Hi! I want to say a HUGE thanks for all the reviews I received for the last chapter - here's the next one. Hopefully you won't all think I'm as evil for this one ;)

As always I have to thank my amazing beta and sounding board ArabellaWhitlock (hope that hareems treating you well lady!)

I own none of these characters - if I did there would be nudity. Lots of nudity.

Firework 15

Changing

Damon P.O.V.

I'd followed Bella's scent as the crow, knowing it would get me to where ever she was faster, but I still wasn't fast enough. My heart dropped into my stomach as I saw Bella sprawled on the floor, I could see that some ribs were very obviously broken and her arm too. The cold one was stood with an almost remorseful smile on his face as he raised his leg over Bella's beautiful one, his intent to smash that too clear on his face.

I fell next to him in my human form, the anger I felt was unprecedented. I wanted to rip apart his body leaving th pieces un-burnt so he could feel every bit of pain from the act for the rest of eternity! I didn't just want him to die I wanted the cold one to suffer excruciating pain for what he'd done to Rocky!

A feral roar ripped through my throat, the fury I was feeling making itself know through my baser instincts.

The cold one turned to look at me surprised. Surprised but not worried. Fool.

"Damon!" Bella screamed my name twice, or tried to, her voice was weak with pain. That fucker was going to pay for this, Wildcat should never sound weak. Never.

The cold one gave a lazy smile as I launched myself at him, fury guiding my instincts. In the last second he dropped next to Bella and I soared over him. I missed. Well I wouldn't miss again. People were scared of me for a reason, my name was known throughout the supernatural world for a reason. Damon Salvatore never lost, and he never left survivors.

I smelt the blood, I heard her scream and I could hear his teeth ripping into her neck. I let loose another roar and jumped. Ripping apart the fucker piece by piece, white hot anger, worry and pain rippled through me. My eyes were cold as they stared into the crimson eyes of the vampire, a smirk across my face as I slowly took his head off, vindication flowing through me as his scream of pain was cut short.

As soon as the disco ball was dismembered I blurred next to Bella.

"Bella!" I called to her, worried and pain wrecked my voice, her eyes were closed and her heart was weak. She had to be okay. She had to be.

"Damon! Don't let me turn into one of them! Please, not into one of them!" The questions that phrase posed would have to wait, would have to wait till I took care of the beautiful, fragile girl in front of me.

"Okay Isabella, okay. I'll help you sweetheart, you just stay still okay?" I asked, my voice betraying my worry. Still if her sparkly ex-boyfriend could do this with out killing her, the one who was addicted to her blood and fed like a shark, I was pretty sure that I could. Hell Damon Salvatore could do anything. I hoped.

I latched my teeth onto the bite mark round her neck and sucked in her blood. It tasted vile, I wanted nothing more than to spit it out but even as tainted as it was I couldn't bring myself to waste her life blood, so with a grimace I swallowed it down. And again, and again till her blood tasted sweet and potent. It was the best blood I'd ever drank.

I tore myself away from her throat with a groan, but I had complete control over my animal, I'd had five hundred years to perfect it after all.

Now would come the hard part.

~0~

B.P.O.V.

My eyes started fluttering as I slowly dragged myself awake. Damn, my head hurt. In fact every part of me hurt, my arms, my legs, my back. I felt like I had the worlds worse hangover after falling down every set of stairs I'd ever walked on.

I groaned before sitting slowly up. What the hell had happened last night? I couldn't remember anything. All I knew was that I needed some water and some aspirin desperately.

"Here." Damon said softly from next to me while passing me a glass of water and a pack of painkillers.

"Thanks." I responded groggily taking both in quick succession and hoping they'd kick in quickly.

I sat with my head in my hands for a few minutes wanting to cry for some reason, last night must have been damn good that's for sure. Hang on a second. Damon was here, being very nice to me, and speaking to me like he was upset about something. Where the hell was here as well?

I snapped my head up and looked around, I was in Damon's bed; again. I looked quickly down at myself and realised my clothes were torn and bloody, mucky with dirt as well.

"What happened?" I asked as I looked into Damon's blue eyes that for once were without humour.

"What do you remember?" He asked me softly.

"Nothing." I answered truthfully. I couldn't remember a damn thing. Last night was a total blank to me.

Damon got off of the bed and grabbed a shirt and some boxers from his closet before handing them to me. "Take these, have a shower and get changed, you'll feel better. Think while your doing it. It'll come to you." His voice was un-characteristically soft, his eyes held worry and hurt.

"S... Sure. Thanks?" I said taking the offered clothes and heading for the bathroom completely bemused. Something bad must have happened, I'd never seen him like this. Never. And I was starting to know the dark haired man pretty well. Or I thought so anyway.

As the hot water was pounding down hard on me I tried to remember last night. I was pretty sure that last night I sat watching crap tv with Jeremy and Alaric. Nothing odd about that, I cooked for everyone, did some homework, Jeremy showed me some of his sketches. Still nothing strange. I'd felt claustrophobic, I'd wanted some time alone, everytime I'd hole up in my room someone would come and check up on me every five minutes. I'd gone to sleep. Not even a trace of alcohol.

I stopped the shower and climbed out still confused as to how I'd gotten here and what had gone on.

I got changed trying to remember my day so far, maybe that would give me the answers that I wanted?

I'd got up early to go for a run, I wanted to get away, to be alone, to have some time with my thoughts, to work through some of my issues, make piece with some of my inner demons. I'd ran towards the school.

I was being watched, someone was waiting for me. I turned to run someone was behind me. I'd tried to ring Damon.

Laurent. He was waiting for me. He'd tortured me. He'd bit.

My legs stopped supporting me and I found myself sat on the floor my back against the counter. Tears started dripping down my face. For the first time since I'd been in the supernatural world I started freaking out. It was never going to stop, it was never going to end. Something was always going to come after me, I was never going to be left to enjoy my life, to have a normal life.

"Bella?" I heard Damon say from behind the bathroom door, it mildly surprised me in my fuggy brain that he was respecting my privacy.

"Give me a minute." I gasped out, trying desperately to control my tears, I wanted more than anything to stop this break down until I was alone. Not that I was ever alone. Oh god, this was so screwed up. My life was so screwed up. Fresh waves of tears gripped me.

The door burst open and Damon came in, eyeing me on the floor with pity in his eyes. "I thought I asked for a minute?" I managed to gasp out before my sobs overtook me again.

"And I gave you one." He replied before kneeling down and scooping me in his arms. I felt so safe there, so protected and cared for. That brought on a new round of tears.

Damon carried me to the bed and sat down on it, me still cradled in his arms, my tears staining his t-shirt.

"You're okay now. You're fine." He soothed me, his mouth pressed to the top of my head and his hand trailing a soothing pattern down my back.

"I'm not. And I'm not going to be. Damon this is so screwed up, if you hadn't come..." Again sobs stopped my speaking.

"But I did come. Bella I'll always come when you need me. I give you my word." He muttered into my hair, his hands still rubbing me gently, his voice soft and soothing, comforting, protecting.

"How am I not a vampire?" I asked after a few minutes, trying my hardest not to think about what he'd said, I couldn't. I'd wish for it.

"You didn't want to be one. Did you?"

"No. But he bit me, I should be one of them." I replied, not able to tear my head away from his muscled chest to look at my saviours face.

"I sucked the venom out." Damon replied as though it were that simple, and I guess for him it was.

"Thank you." I said quietly, my tears starting to slow. "I'm guessing you also had something to do with me not having broken ribs or a broken arm either right?" That one I'd worked out all on my very own.

"Right." Damon said.

After a few minutes I was finally able to stop crying and pull myself away from Damon's chest to look into his handsome face and his mesmerising eyes. "Thank you." I said with all the sincerity I had.

Damon said nothing, he just stared right back into my eyes, his head dipping lower, closer to my own. I knew what he was going to do and with every fibre of my being I wanted it. But I couldn't. He was in love with my best friend and I couldn't be hurt again. I couldn't.

"I can't. I'm sorry but I can't." I whispered as his lips were so close to my own I could almost taste them.

"You want to Rocky, I can hear you do." He whispered back, he was right, my heart was beating almost painfully hard in my chest with want and anticipation.

"I do." I admitted, even though I knew I shouldn't. But I just couldn't lie to Damon. "But I can't. I can't let myself be hurt again."

"I'm not gonna hurt you Isabella." His eyes got harder but his voice was still a gentle caress across my skin.

"Not on purpose but you will, and I can't... I know Damon, so I know that you will, you won't be able to help it."

"You know what?" He started pulling back from me, his voice beginning to match the cold look in his eyes, hands no longer caressing, still and hard against me instead of warm and comforting.

"I know you're in love with Elena." I said tearing my eyes from his, making sure that he couldn't see the pain that simple sentence caused me.

His harsh laugh shocked me, it was both full of amusement and devoid of it at the same time. How the hell did he do that?

"Let me guess, Elena told you that?" He asked me.

"Yeah?" Okay what was I not seeing here?

"I don't love Elena, Wildcat. Never have done. She's much too winey and serious for me. Smoking hot though. I don't love her, but I do love winding up my little brother and the thought of me in love with his girl sends his non-existent blood pressure soaring, I swear he's gonna be the first vampire to have an aneurysm. And I'm going to be the cause." Damon's trademark smirk was back in place, the serious man from seconds ago gone.

"So you pretended to be in love with her to piss Stefan off?" I asked, not entirely sure whether to believe him or not, I wanted to though, god did I want to.

"Yup." He chuckled, his hands moving on my back again. "I don't love her. I like someone else."

My heart sank again, of course he did, he was never going to be the right fit for me. "Who?" Why did I even care, what would that information do other than torment me even more? But like someone passing a horrible accident who can't keep themselves from looking even though they know it's going to give them nightmares, I needed to know. It would be worse driving myself crazy wondering who.

"The new girl in town. Though I'm not sure why, she's sarcastic, bitchy, has no sense of self preservation and she's also clumsy as hell. Hot though." Damon smiled as he looked back into my eyes. His lips coming closer once more. A wide smile ripped through my face as I realised he was talking about me. He liked me. And dear god did I like him. Despite the fact that he was an ass.

Just as our lips were about to touch a shout tore us apart from downstairs.

"Bella!"

"Crap." Damon and I said together before both sighing.

"I'll be back in a minute." Damon told me before rushing from the room at vampire speed. I got up and followed, I knew that I had to face this, it was my problem not Damon's after all.

~0~

Alaric's P.O.V.

I was furious. I just wasn't so sure with who. Everyone I thought.

First off there was Stefan. He'd waited till I woke up to tell me that there'd been a problem and that Damon had sorted it. And to add insult to injury it was only with reluctance that he told me what the problem was! That and he didn't even know if Bella was hurt, apparently Damon had stopped answering his phone. I swear to god if she was hurt on my watch there were two vampires who were going to straight to hell by my own hands.

Then there was Damon, who for some reason was supposed to be my friend, who hadn't told me squat. When your friends family is in mortal danger... Well that's the kind of thing you share!

Bella. Yeah, I was angry with her too, in fact I think she was the one I was most angry with! After all we've been through to make sure that she was safe and happy, she just decides to take a stroll on her own before the sun was really up? Girl had a death wish or something. I just hoped with every ounce of me that it wasn't a wish that had been granted.

I stormed into the ever open door of the Salvatore boarding house, my anger at an all time high. "Bella!" I screamed out, knowing that not only would she hear but also so would Damon. Fear shot through me as I had the thought that maybe only Damon would hear me. She had to be okay, she had to be.

"Ric! And to what do I owe this pleasure?" Damon's cocky voice rung out from the stairs. Relief swept through me, he had enough compassion not to have taunted me if the worst were to have happened.

"Stop playing with me Damon, where's Bella? Is she okay?" For once I wasn't calm, I wasn't collected and I wasn't joking. I was pissed and upset.

"She's fine." Damon said with an eye roll. "She's relaxing in bed." And an eyebrow raise raised my already high fury levels to a brand new level.

"If you've taken advantage of her Damon!" I warned meaning every word.

Damon was in front of me faster than I could blink, his face hard, his eyes holding anger that matched my own. "I haven't done anything Ric. In fact I saved Bella, maybe you should be thanking me instead of accusing me?" And there was that smirk again.

"I'll thank you when I see for myself that she's okay and that you haven't hurt her." I spat out. Just because he'd stopped one of those other vampires from killing her didn't mean he was a hero in all of this. Damon was never the hero.

"Uncle Alaric?" Bella said, having snuck down the stairs without either of us noticing, a far cry from the clumsy depressed girl who was given to me to look after.

"Bella." I breathed in relief before I turned to face her. She was stood awkwardly on the stairs in his shirt and nothing else. I saw red.

With a roar of anger I flew at Damon and punched him in the face as hard as I could. He staggered backwards under my assault. "I told you! I warned you!" I snarled, as much a monster as he was in that moment.

"I didn't hurt her! I saved her!" Damon shouted back.

"I told you not to take advantage of her!" I hit him again and watched in satisfaction as he stumbled backwards into the fireplace.

"I did not take advantage of her!" Damon roared pouncing at me.

"I'm your friend, your only friend! Stop lying to me Damon! She's stood there in your shirt after she's come down from your room! You took advantage of her!" I went to hit him once again, wanting nothing more than to hurt him, to make sure he paid for what he'd done to my innocent, naive niece!

My hand was stopped though, by Bella. She stood in front of Damon, her stance protective. She was protecting him, stopping me from getting to him. Shock racked through my body, and judging by the look on his face Damon was just as surprised. Maybe he hadn't been taking advantage after all.

"Stop!" Bella said, her breathing heavy, her pale features becoming paler, she wasn't fine. He hadn't protected her from everything, that vampire had hurt her, I could see it in her strained features.

"Bella, come on, this isn't your fight, this is between Ric and me. Go and relax back in my room." Damon wrapped an arm around her waist and tried to gently move her out of the way so she wouldn't get hurt. His voice and actions softer than I'd ever seen him. Though my stubborn niece wouldn't be moved.

"No! Ric, he hasn't done anything wrong, he helped me, he's taken care of me! All this it's my fault. Mine. If you're mad, be mad at me." She pleaded and I could see her getting weaker by the second. My stupid, innocent niece, she was always looking out for everyone but herself, sacrificing herself for someone else, anyone else. No matter who or what they were, she always saw the good in everyone.

"He knows Rocky, he's just upset and pissed. We won't fight anymore. Just go and relax. Please." What the fuck! Did the big bad Damon just say please?

I internally groaned as I realised what was going on here. Damon was falling for my niece. He was falling for Bella. Well that was one piece of crap news I could have done without.

~0~

3rd Person P.O.V.

As Bella started swaying on her feet, becoming so pale that she looked like one of the cold ones Damon picked her gently up and ran her to his room. He laid her on his bed, making sure that she had water and some food there for when she wanted them, for now though the best thing she could do was sleep, get better. Because when she was well enough Damon was going to make sure that they had a long talk.

He couldn't believe that she'd stood up for him, tried to protect him. No-one had ever done that for him before, no-one. He didn't need protecting, he didn't need anyone to look out for him. But she had. This tiny little human girl had.

Damon knew he was screwed right then as he looked down at her sleeping features, as he monitored her regular breathing. He liked her, he'd admitted that to himself a while ago. But this was more. This was something that he didn't think he'd ever do again, something he thought that he was too damaged to do ever again. He was falling hard and fast in love with Bella. Totally screwed.

Alaric paced downstairs waiting for Damon to come back downstairs, he needed a few things. First off he needed to find out what had happened today, he was pretty sure that Damon had given Bella his blood, she was weak but otherwise unharmed, but his intuition was telling him something bad had happened out there this morning. Then, as much as he didn't want to do it, he needed to apologise to Damon. Bella was right, the only thing that he'd done today was look out for her. And as deep as she was in this mess she needed that, she needed Damon.

~0~

"Are you sure about this...?"

"I am, look if you don't want to be here, if any of you don't then it's fine go. But I'm not losing my sister. Not like this! I thought you of all people would be behind me on this Edward. Laurent is going to drain her! And that is our fault, we need to fix it!" Alice snapped, for once not the happy go lucky little pixie her family always saw.

Edward cringed at her harsh but truthful words. She was right this was their fault, his fault and he needed to fix it.

"So do you know where she is?" He asked his sister, hope, joy and pain making him wince slightly. He was going to see his Bella again. After all this time.

"Not yet, but I'm looking and surely it won't be too hard to find her in this tiny town, it's almost smaller than Fork's for gods sake." Alice was back to her usual happy persona as the Cullen family passed the sign that read 'welcome to Mystic Falls.'

~0~

Hope you liked this chapter! I really want to hear what you think... :) next chapters almost finished, I think you may like it :D

Until next time,

Tamtiger x