Author's Note:

Hello again.

Since TVD is on vacation, I thought it would be nice to update a little sooner as I had planned originally, although I don't have the best feeling, updating this chapter without a beta, but I did my best to correct myself. Please don't think poor of me if it isn't as smoothly to read as you deserve it.

Anyway, I hope you'll have some fun with it. And please review?! It is so much more fun to write when I know if you like what I do, or not.

If you're celebrating, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

XOXO Giuna

Chapter 3

Ere he reached the door, he knew that she was there. Her scent was overwhelming; her blood practically calling for him. Before he knew what happened and before he was able to suppress it, the veins under his eyes darkened and his fangs broke through his gums. Opening the door, Elena collapsed into his arms. She looked awful and somehow engorged. The veins of her legs and arms stood out to her soft skin, the expression on her face dead-like and her eyes closed.

"Elena? What the hell is happening to you?" he asked his self-control nearly used-up.

He accomplished to sit down on the floor and held her in his lap totally torn between sinking his canines straight into her skin and comforting her. He attempted to repress the craving for her blood. The last thing he needed was him puking out his guts!

"Help me, Damon!" she whispered so faintly and weak it shook him to the core. His hands were all over her, soothing her and himself at the same time but that didn't help to fix her. Shit! What was he supposed to do?

All of a sudden her nose started to bleed and that brought him to the edge instantly, his mind refused to build one clear thought. Without hesitation, he forced her neck to his mouth, slid his fangs into her skin and started to suck. Elena jerked just once, and then went very still. Her blood flooded into his mouth at a pace he could barely handle to swallow.

But he did, and it tasted…Mhmm… so delicious. Just like it was tailor-made for him, and only for him. He put his free arm around her limp body to press her even closer to him, but surprisingly he was able to stop drinking much sooner as he had thought he would be. Damon released her neck, pierced his tongue with his fangs and licked over the bite marks for them to heal. He withdrew his head to get a glimpse on Elena, only to find her opening her eyes in this very second.

"Hello, there," was all he could manage to say. Quite shocked to see him, she stared straight into his eyes.

"What happened?" she wanted to know, to fill up the blackness in her mind.

"I think, I happened to save your life!" he smirked at her cockily as the relief that she was fine, finally sunk in.

"Ha!" she wanted to scoff at him, but it failed its intention. In lieu of that she just got lost in his aquamarine blue eyes and became suddenly all too aware of his strong arms around her body. She clenched her jaw, she wasn't used to such intimacy and actually, she didn't want it. Hell, she didn't even know what had happened and why she was here, again. The only two things she could remember were the sickness she had felt and the strange look of herself in the mirror. She made a stab at rising, but didn't accomplish.

"Whoa, take it easy, Elena!" he said but supported her in her attempt anyway.

"What ever you did, Damon, I'm really thankful, but I can't stay. I need to leave!" she said as firmly as possible and tried to escape his grip around her elbow.

"Ah, ah, ah! You are not going to run again. We need to talk and you will stay!" he commanded and hold her even tighter.

Promptly, he could hear her heartbeat accelerating again while he saw panic washing over her face. He shook his head slowly and let go of her. She immediately stepped away from him, not sure what to think about his move. As she turned to the door he frowned angry.

"Aren't you the tiniest bit curious about what this mess is, we got ourselves obviously into?" he wanted to know; making her at least freeze in place.

She turned around stoop-shouldered, not looking at him but onto the floor. Inch by inch she raised her head as if it weight too much for her to carry, until he could see her tear-filled deep brown eyes, which reflected all to clear every single amount of pain she had ever suffered. He swallowed hard but still waited for her to say something. She got it and took a deep breath.

"You know why I want to run, Damon?" she asked, unconsciously, laying all her despair into this question, but didn't expect him to answer anyway.

"Because I can do this no longer! Even more than I can put into words. There is already so much a have to deal with and actually, I have no idea how I'm going to handle it. There is only so much I can take…," she stopped her flood of confessions as tears ran down her soft cheeks, overwhelmed by her emotions. She didn't want to cry in front of him and covered her pale face with her sweaty palms to calm down. Damon watched her extensively and felt so damn bad for her. She looked so lost and he wanted to comfort her but was afraid that she would shrink away from his embrace. What a fucked up situation!

"Look, I can only imagine what you have been through, but whatever it is that is going on between the two of us, we are in this together. We will figure something out," he reassured her, trying to make her stay and took a step forward into her direction. When she eventually lowered her hands and let them hung slack on the sides of her body, Damon saw nothing but inner strife in her face. Her lips were firmly pressed together, the corners of her mouth pointed downwards as she frowned as if in horrible pain. She was torn between facing the reality and running away from it. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure, that she couldn't run. The problem was that she hadn't admitted it to herself.

As she stood there silently, the lines of her face started to smoothen again. She turned around to the door. At first Damon thought that she was actually going to leave and was already about to stop her but he was wrong. Elena closed the door shut, holding on to the wooden surface to steady herself once more; breathing heavily in and out she ultimately turned around to work out the oddness that had built up the last 24 hours.

"Ok, let's talk!" she suggested, her voice still soft but no longer full of her desperation. Tentatively, almost shy, she stood right in front of him, waiting for him to do something, anything. Damon breathed out, too.

"I'm really glad you're saying that! Come on over, take a seat?!" he half ordered half requested and smirked at the sound of his own words, grabbed a water carafe from the coffee table and filled one tumbler for her. She shook her head at him and couldn't insist but grinning back at him.

"Politeness isn't exactly one of your strength, is it?" she teased him boldly as she passed him to sit down on the couch, she knew all to well by now. It was kind of confusing, that no matter what had happened in her past with Mason, but also with Damon himself, she nonetheless felt somehow comfortable with him.

"Well, I think you got to know at least one of my strengths, right?" he teased right back but instantly regretted his sexual innuendo as he became aware of Elena's wide eyes; gazing at him from over the rim of the mug as she choked on the water she was sipping. She noisily cleared her throat and turned her head away from him to hide her flushed cheeks with some strands of her long hair.

Damn him. So much for feeling comfortable with him.

"Yeah, about that…," she started at a loss for words. "That wasn't me!" she simply insisted.

"Ah…ok?! And with whom did I had the pleasure, if it wasn't you?" he wanted to know. At first pretty amused about her behaviour, he took a seat on the black leather armchair at the opposite side of the coffee table.

She bit her lower lip much embarrassed and turned away from him again. Smugly, he could hear her heart pounding in her chest, letting him know, that she was reliving their first blood exchange vividly at that moment. Then all of a sudden it was bittersweet to witness how desperately she tried to hide that she had actually liked it. Especially the loss of her arousal he would have been able to smell easily, told him that what ever had happened to her, had caused some major damage.

"Fine!" she admitted "It was me, but something was wrong with me! I didn't act like myself. I would've never done something like that!" she pointed out folding her hands in her lap and started to tip her upper leg franticly with her finger. Her gaze avoided his the whole time. Damon cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes. "I believe you," he just said.

"You do?" Elena was surprised.

"Yeah, I do. Not only because you behaved absolutely unexpected but especially because of what you wanted me to do!" he declared, not sure about what would come up next with the blood topic finally on the table.

Quickly, she looked at the ground. For her this conversation was pure torture and she would rather stop than discussing anything even more detailed, momentarily terrified about what might be revealed soon. But terrified or not, she needed to face the truth. "You mean, that I asked you to bite me…," she breathed out with pink cheeks.

"Yes, indeed! Why would you asked something like that without knowing…"

Oh shit! He couldn't keep his big mouth shut.

Damn it!

"Without knowing what?" she sure as hell wanted to know, but it didn't matter anyway. She needed to know the truth about him, not at least because their situation didn't appeared short-lived at all. So far, he hadn't told a lot of humans what he was but he always went for the quick and easy method.

"Without knowing that I'm a vampire!" he beat her around the head.

"What?" she asked, her mouth popped open while her face turned a few shades whiter. Also she hadn't had any idea what those blurred memories in her head portend, the thought of him being a vampire never had crossed her mind at any point.

"You've got to be kidding me, right?" she asked with dilated pupils, holding on to the last piece of hope that was left.

"No, Elena. I'm telling you the truth. I'm a vampire!"

She immediately froze in her seat. That just couldn't be true. Vampires belonged to the world of imagination and she wanted them to stay the hell right there! She still stared at him in disbelief, shaking her head back and forth, totally unable to cope with what he had revealed to her. Her eyes searched his face franticly for an escape, but his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes didn't help at all.

"So, you are really serious?" she murmured quietly, more to herself than to him. As his words finally sank in, her heart beat accelerated from a more or less normal pace to something so oppressive, she had experienced just once before in her life. The very moment she believed him, a million questions hailed down on her.

She had told a vampire to bite her! Why the hell had she acted like this? Now that he had drank from her and she also from him, would that implicated any consequences? Was she becoming a vampire now? Oh God! What had he done to her?

Damon regarded the scene in front of him somewhat sceptically, but let her some time to deal with this new information. He was able to read her every sentiment straight from the expressions of her pretty face, especially from her deep brown eyes and the way her eyebrows furrowed and contracted from time to time. Only when her breathing and heart beat started to remind him of her break down in the alley, he interrupted her.

"Calm down, Elena! From the really bad things a vampire could do to a human, you have already experienced them all. So, there is no need to be afraid of me, ok?" he assured her and scanned her face for another reaction. Elena rubbed her face roughly with her palms, anxious to try to clam down. As strange as it sounded and as much as she wanted this whole crap to be a joke, he was right. After a moment she felt better and laid her hands back into her lap as she searched his eyes finding them instantly.

She dived into the ocean blue windows of his soul, piercing them for giving her the answers to the confusion in her head but he remained silent. Instead, he just stared back straight into her soul, or at least it felt like that. Maybe he was as clueless as she was.

Great!

"So what now?" she muttered as she blinked, not accomplishing to stand his gaze any longer.

"Now, we need to figure out what is wrong with us. Because since our little encounter over there," he raised an eyebrow and pointed at the door behind him failing to suppress a smirk

"I've got a little problem!" he started to fill her in.

"What problem?" she asked as she rolled her eyes at him, still quite embarrassed about the whole situation.

"It looks like I can't keep any blood down…apart from yours," Damon enlightened her. Elena gasped for air and felt suddenly more than uncomfortable as he gazed at her through narrowed and somehow literally hungry eyes, like she was something to eat. Freaking hell! She was!

"Please don't look at me that way!" she demanded, hoping for the lump in her throat to vanish.

"What look?" he wanted to know, not aware of his recent facial expression.

"As if you are going to eat me in the near future!" she clarified as she swallowed hard. Damon started to giggle.

Giggle!

"What is so funny about that!" she barked at him, officially annoyed at that point.

"I'm sorry. It is not funny, but actually I just can't help myself. To be honest, the two times I had the pleasure of tasting your blood were the most delicious I have ever had in my not so short lifetime. Your blood simply tastes unique," he tried to explain to Elena, although it seemed to be pretty weird to chit-chat with the prey about its taste. As if he had anticipated her reaction, for a fraction of a second she looked disgusted.

"I can't take that as a compliment. No offence!" she said, and couldn't shake off the illusion that something had escaped her notice.

"Non taken!" he smirked at her and with that it finally clicked in her mind.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean by the two times?" she asked suspiciously.

"You didn't remember?" he asked astonished, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Obliviously, I don't! Please tell me what happened!"

"Well, when I was about to leave my apartment, you practically threw yourself into my arms," Damon stopped as he saw Elena's indignant expression spread over her face. "Ok, you didn't threw yourself, but you collapsed into my arms. Looking kind of puffy and the veins on your body were so bulging I just haven't had another choice than…you know!" waving an apologetic half-crooked smile at her, waiting for her reaction. Elena didn't say anything at first, frowned and ran her hands through her hair, trying badly to remember.

"I can't remember how I came here…, but I know that I felt horrible that morning. All dizzy, my head hurt like hell and my heart acted up…and…yeah, that I indeed looked puffy. Maybe I'm ill. I should probably go to visit a doctor," she nodded to herself ignoring the uncomfortable feeling, that her problem wasn't an illness.

"Sorry, but I don't think that will solve the problem. You know there are not only vampires in this world but also magic. I might be wrong, but I have a hunch that someone has used a spell on us," he explained seeing her expression jumping the rails. She nodded, smiling insanely, then shook her head, making a sarcastic sound.

"What the fuck, Damon? Magic? Vampires? I don't want that! I don't want any of that!" she screamed at him, unable to cope with that new information.

"I know that! I haven't wanted it for myself either, but sometimes you just don't have a choice, right?" Elena got caught by the soft sound of his voice. He really seemed to know what he was taking about. Somehow that calmed her down again.

"So, what do you think that spell is about?" she wondered and was surprised her voice sounded so calm.

"You'll freak out again. I don't know if I can handle that!," he teased her to relax this messed up situation.

"Try me!" She accomplished to grin slightly.

"Fine! I know for sure, that I can only keep your blood down and from what I have witnessed I guess that you have somehow reproduced the amount of blood I have drained from you, on top of your normal level. I should admit that it was a lot at the first time, so much, that I…well…almost killed you…, but therefore, I gave you my blood to help your body recovering. That's what vampire blood does to a human".

While Damon explained his thoughts, Elena's eyes widened once again and she anxiously tried to breathe calmly.

"You almost killed me? Wow! That is…really encouraging!" She shook her head almost unnoticeable.

"If I get you right, you think that I felt so miserable because there was too much blood in my system, maybe the amount you have taken from me. So, tell me Damon, what would have happened, if you hadn't drank from me again?" she asked not able to hide her frustration.

"I think you already know that, don't you?" he challenged her and pierced her with his blue eyes.

"I would have… died?, she demanded and didn't managed to swallow around the lump in her throat as a shudder drove through her whole body.

"I think so. I'm sorry, Elena!" he honestly replied.

She again covered her face with her palms.

"Damon, do vampires have bathrooms? I could use a moment to myself, please?" she murmured through her hands.

"Sure! It's right over there!" He waited for her to look up and pointed to one of the two doors on the left wall next to the entrance. Slowly, Elena rose to her feet, avoided to glimpse at him and headed to the bathroom, hoping for at least a couple of minutes to herself.

Entering the room and locking the door quickly, she leaned her back against the wooden surface to chute to the tiles. She tucked up her legs as close to her body as possible, wrapped her arms around them and rested her forehead against her knees. Immediately, she started to cry. Why did that happen to her? After all the shit she had been through with Mason, she just wanted to be left alone! And now she was somehow magically linked to a vampire, doomed to die if they didn't stick together.

Argh, that was not fair!

She didn't want this and he for sure didn't want this either. They were totally at the mercy of each other. If one of them decided to give up, the other would die.

Oh fuck!

She sobbed as she stood up to walk over to the sink and splashed some water into her tear-strained face. It felt good, but not good enough to already leave the bathroom again. Elena watched her face in the mirror. She looked as awful as she felt inside. Her eyes were sad and tired. She couldn't remember when she had seen her face smiling back at her for the last time.

She sighed, and felt suddenly bugged by herself. For God's sake, she needed to stop the self-pity party! Yes, her past had been horrible and sure as hell her future didn't look much better. Only she needed to think straight and therefore, she needed to push her desperation to the back of her mind. If he was indeed right and a witch had cast a spell on them than maybe she could undo it again!

For over a minute, she consciously breathed in and out deeply until she felt better. She squared her shoulders and was ready to re-enter the living room as she heard Damon's Cell phone ringing. She stood perfectly still and remained quietly to prepare herself to eavesdrop.

"Hey, Stefan, please tell me you've got news for me," Damon pleaded into the phone.

…

Hm, who was Stefan?

„Actually she found me. And she was in a damn bad condition".

…

He sounded really concerned.

„Yeah I could and she felt better afterwards".

…

After he had drunk?

"Um, well I'm glad she felt better! I'm pretty sure she would have died otherwise! We have talked and from what she was telling and I had experienced I'm sure it must be some stupid kind of magic that linked us together. Although I have no idea, which bitchy witch I have pissed of that much to deserve a spell like that!"

…

„Do I want to know what could possibly be worst than magic?"

There could be something worst? Please no!

…

„Then spill it, Stefan!"

…

Oh, he sounded a little pissed…

„What kind of gene?"

…

A Gene? What the hell?

„What a creepy fuck is that?"

…

Shit! Now, he was really upset.

„That is a weird comparison! Why did something like that exists anyway?"

…

Damn it! What was a weird comparison?

„I get that, but how comes that we have never heard about something like that before?"

…

What the hell were they talking about? Argh!

„Oh! You mean that it is possible that another vampire could steal her from me?"

…

Hello? What was wrong with those men?

„In that case I would die, am I wrong?"

…

We had figured that, didn't we?

„Wait…what does that all mean to my eternal existence, if she is still human? Am I going to die when she dies of old age?"

…

Aww, poor little vampire!

"Wow, that is convenient for me, but…"

…

Shit!

„I understand. Now I need to talk to her. We will stay in contact, ok? Thank you so much for finding out about all this".

…

„Bye"

„Elena? You can come in now! I know you eavesdropped!"

Oops!