DISCLAIMER: I don't own vampire diaries. Nope. Nope. Nope. -- *sad face* =[

SORRY!! I've been really busy the past few weeks so this isn't the best chapter but I hope you like it anyway & I'll get the next one out ASAP! It's just I have a 5 page paper due in a few days that I haven't even started yet so I'm in current freak out mode. -_-'

Damon knew he could have stopped her from leaving. A simple look into her eyes and twist of her will and she would be in his arms, prepared to spend the night with him. Instead he watched her out the window, watched as she ran away from the boarding house and into the calming night storm.

He needed a drink.

"Two for two." He muttered. He left the room to go to his own where a half-full bottle of bourbon on his nightstand. Just where he left it of course. Damon popped open the bottle and drank. The alcohol burned down his throat but didn't rid him of the taste of her.

He would drink until it did.

Damon never liked rejection. It seemed like a cruel twist of fate that that the only women he cared truly and deeply for would treat him in such a way. The little witch was an accident. He'd wondered why he felt the need to come back the second he stepped out of the Mystic Falls town border. The relentless magnetic pull he felt wherever he went, no matter how far he went. He'd always chalked it up to the fact that Elena was here. Katherine's doppelganger. The thought that had remained in the back of his head was: If something happens to Katherine there was always Elena.

Then the witch. His witch.

It had to be her in danger. It had to be her calling for help.

There are few times he had gotten truly angry. If it hadn't been for the fact she was right there, that she was watching, he would have killed that man in a second. It would have been all too easy.

"Believe it or not Bonnie, I want to protect you." He said oh so long ago. Back then it was just because he needed that damned necklace. She had been a toy just like that Caroline girl except…not. He could never bring himself to compel her even though at times it would've saved him a lot of hell if he did. She intrigued him the way she could be scared or innocent one minute and a fiery ball of determination. It was frustrating. It was amazing. It was Bonnie.

She didn't play games with him like Katherine did. Don't get him wrong, he enjoyed manipulating people just as much as she did but he despised being on the receiving end. That, coupled with the realization of what he was feeling for Bonnie, he never wished to see her again. He didn't know what he'd do if he did though.

"Really?"

Damon turned to see his brother standing in the doorway and his eyes darkened. He couldn't believe his guard had slipped and he quickly barricaded the thoughts in his mind so his brother could no longer read them. He had to admit he was surprised though. With Stefan's diet he could barely keep up his own walls to his mind much less get past others.

"You tell me how much of that you heard or I will make you regret sneaking up on me brother."

"Just the part about you having feelings for Bonnie. I'm shocked. I figured you had a one track mind where that part of you was concerned." Stefan walked over to him and Damon let him take the bottle out of his hands.

Damon watched Stefan as he took a quick drink from the bottle. "I see this is big news for you. As for Katherine, I'm done with her." As he said it it hit him that that was true. He was done with her. Totally and completely done. He never thought it would happen that he could just let her go like that. When he thought of her he just felt nothing but annoyance

"And Bonnie?" Stefan asked.

"Honestly?" He shrugged and then smirked as he thought of the kiss again. "I don't know."