Chapter One

Dark, you can't come soon enough for me.

He knew something wasn't right, even as he kissed her. It was too good to be true. Elena was this beautiful, glowing light, who was far too moral even on her worst day to let him kiss her anywhere.

But she had let him. . . .

He knew Katherine and Elena were physically identical, but he also thought he knew, for damn sure, that that was as far as their similarities went. He honestly wasn't expecting the familiarity of that kiss. He allowed himself to drink it in and fall into it. He lost himself in how good it felt. He didn't want that little bitch anymore, so why was he so pleasantly surprised when Elena kissed him the way she used to?

He needed to clear his head, he was going to go for a drive. Something was off. He just couldn't put his finger on it. No, he could, he just didn't actually think it was possible. But then he saw Elena drive past him, answering a call from Stefan, and the pieces fell together.

If he were human, he would've flown through the windshield from the momentum of the sudden stop. He sat, for no more than a second, staring dazed out of his window before he snapped out it. He left his car running, door open, slanted on the road to run back to the Gilbert's house.

He could hear her before he saw her, ". . . . Can you meet me there?. . . . I love you Stefan."

He got there just as she shut the door behind her, calling up the stairs for Jeremy.

But even that was too late. Her scream was spirited away on the wind, just as she was.

John Gilbert was laying, dead, in a pool of his own blood. The house was as silent as death, itself. No heartbeats, no breathing, no Elena.

Katherine had already been and gone.

So that's what Damon did, but not before leaving the kitchen wall baring the marks of his outrage.

x

Damon Salvatore always worked solo in the past, but he was coming to realize in matters such as these that maybe having backup wasn't such a bad thing. In fact, the moment he realized that Katherine Pierce had Elena he was counting on backup because it would take more than him to put a stake through her.

But, of course, because he'd actually acknowledged that he needed the help of those he usually cast aside, he received next to none.

His wonderful brother was decidedly absent. His phone went to voicemail every time he called. Which. . .six. He'd called six times before changing tactics and dialing Alaric. The teacher had been less than helpful with bumblings about "What? How? What are we going to do?" Or something of the like. Damon had neither the patience nor the time to pretend to be forthcoming with answers to stupid questions. But he had promised to meet Damon at the witch's house with all the weapons he owned. So at least that was something.

Bonnie herself had been ready to spit fire when he quite literally ran into her on her way out the door. Her jaw was set, warning him with her eyes that she was beyond playing his games now, she tried to sidestep him. She stopped in her tracks, all notions of leaving wiped from her mind, the moment she heard him say, "Katherine was here. She took Elena. I need your help."

"What? Where? Damon, where is she!" She said, her wide eyes immediately filling up with tears.

"If I knew that, witch, I wouldn't have to come to you, now would I?" He ground out. His already terrible temper had been to its breaking point and back multiple times tonight, it was a miracle he hadn't lain a hand on her yet. The only thing keeping him remotely in check was the reminder that at that moment he was Elena's only chance at survival. Him and Bonnie's willingness to help him.

Bonnie let his tone slide-it was unimportant at the moment-doing an about face and rushing back into the house. Without even glancing back, her voice, urgent and afraid, floated back to him, "Damon, get in here."

He needed no more invitation than that. In no time flat she had a map and a spell book sloppily opened on the coffee table, turning pages at an almost vicious pace until she came to what she needed. She skimmed the page and Damon watched, pacing around the living room as she disappeared upstairs and came back down with a bracelet he assumed belonged to Elena.

She tried the spell a handful of times and each time she finished with a shake of her head, furrowing her brow.

Finally, coming closer to look over what she was doing, Damon asked in the nicest tone he could, "What? What is it?"

She shook her head again, frustrated with herself, "I don't know. She's moving. I can't get a lock on where she is. I can tell you the general direction. . ."

He waited but she didn't continue until he gave her one of those looks, the looks that generally sent humans into screaming fits, "Spit it out."

"West. They're heading west. The last town they hit was Redford."

Damon snatched a pen off the table and wrote his cell phone number on the corner of the map, "Keep doing the spell. Call me, let me know where they're heading."

All Bonnie could do was settle herself in on the carpet and nod, "Of course."

"And try to get a hold of Stefan," He said over his shoulder on his way out the door, meeting Ric on the curb, trunk of vampire weapons already open, awaiting him.

x

It's like playing cat and mouse. Every time he's sure they're about to catch up to them, Bonnie calls and says they've changed direction and then he stops, kicks the shit out of something, and starts again towards what he hopes will be Elena, alive and well.

And now Stefan's out there looking for her too. After three hours he'd finally got the call, Stefan on the other end blathering on and on about how Damon shouldn't have left without him and blah, blah, blah. He was on edge, regardless. The knowledge that the odds were slightly better now that the both of them were out looking for her did little to quell his anxiety because he knew that if it came to a fight-and with Katherine it most definitely would come to a fight-Stefan would not stand a chance. At least Damon would be able to put up enough of a fight to possibly get them out alive.

And yes, maybe the part of his mind that wasn't totally focused on the severity of the situation did want to be her savior, for once. No, twice. But he was due for a good old fashion swooping in and saving of the girl.

Despite Alaric's presence in the car it was a quiet, lonely car ride spanning a good third of the country, being had a breakneck speeds. After the first 500 or so miles, Alaric had given up on conversation, and Damon was left with thoughts that were eating him alive. Tense was a good word to describe the atmosphere. Very, very tense.

Battle strategies were flying by like there was a projector behind his eyes. Ways to kill Katherine, ways to get killed, what he'd do if she had cronies with her. How would Elena look? Would she be hurt? Dead? Undead?

He didn't know what was worse. Certainly he'd rather have her be a part his life as a vampire than not at all, but not at the hands of his wicked ex-lover. Not if he could help it. He tried to convince himself that she'd be okay because this was Elena. . .and she just couldn't not be alright. Not when he'd finally. . .just not now. Not ever.

He'd spent the equivalent of two lifetimes pining over a cold hearted bitch who didn't want him and now that he'd finally let her go and found someone who was worth it. . .he simply would not live with himself if he lost it, her, his newfound humanity. It made him weak, it made him soft, he wasn't one forth of the killing machine he used to be but he was slowly becoming alright with that. As long as one day, Elena would know that it was for her. If it made her happy, if she could see how much better he'd become, he knew it would all be worth it.

And if it brought her that much closer to him, that much further from his brother, then so be it.

He'd stopped feeding on humans weeks ago. Originally it was to keep the council of his trail. But now he also saw that a tally had been marked down in his favor. He knew that his bagged blood diet meant something to her. He wasn't sure about how much he actually cared about human life in general yet, but he was aware that there were a few of them that were impossible to pretend meant nothing at all. It was no coincidence that they were all tied to Elena in some regard.

If Damon wasn't being so single-mindedly focused on the task at hand he'd probably be able to roll his eyes in the rearview mirror at his marshmallow interiors and make himself believe that this, too, could roll right off his back with a well placed witticism.

He may have finally gotten in touch with his humanity but he'd learned that some things. . .you just had to flip the switch for. This was one of them.

x

They'd been about thirty miles outside of Albuquerque when he finally got the call that Elena'd stopped moving. Bonnie couldn't give him an exact location but he knew a few vampires that might've gotten wind of Katherine who could be persuaded to give him a hint or two.

Alaric had been giving him worried glances for roughly thirty six hours. He was worried about what the vampire would do, what lengths he would go to. And yes, if he was being honest, he was afraid that not even the ring he wore would get him out of this alive. When Damon nearly flipped the car doing a u-turn that would put them en-route to Utah's heartland, he'd finally had to ask.

"Do you have any clue how we're going to actually find her? Utah is a big state, they could be-"

"I know that. I have a friend who might know some people."

He couldn't help himself, he had to take the opportunity to make the jab, "You have friends?"

Damon's grip on the steering wheel tightened, something he thought was impossible as it was. His jaw twitched and Alaric realized that nothing he said could lighten the mood. Now really wasn't the time.

"So what's gonna happen when we find her?" He asked, clearing his throat after a moment of silence.

Apparently that wasn't a good thing to say either.

x

Damon met Jack in the early 1970's and he soon learned of his uncanny way of becoming suddenly privy to valuable information. Damon had come to him in the past seeking answers and Jack had happily doled them out without breaking a sweat. He just knew things. In fact, he wasn't even surprised when Damon and Alaric showed up on his doorstep, scowling and tired, respectively, demanding his assistance. Which he provided to the best of his ability.

Jack sent him to another vampire who knew a vampire who might know a witch who knew a witch. And she was the one who was finally strong enough to break through whatever hocus pocus Katherine had had placed on wherever she was staying.

It ended up being a metal shack built high up, into the mountain range in the pinprick town of Aurora, Utah. It was rusty and caving in, and it had a padlock on the door, which Damon guessed was just for show. He paused a moment outside, Alaric standing behind him loaded down with all the vervain darts and compressed air guns he could carry, barely containing his nervous energy, to listen to what was going on within. He sensed movement, but there were no heartbeats to speak of other than Ric's.

Katherine had created herself some brand new henchmen to do her grunt work.

"Shoot first, think later," He told Alaric before he ripped the flimsy metal door clear off its hinges. The vampire who was waiting on the other side skittered back into the shadows before the sun could fry him any further. But it didn't matter, Damon was faster than him and had his decapitated head rolling on the dirty ground before his skin could even stop sizzling.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized that this must have been an old mine of some sort. The shack was positively minuscule and the only thing that was inside was a hole in the dirt and a rickety metal staircase that let down into pitch darkness that not even Damon, with his vampire senses could see through.

He wasted no time on his way into the abyss, Alaric following although he was much slower and clumsier in going. When he reached the bottom he found himself in something that felt more like a medieval catacomb than an abandoned mine. Torches of fire were stuck into modern metal holders on the dirt and rock walls, bathing the small room in warm, flickering oranges and yellows.

They also managed to illuminate the faces of several completely homicidal looking vampires, surrounding him in a half circle, attempting to send him back up from whence he came.

But, of course, he couldn't have that. Damon was on auto-pilot. This was just one more hurdle he had to-and would-jump over. There was nothing else in the world other than getting passed them and through the corridor they were blocking.

One after another they came at him and he systematically tore them apart until, like a colony of bees when the hive was disturbed, swarms of Katherine's vampire minions emptied into the room aiming to end him.

These vampires were new, a couple years old at most and had nothing on his strength, his speed, or his experience. But they did have numbers on him. He was only one vampire against never ending droves of creatures driven mad by obsession and lust for their own personal Queen of the Damned. He'd been there before. He'd been so consumed by his love for Katherine that he'd do anything and everything she even hinted at wanting. They wouldn't stop until they were either dead or she told them it was time to back off.

He had to let his instincts completely take over while he waited for his pathetic excuse for a cavalry to come up behind him, taking some of the load off.

He had a squirming, blonde woman's neck in a vice grip from behind, a teenage boy on his back and still another man charging for him when, finally, he felt the blessed wooshing of wind past his ear, accompanied by the weight on his back falling away completely. He ripped off the head of the woman before turning to Alaric in time to catch a stake in mid air and shove it through the ribcage of the man who'd just began closing his fist around Damon's throat.

"Took you long enough," He grunted before the two set to work destroying the rest of their assailants.

A/N: Okay, Damon is...a difficult character. Let's just go with that. If you read please review. I need to hear what you think! :)