comfort zone ➳ the vampire diaries

chapter fourteen

picture - new orleans :)

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Elena

"Do you really think Tatiana's safe with Damon?" Caroline said, helping me pack for wherever Stefan planned on taking me.

"He loves her, he wouldn't let anything happen," I replied. I shoved a scarf into my bag.

"I'm worried that he's going to bite her," Stefan chimed in.

"Doesn't Damon know how to control it? I mean, he cares about her, right? He wouldn't let himself," I said, the statement becoming more of a question than a fact.

Tatiana

Damon compelled an owner of a club to keep it open until 3 AM.

It was fun and all, but I was starting to get a little tired.

"Can we go back?" I shouted over the music.

"Why, you want a little more of this?"

Before I knew it I was against a wall, Damon's hands on either side of me to keep me from escaping.

"Actually, I'm tired," I laughed, allowing Damon to give me a quick kiss.

"Fine, but tomorrow we're tearing the town up - not literally, that's Stefan's thing,"

I rolled my eyes, Damon swinging his arm around my shoulder as we headed back to my aunt Sirena's house. We walked into the building and up the steps, the wood beneath our feet creaking and echoing in the silence.

"Something's up," Damon said, breaking the silence.

"We're just worked up about Klaus," I sighed. We approached the apartment and I slowly pushed open the door.

"You're home late,"

"You're up late," I retorted. The last thing I need is an aunt that I met hours ago trying to tell me what to do when I'm running from a sociopathic original vampire who wants to drain mine and Elena's blood.

"Tatiana, I'm sorry,"

"For what?" I asked, confused. Damon furrowed his eyebrows.

"Look, I owed him,"

"Owed who?" Damon growled, being in front of Sirena in a flash.

"Hello, Salvatore," a voice said behind us.

"Klaus, what a shock," Damon said, turning around to face the man I feared the most.

"I'm just here for one of my doppelgängers,"

"Yeah, well, you're not gettin' her so try again later,"

"I can easily take her from you," Klaus said matter of factly, his eyes glued on me.

"What, so you can drain her blood? I don't think so," Damon said, coming to my side.

"Not just hers, Damon! Elena's too,"

"You need a human doppelgänger, don't you?"

"Damon..." I said cautiously, hoping he wasn't about to make a choice that I had constantly thought of lately for me.

"If you kill Tatiana, she'll be right back,"

In an instant, Damon's arm was on my mouth. I felt the metallic tasting liquid inside of my mouth, my hands flying to his arm to try to pry it off of my mouth.

"Take one more step towards her, Klaus, and I'll snap her neck,"

"Damon, don't," I begged, looking at Klaus' shocked expression as I gasped for air.

"Where's. Elena." Klaus questioned through gritted teeth.

"Somewhere on the corner of Iwonttellyou street and Fuckoff avenue,"

Klaus disappeared, leaving me with Sirena and Damon.

"As for you," Damon said, letting go of me and walking to Sirena. "We're done here." I heard the cracking of bones followed by Sirena dropping to the ground.

"Would you really have done it?" I asked quietly as we got into Damon's car, the engine roaring to life.

"If it meant Klaus didn't get to kill you, then yes, I would've done it,"

"But what if I don't want to live like that?"

"Would you rather live forever or run forever, Tatiana?"

Living forever isn't the problem for me. I just don't want to kill innocent people because I can't control the fact that I want.. scratch that, need their blood.

"I want to get married and have a family someday, Damon, I wouldn't be able to do that if I was a vampire," I murmured, too tired to raise my voice. It had to be at least 4:15 AM by now.

"I wanted to do that, too, Tatiana.
I wanted that."

He didn't continue with the argument. I could tell that Damon didn't really want to turn me. That somewhere, deep down, Damon's humanity was pushing its way out of wherever it had been buried for the last century. I didn't bother asking why he let Katherine feed him her blood when he knew the outcome. If he had really wanted what I want, he wouldn't have taken the risk.

But he was also shot by his own father.

He didn't necessarily have the option after that. Hell, he probably didn't even know her blood was still in his system.

Damon didn't want to be a vampire.

"I know," I said quietly, looking out of the window at the Louisiana scenery.

--

"And where do you think you're going?" Damon asked as I attempted to leave the hotel room.

"Gym,"

"If you're planning to sweat my blood out of your system, it won't be that easy,

I sighed. Somehow he knew exactly what I was trying to do.

"Are we going back to Mystic Falls or hiding with another backstabbing family member of mine?" I asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, you all are related to Katherine,"

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, Damon."

"Yes, we're going back to Mystic Falls,"

I knew my mom wouldn't exactly approve of where I've been. Or who I've been with. Or that Damon killed her sister.

But she had more answers. Answers that I need to find out more about this bloodline and our witch history, and more importantly...

Why we really ended up in Mystic Falls.