A/N: I know, I know. I haven't updated it in a month. I hope you're still there, waiting for a new chapter and glad to see it published. ;)

My gratitude goes, as usual, to CreepingMuse, who beta read this chapter and helped me shape it with her comments and our conversations.

"Just once in my life,

I think it'd be nice

Just to lose control, just once,

With all the pretty flowers in the dust."

~ Evanescence, "Lose Control" ~

The forest didn't seem to have changed, and that comforted Elena a little. Since she'd been turned, she couldn't get rid of the feeling that everything around her would fall apart, that another doppelganger turning into a vampire would bring about dire consequences. However, the sun was still in the sky. The Earth was still rotating on its axis. Elena needed desperately to feel the normalcy of something – even if it was the creepy forest filled with more memories than she wanted. Damon's offer to go there had been unexpected, but she had agreed wholeheartedly. It was high time they made new memories there.

Still, Elena couldn't get rid of the sensation that something was wrong. It was odd and unnatural that she could see the sun but not feel it, or that October wind felt warm on her skin. Damon wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Somehow it was the most natural thing in the entire forest.

"Listen," said Damon quietly, and Elena did, but she couldn't hear anything unusual. She heard their heartbeats, their breathing, the usual sounds of forest, but nothing else.

"Is something wrong?" she asked warily. Damon smiled, and she couldn't look away.

"Yep. If you listen really hard, you'll hear squirrels' secret anti-vampire meeting." She rolled her eyes. "Loosen up. I just want to show you the perks of being a vampire."

"Damon… Don't. Don't try to make me feel better about it."

"Do you trust me?"

Elena narrowed her eyes.

"Do you really need to ask?"

"Then just listen. Close your eyes. Relax. Concentrate only on the sounds around you."

It was a little difficult to focus on anything when he was so close, but Elena obeyed. Again: heartbeats, breathing. A bird on the tree next to them, chirping and heartbeat. The quiet rustling of tree branches, shaken by the wind. Another bird a little farther away. The rhythmic beating of small hearts – animals, she guessed. More birds. She listened as hard as she could, and the sounds of water flowing, cars speeding and hundreds of things she didn't even have a name for added to the melody of the forest, creating complicated, beautiful music – so arrhythmic, yet so full of harmony. Elena had never realized that mere sounds could be so full of life.

"It's amazing," she whispered and opened her eyes to find Damon looking at her. He was gorgeous, eyes shining with adoration, lips curved into a tender smile she had rarely seen. Elena's concentration snapped like a string, and the music was gone, but she didn't care. She couldn't look away from Damon, as if he was compelling her. Of course, that wasn't the case. She hadn't been able to avert her gaze from his lips even when she was human. He said something, but she didn't hear, leaning in.

"Elena!" Damon repeated, and Elena froze, finally meeting his gaze. Damn it. She wasn't supposed to feel like that. She was Elena Gilbert, for heaven's sake, and she could control herself. She'd gotten it down to a fine art. And here she was, incapable of keeping up a conversation with her… No, she didn't know who Damon was for her now. No labels.

Still, she couldn't understand why he was doing it. Why was he distracting her when she was obviously ready to give in to him? She had never wanted to kiss anyone so badly, she could feel her lips tingling, her lower belly aching, her skin craving his touch.

Elena forced herself to focus on his words.

"Now look at the sun," said Damon, moving behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Directly?"

"Yeah."

Elena looked up. Wearing the anklet she couldn't even feel the star that could burn her to ashes– but when she really fixed her gaze on it, it was indescribable. The light dispersed into rainbow-like rays, spreading spots of colorful light all over the sky. It was familiar and unusual, beautiful and intimidating, and she was staring at the sun, unable to avert her eyes.

Now she felt truly alive.

He taught her to see everything anew. Patterns on the bark, animals' traces on the ground, a hundred hues of blue in the sky. The thousand hues of blue in his eyes she learned to see on her own.

"You can see as much or little as you want," Damon explained. "It's up to you. It's like humans squinting to see something far away. Only a little more advanced. No big deal. Same thing with hearing. As for the sense of smell or taste, you can't control it. It's gonna be intensified anyway. Comes in handy most of the time. But taking into consideration how often I have to dispose of corpses, sometimes the smell makes me wanna stake myself."

Elena couldn't but chuckle, shaking her head. Now they were sitting at a safe distance on oak stumps, and she was asking questions endlessly. Damon answered – when he wasn't teasing her, that is.

"And as for the sense of touch…" He trailed off, reaching out and stroking her jean-clad knee, then her thigh, his fingers feather-light on the fabric covering her skin. Her reaction was immediate. Elena heard her own heart speeding up; she shivered – she knew he could hear it, too. Damon's heart was beating faster than usual, too. It's scary. It's so scary to think that he's been able to know how he affects me all along. But now I'll know, too. I'll hear how his heart races when I'm close. I'll hear his breath hitching when I touch him. Did she want to? A thousand times yes.

Elena caught his hand on her thigh, and pulled him toward her – a little more roughly than she intended, but she didn't really care. Damon ended up on his knees before her, and she wasted no time, cradling his face in her hands and kissing him like she wanted to, like she knew they both wanted to. Like he should have kissed her on the porch. Like this was their first kiss – or their last one. His lips parted under her insistent tongue, and his response was immediate. She finally had the taste she had been craving – her personal definition of heaven.

It was so different from what she had experienced before. Elena didn't know if it was because now she was a vampire, or if Damon was so intoxicating –probably both – but the sensation was completely different. It wasn't just pleasure or desire – it was a deep feeling of complete satisfaction. It made her toes curl and her blood boil, and she never wanted it to end.

Not that she didn't feel desire, too. Especially after she showed Damon what she wanted and he was kissing her deeply, passionately, and with intimacy she'd never felt. That's how Damon Salvatore was supposed to kiss the woman he loved, she thought contentedly.

They pulled back a little, but stayed close, neither ready to let the other go.

"Elena," he whispered, and she shook her head, pressing her fingers to his lips.

"Shh." Her head was spinning, and blood was rushing through her veins (and his, too) so fast that the sound it produced was deafening. Damon kissed her palm, and she smiled. Then an uneasy feeling in her stomach reminded her of another need she had to take care of.

"I think I need to eat. And…drink."

That sounded embarrassing at such a moment, but Damon rose to his feet, pulling her up with him, shook the dirt off his pants and his smile turned into a smirk.

"What about the Grill? A few sandwiches, a little booze and a random visitor to bite…" Elena looked at him half-reproachful, half-amused, and shook her head. "Okay, then a few sandwiches for us both, a little booze for me and a blood bag for you?"

She could agree to that.

The blood bags and booze part they did at the boarding house. Damon had his share of fun trying to talk Elena into having a little liquor – he wasn't surprised that she refused. When she drank blood this time, she wasn't as violent – still not quite in control, but Damon could see she was progressing. Of course, her reaction was strong – the hunger always did that to any vampire – but it seemed she wasn't as overwhelmed as before. Now he was even more certain they could do this. Together.

They still decided to go out. Pleased with Elena's progress, Damon wanted her to practice being around other people, total strangers. It would be hard, he warned, but Elena was willing to try.

The Grill was almost empty when they arrived, which surprised Damon. The only bar in Mystic Falls was always full of visitors. There was Matt, a few men getting their daily dose of liquor – and that was it. Elena closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth. Damon knew exactly what she was feeling.

"Have the health inspectors found any cockroaches?" asked Damon, referring to the lack of clients, and Matt looked up from the glass he was wiping. He smiled when he saw Elena, but the rhythm of his heartbeat got uneven, nervous. He knew what she was now. Bonnie had probably told him. Or Caroline had.

"Oh, hi, g-guys," he stuttered a little, cleared his throat and went on. "I spent the whole day with Caroline and just got here. Have you heard?"

"Tyler couldn't keep his teeth to himself. Been there, done that, not interested in details," Damon said, earning a glare from Elena.

"It doesn't explain why Klaus did what he did, though," she said.

"He's Klaus." Damon pulled a face. "He creates hybrids because he feels lonely. Do we really need to explain everything he does?"

"How's Care?" asked Elena, and Matt smiled.

"She's great, otherwise I wouldn't have left her. But she's worried…and so am I," he admitted, looking uncomfortable. "How are you?"

"It's okay. I'm gonna be fine. Damon is… supporting me."

Damon smirked. His Elena was an expert at understatement. My Elena. That sounds nice. It sounds great, in fact. I may be a hopeful idiot, but I want to call her mine. I want her to admit she's mine, to tell me about it, most importantly, to feel it. She cares about me – but is it only because at the moment she hates Stefan? She wants me – but does that mean anything now that she's new to the wild desires that come with the nature of a vampire? Damon didn't know, so he would hope. Hope was his most cruel enemy, but also his most powerful ally since the day he'd returned to Mystic Falls.

"I'm glad," Matt smiled in earnest, and Damon thought that maybe the guy was actually not as awful as he'd always assumed. Though what Elena had seen in Matt when they'd been together, he still had no idea. "Can I get you something to eat?"

Damon was about to say "What about bringing that guy over here?", but he knew better. Elena was tense and wary next to him, her breathing slow but shallow. He squeezed her hand reassuringly and she smiled a little, calming down.

"A couple of burgers will be fine," she told Matt, and he busied himself with the food. Damon's phone beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket, cursing whoever it was that bothered him. There was a message from Bonnie, and he frowned. Why on earth would Bonnie call him?

Whatever the reason was, it wasn't good.

"I'll be right back," he told Elena, and knowing she'd want to know everything immediately, he went outside alone before she could stop him.

Once Damon left her side, Elena felt her control slipping. It was so much easier when he was holding her hand, when his familiar smell invaded her senses, making her head spin with something other than bloodlust, when his closeness provided the best distraction she could imagine.

Human hearts beat nearby. She could hear delicious blood moving in their veins, filling every part of their bodies, returning to the heart and pulsating in the neck. She let the rhythm lull her into a sort of trance, and her control had frayed before she realized the mistake she'd made.

These weren't Bonnie or Matt. They were just human beings, creatures that existed to sustain her. Nothing more. They weren't important to her, which meant they weren't important at all. She wanted it so much that it hurt. It hurt her gums, her eyes, it felt like it was hurting even her heart, the craving growing stronger with every second.

Still in trance, she appeared in front of one of the men, and before he could react, she had him pressed against the wall, her hand on his throat.

Cravings were meant to be satisfied.

There you go. I hope you liked it – whether you did or not, I'd like to know what you think. ;)