A/N: Hi everyone! Must celebrate over 900 reviews! Whoop-whoop. You spoil me you really do and here is my gift to you all. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.
Sleepovers were becoming a recurring practice. And it wasn't exactly something that was done intentionally. The one thing Bonnie feared—becoming too dependent on Damon to keep her ongoing misery at bay—was becoming a reality as each day passed. Yet the one thing she wouldn't allow to tumble from her lips was regret. Not saying her actions were shameful. Damon had been behaving himself far beyond her expectations. He never tried to do anything more than kiss her until her lips were swollen and leave her panting and wanting more. He'd roll over to his side of the bed and stay there slumbering away happily while Bonnie stared petulantly up at the ceiling until finally she dozed off.
It didn't seem fair that he would appear not to be affected by their close proximity to one another, and perhaps just having her near was all he needed. Bonnie on the other hand felt like she was coming down with a hard case of spring fever.
There was an outbreak going on if she wanted to be technical about it. Every year around the end of the school year, hormones would start raging as people exposed more skin. Girls would happily prance around in mini skirts and tight shirts with titillating necklines, while the guys lost their shirts the minute they hit the parking lot after school to expose the muscles they spent the winter months perfecting. Usually Bonnie was one of the few to remain immune. Sure she checked out the male real estate because she was a young teenaged girl and needed some eye candy to ogle, but her new arrangement was one night out of the week she would be sleeping next to the ultimate eye candy.
And there was very little she could do to quell the storm that was brewing inside. Bonnie couldn't say that Damon knew exactly the effect he was having on her. He never brought it up, which was already suspect because he liked drawing attention to his manly assets, but maybe he was ignoring the vibes flowing between them for her benefit because she wasn't ready to take that step.
In any case, Bonnie felt like a can of soda laced with pop rocks and she was seconds from exploding.
Yet she tempered herself because she didn't let her hormones rule her, and she wasn't one to ever give herself over to lust. In reality she was still a novice in the sex department. Damon, the one with the black eyes had been a wonderful teacher and she missed his lessons a lot but that part of her life had ended abruptly and she hated it.
However she was glad for the reprieve from wanting sex because she had been too busy lamenting the loss of her first love.
Now that clearly wasn't the case.
Deep, deep down in her subconscious Bonnie wondered why she was thinking about this. She was in that gray area of sleeping yet becoming cognizant of her surroundings. The last visages of her dream about being in a bakery ordering a slice of cake where fading until she was forming coherent thought patterns. She could hear her belly growling, felt her bladder telling her to wake up before she burst, and then that's when she heard pounding bass and a nasally voice.
"Come and put your name on it…It's not even my birthday but he want to lick the icing off. I know you want it in the worst way…"
Bonnie sat up in bed, her eyes barely open as she wondered if she had fallen asleep in some hedonistic club or something. Pushing the covers away with her legs, she fell out of Damon's ridiculously huge bed only noticing at the last second that he wasn't asleep beside her. She heard some type of commotion coming from the bathroom. She identified it as water sloshing against the rim of the tub.
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, yawning and stretching, Bonnie stumbled her way to the bathroom and skittered to a stop.
Sleep gone. Tiredness flew from her body. Her mouth dried up and Bonnie was sure she forgot that blinking was necessary to keep her eyes from turning into dust. Paralysis had set in as she watched Damon grip both sides of the tub lifting himself to a standing position. Rivers of water ran down his porcelain chest, gliding down his abs, sinking to that inverted V, smoothing over his impressive…woooowwwwww.
And this moment wasn't helped as Chris Brown sung, "Ooh, girl I want to f*ck you right now. It's been a long time and I been missing your body."
Sex? Yes, please I'll take two servings, thank you, Bonnie thought while her facial cheeks pooled with blood.
Should she apologize? Cover her eyes? Offer to towel him dry? Or something else? Bonnie didn't know what to do, felt like a deer stuck in headlights unable to dash to the other side of the street or lest be turned into roadkill.
Damon held Bonnie's gaze and smirked when her eyes dropped to the python that was nestled between his legs.
He didn't utter a single word, instead, he let Chris Brown and Rihanna fill the dialogue between them.
Bonnie watched as Damon stepped out on the tub and moved towards her like a panther that had been displaced in this domestic domicile. Her cheeks were aflame. Her heart was a persistent bang against her ribcage. It was far too late for her to admonish him and make a towel appear around his waist because he had caught her staring and she wasn't done staring.
He was on top of her in an instant, smelling fresh and clean, dazzling like a mirror ball, smirking like the presumptuous sumabitch he was.
Damon tilted her chin farther up with his index finger. "Good morning," he pecked her lips.
A peck? Bonnie's mind roared. You're standing in front of me in your birthday suit with "Birthday Cake" blasting in the background, and that's all you're gonna do is peck me?
Bonnie was outraged and then outraged that she was outraged. She hadn't told Damon in so many words that sex between them wouldn't happen…for a while. It had been implied and not really enforced because, like she reminded herself, he had been nothing more than a gentleman. But now he was playing dirty, trying to tip the scales in his favor. Make her crack.
Yet could she really find fault in that? In this moment, Bonnie didn't think so.
Damon didn't wait for her to respond before shuffling into his room. Bonnie followed him with her eyes, and her jaw dropped again once his glorious backside was revealed. Sensory freaking overload! Was there a square inch of this motherf*cker that wasn't borderline perfect? Damon didn't have the typical white guy ass, completely flat with a round curve at the end. He had proud cheeks that stood high and mighty waiting to be spanked and/or bitten.
Damon grabbed a towel and dragged it down his belly before boldly cupping himself. CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE!
Bonnie was proud of herself because she was still standing on her feet. However, walking was proving to be a bit more difficult as she headed towards the toilet. Left foot, right foot, then left foot again.
He could have shown her a little mercy but Damon didn't feel like being merciful. Damon wanted Bonnie to see what she slept next to and what she could have if only she said the word.
Damon headed to his closet where he cut a jig as he selected his clothes for the day. Standing naked in front of women was common place with him. He much preferred nudity over anything else, however standing in the buff in front of Bonnie while her eyes took a private tour of what God had blessed him with…
Damon held on to a wall to support himself. Walking away from her and not throwing her on the bed was the hardest thing he had to do. Especially when she was dressed in one of his T-shirts with bare legs, exposed feet, and wild hair. Sure there had been plenty of girls in his past who wore his clothes and looked as bedraggled as Bonnie. They, however, meant nothing to him. Seeing the young woman he did love donned in his clothes, made Damon feel as if she belonged to him, and he liked the feeling.
Damon wanted Bonnie so much he was pregnant with need. No other woman in all the hundred and seventy years he walked the earth had reduced him to….he felt like Tickle Me Elmo because that's how much he was trembling and warring with himself not to step foot back in his room. The temptation to cross that precarious line of friends and lovers was too great and years of instinct instructed him that Bonnie wasn't ready. She was getting close but Damon wanted her to come to him.
It would be the only precursor that she had finally obliterated the other Damon out of her system. Until then he was a sitting duck with a hard on the size of Texas.
Damon quickly toweled himself dry and then pulled on a pair of jeans sans underwear yet he left them unzipped and unbuttoned. He stepped out in the room and found Bonnie brushing her teeth. He joined her at the sink and noticed that she stiffened and refused to make eye contact with him in the mirror. So they went about ignoring the other as they took care of personal hygiene.
The lust in Bonnie was slowly dissolving into anger. For so long it felt good to be immune to the powerhouse of manliness that was Damon Salvatore. Sure he could hold her prisoner with his direct, glacial stare and she often fantasized about his lips and hands, but so far all those things and secret yearnings had been manageable. Seeing him, all of him and knowing she could access it whenever she wanted napalmed the remaining walls that surrounded the very female part of her that wanted carnality.
"You should hurry because you have school," Damon reminded her because he felt her stalling. Inwardly he grinned.
Bonnie blinked. She had forgotten that today was only Tuesday and she did have school. More to the matter she had three finals today.
However, leaving this bedroom would prove to be the ultimate test. She wanted him to touch her. Hell, she'd take a handshake, something because otherwise she didn't trust her concentration to be focused on passing her final exams.
"Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do," Bonnie retorted and ran a wide tooth comb through her hair.
Damon cleared his throat. "What are you accusing me of now, Judgey? I can't sneeze without you thinking I'm trying to cop a feel or something."
Bonnie pursed her lips and continued with grooming herself. "First of all I've never heard or seen you sneeze so that argument is irrelevant. And you know what I'm talking about, Damon. Something tells me you planned this morning right down to the song."
Damon moved until he stood behind Bonnie. He wasn't standing close enough to touch but she did feel the tepid heat from his body against her back. She didn't move a single muscle to close the gap which separated them.
"I know I have a colorful past, Bons, but not everything I do is calculated. Here's the question you should ask: why would I do something so suggestive to get the both of us hot and bothered knowing nothing will come of it? You don't have a dick so you can't possibly understand how uncomfortable it is walking around hard all the damn time."
Going into politics should have been his career path instead of being a vampire because only politicians and lawyers could lie with such a straight face. Nevertheless, there was a small, minute part of Bonnie that wanted to take his words into consideration and give Damon the benefit of the doubt. However, she knew better.
She turned around and faced him. "You want me to crack."
Damon shrugged.
"You want me to be the one to give in first and plead for you to take my ache away."
Damon gulped a bit.
"You want to be the one to make me crave…sex again."
Damon cleared his throat and shifted a bit on his feet. His erection was beginning to press against the zipper of his jeans.
"And you'll do whatever it takes to get me on my back, naked and spread eagle, and remember Damon I'm very flexible."
His nostrils flared and something dangerous glinted in his eyes. But Bonnie refused to back down.
"I'm glad you know me so well," his voice was gravelly and deep.
They held challenging gazes with one another before Bonnie slid her tiny hand up his pectoral. Her touch made him fully, painfully erect and in two quick movements he could have her bent over the sink with his shirt cinched around her waist and his girth sheathed in her heat.
"I need a minute," Bonnie said softly. "I'd like to shower if that's all right with you."
Damon sucked in a massive breath, held it before releasing it. The desirous expression that was on his face evaporated as if the small seduction never took place. Although it took a gargantuan effort to step away from Bonnie to give her some breathing room. This slip of a girl shouldn't have this much control over his reactions and emotions but she did. He couldn't pinpoint when he gave Bonnie free license to toy with him like this and not make her eat her words or actions.
"Do you need help? I could wash your back," he offered in an equally small and soft voice. Come on man, grow up!
"No, I don't need help with my back, but my hamstring has been kind of bothering me since I took up running again. Do you think you could massage it for me once I get out of the shower?"
A slow, telling smile traipsed on his face as he cupped Bonnie's cheek. "Anything you want you got it."
"Thank you, Mr. Salvatore."
Ooh, shit, Damon thought and felt his burgeoning erection come back full force causing his toes to curl against the floor.
Bonnie pivoted on her feet and headed towards the shower. Damon kept his eyes on her as he walked back into the bedroom but not without tripping over something, his shoe, and landed face first on the ground.
Bonnie rushed back out and saw Damon pushing himself up. "Are you okay?"
"Just ducky," he said. It was a good thing he was too smooth to be embarrassed.
Elena took the stairs two at a time, walked down the familiar semi-darkened hallway and entered the last room on the left. She came to an abrupt stop as her eyes briefly took in the scene before her.
She slapped a hand over her eyes, "Oh my God!"
Heart slamming in her chest Elena wanted to erase the image of seeing Bonnie sitting on the edge of Damon's bed, her foot propped on his thigh with Damon's head between her legs.
The two other occupants of the room stared at Elena as if she morphed into Sarah Palin.
"Elena, what's wrong with you?" Bonnie asked.
"I'm so sorry," she mumbled and made a slit in her fingers to eye her best friend. When she did she saw that Damon was now standing no longer resting on his haunches in front of Bonnie. Elena dropped her hand and wondered…
"What did you think we were doing?" Bonnie queried and reached for her cerulean blue cardigan to go over her summer dress.
"I just saw…" Elena stammered, "It looked like you two were in the middle of…" her cheeks were a bright red as she lowered her eyes to her sneakers.
Damon snorted and looked at Bonnie to explain the situation in only the way he could. "Elena thought I was eating your pussy."
Elena sucked her teeth. Bonnie made a face, but it was Elena who said:
"Damon, do you have to be crass all the time?"
He shrugged unapologetically. "It's apart of my charm, Elena."
"Well," Bonnie interjected. "We weren't doing…that. He was helping me with my shoe."
Relief flooded through Elena's circulatory system and came out as a sigh through her pulmonary system. "Sorry for overreacting."
"You came all the way up here looking for Bonnie, I presume," Damon said and moseyed over to his bureau to collect his money clip, cell phone, and keys.
Elena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I did. Elijah…he's downstairs."
Bonnie nodded.
Damon stared pointedly at Elena wondering if now she was going to make her grand exit. However she didn't budge.
"We'll be down in a minute," he told her bluntly.
"Okay," Elena murmured and left the room.
The minute she was gone, Damon was back standing in front of Bonnie. "Are you sure you're making the right decision in handing over the moonstone to Elijah?"
She shrugged and then pulled the object out of her purse, examining it. "Trust me, I've consulted with the spirits of Christmases past about this thing and all I got were mixed signals. But I know this much: Elijah's family feud with Klaus is just that his feud."
Damon took the moonstone out of Bonnie's hand. "To me this symbolizes leverage and I don't think we should turn it over so easily. Not until certain parameters are in place."
"Like what?"
"Like your safety for starters. I don't want anyone coming after you."
Bonnie smiled up at Damon shyly. They have certainly come a long way since that night at Elena's dinner party where he said that her life meant nothing to him. It was amazing that that event took place only nine months ago. Not a full year had passed and the two of them had learned to trust one another, in their own way became friends, and now they loved each other.
"That's a good place to start. But what about Elena? If Klaus has intentions of creating hybrids he'll need her."
"Then she'll just have to go on Elijah's long list of people he's sworn to protect. Without this," Damon held up the moonstone, "he doesn't get the location of his family, and he knows that. That's how you play this game."
"Yeah," Bonnie said, "I just don't want to be the player who loses everything in the end."
Downstairs they found Elijah sitting on the couch, legs crossed elegantly, twiddling his fingers together. He immediately rose the minute his Hershey's chocolate eyes landed on Bonnie.
"My beautiful niece," he held open his arms. Bonnie casually strolled into them hugging Elijah tentatively before pulling away and stepping back to Damon's side. Elijah narrowed his eyes only infinitesimally towards Damon who glowered at the man.
"Elena and Stefan have already gone to school. I told them this was a meeting where their presence was not needed."
Bonnie nodded. Damon was stoic.
"I'm sorry for my brother's impulsivity," he spoke to Damon. "He is quite the barbarian."
Damon accepted Elijah's apology on his brother's behalf with the same joy as receiving a colonoscopy.
"I'm sure it's a trait that runs deep in the family," Damon winked.
Elijah said nothing but planted his eyes back on Bonnie. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with young Mr. Salvatore. I know entrusting me with the moonstone seems as if you are giving your leverage away, but be assured Klaus would have stopped at nothing to get it back."
"I gathered that much during our encounter with him," Bonnie said. "The last thing any of us needs is a thousand year old vampire throwing a temper tantrum because he's not getting his way. I want to trust you'll do the right thing with this, Elijah. I know how important getting your family back is to you. But you don't know what your brother plans to do with the moonstone."
Placing a hand in his pocket, Elijah pulled his lips back from his teeth. Damon noticed it was something he did when Elijah was unsure of someone's intentions or the outcome of a situation. He was just as much in the dark about why Klaus wanted the moonstone as the rest of them were.
"You're right, I don't know if he intends to lift the spell or not. Understand I haven't kept company with Niklaus for half a millennium. And though he never expressed an interest in removing the spell, people's ideals do change with time." He stepped a hair closer to Bonnie.
Damon instinctively wanted to tug Bonnie closer to his side, but he didn't.
"But I give you my word that you and your friends are under my protection from Niklaus."
"How?" Damon asked brusquely. "I hate to remind you of the botched up job you did with Katherine."
Bonnie grabbed Damon's hand tightly.
Elijah stepped to him, standing toe-to-toe. "My niece cares a great deal for you. I can see that, so I'm only extending my protection to you as a favor to her. Make no mistake, Damon, you are expendable to me, and when I say that you are under my protection, you are just that. Nevertheless," Elijah moved even closer making Damon want to lean back a bit, "just as Bonnie has made her peace with losing one Damon Salvatore, I'm sure she can do so again." The implication weighed heavily in the air.
No sound could be heard in the room. Damon blinked. "Wow. I think this is a first for me. Having someone promise to protect my life and threaten to kill me in the same breath."
"And I'm sure this will be the first and only time someone promises to protect your life, Damon," Elijah replied succinctly. He returned his focus back to Bonnie who was looking extremely tense.
"Bonnie, may I have a word with you in private?" Elijah requested.
She nodded her head and the two of them stepped out to the back patio. Damon watched them like a hawk through the glass listening to every word that was spoken.
Bonnie walked next to her uncle as they lost themselves in the woods surrounding the boardinghouse.
"I didn't want to do this in front of Damon because he has a reputation for acting rashly," Elijah sighed. "Summer is approaching and you'll be done with your lessons soon, yes?"
"Yeah. I'll officially be out of school in three weeks."
"And three weeks is exactly how much time I want to spend with you."
Bonnie blinked. "Hun?"
Elijah smiled which made the lines around his eyes more prominent. "I have several houses that I want to visit this summer. There's a villa in Barcelona, another in Larissa, Greece, and my house on St. Thomas island. I'd love for you to accompany me."
This information still wasn't computing for Bonnie. "Hun?"
Her dubiousness amused Elijah. "Will you agree to accompany me as soon as your schedule allows?"
"Ah," Bonnie ran her thumbnail back and forth across her forehead. Hell yes! She wanted to go to all those places. Yet she had to play this cool, not appear to be so eager. "I promised my dad I'd spend at least half the month of June with his relatives in Alabama." She made a face as if she swallowed castor oil. "Not my idea of a raging good time."
"Perhaps if I spoke with your father it might ease your hesitation?"
Bonnie quickly bobbed her head up and down.
"Then it's settled. I'll give you more details when they're available." He held out his hand expectantly.
"I want to give you the moonstone yet there's a part of me that's screaming not to, and it has everything to do with protecting the balance. I would be aiding in the creation of hybrids if that's why Klaus wants this rock. And I can't let him do that."
"I understand your hesitation, Bonnie and I commiserate with it, but I have far more experience with my brother than you do. He will not stop until he gets this. Please?"
Seconds ticked off the clock and very reluctantly Bonnie handed the moonstone over.
"You can trust me, Bonnie. You are my family and I don't betray my family."
She didn't say anything to refute his claim. Bonnie knew all she could do was wait and see.
Damon was standing on the patio, arms folded. He kept his gaze locked on Bonnie trying to ascertain her mood. Elijah had walked them to a part of the woods where their conversation was muffled due to their distance from the boardinghouse, so he really had no idea what the old bag could have said to Bonnie. Yet judging from the sort of overwhelmed expression on her face, nothing too horrid took place between them.
When she was in reaching distance, Damon took Bonnie by the hand and pulled her in front of him. "You okay?"
She nodded and couldn't get her face to work because she wanted to smile yet she couldn't give anything away. Damon had their entire summer mapped out, but once she spilled the beans about her pending three-week siesta with Elijah, happy camper he would not be.
Elijah observed them for a moment. "I'll call you, Bonnie."
The young woman in question shifted until her back was being supported by Damon's chest who had his arms wrapped around her waist. "Okay. Keep me posted on what happens with Klaus."
"I told you not to worry. I know the best way to deal with my brother." Elijah reached for Bonnie's hand, kissed it, and said to Damon, "Take excellent care of her. Otherwise there's plenty of room left on the wall above my fireplace for one more head."
"Dually noted," Damon deadpanned. "I'm sure you can see yourself out."
"I can and until next time."
He was gone in the span of an eye blink.
Alone, Bonnie stared out into the yard. "I hope I just didn't make a colossal mistake."
A few hours earlier…
There were certain times of the day that were sacred to a warlock. Since many drew their power from the earth, celestial events were like their version of Christmas. During these events things that were once impossible to do became possible, and magic ran deep and pure. Jonas Martin was one such person who followed the rules of nature, yet on occasion broke them to serve his own purpose. He was a strict man. He went to bed every night at the same time without fail. Rose in the morning at the same time. And he performed the same ritual before stepping foot outside of his home. He carried special herbs in his pockets for his own form of protection. He didn't need a semiautomatic pistol to walk around feeling safe. He was a walking arsenal of weapons of the magical kind.
This morning was no different from others except, instead of swimming a hundred laps at the local pool, he was driving to a remote part of Mystic Falls. Cutting the engine of his Range Rover, Jonas looked around his surroundings before crossing over to the front door of the ranch style property.
He didn't bother knocking. He had been instructed to come inside as soon as he arrived. So Jonas did so ignoring the wealth and opulence which saluted him upon entering. Because he was an academia, he noted briefly that there were three rare paintings hanging from the walls, their combined worth probably close to fifteen million dollars, but he didn't care about that. This was about business and business only.
Jonas made his way through the labyrinth of vaulted ceiling galleries until he came to the private den where he sensed Elijah.
Pushing open the dark cherry wood door, Jonas kept his eyes on the back of the man draped in a European cut suit. Inwardly, Jonas snorted. Elijah always dressed as if he were about to head to a boardroom. He didn't think the man owned a pair of jeans, sneakers, or flip flops.
Elijah turned around to regard his guest. "Thank you for getting here swiftly."
Jonas didn't acknowledge Elijah's words, but merely folded his hands on top of one another. "Klaus is here."
Elijah nodded his head. "Yes, I've been made aware of that by my niece."
Jonas' jaw twitched involuntarily. He hated when vampires tried to act like they were human and claim humans as family. Bonnie was no more Elijah's niece than Jonas was Bill Gates. Vampires were nothing but vicious manipulators, in his opinion. There might have been a select number of few who were tolerable only because they had been turned against their will and never gave into their innate natures, still, Jonas would never call a vampire—friend—no matter how long he knew one. Vampires had done nothing but turn witches and warlocks who were supposed to be servants of nature into indentured servants, slaves if he wanted to be real about it, to carry out their sadistic orders.
It was time he shift the balance of power back to its rightful owners.
But first there were several things he needed to cross off his very long To Do list.
"If I have his blood," Jonas said, "it would strengthen the locator spell and could expedite finding your family."
"I was thinking the same thing. My brother must have employed a witch to put in very strong wards that's impenetrable by you and your family's power, Jonas. It's the only plausible explanation I can think of for why using my blood has rendered the standard locator spell useless."
Jonas waited a beat before speaking again, and he ignored the implication about his family. His family wasn't weak! The Martin's were one of the strongest bloodlines on the planet. Elijah must have missed the memo. "I think Klaus may have a weakness that we could use against him."
Elijah perked up a bit as he stood a little taller. "A weakness? Enlighten me."
"My son recently attended a dance where Klaus showed up unexpectedly and danced with Bonnie."
"Yes," Elijah mumbled flatly. "She told me everything that took place between herself and Niklaus."
"So don't you think we should use Bonnie to get to him?"
Anger marred Elijah's too-hot-for-TV face. "Absolutely out of the question! I want Bonnie to have nothing to do with Niklaus. Leave her out of it, Jonas. I mean it."
For his part, Jonas pursed his lips.
"I will get the blood you need for the spell. Be ready to go when I call you. You may go."
Again, Jonas hesitated before leaving. He was no one's dog and would be spoken to like the grown ass man that he is. However, even he knew not to push Elijah. Elijah might seem like the coolest thing walking since slice bread, but there had been a few incidents where Jonas saw Elijah cleave off heads with a single punch, and dismembered bodies as if he were pulling apart chicken bones.
Elijah didn't move a muscle until he heard the mortal exit through the front door. Walking over to a bookshelf, Elijah pulled down a small mosaic jar. From the breast pocket of his suit jacket, Elijah removed a long crude dagger. Opening the top of the jar, he stuck the tip of the dagger inside swirling it in white oak ash.
"Sorry, brother but you brought this on yourself."
"I can vouch that I have partied with the royals. And uptight they might appear, get a few glasses of champagne in their systems and watch because they will be swinging from the chandeliers."
Jenna laughed and wiped the corner of her eye. "I don't believe you."
"Why not, love? Don't I have the face of a man worthy of trust?" the stranger smirked.
Jenna sat across from a man with curly blonde hair, blood-red lips, and dark blue eyes, laughing until her belly jiggled. His face certainly didn't scream trustworthy but more like virtue stealer. He was probably the Hamburgular of young women's panties.
"My mother said you should never trust a handsome man because the devil was God's most beautiful angel. So…" she hunched her shoulders. "Chuck it up to years of bias being hammered into my head."
"And what a pretty head it is," Klaus said and picked up his cup of coffee. He took a sip. "So Jenna…you're a graduate student studying psychology. May I inquire what you plan to do in that field?"
Pushing a strand of curly strawberry blonde hair behind her ear, Jenna made a steeple of her fingers around her coffee cup. "I've thought about counseling disillusioned youth, or athletes who can't let go of the game. I haven't really made up my mind yet."
"Before you settle on a career in which you'll slave away for the next forty years of your life, perhaps you should see the world."
Jenna looked down at the grooves in the table. Yeah, that would have been possible if she weren't the guardian for two head-strong teenagers. And traveling the world over only happened to those who didn't have a whole heap of responsibility on their shoulders. Not for struggling graduate students pretending to parent.
"If only that were possible," Jenna flashed her earnest cornflower blue eyes back at Klaus. She tried to think back to how she ended up in conversation with the strange British man. She had dropped her book on the floor and he seemed to materialize out of nowhere, holding it out to her. And acting spur of the moment, Jenna invited him to share a cup of coffee while she waited for Jeremy and Elena. Tuesday was their official eat-out night.
Klaus slid to the edge of his seat, sliding his elbows across the table top, entrapping Jenna with his serious gaze. "Why is it not possible? You're young-stunning. You should have the world at your feet. I can see you now enjoying a myrrh bath in Jerusalem, or eating pomegranates in Greece."
The apples of her cheeks reddened. God, she had forgotten what it felt like to flirt with an attractive man. Don't get her wrong. Things were great with Ric, but he had the charming grace of a gorilla on roller skates sometimes. It was enduring but a bit frustrating at times.
Jenna appeared sheepish before answering his question. "I have…certain responsibilities."
"Like? Forgive me. I'm prying. Naughty boy," he grinned.
She chortled. "I have guardianship of my niece and nephew. And though they are more than capable of watching over themselves I just wouldn't feel right leaving them while I go off to explore the world."
"Hmm," Klaus responded noncommittally. "Family…they do have a way of cramping ones style. But I believe it's admirable the sacrifices you're making so that your niece and nephew want for nothing. And as such you should treat yourself."
"Jenna," a startled voice said over Klaus' shoulder.
Jumping in her seat, Jenna pulled her eyes away from Klaus to stare into Elena's enlarged and slightly terrified orbs. She frowned.
Elena dropped her gaze to Klaus who smiled jovially before his lips shriveled.
"You need to leave," she said as threateningly as she could.
"Elena!" Jenna was shocked by her niece's rude behavior. "Who gave you the right to speak to him like that?"
"Trust me, Jenna when I say he doesn't deserve civility or contact with humanity."
Klaus shifted back in his seat and reached into his pocket. He slipped a hundred on the table and gracefully stood. "That is my cue to leave."
"No, my niece is being unbelievably rude."
"It is all right," Klaus smiled towards Jenna. "I have another appointment I must be getting to." He approached Elena who stood as rigid as a piece of plywood. "One word…and your beautiful aunt will be vampire before the night is over."
Elena stiffened yet held his challenging gaze.
"Ladies," Klaus acknowledged them both and casually left the restaurant.
Elena sat down in the booth staring at Jenna earnestly. "That man is…he's bad news, Jenna. Please, just stay away from him."
"What has he done to be labeled as being bad news? He was perfectly nice to me, Elena."
Running both hands through her hair, sometimes Elena could really beat her own ass for promising to keep Jenna out-of-the-know when it came to vampires. Especially original vampires that couldn't be killed with a wooden stake through the heart.
"He showed up uninvited to the 20's dance and he…he hurt Damon. Unprovoked, I might add."
"Hurt him how? You're going to have to give me more details than that. Damon isn't one of my favorite people especially since I caught him kissing you so sorry if I'm not going to automatically jump on his bandwagon."
Elena blew air through her mouth. That was another thing she had to take the heat for because she couldn't use the excuse as Katherine being her mysterious look-alike cousin from Bulgaria. That lie wouldn't have flown.
"Things are really complicated, Jenna." Elena spent the next twenty minutes talking in circles, barely touching the truth, throwing enough fabrication in to make Jenna promise that if she should encounter Klaus again that she should remember he's a stranger above anything else, and trust shouldn't be given easily just because he had an accent and dimples.
Jeremy joined them looking slightly happier than he had recently.
"What is your face doing?" Jenna asked.
"What?" Jeremy proceeded to wipe at his face thinking remnants from the candy bar he just attacked was stuck to it.
"You're smiling," Elena clarified.
Jeremy scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You are two are weird. Yes, I'm smiling because I aced two of my finals which means I dodged the summer school bullet."
Jenna reached over and rubbed his back. "I'm proud of you, Jer. You know what that means…you can supersize tonight."
"Your generosity astounds me, Jenna," said Jeremy as he reached for a menu he knew by heart.
It took manhandling replays of Damon exiting the bathtub into her fantasy file in order for Bonnie to dedicate her concentration on her finals. Calculus had been no friend to her and she felt she had done well enough which meant she probably failed. History was a breeze, and the paper she wrote for English Literature would probably make Maya Angelou cry. Probably not, but in her humble opinion it was an excellent character analysis of Medea from the tragedy Euripieds not the Tyler Perry movies.
All of her friends had prior plans. Elena and Jeremy were doing family night with Jenna at The Grille. Matt had taken Caroline out on an actual date and they were having dinner in the next county over. Stefan more than likely would be at the boardinghouse, writing in his journal or reading, or whatever until he went over to Elena's.
So that left her with absolutely no distractions. Until of course Luka tried to entice her with some rooftop channeling. She was about to agree when Damon sent her a text asking if she wanted to take a ride with him.
That's where memories from how their day started plagued her. She apologized to Luka and asked for a rain check which he accepted though she could tell he was growing increasingly frustrated by her constant rebuffs.
Damon picked her up from home after she changed into another summer dress with spaghetti straps and sprayed perfume behind her ears. They rode listening to Anthony Hamilton in Damon's convertible. He drove out to the marshlands, parked and then taking Bonnie by the hand, he pulled her out and sat her down on the hood of his car.
"I wonder if Elijah's given Klaus the moon…"
Damon silenced Bonnie by placing his index finger against her lips. "I don't want to talk about originals, nosey doppelgangers, vampire brothers in need of a face lift, or hyperactive blondes whose jaws should be wired shut. Listen to the music."
Bonnie pinched her lips and did as Damon instructed. "The Point of it All" was streaming from the speakers. And the lyrics definitely fit with Damon's personality. He had a problem with staying away from her, from those he loved period, yet the point of it all was because he loved her.
The impact of that realization would never cease to knock her off her feet.
"You've been communicating with me through song all day," Bonnie observed.
Damon shrugged and grabbed Bonnie by the knees, wrenching them apart. She gasped a little and said nothing when he jerked her closer until her legs were almost wrapped around him.
"Kiss me," he commanded.
Bonnie tightened her mouth. "Make me."
That dangerous glint returned to his eyes and the smile he flashed was not friendly at all. He lifted Bonnie until her butt cleared the hood and she had no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist. He grabbed her chin, holding her head complacent before kissing her with a bruising intensity that made Bonnie feel like she had been sucker punched. She imagined herself stretched out on the ground with birds chirping over her head and X's over her eyes.
Damon could never get tired of kissing her, smelling her, feeling her hot tight body against his, or drinking her blood. Every fiber of his core throbbed with need, but this wasn't the total elixir Damon craved or wanted to sustain him. The beast inside him wanted to claim Bonnie as his rightful mate, saw it as his duty to protect her and no—he didn't trust Elijah to come through. However, there was something he could do. Believe it or not there was a code that even vampires had to adhere to.
Yet he put all his concentration on kissing Bonnie, on taking her mouth, darting his tongue in and out to simulate what he really wanted to do to her.
She moaned, pressed her body as tightly to Damon as she could and yet this wasn't feeling like it was enough. Bonnie wanted to be closer to him and she knew how to achieve this, but she just wasn't ready. And then she began to question if she ever would be.
In certain situations you just had to grab life by the horns and have at it.
Damon wasn't done drinking his fill of her, yet he released her lips only to lick a trail beginning at the base of her throat and working his way up to her earlobe where he teasingly bit it. Her thighs reflexively tightened aroung him and she felt the center of her body growing warm, taut, and pooling with liquid. Her arousal snaked up his nose as if a genie had been released from a bottle and the scent was so potent that his fangs descended and his eyes turned red.
He pulled back to catch his breath, the red haze of blood lust and carnal lust warring with his already cynical mind. Bonnie could feel the vibrations in Damon as she pulled back and saw he was wearing his "happy" face.
Damon looked away knowing it made her uncomfortable when he vamped out, however, something remarkable happened. Bonnie's lips very tentatively kissed the corner of his mouth and then she licked his fang from pointy end to gum.
"If I'm going to be with you then I have to accept all of you, Damon. You can't help what you are anymore than I can."
The air between them shifted and Damon could do nothing but breathe in copious amounts of air despite the fact his body didn't need it. The emotions that took residency on his face were so raw and unguarded that Bonnie wanted to look away.
"I want to make love to you," he blurted.
Whoa! She thought and then smiled secretively. "I have it on good authority you don't make love you fuck…hard."
He had the good grace to look contrite but then indignant. "Eavesdropping is a federal offense in some foreign country."
"This is America, baby," Bonnie told him haughtily. "And…I want you too, Damon…sooner than you think."
His eyes widened a bit. "When?"
Bonnie laughed. "Not in the next five minutes."
He pouted.
Bonnie kissed his pouting mouth. "In the meantime there are something's we can do."
"Like what?"
"Like what we were doing before."
And before she could utter another word, Damon covered her mouth with his and didn't stray to far from his original target until the wee hours of the morning.
Elijah arrived at the address he was given right at dusk. The house was in the middle of renovations. The smell of plaster, dry wall, and paint were heavy in the air. He pushed all of that into the back of his mind as he entered the living room and eyed his brother whom he hadn't seen in close to five hundred years.
That euphoric feeling of being reunited with his brother didn't go through Elijah. In fact he felt nothing. As always Klaus appeared smug, arrogant, and as if he were enjoying a private joke at your expense. Like Elijah he had adopted a contemporary style to fashion having donned a gray long sleeved t-shirt that he left open at the neck and black jeans.
"Elijah," Klaus greeted, carefully enunciating the correct pronunciation of his name.
Elijah slipped a hand into his tailored pant pocket. "Niklaus," he said just as coolly.
"What? No hug?" Klaus smiled, showing off his dimples. Elijah did not share in his mirth.
"Lets cut to the chase, Niklaus…the location of our family for the moonstone."
Klaus seemingly ignored Elijah's proposal as he took the time to pour himself a drink at the wet bar. "Would you care for one? It might be useful in getting that stick that's been lodged in your ass for the last thousand years."
"If I have one its only because you put it there."
"Sounds kinky and morally wrong, Elijah."
"I don't have all night."
Klaus stared at Elijah—speculating. "Have a hot date, lad? I doubt it."
"Klaus," Elijah's face was completely impassive, carved from stone. "You and I both know I get more ass than a toilet seat."
Upon hearing that Klaus roared with laughter. He held up his crystal tumbler. "Cheers to you, little brother.
"And unlike most men I don't have to broadcast my conquests."
Klaus conceded this round. He had kept tabs on his little brother throughout the centuries and yes Elijah was something of a Casanova but all of the lovelies he had been with, they all meant something to Elijah. He wasn't one to just hit it and quit it as the young people of this day and time would say.
"What's the rush, Elijah? I know you have been parted from our family for…" Klaus waved a hand in the air, "I've lost count of the centuries, but need I remind you we were not exactly the Brady Bunch."
"Be that as it may they are still my family, Klaus and you had no right to entomb them and then keep them from me. I've barely forgiven you for what you did to mœðr." (Old Norse meaning mother(s))
Klaus' face mirrored his brother, it became immovable stone. "If only you knew…hate me all you like for mother, but she's not the woman you think she is. Trust me on that. I've seen her true colors."
Elijah's patience was about to expire. "The location of our family," his voice was clipped and succinct.
"The moonstone," Klaus countered.
The brothers were stepping closer to one another without realizing it. "I didn't want to do this, Niklaus but you've left me no choice."
Elijah flew after Klaus who had been expecting him to lash out in anger. He was able to deflect Elijah, throwing him into the wall effectively punching a hole in it. But Elijah was back on his feet, his hand jammed under Klaus' chin. He raised Klaus up and then slammed him down on a table shattering the poor piece of furniture to smithereens.
Then it was nothing more than a blur of movement as furniture paid the price for two brawling Originals. Fists connected with cheeks, jaws, eye sockets, knees were rammed into abdominals, but no matter what the other did it was never enough to gain the upper hand.
Until Klaus tried to make a grab for the fireplace poker. Elijah took out a switch blade and jammed it deep in Klaus' belly. It burned because Elijah had dripped the blade in vervain.
With Klaus down and only momentarily weakened, Elijah, jaw opening, fangs lowering, plunged his teeth into his brother's forearm until he bled crimson. Taking out a small vial, Elijah collected Klaus' blood who looked horrified.
"What are you doing?"
"Thanking you for making a charitable contribution," Elijah replied smartly and capped the vial. "I'm sorry things had to end this way, Niklaus. I had hoped that we could be brothers once again, as we were before Katerina came between us."
Klaus laughed maniacally. "I should have killed her when I first met her. But I hear she's dead so…"
"So it is," Elijah agreed, held Klaus down and pulled out the one weapon capable of stopping an Original.
"The fu-," Klaus could barely finish before the dagger was plunged into his heart.
Elijah watched dispassionately as Klaus's skin turned gray and desiccated before his very eyes. Slipping the blood into his pocket, and rubbing dirt and debris off the sleeves of his jacket, Elijah flicked the tip of his nose and sauntered out of his brother's house like a boss.
Chapter end.
A/N: This chapter pretty much speaks for itself. Oh, if you're wondering why Klaus didn't try to overpower Elijah in the end, it's because the blade that was tipped in vervain was still plunged in his belly, weakening him, and for plot purposes we'll just leave it at that. And another reminder, Klaus is not a hybrid in this story. But thank you guys for reading and for the feedback. This story will continue until well… Love you!