"-if she wakes up."
"She's going to wake up, Stefan!"
Voices swarmed around through Elena's ears; words bouncing back and forth at a nauseating pace. Her skin itched and her gums ached uncomfortably, not unlike how they used to whenever she would get her braces tightened freshman year. Soft sheets encompassed her body, and flames were licking up and down her throat.
"When was the last time she had your blood?" A voice asked, a bitter twinge to it, but also a note of hope.
"Two days ago." The second voice replied, monotone. That voice sent shivers up her spine, and that one small, good feeling made Elena want to open her eyes.
So she did. And immediately regretted it.
Bright light swarming in through a window blinded her and spots danced in front of her eyes as she shot up, breathing heavily and screwing her eyes shut.
Almost immediately, she felt the other side of the bed dip and a hand wrap around her arm. "Elena! Thank God, thank God!"
"Easy, Jer." Damon murmured from the corner of the room. Relief and happiness were bursting inside of him, and it was all he could do to not let it show. "You might want to step back before she takes a bite out of you."
Hesitantly, Elena opened her eyes again, cringing but keeping them open nonetheless.
"You'll get used to it." Damon said, seeming to understand her thoughts.
She blinked and looked at Jeremy, momentarily happy to see him, so happy that she leaned forward and hugged him. Her head turned into his neck, and that's when she registered Damon's words.
She could smell his blood; thick and pumping through his veins at a taintalizing pace. Her gums ached as if somebody was yanking on her teeth with pliers and she felt as if her veins had been shot up with straight adrenaline.
Elena sprang back, away from Jeremy and on the other side of her bed. She met Damon's eyes across the room, panicked. "What did you mean? 'Take a bite out of him'?" She asked anxiously.
But Elena already had a pretty good guess.
Damon just grimaced and looked away, storm brewing beneath his eyes. Which were way, way more complex than she remembered them being. Was that a ring of silver around his pupil?
Stefan, whom she had barely noticed the entire exchange, stepped forward hesitantly. "It means that… that you're-"
"A vampire." Damon answered for him, uncrossing his arms. "Remember our little tryst the other day?" He asked, leering. "The part where you used my blood as your own personal version of supernatural methadone? Ringing any bells?" Damon demanded.
"O-of course I remember." She croaked out, avoiding Stefan's gaze. How could she forget? She could still taste his blood on her tongue, feel his lips on hers and his stubble against her cheek. "So, what? I'm a… vampire now?" Elena asked with trepidation, afraid of the answer.
"Not yet." Damon sighed, and leaned back against the window seat. "You know the drill, Elena. You feed, you turn. You don't feed, well, than you die."
"Damon." Stefan hissed, shooting his brother a glare at his bluntness.
"No, no. It's okay." Elena breathed. "I understand."
"Great!" Damon exclaimed, clapping his hands together and standing up. "I've got some blood bags in my trunk, unless you'd prefer to feed from the vein, which I'm assuming you don't. I'll just go-"
"No, Damon." Stefan interrupted. "It's Elena's choice. Not yours. If she wants to turn, then that's her decision."
Damon turned to his brother, flabbergasted. "So, what, Stefan? You'd just let her die?" He asked incredulously, fists clenching.
Stefan was silent for a moment, before replying quietly. "If that's what she wants, then yes."
Suddenly, Elena felt three pairs of eyes turn towards her. Jeremy's stare was hopeful, eager in a guilty way. Stefan's was understanding, per usual. And she didn't even want to try and distinguish Damon's; his eyes showed a myriad of emotions, not all of them entirely pleasant.
This whole thing had been Elena's fault, Elena's mistake. She should have never excepted that square piece of paper a year ago. She should have stopped taking the pills, should have dealt with her problems in a healthy way instead of destroying her life and in turn bringing down her loved ones with her. This was her mistake, and she had to clean it up.
Even if it meant she'd be cleaning it up for eternity.
In the end, it wasn't much of a choice. And she had this echoing feeling in the pit of her gut that there was still something she had to do before she could greet Death readily.
Elena locked eyes with Damon. "Go get a blood bag."
A half smile crossed his face for a fleeting second before it was gone, and then he nodded and stalked out of the room.
The taste of blood was indescribable. It was thick, almost chalky in way, kind of like the organic chocolate milk that was overpriced and could only be found at Whole Foods. It coated her gums and tongue, running down her throat like silk. She had to restrain herself from gnawing on the crystal glass that Damon had poured it in, because her teeth begged to sink into to something soft and pliable; begged to be sunk into pretty much anything.
After Elena had gulped down the entire glass, something changed inside of her. Or somethings. The first thing she noticed was that her muscles seemed to be hardening up, turning strong and limber after a year of being soft and week from the drugs. She could smell everything. A cup of coffee sitting on the table from this morning, the old, worn pages of the countless books lining the boarding house shelves. Her heartbeat slowed down until it was almost nonexistent.
And then suddenly, her gums were seized with pain. Two brand new, shiny canines dug their way out of the pink flesh, sinking into her lip and drawing blood. Elena yelped and clutched at her mouth.
"Don't worry," Caroline started supportingly from next to her. "It only hurts the first time, I swear."
It had only twenty minutes for Elena, Stefan and Damon to pile into a car and drive to the Salvatore boarding house, and five minutes for Damon to slice a blood bag open and pour it into a glass, then heat it up. They had all decided it'd be best for Jeremy to stay at home, and Caroline had burst through the doors the exact moment right before Elena had brought the glass to her lips.
Now they were all watching Elena as if she was a test subject enclosed in a glass room. Caroline sat tersely next to her, Stefan eyeing her sorrowfully from the armchair across and Damon leaning against the bookshelf, looking as if he was watching a very boring TV show, but Elena knew better. Underneath his shirt, his muscles were taunt and tense, his jaw hard and eyes watching her closely.
"How do you feel?" He asked, cocking his head to the side.
Elena swallowed, her throat dry and already calling out for more blood. Her skin was hypersensitive; she could feel every dust mite land on her skin and every thread woven together on the couch that rested beneath her hands.
"Different." She concluded.
Damon nodded, seeming to understand what she couldn't put into words. "You'll probably want more blood. But that can wait a few hours."
A few hours? Elena wanted more now. Hunger clawed at her insides almost painfully while she watched Damon cross the room to the drink cart, pouring a glass of amber liquid before handing it off to her.
"That'll help. You're gonna start to rely more on alcohol a lot, at least until you can control your hunger."
She nodded and gulped the drink down, ignoring the taste and letting it burn a path down her throat, but this time it was a good kind of burn.
Across from her, Stefan shuffled a little. "If you want, I can take you out to hunt."
Damon glared at his brother. "No. I'm not letting her do the bambi diet."
"Damon-" Stefan started to protest, but he interrupted him.
"You want her to turn out like you, Stefan? Because that's what'll happen if she goes around starving herself like you do."
"And what's better, Damon? Her turning out like you?" Stefan challenged.
The two brothers stared each other down in a silent power struggle while Elena looked between the two and Caroline crossed and uncrossed her legs.
"Before we worry about that, I think we need to get Elena some sun protection!" She said cheerfully, breaking the brothers' stare off. "Bonnie's on her way here, she left campus about an hour ago so she should be here pretty soon!"
Stefan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "We don't have anything for her to spell."
"I do."
They all turned to look at Damon in surprise, who just shrugged his shoulders. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace, laying it on the coffee table for everyone to see.
A tear drop shaped stone of lapis swung from a delicate silver chain, and an intricate, matching silver vine like mold wrapped around the pointed top of the stone and connected it to the chain.
It was beautiful, and exactly Elena's taste.
"Ooh, pretty! But it's too bad you're going to have to wear it all the time. Those colors aren't going to go with everything of course, but maybe we can switch off sometimes. You can wear my ring and-"
"I love it." Elena whispered, interrupting Caroline and reaching out for the necklace, picking it up as gently as she could. She ran her fingers over the almost silky metal, and then looked up at Damon. "Thank you."
He smiled crookedly at her, and then, acting as if there was nobody else in the room, he gingerly took the necklace from her and fastened it around her neck, brushing her hair aside in the process.
Barely noticing that Stefan had stalked out of the room, and that Caroline had followed after him hastily, she leaned into his hand. "Damon, about the other day-"
"It's fine, Elena. We don't have to talk about it." He interrupted, letting the cool pendent fall against her chest and backing away. He gestured to the necklace, "I know rings are more convenient, but I already had it and-"
"No, no, Damon. It's beautiful." She said softly, and frowned when another question popped into her head. "Have you… had this for me all along?"
Damon scrunched his eyebrows down. "No, ah…" he sighed. "Actually, I had gotten it for Rose. Before I realized that we had no cure for the werewolf bite."
Jealousy stabbed at Elena, even though his explanation was perfectly logical. Had he meant to spend forever with Rose, before she had died?
Then she realized she was being irrational. That had been nearly three years ago, when she was still blindingly in love with Stefan. And Rose had made Damon happy, however brief it had been. Suddenly, she felt honored that she got to wear a gift that had meant to be for Rose, one of the few people that Damon actually cared about.
Elena eyed Damon closely. "You really did care about her, didn't you?"
At that, Damon immediately closed off. He stood up and went to pour himself a drink. "Is that so shocking?" He asked sharply.
She flinched, caught off guard by the question and realizing her mistake. "I-, no, of course not. I was just-"
"I think I hear Bonnie pulling in." He muttered, and stalked out of the room towards the front door.
Elena deflated, feeling every emotion too much, and all of them directed towards the same person.
A/N: Wow, what is this?! Two chapters in a week? No, I swear I'm not on drugs. But good news is, neither is Elena! I realized I couldn't leave you hanging for long after the last chapter, and especially how amazing you guys were with the reviews! I love hearing from you guys, and again, I love to know what you think whether it's good or bad.
Thanks for reading and all your feedback. I get one step more inspired to write every time I hear from one of you. And thanks to Eva, as always, for helping me write. You may not be the one directly writing but without you the last 6 chapters probably wouldn't exist. You're awesome, girl! :)