A Lover Scorned
3
"Were you listening?" Bonnie asked, her voice so devoid of any emotion that even a vampire could not make out what she was thinking. She went on in that same wintry voice that seemed so brittle. She asked the question, but it was obvious that she already knew the answer. "Of course you were," she went on without a reply, "Are you here to tell me it's over? That's why you were outside my window, listening. You wanted me alone when you say what you are about to say..." She buried her face in her hands and began to sniffle.
"No," Damon said softly, then louder, "No! I mean, yes. Yes I was listening. But no, I did not come here to tell you it's over. It, our relationship, will never end because of me. I will love you forever, but if you should ever want to leave me I would let you. I love you, Bonnie McCullough, I love you more than even my teddy-bear of a brother could ever dream of loving Elena."
Bonnie had to admit out-loud that this made her feel a little better, though not quite all the way.
He held her hand in his and caressed it with the most gentle of touches, his power seeping into her through her skin. He reached into his breast pocket and retrieved something from it that gleamed brightly in the artificial light overhead. "I've known that I love you since the first moment we met, do you remember that? I do. I will remember it as the first moment that I knew love."
She felt the corners of her mouth twist upwards and she did not fight the smile when it came.
He kissed her smiling lips as if they were as delicate as rose petals, fragile and fragrant, "Will you do me the honour of being my wife?" he said, in that voice which would forever remind her of when it all began.
Damon's rage was not something to be taken lightly, and Stefan should know enough about his brother's character to be sure of that. Damon approached in the way of a predator; his lengthy strides across the room as languid as a lion stalking prey, his eyes as intense and cold as a starving wolf. The predator watched as his target slowly began to recoil out of fear. "Sometimes I wonder why I let you live at all... little brother," the animal snarled, "I should kill you right at this moment, instead of waiting, you know how I hate waiting. I wonder how Elena would feel if her fiancé were to just," he snapped his fingers in the air, the sound a decisive click in the silence of the mansion's parlour, "leave?"
Stefan's face changed subtly, trying to maintain the illusion that he was calm when in fact his insides were churning. Damon knew his brother well enough to know when he'd finally got his point across. It wasn't so much that he was embarrassed that he hadn't done it first, that wasn't the part that hurt him even now, it was the look on Bonnie's face when Elena made her announcement. For that, he would never forgive either of them.
"Why aren't you talking, Stefan? Cat got your tongue, or has Elena? You know the kind of torture I can serve to those who deserve it, and yet you test me again and again." He shook the limp body. "Where is Elena?"
Stefan kept silent.
"Tell me brother, tell me where she is." But there were no need for words, the answer was in his eyes. "Upstairs you say?" He said lightly, agreeably, stepping back and smiling.