Can't you hear me knocking?
.
Rose was right, and Damon knew it. After a while, there was no such thing as turning off your emotions, you had to pretend. And Damon knew it, he could feel it. There was an emptiness that strangely filled his entire chest. He felt nothing, and at the same time he felt everything. The only certainty the vampire had was the certainty of his inability to organize his thoughts and feelings. Ever since Elena had entered his life, he found himself unable to turn off his humanity, as the girl effortlessly brought him back everytime, and it was increasingly difficult to find ways to deligitimise his mind and rid himself of the insistent thoughts that were there. Damon took out his frustration by burying himself in Rose, and it was good. She needed it as much as he did, and it had been good for both of them. However, after it was over, he barely stepped into the shower to wash the sweat off his body and already found himself thinking non-stop again.
Elijah was alive, even after having a stake driven through his heart. The legend of the Originals was no longer a legend, and Elena was in danger. It was even comical to think that, for months, Damon believed his two biggest problems were Katherine's rejection and the fact that he was in love with Stefan's girlfriend. The overall picture was much worse. The eldest Salvatore would never admit it, but he was terrified of the possibility of running into Klaus, especially after what happened in the coffee shop earlier. If Rose was correct and Elijah really was the Easter Bunny compared to the older Original, they all had their death sentences signed. Elena had her death sentence signed, and he simply couldn't let that happen. He stepped out of the shower and poured himself a large shot of the whiskey he had by a sideboard inside his room. He stared into the amber liquid and remembered a pair of eyes. Whisky eyes.
For two nights now, Damon had seen Emma's fearful, whiskey-rimmed expression whenever he closed his eyes before bed. In truth, if he stayed focused long enough, he could still feel her arms around him, seeking a security he never imagined he was capable of providing. It caused a nagging in his gut that Emma found safety in him, even after watching him cruelly kill two people, even after knowing what he was. Damon had done nothing but kill since returning to Mystic Falls, and yet the young woman had seen him as some sort of safe haven. And that bothered him.
The two hadn't exchanged a word since that night. Damon dropped her off in front of the building she lived in, and the two of them said their goodbyes in silence. He didn't have her phone, and he doubted she had his. The next two days were so hectic in search of information about Klaus that Damon didn't have the time, or even the head, to look her up. However, at that moment, alone in front of the fireplace in his room with his glass of whiskey in hand, the urge to remedy this unpleasantness had gripped him. So, dropping the glass on the mantelpiece and putting on his jacket, Damon left the house on his way to Emma's flat.
As soon as he parked his Camaro in front of the Grill, he crossed the street and stopped in front of the building. He could enter through the window, after all he already knew the way. However, he thought it would be more prudent to use the main entrance. He searched the buttons on the intercom for the flat he believed belonged to Emma. The buzzer rang a few times, but no one answered. Damon couldn't understand why, but he really wanted to see the girl, and felt a certain agony at her absence at home.
He crossed the street back to the Grill and headed straight for the counter. He ordered a glass of whiskey and sat facing the large glass window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Emma when she got home. By the way, where would she be? It was a weekday and already late at night. As far as he knew, Emma only taught during the day. It hadn't been three days since she'd almost been ra... He squeezed the glass and broke it against his fingers. Matt quickly gathered up the shards of glass and, before he could ask if Damon was hurt, the vampire's wounds had healed and he compelled the boy to forget about it.
He asked for another shot of whiskey, and just as he took the first sip, he felt someone hesitantly nudge him in the shoulder. He turned towards the person poking him and met Emma's amber eyes.
"I was beginning to think you were avoiding me", Damon commented, with a smirk. Emma shrugged.
"I didn't know if you wanted to see me", she explained, and he frowned.
"The reverse would make more sense, don't you think?" he replied, and she smiled in a corner, shrugging again. He frowned, and she seemed to debate internally for a while, until she finally brought her index finger to the middle of his brows and tried to undo the creases forming there. Damon found the gesture rather annoying, but he was too curious about the fact that the girl showed no fear of him to care enough. "Would you like something to drink?"
"I can't", she replied, finally removing her index finger from his face and pulling up a stool to sit next to the vampire. She nodded at Matt and ordered a soda water. "I work tomorrow".
"Tonight is tonight, and tomorrow is tomorrow", he teased, turning fully towards her. Emma didn't fail to notice that, in that position, Damon's right knee rested directly against the outside of her thigh.
"You wouldn't say that if you saw me after a drinking party, looking like a floor cloth" she teased, and Damon let out a laugh.
When Matt dropped the glass of ice and Emma's water in front of the two of them, Damon looked straight into the boy's eyes.
"You're going to get busy serving the other customers and you're not going to listen to absolutely anything we talk about here". Matt seemed to go into a trance, turned his back on the two of them and made his way to the other end of the counter. Emma's eyes widened and she turned to the vampire.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"I needed him not to hear anything", Damon shrugged.
"Yeah, but... How?" she asked, frowning. It was Damon's turn to position his index finger in the creases of her forehead. She looked surprised, but made no move to indicate that she wanted to keep her distance from him. The vampire grinned.
"You know what I am", he replied, removing his index finger from her face and picking up his whiskey glass. He took a sip of the drink. "We can compel people, it works like a suggestion, but one that the person is forced to follow".
Emma looked annoyed by the answer and opened the water bottle to pour her glass. Damon watched her and knew she was thinking too much, however, he waited for her to vocalize what was evidently bothering her. The girl took three large sips of her water and turned back to him.
"Have you ever done this to me?" she asked, and he raised an eyebrow. It wasn't the question he was expecting. He expected something to do with the fact that he drank blood, that he killed people, that he was a fucking vampire. He didn't expect that what bothered her was the fact that he could compel someone.
"No" he replied.
"Good" she pointed out, "Don't ever do that to me".
"Okay..." he replied slowly, in a questioning tone. Damon studied her for a few seconds, searching for any hint of what she was feeling. He sighed in defeat when he found nothing. "Why aren't you scared of me?" he vocalized the question he'd been asking himself for two days.
"You saved me", she replied in a whisper, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I killed two men in front of you" Damon retorted, and Emma widened her eyes and looked everywhere, making sure no one was listening to them. The vampire almost wanted to laugh at the scene, but remained serious. "I killed two people, and you weren't scared. And worse, you didn't scold me for doing something horrible" he debauched.
"They would do something horrible too", she replied. And there it was. She was nervous. Her heartbeat quickened, her breathing faltered, the way she swallowed dryly. She was uncomfortable. But, again, not with him. And that bothered Damon.
"Okay, who's the other vampire you know?" he asked, without patience.
"I don't know any others, I didn't even know that's what you were!" she retorted firmly, but in a low tone.
"Oh, spare me, Emma", Damon rolled his eyes. "There's no way you could have reacted the way you did without knowing others like me".
"Are you bothered by the fact that I'm not afraid of you?" she asked, frowning. Was that serious?
Damon snorted and stood up from the stool. He grabbed Emma's purse from the counter and pulled her by the wrist so that she could stand. At her questioning look, he only replied a "Outside, now". Emma followed him uncomprehendingly into the street. Damon walked down the pavement and around the first corner, and the girl ran to catch up with him.
Emma followed Damon into an alley that was completely deserted, but the vampire was gone. There was a dense fog, partially covering the already dim lighting in the cul-de-sac. In a very quick movement, the vampire appeared in front of the girl, his face almost glued to hers. His face was whiter than usual, thick black veins under his eyes, which were completely red and frightening. He had his teeth bared, showing her the sharp fangs he had used to tear one of the men apart that fateful night. Emma was startled and her heart almost jumped out of her mouth, however, more by the fact that he had moved too fast and appeared out of total nothingness than the fact that he was showing his true face to her.
"How about now?" he asked in a debauched tone, though the tone he used didn't match the frightening sight of his face at all. Emma swallowed dryly, but hesitantly brought her right hand to his face, gently touching the black veins beneath his eyes with her fingertips. It was a weird sensation, it was as if the veins pulsed blood and moved under her fingerprints, and she found herself completely mesmerised by the movement of the black lines, trying to follow the patterns they made with her fingertips. Damon frowned, and Emma let out a low laugh. Even with his face like that, he was frowning. In a weird way, the gesture made it obvious to her that Damon followed suit, regardless of whether his eyes were red like fire or blue like ice. He was the same man. At the sound of her laughter, Damon returned to normal. "Just when I start to think I understand you, you do act completely unexpectedly".
"Is that a bad thing?", Emma asked.
"It's not bad, it's just curious", he replied, and she smiled. Only there, feeling her alcohol breath and seeing those whisky eyes in so much detail for the first time, did Damon realize he still remained almost glued to her, so he cleared his throat and took two steps back. With his head, he nodded for the two of them to go back the way they had used to get there. Emma and Damon walked side by side on the pavement.
"Did I pass some kind of test or something?" she asked, and Damon snorted rolling his eyes. "I think I'll take that whisky now".
Damon gave her a smirk and the two of them headed back to the Grill. As it turned out, Emma, despite not being able to keep up with the vampire, had a good resistance to alcohol, and he found himself genuinely laughing more than once at her comments. The two didn't talk about the fact that he was a vampire, after all, they were in a busy place, though Emma was visibly interested in talking about it. While the girl couldn't satisfy her curiosity about the vampire, Damon managed to pry some information out of Emma.
The vampire found out that she had been born in Mystic Falls and left town in her freshman year. He found out that she was an orphan and her only living relatives were Jenna, Elena and Jeremy. She didn't talk about her parents' deaths or the rest of her family, Damon simply assumed she was an only child. Emma finally revealed her last name to Damon, explaining superficially that her father was Jenna and Miranda's brother, which made her a Sommers and not a Gilbert. He learned that she had a pretty impressive resume for someone her age, the only subject she seemed truly excited to talk about. He almost wanted to make a joke out of the fact that she was older than him. Well, not truly older, but considering Damon had turned vampire in his early twenties and Emma was already twenty-six, that made her, for all intents and purposes, older.
Emma couldn't remember the last time she'd had this much fun. Damon didn't match the little description Elena or even Jenna received. He seemed fun, intelligent and a good person to spend time with. Aside from the disconcerting fact that he was absurdly handsome. More than once Emma felt dull as she looked into his icy blue eyes. He was definitely and without a doubt intimidating and mysterious, but she supposed such traits came to make sense the moment she found out he was a vampire.
When Emma looked at her wristwatch and saw that it was past midnight, she got up with a jump and warned that she should go home, as she had to teach class the next morning. Damon dropped his payment on the counter and crossed the street with her. He wasn't one to take a girl home, but Emma's flat was literally across the street, and he was enjoying her company. So, in truth, he was acting out of self-interest.
Before she entered the building, Emma spun on her heels and approached the vampire again. Damon raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you supposed to burn in the sun?" she asked in a whisper.
"Wow, are you already wanting to get rid of me?" he teased, and raised his hand in front of her face, showing her his daylight ring. "With that, it's bewitched".
"I really need to sleep, but I'm definitely interested in the subject", she replied with bright eyes. It was quite evident that she was taking it all very well and with great interest, and Damon still didn't know how to digest that. "Just one more thing..." she looked at him as if asking permission for something and he raised his eyebrows. Emma then placed her hand gently on his chest, and tossed her head to the side like a puppy.
Her hand was warm and touched him carefully, even over the shirt he wore. The two had only known each other a few weeks, and the girl had touched him more times than any other woman he knew, more than even Elena. Well, that was if he excluded the women he had sex with. Emma, apparently, was a rather tactile person, which bothered him for numerous reasons. Among them, the fact that she felt comfortable enough to touch him without asking any permission. The fact that she wasn't afraid of him. And, above all, the fact that he found himself craving her touch whenever he was in her company.
"Your heart beats", she commented.
"Of course it beats" Damon replied, snorting.
"Edward Cullen's heart didn't beat", she replied looking him in the eye, but still with her palm comfortably resting on his chest. Damon managed to memorize the warmth of her palm.
"Twilight, really?" he teased, directing a mocking smile at her. "It won't take you long to realize that I'm nothing like Edward Cullen". Emma pressed her lips together, as if to hold back a smile, but her amber eyes betrayed her. They were bright and staring at him quite intensely. Damon wasn't used to people staring at him so directly like that.
"More like Dracula then?" she asked, and he lowered his face until his eyes were the same height as hers, feeling pleased when he saw that her heart raced.
"That you'll have to find out, Mina" he replied, winking an eye at her. Emma's cheeks turned red. Why am I flirting with her? She's Elena's cousin! Oh fuck, it's not like Elena isn't with Saint Stefan, were the thoughts that ran through the vampire's head at that moment.
"Good night, Damon," Emma replied before quickly walking away and into the building. The vampire smiled satisfied and walked across the street, grabbed his car and headed home.
.
Despite being quite tired and having drunk a considerable amount of whiskey, the night was not as smooth for Emma as she thought it would be. As usual, around 3 o'clock in the morning, the girl woke up with a fright and got out of bed, walked to the door and checked if it was locked. Soon after, she went to the windows of the house and did the same.
She woke up the next morning pretty tired, but she took a nice shower and got some coffee before driving to Mystic High. When she got home, she was so exhausted that she didn't even eat dinner, she just took a shower, put on an old t-shirt and passed out in bed.
The long hours of sleep did Emma some good, and the next day she taught the morning and afternoon shift with great eagerness. She was getting closer to her students every day and had finally won the respect of the older ones, who at first looked at her with disbelief because she was only eight years older than them. Emma had been careful not to take Elena's class or even Jeremy's, lest she be accused of conflict of interest. Everything was going so well that the last thing Emma wanted was an accusation that she was favoring her cousins.
At the end of class, she invited Alaric to the Grill for a round of drinks. Emma enjoyed his company, she had grown quite close to Jenna's boyfriend since she had started teaching at the school. The two were on their third glass of beer when Alaric's mobile rang.
"Hello?" the man answered, signalling an apology to Emma. The girl smiled assuring him that she didn't mind, and turned her attention back to her glass. "What? Are you sure? Okay, I'm going to call Damon right now".
Damon's name caught Emma's attention and she eyed her co-worker curiously, but didn't have time to ask anything before Alaric got up from the table and informed her that he needed to make a private call.
Emma nodded for the waitress to bring her a portion of french fries as she watched Alaric through the Grill's window talking on the phone and directing some strange looks at her. It was as if he feared that she could overhear the conversation, which was absolutely impossible from that distance, with a wall between the two of them and the Grill packed with people talking. Emma found it all very weird. Weirder was when Alaric tried to make up a series of excuses as if to get rid of Emma.
The girl raised an eyebrow and thought about responding impolitely, but the bell on the Grill's door caught her attention. Damon spotted her and approached the table with a smirk and, to Alaric's surprise, slid down the bench, pushing Emma with his hips gently before sitting down next to her. Emma could feel the entire side of her body against him, and found herself wondering if they were in an unseasonably hot summer in Mystic Falls. Alaric directed the vampire a questioning look and Damon shrugged, stuffing three fries into his mouth.
"Emma knows", he explained, his mouth full, "Well, she knows what I am, so... By the way, I ran into Jules just now and she said some nonsenses about me being marked, what the hell does that mean?"
"Damon, what have you done?" Alaric asked suspiciously and Damon caught Emma's glass from her hand, taking a sip.
"I thought you had good taste in drink", he teased her and turned to Alaric again "I didn't do anything, okay? I was just seeking some information".
"Damon, stop being stupid, have you ever looked up at the sky?" Alaric snorted.
"I'm not the romantic type, Ric. Looking at the stars is more something Stefan would do, not me", Damon replied, and Emma realized that Alaric was completely out of patience.
She had no idea the two of them were so close, and she was still having a hard time assimilating that her aunt's boyfriend and co-worker knew about Damon being a vampire. Did absolutely everyone in that town know that but her?
"Tonight is the night of the full moon, Damon" Alaric whispered, leaning across the table. "If the information we have is correct, one werewolf bite and you're dead".
"There are werewolves too?" Emma questioned in a whisper, wide-eyed, looking from Alaric to Damon. "And you picked on me for using Twilight references!"
Damon gave a low laugh and Alaric watched the two of them curiously. He didn't know that Emma was close to the older Salvatore, that she knew about vampires, and even less that Damon could look so... normal... around someone. Still, this was no time for jokes.
"Damon, you need to go home, lock up, and be quiet until tomorrow morning. Don't do anything stupid".
"I never do anything stupid", Damon complained, but snorted when Alaric glared at him. "Okay, I'm just going to have a few drinks with that beautiful girl next to me, and then I'll go home, satisfied?"
Alaric snorted one last time and stood up from the table. He called out to the waitress with his hand and handed her a small wad of cash. The man smoothed his jacket over his body and looked at Emma.
"Well, I have to meet Jenna. Would you like a ride home, Emma?" Alaric asked, ignoring Damon's annoyed look. If there was one thing the man knew, it was that Emma was not safe with the vampire. The last thing he needed was another person from Jenna's family becoming the target of Katherine or any other supernatural being. Most of all, the last thing he needed was someone else becoming Damon Salvatore's new obsession.
"I live across the street, Ric", Emma explained, and Alaric's mouth dropped open in an "oh". The teacher then said goodbye to the two and turned his back towards the door. Emma shrugged and brought the glass of beer to her lips, but had the movement intercepted by Damon.
"I meant decent drinks" the vampire said with a smirk and Emma rolled her eyes. The girl watched Damon nod to the waitress and order two shots of whiskey and shove another obscene amount of fries into his mouth. The girl waited patiently for him to start talking, but he seemed oblivious to the surroundings, completely relaxed, tapping his foot on the floor to the rhythm of the music playing in the background. The waitress brought the drinks and he thanked her with a flirting smile. When Damon turned to Emma, she was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Werewolves? Really?" she questioned, and he shrugged. "You can't just give me half information!"
"I don't have all the information myself," he explained, turning to her, who had one eyebrow raised. Damon snorted. "Okay, here's what I do know: it's a curse, and to activate it you have to kill someone. They turn on full moon nights. Silver? Bullshit, I tried. And according to legend, one werewolf bite and it's over to a vampire".
"And you teased a werewolf?" she asked and he shrugged. "On a full moon night?". Damon shrugged again. Emma then dropped her own glass of whiskey on the table and faced the vampire with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" Damon asked, rolling his eyes.
"I'm just assimilating the fact that you're the dumbest person I know", she replied, and he stared at her offended. "Don't look at me like that, it's true. Either you're dumb, or you're suicidal".
Damon watched Emma carefully, reading her gestures and expressions, and licked his bottom lips before smirk again.
"Careful, or it might look like you care about me", he teased, but she simply shrugged and turned to face the table, putting some fries in her mouth. "You care about me, don't you?"
"Is that a crime or something?" she asked in a teasing tone. Damon smile widen and he intercepted Emma's hand movement, taking the fries she had between her fingers and stuffing them into his own mouth. The girl turned to him and complained softly that those were her fries.
"No, it's just something quite stupid" Damon replied and she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot you're the badboy", she sneered and he grinned.
"A badboy who needs to go home" Damon replied and, sighing, he got up from the table and put some cash under the salt shaker. Emma stared at him and he raised an eyebrow. Emma realized that he was waiting for her to get up too and took one last sip of her whisky before picking up her bag and following the vampire to the Grill's exit. Once they were both outside, Emma looked at the moon and then at Damon.
"You want me to drive you home?" she asked and Damon gave a debauched laugh.
"And what are you going to do if a werewolf shows up? Fight it with your superhuman strength?"
"The worst that will happen if it bites me is, I don't know, I'll turn into one?" she questioned, lifting her shoulders. Damon thought about laughing again, but realised she was serious.
"The worst is you dying", he replied. "A wolf could rip your head off as easily as you rip off a bandaid. And if you turned one, then I would have to rip your head off".
Emma didn't respond, only crossed her arms in front of her body. Damon seemed to have taken her silence as an expression of fear, for he took two steps forward and forced her to look him in the eye.
"I'm not going to rip your head off", he assured her, serious. Emma let out a giggle through her nose.
"I know you won't" she replied. "Please be careful, okay?" she asked, and he cracked a mocking smile.
"You care too much. I'm beginning to believe you have a crush on me, Emma Sommers" Damon teased, and Emma tried to keep her expression impassive, despite being betrayed by her red cheeks.
"I don't, you're just the only vampire I know and it would be a shame to lose that and have as my only supernatural references some teenage books", she replied, and Damon smiled. Not a mocking smile, not a sincere smile either. It was a smile that was hiding something, but Emma didn't know what.
"Good night, Emma" Damon said goodbye, and before Emma could reply, he was gone.
Damon arrived home and soon noticed something different. There was something in the air, as if a different presence was watching him. Carefully watching for any movement, the vampire walked into the living room, and felt a sense of relief at the sight of Rose. The relief, soon after, turned to anger. She had a lot of nerve showing up there after running off like a cornered rabbit. No matter how scared she was, she had promised that they were in this together, that she would help him protect Elena. But at the first opportunity she ran.
Damon put on his impassive mask, he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of showing he was pissed off. He could see that she was sorry, but he wasn't in the mood to forgive. Rose's presence there soured the good mood he was in after meeting Emma. Damon wanted to remain impassive, he liked to make others uncomfortable without knowing what was really going through his head, but as always in his life, things got out of hand.
A huge wolf entered Boarding House and tried to attack him, but Rose stupidly stood in front of it. By the time Damon reacted and struck the animal, it was too late. Rose had been bitten on the shoulder and the vampire found himself desperate, not knowing how to act. He was angry with Rose, of course, but he didn't want to lose her. He liked to think that it was because she had a lot of information, that she was a key help against Klaus. With wide eyes and slightly trembling hands, Damon tore a piece of Rose's blouse off, trying to ignore her cry of pain, and sighed in relief as he stared at the wound.
"It's healing," he whispered, and didn't protest when Rose threw herself into his arms and started crying. It was the second time someone had hugged him for comfort, what the hell was going on? Unable to react any differently, Damon stroked the vampire's back, letting her cry as hard as she needed to.