Sacrifice is Bloody

Author's Note: Another story idea that popped into my head and won't get out until I write it down. I'm hoping by finally putting this out here my writer's block will vanish and I'll be able to update my other stories.

Full Summary: A little over a year after the Originals are defeated mysterious and vicious vampire killings have begun again leaving everyone suspicious and looking for someone to blame it on. Damon shows up after vanishing for a year, bruises, battered, hurt, and carrying a secret that looks like it's killing him. An old friend of the Salvatore's come back into their life but he's looking for revenge, against Damon, why? Can Damon keep it together when everything falls apart and who will pick up the pieces when a shocking secret is revealed leading to believe Damon isn't an invincible as he seems.

Story Notes:So this is going to be my first future fic, so pretend that the Originals are gone and defeated. Damon is gone, left after they defeated them.

Warnings: Jeremy/Damon slowly building relationship and Damon/OC (one sided relationship dark with the rape and abuse.) Graphic violent scenes, I don't know if the rape content is going to be graphic or not, I'll let you know in the beginning of the chapter. Self-harm and language as well. Any warnings I might have missed will be posted in later chapters.

So I never really intended to put this up, the only reason I bothered writing it down was to get it out of my head, but I decided to give it a shot because I found a nice plot line for it and I really want to try my hand at another Damon/Jeremy fic.

XXX

Chapter One: Secrets

"For a vampire you can be so slow!" Elena whined, drawing out the word slow. Stefan chuckled as he aimlessly walked around the Salvatore Boarding house kitchen, making coffee.

The rest of the gang was in the living room, consisting of Caroline, Jeremy, Alaric, and Bonnie. Stefan had called them as soon as he heard about the animals attack on the news.

As soon as he heard people were being drained of all their blood and left mutilated corpses in the woods he had called the meeting.

It had been a little over a year since their last meeting, the last time they had all fought together battling the Originals. Of course they mostly saw each other all at school but they hadn't dealt with anything supernatural in a long time.

"I'm going, I'm going." Stefan defended with a grin as he walked towards the living room, coffee mugs in his hand for him and Alaric, the only two who had wanted coffee.

"Okay so we all heard about the animal attacks right?" Stefan started off with a sigh, wishing he didn't have to spend his Saturday night talking about dead creatures of the night invading their town.

They all agreed easily.

"Well, it can't be the Originals, the promised to leave and never return when we killed Klaus." Elena pointed out.

"It can't be Katherine, she's in the tomb." Bonnie murmured thoughtfully.

"It's not Isobel," Alaric muttered bitterly.

"Hello!" Caroline announced with 'are-you-all-this-stupid' look. She turned to face Stefan. "Spoken to your brother lately?"

The room was tense with silence as Caroline spoke what was all on their minds, putting it bluntly in front of them.

Damon had left a few weeks after they had defeated the Originals, claiming to be bored of this little town and with a promise to be bug Stefan later he left into the night with barely any warning.

Stefan was pretty annoyed by it for the first weeks, since they had been connecting again, slowly rebuilding their relationship.

Stefan's mouth twitched. He wanted to say Damon had changed, that he wouldn't do that but found it impossible. Truthfully he didn't know what to expect from Damon.

All that time to himself he could have easily gone back to murdering people which did a number on one's mental health and humanity.

"I haven't talked to him since he left." Stefan announced stonily.

Elena placed a soothing hand in the middle of his back trying to comfort him.

"We'll just take shifts watching around, wait for the next attack to see if-" Alaric trailed off awkwardly.

Stefan nodded in agreement.

"Me and Bonnie will take first shift tonight, got to do some girl bonding anyways," Caroline announced grinning.

Bonnie rolled her eyes smiling and they headed out towards the forest, fully equipped with wooden stakes courtesy of Alaric.

Leaving Alaric, Jeremy, Stefan, and Elena behind Elena deciding to make them all dinner since Jenna was out of town on a huge get together with her old high school friends for a few weeks in California.

"Do I get an extension on one of papers if I'm too busy out vampire watching?" Jeremy asked Alaric as they all sat down to eat.

"In your dreams kid." Alaric answered chuckling.

Suddenly a loud bang came from the living room, signaling the door had been thrown open hard. They all rushed out in seconds, braced for an attack only to find standing in the doorway was Damon Salvatore.

He looked, truthfully, bad. His eyes were hollow and lacking their usual Damon personality, his chin was covered in overgrown black stubble like he hadn't shaved in weeks, his hair was getting outgrown, wild and tangled, dangling just above his shoulder blades.

His left eyes was adorned with a black bruises surrounding it as if someone had decked him right in the eye.

His clothes were rumpled and lacked the usual Damon touch to them. All he was wearing was a black, long sleeved shirt and blue jeans.

"Damon." Stefan breathed out a smile almost lighting up on his face until he suddenly remembered, the animal attacks.

It had to be him, he was in town when this all started.

A surge of anger passed through Stefan and he charged forward and decked Damon straight in his already bruised eye.

The weird part was Damon didn't dodge it like everyone knew he could. He stood there, eyes wide, flinching as the fist made contact with his hurt eye, crying out in pain as he backed away.

A looked past over Damon's face, it wasn't surprise, like any normal person's reaction would be to getting spontaneously punched. It was fear, a vulnerable kind of fear that just wasn't common on Damon's eyes.

Then it seemed to vanish and Damon was glaring at Stefan through slitted eyes, backing away against the wall. "What the hell Stefan!" He snarled in rage as he held his throbbing eye.

"I can't fucking believe you!" Stefan shouted pinning Damon roughly against the wall. There was that fear in Damon's eyes again, panic, though he could easily push Stefan off in a second.

Why was he so afraid.

Stefan raised his fist again ready to punch when he saw something that made him stop cold. Damon, head bowed, teeth biting nervously at his lower lip as he braced himself for the the punch.

Damon didn't take punches if he could avoid them, so why was he making this so easy?

Stefan let him drop to the ground, watching him curiously. As Damon landed on his side he winced, hissing as he clutched his sides as if he was injured. It took him a long time to get back to his feet and when he did he just stare at Stefan, as if Stefan was about to hit him again, waiting for it.

"What the hell is wrong with you. Besides that your a psychotic murderer intent on ruining my life." Stefan snarled in disgust, lips pulled back in a scowl.

He didn't know what was wrong with Damon, something obviously was, but right now he didn't care. He was to angry to care.

"What are you talking about Stefan, I haven't even done anything! I just came by to get my clothes!" Damon yelled holding his side with a pained expression.

Jeremy studied him carefully. The way he landed couldn't have hurt him that bad, unless he was already hurt. Something about this wasn't adding up.

Damon was acting confused. Damon never lied about who he killed. If he did kill those people he'd be boasting about it the minute he came in, expecting Stefan's attack and in the end winning.

"Stefan! It's not him!" Jeremy shouted, trying to reason with the seething vampire. He turned back with accusing eyes.

"Your taking his side! He killed you!"

"Look at him Stefan. He's confused. You know your brother, if he had done it do you really think he would hide it? He's not even fighting back and he's obviously hurt!" Jeremy pointed out and as he did he saw reason return to Stefan's eyes.

Damon was standing there, still confused as to what the hell was going on.

"What's going on?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"Animal attacks, people drained off blood and their bodies mutilated." Alaric explained handing Damon over the newspaper that read "Wild Animal Returns!"

"I just got here man, I just needed to get my clothes. I'm going away for a while and I don't feel like buying a whole new wardrobe." Damon explained looking at Stefan, almost pleading with him to believe him.

"Sorry about that man, I just assumed-" Stefan trailed off wearily walking closer to Damon to inspect his eye and as he did Damon flinched away as if he thought Stefan was about to hit him again..

This didn't go by unnoticed by room, something was definitely wrong with Damon.

"Come sit down Damon, we were just eating," Elena ordered with a smile.

Damon shook his head his expression guarded. "I can't. I'm just here to grab my things and leave. Got a big journey ahead of me," he responded as he started to go up the stairs.

Now that was even weirder, Damon rejecting spending time with Elena!

"Come on Damon, you can stay for a little while. You're immortal, you have all the time in the world." Stefan pleaded, looking up at his brother.

"I need to leave." Damon argued, something was off in his voice and his eyes as he said this.

"Damon, there's another vampire in town, a vicious one by the looks of the killing. We have no idea who it is. We need your help, please stay. Just for a few weeks until this is all over," Stefan begged looking as he if was about start yelling if Damon refused again, glaring at his older brother.

Damon sighed in irritation. "Fine. A few weeks." Damon growled out.

"Thanks Damon." Stefan replied grinning.

"Okay great!" Elena announced smiling as if she was a little kid on Christmas morning. "Food's getting cold, let's go. I'll get you a plate Damon."

"That's okay Elena, I'm not hungry. I'm just going to go take a shower." Damon rejected her yet again and with that flashed up stairs in seconds, the only sound the closing of his door.

"He's acting weird." Elena told Stefan with a worried expression.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow." Stefan vowed, wishing he could have made Damon stay down longer so he could ask about the black eye and the pain he was obviously in. Hearing the water running upstairs he knew he was too late but tomorrow he would get to the bottom of this.

If there was at least one thing he knew for sure tonight, Damon was hiding something and Stefan would not rest easy until he found what it was.

XXX

Review if you want me to keep it up and keep updating, I have a lot of ideas for this story but I won't keep it up on the site anymore if no one reads it so tell me what you think!