So sorry about the delay in this chapter, but real life has been annoying what with waiting at hospitals for hours from 7.30 in the morning and then having your appointment cancelled and having to wait now until the end of the month and having to rearrange all of the holiday I booked off! Anyway, for those of you still reading here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy and pretty please leave a review to let me know what you think, reviews inspire me to write more!
Chapter Eleven
It had been a week since they had arrived back at Mystic Falls and Damon still hadn't heard from Elena. He wondered if he had rushed things too much or been too spontaneous. But then that was who he was.
Elena hadn't thought about anything else except for Damon. She hadn't wanted to hurt him by brushing him off but she was still confused by what she had seen. It had definitely been a type of vision but it had left her reeling.
There was a school dance coming up with a 50's theme. She had been all excited about it and been planning to go with Stefan but now things were so confusing and messed up she didn't know what to do, what with all these dreams and new feelings for Damon.
Stefan had come round to give her some vervain which was a type of herb that could protect her from vampires. He had told her to give some to her family and friends in the form of jewellery to protect them as well.
She had accepted the offer even though they had broken up and she was still mad at him for all the secrets he had kept from her. She acted cool with him and he soon left her again. How could she trust him and how could she think that he loved her for who she really was and not that she looked like Katherine.
She had so much to think about lately with Bonnie convincing her to ask Jenna about her adoption and trying to remember who it was she had run over with her car, the whole reason that Damon had had to rescue her in the first place from the car crash.
When Elena received a threatening phone call she was instantly overwhelmed with panic and her immediate reaction was still to run to Stefan.
This confused her and made her feel guilty about Damon. She quickly got into her car and drove quickly to the boarding house but she hesitated at the front door, not sure who she was here to see. The door seemed to swing open on its own and Damon stood before her a look of worry on his deep brown eyes. She was instantly comforted and felt relief at seeing him.
"What's wrong?" he instantly asked her and she realised she was on the verge of crying.
She told him what had happened and he led her into the house a protective arm around her shoulders.
"It's going to be ok I won't let anyone hurt you ever," he promised her.
She nodded. "I feel...safer already just by being here," she murmured. "Damon, I'm so sorry about what happened in Georgia."
"How was that your fault?" he asked her incredulous.
"I didn't mean to hurt you. I've...I have learned to care about you and when we kissed I..."
She wondered if she should tell him about the vision. She had thought about telling Bonnie but Bonnie had issues with Stefan and Damon as it was. She couldn't even talk to her best friend. "I saw something. It was like a vision...at least I thought it was."
Damon was instantly panicking. "What do you mean you saw something?" Then he laughed, trying to get her distracted. What if she wasn't supposed to know the truth? "Are you sure it wasn't the alcohol messing with your brain? You did get very drunk Elena."
"No!" she exclaimed stubbornly, shaking her head. "I know that I saw something! Why won't you believe that I'm telling the truth? I know that something's going on with you Damon. I know with all my heart that somehow, you're not the same Damon that I used to know. I know that you're different, that you've changed for good and for the better. And I will find out the truth here. How am I supposed to make everyone else see it when you won't even let me see it?"
"Elena," he whispered. "I want so badly to be able to tell you. I promise I do but I can't. I don't even know that you'd believe me."
"Damon in the past year I have believed and handled a whole lot more then most people could even think was possible! Witches, vampires and god knows what else I think that I can handle this ok?"
She looked away and there was a silence between them. "Ok. I will give you the time you need to tell me. I believe that you want to but something's holding you back. But I won't wait forever. Soon I'm going to make you tell me."
Damon then gave her the Gilbert compass that detected vampires and she watched in fascination as the needle spun around wildly and then pointed at him. "It's for your protection, to warn you." Damon said softly.
He offered to occupy her home but she declined saying that she felt safer already and that if she was in trouble that she was sure that he would instantly be there to rescue her.
When Damon closed the door after her he turned and realised he was being watched by Stefan and Lexi.
"What?" he asked them both, irritated that he had been spied on.
"So you guys kissed?" asked Stefan. His tone was light but Damon could sense the hurt inside his brother.
Lexi took hold of Stefan's hand and Damon tensed. He could feel the tension thick in the room around them.
Stefan looked at them all, as if realising they were waiting for him to snap. "It's ok," he said wearily. "I know about the future. I know that you and Elena are meant to be. You can be more for her then I can. Besides I have Lexi here to help me through this don't I?"
The phone rang and Damon instantly picked it up and it was Elena. She was in trouble she thought someone was in the house and then the phone call was cut short and he was left with the dial tone.
Instantly the three vampires where a whirl of blurring motion and with super speed they were at Elena's house. Lexi hadn't been invited in, but then they heard Elena's voice screaming through the house crying out for help. There must have been a loop hole as Elena screamed "Please someone help me," and Lexi was suddenly allowed into the house with the brother's. Elena's plea for help had included her. She had asked anyone for help and that must have meant anyone with the intention to help her was welcome in the house.
The three vampire's presence alone was enough to make the hooded vampire hesitate in hurting Elena and turn and run.
"Thank you," she whispered breathlessly, visibly shaken.
"You should take Elena to the dance," Stefan told his brother. "Protect her."
"We should go too," said Lexi instantly, sensing Elena and Damon's discomfort at that idea. "We can all be there to protect her. And I can stay here tonight to make sure nothing else happens."
Elena thought to herself that she didn't want to have to be protected all the time but she was grateful for their offers.
As Stefan and Damon waked home Damon decided to talk to his brother. He could sense Stefan was hurting and didn't want it to get out of control. "You know, when Elena and I kissed she was instantly feeling guilty about you. Nothing's happened yet between me and her. I'm not sure that it will if things can't ever be right between all of us."
Stefan stared at Damon in surprise. "Well...I appreciate your honesty Damon. Thank you. Like I said before I have Lexi to help keep me sane. I'm sure everything will work out."
Damon wasn't so sure. He still had to keep an eye on his brother. What if Lexi was just a rebound for him?
"Do we have to go to this dance?" Damon groaned suddenly, hoping to lighten things up a bit.
"Yes," Stefan chuckled. "I almost forgot how much you hated all the formal dances that father held for the town at the mansion."
Damon shuddered at the thought. "This is going to be bad."
"Maybe not as bad as you think, brother."
...
The dance wasn't as bad as he had thought. In fact he had learned that if you went to these things with the right person they could actually be kind of fun. He had had a few dances with Elena, showed her some pretty good moves from back in the day which had surprised Stefan and Lexi who thought they only things he had ever done back in the day was disobey his father and get drunk, gamble and flirt. "I wasn't all that bad," he had defended himself. "Once I found the right lady I treated her right."
"Yeah, sure," Lexi had laughed. "And then it only lasted for a few weeks and then you treated someone else right."
He scowled at her and ignored her for some time after that.
He had gained great satisfaction at seeing Bonnie and Caroline's looks of astonishment as he danced with their best friend. He could read their looks plainly. Hadn't Elena been all crazy for Stefan?
"Everyone's staring," Elena had murmured as Damon held her close in another slow dance.
"Let them stare," he had said recklessly.
Elena felt a thrill of excitement as se danced with Damon. Everyone else was forgotten in that wonderful moment. Even Stefan who was never far from her thoughts making her doubt herself and the actions she made.
She didn't care what anyone else thought. This felt right, and she wanted more of it whatever it was. She would never forget Stefan and how he had helped her through some tough times coping with her parent's death. But he had lied to her. Damon had never made it a secret that he had ;loved Katherine but Stefan had always been in denial and she herself thought he had loved Katherine after all he just didn't want to admit it to anyone. And Damon had never kept anything from her except things to do with this vision and she sensed that he wanted to tell her for some reason he couldn't, and she had to let him know that it was ok to tell her.
Damon had always said what was on his mind, whatever he was thinking in the moment and she liked that. Stefan had always been secrets and not being himself with her. It had taken him ages to tell her the truth and she had a feeling that Damon would have told her in half the time.
The mood of the dance had of course been ruined for Damon once Alaric had started asking him questions and the confrontation with the vampire who was working with Anna.
He had forgotten, in his joy of being with Elena all about those two. He wouldn't make that mistake again. He was impressed with the way that Elena had handled herself against the vampire and told her , he was so glad that she was safe, for now at least.
...
"So what happens now?" Stefan and Lexi were sitting one of the big comfortable chairs in the main room of the boarding house. It was the morning after the dance. Stefan held a glass of animal blood in his hand, drinking slowly, Lexi sat on his lap.
"Now?" Damon stood before them. "Now we have to worry about Alaric and Anna."
"Ok," said Lexi thoughtfully. "Stefan and I can go and question Alaric I think that you should go and keep an eye on Elena. The sooner that Stefan gets used to the two of you being together the better off we will all be ok?"
Stefan nodded.
Damon was taken aback by their attitude but h was glad about it. Although there was one thing looming around the next corner that he wasn't looking forward to at all and that was part of the reason he hadn't told them everything. He hadn't told them that Isobel was Alaric's wife and Elena's mother and that he had killed and turned her and she was still alive as a vampire. He wasn't ready for all of that yet. One thing at time was what he was thinking and right now they had to stop Anna from opening the tomb.
"Ok," he said in agreement.
He spent the rest of the day at Elena's. Last time it had been because Elena and Stefan were double crossing him but this time it felt real. As if he was part of a family. He played video games with Jeremy and he felt awkward when Jenna whispered to Elena that she thought he was hot while they were in the kitchen. This time Elena made a rolling eye gesture and told her aunt to keep her hands off.
It almost made him sad when Jeremy started to talk about Anna.
In the future it may seem as though Anna cared about Jeremy, when he found out what she was, but Anna would always be a vampire. So he had to be careful here. For now, Anna was intent on getting what she wanted no matter the cost and if it meant hurting Jeremy. Anything that hurt Elena's family hurt her so he had to be careful here.
"For someone who wants to avoid this girl you sure talk a lot about her," Damon joked.
Jenna had gone upstairs when the doorbell rang.
Stefan and Lexi had arrived.
They look over the copied journal that Alaric had. The actual journal it turns out was missing but Alaric luckily made copies of it. Stefan and Lexi kept giving him strange looks although he wasn't sure why.
"I found out that Jeremy told Anna about the journal which means that she probably has it and is looking for the grimoire. The information will be in the journal of where the grimoire is hidden," Damon explained to them.
Elena was with Jeremy in the other room while he told all this to Lexi and Stefan. "So that means I have to go and meet Anna. In my other life I followed her and made her give me information, I have to do the same things so she doesn't guess anything or that we know her plans. In the other reality she kidnaps Elena and Bonnie, someone Bonnie is meeting tonight turns out to be working with Anna. "
Lexi nodded in understanding. "So we have to go and save Bonnie. I hate all this time travel stuff. Why can't anything be normal around here? Instead we have to stop all this bad stuff happening."
Damon and Stefan stared at her. "Well, its Mystic Falls isn't it?" Damon joked. "Go, and hurry."
As he met up with Anna he hoped that Stefan and Lexi got to Bonnie in time. Anna still needed a witch to open the tomb and if they got bonnie they would have all that they needed to try and open the tomb and then they would get Elena too.
Unfortunately, no matter that they had vampire speed it was already too late. Bonnie had still kissed Ben and seen what he really was. She had already gone outside and just as the other two vampires got there, he had grabbed her and disappeared.
TBC