Chapter 2
...that breath, that smell – she knows them both so well. Images from her dream and from Stefan's recent attack blur at a lightning pace through her mind, as she realizes it is her undead nightmare next to her in bed. In an instant, she is out of bed, but he is quicker. He has her pinned against the bedroom door before she even has a chance.
She is awake, alert, but unable to process what has happened quickly enough. He has forgotten, or ignored, how fragile she is as his hands grip her forearms, turning her roughly back to him. He turns on her bedroom light, staring straight into her eyes.
The light and love that used to be ever-present there are completely gone. She feels as though she is looking into an abyss – empty, emotionless, dangerous.
She opens her mouth to scream, but he slaps her, hard, across her cheek, before covering her mouth with his hand.
"Something the matter, Elena? This isn't how we used to greet each other after sleep," he playfully whispers in her ear.
A silent sob racks her body, as he releases her arms, running his hands down her sides. Everything about him is different now – his touch is not soft, gentle, loving. It is rough and possessive. She can't forget the dream, and wonders how long Stefan has been in her room that night. Was the dream created by him? Was he in her mind, taking sick pleasure in making her so fearful, all the while fulfilling Klaus' task of "protecting" her?
"Are you going to ask me to 'please, please, please stop'?" he taunts her, confirming that even if he didn't fabricate the dream in her mind, he was watching it unfold.
"You pathetic little girl. I own you. I can come and go from this house whenever I please. And don't try to scream again - who's around to stop me, after all? Certainly not your parents, or your aunt. And Ric? Jeremy? Don't stand a chance. So why bother? "
It is as he aggressively licks up her neck and grinds himself into her lower half that she begins to fear that her dream is about to come true.
"What are you doing here?" she manages to ask – softly, almost a whisper.
"I think you know, otherwise your heart wouldn't be beating so quickly…" comes the reply.
She is tired, so tired, and realizes that fighting this is impossible. Still, she tries to untangle herself from his grasp, but he has her pinned so roughly, so intimately against the door that she can barely move. Her small hands punching at his chest, trying to push him off of her, seem to provoke him more.
"Mmm, you know how I like it when you get rough with me," he growls, slipping his hand into the waistband of her underwear and rubbing it roughly against her most sensitive feminine parts.
There is nothing pleasurable about this experience for Elena, and she begins to sob in earnest, still fighting as hard as possible against him. She closes her eyes, wishing that somehow, she could communicate to Damon that she needs help, but she knows it is impossible.
Even with the training she has been doing with Alaric, she knows she is no match for Stefan. As she watches his eyes darken and feels the change taking place within him, she closes her eyes, bracing herself for the penetration of his fangs against her neck…