A/N: Thanks for all our reviews, my dear readers! I love to hear what you think about the things happening in this story and your musings about what's going on in the characters' minds!
Some of you asked for more Delena action. Well, if you have a very special kind of action in mind, I'm afraid you'll still have to wait for it. (Sorry!) If you're thinking about Elena-Damon interaction in general, I was aiming have some of that in every chapter. Of course, I could have focused entirely on their relationship, but then, there wouldn't be a storyline. I tried to find a balance between both, which means that there has to be some involvement of other characters as well. This chapter is for Stefan-Bonnie shippers. Enjoy!

ELENA

"Elena!" Caroline exclaimed, spreading her hands in a gesture of exasperated disbelief. "Why aren't you dressed, yet? Don't tell me you have forgotten about the Decade Dance tonight!"

Admittedly, I hadn't. It had been impossible to forget with Caroline chatting endlessly about it all over lunch break. And not for the first time, either. The truth was, I wasn't particularly interested in going. Given that Caroline didn't know that I had almost been killed a few days ago by a lunatic vampire who might still be after me, she couldn't understand my reluctance to attend a party.

"I don't really feel like going anywhere tonight," I hesitantly fessed up. "These masquerades aren't really my thing – you know that. And I still have work to do."

"Seriously? What's going on with you lately, Elena? You are really turning into a spoilsport!" Caroline sulked. "I know you're blissfully in love, but all you ever do now is hang out with Stefan and shamefully neglect your friends. I can't even remember the last time Bonnie, you and I have been out together."

Well, she had a point there. Stefan, as promised, was not letting me out of his eyesight. He had even been sleeping in my dorm room ever since I was back from Fells Church, which was not only an infraction of college rules, but also seriously counteracted my assurances that he and I shared nothing but close friendship. To Caroline and Bonnie it must seem as if I was in the seventh heaven of love.

"I'm sorry," I said, feeling genuinely contrite. "I know that I have been a bad friend lately. I promise I'll do better."

"Well, you can start tonight," Carolyn said resolutely. "I've been looking forward to this party for weeks. And I want my best friend to come with me." Seeing that I was still undecided, she switched to begging. "Please, Elena – don't ruin this for me."

I sighed. She was right. I had had my chance to bail out when she mentioned it for the first time. So I guess I had to be in. "Okay, fine. But I'm going to bring Stefan along, too. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not. I like him. And I'm really happy for you. How could I not be – I still feel a little guilty because of Matt. I know you dumped him a while ago, but... he was your boyfriend, and I somehow feel like I'm stealing him."

"Trust me, you're not," I assured her. "I'm glad that you finally found someone worthy."

"Maybe we should try to hook up Damon with Bonnie..."

"Most definitely not!" Bonnie exclaimed with badly concealed disdain. She still detested Damon passionately, especially after his affaire with Caroline. Somehow, Damon had a knack for making people react rather strongly to him.

"You're right," Caroline relented, "he's not worthy. I wonder what I ever saw in him."

I didn't comment on that. Damon sure had done a thorough brainwashing job on her. But I had to give him credit: So far, it had turned out entirely to her advantage. Matt was so good for her. He loved to take care of people, and Caroline was an immensely grateful recipient of his attention.

Caroline sighed. "It's a pity that Matt can't be here. It would be so much more fun to have him around, too. I can't wait for the weekend." Another, rather ironic change. While Caroline had always been trying to talk us into staying in Greenville and going out in here, she was now always eager to get back to Mystic Falls.

"Come on, let's get you changed," Caroline said, resolutely taking control of the evening. "What are you going to wear?"

About an hour later, we were all properly dressed up and styled, which left Caroline looking cute and charming and me feeling silly and out-of-place. I had always successfully avoided events that required wearing a costume – and the somewhat forced merriment that usually came with it. I had never been particularly fond of Halloween, either, and the only costume I possessed was a nurse's scrub dress.

But the theme of this party was the Fifties, so no, I didn't really have an outfit. Count on Caroline to be prepared for emergencies like this.

"Don't make a face, Elena!" Caroline tried to cheer me up when she and Bonnie positioned themselves next to me for a selfie. "Ain't you lucky that I got a little carried away when touring the vintage shops in town! You look gorgeous! Stefan will be so smitten!"

In fact, he was – but as I noticed with a little surprise, his admiring attention seemed focused on Bonnie, who did look lovely in her retro dress. More than once on our way to the dining hall he cast her a furtive glance, which she either didn't notice or chose to ignore.

The students who had planned this year's party – a tradition at Greenville College – had done a great job. The dining hall was lavishly decorated, and a few tables had been cleared away to make room for a dance floor.

We got us some drinks and sat down at a table, surveying the crowd. Except for Caroline, who had promptly found herself a dance partner and happily took off.

"Would you like to dance, Elena?" Stefan inquired. Judging by his expression it was more out of politeness than enthusiasm. After all, he was officially here as my date.

"No, thank you," I declined, not being much of a dancer. "Why don't you ask Bonnie? She's less likely to step on your feet. In fact, she's a great when it comes to dancing." Stefan's eyes lit up as he turned them to Bonnie, questioningly.

"You're sure you wouldn't mind?" Bonnie asked me, clearly torn between wanting to dance and but afraid to steal my date.

"Not at all," I assured her. "I'll have more fun and be safer just observing you guys. Go and have fun." I waved them off graciously, thinking that there might be more than the obvious advantage of not having to go in her place. Stefan really liked Bonnie, in fact, I was starting to suspect that he was pretty taken with her. It was hard to tell if she was reciprocating his feelings, though. Given that she believed him to be my boyfriend, Bonnie would sooner scratch her eyes out than to ever throw him a flirty glance.

I decided to have a talk with Stefan about her soon, to find out if my musings hit a mark. If so, we definitely had to find a way to explain our platonic relationship somehow, before things really got complicated and someone got hurt.

"Elena." The sound of my name spoken in a familiar voice tore me out of my reverie. I raised my gaze and met Damon's. I was momentarily stunned. Not because he was here – this being an official campus party, most staff were attending. But not many professors really pulled off the retro look like he did. Damon was probably the only one wearing authentic clothing and hairstyle and feeling comfortable in it.

"Wow," I couldn't help voicing my admiration. "You look – dashing. James Dean? Or rather Tony Curtis?"

He grinned cockily. "Much better: Me! In an old favorite outfit. I think I wore these pants last in Los Angeles, that night when... ah, never mind." He gestured vaguely at the crowd, and drily observed: "I've actually never seen so many people looking like people from the fifties. Not even in the fifties."

His gaze shifted back to me, slightly frowning. "Why are you sitting here all by yourself like a spinster? In case you haven't noticed, it's a decade dance, and everyone else is having fun, including Stefan, which is – strange. I could swear I even heard him laugh!" He reached for my hand and gestured to the dance floor with a bent of his head. "Come on!"

"No, Damon, really – I have two left feet when it comes to dancing, probably for lack of practice. It's gonna earn you nothing but blue toes."

"You're afraid of hurting me?" he asked, incredulous, and put a hand to his chest. "I'm touched! Now come on, stop worrying. It's all in the leading." Knowing that Damon wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, I reluctantly allowed him to pull me out of the chair and drag me to the dance floor.

Before I knew what was happening, I found myself being whirled around to a particularly rocky beat – Chuck Berry or something – in a way that one might have called manhandling if it hadn't been quite so exhilarating. At least, Damon hadn't boasted with skills he didn't possess; not surprising, really, given that he'd seen every new dance style in the last 150 years come up. His leading was smooth and skillful, so that even with me, he managed to draw admiring eyes. Still, I felt relief when the song was over and Chuck was replaced by some crooner.

I turned, intending to head off again, but again, Damon caught my hand again and pulled me back. Shaking his head in reprimand, he chided: "That was only half a dance, Elena. And since you managed just fine, this slow one should be no problem for you at all." Not even waiting for my response, he put his hand on my back and pulled me even closer.

This time, he was wrong, though. Dancing with him like this was a problem – though for entirely different reasons. It did nothing to calm down my heart rate after the gymnastic efforts of the previous dance. My lungs still seemed to lack oxygen and I was feeling slightly dizzy. I was strangely aware of his hand on the small of my back, which seemed to generate heat where it touched. Weren't vampires supposed to be cool to the touch? He must have had a lot of coffee this evening.

"Have I told you how sweet you look tonight?" Damon asked in an alluring tone of voice. "Whatever brought that rosy glow to your cheeks – it suits you!"

I wasn't sure if it was meant as a compliment or a challenge. I sometimes suspected that he just enjoyed trying to make me blush and get all tongue-tied. Successfully.

"You smell delectable, too." Damon buried his nose in my hair, sniffing. "Like vanilla and peaches..."

I pulled back a little. "Stop talking like I'm some piece of cake or candy."

He smiled lasciviously. "Can't help it – you certainly are something I'd love to taste."

"Damon! I mean it!" I felt myself tense with uneasiness.

"Am I making you nervous, Elena? I can hear your pulse, and it's beating rather fast."

"I'm fine. It was just the excitement from the previous gymnastic efforts." I avoided looking in his eyes by turning my head to the side.

Damon brought his own cheek near to mine, his mouth close to my ear. "Really?" He asked, with a slightly teasing note, before his voice became sober again. "I think you're lying." I could swear I felt his eyes wander to my neck, and wished I hadn't pulled my hair into a ponytail. I felt strangely naked, all of a sudden.

"Don't worry," Damon said, still in that low voice, as if he had read my thoughts. "You're safe enough amidst all these people. Even though I have to admit I feel thoroughly tempted..."

"I'm not worried." At least not about him biting me here and now. "I just don't like you being like this..."

His eyes lit up with interest. "Like what, exactly?"

"You know what I mean... flirtatious, provocative, ambiguous, you name it." It was the version of Damon that Caroline had fallen for.

"And there you are lying again," Damon whispered into my ear. "You know what I think?" Involuntarily, I looked into his ocean blue eyes that held my gaze. " I think no matter how things work out between you and Stefan – what happened in Fells Church... it did something to you."

"Yes," I said defensively, "it got me scared, alright? Being almost killed by a lunatic vampire does make people a bit jittery."

"You're not this uptight because of fear."

"No? Then why do you think?" I meant it to sound ironic, but realized to late that I shouldn't have put it like that. Of course, he had to rise to the challenge. His voice was almost a purr now, low and seductive, his eyes smoldering. "Because I get to you. Even though you won't admit it, you find yourself drawn to me. You're thinking about me even when you don't want to think about me. I bet you even dream about me..."

"Only in my nightmares," I said, forcefully withdrawing from his hold. "If you'll excuse me... I need... some fresh air." That was a lie. What I actually needed was distance, quickly. Stefan's magical necklace was a poor defense against Damon's powers. He probably knew that, given that he kept testing it, trying to get me under his spell. It almost worked.

Fleeing from the dance floor and the dining hall, I ran into Bonnie, who was probably on her way to the restrooms. "Elena – is everything all right?"

"Yes. No. I don't know." She looked at me questioningly, and, deciding we needed a minute, dragged me off into a corridor. The ladies room wasn't the place to be when searching for quiet – it was crowded with giggling and gossiping girls redoing their hair and make-up. We turned on our heels and headed for the library on the opposite side of the hallway.

"We're not gonna get in here," I said. "It's locked."

Bonnie shook her head with a sly smile and pointed her fingers to the keyhole, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath, and with a click, the door sprang open.

"Wow – how did you do that? I'm impressed. Seems like everyone around me is having mind powers, these days."

"Everyone? Who else is?"

"Damon," I said, sighing. "I guess he's starting to make me feel – creeped out, too."

Bonnie frowned. "Why now? I mean, you said he saved your life when you had that car accident, and you said he was behaving civilly when you were in Columbia..." I hadn't given her the exact location of the place to where Damon had taken me. Connecting him to the hotel would raise questions I wasn't able to answer.

"He was, back then and there. Unfortunately, he now seems to have set his mind set on – I don't know... He's like eating me alive with his eyes and keeps making lewd comments, which I find..." I never got to finish my sentence. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door suddenly fly open forcefully. A man was standing on the threshold, illuminated only by the dim light in the corridor. Except for his eyes underneath his hoody. They seemed to have an eerie light of their own – a menacing, blood-tinted glow. I gasped and instinctively took a step backwards, as did Bonnie. I knew who he was the second he set his gaze on me. He had found me.

Panic set in, and I tore my eyes from him. Grabbing Bonnie by the arm and pulling her with me, I broke into a run, fleeing into the nearest aisle in between two rows of bookshelves. For a moment, it even seemed as if he would let us get away, for there was no sign of pursuit, not even a sound to be heard. Then he almost magically appeared only an arm's length away from us, making us scream and frantically turn again. I was still trying to come up with a brilliant escape plan, when I was suddenly grabbed from behind. His arm circled my neck, strangling me and forcing my head to the side. He was baring my neck for his deadly bite. I screamed, but it was more a strangled chortle for lack of air. Just when I thought I was going to faint, Bonnie delivered a thudding blow to his head with a thick book, and for a second, I was free. I tore from his hold and we escaped once more.

Panting, we fled through the aisles, never sure whether he'd be awaiting us at the next corner. He was making a game out of this, never letting us get near to the door. We had no chance to escape. On passing the working desks, I blindly reached into the jar with the writing utensils and came us with some sharpened pencils. The next time he caught up with us and tried to grab Bonnie, I successfully stabbed his hand with one of them. He immediately let go, swearing. We tried for the door again, but he blocked us, forcing us to flee into a side room used for presentations. Too late I realized that we had come to a dead end. There was nothing in this room but a line of chairs and a high desk in front of a whiteboard. Nowhere to hide.

We split up, forcing him to decide on one target. He was about to lunge for me, but that moment two familiar figures almost magically appeared at my side, as if they had materialized out of thin air – Stefan and Damon. Time seemed to come to a stop. While Stefan pulled me to him, our attacker got a hold of Bonnie, pulling her into a strangling embrace, using her as a shield. Only now did I see the stake that was pointed to her heart. Bonnie's eyes were wide with fear. For a moment, nobody moved.

"What now?" Damon asked provokingly, after having assessed the situation. "If you kill her, you're dead, surely you know that!" Boldly, he took a step forward and fixated his gaze on our attacker.

Bonnie's captor lifted his glowing eyes. "You!" he spit, his pupils mere pinpoints in his surrounding iris when fixing his gaze on Damon. "I know you!" Unperturbed by the loathing in his voice, Damon merely shrugged. "Well, then you're clearly at an advantage here, for I have absolutely no clue who the fuck you are!"

"I am the brother of the girl you murdered!" The words came out thick with hatred and full of gloom. Yet Damon maintained his apparently unruffled cool. "I've killed a lot of people. You'll have to be a little more specific than that." I held my breath, not believing that he dared to provoke the guy even further when he was pressing a stake to Bonnie's chest.

"Oh, I'll make you remember, all right! I'm gonna make you pay for every drop of her blood that was spilled in your creation. You will suffer for the rest of you miserable eternal life for the pain you caused. I'll kill each and everybody you ever cared for, including her." He jerked the arm around Bonnie's throat, wrenching a strangled cry from her.

Stefan tensed. "What's she got to do with it?" he demanded to know, clearly not as unruffled as Damon. The vampire briefly shifted his eyes to him and then back to Damon. "You two don't fool me! I know who she is!"

Damon raised his brows as if questioning his sanity. "Well, clearly you don't, if you think you can use her as leverage against me! Go ahead and kill her – I couldn't care less, and you, sucker, are dead anyway."

The vampire hissed. "I don't need leverage. I just need her dead. The witch is not going to help you and your vampire lover this time."

Damon strained his eyes and held a hand to his ear, if having trouble with his hearing. "Care to repeat that? Cause it just sounded like you think she's Emily Bennett."

"I recognize a Bennett witch if I see one!"

"Seriously? Emily Bennett from back in 1864? What – you think I cloned her or something? She's human, as your nose should be telling you, and clearly under 170 years of age!"

"Don't mock me! I know who she is."

"You're an idiot! You already mistook Elena for Katherine. What's wrong with you – have you been feeding on junkies much lately? You know how that interferes with your sense of smell, right? You are what you eat!"

"Tools of the devil, that's what they both are!" he said, and then his unholy eyes focused on me. "The venom should have killed her, and yet she lives! If that isn't proof enough for the powers at work here! The bitch should have burned to ashes for all her sins, and yet the witch protected her. You figure you have everything you need now to raise her from the dead, don't you – the witch, the Doppelgänger, blood of her blood, and soon, the source of celestial power! So I know very well what's at hand here."

Damon frowned. "Really? I don't. It's all gibberish to me. Raise the dead? What the hell are you talking about?"

Had I been able to think coherently, I would have wondered about that, too. Despite the vibe of lunacy he gave off, he clearly thought everything he said made perfect sense. But that was probably always true for madmen.

"I know you were behind it from the beginning. So I kept tabs on you. But this time, I won't let you get away. I'm willing to spare the witch, but the Doppelgänger has to die. Give her to me and I let this one go."

My heart gave sudden extra beat at that, but before I had a chance to react and even consider it, Damon's hand clamped my arm in an iron hold, his eyes not wavering from our attacker. "Over my dead body," Damon said icily, but I wasn't sure if his words were even directed at him.

The vampire snarled viciously and bared his fangs, aiming for Bonnie's throat.