The knock on the door made Elena jump out of her bones her mind operating on overdrive; she quickly yanked the door open breathing out a sigh of relief.

"You just can't stay away from me can you?" he stood there in his leather jacket a relaxed smile playing on his lips as he leaned his shoulder against the door frame. Without a word in reply, she grasped a tight hold of his jacket pulling him into the house and shutting the door behind her. "Well, this is a lot racier than I had expected."

When she failed to return his smile all traces of humor and playfulness left his expression. "What's wrong?" he asked stepping towards her and placing a hand tentatively on her waist, his expression tightened momentarily. "I can smell blood, are you bleeding?!"

Stepping away from his touch, she started walking towards the kitchen. "I'm fine, I've patched it up. Sorry I should have told you over the phone; I wasn't thinking."

She quickly recounted the events of the night right down to the cut electricity which she had later found out to have been shut from the main box outside her house. He listened his eyes widening and hardening. He looked at the body of the large male in his late thirties lying across her kitchen floor, quickly side stepping her, he bent down to check the mans' pulse before turning to give her a long surprised look. "He's still alive?!"

"Well, he's human. I wasn't going to kill him, I just pressed on his coronary artery long enough to deprive his brain of Oxygen so that he fell unconscious. He will be okay in half an hour, you just need to help me get rid of him," she told him tightly crossing her arms tightly across her chest.

Standing himself upright a look of anxiety crossed over his features, Elena didn't remember the last time she'd seen him remotely worried—in fact, she never had. "That means they've found you, Elena. Dammit!" he slammed his fist on the kitchen counter in anger making her jump slightly.

"Hey!" she stepped towards him reaching out to touch his face, before letting her hand drop awkwardly to her side again. "I can handle myself, they don't scare me. I just don't understand why they would send a human after me when they know that there's no contest even with my hands tied."

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration looking at her his blue eyes dark with something unreadable. "The aim wasn't to hurt you, they know better than that. They're trying to unnerve you, show you that you're not safe even in your own home. Vampires may not get in, but you're not safe from those under their influence. They will wait you out."

Smiling slowly she shrugged hoping she looked braver than she felt. "Let them bring it, they can give it their best shot. I'll be waiting."

He took two long strides and stood inches away from her, so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body towards her. He took her face into his hands caressing her cheek. "You don't have to play pretend with me," he told her softly. Self-consciously she flinched away from his touch, Caroline's words ringing freshly in her mind.

He frowned his forehead creasing. "What's wrong? I thought we were past all this."

"We are—we were—it's just that Caroline knows and you should have seen the way she looked at me," she told him averting her gaze and tucking her long hair behind her ear.

His eyes further darkened as a twinge of annoyance passed across his features. "Judgy little thing, your friend."

"She's just following what she believes," she retorted slightly defensively feeling protective over her best friend.

Leaning towards her, he lifted her chin to make her look at him directly in the eye and her heart skipped a beat, his touch electrifying through her body. "And what do you believe?"

She turned her head slightly stepping backwards away from his touch so that she could think clearly. Whenever she was around him it was as if all sense had left her, she felt consumed by her feeling for him, fire igniting through every fibre of her body making her feel more alive than she had ever been in her whole entire life and while the feeling was good—it frightened her to feel this way about anyone, it gave them way too much power over her heart.

"No, no way. We are not doing this, don't push me away. I'm not saying that the initial chase wasn't fun, but we're past this. We're not going to move backwards," he gave her a long look and as her facial features softened he stepped towards her grabbing at her waist and pulling her closer to him. "That's more like it, you and I both know I'm irresistible," he joked but his heart wasn't in it, he looked at her with apprehension and momentarily she could see just how much he cared about her.

Placing her hands around his neck she pulled him towards her inhaling his scent; wood mixed with mint. It was heavenly. "I believe that there's nothing wrong about this," she breathed after a long moment flicking her eyes to his.

Grinning he lifted her, placing her on the kitchen counter. "This is becoming a habit," he told her leaning to brush his lips with hers but before they got any further there was a soft sound from beside them. Groaning, Damon pulled away from her turning to look at the man who had woken up groggily with a scared and a confused expression on his face. "Can't we just ignore him," he grumbled rolling his eyes before turning back to kiss her again.

Giggling she pushed him away, her hand grabbing a fistful of his shirt with a playful smile on her lips. "Not a chance Romeo," she jumped off the counter moving towards the man yelping with surprise as Damon thwacked at her bottom. Turning to face him she pointed her index finger at him, giving what she hoped to be her best disapproving—angry face but failed to keep the smile off her face. What could she say, she was insanely happy despite the circumstances and deep down, at the pit of her stomach she felt guilty for her happiness something constantly reminding her that she was going against everything she had ever been taught.

Ten minutes later, the man was freshly compelled to forget all that had happened that evening and sent home to his family—wherever that was. Damon strolled towards her his expression bad-boy perfection and mischievous.

"Now, where did we leave things?"

Moving backwards away from him she gave a slow smile shaking her head at him. "I was going to sleep, I have to go hand my assignment in first thing tomorrow and we wouldn't want all of our studying efforts from tonight to go to waste."

He groaned loudly looking as miserable as she felt. "Five minutes." He moved extremely fast using his supernatural skills; suddenly he was standing before her pulling her towards him.

"No," she said firmly placing a hand on his chest to keep the distance between them, she knew the moment she got too close to him she would succumb and pull him closer to her.

"Ugh, you're no fun," he told her pulling a comical sad face making her laugh out loud, quickly she planted a firm kiss on his lips before stepping away from his reach. He rolled his eyes before making his way to the door, pulling it open he gave her one last look before disappearing into the dark midnight.


The moment he left a cold chill of anxiety and fear washed over her, she was home alone she realised and there was nothing stopping the vampires from sending someone else after her. She may be stronger than most humans, whatever the gender, but she was no good asleep and her father had sent her a message stating that he wouldn't be back until the morning. Quickly making her way to her room she pulled out a couple of weapons placing them on her bedside table. There was no way she was going to get any sleep she realised miserably, every minor sound making the hairs at the back of her neck stand up with fear and adrenaline. They'd won she thought angrily. Her she was, feeling unsafe in her own home. A sound downstairs made her jump to her feet; grabbing the first thing she could see which turned out to be a baseball bat. Soundlessly she crept across her room standing behind her bedroom she held her breath and waited, holding the baseball bat above her head ready swing at the intruder. The door to her bedroom creaked open, the moment the figure stepped into her line of vision she swung as hard as she could. Just in time, they ducked, a loud crash filling the room as the metal bat connected with the door.

"WHAT THE HELL!" the intruder yelled in surprise. Switching the lights on she was greeted by the sight of Damon looking at her with his eyes wild with surprise; her mouth gaped open before she helplessly started giggling hysterically tears streaming down her cheeks.

"You should have seen your face," she laughed wiping her face with the back of her hands. His eyes flashed with something dangerous as he grabbed her making her yelp and squirm under his touch as he placed her on the bed and tickled her—which he knew she hated. "I'm sorry," she screamed in between laughter rolling to her side.

"A metal baseball bat, seriously? I thought you weren't planning on killing anyone tonight!"

"Look, a girl has her limits—I was tired and ready for some major business. I didn't care," she admitted looking up at him as he had trapped her body beneath his own.

"That's my girl," he looked at her approvingly using his elbows to prop himself up but she could feel his body touching hers. Her body flushed with desire at his words and she took a sharp intake of breath fighting her urge to pull him down for a kiss.

"What are you doing back here; I thought I'd sent you away."

"Well I figured if you had any intentions of getting any sleep tonight you'd need someone to keep an eye for the big baddies who could be lurking. I know what you're like, your hunters drive won't let you sleep if you feel unsafe," he told her as if it was the most casual thing in the world but inside her heart swelled and a part of her silently cursed him—she didn't need any more reason to fall even more deeply for him, another part of her wished that Caroline could see this side of him and perhaps then she would understand but she knew the truth, her friend would never understand this. It was supposed to be wrong—a hunter and a vampire, but nothing had ever felt more right to her.

"You don't need to stay and keep a lookout," she told him, silently grateful for his offer as he was completely right. She really needed to sleep if she had any intention of concentrating on her lessons before her big exam and the only way she would was if she felt completely safe.

He took a long look at her shaking his head at her. "Shut up," he told her softly moving from on top of her and a pang of disappointment spread through her. "Sleep. Now." He got up and made his way across the room to where the chair was beside her desk; taking a seat he gave her a stern determined look to which she responded to with a roll of an eye and a nod. Pulling herself off her bed, she grabbed her night wear and made her way into the bathroom where she got changed into her shorts and a tank top. Dragging a brush across her wild hair she took a quick look in the mirror shrugging back at her reflection—the girl that stared back at her looked exactly the same as she always had but she felt different—happier than she had been, giddy. What was it about him that made her feel so delirious? Dismissing her thoughts she walked back into the room feeling shy and bare; he looked at her, his eyes darkening and something unreadable crossing his features. She jumped into her bed pulling her duvet over her as she shuffled to lie on her back, staring up at the ceiling.

"Do vampires sleep?" she asked after a moment, intrigued. The thought had never crossed her mind before.

"Yes. Now go to sleep."

"Can they have children?"

"Why? Are you getting ideas?" he replied, she could tell from the tone of his voice that he had a stupid smirk on his face.

Sitting up in her bed, she grabbed a small pillow beside her and hurled it at him as hard as she could, he simply caught it between his hands placing it on his lap. "No," she retorted finally feeling herself blush. "Shut up. Why do you enjoy making things as awkward as possible?"

"Why do you get easily embarrassed?" he asked with a wide smile.

Huffing, she lay back down and rolled on to her side. "You're not supposed to answer a question with a question."

"And you're not supposed to be asking any questions, period. You're supposed to be sleeping."

"I can't sleep," she admitted truthfully, not only was the hunter in her wide awake and alert—her mind also kept drifting back to the argument she had shared with Caroline, her heart heavy with worry that she would end up losing one of the most important people in her life.

She heard him shuffling across the room; he drew the covers beside her bed. Shrugging his jacket and shoes off, he climbed in soundlessly and she didn't protest. He lay on his back staring up at the ceiling but she lay facing him, watching him closely, trying to learn every detail about him.

"Stop staring."

She smiled to herself, but didn't make a single move to look away from him. They lay in the silence for a while neither of them saying anything.

"She loves you…Caroline. She won't stay angry at you forever," he said after a moment.

Her heart stirred in her chest as she stared at him, surprised. "How do you do that?" she asked him softly hating the way her voice trembled. "How do you know exactly what I'm thinking?"

He shifted, turning to lie on his left side so that he was also facing her. "Magic," he smiled his blue eyes shining like a bright light in the dark.

She breathed out heavily letting her mind drift; nobody, not even Matt whom she had known all of her life was able to read her the way he did and the thought scared her slightly. Sometimes, she felt as if she were a book wide open, her emotions all out in display.

He reached out and pulled her closer to him, her head fitting perfectly into the crook of his shoulder. She tensed for a moment before relaxing against him and placing her hand on his chest. She liked the feel of his steady heart beat against the palm of her hand. Feeling brave, she raised her neck and placed a soft, firm kiss on his lips. She felt his heart pummelling more rapidly against her hand and smiled to herself as she lay back down against him.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked his tone genuinely curious.

"Your heart raced when I kissed you—I guess I just love the effect I have on you," she admitted after beat, drawing circles against his chest. She had no idea where this courageous aspect of her had come from; perhaps it was the fact that tonight had been the first time she had realised just how much he cared about her. Up until now, she hadn't been able to read him, but the way he looked at her when he thought she had been hurt suggested to her that he felt about her exactly the way she did about him.

"If only you knew just how much you affect me," he told her his hands softly running through her hair making her eyes drape closer together. "Now, sleep before I admit to something I'll regret," he added softly and those were the last words she heard as she drifted deeper into sleep, feeling more comfortable than she had in a very long time.

If only she knew what was about to come...


Authors note: This actually took quite a long time so I hope you enjoyed it. Do you see how long it is? Do you know what you can do to thank me? Review, review, revieeeeeew and I will love you all until the end of time. Oh, and do enjoy this happy scene before it all goes up in flames :))