Damon dropped Elena off one street away from where she lived to prevent any chance of them being spotted. She hopped off the car waving him goodbye before rounding the corner towards her street. She walked briskly knowing that she had a stupefied smile plastered on her face but unable to get rid of it. She greeted Mrs Jones politely—an elderly woman from the house opposite of hers who walking towards her.

"Hello sweetheart," she smiled warmly at Elena whom she had known since she was a little girl.

"Mrs Jones, are you are okay."

"I'm fine dear. Although I must ask, your father asked me to keep an eye on the house last night—was that Matt I saw sneaking out at that ungodly hour?"

A rush of blood surged to her face as Elena felt a mixture of embarrassment and horror. She didn't want to but she also had no intentions of correcting her either so she remained silent.

"Oh don't be embarrassed, I just hope that you both behaved in an appropriate manner?" and when she nodded awkwardly the woman smiled at her taking her hand into hers. "Then that's all that matters. Take care now, dear," and with that she continued to walk by leaving Elena flustered and speechless.


The moment she approached her house she knew something was terribly wrong. She shoved her key into the lock pushing the door open and stepped into the house. The living room table was covered with different weaponry, a pang of panic came over her as her heart began racing in her ribcage and her airways became restricted. Had Caroline told her father? In that moment her father and Jeremy burst into the living room from the basement carrying more weapons with them and greeted her simply with a curt nod.

"What's going on?" she asked her voice stammering as she dropped her bag on the ground with a loud thud.

"There's been a vampire attack," her father explained and she felt a brief sense of relief followed by guilt. Letting the words sink in she walked towards the table shoving a stake into her boot and picking up a cross-bow.

"Who was it?"

"Marcus Johnson and his little daughter—he died but the girl survived, barely."

She didn't recognize the name but felt a surge of anger ripple through her, vampires—taking innocent human lives as if the world was their playground. She took a deep breath closing her eyes momentarily before turning to face her family again.

"Is she okay?"

Her father grabbed the bags they had shoved their weapons into and gave her a weary look. "As okay as she can be, honey but we spoke to her this morning, and at least she knows who did it."

"Great, then we go get them tonight," she shrugged determinedly. Truthfully, she couldn't wait to hunt again as she felt as if she had let them all down by dating a vampire, but if she tried to redeem herself by continuing to be the best hunter that she could be then surely the guilt she felt would ease off. Wouldn't it?

"I knew that bastard was trouble from the moment I laid my eyes on him," Jeremy grumbled heading towards the door.

Elena stopped in her tracks her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "Who?"

"Damon Salvatore."

She felt the two words slam through her as if she had been stabbed with a knife in the stomach. She could feel her mouth gaping open but didn't care as horror mixed with dread filled over her. No, this was not happening. No, no no.


Authors note: Things are going to start heading for the flames now, I've kept things happy for a while. Elena chose to be with Damon regardless of who he was but will she remain loyal to him or will she be the one to ultimately drive a stake through her heart? Review, review, review.