A/N: Lest you all forget, Damon is a bad bad man. ;)


"I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."
Frankenstein


Stefan ran. He left Elena with more promises he wasn't sure he could keep, but that didn't matter. Alaric didn't have many answers, just clues he gathered and repeated from the dance. The gossip grapevine that led directly to Caroline mentioned some girl leaving under Damon's thrall. It only meant something to those who knew the risk, but to them the risk was a whole hell of a lot. If Stefan didn't do something about him, Bonnie most definitely would.

The smell of blood smacked into Stefan like a freight train as he threw himself into the house.

His face contorted unaided, eyes gone black by the time he made it to the door of his brother's room.

Blood was everywhere.

The walls, floors and sheets were spattered red. The girl was streaked in dark stains, her ruined dress pushed up, covering her chest. There were rows of bites down her neck. Her legs lewdly spread across the bed.

Stefan's focus fell to Damon.

He was naked between her bent knees, hips pressed up against hers. Stefan realized he was still inside her. He had the same sporadic splatters, but his chin was coated bright red were the blood spilled over his lips.

"Hello, brother." His grin was vicious, baring dark teeth. He wiped his face on his forearm, smearing more of himself in the blood. "Care to join me while she's still breathing?"

Stefan swallowed hard, his throat dry and raw and his gums swollen and aching to bite—to rip—to feed. He swayed into the room, his right foot crossing the threshold, while the left stayed firmly planted in the relative safety of the hallway.

"She's alive?"

Damon regarded her with a dismissive glance, running his hands up and down her thighs. "For now. She doesn't have to be, if that's what you prefer?"

Ravenous hunger clawed at Stefan. "Stop." He whispered. His grip tightened on the doorframe, holding him back. The mouthwatering scent crashed against him in waves. The sound of her heart barely pulsed in his ears as he strained to listen. "Please fucking stop."

Damon opened his mouth again, dragging his tongue over his teeth. He leaned over to look the girl in the eye and she moaned. His hips canted up and down a few times, fucking her slowly. She touched his chest, not pushing him away, but stroking down his torso to paint his skin.

"You don't want me to stop, do you, sweetheart?"

The girl moaned again, hips moving weakly. "I don't want you to stop." She repeated quietly.

He looked back up at Stefan with that malicious smile. He took her hand off his chest and brought her wrist up to his mouth. His eyelashes fluttered as he licked over the delicate skin slowly, watching Stefan.

"I know what you want too, brother." Damon's eyes were dark and unrelenting, keeping Stefan locked in place with only his gaze.

"Damon…" Stefan trailed off. His muscles ached and his mouth watered as he strained against his own grip on the door. He watched his brother fuck her. The flash of Damon's dick appeared and disappeared again. The one Stefan could still feel the weight of in his hand. This was more than Damon walking in on Stefan and Elena before leaving again. This was uninterrupted, behind closed doors information, and he didn't want to see anymore but it felt impossible to look away.

He exhaled a shaky breath through his nose as Damon lowered her arm without biting into it. Instead Damon arranged her arms spread out from her side, tilting her head to expose her bitten neck to Stefan.

"We could share this. This way, if not the clean boring routine you deny yourself at the diner." Damon said quieter. He was still staring into Stefan's eyes, but the darkness was gone. He traced his fingers over the bite marks already on her body. "Stop pretending what you want isn't right here."

This was the Damon he was afraid of. Malicious and heartless. Tearing Stefan to pieces because he couldn't reconcile their differences.

But no. No, it wasn't quite fear Stefan was feeling. Not of Damon's wrath at least. The damage to their relationship really only changed one thing.

"Let her go." Stefan begged. He couldn't get his body to move. His dick was so hard his legs were quaking between the urges of fightflightfuck. The need was more compelling than whatever parlor trick Damon put on the girl. "Don't kill someone else because you're mad at me. This doesn't have anything to do with her."

With a sigh, Damon was suddenly standing in front of him. "I'm not going to kill her." He looked Stefan over with half raised eyebrows. His smugness splintered and the weary man peeked through. He scraped his thumb over his own chin, gathering her blood. He glanced at it before reaching out and wiping it over Stefan's lips.

Stefan's eyes closed, his whole body waking up in pain and in rapture. His mouth parted over the pressure and his tongue laved over Damon's thumb until he sucked it clean.

"This is what you want. Why are you fighting so hard against this?" Damon breathed hotly against his cheek.

Stefan's eyes shot open. His right side was betraying him by leaning further into the room. His hand was no longer on the doorframe but holding onto Damon's bare hip. Damon took his hand from Stefan's mouth to wrap around the back of his neck.

Exasperation clouded Damon. "Fuck, you can't actually be happy with her. You know that right?"

A puff of air escaped Stefan, but he stayed silent. He'd actually forgotten about Elena again. The beautiful sad girl he wanted to make it up to less than an hour before. Damon's fingertips tapped along the base of his head in an impatient rhythm. How would she begin to comprehend how much Stefan wanted everything in front of him?

"Not in the long run." Damon continued.

It was baffling how Damon could be so clear-headed about Stefan's failing relationship, when all Stefan could tastesmellthink was blood and Damon. "I, I know."

"Do you?"

"Yes." Stefan tried to pry his eyes off the ruby red droplet hanging off Damon's bottom lip. If they were a little closer… "That's not why I'm with her."

"Isn't it? Because you want to be some goddamn normal human being?"

"Damon, I…" He wasn't sure what his reasons were anymore. He definitely didn't have the words to explain them to his brother.

"When you're not."

"She loves me." He panted out.

"But she makes you ashamed of yourself." Damon dropped his arm, and Stefan fell forward another step.

"You make me ashamed of myself. And you make me hate you." Stefan's voice cracked. "Because I can't live the way you want."

"All I want is for you to be free, brother." Damon looked down at Stefan's hand. "The remains of our life can be more than merely survival. You don't have to go backwards just to feel alive, Stefan."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Stefan swallowed hard, staring at his hand sliding up Damon's side like it was acting on its own accord.

The tip of Damon's tongue peeked out as he licked over his lips. "She doesn't want you to have any of this. And you're repressing it so hard you're going to burst. You need to acknowledge this side of yourself. Stop being so fucking scared of it. You should see your face. How hungry you are." His tipped his blood-soaked chin upwards like an offering. "You can't starve what that thing inside you really wants forever."

Stefan's eyes were wet with unshed tears. His muscles ached from holding back and his stomach clenched over how much he wanted to fly forward and lick Damon clean.

"I can." He tried to believe what he was saying but he couldn't even convince his hand to release its hold on his brother.

Damon dropped his chin, his eyes narrowed. "Of course you can't. Look at you. You're not mad because of the blood, you're mad because you want it. You shouldn't be." He defiantly stared Stefan in the eye and stroked one finger up the hard line beneath Stefan's slacks. "Humanity is the cage, not who you really are. Stop resisting."

Stefan wasn't sure what they were talking about anymore. The blood, her blood, was everywhere, making Stefan light-headed and hungry. But he was saturated in the scent of Damon too. The smell of sex and Damon's clean sweat was overpowering in its proximity. The tease of his finger on Stefan's aching cock was almost enough to take Stefan over the edge with how bad he needed release. Wanting and needing, blood and Damon, blurred together and it was no wonder Stefan couldn't think straight.

Their fight had always been over blood. At least Stefan could fall back on that argument without making himself more vulnerable than usual. It was easier than what they weren't saying.

He groaned as he let go of Damon's hip. He leaned back, taking himself out of the threshold. Stefan winced and looked down at his hand, the sticky blood that transferred from Damon's skin. He crossed his arms, but it didn't help, so he pushed them into his pockets.

Damon waited a few seconds. "I'm insulted by the mere premise that you want to be normal. Because you aren't, and you won't ever be."

Stefan's unsteady resolve grew now that he won a few inches of space between them. "How else am I supposed to live? Like you? Tormenting and fucking and killing and-"

"Oh, come on." Damon snorted. "There is nothing wrong with fucking. Don't be an idiot. You've seen me feed without killing many times." Damon looked over his shoulder at the girl. "And that is not torture." His expression got dreamy, distant in remembering Stefan didn't want to know what. "She's going to be fine tomorrow. You clean them up, make them forget, then life continues for everyone." He looked back at Stefan. "Saint Stefan, it's not as bad as you think. You seem to be remembering the wrong bits. The learning parts, the rage parts. I do actually have those things under control. I want to show you…"

"No." Stefan snapped. "I don't want you to show me. I don't want to be YOU!"

"You may not want to be, but that doesn't mean it's not there inside of you, brother." Softly, Damon almost whispered, bringing the volume of their conversation down considerably. "What you really want isn't normal. You did want this at one point."

"I can fight it." Stefan instantly regretted saying it because the calmness on Damon's face fell away to make room for the indignant monster.

Damon shook his head, walking towards the bed and checking on the girl. He circled quickly around his room, pulling on jeans and fumbling with something out of a drawer. He marched back up to Stefan, getting in his face.

"Try. Yes. You've proved you can try to fight it. It's just stupid that you want to."

Stefan avoided eye contact and stared at the floor. He didn't budge as Damon leaned in close. Body sticky-hot from over feeding.

"There is a balance. We can be so much better. And I can't be anything but furious with you for wishing I were something less."

Wet lips kissed his cheek as intense pain bloomed in Stefan's side as if Damon shot him instead of just snarling.

Damon stepped back with dark eyes that couldn't look at him. The surprising ache spread quickly through Stefan's body. Bewildered, Stefan looked down at his hand tucked against his side and wondered why there was a growing dark patch on his shirt and a single red thread of blood falling down his arm. A metal plunger stuck to the hilt between his ribs. Oh, that's why it hurt.

"Come on, not ag...," Stefan hissed before everything went black.