A/N: Again, thanks so much to everyone who left me reviews. I less than three you all! Sorry it has taken me a few extra days to get this chapter posted, I was visiting a friend this weekend and spent most of my time goofing off instead of writing. Forgive me? I knew you would. Here we go!!! :-)
Undisclosed Desires
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognize your beauty is not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
Undisclosed Desires by Muse
Bonnie sat on the couch at her grandmother's house and buried her head in her hands, not wanting to think about the mess that she had gotten herself into. Scratch that, the mess that she had gotten her friends into. She decided not to return to school and instead helped Grams make cookies and muffins before cleaning up the kitchen and living room. The chores allowed her mind to be relieved from the worry that she felt for her friends, if only for a few moments. Bonnie knew that Caroline would be fine, but she was worried about Elena. After finding out the truth about Stefan and Damon, Bonnie had been paying close attention to Stefan whenever he and Elena were together. And there was no denying how amazing they were together. But this spell, it would stifle out her feelings for him, and would leave her apathetic and indignant. And that just wasn't Elena.
Gram's words were still clawing at the back of her mind. She knew more about the Salvatore's than Bonnie would think, and that maybe it was for Elena's benefit that the spell was put on her. In a world where Elena had lost so much over the last year, she didn't feel right taking this last bit of happiness from her best friend. It didn't seem right.
"Grams?" Bonnie called, getting up from the couch. "Are you sure there is no possible way to take the spell off of Elena? She is really, truly happy with Stefan. It feels cruel to rob her of that."
Grams shook her head. "I am sorry child, Providence knows best."
Bonnie could feel herself getting heated. She had heard that one time too many today and she just couldn't deal with it anymore. "It wasn't providence! It was a silly, stupid mistake made by a silly, stupid witch!"
Grams cupped her hands around Bonnie's face. "You stop that tantrum right now young lady. I will not have you talking like that. Not about you, and not about fate. Do you hear me?"
Bonnie sunk down with apologetic eyes and nodded. "Yes ma'am."
Grams held Bonnie's gaze. "That's better. Now go get that book in the living room, you still have much to learn."
"At the risk of sounding, well, nothing at all like myself, may I ask why? I mean, you and Stefan…"
Elena looked at Damon, drumming her fingers on the table in the dank restaurant. Now that she had actually gone as far as to ask him to compel her, she was regretting it. It was stupid to ask anything of Damon and she knew it. Not only was it stupid, he could take advantage of her in so many ways. But then again, wasn't that part of the thrill of it? She could feel the fire starting to build inside her; the anger, the worry, the excitement. And now was he really taking this time to talk about Stefan?
She could see the brief glimmer of confusion and doubt in his eyes but before she could reply, that hint disappeared and was replaced by the cool, collected and always calculated Damon that she had come to know far too well.
"Was it the brooding forehead? I told him he probably just got to be far too melancholy for you. High school chicks aren't into that."
Chicks? She decided to let that one slide; for now. "And if I told you that was it? That all of the brooding and the careful, deliberate ways were just far too 'Edward Cullen' for me, then would you do it?"
"Oh god, not you too. Caroline actually likes that book. Did you know she asked me why I didn't sparkle?"
Elena's eyes narrowed. "Say it isn't so." she mocked. "Damon Salvatore, dodging a question like 'will you compel me?'" She laughed out loud and then quickly sobered. "Did I finally do something unexpected Damon? Something you don't understand?"
He shrugged. "There is very little about the human female adolescent mind that I actually understand, Elena. I can predict your species down to a tee, but understand their motivations? Hardly."
She wasn't expecting his abrupt change of mood when he spoke next, and the way he looked into her eyes made her almost feel uncomfortable. "But you," he paused to tick up one eyebrow. "You seem to baffle me more than most. And while I do have to admit that I hadn't expected you dumping the bleeding-heart that is my brother, I was intrigued by it."
Elena made a face something akin to eating a whole lemon.
"Although, something tells me that Stefan actually put you up to this to start a fight with me… to see how far I would go. And I have to warn you, if he lays another finger on me, I'm going to turn him into garden fertilizer."
Elena pushed her iPod into her bag and stood up, leaning over the table as she spoke to him. "Stefan did not, in fact, he certainly would not ever ask me to do that."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Stefan doesn't have the gonads to put you in harm's way. I still have a hard time believing he was with you all this time without the slightest temptation to taste…"
Elena gulped; her face turned crimson but her eyes became hard and unreadable. She stood up, straightened her clothes and took three steps from the table.
Damon reached out and put his hand on her arm, keeping her from leaving. And then he pouted. "Leaving so soon, kitten?"
"Would you stop calling me that?"
"Only if you tell me why you asked me to use my... influence... on you." His eyes were dark and guarded, but Elena could tell he was thoroughly enjoying this. There was still that mischievous twinkle in them.
Elena let out a sigh and sat back down in the chair. "Because maybe, for once I want to do something stupid and reckless; something bad for me, something fun. I don't know the last time I actually did something without thinking about the consequences. It's exhausting. Besides, to be honest with you, I have kind of always wanted to know what it was like."
Half of Damon's mouth curled up into his signature smirk. "Are you saying that I am stupid and bad for you?"
"Are you saying that you'll do it?"
Damon took a moment to reply, not sure he wanted to agree. After all, hadn't he wanted to do this the old fashioned way? Hadn't he wanted to get Elena to admit feelings for him without using his Powers? Or at the very least get her into bed on her own free will, just to say that he had? That was something that his brother obviously had failed to do, considering Stefan seemed to still have a stick up his ass. His decision came swiftly and his green eyes searched hers so deeply that she wondered if he could see her soul. The gaze stunned her, pulling goose bumps up on her arms.
"Take your necklace off," Damon commanded.
Caroline spent all of cheerleading practice stealing glances at Matt. Despite feeling like the spell had worked earlier that morning, Caroline couldn't get the football captain out of her head anymore. Now, as she laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, she was beginning to wonder if Bonnie's spell had actually backfired and made her feelings for Matt worse. She had been fine all morning. She hadn't thought about him at all until lunch. When he yelled at her.
No one ever yelled at Caroline Forbes. Most people were too busy looking for her approval or trying to get in her pants to really care about her one way or the other. Was it possible that Matt actually did?
It began as twinges of regret for being so cruel to him. But slowly as the day progressed it had gnawed its way to the surface of her mind over and over again. The look of disappointment on his face; like he should have been expecting her to act this way all along. That's what really got to her.
Caroline pulled out her phone and dialed Bonnie. She needed answers.
After the fourth ring when Bonnie hadn't answered, Caroline hung up and flopped back down on her bed and resisted screaming into her pillow, although she really wanted to. And then it hit her.
She grinned and dialed a new number. Two, three, four rings. No answer. This time, Caroline opted to leave a message.
"Damon, listen, it's me Caroline. I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I need you to call me when you get a chance. I need to talk to you so that I can… find out how I feel about you. It sounds stupid, but trust me, you wouldn't understand. Anyway, call me." She snapped her phone shut and hopped up off her bed. Putting on her cutest outfit and fixing her make-up, Caroline had made up her mind. She was going to go to the Mystic Grill and find Matt. All of this waiting around was driving her crazy. And Caroline was never one to wait for a man.
Stefan had never been much of a tracker. He didn't really care for the chase or the hunt the way Damon did. For Stefan, feeding was about keeping the humans in his life safe and his thirst sated. For Stefan, feeding was not about the immense power that came with it. Not anymore.
Feeding on animals though had some advantages when it came to tracking. Vampires tended to follow the old adage 'you are what you eat' to a certain extent. While feeding on humans made Damon powerful because of the strength and influence that people had over the Earth, feeding on animals gave Stefan similar animalistic qualities. For instance, his sense of smell was far more developed than his brother's, as well as his ability to see at night. Stefan could see just as clearly in a pitch black forest as if it were noon on the sunniest day of the year. Of course, Damon knew nothing of these qualities; and even if he did learn about them, Stefan was sure it would never be enough to convince his brother to resist human blood.
Stefan had successfully used his weakened powers of compulsion to get into the morgue. He quickly found where they were keeping Logan Fell's body and searched it for any clues that would lead him to the vampire or vampires that had changed him. Stefan picked up a faint distant scent. Something that did not belong, but was oddly familiar. And for some reason, even though he knew that he had smelled it before, he couldn't place it.
Stefan broke the wooden stake in half where it stuck out of Logan's body and lifted it for further inspection. The scent was strongest on the stake and he knew that he could use it to find whoever it was that had killed Logan.
With more questions than answers, Stefan stepped back out into the daylight, pulling his sunglasses down over his eyes. First, who had turned Logan Fell? Second, who had killed Logan Fell? And most importantly right now, why had Damon lied about finishing Fell off himself?
Stefan pulled out his phone and hit the first speed dial. He was positive that Damon wouldn't answer; his brother barely ever answered his phone, but it didn't keep him from calling.
"I know the truth about Fell," he said into the phone after the beep. "I'm not leaving Mystic Falls until you tell me what you know and why you're covering it up." Stefan shoved his phone back into his pocket and took off into the woods. He needed to find the source of the scent on the stake.
Elena sat on the edge of her bed nervously. It had been two hours since she had left Damon at the restaurant and headed home like he had told her to.
"Go home, Elena," he had said after she had removed her necklace. She could hear the words vividly still in her mind. "Take a shower, put on something sexy for me, open your window and then wait for me."
She had eagerly agreed, now that the necklace was tucked away in her pocket. But now, the nervousness was returning. Elena counted her breaths as she waited; she didn't know what would happen once Damon finally showed up.
He gracefully leapt through her window and stood leaning against the wall, opposite where she was sitting on the bed. His eyes roamed her body as her face flushed and he nodded in approval.
"Mmmm, Elena, you certainly do take sexy to a whole new level," Damon whispered in her ear, moving behind her in one lightning fast motion. He was taking in the black satin and lace top and short skirt. "But somehow still tasteful…"
Elena turned around to face him, feeling the butterflies in her stomach as their wings beat vigorously. Her face turned crimson as Damon obviously looked her up and down again.
"I want you to do something else for me, Elena," Damon said, his voice low and smooth.
"Anything," she answered automatically, looking after him like a lost puppy. It was clear that his compulsion was still in full effect from her lack of arguing or struggling, not to mention what she was wearing.
Damon pushed her back on the bed so that she was laying, staring up at him as he hovered over her; and then he was on her, body crushing against her fire-hot skin. His hands were tangled in her hair and his fierce eyes searched her doe-like features for any trace of hesitation, despite the fact that he knew there would be none. He brought his face so close to hers that their lips almost, but not quite touched. And then he sighed.
"I think I am going to regret this… but I want you to put your necklace back on." Damon searched her face again, and then slowly resigned his place on top of her by rolling over onto his back, one arm tucked under his head.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it! Please be sure to tell me what you think! Coming up in chapter 6- Caroline confronts Matt. Stefan finds out who killed Logan Fell, and why. And lots more Damon/Elena goodness (the way it should be, with her necklace securely in place and lots of banter that seems to come with Damon and Elena. As always, reviews are food for my soul!
