Sorry about the short wait, I kind of lost motivation to read and review this story but I think I'm back now!
Enjoy :)
"What do you mean you let her go!?" Damon snapped into his phone, his mind reeling from just having woken up to a massive hangover and that news. He was still passed out in the backseat of his car, with his brother sprawled across the front passenger seat and sleeping soundly. Though with his rising anger, he probably wouldn't be asleep much longer.
Katherine rolled her eyes, "I mean just that, Damon. I wasn't getting anywhere with her, so I let her go."
"And you realize this means there's no way in hell you're getting that talisman now, right?"
"Would you relax?" She chuckled. "So tense. You really are in need of a good fucking." Damon snorted and she continued, "I have a plan though. I want that talisman, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it."
"Enlighten me then." Damon deadpanned, pinching the bridge of his nose. He hadn't fed in a while, and the hangover wasn't subsiding as fast as he'd like.
There was a pause on the line before Katherine admitted, "She's feeling, Damon. She's just not there yet. I know what has to happen, but you're not going to like it."
"You're not killing anyone." He said instantly, knowing Katherine better than she thought.
She blew out a laugh, "Not permanently, anyways."
"You're not turning anyone either!" He snapped, his frustration shooting through the roof. "You know what? Forget it, Katherine, you failed. You're not getting the talisman, and I'm not getting my girlfriend back. We both lose. Go back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of and leave us the hell alone."
Katherine exhaled, "Wow, that hangover must be a bitch if you're this snippy." He rolled his eyes a bit back a retort. "Does Jeremy still have that nifty little ring of his?"
"So you're gonna kill Jeremy?" Damon snorted.
She smirked into the phone, "No. I'm not going to do a damn thing. Elena's a Petrova whether she wants to admit it or not. I know how to get her humanity back on because she's more like me than any of you realize. You're going to listen to what I say, and then when it works, I get the talisman and you never have to see me again."
Damon knew it was a bad idea to trust her. Stefan had stirred in the front seat and even given him a glare when he beckoned for Katherine to get on with it, but he ignored it. He had no other options at the moment, and he feared that if he didn't get Elena back soon he would break.
So he listened to her convoluted plan as she told him every last one of Elena's insecurities and how he needed to dig at them to urge her into feeling. Anger and hate wasn't going to bring her humanity back, but it was a start to get her feeling.
He hadn't realized half of the things Katherine told him about. Had he known the she thought they all hated her right now, maybe he would have forced her to sit down and he would have tried talking to her, maybe eliciting some emotion. He had no clue she still blamed herself for all of the death around her, and he was sure that nothing Katherine said had helped ease her guilty conscious.
It was heartbreaking listening to all of the ways the love of his life didn't think she was enough.
But he had to admit, it was a good plan Katherine had. When she finished telling them, he looked to the front seat for his brother's thoughts and when he nodded in approval, Damon begrudgingly agreed to it.
By the end of the night, he would have Elena back in his arms and Katherine would have her talisman.
He just didn't know if Elena could ever forgive him for what he had to do.
He didn't want to be here. Least of all knowing that Elena was about to walk in at any moment, thanks to his brother's text signaling she was on her way with Caroline.
The blonde managed to convince her that if she wasn't going to turn her humanity on, they should at least still have a night or two of letting loose and drinking. It hadn't been that hard to convince her to go, because Elena knew that Caroline was the last person that was going to get her humanity back.
Sometimes, she comes in handy, Damon thought flippantly.
He finished off his drink before getting to his feet and doing one more scan of the bar. They were in the next town over—out of Mystic Falls, at some biker bar wedged between a Laundromat and a shitty looking bakery that closed down long ago. The patrons were everything you'd expect. Middle aged women wearing clothing from their twenties, men with beer guts and beards reaching said guts, and the occasional drug addict crammed into the corner booth, shaking from withdrawal as they waited for their dealer to come through.
Damon briefly recalled the extensive drug use he participated in when heroin and cocaine were as easy to get as bubblegum and mints. What a hell of a ride they were…
His eyes finally landed on a woman sitting alone at the bar. She had dark hair, as dark his own, that reached her mid-back in large, loose curls. She had fair skin and a gorgeous face, and Damon wondered why she had yet to attract the attention of any surrounding males. Her ruby red lips latched onto the edge of her bottle of beer as she took a drink, and Damon watched as she swallowed, her pulse thrumming steadily in her neck.
She'd be a damn good option to feed from in a place like this, but that wasn't his main goal. He checked his phone once more, noticing he now had a text from Caroline saying that she was just getting into town.
Time for action.
Damon sidled up next to her, pasting on his signature smirk and flashing her his baby blue's, "Bud Light? Didn't know you liked drinking water that calls itself beer."
The corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk reminding him too much of Katherine for his comfort, and she replied, "The first words out of your mouth are an insult? Already off to a good start."
Now he knew why she wasn't fending off men with a bat.
He shrugged noncommittally, "I like to make an impression."
"Even if it's bad?" She countered, a perfectly arched brow raised.
He smirked, "Is it bad?"
She faltered for a brief moment, her eyes sparkling with amusement, "Surprisingly, no…"
He made a deliberate move of raking his gaze over her body while licking his lips, and when he met her green eyes again he noticed the slight blush to her cheeks. "I'm Damon."
Dropping her gaze for a second, she smiled, "Jade."
"Let me buy you a real drink, Jade. Pick your poison."
She gave her order of whiskey to the bartender, and Damon handed him enough money to cover it along with a tip. Jade then turned to him and said, "So, what brings you out here tonight?"
"Booze." Damon said instantly, earning a giggle. "Lots and lots of booze, but real booze. Not this cheap stuff." He flicked the neck of the bottle and she rolled her eyes. "No, the real question is what's a girl dressed in a four hundred dollar dress doing in this place?"
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "How did you know my dress was four hundred dollars?"
He smirked, "I know designer when I see it."
Glancing down at his own button up shirt, she chuckled, "John Varvatos. I should have known."
He shot her a panty dropping smile then pointed out, "You never answered my question."
She shrugged, "Life's a bitch. I come here when I need a break."
"I'll drink to that." Damon snorted, Jade not knowing just how true that was.
They clinked their glasses and took a drink, and like clockwork Damon's seduction was doing its job. Without any prompting, Jade reached out to his forearm that was lying on the bar top and lightly trailed her fingers his exposed skin, "Maybe we could forget about all of our problems together…"
A slow smirk grew across his face just as he heard his girl's voice coming from outside. They were here, and Blondie couldn't have had better timing. Damon spun on his stool to face Jade and placed both of his hands on her bare thighs, leaning in closer, "Looks like that drink finally did its job."
She grinned and he moved his hands to her hips, tugging her forwards easily until she was straddling his lap. He trailed his hands up and down her sides as she leaned down to kiss him. He snuck a quick glance at the door, spotting Elena just walking in, and then he closed his eyes and kissed her back with as much lust as he could muster up. She was a beautiful woman and all, but he was a one woman man nowadays, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
While she kissed him as if she was trying to suck his teeth out of his mouth, he listened for anything from Elena or Caroline.
Then he heard a sharp gasp from his girl, and it just about killed him not to pull away. This was how it had to be if he had any hopes of getting his girl back.
Then he heard Caroline say, "Oh my god, does he know this a public place?"
It took Elena a moment to reply, but she eventually did, "I didn't realize he was seeing other people…"
Caroline shot back, her tone implying that Elena was crazy for thinking otherwise, "It's Damon! What did you expect? I mean, did you really think he was just going to wait around for you until you decided to flip the switch back on?"
Jade's hands were getting more and more touchy, but Damon was able to subdue her a little bit longer by grabbing her ass and earning a moan. It was all wrong—not the right tone, not the right length, not the right woman…
Elena then replied, "No, I mean, of course not…" He could hear the disappointment, and he knew that he was going to be paying for this when she was back to herself. "I didn't even want him to wait for me, because there's nothing to wait for. I'm done with emotions."
Caroline asked in disbelief, "So it doesn't bother you to watch your ex get it on with some other slut in a bar in the middle of nowhere?"
"No, why would it?"
Even Caroline could hear how fake she sounded. Knowing their plan was working, the blonde threw in, "Good. That means we don't have to leave. I guess I forgot when I was picking a bar out of town that he's been hooking up with any woman he can find in just about any bar within a ten mile radius of Mystic Falls."
"He has?"
She tried to mask her devastation with indifference, but Damon saw right through it. And Jade was getting more antsy, whispering things about leaving against his lips.
Caroline returned, "Of course he has, Elena. You're my best friend, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you're nothing special to him. You've probably always been a Katherine clone, honestly. When he was denied by the real thing, he settled for the next best. And now that you're more like her, he's just…lost interest. You had to have seen that coming."
"No, I wasn't Katherine to him…" She said unsurely, almost as if her mind was racing with every single moment they shared since they met, analyzing and rehashing every single word and touch. Damon mentally cringed.
Caroline shrugged as she said, "What does it matter, right? He doesn't mean anything to you anymore."
Elena hastily agreed, "Yeah, no, nothing."
Damon chose that moment to whisper to Jade, "Let's head out back. I can't wait as long as it would take to find a place…"
She nodded easily and stood up, grabbing his hand and practically dragging him out the back by the bathrooms. The last thing he heard before the door closed was Elena's scoff.
When they were outside, Damon immediately gave up the act and had a quick bite to eat from her while they were out there before compelling her to forget and sending her on her way. Damon spent a few more minutes outside to make his 'hookup' seem more realistic, and then he headed back inside. As soon as he came into Elena's sight, he ran a hand through his hair as if smoothing it down from Jade's hands, and he pretended to zip his fly again as if he had forgotten earlier.
And it worked. As soon as he made eye contact with Elena and faked being surprised to see her across the room, she rolled her eyes in disgust and stormed outside. Caroline sent him an encouraging thumbs up as she followed closely behind. Everything must be going to plan, then.
Bracing himself for the emotional pain the next step would bring him, Damon whipped out his phone and texted his brother who was back in Mystic Falls with Jeremy.
Caroline's convincing Elena to go back to Mystic Falls so they can get drunk in the woods behind our house. Meet us out there in forty.
Damon waited until he heard Elena and Caroline get in the car to leave before he went outside and got in his own to follow them. The drive back into town was only about twenty minutes, but it took a little longer when the blonde had to stop at a liquor store to get booze first.
He circled the neighborhood a time or two until he spotted Caroline's car parked a ways down the street and couldn't detect either girl in the house. He leisurely strode inside, intent on getting one more drink before tracking them down. However, he realized that wasn't going to be possible unless he wanted to go downstairs, because the two girls lifted his bottle of bourbon too. He scowled to himself before flinging open the back door and striding into the night. As he neared the edge of the woods, he listened closely for their voices through the crickets and wildlife. Now that summer was just around the corner, the woods were filled with more life.
He picked up Caroline's shrill voice on the outer edge of the property where he believed there was an old dilapidated shack from back when the civil war was going on and confederate soldiers set up outposts for storing supplies. Knowing Giuseppe, he would have had it stocked around the clock to make sure his side never went without food and weapons.
It only took him mere seconds to come to the small clearing, and he didn't bother trying to lurk around to gauge their conversation first. Instead, he strode right in, earning an irritated growl from Caroline, "Seriously? We came out here in the middle of nowhere to escape you!"
He shrugged casually, noting that Barbie was a better actress than he gave her credit for, "You're on my property, Blondie, if anything, I should be calling up your mom and reporting you for trespassing."
She rolled her eyes, and Damon chanced a look at Elena. She was staring into the bottom of her vodka bottle, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
"So, what are you two doing out here anyways?" He asked, stepping closer to where they were lounging on some fallen logs.
Caroline got to her feet and sneered, "Trying to find somewhere we can be alone, which clearly the message didn't get through your thick skull. Now leave."
Damon smirked, "Again, my property Barbie, but I guess I can't blame you for wanting to get away. Unfortunately for you, you picked a property inhabited by two vampires. He then turned to Elena, "And you, Elena, have a bounty on your head that I just couldn't resist collecting." Her head shot up at that and she stared at him with furrowed brows. The sound of footsteps in the distance sounded only if they tapped into their senses, and Damon added, "Oh look, here comes your parole officer now!"
Elena paused as she took a moment to use her senses to identify the figures, and then she asked incredulously, "You called Stefan and Jeremy? What exactly are they supposed to be able to do?"
He shrugged, "Beats me. All I know is my brother promised me a two thousand dollar bottle of scotch if I found you and kept you long enough for him to get his hands on you."
She swallowed thickly, "You really weren't trying to turn my humanity on this whole time, were you?"
"I told you before, Elena, I don't care if you have it or not. But I fell in love with the woman you were—not this. It's been over four months, I've moved on. Why should I have waited around for you to do something you didn't want to do?"
Silence hung heavy in the air surrounding the three of them, only to be interrupted a few moments later when Stefan emerged with Jeremy behind him. The kid immediately scurried over to his sister, "Elena? What are you doing out here?"
He reached for her arm, but she ripped it out of his grip while sending an angry glare at Damon. There it was; the anger. He mentally cheered and seeing as she wasn't about to answer Jeremy, Stefan spoke up, "We've been looking for you. Ever since Katherine let you out—"
"Yeah, thanks for that, by the way." She snapped, her face contorting in fury. "I don't know what my favorite part was. The torture, or listening to that bitch's smug voice as she inflicted it."
Jeremy piped up, "We only did what we thought would get your humanity back—"
"Well that sure worked, didn't it? Don't you get it? I can't turn it back on! I've done things that would give me nightmares if I ever let myself feel! Lives I can't give back, fear I can't take away, and pain I can't get rid of with oceans of vampire blood!"
And there was the fear. She was boiling over.
Damon scoffed, "Oh, so now you're afraid of feeling? Why, because you know that when you can, the pain of knowing that everyone here will never forgive you for anything you've done will be too much? I gave you too much credit, Elena. I thought you were stronger than to let someone else's opinions get in your way." She was breathing heavily, looking around frantically for some kind of out that didn't exist. Damon came closer to her, walking until he was mere feet away, "I guess that's on me though. I should have known better than to think a child would be able to come through this."
"What the hell, man, back off!" Jeremy shouted, giving him a shove to move him away from his sister.
Damon glared daggers at him, "What, afraid the poor little baby will break hearing the truth? Come on, Jeremy, she got herself into this, and she's going to have to get herself out!"
"Not like this! Not by making her hate herself!"
"Watch me." Damon retorted, his eyes flashing with an unhinged anger that was all a part of the plan.
Jeremy stepped in front of him again, "Over my dead body."
Damon smirked evilly, flashing behind Jeremy and grabbing his head in a headlock so all it would take was one twist, and he'd be dead. Elena yelped, "Stop!"
He looked up to her, seeing her struggle to keep her emotions locked away. Damon raised a brow, "What? It's not like you care, right?"
She blanched, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she snapped it shut and crossed her arms. She had just come up with some kind of resolve, but it was weak. She haughtily said, "You won't do it."
"Are you calling my bluff?" He countered.
"Jeremy has his ring. I can see it right now on his finger." She pointed out.
Damon bobbed his head back and forth, frowning, "Good point, I suppose. Except, now that Jeremy is a supernatural creature, it won't work on him. Killing Silas may have lifted the Hunter's curse, but it didn't change the fact that he has supernatural blood running through him."
Her eyes widened, but she quickly covered up her shock, "You're lying."
"And you're gambling with the devil, my dear." Damon smirked, right before he twisted.
Jeremy's body slumped to the ground, and Elena screamed his name as she dropped to her knees and shook his shoulders.
Damon glanced around him, seeing Caroline still off to the side looking a little paler than normal, and he gave her a small smile and nodded towards the house, telling her that he could handle it from here. She nodded back and gave him an appreciative smile before vanishing into thin air. He glanced at Stefan, who was staring at Elena like she was breaking his heart all over again, and caught his gaze. Stefan clenched his jaw but nodded once, giving Damon as much consent for his relationship with Elena as possible in the moment. For the first time, he stuck around to help out.
Damon knelt down across from Elena, Jeremy laying between them. "You feel that? Sad because your brother's dead?"
She was sobbing uncontrollably, her hands fisted in Jeremy's shirt.
"I guess it's a good thing that I lied, and the ring will still work." He picked up Jeremy's hand adorned in the gaudy ring and showed it to Elena. Her crying subsided slightly and she glanced up at him, "And that? That's relief, that he's not really dead."
She sucked in a sharp breath before the dam broke, and everything came flooding in. Her entire body shook as nearly five months worth of emotions overwhelmed her.
Damon was instantly at her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she gasped, "No, I-I can't, I—oh my god, it's so much!"
He soothed, "You're okay, baby, it's okay. Pick one thing to focus on, Elena, and don't let it go. Something that's easy to grab onto, something that's right there." He continued to hold her against his chest, cradling her body in his lap as her cries slowly died down and she stopped shaking like a leaf.
Her breathing evened out into deep, steady breaths and with one last sniffle she lifted her head to look between the two brothers. They held their breath as they waited to see her reaction.
She silently extricated herself from Damon's arms and got to her feet, wiping away an errant tear and the dried paths from where her makeup ran. She had no idea what to say. She didn't even know where to start. Everything was fucked, and she knew that as well as anyone else.
The past four months or so had pretty much been a disaster. She screwed up. Over and over. And frankly, she wasn't sure how either brother was even looking at her right now after every hurtful thing she said to them.
Damon stood up as well as she began shaking her head. It looked like she was about to say something, until she changed her mind and blurted out, "We should get Jeremy back to the house."
Knowing that was as good as it was going to get for the moment, Damon nodded, "I got him. You two can head back to the house if you want, it'll only take a minute."
Elena nodded, looked to Stefan, gave him a small smile, and then began walking to the house.
Damon watched as his brother shot him a meaningful look then followed her into the woods.
What a fucking mess this was. He could see the pure hate Elena felt for herself in her eyes. It was almost like he was looking into his own eyes. She had done a lot of terrible things without her humanity, but it was nothing that wouldn't have happened at some point. She was bound to go off the rails eventually, and the sooner that happened, the sooner he could bring her back.
And now that she's back, he wasn't even sure where to start.