AN: Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to review. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries, David Bowie or Wal-Mart. Unfortunately.

Chapter Four

I stayed up all night trying to figure out how Damon could do the things he did. Moving at impossibly fast speeds? Always knowing where I was? Skin as hard as rock?

I had been having this feeling that had been nagging at me all night long. I got this little tickle, like an itch, in my brain when there was something obvious that I was missing out on. I guess you could say that I was one of those people that absolutely had to know everything. You probably already knew that, though.

I had to admit it: I was stumped; what he was doing just didn't make any sense at all. And I wasn't a little twelve year old, so I wasn't going to blame it on something impossible, like him being a werewolf… he was too hot to be a werewolf. And not hairy enough.

"Damn it, Elena! Why can't you just come up with a reasonable conclusion? You're not stupid!" Well, at least I hoped I wasn't stupid. At the rate I was thinking, it was entirely possible that I just wasn't that bright.

His skin could just be a bit harder than a normal person's, or maybe he had some kind of condition. There's one thing down.

He always knew where I was because he stalked me all the time. Duh. I already knew that one…

Those were the only things I could explain to myself. There was something about him… he wasn't human. It was like he had a very distinct aura that told people to get out of his way; not even his brother had it, and he was whatever Damon was. And there was no way to come up with a conclusion for moving at that fast of a pace.

I had looked over Stefan's file that I stole from the library, and the only useful thing I got out of it was that he obviously wasn't seventeen; his file had a ton of different dates on it: it ranged from the late eighteen hundred's to present day.

Once again: not human.

Suddenly, the answer was painfully obvious.

"Google."

I tripped over my feet as I ran from my bed to my computer, cursing like a sailor as I held my bleeding toe. I searched the ground for whatever could have caused this injury and found something shiny and sharp lying in the middle of my carpet. There was a note on top of it and I groaned as I realized whom it must have been from.

Dear Elena,

I'm giving you this antique letter opener as a peace offering for the idiotic move I made on you earlier. I sincerely apologize for any discomfort I may have caused you and promise to remain distant for a while. I hope you realize that this gorgeous family heirloom has nothing on your stunning beauty.

Yours truly,

Damon

I rolled my eyes. "What the fuck?"

It was obvious that the letter was meant to mock me and it served its purpose as I hobbled over to the computer chair, leaving the "peace offering" in its position, where it had slain my poor toe. I ripped up the piece of paper in my hands as I waited for my computer to load, hoping that the low noises it was making wouldn't wake Aunt Jenna. Throwing the little shreds in the trash, I looked up to see that the Internet had finally opened.

Taking a deep breath, I typed the word "Salvatore" in the search box and hoped for the best. I scrolled down and patiently read through all of the links until I found what I was looking for. Clicking on the article with a shaky hand, I did my best not to shout at the screen as it took its own sweet time loading.

There was a little picture of Stefan in the corner, next to the article that was about to change everything.

Recent animal attacks have been taking the lives of town citizens in Mystic Falls. Last night, an animal attacked one of the maids in the Salvatore Boarding House. The police are still looking into the case and should have the evidence they need soon.

Under the picture, there was a caption, which I read very slowly: Stefan Salvatore was at the scene of the crime but does not wish to disclose any information regarding the case.

I stared at the picture, horrified, when I studied his face and noticed how guilty he looked. Not good. Things only got worse when I looked up to the date in the corner and noticed that this article was written in the early fifties.

I closed my eyes, struggling to remain calm. Now I knew that there was absolutely no doubt about the fact that they weren't human… but what were they?

I thought back to all of the mythical creatures that I had read about as a child: unicorns; werewolves; fairies (that would be interesting); vampires; ghosts; nymphs. None of them particularly struck me as something that Damon would be.

"Vampire…" I found myself muttering the word and shook my head at the ridiculousness of it all. Sure, he was like the rude, stalker version of a man from an eighteenth century romance novel; and sure, he was the palest person I had ever seen and had black eyes…but, vampire? How the hell was that feasible?

"Vampire…vampire…vampire…. shut up, Elena!" I was stupidly repeating the same word, loudly, over and over again because my brain was stuck in a rut. Why would he be a vampire? I screeched in frustration and pounded on the wall, and then started swearing again when my fists started to hurt.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Aunt Jenna boomed from her bedroom. Damn it… I had woken the beast.

"I'm going to have bruises tomorrow and Damon Salvatore is a fairy! THAT'S what's happening over here!" I stomped back over to my bed and, once again, screamed in pain when the letter opener cut my entire foot.

Aunt Jenna burst through the door, rolling her eyes at my overly dramatic—and, not to mention, bloody—antics and dragged me down the stairs to the first aid kit that was in the kitchen, leaving a trail of blood behind us like we were in a horror movie.

This was not my night.

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I woke up the next morning on the couch with a sharp and searing pain in my foot, causing me to groan and fall onto the ground. I hit my head on the coffee table on the way down, earning a hiss from my swollen and broken body.

I crawled all the way to the kitchen like a dog, getting an ice pack and hoisting myself up onto a chair. The cast Aunt Jenna put around my foot made it pretty much impossible to walk around without damaging some other part of your body (such as your head) in the process, so I really didn't see how wearing one was taking a safety precaution.

All of the sudden, Damon was standing in front of me, his arms crossed across his chest and his stance casual. "Hi."

"Goodbye."

"What will it be for breakfast this morning?"

Instead of answering his question, I decided to make my thoughts known. "Thanks for knocking, you ass."

"Cereal or peanut butter on toast?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed dramatically. "Peanut butter with toast. Heavy on the peanut butter."

He smirked. "Good. You're looking a little thin."

I slapped down my ice pack, because the headache he was giving me on top of my other headache was giving me a headache. And I was getting brain freeze.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Peanut butter is good for you!"

He shrugged. "Not in large quantities. And it just means that most girls your age are always calling themselves fat, and it's nice to see someone that doesn't do that."

"But I'm not fat."

He rolled his eyes. "This is what I'm saying." He slapped down my sandwich on a plate and handed to me, gracefully sitting down next to me in a flash. I calmly took a bite out of my sandwich, hoping he would leave and at the same time hoping he would stay.

"How do you do that?"

He shrugged again. "I'm a vampire."

I spit out my sandwich all over his clean black shirt, which I smile at in retrospect. "You're a WHAT?"

"You heard me. But you do need to keep it a secret."

"I'm sorry; I'm still stuck on the fact that you're a fucking vampire. I always knew there was something wrong with you."

He looked offended. "There's nothing wrong with me. Our species is far better than the human one. Want to find out?"

I shrieked and hopped off the chair, taking my sandwich. "No. And please don't suck my blood."

He smiled cheekily. "I can make no promises."

I sighed in annoyance. "Look; you disgust me. Go back to the little hole that you came from and stay there for the rest of the day. You are so not wanted here, you freak."

"Elena!" Aunt Jenna chided as she walked in the room. "Apologize."

I huffed stubbornly. "No, Aunt Jenna. Just because he's the hottest man on the face of the earth doesn't mean that he can be a complete bastard at all times!"

"Hey! I walked you home last night!"

I threw my sandwich and it landed directly on his face, which wasn't even what I was aiming for, but it worked. "You also left a silver letter opener directly where you knew it would cut my foot!"

"How did you get in her room?" Aunt Jenna asked suspiciously.

I looked at her, disgusted. "Stop it, Aunt Jenna. And I don't know how he got there… I have the note!"

I hobbled pathetically towards the stairs before Damon picked me up and set me on his lap, looking bored. He had somehow managed to clean his face in the five seconds I looked away from him, with my paper towel I had placed over my ice pack. "Elena, you really shouldn't be on that foot."

One panty-dropping smile was all it took for Aunt Jenna to feel at ease again. "Yeah, you shouldn't. Want some more ice?"

I looked at her. "No. Why are you here?"

"Oh, okay; I get it. You two want to have some "alone time"." I squirmed around on Damon's lap as he held me even tighter, grinning at her.

"NO!"

"Yes."

We spoke at the same time and glared at each other, causing Aunt Jenna to look even smugger. "Right, right. Just tell me if you need anything."

Her evil cackle lingered in the air as she ascended the staircase, leaving me alone with the monster.

"Go away, Damon."

He pouted. "I'm hurt."

"Good."

He went back into his typical angry/bored mode and sat there, glowering at me.

"Are you planning on leaving anytime soon?"

"No. Didn't we just go over this?"

I huffed. "Why do you have to be so rude?"

"Why do you have to be so melodramatic? And besides, it's part of my charm."

"Because you have so much of that."

He smiled. "Now I know that you're lying."

I scoffed. "Excuse me? I'm not…"

He shushed me. "Yes, you are. One of my only redeeming qualities is having charm."

I sat there stupidly, dumbfounded. "Did you just insult yourself?"

He shrugged. "I don't care that I don't have any redeeming qualities; it makes me more interesting, and you know it."

"Well, 'interesting' would be one word for it. Maybe not the one I would pick, though. And then there's the fact that you're a vampire."

He ignored me and started humming a creepy song under his breath.

"What is that?"

He seemed almost startled that I didn't know what song it was. "You've never heard of David Bowie? He's only one of the best musicians of all time."

"It's atrocious!"

He scowled. "It's not atrocious; it's Ashes to Ashes, and it's good."

I disagreed strongly with that statement but figured it would be best to keep my lips shut on that one, because he was starting to get a little touchy.

"Fine, fine. David Bullet or whatever is good."

"It's Bowie!"

"Who cares? Have you ever heard of Beyonce?"

His nose wrinkled. "Unfortunately. How my ears didn't burst while I listened to that garbage is beyond me…"

I slapped his arm and only hurt myself. "Hey! She's good!"

He rolled his eyes. "Sure; whatever you say, sweetheart."

I closed my eyes in frustration. "You can leave any time now…"

"… But I'm not going to."

I let out a sigh that sounded like a hiss and tried to break free from his hold. "Let go of me."

"Why?"

I screamed as his lips came in contact with my throat. "Get off! Get off! Get him off of me!"

He sighed disgustedly and released me, wiping his hands on his jeans like I had some kind of disease and standing up. "Jesus, Elena. I think the neighbors know. Could you scream just a little bit louder, in case the rest of the town doesn't?"

"It would be my pleasure. Don't you ever put your freaky-assed fangs near my neck again!"

A threatening, open-mouthed smile from him caused me to squeak. "You're right, you know. There are much better places that they could be."

He laughed as I repeated the word "ewe" over and over again, hopping up and down… because that was going to help me.

"I'm leaving, now."

I rolled my eyes as he literally disappeared before them, not liking how used I was becoming to this.

"Oh, my God. He's a vampire!"

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I spent the rest of the day pouring over articles on the Internet.

There were so many of them that I didn't even know where to begin: Salvatore Founding Family; Katherine Pierce becomes engaged to Salvatore brother? ; More Animal Attacks at the Salvatore Boarding House… the list went on and on.

They must have been popular, back then, to get in the news so often.

"Ugh. I wonder how old he is." Oh, my God. I kissed him and he could be fucking ancient… and I was worried about when I turned forty.

"Gross. He could be classified as a pedophile." I considered turning him in for a brief second before deciding that life would be boring without him; I could just deal with a little less of him. It's not like anyone would believe me, anyway.

Excuse me, officer? There's a vampire named Damon Salvatore that should be locked up because he won't leave me alone. Thank you!

Yeah… that'd go over well.

Frustrated that I wasn't finding anything useful… although I did feel an unexplainable hatred towards Katherine Pierce… I looked through Stefan's file again, still not finding anything.

"What's the point of writing an article if you're not going to give me any useful information?"

I was tired; I was grouchy; and I was hungry.

"Aunt Jenna?" I called out.

"What?"

"Dinner."

I heard her stomping up the stairs. "What about it?"

I smiled at her, because she was now leaning against my door. "I'd actually like to have some, if you don't mind."

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "What do I have to do for a 'please' around here?"

"A lot more then whatever it is you're doing now."

I groaned when a dirty dishrag landed on top of my head, making my shiny golden hair smell like cleaning chemicals and look like someone had poured gross-looking olive oil all over my head.

"Why don't you take care of that? Since I'm not doing enough?"

"Thanks, Aunt Jenna."

I stalked into the bathroom to find a note taped to the window across from the shower—but it wasn't Damon's handwriting. It read:

Meet me outside the graveyard at nine o'clock this evening. –S

I wrinkled my nose as I realized that 'S' could only be 'Stefan', who I really wasn't in the mood to see. However, I could always grill him for information…

I ripped up the note, already having its contents memorized, and began taking off my clothes while I turned on the hot water.

"Have a hot date tonight?"

I shrieked as I covered up my chest, turning around to see Damon leaning casually against my wall, the door already closed.

"How did you get in here?" I make myself sound so intelligent, sometimes.

This thought clearly reflected on his face. "The door…"

"But I didn't hear it open."

He smirked. "Well, your lesser human instincts can put a damper on things. If you take a ride on the wild side, you'd be able to know that your aunt is downstairs right now, ordering Chinese take-out and planning on taking credit for it."

I scoffed. "How stupid does she think we are?"

He shrugged. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?"

I scowled. "Get out. Now."

He held his hands up in defense. "Fine. I'm just here to tell you that you shouldn't go meet with Stefan tonight. He doesn't always have control over himself."

"Because you do?"

"I'm just warning you."

"Haven't I already dealt with you once for today?"

And he was gone.

I looked down and saw that my cast was still on… and it was annoying me… With a savage, predator-like noise, I ripped it off and threw it across the ground. My foot felt happy to be free; the air wasn't feeling so great on the cut, though.

I growled in annoyance and took the rest of my clothes off and stepped into the water, cringing at how hot it was; it was like someone was holding a bunch of pans against my back that had just come off of a high-heated stove.

"What the hell?" The shower almost never got this hot. I realized that it was probably because I was already steaming hot from talking to Damon, which made me angry and turned on, which equals heat.

It's a simple equation, kids.

I washed my hair with my shampoo that supposedly made it extra shiny and soaked it in conditioner, washing my body with something that vaguely smelled like Sweet Peas that I got for a dollar at Wal-Mart.

When I stepped of the shower, I toweled off, blow-dried my hair and put my makeup on—I might as well look good, if I was going to go to the effort to sneak out tonight.

I came downstairs to find that Aunt Jenna actually had the nerve—and the stupidity—to try to pass off take-out food as her own, just because she put the food in a big bowl. She didn't even bother to put the plastic cartons that had the store's name on them away…

"Where's it from?" Jeremy asked as he joined us.

Aunt Jenna looked uncomfortable. "I made this, Jeremy."

He snorted. "No, you didn't."

They started arguing and I ran over to the counter, grabbing the cartons and placing them down. "There. Problem solved."

We sat in silence for most of dinner and I noticed that my hand had started to shake, which was a sign for all of us that I was up to something.

"What are you up to?"

I put on my best poker face. "What are you talking about, Aunt Jenna?"

"Your hand is shaking. That means you're up to something."

I rolled my eyes. "Can't a girl's hand shake without a reason? God!"

I stalked away melodramatically, hoping that my little fit had deterred her. Aunt Jenna was like the stereotype of a shark… she could be stupid, but she could smell things from miles away. In this case, she could smell a lie.

"Where are you going?"

I turned around to face her and looked at the clock, realizing that I was going to be late if I didn't hurry. Who knew eating could take so long? "Out!"

I dashed out the door while waving goodbye, causing myself to trip and get a bloody scrape on my knee.

"Damn it! That was a new pair of jeans!" I shook my head in anger and continued to hobble to the best of my ability around town. My foot was hurting and my knee was dripping with blood. Why it didn't occur to me that walking up to an 'uncontrollable' vampire with a bloody wound didn't seem like it could be potentially dangerous, I don't know.

"Stupid fucking heinous vampires."

"Excuse me?"

I looked up to see that Stefan was right in front of me, looking terrified and angry. Not to mention hungry, but that didn't process in my stupid head at that moment.

"Oh, drop the act, Stefan. I know you're a vampire."

His eyes narrowed. "Could you lower your voice, in that case? The whole town doesn't need to know!"

While Damon's comments were rude, they were said in more of a matter-of-fact or humorous way. This side of Stefan was vicious, like a tiger that was hungry.

"Fine, fine. What do you want?"

He sighed in annoyance. "Well, I was going to warn you to stay away from my stupid brother. However, it would seem that you've already gotten to know him far too well, so I think I'll just stay out of it."

I finally noticed the way his eyes were completely focused on my blood-soaked knee, looking like he was seconds away from going into a frenzy.

I instantly went into panic when he started moving forward, not taking his eyes off of my leg. I placed my other leg in front of that one in an attempt to get him to re-focus, which was all it took for him to go over the edge. With a terrifying growl, he leapt at me and knocked me onto the ground, going straight for my blood. I was screaming and kicking everywhere, feebly thinking that a mere townsperson could take down a vampire.

Out of a tree hopped Damon, who knocked his brother out of the way and won the wrestling match without a whole hell of a lot of effort.

He was over next to me in a flash, kneeling down. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, not trusting my voice to speak. He gently helped me sit up before turning around to smack Stefan back onto the ground when he came back for me again.

"Come on, little brother. Time to get you home."

Stefan's eyes were sad and hungry as he was towed away from me, leaving me to stay there, curled up and terrified. What had just happened was something that only happened in fiction novels; it was at that point that I one hundred and ten percent believed the Salvatore brothers were vampires.

The walk home was a blur, because I was quickly losing blood from the holes that Stefan's fangs had put in my leg. I was dizzy and light-headed as Aunt Jenna patched me up and laid me down on the couch, leaving me there to fall asleep.

And what did I dream of, you might ask? I think you already know.

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I woke up sometime after midnight when I felt weight sag the couch down. I knew from my body's reaction that it was Damon before I saw him in the dark light, his pale skin shining brightly and contrasting even more than usual against his black eyes.

"What are you doing here?" My voice was foggy and thick.

He shrugged. "I just thought I'd check up on you."

"Thanks."

I made an attempt to sit up, but he lightly pushed back down on my stomach. "No. You need to rest."

I nodded sleepily.

"Elena?"

"Hmm?" I was too tired to deal with this.

"You're not safe here."

"I know that." I didn't know that I knew that, but apparently I did.

"You can come with me for a couple of days."

I opened one eye because I was too lazy to open them both. "You're bringing this up at this time on purpose."

He smiled. "I know. But you're safer at my house, and Bonnie's already there."

My heart automatically started aching when he mentioned her. "Oh, please. What's that bitch doing there?"

He rolled his eyes. "You don't have to die; I know you miss her. It's okay."

My eyes welled up with unwanted tears. "She doesn't want to talk to me."

He shrugged. "You don't know that, yet. Only one way to find out."

I don't know why, but I was desperate to see Bonnie again. "What do I do?"

"Just write a note saying that you'll be back in a couple of days and that you're safe. You're with a friend."

I smiled when he said that. "So now you're my friend?"

"We're getting there."

"Get me a pen and a piece of paper."

In less than fifteen seconds, he was already back, handing me what I had asked for. I wrote a note saying that I needed some time to myself and that I would be back soon; Aunt Jenna would see right through it, but it was the only thing I had at the moment.

He took it from me and placed it on the counter, scooping me up into his arms… and then we were off into the night.

"Okay. Here we go."

AN: I need feedback! Any and all reviews are appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! :)

Love,

Evangeline