the bracelet

[unforgivably]

( "Silas is all about the veil between worlds. Bringing it down. Of course he'd have a magical maguffin to peek into the Other Side."

Bonnie drops it by the cabin.

Not because she trusts Damon or she's happy with him. She's another person who's decided the sire bond is all that's keeping Elena in his orbit. Not that she loves him or has any real feelings. Damon can't keep himself from the same thought process. It's why he puts as much distance between he and Elena as he can.

He holds the bracelet in his hands, a bracelet stolen from Atticus Shane's personal library.

"Professor Shane could never prove it worked, because he's not supernatural," Bonnie tells him. He only takes advantage of the supernatural, apparently. With Jeremy Team Hunter working on the map and Stefan taking up with Team Rebekah, Bonnie drops it to Damon. "Elena said you should try it." She tried to get Elena to see it, but she knew whomever she'd see might send her spiraling. Jenna. Her parents. Damon could test it.

With Little Gilbert and Pizza Jock upstairs, Damon sits on the picnic table. He hasn't put the bracelet on yet. He knows who he'd want to see. But, he's not proud of what he's done. Stolen his brother's girl? Did the selfish thing again? Ran away from Elena instead of confronting anything? She'd loved him, but having his blood in her system had perversed that love.

With a sigh, he finally slips the bracelet over his left wrist. He waits. He drinks from the six pack of beer sitting beside him. Well, from one bottle from it. )

Let's see if Professor Atticus Shane is better at finding relics than duping witches.

Comments

[headmaster]

Don't make it weird, Damon.

[Because they're nearly clutching one another's hands right now, intimate in a way neither of them likes to be. It feels like cheating. It feels like something he wants to keep doing, a craving that could grow ugly if he lets it.]

We don't know how long this might last. It's not draining anything out of you, is it?

[unforgivably]

Would you rather I be weird or sentimental?

( His thumb begins to trace circles, though, clearly willing to keep things weird enough.

If he's honest, there's always been a deeper connection with Alaric, one that goes beyond the Andie's and the Rose's. He loves him. Always freakin has. Don't ask how hurt he was when Alaric hated him after that time he'd snapped his neck. Until he'd apologized.

Alaric and him had something. Right now, especially. Have. )

No, Alaric. Your fingers aren't draining my life out of me. I'm no closer to desiccation.

[headmaster]

I'd rather you be here.

[It's always Damon. Other lives come and go, but Damon has been a constant. For good or bad, through betrayals and beyond. Damon was even there at the end, trying to break through to him.

He leans closer until their shoulders touch. It feels like letting go of a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.]