Let me lay beside you, Darling let me be your man,
And let our bodies intertwine but always understand;
That everything, everything ends++

Caroline Forbes runs her critical eye over the entire party, not bad, she decides.
After two hours of decorating the Haunted House has finally reached her high expectations.

How can anybody bitch about Halloween next year after attending this awesome night?

*ahem Bonnie and Elena*

She's too distracted by her own handiwork to hear someone approach and jumps in surprise when Tyler comes up behind her and whispers in her ear,

"And what are you supposed to be? Sexy feminist Barbie?"

Normally a guy paying her this much attention would make her smile giddily and give her goose bumps.
But tonight Caroline was anything but flattered.

"Please stop breathing on me Tyler," She complained shooting him her best death glare, "It's creepy."

Tyler continued to leer at her but takes a step back nonetheless.

"She's Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Bonnie answers and Stefan, Matt and Elena appeared to complete their weird circle of misfits.
Caroline pulls out her wooden stake, waving it in the air playfully in Stefan's direction.

Elena looks at Caroline horrified, and then back at Stefan, apologetically but he just looks amused.

"Well I like it." He shrugs and Elena rolls her eyes at his nonchalance, "The party's really great Caroline, the house looks very spooky."

"Thanks Stefan."

Caroline grins; glad someone's finally appreciating all her effort.

She doesn't know why but at that moment her eyes flicker towards the entrance and she catches a pair of icy blue eyes that cause her heart to literally stop beating.

Stefan immediately senses her discomfort and he too freezes when he sees his brother, with a loose arm around Vicki's shoulders, saunter into the living room.

"Why is your sister with that loser?" Tyler blurts and everyone turns to stare at the two of them dancing.

"Jealous much?" Caroline smirks, enjoying Tyler's agitation because he's been pissing her off all night.

She doesn't mention that she also wondering the exact same thing.

"No. Are you?" He laughs hitting a nerve, "We could give them something to be jealous about…"

He once again leans in to whisper in her ear and she's two seconds away from stabbing him with her stake, vampire or not.

"Excuse me," Stefan interrupts smiling politely, like always, "I have to go speak to my brother."

"I'll come with you," Matt says. He is gritting his teeth at the site of his little sister grinding her hips against the eldest Salvatore, "Vicki's not even supposed to be here. She was grounded for a month after her little episode last week!"

"Actually Matt!" Elena squeaked and grabbed her ex-boyfriend's arm stopping him from following Stefan, "I really wanted to talk to you about something."

Elena uses her 'please I'm a helpless maiden' eyes on him and Caroline knows Matt could never refuse her Elena no matter what look she gave him.

"Just for a moment," He agrees following her towards the back patio.

After a moment Caroline looks around and realizes Bonnie too has disappeared somewhere, leaving her alone with Tyler and his wondering hands, great.

He smiles at her, clearly thinking the same thing, and pulls her close to him for a dance.

She's in no mood but the image of Vicki all over Damon is still ingrained in her mind so she allows Tyler to lead her around the dance floor.

She hasn't spoken to Damon since that day at the Salvatore Boarding house when he tried to kill her... ahh got a little scary.

And Stefan has warned her, adorably and many many times, not to go anywhere near his brother since that day.

Especially now that she knows the true about what and who he is, not the specifics of course because Stefan refused to go into details despite her annoyingly persistent questions, but she got the jist of it all.

Vampires, biting, blood sucking, dangerous, mind control, killing, bad, stay away.

Tyler's hands are wandering further down her back but the three jelly shots she just had are making his advances feel way less unwanted than before.

"Let's go outside," Tyler murmurs.

"For some air," He adds when she sends him a skeptical glare.

It must be the alcohol, but its more likely the loneliness she's feeling, that causes her to nod her head silently and let him intertwine her fingers with his own.

They've only been outside for a few minutes, making out frantically, when the screaming begins.

"What was that?" Caroline breaks away from him, breathless.
She figures maybe if she kisses Tyler hard enough he might feel like someone else.

"Nothing, someone, just playing a joke." He pants out in between smothering her lips and running his hand up the front of her shirt.

"It didn't sound like a joke."

Caroline disentangles herself from him much to his protest to go and investigate.

"Hello? Is everyone alright?" She calls weakly as she enters the woods, rolling her eyes at the sound of her voice.
This isn't a horror movie so why is she acting like the air head lead actress?

"Tyler! Come here!" She yells over her shoulder.

If anyone is going to get chopped up into little pieces it's going to be that little shit not her.

"Tyler?" Caroline turns around slowly, her heart drops when she realizes that Tyler has disappeared.

"Not. Funny. You jerk," She grumbles out loud and turns to walk back to house but before she can take a step she hears a distinctly male voice whimper, "Help."

Caroline closes her eyes as a familiar, unnatural feeling invades her senses.

She feels his presence before he even speaks.

"Hello Caroline. Long time no see."

Damon Salvatore.

She wants to run, but her legs are as wobbly as the jell-o shots she had earlier.

Instead she turns to face him, he smirks, amused at her panic.

She realizes he must be able to hear, or sense, the erratic beating of her heart.

"Well that's not exactly true." He takes a step towards her and flinches slightly when she takes one away, "You haven't seen me but I've seen you. You really shouldn't leave your blinds open, you never know what kind of perverts are lurking around the neighborhood."

"You're sick!" She spits although the thought of Damon actually caring enough to stalk her secretly thrills her.

"You love it." He smirks even wider than before at the look of disgust mixed with shame on her face.

"I would have come in but I've been a little busy," He motions towards a figure a few meters away from them.
Because of the fog, and the dark, Caroline can barely make it out.

Adrenaline kicks in and she realizes Damon must have taken Tyler.

"Tyler!" She yells shoving Damon out the way and running towards the figure.
But when she arrives she notices there's not one figure but two, Vicki Donavon is kneeling over Tyler's limp body.

"Vicki," Caroline pants grabbing her arm, "Come on get Tyler we gotta go!"

But Vicki is immovable. Literally, she is rooted to the spot with an unnatural amount of strength.

"Vic?" Caroline questions but somehow already knows the answer.

Vicki turns to face her and the reality hits Caroline like a ton of bricks, she stumbles away from the undead girl whose face is porcelain and pale, blood is dripping down from those razor sharp fangs she's seen so many times before.

Vicki smiles at her innocently, "Oh hey," And takes a predatory step towards the blonde.

"Don't spoil your dinner."

Damon is now standing between the two girls, a hand protectively around Caroline's middle.

"Get away from me!" She screeches and Damon sighs nestling his head into her shoulder.

"Would you prefer I left you two alone?"

Caroline sends him a glare but stops struggling and he chuckles, "Thought so."

"You can't let her kill him!" Caroline protests as Vicki turns her attention to Tyler once again.

Damon turns his back on Vicki, eyes trained solely on Caroline now.

"Don't worry she's not going to suck your little boyfriend dry,"
He emphasizes the word boyfriend and tightens his grip around her waist, "We'll leave him just the way we found him, clueless."

"He's not my-" Caroline begins to protest but then it suddenly dawns on her.

"Are you?" She frowns, wondering if there really is some emotion hidden beneath his monstrous exterior.

"Am I what?" Damon urges her on acting bored but his eyes are playful and clearly intrigued.

She studies his face for a moment longer, the tightened jaw, his protective body language and the flicker of irritation behind his cool calm mask is unmistakable.

Despite the bizarre situation Caroline smiles at Damon, feeling powerful for the first time tonight.

"Jealous?"

Damon loosens his grip on her, allowing her to push herself away from him, but she's too entranced to go too far from his electric eyes,
so she stands just out of reach.

"I'm not jealous." He hisses, "I don't get jealous."

"Do you," She continues as if he never spoke, "like me?"

She can't wipe the smile off her face, even though one of her school mates is being bled to death not one meter away,
the look on Damon's face says it all, and he does like her.

He looks horrified with himself as if just coming to the realization as she said it.

Taking a step forward she says his name questioningly, her voice is barely above a whisper, "Damon?"

His gaze snaps up to meet her own, blue on blue, his look is beyond intense but he says nothing.

No smart ass remark, no indignant laughter, no sarcastic comeback.

Caroline can hardly believe it but he looks vulnerable, and scared.

She steps forward to comfort him and at the same time hears Elena scream her name, "Caroline! Get away from her Damon!"

For a split second his eyes met hers once more and she's certain she sees something more there...

But then the second passes and he has her locked up tight in a vice grip.

He leans in to whisper in her ear, and the feeling is entirely different than it was with Tyler, "You really do drive me crazy, you know?"
Her whole body is buzzing and she feels like she might combust from the inside out.

Damon's whole demeanor transforms when Elena and Stefan come into view.

"My god, for a knight in shining amour you really need to pay closer attention to damsels in distress. I could have killed her by now. What took you so long?"

"But you didn't." Stefan points out.

Caroline tries to glance at Damon's face, to see whether any of the earlier emotions resurface, but he holds her even tighter and she's unable to move that far.

"Vicki stop it!" Elena yells at the younger girl and she backs away from the bleeding boy with an annoyed huff.

"Jesus Elena! You're always such a drama queen!" Vicki replies in a bitchy tone, "Damon can make him forget all about it. Chill the fuck out."

Elena looks pointedly at Stefan, as if he has some control over any of it.

"Damon, please let Caroline go and take Vicki home," Stefan pleads with his brother, "You've caused enough damaged for one night."

"Fine." Damon barks out, releasing Caroline but not before nipping her ear lightly with his teeth.

When she lets out a little squeal he looks utterly pleased with himself.

"Say goodnight to Grandpa." Damon says to Vicki and she giggles in response.

"Night Grandpa Stefan," She mocks as Damon leads her away from the group without a second glance back.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asks Caroline once the troublesome duo have disappeared, "Your very flushed…Did he hurt you?"

Caroline's hand flies to her bright red cheek and she feels the heat slowly fade.

"No. No. He didn't." She manages to mumble weakly and Stefan nods, satisfied with her response.

"You have to be more careful Caroline," Elena interrupts matter of factly, "He's dangerous."

Caroline nods, "I know that. I do."

She wants to bring up the fact something drastically changed between them tonight but she knows Elena wouldn't understand, even Stefan might not understand,
Damon has kept that side of himself hidden for so long, she doubts anyone else would know what it looked like.

But now that she recognizes it, she doesn't know how she didn't see it earlier.

He's not going to hurt her anymore; he can't because he's too attached to her.

He likes her.

It's a secret she swears she'll keep.

Comments are appreciated! This is my first Vampire Diaries fic and i'm really tempted to write more but if this sucks then i won't LOL