Hello there, Happy 2018!

I have a couple of projects for this year and this one is the first; this idea was pitched to me by Imly, who wanted to see this story developed and asked me to write it for her so I really hope I can do justice to what she had in mind.

I also want to thank VitsAsh who has agreed to help me out with the beta work.

And lastly, I'm naming this story after Delta Spirit's song "Devil knows you're dead" each chapter will be using some of the lyrics because I simply fell in love with it when I listened it on Friday Night Lights final episode.

And well I think that's enough ramble for today, let's see what you think of this.

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May good luck find you at your worst
And bad love lose you at your best

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"She is not here, she is not here!" Damon murmured frantically as his hand gripped the blood bag he was holding almost to the point of bursting. Only a few minutes ago he thought he was finally going to get what he wanted and now he was realizing that once again life was denying him the chance for true happiness.

The emotions inside him were too heightened to be healthy; disappointment and sadness were chocking him while rage and hatred made the blood in his body buzz uncontrollably. The veins around his eyes started to appear and his fangs elongated in response to the turmoil inside him, he was ready to snap at anyone and anything.

Then he felt it.

A delicate small hand against his forearm.

"Damon!" Her voice sounded small and frightened. A deep inhale allowed him to smell the fear on her blood; she was in a tomb full of hungry vampires after all, but it was her eyes what made his emotions stay in check and the veins around his eyes to retreat. "We need to go; they won't be able to hold on for long"

His eyes scanned around the empty tomb once again "She is not here" He whispered and felt her hand squeezing his forearm.

"It's not worth staying here forever" He nodded at her; his eyes still lost somewhere else as he followed her back. Damon couldn't explain it, perhaps it was like she had mentioned earlier and the understanding between them was stronger than he believed to be, but there was something in her that made him want to be different, be more than just a half man ruled by his emotions.

Unbeknownst to them, outside the tomb the powers of the two witches performing the spell had already ebbed away and the shield stopping vampires to leave had dropped; the stone cover had been place back in the entrance and due to some dammed twist of fate now, not even Elena could leave the place.

Stefan was lying on the floor where Bonnie and her grandmother had knocked him down when he tried to get inside and the young brunette didn't know how he was going to react when he woke up to find his girlfriend locked inside with his psychotic brother and at least forty hungry vampires.

"What is this?" Elena all but ran towards the giant stone covering the entrance, her hand making contact with the cold surface "Bonnie!" She shouted in frantic desperation.

"I don't think she can hear us" Damon's voice whispered behind her and Elena felt a pang of irritation at the sound, what was happening after all was his fault and his undesired obsession with the female vampire who had sired him.

"Do something!" She snapped at him and moved when he walked towards the entrance but the minute his hand made contact with the cold stone he flinched back and grunted in pain "What happened?"

"Bitch burned me" He muttered while he stared angrily at his hand.

Elena made a chocked up sound in the back of her throat and resumed her pounding against the stone "Bonnie!" She shouted once more and felt Damon gripping her by the elbow and pulling her back.

"Stop drawing attention to you Elena" He hissed

A confused frown appeared on her face "But what-"

"She will find the way to get you out of her, maybe not me but you can be sure she'll get you out" His voice was hard and unflinching but his eyes were warm and showed her a kind of softness she only saw when he stared at her. He was trying to comfort her, she realized, he just didn't know how to do it very well.

"What are we supposed to do here?" She nearly cried as she faced him, her hands moving to grip the leather of his jacket at his arms "Damon there's no food… there's a bunch of hungry vampires" She wanted to hide the fear in her voice but in all honesty she had never been more afraid than when she found herself face to face with Anna's mother and all those vampires.

He rolled his eyes, diminishing her concern over the matter "Desiccated vampires"

Elena clenched her jaw and nearly punched him for making such a dangerous situation into something light "So? They could come and get me to stop being diseccated!"

He almost laughed at her expression but his face softened after a few seconds "Don't panic, they can't move Elena unless some blood falls on them, they won't wake up" He released himself from the deathly grip she had on his jacket and pulled the blood bag he had brought for Katherine form inside his pocket "And you bet I don't intend to share"

Elena's anger ebbed away at the sight of what he intended to be his beloved's first meal, a sense of sadness so strong it surprised her took grip of her body as she regarded his face and imagined what he was probably feeling.

Every move that he's made, he's done for love.

It's twisted but kind of sad

She had said those words not too long ago and now they came back to haunt her because despite all his mistakes and faults, she could see some goodness inside of him that perhaps even he himself couldn't see.

"Are you all right?" Her voice was soft and he had to look away from her to avoid the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to break lose inside him "Damon"

He sighed as he moved towards the wall and lowered himself into the ground "150 years I waited for the moment to release her from this hell… only to find out she wasn't here" His rose his knees in front of his face and he placed his elbows on top of them, his mind was lost somewhere in the ground as he allowed himself to remember all those nights he laid awake at night thinking about his reunion with Katherine "150 years"

"I'm sorry, Damon" Elena whispered as she went to sit next to him; she couldn't understand it, since his arrival to Mystic Falls Damon had done nothing but torment them, and yet she felt the need to comfort him, to make him hurt just a little bit less from what he was feeling at the moment.

"Perhaps, I deserve it!" He murmured absently

A frown appeared on her face as she looked at him "What do you mean?"

He let out a chuckle that held no humor "Don't be coy Elena we both know I wasn't made a saint by the pope" His face moved to look at her and she was startled by the intensity on his blue eyes "And now everyone gets a happy ending and I don't…"

Anger like she hadn't felt before invaded her as she thought about her look alike and what she had done to both brothers "If she's out there living her life while you died for her and believed her to be trapped here… then she's not worth it, Damon" She couldn't hide the bite in her voice and a beginning of a small smile appeared on his lips.

"But she's the only woman I've ever loved!" He breathed out, his eyes glistening with tears she knew he wouldn't allow himself to shed.

"I'm sorry"

"I really need a drink" He said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes, masking the weakness she had seen reflected in his eyes a few seconds ago "There's no way I can keep doing a heart to heart with you without some alcohol in my body"

Elena couldn't help that chuckle that left her lips at his answer and punched his shoulder in a playful manner "Jerk". He laughed in response and afterwards they remained in silence for a few seconds.

"What are we going to do Damon?"

"Wait… I guess" His head moved back until it rested on the stone behind him "Then, I'll get the hell away from this town" He said absently "Of course, if the little judgy witch decides that I'm worth being released"

A sense of dread she couldn't explain settled in her stomach at his words "You'll go away?" She asked "What about Stefan?"

Damon shrugged "What about him?"

Elena huffed indignantly "He's your brother"

"He'll be better off without me"

What about me? She wanted to ask but decided to stay quiet and not dwell too much on what it meant for her to be having those thoughts.

Damon exhaled loudly as he accommodated himself, his back pressed against the rock and his lean legs extended before him "Get comfortable Elena, we won't be leaving here tonight" His voice sounded playful and despite their precarious situation, she couldn't help but smile at him.

"Just what I needed" She said in fake irritation as she rested her head against his shoulder and tried not to think too much in why she enjoyed his scent around her.