Chapter 11 - The Death of a History Teacher

"Bonnie, please!" I begged for the hundredth time that day. "If not for me, then for Elena!"

Damon had been in the tomb with Anna and the other vampires since last night, and Bonnie was the only one who could get him out. I tried to tell myself that I didn't care, but I wanted him out of there so badly, even if it meant he would go searching for Katherine. I can't say I understood him – she had let him believe that she was stuck inside the tomb, and he had had a heartache for 145 years because of that. I had a feeling that I would want to rip off Katherine's head, if I ever met her, but that, of course, wouldn't be an option since she was a vampire, and I was not.

"No!" Bonnie replied. She did look up at me, though, and I must've looked pretty hurt. "Hannah, I can't!"

"Why not? You have the grimoire, right? And it contains the spell?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "But I'd need my grandma to help, and she's still ill from last night."

"Sorry, I didn't know that." I said and felt a glimmer of hope. "But you can do it once she's well again?"

"Probably." She sighed again. "Look, Hannah, I'll try, alright, but I probably can't do it on my own."

"Thanks!" I exclaimed and threw my arms around her. "You're the best!"

"You really care about him, don't you?" She asked and backed a little away from me.

"I guess I do." I said quietly.

She looked at me with disgust on her face, or was it pity?

"He's not all that bad." I defended my feelings. "He can be really sweet, too."

"I have a hard time believing that." Bonnie said and gathered her books and put them into her bag. "Come on, let's go find Elena and Stefan!"

…

In the tomb, Damon was waiting by the exit.

"Finally!" He said and widened his eyes when he saw us. It was just the four of us there – Bonnie, Elena, Stefan, and me.

"You should be grateful that we're even here!" Stefan said and threw him a bag of blood. "So you won't feed on the girls when you're out!"

"Ha ha!" Damon said sarcastically, but he did take the blood bag and began drinking.

"And you can thank Hannah that we're here." Stefan went on. "The rest of us wouldn't mind you being stuck in there for eternity."

Damon looked at me with a sincere expression on his face. No smile, no roll of his eyes, no sarcasm. Then he turned back to his good old self.

"Well, first you'll have to get me out of here!" He said with a quirky smile at Bonnie. "If you don't mess up the spell."

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you!" She replied fiercely. "If anything does go wrong, you'll be stuck in there forever. That is, if you're not going to be dead!"

"Come on!" Damon said flashing a smile. "You couldn't kill me!"

"Wanna bet?"

"No." Damon said quietly and made Stefan chuckle.

"Then shut up!" Bonnie said and closed her eyes.

We were all silent for a while. Then, all of a sudden, Bonnie's eyes opened wide. She didn't say anything, she just looked at Damon, who sort of poked the air of the exit with his index finger. It went right through. Then he took a step forward, and he was out of the tomb.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart!" He said with a look at Bonnie. Though there was a sarcastic edge to his voice, I'm pretty sure he meant it.

"Drop dead!" Bonnie replied and made Stefan help her up from the hole in the ground. A moment later he came back for Elena.

"Damon?" He said. "You care to help up Hannah?"

"Sure." Damon replied, and Stefan had gone.

"So..." He said and looked down. "I guess I owe you a thanks."

"You do." I said, not sure what would happen next.

"You will never tell anyone about this!" He said and gave me a hug. "But thank you. I am very grateful."

I was so startled by this that my initial reaction was to take a step backwards.

"Don't worry." He said and squeezed me tight for a while. "I won't bite you again. Not ever."

"I'm not..." I began. "I'm not afraid of that anymore."

"Then what are you afraid of?"

"Katherine!" I blurted out. I never intended for him to know.

"Ah... That. Well, she's not here, is she?" He said and put his arm around my waist. "Hold on tight." He said, just before he jumped. "I'll make sure to keep you safe from her."

Yeah. That's not really what I meant, but I didn't tell him.

…

Alright, so I did care about Damon. I guess there was no need to try to convince myself that I didn't anymore, because every time something would happen, he would be the first one I'd think of. Yeah.

So a few weeks later there was an auction in Mystic Falls. Not just any auction, but a bachelor auction. Damon had promised to attend, though I'm not really sure all these town money raising events were really his style. I mean, he always acted so cool and tough, so one wouldn't really think he was the soft kind of guy who would do anything to help charity.

I know, he did help me washing windows that one time, and he did try to outrun Stefan at another charity event, but for some reason I had a feeling he was only doing these things to make a good public figure.

Anyway, on the night of the auction, I noticed that he was acting quite friendly with Mrs. Lockwood, the mayor's wife and Tyler's mom. Though she was way older than him, it made me a little jealous, and even more so when she started bidding on him at the auction. And she actually ended up giving the highest bid, which made me feel really awful. I wanted to bid, too, but I didn't have that kind of money. I would never have been able to keep up with Mrs. Lockwood.

However, when the auction was over, Damon didn't leave with Mrs. Lockwood. He left without her, and I was very curious to find out why.

Elena's aunt Jenna had won a date with Mr. Saltzman, and Lily was really upset, as, apparently, something was going on between the two of them. For some reason I had a feeling that Damon's leaving had something to do with Mr. Saltzman, so I found Elena and asked her to go spying on him with me.

"You're crazy." Elena said with a snort. "Damon will know we're there. He's got ears like a bat, remember?"

"Oh, right." I said disappointedly and sighed. "Then what?"

"What?"

"What do we do?"

"About what?"

"About Damon."

"Does something need to be done?" Elena asked teasingly. She knew I hated not knowing what had happened and why he had left like that.

"Come on, Elena!" I begged with puppy dog eyes. "We gotta find out what he's up to!"

"Those eyes won't work with me. You're not Stefan!" She chuckled.

"Please come with me, Elena, my best of best friends?" I tried, and finally, she gave in.

"Alright. Let's go find him." She sighed with a small smile. "But only because you're crazy about him!"

"I'm not!" I exclaimed as color rose to my cheeks.

"Yeah right." Elena rolled her eyes. "Let's take my car. I just gotta go get my phone. I left it at home."

"Fine with me!" I said dreamily. I was going to see Damon again soon.

Elena parked the car outside and got out. I stayed in the car, as she was only going to fetch her phone in her room, and then we would be off again.

I was playing with the radio, changing channels and trying to find a better song, when I heard a loud scream. I had a little trouble taking off the seat belt, but apart from that, I practically jumped out of the car and hurried inside.

The scream had come from Elena, who now sat on the floor by the side of someone, who's face I couldn't see. It was a man, no doubt, and I could hardly breathe, until I saw who it was.

"Alaric, wake up!" Elena cried and shook his shoulders.

"Oh my..." I said and got down on my knees. I put my index finger to his throat, but there was no pulse.

"Elena, he's..." I cried. "...He's dead!"

"No! He can't be!" She exclaimed and shook him again.

"Who did this?" I asked not expecting a reply.

"I did." I heard a male voice behind me.

I turned around as fast as I could, and there, by the door, was Damon. He was leaning nonchalantly against the wall, seeming very pleased with himself.

"What?" I yelled and got to my feet. "How could you?"

"That's easy, human necks break so quickly!" He said and snapped his fingers.

"You killed him!" I breathed standing a little closer to him than I would normally do.

"I know!" He said staring into my eyes. I stared back at him furiously.

"You're despicable!" I spat, still looking him in the eyes. "I can't believe I ever cared about you!"

Then I broke the stare and backed away from him. He didn't reply.

"Elena, let's go. We gotta go find Jenna. Unless you killed her as well?" I snorted at Damon.

"No. No, I didn't touch Jenna." He replied. I couldn't tell if he was sad or amused or maybe even confused.

Right when I was about to close the door behind me, I heard a male voice from inside that wasn't Damon's. I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Mr. Saltzman?" I said in disbelief. Elena had also heard him.

We turned around and went back inside, where Mr. Saltzman was now sitting upright on the floor.

"But...This isn't possible!" Elena exclaimed and rushed to Mr. Saltzman's side. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Only a little sore around my neck." He replied and looked up at Damon, who looked just as surprised as I felt.

"How did you do that?" He asked, but Mr. Saltzman didn't reply right away. "Tell me, how did you die and come back to life?"

"Oh no, you didn't?" I sighed with a look at Damon. "He's a vampire now?"

"I didn't turn him!" Damon said and sat down by the somewhat confused teacher.

"No, no I'm not a vampire, Hannah." Mr. Saltzman assured me. "I've just got my magic ring." He lifted his hand and showed us the ring on his finger. The one that looked like Damon's and Stefan's rings.

"Where did you get that?" Damon asked reaching out for it. Mr. Saltzman removed his hand and got up instead.

Then Jenna entered the door.

"What's going on here?" She asked with a fond look at Mr. Saltzman. "The three of you need to leave now. This is my date with Alaric, not yours. By the way, Damon, shouldn't you be with the mayor's wife right now?"

…