Chapter 3: Aurora

Looking through the bedroom window, Elena had her eyes firmly on the horizon only occasionally interrupted by Damon's weak moans. This daybreak she would not welcome, this daybreak she dreaded. Was the light starting to stream through under the refuge of the deep darkness of the forest or was it just her predisposed fearful imagination? She could have no illusions though when Stefan slid out from under Damon.

"What are you intending to do?" Elena stood as well, trying to stall him at least for a little while. If Stefan and Bonnie in her current state of mind clashed forces, she was worried one of them will not come out of it alive.

"I'm just going to play a little game," the addressed vampire drawled sardonically.

"As long as its not a puzzle piece game," Damon said with a clear voice, sitting up gingerly on the bed. It was hard to trust that the movement was not going to cause gut splitting anguish around his midsection.

"Damon! Are you alright?" Elena rushed back to his side, elated in her relief. If Matt had been successful, that would've solved so many problems at once.

"I think so," Damon touched his chest and abdomen, as if vaguely still affected by the illusion of having been staked, "same as always. Dashing, gorgeous, irresistible of course."

"Damon!" Elena half heartedly scolded his jesting ways in serious situations, "where are you going?" She automatically stepped to take hold his arm in support as he stood, one hand holding the sheet in front of himself, the only quasi garment he had on when sleeping.

He leaned into her unnecessarily, playing on the remnant witch induced weakness that slowly let off from his body, "a vampire should feed off human blood for strength you know," he always took the opportunity to remind her of that truth whenever he could.

"I'll get it," Stefan offered. It was clear that Damon was well, enough to flirt at any case and him flirting with Elena was not something he was keen on seeing.

"I'm so sorry Damon," she started as Stefan blurred out the room, "I exist and people get hurt protecting me," the young woman was upset, yet a little distracted by the feel of his naked arm on hers.

"Elena, listen to me," he faced her, taking her other hand as well, "people," he emphasized, meaning himself this time, "make their own choices when protecting you. No one's forcing them. And if its a thousand stakes through me, I wouldn't change a thing.

"Your bloodbags," Stefan dropped them into Damon's arms, causing him to let go of their love, but deciding not to comment on the obvious moment his brother and Elena shared.

"A shower's in order," ripping one of the bags open with his teeth, Damon sauntered casually towards his bathroom as if nothing important of mention would've happened during the night. The brothers would never mention this time when Stefan held him desperate to give him any measure of comfort he could manage, the time that Damon treasured at some level despite his distress, reminding him of distant memories of when without a mother and a non-interested father it was his young brother who came into his room comforting him when he was ill or hurt, falling off a horse and breaking some ribs as a child. Now that he was feeling better, there would be no tender moments between them and so he had to wash away his remaining discomfort with blood and the running water. He rubbed his stomach as he stepped under the shower rosette, wondering if it meant something that waves of nausea and cramps still went through him. Bennett witches were more powerful than ever, that was part of it and there was the fact that Bonnie hardly ever left him off the hook without Elena's intervention. Which was why he was starting to think the retaliation wasn't over yet.

Just at the other side of the wall, Elena was reading Matt's text, "Bonnie promised she'll leave Damon alone for now. But she's keeping the voodoo doll."

tbc