Hi!
It's time for chapter 8! Thanks to the faithful readers who reviewed. I'm always looking forward to your opinions and hope that you'll enjoy what I've written.
Thank you so much, shoppe69, for helping me again, I really appreciate it :)
Partially, this chapter is pretty harsh, so be warned!
Giuna
Chapter 8
During the next couple of weeks, Damon and Elena created something like a daily routine. They tried to find a way to live a life worth living, despite the complications arising out of their correlation. After they had slept together, it suddenly bordered on physical pain not to be near each other and that was just pretty hard to handle. It wasn't mandatory to stay in the same room, no, but once, when Damon had decided to go out buying some groceries on his own, he didn't even make it to the next block.
At first, the badly needed proximity between them felt strange, but they quickly realized that it was useless to fight against their feelings. Only when they were around one another, they were genuinely happy. It was obvious that a part of this desire was caused by their special blood connection, but both of them sensed that it got even stronger the more their feelings for each other grew. And that happened much faster than expected. The circumstance that after their first shared night, every time Damon fed on Elena ended in sex played a serious part in it. Not that they had actively tried to avoid it, but it simply hadn't been possible to resist the seductive temptation once they had crossed the barrier.
For Elena, it was a whole new world with emotions she had never believed to ever experience, not after Mason. She thought about him a lot, especially because she knew that he was near her, lurking around, waiting for her to make a mistake. He wouldn't give up on his revenge, that was something she was absolutely sure about. But she pushed the fear away, buried it deep down in her mind. For once she relished the feeling to actually live with a man who took care of her, made her feel secure and to be of value, not just because of her blood, but also for her own sake. Therefore it was all too easy to take care of him too.
Damon had told her that she would have a chance to survive, in case that something happened to him. All she needed was another vampire and a witch who would link her again. It was then, that she remembered the phone conversation between Damon and his brother and she realized what exactly his words had meant. That loophole wasn't just to save her. She could also be ripped away from Damon and that would mean his inevitable death. It must never happen. She didn't want to live without him like that; she was too happy that she finally had found someone she could… love.
"Did your brother ever tell you why this gene exists?" Elena enquired while they sat at the bar in Alaric's pub. They used to come to visit Damon's old friend a couple of times during the week because Alaric was the only person who knew about Damon and his strange link to Elena. She liked Alaric's funny but still sincere nature and always enjoyed the easy way the two guys behaved around one another.
Damon swallowed his sip of Bourbon and gave her his full attention while Alaric turned around from his work to face them, being pretty interested in this whole gene issue, too.
"He did indeed," Damon told her casually, bringing his tumbler to his lips once again.
"And?" she pushed and got more and more curious the longer he withheld his response.
"Oh, c'mon, spill it man!" Alaric hissed at him, watching his friend relishing his Bourbon a little too much and rolling his eyes while he grinned at Elena who mirrored his expression instantly.
"You know the saying that patience is a virtue?" He flashed a crooked smirk at his audience, which froze at the incredulous faces of Elena and Alaric.
"Okay, okay. But I guess I have to give a little more detail on that before I can answer the question, at least for you Elena," he started and watched his girl staring at him with furrowed brows. Jesus, he loved her beautiful face.
"Why do I have an odd feeling right now?" she wanted to know, wondering if she needed the answer to her question any more.
"It's not too bad. Don't worry. First, you just need to understand that pretty much every supernatural being or circumstance is engendered by magic. And magic itself is a servant of nature. So, when a witch creates a spell, nature will always make sure that there is a balance between the supernatural and the ordinary part of the population. We know that vampirism was created by magic and actually we thought that the balance had been restored by the weak spots nature had forced on the vampires. You know, that we normally can't walk in the sun, that a wooden stake through our hearts causes death and that we get weakened by an herb called vervain," he informed her, but before he could continue, Elena interrupted him.
"No, I don't know, because you never told me," she retorted.
"Oops!" Alaric made a face that literally screamed of malicious glee.
"Shut up, Ric," Damon barked at him and rolled his eyes.
"It wasn't necessary yet," Damon tried to calm her down.
"Are you kidding me? It wasn't necessary, yet? Damon, I need to know about such things! What if something happens to you?" she nearly shouted at him, not getting how he could be so calm.
"I told you before that we're going to find a back-up vampire for you!" he threw back at her, piercing Elena with his aquamarine blue eyes, which suddenly seemed to glow.
"I know what you told me, but I don't what another freaking vampire, Damon, I want to be with you!" she blurted out in anger, not thinking about the weight of her words.
Damon's harsh glare softened instantly and he took Elena's hand in his, petting her palm soothingly with his thumb.
"I understand that you're upset, but please remember how old I am. I know exactly how to defend myself and for the record, the older a vampire is the stronger he gets. Since you know that I am a really old guy, you can surely imagine that I'm fucking strong!" he grinned at her and winked mischievously.
Elena attempted to suppress the smile jerking in the corner of her mouth but wasn't successful at all.
"I can sign that, Elena, I've seen him in action plenty of times," Alaric mentioned while he dried some glasses, a longing grin on his face.
"And how comes, that you can walk in the sun, then? I thought at first it might be a myth," she wondered, staring at him with a question mark imprinted on her flawless face.
"I've got a ring. It is, of course, witch-made. My brother has one, too. But there aren't many vampires who are as lucky as we are." He showed Elena his ring and she examined it in awe.
"You know, witches and vampires aren't what you would call besties, so it's difficult to get such jewellery," Damon added.
"And if you would take it off? You would…," she couldn't bring herself to speak the words.
"Burn, yes," Damon finished the sentence for her, still caressing the inside of her hand.
"And what about the vervain?" Elena requested, glancing at Damon with sorrowful eyes.
"Oh, let me answer that, please?" Alaric requested, exited like a small child on its birthday.
"You're such a sadist!" Damon growled in Alaric's direction, shaking his head unnerved.
"Yeah, but hey, could you blame me?" he wanted to know, made his best puppy eyes and caused Damon to throw his head back and laugh out loud.
"Go ahead, dick! Tsk…and you're calling yourself a friend!" he pronounced and took a big gulp of his glass, ignoring Alaric's smug countenance.
"Vervain is the most effective and easiest way to weaken a vampire. Once vampires get in contact with this herb, it corrodes their skin. Of course you could also inject its essence directly into their system which grants you a blacked out vampire within seconds. Actually, it's a very useful thing," Alaric ended, pretty pleased with himself.
"That's disgusting, Alaric," Elena ranted at him. "You sound as if you've used it against a vampire before…," she speculated shocked.
"Oh, you can count on that!" Damon confirmed her assumption, grinning at Alaric in remembrance.
"You used it on Damon?" Elena shouted, totally mad. "How could you?"
"Whoa, calm down. It was before we officially met. It was the way I handled vampires in the past, so I didn't exactly excuse myself when I ran into Damon. Unfortunately, I underestimate him and got a good hiding. But still… it could have worked," Alaric smirked.
"That means you're kind of a vampire hunter?" Elena dug deeper, frowning at him.
"Don't look at me this way. Just because your vampire is a little puppy doesn't mean that they're all are nice and cozy. Just like Damon wasn't all the time -"
"Enough, Ric!" Damon warned him harshly, giving Elena a quick insecure glance.
"Don't bother, Damon. I'm not stupid. You didn't seem puppy-like during our first encounter, so I'm aware of you being dangerous. And although I don't even want to imagine what you might have done to other people, what counts for me is the way you act around me now. I'm not afraid of you anymore. I -," she stopped at that point, quickly waving her hand dismissively.
Damon's eyes narrowed at her interruption. He was sure that what she had wanted to say was important to her, but he left it at that.
"Back on topic, then," Damon changed the subject, drowning the last content of his tumbler.
"So, as I said before, nature is always keeping the balance between the supernatural and the ordinary part of the world. With the creation of the vampires a disbalance had emerged and to fix that, nature created a special kind of humans to protect the others. Humans endowed with a specific gene to be linked to a vampire, ensuring that the vampire can't feed on anyone except the blood-slave. Just like you," he explained and winked at Elena.
"Mmh, but something went wrong anyway, didn't it? I mean, otherwise every vampire would have a… b-s," Elena stated slightly ashamed
"A b-s?" Damon chuckled at her shortcut.
"Don't laugh at me! I'm just not the biggest fan of the term blood-slave, okay?" she pointed out, leading Damon and Alaric to share a meaningful glare.
"Whatever. And yes, you're right. According to Stefan the vampire population increased faster than the gene was transmitted. Mainly because it is necessary for the human to reproduce before meeting the vampire. Those circumstances led to the result, that the b-s," Damon grinned at the use of Elena's shortcut, "kind of ceased. Actually, according to what Elijah told Stefan, there aren't many left," he ended and searched Elena's face for a reaction and what he saw left him concerned.
"That means, vampires can't procreate?" she asked quietly, when the full meaning for her own life sank in.
"No, we can't," Damon confirmed her suspicion, feeling a lump building in his throat when he saw the shock on Elena's face.
She started to fumble with her hands in her lap, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Damon and Alaric. It cost her everything to keep the tears from falling. As ugly as her past had been, the hope to be a mother one day had never died, just until this very moment. She would never be able to give birth and to witness the miracle of life which she imagined a newborn to be. She swallowed hard, suddenly not able to keep it together any longer.
"Excuse me, please. I'll be right back!" she whispered, pulling her hand away from under Damon's and fled to the ladies' room.
Elena stumbled into the restroom and straight to the sink, supporting herself against the cool, white basin. Breathing heavily, a bunch of images rushed through her head. Images of a future she had once looked forward to, images she had used to distract herself from the painful reality she had lived through with Mason. And now, all the hope and all the happiness she had felt, picturing herself with a baby in her arms, feeling its soft skin, smelling this wonderful scent only newborns had, slipped away and left her numb inside. She felt warm tears trickling down her hot cheeks and dripping silently into the sink. How could that be her fate? How should she ever be genuinely happy without the one thing she had wished for herself the most?
She turned the faucet on and held her hands into the cool water. Splashing some of it into her tearstained face she hoped it would help her to regain her composure. It didn't help the slightest, though, within seconds Elena's whole body was shaking from sobs, and she let herself sink down to the dirty floor. She hugged her legs tightly to her body, burying her face between her knees and chest to muffle the sounds of her crying. She didn't want Damon to hear her. It wasn't his fault; he wasn't the one with the gene. Why hadn't she known about it much earlier in her life? Had her mother known about it? Probably not and even if she had, it was too late anyway. But too late or not, she could really use her mom right now. Thinking about her mom and dad, the grief about their loss suddenly crashed down on her with a rush of adrenaline, leaving her with the feeling that her head was about to explode.
Panting heavily from the approaching panic attack, she heard the door to the restrooms open. Sighing, she expected Damon to come looking for her and lifted her head to face him. But who she saw instead, made her blood freeze.
"Trouble in paradise?" Mason's all too familiar voice demanded sarcastically right next to her ear, and before Elena was able to react in any way everything went black.
Damon stared helplessly after her as she left for the ladies' room. He exhaled sharply with sympathy. While he had still been human, there had been a time Damon had wanted a family of his own, too. But those longings had been buried a long time ago and he could only imagine that the loss of the opportunity to have biological children was a lot harder to handle for a woman than for a man. He hadn't been aware of Elena's obviously big ambition to be a mother one day; otherwise he would have chosen an entirely different way to fill her in.
Forcefully he ran his hands through his hair, rubbed his face with his palms and rested his underarms on the wooden surface of the bar, hanging his head with an unhappy sigh.
"Shit, man," Alaric verbalised, comradly clasping a hand on his shoulder.
"Damn it, Ric. Everything went perfectly fine the last couple of weeks. I thought she started to be really happy, but this… this could ruin everything," he pointed out, clenching his hands into fists.
"No, Damon, don't say that. From what I've witnessed during the last weeks, I'm sure that she honestly likes you. She just needs time to cope with this new information," Alaric tried to console him and nodded; emphasizing his words.
"Maybe so," Damon whispered in discomfort, he wasn't so sure about it. It hadn't been easy to get to this point in their relationship. Elena seemed to have moved on, but he knew that this wasn't the whole truth; nobody could recover from what she had been through within weeks, not even with help. Although they slept together and she definitely enjoyed it, he was fully aware of the fact that this couldn't have healed her from her disgusting experiences. Surely it would take years for her to fully recover from that. She wasn't mentally stable yet, and so vulnerable that something like this revelation could destroy her in the blink of an eye.
After a couple of minutes he could hear her sobbing uncontrollably. The sound of her sadness let his heart clench in pain. Overpowered by her emotions he tried hard to block out her heartbreaking crying, not knowing how to handle it. At first, he seemed to be successful in avoiding her weeping, but suddenly everything changed. A feeling of strong gravity filled his whole body, a gravity that caused his skin to hurt as if it would be ripped away from his bones while it pulled him towards Elena.
"You okay?" Alaric asked, seeing his friend's face contorting with pain.
"No, something is wrong!" Damon forced his legs to move and hopped off the barstool, heading for the ladies' room in an instant.
"Damon, what…," Alaric started but stopped in the middle of the sentence to run after his friend.
Damon pushed the restroom's door open and drew a sharp breath.
"What is it?" Alaric demanded and shoved Damon's stiffened figure aside to glimpse into the room as well.
"Where is she?" Alaric wanted to know while his eyes frantically searched the ladies' room.
"She is gone," Damon breathed out, staring at the open window on the opposite side of the restroom. He didn't get it and shook his head in disbelief. She wouldn't run again, would she? Desperately, Damon ran his hands through his hair again and punched his fist against the door with almost all his strength.
"Fuck, Ric!" he screamed, angry with himself for being such a coward to shut her out only a few minutes ago, otherwise he would have heard her climbing out of the window.
"Would she really run away, again?" Alaric dared to ask.
"I thought we had put that behind us. I don't get it, Ric. She trusts me; she knows that she could have talked to me about it! God, we would have found a way!" Damon got carried away as realization hit him like a slap in the face.
"No!" The word slipped his mouth in desperation.
"What?" Alaric demanded impatiently.
"Did you see anybody entering the bar after Elena came here?" Damon interrogated, indicating to the room.
"Um, let me think. Just one guy, if I remember correctly. Why?"
"She didn't run, Alaric," Damon shouted, crossing the room and climbed onto the window still. "Mason took her," Damon added, before he jumped out of the window, following the pull that radiated from Elena, leading him in the right direction.
Elena opened her eyes confused and disoriented, just to find nothing but darkness surrounding her. What the hell had happened?
She leaned against a cold brick wall, her head felt dizzy and her whole body ached in unbelievable pain. She needed Damon. Where was Damon? And where the hell was she to begin with?
And then the memory of the last thing she had seen before passing out washed over her, leaving her completely breathless and panicking. No, no, no, she begged silently in her head. Please no. She couldn't keep the tears from falling.
"You have every reason to cry, 'Lena," Mason's frightening voice whispered straight into her ear, making her hair stand all over her body while she suppressed to scream with overwhelming desperation.
Suddenly, light filled the midsized storage room she was trapped in and Mason grabbed her chin harshly with his right hand, forcing her to face him.
"God, I missed you so damn much," he growled against her neck, slipping out his wet tongue and sliding it all over her cheek. Elena's eyes widened in disgust and shock and she momentarily turned her head away from him and tried to escape his strong grip.
"Ugh! Let go of me, Mason!" she hissed at him, struggling against him as much as she could with her still pain-filled body.
"No, I don't think so. Actually, I think you have a lot to make up for your unbelievably pathetic behaviour. First you ran and only a couple of days later you've got a new stallion. Damn, you're in a sore need of it, aren't you?" he grinned sickly at her, resting his free hand on her upper leg, stroking it intimately.
Elena froze in place, having a hard time to keep herself from gagging. Where was Damon? Tears started to fall all over again, realizing that she was all alone with the monster next to her shaking body.
"Come on, 'Lena, you know you missed me too. Don't be like that," he purred calmly and tapped his fingertips further up her thighs.
Elena remained silent and closed her eyes, frantically searching her mind for a sanctuary to flee to. When she found Damon's face with one of his beautiful bright smiles, which lit up his whole face, she held on to that as strongly as she could.
"It's a shame, that we got only tonight," he whispered when he buried his nose in her hair. "But I can't live with you any longer, 'Lena. You really disappointed me and I can't condone what you've done. Therefore, I decided to put you out of your miserable existence. But first, I will thoroughly enjoy my vengeance," Mason explained her cattily, punching his fist forcefully against her core. Elena couldn't suppress the scream which escaped her mouth the moment the blow hit her and the new kind of pain rushed through her body, clouding her view. Before she could see clear again she heard a strange sound, like the deep growl of a predatory animal and hope sank in to her surrendering mind.
"Take your fucking hands off her!" Damon roared at the entrance of the storage room.
"Oh, isn't that cozy. Look, Elena, your lover is going to join us," Mason warbled and didn't even look the slightest bit surprised, way too sure about his ability to knock his antagonist out.
"Hey, man, come closer and I will show you how this little bitch here likes it best," he spat out, squeezing Elena's breast violently. But before the whimper could even escape Elena's dry mouth, Damon stood right in front of her and Mason, glaring hatefully down at him, with blood shot eyes and showing his threatening fangs.
Mason's eyes widened with shock, completely overwhelmed by the sight right in front of him.
In a fraction of a second, Damon glimpsed at Elena, searching her figure for any kind of major damage, noticing the totally scared way her shaking body huddled on the cold concrete ground. His hate for the rapist of his girl increased immensely and a dangerous smile lingered on his true face.
In vampire speed, Damon grabbed Mason by the throat and pulled him up in the air, his feet dangling in the air, searching for the ground. Mason gasped helplessly and stared shell-shocked into the red glowing eyes of the beast in front of him.
"Much better. If I had to listen to the fucking bullshit you were talking about any longer, let alone seeing you adulteratingmy girl, I would have ripped you to shreds by now!" Damon growled with a deep and menacing voice. Mason's face already started to turn blue at the last words of Damon's sentence.
"But what a waste would that be, right? I'm going to make you suffer for the last two years of hell you've put Elena through. And then, I'm going to kill you… slowly, very slowly," Damon filled in Mason, causing a rush of adrenaline whipping through the man's body when the information finally reached his mind.
In the next second, Damon hurled Mason's limp body on the hard ground with such force that his head started to bleed the moment it came in contact with it. Mason screamed with pain, attempted to turn around onto his stomach, but Damon didn't allow that.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I wouldn't," Damon hissed at Mason, lifted his leg, placed his right leather boot right onto the heaving chest and shifted his weight straight onto it, making it impossible for Mason to breath steadily.
"So, Mason, now, that your number is up, is there anything you want to say?" Damon questioned way too sweetly, staring down into the face of the man he would enjoy killing soon.
"What ever she told you is a lie! She wanted it too!" Mason whispered hoarsely, holding on to the last piece of hope to escape this situation.
"Poor Mason, that was the wrong answer!" Damon growled down, lifted his foot from Mason's chest, lunged out and kicked the metal cap of his boots straight between his legs without holding back. Mason's scream stuck in his throat as the white pulsating agony hit his body, spreading into every tiny inch of it.
Elena flinched in shock, wrapping her arms around her bent legs and cradled herself back and forth. Their had been a time, she had imagined to hurt Mason just the way he had hurt her, but now, witnessing such violence, it made her sick. Otherwise, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill her, right? And she knew that he would have never given up on this plan until she would have lain limp in his arms. With that thought swirling in her head, she closed her eyes and waited for the nightmare to end… forever.
The shift in Elena's position didn't escape Damon's notice, and although he had planned for Mason to suffer much longer, he knew that it would have destroyed Elena. So he changed his mind and said goodbye to the plan of slicing Mason's cock off his body and feeding it to him alive.
He turned away from the man and tried to regain his composure, thinking about a new plan, when Mason used his last chance.
"'Lena, please, have mercy!" he begged in a whimpering voice, searching for her eyes. Hearing the nick name again which Mason had given her a long time ago, Elena winced once more.
At the sound of Mason's voice, Damon swirled around and lunged at him again.
"Don't. You. Dare. Talk. To. Her!" Damon screamed at him, totally out of control, kicking his nuts at every single word. When Damon was done, Mason's body lay knocked out on the ground. He hadn't even flinched at the last two kicks. Damon stood over him, his whole demeanour hateful, boiling with rage. He breathed heavily. Avoiding to look at Elena, Damon bent down to Mason's head, gripped it firmly and broke the neck with a forceful swing of his hands.
One loud crack, a hollow sound, and suddenly there was nothing left but an eerie silence.