Summary: Damon, heartbroken by the fact that Katherine knew he was alive but didn't bother looking for him, turns colder then before and starts massacring the people of Mystic Falls. Stefan can only sit back and watch as his brother destroys the town, unable to do anything about it. Then one day, Damon meets this little girl who is crying and is covered in cuts and bruises. Something snaps in Damon's heart at that moment. What could it be? Why did he feel the need to protect this child from whatever it was that is hurting her? Read to find out.

Chapter 1

The screams and yells of humans dying as the blood is rapidly drained from their bodies only makes Damon grin as the warm blood skittered down his throat and fall into the acid pit that instantly dissolved the red life. His long fangs glistened with the brilliant red blood as his demon eyes scanned the area, making sure there wasn't a soul still intact in a body. His ear twitched as he picked up the sound of running feet and gracefully dodged out of the way of the speeding stake. Damon's lips formed a grin as he laughed at his brother, eyes red and veins ensnaring his face like a bird caught between a cat's mouth. "Leave these people alone Damon. They don't deserve this."

Damon was invisible to Stefan as he disappeared from his spot and was suddenly standing a few centimeters away from Stefan. "Incase you haven't noticed Stefan, I've been feeding alot tonight, so don't do anything stupid to make me spill your blood on the red glowing concrete."

Stefan growled viscously at his brother, but knew he was right. There was no way that he could make his brother stop unless if he consumed human blood, which he wasn't going to do. "Damon, please, I beg you to stop. There's nothing you can do about Katherine, just let her go."

As soon as he said that, Damon's hand encircled around his brother's neck, cutting off his air supply completely. Damon's eyes were that of a demon's, they blazed with burning fire and absolute hatred."Now you listen to me," Damon's voice came out as a loud hiss. "Katherine was the only thing keeping me here, keeping me alive. She was the only reason I walked this filthy planet because I knew that I would get her out that tomb and we would be together like we were. But now, now I have no purpose, only revenge for the people who did this to her! They all deserve to die and if you try to stop me again then I will kill you!"

Air began to fill Stefan's starved lungs as the iron grip left his neck. Stefan looked up as his brother vanished with the wind and for a split second could've sworn he'd saw a tear run its course down Damon's cheek. Stefan sighed as he stood up and looked around him at the tainted blood that decorated the streets and sidewalks, painting it a colorful red that shimmered in the sliver light. He wanted to stop him, but at what cost? How many humans would he have to feed on? How many lives, dreams, families, and futures would he have to take in order to defeat his depraved brother? He couldn't do that. He wouldn't. But then, if he didn't do anything, more people would die. Stefan could feel tears of his own leaking from his eyes, sliding down the marble skin and landing in the river of blood that flowed endlessly with the hopes, dreams, futures, and families of countless people. "I can't." Stefan's voice flew with the wind as he spoke, the tiny puffs of air whisking his words away like sand. "I can't become the monster that my brother is." Rivers ran down his face again, soaking the red river of thousands of lives before the water disappeared, leaving the empty streets lifeless and tainted with his brother's malice.

A woman huddled in the corner, fear showing everywhere on her face and her body shaking as hard as she cried. "Please, please don't-" her pleas were cut off by her screaming as two, long, red teeth broke through the surface of her white skin and dived into the red ocean, draining the body of its red water and leaving the corpse dry as a desert. Damon dropped the empty shell to the ground and continued to hunt for more prey that torn him and Katharine apart. He will never forget that day. The day his so called "brother" told their father about her and watching her getting thrown into the back of the carriage with metal bars hammered in so she couldn't escape. Damon slammed his eyes shut as he tried to block out her face on that day. So full of sadness, terror, and screaming as they took her away. He would never forgive himself for letting that happen to her. He would never forgive these humans for what their ancestors did. They were just as bad as they were. They deserved to die.

Damon rounded the corner and walked into a dark alleyway. The shadows enveloping him in darkness did nothing to him like it would a human. A human would be paralyzed with fear and run back into the streets where the shadows weren't that consuming. He walked calmly down the narrow passage way and let his eyes pierce through the ominous darkness. His eyes caught something. A small figure squeezed into a tight corner, crying and holding something close to its chest. As Damon examined it closer it turned out to be a girl, no more then the age of three. She had little cuts all over her body, burn marks on her hands, shoulders, and face. Purple and black bruises completed the decoration of her body. Her blond hair was a tangled mess and her clothes were tattered. Damon stared at her, stared at the pain covering her big blue eyes. Something then snapped. Something snapped inside of Damon's heart. Sadness soon fell over him like an ominous cloud. He walked forward, intending to find out this girl's back-story and the person who did this to little girl jumped as she looked up with a tear-streaked face and her body shook with raging sobs. "Please Daddy. I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me." A thunderbolt shot through the sky and cut through Damon's non beating heart like a sword. His hands curled into fists and he suppressed a growl.

"Your dad this?" the girl jumped at the voice, and then realized that it wasn't her dad. She looked up and stared at the man before her. He looked angry, and sad. She could see the sadness behind his black eyes, swimming against the burning black fire, trying to fight against it. But she also saw some sort of longing too. A longing that was fighting against both of the emotions, struggling to break free and come to the surface. A longing to be happy.

"Who are you?" she asked the strange man infront of her.

"I'm Damon. Now, I'm going to ask you again, did your dad do this to you?" Damon didn't know why he cared. This girl should be dead by now. He couldn't figure out this strange emotion taking over him. It was a burning sensation. All he wanted to do was kill the man responsible for doing girl nodded timidly.

"Are you gonna hurt me?"

Damon stared, trying to decide whether to answer or not. He knelt down as the small child started to cry again. "Its okay sweetheart." he said softly as he pulled the frightened child close to him, stroking her frazzled blond hair. Usually he would compell or kill his victims at this point, but this girl was different. She wasn't like all those other humans he slaughtered. He didn't feel the rippling of pain surging through him when he looked at her, expecting to see the descendant of the ones who took away the woman he loved.

The sound of glass shattering against the ground caused Damon to look up. A man stumbled forward with a beer bottle in his hand, obviously drunk. He staggered forward to Damon who held the girl close to him. He watched as the child became crippled by fear. "Daddy." she choked out, tears returning to her eyes as she inched closer to Damon.

The man's alcoholic breath nearly made Damon gag when he spoke, "Come here you little brat! I'm not finished with you yet!"Suddenly, Damon's teeth started to lengthen and his eyes glowed bright red. He wanted to kill this person for what he did to this child. Damn it, why do I feel like this? Damon growled mentally, I'm supposed to kill both of them, not protect one from the other!

He stared down at the girl whose eyes were transfixed on the person in front of them. A low hiss erupted from his mouth as the man got closer, seemingly unfazed by the vampire in front of him. "Mika, get over here you stupid girl!"

Damon's eyes flashed deadly as he turned invisible and lunged for the blue vein beating rapidly in his neck. Loud screaming could be heard as Damon drained the life out of this monster that hurt this little girl. How ironic. A monster killing a monster. Damon thought as the screaming died down. He threw the lifeless body into a dumpster and turned back to face Mika, his fangs retracting and the veins disappearing.

Mika stared with big blue eyes in wonder as she took in what just happened. She looked over to her dead daddy on the ground and back to the person who killed him. The fear had disappeared almost as quickly as it came. "Thank you for not letting my daddy hurt me." she beamed her dull blue eyes now sparkling like the glittering ocean lit up by the blinding sun.

Damon just stood there, shocked by what he did. Why did he react that way when her father was belittling her? Why did he even care about this pathetic human girl? She was nothing to him, just another vessel of blood to give him more power. So why did he feel like this?

A warm body making contact with him caused to look down and see Mika hugging him. A warm sense of pride rushed over him as the longing of happiness finally broke through the despair and sadness, coming to the surface and defeating the black, cold fire that was burning brightly within him. A warm, fuzzy feeling was rushing through his body now. The feeling of true happiness. When he looked down at Mika that feeling only got stronger. It wasn't like this with Katherine. Katherine made him feel happy, but it was nothing like this. He picked up the child and held her close to him as for the first time in a long time; he actually smiled a sincere smile. He stroked the side of her face before holding Mika close to him. Mika looked up to his eyes to see that the battle was finally over. The dust had settled and in the end happiness prevailed.

"Where are we going?" she asked him as he walked out of the alleyway and into the streets where the tainted blood still layed, reminding Damon of the lives he destroyed.

"We're going home." he was about to take off before Mika's little voice stopped him.

"Why is there alot of people dead?"

He stared at her for a minute, before answering, "I was really mad about something that happened along time ago so I took it out on these people. But now," a warm smile crossed Damon's face, "I see that I was wrong and that you aren't supposed to let what happened in the past control you. You're supposed to move on and forgive people for their mistakes. No matter how much you don't want to." The ice incasing his heart melted with the words that he spoke, shattering the bitterness and coldness towards mankind and replacing it with kindness and goodness. Stefan was right, there is good inside Damon. You just have to dig deep to find it.

Mika seemed satisfied with his answer and laid her head against Damon's chest as he took off towards the boarding house. Damon looked down at the child warming his body. My angel. He thought as he moved a strand of golden hair out of her baby blue eyes, my little angel who saved me from becoming a merciless monster, only killing because of something that happened 145 years ago.

Mika watched as the scenery flew all around her, everything nothing but a big blur to her. She looked up at her savior and smiled when he looked down at her and smiled back. "You run really fast Damon." Mika giggled when Damon started tickling her.

"That's because I am fast. Did you think that I'm slow, huh? Did you?"

The scenery soon stopped blurring and everything came into place as they arrived at the boarding house. "This is where I live with my brother, Stefan." Damon said as he walked looked around in awe. Never had she seen a place so big before. Big chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a massive red carpet with all sorts of little decorations on it layed neatly on the floor. The living room was no different. Big plasma screen TV planted right on the wall of the center of the living room. Large, spacious couches didn't even take up half of the living room as a whole library of books was plied up on numerous of shelves. All on three separate walls but close together. A fine looking table was infront of the dark red couches with a few magazines and some left over coffee mugs. Damon led Mika to one of the couches and sat down with her in his lap. He then started to explain to her what he was, and what she saw back there. "Is your brother a vampire too?" she asked him when he was finished.

"Yes." Damon turned his head when he heard his brother approaching, "And he's coming in right now."

Mika looked out into the hallway to see a taller man approaching them. "Hello Stefan." Damon greeted walked into the living room and saw Mika.

"Who is that?" he asked Damon suspiciously.

"Relax; it's just a kid I found in a dark alleyway who was going to get beat up by her dad if I didn't step in."

"It's true!" Damon looked at Mika when she spoke. "He beat him up real bad! And drank his blood too!"

Damon laughed. "Damon, you can't just-" Stefan's voice was cut off by the look in Damon's eye. It was different. It was a look Stefan had never seen in his brother's eyes before.

"Damon..." Stefan whispered when he realized what happened. His eyes dropped down to the little girl nestled in Damon's arms, and then left, with a big smile on his face.

"Your brother is nice." Mika commented.

Damon grinned. "He's a pain though." Mika then started to yawn and rub her eyes. Damon wrapped his arms around her and cradled her in his arms. Her head was lying on his arm and his hands were wrapped securely around her. She snuggled into his chest and fell blissfully sighed as he managed to untangle her hair without hurting her and letting the golden honey drop down, now perfectly straight and smooth. He covered both of them with a light brown blanket and Damon leaned back against the soft cushion. He lightly kissed Mika's forehead before falling into a deep sleep.

The end