Damon waited patiently at the bottom of the stairs on the night of the gala. Alice was getting ready upstairs and he was standing in the living room. Oddly enough, Stefan and Elena had never shown up, but there was not a doubt in the world that they would be at this gala. Him and Alice were borrowing their house so she had somewhere to get ready. Finding a dress and a simple black and white tux had been easy in Beverly Hills, but once they'd come to the dilemma of having no where to get ready, they'd decided to use Stefan and Elena's house. Alice had went back to her animal blood diet, though Damon didn't completely know why.

Damon's breath was taken away, metaphorically speaking, when she appeared at the top of the stairs. Her eyes were again gold, so they matched the dress she was wearing. It wasn't a gaudy gold or a gold too dull, it was… perfect. She was wearing only the faintest trace of lip gloss and a touch of smoky eye shadow. She was stunning, striking, beautiful… Damon would have mentally named off more words if he hadn't had to take her hand when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

Her fingers curled around his and he forced an encouraging smile, though he finding it hard to even put one foot in front of the other. He had never been like this. He had never been so completely… mesmerized.

"Alice, you look…" He tried to say "beautiful" or "incredible" but found them too weak and colorless of words..

But it must have been in his eyes, because she smiled despite herself. She didn't look like she was used to leaving people speechless. Let alone cocky, confident people like him.

They pulled up at the mansion and he helped her out of the car and she took his arm as they approached the front door, which was standing open. The grounds were lit up with white candles, and cars were everywhere.

He felt Alice's hand tense on his arm as they walked into the entryway. He was going to ask what was wrong when they were approached by a blond woman that looked slightly younger than Alice.

"Alice! How wonderful you come. This young man must be Damon. What a looker." She smiled and glanced at him at the end of her sentence. He and Alice were posing as a couple, and Alice was doing extremely well with looking possessive.

"Yes, my Damon here is very handsome, isn't he? It's just so hard to believe he's mine." Alice said with just enough of an edge to say "back off lady, he's spoken for."

The blond laughed and seemed to get the message. She guided them into a large room that he took as the ballroom and was already crowded with people.

After the woman said that she was going to excuse herself and leave them to enjoy the festivities, Alice leaned over and whispered to Damon.

"How are we going to find Stefan and Elena in all this?"

"I have no idea, but we'll manage." He said, looking around.

Though she wouldn't admit it to him, Alice was getting extremely bad vibes off the house.

"Well, we could dance until we see them." Alice suggested, looking towards the center of the room where several couples were dancing.

"Good idea, we can see them easier from the middle of the room." Damon agreed, leading her of the center of the room as a new song started.

The piano instrumental at the beginning of the song struck her as familiar and she didn't realize why until she heard the lyrics. It was the song she'd been listening to while she'd been packing the day she'd left with Damon.

Standing in the center of the room, her and Damon fell into an easy rhythm. Her arms were around his neck and his hands rested on either side of her waist. And for a moment, it actually felt normal. Like she could pretend that they were just there because they wanted to be and not because they were hunting down Elena Gilbert. But then she came back to reality, where they actually were hunting Elena down and she was dancing with Damon to a song she'd deduced was called "Only One." Yet even though the dance was picture perfect, the awful vibes the house gave off still gave her the shivers.

As the song ended, the blond girl tapped Damon on the shoulder.

He looked over his shoulder at her and she smiled nervously, obviously scared of getting her head snapped off for interrupting.

"Yes?" He asked, forcing patience.

"Our hostess would like to see you, Mister Salvatore." She said, her gaze flicking to Alice so he knew that he was wanted alone.

He looked over at Alice, who nodded and stepped back. He knew that if she saw Stefan and Elena that she would keep an eye on them until he came back.

"Right this way." She said, leading him out of the room and up a wrought iron spiral staircase. When they reached the top, he absently wondered how she knew his last name. He knew Alice hadn't mentioned it and he could only assume there was a telepath or a physic living here.

The woman walked to the end of the hall and knocked on the door before opening it just enough to poke her head in, but not enough for Damon to see in the room.

"Miss Arriane? Damon Salvatore is here." She said, and Damon thought he could detect double meaning in those words.

"Send him in." Came a whisper that muffled the woman's actual voice.

"She is ready for you." The blond said, stepping back.

Had Damon known that downstairs, Alice was in danger, he would have never went in that room. Had he known who was waiting on the other side of that door, he would have never went in there.

But he didn't know these things, so he stepped over the threshold and heard the woman close the door behind him and then disappear down the hallway.

The woman walked out of the shadows and smiled radiantly.

"Hello, Damon."

"Hello, Katherine."

"Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you? Just a little late, you found me, you found me. Why'd you have to wait, to find me, to find me?"

~The Fray