Chapter Four

Damon had to admit that he was enjoying himself far more then he should be. He was meant to be on a mission here. He was meant to be saving the world. That called for the serious, calculating and cunning Damon. The Damon who was good at planning and making hard decisions that could affect everyone. . But instead he was feeling ...could the word be happy? Joyful, or playful?

Just seeing Elena again had been a joy to him. Making him feel things that a creature like him shouldn't feel. Even after everything he had been through in the past two years, gaining acceptance from Elena and her friends, protecting them and helping them and the rest of the town as much as he could, he still felt like he was a monster and that would probably always be the same for him. He felt that he didn't deserve to be happy. What he had said to Stefan had been the truth...neither of them deserved Elena.

He had been devastated beyond belief to learn that she was dead and to see her funeral was the last thing he had ever wanted to have happened. Even though he would have to gain everyone's acceptance all over again he was willing to do this if it meant spending one more second with Elena...because he didn't want to experience anything like that ever again.

And that was why he was in this joyful and playful, if a bit reckless and careless mood, when Elena came over to look for Stefan. He still told her about Katherine being Stefan's ex because he had to plant a bit of doubt in her mind somehow except he tried not to make her sound too uncomfortable this time round. Just a slight warning that Stefan wasn't all that he seemed. But then again neither was he. But she was going to find out all this stuff anyway. He was just giving her a warning that was all. Of course he remembered then that he was still causing friction between himself and his brother and knew that he had to cut out this reckless behaviour. But then, hadn't it been this behaviour that had led him to think of this spell in the first place?

It was also this behaviour that led to him to allow Caroline to introduce him to Elena and Bonnie and Stefan. Before she even had a chance to say his sir name she was interrupted.

"Damon is actually..."

"We're brothers," Damon grinned at Bonnie and Caroline's shocked look, and Stefan's expression at seeing him enrolled in high school was priceless.

"Well this is something I never thought you were capable of," Stefan was looking hard at Damon trying to figure it out and that was one of the first moments that Damon almost caved and told him everything just to get it over with, although he had a feeling that now wasn't the right time and that they weren't ready yet. Especially seeing as Elena didn't even know about the supernatural yet.

"Everyone has to go to school Stefan," Caroline said in astonishment.

"Not everyone obeys the rules of society ...any of the time," Stefan answered her if a little too seriously.

"So, you're a rebel huh?" Elena was making an opinion. One he didn't mind at all. Didn't everyone love the bad boy rebel instead of the perfect prince? Wasn't it this kind of behaviour that attracted Elena to him in the first place? He liked to think so. And then he had gone and ruined everything with the snap of Jeremy's neck even though the kid hadn't died it had ruined everything. Well he wasn't thinking about that yet...

The current problem would come when she knew the truth. That he had killed people and what was his true nature. He would have to make sure that when she found out she knew that he had changed.

"Well I'm not perfect," was his mysterious answer.

The next few days Damon spent mingling with other students and making friends earning himself the title of being popular and mysterious just like Stefan. Stefan had tried out for the football team. Tried and actually got on the team earning him an enemy in Tyler Lockwood which Damon found very hilarious indeed.

He had managed to be invited to a dinner that Elena had planned to help get Bonnie and Stefan to get along better. It was an invite by Caroline who had started to cling to him in a very annoying way. If he didn't know better she even went so far as to call them boyfriend and girlfriend even though they had only talked a few times. He had made sure to tell Elena this at the dinner and had tried to get the stone cold look off his little brother's face all because he had been invited in as well.

He felt free, more then he had in a long, long time. The first time round at this point he had been busy using Caroline and attacking Vicky. This time round he was managing to actually be at the football game with everybody else and relax and actually have a good time. Last time he had been the bad guy and this time he was ...being accepted, sort of. It was a good feeling. The only person he was aware of who had attacked Vicky was Tyler when his advances were too strong and Jeremy had stopped him. In fact he could see the two fighting right this second and Stefan being Stefan had intervened and got his hand injured in the process. Elena, not being an idiot had spotted that he had healed much more quickly then he should have.

So he wasn't the only one who was careless he thought a little smugly. Of course he had gone for the more obvious blood and guts way of being obvious but Stefan still made mistakes.

He also noticed that Elena had been wearing a necklace that was new, filled with vervain, no doubt to stop him.

It annoyed him. He hadn't done anything to suggest anything of foul play. He had just talked to Elena and he hadn't killed anyone...not even the history teacher Mr tanner, who he had decided to keep alive because he thought it would be much more fun to watch him annoy Stefan in class.

So why did Stefan still not trust him? He was trying to do everything right. He had even let his brother and Elena have their so called epic kiss under the light of the comet. He grudgingly had to give Stefan ten out of ten for that one. But he was sure he could do just as good if not better when the time came. Please don't say he had to have the chick flick heart to heart talk he had been avoiding? He had thought his actions would have spoken louder then words but no such luck.

He told himself to be patient and wait until everyone knew the truth about everything and then he would have the talk with Stefan but patience had never really been his strongest virtue. Not even a little bit!

...

Elena watched the snow fall outside the window her hand pressed to the glass watching it fall soft and thick to the ground, covering everything in a silence that she found very creepy.

"I feel trapped Damon," she whispered softly. "Like an animal in a cage. He has us right where he wants us doesn't he? Except that I can't believe it's really him doing all this. A person can't just disappear for a few months and be a changed person as if overnight killing people. It can't be him it just can't."

"The sooner you accept the truth the easier it will be."

She turned and ran from him, running as fast as she could up the stairs and slamming the door to her bedroom behind her, feeling like a little kid throwing a tantrum. But she hadn't been able to listen to his words anymore even though she knew they were true.

Later that night when Damon had gone to check on Elena he found her bedroom was empty. He searched the house for her shouting out her name but there was no answer. He pushed open the front door almost in a blind panic now and used all his supernatural senses to find her. With his vampire speed he caught up to her. She was walking slowly as if in a daze or sleep walking towards wickery Bridge. The place where her parents had died in that car crash.

He saw Stefan standing there, a dark shadow in the whiteness surrounding them. He could sense his thoughts, compelling Elena to walk for miles in the frost and ice until her bare feet started to bleed, to walk forever and far away from Damon.

"Leave her alone!" He shouted and then Stefan was laughing.

"She said she felt trapped Damon I'm setting her free," his laughter echoed on and on.

"But the trouble is that she will never be free. Neither of you will be free from what you have done to me."

Then he was gone and there was a crash of thunder somewhere in the sky above them. A snow storm. Elena fell to the ground instantly and he was right there to catch her.

"It's ok I got you. I will always catch you," he whispered wishing he had a blanket for her, or several. She was shaking and shivering and he couldn't make it stop.

"It's all our fault," she kept whispering.

He stood up swiftly and moved with the speed of lightening back towards the main town centre. He had to get her into the warm before it was too late.

TBC

Thank you again for everyone's reviews they do mean a lot to me. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! And I'm sorry for the cliff hanger