dance with the devil ✧ DAMON SALVATORE

chapter twelve

5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes.

Tick tock, tick tock. With every passing minute the burden on her shoulders intensifies. There hasn't been a word from Noah, the vampire. While Elena should be glad, because maybe, for once, her problems have solved themselves. She highly doubts it. She doesn't feel relieved at all, even though Noah is gone, so is Jordan.

Not being able to handle the worry anymore, Elena walks over to Damon and Stefan who've retreated back into a corner, talking to one another in a hushed tone.

The two brothers stop talking immediately once they see Elena. They are both quick to catch anxiety radiating off of Elena.

"What is wrong? Did something happen?" Stefan takes a hold of Elena's hands. With his thumb, he soothingly rubs circles across the back of her hand.

Elena's eyes glide over the room. A minuscule part of her hopes to catch Jordan, so she can smile and tell Stefan 'nothing, just wondering if you wanted to dance'. But she can't. There is no speck of dyed blond hair, no ray of sunshine in a room full of glooming people. That's what Jordan is, Elena realises now. A ray of sunshine. The hope in dark times. Elena can't lose her.

"It's Jor, I-I think Noah has her."

Admitting it out loud is enough for Elena to collapse. Her knees buckle, not being able to carry her body anymore. Just when Elena is about to hit the ground, two strong, warm hands grab ahold of her waist. They pull her closer and engulf her in a hug.

"Stefan." Elena's voice breaks, along with Stefan's heart. He hates to see he woman he cherishes so broken, so vulnerable. "We have to find her, we have to help her. She might think she is strong, and she is, but she can't win. Not from a vampire. Not from someone who doesn't care if he hurst, breaks, and abuses. Not from someone who doesn't want to be saved, but only craves for the blood of his victims."

A voice in the back of Damon's head screams: 'This is about you. You're no good for her. She will be your salvation, but you will be her destruction. Jordan will be destroyed at your hands.'

Damon locks his jaw and clenches his fist. He ignores the voices screaming in his head, because now he needs to focus on helping Jordan. "Where did she go? After you and your little group of friends had listed all the lovely things about me."

"She went to the toilets. I wanted to stop her, to tell her to be careful and don't do something irrational. It seemed silly then, but now I wished I did." Elena says while still in the arms of Stefan.

"Let's go," Damon almost growls. Clouds of hatred and rage swirl through his mind, and his hands itch to kill something.

Stefan looks at Elena, eyebrows raised, silently asking if she wants to come. He hopes she'll decide to sit this one out, to let the Salvatore brother handle Noah, but Stefan knows his hopes will be just that.

"Oh, I'm coming. Definitely. She is my sister, I dragged her into this mess."

The trio slips away from the decade dance, having something much better to do than dance to old, stuffy songs. Damon leads the party. Stefan walks besides a disoriented Elena, who has sunken so far into the darkest corners of her mind, that the only thing she can think about is Jordan lying on the floor. Dead. With blood oozing out of two wounds in her neck. It makes her shiver in disgust and shudder in fear.

Damon knows exactly where he is going. He has blocked all sounds from entering his ears except one. Jordan's heartbeat sings to him. It lures him deeper into the school. Until he is standing in front of the cafeteria where he can not only hear her heartbeat pounding in harmony, but where the scent of her strawberry-vanilla tinted perfume drives him nuts. Damon motions with his hands to say: 'this is where he has her.', and Stefan's sensors are on high alert.