"Don't flatter yourself Elizabeth. I left it with you because as long as you had that ring, you wouldn't do anything else to break up my brother's happy home. I'm leaving now, but I want you to give this to my brother for me tomorrow." He handed me a letter that was written in Latin, I nodded and put it on my beside table. If I wasn't feeling so numb and drowsy I would have cried, he was leaving for good and I'd probably never see him again."I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen." Damon's temper suddenly exploded "sorry? Have you any idea of the pain that you've caused my brother? If you can't handle the fact that I'm a vampire and I'll never be like you then you're not who I thought you were."

Damon has always been one of those individuals who only has to say one little thing for me to explode and no matter how drugged up I was, his comments penetrated through my drugged up haze and hit the bulls eye.

"Is that why you think I tried to kill myself? How can you say that? Yes, it really upset me that you massacred my neck, but that's not the reason why I tried to kill myself Damon.

You know what? All I ever wanted was to be friends with you and your brother, but all I ever seem to be doing is passing messages between you and Stefan; which funnily enough, caused half of my bloody problems in the first place!"

I jumped out of bed and grabbed the note that he'd given to me, tears welling up in my eyes. "I've really come to think of you two as my brothers but I was wrong wasn't I? I'm just your plaything and whenever I have a row with you, no matter who's fault it is I end up leaving and then when you decide you're fed up of just being with Stefan and the girls I'm allowed to come back."

Damon's eyes widened with shock, I shoved the note at him- "take your fucking note and give it to your brother yourself! I wish I'd never met either of you!" I burst into tears but Damon just stood there.

"You want to know why I wish I was dead Damon? Because up until recently I had two wonderful friends who were like brothers to me, a great place to live, two girls who were my best friends and a boyfriend who I thought was my soul mate- then I have an argument with you and suddenly it's all taken away from me. You hate me, Stefan wants me out of the house and Lee can't take the whole moving back and forth anymore so he dumps me. If that makes me a pathetic individual who can't cope then so be it, I'll be out of all of your lives as soon as I can and I don't want any financial help from either of you- that way you can't add gold-digger to my long list of faults!"

Damon grabbed my chin and forced it upwards so that I was forced to look into his eyes, he frowned and then released it, he sighed and looked over my head as though he was contemplating something.

"No one has ever thought of you as a gold digger, don't be so over dramatic Elizabeth. I started to become too much like my brother when I was here and I don't take kindly to being told what I can and cannot do by a human, I've become too attached to you and I don't like it. My brother thinks a great deal of you and doesn't wish to see any harm come to you, the only way to make sure that you didn't try and complete the job you started, was by trusting you with my ring, I've never done that to any human and I do not intend to do it again."

Somewhere inside my heart I felt a feeling as though a knife had been put through my chest and then twisted. "Okay, well just take care won't you and let Stefan know that you're okay occasionally," I turned away from him as the tears threatened and put a dressing gown on over my night dress. I heard an amused humph, I turned around to see Damon looking at a picture that had been taken just after we first met- the one where Damon had his arm around my shoulders but we both had massive grins on our faces, "my brother takes a good photo, not as good as the one we had done in Atlanta."

"No, the one of the two of us in Atlanta is my favourite. I felt like an actress at an awards ceremony in the dress that you bought me and with my hair and make up done." Damon put the picture down and smiled at me sadly, "you did look stunning in that dress and coupled with that perfume you were good enough to eat, you have no idea how much I wanted to taste your sweet blood again." I stared at him in surprise and shock, he met my gaze with something like shock and panic on his face, "forget I said that Elizabeth. I will bid you farewell and take my leave of you now."

"No! Damon, wait! Please!" I cried, he had the window open and was about to jump but I caught hold of his jacket, "what?" he snarled.

"Just come back inside a minute will you? It's freezing and I'm not talking to you when you're hanging half out of my window, the neighbours might think we're having some illicit affair or something." He laughed at this and climbed back in, closing the window behind him and once inside he turned the laugh off as quickly as it was turned on.

"Well? I don't have all night you know." I took a deep breath, I suddenly felt nervous, "I want you to have some of my blood. Call it a leaving present from me to you," he stared at me incredulously and sneered at me, "why would I want to do that? I already told you I'm not getting involved with you anymore."

"You said that you liked my blood and it's the only thing that I can give you to say thank you for all you've done for me. Besides, when I gave it you that night you had a fight with Stefan and turned up at my flat, I actually quite enjoyed it." Damon looked at me as though I was something nasty that he'd trodden on and next thing I knew he was gone and the window was wide open, I shut the window and decided to go downstairs to make myself a drink as I didn't fancy staying in my room.

As I boiled the kettle a voice behind me said softly "let me guess, he collected his ring and he's gone for good," I just nodded my head. Stefan hated girls crying except Elena, but that was only because he knew how to comfort Elena and he felt awkward around anyone other girl.

"Oh Lizzie. You were in love with him weren't you?" I started sobbing with my face in my hands, hands turned me round gently by the shoulders and held me tight against his chest as I cried

"You don't deserve my brother, you know. You're too good for him," I laughed at that much to Stefan's confusion. "Where have I heard that line before?" I grinned at him and then the realisation hit him, he laughed and rolled his eyes, "you really are beyond all help, you know that?" this time we both laughed and it made me feel better.

I made my tea and took it upstairs to drink it, Stefan gave me a brotherly kiss on the head and told me that the girls were coming back from America in the next few days so they'd make sure I forget about him.

I smiled wearily and wished him goodnight. I went into my room and put my tea on my bed side table, suddenly a voice behind me said very softly "I've changed my mind. I think I'll take you up on your offer after all," I whipped round wide-eyed to see Damon standing behind me so close I automatically took a step back.

He smiled gently and reached up with this right hand, placing it on my cheek and brushing the wetness just below my eyes oh so softly with his thumb. Then he bent down and kissed me full on the lips, I felt emotionally raw and vulnerable but I wanted this and he knew it, so I returned the kiss and I felt his arm slide from my face down to my waist where he pulled me against him, still kissing me. I put my arms round his waist and the kiss intensified, then he kissed my cheek with butterfly kisses all the way down until he reached my neck, then he stopped and drew back.

"This won't change anything Elizabeth, I'm still going," my heart sank but I forced a smile. "I've already said that it's a leaving present," he stared at me with those coal black eyes with white lights in them that seemed to resemble stars, then he kissed me more passionately this time and placed one hand behind my head and gently pulled it back, then he struck.

It was so quick that all I felt was a sharp sting which resembled the sting of a needle when you had an injection, the pain ceased almost immediately and I began to relax so much that I was almost in a trance. The weirdest feeling came over me, it was an intense pleasure and need, but there was love mixed in with it as well. Then I hit another layer, sadness, loneliness, fear and anticipation; but it wasn't fear of this, it was fear of being hurt and of things being too good to be true.

I had the strangest feeling that these were Damon's feelings, he stopped and pulled away from me. I sat weakly down on the bed and he sat next to me with one arm around my shoulder so my head rested on his shoulder, "Damon, I…" but he put his finger on my lips to silence me.

"You should get some rest Elizabeth, you'll be very weak and languid tomorrow." I sighed, I felt peaceful, calm and happy, I didn't want to move but Damon got up and walked over to the chair where he had put his jacket.