Thanks so much to everyone for your kind reviews! I appreciate them.
We're going to hear from everyone this time, so it's going to be a little bit jumpy. Sorry if that annoys anyone, but it's kind of necessary… and I'll explain why I NEVER update anymore in the bottom AN. Thanks for reading! 3
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Thirteen
I felt a cold pair of hands skidding around the middle of my arm and I swatted it off unthinkingly, half-expecting to wake up to an empty bed and to find that a pillowcase was the culprit behind my awakening.
And then I remembered everything that had happened last night.
My eyes flew open and I violently jerked my body over to the right, only to find none other than Damon, who was simply staring at me while tracing my skin with the edge of his fingertips.
"Good morning, Sunshine."
I made some sort of groaning noise in response and flopped back onto the pillow again, not ready to be awake yet. I scooted back so that I was cuddled comfortably against him and closed my eyes, enjoying the peace… until he started talking.
"How are you feeling?"
What a strange question to ask, especially for him. "Fine…"
"You're not sore?"
I flipped over again to give him an annoyed look. "It's not like I was a virgin, Damon."
He rolled his eyes. "I know that. I was just making sure that I didn't grip you too hard or anything."
Oh…
"No, no. You didn't crush my fragile human body."
He gave me a half-hearted smirk. "Good. I just have too much fun with you to break your arm on accident while we're trying to have intimate sex."
I smiled and gave him a kiss on the neck before rolling over. His arms caught me before I could even make an effort to move out of the bed.
Not that it surprised me, or anything.
""Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm hungry." It came out more like a question than anything, but it still got the point across.
"Well, I'm horny. What do you say?"
Ooh… this was a tough one…horny Damon or a Pop tart?
I think I'll take Damon, thank you very much. I rolled over into his arms and didn't leave them for several more hours.
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Jeremy's POV
I scowled at the stupid note in my hands as I slapped it down in front of Aunt Jenna, not bothering to explain. The ridiculously long letter that Ms. Sasquatch droned on and on about explained it all.
Apparently, kids were starting to go missing from school. First there were Bonnie and Stefan—even though they had only been gone for a day, so they could just be sick—and then there was Matt, who had been gone for three days. I think his older sister; Vickie—I stupidly pine over her when I think she's not looking—is gone, too.
"Kids are going missing?"
"Yep. That's what it says."
I didn't see what the big deal was; kids ditch school all the time, myself included. Every Friday, me and my friends go get stoned by the creek, and no one's ever said anything to our parents before.
Then again, that's probably just because all my teachers hate me and wouldn't give a damn if I fell off the face of the earth.
"Jeremy! Why haven't you told me about this before?"
I rolled my eyes. "Don't make a bigger deal out of it than it is, Aunt Jenna. I'm sure kids are just ditching and they'll show up by next week."
"And what if they don't? I need to know stuff like this."
And this is why I never tell her anything besides what to order for dinner.
"Fine. Whatever. Can we have pizza for dinner?"
"Jeremy! Oh, my God! What about Elena?"
I felt a dull pain in my chest when she brought up my sister. We had made an unspoken pact not to talk about her, seeing as how she just decided to leave without even telling either one of us.
We were both kind of bitter about the whole thing—and understandably so, from my perspective, anyway. If it weren't for the fact that Elena was already eighteen, I'm sure Jenna would have called the cops on her… but apparently, this was a good way for big sister to learn that she's not ready to live on her own yet. But I digress.
"Don't bring her into this… I'm sure she's fine."
That last part was a lie, of course. I had no clue if she was okay or not. Why should I even care?
She didn't care about us.
"Jeremy! Just because she left doesn't mean that we can just give up on her. She's your sister."
At that, I had had enough and shut down, just like I did before I got high. Emotions were overrated, anyway.
"She's not anymore."
I stormed past her and up the stairs to take a nap, only to find none other than Elena sitting on the edge of my bed as casually as if she owned the place. Like she'd never left.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I managed to stutter before falling back into my chair next to my computer.
"Jeremy!"
There was something off here. This Elena had curly blonde hair and her eyes were different… sleepy, almost.
"Elena?" My voice wasn't nearly as harsh as I would have liked, but what else was I supposed to say? I was in shock.
"No… Katherine!"
Katherine… what the fuck?
I started to protest when the fake-Elena grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out the window, but then I realized that I probably had nothing better to do, anyway, so I just let her take me wherever she was going to.
Bonnie's POV
"Stefan!" I whined as he pulled away from me. I tried to pull up his shirt but he just rolled away, huffing like he was taking care of a toddler. I'm sure he was just annoyed that the sun was so bright.
We had spent the entire day at the park, ditching school, just enjoying the fact that we were both still alive.
"We can't have sex again, Bonnie… it was a mistake. Maybe if we get married I'd consider it."
Oh, he is SUCH a gentleman! I can't believe Elena thinks she got the better brother! Damon the dirt bag was probably already planning on moving out of town after he got into her pants, anyway.
Right now I was just going to focus on my one true love.
"Remember when you killed Anna right in front of me and then dragged me out of the house? That was so romantic!"
I, for one, could not wait until the day that I became Mrs. Bonnie Salvatore, because it would mean two things: awesome vampire sex (maybe); and eternal bragging rights.
What could be better than that? It was so fun to be in love and act like an adult for once. Kid-Bonnie was long gone, now.
"Um… yeah," he finally responded, sounding confused.
"What's wrong, honey?"
He sighed deeply. "Please don't call me that."
"Why not? It's a term of endearment!"
He rolled his eyes again. "It's embarrassing!"
"Why? Don't you want the world to know that we're in love?"
"No!" he whisper-hissed at me. "Love is supposed to be private! None of the rest of these people need to know about our… relationship."
I must have been imagining him looking like he was throwing up a little bit in his mouth.
"Are you sick?"
He muttered something under his breath that sounded like "idiot". He must have been referring to the jogger that was running by us.
"Vampires can't get sick. I mean, we can throw up, but we don't feel the effects of it and we can't get fevers."
I sat cross-legged for a minute, absorbing this information. "That is SO AWESOME!" I squealed in his ear before running over to the fountain in the middle of the park, assuming he would follow me.
All of the sudden, the Elena-look-a-like was standing beside me.
"Hi, Bonnie."
Oh, great. I just can't catch a break, can I?
I looked over and noticed that Jeremy was there, too, and immediately feared for the first.
"What are you doing here? And why do you have Elena's little brother?"
He frowned for an instant when I called him 'little' before answering for her.
"Because she says that we're going to go find join up with everyone else. Not that I know who 'everyone else' is."
"Well, who is everyone else?"
I would assume that Elena and Damon were on the list, but what the hell do I know, anyway?
Katherine circled around us like… well, like a cat… and appeared to be thinking over her answer carefully.
"Well, let's see: who all have I captured so far? There's you, and there's Jeremy, and there's Matt, and there's Vickie, and Tyler, and Sarah and Jessica and Hannah…"
Her list was sickeningly long and full of names of people I had never even heard of, and I had lived in Mystic Falls my entire life.
She was still babbling on and on when I finally cut her off.
"Okay, I get it! You're an evil psychopath! I just want to know why you're here."
I stomped my foot on the ground and screeched in pain as I stubbed my toe.
She laughed at me. "What a stupid, weak little human you are. You are, too, Jeremy." She laughed again and waltzed over to Stefan.
"What a bitch," I muttered under my breath.
Jeremy snorted unattractively. "You can say that again."
I noted that his face wasn't quite as round and fat as I had remembered… actually, it had a nice shape. I scowled when he stepped half an inch closer to me.
"I'm dating Stefan, Jeremy."
He made his signature 'I'm stupid and not used to thinking' face. "Whoa, chill out. I'm not hitting on you. Can't a brother shift his weight to the side without getting attacked?"
I glared coldly at his stupid response that took him way too long to make up. "Just stay away from me."
"Whatever," he muttered under his breath as he rummaged around in his pocket for something.
"What the hell are you looking for?" I snapped after he had continued to search noisily for probably five minutes.
"I thought you didn't want me to talk to you."
I guess that was a smart thing to say, as it was coming from him.
"I don't, you doofus. Now just answer the question so I can tell you to shut up again."
He chuckled idiotically. "Doofus? Who the fuck says doofus?"
"I do!"
That used to be the ultimate insult when I was a little kid. I guess I'd have to find something new.
I sighed. "Look, Jeremy; Katherine's bad news. And from what I've seen, she doesn't want you that much, anyway. So just get out of here."
A weird look of insult crossed his face. "Are you telling me that you want me to leave you alone with some crazy bitch in the middle of nowhere, with that guy over there to protect you?"
Oh. My. God. This kid doesn't know about vampires… he doesn't know about anything going on… he doesn't even know who Stefan is, the man who's been pining after Elena for the past month.
For the life of me, I had been so busy with everything that was going on that I forgot to make up a simple cover story. I would make a terrible spy.
How in the name of hell was I supposed to explain any of that without sounding like a doofus?
Wait… I meant… moron. Idiot. Whatever.
"Um… there's some… stuff that you don't know about. It's kind of important."
He shrugged. "Like what? Have you got a boyfriend?"
I screeched when I felt Katherine's cold breath on my neck, catching the attention of several walkers for a few seconds. To them she was just an innocent little girl that couldn't hurt a fly.
"Like that I'm a vampire."
I closed my eyes in horror as Jeremy started laughing, because laughter is never good when in the presence of evil beings.
"What's so funny?"
I guess they didn't have humor back in the day.
He stopped laughing. "Sorry. It's just; that was kind of a bad joke."
She scowled.
"No, screw that. It was a really bad joke."
She smirked and stood in front of him at vampire speed, making him jump and run away.
She rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath before turning to face me. "Well, he wasn't much use, anyway. I hope someone hits him with a car and he dies."
I stared at her. "Why would you wish that on someone you don't even know?"
She ignored my question and an evil look came over her face. She sighed. "Sorry, but I have to run. I'll be late if I don't hurry."
She was gone in a flash and Jeremy came galloping back from the tree he'd been standing behind, still laughing.
"What's so funny?" I snapped, momentarily forgetting the fact that he thought Katherine had been joking.
"I just haven't heard a joke in a long time, I guess." He looked at me. "Where's Stefan?"
I looked around and noticed that he was, in fact, gone.
"Oh, well. Maybe he went to find Katherine to protect me."
He looked confused. "But…"
"Just shut up, you stupid kid."
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Katherine's POV
To quote Anne Rice: "Evil is a point of view."
In which case, it would appear that I have only one point of view.
I had been on my way to Stefan's house—because I love to stir up trouble—but then that stupid red-head got in my way again.
You know; there are many things that I tolerate. For example: you dreadfully boring humans are alive, are you not? The grass that annoyingly tickles my feet is still firmly rooted into the ground, is it not? And the trees, even when they have caused me many an inconvenience in tracking down my enemies, are still here, are they not?
But the one thing that I cannot tolerate is another woman trying to take my man away from me. Stefan is, after all, the sole reason why I came back to Mystic Falls in the first place.
And then I found out about Elena, the girl who looks exactly like me. I honestly don't give a damn about her—or stupid, love-stuck Damon, for that matter—and I just toyed with her to get one of Damon's valuables. As soon as Damon starts crying like the little baby that he is, Stefan will come after me.
See my plan?
I smiled as I heard Stefan chasing me through the forest, slowing down so that he'd be able to catch me. I allowed him to pin me against a tree and leaned into his touch, missing the way his rough fingers felt on my skin.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he snarled at me.
I smirked coyly. "Why do you think I'm here?"
He glared and breathed heavily as he stood in front of me, obviously not having the slightest clue.
I leaned in impossibly closer. "I'll give you a hint: it has to do with you!"
I pushed away just as his grip loosened on my shoulders and I sped off into the setting sun, on cloud nine as my plan slowly began to unfold before my eyes.
Elena's POV
I was exhausted and sweaty, and yet my body still wanted more.
We had been going at it for God knows how long, taking advantage of the fact that there was an empty house. So far we had done it on the bed, the couch, the kitchen counter, the kitchen table, the living room floor, the shower, and the floor of our bedroom.
"Can't…. move…" I somehow managed to spit out as I tried to sit up. Damon pulled me up with one arm and watched, amused, as I hobbled over to the side of the bed in search of some kind of clothing.
"Looking for something?"
Shouldn't that be fairly obvious? "I just want some kind of clothing."
He scowled, looking insulted. "Why?"
"Because! Don't tell me you go walking around naked in your house all day long."
"No. I walk around in my underwear all day long," he stated matter-of-factly. "But we could always make going naked a new tradition."
"Something tells me Stephanie wouldn't approve."
He rolled his eyes. "Who the hell cares what that prude thinks? I wish he'd move to… somewhere very far, far away. Then we'd never have to hear from him again and we can all live happily ever after."
I smiled. "There's only one problem."
He cocked an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"He'd have to take Bonnie with him."
He smirked. "Princess of Darkness, I don't think he'd miss her too much."
"But she'd miss him."
Damon shrugged. "Humans forget. They heal. Until you meet that one person you can't live without, and then everything changes."
He looked at me under his dark lashes and it was obvious whom he was referring to. I couldn't help but beam, because anything sentimental from him was rare.
"And you don't think Stefan and Bonnie belong together?"
He shrugged again. "Not like we do. They can spend time apart without wanting to be together."
He got up and picked out a plain black shirt, threading his fingers through mine as he handed it to me.
"I love you, Elena."
I sighed. "I love you, too."
He gave me a kiss on the cheek and turned to leave the room. "I'm going to get you something to eat."
I put on his shirt and noted that even though it was huge on me—big enough to be a dress, actually—it was comfortable.
I was about to crawl back into bed when I heard a loud string of obscenities and several growls, tipping me off that he was in pain. I cringed and tried to loosen up the muscles in my hips and thighs as I walked out of the room, but I was limping quite awkwardly as I made my way toward him.
He was cradling his hand to his chest and glaring at the open window, the sun pouring through. I stared, confused.
"What?" I finally asked. I didn't see anything wrong with the picture in front of me.
"My ring," he semi-hissed as he searched for the darkest corner of the room.
"What about it?"
"It's gone! How could I have not noticed that before?"
"Wait…your ring's gone?"
He nodded in irritation and walked back in forth, studiously avoiding anywhere close to the sunlight.
"How the hell could this have happened? I've been with you the entire time!"
I thought back in time to make sure that I wouldn't have taken his ring off, but I hadn't, as far as I could remember.
"I didn't touch it."
"I know. I didn't, either."
We both stood, like the awkward idiots that we were quickly becoming, in the dark of the living room, drinking in all of the complications that were sure to come.
Oh, joy.
AN: I would just like to say that I am SO SORRY that I never update anymore. I feel terribly guilty because when I first started writing, I would literally update every single day, and I so miss being able to do that. Unfortunately, someone very close to me was recently assaulted and turned to drugs and alcohol abuse for relief and was thrown out of her own home as a result of this. And so I offered to take her in until she'd be able to support herself and…well, let's just say that it isn't easy. I'd like to give a hat tip to all of the mothers of the world for taking care of their kids every single day, because you women are amazing. Just toting her to rehab, school and home is exhausting. :(
My hope is that this will soon blow over, and I do promise to try to update as much as I can. I'd like to thank my readers for staying loyal to this story even when I haven't been updating, because it means the world to me, and I mean that. I hope you are all well and please leave me a review if you can, because feedback is what makes this story go 'round!
Lots of love,
Evie :)
