I didn't see either of them again until the Saturday of the following week, my boyfriend had gone fishing with a friend or I had just been shopping for something to eat that night. The moment I started walking down the short narrow road I could see the sleek black Ferrari parked outside the house, especially as there weren't any other cars parked near it which was unusual for a Saturday. Sure enough he was leaning against his car with the carrier bag on the floor between his feet; his face was an unreadable blank mask. I couldn't tell if the books had pissed him off or if they hadn't bothered him until I got closer and smiled at him.
His eyebrows drew close together in a frown, not a good sign. Neither were the sunglasses that hid his eyes, I took a deep breath and went up to him. "So what did you think then?"
"I think that you need to broaden your reading." Short and sharp, he was pissed alright. "I'm not lending out any of my books on dinosaurs, especially not my copy of Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, or The Dinosauria." He raised an eyebrow and handed me back the carrier bag with all the books in, "why don't you tell me why you still have them on your bookshelf? I would have thought that you would have grown out of them by now." It was no use in trying to explain to him how the female mind worked, so I just came out with "for my own purposes." How I managed to keep a straight face I'll never know, but then again there wasn't any reaction from Damon, no clue as to if he recognised his own words being quoted back at him.
"How did Stefan react?"
"Why does my brother's reaction matter to you so much? If you have any feelings for him you're wasting your time." I had to laugh at that which made him look even more furious with me.
"You're kidding me right? I have a boyfriend who I am madly in love with and I have no intentions of going after Stefan or you or anyone else. I just didn't want you two to become bitter enemies again because of me,"
Damon was still glaring at me so I carried on. "Bedsides, I asked you just now what you thought of the books and you just started insulting me, so if you're quite finished I can go and have my lunch." I turned around and walked towards my front door, but his voice stopped me in tracks.
"Okay, fine. Everything that's been written down actually happened- except for the repentant bit, Elena's powers and for me setting Stefan up for those annoying creatures. That bit is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard."
"Well thank the gods for that. If you'd have told me that you actually did repent I think I would have slapped you." He looked at me with surprise and I felt my cheeks flame up, "you're one of the only reasons that I keep reading." He threw back his head and laughed long and loudly, my knees suddenly felt very weak.
"Ah, I see. I have a fan it seems." He grinned at me, but this time I met his grin with one of my own. "The great Damon Salvatore should have his own fan club; you have hundreds of fans that I know about through the net who write fan fiction, but I bet there are hundreds more who don't write."
"What's fan fiction?"
"Exactly what it says on the tin, fans write stories based around their favourite books, films, cartoons or TV series. There are probably over 500 different stories about these particular books and most of them are about you."
"Really? Well you'll have to invite me in to show me won't you?" I laughed and shook my head. "Uh uh. Besides, I don't have internet access here. Just go onto and , give me your hand." I took a pen from my bag and wrote the names on the back of his hand which he seemed to find most amusing. "You'll have to let me know what you think, and what ones you like," I was playing with fire but I couldn't resist it, I had to keep getting closer to the flames.
"Possibly."
My turn to laugh, like a giddy schoolgirl with her first crush.
"Well I have to go and start cooking some food for when my boyfriend gets home, I guess I might see you around then."
Oh I knew it was a bad and dangerous game to play, looking in his eyes you could almost see that he'd been around for very long time and that he wasn't scared to snap your neck if you even so much as breathed near him if he was in a bad mood.
"Oh I've no doubt about that. Elizabeth." He grinned at me and got in his car, I couldn't see him after that because the windows were blacked out but he drove over the little bridge very fast leaving me standing there aghast. I hadn't told him my name let alone my full name so how did he know?
I shook myself out of my daze and went inside to cook dinner. I put the shopping on the worktop in the kitchen and took a quick peak inside the cover of The Awakening; sure enough there was an unreadable squiggle inside the front cover that you could just make out the letter D at the beginning.
A couple of days later, on my day off I took a walk in Bushy Park with my new camera. I was determined to walk the three miles or so to Hampton Court Palace and take some photos of the Diana Fountain- built in honour of the Roman Goddess of the hunt, and of the red deer whose ancestors were introduced by King Henry VIII to this his royal hunting ground.
I stopped off in the woodland gardens, no dogs, no dear no bikes and a very pretty ornamental lake. As I leant over the wooden railing looking to see if I could spot any of the fish, a voice to my right said "don't lean too far you might fall in and we wouldn't want your pretty top to be ruined. Not with such an appealing neckline." I shot bolt upright and turned to see Damon half leaning against the railing with an amused smirk on his face; he knew he'd startled me. Before I could say anything back though another voice came from behind me, "just ignore him. He won't hurt you, I promise." I turned and grinned at Stefan.
"You're not going to tell me his bark is worse then his bite, are you?" Damon threw back his head and laughed; Stefan grimaced at the pun but still managed a chuckle. "Are you waiting for someone?" he asked, I shook my head. "No. Just testing out my new camera," there was something about Stefan that made me feel very shy around him. Perhaps it was because he was so sweet compared to his brother.
"Good. Would you mind if we went and sat down? We need to talk, nothing's wrong but I think you might find it interesting."
We found a bench under one of the chestnuts and I sat down at one end. Damon immediately parked himself next to me, any closer and he would have to sit on my lap, earning a glare (and rightly so) from Stefan.
"Damon showed me those two websites about fan fiction," began Stefan. My eyes widened in panic, what would he have made of the slash fics? And what about some of the other stories where Elena left him for Damon? Stefan just smiled and said "while I don't particularly like some of them, I'm just glad that most of it on there seems to be about Damon," who promptly flashed one of his charming smiles at me. "I think I might track some of them down you know, some of those stories are quite amusing."
"Anyway. As I was about to say, as you're more familiar with the sites and the people than we are, we wanted to ask you if you wouldn't mind being our eyes and ears so to speak about anything new that goes on, like a new book or something like that." I looked at Damon and then at Stefan, they were actually serious. "Of course I will! Why would I say no?" I could have sworn Stefan winked at me when he said "well it would mean that you would need my e-mail address and cell number,"
"You can have my e-mail address as well Elizabeth, you would have to let me know if you write anymore stories about me," said Damon. Stefan looked surprised, Damon looked amused and I went bright red, it was one of those I want the ground to open up now and swallow me please. "You write fan fiction?! Dare I ask which ones?"
"Used to, a few years ago now but only a couple about Damon," I felt myself going more and more red by the second. "Can I ask why I wasn't in them?"
If it wasn't one winding me up it was the other, Damon was enjoying this as well, watching every muscle on my face which was very unnerving. "You were in one little brother, she just didn't finish it. Do you think I should influence her to finish it? We could come up with an ending between the two of us and make her write it."
"Oh now you two are being mean!" I exclaimed. "There I am doing you two a favour and then you go and start to be mean and horrible to me." Both of them just laughed as if to prove a point, then Damon suddenly jumped up from the bench and took a photo of me before I had the chance to blink and I suddenly realised that he had my new camera.
"Let's give your camera a try shall we?" he said as he took a picture of Stefan, who was looking a little annoyed at Damon's behaviour. "Okay then, you can take one of Stefan and I. Then I'll take one of you two together." I suggested as Stefan moved down the bench and put his arm over my shoulders for the shot, "how about I take one of you and Damon together?"
Before I could agree Damon had taken the picture and was standing in front of Stefan, "I'm always happy to have my photo taken with my favourite fan." Stefan and I rolled our eyes at each other, Stefan got up but Damon reached out his hand and pulled me to my feet, then without warning he was standing behind me and both hands on my waist and I could feel his breath on my neck which was making all the hairs on the back stand on end. As Stefan held the camera up an image suddenly formed in my mind of a pose Damon wanted me to strike and I had to bite my lip to prevent me from grinning and giving the game away.
"Is it on the count of 3 Stefan?" I asked.
"Yes, what's wrong Damon?" His face suddenly serious, I turned slightly and saw Damon's head bent down.
"He's just re-tying my dress. My bow's come undone, sorry." Damon chuckled quietly behind my back; Stefan relaxed for a second then held the camera up again. I leant back slightly and heard Stefan's count of one, two and then on three I let my head drop back exposing my neck and closed my eyes, I felt Damon's breath on my neck and in that split second I heard the shutter sound on the camera.
Damon's hands went from round my waist; I stood up properly and grinned at Stefan who was standing right in front of me. "What was that?! Are you trying to get us exposed?!" He glared at me, his eyes had turned a hard dark green and then he turned the gaze to Damon as he said it.
"It was only a joke Stefan, people take silly pictures all the time and there's no one near us at the moment. If there were then I wouldn't have gone along with it, but I'm sorry if I upset you." Stefan sighed and shook his head, "you're not sorry, I saw that grin on your face so don't deny it. You thought it was funny."
He handed the camera back to me and I gave him sheepish smile, I pressed play and looked in amazement at the picture that had just been taken, Damon peered over my shoulder and a sharp breath in my ear meant that I wasn't the only one.
"Okay, you were blasting us for being reckless and irresponsible a minute ago but you still take a photo showing just Damon's mouth about to bite down on my neck," I accused Stefan. "There's no heads or faces in this picture, just his mouth and my neck. You utter hypocrite!" Stefan just laughed and took the camera back, "serves you both right! Come on, if my brother promises to behave then I'll take a better photo of both of you." I turned to Damon who seemed very amused by the whole kafuffle, but nodded. So this time he just stood next to me with his arm around my shoulders and we smiled for the camera.
Stefan handed back my camera to me and produced a piece of paper with two beautifully written e-mail addresses and a mobile number on it. "I'm sticking around here for a while, the girls come back next week from Scotland, so if you need me there's my mobile number okay?" so I smiled and said thank you.
Damon seemed quite bored now and said to me; "my brother's given you my e-mail address, if there are any new developments with the books then let me know," then he turned on his heel and walked away.