Warnings: Swearing, violence, evilness, talk about punishment, nonconsensual kissing/touching

~Tug of War~

It didn´t took Elena long to figure out their destination. If anything, she knew the way from the Salvatore boarding house to her own home all too well. She wasn´t sure, though, if she was happy that Damon obviously wasn´t planning on kidnapping her or if she should be even more afraid because at this hour Jenna and Jeremy might already be home from the founder´s ball. Elena didn´t want Damon anywhere near them but knew that she also couldn´t stop him right now.

A few minutes later Damon parked his car in front of her house and opened his door. In only a few seconds he was at her side of the car and she felt herself being dragged out rather forcefully. Since he had only told her to be quiet during the drive, Elena decided to push her luck and wriggled a bit in his grip. "Ouch, Damon, you are hurting me!"

If Damon had heard her, he ignored it but dragged her on in the direction of the front door. For just a moment Elena continued to struggle, before realizing the senselessness of her action and giving in with a sigh, following him as best as she could and trying to minimize the pain he was causing. When they reached the door, Damon finally let go of her arm, only to fix her with his cold eyes. "Keys," he ordered. Elena flushed, undignified that he was ordering her around like this, but anyway grabbed into her purse and handing over the keys with a glare of her own. For just a second a smirk flickered across his face by seeing her so riled up, but before Elena could have been sure that she had really seen his, he was back to this indifferent cold look. Anyway, it gave her the slightest hope, that maybe he wasn´t just as angry as it appeared. He unlocked the front door, but before he opened it, his eyes found Elena again. "Just a short warning. It would be in your best interest to not make a scene and wake up your aunt and brother. You´d rather not want me to deal with them when I´m in a mood like this."

He didn´t wait for her reaction but pushed the door open and unceremoniously dragged her behind him and up to her room. The whole way Elena kept quiet and hoped, prayed to god, that no one had heard the front door opening and was coming to see if she had arrived home safe. To Elena´s big relief the house remained quiet. Maybe they are still at the founder´s party, Elena reflected.

However, the moment the door of her bedroom closed behind her, Elena felt the short relief being replaced with another feeling that was rather new to her. Dread, she thought. What she felt was dread.

Wrapping her arms around herself to get at least some resemblance of warmth, she faced Damon still hoping that maybe she could talk her way out of this. "Look, Damon. I… I´m sorry that I…I spit at you. That was rather-."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "-Stupid?" he provided.

Elena bit on her bottom lip. "I didn´t mean-"

"Of course you meant it." Damon smiled a tight-lipped smile before walking over to her in three long strikes and taking her face between his hands. His touch was soft, but Elena still felt Goose bubbles spread all over her body because of his proximity. His eyes seemed softer now too, blue and not red, but Elena wasn´t fooled. She knew that she was in deep shit. "I get it, Elena. You were angry, confused, maybe a tad hysterical." His finger wandered over her swollen cheek, eliciting a small gasp of pain. "I guess this reaction is to be expected." He smiled but it didn´t reach his eyes.

"I´m sorry."

"Sure you are, but Elena…" He pointed her face up, leaned closer so that only centimeters were between their bodies. For everyone spying on them it would have looked as if they were lovers, but of course Elena knew better. And his next words reminded her painfully of this reality. "this doesn´t mean that you don´t need to be punished." His thumb played with her bottom lip. "For the spitting, the deceiving, the vervain, the basement. You didn´t think you´d get away from this with only three little slaps, did you?"

Be strong. Be strong, Elena tried to tell her but she simply couldn´t do it. Not now, not today. Whatever strength she had had, it was all gone. She felt tears in her eyes again even though she tried her best to hold them in. Her cheek hurt like crazy from the "little slaps" as he had just called them and she didn´t even want to imagine what this punishment would be like, when slapping her obviously seemed to count so little.

"I… you…", it was difficult to think clearly. "Wh…why are you do…doing this? Hav… Haven´t you hurt me e…enough already?" Her voice was strained by tears and she hated how weak she sounded. If Damon was moved by her tears, though, he didn´t show it. His eyes remained as indifferent as if he was speaking about the weather. They reminded her of ice, of cold. "It´s not about hurting you, Elena. It´s about you learning to adapt to this new situation. You need to learn that behavior like this is unacceptable so that you will not repeat it in the future."

Elena couldn´t believe what she was hearing or the calmness with which he was stating something like that. "I am not a dog that you can train", she spat, the sudden anger giving her at least some resemblance of strength. Damon chuckled. "I´ll admit that you are not a dog, but I bet I can train you just as easily."

Somehow this was the last straw. From one moment to the other Elena felt herself lose it. Violently she pushed against Damon, somehow succeeding in getting away from his touch. The moment he wasn´t touching her anymore she basically fled to the other side of her room only then facing him again, while her head was shaking from one side to the other. "What happened to you, Damon? You are not like this. You were never like this."

Damon shrugged, while leaning leisurely against the wall behind him. His arms were crossed before his body and Elena could easily see his pronounced muscles. "Was I not? You know me for what? Four months?" Damon mocked her. "Did you really think that you had me all figured out? That I might play at being the big bad vampire, while on the inside I am what? The nice guy? Misunderstood?" He laughed coldly. "Come on, Elena, let´s face it. I´m none of those things. Do you want to know how many people I´ve killed since arrived in Mystic Falls? Twelve. Twelve people, including the best friend of my little brother. Do you still think I am the good guy? Maybe you should have taken a fucking hint!"

Elena stared at him with wide eyes, while the realization hit her that he was right. What had she been thinking when she started to become friends with him? He was a murderer. A mass murderer. And looking at him now, she was sure that he didn´t feel something close to regret. "You stopped hunting," she pressed out, trying to remember her own logic. "You only drank from bloodbags."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Only because it suited me. I couldn´t have more cases of bitemarks and death by bloodlust when I wanted to live here for a time." He smirked evilly. "-besides, now I have you for this whole drinking straight from the vein thing, don´t I?"

Elena could feel his gaze on her neck, where his bitemarks must still be visible and gulped. He was looking at her like a predator, she thought. Like an animal that was ready to pounce. She was relatively sure that it was only the vervain holding him back. And that was the moment she truly realized how dangerous this situation was. Damon was right with everything he had said. She just had to look at him to understand that he didn´t care. He didn´t look at her like he used to. There was hunger in his eyes now, burning bride. And also an emptiness that frightened Elena even more. Never before had he looked more a vampire, more a predator.

When he smiled at her, it was only a little movement of his lips, but somehow there were so much dark promises there that Elena suddenly felt extremely cold. She crossed her arms before her body, tried to get some warmth. "You finally see it, don´t you," Damon remarked and when he pushed himself away from the wall and took a step in her direction, Elena blanched.

"Don´t come closer," she whispered.

"I have enough of staying away from you."

Her hands balled into fists. "It´s not even me you want and you know it. Tell me, why don´t you try to find Katherine when you´re so intent on getting what you want?"

Damon raised one eyebrow before suddenly he vampspeeded over to her. Elena gasped, trying to back away but before she could react, he was already there, right in front of her. His eyes scanned her for a moment before he extended his hand and brushed his fingers along her cheek. "Surprisingly, I´ve had a change of mind recently. Katherine´s a bitch and controlling her," he shook his head. "It´s just not going to happen."

Elena pressed her lips together. "You shouldn´t want to control someone you love," she pointed out. Damon chuckled by hearing her words. "I think most men want control; they are just too weak to actually take it. And then they are surprised when they are fooled just again, tossed aside, used."

Elena wasn´t sure if what he said made her feel afraid or sad. "If it´s like that it´s simply not the right person," she told him carefully. "Then you have to continue searching and when you find the right one, it will be different."

Damon shook his head, while he looked down at her with his electrifying blue eyes. "You´re still so young, Elena. Maybe, someday you´ll understand that the world doesn´t work like this. The only way to get what you want is to take it, believe me. The only way to survive is to be stronger than the rest. That is how it is."

Elena stared at Damon with big eyes. The sinking feeling appeared that she would never be able to talk sense into him. He would just brush all her arguments aside as if they were nothing. But what could she do if he was really thinking like that? What could she do to stop him? She somehow felt helpless against such insanity. "I… you…". Elena took a deep breath, tried to order her thoughts. "So you think that you can just take…what you want". She´d almost said "me", the word just sticking on her tongue. "But even if you force me into this, it will only make me hate you more and more. Is that really what you want, Damon?"

He smirked. "Oh sweetheart, the best thing is, that you´ll never be able to really hate me. It´s just not in you. You´ll see, eventually you´ll give in." He grabbed for her hand, faster than Elena could react, and placed it on his chest, right over his heart. Elena gasped. She could feel his muscles there and she could feel how blood was rushing to her face. Damon was looking at her intensively, seductively even. Elena realized how close she was to him. Her heart started beating faster. "You desire me, just as much as I desire you," he whispered, his voice sounding husky. "And even though you might resist at first, you´ll not be able to forever. You´ll give in to this chemistry between us." Elena wanted to deny it, but her mouth felt dry. She gasped when he leaned closer to her, his lips only inches from hers. The intensity of his eyes fixed her to the spot, made her feel like a deer caught in the headlights. "You´ll want me to kiss you until you cannot breathe. You´ll want me to do all the wicket things to your body that you never even dared to dream of." Elena stared at him with big eyes. All words seemed lost to her. She watched in a mixture of dread and desire, as he leaned closer to her. She had never felt like this. It was as if all the control had slipped away from her. And all that remained was a tornado of conflicting emotions that seemed to pull her in; pull her under. Her hand, which had lain on his chest, fell down while Damon took her face in his hands and pressed his lips on hers in a somehow powerful kiss. He didn´t go further, didn´t try to kiss her deeper, but somehow the feel of his strong lips on hers was enough to let shutter after shutter run through Elena´s body. She didn´t want this, some part of her body whispered, but somehow she felt too weak to protest. His lips were warm and soft on her. His scent of leather and bourbon was clouding her mind.

It was silly- maybe the worst she could have felt- but after all the fear, all the pain, all the cold of the last hours… the warmth of his lips comforted her.

It felt so good that she almost – almost- protested when Damon leaned away from her, taking all the warmth with him. Slowly she opened her eyes, which had closed somewhere along the kiss, and looked right at Damon. A small gasp escaped her. Damon was looking right at her and there was something so darkly promising in his eyes, that Elena wasn´t able to breathe. She could feel his hands leaving her face, gliding along her body. She couldn´t think. Couldn´t breathe. His smooth voice seemed to wash over her. Invading her scenes. Creating fear and lust all the same. "You´ll beg me to fuck you, Elena, again and again, and only then I might be inclined to give it to you. I´ll show you things you´ve never even dreamed of. Pleasure so strong that it consumes you. And believe me, you´ll never even think of Stefan again."

Elena gasped. Somehow the mention of her boyfriend finally brought her back to her own mind and she realized what she was doing here, how close she had allowed him to come. "No," she pressed out, her voice shaking. "No, I won´t. Get away from me!" With as much force as she possessed, she pushed him away and stumbled backwards. Her breath was going faster as if she had just run a marathon and to her horror she felt a pulling between her tights. Blood rushed to her face. God, how could she even feel slightly turned on by this, she thought with growing horror. He was the evilest person she´d ever met. He´d hit her, for god´s sake, not an hour ago, her swollen cheek more than enough evidence for how depraved he was. And here she stood, feeling something else then disgust when he touched her. There had always been this attraction between Damon and her. But as long as she hadn´t allowed him to come any closer to her, she had been able to ignore it. But now everything had become more difficult. And even though, she wholeheartedly hated him… her body didn´t seem to have completely caught up. For a moment she hated herself just as much as she hated him. No, she thought. It couldn´t be like this, never like this. He would see that it was not so easy. She would show him that he was wrong with everything he had said. Elena looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"Congratulations, I see it now. You have no good side, and I was silly to ever think you had. I was even more silly to ever trust you, but I´m not going to do the same mistake twice."

Damon smirked. "Unfortunately, princess, one time was more than enough."

He walked over to her bed, sat down and patted on his legs as if nothing had happened. "Come here, we need to talk about your punishment."

Elena pressed her lips together but didn´t move. So now they were back on speaking about punishments. She couldn´t believe that only seconds ago he had tried to seduce her and now that. The ambivalence of it all made her head hurt.

When she didn´t move, Damon´s eyes narrowed. "If I have to catch you, it´s going to be worse."

Elena sighed, but finally walked over to him, just stopping when she stood before his legs. Damon smiled up at her. "Good girl," he said and Elena felt the intense urge to hit him. Anyway, she did remember what it had brought her the last time, so for the moment she refrained herself. Damon chuckled by seeing her obvious distress, before pulling her down to him, so that she was straddling him. She could still look down on him when she was sitting on his lap like that, but somehow that didn´t help her to feel more in control.

"I´ve thought a bit about what this punishment should entail," Damon started, ignoring the distress that was so obvious on Elena´s face. "Just to be clear, you royally fucked up this time, Elena. I can understand when you resist… but drugging me with vervain, locking me up…" He shook his head as if this was exceeding his imagination. "You leave me no choice but to do something drastic this time, dear. Just to make it unambiguously clear that you cannot act like this."

Elena´s eyes widened while hearing his words. It seemed as if everything get worse and worse with each second that passed. She had no clue what Damon thought this "punishment" should entail but she was also not going to find out. The decision was made in a second. She simply couldn´t deal with him treating her like this. Her mind set, she pushed herself upwards in a fluid movement and actually managed to get away from his hands. "You know what, "she told him angrily, glaring at him with all the hate and anger she felt. "I am not going to let you act like this. Whatever you think Damon, this is not a way to treat me and I won´t stand for it. You can stick your punishment up your ass. Because I am not going to play this game."

Deciding to let him sitting there like this, Elena whirled around dramatically and stormed over to the door of her room. She remembered that Damon had her handy but brushed the thought aside. Fuck it all, she thought. She could just as well call Stefan from her house telephone. She yearned for the warm embrace of her boyfriend.

But of course, it wasn´t that easy. Later, Elena couldn´t say if she had really thought that he´d let her walk out like that, or if it just had been the desperation that had clouded her mind. However, even before she got in the proximity of the door, she felt herself being snatched and whirled around and in the next second she lay on her bed with Damon´s body pinning her down. His eyes narrowed down on her. "I think I already told you that you´re not going to walk out on me again."

"Fuck. You."

Damon sighed as if exaggerated with her behavior and violent pictures of her smashing his head against something hard went through her head. She tried to move her hands to realize this particular vision, but his grip was too strong, holding her prisoner mercilessly.

Damon obviously liked the position they were in now. "I still think that it´s fucking hot when you fight me like this." Damon smirked down at her, his eyes looking at her lips as if he wanted to kiss her. As if to confirm her thoughts, he actually leaned down and gave her a fast peck on her closed lips. It was somehow all too much. Elena was shaking from fear and anger and couldn´t remember a time when she had felt so unlike herself. Violent pictures were running through her head, and she had long ago stopped caring about the consequences. "Get your lips away from me, Damon, or I swear I´m going to spit again!"

Damon smirked. "Feisty."

"I´ll show you feisty!"

Damon rolled his eyes, before leaning away just a bit, while his hands still pressed her down mercilessly. "I guess it´s more than pastime that we start your punishment. A few minutes more and I´m sure you´re going to talk yourself into deep shit."

Wasn´t she in deep shit already, Elena thought numbly, but kept this thought to herself. She supposed that resisting wouldn´t help her anyway, right now. Damon seemed determined to go through with this whole punishment thing, no matter what she did. She supposed she could only try to bear it with as much pride as possible. For just a second, she gathered the rest of her strength before she looked at him again, making sure he could see exactly what she thought of him and also that she was far from being beaten. "Do your worst."

The grin that appeared on Damon´s face when he heard her words was the scariest yet. "Oh, I plan to."