Brace For Impact
"I demolish my bridges behind me - then there is no choice but forward."
-Fridtjof Nansen
Burnt Bridges
Chapter Three:
Damon banged impatiently on the door. Of all the stupid vampire rules, he hated this one the most. The ultimate predator, nature's abomination, and he had to be invited into homes? What kind of logic was that? If the spirits actually wanted to give his prey a fighting chance when they witchy juju-ed this, then they are even stupider than he thought. He could think of a hundred less useless ideas to tip the scales in humanity's favor that did not include a permanent invitation requirement usually given by dumbasses whose only knowledge of vampires came from Bela Lugosi.
But if he knew the witchy spirits, they really did not care about all that anyway. Judgy, hypocritical, little things.
The man who finally opened the door towered over him. He crossed his arms, safely within the confines of the house, his face set into grim lines. He appeared to be trying to intimidate him.
Clearly he had never heard of Damon Salvatore.
Damon smirked amusedly, "Hi there. We haven't met. I'm Damon Salvatore. And I've come to kindly request you take your poison out of my water supply. If you don't feel inclined do so, I would love to introduce you to the joys of having your flesh sizzle under an acid-like substance."
There- he compromised just like Stefan had begged him to. He would wait and see if killing him was really necessary. He could be reasonable. And his brother said he was too prone to violence.
Unfortunately, Mayor Rudy Hopkins did not look as grateful as he should have. In fact, his disposition had only worsened at Damon's words. Damon sighed. Well, I tried.
But before he could contemplate what method to utilize to get Mayor Mind Your Own Business out past the house's threshold, his frenzied daughter came into sight behind him.
"Damon!" Bonnie exclaimed upon seeing him with far more enthusiasm than she should considering he had just been plotting the demise of her father. "Finally someone to talk to about the plans for Silas." Damon could not stop the grimace working its way onto his face. "I've been waiting for you to return to help me drop the veil between her and the Other Side. But you and everyone else stopped picking up the phone."
Damon felt a twinge of remorse. With Elena's humanity off, Caroline concerned with her own problems, Jeremy dead, Stefan focused on Elena, and Busboy doing God knows what, everyone just forgot about her. But how was he supposed to know to help her out? He usually is not the one to deal with feelings. His job was simple; he killed, tortured or planned, he did not hold hands or tuck people in bed at night.
He opened his mouth to quip about how touched he was that she missed him to add some sort of normalcy to the situation, when it seemed to occur to Bonnie where they were standing.
"What are you doing out there? Come in," she encouraged casually, as if she had not just welcomed a self-admitted mass murderer into her house.
Damon looked at her as if she sprouted another head. Well, at least now I can be sure Blondie wasn't exaggerating when she said she had only gotten worse. Yippee, Damon thought.
At least Mister Mayor looked appropriately horrified.
But Bonnie kept barreling on. "We need to pick the twelve candidates for the sacrifice. I'd prefer they were supernatural, so when I drop the veil, they will come back with Grams and Jeremy. Of course, if we can't find them, I understand that sacrifices must be made for the greater good."
"Look, Broom-Hilda," Damon tried to reason as he brushed past the understandably alarmed man frozen in the doorway, "How do you even know you can do this or where to begin?"
"Shane is helping me still. He's guiding me through the process." Yeah, because Professor Creepy's guidance has really served everyone well in the past, Damon thought sarcastically.
"Shouldn't he be more skeptical? I mean he raised Silas and now has to do more work to get his wife and kid back. And is his son even on the Other Side anyway? Maybe you and Dr. Frankenstein should accept you can't raise the dead."
Bonnie looked at him patiently, like a teacher humoring her ignorant kid student. "Damon, you should have seen it. Silas has already started to reward those loyal to him. He healed Shane's leg that was crushed by debris. I saw the injury myself, it could have been fatal but Silas fixed it!"
"Okay, but I could do that by giving myself a paper cut." Bonnie looked unconvinced so he continued, "And didn't we determine that Shane was a psych case who had no problems with using you as leverage. You're going to trust this guy? Again?"
"Don't you see, Damon? Shane was right all along. Sacrifices are necessary; this is necessary. We've gone too far and lost too much- only Silas can save us now." Whatever his face showed her was clearly not what she was hoping. She geared up for another rant when the man he had originally come to see before all this nonsense finally interjected.
"So what are you saying? That you would let that sacrifice be you? Absolutely not, you are not doing this."
"You can't tell what to do anymore, Dad! You gave up that right when you chose not to be a part of my life!"
The words were so normal but the subject was anything but. If Bonnie did this, not only would every enemy that they had ever killed return with a vendetta, but Damon did not like Bonnie's odds of surviving. And he could not help but remember Shane's words when he heard him first speak of Silas.
"Now, it's said that Silas wants to rise again," Damon pauses, listening for a moment. "Regain his power, wreak havoc on the world." There was something off about that professor and if it had not been Elena's life and sanity on the line, he would not be going to him right now. But he had to, Elena was in danger and he had to help her. The Creepy Professor and his wives tales could wait for another time.
Guess "another time" had finally arrived, Damon thought. So Shane had said Silas wanted to bring back the dead but he had also said rumor has it that Silas wanted to bring about the end of the world. His recent experiences with rumors were that they were always at least partially true. Lycanthropes are real? Check. Werewolf bites kill vampires? Check. Klaus is more than just a bedtime story? Check. The Sun and the Moon curse exist and people want to break it? Check. Cure for vampirism? Check.
Yeah, he was more inclined to believe the end of the world bit than the savior who wants to reunite suckers with their dead loved ones.
Whatever, Silas and his apocalyptic schemes were not his problems. He had not seen or heard of the guy since their daring escape from Harper's Island. And he was more concerned with Elena, the sire bond disappearing the one time he actually wanted it, his psycho ex-girlfriend on the loose, and this.
The loving family was still yelling at each other but it had progressed to petty things like curfews and Damon did not have time for that shit. It's a good thing I don't care to spare feelings because she's so far gone, she's beyond reasoning.
"Bonnie, you can't trust Faust. The guy is crazy," Damon cut in bluntly. "You'll get yourself killed in the best case scenario," and since he was not above emotional manipulation, "And Jeremy and your Grams would never want that."
Unfortunately, her idiotic father had to add his two cents. "He's right but more importantly, I forbid it."
Damon rolled his eyes not even bothering to hide his annoyance. Why the hell would Mister Mayor think that would work? Predictably, Bonnie starting fuming. "Try and stop me."
She was halfway out the door despite her father's protests when she shouted back, "I'm going to meet Shane, we have work to do. When you start to see reason, Damon, you can join us!"
And with that hypocritical lunacy, she slammed the door shut in typical moody teenager fashion. It seemed like his cue to leave.
"Well, just remember that I know where you live, can get to you while you're sleeping and that I am very put out over your decision to have vervain in the water and we shouldn't have any more problems!" And on that cheerful note, Damon strolled out the door, whistling the whole way back to his car.
Elena walked into the Mystic Grill with an air about her that caused several patrons to look up. She felt their gazes and even noticed Matt looking in her direction from her peripheral vision but she had no time for that.
If they were not going to butt out of her life, she would not respect theirs. She plastered a fake smile onto her face with no difficulty and approached one of the biggest gossips in their grade.
"Hey Amanda!" The girl in question looked up from her game of pool. She seemed surprised. Maybe it was because Elena rarely spoke to anyone outside of Matt, Caroline, Stefan, and Bonnie at school anymore. Maybe it was because Elena's brother just died and Amanda thought that was a strange time to be smiling so beatifically at anyone.
"Hey, Elena. What's up?"
"Well, I forgot to tell everyone that I was having a big party tonight at the Salvatore house. And now I'm worried I won't be able to get word out quickly enough. I really want people to be there." Elena had made sure to input enough whining in the last line to convey that this typical teenage concern was a big issue for her.
Any trace of trepidation was gone now. Amanda's eyes had lit up around "party" and she was practically bouncing with excitement by the time Elena had finished speaking.
"I would love to help! Don't worry, Elena, just leave it to me!"
"Great. See you at 8 then," Elena walked out of the Grill right afterwards, purposely ignoring Matt's attempt to grab her attention.
"Damon!"
Dear lord, no, Damon thought as Rebekah made a beeline for him. He was seconds from reaching car but now she was here and he would never be able to escape her. He just wanted to take a long bath, drink himself into a stupor and go to bed. Was that too much to ask on this incredibly crappy day?
He pointlessly reached to open the door to his Camaro anyway. In a blur, Rebekah was there shutting the door. Resigned, he turned around to face her.
"Hey there, Sexy Bex, what's got you in such a mood?" Damon drawled as he reclined against the car.
"Don't start, Damon. I just need you to give me a ride."
"A ride, to where? You can get wherever it is faster yourself."
"Why do you have to be such a caveman? You're already going to your house, right?" At Damon's hesitant nod, "And it would hardly been gentlemanly to force a lady to walk in these shoes."
Damon snorted and then paused when he realized something. "You're not coming to my house."
"I can go if I want to. And I'd love to see you try a stop me." Rebekah quickly strutted to the passenger side and let herself in. For a moment, Damon considered the merits of just walking home himself before he decided that he did not like the odds of his prized Camaro surviving Hurricane Rebekah. Surrendering, he got into the car without another word.
He got a minute of peace before Rebekah chose to ruin it.
"I can't believe you left me alone on the island. You have no sense of chivalry. What if something had happened to me?"
"Yes, because with Elena and Bonnie losing their minds, I should have been more concerned with the Original vampire stuck with the bound, injured hunter. Really?"
"It wasn't just him. That island gave me the creeps, I swear I felt Silas watching me."
"Oh god, not you, too! You seriously haven't learned to differentiate fables from reality in a thousand years, how is that possible? And here I thought it was only your love life where you had act like a moron." She could rip out his heart without blinking, but Damon still preferred to push her buttons. She was so easily riled up.
Her face pinched up in annoyance, before she relaxed it forcibly. "Who are you to criticize my love life?" Well, he had to admit she had a point there. "I think Silas is out there. The hunter showed me a mask that must have concealed his face. He was so sure that Silas has been revived and he pointed out none of us even know what Silas looks like! He could be anyone and anywhere or everyone and everyone for all we know! I'm just glad Shane died of some leg injury on the island because otherwise we would have to deal with that fanatic as well. But I bet Silas is already amassing forces to come and get us."
"Is that why you're insisting on going to my house? To discuss your paranoia? I know you were in a box for a while but there is something called a cell phone."
Any enjoyment he could have gotten from teasing her disappeared as he glanced at her face. She looked confused for a moment before bursting into laughter. He scowled. Past experience dictated anything that caused Barbie Klaus happiness spelled bad news for him.
"Oh, you'll see soon enough." That did not bode well. He was about to press the issue, too, when something suddenly occurred to him.
"Wait, what did you say about Shane?"
"Oh, that bastard got what he deserved if you ask me. I found him in a heap by the boats, one of his legs covered entirely with blood. Guess he must have crawled all the way there before the blood loss killed him. Tragic," She sighed, "It was such a waste of blood."
But Damon's thoughts had left the conversation behind. He was back hours ago at Bonnie's house.
"Shane is helping me still. He's guiding me through the process."
"Damon, you should have seen it. Silas has already started to reward those loyal to him. He healed Shane's leg that was crushed by debris. I saw the injury myself, it could have been fatal but Silas fixed it!"
"I'm going to meet Shane, we have work to do. When you start to see reason, Damon, you can join us!"
Jesus fucking Christ, Damon thought. Had Bonnie lost it so much that she was hallucinating? Had she taken over Jeremy's position as Ghost Whisperer?
Or, worst of all, were Rebekah's fears rational and Silas could be anyone anywhere?
He was starting to feel a little paranoid himself.
The Salvatore Boarding House was even more crowed now than it was for her eighteenth birthday. It was probably because Caroline selectively picked who could come while Amanda followed her instructions to tell everyone perfectly.
Elena had drank more in the last couple hours than she had ever before. Vampire tolerance was amazing. Before she turned, she would have been on the floor by now and even as a human she could drink most anyone under the table.
The only irritation was that she could not drink what she was really thirsty for. Whose dumb idea was it to fill everyone's water with vervain? She was thinking it might be time to change her venue. What ties did she have to Mystic Falls anymore?
She gyrated her hips against another boy from class. She had decided that she owed Damon nothing after his betrayal earlier today and she was ready to cast away any lingering hesitations about sleeping with someone else.
She was horny, Damon was being a self-righteous bastard and she did not care what anyone thought anyway. In fact, the biggest reason for her indecision right now was that she was sure none of these guys were going to measure up to Damon in bed.
She sighed, it could not be helped. She was pretty sure Matt had the most experience besides Tyler and she had already been there, done that.
In all the time he had known her, Damon had never seriously considered killing Elena. Sure, he liked to pretend in the beginning, but he would never have done it. He was reevaluating the intelligence of that right now.
His house was overrun with drunken, idiotic kids. Many of them had braces, acne, or unspeakable fashion sense. And they were wrecking his house. He twitched at the thought of the damage and mess they were making. He doubted Elena had been charitable enough to protect any the multitude of valuable, irreplaceable items.
Rebekah had started laughing again but did not care about her. Where was Elena?
He was prowling through the masses, scanning the crowd for any sign of her. He could not catch sight of her. He could not even find Blondie or his brother in the mayhem.
A hand trailed down his chest. His hand shot out to halt its path as it hit his belt buckle and he had to forcibly quash the urge to break the girl's wrist. "Oh my god, you are so hot." She was so far gone that Damon did not even bother to respond with a smile before continuing on his search.
When he spotted her, he almost wished he had not.
Elena had pressed some guy against a wall. The boy was sloppily planting kisses on her neck. His shirt was unbuttoned and her hands were tracing his chest much like that drunk girl had just tried to do to him.
For a second, he just wanted to walk away. It hurt more than he wanted to admit to see her wrapped up in another guy- especially one as unworthy as this kid appeared to be. And he highly doubted Elena would be receptive to his interference. But he walked towards her anyway. Elena with her humanity would not do this and he wanted to make sure she had as few regrets as possible when she eventually returned to the world of the emotional.
He pulled the kid away from her with no finesse. The kid spluttered incoherently. "What the hell, man?"
"Excuse you, Damon, what do you think you're doing?" She cocked her hip to one side, her dress strap had fallen one side exposing her left bra-clad breast. She reeked of alcohol and Damon paused to consider his next action. If only he could compel the kid.
"Is this your brother or something?" Brother? As if Damon needed another reason to want to snap this kid's neck.
Elena leant up to whisper suggestively in the imbecile's ear, "Get rid of him for me. I want to show you a good time." Elena's eyes were locked on him the whole time; she was putting on this show for his benefit.
Proving he lacked any survival instincts and the basic modicum of intelligence, Joe High School turned to him and puffed out his chest. You have got to be kidding me.
"The lady doesn't want you here." Elena smirked at him triumphantly.
"Actually, I'm the chaperone of this shindig. I'm good friends with the Sheriff and I would just hate to report how you despicably took advantage of this girl while she was drunk." The kid had sobered up now as he grasped the situation. Damon continued seemingly oblivious to the kid's palpitating fear, "Liz would be so saddened to hear a member of our community wished to take advantage of her daughter's best friend."
"I didn't mean any trouble! I'm just going to go! There's no reason to say anything!" The brat ran with his tail between his legs before Elena could even attempt to stop him.
Damon could not help the victorious smirk that graced his lips as he watched him leave: a smirk that was quickly wiped off his face with Elena's next move.
Damon's back slammed against the wall in the same position Average Joe had just been in. Without a word, Elena ripped his shirt down the middle. She was looking at him heatedly and the situation was eerily similar to their first time weeks ago after the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Just the thought of that night was enough lose focus.
Elena pressed against until there was no room whatsoever between them. She stood taller to trace her tongue on the shell of his ear. "Jealousy doesn't suit you, Damon. If you wanted it to be you, all you had to do was ask." Her lips trailed down his jaw, to his neck, and then to his chest.
"Elena-" he started before he cut himself off with a groan. She had latched her lips onto his nipple to prevent him from speaking. She nipped him and he shivered involuntarily. His eyes closed under her ministrations as he lost himself under her touch. The party noises had faded as she licked her way up to his lips. Their breaths mingled as she paused her mouth an inch away from his. He could feel her waiting for him to close the distance and wondered what she was doing. When they were together, she had no problem completely taking charge. She never waited on him. He liked that about her. Elena's fire and spunk had always fueled his attraction to her.
Like a jolt, reality set in. His eyes snapped open. This was not like those times, it was different now and he knew it. The eye contact from that close of a distance was even more charged than her touches had been. It was too much from the woman he loved whose extent of emotion towards him was simple desire.
In a flash, he had detangled himself, refusing to look at her. If he saw the same look on her face that she had with the brat earlier after what how she had just touched him, he would not be able to keep it together. Her disinterest in him emotionally was in the forefront of his mind. He knew she no longer cared about him, the sire bond's failure had proved it. Now she just lusted after like every other girl.
He reentered the crowd quickly making a beeline to the snot-nosed brats handling his good liqueur. He needed a breather.
Elena huffed irritated. She had almost had him. The second she waited for him to initiate the kiss, she saw realization tear through him. But she needed him to be the one to concede otherwise it was pointless. Of course, there was a certain appeal to letting him register he had given himself to her after she had made him scream her name over and over.
The thought caused her to smirk. But in the next second all traces of enjoyment were wiped off her face as she was bombarded by an angry Caroline.
"What are you doing?!" Caroline shrieked.
Elena only stared raised her eyebrows. Caroline did not even live here, what right did she have to get mad Elena threw a party. "I would have thought you'd enjoy my festive mood. Aren't you the one who lives for this stuff?"
"Not the party- though you should seriously come to me with any plans, Amanda Stevenson, really?!" Before Elena could even contemplate whether that was rhetorical, Caroline pushed on. "I'm talking about that- that- that thing I just saw between you and Damon." Caroline appeared beside herself with revulsion. "You're not sired anymore, you don't have to act like that."
Elena stared at her blankly. Did she honestly still think that the sire bond had caused her to become attracted to Damon? Did she not have eyes? Besides, contrary to popular belief, Elena's feelings had always been real. She had always known they were, too. She knew how she felt the night she tried to let Damon go with tears in her eyes. If anything, her feelings for Stefan were the ones that had changed so dramatically. Kidnapping and threatening to kill a girl at the cite of her parents tragic death will do that.
Caroline continued determinedly, "And Stefan's here! He could have easily saw you doing that with his brother! What's wrong with you?" Caroline's voice had risen on each word in disbelief. It was lucky that the party was so loud or they would be causing a scene.
"Why can't I sleep with Damon? It's nothing I haven't done before. And anyways Stefan's most recent bedmate was the woman who killed me, so if we're comparing, I think I come out on top here."
Caroline looked startled. Elena guessed that Stefan had not deemed Caroline worthy of the sordid details of his sex life even though she spilled Elena's transgressions to him. But really, she did not understand why everyone was so obsessed with her love life with all the actually important stuff was going on.
"But I guess none of that matters to you anyway. It's not about right or wrong, this is all about your self-centerness. Damon treated you like shit when you met him; Stefan was great to you when you turned. You don't even care how they treat me, you just care about the fact that you prefer Stefan. You don't care about how badly he treated me last year because it's all about you here isn't it?" Elena continued ruthlessly. She did not even care that Caroline looked pained.
Abruptly Caroline's hurt face transformed into anger. "So you don't even care about your friends' opinions then?"
"You don't seem to care about mine as you make googly eyes at the man who killed me and Aunt Jenna. So you're not only a bad friend but a hypocrite, too."
"You know what, forget you! You want to destroy your life, fine by me! You haven't been my friend for a while. You haven't been Elena Gilbert since you turned. I thought it was the sire bond, but I guess it's just you!" There were tears trailing down Caroline's cheeks as she spun around and ran away.
Elena felt the tickling sensation return with a vengeance.
Damon watched the conflict unfold and was at Elena's side the second Caroline disappeared into the crowd.
"Hey, what do you say we blow this popsicle stand." Damon would do anything to stop the expression he saw on Elena's face. She was still stoically composed but now she looked lost. It was like deep down she could already register the loss from the bridges she was burning even as the switch kept the actual emotion down.
"And go where? You can only experience the joys of the Mystic Grill so often."
"I was thinking more along the lines of a road trip. What do you say? Want to enjoy a real city?" Elena had lost the worrying look as she contemplated the offer. He leaned down to loudly whisper in her ear jokingly, "I know it's a foreign concept for people around here but we might even be able to have fun." Damon widened his eyes dramatically on the last word.
"A five minute break, just you and me?"
"Yep. We'd have to leave your friend, Joe High School, behind though which I know might be a deal breaker right there," Damon teased indicating towards the boy from before.
"Oh, bummer." She rolled her eyes and walked towards his car so he guessed she wanted to go. He followed her immediately, got into the car and drove away without a glance at the chaos disappearing behind him.
Hope you liked it! I'm taking elements that I know are coming up in the plot (Elena's party, the naked Elena scene) but it's only going to become more original with slight references to canon. To be honest, the response to this story has been kind of disappointing. I can't tell if people just don't like it or it's normal to get one review for every 460 words. Are people disinterested or is this typical? But thanks to anyone who responded!