Corazon.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could he lead the Power to Sophia like that?! Like a lion to a helpless gazelle, now she was just as doomed as he was, and for all the wrong reasons. Now he’d have to get even closer to her, to protect her, and he was stumbling dangerously close to falling into her trap, as easily as that mortal Mike had. He couldn’t worry about that, now. The voice had started purring again.

‘I wonder if she tastes as sweet as she looks, Damon,’ the voice smiled. ‘Will you let me have a bite?’

NO! DON’T EVER TOUCH HER!

The voice laughed.

Damon whirled, feeling the slightest of movements behind him, a faint kiss on the back of his neck. There was no one there. The parking lot was empty, and everyone had gone inside. It was just the both of them... Sophia. He remembered her, sitting in the car exposed like a duckling bobbing in the water. Sophia was looking up at him with a crease in her brow, her eyes no longer wide with despair. She looked confused, as she pressed a small hand on the window. Her mouth was slightly parted, stupefied as her clumsy tongue stubbornly held onto the words she wanted to say. She looked startled.

Damon opened his mouth to say something... anything. But this time, he felt movement for real. The bittersweet taste of an aura was dancing on his senses, coming closer and closer, tasting sweeter and more bitter as it stalked towards them, smiling that infuriating smile.

“Get out of here, Sophia,” He told her, almost yelled. Automatically, his body sprang into a crouch, and his eyes scanned all around them. “Get out while you can.”

“Damon, what’s happening?” Sophia asked, having finally found her voice, it was tight with urgency. “What’s wrong?”

“Sophia, if not for your own sake, then for mine,” He bit, his body coiling tighter and tighter as the thing advanced, “Get out while you can! NOW!”

The Power was teasing, now. It moved as if it were dancing, stepping forward a few steps, then bobbing back a few to music he couldn’t hear. It was grinning, swaying backwards and forwards like a hurricane, laughing softly as she could feel the thickness of the air of panic wrapping itself around Damon, almost choking him while he warned Sophia.

A car engine turned, and Sophia was pulling away, her eyes glued to the rear view mirror. Damon wheeled around, the wind blowing his hair from his face. Suddenly clouds had appeared from above, and the day had turned almost as dark as night. Lightning clashed behind him, as the gale tore leaves from nearby trees. A few drops of water speckled Sophia’s windscreen as she hurried from the campus, leaving Damon behind.

‘What do you want from me?!’ He called out; hoping idle chatter would delay its arrival. He never was one for talking in do-or-die situations; he liked to go straight to the killing part. But Sophia needed as much time as he could stall to escape, and get as far away as possible. Another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, and the voice laughed.

‘A bit too dramatic, isn’t it, Damon?’ The Power was close now, he could feel it circling around him.

He contemplated shifting himself round and around, not wanting his back to his enemy, but found it was useless, anyway; plus he just looked silly. How could he face something that felt as if it were coming from every direction? He closed his eyes, and with all his concentration, tried to find an inconsistency in the web of aura advancing on him. It felt... different, somehow. As if, the closer it got, the weaker it felt... like an illusion. As he reached out to test the aura, it stabbed him defensively, and he cried out.

‘That was a warning, Damon.’

Though he was on his knees, gathering his breath, he smiled. The Power was no longer laughing. Somehow, he had shaken it; taken it by surprise.

It disappeared.

‘Show yourself!’ Damon cried.

‘You’re no fun,’ The voice pouted, having gained its confidence back. ‘Won’t even share. Oh well. If Sophia is yours, then that pretty little thing, Elena, couldn’t possibly be.’

‘NO!’

‘I wonder if SHE tastes,’ it pondered, ‘As heavenly as she looks?’

The voice kept going on, but Damon wasn’t listening. He was racing towards Stefan and Elena, to protect them, knowing that that was where the Power had fled to. Its voice was no longer thunderous in his ears, but fading softly into the sounds around him. The aura was fading, too. Damon broke into a sprint. He shifted seamlessly into a crow, cutting through the sky, all the while the voice conversed with him through mind-link.

‘You will not harm my brother, you will not harm Elena, and you will certainly not harm Sophia,’ Damon threatened, though he doubted the Power would listen. ‘You do not want to make an enemy of me.’

‘Do I, Damon?’ The voice wondered. ‘And how goes your new diet? Does that mean you’re a vegetarian now? I’ve never really been one for human rights, myself. Hah.’

A thunderous laugh echoed through his head as he crashed through the tree tops, only stopping because of a window. Stefan’s window, he thought with relief, as his brother’s concerned face appeared through the translucent glass.

“Damon?”

As he dusted himself off, a familiar pair of green eyes appeared in front of him. “Damon, what is wrong with you?!”

“N-nothing, nothing at all,” Damon’s eyes darted around. There was nothing lurking in the trees around them that he could feel. A quick glance inside the room revealed that all was well, and Elena was still sleeping peacefully in their bed. This was not what he expected to find.

Damon turned to Stefan and flashed him a quick smile, “Can’t a brother visit his little brother without being questioned?”

Stefan’s brow furrowed. He was still suspicious as he tasted his aura inconspicuously. “You’re not drunk... You’re... You are weak...” Stefan’s green eyes widened with surprise.

Within a blink of an eye, Damon had scooped Stefan by the neck and was holding him inches off the ground. The Power hadn’t revealed itself to either him, or his brother. It was bluffing, and had fooled him into thinking they would finally meet, and he would end things. The adrenaline rushing through his system made his muscles ache to be used before the rush would disappear and a faint aching would overtake the eager tingling in his limbs. The aching would be worse, now that his hunger was never completely satisfied. Damon was spoiling for a fight, and if Stefan, the brat, happened to be in the way... well, it was his fault.

“Weak, little brother? Is that the right word?” He asked, pressing his face as close as he could to Stefan’s, which, to his delight, was turning a mottled red. “Could someone weak do this?” Damon tightened his hold of Stefan’s neck, smirking as he watched his brother’s fingers tug on his own. Human blood or not, he was still the strongest out of both of them, and he wondered just how strong he was with only animal blood animating him.

Stefan gasped, and was suddenly a pile on his bedroom balcony. He hid his hurt, refusing to rub at the marks on his neck, meeting Damon’s eyes with impudence. “What are you doing here? You disappeared after Elena returned. I took that as a sign you didn’t want anything to do with us anymore.”

“I was going through the area, and thought I would drop by,” He lied, shrugging as if he acted on a whim. He’d been there all along, watching over them, entertaining himself with the girls a couple towns over. Just as the other Power had, he realised, and a shiver ran down his spine.

“Now you have,” Stefan rasped. “And now you can leave to continue doing whatever you were doing before you showed your face again.” Damon contemplated telling his brother he was in danger, but what could he really do? No, Stefan was better off not knowing, he resolved. He’d just have to keep a more watchful eye on him, from now on.

Without another word, he flung himself from the balcony and shifted in mid-air, ‘See you around, little brother.’ He thought as he flew off, but not before he heard Stefan shout ‘hopefully not too soon!’ behind him.

‘If only you knew,’ Damon shook his head, and turned in the direction of Sophia’s.