I'm sorry, guys - I'm here again, and as I've said before this WILL be finished. I promise.

Chapter 29

Damon's pov

It was hilarious to show Elena around Italy. I had always loved seeing Americans reactions to seeing old things for the first time, but Elena's reactions took the cake. When I had shown her the Pantheon, she had practically started crying and was afraid to touch anything, because she was scared it was going to crumble beneath her hands. I did try to tell her that they preserve it really well, and the things that could break are far from your reach, but she still kept her hands to herself and looked around, mouth open.

I had gotten us a camera that Elena was carrying around, snapping pictures of all the statues and snapping selfies of us together.

I had yet to show her anything that was personal to me, since we would have to rent a car and go outside Rome to see it, but it was in my plans. I should have felt nervous about showing her everything, but for some reason, I was more excited than nervous. I had already gone through telling her the story about Katherine and about my father, so there wouldn't be any questions I would have to avoid or any big stories to tell. It was just showing her the locations, so she could connect it with the story.

It had, of course, changed a lot since the 1740's, but Italy did do it's best to keep the city as original as possible - they were living off of the tourism and that was bound to stop, if the buildings weren't as old as they were. I knew that our house were still intact and the same went for Stefan's old cottage. Our house had been turned into a museum, but the cottage had been extended and someone was living in it now. They were oblivious to the fact that four people had been killed there, plus an unborn child. I guess the house wouldn't sell as well, had they put that story in the sales ad.

The best part of the trip was coming back to the hotel at night. While Elena seemed exhausted from walking around all day, eating delicious food, eating too much gelato and seeing so many new things, she always had energy to get naked with me and make the staff appreciate that the suite we were in, was on the top floor with no neighbors. I loved it when she got loud.

She had even asked me to try and teach her a little Italian. It was by no means perfect, but just the fact that she was interested enough in my language and in my heritage to try and learn the language, when I was perfectly capable of speaking for her and translating, meant a lot to me.

We weren't going back until August 15th, so we had lots of time to explore, before we had to go back to reality. I hadn't talked to Elena about it, but in reality, I wanted to spend time with her, before she was off to college. I knew that it was going to be tough, living so far from her, but college was something she really wanted to do, so I didn't want to be in the way of it.

I would just have to stay as close to her as I could. Maybe I could get an apartment near campus, so I wouldn't have to make the 2 hour drive every time I wanted to see her. It would make it a lot easier to see her, during the years she was going to be at college.

We celebrated her 18th birthday by going out to the country, where we had a picnic and I showed her one of the smaller towns. In the evening, we changed into fancy clothes and went out to the best restaurant in Rome, where we ate very well. I even had them put a candle in her dessert.

After that, we went out and got drunk and ended up back in our bed, where I spent all night showering her with attention and orgasms.

A few days later, was when I decided it was time to take her to my hometown. It was an hour drive, so I woke her up kind of early and as soon as she knew where we were going, she was totally awake. I knew she had wanted to go there, but she hadn't asked me to take her, surprisingly enough. Maybe she knew that it wasn't as easy for me, as it would be for anybody else.

She was busy looking out the windows when we drove through the small towns and villages on the way, so I had lots of time to look at her. She didn't wear much makeup down here and the sun had given her a nice tan. She didn't bother getting up to straighten her hair every morning either, and I liked that development. She was a beautiful girl and she didn't need any makeup to make her beautiful.

Italy did seem to suit her. Maybe she would want to move here, after college was over. Maybe not forever, but at least for a few years.

Hopefully, Elena would choose to turn and be with me, and I would take her all over the world. I would show her every little country in the world, and tell her about the history behind them.

I knew she had never traveled before, so I had been a bit nervous about taking her this far away, but every single minute we were here, she proved to me that traveling was something she loved. She put herself so in depth with every single place we went to. If there were signs of plaques with information about anything, she would spend a long time reading it, making sure she understood everything and then asking me if I knew more. I didn't mind telling her the stuff I knew - my father had never bothered taking me to Rome, so I had no bad memories from here and even if I did, it would be worth relieving them, just to see her beautiful face taking in all the information.

Once I parked in the town square, she got out so quick that I couldn't even make it around the car to let her out. She started walking around the square, never getting too far from the car, taking in the scenery. I grabbed our backpack from the trunk. It had two big water bottles in it and a few snacks, plus the camera. We had been carrying it around everywhere, since I knew it was important for Elena to get enough fluid. Italy didn't get too much hotter than Virginia did in summer time, but it was a lot more humid and since we were walking around so much, she needed it.

I took her hand and we walked together, to the outskirts of the city, where the mansion was.

It was weird seeing it again. It had been decades since I had visited this house - I came back regularly to visit my mother's grave, but I had always avoided the house and Stefan's cottage like the plague. I had checked online, just to know if I would have to compel someone to let us in, but according to the internet, it was a public museum and belonged to the state.

Even if it did belong to someone, I knew I would be able to enter, as long as Elena was in it. One of the perks of the Singer bond - any house she was in, I would be able to enter. I wish I could tell her about it, but it would have to wait.

"This is where you grew up?" she asked, her mouth opening wide as she took in the mansion.

"Oh yes…" I said, taking the house in and trying to keep my memories out. I didn't want to revisit those right now.

"Your parents must have been rich," she said, walking up the old steps to the house. They would have crumbled, if the city council hadn't done what they could to keep them functional.

"They were. My father made his fortune in owning as much land and estates as possible. You'll see the name Salvatore mentioned a lot around here, since he was so important for this town's history. He basically built half of it," I said, remembering how he would always be out working when I was a child, and I would stay home with mother. That had been in the days before he tried to teach me how to work like him, and found out that I would never be able to be like him. I had looked up to him, until he gave me that insight in his work. Most of it wasn't about working hard, like he had always told me. It was about screwing over other people, until they had nothing and you had everything. I told my father I wanted nothing to do with the family business and from that day on, he hated me.

Elena and I went inside and a creepy feeling rose up through my spine, as I stepped into the halls of my human life. Elena looked fascinated with everything and was looking up and down the walls, from the statues to the paintings hanging on the walls. The floors were marble in the entrance hall, but some of the room had wooden floors instead.

"You really grew up here?" she asked, as she walked into the dining room. They had managed to preserve the very long wooden table my father insisted on having. We were always sitting far enough away from each other, that talking in a normal tone wouldn't be heard. This was to ensure us not talking too much during dinner.

"I did," I said, noticing all the things they had changed. The paintings weren't the same and a few of the statues had been replaced as well. A surprising amount of furniture had survived the years, although most of the wooden ones were replaced by newer furniture.

"You must have had so much fun playing here as a child," she said, looking through the servants' door to the kitchen. I smiled sadly.

"We weren't allowed to. We were either being schooled or being told to sit still and let the adults have a conversation. My mother would sometimes let me sneak out in the garden, to play in the bushes, but she had to be careful. If my father ever found out, there would be hell to pay… and she always took the punishment for me," I said, bitterly remembering how I would spot bruises on her neck or on her arms as she played with me. I hadn't been very old and yet I had understood what had happened.

"That… sounds awful," Elena said, now looking at me and not the house. I pulled myself together and smiled at her.

"It was, but it's okay. It's been decades, well, centuries, really," I said, walking to her and kissing her softly, "it's all in the past."

I decided to let Elena wander on her own and just follow her around, answering questions as we went. It wasn't until we got to what had been my room that my mouth dropped.

They had decided to tell my father's story in this room, the one where I had killed him. Not only that - they had put a doll on the floor, right where he had died - and his head across the room. I wasn't sure if I wanted Elena to read the sign on the wall, but I didn't want to keep her. Part of me was curious as well, so I found myself reading next to her.

"Bedroom of horror.

In this room in the year 1744, Giuseppe Salvatore met his maker, as he was brutally murdered. The town never succeeded in finding his killer and many believed the house to be haunted by evil spirits, after such a violent death. Giuseppe's body was left here for years, until an unknown brave soul entered and buried him in the graveyard, finally letting the poor man find peace after years of suffering. The town's economy was unstable for a long time, after his death, since he owned most of the buildings. Everyone thought that his oldest son, Damien, would have taken over the family business, but both sons seemed to vanish into thin air on the day of Giuseppe's murder. Some believe they may have killed him, but this was never confirmed."

Great, they hadn't even spelled my name right. If only they had known how much of an asshole my dear father was, they would have known that he deserved to die like this. Honestly, I should probably have dragged it out even longer and made him suffer more, just like he made me and mother suffer through so many years, only to send her away when she most needed us. But I had been a completely new vampire, and I didn't know my own strength. I had been feeding on him, after scaring him with my new features and telling him exactly what I thought of him… and suddenly his head hadn't been attached to his body anymore. It had been a satisfying feeling, don't get me wrong, but I could have done better.

"Did you kill him?" Elena asked, as she turned around for the sign. She looked more curious than worried, so I didn't feel as bad as I probably should have about nodding my head. I wasn't going to lie to her about it, but I also didn't think she should know the actual specifics of what happened. She knew I was a brutal vampire, but that didn't mean she had to face it all the time.

"It sounds like he deserved it," she said, and then she walked on. She stayed in this room, though, looking at the furniture, the bed, the view…

"This was your room, wasn't it?" she asked, looking up at me again. I sighed, looking around and nodded. There were so many memories in this room and not all of them were good. Actually, most of them were really bad.

"I love the view of the garden," she said, looking out the window. I smiled. That had always been my favorite thing as well. I had spent a lot of time there, when I had been older, reading books and looking out over the garden my mother had loved so much. She designed it when she was pregnant with Stefan and she had sat in the garden, through snow and through warmth, watching the men planting all the flowers and bushes, watching it grow into what she had imagined.

It was the one thing of hers my father always kept in good condition. The garden was always kept in the best possible shape and it hadn't changed at all since the day she died. A part of me wished I could show her, that almost 300 years later, it was still intact. That same part of me was hoping she was watching from wherever you go when you die. Maybe she was even watching me and Elena and approving of my choice in woman.

And for the first time in several decades, I missed my mother.

After wandering around the house some more, I took Elena outside and walked her through the garden and from there, we walked through the forest, where a path had been made. I was sure it was going to lead us to the cottage Stefan and his wife had been living in back then. Whoever was living there now would have direct access to our mansion, so they could see it whenever, or take a walk in our garden. I knew my father wouldn't have approved, which was why I loved it even more.

The cottage looked nothing like what it had done back then, but I hadn't expected it to. There was a small sign outside, telling the story of Stefan's wife, and how she and another innocent woman had been found brutally murdered in there. It did also mention Stefan as a possible killer, but just like the other sign, it reminded the reader that it had never been confirmed.

"This is where you were turned?" Elena asked and looked at the big house in front of her, "I thought you said they lived in a small cottage."

"I did. It's been extended and changed since then," I said, and remembered that horrible day, when I had realized I had fucked up, even before I had entered to see Katherine with blood everywhere, Stefan's wife dead and Stefan being livid.

I had deserved to be beaten to death. It was my fault.

"Are you okay?" she asked, putting her arms around my middle and looking deep into my eyes, with those big brown orbs of hers.

"I'm fine," I said, bowing down to kiss her, "it feels surprisingly good to be showing you all of this." Her smile seemed to reach both ears at the same time.

"It means a lot to me that you want to share it with me," she said, pressing her lips gently against mine. I put my arms around her, realizing how much of an effect she had on me as well. I knew the Singer bond meant that she would always feel safe around me, but I was very sure she had a calming effect on me as well. Normally, bringing up all those old memories made me either stone cold or angry, but with her, it was like it was in the past and she helped reminding me that she was my present.

"I'm glad we did this," I said, as we walked back towards the car, hand in hand. She was definitely enjoying the fresh air and getting out of the city. While Rome is amazingly beautiful, it is far from a clean city. The air out here was different, more natural and I think Elena liked the calm of the forest and the nature.

"I am too," she answered.

She fell asleep in the car on the way back to Rome and I found myself taking a detour, just driving around the town and around the fields, where I had ridden my horses when I was a kid. I had never really appreciated the scenery as a kid - I mean, why would I? I had never seen anything else and I was far too busy with things I found more important, but now, so many years later, I realized that I had grown up in one of the most beautiful places in the entire world.

The only thing that would have made it better, would have been if Elena was there. I tried to imagine her in the clothes the women wore back then and with the proper etiquette. She would have been beautiful, but I was happy I had gotten to know her now. I may not have been good enough for her, really, but at least I knew her after I got all my vampire powers under control - including the urges.

If we had met back in Italy, I'm pretty sure she would have ended up hating me after my transition. This way was definitely better. This way I got to show her around my home town, I got to show her the world and I got to watch her grow up in a way I definitely wouldn't have back then.

Going back to the states was going to suck.

I tried my best to spend all the time with her, living in the now and enjoying Italy with her, but the day of our homecoming kept popping up in the back of my head. And as it got closer and closer, I got even more panicked, because I still hadn't found a solution to the living situation when she went off to college. I think she knew something was up with me, but she didn't mention it for some reason - maybe she had already figured it out for herself, but I wasn't going to ruin her college experience. I would just have to deal and maybe even stalk her, like I had done before she knew me.

Would she feel as horrible as I was going to? I already knew too well how the bond affected me - staying away from her was damn near impossible. But I wasn't sure if she was feeling the same way. When she had been a kid, she hadn't seemed like she had been starved for my attention, but had that changed, since she had actually gotten to know me? It was bothering me, that I wasn't going to be able to find out, until we were in the situation. I wanted to somewhat prepare for it, so I could make it smooth for Elena, but there was no way I could help her more than I already was. We were just going to have to take it as it came.

I still couldn't help but panic slightly, as we walked into the airport with our luggage rolling behind us. From the moment we stepped through security, our carefree holiday was over and we had to go back and face the problems we were inevitably about to have. But as I looked at Elena, who had stopped to look back out at the scenery, I knew that as long as I was with her, I would be okay. Even if we would have to spend some time apart.

There you are. As I said in the previous chapter, it's been years since I was in Rome, so if anything is out of place, please let me know! I'll see you again soon!