A/N: Wow, thank you so much for all the reviews and the alerts and the "favoriting" of my story, it was so very much appreciated.

A special Thank you to Alexis, Ellachocolate and MaryBongiovi for being here since Chapter 1 :) Also a big thank you to Shouldabeenblonde, you totally saved me, girl! I tried to fix my mistake in this chapter ;)

To everyone else who reviewed, there is a lot of you lol, THANK YOU so much.

I will do my best to update more frequently, I keep telling myself that working 50 hrs + a week at work is too much, it interferes with my writing.

Mystic Falls – Summer 1998

It was over with Bree. Not that it had ever been something, but their little fling was over and done with. He had literally just put her in a car. He was in a rotten mood. They'd been to the old Fell's Church site, hoping maybe Bree could feel or do something to get him closer to liberating Katherine from that tomb. Nothing happened. He could blame the fact that he hadn't found the talisman or a grimoire, or any other useful information, but he chose to blame the witch. She wasn't strong enough. If he didn't need her anymore, then he didn't want her. Something that was not useful to him was not desirable.

When he focused enough, Damon was able to feel the very faint presence of vampires at the site. Bree did not. She had been hurt by his words, of course, but she had known the deal all along. She would probably forgive him, eventually. Not that he cared, but he might need her again in the future.

He stopped at the Grill long enough to get himself a bottle of Jack Daniels. Not his favorite but it had been what caught his eye first and he didn't want to linger in the overcrowded pub. Tilting the bottle and taking a long swallow, he exited through the back door, thinking he needed to get out of the town. Odds were, he would run into someone and there would be trouble. He'd rather not. Not tonight.

He walked around aimlessly for a while, melting in the shadows, staying off the main streets, slowly emptying his bottle. It was definitively not improving his mood. Something felt off. The usual vibe was missing. Not missing, it was still there, but noticeably fainter. That intrigued him, but not enough to investigate. So the powers in the town were different, it didn't have anything to do with him. Nothing was changed at Fell's Church and that was all he cared about.

He threw the empty bottle away, watching it explode in a million little glass pieces, in a satisfying loud fashion. Then he heard his name and he felt someone watching him. Looking behind him he saw a tiny silhouette on a balcony of the house across the street. He frowned, was she waving at him? He ran and jumped to the balcony and recognized little Bonnie Bennett. Again, radiantly beaming at him. There was something wrong with this child; couldn't she feel danger when she was faced with it?

She was wearing pink pajamas with bunnies on it, somebody probably thought the idea was cute; bunnies for Bonnie. He rolled his eyes; humans were so boringly predictable sometimes it sickened him. He crouched in front of the kid.

"Bonnie, get back in the house, it's not safe out here. And you shouldn't be calling out to people in the street at night."

That surprised him. He had intended to compel her back in the house or at least scare her. She lifted her big sparkling green eyes at him. Now wait a minute. Last time, he had been certain her eyes were brown, and now they were green? Had they always been? He tried to remember last year when he met her but all that really stroke his memory was her smile. And why would he even care about a witch-child's eye color? Yes, her eyes were a nice sparkling green, who cared? he certainly did not.

She took him by the hand, again taking him completely by surprise. "It's ok Damon; I'll go back to bed but only if you come in with me. Tuck me in and tell me a story? Cindy is mean and wouldn't read to me."

He shook his head. She stepped back inside the room and stared very seriously at him, her voice pleading. "Please Damon, please come in?" Well, access to the Bennett's house could come in handy one day so he walked in, to the little girl's delight. She let go of his hand, and ran to her bed, grabbing a very big and very orange teddy bear in the process. He took a moment to look around the room, wondering why he always caved in to her. For some reason, this little girl had him wrapped around her finger.

No longer fighting it he took a seat next to the bed; the sooner she was back to sleep, the sooner he would be gone. "Bonnie, how did you even know I was here?"

She cocked her head at him, thinking hard. "I just knew. I was dreaming about you and then I woke up and you were outside."

Ok, maybe that made sense; she was a witch after all, so she felt his presence. "But you know I'm dangerous, you shouldn't invite me in. I'm a bad bad man."

She shook her head and giggled. "You're not a bad man silly, you're Damon. Tell me a story?"

He groaned, there was no getting through to her. She had somehow decided that he was her friend. Maybe it was normal, and maybe all kids were naïve like that. He had no intention of hurting her so what was the harm in spending a little time with her tonight? She was strangely refreshing and her innocent energy was soothing his dark mood. "What about your parents? Do they tell you stories?"

Her smile disappeared from her face and she hugged her teddy to her chest. She whispered. "No."

Sensing there was more to this, he waited. She continued. "Daddy is always working and Cindy will not play with me, she always watches TV. Grams is nicer, but her stories are weird and scary."

He noticed she didn't speak of her mom. He assumed Cindy was the teenager he felt downstairs, the babysitter. Bonnie looked very sad and he would hate for her to cry, but he had to ask where Abby was. She shrugged. "She went to vacation. She left us. I think she didn't like me anymore."

Her voice broke and her chin started shaking. Her big green eyes filled with tears. Oddly, the sight tugged at Damon's heart. He would have liked to get the real story behind Abby's disappearance, but first he had to comfort the girl.

He leaned in and met her eyes. "Bonnie, you listen to me. It is impossible for anyone to not like you. You are a very special girl, always remember that."

She rubbed her eyes and attempted to smile. "Am I special like you?"

He hesitated. "No, we're different, but you already know that don't you?"

She nodded. "Yes, you're special. But I'm not scared of you, you're my friend."

"Bonnie, I told you I'm a bad man, I'm dangerous. We are not friends."

"But we are." She stubbornly insisted in a whiny voice. Not wanting her to cry again, he let it go. She didn't. "Damon, you are my friend. Even if you say you're not. You just said I'm special and that it's impossible to not like me, so there."

He chuckled; she was a smart little girl. "I did say that, yes. But it's different for me, I don't like anyone, I'm mean like that." Encouraged by his laugh she giggled too, bouncing on the bed. She just kept staring at him, with that stubborn little smile of hers. He threw his hands up, giving up. "Fine, how about I don't dislike you like the rest of them? Is that good enough?"

She nodded vigorously, smiling again. "Tell me a story now, and then you can leave and be angry again." He looked at her, speechless. She was too intuitive for her own good that one. "Only if you promise to stop talking."

She laid back on her pillows and smiled, her eyes on him.

Damon cleared his throat, wondering again why he was doing this.

"The story of Odette, the Swan Princess begins on a moonlight night by an enchanted lake. The prince of the entire kingdom, named Siegfried, has just been told by his queen mother that he must wed the next day, although there is no one he loves. Distraught, he wanders to a nearby lake where, under the light of the full moon, a flock of swans shake off the sky from their wings and land upon the shore. Siegfried aims his hunting bow at the first swan when suddenly, as though melting upwards in a cloud of white, a pale and beautiful maiden appears: the princess Odette. Moved by her strange and delicate face, the prince reveals himself and the two are transfixed: their love and fate now forever determined. Siegfried begs Odette to return with him the next evening, that he may announce her as his betrothed before the entire kingdom.

The sorcerer Von Rothbart, however, has overheard the vows of Siegfried and Odette, and the next night at the ball, he casts a spell over his own daughter Odile to resemble the exact features of Odette.
Seeing the face of his beloved, Siegfried immediately swears to marry her and love no other. Instantly, lightening strikes around the castle and Odile's face melts away to reveal a hideous parody of Odette's face laughing at him while her sorcerer father had transformed into his true owl form. Despairing, Siegfried flees from the castle to find his true Odette, waiting in misery for him by the lake. Together, they embrace and their tears mingle in a single stream. Now never able to be his, Odette kisses her prince and, quickly slipping out of his arms; she throws herself into the dark waters of the lake and was seen no more. Siegfried hesitates not a moment, and he too vanished below the surface at the exact same spot as his love.

When Damon was done with the story, hardly a bedtime story, considering there was no happy ending, Bonnie was asleep. She had a small smile on her lips and she was snoring softly. He made sure the door to the balcony was locked and he walked out of the house, not even worrying that the babysitter would see him.

He wanted to leave Mystic Falls, and especially this enslaving, adorably annoying little girl, behind him. He would not be coming back here anytime soon. As if he, Damon Salvatore, could ever care for a human girl.

Of course I do not own anything related to The Swan Lake. I just intend to use a lot in this story.

Please review ;)