Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Vampire Diaries characters.

OOOOOOOO

Quiet Beauty

By Bewildered_Lily

Chapter Four

OOOOOOOO

"Oh God, Damon," she whispered softly, wonderingly.

It was automatic, the lifting of her hand to brush her fingers against his beloved face, to trace the features that had haunted her every dream for as long as she could remember; haunting her through time itself, through two lifetimes. Her heart clenched as that mocking smile crossed his features, a throwback to when he was a little boy who could never seem to please his demanding father.

She trembled as the onslaught of memories flooded her mind. Flashes of another life, another time crashed through her psyche with all the force of a tidal wave. It filled her soul up until she felt as if she would come apart at the seams. It was a struggle to find the line between the two parts of her soul and separate them enough to remember who she was in the here and now.

"So you do remember me, Little Rosalie," Damon crooned sardonically, he pressed her shaking form closer. He had one hand wrapped around the nape of her neck and the other at her waist having put them there as she swayed against him. "I'm so flattered."

"Lucy," she corrected firmly. "My name is Lucy Edwards, not Rosalie."

"Yes, but once upon a time, you were sweet little Rosalie DeMarco," he chuckled darkly his fingers moving up to tangle in her heavy mass of dark curls gripping them tight as he made her look at him. "How is it that you're standing before me now, when I remember you dying almost five hundred years ago?"

She hissed at the pain as he pulled her head back firmly but not cruelly, her startled gaze meeting his. She felt the part of her soul that was Rosalie surge up, desires that had been dormant in her soul for centuries clamoring to find relief, sweet release. It took all of her might to remember who she was, to not close the small gap between them and taste the lips she'd been yearning to taste for so long.

She licked her lips, trying to pull herself together; of course the fact that his eyes traced the movement hungrily did nothing to calm her already frazzled nerves. However, through the haze, his words finally registered to her brain.

"How could you know that I died when I distinctly remember dying almost a month after your own death? Gods, if that isn't the strangest thing to come out of my mouth!" she griped, all too aware of his eyes on her and how her body was pressed very closely to his. It really left nothing to the imagination. She didn't even want to get started on why she wasn't at all afraid of this man who had just accosted her and promised to hurt her mere moments before.

He smiled wickedly, leaning even closer to nip the tip of her nose playfully. "That would be because I wasn't dead, not truly dead anyway, when Little Rosalie DeMarco left this world."

She stiffened as she absorbed these words and the possible meaning of them. "They told me you and Stefan were dead, that you had taken each other's lives in an idiotic duel."

"Yes, but we didn't stay dead for long," the smile never leaving his face as he watched her put the pieces together. When she turned her wide eyes up to gaze at him, she could swear he was about to laugh.

"You let Katherine make you a VAMPIRE?" her voice rose to a near shriek on that last word. Rosalie might not have known back then what Katherine was, but a modern girl who had seen Interview with a Vampire a thousand times definitely wouldn't mistake what she'd seen that night of the ball as anything else.

"Of course," he answered his face suddenly deeply serious. He seemed to be studying her expression as he kept going. "I was in love with her and wanted to spend eternity with her after all."

It hurt; those words from him. They opened a scar that Lucy had never known existed until the memories of her past life came rushing back to her. It was unfair that she should carry the burden of that scar when she wasn't the one who had foolishly fallen in love with a notorious womanizer. However, the pain of it seared her none the less, and for a moment she was carried back to that night of the ball and the agony she'd endured those last few weeks of her life.

Rosalie DeMarco had died of a broken heart. It had started that night of the ball and ended shortly after she'd been informed of Damon's death. She'd wasted away into nothing for a man who loved another woman, a man who hadn't even known that Rosalie was in love with him. Or had known and simply didn't give a damn.

Anger began to simmer inside of her. Rosalie had given everything she had to this man, and he'd thrown her away for the first available beautiful piece of ass that came his way. Not only that, he'd allowed that same piece of ass to change him into her likeness, forsaking the people that had loved him all of his sorry life.

She pushed against him, shoving him away from her with the full force of her strength. He let her go and took a step back, and it infuriated her to know that if he had not wanted to let go of her, she would not have been able to move him. She moved back, trying to put as much distance between them as she could.

"That's right, I'm remembering that part of the story pretty clearly now," she stated her voice laced with barely suppressed anger and her eyes flashing silver as she glared at him across the balcony. "You threatened to kill me then. Is that what you're here to do now, Damon? Are you going to kill me?"

His usual mask slipped into place, and he watched her calmly as he answered. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead right now, little Lucy."

"Then why the hell are you here, Damon?" she snapped, the hold on her temper breaking and she slapped her hand against the railing of the balcony to cut off his response. "No, don't tell me, I think I know the answer."

She stared him down fiercely as the pieces of the puzzle began to take form in her head.

"Stefan is here and if I'm not mistaken there is a certain girl here that has an uncanny resemblance to Katherine. I'm sure that both of you have noticed this. Which explains why Stefan is trying desperately to avoid Elena since we both know that in his special brooding little way, he blames himself for Katherine's death and doesn't wish to drag Elena into his 'dark' little world? Of course, since you were in love with Katherine as well, I'd imagine seeing her doppelganger has attracted your attention, not to mention you always jump at the chance to make Stefan's life a living hell. So, for you I guess this is kind of like killing two birds with one stone. Annoy Stefan to death AND woo the girl that reminds you of your long lost love. Am I right?"

He stared at her with unabashed amusement, and it only served to raise her blood pressure even higher. "More or less. I think reincarnation has made you a lot grumpier than you used to be," he quipped insultingly.

"You're probably right," she cried angrily. "Or it could be the fact that yet again, I'm going to be pulled into the land of sibling rivalry gone bonkers! Seriously, Rosalie died almost five hundred years ago and it's like I never left Renaissance Italy! Damon, I think you'll find that my tolerance for bullshit is WAY lower than it was back then. So if you're here to drink my blood or kill me or do whatever it is you've been doing to the unfortunate women you've been messing around with for the last half a millennium, then please get it the hell over with. I've got school in the morning."

The words were no sooner out of her mouth before he was upon her. Without warning she found herself pulled against his warm body yet again, his hand fisted in her hair and his lips crashing down on hers.

He devoured her mouth, branding her with his lips in a way she'd never experienced before. Oh, she'd been kissed once or twice, but never like this. It was as if he wanted to imprint his very essence into her body with just his kiss, and by the devastation the kiss was having on her senses she suspected that if he really wanted to, he could. Already, she felt her anger slipping away, being replaced by a fire of a different kind entirely.

Unknowingly, she gave a whimper of desire, molding her soft curves against the hard planes of his body as she lost herself to the feel of him, to the newly awakened passion that ignited in her bloodstream. It was as if her body had been deep in slumber, waiting for the touch of this one man before it could awaken.

Vaguely she felt him push her backwards, lifting her to rest against the railing of the balcony. Instinctively she shifted her legs so he could step between them, a moan pulling from her throat as the heat of him pressed closely to a part of her body that now felt so empty.

He broke from her mouth to trail his lips over her face, kissing her nose and eyes before trailing his lips down the column of her throat, leaving a scorching path of fire wherever his lips touched.

"Invite me inside, Lucy," he growled.

She was drowning, her thoughts so far removed from her body that it took several moments to understand what he was telling her to do. Some semblance of brain function returned for a brief minute.

"I can't," she moaned as his tongue snaked out to lick the throbbing pulse at the base of her throat. "My parents."

He growled again and it sent shivers down her spine, but somehow he understood her unspoken question. "I give you my word that I will not hurt them."

Even in the fog of lust that enfolded her, she managed to open her eyes and look at him. He met her gaze fiercely, and she knew he was telling her the truth, knew it somewhere in the very deepest part of her soul. She also saw another truth there as well.

"You're going to drink from me aren't you," she whispered huskily, lost somewhere between desire and fear as the truth of her words washed through her and she knew his answer before he gave it.

"Yes," he answered, his hand moving from her hair to cup her face gently.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked with the last bit of her will. The heat of her anger had been sated and was now a desire so encompassing that she had no want to fight it. The memories of that other life and the newly awakened fervor in her body only served to make her want to be as close to this man as she could get. If just for a moment, she wanted to forget that he wasn't really hers, that he loved another and just enjoy the fact that she could touch him once again after so long going without.

He kissed her lips again, this time softly to gain her attention, and then met her eyes again. Desire had turned them a deep and stormy gray, and he met them with his own dark obsidian gaze and answered her with one single word.

"Never."

It was enough. For the moment it was all she wanted and needed.

"Damon, won't you come in?" she asked and then gave a breathless scream of both pleasure and pain as he plunged his fangs deep into her neck. He held her there, under the moonlight on the railing of her balcony, as he drank deeply from her.

She felt her body begin to grow heavy, and the edges of her vision began to dim, she wrapped her arms around him and cradled him to her. It was heaven to be able to caress him this way, something that she hadn't even dared imagine during her life as Rosalie. Vaguely she recalled a dream she had once, but lost it as her eyes grew heavy and she began to sink down into the depths of sleep.

"Remember your promise, Damon," she sighed as she lost the fight and slipped into slumber.

She wasn't aware when he stopped his feasting of her blood. Didn't feel it when he swiped his tongue tenderly against the wound to heal it, nor when he gently cradled her to him, his hand again tangled in her long mass of hair and his nose pressed against her waves as he inhaled the scent of her deep into his lungs.

Pulling her body close to his once again, he carried her smoothly, stepping past the threshold of her bedroom into the darkness of her room. He found her bed with ease and laid her sleeping form upon it lightly.

In the darkness, he watched her sleep, watching the rise and fall of her chest with a deep sense of wonder. It wasn't until the soft glow of sunlight began to make its way into the room that he moved from her side, caressing her face one last time and slipped back out into the dawn, his body shifting into the form of a large raven as he leapt from the balcony and flew off into the distance.

OOOOOOOO

She awoke feeling sluggish. The sound of her alarm blaring in her ear making her grumble sleepily and she reached for it grumpily and chucked it across the room; satisfied when it crashed against the wall and stopped with its annoying buzzing.

"Note to self, never wake Lucy up in the morning if I value my life," the silky voice penetrated the last layers of sleep with a jolt.

She shot up with a yell, only to groan as the room swam in front of her and it felt like a heavy metal band had taken residence in her aching skull.

Immediately a hand snaked out to keep her from smacking her head against her headboard as she tried to lie back down and ease the throb of her head. It steadied her as she let the world right itself before she turned to glare at the intruder who had woken her so rudely.

Damon smiled at her with his usual grin, apparently unaffected by the fact that he was a blood sucking vampire sitting on the edge of her bed helping her through what felt like the hangover from hell. A hangover that he had given her in the first place.

"What in the world are you doing in my bedroom at," she instinctively turned to glance at the clock that usually sits on her side table and frowned when she found it missing, mysteriously. "What happened to my alarm clock?"

"You killed it," he quipped, pointing to the very broken piece of plastic and wires that now sat on the other side of the room. "Who would have thought that you could be so violent, that poor clock died a very ugly death Little Lucy."

She felt her face flush as she realized what happened. Usually she woke up before her alarm clock could even go off, having always been a morning person. However, on the rare occasion when someone or something interrupted her sleep before she was ready to wake up, it never ended well.

"It's your fault!" she cried in her defense. "If you hadn't made me your little midnight snack last night—"

Her face flushed even hotter as she recalled the exact events of the night before. A glance at Damon from underneath her lashes only served to mortify her even more, as he had a knowing smirk on his face.

Groaning she lifted her knees to her chest and hid her face against them. "Why are you here Damon? Did you stay the entire night? Did I…did we…damn it!" she growled in frustration, having never had a problem stating her thoughts before and finding this new shyness of hers very annoying. "Did we have sex?"

"No," his dark satin voice sounded right at her ear, and she bit her lip as a shiver of remembrance ran through her entire body. "If we had had sex Lucy, you definitely would remember it."

"Arrogant much?" she shot back before lifting her face to shoot him another glare. He sat in a chair beside her bed, a chair he'd pulled from her desk sometime during the night, and studied her in his careless way. She closed her eyes once to gather her thoughts and then pinned him with a determined stare. "I have to get ready for school, Damon. If there's something you need to say to me, please say it. And no more jumping me for nips of my blood, as interesting as that was, I don't think I have enough to spare you right now. I feel like a bag of horse droppings as it is. Wait, how can you be out during the day?"

She frowned at him in confusion and then turned to glance at the morning light streaming into her bedroom.

Damon held his hand out to her and for the first time she noticed the large ring that rested upon his index finger. How she had managed to not notice it before was beyond her, considering it was roughly the size of a house. "This ring has a spell cast on it, which allows its wearer to walk in the sun. Without it, I'd go up in flames. As for feeding from you, I won't be doing that for a while at least. I took quite a lot from you last night, more than I had intended."

"How did you get such an object? Who can make them?" was her next question, which she launched at him as she rose from her bed, trying not to blush as his eyes took in her rumpled and rather skimpy shorts and camisole sleeping attire. She grabbed her robe and pulled it around her immediately giving him a frown which only made him quirk his eyebrow at her.

"Katherine had it made for me. Stefan has one as well," he answered pretending not to notice when she flinched at that woman's name. "Witches with great power can make them, and Katherine's maid was one such witch. She had them made for us before she turned us."

"Ah," she responded as she puttered around her room, opening her closet and grabbing a pair of dark denim jeans and a cute lavender button down top that belted at the middle. She didn't face him, not wanting him to see how Katherine's name made her want to throw things. She reached into her underwear drawer and pulled out a deep satin demi bra and matching thong panties, so wrapped up in her thoughts that she wasn't paying attention.

When she turned to face Damon again, his face was dark and he studied her with a hungry look. "Those are very racy underthings for a normal day at school." he stated softly, dangerously.

The blush she'd been fighting graced her cheeks but she squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the face. "I like nice lingerie they make me feel feminine! Don't knock my panties, Damon."

His dark eyes met hers and she wondered if he was going to jump her again.

"I wasn't "knocking" them as you say. I was merely imagining you walking around all day with those naughty little scraps of cloth under your clothes."

Her eyes widened as she absorbed that statement, and then the absurdity of the current situation suddenly hit her full force.

She was standing in her bedroom discussing her panties with a vampire she had known from a past life.

"Damon, could you leave please?" she asked quietly. "I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but suddenly this is all too much for me to handle. Not only did I just find out that I'm the reincarnation of a girl who lived five hundred years ago, but now I have to adjust to the fact that vampires and witches exist and that I just spent the night making out with one on my balcony. And now you're acting towards me in a way you never have before, and I'm responding to you in a way I never have with anyone and it's all too much for my brain to take in. I want to get ready for school and lose myself in normal things like the horribly difficult physics test I have after lunch today. Please, I need time to center myself before this all gets so far out of hand that I won't know which end is up anymore."

He considered her for a moment before he rose from the chair and made his way to the door. "I understand. There are things I need to take care of as well."

At the doorway he turned to her, his dark eyes holding her gaze steadily. "I will be back, Lucy. Don't think for one moment that we are finished."

He was gone before she had time to respond. She stared at the spot he had just vacated dumbly. , wondering for a moment if he'd really been there.

Dragging her aching body, she made her way to the bathroom slowly. With great care, she turned on the shower satisfied when steam began to rise through the open shower door. She tossed her clothes carelessly onto the tiled floor and climbed into the almost scalding spray.

It wasn't until the water hit her naked flesh that she lost control of herself.

Leaning her pounding head against the cold tile of the shower, her body shook with great gasping sobs. The weight of what had happened the night before and the cold fear that had hit her upon waking and not recognizing her own bedroom crashed down on her in full force, and she couldn't stop the flood of emotion that wracked her small body.

For a few precious moments, she had forgotten who she was. To some it might not seem like much, but to her it was everything. She'd always known who she was, what she stood for, but in those moments she'd lost herself completely. Who was she now, Lucy or Rosalie?

Why had this happened? Normal people weren't supposed to remember their prior lives. They were supposed to live their current life free from the burdens of the previous lives, but here she was carrying all of it. The worst part, was even in her current state of discomfort, Damon wasn't far from her thoughts.

She'd let him kiss her last night, let him feed from her. She'd allowed him into her home, into her bedroom when she was at her most vulnerable. She'd been so angry at him, and yet she'd allowed him to sweep her away with just one kiss. After all the pain he'd put her through, she'd buckled under one single kiss.

Was this how it was going to be now? Would that part of her that had loved him so entirely be the part that ruled her life?

Trembling she pushed herself off of the wall and let the water cascade over her face and shoulders, washing away the tears. She let the sorrow wash away with the water, taking a long time to gather her wits.

She wouldn't give in. No matter the struggle, she wouldn't allow herself to fall apart because of this. She was Rosalie AND Lucy. Somehow, she'd have to accept the memories of that previous life and allow them to be a part of her without taking her over completely.

As for Damon Salvatore, she would have to keep her distance. Like it or not, her previous incarnation had been completely in love with him, and he'd broken her heart. She would not allow the same thing to happen to her. She would not give herself to a man who loved another. When she saw him next, she'd have to lay down some ground rules.

God, if her life hadn't become one big mess of confusion. The idea that past lives, vampires, witches, and who knows what else existed in this world was mind boggling.

Tentatively she reached up to trace her fingers along the curve of her neck, and she trembled in a completely different way when she remembered the heat of Damon's lips there only a few hours before. Suddenly, the water was too hot and the air too thick.

She sighed wearily as she thought over her body's reaction to Damon. Apparently, you could tell the mind and heart one thing, but the body was harder to tame.

Well, without out a single doubt she now knew what that sense of expectancy that she'd had all her life was all about. Now, if only she could manage to survive the consequences.

OOOOOOOO

"Did you hear the latest rumor?" a female voice asked across the cafeteria. "Elena Gilbert met a hot guy in France over the summer, and she's been secretly dating him!"

Lucy frowned as she made her way through the throng of gossiping teenagers.

The day wasn't going at all well for her. Not only had she arrived at school ten minutes late for first period, but she felt downright awful on top of it. Her head felt like it was going to split apart, and she felt so weak and lightheaded. She hoped some food would make her feel well enough to make it through her physics test after lunch.

"Lucy!" she sighed wearily as her friend Jess called her over to her table, normally she liked Jess's incessant chatter, however at the moment all she wanted was some peace and quiet.

She made her way to the table anyway and smiled politely at the other students sitting there as they made room for her.

"So did you hear about Elena's latest fling?" her friend gushed the moment Lucy was settled. "I mean, I thought she was dating Matt when summer started last year, how could she go off with some other guy?"

"I doubt it's true, Jess," Lucy answered after taking a sip of her apple juice. She really wasn't feeling good. Damn that Damon! "I'm sure it's some little piece of bull that was either spread by Elena herself or someone who wants to cause her trouble."

She glanced across the cafeteria to where Elena was sitting with her usual entourage. She noted Elena's unruffled demeanor and even detected a slight hint of satisfaction on her face, and would bet that Elena herself started that rumor. No doubt in some crazy attempt to make a certain vampire hottie jealous.

"Why would Elena start a rumor like that though? Don't you think it does her more damage than good?" Jess asked curiously. She was also studying Elena, but she saw nothing unusual. However, Lucy had a way of seeing things that Jess found highly mysterious, but almost always reliable.

The petite girl shrugged her shoulders, reaching up to massage her aching head. "Elena doesn't strike me as someone who likes to admit defeat very easily," she answered cryptically to which Jess just gave her a confused look before turning away to talk to one of the other girl's at the table leaving Lucy alone with her thoughts.

Lucy wondered briefly if she ought to tell Elena that the object of her affection was in fact a vampire, but she tossed the thought out of her head almost as soon as it formed.

There was absolutely no way that Elena would believe her, and even if she did, Lucy doubted that it would change the girl's mind. If there was anything that Lucy knew about Elena it was that she was very one track minded when it came to the object of her current affection. Besides, it really wasn't any of her business.

Glancing at the clock she decided that she'd make her way to class early. She wasn't in the mood to deal with the crowded hallways.

As she made her way to the physics room, her mind wandered back to the events of the night before. She knew that she needed to figure out what she was going to do about the whole mess. She hadn't been lying to Damon when she told him she needed to sort things out before she lost her mind.

Everything she had thought she'd known about herself and about life in general, was completely turned around now. The very fact that she was the reincarnation of a girl, who had grown up in the heart of the Renaissance, was more than enough to make any mind feel a little less than sane. Compound that life altering realization with the fact that she had been very much in love with a man who was now a vampire of all things, and Lucy wondered if she'd already gone insane.

The lines of her life, which had always been so clearly cut, were now blurred beyond any recognition. Even now, she could feel that part of her soul that had been Rosalie aching to find Damon and spend as much time with him as she could. Oh she longed for him, had missed him so. And that thought was what Lucy had the biggest problem with.

Damon was a stranger to her, and yet last night she'd allowed him to take complete control of her. She'd even invited him into her home, allowed him to take her blood! What was worse was that though she'd only met him yesterday, she completely trusted him to keep his word to her. Why should she trust him? What had he done to earn it?

She didn't want to trust him, didn't want to love him. The love she'd had for him so long ago had destroyed her, and she'd be damned if she'd allow it to happen again.

The next time she talked to Damon, she was going to set down some ground rules. There would be no more of what happened last night. If his touch could make her lose her control like that, then he wouldn't be allowed to touch her. Until she learned how to separate Rosalie's feelings from her own, she'd have to keep her distance from him.

A noise coming from the sound room pulled her from her thoughts. As she glanced towards the room, the door opened and Stefan Salvatore walked out, Caroline Forbes not far behind.

When the redhead noticed Lucy standing there, she smiled viciously and with a very obvious intent looped her arm through Stefan's.

"Lucy, Stefan and I were just eating lunch together," Caroline purred, pressing herself as close to the confused man as she could. Lucy almost laughed at the chagrined expression on said man's face. She realized that though he was uncomfortable, Stefan was too polite to pull away. "What are you doing here?"

"I have a physics test, and I wanted to get to class early enough to go over my notes once more," she answered with a shrug. "You're making Stefan very uncomfortable with your clinging, Caroline. Perhaps you should let the poor guy go, seeing as he's too nice to ask you himself."

Caroline's green eyes flashed with anger and instead of letting go, she moved even closer. "What are you jealous or something? We spent the whole lunch period together; I think Stefan and I are VERY comfortable with each other now."

Lucy shrugged again, her head hurting too much to argue with the delusional girl. Instead she turned to focus the weight of her gaze on Stefan. She met his gaze steadily, and her mind wondered at the fact that she had known him when he was only a child. He'd always been a serious boy, but now he carried a weight of such sorrow around him, it broke her heart to see him this way.

"This isn't what you really want Stefan. If you keep fighting, you'll only make things a lot harder for yourself," she advised him seriously. "And I think you've suffered enough already."

His eyes widened in shock as her words registered in his mind and he moved to say something, but Caroline kept him in place. He glanced down at the girl holding him in annoyance, but when he looked up again Lucy was already moving on, making her way towards the physics room. She didn't look back.

OOOOOOOO

Well, there you have it: Chapter Four. I hope you enjoyed.

The next chapter might take a bit to get out as it is where the story really starts to get interesting.

As always, please let me know what you think.