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Damon POV

After a night of unsuccessful vampire hunting we returned home in disgust. I shook my head at the sorry looking search party outside the Salvador estate. Stephen, Will and I wanted to keep going but Zack's eyes were starting to look blood shot from lack of sleep.

Stephen looked over at Zack slumping against a pole. "I'm calling it a night. I didn't mean to keep you up so late uncle. Sometimes we forget you're human."

Zack stumbled as he opened the door fumbling for the key.

"Well considering I'm a Night Owl that's not surprising. I'm usually wide awake when you're prowling for dinner. I've been doing spells all day so I'm more tired than normal."

Stephen subconsciously shoved aside his juice box of animal blood.

"Leave me out of that generalization. You know I don't feed on humans."

Zack gave Stephen an apologetic smile,

"Sorry I know you don't feed on humans, your chasing Bambi only."

Opening the fridge I grabbed a blood bag. I tore into the liquid without bothering with a cup. "At least my dinner gets to see the next day unlike other vampires. I also like to point out all of my meals are free range; nobody is chained up down stairs or dead in an alleyway."

Stephen sighed running his hands in his hair, too tired to fight,

"Damon you don't need to do it. Can you considering trying it my way for once?"

I slurped his blood bag nosily in retaliation,

"I don't need an intervention; I'm not some crack head. I'm a predator and I'm not ashamed of it. I wish you guys will accept who I am."

Will knew he had to stop this before things became too heated.

"Damon is the only one that consumes human blood in the house. We know that, so why make a federal case over it now? Don't we have enough problems to deal with today?"

Everyone looked at each other sheepishly as the tension left the room. Stephen looked at me and offered a quiet apology which I accepted.

Will grinned and rubbed his hands together,

"I think we're all tired, frustrated, and overdue for a proper meal. Let's dial this down and I'll prepare us a banquet of gourmet food."

Will felt a pain of sympathy for Zack, he was the only human in their group. Zack might be the boy's uncle, but at the end of the day he was a human living with vampires.

"Zack I'll even make you those pancakes you like so much. But only if you lose that grimace."

Zack perked up at the mention of Will's pancakes. When Will first arrived with me 10 years ago Zack didn't even want him in the house. Zack assumed the worse about Will and for good reason. I was rich and there was nothing to prove Will wasn't a gold digger trading friendship for cash.

Zack was too kind hearted to reject Will out of hand. It took months but Zack finally saw that Will only wanted one thing, to never be alone again.

We settled in the kitchen and waited patiently for Will to prepare our meals. We had a rule Will cooked and we set the table and cleared. We might have vamperic speed, but none of us could make blueberry pancakes or Blood smoothies like Will.

Zack closed his eyes tucking into the last piece on his plate, "I swear if you told me you slip drugs in your pancake batter I would believe it."

Will chuckle watching the vampires enjoy their Blood-Lime smoothies,

"I used to cook in the army, I learned a few things while there. However the blood smoothie thing was something I invented in my new life."

Stephen shook his head hiding a smile,

"I assumed as much but nice to know none the less."

Gathering the plates Stephen busied himself with loading the dish washer,

"I have no idea what we'll tell Elijah. He seems reasonable, but I doubt he tolerates people failing their assigned tasks."

Zack opened a Grimoir after dinner mumbling something about a better locator spell. After a few minutes he closed the book with a sigh.

"I have more powerful locator spells to find the killer, but I need another warlock. Unless you know any we're out of luck."

I shrugged, wondering why Zack even tried to do complex spells anymore, none of them worked without a coven, or at the very least a companion warlock.

"Zack you're wasting your time with bigger spells. No coven here will let you on their door step let alone bind with you. We need to rent a non-local witch to help you."

Zack glared at me before slamming the book closed,

"That's like saying I need a girlfriend so you bring me a hooker. A coven is a family not a 'one night stand.' There needs to be love and trust between the witches for real nature magic to work."

Stephen bit his lip wishing he could help his uncle.

"It's only two more years until your probation is up. After that the witch council won't monitor you anymore. You can start over with them."

I opened my phone checking my witch contact list.

"Steph the local witches won't accept him. He did dark magic for years. It's like having a prison record; your past crimes follow you for life. We need a plan B because if Zack can't create a proper locator spell then the Originals will use our Day Light rings for target practice."

Zack slump his shoulders and nodded,

"He's right, they won't stop me from practicing nature Magic, but the local witches don't want anything to do with me. I burned all my bridges when I used Magic to get my wife back."

Will gave Zack a pained look, unhappy at his friend's distress.

"Getting married at 18 was never likely to end well but you loved her. You know using magic to keep her was wrong. The covens may forgive you, perhaps in time."

I chuckled as flipped inside Zack's spell book.

"You tapped the power from the local witches for a black magic spell. They were unable to do their own spells for weeks after you borrowed their power. I doubt they'll forgive soon."

Stephen stopped me from flipping to the next page of the book,

"This is a spell to find new born witches Zack. If you can find a new witch then you can train them yourself. This solves your problem, if you can't join a coven, form a new one."

Zack rolled his eyes with this are you serious look on his face,

"You really think I hadn't thought of that already? I can't do it; I'm already on the outs with the witches in this town. If I corrupt one of their foundling witches, they'll put my head on a pike."

I smirked looking at Zack speculatively,

"You know how Nature witches are; they have that one with nature "stick up their ass" view of a future witch from a drum circle of hairy legged chicks."

Zack gave us his first real smile of the evening. He jumped up and chanted until a cupboard previously invisible appeared at his feet. He smiled sheepishly at our expressions, "I keep it hidden to protect you. The stuff in this case is dangerous."

I smirked, trying to peak over Zack's shoulder unsuccessfully.

"You're a 21 year old man; just admit you keep your Playboy collection in there also."

Zack blushed but slammed the lid shut,

"The cupboard is enchanted to avoid people seeing or touching the contents, a fail-safe to keep witches out, as for your other question, no comment."

After a few minutes Zack had five silver disks on the table, the size of quarters. He whispered as he closed his eyes causing the disks to glow briefly.

After a moment he offered each man a disk retaining one for himself. "The disks will hum if it detects a witch; only the supernatural can hear the hum."

When Zack reached me he hesitated but I reached out and accepted the disk. I gave Zack a grin hoping to put my uncle at ease.

"I may give you grief uncle but I'm here when you need me. I hope the disks work. I know you miss being part of a coven."

Zack sighed in relief, slapping his nephew on the back,

"You're a wiseass but someone I'm happy to call family."

Will smiled at me mouthing a 'thank you' before helping to finish cleaning the kitchen.

I only shrugged and quickly gathered up the recyclables. I know my friend had a soft touch for the whole family thing. Normally the idea of family bonding made me ill, but lately I was starting to believe that maybe Will was right, having a family doesn't always suck.

After we retired to our rooms I crept out pushing my car to the road to hide the noise. Despite my better judgement I intended to visit Elena as she slept. I hoped meeting her would be enough, but all it did was make the longing to see her worse. I couldn't get her out of my mind for days.

I wanted to speak to Elena again in person but didn't know what to say. I can't remember ever being this tongue tied. I could always say "You're the twin of my vampire Girl Friend the town locked in a tomb," but that would earn me a face full of Mace.

A few minutes later I sat on the white shelf inside her room. It was long and low to the ground located just below her window. Inside it was drawers most likely for her clothing but I wasn't sure. I visited her every night for the past week, but never left this spot after entering.

I still can't believe I gave her brother Jeremy a ride in my stingray just to get an invite into the house. Her brother at least had COD video games so it wasn't all bad.

Looking around I resisted the urge to search her room. It was bad enough I was in her bedroom; I wasn't going to be found digging through her panty drawer. I intended to watch her for a few minutes then leave as always.

I heard her mumble in her sleep and knew she was dreaming. I needed to know if she had any feelings for me at all. Dreams are the one place people are truly free of restraint.

I closed my eyes preparing to enter her dreams. I had no intention of changing anything in her dreams regarding her actions but I wanted to give her my eye candy to watch. A nice streak should do it; I wasn't blind I knew my body usually got a woman's attention.

After a few minutes I watched the lovely vision of Elena arching her body as she slept. I closed my eyes willing myself to remain calm. My fangs grew slightly as I grew lost in the images from their shared dream. It was beyond delicious.

I stopped the dream early; I didn't want to get so worked up that I couldn't sleep and she needed rest. A few minutes later she drifted back to sleep.

I quickly drove away smiling all the way home. I would've given anything to be there when she work up and remembered all the things she did in her dreams.

I'll find out tomorrow, when I saw Elena again. All of the problems his family was battling will still be there. However tonight I'll sleep with only thoughts of lovely brown hair lass.