His nostrils flared when a sweet and rich scent drew him closer to the nearby lake. Bewitched he followed his nose to the source of it.
Her skin had a blueish touch and her hair was adorned with ice crystals, when he found her lying half on her stomach, half on her side.
For him it was the most beautiful image he had ever seen, and for seconds he got lost.
Gentle but lacking in hurry and concern he freed her ankle from the animal trap and picked her delicate frame up bridal style. Her hanging head let him gaze down at the now open and vulnerable spot of her throat.
"Hey... Ice princess...wake up." Nothing happened. He tilted his head to the side, musing about her rather strange behaviour. 'What's wrong with her?' he thought and shook her a little.
Taken up short his eyes opened to the fullest extend. Something terrible hit his mind. He was so full of inner peace a second ago. What made him feel like he was lost just now? He looked down at her again.
"Jeez, Elena...don't die on me here." He finally started to get the picture.
Speeding back with her to the hut he remembered all of what just had happened. The deer, the frightened expression on her face, when he made clear he would hunt her down, her ankle trapped and broken.
It's his fault, again. The curse of a vampire didn't go past him. It's in his nature to destroy what he loves.
He climbed up the ladder and put her on the loft with as much blankets as he could find. Her heart was still beating, but faint and almost shy.
Closing the distance between their bodies, he fiercely held her in his arms to give her the warmth she needed.
After half an hour her dark lashes trembled and she fought hard to open her lids. When she succeeded, her eyes met his, and she was instantly reminded of the day she started to care for him.
Back then, she caught him off guard and his smug ice cold stare vanished for the first time. His eyes moved erratically over her face, the muscles around his eyes twitched nervously, changing his expressions every half second from irritation to self-reflexion to fear to shrinking self-confidence.
This time it ended with a sorrowful glare on her lips.
"Elena you are hurt, badly and I'm very sorry for my pathetic actions, specially for this one..." he declared flatly and bit down deep on his lower lip before he kissed her hard and forceful. One hand caressed her sides dangerously close to her breast.
She didn't even try to fight it. Neither his touch, nor the taste of his blood in her mouth. If it was for the lack of physical or psychical strength, she didn't know. Drifting back to slumber nothing mattered anymore.
When she woke up a second time, she was alone in the loft. Lifting her head slowly she got a good view from above. The room was blurred by the steam coming from the tub.
'That was mine!' she thought angry. But that melted away, when she got aware of his naked form sitting there in the hot water. He looked broken and sad. His elbows rested on his bent knees and his head hung down in between them.
She studied the muscles on his back, when he turned around.
"You are awake?...Ehm ..Don't answer!... Anyway ...I'm glad."
She looked at him with a poker-face. Sighing he leaned back in the tub examining the ceiling. She shifted her head to the side to avoid to see his glorious front again.
"When I promised Stefan an eternity of misery after my transformation," he began to talk "it felt exactly like it feels now. I had to shut down my compassion or I would have gone crazy."
Elena wondered were that came from. He sounded almost like talking to himself.
"Have you ever thought of death as an contagious disease? ...Well, it kind of is.
Kathrine infected us...
The thing is, I didn't die that day... Someone did, and my birth was the outcome.
But I was born dead." He splashed some water on his chest.
"I often wondered how much I do resemble Damon Salvatore. He was young and green, his personality hadn't settled...
I guess his strongest trait was to give everything he had, and in return he would take self-righteously everything there was.
He left this world betrayed and unwanted but his unconditional love kept him hoping for salvation. And that, my dear Elena, was the seed for my pathetic existence."
Unexpectedly from her side, he stood up in all his wet nakedness to face her. This time she didn't look away. Far from it. She sucked in all of him and began to see the truth and tragic nature of the fallen angel in front of her.
A tear ran down painfully over her wounded cheek.
"Don't feel sorry for me Elena. The people who advised you to get rid of Stefan and me were right. Why didn't you listened? ...Now it's to late ... Your ruin had just begun. No way back... You see?"
Water dropped from his hands back in the tub emphasizing the silence.
She shook her head in disbelieve. What happened to her was nobodies fault, it was destiny. Neither Damon nor Stefan ever wanted to harm her. She still believed that even Stefan would not be able to do what he planned to do to her.
In the next moment she found herself standing on the ground in front of a very nude person.
He had dragged her down here with his vampire speed and looked pretty pissed.
Fuming he ripped and shredded her clothes. Her panties he allowed her to keep.
He gave her one arm to balance because she couldn't stand on one leg the whole time. With the other hand he touched her left shoulder.
"Look!" he demanded. Elena who forgot that she needed air, slowly dared to look at the place where he touched her. His fingers rubbed over a little scar.
"Vicky" he said and moved his hand to her right flank, to show her the other scar she got that Halloween-night when she wore that sexy nurse costume.
"Klaus" His calloused fingertips fondled the scar on the right side of her neck.
"The guy from the gas station" Warm air was blown against the wound on her face. Not wanting to hurt her with his touch he found a different way to make his point.
'The vampire-guys from today" She inhaled sharply when he captured her breast. She could see the evil bruises where he touched her.
"Stefan" he said sliding his hand between her breasts, covering her heart "and who knows where else he had left you hurt."he mumbled. She was glad that he didn't touch her there.
"And finally, me" Both of his hands took hold of her head. She knew what he meant. He confused her a lot in the past. Then he touched the scars on the right side of her neck, to remind her that he bit her there, when he was about to die. He covered her heart again and looked her knowingly in the eyes.
"And now just look at your foot." he almost laughed.
"We will destroy you, no matter how hard we try to save you." he told her, sounding like he would calm a child that woke up having a nightmare.