TEN

I was laying out on the grass in the backyard Friday morning. Damon was gone when I woke up and thought it should have worried me, it didn't. When I realized Stefan was in his room and he wasn't alone, I came out here and laid down. The sky was cloudy and grey, hinting that there would be a storm coming in soon. I didn't believe in bad omens and signs, so I just took it for what it was; a summer storm. There was a wind that was a blowing a bit harder then normal and the feel of it against my skin was helping me keep my thoughts on the good things in life rather than the two people upstairs. I sighed and shifted against the grass. I felt my eyes shut tighter and I took a deep, unnecessary breath. The locket was beside me on the grass mostly because I didn't need another reminder there was another vampire nearby.

My plan to talk to Alaric had been put on hold because of his proposal. Unlike him, I didn't feel like interrupting anything I didn't need to see. I grinned at the memory of that day and felt the rush of embarrassment course through me again. I stiffened slightly as I felt someone walking around back; heard the footsteps thud softly against the ground. I relaxed again when I realized it was just Tyler. "This would be a scary sight if I didn't already know you were dead."

I opened my eyes to look at him, propping myself up on my elbows in the process. "What?"

"You weren't breathing," he said dryly as he came to stand a few feet from me. His hands were shoved in his pockets and from the relaxation I had been in, it was hard to keep his thoughts out.

I rolled my eyes and then narrowed them at him. "Must you always envision me naked when you see me?"

He grinned in that wolfish manner. "Take it as a compliment."

I shook my head, giving him a light smile. "Just be thankful I can hear your thoughts and not Damon."

"What are you doing out here?" he asked after a moment of silence which was filled with his contemplation of whether a fight between he and Damon would be worth it just to kiss me at the moment.

My gaze flickered towards the house briefly. "Just waiting for Damon to get back. What are you doing here?"

He half turned to look up at the house and I could see his nose twitch as he inhaled. "Why are you letting it get to you? You're with Damon anyway." That last sentence was said in a somewhat attempt to be a fact and not a whine. "I'm sure it feels the same way when Stefan sees you with Damon."

It hurt, but he was right. That smug smile on his face told me he knew it too. I laid back on the grass and closed my eyes. "There's beer in the fridge."

He laughed. "Trying to get me drunk are you? Did you get those ear plugs I suggested?"

I smiled. "If you get too drunk, I will bring you home myself." He began to walk towards the back door when I added, "If you see my phone, will you bring it for me?"

"Sure," he replied and I was alone again. I shook my head at his blatant suggestiveness and knew it was just his way, amplified by his new animal magnetism and couldn't help but feel sorry for any human girl he had in his sights. As long as he never took it too far, I would leave him alone.

My sudden good mood died instantly as the air shifted and I was on my feet in seconds. I peered around the edges of the forest behind the house and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I heard something to my right and took three vampire-quick steps in that direction and halted at the sight of Roarke. His hazel eyes were full of hurt and awe as he looked at me. "Katherine," he whispered. He had the faintest trace of a Scottish accent that rippled with an age older than I could determine.

"I'm not Katherine," I said defiantly.

He didn't seem to hear me. I sniffed the air and was confused. I did not sense vampire. What I sensed was warlock. His blood was similar to Bonnie's but there was a distinct difference. He definitely fed from a vampire recently and try as I might, I could not read his thoughts. "Katherine..." he breathed as he stepped forward.

I tried to step away from him and found that I couldn't move. There was something very, very wrong with this man. He wasn't vampire, yet he was immortal. The only word I had ever heard him say outside my dreams was Katherine and from the tone it just sounded as if he were being controlled, right down to his use of magick. I struggled against the invisible barrier behind me and began to panic as he continued to approach. He reached out to touch my face and I screamed. In the back of my mind I knew I was his descendent and because I looked like Katherine...that thought didn't sit well with me. "Back. Off," I hissed and pushed forward with my body to throw him off balance.

It was like slamming myself into a brick wall. He was staring at me with pure concentration and I began to feel a pressure building slowly in my head. My breathing picked up as my vision began to blur. My ears popped painfully and I could feel the blood streaming down my face as my I could feel my skull beginning to crack under the pressure. "Stop," came a forceful voice somewhere near us.

I dropped to the ground and curled into the fetal position. My head was pounding and the pain was almost unbearable. The only thing keeping me conscious was the fact that I knew if I passed out now, I was as good as dead. And I wouldn't be coming back this time. A howl cut through the air, but neither one of them moved as if they had heard it. "No," I chocked out as someone crouched before me and lifted my face up so he could see me. I waited for him to kill me and Damon swirled around my mind. Tears mixed with the blood on my face and landed on my hair. "Kill me," I pleaded, the anticipation was too much.

It was definitely Klaus. His hair was still kept short, although it was longer than I had seen in the last dream. His dark blue eyes were full of amusement. "I am not going to kill you. Not yet," he promised and gently moved his thumb across my face. He brought the bloodied appendage to his mouth and closed his eyes as if savoring the taste. He stood and smiled. It was horrific and beautiful at the same time. He turned to Roarke and in an instant, they were gone. Unable to hold on any longer, I gave in and passed out.

I came awake to something licking my face. I smiled, thinking it was Damon, and when I opened my eyes, I was greeted by the sight of a wolf standing over me, tongue hanging out the side of its mouth, panting ever so lightly. My smile died and I pushed him back a little. "Tyler," I muttered and immediately stopped trying to get to my feet for two reasons. One, Tyler refused to move from his protective stance over me. Two, pain ripped through my body and I cried out. Tyler let out a bark and I groaned as the sudden sharp noise tore through me. "Bad dog," I said lightly even though there was a roughness to my voice.

He growled, but I swore his muzzle turned into a smile for a brief moment. "Elena!" I heard two different voices call out. I heard the soft thud of a pair of feet and a heavier, clumsier footfall of the second pair. I shut my eyes as I caught the scent of Bonnie and Stefan headed my way.

Tyler licked my face once more and moved away from me the moment Stefan and Bonnie came to kneel by my side. I couldn't even imagine what I looked like, but they didn't seem to care much about that. "What happened?" Bonnie asked, tears clouding her eyes.

I was about to answer when Stefan put a hand gently over my mouth. "Don't talk. Bonnie, I need you to-"

"Here," came Tyler's voice as he came into view. He tossed three blood bags in Stefan's direction and I looked away as he finished zipping up the fly to his jeans. There was blood around his mouth; my blood.

"Drink," Stefan demanded as he sliced a bag open with his nail and poured it down my throat. All three of them looked away as I drank greedily from the bag. Stefan opened the other one and then the last one. By the time I was done, the pain in my head seemed to be dull enough that I was able to sit up without much of an effort. Stefan put the empty pouches down on the ground and swallowed deeply at the few drops of blood left in them.

His attention focused back to me as Bonnie asked, "Now can you tell me what the hell just happened?"

"Where's Damon?" I asked, my voice was hoarse. I coughed to clear my throat of that parched feeling that still lingered. I had lost more blood then I had just replaced.

Everyone exchanged glances. "I'll call him," Tyler said and went back to the house.

"Elena," Stefan's voice said as he pulled me into his lap so I could sit up without wanting to fall backwards. His voice was smooth as if he were trying to compel me into talking to him. "I need you to tell me what happened."

"Roarke and Klaus were here," I said in a shaky voice.

Bonnie reached forward and grabbed my hand. "Tyler came into the house to get beer. I was getting water and he said you were outside. I started talking to him about Jenna and Alaric's engagement and then we both sensed something was wrong. He ran outside to find you and I just sat there and did nothing. Stefan and I didn't look for you until we heard you scream. Did Tyler get there in time?" she asked. She was blabbering; something she only did when she was extremely worried. Which did not leave me with a good feeling.

"No," I answered. "Klaus stopped Roarke from killing me."

I didn't want to talk about it. I wanted Damon. They both seemed to sense that I wasn't going to say anymore about it and we both looked up as Tyler came running back to us. "He's on his way."

I closed my eyes and sagged against Stefan in the relief that Damon was alright. Stefan's hands stroked my hair and whispered something over and over again. I wasn't listening to him, but the withdrawal I felt from Bonnie only a foot or so away from us told me it wasn't something he should be saying. The next thing I knew, I was being lifted bridal style and opened my eyes to see Damon carrying me back to the boarding house. I mouthed thank you at the three of them as I leaned my head on his shoulder.

He was cursing in several different languages as he set me down in front of the large claw-foot tub in his bathroom. The cold tile made me shiver as he carefully removed my clothes after turning on the water. Soon, the scent of warm vanilla filled my nose as the room became steamy from the heat of the water. He lifted me and then lowered me back into the pleasantly hot water. I watched him as he cleaned my face and couldn't help but think of this as strange behavior for him. I had known him for two years, been with him for one, and even though he had his sweet, tender moments...this still seemed strange. Wonderful, but strange. "What happened?" he asked after awhile.

My hand was playing in the slightly bloodied water on its own volition. "I need blood," I whispered, my voice still coarse and scratchy.

"Be right back," he said.

In under thirty seconds, he had an arm full of blood bags and kept handing them to me until I began to feel my skull heal completely. He smiled, knowing I was out of the danger zone and used the washcloth to wipe the leftover blood from my mouth. I told him what happened after Tyler had gone into the house up until the point he had found us in the woods. His eyes had gone dark in a level of anger I had never seen before as I told him what Roarke did and the tension in his shoulders as I repeated Klaus' words. "There is something wrong with Roarke. He's not vampire, but he's not human either," I said after a moment of silence. My voice was back to normal now.

"Impossible," he said, his mind still trying to process that bit of information.

"Apparently not."

I pulled my knees up and they stuck out of the water. I laced my hands together around them and looked at him, my cheek resting against the cool edge of the tub. "I shouldn't have left you alone."

"You were hunting," I said in a voice full of understanding. "Right?" I asked in a lighter voice.

I unlaced my fingers and shifted in the water so that I could rest my hand on his arm. "No, I was talking to Sheriff Forbes."

"Why?"

"To see if she was aware of any vampires in the area recently. Then your father showed up. She got called out for something minor and we started talking." There was something his tone; something I was going to like even less then being attacked by Klaus and Roarke.

"Just tell me," I said and squeezed his arm reassuringly.

His eyes bored into mine and were filled with sorrow. "I was too busy talking about you that I didn't notice Caroline listening in the hallway."

My brows furrowed in disbelief. "How did you not know Caroline was there? You always know."

A sly smile touched his face and I felt a little better. "I knew someone was listening, but we weren't talking about anything that couldn't be explained away easily. It was just something I said that triggered her memory."

"Did you tell her about everything?"

He shook his head. "I told her to go home, forget what she heard from me, and to call you as soon as possible." He reached out and cupped my face gently. "I should have been here."

I turned my head lightly to kiss the inside of his palm. "They didn't kill me because they're not all too convinced I'm not Katherine. You, they would have killed in a heartbeat. Tyler, Stefan, and Bonnie were here. All that matters is that I'm fine," I said and kissed his hand again before moving to stand up.

It was as if the blood I had just consumed had kicked in and I swayed on my feet. Damon put his hands on my shoulders to balance me. He lifted me up and before I knew it, I was laying on the bed and the sheets were wet the moment I touched them. Damon crawled into bed next to me and held me to him, uncaring that half of his clothes were now drenched as well. He kissed my forehead. "I'm going to kill them even if it's the last thing I do," he promised me.

I shivered from the mix of air and water on my skin and he covered me with a blanket. "Only if it's the last thing we do together," I mumbled and I drifted to sleep to finish healing.