A/N- Okay so after a short vacation, I think my muse is back. Thank you all for your great reviews. I am sorry I have not gotten a chance to personally reply to them but please now that all are greatly appreciated.
"Let's not be hasty and assume the worst." Damon told them when he saw Jeremy's alarmed state was starting to spread to Elena, Stefan and Isabella. The last thing he wanted was a mass panic attack.
"Oh, because Mystic Falls is just so safe." Elena retorted sarcastically crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at him.
There was a sudden crack of thunder and the wind outside started to howl. Moments later, torrential rain banged in fury against the window. Damon's lips held a sly grin as he glanced out at the darkened sky. Just as quickly as the storm appeared, the clouds dispersed and it was sunny once more. He guessed the witch had recharged her batteries and was now wreaking havoc for the meteorologists of Mystic Falls.
But Stefan was looking at him suspiciously with the furrowed brow look that Damon absolutely abhorred. "You know something, don't you?" he asked full of suspicion.
"Who me?" Damon replied a little too innocently as he pointed a finger at himself.
"Damon." Stefan growled in a warning tone.
He shrugged. "So, I may have had a hand in guiding Sabrina to the place where the witches died so she could absorb their power. Dollars to donuts, that's her playing mother nature right now."
"You sonofabitch!" Jeremy said as he lunged at Damon in anger but Stefan held him back.
"What?" Elena shrieked. "Damon, how could you let her do that? You know how dangerous that is."
"She's a big girl. 'Lena. She can make her own decisions. Isn't that what you're always telling Stefan and I, Miss Let Me Sacrifice Myself to Save My Friends?"
Bella opened her mouth to say something but Damon shot her a look full of censure. "And you don't get to argue, either. I've heard more than enough about your near death experiences to last me several lifetimes, thank you very much."
"So why is it okay for Bonnie to put herself in harm's way because it's her decision but you always have a problem when I do it?" Elena's tone was belligerent and full of challenge.
"Because Bonnie is not you!" Damon shouted at her losing patience. His blue eyes burned with the intensity of his emotions. "She is not Isabella. If Bonnie placing herself in danger will save the two of you, I will choose that route each and every time."
"I'm sorry Damon but I'm not okay with that." Bella said speaking up for the first time since the argument began.
Elena nodded at Bella in approval. "Neither am I."
"You know I am not surprised but I really don't care."
"Who are you?" Jeremy asked looking at Bella suddenly realizing there were quite a few more people in the room than he expected.
"Isabella."
"Bella."
Damon and Bella announced simultaneously. Damon gave Bella an affectionate scowl. Jeremy took this information in with a slow nod to his head as his eyes strayed to the other strange occupants of the room. He took note of their oddly colored eyes and pale pallor, realizing with sudden knowledge that aside from Bella, these other newcomers were not human.
"They're like you, aren't they?" Jeremy narrowed an accusing look at Damon.
"Ugh! No." Damon scoffed. "They sparkle" he added in a stage whisper.
"You're not serious?" Jeremy's expression was one of absolute horror.
"Oh yes, they do sparkle."
"Not that." He rolled his eyes. "More vampires. As if we don't have enough trouble with the ones we have, present company included."
"They're with me." Bella told him with a stubborn tilt to her chin.
"Yeah, we're all sort of a package deal." Emmett said with a chuckle. "I'm Emmett, this is my wife Rosalie and the emo looking one standing by Bella is her fiance and my brother, Edward."
Rosalie kept silent but her lips tilted up. It was more grimace than smile.
Stefan looked at Damon. "Fiance?" he mouthed.
Jeremy's phone rang with the ring tone he gave to Bonnie. Fishing it out of his pocket, he answered while the others listened intently to his side of the conversation.
"Bonnie, thank God. Where are you?" Jeremy spoke quickly into the phone.
"At the Grill. I'm sorry I was late but I'm here now if you still want to do brunch."
Jeremy exhaled a deep breath of relief but he was a bit put off by the casualness of her tone. "Yeah, I went to your house but you weren't there. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm great, actually. So...uh...I'll see you in a few I guess."
"Sure. I think we have a lot to talk about."
"That doesn't sound good." Bonnie's voice was filled with trepidation.
"I'll be there soon." Jeremy pressed the end button and looked at Elena. "She says she's okay. I'm meeting her at the grill."
Elena's posture relaxed, letting go of the tension it held since Jeremy's phone rang.
"Don't be too hard on her." Stefan told him. "She's only trying to help."
Jeremy's lips thinned in anger. "You wouldn't be so calm if it were Elena." He said as he walked out and slammed the door behind him.
Jeremy effectively made his point. Stefan hadn't been calm since he found out about the curse and the sacrifice and now with Bella's safety at risk as well, he was barely hanging onto his composed facade.
"Where are the rest of your little gang of sparkles?" Damon asked Edward, noticing for the first time the absence of the other four vampires.
"We thought it would be prudent to stay hidden." Alice blithely said coming down the stairs with Jasper, Esme and Carlisle directly behind her.
"The young boy was obviously quite upset already. We didn't want to distress him any further by adding more of us to the mix just yet." Esme explained.
"That was very courteous of you." Stefan remarked and shot Damon a dirty look for his rudeness, to which Damon responded with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
"Well, I'm going to go as well." Elena told them all with an apologetic smile. "Before Jenna completely freaks out on me for being MIA for so long."
"What about the breakfast that I made?" Damon sounded affronted.
Elena wrinkled her nose and gave a shake of her head when she thought of eating grits. "I'll just grab something at home. There's a term paper I need to get started on. Apparently, Ms. Gibbons thinks we'll all become academically deficient without schoolwork for a whole week."
"You'll be by later?" Stefan asked her after giving her a soft kiss on the lips.
She winked at him as she stood in the open doorway. "Count on it."
"Speaking of food." Carlisle said to Stefan after Elena had left. "We need to know where we can hunt here without risk of being seen."
"I'll take you." Stefan offered since he knew the best areas for hunting. "We'd have to take a vehicle into the Shenandoah Forest. There should be enough tree cover there so the sun won't break through. There are places that no human goes and the animals are plentiful. Would you like to go now?"
Carlisle nodded but Edward was reluctant to leave Bella. They would be gone awhile and he didn't know how long he could physically stand to be away from her. It was Bella, though, that finally convinced him to go. She had grabbed him by the hand and purposefully pulled him to their room and backed him against the door, leaning her lithe frame into his. He was instantly aroused by her boldness. He liked feisty Bella more than he wanted to admit.
"Edward," she purred as she played with the buttons on his shirt. Her voice reminded him of a sea siren's call; eminently seductive and completely alluring. "You should go with the others."
He lowered his head to nuzzle her neck and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer to him. "But we're having so much fun here." He paused to stroke her dainty earlobe with his tongue before gently nipping it with his lips.
Bella closed her eyes and moaned fighting the desire to rub herself against him like a cat. No... she was resolved to do this. She needed to prove to him and more importantly to herself that she would not freak out completely if he left her for a few hours. That she wouldn't always associate his retreating form with that dreadful day in the woods when he left her after cruelly breaking her heart. She needed to show him that she was strong.
She squared her shoulders and pulled back leaving only a few inches between them. Licking her lips, she looked up at him through half closed lashes. "But we can have so much more fun...safer fun if you go hunting first." She said mustering up the best phone sex operator voice she could think of without blushing furiously. She had heard Jessica Stanley use the same tone when she would call Mike Newton.
Edward chuckled and bowed his head in defeat. "You are a very dangerous creature, Isabella Swan...soon to be Cullen."
"Mmm, and don't you forget it Edward Anthony Mason Cullen." She stood on her toes and gave him a peck on the lips. "So you'll go?"
"Yes, you enchantress, I'll go. Now that I know what I'll have waiting for me when I return." He returned her kiss with a deeper one of his own. His expression sobered abruptly. "You're sure you'll be okay?"
"I'll be fine." She assured him. "Damon will be with me."
"That doesn't exactly instill confidence." He mumbled under his breath but was loud enough so Bella heard him.
She rolled her eyes and patted him on the chest. "Seriously, I don't know who is more overprotective; you or him."
The house felt eerily quiet and empty now that most of it's occupants were gone. Bella followed Damon into the kitchen and laughed when she heard him curse furiously as he tried pushing a spoon around in the pot on the stove. Obviously whatever was in there had hardened and was no longer edible.
Damon looked at the congealed mass that was once hominy grits. "Shit...God damnit...fuck." He spat before he scraped the contents of the pot into the garbage. He heard Bella giggle behind him and grumbled. "It's alright. It won't take me much time to make more."
"No!" Bella replied a little too forcefully. The thought of smelling the offensive odor again, let alone trying to swallow it made her shudder.
Damon looked at her suspiciously. "But you love grits. Or you used to at least."
Bella worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she rocked back on the heels of her feet. It was time to come clean. "Umm, no, actually I don't. I never did."
"What do you mean? Of course you did. You used to eat every bite." The memory probably hadn't surfaced yet, he assured himself.
She turned away feeling the heat of the blush that rose to her cheeks. "Um, no. That was the dog."
"The dog?" Damon was incredulous. "You mean that little round hound stray you took in?"
"Didn't you ever wonder how he got so round?"
His lips drew into a tight line. "You fed the dog the grits." He said flatly. "Why didn't you ever tell me you didn't like them?"
"You were always so happy when you thought you were doing something nice for me. I didn't want to ruin that for you." She told him quietly.
Damon turned his stark emotion filled gaze away from her abruptly so she wouldn't see how deeply her words affected him. Clearing his throat from the lump that suddenly rose to it, he began to haphazardly open cabinets.
"Well there's got to be something here you can eat instead."
"Damon, stop." Bella said placing her hand on his arm to stay him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
He turned around swiftly and gave her an incredulous look. "Why are you apologizing?"
"I didn't realize that it meant so much to you. I should've never said anything." Bella wanted to kick herself for hurting his feelings.
"And eat that foul smelling gruel because you think it would make me happy?" He laughed. "No, piccola, you didn't hurt my feelings."
"Then why…?"
"Because it has been so long since someone put my feelings first. I never thought…" he shrugged breaking off mid-sentence. "I missed it."
He paused giving her a moment to understand exactly what he was saying. There was no blame, no hurt feelings. It was a sense of rightness, of peace…of home…Isabella, after all these years was finally home. Normally he would sneer at anyone thinking or saying something so sickeningly sentimental and it went against almost everything…every freaking brick in the wall he built around himself for the past century and a half.
"I missed you." He finished somewhat nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders although the depth of feeling in his eyes belied the casualness of his tone.
Momentarily stunned by his admission, Bella's lips formed a small rounded "o". She was unsure how to respond instinctively knowing that it was something he wouldn't want to make a big production over. Instead she walked over to him and peered into the frying pan on the stove.
"The ham smells good." She said reaching for a plate in one of the open cabinets that Damon didn't close.
"It's cold."
"So. I'll just nuke it." She said placing the plate inside the microwave. "And the cornbread looks awesome." She said as she picked up a piece and bit into it. "Tastes awesome too." Bella added with her mouth still full.
"Since the cats are away…" Damon drawled as Bella cut her ham steak into small pieces. "We can pretty much do anything you want."
"Anything?" Bella asked slyly, her fork pausing just before it hit her mouth. Already a course of action was forming in her head.
"Anything…Well, no cliff diving." He quickly amended shooting her a quick smile. "but I wouldn't be opposed to a jaunt on a motorcycle."
"Do you even have a motorcycle?"
"No but I can get one…or two."
"Not legally, I'm sure."
"Where's the fun in that?" he scoffed.
"I want to see Katherine." There was no hesitation, no batting of an eyelash to show that she had even the least amount of anxiety asking this.
"Anything but that." He answered flatly as the muscle near his eye began to tick.
'Why not? She's trapped in a tomb. As long as I don't get too close, she can't hurt me."
"Words hurt too. And there is no way I'll let her poisonous manipulations touch you."
"But they already have." She raised her eyes to his and looked at him imploringly.
"Don't puppy dog eyeball me. Think of something else."
"But she could let something slip."
"Yeah like her fangs into your pretty little neck." Damon gave her a hard look. "And don't even think about asking your new found besties, either. I'm going to give them explicit instructions that they are not to take you anywhere near the tomb."
"How did you…?"
Damon agitatedly tapped his temple. "I know how you think…remember?"
"Freakin…overprotective…dictatorial…vampire" Bella grumbled under her breath.
"I can hear you, you know."
"Oh, I know." She said as she angrily shoved a piece of ham in her mouth.
They ended up, after much deliberation, at the charred, hollowed out ruins of the old Salvatore estate. Damon had been hesitant to take her for fear it would trigger another attack but she assured him that the medication she was taking diffused the effects. If they didn't, she would be the one explaining it to Loverboy.