approaching him. Bonnie waved and dashed off to class. The bell had already rang, but at the moment, school did not matter.

He took my hands and smiled at me. "I was worried about you."

"You were?"

"You didn't call to tell me you made it home," he said and pulled me to him. "I hate to be the over protective type, but with Katherine in town, I would like to know where you are when you're not with me."

I pulled back and nodded. "That sounds fair. Look, I can't be late for this class. I'll see you at lunch?" I asked and kissed him hastily on the cheek before dashing off to class.

Lunch came and went and before I knew it, it was the last class of the day. When the final bell rang, I stood up, but Alaric called me back. "Elena, will you stay for a moment?"

"Stefan, will you tell Bonnie to wait for me? I'll be out in a minute," I said and he nodded before leaving the room. "Yes Mr. Saltzman?"

He had been watching Stefan the whole time. "Is he okay?"

"He's still struggling, but he's much better," I said with a forced smile as I reached around for a piece of paper and a pen. I scribbled Katherine's back on it and handed it to him. I put my finger to my lips and looked out at the hall, shaking my head. "I'll explain later," I said and he nodded as I left. Bonnie and Stefan were waiting at my car for me. Bonnie was looking extremely uncomfortable and I couldn't blame her. "Bonnie and I are working on our science project. I'll call you when we're done and go from there," I said to him.

He nodded and kissed me briefly. "I love you," he whispered against my lips.

I felt incredibly guilty at that as he started to walk away. "You too," I muttered and unlocked the car for Bonnie.

When we were at her house, alone in her room, I told her everything that Damon and I had discussed last night. After I had finished talking, she was staring at me with eyes full of disbelief; probably the same way I had been looking at Damon when he had told me this. She shook her head as she stood up. "He wouldn't. Stefan? I would have expected his from Damon, but never from Stefan."

"I know, that's how I felt," I said quietly, keeping my eyes glued to the comforter I was playing with absentmindedly.

"If it's true, then I owe Damon one hell of an apology."

I smiled as I looked up at her. "You don't owe him anything. Everything he did to you had nothing to do with this new situation." I laid back and hugged a pillow as I stared at the ceiling. "I want to ask him why he just couldn't talk to me about this instead of running to Katherine."

"Probably not the best idea."

"Not anymore."

"To be fair, you could have told him when he came back and been up front about it."

I closed my eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know. I've been a horrible girlfriend."

She pulled me to my feet. "That's it, we're going out for dinner for a girl's night."

"Should we invite Caroline? I feel bad about the way I've been blowing her off."

"You can't help that, but sure, we can invite her," she said and pulled out her phone to call Caroline. While she worked on convincing her to come with us, I stared at my phone debating on whether or not it would be a bad thing to try to contact Damon. He had been texting me knowing I was with Stefan. Then again, Katherine was a bit more terrifying and I decided not to. "Earth to Elena," Bonnie said, apparently not for the first time as she sat there with a smirk and a hand on her hip.

"What?" I asked.

"You should probably not talk about Damon in front of Caroline. I know I don't have to tell you, but I'm telling you anyway."

I was startled, having forgotten for a moment that Damon had used her awhile back. It was the time before he and Stefan had started becoming closer. Before I became a major part in both of their lives. It made me think of all the other girls that I had seen him with since being in town and the ones I had known about beforehand from Stefan or when Damon was in a bragging sort of mood. I frowned at the thought and pushed it away. There were some things that we needed to talk about before we went any further. "Right, thank you."

"She's meeting us at the Grill in a half hour."

"Great," I said as we retouched our make-up before heading out. When we got there, Caroline was pulling into the spot next to us. "Hey," I said and waved briefly.

"Why do we need a girl's night? We just hung out yesterday," she said, crossing her arms and staring at us both. She didn't know what was going on anymore and I felt sorry for her.

"Yes, but we weren't being fair to you," I said and stepped forward. "Look, there are some things going on that I can't talk about, but I want you to know that neither of us is trying to cut you out. We're a trio."

A smile twitched at the corner of her lips. "A simple I'm sorry would have done the trick," she said before grinning. She hugged Bonnie and I. "I really thought you were beginning to shun me."

"Not in a million years," Bonnie said as we headed inside and grabbed a table.

The night had made me feel completely normal; as if nothing supernatural in my life existed. I had dropped Bonnie off and headed home with the feeling still lingering around me. Jenna was putting something in the fridge when I came in. "Please tell me you ate," she said.

"I just got done at the Grill. Spur of the moment thing," I assured her as I approached the kitchen and stopped when I saw Uncle John lounging on the sofa in the living room that connected to the kitchen.

"Have you been avoiding me Elena?" he called as he turned his head to look at me.

"Yes," I said flatly before looking back at Jenna. "I'll see you tomorrow."

When I got to my room, there was a note on my pillow. My window was still shut and locked, leaving me a little scared at who would have left a note and how they got in. I reached for it and relaxed when I read it. Elena, meet me at your parent's marker tonight at midnight.

I smiled, still a little confused at how Damon had gotten in here with the window locked, but ignored it and waited for the right time to leave the house. Jenna was in bed at eleven-thirty and Uncle John was gone. I left a note for Jenna just in case she woke up and came to check on me. I grabbed a light jacket and headed out. At the graveyard, I pulled my jacket tighter around my shoulders, glad that I had brought it at all. "Damon?" I called out when I got to the marker.

Something was very, very wrong.

There was a childish laugh that filled the quiet and I spun around to see Katherine. "Now why would you assume that Damon would have sent that note?" Her eyes were sparkling with hatred and mild curiosity.

"I-"

She tsked me and wagged her finger at me. "You're playing a dangerous game Elena," she said sternly. "I had the upper hand then; I was the strongest of us. You're playing with the dead hearts of two very powerful vampires."

I stood straighter and tried to squash my fears. I knew she would use them to her advantage. "You don't know anything about me."

"I know that it is hard to choose between them. They're both so...delicious," she said, the word rolling off her tongue as if reliving a distant memory. "Don't you agree?"

"I'm leaving," I said and turned my back on her. I knew it wasn't the best idea, but it was the only idea I had.

"You're not fooling anyone Elena. That kiss I saw wasn't the first and it won't be the last. At least I had the decency to be up front with them both about my feelings for them."

I stopped and turned to face her again. "Decency? If you had any decency at all, you would have picked one from the beginning and-"

She smiled cruelly as I stopped myself. "Easier said then done isn't it?" I had nothing else to say to her. I turned to walk away again, but she was there with her hands around my throat. "Don't you dare walk away from me!" she shrieked, her eyes darkened in blood lust. She threw me to the ground and stared down at me, her fangs still at their full length.

"Just kill me and get it over with," I said as I rubbed my bruised throat.

She snarled, if she hadn't been in her current state, it would have been a whine. "So you can wake up in Transition?" she spat. She clenched her fists at her side and stared at me, her eyes throwing daggers. "They are mine; not yours!"

I narrowed my eyes at her as I got to my feet. "You think they want you? After all you've done to them? You made Stefan into something that he hates although he won't admit it. You abandoned Damon and you just expect to come back and make amends so you can have them all to yourself. Well, they don't belong to you. They never have."

Her hands were at my throat again, her nails digging painfully into my skin. "I'm not sharing them with you. You're just a human!" she hissed and I screamed as her fangs tore at my throat. I fought her until I couldn't move, my entire body in agony until she let me go. I crashed to the ground, my head spinning. She was smiling madly, her chin dripping with my blood. "If you survive this, I'll think about sharing," she said and then she was gone.

It took the last ounce of strength that I had to find my phone in my pocket. Only to discover that the battery had died. I took a few deep breaths to keep the oncoming blackness at bay, but it didn't work. The only thing running through my mind was that I would never get to really say I love you to Damon as everything turned black.