Chapter 26

Elena's heart sank as she stared at the man in front of her. He was tall and muscular and his face held no emotion whatsoever. He stared at her with a cold indifference that curdled her blood.

"Whoever you are, you're making a big mistake." She said, cringing at her failed attempt to keep her voice steady.

"Why, because you have a vampire protecting you?" His voice was soft and surprising, almost kind.

"You, you're a…"

"Vampire? Yes."

Elena furtively looked around the room, trying to find something to defend herself with. She had known she had no chance when she thought he was human. Now she was pretty much screwed. There was no way a strange vampire was there with good intentions.

"What do you want?" She asked, trying to stall.

"For lack of a better word… retribution." He said, in that sickeningly silky voice. "God knows I've been searching long enough."

She paused at that. It couldn't be a coincidence that a vampire just happened to walk through Damon's door seeking revenge.

"You're the person who took Damon." She whispered, her eyes widening.

He smiled, looking slightly impressed by her deduction.

"Guilty as charged. Sadly my plan failed, he's even stronger than I had anticipated." He murmured.

She couldn't help but smirk a little at that.

"But really it was a blessing in disguise. Torturing and killing him just wouldn't be painful enough. He doesn't seem to hold all that much regard for his own life and he can take pain like no one I've ever seen."

The vampire seemed to have zoned out and was talking almost to himself.

"Then there's you." His eyes snapped back to hers and she swallowed thickly.

"I've been watching the two of you. He loves you more than anything. Losing you would hurt him far more than dying. You're the only thing that matters to him. He would know what I felt, it would be almost poetic."

Elena's already racing heart skipped and faltered before picking up even faster than before.

"What did he do, that made you so hell bent on hurting him?" She stalled, sneakily glancing at her watch and praying that Damon would, for some reason, come home early.

He snorted.

"What did he do? Oh you know, the usual. Found some pretty girl in a bar and compelled her to leave with him…" He broke off and Elena saw, for the first time, something other than anger cross his eyes. "He fucked her and drained her. Left her dead body in a dump in an alley. He didn't even bother to bury her." He spat. "But the thing was, she wasn't just some girl. She was my you."

His voice had risen and the veins under his eyes protruded through his skin. She could see the white of his fangs when he spoke.

"Damon Salvatore took everything from me. He took everything and it didn't matter to him, he probably wouldn't even remember her."

He was suddenly a blur, and Elena gasped when he appeared a couple of centimeters in front of her.

"I remember her every day. I miss her every day. But to him she was just a blood bag."

"I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine what…" She began, tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Shut up! You don't get to say sorry to me. You're just going to serve your purpose. I can kill you with no regret, no second thought... and just like that, I will have taken everything away from him too."

She clenched her jaw to stop the sobs that were threatening to escape her. Her heart broke for the man in front of her, she couldn't find it in her to hate him for this, he was just a man who had lost a love and gone crazy with anger. Her stomach sank when she realized that this is what Damon would become if anything happened to her. He could go mad with pain, the rage he could unleash on the world would wreak havoc.

She took a deep breath and tried her last tactic.

"He'll kill you. He'll track you down and he'll kill you and everyone else you've ever cared about." She said thickly.

"I know."

His words brought her up short.

"What?"

He grabbed her wrist and yanked it towards him, she cried out in shock and then whimpered when he ran his thumb across the scars that decorated her arm.

"I'll make it look like you did it."

She felt a horrible sense of dread fill her chest.

"Just imagine the pain he'll feel when he comes home to find that you've committed suicide on his kitchen floor."

"You're sick." She spat, fresh tears pouring out of her eyes at the image. She was sorry for the man, she truly was, but she could never see past someone hurting Damon.

"The guilt he'll feel will be unbelievable. He'll never forgive himself, he'll go over and over every single thing he could have done differently, torturing himself with the what ifs."

"You don't have to do this." She pleaded, her eyes wide and imploring.

"He'll blame himself, he won't be able to live with it, without you…"

"Don't do this."

He turned and grabbed a large kitchen knife from the surface. She whimpered and turned to run, her legs shaking and unsteady.

He had her pinned to the floor in seconds.

"Consider yourself lucky. I don't see in any point in hurting you more than absolutely necessary." He murmured, looking down at her almost compassionately.

"She wouldn't have wanted you to do this." Elena blurted out, remembering how she had gotten Lee to back off in Georgia. "She would have wanted you to be the better man."

She prayed that she could somehow get through to him, but the coldness on his face was unwavering.

"Well I'll never know what she would have wanted now will I?" He sneered.

He was too far gone to be talked out of his plan. He had been chasing this for years, he had lived for this.

He snatched one of her wrists and held it out, keeping her body immobile with his knees. She began to hyperventilate when she felt the cold steel of a blade pressed against her skin. She didn't want to die, not now, not when she had Damon.

She screamed in pain when he dragged the knife through her skin. Much deeper than she'd ever gone. The blade cut through muscle and veins and scraped along her bone. She cried out and thrashed against him. Already growing weaker as her life force began to drain. He repeated the action with her other arm and stood up, leaving her lying crumpled on the floor, blood pooling around her.

"He's not coming back for at least another half hour. You'll bleed out in about three minutes." He stared at her for a second before his eyes began to darken with blood lust. With a blur and a gust of wind he was gone.

Elena lay still, her vision foggy and her senses dulled. All she could think about was what Damon would think when he found her. He would think that she had made the decision to end it, after the beautiful night they'd had, after the whispered I love yous and soft kisses. He'd think that none of it mattered to her. He'd think that she'd been lying. That she didn't love him.

The world was going black and she wanted to scream. She wanted to tell him that it meant everything to her, that his kisses were like nothing she'd ever felt and her love for him was so big it was hard for her to fathom.

But the darkness was racing in faster and faster and she just felt one final tear fall down her cheek before everything faded away.

Well that was a quick update! I know it was kind of a sucky chapter... It wasn't very well written :( But I hope I surprised you all? You guys thought it was Stefan or Caroline right? Oh and I'm really sorry about the cliffhanger ;)

Ok who else ADORED last night's episode? The Delena scenes were so epic I was basically happy dancing around my room!

Don't forget to review and tell me what you think. xo