Look at me posting on a Monday before 11pm! I had a hard time with this one and I'm honestly a little nervous posting it. Hope you like it and as always, thank you so much for reading the story!
xoxo
Chapter 6
Damon felt like an asshole. It had been a long time since he'd felt this horrible about something he'd done and it was making him miserable. He had to make it up to her somehow.
What are you going to do? Buy her flowers? You're bit her, you dick. His brother's voice rang in his ears. Somehow over the years, his conscience had taken on the persona of Stefan the Hero Vampire. This also made him miserable and most days he could shut it out but there was no turning it off today. He felt like killing something but unfortunately there was nothing in this house to kill and damned if he was going to leave her here alone. Instead he grabbed a few blood bags from the basement and washed them down with good bourbon. He made his way back to the kitchen. If he couldn't kill someone then he was going to cook.
He was in the middle of chopping an onion into tiny bits when he heard Klaus' car pull up. He groaned unhappily. Caroline was going to kill him. He felt Klaus's presence behind him a minute later.
"You've done something that's going to piss her off, haven't you?"
There was a quiet knock at the door.
"Go away" Elena muttered and pulled the blanket over her head. Does he actually think I'm going to speak to him? She thought. The tears had been short lived and had quickly turned into anger and then to confusion. At first she was just livid that he'd bitten her and then she remembered the way it felt. There had been no pain, only heat and need that made her flush every time she thought about it.
"Elena it's Caroline. Can I come in?"
She let out a sigh of relief, she'd been afraid she was going to be stuck in the house alone with him all night and she was starving. Maybe Caroline would know why the bite felt the way it did.
"Yeah, come in."
Caroline was beside her on the bed in the next second.
"Your eyes are all puffy. Were you crying? What happened? What did he do?"
"He bit me, Caroline. He actually bit me! I really thought we were starting to trust each other. And then when it happened I felt…."Caroline cut her off before she could get the question out.
"He did what!? Let me see." She pushed Elena's hair to the side to inspect her throat.
"It's gone. He made me take some of his blood" Elena told her.
"Of course he did. God he's such an idiot!" She said under her breath.
She gave Elena a quick hug "I'm going to get us some food and possibly some wine and then we're going to have the weirdest slumber party ever. Ok?"
Elena smiled "Ok."
"Fuck." Damon cursed as he heard Caroline's quick footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Fuck indeed my friend." Klaus replied with a smile and continued to sip his bourbon.
"Seriously, Damon? Did you seriously bite her? I knew you were an ass but I never thought you were stupid. What the hell were you thinking?" the small blonde creature shrieked at him as she made her way over to where he was dicing up cheese.
"I called Grayson Gilbert and he pissed me off."
"So you bit Elena?!"
"Last I checked I was still a vampire who feeds on human blood" he was deflecting and he knew it.
"Could you stop being such an inconsiderate prick for one minute and admit that you like her?"
"I don't like anyone" he retorted.
"Oh my God, you are such a liar Damon Salvatore" She snapped at him with her arms folded across her chest.
"Excuse me?" he spun around to face her with the knife still clenched in his fist.
Klaus was suddenly between them "Now, now children play nicely."
Damon backed off and gulped down his glass of bourbon. His friend gripped his shoulder, his normally amused expression turned serious.
"Listen mate, I'm hardly one to be dolling out advice on romance. I'm lucky this one puts up with me at all." Klaus inclined his head toward his pretty blonde mate. "But I've known you a long time and Caroline is right. You fancy her."
Damon knew they were right. She was beautiful, smart, feisty, and he'd been dreading letting her go since that first night.
"Fuck." He said again.
The secret smile returned to Klaus' lips and he repeated "Fuck indeed my friend."
Damon turned back to Caroline. "Is she ok?" his eyebrows knitted together in concern.
"No but she will be."
He nodded "How do I fix it?"
"I'm going to help you and you're going to owe me so big. Like walk-in-closet big" she told him.
"Done. What do I need to do?" he asked.
"Really?" she asked, clearly surprised by his cooperation.
He did his best to keep the agitation out of his voice "Yes really."
"Give me that food and a couple bottles of wine and leave her alone until I say." She said.
He opened his mouth to tell her to go to hell but he bit his tongue and did what she told him.
"This had better work, Blondie."
"It will" she grabbed the basket of food and two bottles of wine.
Grumbling he turned back to his tumbler and frowned. It was empty. Klaus appeared next to him and refilled the glass.
"You know as well as I do, if anyone can bring Elena 'round its Caroline. Let's you and I drink until you forget what a fool you are. "
Elena waited impatiently for Caroline to return. She had to know what was wrong with her. What kind of person enjoyed being bitten and drained of blood? The door finally opened and Caroline appeared with a reassuring smile.
"I got wine!" she said happily. "Also some cheese and bread but mostly wine."
They sat on the floor, leaned against the bedframe, and listened to an iPod on a mini-Bluetooth speaker.
"So what did you and Klaus do today?" she nudged at Caroline.
Her cheeks turned pink and she grinned at Elena.
"He's used to having me all to himself." She replied coyly.
Elena pressed her for details, confessing her pathetic lack of experience in that department.
"So are you a…" Caroline asked
"No!" she said, probably a little too defensively "There was this guy Matt, he used to deliver our paper. He'd lived across the street pretty much my whole life and we dated for a while last year. I don't think Uncle Grayson liked it but I don't really have friends so I think he felt sorry for me. Anyway, we were alone at his house and one thing led to another. We only did it a couple of times"
She'd never told anyone that and it felt so good to have a friend she could tell her secrets to.
"What happened to him?" Caroline asked
"He moved away almost a year ago." it was strange to think about Matt. He was so far away from all this. He seemed like an oddly normal experience in her very abnormal life.
She poured another glass of wine and picked at what was left of the chicken.
"God does everything he makes have to be so good?" she asked.
"I know right?"
Elena stared at her wine for a minute
"What?" Caroline asked
"Nothing" she said and took a sip from the glass.
"Come on. You can tell me."
"What if it didn't hurt?" she asked and peeked at Caroline out of the corner of her eye.
"What if what didn't hurt?" she replied with a tipsy giggle
"When he bit me" Elena said quietly.
"Oh" Caroline seemed surprised "We can make it so it doesn't hurt if we want to."
"What if…what if it kind of felt good?" even with the wine, it was a hard question for her to ask.
"I mean, he could do that if he wanted to I guess. You'd have to ask him if he did something but some people are just into it. It's not that weird."
"I'm never speaking to him again." Elena scoffed but she felt better hearing Caroline say she wasn't crazy. Maybe he'd done something to her. That had to be it.
"He knows he screwed up." Caroline took another long drink of wine and continued "I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you should give him another chance. Give him the opportunity to apologize and explain himself." She implored her.
"Are you seriously defending him? He could have killed me!"
"I know, I know and I feel like snapping his neck for it but he's really beating himself up over this. He puts on his 'I'm just an asshole vampire' face but I can tell he feels terrible. Trust me when I say Damon does not do sorry. He cares about you, Elena"
"He's got a funny way of showing it." Elena quipped.
Caroline pressed on "If he didn't feel something for you, what he did today definitely would not have felt good. I realize this is seriously messed up but please will you hear him out? For me?"
Elena gave her a wary look but in the end she caved "Yes, alright. I'll talk to him tomorrow ok? Can we talk about something else now, please?"
"Ok. Have you ever been to New Orleans?" Caroline asked her.
She knew she could count on Caroline to never run out of things to say.
"Nope" she replied.
"Klaus has this incredible house there. Maybe you can come see it someday. It's so old and beautiful…"
Elena fell asleep on the floor to the sound of Caroline's voice. Her last thought before she drifted off was that she really didn't want to lose her newfound friend.
The crystal shattered in his hand when he'd heard her confess she liked his bite. He'd taken the pain away but he hadn't done anything else which meant she had enjoyed it all on her own.
"Told you not to listen in" Klaus scolded him with a chuckle.
He hadn't been listening the entire time, just off and on every few minutes. He stopped eavesdropping after that and tried not to think about other things he could do that she would like even more.
Caroline found him still in the kitchen early the next morning. He head was buried in his arms on the table. Still half-drunk he only heard her approach when her shoes crunched over the broken tumbler.
"You broke another one?" she whined and he gave her a dark look.
"Never mind. Elena will talk to you when she wakes up. Might I suggest a shower and a couple hours of sleep?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?" he could hear himself slurring a little.
"Because your brother would want me to" she paused. "I might also kind of, sort of like you a little bit."
"Thanks, Blondie. I don't completely hate you either" he grinned at her.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. Go take a shower, get a couple hours sleep, and be nice to her."
He took the advice but she was still asleep when he emerged from his room. He opted to let her sleep a while longer and wandered the house alone, drink in hand, for a few minutes before settling at the baby-grand piano in the living room. It has been a long time since he played and soon he was plunking away at the keys. He'd been drowning himself in bourbon and music for an hour before he heard her light footsteps.
"Hey there sleepy head" He said as he heard her approach.
"My door was unlocked and I heard music" she said timidly.
"I unlocked the door."
"You did?" she asked bewildered.
"Yes. You aren't a prisoner here. If you don't want to help me anymore I understand" they were probably the hardest words he'd ever said. He'd spent a hundred years taking what he wanted and never looking back. Trusting her and giving her back her freedom hadn't been an easy thing for him but he knew it was the right thing to do if she was ever going to forgive him.
"What I did to you yesterday, it was wrong. Trust isn't something I do well but I should have trusted you when you said you'd help me. You've never been anything but kind to me and I'm so sorry I hurt you, Elena." He watched for her reaction. It felt like an eternity before she said anything.
"I told you that I would help you. After everything, I trusted you. How could you do that do me?" she asked. He thought for sure he she would yell at him, tell him she hated him, but he heard none of that in her tone. He heard the betrayal she felt, the pain, and it made him feel a hundred times worse.
"I know, I'm an idiot. I should have just told you what was happening. I swear I'll be honest with you from now on and I will never force you to do anything you don't want to ever again" he watched her, standing there in her shorts, t-shirt and bare feet, giving him that solemn look.
"I promised to help you and I'm not going back on that but you have to tell me what's happening. You say I'm not a prisoner here anymore? Then prove it to me."
He scooted down to the end of the piano bench and patted he seat beside him "Sit."
"Promise not to eat me?" her voice teased but he suspected she was only half kidding.
He gave her a reassuring smile "Promise."
How does he do that? She wondered to herself. One look, one crooked smile, and she was already forgiving him. At first she thought she was angry because he'd bitten her, today she realized she was mad at him because he hasn't trusted her. She wasn't sure she would have agreed to being bitten but she would have figured it out with him. Maybe that made her crazy but she cared about him and she wanted him to care about her. She knew now that he wasn't evil, the world had just be cruel to him for the better part of a hundred years. He needed someone to be kind to him, to show him he was worth forgiving. She decided right then that she was going to be that person for him, no matter what happened. She plopped down next to him at the piano and ran her fingers over the keys.
"Do you play?" he asked her.
"Not well." Uncle Grayson bought her a little keyboard when she was twelve and she'd practiced for a few weeks before deciding she wasn't musically inclined.
He brushed her fingers away lightly and started playing a slow, sweet tune.
"That's pretty" she commented.
"You've never heard Brahms' Lullaby?" he asked as he played.
"No."
"You never had a music box?" he sounded shocked. She shook her head 'no'.
He finished the song and launched into something a little darker, more intense.
"I like this too" she said.
He grinned "It's called Caroline. Klaus must've listened to this song a thousand times a day when he was pining away for her."
"Really? I guess I thought they'd be a 'love at first sight' couple."
"Klaus is…a special kind of vampire and his special-ness used to make him think he could do whatever he wanted. Caroline was probably the first creature in five hundred years to deny him anything. I'm not really sure who wore who down but he does his best not to kill people and she does her best not to guilt trip him to death when he does."
"Special how?" she was intrigued now,
Damon stopped playing "He's an Original vampire. He's one of the five first ever vampires and he's been around for over a thousand years. Not only is he very, very old, he's also a vampire-werewolf hybrid. Five hundred years ago he killed your ancestor, Katherine, to break a curse that kept his wolf side dormant and now he's pretty much un-killable."
"He killed Katherine?" she asked "Wait, a thousand years?"
"Yes and yes. She convinced a vampire to give her his blood before she was sacrificed and she came back vampire. And Klaus was born sometime in the 10th century. They weren't big on birthdays back then so he's not exactly sure how old he is."
"Wow." She said "So that's why he was so weird when he met? Because I look like her?"
He nodded and picked up playing again.
"What was she like?" she was trying to build up to asking about her uncle, afraid it might be a touchy subject to start out with.
"Beautiful, selfish, even unkind at times, but incredibly seductive."
"Am I…I mean…Do I really look just like her?"
"Stay here, I'll be back in a flash."
True to his word, he returned in seconds with a photo in his hand. It was old and that paper surrounding it was yellowed with age. He held it out for her to see. Katherine Pierce, 1864 was scrawled across the bottom.
"Oh my god." She breathed.
She took the photo and stared at it in disbelief. It was her face but it wasn't her.
"How is this possible?" she asked him.
"It's a long story. Something about keeping the balance in nature. I'll get Bonnie to explain it to you when she gets home. She should be back tomorrow by the way."
She handed the photo back to him and nodded absently before she realized what that meant. She could go home in two days. How do I go back to my old life? She wondered to herself.
"Does my uncle know all this?" she finally asked.
"Some of it. Not all."
"Does he know that I look like her?"
"Yes."
"Is that why he keeps me home all the time?"
"That…and I may or may not have found you when you were much younger and scared the shit out of him."
"Damon!" she pushed him playfully with her shoulder.
"I wasn't going to hurt you, I just wanted to see if it was true. There were rumors you were the doppelganger and I was curious. At the time it was just a passing resemblance"
"Well thanks for ruining my social life" she said with a smile.
"You're welcome" he replied.
She didn't want to stop the banter but it was eating at her. She had to know
"What did my uncle say? What's going to happen?"
He exhaled a long breath.
"Do you remember the stake I told you about? The one that drives the person using it insane? That's what happened to your dad after your mom turned. He took that god-forsaken thing and he killed Stefan with it. He's already killed at least three other vampires trying to find this place. We tried to destroy it after everything happened with your parents but the damn thing is indestructible. Caroline, in all her wisdom, didn't want it anywhere near us and she sent it back to Grayson. I almost killed her for it."
"Your witch can get Stefan's essence out of the stake and put it back into him, can't she?" she phrased it as a question but she knew she was right.
"Clever girl" he told her with a nod.
"And because I'm the doppelgänger, the spell needs my blood to bring him back."
"What do we have for her Johnny?" he winked at her.
"You're ransoming me for the stake aren't you?" the idea left a bad taste in her mouth.
He flinched at her words.
"Yes but…"
"Damon it's ok." She interrupted him "Actually, you know what? It's not ok but at least I get it now and that's all I really wanted. I just wanted you to be honest with me. I'm so sick of being lied to and up until yesterday I thought I could count on you to be honest with me"
"I know. I should have told you everything to you to begin with. You're stronger than you look and from now on I'll trust you to be able to handle whatever."
She nodded, feeling better about the whole situation. However strange up it was. Her tummy rumbled and she realized she was ravenous.
"Let's get lunch." he said before she could even form the words.
"You read my mind." She said and stood up.
"I read your stomach." He tapped his ear "Vampire hearing."
"You heard my stomach grumble?" his superpowers still astonished her.
"Go stand in the kitchen and tell me what you want for lunch. Better yet, whisper what you want." He told her confidently. She could see he felt like showing off and decided to oblige him. Rain was tapping on the window when she got to the kitchen. When she peeked out the window over the sink she could see it was going to be a gloomy, rainy day. She decided on grilled cheese with tomato soup and whispered it as quietly as she possibly could.
"How do you feel about provolone?" He was right behind her whispering in her ear.
She let out a tiny scream and jumped around to face him.
"Stop doing that!" she yelled.
"Never" he replied snarkily.
"You're going to give me a heart attack."
"I'm going to make you fat, I'm going to give you a heart attack. And here I thought being a vampire made me dangerous."
She giggled "Are going to make me lunch or what?"
"You're going to help me make you lunch this time."
"Why?"
"Because I said."
She rolled her eyes. "Ok Chef Damon. What do I do?"
That had actually gone a lot better than he'd thought it would. He got through the whole thing without making her cry. He was reasonably certain he'd even managed to make her feel better about everything. Before he'd been afraid she would try something stupid if he let her help in the kitchen but today he handed her the knife and walked away after he'd shown her the best way to slice. When he glanced back at her she was adorably focused on the task. She was a quick study and he now knew that when she learned something new, she wanted to do it right.
"Like this?" she'd asked him.
"No." he'd held her wrist lightly "hold your wrist like this and press back a little when you're slicing."
He was working on the tomatoes when he smelled the blood and flashed to her side. She already had her hand over the sink, hissing in pain.
"How bad is it?" he grabbed her arm and inspected the cut that had narrowly missed a tendon. Blood was pouring out of her hand "Shit, that's pretty bad."
"Ahh Damon it really hurts."
"I'll bet it does." He was surprised she wasn't crying like a baby. Then again, knowing her, maybe he wasn't. Either way, it probably hurt like hell.
He bit into his wrist and held it out to her. She opened her mouth to object but he beat her to the punch.
"It's this or stiches by Dr. Damon." He told her "Hurry up it's going to close and that doesn't exactly tickle."
With an exasperated sigh she took his wrist with her good hand and he closed his eyes as he felt her take a long pull from the wound on his wrist. She timidly licked it clean before his cut closed.
He turned her to face him, lifting her hand to show her the injury had disappeared.
"Thank you" she said, looking up at him with her lips slightly parted.
He was still holding her hand and he lifted it to his mouth, placing a soft kiss on the spot where she'd cut herself.
"Anytime" he told her with an intimate whisper. He knew he meant it, he'd given up, or maybe he'd given in. He didn't know which and it probably didn't matter. He was hers and he'd do anything to keep her safe. With her hand still in his, he brushed his lips over her knuckles. She opened her hand to cup his face with her palm and run her fingertips along his jaw.
He watched her pupils dilate, heard her heart start to thump louder, and felt her pulse race under his fingers. A man could only take so much and when she sucked her lower lip between her teeth, he lost it. He took hold of her hand again and took the tip of her forefinger into his mouth, biting down gently with his blunt teeth. He watched her face for some sign that she wanted him to stop, waited for her to pull away. Instead she moved closer to him and tipped her face toward his. That was all the prompting he needed. He tugged her to him and kissed her. The moment his lips touched hers, he only had one thought. Mine.