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Of course due to your kind reviews, favs and follows, but also because shoppe69 is helping me with this story. And be assured she is doing it really great! Convince yourself!

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xo Giuna

Chapter 4

Elena re-entered the living room, feeling a little embarrassed… but only a little. She had the right to know what was up, but she tried to avoid his gaze anyway as she sat down on the couch again.

"You're confused!" he determined, shocking her with the concern in his voice.

"I am. And I want you to tell me what you've learned!" She tried to sound self-conscious and even raised her eyes to him, but she was sure that he saw through her.

He furrowed one eyebrow at her and cocked his head to the side.

"You're quite demanding. But I get it."

Elena wanted to withstand his gaze, but after a moment she couldn't handle his piercing eyes any longer. She sighed.

"Please, Damon? Tell me what you found out." Anxious to hide her fear of what he was going to reveal to her, she shuddered slightly. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to like what he would tell her.

"Well, that was my younger brother, Stefan. He is a vampire, too, and he knows one of the eldest and strongest vampires in the world. His name is Elijah. Elijah told my brother that you are a special kind of human, due to a gene that you've inherited." Damon stopped at that point, giving Elena the chance to let the news sink in. She looked dumbfounded.

"This is all my fault?" she demanded and from the look on her face she felt guilty.

"I am not going to blame you if that's what you worry about. I'm sure you haven't called for it," he said softly.

"No, I haven't… And now what? What does that gene do?" she wanted to know, sensing a giant lump in her stomach, fearing that it would never go away again.

"Yeah, about that…err…it's something you're not going to like, I guess." Damon grimaced, not sure which words to use.

"Actually, I don't like any of the things we found out, so I think its save to say that the next revelation will just perfectly fit in. So please, tell me what your brother reported," she pushed him bravely, but her heartbeat picked up anyway.

"Um, well, he figured out that the blood exchange we practiced has triggered your gene. And by that, I unknowingly marked you as…my…oh Lord, I hate that word!" He clenched his jaw and breathed noisily.

"What Damon?" The concern in Elena's voice made him focus again.

"My blood-slave!" he blurted, not able to meet her gaze.

"WHAT?"

"I know that sounds creepy, but actually it's only a description of what we already found out, right? However, the worst part is that there is more to it," he admitted, running his hand through his pitch-black hair.

"Damon, spill it. And not in small packages, that makes it just worse. Give me the whole story!" she commanded, but her body language betrayed her. She curled up into a ball on the couch as if expecting another disastrous detail."

"Okay. You know already, that your body is going to reproduce the exact amount of blood I take from you, on top of what your normal level is. My brother confirmed that if I wouldn't have fed from you again, you would've drowned in your own blood, or to be precise, in the amount that was meant for me. And since I'm not able to feed on anyone apart from you, I would dessicate and spend an eternity mummified. Not exactly a scenario I'm into." He remained quiet for a moment, watching Elena, willing her to look at him as his next words formed in his mouth. When she finally raised her head and allowed him a glimpse on her blank expression, he continued.

"Speaking of eternity, there is something that might affect you even more than being my… you know…," He exhaled, collecting the right words. "Now that your gene is activated and we are linked you're not going to grow any older…," he spoke softly, knowing that his words were hard to comprehend.

"Wait…you mean…I'm not going to die of old age?" she asked and her jaw dropped open. She was on the brink of cracking up at those game-changing news.

Damon just shook his head, trying to read her emotions but failed when she still looked petrified.

"That means, I'm doomed to spend the rest of eternity with you? Willingly or unwillingly as I assume? I would rather die than being your hostage for the rest of all time!" Elena jumped to her feet running towards the door, but Damon was already there, piercing her with his blue eyes. Elena shrieked frightened as she crashed into him and backed away immediately.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…," he warned her, wagging a finger at her.

"Can't let you do that!"

"How could you be so fast? Is that another of your creepy vampire features?" she guessed with a fast pounding pulse.

Damon just nodded with a wide smile spreading over his face.

"Fabulous! Anything else concerning that business you want to share with me?"

"Nope! That would totally take the surprise away, don't you think?" he smirked with a dangerous light flickering in his eyes.

Argh! Elena turned away from Damon, searching to find a possibility to persuade him to let her go. But there was none! Suddenly the realisation of her future hit her hard, causing a rush of adrenaline accompanied by panic through her body, letting the ends of her nerves ache.

She swirled around to face Damon again, darted malignant glances at him, which perfectly mirrored the feelings inside of her. She was furious, that couldn't happen to her again. She wouldn't let him! For Gods sake, she had been free for less than 4 days! She headed in his direction, knowing that she might just have this one chance. She drew herself up to her full height and narrowed her eyes as she intruded his personal space, ignoring the warning bells ringing in her head.

"I am not going to stay! I had that for two years and I know what it's like. I can't do that for an eternity!" she shouted at him. She couldn't help herself but started to punch against his chest over and over again.

Damon was absolutely unimpressed of her strength, she simply had none, but he was impressed she would so voluntarily give up her life without even giving them a shot to figure something out.

What the hell had happened to her during those two years?

"Are you done?" he asked plain. Elena shot him a contemptuous look.

"Surprise! You know, Elena, vampires are not even fast but happen to be pretty strong, too. So stop fighting like a little girl. I. am. not. letting. you. go. Get it?"

"You're such an ass!" she hissed at him through clenched teeth, raised her hand, slapped his cheek hard and breathed heavily against his face, the rage written all over her face. Damon was thunderstruck, he hadn't seen it coming and stared at her in surprise as he rubbed over the red spot. It didn't hurt much, but the gesture had hit him. He felt himself growing angry inside.

"You better be nice. I can make that an eternity full of pain for you!" he threatened her. He didn't really mean it, but he just wasn't the even-tempered kind of guy.

"Do what you want! That doesn't scare me. I know many types of pain, so I can handle whatever you got on your mind! But be assured of one thing: It's my blood that you need and I am not going to give it to you willingly!" She looked daggers at him as she finished the sentence, then turned around once more, ran into the bathroom, slammed the door shut behind her and locked it carefully.

Oh God! What had she just done? She knew that her words were meaningless to him. He was stronger and faster than her and God knows what else to add to that list. At least she knew for sure now that the gene had been responsible for her kissing him and letting him do those…things to her.

As she chewed it over and over in her head, she understood something else; when she had shaken his hand in the bar and felt that electricity running through her body, it hadn't just been a warning to her but also her chance to choose whether to stay or to leave. In a way he wouldn't have noticed, of course, but that would have required knowing about said gene, which she hadn't.

And later, when he had kissed her, that choice was gone and the gene had taken over, all too willing to fulfil its purpose.

And now…she was screwed. She wouldn't be able to stop him from feeding from her. She was going to be defenseless when he was coming for her. And he would. He would in the very near future. And it was going to be horrible. Elena sighed and sank down to the tiles in despair; waiting for the relentless fate that lay in wait for her, unknowing how to face it.

Wow! That just worked out the way he planned it! Damon shook his head sarcastically and grabbed the bourbon from the coffee table, unscrewed it and took a couple of big gulps straight from the bottle. That was the thing he hadn't wanted for either of them.

This situation was messed up, yes, but if they would stick together, they could find a way to make it work. For him, with more than 160 years of life experience that was crystal-clear, but for her…well, that was another story. The problem was her past. He was pretty sure that her ex-boyfriend Mason had forced himself on her or maybe worse. From what she had told him in her anger, it seemed that he had held her hostage for the last couple of years and if that was really true, then it would take a long time until she would trust him, if ever. If he would just assault her and feed on her without her permission, it would make the whole blood-slave thing even worse. But then, if he wouldn't, they would both die…more or less. Damon tore at his hair. His threat hadn't helped to smooth down their fighting at all.

Fuck! But she hadn't been on her best behaviour as well. In a couple of hours he was going to feed on her again, maybe until then, she would have cooled down as well.

In the meantime Damon tried to figure out how to deal with the new path his life had just taken. He needed to feed at least once a day, and even if he would allow Elena to meet him only for that, the problem his brother had revealed to him would remain the same. She wasn't necessarily just his for eternity, another vampire could easily catch her and with a simple witch spell Elena would become the other's blood-slave.

According to Stefan, there were many vampires out there, watching out for those rare humans like Elena, finding it convenient to possess their own blood source that never runs dry and that would allow them to stay hidden so easily, because the need to hunt or to steal blood bags would vanish. Not to speak of the incredibly awesome taste that watered Damon's mouth the second he thought about it.

He couldn't let anybody take her away from him. She was his. And he would fight for her and his life to remain that way. Whether she liked it or not, she needed to stay at his place. End of story.

Elena opened her eyes, wondering if she had slept for long. Judging from the endless intricacy of her dreams, it must have been a pretty long time. She couldn't decipher the pictures anymore, the only thing left of her slumber was a badly oppressive feeling that totally consumed her. Still not fully awake, she jumped when she heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Elena, it's time, open up!" She heard Damon's demanding voice and instantly felt sick.

"Go away!" she shouted rudely at him. It wasn't about time yet, was it? She didn't even feel the tiniest bit dizzy.

"Huh, you know that I'm not going to let you die, right? Therefore I'm not waiting for the very last second to feed on you. And I'm pretty sure that you are smart enough to know, that this fucking door can't stop me from coming inside!" he shouted back at her, unaware of answering her unspoken question.

"Do what you want to that silly door, I'm not going to open it up to grant you better access to my blood!" she grumbled, not sure if it was wise to challenge him. But she couldn't help it anyway, because somehow it didn't matter to her. She meant what she had told him before. She would rather die than live with him as his personal blood-slave hostage like…forever. At least she wasn't going to make it easy for him to keep her from drowning in her own blood.

Oh God. She sounded like a total psycho…what was wrong with her? It wasn't his fault, it was hers. She was the one with that stupid gene! Wherever in hell it had come from after all!

"Elena, do you really want me to ruin that door? I swear, I'm not going to replace it and since I've decided for you to stay, this might cause some embarrassing inconveniences!" he barked against the closed door.

"You decided for me to stay? Great! So by now I'm officially under disability, right? Suddenly, I feel so much better, Damon! Thank you!" she fired off with crimson red cheeks burning in her face.

"Honestly, Elena? What did you expect me to do since I'm not the one with a death wish!" he told her, staying kind of rational, but wasn't able to suppress the undertone in his voice completely. At least she remained quiet…

"So would you please open now?" he demanded politely, hoping she would give in and he could avoid forcing her.

"Go to hell, Damon!" she hissed at him stubbornly, curling herself into a ball, well knowing that she had exhausted his patience.

"Argh! Remember you asked for it!" he grumbled dangerously.

For a moment, there was silence, but then a sound like a thunder filled the bathroom as Damon slashed his way through the door. Elena screamed helplessly and squatted in the corner of the room as far away from the door as possible. Her eyes widened in panic and her heartbeat picked up dramatically when she saw Damon standing in the middle of the doorframe. His hair was a total mess, his blue eyes narrowed into slots and his nostrils flared in anger as he breathed heavily, seeking for her.

She stared at him for a fraction of a second before pure fear crept up her spine and she hid her face between her knees, which were hugged to her chest.

Oh God please don't!

Although this was a whole different situation, she couldn't stop the awful memories of the time with Mason washing over her, which had her seeing red.

When Damon saw her like that and sensed her fear, his anger vanished instantly. He had a clue what she was thinking about right now and he knew for sure that he couldn't go through with the plan which had popped up in his mind while tore the door into shreds.

In his thoughts he had grabbed her, forced her to her feet and slammed her against the cold shower wall, telling her what he was able to do to her if she wouldn't obey before he had turned his face into his vampire mask right in front of her terrified eyes, crashing his sharp teeth merciless into the delicate skin of her neck, enjoying each of her screams.

Well, then again, he wasn't just the even-tempered type of a guy. Nonetheless, he wasn't heartless or at least he wasn't when it came to her; the girl right in front of him, who tried to hide herself so desperately but not from him, not really.

Damon moved slowly toward her and squatted next to her, stroking her shuddering arm gently.

"Don't touch me!" she cried fearfully and writhed with disgust.

"Elena, please stand up, let's go back to the living room, okay?" he suggested softly, but tugged at her arm to pull her up into a standing position. Her reaction to his move caught him off guard. Elena started to scream, to fight against him and she threw her fists against his arm with all her might.

"I said, let go of me! You will not touch me ever again! You can go fuck yourself, Mason!" she screamed at Damon, completely losing contact with reality.

Damon watched her in shock, he had never seen something like that before and that meant a lot, because he had seen pretty much everything.

What was he supposed to do? He couldn't compel her anymore, which was one of the other things Stefan had told him. But what should he do instead? Totally unable to cope with her emotional outburst, he could only imagine of one thing to do even if it might not be the best. He went on and pulled her up on her feet.

"No! Please don't! I can't do that again, please!" she begged in desperation, still not recognizing that the man next to her wasn't Mason. Damon ignored the way her hands hit his face, leaving some deep bloody scratches on it as she fought against him like her life was at stake. Thanks to his vampire strength he accomplished to turn her around to face him and crashed her body into his chest. With his inhuman speed, he pinned her arms to the side of her body and fixated them with his strong ones he wrapped around her small body at the same time. Elena couldn't move anymore and the panic within her grew to an unbearable level.

"Elena. It's me, Damon!" he nearly screamed at her because her own screams where so loud, she might not be able to hear him at all.

"Please Elena…Stop screaming. Everything is fine. I'm not going to hurt you, please…calm down!" He attempted to sooth her with his tender words, and rested his forehead against her head.

He stood there for a long while until Elena finally stopped fighting him, her screams slowly changed into sobs and she helplessly buried her face into his chest. He could hear her heartbeat steady and finally her breathing went back to normal again.

"Hey there," he whispered against her head, inhaling her intoxicating scent fully one more time before he pulled his head away from hers to look her in the eye.

"Do you feel better?" he asked carefully, afraid of using the wrong words on her. Her tear strained face was pale except from a few red spots where his chest had left imprints on it. Her deep brown eyes still sparkled full of tears, but there was something else he noticed. An emotion Damon hadn't seen in them before and wasn't able to name yet.

"I don't know what to say Damon," Elena said in a quiet voice, embarrassed that she had totally lost her mind.

"You don't have to say anything at all if you don't want to," he assured her and removed his arms inch by inch. She smiled at him slightly, not sure if she should move or not.

Damon saw her hesitation and took the decision away from her. "I think we should go back to the living room, okay?"

Elena just nodded and moved slowly back into the other room, but stopped before she reached the couch. "Actually, Damon, I would like to sleep for a while, I'm so tired," she told him honestly.

"Okay. Whatever you need," he answered in understanding. "I guess we have got another hour until …," he added, ruining the short moment of the secure feeling Elena had sensed a few seconds ago, when she had finally realized that Damon had held her tight and not Mason.

Elena nodded in resignation; she just wanted to sleep; hoping that she would find the badly needed peace in her dreams. Damon leaded her to his bedroom, a contrast to the rest of the apartment. It was a big chamber that contained only a giant wooden bed, two antique looking arm chairs and a compatible wardrobe.

"Do you want to change into something more comfortable?" Damon asked her, realizing that she still wore the same clothes like the day before.

"Umm…I don't know…I," she stammered confused. She wanted to get rid of those clothes more than anything, but what should she wear instead?

Damon narrowed his eyes, sensing her problem.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I will find a shirt and some pants for you," he encouraged her. She nodded at him; observing him as he searched his wardrobe for some clothes. He was nothing like Mason, she suddenly realized. Damon could also be quite intimidating, but there was nothing devious or unrelenting in his behaviour. He just had accomplished to bring her back from her Mason-trip, which meant a lot to her. She hadn't felt that safe for a very long time and it was this feeling that made her reconsider her previous thoughts. Maybe it was better to figure out something than to die.

Damon turned around; he had found something for her to wear.

"Here you…go," he halted as he saw the unfamiliar soft expression on her face. He decided to brush it aside; whatever it was that had evoked that sweet expression on her normally petrified face, he didn't want to ruin it.

"I haven't found some small-sized stuff, so my clothes have to work until we get your things." Damon held a black shirt and one of his boxer-briefs out to her.

"There is nothing to get," she whispered, looking down to the floor. "Actually, there was no time to pack anything when I ran away from Mason, you know?!"

Damn, he was so stupid. Of course she hadn't had time, that's what escaping is about, right? To hurry. Urg!

"Then we'll go shopping, tomorrow!" he attempted to make it up to her.

"You serious?" Elena couldn't quite believe him.

"Of course!" he nodded firmly, happy to find that soft expression on her face again.

"Thank you," she slightly smiled at him, unaccustomed to the feeling of actually looking forward to something.

"You're welcome."

"Not just for this, Damon. I…umm…I know that you could have defeated and fed from me without any effort… So thank you that you didn't. It means a lot to me!" she revealed to him and met his gaze as she smiled through her newly upcoming tears.

"Anytime!" he simply responded, glad that he had been acting right earlier. But it was not just this, he was really touched by her words and the way she looked at him.

"Well, I should leave you alone now…so you can change clothes," he suggested and went to the door. Even before she started her sentence her heartbeat gave her away.

"Wait, Damon," she exhaled, swallowing hard.

"Yes?" He turned around once more.

"I want you to feed on me," she blurted out.

"Err, what?" he replied dumbfounded.

"I'm so tired of fighting, Damon. I just want a little peace," she admitted quietly. When Damon saw the pleading in her eyes, he didn't hesitate for a second and went back to her.

"I understand that. And I'm truly relieved that you're offering. Look, Elena, I know it must be hard for you to find yourself in a situation that is comparable to your past, but I don't want you to feel that way around me, okay? I swear, I'm not going to hurt you or force you to do anything you don't want to. I know, we don't know each other, but as twisted as this situation might be, I'm sure together we can make the best of it!" he said euphorically, relieved that he had been able to tell her what he had wanted to tell her hours ago.

"Are you serious?" She needed to be sure before she could allow the warmth that had started to fill her stomach to spread through her whole body.

"I do. I really do!" he did her the favour and observed how her facial expression shifted once more. The worry lines between her eyes vanished and she relaxed her jawbone which gave her face an even softer touch. But the major change he noticed was in her eyes which lightened up and instantly enlarged to their regular size. God, she really had beautiful brown doe eyes!