Chapter Nine

Damon’s P.O.V

I’d made my decision, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. I’d waited nearly three years now for Elena, the girl of my dreams, to finally come home, and not only is she engaged, but she loves me. I know she does. And yet, I still have to do this. Tell her that we can’t be together. Even if it breaks me. 

I walk to the Grill, hoping to get wasted so that when the time comes, I’ll be numb enough it won’t hurt as much. 

And thinking I might get some time before I see her, and have to metaphorically rip my own heart out as well as hers, would have been a mistake. 

As I walk into the Grill, I can see Elena laughing and joking with Jenna at the bar. She looks so beautiful, and carefree. Flashes of last night replay over and over in my head, and I want to walk over there, throw her over my shoulder and run away with her right now, but I fight my animal urges, and instead walk up to the bar, doing my best to act uninterested.

I could feel a pair of eyes burning into the side of my face as I sat down on my designated stool; the barman automatically placing a glass of bourbon in front of me. It wasn’t Elena’s gaze, however, but Jenna’s.

“Damon’s over there.” She said.

“So?” Elena replied, sipping her drink.

“Well…you said you slept together last night. And as much as I don’t condone cheating, shouldn’t you be over there now?”

“No. He wants to talk, he can start the conversation. I’m not going to talk to him, because I know where its going to lead, and I don’t want to have that conversation.” Elena said, stiffly.

“You’re going to have to talk about it sometime. You can’t do this to each other. You’ve hurt each other enough.” Jenna encouraged her. I didn’t want to look like I was eavesdropping even though Elena knew I was, so I gulped my drink down, and waved the bartender over for a refill.

“Jenna, I love him, I do, but it’s so complicated. What with Alex, and Stefan…why can’t my life just be simple? One guy, one house, one family…it’s not too much to ask, is it?” Elena sighed, before knocking back the rest of her drink. 

“No, but life only gives you what you can handle.”

“Well then life is royally screwing me over,” Elena replied. “I’ll be right back, Jenna. I’m going to go talk to him. Even if I know what he’s going to say already.”

I saw Jenna nod in my periphal vision, but kept my focus on my drink as Elena walked over to my end of the bar, and sat down of the stool beside me.

“Say what you have to say.” I said.

“No, I’d rather you say it first.”

I wasn’t drunk enough to say this, but being the man, I stepped up.

“We can’t be together. You need to stay with Alex.”

“Okay, so you’ve managed to surprise me. What?” Elena asked.

“You need to stay with Alex.” I said, gritting my teeth, not looking at her.

“I thought you loved me.” She said, quietly. I couldn’t help myself. I looked at her, and her face broke me. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I thought I did too,” I lied. It would probably be best if she hated me. “But I guess I just needed to sleep with you once last time. Get all my urges out and done with.”

“You used me.” She stated. 

“Yep.”

“Who knew that after all this time you could still break my heart? Oh, that’s right….everyone. I was going to tell you that we should run away together, that we could go anywhere we wanted, and not have to listen to anyone telling us what to do and what to feel. I actually love you. You aren’t just some guy that I used to date and I got over. I love you, Damon, but as usual, you prove me wrong. I thought that maybe, just maybe, you could still be that guy I fell in love with,” She said, her voice getting loud enough that Jenna could hear it. “But you’re just the same fucked up asshole I met at the bonfire party during my sophomore year. Have a nice life, Damon Salvatore. Enjoy an eternity of being alone, because no one will ever love you like I did.”

She jumped up from her seat, knocking the stool over, and rushed over to Jenna, mumbling a quick goodbye, before pretty much running out of the Grill.

I watched her leave, and it hurt like hell, where I will most definitely be going if I ever croak it. I downed my second glass of bourbon, and waved it in the air for the barman to come and refill it. I was expert at this. Pretending not to care. Maybe too good.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jenna’s voice said, from beside me. I looked over at her, and felt the impact of her fist connecting with my face.

“I wouldn’t do that again, Jenna. I could decide to press charges.” I joked, while on the inside I knew I deserved it. I deserved a lot more than being punched.

“You’re a bastard. She was going to leave town with you. I just got her back in my life, but I knew she wasn’t going to be happy until you and her had gone somewhere away from Stefan and her fiancé,” Jenna ranted, and I have to admit, I was slightly afraid  of her. “But you blew it. You broke her heart yet again. Is it what you do for fun? You get bored, and then to relieve your boredom, you break Elena’s heart? Well guess what, you fucking, moronic ass hat, come near Elena again, and I’ll show you how I relieve my boredom by ruining that pretty face of yours with my fists. Do we understand each other, Salvatore?” 

I nodded, and Jenna stormed away, leaving the Grill, just like Elena had.

Two angry women in one day. I could be in the running for breaking my record today.

………………………………............................................................................................................................

Elena’s P.O.V

I internally thanked God for getting my family to leave the house before I left for drinks with Jenna. Katherine and Elijah went to book themselves into a nice hotel just outside of Mystic Falls, because to be quite honest, everyone with supernatural hearing wasn’t enjoying listening to them going at it like rabbits. My mother took Ari shopping in Atlanta, and Cassie and Nora went to hang out with Caroline, Tyler and Rose.

I hurried inside, before letting my tears fall freely, as I leant my head against the closed door.

“Elena? What’s wrong?” A voice asked from behind me, making me freeze. 

I turned to face the intruder.

“How did you get in? You weren’t invited.” I asked, wiping my face with the back of my hand, not really caring that he saw me in this state.

“Arianne invited me in earlier. Must’ve been hard learning you had a half-sister.”

“Yeah, well its been a tough week.” I said, pushing past him, walking into my living room. I kicked my heels off, one hitting the wall and making a slight dent in the plaster. He followed me, watching me avidly.

“Why are you crying?”

“Damon told me he doesn’t love me. He just used me for sex, and then broke it off with me, like I was one of his whores,” I snapped, turning round to face the younger Salvatore brother, new tears threatening to spill. “Every time I say I won’t give him another chance, every time I go against what I say, and he destroys me. Well that’s it, Stefan. He wants me to hate him, and I do. I hate him.”

Stefan pulled me into the circle of his arms, and stroked my hair, hushing me as my hysteria bubbled over the surface. I found myself giving into his comforting embrace, memories of when this was the norm flashed though my mind, and I instinctively inhaled his woodsy scent. I started to relax in his arms, leaning my head on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his waist. I felt safe, and whole. It was how I felt with Damon. But without the feeling of safety. I felt complete in Stefan’s arms, like right now, he was all I needed, and everything I needed to feel better.

I pulled away, and looked at his eyes. Green. I remembered how his eyes changed through several shades of green. Right now, they were almost pulsing. A green as vibrant as the leaves on the trees outside.

“Why are you always here when I need you?” I asked.

“Because that’s what you do when you’re in love with someone. You stick around, and pick up the pieces when someone’s broken them.” He said, his eyes searching mine, before trailing down my face and onto my lips, before looking quickly back at my eyes.

A strange stirring feeling formed in my stomach, and I felt myself holding my breath. Waiting for him to make the first move.

His lips suddenly pressed themselves softly against my cheek, and he pulled back slightly, looking at my eyes as though he was waiting for me to object, to pull away, to slap him for thinking what he was thinking. When I didn’t, he leaned in, and kissed me fully on the mouth. 

He kissed me. My initial thought was to pull away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. My hands found themselves running up Stefan’s chest, before my fingers settled on tangling themselves into his hair, pulling him closer to me. The kiss was slow, but passionate. Stefan’s fingers bit into my hips, as his hands gripped them. 

Stefan’s teeth pulled on my bottom lip, and I moaned audibly, moving to capture his mouth again.

“What the hell is going on?” Two voice said at once. I pulled my head from Stefan’s, but neither of us relinquished a hold on the other, as we both turned our heads to look at the newcomers.

Damon and Alex stood side by side, with equally angry expressions plastered on their faces.

“Honey, you’re home.” I said, my breathing still not quite recovered.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Alex yelled at me.

“Oh, don’t play dumb, Alex. You knew I loved him, and the asshole standing next to you. Though you don’t have to worry about him. He’s as good as dead to me,” I replied, feeling frustrated and cornered to the degree, I didn’t care how horrible I was being to the man who loved me. “And you’re not innocent. You’ve slept with Katherine.”

“No, I haven’t. I would never cheat on you.”

I zipped in front of him, using my vampire speed, not caring whether he saw it or not.

“You remember all the times you cheated on me, with Katherine, and with others. But you will forget what you just walked in on, but you will break off our engagement, leave town, fall in love with a girl who truly loves you and live a happy life,” I compelled him. “You’ll remember all the times we shared fondly, but they will be nothing but memories of a love you once had. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“I’m breaking off our engagement, I’m going to leave town, but I’ll remember the love we had.” Alex said, about to walk away, until Damon caught his arm, grabbing him roughly.

“No, you don’t get off that easy, Elena.” Damon said, biting his wrist and forcing his blood down Alex’s throat. I stood there frozen, as Damon snapped Alex’s neck.

“Why did you do that?”

“I came here to tell you the truth. That everything I said at the Grill was a lie, but I bumped into Alex and he invited me in to see that.”

“I can kiss whoever I like, Damon. You gave up your rights to me when you told me you didn’t love me. You don’t have any power over me anymore. Now leave. Get out of my house, or I’ll get Cassie to desiccate your body and lock you in a coffin somewhere for the rest of eternity.”

Damon looked heartbroken, but he backed away, slamming the front door so hard that it fell off its hinges. I bent down and lifted Alex’s lifeless body into my arms, before running down to my basement, and settling him on the bed down there.

“There’s a chance that Damon didn’t give him enough blood to turn him. Maybe he’ll just stay dead, and he won’t be forced to live this life.” Stefan said, standing on the bottom step of the stairs that led up to the door.

“I hope that’s the case. I never wanted this for him.”

We waited for a few hours, I’d moved the blood from the fridge to a cold safe hidden in the wall. If he was transitioning, I didn’t want him to complete the process. Alex wouldn’t survive as a vampire, even with my help. He wasn’t cut out for it.

Stefan stayed quiet, even though I knew he wanted to tell me to let Alex make his own decision. I was taking his free will away from him, but I didn’t care at that moment. I would let Alex die, rather than let him become a monster like me. 

Time seemed to drag on agonisingly slowly, until I heard it. 

The gentle thud of a restarting heart. 

A brief second after that initial thud, Alex opened his eyes.

.................................................................................................................................................................   Chapter Nine is uploaded! Gabby, I do believe this is what you were waiting for, is it not? Maybe now, you can upload again! I hope you guys like it! You guys can also call this a gift for the 200 FANS I NOW HAVE!!!! I love you guys completely, I honestly do!    So this is dedicated to all of you!    Lots of love vamps,   Sophie x