Chapter 16

Elena stopped to look back at him, he looked serious, her heartbeat quickened, usually he looked calm and sarcastic, she had a feeling what he wanted to tell her wasn't going to be good. "What is it?" she braced herself not fully knowing why.

"I shouldn't have started at your school, I should have left before I met you, you would have been a lot safer" before he could continue Elena stopped him,

"Safer? Damon, if it wasn't for you, Silvestro would have killed me by now"

Damon flinched trying not to think about Elena being dead, "I'm not good for you, Elena, and I'm not good enough for you" this was the only way Damon could keep from telling her lies, without her hating him completely. Elena took a step backwards, tears were filling her eyes but she was determined not to let him she her cry again. "So, what you mean is 'It's not you, it's me'," Elena wanted to be anger, but it was hard for her to be mad at him.

"No, I meant" Damon tried to explain, he couldn't stand seeing her upset.

"I know what you meant, I would expect it from most people, but I thought you were different" Elena tried to judge how in control she was of her body, she needed to get away from here but she wouldn't be able if she could barely stand without Damon's help.

"I'm not saying I don't want to see you anymore, I want you to know whenever you need me I'll be there" Damon looked into her eyes willing her to understand without using mind control.

"I need you to take me home, can you do that or am I too unbearable to be with for another second?" Elena tears were getting to close to falling, her voice shaking.

For once Damon didn't know what else to say he wanted to take it all back but he couldn't he needed to keep her safe, the only way he could do that was first by protecting her from himself. So he put his arm around her and started walking again, "You're not unbearable" Damon murmured to her, wanting to say she was the opposite to that she was his temptation, one he could never let himself indulge. Elena kept walking, she turned her head the other way so he couldn't see the one tear that betrayed her, she wiped it away quickly and walked faster, she stumbled a lot more but her house was coming into view. He walked her up to her door, "You should lock the door behind you, check the windows, and don't invite anyone into your house you don't know" Damon wanted to tell her more but he stopped when he seen her expression, he hurt her, he couldn't just leave her like this, "You said he wasn't human?"

"What?" Elena was exhausted from hiding her emotions and didn't understand why he didn't just leave her like she knew he wanted to.

"Silvestro, you said he wasn't human, what do you think he was?"

"I don't know" she said getting frustrated that he was trying to make small talk with her.

"This is important Elena, what do you think he was" Damon needed her to know, if she did she might be more carefully and hopefully, Damon thought, safer.

She thought about it for a minute, "After he bit Caroline, he started drinking her blood, I was screaming at him, but I couldn't move, my whole body felt paralysed, he told me to stop screaming and that's all I can remember. He was like a…" she searched for the word but when she found it she nearly laughed despite herself.

"Like a…?" Damon persisted.

"A vampire", she couldn't help but smile, it all sounded crazy but when she looked at Damon his expression was serious again, "What? Damon, there's no way; he's probably just someone who isn't mentally stable, probably someone who watched too much 'Dracula'."

"You said he was strong, and fast?"

"Yeah but, no there's no such thing as vampires"

Damon stopped himself from smiling "How can you be sure?"

"How can you?" Elena looked at his implying expression. Her exhaustion was forgotten, her pounding head disregarded, Silvestro's words replayed in her head, you shouldn't be scared of me, Damon's worse. His laughter played through her head tauntingly, her own voice played through her head how did you know where I was? She asked that to him after he took her home from the forest, but he never answered her then… Elena stared up at the darkness of Damon's eyes "You're a vampire…"