Do I even need to say how extremely sorry I am? Is there any justification for... being so terrible? I am so sorry, though, I truly am. School has been... rough, to say the least. It's my freshman year, school is my number one priority at the moment. I am so sorry that I haven't updated in a month. I am SO sorry. Forgive me, find it in your souls to forgive me, please.

The rain pelted Elena's skin, feeling like cold needles piercing her skull as she screamed for Stefan breathlessly. With another crack of lightning, Elena was allowed a quick moment of sight.

In the open field, almost flooded by water, Bonnie searched through Emily's grimoire frantically; her eyes alit with a genuine fear that tore Elena's hope to shreds. Stefan ran quickly, dodging the wolf that hunted him relentlessly. Caroline ran the distance of the field trying in vain to get the wolf's attention.

The wolf that happened to be working for the recently deceased Katherine.

Mason Lockwood, Tyler Lockwood's uncle.

Mason's eyes lit with a fire and intensity, an anger that knew no bounds. Neither Stefan, nor Elena had ever known that Mason was involved in the werewolf myth, and they hadn't known that Katherine had used him as well.

Stefan was hunting, he brought Elena along because he felt... something in the air. The dark cloud, looming over them, foreshadowing the night. The cold wind whipped Elena's hair back, and it smelled like death. Stefan claimed he should have known, he tried in vain to get Elena out of the field, but it was useless. Because the anger and vengeance filled Mason. Because Mason had his heart torn to shreds by the beast that was Katherine.

Katherine who had killed Caroline.

Unbeknown to Elena and Stefan, Caroline had been hidden in the underground Lockwood cellar and murdered by Katherine. Not after feeding her blood, first.

Caroline had resurfaced as a vampire, her heart broken by the fact that she would never move on, have the life she'd always dreamed of. When Elena and Stefan had found Caroline, Stefan had attempted to help Caroline, put her on the animal blood diet. Stefan then realized that he couldn't do that to her. He wouldn't force her to live the way that he did, so he gave her the choice.

Luckily for them, Caroline had never wanted to be a monster, a killer.

But Mason had.

And Elena and Stefan were caught under the dreadful white glare of their death.

The full moon.

Mason was a werewolf, and the numerous killings once a month, even after Damon left, should have given Stefan and Elena a clue towards that fact...

Damon...

Elena's mind lingered on him for a moment, allowing herself to sink into his dark arms and fall away from the world...

But Damon was gone. He had been gone for two months.

Two months in hell, for Elena.

Damon hadn't replied to her calls, her texts, her messages, her emails, almost as if he couldn't care less for her. The thought brought tears to Elena's eyes and you could almost hear the sound of her heart shattering. No, that wasn't her heart, it was something else. Ah, yes, another crack of thunder.

The rumbling growl that reminded Elena faintly of a lioness pulled Elena back, and she watched Stefan sprint across the field yet again, in a useless attempt to wear out Mason. Caroline rounded the field for what seemed to be the seventh time, trying desperately to gain Mason's attention. Caroline threw numerous things at the animal, cursing at it, screaming at it. She even ducked in and fed from it when it got dangerously close to Stefan.

"Not Stefan" Caroline would whisper.

Elena called for him again, "Stefan!' she shrieked, tears falling on her forearm.

Stefan lost momentum.

He looked towards Elena in a frenzy, forgetting Mason for a moment. Panic lit his eyes and he returned his gaze back to Mason.

But it was too late.

"No!" Caroline cried, Elena stunned to silence. The wolf pounced on Stefan, throwing him down to the ground with a force that shook Elena to her core. Caroline ran towards the wolf, and with a flip of the neck, Caroline was sent flying back, into the trees. The impact resulted in a deafening crack, the trees falling to the ground. Caroline was pierced in the leg by a branch, and tried in vain to remove it. Elena began to run towards Caroline, and as lightning tore through the night sky, Caroline screamed, "No! Stefan!"

Elena changed course immediately, running towards Stefan without fear. Mason was seemingly distracted by Stefan, but when Elena got close enough, the wolf turned, and with terribly great force, Elena was sent back. She hit the trees, her head slamming back and the impact leaving a ringing in her ears. She began to fade, blood falling onto her shirt, tangling in her brown, twisted locks.

As she faded, images flooded her brain, her last thoughts on earth...

Blue eyes, so very blue, they were. It was odd, she noticed, that green wasn't flooding her vision, but it wasn't. She didn't know why she expected the eyes to be green, she didn't know anything. It was the most brilliant blue she'd seen in all her life, although she didn't remember where she'd seen that blue. It was all so very confusing, she didn't remember anything. The only thing she remembered was death, the beautiful blue of death...

And a smile; a white, teasing, genuine smile. Elena looked at the smile with great pleasure, her heart filling with warmth in the knowledge that only she could regain that smile from the man, the blue-eyed man...

His dark arms circled around her, his darkness for her radiance, his angel, his only chance at redemption. But surely he was her angel, she couldn't possibly be his. She was the one who was taking her last breaths, she knew that. She looked at the man, he was surely the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. His hair, dark as raven's wings, fell carelessly in front of his eyes. Elena didn't like that, she wanted to see that blue again. Elena felt the pain rush into her arm as she tried to raise her arm, but she paid it no mind, she lifted her hand that she would have rather bitten off than endured the pain in, and pushed his dark hair away from his eyes.

But she had soon realized why he had hidden his glorious eyes.

He was crying.

No, Elena thought, this angel should not cry. Angels should not cry. She wouldn't let his beauty and pleasure be tainted by her death. She was only dying! She would not allow him to cry any longer, she wiped his tears from his cheeks, her fingertips lingering softly on the jaw-line. He grabbed her hand softly, tears continuing to fall, and the next move he made, Elena felt the familiarity of rush into her.

It was almost painful, but she couldn't have asked for anything more.

He brought her miraculously healed hand to his mouth, and swept his lips across it, if only for a moment. His lips... they were something else. Intoxicating, poisonous, curiously soft. They were like silk, smooth and fine, and warm. So very warm...

The angel flipped her hand to her palm, and applied only the slightest amount of pressure with his lips, if not more than the impact of a rose petal. His tears fell onto her hand, and her hand began to heal. He never broke the eye-contact, Elena would not have allowed him to.

A name bubbled from the depths of her heart, her soul, and she felt it rise and rise until she could no longer contain it.

"Damon" she croaked.

The man in her vision smiled victoriously, he was glowing now. Quite literally, he was glowing. His illumination showed what brought Elena the only happiness her injured heart could bear.

She had redeemed him.

The smallest crack of a smile fell on Elena's face, and she laughed, though doing so hurt her injured ribs.

"Elena" the man, Damon, whispered. He looked beautiful, stunning, excruciatingly delightful. He was at peace, and so was she, "you're dying"

Though she did not know how, she whispered, "I know" in reply.

"And you're bleeding to death," His voice was like the most extravagant music, like a slow and sultry waltz, and just listening to him speak brought Elena the most intoxication feeling of... drunkenness than she had ever endured in her life-time.

"Yes."

"And you don't mind" Damon breathed, although it sounded like more of a statement than a question. He swallowed, then turned his face away.

Elena didn't appreciate that.

She brought her hands up to his face, she felt no agony with the movement, only numbness. No, not numbness, detachement. Because her angel, her Damon, was the only thing she needed to move on, her body meant nothing to her if she couldn't have him with it.

They were one, Elena decided with certainty, they were one soul, one body, and all her anger at him that had came rather quickly had faded away, because he wasn't angry. She could feel it, his aura burning brightly, scorching Elena.

Damon looked at her with panic, looked down suddenly and flinched. Elena tore her gaze from his eyes that seemed to show only Elena his true feelings, and turned her gaze knowingly to his mouth. To his teeth, to be exact.

His fangs had descended, he looked at her, not only with a blood lust, but with a savory amount of love and devotion, of guilt and pleasure and anger, and he tried in vain to pull them back. His eyes shut in shame and Elena lightly traced Damon's lips with her finger. Damon opened his eyes again, showing vulnerability that knew no bounds, and Elena was smiling at him.

"Yes" she whispered, "Yes"

Damon shook his head viciously, "you're the one I swore to never harm, to never hurt-" His voice rumbled.

"Damon" Elena cracked on a sob, "please. I am willing, I am loving."

Damon looked to her as she paused and drew in a breath.

"I am yours" Elena whispered with devotion, her heart and voice ringing like a devine bell above all the madness that had broken into Damon and Elena's internal room.

As Elena said this, Damon had never been more sure of her than in that moment, because he knew it too. She was his, he was hers, they were meant to be that way. And as Elena arched back slowly, falling into Damon's arms, Damon closed in on her outstretched neck...

"Breathe! God damn it, Elena, breathe! Please, no, no, no! Y-you're losing too much, no!" an outside voice roared in agony.

Damon, her angel, her devil, kissed her neck lightly, to show that it was not only a donation, that his motivations were the pure and never-ending love that had driven him mad. It had driven Elena mad too...

"Wake up!" the man screaming from the outside world choked, "please, I can't- I can't lose you, just wake up! For me!"

But Elena was so warm, she never wanted to leave. She wanted to be with Damon forever...

"It's me, it's me!" The man's voice boomed with a sudden jolt of familiarity, "It's your Damon, I'm out here, Elena, I'm waiting for you! I am yours!"

Damon, while holding Elena, evaporated into the air, and Elena screamed with a heart-wrenching fury that nearly knocked her breathless, but she realized...

Damon was still waiting. She wouldn't leave him waiting...

"Wake up! Elena, oh God, dear God," Damon began to, for the first time in a millenium, pray, "God, wake her up! Bring her back, I swear if you don't..." did it still count as worship if you threatened God?

Okay, well Damon hadn't completely understood the concept of praying, but he was doing the best he could. The closest he had ever been to heaven was being taken away, he wouldn't let her go. But he wouldn't damn her, it had to be her decision...

Elena gasped, as if resurfacing from a bucket of ice-cold water, and collapsed in a bloody, crying heap into Damon's arms. But not from sadness, not from anger, from the purest of happiness.

Because he came back.

Because he came home.

Damon cried again, he sobbed and sobbed into her hair and pulled her bloody torso onto his lap, as the rain cascaded on both of their bodies and washed away the war that had taken place in the field.

Elena returned her attention to the rest of the field, Damon dearly afraid of what he would find there.

Bonnie stood in the middle of the clearing, reciting Latin in cruel uprisings and furious decrescendos, with Caroline kneeling on the ground, trying desperately to give a fallen figure what looked to be a bad imitation of CPR.

Damon and Elena watched in silence, knowing that... that it was over before it had begun. The man would never return to them, he would never flash another warm smile at them, he would never offer an understanding and reliable shoulder to cry on.

Because Stefan was gone.

And with that last thought, and the blood pounding in her ears, Elena fell into blackness.

I hope that chapter was worth my cruel behavior. I am so SO very sorry, and nothing that I do will take away from that.

I love all my readers dearly, thank you for your devotion and reliability to my story.

Sheesh ya'll, twas a nightmare (because Taylor had her computer taken away by her idiot mother)

- Taylor (ChristmasonPancakes)