CHAPTER 36

It bothered him. He could smile and pretend and use sex to distract her, but it didn't change anything rattling around inside of his head. He wasn't ok with what was going on and the fact that Elena had lied to him for days. She'd played him like a harp. He had stayed for a little while once Matt had arrived, but he couldn't handle the teenage atmosphere, it was suffocating. He took his leave, Elena assuring him that she would come home to his bed that night. As soon as he was far enough away from their eager vampire hearing, he growled to vent his frustration. That witch had screwed with Elena's brain and he'd let her escape amidst all of the confusion of Elena's rescue. He couldn't believe he had let that happen, even Charlotte had managed to evade him afterwards. He gritted his teeth, cursing himself.

He had to do something, find the witch and force her to undo whatever she had done, or find Charlotte and torture the information out of her. What the hell was this Professor doing as well? He didn't trust the guy one iota and it seemed suspicious to him that he be so eager to help with hypnosis. Damon had always had reservations about hypnotherapy, never having let anyone try it out on him for fear that they would be able to implant some suggestions into his head. It all seemed a little too near to mind control for his liking. He started his car and headed off in the direction of Bonnie's house. Professor creepy seemed to be hanging around there a lot of late.

Damon felt his blood roar in his ears as he banged on the witch's door. This could be a very bad decision. He knew how much the witch hated him, but surely if he was doing this for Elena's wellbeing, maybe the witch would see some sense and help him. No one made any move to answer the door but he could hear them inside, two heart beats racing. He beat the door a little harder, shaking it in its hinges.

"Bonnie I can wait around a long time…" He threatened. Finally he heard movement and took a step back as the door swung open.

"Hello Professor Shady, just the person I was looking for." Damon smirked, staring the other man down. Bonnie spoke from behind the professor, coming around to look at him from the professors' shoulder.

"What do you want Damon?" Bonnie snipped at him. He gave a quick smile at her fiery response before becoming serious again.

"I would like to know exactly what kind of hypno-mojo you are pulling with Elena." Damon tried to smile sweetly at her. She snorted in mocking at him as she and the professor exchanged glances.

"How do you know about that? Isn't Elena finally realising that it's better for her to leave you out of this?" She leaned casually against the doorframe. He scowled in anger but didn't want to give her the satisfaction, so he quickly smirked and gave a chuckle.

"I assume you know about the hallucinations, given the fact you're standing here?" The professor asked and Damon smiled at him threateningly. Why was he hanging around so much? It was making Damon very suspicious of his real intentions. Damon narrowed his eyes at him, pondering whether he should share any information with this guy, which could make him vulnerable.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be off cultivating your evil master plan? Or is Elena's mental health part of it too?" Damon let the words roll off of his tongue like velvet. He did enjoy a good verbal show of strength. The professor simply returned Damon's fake smile.

"Damon!" Bonnie warned and he could tell he was on the verge of a killer headache pretty soon so he should get to the point.

"I need to talk to you privately." Damon leaned in towards him slowly, almost gentlemanly as he tried to use his charm to entice him outside. Bonnie looked at him in distaste. His charms never had worked on her.

"Whatever you have to tell me you can say in front of Bonnie." He said cooly. Damon raised his eyebrows and gave a short laugh. She turned to look at the professor. Interesting how Bonnie was leaning on the professor a lot more than trusting her own magic lately. She had always been the solo witch but now, something had changed. Damon was sure that it spelled trouble but he wasn't quite sure he could put his finger on what kind of trouble yet.

"We are trying some hypnosis to give her back control of her mind again." Bonnie looked up at him.

"It might also help with your sire bond problem." The Professor added and Bonnie glanced at him in surprise. Clearly he had not discussed this with her. Damon glared at him. The Professor continued;

"The mind is a powerful tool when you train it to be more aware. There's a possibility that you could programme someone to have a process of deliberation before they make any conscious decisions."

"In English please?" Damon whined.

"If a platform is built as part of the decision process, you could make it act as a place in the mind where the person could consider whether they consciously want to do something and make their decision based upon their desires, not the desires of their sire rather than them blindly following someone else will."

"Ok." Damon said urging him to continue

"If we can give her back full control she can recognise her hallucinations for what they are and banish them from her mind." The Professor ended.

"With you in the drivers' seat of course." Damon smiled menacingly. "And you think I'm going to trust that you don't have your own agenda in this little experiment?"

"I'm just trying to help your girlfriend get her life back Damon. Isn't that what you want?" Shane smiled knowingly and Damon leaned in as far as he could into the invisible barrier at the doorway.

"Good Samaritan huh? From now on I'm going to be there every time you work your little brain surgery." Damon gritted his teeth.

"No you won't Damon. This isn't about you." Bonnie piped up in disgust at his behaviour. "This is about Elena and for once you need to stay out of it."

"That's going to happen!" Damon laughed sarcastically and Bonnie fumed.

"Do you think you're making this easier? She can't tell whether it's you or a hallucination most of the time. You being around is making it worse for her. It'd be better if you left her alone."

"If we could find the witch who did this, we could speed this process along." Shane said pointedly and Damon gritted his teeth. He growled under his breath and Shane tensed. Bonnie folded her arms confidently and Damon backed away from them, turning and leaving as his mind reeled. He got into his car as they watched from the door.

"That'll keep him occupied." He heard Shane say as Bonnie closed the door.

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"Let me get this straight. You want me to lie to my best friend about the fact that we are sneaking around plotting behind her back?" Caroline asked in dismay as she studied the torn expression on Bonnie's face.

"She's being watched Caroline. I don't like it either but it's the only way." Bonnie explained for the third time as Caroline huffed.

"And now you want me to sweet talk Klaus into helping us?" Bonnie bit her lips as Caroline huffed and shook her head again.

"We need his help."

"Like a hole in the head!" Caroline clipped but she knew that it was true. Strange how that logic just made her felt even more agitated. She really didn't want to have to go to him. He would get her all riled up and try to intimate that all of this was simply an excuse for her to see him. He was so sure of himself. She grunted, stamping her foot as Bonnie smiled at her apologetically.

"Fine!" Caroline sighed, pulling out her cell phone begrudgingly as Bonnie raised her eyebrows in curiosity. Caroline blushed at her scrutiny and mumbled an explanation. "He got my number somehow." Bonnie huffed in surprise as Caroline glanced at her guiltily.

"I didn't give it to him! He won't leave me alone." She grunted and typed in his number, holding it to her ear as she fought the butterflies invading her stomach.

"Caroline!" He said, clearly delighted that she had given in and called him after his onslaught of texts. She huffed down the line at him and Bonnie heard him chuckle in mirth.

"I need to talk to you." She kept her voice tight and straight to the point. "I need your help with something."

"Of course you do." She could actually hear him smiling as he spoke and she gritted her teeth together. "Would you like me to pop over love or would you rather somewhere a bit more public? Wouldn't want Tyler worrying himself into a frenzy would we?"

"You're unbelievable!" She spat and he laughed.

"I take that as a compliment then."

"I'll come to you." She instructed, rather than asked and Bonnie folded her arms around herself as she listened.

"By all means." He said and she hung up, exhaling as though she was suppressing a scream.

"He really gets to you doesn't he?" Bonnie commented and Caroline sighed angrily. She couldn't think of how to respond so she just stood up and brushed herself down, feeling soiled by the verbal exchange with him.

"Let's get this over with." Caroline picked up her jacket and Bonnie sat up straight. "I'll call you once I've spoken to him. Is Shane heading over?"

"Yeah, Elena wanted to grab some things from her place before she heads back over to the boarding house tonight." Bonnie explained.

"I hope she knows what she's doing. Damon was freaked out when she flipped earlier." Caroline said and Bonnie grunted angrily.

"Don't I know it, he charged to my place like a bull."

"Do you think he knows something's going on?" Caroline gulped, thinking on his usual treatment towards them when he was angry.

"I wouldn't put it past him. Hopefully he'll be distracted by Elena enough not to notice what we are up to." Bonnie chewed her lip.

"What exactly are we up to? I mean how do we speed this up?"

"With Klaus's help we can spread Jeremy mark as quickly as possible and be on guard for any intrusion to getting the cure."

"You know he'll try and turn lots of people rather than helping us find vampires for Jeremy to kill." Caroline pointed out and Bonnie nodded grimly.

"That's where you come in." Bonnie smiled apologetically and Caroline let out a long sigh.

"No pressure then!" She raised her hands up flippantly as she headed for the door.

"Care, be careful. You know how he feels about you." Bonnie called from her chair and Caroline snorted as she left, her stomach doing summersaults.

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Damon sat idly, drinking his bourbon slowly as he scanned the sea of people frolicking in the street in front of him. He used to love New Orleans, its people, the chaos of the festival time, the smell of the excitement – it had all been so tangible and alluring. Since Charlotte, he hadn't been able to come back here in fear of not being able to ditch her again. The longer he sat here waiting, the more agitated the whole aroma and lure of the people around him made him. He had an idea that she would still be hanging around New Orleans. Charlotte didn't have much of a capacity for self preservation and he imagined that that hadn't changed much. She would still be here, he knew it and he was counting on the fact that, un-sired or not, she still wouldn't be able to resist him. He just had to wait and she would appear. He wasn't sure what he would do once she did. He could ease her into thinking that he wanted to see her, get information out of her voluntarily by playing on her weakness for him, or he could just start pulling her limbs off until she told him everything he wanted to know. He hummed to himself, running his fingers around the rim of the glass as he considered it. After what Charlotte had lead Elena into, he felt justified in a little torture. Then again, Elena wouldn't like it. Elena hated seeing that side of him.

He sat for a few hours as the crowds got rowdy and drunk as he kept his eyes focussed on his search. After a few more bourbons and blushing women had approached him, through alcohol fuelled lust and confidence, he finally saw her. He smiled as reassuringly as he could muster, waiting for her to take the bait. He was a master at controlling his body language and he sat back looking relaxed as she approached.

"Damon?" Her voice shook, laced with fear and anxiety. He smiled at her and she seemed to relax. People believed what they wanted to and Charlotte didn't need much encouragement as he offered her the seat across from him, gesturing with his hand. She sat down, her eyes trained on him still.

"You didn't say goodbye." He said casually and her shoulders relaxed. He indicated to a passing waiter to bring her a glass of bourbon.

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked and he exhaled through his nose.

"Not if you tell me what I want to know." She began to tremble as he smiled again. The waiter placed her glass down in front of her, eyeing Damon suspiciously because of her disposition, before leaving them in privacy again. She lifted the glass and drank it all in one go to steady her nerves.

"Where's the witch?" He kept his tone calm.

"I don't know." She answered and he leaned forward slightly, making her twitchy.

"Charlotte it'd make me so much happier if you told me where I can find her." He smouldered at her and observed the wheels in her head turning. She grimaced and her body tensed as though she was being electrocuted. He watched in curiosity until she relaxed again and looked at him.

"I don't have to tell you anymore." She said lightly and he frowned. She really had broken the sire bond. He sat back in his chair as he watched her. Evidently it still caused her some pain to resist him. How long ago had she broken it? Would it be like this for Elena forever?

"Do you still see things Charlotte?" He asked. She kept herself tight lipped. He growled under his breath and she tensed visibly, trembling again. "I asked you a question." His tone was cold, he couldn't hold it back.

"Please don't hurt me Damon. I love you so much." Her eyes filled with tears.

"If you loved me you would tell me what I want to know." He growled and she gave a small sob, attracting the interest of the waiter again as he milled around behind Damon. Damon sat forward in his chair again and she tensed, bringing the waiter to the table.

"Excuse me Miss, can I get you anything?" The waiter said focussing on her. Damon gave a clipped laugh and looked up at him. The waiter ignored him and continued. "I can grab a cab for you?"

Damon stood up abruptly, pushing the waiter a step backwards as he grabbed Charlotte's arm and pulled her to her feet. The waiter shot him a glare and tensed his biceps as he reviewed Damon's stance. It looked like torture plan B was the only option left. He had to get her back to Mystic Falls to prevent drawing too much attention to himself. If the witch was still hiding in New Orleans he had to have the upper hand. If he caused a scene here, he might lose the opportunity to find her unawares. He turned to Charlotte and softened his face into one of seduction. She looked up at confused as he released her arm and took her hand instead.

"I'm just so hurt Charlotte. I thought you cared about me." He lied and her expression became filled with wonder. The waiter backed off a little as she reached up and stroked Damon's face. He played the wounded feelings card and managed to let a tear spill out of the corner of his eye just for her.

"I really need your help." He said and she softened completely and nodded. He tugged her hand gently and he guided her away from the restaurant, throwing some bills onto the table and smirking at the waiter before leading her to his car. He was really going to enjoy this.