For the rest of the day, Damon and Katherine took it in turns to coach Elena in handling her new lifestyle.
Damon had her focus on various different sounds to train her hearing, and slowly but surely, she felt her surroundings mute slightly, back to the way things used to be.
Every hour, Katherine would interrupt with a blood-bag, withholding it until Elena had gained some semblance of control.
By eight o'clock that evening, Damon had changed tactics, and was now challenging Elena to switch her enhanced hearing on and off again on demand.
She had just finished guessing the number of birds sitting on the roof, when Damon said, "Kitchen. Katherine's talking."
Elena focused on that direction, and Katherine's voice suddenly got louder, as though she had tuned in to the right radio station. "Let me know when you can hear me, Elena."
"I can," Elena said, not bothering to raise her voice. "What's going on?"
"This time, I want you to try and stop your face changing in the first place," Katherine said. "Ready?"
"How do I do that?" Elena asked.
"Take some deep breaths," Damon answered. "Look at me, not at the blood."
Elena nodded slowly. "Okay. I'm ready."
It wasn't easy.
As soon as the smell of blood hit her, Elena felt the hunger begin to stir within her. Her eyes locked with Damon's, silently pleading for help, and he took her hands. "Do you remember the time Caroline decided to sing at the Grill to get Matt to get back together with her?"
Elena laughed weakly. "You're not going to sing to get my mind off it, are you?"
"You'd better hope he doesn't," Katherine told her. "He can't carry a tune in a bucket."
"You're one to talk, Miss Tone-Deaf," Damon retorted.
"I am not tone-deaf," Katherine said, without heat. "I just prefer the piano to singing. For that matter, you've never heard me sing, so I don't know what you're on about."
"You play piano?" Elena asked, refusing to look at Katherine, or the blood she was carrying.
"When you have eternity, you find yourself trying a lot of things," Katherine said. "Piano was one of the few things I enjoyed. Damon, yours was painting, wasn't it?"
"Predated the transition," Damon said bluntly. "I'm not very good at it."
"Liar," Katherine said with a smirk. "I saw your work in Venice."
"What was Venice like?" Elena asked, almost desperately. The discussion was almost a distraction, but the smell was just too intoxicating.
"Beautiful," Damon answered, releasing her hands as she lost the battle. "Alright, Katherine, hand it over."
Elena sighed, taking the mug. "Sorry."
"Don't apologise," Katherine told her. "That was good for a first try."
"She's right," Damon said with a grimace. "Though it pains me to admit it. You're doing really well, Elena."
"It doesn't feel like it," Elena said heavily, placing the now-empty mug on the coffee table.
"You're drinking with more dignity now," Katherine pointed out. "You don't act like you're starving anymore."
"That took me over a week," Damon added. "Although, apparently, I wasn't feeding properly."
Katherine sighed. "Damon …"
"What were you doing in Venice?" Damon asked. "Running from Klaus, obviously, but why not run as soon as you saw me?"
"Maybe you were part of the reason I was there in the first place," Katherine said. "It wasn't just Stefan I kept an eye on, you know."
"So you stalked me," Damon said flatly. "Good to know." He straightened up, rounded the couch, and disappeared into the kitchen.
Elena watched him go, frowning slightly. He had just intentionally walked almost all the way around the room to get to the kitchen, rather than just walk a straight line to the door.
In fact, he had been avoiding that part of the room all day - the part that held the old armchair he'd stared at the night before.
"I can't win," Katherine remarked. "He was upset when he thought I didn't keep an eye on him, and now he's pissed off because I did."
"That's not why he's pissed off," Elena said, still frowning. "He was madly in love with you, to the point that he turned his humanity off rather than live without you, and you must have seen that struggle, but you still did nothing."
"Sometimes, Elena, the end justifies the means," Katherine said flatly.
Elena didn't bother asking for an explanation.
Katherine often spoke cryptically, and it was normally an attempt to get a rise out of the person she was talking to, either out of irritation or because of a veiled insult.
Elena had reached this conclusion when Katherine had been trapped in the tomb, and she had snuck down to talk to her about Klaus and the threat he posed to her loved one.
Katherine had been almost catatonic from the lack of blood, despite Elena's small offerings every so often, and partway through the discussion, Elena had taken the opportunity to ask something that had been bothering her for a while.
"Why both of them? Why turn both of them?"
Katherine's response, listless and slurred, had been uncharacteristically sentimental. "I fell in love. As corny as it sounds, I wanted to be his angel for eternity. And I could never condemn him to an eternity without his brother, so I had to take desperate measures."
Her use of the word 'angel' had thrown Elena had first. After all, Katherine was far from an angel, and - for all her faults - she would never consider herself one.
It only took her a few seconds to figure out that 'angel' had been a pet-name, and she changed the subject back to Klaus, and Katherine's past.
She didn't know if Katherine had been expecting her to throw a fit of jealousy, but the older woman had looked faintly disappointed when Elena didn't react.
Katherine's compulsion must have been good, if Stefan had called her 'angel'.
Stefan wasn't one for pet-names. He called Elena 'sweetheart' but that was it.
'Angel' felt … different.
"How's your memory?" Katherine asked.
"What memory?" Elena asked, trying to take her mind off of Stefan and Katherine.
It didn't normally bother her that they used to date - it was 146 years ago, after all - but given the current state of her relationship, it didn't make her feel any better.
"Well, you're a new vampire," Katherine said. "Any compulsion will wear off."
How on earth had Elena been around vampires as long as she had and never known that?
"I hadn't been compelled," Elena said. "Although that explains … Shit, Caroline."
"Caroline?" Katherine repeated.
"Damon?!" Elena called, ignoring her.
Guilt welled up inside her, remembering the bruises on Caroline's neck, finding her motionless outside the Lockwoods' home, learning about vampires, and feeling so relieved that Caroline would never have to know what happened to her.
Damon reappeared instantly. "What did she do? What did you do?!"
"Nothing," Katherine said, rolling her eyes. "I'm wondering what you did."
"Caroline remembered," Elena said. "When she became a vampire, she remembered everything you did to her!"
Damon flinched. "You didn't know that? Why do you think she never liked me?"
"What did you do to Caroline?" Katherine asked.
"I was a bit of an asshole," Damon admitted.
"A bit?!" Elena repeated. "You were feeding on her Damon! And …" another horrible thought hit her. "Were you compelling her to …?"
"No!" Damon said instantly. "I compelled her to let her feed on me, yes. Everything else was her choice. I never compelled away her fear, or …"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Katherine demanded.
"You compelled Stefan," Elena said, rounding on her. "You've got no room to talk!"
"I compelled him not to be afraid of me," Katherine said. "But you're telling me that you made that poor girl be around you knowing exactly what you were and probably terrified of you and unable to scream?!"
"Hey, I was nice to her until we broke up," Damon said.
Elena snorted. "You didn't break up, Damon; you tried to kill her."
"My humanity was off," Damon said wearily. "I was trying to get the tomb open, figured out that Miss Queen Bitch over here would go running to Stefan as soon as I did, and I wanted to get him out of town. Most of what happened with Caroline before was to mess with his head. And, yes, then I tried to kill her, because he provoked me into it, but let's not forget, Elena, that I did exactly what he wanted me to do, because he'd spiked her drink with vervain."
"He wanted you to bite her not kill her," Elena said, "and you treated her like shit afterwards."
"Yes, I did," Damon agreed, a little heavily. "And when my humanity was turned back on again, I took her flowers and apologised to her."
Elena relaxed a little. "You did?"
"I did," Damon said. "We're good, I promise."
Elena nodded, feeling herself tear up a little. "I just … I feel really bad. She must have been going through hell when she turned and she would have been remembering all this stuff, and I was a terrible friend, and …"
"You were not a terrible friend," Katherine said. "She was going through something that you had absolutely no way of understanding. That's not your fault."
"Yeah, but I should have known that she'd remembered," Elena said. "How else would Stefan have remembered?"
"Lena, you can't be expected to think of everything," Damon said firmly. "It's not your fault. Have a girls' night or something when you get back."
Elena nodded, making a decision to do just that.
Damon's phone rang and he made a face that told her it was his brother, before excusing himself to answer it.
Once again, he gave the chair a wide girth.
"Katherine," Elena said, "you've been here before. What's the deal with that chair?"
Katherine turned to survey it. "It's old."
Elena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, obviously. It's the only thing in this room that I'd say was here in 1864. Why? What's so special about it?"
"How should I know?" Katherine asked.
"Well, you were here in 1864," Elena said. "Something tells me Damon won't tell me."
Katherine looked at the chair for a few seconds, then moved across the room to sit in it, looking around the room as though to gauge the view. Something crossed her face, but it was gone in the next second. "I don't know. Something sentimental, I should think."
This time, Elena could tell Katherine was lying through her teeth, but she didn't press for the truth. "Oh, okay, I was just wondering why Damon was avoiding it."
"Something sentimental I should think," Katherine repeated quietly, her eyes fixed on a spot opposite her, on the other side of the fireplace.
"Fire's dying," Damon said, cutting through Katherine's thoughts. "I'll go and get some more firewood."
Katherine looked up from her book, glancing through the window at the full moon. "I'm sure we'll be alright. It's late."
They were far enough away from town to be outside of George Lockwood's hunting patch, but she didn't want Damon taking any chances.
"Are you sure?" Damon asked. "If you're cold …"
Katherine set her book to one side, smiling at him. "I'm sure you can think of another way to keep me warm."
She watched almost lazily as he got to his feet and crossed the floor. She was expecting him to help her to her feet and embrace her, but - as always - he surprised her, scooping her out of the chair and sitting in it himself, with her on his lap.
"Is that better?"
Katherine's arms locked around her neck, as he surprised a laugh out of her. "Mm, much better," she purred, her lips meeting his.
It wasn't the first time they had curled up in that chair, but it was the first time Damon had instigated it. She was glad he was starting to loosen up with her - he was definitely less proper with her than his brother, but he was still the Southern gentleman his mother had raised.
"Did you mean it?" Damon asked, when they parted.
Katherine toyed with the collar of his shirt. "About warming me up?"
"About turning me," Damon said.
Katherine's hands stilled, her eyes lifting to meet his. "Is that what you want?"
"I want you," Damon said in a low voice. "Forever."
Katherine smiled softly. "Then I meant it." Her hand left his collar to touch his face. "But not yet. It is not a decision to be taken lightly, my love."
Damon nodded, his hand covering hers. "How did you turn? You've never told me."
Katherine froze for a moment. "That is because it is hardly a topic suitable for polite conversation."
"And when have you and I ever been polite?" Damon asked sardonically.
A smile touched Katherine's lips. "I will tell you, Damon, one day. But it is not a time I remember fondly, and it is not a story I enjoy telling."
"Very well." Damon tugged her hand to her lips to kiss her fingertips. "Then I will not ask."
Katherine's smile widened of its own accord, and she found herself spontaneously rewarding him for his patience. "It was in England. A vampire named Rose turned me."
"Is that where you were born?" Damon asked, clearly intrigued, yet trying to abide by her wishes.
"No," Katherine said slowly. "I was born in Bulgaria as Katerina Petrova."
"Katerina …" Damon repeated. "It suits you. But Katherine suits you better," he added, apparently noticing the way her nose wrinkled.
People calling her Katerina, especially in the soft, affectionate tone Damon often used with her, brought back memories she'd far sooner forget.
"I thought so," Katherine agreed, pressing her lips to his jaw and trailing kisses down his neck. She shifted to straddle him as best she could in her full skirts, biting softly at his collarbone, keeping her fangs hidden.
"Why do you never feed from me?" Damon murmured, lacing his fingers with hers.
Katherine hesitated, lifting her head. "I don't know," she admitted honestly. "Would you like me to?"
"I'm yours, Katherine," Damon said. "And I know you are not entirely mine; St …"
"Ssh," Katherine whispered, placing a finger on his lips. "No 'S' word while we're here, remember? Your rules."
"I thought you didn't believe in rules," Damon said lightly.
Katherine laughed. "They have their uses." Her laughter died a little, and she looked at him seriously, her teeth lengthening. "But, since you mention it, I am getting hungry."
Even after everything Katherine had gone through, she found it a little overwhelming the way that Damon continued to look at her with nothing less than pure love in his eyes, even when faced with her vampire visage, which would send most people running for the hills.
Damon, in so many ways, was not 'most people', and he tilted his head back, baring his neck to her. "Then feed, my love."
Slowly, Katherine lowered her head, keeping her gaze locked with his for as long as she could. She wasn't sure why she was being so tentative with Damon. If he changed his mind, she could just compel him, as she had with Stefan.
But Damon wasn't Stefan, and Stefan wasn't Damon, and though that had once been an inconsequential fact, it was now more obvious than ever.
Her lips brushed his neck, darting over the vein, feeling the blood pulse beneath his skin. Her hearing locked on to the steady beat of his heart, faster than it should have been but still rhythmic. Closing her eyes, she sank her fangs into his flesh, feeling his sharp intake of breath beneath her, but focusing mostly on the sweet blood that flooded her mouth.
Katherine hadn't been lying when she said she was getting hungry, but she had fed that day, several times, on some unsuspecting travellers.
Despite this, she drank hungrily, a low moan of pleasure escaping her. Generally, all blood tasted the same, with a slight variance every now and then, but Damon's was intoxicating, and she had to force herself to pull away when she heard his heart begin to slow.
Throwing her head back, she took a deep breath, licking the last remnants of blood from her lips. His hand touched her face and she leaned into it, feeling her face settle. "You taste incredible," she murmured, almost against her will.
"Doesn't everyone?" Damon asked, his cheeks tinged every-so-slightly pink.
"Well, yes," Katherine conceded, "but that was different." She trailed a finger down the side of his face. "I may need to do that again."
"Take what you want," Damon said huskily. "Anything. Everything."
Katherine shifted again so she was curled up against him, rather than straddling his lap. "Later. I doubt you're nearly as interesting when you're unconscious." She bit her thumb, drawing blood, and let a few drops fall on the wound on his neck.
It wasn't as effective as it would be had he drunk her blood, but it closed the wound and got rid of the aroma.
Damon kissed her hair, his fingers playing with a few strands. "Are you sure we can't stay here forever?"
"You know we can't," Katherine said softly, with a little reluctance. "You know what society feels about the rules of courting. And your father and brother would notice if we stayed away for too long."
At the mention of Stefan, Damon stiffened against her. "Yes, I'm sure they would be quite upset if they realised where we are. Especially my brother."
Katherine smiled a little at the thinly-veiled jealousy in Damon's voice, and cupped his face, gently coaxing his gaze towards her. "I love you, Damon."
Damon's scowl softened into a smile. "I love you too, angel."