Hey guys! I hope you are ready for a new chapter!

Warnings: contains violence, harsh language, blackmail

Here we go...

Damon came over to her in a few long strikes. She felt his hands tangle in her hair and pull her up. She shrieked while pain was shooting through her scalp.

"You really know how to make me angry, Elena." Damon told her, his cold eyes fixed on her. Elena bit on her bottom lip and tried to straighten her back. Just don´t give in, she told herself. "So, what now, Damon?" she asked him as fearless as possible. "Are you going to kill me? Because somehow I don´t believe you would." Her eyes were on fire while she glared at him. "You want me too much, isn´t this right?"

For a moment Damon was quite before he chuckled. "I certainly do."

Elena hadn´t thought he would admit it, but she pushed on anyway. "Well, and you can´t compel me anymore as well. Sure, you can tell me to take my necklace off but I´ll still have vervain in my system."

Damon nodded. "I know."

Elena smiled at him. "So, you recognize that you´ve lost? Maybe you have managed to get out, ok, I give you that, but you can´t compel me anymore. You can´t threaten me with this anymore either. I am not going to leave Stefan and I am certainly no longer playing this sick game with you."

"For someone who is at my mercy like this, you are awfully confident." Damon smiled.

Elena tried not to be discouraged by the way he brushed her arguments aside. Come on, Elena, she thought, you can still pull this off.

Elena straightened her back while she looked right into Damon´s eyes. "How about you let go off me now, so that we can talk about it like civilized persons."

Damon´s eyebrows rose in amusement but as if to humor her, he really loosened his grip. The moment Elena wasn´t hold in place she quickly took a few steps back and brought some well needed distance between them. For a moment, her eyes wandered to the door but she wasn´t as silly as to try and run now. He would catch her within seconds anyway… no, there needed to be another way out of this.

Elena could feel the wall behind her back and leaned against it, crossing her arms before her body and tried to appear nonchalant. Damon was still watching her with a hint of amusement on his face.

"It certainly never gets boring with you, Elena," he said before crossing his arms before his body as well. "Go ahead," he said patronizingly. "I can´t wait to hear how you think you will get out of this."

Elena took a deep breath of air and tried to order her thoughts. She needed to get this out as smooth as possible.

"Well, you can´t compel me anymore", she began slowly. "This means that your threat to simply compel me to love you doesn´t mean anything to me anymore as well. I have to admit it was a good threat. There is really nothing I would want less. But now that I have vervain this doesn´t scare me anymore."

Damon tilted his head to the side. "And what do you think, Elena, will stop me from putting you in the cell for the next three to four days until the vervain has left your system?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

Elena laughed. "Well, Stefan, of course. Or do you really think he wouldn´t find me here? I mean, hell, he still feels the advantages of drinking human blood. I´m sure he would hear me down here. And then your whole plot to keep this a secret from Stefan goes to hell."

"Possible." Damon admitted. To her great disdain he didn´t even seem angry about her words. More amused anyway. "Well…", he added. "I could also take you somewhere else. It doesn´t even matter where. I´d just have to wait a few days and you would be right back under my control."

Elena had thought he would threaten her with something like this. She looked pointedly bored at him. "And you think Bonnie and Stefan wouldn´t recognize my absence? They wouldn´t wonder why I didn´t come to school?"

"I could compel your aunt to tell them a story about you visiting some relatives or something like this." Damon noted.

Elena shrugged. "Sure. But I already told you that I disappeared from the party this night without telling Stefan. So, right now Stefan has probably started to wonder where I am. And when I don´t arrive to school tomorrow he will most certainly worry. He will sense that something is off, and he will search for me. "

Damon laughed while he watched her. "Not bad," he admitted more to himself than to her. "This means that if you disappeared for a few days he would know that something is wrong."

Elena nodded. "Exactly. And since my best friend is a witch, they will certainly find me before the vervain is out of my system."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "So what? They would find us and then? What makes you think that I would care, Elena? I´m stronger than my brother. I could take him on."

"And then Bonnie would kill you."

"I thought the witch wasn´t even talking to you because of what happened to the older Bennett witch?"

"She´s not talking to me because I still hang out with you and Stefan. But she´s still my best friend and I´m sure she will jump at the opportunity to hurt you, especially when she learns what you´ve done to me."

Damon laughed. "Ok, so let´s just pretend that I´m afraid of her for a moment," he rolled his eyes as if this was hilarious. "Hmm what else, let´s see…" Damon said, still acting as if this was one big game for him. "I could also just make sure that you don´t get any more vervain," he said, talking as if he was humoring her. "I could watch you very closely, your every step. I could make sure you don´t even come in proximity to it anymore."

Elena didn´t even have to think to have a response for this. "I´ve already told Stefan that I want to drink the vervain from now on because it´s safer." She smiled. "And since you can´t hide the vervain from Stefan without making him suspicious…"

Elena looked challengingly at Damon. The laugh Damon barked out was louder than ever before. "You really have thought this through, haven´t you, Elena?" he asked, while he walked closer to her again. Elena´s hands clenched to fists. "I´m not going to let you compel me again," she said with finality in her voice.

Damon hummed, while he looked at her with a thoughtful expression. "Are you done now?" he asked her.

Elena stared at him, before nodding. She didn´t like the way he was looking at her. She didn´t like it at all.

Damon smirked. "Good," he said before walking even closer, stopping just centimeters before her. "I must say, I´m impressed" he finally admitted. "I´ve never thought you would make this game so interesting."

Elena glared at him. "This is not a game!"

His laughter filled the basement. "But, Elena, of course it is." He chuckled, before his eyes got more serious again. "And you might not have noticed it, but you are actually in the midst of playing it. You´ve just shown me your cards and now it´s my turn."

Elena shook her head no and glared at him. "Can´t you just admit that you have lost, Damon? Don´t you get it? You can´t compel me anymore!"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Yes, I´ve heard you the first time," he said before looking at her with a wicked glint in his eyes. "Unfortunately for you, though, you´ve missed one very important point of our little game."

She looked at him questioningly.

"You´ve done everything to prevent compulsion. Ok, I give you that. But what you´ve failed to see it that there was actually just one thing I really needed to compel you not to do. And I´ve already done it."

Elena gulped. Very slowly she started to understand what he was telling her. "You mean that I cannot tell anybody about this whole thing?" she asked lowly.

Damon clapped his hands together in a mock applause. "You are not dumb. Congratulations."

Elena shot him a heated glare. "Anyway, you have nothing to threaten me with now," she argued, but Damon simply laughed it away. "Sometimes you are just adorably naive." He told her before walking over to her completely. He was looking down on her now and his normally blue eyes seemed kind of dark in the twilight of the basement. Elena stopped breathing.

His hand carefully touched her face and Elena jerked away. Her head collided lightly with the wall behind her and she scrunched her face in pain because her head was still sore from bumping on the ground earlier.

"I might not have told you this, but I was never actually going to compel you more than I have already done. It would be too easy."

Elena shook her head. "Too easy?" she asked, not really understanding what he meant.

Damon shrugged. "You know what the most difficult thing was after learning that Katherine wasn´t in the tomb? It wasn´t even that she didn´t love me… I mean I get it, she is a bitch and I will get over it… no, it was that suddenly every purpose I had had in live was gone. I mean what do you do with eternity when suddenly everything you´ve ever worked for doesn´t matter anymore?" He sighed. "So now I need something to spend my time with and this little game of ours certainly is the most interesting thing I can think of. Believe me, I´m not counting on it being over so easily. I mean if I would simply compel you that would be it. Where would be the fun?"

Elena couldn´t believe him. He was such an evil asshole. She tried to take a deep breath. "I can´t believe you are talking about ruining my life like this." She said very slowly before again crossing her arms before her body and creating a fragile barricade between them.

Damon smirked. "Unfortunately for you, I couldn´t care less about your life, Elena." Whenever he said something like this, it hurt but Elena got more and more used to it. "Will you finally tell me what you want to tell me Damon?", shevsaid dismissingly, looking away from him, imaging herself anywhere but here.

Damon smirked. "Well, it´s easy, really," he said. "You think I need compulsion to control you? You are wrong. I have means to make you agreeable, Elena, believe me. And it will be so much more enjoyable than simply compelling you."

Elena stared at Damon. She felt cold. She still wasn´t sure what Damon was telling her exactly, but she did get the dark threat behind his words.

"If you think I will ever give in to you, you are dead wrong. I love Stefan and I´m not going to do this thing with you."

"Ah but you can´t tell my brother about this. So, tell me, what exactly will you do to "not do this thing with me"?"

Elena flinched, knowing that he had a point there. She couldn´t tell Stefan. But still she had more options now that he couldn´t threaten her with compulsion anymore.

"I´m sure you will see that I can be stubborn."

Again, Damon chuckled. "I´m expecting no less from you."

Elena was tired of this conversation. She was tired of him and his threats and his proximity. She didn´t want to see him ever again. And when he was really thinking that Elena would just play along, he was damn wrong. She shot him a last glare before ducking and slipping through his arms. She straightened her back and walked in the direction of the door, intent on just letting him stand there like this.

She could hear Damon growl behind her and before she could react, he had already grabbed her and pressed her against the wall again. "You don´t walk away from me." He growled and Elena pressed her lips together angrily. "Maybe I´ll stop when you stop threatening me."

"Elena, Elena." He shook his head at her as if she was a child. "What do I have to do until you finally understand the situation? From now on the conversation is over when I say that it´s over."

A puckering headache was slowly starting too built behind Elena´s skull. "Well, Mr. oh almighty," she replied her voice dripping with sarcasm. "What is it that you want to talk about then?"

Damon smirked, intent on ignoring her sarcasm. "Well, first of all, I am offering you a deal."

Elena´s eyebrows rose. "Will the result of this deal be that you´ll finally leave me alone?"

"No."

"Well then I´m not interested."

"But Elena I´m sure it´s in your best interest to hear me out", Damon sang.

Elena sighed. Her hand waved through her hair. "Ok, whatever," she gave in. "What kind of deal."

Damon looked smug. "As I´ve told you, I´m ok with not being able to compel you anymore … but not being able to drink your blood because you´re pumped up with vervain is simply unacceptable. Especially after I had a taste." His head moved closer to hers, his lips almost touching the side of her face and Elena could feel his hot breath tickling her sensitive skin. His voice vibrated with something like lust. "You were so delicious."

She angrily slapped him away. "There is no way in hell I let you do this to me again, so there is no negotiating about it."

Damon grinned. "Ah, Elena and this is exactly what I meant. You are still so naïve. You don´t see what I could do to your life. You think I´m bad right now? You think I make your life miserable? You haven´t seen shit." His eyes narrowed down on her. "And believe me you don´t want to make me angry."

Elena felt the fear again, but she tried not to show it. He was certainly just bluffing, she thought. He was making threats to make her afraid, to make her give in…but she wouldn´t make it that easy for him.

"You´ve already admitted that you wouldn´t kill me, so what else is there?", she tried to call him out on his bluff.

But Damon only chuckled. "Well, let´s start with Caroline for example. How long, do you think would I need to go after her and kill her? Or Jenna? She thinks I´m hot, it would be easy to seduce her and suck her dry…then there is Jeremy of course…"

Elena felt herself blanch. Her mouth clasped open in shock. Despite everything he had done up to now, she would have never thought that he´d bring her family into this. Even for him that seemed extreme. He couldn´t… he certainly wouldn´t.

It was as if Damon could read her mind. His eyes were hunting her. "Oh, I would Elena", he answered her unspoken thoughts. "But only if you make me really angry… or of course if I am hungry…this always makes me so itchy."

"Damon, please…"

"It´s easy, Elena. All you need to do is promise me to stop drinking vervain. You can even keep your necklace and that little bracelet you have hidden under your clothes. I´ve already told you, I don´t mind. But…"

His fingers were curling around her throat and Elena gasped. His grip wasn´t as strong as to choke her again but the threat was there none the less. She had never felt smaller. "Look at me. Elena." He mumbled and she did, feeling too afraid to disobey in this particular moment. His eyes were deep and dark, and they were promising her all kind of hell. "I am going to drink from you again. And it would be really foolish to try and get in my way. I know you are a smart girl so make the right decision."

Elena stared at him, couldn´t believe what she was hearing. And the worst was that she really believed him. He would make good of his threats. He didn´t care about any of them. He had caged her in, and there was no way to escape.

"Damon…", she pleaded but his gaze was hard and unrelenting. And just like that Elena understood that he wasn´t joking about this. He was dead serious. And no matter how much she wanted to fight him, she simply couldn´t risk the lives of the ones she loved the most. She had already lost her parents… if she also lost Jenna and Jeremy, she wouldn´t be able to take it.

Elena felt a big lump in her throats. Tears threatened to fall but she fought them back. She knew there was no way but to give in. She would do everything to make sure her family was safe… and they both knew it.

"Ok…", she whispered and saw a victorious smirk appear on his face. She tried to get herself together. This situation was fucked up enough as it was. She at least needed to get something out for her as well. "But if I promise you to stop drinking vervain, you also need to promise that you leave them alone. You have to promise me that you stay away from them, that you don´t even talk to them."

Damon rolled his eyes at her. "I don´t have to promise you anything, Elena," he reminded her with a pointed look. "It´s easy really. You stop drinking vervain and I won´t kill them. That´s all the decision you can make right now."

Elena stared at him with big eyes. She didn´t know what to think, what to do anymore. She felt lost and alone and so afraid. He was right, there was no real decision. Not when the life of her family was at stake. A single tear escaped her eyes when she finally gave in and nodded her consent.

Damon smiled and what she saw in his eyes was real, unfiltered happiness. This whole situation really was fucked up, Elena thought desperately. And with every hour that passed, it seemed to get worse and worse.