AN: I know I kept you in suspense for a week on Elena's fate... But you know by now how much I like my cliffies! Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews on the previous chapter! And I can't believe I still get lots of new alerts on this story! Kudos to all of you who still start reading this long, long, story! But I won't keep you all much longer... I think the next chapter might wrap it up (maybe there will also be an epilogue ;)...
Also thank you again, Shadowfaxangel, for your lovely comments on this one! As usual, lots of laughs!
So, I was quite happy with this chapter, I have to say. Now I just pray you will be too! I hope you're up for a fight... Enjoy!
"There would be no passion in this world if we never had to fight for what we love" – Quote by one Suzie Switzer
Previously on Shadowdancing:
Elena froze, her breath trapped in her throat as his fangs cut into the delicate skin of her neck, making the blood flow. The pain was enough to shock her out of her daze. When he started drinking, she uttered a low moan and tried to get away from him by pressing her back to the wall as if she wanted to disappear right through it, but Stefan's hold was strong, and he inexorably pulled her back towards him.
Suddenly there was a flash of surprise in his eyes, and he slumped against her, dragging her body down with his as he fell. At first she thought her vervain dart had worked, a little belatedly, but then she saw Damon, kneeling down next to his brother, pushing down the plunger of another syringe in Stefan's lower back.
She hastily scrambled out from underneath Stefan's limp body, sitting down on the floor because her knees were shaking too much from the shock, and said with a heartfelt sigh, "Thank you, Damon. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't gotten there in time..."
Damon's voice was strangely flat as he replied, "That's me. Your trusty bodyguard…"
She crawled over to him, wanting to touch, needing to find comfort, but the shoulder under her hand was rock hard, and he refused to look at her. She felt a sense of unease prickling down the back of her neck.
"Damon?" She asked, her voice wavering from the tears that threatened to fall. Now that it was over and Stefan was unconscious, the adrenalin was flowing out of her body, and she started feeling like a wrung out rag.
Damon shrugged off her hand, and stood. His clothes were torn and bloody, but he seemed mostly healed now. He bent over to lift Stefan's limp body in his arms and said, his voice devoid of emotion, "Don't worry, Elena. I will lock him up and dry him out for you. You can have him back as soon as he remembers you're not a happy meal on legs."
Before she could open her mouth to ask what he meant, there was a breeze of air and Damon was gone, taking Stefan with him.
She remained sitting on the floor, staring at nothing in particular. What was the matter with him? A soft sound intruded on her dark thoughts, and she raised her head to look around. Then she remembered... Caroline! She'd completely forgotten about Caroline!
When Elena scrambled to her feet, she saw Caroline doing the same on the other side of the room, and she hurried towards her friend. Caroline was gazing ruefully at her ruined dress, torn where the stake had gone in and out again. The pale skin shimmering through the hole in the fabric seemed to have knitted together well.
As soon as Elena approached, Caroline's head snapped up, and she flung out a warning hand to stop her from coming closer. "Whoa, Elena. Hold it right there!" She exclaimed, and Elena halted in her tracks abruptly, her mouth opening in surprise.
Caroline pointed at Elena's neck, and grumbled curtly, "You're bleeding. I think you'd better keep your distance right now, or I might be tempted to snack on you."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Elena took a step back, shoulders drooping. She clapped a hand to her neck, and it came away red and sticky. Only now that she'd been reminded of it, did she feel the sting of Stefan's bite.
Caroline looked at her downcast expression, and huffed, "For heaven's sake, Elena! You know what I am. And I've been hurt badly, so I will have to feed soon. But I'm not your blood junkie boyfriend, so I'm trying to refrain from turning you into my dinner."
Elena looked up, hope rekindling in her eyes, "Yes, I understand. Maybe that was the reason Damon got out of here so fast too..."
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Caroline shook her head at Elena's naivety. Her hunger for blood made her sound somewhat impatient when she said, "I never met a vampire who controlled his bloodlust as well as Damon does. If he doesn't want to bite, he won't, no matter if he's standing in a pool of blood! I just hope I'll be able to achieve his level of control someday..."
"Then why did he leave in such a hurry?" Elena's voice sounded small. "He didn't even look at me..."
Caroline had dug up her regular clothing, and now she started stripping down to her underwear. Her dress was in shreds and she could hardly walk out like this... She paused to look at Elena, "Do I really have to spell it out? With the way you got your flirt on, I think Damon figured you'd be bumping uglies with Stefan again before he could blink."
"But... but... I was faking it!" Elena frowned, taken aback by Caroline's comment. "I want to help Stefan, but I have no intention of getting back together with him! I love Damon!"
Caroline slipped into her flowery little dress. Then she looked at Elena and raised one eyebrow, "Did you tell Damon that?"
"I was going to tell him as soon as..." She trailed off as she realized she'd only ever implied to Damon that she'd break up with Stefan, but that she'd never actually told him so.
"And what was with all the talk about roses?" Caroline asked, zipping herself up.
Elena pursed her lips, "Stefan has been paying some nightly visits to my room... That's when he left me a yellow rose."
"What? And you're okay with that? My, that's just plain creepy stalker-ish!"
"No, I'm not okay with that!" Elena glowered. How could Caroline think she'd be okay with something like that! "I just never saw him! I intended to break up with him as soon as I had the chance to talk to him, but..."
Caroline interrupted her to say drily, "You call it breaking up, what you did tonight? You have a funny way of expressing yourself, Elena."
"Oh, God! I have to go talk to Damon, Care. I was only trying to save his outspoken butt! If he hadn't been taunting Stefan..." She looked at Caroline pleadingly.
Caroline made a shooing motion with her hand, and said gruffly, "What are you doing talking to me then? Go after him, Elena!"
"Right. Bye, Care! I'll be seeing you!" Elena whirled around, and grabbed her bag with her car keys. She was almost to the door, when she shouted over her shoulder, "Take care of yourself, okay?"
Caroline raised a hand in acknowledgement, and shook her head as Elena raced out of the door.
Damon carried Stefan to the "dungeon" in the basement of the Salvatore Boarding house.
"In you go, brother," He bit out, finding a ridiculous amount of gratification in chaining Stefan to the wall rather hard-handedly. Not that his brother would notice, because he was still knocked out. "Time to go cold turkey. You need to learn to behave yourself around our girl..."
"I suppose I should say your girl," he amended, only to add with a growl, "... but also my lover! God! When did everything get so screwed up… again?"
He slammed the door shut with more force than necessary, and shoved the bolt home, locking Stefan in for what he knew would be at least a month.
Before going upstairs, he made a little detour by the fridge in the next room so he could drain his last remaining bags of 'soccer mom' (at least that's what he told himself; the idea that he might be taking a sip of a dog-walking bald guy of sixty was enough to make him slightly queasy... Then again, that could be the lingering effects of the vervain too).
As he finished the second bag and threw the empty container in the bin, he heard the front door open and close. He should have known. Elena. She'd probably come to make sure her honey bun had been properly cared for and was still in possession of all his limbs and other dangly parts!
When he stalked into the parlor, arrogance wrapped around him like a cloak to hide the raw pain he felt inside, she was standing in front of the fireplace with her back to him. Her silky smooth, immensely graceful and very bare back. Because she was still wearing the dress he'd bought her for the contest that seemed like ages ago already, and she still looked delicious enough to eat, damn her!
His voice was low with suppressed longing as he said, "You just can't stay away, can you?"
Cursing his traitorous body for stirring and obviously craving what it could no longer have, he changed direction abruptly, legging it over to the table that held the liquor bottles. He didn't bother with a glass; he just popped the cap off the bottle, set it to his mouth and took a good swig. He'd need a lot of booze to get him through the next few hours, days, maybe even months, so he might as well start in on it now. The sooner he was drunk as a skunk, the better.
At the sound of his voice, she whirled around. Her first impulse was to run to him and hug him tight (and then perhaps strip him of those damn tight trousers and have her wicked way with him, her mind added wistfully), but his carefully shuttered expression made her reconsider. So she just looked at him chugging down bourbon and asked incredulously, "Are you drunk already?"
He hadn't intended to say anything; he was just going to ignore her until she went away… but as soon as he saw her disapproving face, his good intentions went right out of the window. "No!" He retorted without looking at her, "But give me a few hours and a crate of booze, and I'll get there yet!"
She approached him, eyeing him worriedly. "Are you okay? You got hurt pretty badly…" He was still wearing the same clothes, but his injuries seemed to be gone, as far as she could tell.
"I'm just peachy. Now that you've established that I'm not on my deathbed, would you please go away?" He mockingly toasted her with the liquor, "You're intruding on my date with Jack Daniels here…"
She flinched at his cold dismissal, but she didn't leave. Of course not. Did she ever do as he asked? He resisted the urge to back away, to hide from her searching eyes. She'd made her choice, and she'd chosen Stefan. Why was she so set on torturing him with her presence?
She extended a hand towards him entreatingly, "Damon. We should talk."
He wanted to refuse. He didn't feel like rehashing the whole 'I-love-Stefan-but-I'll-still-be-your-friend' speech that she was sure to foist on him any moment now… That's why he was shocked to hear himself say matter-of-factly, "You didn't seem all that surprised to see Stefan."
She averted her eyes to look at her feet, but he could swear he'd seen a flash of guilt in them. His remark hadn't really been a question, but she answered it anyway, "I knew he was back, but..."
"But you didn't see fit to tell me. Why not? You had plenty of opportunity! I called you every night!" His voice roughened as his throat constricted with panic at the thought that Stefan had been in Mystic Falls while he'd been miles away. She was so fragile, and he could've lost her so easily… "Why didn't you tell me, Elena? Why did you keep it a secret?"
His vehemence made Elena bristle in turn. "I'm not a baby, Damon," She huffed defensively. "I can take care of myself!"
"You can take care of yourself," He repeated flatly, and she nodded, her chin coming up in defiance.
Her stubborn disregard for her own safety made his anger flare even more, and he snarled, "Dammit, Elena! This isn't the Stefan you know! It isn't wannabe human Stefan! It's Stefan the Ripper! You haven't got a clue how to handle him!"
"I'd say I was handling him just fine," Elena was getting agitated, her voice rising along with her temper, "… until you had to open your big mouth and ruin everything with your smart-ass remarks!"
They had gradually closed the distance between them, and now they were standing opposite each other, mere inches apart. The flames in the fireplace couldn't be hotter than Damon's eyes, Elena thought incongruously; she could feel the fury rolling off him in waves.
Damon knew he should leave well enough alone, but he just couldn't, and his fear for her life made him irrationally angry, "He could have killed you, Elena! He's been gorging himself on the human stuff for over a week and it's been screwing with his head!"
"How do you know that?" Elena suddenly remembered Stefan's remark about the salsa club. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Did you see him before tonight?"
Damon's jaw clenched as he admitted reluctantly, "I cleaned up his mess at the salsa club. He was never what you'd call a dainty eater…" Raising the bottle to his lips, he gulped down another mouthful of whisky to rinse away the foul taste of old memories. It didn't work.
It was time Elena faced the truth, he thought. He was done with sugarcoating all of this! His voice sounded harsh when he said, "Then I spent five days following the trail of body parts he left up and down the eastern seaboard. It wasn't pretty, believe me! And all the while, he's been here, sniffing after you!" He turned around with a curse, and hurled the half-empty bottle towards the lit fireplace in a sudden burst of speed. There was a crash of breaking glass as the bottle exploded against the hearthstone, and the flames leaped, hungrily consuming the alcohol.
"You knew? You went after him?" Elena whispered. She hadn't picked up on anything but the fact that he'd known. Hurt that he hadn't confided in her, she snapped, "And you never told me! Dammit, Damon! Why not?"
"Pot, kettle, Elena?" The light of the fire danced erratically across his shadowed features as he faced her again. He raked one hand through his hair in irritation and shook his head, "You didn't tell me that Stefan was back either!"
"I didn't see him before tonight, Damon!" Elena protested, "I just guessed from some ... things."
"Things like him leaving you roses?" Damon asked brusquely, gritting his teeth.
"Yes. But I didn't know for sure that he was off the rails!" Elena pursed her lips, conceding to herself that she had known that something was the matter... but she wasn't about to admit it to Damon! She continued obstinately, "I still think you should have told me…"
"Oh, no! You don't get to do that, Elena. You don't get to blame this on me while you come out smelling of roses! No pun intended!" He loomed over her, his eyes shooting blue fire at her unfair accusation. Elena suppressed the urge to take a step backwards; she'd never backed down from a confrontation with Damon before, and she wouldn't start now. My, but he was hot when he was angry like this…
She blinked, suppressing the wayward thought and focusing again on what he was saying, "I tried to tell you about Stefan, remember? But you wouldn't hear of it! 'No Stefan', you said. No drama, just a week of fun and games!"
"Can you blame me?" She retaliated heatedly, eyes flashing, even as she realized that he had the right of it. "I just wanted to forget my problems for a little while!"
Damon couldn't take his eyes off her. She was magnificent when she was angry, her chest heaving, her cheeks flushed and her eyes dark with indignation. The powerful surge of lust that shot straight to his groin and that he couldn't act upon, made him lash out at her, "Great! That's all I'll ever be to you, isn't it?"
Her brow furrowed, and he went on, his voice heavily laced with sarcasm, "Elena needs a distraction? There's always sexcapades with Damon Salvatore! Elena needs someone to save her life? Damon Salvatore to the rescue! But in the end, it will always be Stefan, right?"
Elena flushed hotly at his accusation, "No, Damon! It's not! I've..."
Damon interrupted her, jealousy burning like acid in the pit of his stomach. It was going to be even harder to give her up now that he'd had a taste of heaven in her arms, "You could have fooled me! You were coming on to him like a cat in heat!"
Elena's eyes widened and before she knew what she was about, she'd raised her hand and slapped his face. Hard. The sound of her palm on his cheek reverberated through the room, and she hissed, "You're a dick, Damon!"
He grabbed her shoulders, fingers biting into her flesh, and jerked her against his body so she couldn't slap him again. "I may be a dick, but at least I won't drain you dry! Unlike my brother, who's unstable and dangerous when he's on a blood rush. There's no reasoning with him when he's like this, Elena!"
"I know!" She exclaimed in exasperation, "That's why I wasn't trying to reason with him, Damon!"
Damon snorted, "No, you were trying to seduce him. That makes it so much better! Couldn't wait for the happy reunion, could you?"
Elena looked up at him, glowering, "God, you're dense! Don't you get it? I was trying to get him away from you! But of course you had to bait him and spoil everything!"
"Get him away from me? Why? He wasn't going to kill me, Elena. But he could very well have killed you!" Damon roared.
He could smell the half-dried blood on her neck, and it cut him to the quick. It served as a great reminder of his very obvious failure to protect her, even from his own brother. She was so close now that he was drowning in her scent and the smell of her blood, and he had to fight to keep his fangs from descending. But he forced them back, because he had more control than that. Didn't she understand that his brother had never learned any control? He'd never been able to resist temptation! Imagine what would happen if temptation came in a pretty Elena-shaped package!
"Dammit!" He growled in frustration, raking a hand through his hair, and Elena felt a tingle in her womb in response to the delicious sound. God, she was pathetic. She was turned on by his anger. He looked so sexy with his hair all mussed… She wanted to run her hands through his hair and tousle it even more. Her distraction made her only half-focused on his words, "Why put yourself in danger to get him away from me?"
She replied without thinking. "Because I love you, you fool! I couldn't bear to see you get hurt anymore!" The words were out of her mouth before she could reconsider them. She snapped her mouth shut, eyes wide as she held her breath, waiting for his reaction.
Damon felt like he'd just been sucker punched. She'd completely floored him with her confession. He stared at her, this slip of a girl, this fragile, breakable human, who nonetheless held the strings to his heart in her slender fingers, and had the power to make or break him as no one ever had. He didn't know which of those she'd just done, and he didn't care. He'd figure it out later…
Wordlessly, he let go of her arms, his hands moving upwards. Her hair was still up, the glittering combs holding the heavy tresses in place atop her head. His deft fingers quickly located the combs and pulled them out without difficulty. They hit the floor with two hollow plunks, and her hair came tumbling down, the curls tickling her bare back as he sifted through it, running the glossy strands through his fingers.
He pulled her closer by tugging on her hair gently, and his voice was a low growl against her mouth, "If I'm a fool, I'm a fool for love, Elena! God, I love you!"
He crushed her hair between his fingers. That was all the warning Elena got before his mouth came crashing down to plunder hers. She parted her lips under his passionate assault, and his tongue invaded her mouth greedily, hungrily taking all she offered and more. It was no sweet kiss this time; his mouth ravaged hers as if he was starving, and she kissed him back just as savagely, her heart pounding in her chest.
The tension caused by the fight altered from one instant to the next. All the anger and frustration and fear they'd both suffered through with Stefan's attack were swept up into a tidal wave of burning desire that slammed into them with the force of a tsunami…
AN: So, I hope you like their fight! I figured they should have at least one big row in this story LOL Please review and let me know if you liked it too? Pretty please?
Now for my next question: I've been wondering if you'd like a follow-up of this smut-wise... I might just be tempted to write it, given the right signals, of course ;)
