ELENA

Driving like I was chased by demons, I crossed Wickery Bridge back into Mystic Falls and stopped at my destination, trying not to think too hard on what could go wrong or on what I could have done differently. Should I have called Stefan and Bonnie for help? What could they have done? Katherine had obviously taken into consideration that I might come with backup. No, I had to do this on my own. At least, I'd get the people I cared for out alive. Even if it meant that I had to die.

I took the knife and the freezer bags from the passenger seat and used my phone's flashlight to find my way in the dark. My plan was anything but waterproof, but it was my only chance.

When I found what I was looking for, a feeling of calm and peace filled me. It was going to be alright, one way or the other. Taking a deep breath, I dialed Damon's number.

Katherine picked up his phone immediately. She didn't sound pleased. "Elena! You're not supposed to call me – just keep going as I said until you hear from me."

"No, Katherine! I won't," I said firmly. "Now you listen to me. I'm sick of your games, and I won't keep playing them. You want Damon – fine, you can have him. He's stunning, he's gorgeous and, admittedly, he's great in bed, but I'm not going to get into a cat fight with you over a guy who will break my heart eventually. You made my life a living hell – you vamped my friend, alienated me from friends and family and made me live in constant fear. But you know what? My life has been miserable even before you. And I will end this, once and for all. I'll give you a chance with Damon: He's the only one who might still be able to save both our lives now."

I could hear the surprise and the sudden wariness in her voice when she asked: "Whatever is that supposed to mean?"

"Can you feel this, Katherine?" I took a deep breath to gather my courage, set the knife to my wrist and made a long and deep cut. Immediately, blood started spilling from the wound, and I had to fight nausea. I was all alone, with no one here to help feeding Bonnie's protection spell. Thus, Katherine and I were physically connected. It was satisfying to hear her cry out in surprise at the other end of the line when her wrist opened all by itself.

"You know your wounds are not going to heal while I'm still bleeding. That's the beauty of the spell. If I die, I'll go down peacefully in the knowledge that you will, too."

"You're bluffing..." she gasped, but her quivering voice betrayed her shock. "You're not gonna commit suicide!"

"See, that's were you're mistaken," I told her serenely. "You don't know me at all, Katherine. All I ever wanted was a normal life, someone who'd love me and grow old with me and who could be the father of my children. Obviously, I'm not going to have that – because you're either going to turn me or kill me and there's nothing I can do to prevent that. I have nothing to lose anymore. The only thing I still can and will do is to make sure that my friends and family are safe from you. Look at your bleeding wrists – they'll tell you if I go through with this or not."

I set the knife to my other arm and made a similar cut, just for emphasis and added pressure. "No one knows where I am, and no one will save me here. Now, I don't really know how much time you have to reconsider, but it can't be too much. I suggest you let Damon go. Tell him he'll find me at the place where my most secret wish would have been fulfilled, if it hadn't been for him. Either he arrives here in time to safe me and you will live – or you'll die with me. Frankly, I don't care anymore. Goodbye, Katherine."

And with that, I ended the call and turned the phone off. Feeling light-headed already, I took the two freezer bags out of my pocket and shoved my shaking hands into them. No need to make a mess and let all that blood go to waste. Damon would need it to get his own strength back after the torture Katherine had put him through.

All things done, I leaned back against the cold stone in my back and gave in to my fatigue and faintness and stopped fighting to stay conscious. Seeing my blood run out of my veins and collect in the transparent plastic bags made my stomach churn, so I closed my eyes and took another deep breath of cool air. I wouldn't want Damon to find me covered in puke.

Strangely, I was really feeling peaceful now. I highly doubted that Damon would find me in time to save my human life, but I trusted that he would have enough time to vamp me. It was inevitable. I just wished I had been able to make that decision sooner – it would have spared us all a lot of agony. It seemed fair that I was taking my share of the pain and the darkness. And maybe it didn't have to be so dark. Through closed eyes, I though I could already see a little pinpoint of light, and I didn't feel lonely anymore.

DAMON

-flashback-

My keen sense of hearing detected soft footsteps approaching the dark even before my eyes could make out the graceful shadow moving through the trees. It was a female, and she was agitated. I felt myself grinning. Perfect! Looks like this was going to me my lucky night: Buy one meal and get one for free. I was ravenously hungry.

The last time I had fed properly had been two days ago – on the beautiful and willing blond I was holding in my arms right now. Her blood had been delicious. Maybe I shouldn't feed from her again this soon, but I had only arrived in this sleepy little town this morning, and my only meal had been the little I had taken from Marisol for breakfast. So the girl who was stupid enough to come after us and interrupt my feeding was welcome bonus. And she smelled good, even from the distance. I concentrated on her mouthwatering scent and frowned, realizing that it was familiar. Then she broke into the clearing and stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted me and Blondie in a somewhat compromising position. But what startled her more than that was the blood on her neck – and on my lips.

Fear, shock and incomprehension were clear on her face as she took in the vampire features of mine. I knew what I was looking like right now: Pupils contracted to pinpoints, the white of my eyes bloodshot, a net of purple veins prominent beneath my eyes. And the fangs, of course, oh so eager to tear into Blondie's delicate skin once more. I could still see, smell and feel the blood rushing through her veins beneath my fingertips, and everything in me was screaming to go for it.

I groaned. And now her again! What was it with this girl? It was almost as if she was purposely tormenting me. At least this time, there was fear on her face. So she had some sense of self preservation, after all. Not like this afternoon, when I had met her at the cemetery... That had been strange. Her eerie calm, the way she had looked at me with those huge doe eyes... There had been no fear in them, then. For a moment, I had been uncertain again, thinking that I might yet be facing Katherine and waiting for her to break into laughter about the fact that she had led me on so brilliantly. But no. Not only could I hear her rapid heartbeat and smell the human blood in her veins, but there was also an innocence and sadness in her eyes that I had never ever seen in Katherine's. Although she looked almost exactly like her, this girl - Elena - was totally different. Intriguing.

I had wanted to feast on her right there and then, in between the tombstones. After all, I was going to compel her anyway, so what was the harm in tasting some of that tantalizing blood? But when I had pulled her close and bent her neck to the side, ready to make my move, she had just relaxed in my arms. Not with want or desire – I hadn't done anything to make her yearn my touch. It was more a kind of calm acceptance, defeat and surrender. Her heartbeat hadn't even picked up, and her eyes just fell close. Her reaction was all wrong. She should have been fighting me, trembling, showing some sign of fear. Instead, it was almost as if she knew I intended to harm her – and was totally willing to let me. As if she awaited death in my arms and welcomed it. It had stopped me dead in my tracks.

Strangely, the anger I had felt surging through me had not been caused by the prospect of forgoing a feeding. I had been angry at her for being so naive and trustful towards a dangerous stranger who was quite obviously up to no good. And here she was again – coming to the rescue of her friend. So brave. So stupid.

At least she had enough common sense to be aware of the danger. She stared at me all deer in the headlights with her bambi eyes, and I realized that I would not be having dinner this time, either. Surprisingly, feeding from her when she was staring at me in terror suddenly was as much of a no-go as feeding from her when she was calmly expecting death from my hands. What the hell was wrong with her? Or rather – what was wrong with me?

Groaning, I let go of Blondie. She had already been compelled to be oblivious to the real nature of my advances and just remained standing there with blank and unfocused eyes.

I slowly approached Elena, who was taking a step backward, heart beating wildly in her chest – like a little humming bird that was trapped in her ribcage. It was exhilarating. I could smell the fear on her, the adrenalin sweetening her blood. When had I last gotten that taste? I couldn't even remember. No doubt, she'd be exquisite...

Taking her chin firmly between my fingers, I lifted her face to meet my gaze. Resisting the urge to take her right there, to dive into the stream of her blood and quench my thirst required an immeasurable amount of willpower and stretched the control I had over my instincts to the limit. "You don't remember seeing me," I told her firmly, putting force behind my words and shoving them into her mind, pushing any memory of fangs and red eyes deep into the back of her subconscious. "Your friend was just making out with a stranger in the park, when you walked in on her and caught us kissing. Nothing happened. Repeat!"

"Just kissing," she repeated obediently. "I don't remember seeing your face."

"I'll make sure you'll remember it next time..." I promised, letting go of her and withdrawing from her mind. With vampire speed, I disappeared. Still ravenously hungry, irritated and oddly confused.

Elena Gilbert truly had me intrigued. To find out more about her was sole the reason I had come back here after all those years. It couldn't be coincidence that she was from Mystic Falls of all places – that much had been clear right from the moment she had walked into my house. Why had Alys sent her there? I hadn't talked to her or seen her in what? Ten years? Fifteen? It was hard to keep track of time, and so superfluous. I knew that she had moved to Mystic Falls two years ago – and the irony of it hadn't escaped me. Yet I had believed it to be coincidence. After all, there had been vampires in Mystic Falls for decades. The place seemed to be some kind of hotspot for supernatural beings. There had always been Bennetts in town, maybe that was the reason why. Maybe the magic of witches did something to taint the aura of a place.

But a girl looking like Katherine's doppelgänger showing up on my doorstep, coming from the same town and being acquainted with Alys and a Bennett witch it tow? Definitely no coincidence. It was almost as if history was repeating itself. I had to solve the mystery that was Elena Gilbert. Something told me she was going to be of importance to me.

- end of flashback -

*'*'*'*'*'*

I was rushing through the trees with vampire speed, and for once, it wasn't effortless. My body was weakened from the blood loss, so the wounds Katherine had inflicted hadn't healed yet, and I felt slightly delirious. The last hour had been pure agony, bringing relief only in those short moments I managed to escape consciousness and retreat into that strange place within own mind, the part that was filled with visions and memories of Elena. Katherine, unfortunately, had known how to make sure that I wouldn't delve there for long. Who'd have guessed that she was an expert on torture?

My lungs burned with the effort of producing enough oxygen for running, and I was actually feeling the pain. But mostly, I felt fear. A mind numbing, icy kind of fear that had settled like a clump of lead in my stomach. But instead of slowing me down, it was driving me on with propelling force.

When I finally reached my destination, the heavy cold expanded, leaked into my veins like liquid nitrogen and spreading into every other part of my body, freezing me all over. I had come too late.

I found her limp and lifeless, stretched out on the grave of her parents, ghostly pale in the moonlight, almost drained of blood. A giant fist curled around my heart and squeezed every remaining feeling out of it, until all that was left of it was a torn and shattered lump of flesh that was somehow still beating in agony – because hers wasn't.

I fell to my knees beside her, frantically searching for a pulse but finding nothing. She was dead. Hoping that there was still enough blood in me to make a difference, I slashed my left wrist open and doused her wounds before trying to get her to swallow some blood, too. My other hand flew to her chest, pumping in a rhythmic beat that urged her heart to follow. I briefly paused to blow air into her lungs, and started all over. I hardly had enough strength left to do that after the ordeal Katherine had put me through. She had been quick, but thorough, inflicting more damage to my body than seemed possible in the given time. I was short of fainting from weakness myself. The only thing that kept me going was adrenaline, despair and sheer determination.

Never relenting in my efforts to still save her life, I pulled the plastic bags out from under her hands. They were almost full with her blood. It made my stomach heave just to think about drinking it like this – the blood that was supposed to flow through her veins and keep her heart beating, not sitting stale but still warm in two fucking freezer bags. But if I wanted to save her, I needed my strength back, and I needed it fast.

Downing it, I realized just how much blood she had lost. Too much. She was never going to make it. Silently praying for her forgiveness, I went for her throat.