(1) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Eighteen

The next couple of weeks all anyone talks about is Tanner's attack. With it being the second, along with Vicki. It's reached the point that it is beyond annoying. But it is not something that can be escaped. Until it is all over. Cassandra sits on a couch, her eyes on a television that plays the local news.

"I can confirm that a 12-foot puma mountain lion attacked a hunter and was subsequently shot and killed. The hunter is in stable condition" Cassandra pulls her knee to her chest as she watches the news, they seem to have caught the culprit for all those attacks, but still, something about it doesn't feel right. "To repeat, the animal terrorizing Mystic Falls has been caught"

"Good news, right?" Damon asks as he sets two coffees onto the table, she cocks her head.

"Yeah" She answers and lowers her knee. "I guess" She adds.

"You guess?" He counters, she hums a little.

"Just a feeling" She offers and pulls her coffee closer. This is something of a semi-daily thing now. Every couple of days they drive out to this artisanal coffee place, they drink, talk, play hanged man. He doesn't want to talk about her dead parents or if she is okay. He talks about Stefan and some girl called Katherine that both used to date. She assumes that him talking about those things is something to do with Elena and Stefan. Why else would he tell her about this stuff? He's planting information in her mind and thinks she doesn't know it. But if this is going to lead to Stefan going bye-bye, then she is going to absorb everything she can. She may have promised Elena that she would try and be nice, but if she can bank it for later. Just in case. Her phone dings with a fresh text, her eyes rolling when she reads it, Elena bailing on their Founder's Day sister-date. They've always gone to Founder's events together, regardless of boyfriends. Matt and Tyler used to just go stag together and then hang out with the twins at the event.

"What's that eye roll for?" Damon asks as he leans back in his seat.

"Me and Elena were supposed to be going to the Founder's event together" She answers as she replies to the text. "Seems she is going with your brother instead....and...I guess I'll have to go by myself..." She shrugs. Damon cocks his head and then leans forward.

"I don't have a date" He points out, her eyes flickering to meet his. "Going with a pretty girl is going to be more fun than flying stag" He teases, she snorts.

"These lines" She teases. "Do they actually ever work?"

"Yeah" He answers and nods. "There must be something wrong with you"

"Not the first time I've heard that" She counters, the two of them sharing a look.

"So, come on...We'll get dressed up, get drunk, make fun of all the stiff founding families" He wiggles his eyebrows at her.

"Fine" She caves. "But you are not my date and I am not yours" She warns him. "This is a...' friends' thing, at a push...." He nods along with her.

"Wear blue" He offers. "I think you'd look nice in blue"

"I wear black or I wear nothing....." She points out, causing him to smirk widely at her.

"Well..." He draws out. "If that's an option..." She shoots him a look.

"It's not" She is quick to argue. She is shutting down that idea right now.

"Why is it such a big deal for you?" He asks. "You don't strike me as the...Founding events type" She shrugs.

"Never been bothered about it before" She admits. "This year, there's this heritage project that meant a lot to my mom. She was really involved in the founder's council, and it was her favourite party. I know that sounds really boring, but....." She shrugs.

"It makes you feel close to her?" He offers, she snorts and nods.

"Yeah, I guess" She admits.

............

Damon lounges on Cassandra's bed as she finishes getting ready for the Founder's event. He reads from a copy of some book from the Twilight Saga that he found tucked away at the back of her bookshelf, she's either ashamed of it or she read it and didn't like it. She walks back into the bedroom, dressed. It's nothing special. Just a little black number. His eyes shift to her as she moves to her dresser where her jewellery for the night is laid out. She looks beautiful, he supposes. She raises an eyebrow at him through the mirror. He looks back down at the book in his hand.

"What's so special about this Bella girl?" Damon asks as Cassandra sets a pair of earrings into her ears. "Edward's so whipped."

"You gotta read the first book first. It won't make sense if you don't." She points out, grabbing her necklace to pull on.

"Ah, I miss Anne Rice. She was so on it" He teases and sets the book down.

"Why are you reading that anyway?" She asks. "You're not a teenage girl" She turns to him as he stands with her shawl, pulling it around her shoulders.

"Did you like them?" He asks, brushing her hair back over her shoulder. She hums a little and then shakes her head.

"No" She answers. "Elena and Caroline read them, I thought I'd try them after them just so I knew what they were talking about...." She shrugs. "Bella isn't really a character that is easily liked" She points out. He touches her cheek, drawing his hand around, she lets out a breath. "I told you" She sets her hand against his chest, just pushing slightly to make her point. "This isn't a date"

"I mean..." He motions to himself and gives her a look. "I've seen you looking"

"Of course I looked" She agrees. "I'm sad, not dead or blind" He snorts. "Look..." She shrugs a little. "I went out with Tyler Lockwood for two years....and he ended up cheating on me with the village bike..." She sighs. "I'm not ready for another relationship"

"Who said anything about a relationship?" He asks and steps closer to her as she turns to pick up her shoes. "We could....just have sex"

"I don't think I'm that sort of girl" She argues as she pulls on her shoes.

"You won't know unless you try" She turns around and finds him standing right there behind her. Her breath catches a little and she steps back, right into her wardrobe door. Damon follows her. She can't move, not because he has her trapped, but because she's not fully against how close he is to her. She knows she said she wasn't ready for a relationship. But what he is offering is not about that. It's about the fun stuff. He leans closer, fully intending on kissing her. He's so close to getting in here. To really screwing with Stefan. Weirdly enough he feels it is less about that last point and more about this girl. Someone knocks on the bedroom door. Cassandra turns her head towards it. Damon's nose brushing over her cheek.

"Ready to go?" Jenna asks through the door.

"Yeah, give me a minute" Cassandra offers back, breath hitching slightly when Damon draws his fingers over her thigh, a smirk on his lips. Damon listens to Jenna's footsteps moving away from the door. His eyes drifting, following his fingers as the stroke down the side of her neck and across her collar bone. He captures her lips the second she turns back to him. And it hits him the second he does. The second she starts kissing him back. She was a ploy. A plot device in his plans. Nothing was meant to come of it. But he's not stupid. He can feel it. Something in that kiss. And it's not coming from her. It's all him. That warmth. An actual fluttering in his stomach. It's like he's a teenager again, sneaking kisses from the baker's daughter. His lips shift, moving along her jaw. Her eyes glow red as she tilts her head back, his lips finding her throat. She threads her fingers through the hair at the back of his head, red mist seeping into his mind which causes his eyes to glow just like hers. She's not even aware that she is doing it. He pulls back from her. Both of their eyes have returned to normal. No sign of anything a miss.

"See you there" He winks at her and then watches as she, on shaky legs, leaves her bedroom, closing the door behind her. He lifts a hand to his lips, brushing over them. What the hell was that? He rubs the back of his neck and frowns slightly. There is a dull ache in the back of his mind that he can't explain. But he has things to do. Plans to see to. He can't slow down because of some headache.