There's been a lot of awful incidents regarding organized crime in my country in the last couple of weeks but instead of allowing my trepidation to control me I've decided to channel it in another direction, there two reviews that resonated with me a lot and made see things from another perspective, one was an anonymous and the other one was Simone9 and I'm very grateful to them and to all of you for the support you've shown me.
I feel the need to remark that this story is merely fiction and I do not condone in any way the actions taken by the characters here, but please do enjoy! And please forgive me for all the typos.
"I fell in love with the devil, and now I'm in trouble. I fell in love with the devil, I'm underneath his spell. Someone send me an angel, to lend me a halo. I fell in love with the devil, please, save me from this hell"
-Avril Lavigne-
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He sees her hiding behind the curtains.
Her glittery pink shoes are peaking from underneath and he has to contain the laugh that wants to escape his lips at her slip, she always thinks she can beat him at this game but she never does. He takes slow tentative steps towards the flowery curtain that hangs from the wooden ceiling and hears her happy giggles coming from behind.
"Gotcha!" He shouts at the same time he moves the curtain aside and finds nothing but thin air, a frown appears on his forehead as he stares at the wide window stretching in front of him.
"Damon!" The shout comes from behind him and he twirls in time to see the man of his nightmares with the hands around Elena's throat, except she is no longer the little girl with glittery pink shoes but the woman who went to sleep next to him the night before.
"Get ready to say goodbye," The man says, that dark sinister voice he has stored in his memory all this time fills his ears "Game over" He speaks again as his cruel eyes seem to stare at something behind Damon.
He slowly turns around to face the window once again and has to contain the cry that wants to burst from his throat as he stares at the body hanging from the ceiling, his eyes zooming on the polished black shoes.
"Be brave Damon" A small voice says and it takes him a while to understand it comes from behind the curtain, his eyes don't find glittery pink shoes this time but a pair of small dirty naked feet peeking from below.
With a shaky hand he reaches towards the fabric and once again pulls the curtain aside, wide scared eyes stare at him "Help me" She says and the voice seems to echo in his head "Don't let him hurt me" A weight settles in his chest as he stares at the disheveled hair and broken eyes that haunt every one of his dreams but before he can reach his hand to touch her he feels the cold metal of a blade piercing him from behind.
He wakes up with a gasp, his heart beating a mile a minute and threatening to come out of his chest. Cold sweat covers his skin and every one of his limbs seems to be trembling.
"Damon?" A voice next to him whispers and it takes him a while to realize the nightmare is really over "Are you all right?" Elena asks and he nearly sighs with relief when his eyes meet hers.
"I am now" He confesses as he reaches for her and brings her into the circle of his arms. His face buries itself on her hair as he inhales in her scent, the feel of her body next to him is enough to ground him and convince him he is no longer inside that twisted nightmare that keeps haunting him.
"You were dreaming," Elena says as she moves away from him slightly, her hand finding his forehead and caressing as if he were a mere child "You were whimpering"
He looks away now "Probably a nightmare, I can't remember" He lies and the words taste like ash in his mouth.
She gives him a look that lets him know she is not buying anything he is saying but doesn't push on it, she only sighs and wraps her arms around him "Is almost morning" Elena says and the knowledge makes something ease inside him.
He doesn't feel like going back to sleep and the idea of the sun rising in a couple of hours makes the lingering fear the nightmare left in him to recces, to turn into nothing but a shadow peeking from the distance.
Damon is a murderer. A cruel and twisted man that can snap a man's neck in a minute and delights in fearing nothing, except the feelings the nightmares leave in him. The torturous knowledge that there will always be a monster bigger than him and that the people he loves will live in danger forever.
"You want to go to the beach today?" Elena asks and forces him to come back to her, to leave the shadowy world behind him and focus only on the sound of her voice.
He shakes his head in denial "I think my body has suffered enough from the sunburns"
"Cry, baby"
He releases a small laugh and the sound seems to echo in the thick walls, a sound so foreign to his ears that at first, he doesn't he realize he was the one making it.
"What do you want to do then?" Elena asks as she moves away from him and sits cross-legged on the bed. His stark white sheets are twisted around her body and cover almost all her naked body except for the small hint of a left nipple that peeks at him.
"I want to worship you" He responds as he tugs on the sheet just enough to reveal her left breast to his eyes "I want to enjoy you" His voice is thick and filled with longing and desire as he reaches to cup her breast in his hand. "I want to recover all the lost time"
A sigh leaves her lips and her eyes close as her head is thrown back in pleasure, his thumb flickers her nipple gently a couple of times before he leans down and glides his tongue around the rosy bud.
"Damon…" She whispers and takes her hands to his hair, her fingers sweeping over the dark strands as his mouth paints a trail from her chest to her neck, his fingers replacing his mouth once again on top of her breasts.
"Isn't my plan so much better?" He asks as his mouth hovers over hers, her eyes opening and peering up at him from underneath her lashes "Tell me you love me"
He demands once again, as he did the first time he allowed himself to find pleasure inside her. She does not disappoint him and as she wraps her arms around his back and pulls him to her she whispers "I love you"
Something inside him seems to light up at her words, his body finding hers and merging with her once again; the soft murmur of his name on her lips as he takes over and over again.
The sun is high in the sky by the time they manage to leave the bed, three weeks they have been in Colombia and Damon knows the time to go back home is slowly approaching. The idea of hiding himself with her in Colombia for the rest of his life is so appealing it makes his chest ache but he knows it is an impossible notion, they would never stop haunting him and he could never live with himself if he allowed John Gilbert to win.
They spend the day touring Colombian small markets, hands holding as they stroll around the colorful streets and collect their necessities for that night's dinner. They could almost be a normal couple if it weren't for the gun hiding in his jeans and the bulky men following them discreetly for protection.
When the suns starts to set they go back to the estate and waste too much water while showing together, Damon almost feels like floating and the knowledge makes something quicken with fear inside him. The calm before the storm, he thinks, and he tries to push the thought away to the back of his mind.
That night Elena dresses herself in a yellow flower printed summer dress and her damp hair is sticking to her cheeks as they lower the stairs to the kitchen, her bare feet make no sound on the marble floor and he finds himself obsessed at the sight of them, at the domesticity that seems to have taken hold of them in the last couple of days.
Their evening is full of laughs and inside jokes as they move around the kitchen following Vanessa's instructions for pasta al Pomodoro and pistachio cannoli, the old maid had perfected the recipe a long time ago after learning it was Damon's father favorite dish and despite the pain and sadness that surrounded his death it never stopped being Damon's favorite too, it somehow reminds him of his childhood before the darkness swallowed him whole.
Vanessa had chilled a bottle of Nebbiolo and refused their invitation for dinner, instead, she suggested for them to eat in the balcony of what once was Elena's room, Damon had never seen the old woman's eyes shine as bright as they did when she saw them walk away with their dishes in hand.
They sat across from each other in the small silver-colored table located on the balcony, the moon high up in the sky and the humid air sticking to their bodies. The tangy strong taste of the cherry-flavored wine slipped down his throat as he stared at the woman in front of him, a small smudge of tomato sauce had stuck to her upper lip and was making her look extremely cute.
"Did you manage to speak with your tutor?" He asks at the same time he leans forward and removes the tomato with his thumb.
Her eyes follow his movement and he watches in delight as goosebumps break in her skin at the contact "I did" She answers, her voice coming out in a breathy whisper.
Damon gives her a scolding look as he leans back on his chair once again "Elena…"
"I'll call her in a bit but I just know she'll be super pissed," She tells him before reaching for her glass and sipping a long gulp of the dark liquid "I shouldn't be losing so much school"
"I offered to return you in time"
Her eyes sparkle with mischief, a small smile tugging her lips at the corners "I didn't want to leave"
Damon tries to suppress his smile but it turns to be impossible, whenever he is with her he feels like a whole new person. He feels free for the first time in so long.
He releases a sigh and reaches for a piece of cannoli "I could always speak with the dean; you know to balance the scale in your favor"
Elena's eyes widen in horror "No please, don't"
He stares at her, at the innocence in her eyes and the sweetness on her face. He stares at her and tries to conjure such an angel to the world they live in, other people wouldn't have hesitated to make use of the influence their family could provide, not caring that said influences came from blood and murder.
But not Elena, no, she wanted everything around her to be true.
"You are so pure Len," He says, the words slipping out his mouth without him even trying "No matter how much darkness touch you, it can never taint you"
He thinks back to the night he took her to see him kill a man, to the horrid cry that had left her lips and how her body had shaken as she cried in his arms, to the many nights he came home covered in blood and she patched him up, not caring the same hands she was holding had ended a man's life minutes earlier.
He had been nothing but darkness in her life and yet he hadn't been able to diminish her light.
"I wouldn't be so sure" She whispers, her hands tracing the outline of her wine glass as her eyes got lost in the extensive land that spreads below the balcony "You would be surprised if you knew the things that swirl in my head sometimes"
"Doubt it"
"Do you ever…?"
"What?"
Her eyes met his, curious hazel orbs staring straight at him "Regret the things you've done" She asked "Don't you ever feel guilty"
Damon takes a deep breath as he thinks about her question, about the implications in her words. Did he ever feel guilty? He couldn't tell if it was guilt but sometimes when he couldn't sleep at night the faces of the people who had perished at his hand appeared to torment him, and pressure so strong manifested in his chest, leaving him almost breathless and unable to move.
So perhaps he did felt guilty, but he also knew that things couldn't be different.
He swirls the wine in his glass as he answers her, his eyes fixed on the dark liquid moving around in the glass "In our line of work Elena, there is no time to feel guilty. Guilty gets you killed"
He sees a flicker of disappointment cross her face before she stands up and walks towards his side of the table "It gets me sad" She says as she lowers herself into his lap "To think about what us humans are capable of doing, what you are capable of doing"
His head leans back and his eyes close as he feels her hands lose themselves in his hair "I am a monster Elena" He whispers "You've known that from the start, are you sure you can love me still?"
"I already do" Her soft murmur is accompanied by one of her hand moving to the scarred side of his face "And perhaps that makes me a monster as well" Her fingers trace the marks that had tormented him for most of his life with such gentle care that he feels the need to weep "Damon… do you love me?"
His eyes open and he finds her staring down at him, naked emotion shining in her face. He sucks in a breath before raising his hand and touching her cheek with the same care she was touching his "I don't think I knew what love was until you came into my life" He confesses "I don't— I wouldn't know if love is the right word to describe it but… I yearn for you in a way I've never done for anything, you're always on my mind and the mere idea of seeing you hurt paralyzes me. I want to cherish you and protect you and to be the only important thing in your life, I want to be your whole world and I don't know if that's love—I don't know if love could encompass all I feel for you, mi bonita"
Her eyes fill with tears as she stares down at him "Damon…"
His fingers move a strand of hair behind her ear before they trace a path from her neck to the center of her chest "I am dead most of the time Elena, except when I'm with you"
She closes her eyes at his words, her forehead dropping into his "I love you, I love you so much" She whispers before joining her lips with his.
They made love on the balcony that night, the moon as the only witness of the passion that burned between them. They touched and kissed as if it was the first and the last time they would be together, their bodies moving together in a way they had never done with anyone else.
Afterward, he carried her inside her and roped her body with the white silk sheets on the bed, her head finding his chest and his arms securing themselves around her. The window was left open and the cold air of the night filtered through so their bodies snuggled together to keep themselves warm.
When he wakes up the next morning their limbs are still tangled around each other and he has never felt happier than he does at that moment until the burner phone he keeps locked in his drawer startles him with its sound.
He extricates himself from her body and goes to retrieve the offending device, all traces of sleep leaving his body as he stares at the message that had arrived.
Katherine.
Something warm pools in his stomach at the sight of her name, a peace he hadn't known he needed settling in his chest as he reads the words she had forwarded to him, he can almost see her honeyed eyes staring up at him as he reads.
Elena moves in her sleep at the sound makes his head snap towards her, suddenly his nightmare comes rushing back, her pink glittery shoes peeking from underneath the curtain, the man's hand around her throat, a dirty old warehouse and the laughs of men as they had fun at the expenses of an innocent.
Bile rises at his throat and mixes with a gripping fear, he turns off the phone in his hand and slips beneath the cold silk sheets once again, bringing the warm body of the sleeping woman in it closer to his.
He breathes in her scent and he slowly runs his fingers through her naked back, her skin breaking in goosebumps at the contact, he hears her breath and forces the fear to recede. Elena is alive and safe in his arms and he intends to keep it that way, he doesn't care who steps into his way, he would kill the devil himself if he ever tries to harm her.
There is no limit for him; Damon would do anything in his power and beyond to keep Elena from being the girl in his nightmares.