A/N: Enjoy!

Chapter 15

He wasn't sure why he was drawn to the car at first. He just knew someone inside smelled delicious and that there was more than one person in the car. He was so hungry he couldn't see straight, his vision was tilted, angled, and giving him a migraine. He needed to feed and soon. This car was the closest available food. He stepped in front of it at the last moment, bracing himself for the impact.

He had expected the car to spin, he hadn't expected the flip. Not that it mattered. His nose brought him away from the car to a spot where a girl was crumpled into heap on the grass. Something about her made him hesitate. When she sat up, he took a step closer so she would see him. He always thought a fearful dinner was the best dinner.

Damon paused when she smiled at him. Why was this girl smiling at death? Most people cringed in fear or backed away or begged for their life. This girl was...smiling? A nagging thought began pulling strings in the back of his head but he stubbornly ignored it. He needed to eat now so he could think later. He reached down to grab her.

When she backed away his instinct had been to compel her not to fight. He like them fearful, but docile. He was momentarily surprised when she didn't relax immediately.

"You can't compel me." She said. "Just stop, Damon."

She knew who he was. That nagging thought began tugging harder but his anger at being denied boiled over. He grabbed her and ran her across the street where he could pin her against a tree. Normally he wouldn't care about hurting someone at that point but something was keeping him gentle. Strong but gentle.

"I don't need to compel you." He seethed, getting close to her face. He was hungry and angry and starting to feel nauseous. If he didn't eat soon...

"You never have." She replied softly. What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she scared and how did she know about being compelled?

"Stop talking." He insisted, shaking his head to rid himself of his confusion. He had one purpose here; food. Of course, she didn't listen to him.

"No, Damon. You have to fight this. Whatever's going on, you have to fight it." She insisted. "This isn't you."

How would she know...he knew her. He knew this girl. The realization hit him like a freight train. He...he liked her. Wait, he was a vampire, he didn't like people. He needed to shut her up.

"I'm a vampire." He reminded her, shoving her a little harder with the word 'vampire.' "This is nature."

The girl shook her head. "Vampire or not, this isn't you. You love me, you wouldn't do this to me. You have to fight it." A tear fell as he squeezed her arm painfully. "For me, Damon."

He stared in her face, trying to remember. He was a vampire, how could he love a human? That just spelled out tragedy, whatever way you looked at it. But those thoughts were still tugging strings in his head; the thoughts that he'd been pushing away, that nagging feeling, was slowly making itself known.

He did know her, and what she said was true. Everything came flooding back at once in an overwhelming wave of realization. What in the hell was he doing? He was about to kill one of three people in the world that actually gave him a chance, one of the three people that he actually cared about. Why was his hunger so strong that moments ago, none of that mattered? He finally realized they had all been right, something was wrong with him.

At his moment of epiphany, Emma slumped over in his arms, her head falling to his shoulder. She had passed out. Damon, his shock at his actions fading slowly, figured that between his act here and the car accident she was probably in bad shape. If he didn't get her to a hospital, she might die.

He also knew who else was in the car and neither girl had moved since he'd been talking to Emma. Damon was torn; he wanted to check on Elena and Jenna but he had to get Emma to the hospital.

"Go." Stefan's voice was, for once, a relief. "They're fine, I just checked them. We'll meet you there."

Damon didn't question him, why he was there, or even what he meant. He gathered Emma in his arms and just went, like a bat out of hell, toward the hospital.

She was fine. Bumps, bruises, scratches, and a concussion but nothing permanent or life threatening. She was sleeping in her room; Damon stood outside, a few feet away, watching her through the window.

"You should go in there." Stefan said, appearing at his shoulder.

Damon was chewing on a fingernail, a nervous habit he hadn't done in decades. "No."

"It's not your fault-"

"I almost killed her." Damon hissed in his most menacing whisper. He felt guilty but he didn't want anyone to overhear them. "I don't need to be near her."

"She needs you to be near her." Stefan countered, watching as Jake was led into her room. "I'm the only one who knows, besides her, what happened; no one will deny you the right to be by her bedside."

"Do I have that right?" Damon turned, glaring at his brother. "After all I did."

"I told you what happened. I figured it out after you left in search of 'dinner.' Instead of all this self loathing, what we need to do is figure out who spiked your blood."

Damon gave a humorless chuckle. "Guarana. Some one was going to an extreme. I know who it was."

Guarana was an herb used mostly for teenage girls wanting to lose weight and highly unknown to most people. For vampires, it had the opposite effect; it made them more hungry and more violent. It had been the reason for Damon's temper flare ups and his out of control binges. Someone had dosed his home supply, which meant someone knew where it was and what it would do to him. It wasn't an accident.

Stefan had figured it out. A trace of the ground up herb had been spilled on the floor by the freezer. He had searched most of the night but had finally found the trace amounts, tasted them, and realized what was happening. His brother was being poisoned. And he was about to hurt someone.

After Damon had dropped Emma off in the emergency room, he had sat in the waiting room until Stefan came. Damon wasn't waiting; he really didn't know what else to do. He hated himself for almost having killed the one person he had loved since Katherine; he hated himself for losing control. Wallowing in self pity was usually Stefan's forte but tonight Damon was reveling in it.

Stefan had finally shown up with the other girls. While they were being treated he explained to a listless Damon what he had found. Guarana was a powerful poison to vampires; Damon couldn't be blamed for his actions.

"You know who it was." Stefan half asked, half stated. "Who?"

Damon didn't answer. He merely looked away from his brother back to Emma in her bed. She was stirring and Jake was holding her hand. "I'm not going in there."

"She would want you to." Stefan insisted.

"I think she wouldn't." Damon replied coldly. "But I'm not going anywhere. I am pretty sure whoever did this to me wanted me to do exactly what I did tonight. She's in danger."

"Someone's been poisoning you so you would kill Emma? That sounds-"

"Crazy, I know. But it would destroy both of us, especially when I came out of the haze and realized what I had done." Damon sighed. "And who do we know who is that crazy and devious..."

Both brothers replied at the same time. "Katherine."

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