A/N: Hii, thanks for all the lovely reviews, faves, and alerts! 8D

Enjoy!

xoxo Ascha

Chapter 14:

Gabriella woke up in Damon's bed in the morning much to her surprise, but she didn't mind it one bit. She liked him a lot and wished that she'd met him before she met Klaus and was involved in this new and crazy world. She decided to watch him sleep and enjoyed the fact that she could do just about everything to him. She immediately got a brilliant idea and reached for the elastics in his nightstand drawer, he caught her hand in mid-air and his eyes fluttered open.

"Don't even think about making me look like a girl," Damon said, letting go of her hand. Gabriella groaned, but just made a mental reminder of to do another attempt some other time. "Do you always moan in your sleep?"

"What? I didn't-!" Gabriella stopped when she saw that Damon was smirking and blushed. "Dick!"

Damon chuckled and stopped her from getting out of the bed. He pulled her in to his embrace and placed a kiss on her cheek that made her cheeks become rosy.

"You're just as red in your face now as you were when you told me about your first kiss with a girl…"

That only made Gabriella blush even more, so she took a pillow and tried suffocating him, but without any luck since he was much stronger than her. He easily overpowered her and pinned her down to the mattress, so she couldn't hurt him again.

"That wasn't so nicely done by a former catholic school girl."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I shouldn't have told you those dirty secrets. You're just going to use them to tease me for the rest of my life!"

Damon grinned. "Oh yeah!"

She narrowed her eyes at him and sent him a venomous glare that made him move reluctantly off her and let her get her clothes on. He watched her as she put her clothes on and Gabriella knew that, which was why she did it quickly.

When she was done she went to the mirror in his grand bathroom and fixed her messy hair, so no one would think that she was involved with him in any way. She didn't have time to be questioned by everyone in the house about her reasons for being attracted to him.

"What do we do about… you know, Klaus?" Gabriella asked worriedly.

She suddenly felt strong arms wrap around her from behind and felt her heart skip a beat by the touch of his bare skin close to her body.

"We kill him. It's as simple as that," Damon answered. "But how we're going to use your blood to our advantage… I don't know yet."

"Great! My psycho hybrid ex-boyfriend is on the loose and we're just doing nothing!" she grumbled and crossed her arms in frustration. Damon sighed weakly and began kissing her softly on the side of her neck, distracting her from the subject of their conversation. "You just can't take a no for an answer, can you?"

"Nope! But it's really hard to resist a woman like you… especially, when you used to be a cheerleader in high school!" Damon said teasingly.

Gabriella sighed heavily and shook her head of him, but then something sudden crossed her mind and she left the bedroom in a hurry. She almost burst into Elijah's bedroom and her eyes widened when she saw him wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. She immediately became flushed and turned around, cussing mentally at herself for not thinking her actions through.

"I'm so, so sorry, Elijah! I just-I needed to ask you of something and… just forget it. I'll come later when you're…" she glanced shyly over her shoulder, noticing how defined and muscular his body truly was and losing track of her thoughts for a moment. "I'll just go now and–"

"Gabriella, it's OK. Go ahead; ask me whatever you need to ask." Elijah interrupted, chuckling softly.

Gabriella hesitantly turned around and she sighed when she saw that he was suddenly wearing his pants, but she was still able to see his defined muscles and abs. For a few seconds she was actually about to drool at the sight, but she reminded herself of why she was there.

"I was just wondering how Klaus was cursed in the first place," she said. "I mean, did the witches just say a spell or…?"

Elijah shook his head and began buttoning his dark blue shirt. "You have to sacrifice a doppelganger of the witch, who was first used to bind the spell on him and you will need a sunstone or a moonstone, but that really depends on which of his sides you want to curse. A moonstone is used to turn his werewolf side dormant and…"

"A sunstone is used to turn his vampire side dormant. Got it."

Elijah nodded and began tying his tie, but he couldn't seem to focus on doing it right, so Gabriella stepped in and did it for him. They stood in silence as she tied the black necktie and during the entire time Gabriella could tell that he was watching her every move. She began feeling slightly uncomfortable, but a part of her liked it too.

"I know that it might seem impossible to stop him, but I'm sure we'll find a way," Elijah said, breaking the awkward silence. He took her hands in his as she finished tying his necktie and looked deep into her eyes. "There has to be a way."

Gabriella nodded in agreement and suddenly felt the burning desire to kiss him again, but the sound of Elena calling her name distracted her. Elijah let go of her hands and she left the room, walking out to Elena in the living room where she sat with Stefan and two other girls at Elena's age were. They were introduced as Caroline, who was a vampire, and Bonnie, who was a witch too, and Elena explained that they were here to help them.

"Caroline and I were thinking that perhaps if we looked through some of the grimoires at the witch massacre, then we might be able to find a spell that involves using your blood to stop Klaus," Bonnie said. "And you need to train your powers anyway, so we might as well start now."

All that talk about killing the man she still cared about was making Gabriella queasy and she truly wished that there was another way to stop him without actually killing him. She walked around in the living room for a few minutes, completely lost in her thoughts, but when she noticed that everyone was waiting for a reply from her, she took a deep breath and tried calming down.

"Tell if you find anything in the grimoires," she said. "I… have a few things I need to take care of first before I start training."

She didn't say anything else, but just left because she couldn't stand being inside anymore. She needed some fresh air like she always did whenever she was stressed out or troubled, so she went for a walk nearby the house and inhaled the fresh air. She enjoyed that she was completely alone for once and was able to think things through properly.

"Why me?" she asked herself quietly and sighed because she already knew why.

Because I was born with a rare gene that just happens to be my ex-fiancés only weakness, she thought and looked up towards the blue sky. Guess Rob and Lee were both right about me having to be careful what I wish for… Now I'm involved in this bleedin' mess and there's no way out of it. Unless–"

"What is troubling you?" Elijah suddenly asked.

Gabriella sighed, but turned around to face him and felt her heart flutter again. She didn't know why she felt this way about him, but she almost hoped that these feelings weren't hers but Johanna's instead, because then she wouldn't feel so bad about them.

"Everything," she answered and sighed again. "Is it wrong of me to still love Klaus even after everything he has done? Am I being… foolish?"

"No, I don't think so. I think you managed to see a side of Klaus that he rarely shows anyone. I once thought that I was doing the wrong thing by caring about him and helping him break his curse, but… it was hard not to care about him when I grew up with him and knows that somewhere under that dark behaviour of his, is my younger brother."

She could feel the tears brimming in her eyes, but she tried holding them back and just looked away, so Elijah wouldn't notice that she was upset. "But how can you kill him then? How am I supposed to kill him?"

Elijah didn't answer that, because he didn't know how to make her hate him like he did. She hadn't been betrayed the same way he had and been killed by her own brother. But when Gabriella blinked away the tears and turned her gaze back towards Elijah he was no longer there. Instead she saw Damon walk leave the house and walk outside to her.

"Are you OK?" he asked worriedly.

"No," she answered honestly, which only made the frown on his face deepen. "I can't take this, Damon. I'm not… I'm not like you and the others. I haven't seen what you've seen and have witnessed all the gruesome acts Klaus has done. And I can't stop pretending like I don't feel anything for him when I genuinely loved him."

"Gabriella…" Damon groaned softly and cupped her face in his hands. He wiped the trickling tears away with his thumbs and pressed his lips against hers, making her heart flutter and all worries disappear like they always did when she talked with him. "Klaus doesn't deserve you and you know it. He only looks out for himself and in the end he won't care about if you die or not, because then he at least knows that there's nothing that can stop him. It's a surprise that he's even kept you alive for as long as he has."

"I want to believe you; I really do, but…" Gabriella cussed quietly and walked a few steps away from him, embracing herself tightly. "I just can't. You didn't see what I saw in him."

"Yeah, because I'm not gay, but I know what it's like to be in your position, remember? I thought that Katherine loved me too and that I could change her evil ways, but I couldn't. You can't change someone as old as them. They're only used one thing and can't get rid of their bad habits."

Gabriella could hear that Damon was being honest as always. She understood what he meant, but she didn't want to give up on Klaus or the way he made her feel. However, right now she wanted to forget everything about him, so she ran back into his arms and kissed him passionately without breaking the kiss this time. She was ready to let go-no, she needed to let go.

Dear God, now I'm kissing another vampire! I seriously think I have some sort of weakness for them, she couldn't help but think and wrapped her arms around Damon's neck. She felt his arm slip around her waist, while he buried his fingers in her hair with the other hand. But what about Elijah? Are my feelings for him real or just Johanna's? I need to know.

Unfortunately, their time alone was brief, because Elena and Stefan were starting to get worried and Damon therefore had to break the kiss. But that didn't stop Damon from winking flirtatiously at her and pinched her butt just before Stefan walked outside to them. Gabriella became flushed of what he did and pushed him hard, but not hard enough to make him fall.

"Perv!" she growled as she left and walked back inside, leaving him standing alone outside with his younger brother.

Stefan was about to say something to her, but he shook his head and continued walking towards Damon, who was smirking smugly as always.

"What was that about?" he asked confusedly, a tad afraid of hearing the answer.

This was Damon and he knew that Damon was always up to no good.

"Oh, just the usual…" Damon answered and grinned, making Stefan roll his eyes and leave again.

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