A hard slap to the face woke Damon from his sleep. Not needing to wait for his eyes to clear, he saw Elena standing over him, eyes red from crying, but her face set with anger.
" Hello, beautiful. I must still be dreaming..." Damon felt really cocky. Maybe if he charmed his way through this...situation, Elena would cut him some slack. Whatever she thought he did, he didn't do it.
" You killed again?" Elena slapped him again, but Damon never felt it. His face was numb from the first hit. " Why, huh? I thought you changed for good, Damon. Anti-killing!"
" Kill? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Take a breather, little girl-"
" Call me that again-"
" Okay!" Damon neatly dodged another hit, now standing behind Elena. He grabbed her wrists, locking them together with his hands. She wriggled, trying to escape, but his grip was too strong for her. " Sit down, and I will explain everything that I did and didn't do, hmm? Perhaps I'll change your mind and make you think twice about hitting me again."
Elena stopped wriggling. Her body almost went limp, but she sat down next to him on his bed. " Okay. Start talking, Salvatore."
Damon cocked his head to one side and grinned. " I finally got you in my bed..."
Elena scoffed. " Damon, I swear if you don't tell me what the hell happened with you and Nancy last night, I will-" Damon placed a finger gently over her lips, stopping her in mid-sentence.
" I. Did. Not. Kill. That. Woman. I swear on my mother's grave. I merely had a lunch with her, and I brought her to her car. That's all I did. Everything else wasn't me-wait. What did happen exactly? Did they show it on the news?"
" Yes. They said her body was completely drained of blood. Not only that, but everything with value in her car had been stolen, too. Police are saying psychopath, but I know better than that," Elena raised an eyebrow at Damon, and he shrugged his shoulders.
" Hey, that's not my rationale. If I'm going to kill, I'll just do it and move on. I won't even stop to smell the roses, let alone steal trinkets and such. I haven't got the time for that nonsense." Damon eyed Elena as she paced the floor. " What's on your mind?"
" Huh? Oh. Is it possible...is it possible that we missed a vampire from the tomb? I mean, you and Alaric killed the ones that were torturing Stefan, and a few others escaped. Do you think it was one of them?"
Damon leaned his head back against the headboard and thought about it. " I wouldn't think so. One of them wouldn't see the value in an iPod Touch or a smartphone. A ring or necklace? Maybe. But technology of today means nothing to them, and not to mention they wouldn't know how to work it anyway. But the whole draining of the blood thing seems to dead on."
Elena tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, making a powerful scent waft over to Damon. He held his breath, trying not to breathe her in, but it was near impossible. She smelled... fantastic. When she glanced at him, he resumed his composure on his bed and pretended to be deep in thought.
" Do you honestly think that you have me fooled?"
" What? I'm thinking!"
Elena scoffed and grabbed her jacket. " Whatever you say, Damon. Just don't strain yourself, okay? I'm too frustrated to think, and your 'flirting with your eyes' thing is making me even more stressed than I already am. Tell Stefan to call me later!" She sang out as she left. Damon inhaled deeply at the remains of her scent, as if he was going to forget what she smelled of. Vanilla and lavender breeze...
Damon shook his head. " Up you go, Damon! A long day ahead of you. Might be even longer if you have to take crap from your kid brother again..." Damon looked himself over in the full length body mirror and grinned. Looking good...as usual. His dark hair was messier than normal, but today it made him look even younger than he actually was. His bright blue eyes, brighter as well, looked as if he was human again, where all his emotions could be read through his eyes. Luckily, they couldn't anymore.
He pulled on a white t-shirt(yes, white for a change) and was standing next to his car in a flash. It roared to life and he sped off, headed towards Mystic Falls. People crawled the streets, placing signs that said "Congratulations Class of 2010!" across from one of the street to the other, and many balloons and streamers. Damon rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and waited for the light to turn green. As he began to tap the wheel with his thumb, he noticed a young woman neatly dodging a truck from hitting her by millimeters. She raced across the street, glancing ever so slightly at Damon before sneaking into an alleyway. Curious, Damon pulled over and placing the car in park, he crossed the street and looked down the alley.
" Come out, come out wherever you are..." Damon mumbled under his breath. Not a soul stirred, but as he turned to head back to his car, he collided into a solid body. He looked down, only to see a young woman, about 5'2 with shoulder length hair and bluish gray green eyes. She raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down.
" Um, hi?" Something seemed oddly familiar about her and the way she looked at him, her eyes scrutinizing and sensing his nervousness.
" Hi," she answered. " Why are you following me?"
Damon never had a decent answer, so he told the truth. " You looked at me-"
" And you automatically took that for a booty call? Real smooth, Salvatore. It's nice to know things haven't changed around here."
" And you know my name how?" Damon raised his own eyebrow.
" Oh, please! Don't tell me you've forgotten me already!" When Damon never budged, she sighed and rolled her eyes. " Okay then. A flash to the past here: 1872...a cold stormy night. I let you in my house because you claimed to be cold and got lost in the snowstorm that was brewing for several days. I let you in, we laughed, I fed you...in more ways than one. And then you turned me. They all lived not so happily ever after."
A sickly feeling formed in Damon's stomach as he remembered that night. " Lily? I thought you died because your body rejected my blood."
" That makes two of us. I woke up to find everything sharper and clearer than ever before, but my vampire lover had disappeared! So I had to adjust to this life on my own, with no help from anyone at all. I had every intention of passing over this crap town, but bam! The scent of blood hit me and I had to find it. So I did, and I had myself a lunch. There was a very familiar scent lingering on that lady's body and I immediately remembered yours back in my home in 1872. I knew you were here."
Damon took her arm and dragged her to his car. " Listen. I need to take back to my place. If you wish to survive here and everywhere else for that matter, we have to lay down a few ground rules, hmm? Now get in the car."
Lily stuck out her tongue, but she climbed in nonetheless. " Nice ride. Who did you kill to get it?"
" No one. I bought it. With money. Remember that? Little circles and paper?"
Lily laughed and leaned over the side of the car, arms tucked under her chin. " As if! Damon, when was the last time you actually used little coins and paper? Think really hard, like really, really hard, and nothing will come to you."
Damon scowled and looked in his rearview mirror before pulling out of his parking space. " Listen, you spoiled brat. When we get back to my home, I'm setting the rules here. This town is mine and my brother's terrain-"
" You have a brother? Is he hot like you? Can I meet him? Better yet, can I eat him?"
Damon sighed heavily and fought every inch of nerve in his body to keep from hitting her and ripping her from limb to limb. " Maybe. If he gets on my nerves before you do, I just might let you eat him, okay? Now please for the love of everything that is sacred, shut up!"
