Is This Hell?

Return New World part 3

A couple of hours later Elena walked out of her bathroom in her pajamas, booty shorts and a tight top, only to jump when she's startled by Damon sitting on the bed.

"Holy shit on a pogo stick!" Elena cursed with a chuckle. "You scared the bejesus out of me."

"Sorry." Damon said quietly. "I'm only doing my part in the neighborhood watch."

"Thank you for looking out for my family." Elena said sincerely.

"Well, I'm the brother who is calm in a crisis." Damon mumbled.

"Have you been drinking?" Elena laughed as she walked over to her dresser to put on some fluffy socks.

Damon held up his thumb and forefinger a small distance apart, indicating that he had been drinking a little.

"And you didn't bring any with you so we could keep drinking?" Elena mock huffed. "Rude."

"And you're surprised that I would kiss you." Damon muttered to himself in disbelief.

"Damon..." Elena looked at him.

"You see yourself as unlovable because someone has hurt you and forced all these thoughts about being weird and a freak into your head." Damon got up from the bed and walked towards her. "And it's like you can't see the way Stefan looks at you or even how I look at you, like you are the most important thing in the universe."

"What?" Elena exclaimed quietly, really not understanding what he was talking about.

Damon grabbed her face gently in his hands and kissed her softly with intense passion. Elena's eyes widened in surprise and she froze, then she pulled back while placing her hands against his chest.

"I can't." Elena mumbled. "I'm sorry but I don't see you like that."

"I hope you know that I won't stop trying to make you see me like that." Damon murmured to her. "You are the most amazing woman I have ever met."

"Damon..." Elena sighed and was about to continue when Jeremy cleared his throat from the door.

"Sorry to interrupt." Jeremy smirked, showing he was clearly not sorry. "But Stefan is here."

"Sorry I'm late." Stefan said as he walked in, sending an apologetic look at his older brother.

"That's okay." Elena smiled.

"I'm going to play some COD with Anna." Jeremy informed them. "Have fun you three."

"Say hello to Anna from me." Elena called after him as she closed her bedroom door.

"What was it you wanted to talk to us about?" Stefan asked when Elena turned back towards them.

"A few weeks ago, I started to have weird dreams of a dark being walking besides me. It wasn't evil or anything like that, It was actually protecting me from something." Elena explained as she started to pace. "Then I started to feel like I was being watched, followed by seeing the same dark being in the corner off my eye. It's presence, as I've told you both, feel powerful and old."

"This is the same thing you said stroked your face?" Damon asked, trying to clarify if it was the same being or not.

"Exactly." Elena nodded. "But then on the morning of the Founders' Day parade I noticed this." Elena pulled down her top to show the two tattoos in the valley between her breasts.

"Are those...tattoos?" Stefan asked as he and Damon walked closer to see better.

"I guess." Elena hummed. "Except they just appeared overnight."