Chapter 17

Kassandra smiled coldly at the human girl that currently had Damon wrapped around her finger, deciding maybe to break it. "Hello there. Jessenia isn't it?" She slowly began making her way down the small path, considering her prey.

"W-What do you want?" Jessenia stammered, slowly backing up a foot or two, worry in her jade eyes. Elena explained all about Kassandra, or what she knew anyway, so this wasn't that big of a surprise.

Kassandra laughed, kicking a rock out of her way. "There's a lot of things I want, girl, like Damon."

"Go have him then. He's yours." Jessenia wished she'd just gone home, tears still in her eyes.

"If only it were that easy and simple, Jessenia." Kassandra sighed wistfully, running a hand through her dark brown hair, which was curled to perfectly and hung down to the middle of her back. "You see, Damon is smitten with you. Don't look so shocked dearie, I know you have feelings for him as well."

This wasn't good as the vampire continued moving down the hill. "N-No I don't…"

"Lying is not your strong suit either, love." Kassandra stated, stopping to run her fingers over the wood of the bridge while the sun shined brightly on both of them. "So don't even attempt it."

"He doesn't want me though!" Desperation was kicking in and Jessenia was afraid for her life, having a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "P-Please, he's all yours! You don't have to do anything to me. I'm staying away from him."

Kassandra laughed openly, shaking her finger at Jessenia. "Is that what you think I'm going to do? Kill you? Heavens no, child. That wouldn't serve my greater purpose." She sounded darkly amused, the sound of her laughter sending chills throughout Jessenia's body.

"What is your greater purpose then?" Jessenia whispered, trembling now and was tempted to jump in the water.

"Now why on earth would I tell you that?" Kassandra made it sound as though they were discussing the weather, her voice soft and almost kind. "Let's just say you're going to become quite useful to me and leave it at that."

Jessenia didn't like the sound of that, wishing she hadn't left the grill because Elena could've protected her. "I won't help you do anything." She had to be strong, backing up again and felt her shoes engulf in water, not taking her eyes off of the vampire for a second.

"Oh I think you will, human, or I will kill Damon right before your eyes." Kassandra threatened, raising a brow when Jessenia didn't seen too troubled by that. "Or I suppose I could go to your guardian and precious cousin, Meredith. I hear she uses vampire blood to heal measly humans, the world would be a better place without her in it."

"If you go near her…"

"You'll what?" Kassandra was standing right in front of Jessenia now, running a finger down her cheek delicately. "Such a pretty flower you are, but it's time to stop this idle chit-chat. Now, you can either come with me willingly or…"

Jessenia looked up the pathway with wide eyes, shaking her head. "No…"

Katherine smiled and shoved Meredith down on her knees at the top of the small pathway, a dagger in her hand. "Now be a good little girl and nobody has to get hurt, hmm?"

"You have to swear to me no harm will come to my cousin. I don't care what you do with me, but let Meredith go and I won't fight you." Jessenia ignored Meredith's pleas to save herself, tears sliding down her cheeks. "Please, she has nothing to do with this."

Kassandra eyed Jessenia skeptically, wondering if she was telling the truth and nodded. "Very well. Sister, release her."

"But…"

"You owe me this after what you did to me, Katherine. Don't make me hurt you too." Kassandra threatened, grabbing Jessenia by the upper arm and turned around to face Katherine. "We have a deal. Now let her cousin go unharmed. We're doing this my way, remember?"

Katherine glared down at her sister, not believing she was actually foolish enough to trust Damon's current plaything and reluctantly cut the binds on Meredith's wrists. "Run." She ordered, shoving the human away from her and watched as Meredith took off down the bridge. "So what now, Kassie?"

A second later, Jessenia saw complete darkness, her body crumpling to the ground at Kassandra's feet.

~!~

"Not in the mood for company right now!" Damon called out, hearing the front door open and downed another tumbler of bourbon. "I said I'm not-what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to talk about Jesse." Elena said, walking down the few steps that lead to the parlor while Damon poured another glass. "So drink up because I'm not leaving until we do."

Damon rolled his eyes, not taking her seriously. "Go away, Elena." He ordered, carrying his tumbler over to the small seat right in front of the roaring fireplace.

"No, not until we talk about this, Damon." Elena sat on the couch, staring at him from the side and frowned, wishing things could be like they used to. "I know you think you're protecting Jessenia by pushing her away, but you're only hurting her…"

"So what?" Damon snorted, not in the mood for a heart to heart with the woman who ripped out his own just like Katherine had. "She'll get over it. This is for the best and you know it."

"Damn it Damon, are you even hearing yourself? When you were protecting me, you consumed me with everything you had, all of your feelings and love. You were fierce and didn't let anything or anyone stand in your way. Granted, you sabotaged a lot of plans we had, but we always came out on top…because of you." Elena stood up and walked over to squat down in front of him, cupping his face in her soft hands. "You can lie to a lot of people, but you can't lie to me. This isn't what's best for her or you. You deserve to be happy, but not if you keep pushing people away."

Gritting his teeth, Damon shoved her hands away from his face and stood up, downing his tumbler in one long swallow. "I can't talk about this with you, Elena." She really had to leave before Damon ended up hurting her worse than he had Jessenia, vocally since he could never hurt her physically.

"Why? Because you're in love with me still? Or because you're so afraid of falling for someone again because they might reject you the way Katherine and I did?" Elena squared her shoulders when Damon stormed toward her, brown locking with ice blue. "Whether you believe it or not, you do have your humanity still intact, Damon."

Damon was about to lose his temper and fast if Elena didn't back down and he really didn't feel like knocking her head off her shoulders. "Leave." He ordered, pointing to the hallway that lead to the front door.

"No."

"Damn it, Elena, I said LEAVE!" Damon shoved her, causing her to skid across the floor and instantly regretted it, turmoil filling his eyes.

"NO!" Elena shouted, stumbling to her feet and shoved him right back, sending Damon to the floor this time. "You're not going to push me around like you did when I was human! I'm much stronger now and will kick your ass just like Caroline did!"

That had definitely been a blow to his ego when Caroline ended up being changed into a vampire, courtesy of his blood in her system and Katherine suffocating her with a pillow in the hospital. Caroline had ran into him and she ended up getting some much needed revenge, which Damon didn't blame her for. He could've easily staked her, but honestly he liked Caroline and didn't want to end her.

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Damon roared, flipping the table over and launched his tumbler into the fire, watching as the flames exploded temporarily, sizzling. "I don't want or need your help with this! I GOT THIS!"

"I'm sure you do. I'm sure it's easy for you to break someone's heart and walk away like a coward. Especially when it's happened to you twice." Elena knew it was wrong to open up the fresh wounds concerning them, but if it helped open Damon's eyes to what he was doing to Jessenia, it was worth it.

Damon started laughing, no humor in it whatsoever. "Believe it or not, Elena, what I did to Jessenia has nothing to do with you. I'm over what you did to me, what Katherine did. I have been for a while now because I knew you'd choose Stefan all along. I'm not stupid. So whatever you think you're doing here trying to right my wrongs and make me a better person, forget it. I don't need your help." He dusted himself off and unbuttoned his shirt, peeling it off his rock hard frame, tossing it aside. "Now leave and don't come back unless my brother is with you or I'll tear you limb by limb."

Tears glistened in Elena's eyes as she stared back at Damon, stumbling back a little. "You wouldn't hurt me." She shot back weakly, wishing his cold words didn't hurt her as much as they did. "Damon, all I'm saying is there is a better way to handle things besides pushing Jessenia away. I see the way you look at her and she looks at you. Whatever you did to make her trust you, it worked and now she's fallen for you. There is no other man in the picture. Matt tried asking her to the dance and she walked out of the grill because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. She wants you, don't you see it?"

Damon had both hands placed on the ledge over the fireplace, his back turned to her and closed his eyes, trying to reign in his emotions, black eyebrows furrowed. "I want her too." He hated admitting it to Elena of all people, but she wouldn't leave it alone until he was brutally honest with her. "I'm not mad at her for running off on me and breaking our deal."

"The twenty four hour deal." Elena whispered, nodding when Damon turned his head to look over his shoulder at her. "She told me about it, said it was the most fun she'd had in years."

Damon half-smirked when he heard that, turning his eyes back to the fire and heaved a sigh. "You don't know this, but today when you two were playing dress up…"

"You were there." Elena cut him off, slowly walking over to stand beside him. "I felt you and I didn't say anything because I know you miss her." She placed a hand on his back, rubbing it comfortingly. "Damon, I'm on your side with this. Stefan told me to stay out of it, but I can't, not when both of my friends are hurting."

"Of course you can't." Damon retorted softly, not pulling away from her touch. "So, what else did she tell you?"

"She really didn't say anything about your time together. I think it hurts her too much to talk about you, to be honest." Elena pulled away from Damon and sat back down on the couch, leaning back against it. "But she did tell me one thing."

Damon turned around to face her, folding his arms over his bare chest. "I'll bite, what did she tell you?"

"She's happy her first kiss was from you." Elena smiled, remembering how flushed Jessenia got when she revealed that intimate information. "It just amazes me that you threatened to kill her and she ended up trusting you in seemingly the blink of an eye. And I know you didn't compel her because she's got my old necklace on and she's having vervain slipped into her beverages."

"Noted." Damon walked over to the mini bar, really needing a drink after having that explosion with Elena. "Want one?"

"Sure, why not?" Elena took the tumbler from him and clinked her glass against his, both of them swallowing down the liquid like it was water. "Thank you."

"Welcome." Damon refilled his, having grabbed the bottle and plopped down on the opposite couch, both of them deep in thought. "Did she say anything else about me?"

Elena smirked, shrugging innocuously. "Maybe." She said in a sing-song voice, teasing him a little. "She didn't tell me a lot, but she did say she wanted you to take her to the homecoming dance."

That got Damon's attention, his eyebrow quirking in wonder. "Really?" When Elena nodded, Damon actually contemplated it, studying her solicitously as if trying to read her to make sure she wasn't lying to him.

"Of course she did. Who else would she want to take to the dance?" Elena retorted amicably, grinning from ear to ear. "And judging by that look on your face, you want to take her."

Damon looked away from her, clearing his throat awkwardly. "I can't…"

"Why not? You want to be with her and she wants to be with you…" Suddenly, Elena started putting the pieces together and groaned, actually standing up to whack him upside the head. "Are you crazy? You're actually pushing her away because of KATHERINE?"

Growling, Damon didn't fight back, though his jaw did tighten. "It's not just Katherine we have to worry about, it's Kassandra too. Those two looked dangerous when they left and the only way I can protect Jessenia is for her to stay away until they are dealt with."

Elena sighed, smacking him again. "You're doing it again, Damon. You're taking control over someone's life and it's not right. It wasn't right when you did it to me either. I should've fought you every step of the way."

"You did!"

"Well guess what? Jessenia is going do the same thing until you do something so wreckless and stupid that she'll never forgive you for it." Even as a vampire, Katherine was still controlling their lives in one form or another and Elena was tired of it. "I wish Stefan would've killed her."

"Makes two of us." Damon swallowed down another tumbler and turned around, ready for another refill, when he heard commotion coming down the hall. "What the hell was that?"

"I have no idea." Elena headed for the hall and rolled her eyes when Damon stopped her, both of them being hesitant. "I can take care of myself now, remember?"

"Still not taking any chances. Follow me." Damon ordered, taking the lead and headed down the hall slowly, both of them stopping at the sight of a body lying in the open front door.

"It's Meredith!" Elena cried out, rushing over to her with Damon following, grabbing her hand.

Damon frowned and bent down, seeing the two holes on the side of Meredith's neck. "Vampire."

He bit his wrist and put it against Meredith's mouth, letting her drink some of his blood to heal her. Once Damon was sure she had enough, he pulled away and lifted her in his arms, the cut in his wrist already healing. Him and Elena walked back into the parlor and gently lay her on the couch, covering her up, knowing she would sleep for a while.

"Who did this to her?" Elena wondered aloud, not about to leave Meredith's side and texted Alaric to let him know what was going on.

"Guess we'll find out when she decides to wake up."