Chapter 8 – Those who see the light….Get Sunspots!

The ride home was interesting, to say the least. The girls refused to let go of each other or the after effect the magic that flowed minutely between them still gave off. The adrenaline hadn't passed and they were still grinning at each other like Cheshire cats, but only when Damon wouldn't see them in the mirror. He had insisted on driving them to the Boarding house to discuss what had happened. They felt like children on the way to the headmaster's office but just like those naughty children on the verge of getting the chastisement, they revelled in the thrill being bad had given them. Granted they had taken a risk in meeting, just the two of them, in the cemetery without telling anyone what they had planned but they had held their ground when attack by whatever unseen enemy was currently coming at them through Elena. For now they would thrill quietly in the backseat of Bonnie's car and try their best to not giggle inanely. Mostly.

Damon didn't waste any time when they finally arrived at the Boarding house. Getting out of the driver's seat he slammed the door shut behind him and pivoted the back door open for the girls to get out. They didn't dare move until Damon stormed off towards the house. His temper, with the help of his ingrained manners, however did make him stay to hold the front door to the house open for them. Once he had marched them into the den, ordered the girls to sit he proceeded to pour himself a drink of 1976 Glen Craig. Taking a seat on the sofa opposite, the now completely sober Elena and Bonnie, he took a sip and begun.

'Now that you seem to have regained some sense between you, you can explain what happened. I'll know if you leave anything out' he shrugged,' just warning you'.

The girls looked at each other and seemed to be thinking the same thing when Bonnie looked about ready to burst out laughing only to stifle her chuckles as Elena shook her head. Elena took a moment to compose herself and pick at the imaginary dust from her trousers. After a deep breathe she began,

'Damon I called Bonnie to help me find out what has been happening over the past few months. In all honesty I don't think it is something that can be fought off with stakes and vervain this time. Whatever has been happening has been on a sub-conscious, and most likely a spiritual, level. I thought that Bonnie could help point me in the right direction'. Damon fought the urge to twitch as this mention of 'I' throughout Elena's explanation.

'And what makes you think that it wouldn't come after the two of you instead?' he realised his anger was seeping from his control but he was beyond caring right now. Stupidity needed to be stopped dead.

'When do we ever know we are going to be attacked? Especially since whatever it is doesn't seem to want to be seen yet.' Realising that Bonnie was not as fault here she thought it better she didn't receive the brunt of Damon's anger. 'Damon, Bonnie was only trying to help a friend.'

Damon knew exactly what Elena was trying to say and he was perfectly fine dressing down the perpetrator rather than the accomplice. Rather than giving Bonnie or Elena any kind of answer he took the opportunity to refill his glass. Elena walked Bonnie to the door,

'Will you be ok? I can wait and drive you home, if you want '

'I'll be fine,' Elena reassured as she gave her friend a hug goodbye, 'he's just frustrated that he didn't get in on any of the action'. They both smiled at the lighter tone and waved their goodbyes. Elena headed back to den only to find Damon wasn't there anymore. His glass was still waiting to be filled and all the bottles of liquor hadn't been moved. Turning around so that the table was as her back, Elena looked around the room.

'Damon?'

No answer came. She didn't find him in the kitchen and she didn't hear any creaking from the floor boards that might indicate that anyone was moving around upstairs. Two thoughts came to mind – either he had run out on an errand that he had forgotten about (code for he didn't want to carry on the discussion he had started) or he was still here and didn't want to be heard. She really hoped that he had just skipped out on her. Elena headed upstairs to check the rooms in the hope that she was wrong. As time ticked by and she checked each room for any trace of Damon she began to get nervous. For some reason she began to panic thinking the absolute worse although logically she was trying to rationalise where he might be. The only room she hadn't yet checked had been Damon's own room which was at the bottom of the hall on the opposite side. Heading towards the door which was slightly ajar she called out his name.

'Damon, are you in here?' she heard nothing as she put her head around the door. Nothing, but the wind coming through his open windows causing the voile coverings to dance slightly with almost a will of their own. His bed was made up, there was no one in the en-suite and his jacket had been thrown over the cosy leather chair. It was too quiet. By now she was standing in the middle of the room facing the window with Damon's bed to her right and his bathroom to her left. The wind had quietened down to match the complete silence that filed the house. There was now no movement at all in the room besides the rise and fall of Elena's breathing which was now beginning to quicken. There! As she turned to see whatever had moved out of the corner of her eye was gone in the time it had taken for her to turn and face it. It appeared again on her other side and again she couldn't get more than a very slight glimpse before it was gone again. She was now glimpsing the intruder now was occurring more often as time ticked on and each time it seemed to be getting closer and closer to her. Just when she thought that it was ready to strike nothing happened. The silence returned and everything was still. Elena gasped as the panic and adrenaline shot through her preparing her for the attack that never came. She strained her hearing to find her attacker and jumped at imaginary sounds that her mind told her where the threat might come from. Until now her fear had kept her stuck to her spot in the middle of Damon's room but no she began to realise that she could in fact flee from the house. Lifting her one foot, which curiously felt like it was stuck in quicksand she began to turn towards the door. She didn't see what happened next, it happened much too fast for her human eyes to catch. One minute she was heading towards the door and the next she was on his bed with a weight over the top of her, her hands restrained above her head and a hand at her throat. Refusing to give in easily she screamed, kicked, twisted for purchase and all the while tears streamed down her cheeks. She heard hiss above her as she realised her attacker was pinning her to Damon's bed but although she tried desperately to get out of her current position she realised that there was no change. The hand grasping her throat merely tightened its hold on her. In response to the unspoken threat she remained still and realised that she had held her eyes firmly shut as soon as the attack had reached its climax. She felt exhaled breathe against her cheek and traced its progress as it moved to her nook between her ear and where her neck met her collarbone and shoulder. The hand at her throat moved and was replaced with the graze of fangs across her neck. She whimpered.

Vampire… her attacker was a vampire.

But the knowledge didn't comfort her as she realised she could very well be coming to the end of her time. The fangs were leisurely grazing across her throat tormenting her as she waited to feel the piercing sting that would come when feeding time was here. The tension in her body did not ease when she felt the warm breathe brush by her ear,

'The big bad wolf has finally come for you,' came the husky grizzle in her ear. 'Not so soothing hmm' of all things that could have happened next she didn't think it would be a chuckle.

Her eyes shot open and she screamed, 'Damon you heartless, manipulative son of a … !' her curse didn't have the affect she wanted and a relieved sob shook her but he still wouldn't let her move. He did however stop chuckling. Not wanting him to see her cry, she turned her head towards the duvet cushioning her head and continued to sob.

'You should apologise Elena'

Facing him to give him a rather impressive glare, Elena practical spat the words out,' Excuse me!'

'You heard me. You think you can just go traipsing through Mystic Falls looking for trouble and it not find you. What were you both thinking? That you would simply shake hands after a cordial conversation on how you would like to not be hunted anymore! Snap out of it Elena!'

Damon's anger snapped Elena out of her grief-stricken horror and shot her straight to wanting to tear his pretty blue eyes out.

'It wasn't like that!'

'Then what was it like then?'

'We went there because it is neutral ground! We didn't think anything could or would happen there. It's the safest place that I can think of'

Pissed that she would think a piece of earth full of dead bodies more protection than coming to him for help only insighted his anger further.

'You were wrong. If Bonnie hadn't been there you would have been killed'

'Then I guess you missed the part where we both cast the spell'

Raising an eyebrow, 'you have magic?' he didn't seem convinced.

'Actually, I do'

'Since when, exactly?'

'Since Jenna …since she passed'

'Go on'

She shrugged as best she could in her position and realising it was slightly lacking she sighed, 'It was an idea that Bonnie suggested when we were all hanging out one night. We were talking about the defences we had between us should Klaus decide that he had forgotten something in Mystic Falls. Alaric has his contacts and weapons, Jeremy has the family ring, Bonnie her magic and you and Caroline are vampires. I was the only one who didn't really have anything to hand that I could use should something happen and none of you were around. Bonnie had read that all creatures of nature have magic although some were ingrained with the ability to tap into it more than others. Bonnie wanted to see if she could help me get in touch with it she was right I can'

'How did you help with the spell that was cast earlier?'

'Bonnie cast the spell. I channelled energy into the spell to magnify the affect.'

'You have magic but you're not able to cast spells?' he smirked as if finding the faulty crux of her argument

'No I can cast spells but some of them have been unstable. Bonnie suggested more control over my ability to channel before I cast another spell so we have been working on my control over the past few months.'

'You shouldn't have been playing with magic to being with. Its unstable Elena! Bonnie has only been able to master it at her current level because of the family trait and the time she has spent studying her grandma's grimoires. Why didn't tell me about this?'

'Because I knew you would react like this!'

'Damn right I would act like this! Another fine example of you taking unnecessary risks!'

'It wasn't a risk if we defeated the threat'

'And what if there had been a greater cost than a temporary high from the adrenaline and magic combined?'

'The burden was shared and Bonnie said it was safe'

He snarled at that, 'there was no way for Bonnie to tell if it was safe or not. The rate that thing was growing could have easily tipped the scale the other way. You could have both been killed. What is wrong with you?'

'Get off me!' she screamed at him as she realised that they were still laid on his bed. She felt completely vulnerable in their current position and she needed to be on equal footing.

'Not until you admit you were wrong'

'No!'

'No? Then you really haven't learned anything today. Not when confronted with the danger earlier and not when I hunted you. Definitely not now in your current position.' Looking at her, something shifted behind his expression.

Something that was more predatory.

Something that actually did make her more than a little bit nervous.

'Being in the hands of a predator is not something to be taken lightly Elena.' With that said he closed the distance between them and engulfed her lips in a hard punishing kiss. He was brutal and unforgiving as he kissed her thoroughly. Taken back by this change Elena squirmed to get him off her. The passion that his attention was igniting in her was something she had truly feared over the past few months and was not something she wanted to pay much attention to. But she could not escape him in their current position, he didn't seem to want to allow that. She was at his mercy and it both scared and thrilled her. So much so that she couldn't help but respond to his attentions.

Damon of course took further advantage of the situation and once she parted her lips deepened the kiss even further. It did nothing but ignite that hidden part in the two of them. Kissing wasn't enough. The lesson had been learned but not the one he had intended to impart. For the life of him though he couldn't remember what lesson that was. Not while he had Elena pinned beneath him moaning out her need to be closer to him. With her body the arced to feel him closer to her, the body's request for skin on skin. He couldn't deny her that and ground his body against her own. The electricity that shot through him reconnected him with whatever sanity was left over in him. He couldn't let them continue like this. He had to get away from this now and quickly. So he left her with her body awakened laying on his bed and crying. She cried for him, for the ache she had never felt in herself and for the lesson she had learned.

Author note: I don't know about anyone else but I've always wondered why the writers haven't given something for Elena to contribute to the group. That is besides being the doppelganger and everyone wanting to kill her. The whole getting into trouble and having to be saved gets old really quickly so I've given her an ability to train and develop over the coming story. Besides being in love and having a connection to each character she doesn't really contribute that much to the show. Plus I'm tired of saying 'Oh poor Damon!' at the end of every episode. The third season starts over here in September and so hopefully with Stefan out of the picture things might spark off between Elena and Damon.

Anyway this is most definitely what I would have done with the new series and so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions on where this might go. The really good ones I may just work in. My other half has already guessed where the story is heading, well just about, but I've been told its only because he knows me. Ok I'm going to leave it there for today. Enjoy!