Okay, I'm only posting this one now because I felt bad about the last one - it was really short.

Enjoy!

Chapter Eight

The last day of November, my ass, Rebecca thought. It had been two days since Rebecca had broken into Giuseppe's study and gotten wrong information. Probably planted information.

Two days, and now it was pandemonium at Veritas. The council was running around, panicked. Other townspeople she didn't know were in a state of hysteria. She was surprised there hadn't been any civilian casualties yet.

But there would be; she'd learned that much in history class - not that she paid that much attention in history class, but . . .

Rebecca was inside her room in Veritas when she heard something like a small thump. Then . . . "I'll take her! We'll leave and you'll never see us again."

Damon. And Katherine. She must've been found out.

She heard something that sounded like, "Then let me be killed!" come from Damon's mouth and then was surprised when he showed up in her room. There was anger and sadness all over his face. He even had tears in his eyes; they hadn't fallen onto his cheeks, but they were still there. She wished briefly that the tears were for her, but she also never wanted to be the cause of so much grief.

"Help me?" he asked brokenly.

She already knew the answer before he'd even finished the question. And because she couldn't stand to see the hurt look on his face, she agreed.

"What do you want me to do?"

Instead of answering he began leading her out of her room and then down the stairs.

"Did you know about this?" he asked, voice hard.

"No. Damon, no. I told Pearl and Annabelle and about ten others that they needed to get their group together and leave. She was supposed to tell Katherine. It - the attack - wasn't supposed to happen until the end of the month. I didn't want to tell you too early in case . . . In case they changed their minds."

"They took her," Damon said, voice shaking. "Stefan told . . . Father."

If Damon hadn't been pulling her forward, she'd have stopped short. Was this the reason Damon and Stefan didn't get along in the future? Because of a woman? Because . . . Because Stefan had betrayed Damon? Stefan, who Damon had trusted over everyone else.

And now, now if she didn't help Damon get Katherine back . . . he was going to be broken. Despite the fact that she knew if Katherine got free she'd lose Damon forever, she had to help him for the simple fact that she loved him and she'd rather see him compelled to be happy than to watch him be truly heartbroken because he couldn't be with the one he thought he loved.

"Damn it," she muttered. She realized she needed to save the evil-bitch-monster-of-death in order to save Damon. "You realize we may not have the time to save the other ones, right? So we focus only on Katherine."

"That was my plan," Damon said.

People with torches kept running by them, but nobody ever noticed they were there; they were too focused on the demons. Damon led her to the edge of the forest and she wondered what they were doing.

"Wait here, I'll be right back," he said.

Damon took off in the direction of the servants living quarters. He was probably going to Emily. Did he know she was a witch?

Then the other brother squatted down beside her.

"Stefan?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't -"

Rebecca shook her head. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

"I want to help."

She was just about ready to thank Stefan so much for his help - sarcastically, of course - considering all the damage he was causing. Then she saw there were bite marks on his neck; they were fresh enough to still be bleeding. She hoped he'd be okay.

As they watched she noticed that Jonathan captured Pearl and Rebecca felt a jolt of sympathy but knew she couldn't do anything for her. They had Pearl and all the other vampires in muzzles - like they were dogs. The vampires were being placed in a police wagon, and she didn't know how the vampires were getting it in their systems, but she could tell they were being weakened by vervain. And . . . They were being shot with wooden bullets. She had to admit it was nifty even if it was cruel.

It was weird having to sit still when she could practically feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins, telling her to join the fray. She had the need to fight and she knew which side she should be fighting on. She'd gladly fight if they had attacked her, but locking them in a building and burning them to death was too gruesome for her to take part in.

When Damon finally returned they waited - Damon reluctantly agreed to let Stefan help, probably as a way to see if he really could trust him - until the wagon was unguarded, and then the three of them went to the makeshift prison. Rebecca yanked the back of the wagon open - it hadn't been locked. It was almost pitch black so it was hard to see, but Damon leapt inside anyway.

"Katherine?" he whispered and began searching.

"Damon?" a female voice answered. Her voice was muffled from the contraption on her face, but it was very obviously Katherine.

Rebecca bit her lip to keep from saying something she'd later regret. On the floor of the wagon were a dozen bodies; some had stakes in them, already dead. No one deserved to be treated this way, no matter what they were. Even Katherine, as evil as she was, didn't deserve to be treated like an animal.

Stefan went in, too, and helped get Katherine out and onto the ground. She had ropes binding her arms and legs. They'd been drenched in vervain, apparently, because her skin was covered in burn marks where the material had had contact. She was wearing one of those muzzle things and Stefan took it off while Damon undid the ropes. Then she heard a shot and she felt her heart stop for a second. Then . . .

"Damon . . ." That was Stefan's voice.

Damon was on the ground, blood oozing from his chest. Rebecca had forgotten Katherine the minute - second - she'd heard the shot ring out. Rebecca put her hands over the wound and pressed even though she knew there was no use.

"Damon!"

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God!

"No," she said. "No, no, no, no, no."

He was taking his last few breaths and Rebecca had his head on her lap and was caressing his face. She didn't even know if he could feel it, if he even knew she was there. He was white and she could tell he was going into shock.

She locked eyes with him and said, "Damon, I'm here."

Rebecca heard another shot but she didn't look up. She hadn't been the one to be shot so she knew it had been Stefan. And she knew she had to leave, if only for a few minutes. Damon's eyes no longer held any life and she scooted away from him; she couldn't die here.

She ran toward the woods and then, once in the solid darkness, she collapsed and tried to cry. She knew she should feel something, but she couldn't. Except for the fact that it felt like her heart had been ripped out. But of course, who can feel when they don't have a heart?

Finally the tears came. And once they did, they wouldn't stop. She'd lost the one thing that kept her here. And she still wasn't going back. Her chest had tightened so much it was hurting and her throat was burning. Her eyes were stinging and she could barely breathe for sobbing.

She cried until she heard someone calling her name; a female voice calling out to her. Rebecca didn't respond, though, because she couldn't exactly find her voice.

"Rebecca?" The voice was closer now and she recognized it as Emily's. "You have to come out of the woods. Please?"

Rebecca shook her head once or twice and then covered her face with her hands. She didn't want to move; she just wanted to be left alone. Hell, she didn't know if she could move even if she'd wanted to.

"Damon will need you when he wakes up."

"He's not waking up," Rebecca whispered because she couldn't make herself speak any louder. Her throat felt too swollen to say much of anything, really.

"Yes, he will. He'll have to make a choice. Katherine fed him her blood. He -"

"Died with it in his system." So Rebecca hadn't changed that? She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"He'll have to decide whether he wants to complete the change or . . ."

"Or?"

"Die," Emily said, somewhat sympathetic.

Rebecca shook her head, already feeling too much pressure in her chest. "If he sees me, it will impact his decision."

"Of course it will. He'll remember she compelled him and he'll remember how much he loves you."

"But . . . I can't be here for him. I don't know when I'll be sent back."

"I will help you explain it to him. You can show him something from the future. Make him believe you."

"Do you want him to turn?" Rebecca asked suspiciously.

"No. I think it's a curse. But Damon needs to know all of his options. He needs to know that you are one of them."

"But I'm not one! I can't stay here and it's not fair for him to have to wait one hundred and . . . forty-five years. So . . . Those are his options? To either die or . . . be alone for 145 years? I can't . . . make him choose between those."

What she'd said was true; it wouldn't be fair. But he didn't deserve to wake up alone either.

"Take me to him?"

Emily grabbed her hand and pulled her up. The two women walked slowly through the woods and Rebecca's heart began racing. Would Damon be the same? Would he feel the same? Would he blame her for not doing more to save Katherine since he knew she could?

As if Emily could sense her thoughts she said, "The church burned, Katherine was supposed to be inside. She and the others are underneath it."

"What?"

"Not all the vampires that were captured deserved to be killed. There's a tomb underneath the church. All the vampires in the church are now sealed in that tomb."

Rebecca's mind was reeling. If the vampires were locked inside a tomb they wouldn't be able to feed, and if they couldn't feed then . . . They would die anyway, right? They would . . . starve to death. Another horrible way to die. She almost preferred the horrible burning to death scenario; at least that way they would die quickly.

"They will not die. Their bodies will mummify, but they can be revived with blood. A future witch, Bennett witch, can open it. Jonathan Gilbert has my Grimiore and that holds the key to the spell."

These thoughts ran inside Rebecca's head for a while - same thoughts over and over again - until she and Emily came to the bodies of Stefan and Damon. They had been moved into the woods, and now the two women were moving them to a carriage, which had been set up by some guy Rebecca didn't know.

She vaguely wondered if Emmett and Jonas were okay, but she didn't really have time to worry about them if she wanted to get Stefan and Damon out of here before they woke up.

"Stefan can turn too, I take it?"

"Katherine has been compelling him to drink for weeks."

"Damon?"

"No compulsion was necessary. She made him think he loved her; he drank from her willingly."

Of course he had. Damon did whatever he had to for the people he loved. Even if it meant dying for them.

Rebecca hopped into the back of the carriage, as did Emily. She realized that the bullets had been taken out of both brothers, but she didn't ask how; she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Where're we going?"

"To the quarry outside of town."

Rebecca slowly unbuttoned Damon's shirt even though she really didn't want to see what a mess his chest was sure to be. She even closed her eyes for a second and just felt for a second. There were flakes of dried blood coming off on her hands but she couldn't find a wound.

Her eyes snapped open and looked at Damon's bloody but otherwise flawless chest. Not that it wasn't always flawless, but . . . She'd been expecting a gunshot wound.

"Uh . . . Emily?"

"Vampire blood. It has restorative properties. Once the bullet was gone the wound healed on its own."

"Stefan is the same?"

"Yes, Rebecca."

She was relieved because she had no idea how to fix a bullet wound. She stayed by Damon's side the entire way just in case he woke up; she knew she'd freak out if she were in his position. Whatever his decision would be after he woke up, he would need her and she'd stay with him until she was sent back to her time period or until he sent her away.

When they arrived at the quarry, Rebecca dragged Damon to the edge of the water and laid him on the grass. She used his shirt to wipe away the blood from his chest. His skin wasn't as cold as she'd thought it would be, oddly enough, but she was glad. It gave her the illusion that he was still alive even though she knew he wasn't.

When Damon was clean she went about trying to get the blood out of his shirt. The stain was left pink instead of red. Then there was nothing to do but wait. She sat there, Damon's head on her lap, her caressing his face constantly just so he'd feel it when he woke up, thinking about exactly what she was going to do if Damon didn't become a vampire. She wouldn't be able to know him in the future - in her time period - and she'd have to get over the him from the past. She wondered if her convoluted logic made any sense at all.

As she continued caressing Damon she noticed the far away scent of fire and then she let herself fall away. She needed the numbness; it was a relief to not feel anything.

"Rebecca," Emily's voice called her back to earth for the second time that night. "When he wakes up put this on him."

This was his Lapis Lazuli ring she'd seen on him in the future.

"It protects him from the sun."

"I know."

"You know a lot," Emily said.

"Future girl, remember?" Rebecca said, trying to sound light but failing miserably.

"Hm. You need to change, or at the very least take your dress off. The blood on you will drive him crazy. He might not be able to -"

"Control himself. Got it."

So Rebecca was left in her blood-free slip. It was white and thin and it left her cold, but she could handle it. A small groan came from Damon and he had her full attention.

"Damon?" She ran her fingers through his hair. "Damon, can you hear me?"

"Mm . . . Becca?"

"It's me." Even she could hear the relief coating her voice. "I'm here."

"You're alive," he said, sitting up and finding it difficult.

Rebecca laughed and it was an almost hysterical sound.

"Yeah, I'm . . ." she broke off and took a deep breath. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was . . . shot?" Question, not a statement, like he wasn't certain. "You were there. Stefan. Katherine. Was she . . .?"

"They took her, Damon."

She saw his shoulders slump and his face crumple in pain. She hated adding salt to the wound, but . . .

"Stefan was shot too. And Damon, I . . . I ran away. Both you and Stefan had . . . Anyway, I didn't want to die."

Damon looked at her and she saw tears in his eyes, threatening to spill over. She wanted to hug him, comfort him somehow, but she wasn't sure if he would welcome it. Then Damon looked at his chest, noticing for the first time that his shirt was missing and that his wound wasn't there. He touched his unmarred skin in wonder.

"I, um . . . washed you off. And your shirt is as clean as it's going to get." She touched his shoulder gently. "Damon, do you know what's happening to you?

"I'm a vampire?" Again with the uncertainty.

"Not . . . Not yet."

Had Katherine not explained this to him? What had she been thinking? Oh, yeah, about herself. How could someone do that to someone and not explain how things worked first?

Rebecca handed him the Lapis Lazuli ring. There was a silver S in the middle of the blue stone for Salvatore like the Damon from her time period had told her.

"This will protect you from the sun if you choose to become a vampire. But you do have a choice, Damon." She swallowed against the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. "To complete the transition you have to feed on human blood. If you don't then . . ."

"I'll die?" he asked weakly.

"Yeah." Rebecca felt that familiar tug on her heart and forced herself not to show him how bad she was hurting. "Yeah, you will die."

She embraced him gently and pulled him to her. She was careful because she didn't know how he felt. Was he in any pain? Was he uncomfortable at all?

"I'll stay with you until you pass . . . If that's your choice. You don't have to turn if you don't want to." She began scratching her fingers over his scalp reassuringly. "Look, I don't - I don't know what it is you're going through, but if you're - if you're in any pain or if there's anything that I can do . . ."

Damon blinked a few times before looking down. "The sun hurts my eyes."

Rebecca shifted so his face would be cast in shadow. She kept hold of him and continued caressing him in some way, just for comfort. She didn't know who she was trying to comfort more, him or herself.

"Stefan's here, too. Somewhere." She'd been more preoccupied with Damon - he was her priority. "And Emily. She gave me that ring for you."

"Did you find us?"

"Emily and I did. She found me in the woods, and then we found you."

Suddenly Emily was beside them like she'd known they where talking about her. "Tell him, Rebecca. He needs to know."

"Know what?" Damon asked, lifting his head and looking between the two women. "What's she talking about, Rebecca? What are you not telling me?"

This time it was Rebecca's shoulders that had slumped; she didn't want Damon to know this yet. It might make him do something he'd later regret.

"He knows about magic, Rebecca. It is nothing new to him."

"Magic? Are you a witch too?"

Rebecca almost groaned. Knowing about magic didn't mean he'd believe her about the whole . . . future thing. But Damon now knew she was keeping something from him.

"I'm not a witch. Um . . . You know how I said I didn't know where I came from and you knew somehow that I did, I just didn't want to talk about it? Well, that was true."

"Then where are you from?" he asked, full attention on her.

"I'm from Mystic Falls, Damon. Only I'm from the year 2009"

Damon didn't say anything, much like he hadn't the night he'd found out she was the Slayer - speaking of, there was still a lot he didn't know about that; there was a lot she still didn't know.

"Back at your house I have clothes from my time period. Jeans and a T-shirt; women wear them all the time where I come from - or when I come from. I have a cell phone, which is a communications device from my time period. It's kind of funny, but in 1876 a man is going to invent something called a telephone. If you become a vampire, you'll see I'm telling the truth. Uh . . . Emily thought I should tell you because . . . Because you deserve to know that . . . that I can't stay here."

Before Damon could feel betrayed or like she was abandoning him she said, "I don't know when but I will have to go back. Whenever the spell runs its course I have to go back. I won't have a choice."

She cupped his face in her hands.

"One day I won't be here and if you choose to turn you need to know that I'm not abandoning you. I wouldn't do that. But I'll be waiting in my time period for you, if that's what you want."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Damon," Emily said softly. "Katherine has been compelling you. Your love for her wasn't real. You will remember how you felt about Rebecca. But if you really want to be with her, it will have to be in her time period because she won't be allowed to stay here. It is against the laws of nature that she's here at all."

Damon put his head in his hands like he was getting a migraine all of a sudden. Information overload, maybe.

"I didn't want you to know because I didn't want you to base your decision on that. I want you to do what you want to do because you want to do it. It shouldn't have anything to do with me since I won't be here with you."

Nothing was said about the subject for a while and then Stefan finally awoke. All Rebecca could think was that the Salvatore brothers were taking all of this way too well. They were going to die; did they not understand that? Yet they were calmly discussing it like they would the weather.

By the time night fell again Damon had begun to remember how Katherine had made him think he had loved her and how he'd treated Rebecca because of it. He'd also decided not to turn because he didn't want to live without her and he knew he'd have to if what she'd said was true. Rebecca had no reason to lie, not now, so he believed her.

He resented the fact that Katherine had cut his time with Rebecca short, and he felt stupid and used. He remembered now that every time he'd been around Katherine he'd felt he'd had to do whatever it was she wanted even when he didn't understand why.

Stefan had gone to say good-bye to Giuseppe, which Damon had seen Rebecca roll her eyes at. Giuseppe didn't care about them. He probably didn't even notice they were gone.

And God, Damon felt awful. His whole body was aching and his mouth hurt. His gums were throbbing and his teeth were sensitive. It was his body's way of pushing him to feed. He was so hungry and he knew he shouldn't be so close to Rebecca right now, but he had yet to feel the urgent need to attack her, so he was fairly certain she was safe.

"If you knew Katherine was compelling me, why didn't you kill her?"

"Because," Rebecca said, touching his cheek, "it would've hurt you. And because you wouldn't have remembered it was compulsion. You would've remembered it being real, and you would've hated me forever."

He turned his head away, not because her words affected him so much, but more because her blood was getting to him. He could hear the blood flowing through her veins and it was making him feel edgy . . . er. Edgier.

"All that time I was hurting you and you didn't leave," he said, a little awed.

"Well, it wasn't you. She made you, I don't blame you. I told her to leave you alone and it just made her mess with you even more."

Things were silent then and she sighed. Damon wondered if she blamed herself for how things turned out. She shouldn't; she'd warned him what Katherine was doing, he just hadn't been able to listen.

"Tell me something about the future," he requested. Since he was just going to die anyway it couldn't hurt to know.

She looked at him and he could tell she was unhappy because her emerald eyes had lost their sparkle, their shine.

"Women have more power there. They don't have to watch what they do, what they say. That's the world I grew up in; that's why I am the way I am. Colored people are free, and it's no big deal if white people and black people are friends in my time period. It's completely normal there." She bit her lip and his eyes were drawn there. "And I'm gonna miss you."

The raw pain in her voice made his breathing hitch and his unbeating heart ache. He would've pulled her into his arms to comfort her but he didn't think it was safe for her.

Damon had been getting weaker and weaker, and Rebecca was just watching for the time to come when he'd pass and she'd hopefully get to leave this place. She didn't want to be here without him.

Rebecca felt her slayer sense kick in and she stood up and looked around. Emily had left hours ago so she was on her own.

"I'll be right back," she told Damon. Please don't die until I get back to you, she added silently.

She picked up a random piece of wood - a sturdy piece, of course - and followed where her senses were taking her. She noticed she didn't have that weird being-watched vibe anymore; it was just an off feeling and it could lead her when she let it.

She ended up in the woods - the dark, scary woods - and she stopped and just listened. She felt as if she was being watched now and it was unnerving.

"Rebecca? It's Stefan. Everything's going to be alright."

Then someone - was if really Stefan? - grabbed her and yanked her neck to the side. It all happened so fast she didn't even have time to scream. A hand was placed over her mouth anyway and a sharp pain then emanated from her neck; it felt like she was being stabbed. Then her blood was flowing freely into the vampire's mouth.

He had one arm wrapped around her middle to keep her from struggling, though she was losing blood so fast she'd kind of gone limp right from the beginning. She couldn't move, she could barely stay awake, and then he was picking her up in his arms and no longer drinking from her.

God, she wasn't dead yet, but she was going to be.

Damon was content with dying. Rebecca would miss him, but she'd go back to her time period and she would find someone else. Someone better. She loved him enough to respect his wish of not accepting immortality. If she could stay with him . . . Maybe he'd have turned. Maybe. But she'd made it clear she couldn't; she'd been honest. Completely honest.

"Damon?" Stefan's voice called from behind him.

Damon still hadn't forgiven his brother because the truth of the matter was . . . Whether the affair with Katherine had been real or not, Stefan had still betrayed him. Stefan had still broken his trust.

But Damon turned to him anyway. Rebecca was in Stefan's arms, bleeding, and Damon knew what had happened.

"You fed. On her."

On my Rebecca, he thought possessively. Then he checked himself because Rebecca didn't belong to anyone, least of all him.

"Is she . . ." He was going to say 'dead' but then she moved. She looked at him with her emerald eyes that he loved so much. They were only half-open, like she was fighting off sleep, only he was sure she was fighting off something much more permanent: Death.

"What have you done?" Damon felt a slow rage building inside him. "Give her to me."

Why was Stefan all the time taking things from him? Damon had been there for Stefan through everything and now he was taking the one thing that still meant something to him.

"You need to drink, Damon," Stefan pressed.

Oh, that was what he wanted?

"No," Damon said, shaking his head. "I won't do it." Not to Rebecca, he wouldn't.

He said the words, but hunger had started a fire in his stomach. Just from looking at the red liquid on Rebecca's neck, his throat was crying out with thirst.

"It's easy," Stefan said. "Don't fight it."

Damon was, for once, weaker than Stefan, but when he saw Stefan going for Rebecca's neck Damon sprung into action. Rebecca was defenseless and Damon wasn't going to let her die. Not like this. He pulled her from Stefan's arms, but in the process it got him closer to her blood; the blood he could almost taste for wanting it so badly. He wanted so much to push her away, but he couldn't, and he felt Stefan pushing his head down to her neck.

Damon fought, he did, with everything he had, but Damon wasn't strong enough. And the second his lips touched Rebecca's neck he knew it was over. He couldn't fight anymore.

His first few sips were tentative - there was still that small human part that told him blood was not food and couldn't taste good - until he tasted how sweet the blood was. It was like he'd been starving and dying of thirst and Rebecca was his oasis. The liquid did amazing things to his body; he felt powerful, like he could do anything.

He drank more greedily and he felt his canines elongate. If he hadn't been so preoccupied with nourishing himself, he might have acknowledged the pain. The only thing that broke through his frenzy was the soft little cry Rebecca made coupled with the sound of her heartbeat slowing down - it was dangerously slow. Her voice filled his head; something she'd said about a month ago: A vampire doesn't have to kill when they feed.

But he wanted to; he didn't want to stop drinking.

He tore himself away from her and stared in horror. Rebecca was barely breathing and her eyes were closed. She was white as a ghost. Damon bit his own lip to keep from lowering his head back down to finish the job Stefan had started.

"Are you happy now, Stefan?" Damon seethed.

Damon hoped he wasn't damning himself as well as Rebecca, but he bit into his wrist and when the blood flowed he put it to her mouth and hoped enough would get into her system to help her. Sure enough, the wound on her neck closed and he breathed a sigh of relief. Now, he had to wait to see what would happen. At least she wasn't bleeding out anymore.

He then turned to Stefan, his face an emotionless mask.

"Well, you got what you wanted. You and me. Together for eternity. But hear this, brother. I will make it an eternity of misery for you."

He'd almost killed Rebecca because of his dear brother. And now . . . Now Damon felt this irrational need to make Stefan miserable. Actually, Damon felt like he was going to explode. Everything he'd felt before was nothing compared to what he felt now. Everything was magnified.

Rebecca interrupted his thoughts when she began moaning on the ground and all his attention went to her. His love for her had grown so much that it almost hurt; a different kind of hurt than had formed from Stefan's betrayal - on both counts - and different than the hurt that had come from being used by Katherine. This was a good hurt.

Each emotion, each feeling led straight back to him being thirsty. Damon knelt by her side and helped her sit up when she tried to. He held his breath so as not to be too tempted by the scent of her blood.

Rebecca grabbed her head as if it were hurting or as if she were dizzy.

"Damon?" Her voice was weak; if he weren't a vampire he probably wouldn't have heard it. He started when she touched his face and wiped the blood from his chin. "What happened?"

"You . . . don't remember?"

"I was in the woods. Stefan -" she glared in his direction "- snuck up on me and then there was pain. I sort of blacked out after that. Did he hurt you?"

She was concerned for him after what he'd done? He was loathe to tell her it was partly his fault for the state she was in.

"He brought you to me. You were bleeding and I . . . I'm sorry."

Her hand flew to her neck and she made the connection. He saw regret - surprisingly no fear - and sorrow, and then she was wrapping her arms around him, apologizing for . . . amusingly enough, bleeding. He found that if he didn't breathe in her scent he could control himself with ease.

Damon let out a soft chuckle at her mumbling. She'd known he hadn't wanted to turn, she was sorry Stefan had brought her to him, sorry he'd been forced to drink. Sorry it had been from her because now she'd always know it was partly her fault that he'd been tempted too strongly.

What was she going on about? It wasn't her fault his brother had attacked her. And it wasn't her fault that it was in his nature to want to feed from her now; her blood would nourish his body. It was an urge he knew he'd need to learn to control or else it would be a weakness like his brother's apparent bloodlust.

Speaking of blood . . . "Rebecca, you need to be careful. I fed you my blood to heal you. I don't know how long it will stay in your system."

He'd have to keep Stefan away from her; he knew that Stefan would kill her without blinking. He wanted to make sure that didn't happen - Rebecca would not have to make the same choice he had.

Okay, so . . . yeah, this is what I came up with. How is all this going to affect Rebecca? Anyway, in Stefan's Diaries it says Damon didn't want to be a killer at first, he didn't want to be a monster, he'd only decided to become a vampire because he wanted to be with Katherine - he wouldn't have chosen that otherwise, so that's how I wrote it.

As always, let me know what you guys think.