I clenched my teeth while pushing up the weight in Alaric's apartment. Every time my muscles started trembling and I wanted to give up I remembered Rick's words during our self-defence practice in the woods: you're not strong enough Elena. I wasn't even able to harm a vampire let alone fight them off. But next time some vampire came at me, I would be prepared. I could not rely on Stefan saving me anymore because now, with his humanity switched off, he was one of those who could possibly hurt me. Of course, if it came down to saving my life, I knew that Damon would kill Stefan. But that could never happen. It would break me. And Damon too.

In that moment, the door of Alaric's apartment opened. Thinking of the devil! Damon entered and said: "What? Are you going to bench press a vampire?" Ugh. Of course he wouldn't take it seriously. "Do you actually know what's happening right now?" I pressed out, "Stefan called me a human blood bag. He's a completely different person"

I had to stop talking to catch my breath - Damon didn't help when he suddenly grabbed the weight bar and held it steady above my head, adding further weight to my arms. "What are you doing?", I growled annoyed.

"Helping you out", he said with his usual teasing tone.

"Damon!"

"Come on, Buffy"

"Stop"

I gave up and released the weight, Damon easily held it with one hand and put it back on its mount. I tried to catch my breath again while Damon was slowly walking away from the weight bench. "Like one obnoxious Salvatore isn't bad enough", I said.

Right after I said that I internally bit my lip, anxious for his reaction. These days, drawing parallels between Stefan and Damon could easily backfire. Ever since I kissed Damon on his "death bed" he was determined to make me admit that I didn't only have feelings for one of the Salvatore brothers. But I couldn't. I could not be Catherine and interfere with the two brothers' already damaged relationship.

"You called. I'm here", he reminded me. "What's your plan? Oh warrior princess". Damon held up a wooden stake as if attacking and let his eyes widen in dangerous exaggeration, then smirked. I wanted to roll my eyes.

"I want to lock Stefan up at least until this Mikael guy comes, kills Klaus, and the compulsion breaks" , I said, still a little out of breath.

"Compulsion or not, Stefan's high on human blood, ok? A lot of it."

"You've gotten him off of it before", I said while undoing my pony tail, hair falling to my shoulders. I couldn't help but notice his bare chest showing beneath his partially unbuttoned shirt. He was standing above me while I was still sitting on the bench press. The look in his eyes only added to my already short breath.

"This is different, it's not a stint in rehab, Elena. His humanity is gone, lights out. No one's home"

Was he actually giving up on Stefan this time? He had already tried to convince me once that he wasn't interested in saving Stefan any more when he was secretly tracking him through all of the States. But that was before Stefan killed Damon's girlfriend and then almost killed me if Klaus hadn't ordered him to stop. I knew it was unfair to play that card but I said it anyway, I was desperate enough:

"Then do it for me, Damon", I pleaded. His look immediately changed and he lost his usually cool composure for a moment.

"Every single time I look at him, I feel like I'm gonna break and I'm not gonna give him that satisfaction", I continued while getting up to stand in front of him and look at him. Gosh he looked so sexy with that hurt look in his eyes. I had to lower my gaze and take a step back to centre myself. When I turned around, Damon suddenly grabbed my hand with both his hands and put it on his chest. My heart started beating faster and I'm sure he could hear that.

"What are you doing?", I reacted more slowly than I wanted too.

"Feel that?", he asked, never losing eye contact. "It's a sternum. Solid plate of bone"

Then, in a swift motion he turned me around, still grabbing my one wrist. I was now standing with my back to his chest and I was glad that he couldn't see my face then because I was gasping with my mouth wide open. He put his other hand to my ribcage where my sports top revealed some skin and then slid his hand under the fabric. Now my heart was racing.

"Right here, just below the ribcage. Next to the spine", he purred into my ear, while I could not hold back my audible gasps for air any longer. "That's your way to a vampire's heart"

My skin felt boiling hot. His fingers and cold ring were brushing my skin when he pulled back his hand and a small moan escaped my lips. "I'll do whatever it is you need me to do, Elena"

When he slowly turned me back around to face him, he briefly covered his nose with my hair, inhaling my scent.

"No one's going to hurt you, Elena", he said in a low voice and I knew that promise included himself. As always when he acted so seductively, I found myself speechless and incapable of moving. Our faces were just inches apart, the tension I usually felt around him was growing so strong I couldn't do anything but wait for him to back off as he usually did after having proved that he could make my pulse rise higher than I could ever care to admit.

But this time he didn't move away. Maybe it was because of the small moan that I hadn't been able to hold back a few seconds ago. Maybe that encouraged him to try for a bit more. All the while searching my eyes he, very slowly, put his hand on my side again, moving towards my lower back. His touch sent waves of heat through my body and I had to concentrate very hard not to let out a sound again.

I knew that, technically, I was in control. If he didn't care for my consent he would just take what he wanted. But he wanted to prove to me that I wanted him too. And when he was leaning in closer, painfully slowly again, still checking my reaction to his every move, I couldn't stop myself any longer and met his lips halfway.

That's when I got the first moan out of him. I don't know how long he must have been waiting for that but his now fast-moving hands told me that he couldn't hold himself back any longer. And I couldn't either.

All the reasons not to let him in were far away in that moment, all I could think of was the feel of his lips on mine. I reached my hand to his neck, grabbing his hair and encouraging him further. In a fast motion, he had me with my back against the wall, pressing me to it with his body.

I gasped in surprise and he used that moment to seize my face with both his hands. The wild lust in his eyes was overwhelming. By what he suggested next, I am certain he was met with the same desire in mine.

"Elena, I would love to drink from you"

I could feel another heat wave going through my body. What we were doing was already so wrong anyways and the way he said it made me want him do it. So I just nodded briefly and his eyes immediately turned dark, he opened his mouth exposing his fangs. He turned my neck to one side and sank his teeth into my skin. I inhaled sharply, half pushing him away to stop the pain and half wanting him to go on. When he released the bite and raised his head to see my reaction, he grinned in triumph.

There was still some blood on his lips. I became very aware of the bulge in his jeans pressing in to my belly and I just wanted him to touch me again, undress me, kiss me all over my body, fuck -

We heard the front door slam and held our breaths. There were steps on the stairs.

"Shit. Alaric", I hissed, snapped back to reality, "Damon, he's going to see the bite marks"

Damon had taken a step back and I was frantically trying to cover my neck with my hair. Damon didn't think for long, bit his wrist and held it to my mouth to drink. Unlike last time, he didn't force me to swallow it but waited until I willingly accepted his blood. He smirked when I was done. I felt the wound healing on my skin. I hurried to the kitchen sink and pretended to just casually wash my hands when Alaric went in. I was glad that Rick wasn't a vampire because he would be able to hear my racing heart and smell my nervousness.

"Rick! Just the man we were waiting for", Damon said with his usual tone again but when I turned around and briefly caught his eyes, I knew that everything was different now.