Chapter 10

Damon's POV

I couldn't believe the rush of emotions that rushed to the surface when I saw her with Katherine. Anger, nervousness, sadness, protectiveness, desperation, and most of all determination. There is no way I am going to let Katherine just waltz into my life and begin to tear it down again. I've worked way too hard to get to where I am now for her to just ruin it all. It seems like she always does that! Whenever I feel as though I have finally rid her from my life, she pops right back up! She's like some kind of rash or something! All I know for sure is that she took away the only thing left in my life that has not fallen to shit and I cannot let her get away with it.

"Let's go!" I shout hopping back into the car. Stefan whirls around confused as I start the car. "What are you waiting for? Get your ass in!" Stefan grabs Elena around her waist and flies into the car. I don't buckle up or anything, I just slam my foot down and zoom off as fast as I can drive. Katherine wants to play this game? FINE! I can play this game too! That evil bitch is going to pay for anything she may have done or may do to Emma. Just the thought of it makes my stomach drop out of my butt.

I can NOT even stand the thought of letting her win. Not this time. I know that by chasing Kat I'm only going to be playing right into Kat's hands but, at this point I really could care less. Emma is in grave danger! How long will it take for Kat to realize the necklace has vervain in it? How long until she discovers the powers of the ring?

The ring for her birthday isn't just any old ring. This ring is a woman's version of Alaric's ring. This means that no matter how many times Kat kills her, no matter how she tries to kill her, Emma will keep coming back to life. As long as that ring stays on her finger, there's hope that I can rescue her. It took me six years in the sixties to find that ring and I was certain in my decision to hand it over to Emma. I had this deep gutted feeling that I NEEDED to give it to her. I'm more than happy that I gifted it to her. If I didn't, she would most likely be dead by now.

I spot the sports car up ahead that has two people sitting in the front seat and a fray of dark hair is spluttering around the head rest. I push down a little harder on the gas and I hear Elena screech in fright from out sudden acceleration in speed. We slowly begin to creep up on the speeding car and then, Kat picks up the speed, turning into thick traffic.

"Damon!" Elena squeals, burying her face into Stefan's chest. "You're going to get me killed! Not all of us are indestructible to everything but vervain and wood!" I shoot a mean gaze over my shoulder at Elena, full of rage. How can she be so selfish? Emma is stuck in the hands of Katherine Peirce! Heaven only knows what Emma has already gone through. One her terrified eyes meet mine I feel my anger recede. She's right. I have more than Emma to worry about, I have her too. The difference here is that Emma has a ring to keep her alive whenever something kills her, when all Elena has is the protection of me and Stefan yet here I am jeopardizing her. I automatically slow the speed of the car with a heavy heart and a battling mind.

"Damon?" Stefan asks in shock. I sigh an exasperated sigh, full of worry and burden. "Did you just slow down…for Elena's sake?"

"She's like family. If she dies, you'll die, and I'll be the one to carry the blame. Emma will just have to hang on and avoid getting killed at all costs."

"Thank you." Elena whispers placing a firm, comforting hand on my shoulder. "This means a lot to me Damon." Annoyance shoots through me like a wooden bullet.

"Cut the melodramatic shit Elena. This isn't an episode of The Young and the Restless." I roll my eyes and shove her hand off. "I'm not in love with and anymore Elena. Get over it." The cold edge to my voice causes her to recoil and I see her shoot Stefan a hurt look in the rear view mirror. The rest of the ride goes on in silence.

My eyes wander over to a gas station and I spot Kat's stole sports car. That's when the smell hits me. It's an extremely familiar scent. It's coppery, wild, and seductive. It's blood. I feel my urge rise up, the black veins sprouting around my eyes and my fangs pushing their way forward. I pull into the gas station because the blood also has a very signature perfume to it. A scent that is so unique that it has no actual name to it. The only thing I can call it is Emma. I smell Emma's blood.

"You smell that too right?" Stefan asks in a strained voice.

"Yup." My voice sounds dangerously hostile. If she has done ANYTHING to her, I swear to God…

The car screeches to a stop. Stefan and I automatically rush to the source of the delicious scent. I gape in awe at the blood on the wall of the worn down building. I see Elena rush into the store to check to see if they are inside.

You want your human, come get her. Before I get hungry…

-Kat

My heart is thudding so hard that I know that Stefan can hear it. I try to keep my bravest face on. Come on now Damon! Be a man! After almost two hundred year of experience, I'd be used to this by now. Yet here I am, on the brink of tears of anger at the woman who cursed me into this situation. I can't believe that she's hurt her already!

"Do you realize how much blood it must have taken to write this? A lot Stefan! The answer is a lot!" I'm about ready to zoom back to the car and drive off again when Stefan grabs my arm. I look over at him, consumed by my own grief. "Let go! We need to find her before Kat figures out the sick awesome mad nasty magic powers of the ring Emma is wearing! Kat will just keep killing her over and over like a live chew toy!"

"This isn't Emma's blood Damon." Stefan says and I feel my heart lift a little at his words. "It has a little of her blood mixed in it to mask the smell as her own. It would work too with the normal vampire whose first instinct is to smell the human blood. This is mixed with something else's blood, cat blood if my senses are correct." I could hug Stefan right now! Finally, some good news! I know I tease him a lot over drinking animal blood but, that's what is saving us right now! Since he diets on nothing but animal blood his system is hardwired to sniff out animal blood better than animal blood.

"She thinks she can pull the wall up over the Salvatore brothers!" I hook my arm over Stefan's neck, giving him a brotherly nuggy. "Now we just need to figure out where she is."

"I think I know the answer to that too…" Stefan mumbles, releasing himself from my headlock. "Back in 1864, remember how she loved to play games with us." Stefan explains as we walk back to the car and Elena walks out of the convenience store, shaking her head no. "Once she played one with once where she had stolen my journal and ran with it. The only thing she left was a note that said 'You want your journal back, come get it. Before I get too curious…'"

"Oh my God!" I shout. "Let's go get her! You drive." We all load ourselves into my car and Stefan drives onward into the darkness of the night. I stare hard at the clock as we go on. 2:36 am…3:48 am…4:51 am…5:33 am…6:29 am…7:47 am…

"Damon…I'm hungry." I hear Elena mumble in my ear. I never even noticed that she was lying on me until just now. I study her and none-the-less she's draped over me, limb with her lack of sleep. "Can we please stop to get something to eat?" Her voice even hints how exhausted she is. I feel the urge to tell her no, to keep on driving because it's going to take us an hour extra than Kat to get to wherever she took Emma because SHE might die. Harsh words flood into my mind, screaming for me to snap at her, to tell her how selfish she's being. I've already given up our tail on them for her. Now she wants to sacrifice our extra time to go get her.

"Stefan, you heard the lady. Pull over at the next fast food or gas station." I mutter, my eyes sore from lack of blinking. I'm afraid if I close my eyes, when I open them Emma will be gone. Dead. I don't know if I can handle her death without at least telling her how I feel about her first. Plus, the guilt that I could have saved her but didn't do enough to protect her.

I should have gone into that gas station with her. I let her walk in there without any protection. If I went with her, I would have known that Katherine was in there. I could have gotten Emma out of there before Kat had the chance to nap her like she did. This is partially my fault. Actually, this is all my fault! If Emma never got involved with me in the first place, like Stefan had wanted and warned me to do so, Kat wouldn't have any motive to human-nap her. I'm a horrible person!

I sit in the parking lot with our car, as Stefan buys Elena a yogurt parfait for breakfast. I watch each minute pass by as they wait. Each second ticks closer to Emma's demise. The avoidable, premature ending that she does not deserve. The McDonald's workers seem to take their sweet time serving them and then I snap.

I don't remember when I jumped out of my car. I don't remember picking up speed. The first twenty miles a blur behind me as I sprint down the road. I don't know what I'm thinking because I don't even really know where I'm going. Stefan told me the address of the place we were going but I don't know where the heck we are! Are we even in the same state? We were driving a good six hours before we pulled off the road so I'm going to guess we are far from Mystical Falls right now. The roads begin to look somehow familiar and I suddenly slow my pace. I do the first thing that pops into my head, I make a dead sprint for the wood off of the road. I look around and I feel my mind drift, as I'm surrounded by my memories.

"Katherine, where are you taking me?" I laughed joyously as we ran through the wood together. My heart felt elated as Kat lead me by my hand through the dusty paths of in the bright sunlight. "My father is going to want to leave to go back home soon. This vacation has been terrific but, we need to be heading home. It is days until we will arrive home." The worry in my voice caused one of her amazing laughs to ring at my ears pleasantly.

"Damon, I fear you worry far too much my dear." Katherine laughed happily. I had to close my eyes for a moment and just relish in her laugh, the sound of her voice, and her smile when she's smiling at me. It's the most beautiful thing in this world. "We won't be long anyhow. I just want to leave something so that people will know we've been here."

"What do you mean by that?" I couldn't help but ask, opening my eyes and looking at her with complete serenity. She smiles and pulls out from under the skirt of her dress, a small hand knife. I gasp at the sight of it. What does Kat need with a knife? Vampire or not she's still a lady. "Katherine…"

"Calm down, I only want you to carve our names into the tree Darling." She rolls her eyes, presenting the knife to me and a take it gingerly from her hands. I pull it out of its small leather case. The blade is fairly dull, pleasing me that my lady isn't carrying around a very sharp knife in her bosom.

I walk over to the trunk of the nearest tree, digging the blade of the knife into the bark, grinding out the dark brown. Once I finish I look over at Katherine to stare at it together. Our smiles couldn't be bigger as I handed her back her knife.

Lady Katherine + Damon Salvatore = Love 4 an Eternity

I stare up at it, still on the trunk of the tree now. It's placed a little higher up than I remember, and the bark has slightly healed over the edges of my carve-men-ship. Other than that it's exactly as I remember it. The memory that used to make me smile, now only makes me want to upchuck all over the leafy forest floor. I reach up to that piece of bark and rip it off. I crumble it in my hand, wanting to destroy the existence of it forever. No one will ever look at it again and wonder if the two lovers ever did end up together in the end because I know that they don't. I remember the terrible ending to our love story, including the good parts right before it. If I also remember everything else correctly, that tree was only a mile away from our vacation house…

My new revelation causes my blood to begin to pump faster and faster through my veins. I rush through the woods, on the path that looks the same as it had two hundred years ago. I keep moving, never stopping until I finally reach the large home. I had spent so many summers of my life here throughout my childhood, I feel myself grow sad. When did things get so fucked up? My father and I never really got along real well but, I never thought I'd be standing here nearly two hundred years later, looking at my past. Things seemed so simple back before Kat strolled her vampy ass into my life. She's the one who always fucks things up for me. Not this time.

I charge my way up the steps, the only things running through my mind are the images of what I might find. Am I going to walk into that room to find Emma's dead body on the floor and then Kat throwing my magic ring at my feet only to bid me a 'Nice try' and then sprint away? The thought of it makes my body jerk through the locked door even more urgently than before.

There Katherine sits, sprawled out on the couch. She stares up at me like she's irritated.

"Took you long enough!" She growls getting up and closing the distance between us. "Here I thought you'd rush to rescue your stupid human girl. I guess you don't like her as much as I thought you did…"

I can't take her anymore; I slam her up against the wall by her neck. She doesn't look the least bit hurt by this. She seems to have almost expected this reaction out of me. She laughs that my anger, which disproved her statement about Emma. "Where is she?" The malice in my voice is enough to scare any human senseless but, to Katherine this is a normal speaking tone.

"Don't get your pretty boy boxer's in a knot! Take your coat off and stay a while." She seethes as I intensify my grip on her neck. Any moment she going to snap and I'm going to be in trouble with her. She'll push me off, splash vervain in my face, or something of that nature.

I release her and I throw my coat off, tossing it over my shoulder. "There now, tell me where she is!"

Kat sneers in pleasure that she has successfully gotten me all riled up. She leads me down a flight of rickety stairs and down a hallway. The hallway exhibits just how old the house is and how it's been abandoned since the last summer my family had spent here.

"Too bad you took so long." Kat drops her tone of voice to a mush sinister one. "You may have had a better chance of saving her sorry ass. I killed her off about…an hour ago." She stops at a metal door, our family's old money safe.

"Let me in there!" I shout clawing at the metal. It would take me about ten minutes max to open this block of rusty metal unhinged if Kat weren't standing there, distracting me with her skeptical looks.

"Why would you want to go in there if she's already dead?" She laughs but still twists the big lock doors and opening it for me. The moment that the door is opened I spot Emma standing in the middle, staring at the door with alarm. I sigh, relieved for the first time that Kat is a compulsive liar.

"Damon, NO!" Emma shouts but, it's too late. I've already stepped through the door and tackled her to the ground. I'm thanking god over and over that she's okay. I ignore her squirms underneath me as I squeeze her tightly. "Damon, you don't understand what you've just done."

"What have I done?" I laugh, feeling as though nothing could make me feel better. My plan was to plant a kiss right on her but as I lift my head up to meet her eyes, I realize she's serious.

"Screwed yourself over. I may not have killed Emma," Kat says, her voice ever so maniacal. "But you will." Just like that, she slams the door. I gasp but don't feel at all alarmed. Like I said before, I can have that door clean of in under ten minutes. I'm surprised Kat would under estimate me like this.

"Why does she say that?" I ask, a strange feeling that things are not okay.

"This room is sealed like a vampire tomb. I was your bate into it." Emma says, tears filling her eyes.