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"How are we going to find out who attacked them for sure?" I asked as Damon got to his feet and rustled through his cluttered dresser for a shirt, throwing his ruined one to the ground.

"We aren't. I will. Me. Singular."

He found a long sleeved black shirt and yanked it out if the drawer. I watched the fabric stretch over his muscled, creamy skin as he pulled it over his head in one smooth motion. "What do you mean?" I objected fiercely. "He's my brother! I-!"

He was in front of me before I could get the rest if my sentence out, his hands grasping the sides of my face. "I mean no. As in you're not going. End of story."

"Oh no, it is not the end of this conversation-"

He cut me off again as his hands slid to rest on my shoulders. "It could be the end of you, Elena, if you're caught by Katherine, and I won't allow that. Now, stop arguing with me, you're killing the mood."

I crossed my arms over my chest indignantly. "What mood?"

"My mood-my good mood." His pleading eyes widened a bit.

I sighed, defeated. "Fine, then we can talk about this later."

His jaw popped stiffly. "Elena. Over my dead body would you be allowed to come hunt down some of history's most dangerous vampires with me. And I'm already dead, so." His hands dropped to my hips. "Now come on."

I frowned, relenting. "Come where?"

He rolled his eyes. "With me."

He backed away and held out his hand. I eyed him, never breaking eye contact as I gingerly slid my hand into his waiting one. Trusting him yet again.

Damon drove us far away. It took a few hours to get to wherever we were going, and I fell asleep about halfway there. The exhaustion of taking in all of Damon's horrifying secrets caught up to me, and I went out like a light.

Damon woke me when we arrived. His lips were at my ear. "We're burning daylight, Elena-pun intended. Time to get up."

I blinked awake and yawned. "I'm... oh...sorry..."

His lips curved up. "I can only imagine what you were dreaming about."

I blushed, because I had in fact dreamt about him. I tried not to meet his eyes as I stepped out of the car next to him. "So, you're not going to murder me now that you've got me all alone, are you?"

He raise one eyebrow cheekily. "Do you honestly think that's the first thing I'd want to do to you once I got you alone somewhere?"

I laughed and eased into him. "So...where are we?"

"We are in the absolute middle of nowhere. Look around."

I did. And he was right; there was nothing but sky, and endless plains of grass and wildflowers. Our car was parked at the top of a hill. Beneath us, cows were grazing in a meadow. I watch a bunny scamper by.

"Stefan comes here to hunt sometimes. I like it; it's quiet, and there're no people. When I need to figure something out, I come here."

"So, what, you're taking me here to brainstorm?"

He laughed and suddenly tackled me to the ground playfully. "No, I brought you here because...i guess because I like this place, and I like you. Seemed right."

And it did seem right here. He moved off of me carefully, so that I could view the clouds above us. Sunlight glinted down over our side-by-side bodies.

"It's so pretty out here," I remarked.

He shrugged. "Sure. I always liked it best in the forest in Mystic Falls, though." His breathing was slow, soothing. "That day I ran into you there, I was saying goodbye to it."

"What," I demanded, sitting upright. "Why?"

He too moved into a sitting position. He planted his feet into the ground, and pulled his arms around his comfortably spread-apart knees. "I was on my way out of town," he explained emotionlessly. "I liked you to much; I knew I had to get out. If you hadn't stopped me, I would've been long gone by now."

I paused and let that sink through my head slowly. I was perturbed at the thought that I'd come that close to losing him. "Do you regret saying?"

He snorted and leaned down to kiss my lips roughly. "Do I look like a person wallowing in regret to you?"

I couldn't fight the shiver of happiness. "I'm glad you stayed."

Pain seemed to reflect in his eyes for a second.

"What?" I asked.

"What, what?"

"You made a face."

"My bad."

I let it go, and smiled up at him. Relaxing myself, I sank onto my back again. "You know, it's a good thing I needed a ride that morning. Otherwise we wouldn't be here right now. I probably would've forgotten about you."

"I don't think it necessarily would have been a bad thing for you if you'd forgotten me. Hell, you would be a lot safer if you'd just forgotten all about me." He sighed, then continued, "But I'm glad you didn't. I'm selfish with you. I try not to be, but I'm not a martyr. I couldn't have stayed away from you; I wanted you too much. In all honesty, it wouldn't have mattered if you'd driven yourself to school that day. I'd been keeping tabs on you; I would've made sure that we ran into each other somehow."

I blinked. "So you...you've been following me?"

"It's a bit worse than that. Remember the night you thought you took your ring off?"

I already knew what he was going to say, but I wanted to hear it from him, so I played along. "Yeah?"

"I was in your room that night. It's not a rare occurrence. I put it back on. Like I said, you shouldn't take it off."

"What do you mean, it's not a rare occurrence?" I gasped.

He cringed and flopped down next to me, his fingers playing in my hair. I watched the sun dance on his skin, on his wicked smirk. "You leave your window open. Not that it would really deter me if it was closed."

I frowned in wonder. "So...you what? Come in and watch me sleep?"

He laughed. "Not quite. You read too much. No, I just check on you, you know? Plus, you wear these short shorts when you sleep..."

I swatted at his leg, and he threw his head back as his laughter grew louder. "Damon!"

We spent the whole day there, just bantering playfully, and telling stories. He told me more about his transformation. I learned a lot about how you became one of the undead. Apparently, you had to die with vampire blood in your system, and then choose to either die or feed on human blood to complete your transformation. Damon had planned on dying, as had Stefan, but something went wrong and, well...now here they were.

Stefan and Damon obviously had deep-rooted issues. Damon seemed to stiffen when he spoke of his brother, as though their relationship was hanging by a thin thread over a high cliff. I knew better though; I knew that those two were inseparable by the begrudged love that accompanied the stiffness in Damon when Stefan was brought up. When your brother is all you have for the test of eternity, you don't take him for granted.

When the sky became littered with stars, Damon and I finally made out way back to the car. This time when I fell asleep, it was on his shoulder.

I dreamt of his laugh, and of his beautiful eyes, and his suggestive smile. In that dream and in my sub-conscience, I knew it as well as he did; I was falling in love with him-quickly, and recklessly.

My awakening this time, though, wasn't as sweet as the first. Tires squeezed and the car lurched. I screamed as the car swerved to miss what looked like a person.

"Elena-" Damon was interrupted by the door being ripped off the car on my side. Faster than I could ever hope to comprehend, Damon was reached over, clutching me to him protectively.

"Katherine..." He warned.

Surprised to hear the name, I whipped around to lock eyes with the vampire responsible for my brother being locked in the hospital...

And I gasped.

Because they were my eyes.

I was staring at a hauntingly perfect replica of me.