The Boarding House

By: Darkest Ember

Chapter 30: Red Handed

Summary:

Elena and Jeremy Gilbert are orphaned once again and have nowhere else to go except the mysterious Salvatore boarding house…

Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the Vampire Diaries characters. This is written purely for entertainment purposes.

Previously:

While Damon is locked up with Lexi standing guard, Stefan goes to the dance in hopes of spending some time with Elena, but is delayed when he sees an unusual, violent fight between Tyler and Bonnie. He breaks it up before anyone is seriously hurt. Damon manages to escape the boarding house, but at the expense of Lexi's life. When Stefan finally gets his dance with Elena, he boasts of how he locked Damon up, but Elena isn't as pleased as Stefan would've expected. She excuses herself, then runs into a mysterious stranger just before the unmasking at midnight. However, Elena quickly realizes that her masked dance partner was no stranger.

Elena lost her balance as she backed away from the table she'd been using as support before the unmasking. That feeling of hope and excitement she'd felt just a few short minutes ago evaporated as quickly as it came. She didn't care that she was tearing her ball gown as she scooted backwards on hands and feet to put some distance between her and Damon.

Perhaps if she had been more attuned to him, she would've noticed how watery his eyes were the moment he realized that her happiness turned to horror. He held out a hand to help her back to her feet, but she adamantly shook her head and continued moving backward. Despite the fact that the gym was better lit than it had been all evening, Damon was thankful for the fact that it was still dark enough for the bloodstains on his hands and clothes to go undetected.

"Elena, please, just talk to me," he pleaded.

She shook her head as she finally pulled herself back up into a standing position. "You tricked me," she accused. "Toyed with my emotions…"

He took a risk and reached out for her hand, holding it in his. "Don't you see? Clearly you feel something for me." Sensing that she was about to interject with comments of how much she despised him, he continued. "Once you can look past all my mistakes, you only see what's standing in front of you. It's not like I used some hocus pocus to disguise myself. Only a part of my face was concealed, yet that was able to hide just enough of me."

Although she tried to ignore his justifications, she begrudgingly admitted that he made some good points – touched on things that she'd never want to admit to. Surely, if she had been looking hard enough, she could have seen who was really dancing with her.

"Look, Damon," she said, pressing her fingers to her temples. "I don't know what you want me to say. Just like everything else in my life lately, this was nothing but an emotional wreck. I really just want to go to bed and –."

"And what?" he interrupted. "Pretend like this never happened? Like you didn't just feel positively about me? Sorry, but that's not going to happen, Elena."

Aside from using his usual unrestrained force, she wasn't exactly sure how he planned on stopping her. She scanned the crowd of happy faces, trying to find someone who would be willing to take her home. She'd temporarily forgotten, though, that if her principal spotted her here, she'd probably be expelled.

Damon stepped in front of her, successfully blocking her vision. "Come with me. Let's go grab some food at that little diner on Main Street. Then, if you still feel like hating me, I'll take you back to the boarding house."

Seeing that most of the students were too busy with their own affairs to pay her the slightest bit of attention, she decided to accept Damon's offer.

In the midst of all the excited teens ready for the unmasking, Stefan was trapped on the opposite side of the gymnasium. He never should have let Elena out of his sight, not after he finally had her alone without the imminent threat of his brother.

As he stood in his annoyed solitude, watching all the happy couples around him, Stefan was forced to confront his discomfort. There was only one logical reason that could explain Elena's response when she heard that he'd locked Damon away. He laughed despite himself.

No, that couldn't be possible, he thought. She would never love someone like him.

Stefan was pulled from his thoughts when someone brushed shoulders with him. Not having anything better to do, he followed the guy and grabbed his shoulder, perhaps a little rougher than necessary. Instead of watching the human crumble beneath his grasp, Stefan was shocked to watch the guy grab his hand and squeeze with inhumane force.

"Matt?" Stefan asked, knowing that there couldn't be any other student vampire in Mystic Falls.

"Stefan? Sorry, dude, it was just a natural reaction."

"Guess it's a good thing I wasn't someone else," he laughed, watching as bones rippled beneath his skin and repaired. "Hey, you haven't seen Elena, have you?"

Matt scooped some punch out of the bowl and poured it into a plastic cup. "I think I saw her leave with Damon," he said, his tone darkening. "They were dancing together before the unmasking. She…she looked so happy."

Stefan's brow furrowed. There's no way she was with Damon. Not only was he locked in a cell, but Lexi was also there standing guard. "I doubt it was him. Damon…left town earlier."

"I dunno. He has a face that's hard to forget," he said, unable to suppress a shudder. Memories of the way Damon attacked Matt when he'd bitten Elena were still very fresh in his mind.

Matt's enhanced senses allowed him to easily detect that alcohol had been added to the punch. Needing some sort of comfort to ease away those unwanted memories, he guzzled down the entire cup. Although it tasted like fruit punch and vodka, his body didn't seem to want it in its system.

He gripped the edge of the table as the liquid flew back up his throat and spewed out his mouth. His body started convulsing as stomach acid followed upward, burning the walls of his esophagus. "W-what's happening to me?" he croaked.

Stefan couldn't help but feel concerned at the unexplained side effects. He quickly poured himself a cup and took a sip. There were no traces of Vervain, so what could've caused such a violent reaction?

Mystery aside, Stefan knew that if Damon had somehow escaped, he needed to act quickly. He'd already put his feelings for Elena on the backburner while he helped someone else. He didn't plan on doing that again.

He crouched down to Matt's level. "As soon as you can stand, get over to Bonnie's. She should be able to help you."

"Can't you give me a ride?"

Stefan let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, if you really did see Damon here, then that means that Elena's in trouble. I need to go find them."

Since Damon sped over to the school without a car, he and Elena had to walk a few miles to the town square. The crisp air held only a slight chill, and despite Elena's best efforts to retain some space between her and Damon, their bodies were inevitably pulled closer to keep warm. She shivered slightly as a gust blew past them, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Here," Damon said, slipping his jacket around her shoulders.

"What about you, won't you get –?"

"Cold?" he laughed. "One of the many perks of being a vampire…you're never too cold or too hot."

Elena smiled politely, though couldn't really imagine there being that many perks to being a creature forced to feed on others to survive…

"So," she said, clearing her throat. "You said you wanted to explain tonight?"

Damon laughed again, though this time it was rattled with nerves. Of course, he could come right out and say that he hoped to use tonight as a desperate attempt to show Elena her own feelings for him, but that sounded stupid, even to himself.

"I…," he paused to take a deep breath. "I never meant to trick you. I like to think of what happened tonight as more of…of a surprise than anything else." When he saw that his words weren't having a strong enough effect, he stopped walking and stood in front of her. "I saw how you looked at me, Elena. If we could just start over…"

"I can't just pretend that the horrible things you've done never happened," she said softly.

Silence descended upon them as they continued walking down the main road. Aside from the occasional lamppost, the street was dim, and most places were already closed, including the diner Damon had in mind. After the recent massacre that happened at the Grill just a few days ago, Elena refused to even look in that direction.

"Now what do we do?" she sighed, sitting down on a bench near one of the town's statues. Damon sat down next to her, but didn't say anything. Instead, he looked up at the statue of Thomas Fell, after whom the town church had been named.

"I remember when this statue was erected," he said quietly, almost as if he were talking to himself. "My family had just moved to Mystic Falls…"

Elena glanced up at the statue. She'd passed by it too many times to count and never really paid much attention to it. It looked just like any other statue, yet somehow, as she listened to Damon slip away into his memories, she saw it in a different light.

"Tell me more," she encouraged.

Damon looked at her as if he'd forgotten that she'd been sitting next to him all that time.

Mystic Falls, VA, 1860

Although Giuseppe had initially accompanied his sons to the town square for the celebration, he left them the moment he saw the opportunity to socialize with some of the other founding families. Before he disappeared, he gave Damon a gruff reminder to keep an eye on Stefan. Damon, in response, rolled his eyes, hardly caring if his father saw.

As a prominent 20-year-old male, Damon would've much rather been doing something more…mature at this social gathering than babysitting his adventurous little brother. Not seeing how any danger could befall his brother here, Damon distanced himself a bit and sat down on a park bench near the center of the festivities. A large black cloth was draped over a statue that stood before the path leading to the church.

Damon already knew that the church was to be named after one of the founding families – the Fells. 'Fell's Church' didn't particularly have a ring to it, in his opinion. Although he was too young to remember much from his family's time living in Italy before moving to the United States, he was sure that the churches there were named after far more deserving people than the Fells.

With a quiet scoff, he turned away from the veiled statue and stared into the nearby unchartered remainder of the forest on the outskirts of town. For the briefest of seconds he thought he saw a woman – quite possibly the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. But just as quickly as she'd appeared, she disappeared with a flash of brown curls bouncing behind her.

The only thing that pulled Damon away from the forest was the sound of his brother crying for help. Aside from Damon, not many other people seemed to hear it over all the cheering and music. Seeing that no one else was going to do something, Damon took off, following the sound of Stefan's cries.

It didn't take long to find him – somehow he'd managed to fall into the well.

"D-Damon, help!" he called, choking as some water flowed into his mouth.

"Hang on, Stef," Damon replied, acting quick as he grabbed a bucket and lowered it into the well.

A soaked Stefan climbed into the bucket and tugged on the rope indicating that he was ready. Despite Damon's strength, he wasn't quite strong enough to tug his brother out. Yet, he continue pulling, straining his limbs and burning the palms of his hands from the rough, twisting rope.

Suddenly, with one final tug, he felt strength he didn't believe he was humanly capable of. It was just enough to pull Stefan out of the well. As Stefan coughed and gathered his breath, Damon spun around to find that same woman from earlier retreating back into the woods.

He struggled to find an explanation as to how a woman could've provided that much strength. Before he could further contemplate the situation, Stefan ran over to him and pulled him down into a slippery embrace. "Thank you, brother," Stefan said softly.

Damon looked down at Stefan and smiled, ruffling his wet hair. "No problem, Stef. Now, let's get you dried off before father sees you and starts asking questions."

"But look, everyone's gathered in the square. They're about to show the statue!"

It was true; Mayor Lockwood would unveil the statue any minute now. If they left, they'd miss it for sure. Personally, Damon didn't care too much about the statue after his mysterious encounter with the woman and the adrenaline rush from saving his brother's life. But the look on Stefan's face made it impossible for Damon to say no. He'd risk his father's wrath any day to see Stefan smile.

Now that Damon reflected on what he'd thought was a pointless memory from such a long time ago, he realized that it was Katherine who he'd seen in the woods…Katherine who helped him save Stefan. Of course, when Damon recounted the event to Elena, he left that particular detail out and focused more on the family-friendly aspect of the situation.

As Elena listened to Damon's story, she could feel her smile growing. In the time that she'd known the Salvatores, she always thought that Damon hated Stefan and vice versa. In her mixture of fear and desperation to get away from them, she never stopped to wonder what their lives used to be like, before becoming vampires.

Just as she felt differently toward Damon before knowing that he was her dance partner, she viewed him in yet another light. He used to have a family, a home, a brother. He used to be normal. Despite the many decades that have passed, Elena was sure that that person, that human, was still in there somewhere.

Before she could let any feelings of judgment cloud her mind, she leaned forward and kissed him ever so gently. Damon sat still for a moment, wide-eyed and shocked. It didn't take him terribly long to recover, though. He held her head in his hands, cupping her cheeks and angling her head in just the right way to allow for his tongue to slip between her lips in search of hers.

The heat between their bodies acted as a barrier to the nippy air. Damon's jacket started slipping off Elena's shoulders, but she didn't bother catching it. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

Stefan wasted no time getting back to the boarding house. With any luck, Damon and Elena will both already be there, he thought. He couldn't wait to find out how Damon managed to escape. And then, after he took in account whatever went wrong with the initial plan, he'd put Damon right back in that cell.

The boarding house was still and silent, save for the sound of crackling flames dancing in the fireplace. His enhanced hearing didn't detect any breathing. It sounded like no one was here…no Damon, no Elena, and no Lexi. Why would Lexi leave? He wondered, feeling the familiar sense of panic bubbling in his stomach. Maybe she went to chase after Damon when he left?

Stefan bolted down to the basement. With each step he took, the smell of decay and blood grew stronger.

An almost animalistic howl rumbled in his chest as he found the source of the putrid smell. Lexi's body was sprawled on the floor with a crudely constructed wooden stake sticking out of her chest. The blood that pooled around her corpse had turned black and hard. Her ashen skin clashed with the long strands of blonde hair splayed across her face. She was his oldest friend. She was the light in one of the darkest times in his life.

Now that light was extinguished.

Elena tripped over her trailing dress as she and Damon walked into the boarding house. Luckily, Damon was able to catch her just in time. Once they were both back on their feet, Damon held out an elbow for her to take.

"Allow me to escort you to your room," he said with a charming smile.

"Such a gentleman," she replied.

She linked her arm with his as they walked upstairs. Everything about the last couple hours felt surreal, as if she were drifting through a dream. After losing her parents and enduring the bumpy ride of living at the boarding house, Elena never dreamed of getting any sort of happy ending. Now, that could all be changing.

Damon lingered in the doorway after they'd arrived at Elena's bedroom. Elena bit her lip in contemplation as she watched him. "Why don't you spend the night?" she said softly.

She didn't have to tell him twice. Almost immediately, he came in and shut the door behind him. Elena had already shrugged out of his jacket and slipped off her heels. She turned on a lamp and glanced over her shoulder to find Damon fiddling with his bowtie.

"Here," she laughed, "let me help you with that." Elena reached for the bowtie, but Damon caught her hands in his.

"Do you really think I don't know how to undo one of these?" he asked, feigning a shocked expression.

Elena was about to reply, but was unable to form the words. Her eyes landed on his hands. They looked like they were coated in dried blood. "Oh my God, what happened?" she asked, first thinking it was his own blood.

His eyes widened and he quickly pulled away from her, wondering what he was going to say. A battle of morals versus convenience was raging in his mind. Elena noticed that his sleeves were also stained. She began to subconsciously step backward.

"Elena," he said with a twinge of hesitation. "I can explain everything. Yes, this is blood, but –."

"But it's not yours, is it?" a voice asked from the opposite corner of the room.

Elena and Damon's heads whipped to the direction of the voice. "Stefan?" Elena asked, surprise turning to distaste. "What were you doing in my room?"

"It doesn't really matter," he shrugged. "The answer to all your questions is in the basement." When Elena didn't say anything, he smiled, almost manically, "Here, let me show you."

"Don't you dare," Damon snarled, stepping in front of both of them.

"C'mon, Damon. She would've found out eventually," Stefan said. "It's kind of hard to ignore the smell of death, even if you're human."

Elena pushed Stefan's hand away from her and stood between the brothers. "What the hell is going on?"

"Like I said, go to the basement and see for yourself," Stefan replied, addressing Elena, though maintaining eye contact with Damon.

Elena's emotions had been on an involuntary roller coaster ride, and it was starting to get very old. She knew that if she didn't go look at whatever Stefan was referring to, him and Damon would argue about it the rest of the night.

Without saying anything, she shoved past both Salvatores and made her way downstairs. Wishing she would've kept her shoes on for this excursion, she picked up the flowing layers of her dress and hesitantly stepped down the grimy stairs with Stefan and Damon in tow.

Part of the basement looked just like any 100+-year-old basement, filled with dusty boxes and general storage. But after walking further down the hall, Elena saw what looked like the door to a prison cell. Not really knowing what to expect upon looking into the cell, Elena took wary steps around the door.

It didn't take her long to see what Stefan wanted her to see. Her shriek pierced through the air. Stefan couldn't resist feeling the slightest bit of satisfaction upon seeing the terrified, crestfallen expression on Damon's face.

Following the only advice Stefan had given him, Matt drove straight over to Bonnie's house. The lights were all off, but that didn't discourage Matt from knocking on the door. Much to his relief, the door opened, revealing Bonnie's Grams.

"I'm afraid Bonnie's already asleep," Grams said.

"Maybe you can help me, then," Matt replied, involuntarily shivering. Grams could sense that something wasn't quite right with him, aside from the fact that he'd recently turned into a vampire.

"Come in, child." She stepped aside and allowed him to enter. With a subtle flick of her wrist, several candles sprung to life and illuminated the room.

"Did Bonnie tell you about the spell she did on me?"

Grams nodded. "She used very dark magic, the kind that always comes with a price. When Caroline brought Bonnie back home, she was unconscious…"

"I don't think Bonnie's the one who's gonna pay the price. That's why I came over. Tonight, when I went to drink some punch, my body…reacted."

"I think I understand what happened. Bonnie took away your bloodlust. In other words, she took away your appetite."

Despite Matt's confused expression, she continued, though with a much grimmer expression. "You're going to die of a thirst you cannot feel and cannot satisfy."

A/N: If everything flows according to plan, this story will be wrapped up in 2-3 chapters, which feels so crazy to say because I have no idea how to end this story! Ugh. Well, it should be interesting to see how Elena feels now that she sees that Damon has killed someone again. And what about poor Matt and Bonnie? Clearly this spell's dangerous side effects are far worse than they thought...

THANK YOU: Guest(s), Dez2sweet, MissWhatEver207, 4evrMrsAcklesLevineSomerhalder, and romanticolors for your reviews! And thanks to all my readers for your patience between chapters. The good news is: I'm done with college now, so until I get a job, I get to be a lazy bum and write more updates for all my stories :P

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

XoXo Amber