Hello, my loyal and lovely readers. It's is time to continue Damon Gilbert's journey through Damon Salvatore's life. Don't worry. We'll return to our beloved Damon Salvatore soon. Enjoy!

Chapter 11: You make me Feel Undead

Walking down the street Damon Gilbert was grinning to himself. It had been close to a month and innately he had been freaked out by the idea that he was a vampire. Now, he was content as he walked toward the Gilbert house. Elena and Caroline were waiting for him. They were going to go Halloween shopping together. It seemed like a rather mundane thing to do but Damon thought they could find something wild to do.

Stefan had borrowed the Camaro, saying something about an out of state road trip to try to find out something about this Klaus guy. That was fine with Damon because he was still not comfortable with his new powers and figured he would be more of a burden than a help to Stefan, his brother. That was still a hard idea to accept, that Stefan, was his brother. That he was a Salvatore.

He wondered how Damon Salvatore was handling being Damon Gilbert. Smiling to himself, he rang the doorbell and was shocked when Jeremy Gilbert opened the door. "Hi, there, Jer. Can I come in?" Damon asked with a wide smile. He missed his little brother but he had to accept that this boy was not him, even if they looked exactly alike.

"Sure," Jeremy said with a shrug. "Lena, Damon's here." He shouted over his shoulder.

Jenna was standing in the kitchen "Hey, Damon," She called.

"Hey, Au- I mean Jenna," Damon mentally kicked himself for almost slipping.

"Hey, can you help me with something?" Jenna called, looking at a cookbook.

"Sure," Damon replied looking up the stairs. He could hear Elena laughing at something that Caroline was saying as the girls moved to leave the bedroom. Walking into the kitchen, he noticed Jenna had several spices and various pans lining the counter.

"Ric and I are trying to have an at home dinner thing and I have no idea how to prepare this dish." Flipping through the cookbook, Jenna looked flustered.

Smiling to himself, Damon looked at the recipe. "Let's see. He began to grab ingredients and the proper tools to create a lasagna. After his parents had died he had learned how to cook because, as much as he loved Jenna, cooking was not one of her strong suits. Once Elena and Caroline appeared he began to make gestures to convince the girls to take Jenna out of the house.

"Hey, Jenna, do you want to go the store and get a bottle of wine?" Elena asked.

"I already got one." Jenna protested holding, up the bottle.

Taking the bottle away from Jenna, Caroline began to examine it. "No, this is not right for the beginning of a relationship. This is the stuff you drink when you're about to break up with someone."

Opening her mouth to protest again, Jenna watched as Caroline placed the bottle back inside the refrigerator. "We are definitely going shopping for something high quality. No arguments." Jenna trudged behind Caroline, who was now Googling fine wines.

Feeling freer Damon began to use his new found speed to chop the onions, tomatoes, red and green peppers. He threw the items into a bowl with salt, basil and garlic. After that he grabbed another bowl filling it with flour, water, eggs and salt. Moving through the kitchen at top speed he had the dish in the oven in less than five minutes. "Beat that, Gordon Ramsay."

"Dude, what was that?" Startled, Damon looked at Jeremy, who was scratching his head and staring at Damon in bewilderment.

"Um, what was what, Jer?" Damon asked a little too nervously. He figured Damon Salvatore would have handled this a lot better. However, he was not Damon Salvatore. Come to think of it that was probably the solution. Do what Damon S. would do.

"Jeremy," Damon walked around the counter slowly as Jeremy took several steps backward and ran into the couch. "I don't know what you think you saw but you must have had a long day."

Jeremy just shook his head. "No. I didn't. There is something weird about you." He began to move away from the couch. "Don't come any closer."

Sighing, Damon sped over to the boy and grabbed him by the shirt collar. He looked deeply into Jeremy's eyes. "You did not see anything. You were tired and decided to go to bed early. And you no longer like drugs. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Jeremy said, slowly. "Man, I'm tired. I'm goin' to bed." The teenager walked away in the direction of his bedroom just as the front door opened and closed.

"Where's Jeremy going?" Elena asked.

"He's tired and decided to go to bed early." Damon informed her with a nonchalant shrug.

"Okay," Jenna said looking in the direction of the kitchen. "Whoa. You are a God send." Walking into the kitchen, she noticed that the counter was spotless and Damon had done the dishes while dinner was cooking.

"Um, something smells really good." Elena said as she walked into the kitchen and opened the door to the oven. "That looks delicious, Damon."

Smirking, Caroline nudged Damon playfully. "If I didn't know better I would think you were still the old Damon playing us." She whispered.

Grinning, Damon shrugged. "I think I'm just getting used to this life." He said as he watched Elena chatting with Jenna. When the doorbell rang Damon decided to go answer it. "Hey, Ric. Dinner's almost done. So, you guys have fun tonight. Elena, we're going." He motioned for Elena to join Caroline and him.

"Hi, Ric. Bye, Ric." Elena called as she walked past Ric and out onto the Gilberts' porch.

"This is going to be so much fun." Caroline said, pressing her hands together.

"I know you like to go shopping, but, Care, don't you think you're getting a little too excited." Elena inquired as they got into Elena's car.

"I'm excited about the shopping, yes, but I'm much more excited about the Halloween party at the Lockwood's tonight," Caroline announced.

"What party at the Lockwood's?" Elena and Damon asked.

"The unofficial official party that Tyler is throwing because his parents are out of town for the weekend." Caroline told them with a gleeful smile.

"I didn't tell Jenna I was going to go to a party," Elena told Caroline.

Shaking her head, Caroline began to giggle. "Really, Lena? Live a little."

"Says the teenage vampire," Elena teased.

"Oh, she did not." Caroline replied. "I am so not helping you find a costume now." She was saying this as she pulled into the parking lot of the store. "We're here." Hopping out of the car, Caroline walked away as Damon and Elena took a little longer to exit the car.

"Is she always that sensitive?" Damon asked Elena.

Nodding, Elena wrapped her arms around herself. "Yeah, she is. Why, was your version of Caroline not like this?"

Shrugging his jacket off, Damon handed it to Elena. "Nah, she was just like that, without fangs. I think." Elena began to laugh and Damon was surprised at how much he liked that noise. He knew he shouldn't feel this way because Elena was with Stefan, who was the other Damon's brother. But he couldn't help it. This Elena wasn't scary like the one he used to know.

Damon had never been this close to Elena so he had never noticed the little things about her. The little head tilt thing she did. The way she laughed. The way she walked. Somehow he realized that he liked her. He really liked her. Part of him hoped that he could spend time with her during the party. Maybe they could even dance together…

"Come on, guys." Caroline yelled from the doorway. They hurried into the store after Caroline. "So, what are you going as?" She asked them as she pushed her way toward the back of the store. "They always keep the best stuff in the back of this store."

"I think I'm going to go as a witch this year. Why should Bonnie have all the fun?" Elena said as she scanned the costumes.

Damon picked up a broom and held it out to her. "I found your form of transport."

"I'm going to go as princess." Caroline told them with a decisive nod.

Pulling out a crown, Damon knelt down and then held up the crown to her. "My liege."

Caroline bent over to allow Damon to crown her and then curtsied. "Thank you, my kind servant."

"I shall go as a nobleman, who is really a warlock." Damon said.

"Are you going to wear tights?" Elena asked, happily looking at his legs.

"NO!" Damon shook his head frantically. "No. I am not manly enough to do that." Finding something that would be acceptable to pass for something out of the nineteenth century Damon and his ladies went to change.

Half an hour later, after ditching their clothes at Caroline's house they ended up at the Lockwood's, where the party was in full swing. Tyler greeted them in the foyer. "Hey, guys. Enjoy the party." He called as he handed out cups to each of them along with masks. Taking a sip Damon blew out a slow breath. "That's strong."

Caroline began to laugh as she took a sip of her drink and then pulled her mask on. "Let's go see what's going on on the lawn." She called.

Damon held out an arm to Elena, who took it with a wide grin. Once they were outside they found that there were even more people cheering, drinking and dancing the night away. "This is great," Elena said quietly but Damon could hear her.

On impulse, he slid an arm around her waist. "Dance with me?" He whispered into her ear.

"Okay." Elena said, allowing him to pull her farther into the raging crowd. They were pressed closer by the sheer mass of bodies. "This is weird."

"What's weird?" Damon asked, feeling worried.

"This. Us. I mean you're Damon. But you're not Damon. And you're supposed to be my boyfriend's brother. But you're not him and… It's weird." Laughing, Elena shook her head. "Blame it on the stars." Throwing her head back, she looked up at the stars.

"That's our thing, isn't it?" Damon inquired taking in the way that she seemed so alive and joyful. He was happy that he was the cause of these feelings.

"What?" Moving her head, Elena looked into Damon's eyes.

"Nothing," Damon retorted, shaking his head. "It was stupid."

Nodding, Elena looked at her feet. "We should probably go find Caroline." As she spoke she turned around to look for her friend only to see a man in a seventeenth century costume bowing to Caroline. Elena began to giggle. Some people really took the whole dressing up thing seriously. He looked like he could have come right out of the seventeenth century. Watching her friend, Elena began to relax.

People began to make room for Caroline and her mystery man as they took their positions and began to dance gracefully. Elena began to nod to the beat of their moves. They weren't moving to the popular music but to something that only the two of them seemed to hear. Caroline was grinning and laughing at something the guy was saying. When he glanced in Elena's direction his grin turned into something that made Elena's blood run cold and she dropped her drink on the ground.

"Hey, you okay?" Damon asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine." Elena responded with a forced smile. "I think I had too much to drink. You know, I think we should probably get going." Trying to communicate what she was thinking to Damon without words, Elena felt the man's eyes on her again and had to suppress the desire to shiver.

"We can do that." Damon said, nodding. "I'm just going to get Care."

Striding across the lawn, Damon walked over to Caroline. "Hey, Care. We need to go." Damon told Caroline, who stopped dancing. "Sorry." He said to her partner.

"That's not a problem. I am sure I will have the pleasure of Miss Forbes' company again soon." The man said, before bowing and then strode away.

""Who was that?" Damon asked.

"He didn't say." Caroline said. "All I know is that he's hot and he asked me if he could be my escort to the Miss Mystic competition. Isn't that great?"

"Yeah. Great." Damon said peering into the crowd. There was something he didn't like about the guy. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Any guesses as to who our mystery man could be or did I make it too obvious?

Thank you for the new favs, follows, reviews and for reading. Thank you bitch-please159, 9linn8, divadobreva, Ghostwriter, xLinneax.

Love,

LL