Smoke pours with confused indecision from every window of the hotel as Damon searches valiantly, trying to see through the thick, blinding haze.
"Where? I can't see a thing!"
"Just walk. You'll find me," Elena calls to him.
Heavy smoke rolls sickly out over his head as he struggles to pinpoint her voice.
"Keep walking. This way. This way, Mr. Salvatore."
Inside the smoke is like liquid lead. Going by feel, he crawls on his hands and knees toward a dull red glow. Turning a corner, he enters a room that's completely ablaze.
"Where are you? Are you alright?" Damon asks frantically as he continues his search.
"I think so. Two legs, two arms, a face, and hair. Yes, I seem to be complete."
"Why don't you come out?"
"I've been waiting for you, Mr. Salvatore," Elena counters impishly.
Damon looks up in wonder at the buffeting waves of flame on the ceiling, at the screeching timbers crumbling to the white-hot floor, at the walls howling in bestial agony.
"Where are you?" He feels around with his arms.
"You're getting warmer. Here's my hand," Elena reaches out for him.
"How can I get you out? I can't see a thing," Damon counters as he reaches blindly through the air to try to grab onto her.
"I can see you, Mr. Salvatore," Elena takes his hand.
"Thank, God," Damon clutches her hand in his. "Let's get out of here."
"Have you a gazing glass?"
"A what?"
"A mirror? I want to see what I look like."
"At a time like this?" Damon asks incredulously.
"I'm cold," Elena announces, wanting to put his hands on her.
"Cold? In this furnace?" Damon returns astonished as the fire screams in manic anger and heaves a cloud of howling steam that whirls back and forth. "We're going to get cooked if we don't get out now."
"But I have no clothes," Elena protests.
"No clothes? Here, put this on." Damon looks away as he hands her his jacket.
"Why do you look away? Am I not pretty?"
"I can barely see you but we don't have time for this. Get up. Get up," Damon urges as anxiety mars his features.
"Legs are funny when you're not used to them, aren't they?" Elena laughs.
"I'll carry you." Damon lifts her into his arms bridal style and starts trying to find a way out.
"Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Why?" Damon looks at her strangely. "When this ceiling gives way, we'll be buried and burned alive."
"I know all about that... but don't worry, nothing will happen to us," Elena reassures him.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, I do," she insists.
"Here's a door!" Damon walks over the threshold and sets Elena down. "Fuck, this way's blocked. Come, we must go," he insists and gestures with his arm.
Elena walks into the room to look around.
"Where did you go?" Damon searches for her.
"I'm right here. I found a mirror," she tells him as she gazes at the image reflecting back at her. "Mm, not bad."
The fire howls and claws in anger, furiously throwing cinders and broken timbers in their faces.
"Please, let's try to get out of here," Damon pleads as he tries to see her through the smokey haze.
"I'm just as high as your heart." Elena giggles as leans against him.
"Did you hear what I said? We're trapped."
"Would you like to leave now?" Elena asks calmly as she smiles at him.
"It would be a pleasure now let's go. This may be our only chance."
"I want to fix my hair," Elena looks at herself again.
"Come on," Damon counters frantically, "while you still have a head!" He throws her over his shoulder as a wave of howling flame pours in after it, shrieking and hissing.
"Help!" Damon screams as an aerial ladder crashes through the window in front of them.
Flames crash and snarl across the floor in a blood-curdling roar. It's a thrashing, murderous standoff as the firemen hurry to them.
"Out, out now, climb down the ladder," one of the firemen yells as he pushes Damon and Elena toward the window.
"Hold it right there," Fire Chief Gerard hurries over to Damon and Elena as they step off of the ladder.
"Stand back people, he saved somebody!"
"Damon, are you all right?" Police Chief Forbes asks as she searches his sooty face.
Damon nods and lets out several harsh coughs as he tries to breathe in some fresh air. He drags his hand through his hair. Matted and tangled with sweat, he wipes his brow before scrubbing his palm over his face. His ash-covered face is striped black. Even his bright blue eyes seem wild.
"You certainly gave us a scare." Liz sighs with relief.
"Damon, take me away from these people," Elena calls out frantically.
"She's suffering from shock," Damon tells Liz as Elena rests against him.
"Let's get you to the hospital," Liz urges her away from him and toward the waiting ambulance.
Damon expels a weighted breath as he watches her moving farther and farther away from him. Her brown eyes are soulful and deep, full of mystery, and seductive like a bear pulled to honey. The spell is broken when the ambulance doors slam shut and it drives away with the siren blaring. Only then does he realize how much she resembles Katherine, so much so that it sends a shiver up his spine.
In all likelihood, he'll probably never see her again so he brushes it off before returning to his fiancé. He shudders at the thought.
"Damon, look at you! You're filthy dirty and you made me wait out here for an hour," Katherine snaps at him, her eyes burning with rage.
"I'm sorry it took so long to save a woman's life," he rebukes her as he climbs into his car.
"I suppose it'll look good for Father. His future son-in-law runs into a burning building. He can use it for his campaign," Katherine sighs as touches his hand, immediately withdrawing it when she gets soot on her fingers.
"I hope she's all right," Damon muses as he imagines her running her fingers through his hair.
"I suppose it's only natural for you to be concerned," Katherine posits sardonically.
"Katherine, why do you do this? I don't know that woman. I heard a voice and I went inside to help her."
"That wasn't your job. You could have been killed and then I'd be stuck attending your funeral instead of our wedding!"
"Do you even hear yourself when you talk?" Damon stares at her for a few seconds before he looks away and merges into traffic to drive home.
"Damon, you need rest. It's silly to drive me back home after what you've been through."
"I can take you home after I change clothes," Damon tells her as he gets out of the car.
"I know best. You have to get used to pleasing me now," Katherine remarks haughtily.
Rather than another pointless argument with her, he agrees to let her take his car home for the night. Damon stoops and leans in to kiss her.
"Eww, you reek of smoke." She scowls as she turns away so his lips brush her cheek.
"Goodnight, Damon." Katherine waves her hand out the window as she drives off.
Damon drags himself wearily into his house, kicking off his shoes as he heads off for the living room.
"I thought you'd never get rid of that girl," Elena calls from the living room.
Her mellow tone penetrates the morose fog in his brain.
"What are you doing here?" Damon asks as he enters the room and sees her curled up in a chair. He flops down onto the sofa and unfastens the first three buttons on his shirt.
"I was waiting for you," Elena returns with a playful smile.
"But the hospital?"
"I didn't like it there."
Unable to hide his exhaustion, Damon yawns. "How did you get here?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Elena replies cryptically as she glances at a broom.
"What do you want me to do with you?" He rubs his hands over his face, already dreading what Katherine will have to say if she finds Elena here.
"Just look on me as an old friend of the family."
"I never laid eyes on you before tonight," Damon counters. "And how is it you look so much like my fiance?"
"I don't know. My father created me from the creature of fire."
Damon stares at her for a moment before shaking himself out of it.
She's clearly in shock.
"Come here, Damon. Am I not an attractive female?"
Damon lets his eyes slide over her body.
God, she is captivating...
"Well...am I not pretty?" Elena prods, snapping him out of his reverie.
"Yes, yes, you're gorgeous," Damon confirms. He doesn't know what it is but despite her resemblance to Katherine, she towers over his betrothed by leaps and bounds. Her beauty shines from her soul.
"Take my hand again," Elena urges.
Damon cradles her hand between his own to comfort her. "I know you've had a terrible experience."
"And now a pleasant one."
"You..." he strokes the soft skin of her palm. "You have a very nice hand. And now it can shake mine, good night," Damon rises to his feet to lead her to the front door.
"Your hand is cold," Elena says softly.
"Well, so is yours..." Damon tries to release her grip.
"Let mine rest in yours a moment." Elena holds onto him. "See? It's growing warmer."
"Well, that's fine. That's fi..." Damon's voice trails off when he notices Elena's attention is on a wall portrait of Alessandro Salvatore in his Puritan garb.
"Amusing-looking chap, isn't he?" he laughs.
"Yes."
"He was an ancestor of mine."
"I'm well aware of who he was. Alessandro Salvatore. He would have been more hospitable," Elena comments as her eyes glint mischievously.
"Oh, I don't think so. The world was very different in the late 1600s...Well, Miss...um...I have had a busy day, another one lined up for tomorrow and I'm exhausted."
"Mm, Damon, take my hand again," Elena takes his hands in each of hers.
"You're becoming a problem," Damon comments as he locks eyes with Elena.
"Am I?"
"Yes, and this is not the solution. I have a fiancé and she'll be none too pleased to find you here."
"I like your resisting me." Elena smiles devilishly.
"Oh, you do?" Damon can't stop the smile that forms on his lips. "And do you know what I'm going to do with you now?"
"No," Elena replies as she runs her tongue over her lush lips.
"Come on," Damon takes her hand and leads her toward the foyer.
"Where are you taking me, Damon?" Elena asks.
"We're going out."
"Night, Alessandro!" Elena waves at his portrait as Damon drags her out of the room.
"I'm going to give you money, and you can go back wherever you came from," Damon tells her.
"No, not yet," Elena pouts as she shakes her head back and forth.
"Yes, right now!" Damon lifts her bridal style into his arms.
"Ooh, this is a lovely sensation. Even nicer than flying." Elena quips as Damon carries her outside and around the corner where a cab is parked across the street.
"What's going on, Mr. Salvatore?" Frederick the cab driver looks at him suspiciously.
"This young lady was in a fire and lost her clothes."
"No, I didn't. I didn't have any clothes."
Damon looks at her and then at Frederick. With a roll of his eyes, he sets Elena down in the backseat of the cab.
"Here's some cash." Damon leans in through the open front window of the passenger seat. "Take her where she wants to go. If it's not enough, I'll pay you tomorrow."
Elena rolls down the window and tugs on Damon's pant leg.
"What'll I do with the coat?"
"Whatever you want."
"Bye, Damon," Elena calls out as the cab pulls into traffic.
Damon sighs and jogs back toward his house. As the cab turns the corner, the coat flies out the window and lands at his feet...
"Where to, Miss?" Frederick asks as he watches the road.
"Where to?" he repeats when he gets no answer and glances in the rearview mirror. Seeing now one, he stops the car and jumps out, in shock to find the woman has disappeared.
"I need a drink," he mumbles to himself as he slides back into the driver's seat and heads for the nearest bar.
Damon will admit it; he's in a foul mood. This day has been nothing but bad and worse from the start with the exception of meeting Elena. Her smoldering visage is warm like home; For in her eyes such beauty, he's never seen.
After locking the front door, Damon heads straight to his bar and pours himself a generous glass of bourbon.
As he raises it to his lips, he catches a glimpse of his ancestor Alessandro Salvatore. Damon wonders how Elena knew who he was...
Hearing a knock, Damon rolls his eyes, and as tempted as he is to ignore it, he drags himself to the front door.
"Go away, Stefan. I'm tired."
"I came to see how you are after the fire and everything," Stefan pauses to look around. "Is Katherine here?"
"No, she insisted I learn to please her so she took my car home since I smell of soot."
"You'd think she'd want to make sure you're okay... You know, Damon, the wedding...pardon me for saying so but you seem anything but an excited groom."
Stefan pours himself a drink and sits down next to his brother.
"Surprised you don't have a shadow."
"Caroline sent me over to check on you, actually."
"Tell blondie thanks," Damon takes a generous swallow.
"Damon, you need to figure out what you are going to do before it's too late. You don't have to marry her."
"Father will murder me if I don't go through with it. Her father is running for governor, the scandal."
"Forget that crap. This is your life and your happiness we're talking about here. You're going to be miserable for the rest of your life if you go through with it," Stefan pauses to take a swallow. "You know I'm right."
Silence is what follows and he considers his brother's words. Damon will have to figure this out without help from anybody else.
Stefan empties his glass and stands up. "Listen, I need to get back to Caroline. Please think about what I said before you make a mistake that you'll regret the rest of your life." He squeezes Damon's shoulder and walks away.
Hearing the front door snap, Damon sits with his head in his hands as he tries to summon the energy to sit just a little longer. The steady pounding of the rain against the window tells the story of the turmoil going on inside of him.
Finally, he throws back what's left of his drink, sets the glass down, and makes his way up the staircase and into his room.
When he opens the door, he gets the surprise of his life.
"Now close this door, Damon..."
Apologies for the lateness. Thank you all so much for your reviews, follows, favs. It means so much.
Special thanks to Eva, Kate, O, Jarka and Sarah.
Chapter title: 'Witch's Spell' by AC/DC.
Have a wonderful day and weekend.