All I Need (Vampire Diaries/Captain America Fanfic)

13. One Whiff Of Love And You're Contemplating Eternity

"Hey," I called into the Salvatore house. "Anyone still up?"

I walked in to see Damon sitting on the sofa. "Stefan's upstairs. I put Harper in your room."

"Great," I said under my breath. My head was still spinning from my earlier conversation with Elena.

"Everything OK?" Damon asked, his eyes looking away from me, signaling the fact that he didn't actually care.

"Yep, fine," I said. Because my brother's girlfriend asking me to make her one of the undead was a totally fine situation. "I'll be upstairs."

Traipsing to my bedroom, I knocked the door lightly before letting myself in. Harper was sitting on the bed, looking 100% better than when I'd rescued him earlier that day.

"Hey you," I said, smiling. I walked over to join him sitting on my bed.

"Hey yourself," he said. "I... I thought you'd still be... human."

"You can't get rid of me that easily," I teased. We both knew that if I was still human, I would definitely be dead by now.

"I'm serious Serena. Emily Bennett didn't want this for you, you didn't even know about vampires. What changed?"

"People stopped lying to me," I said with a hint of bitterness.

"So... you chose this? You wanted to become a vampire?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but the words wouldn't come. At least, not the ones I wanted.

...

1864. The day after the church burned.

"Vampires?" I asked. "What do you mean? Like, you sleep in coffins and can't be near garlic or holy water?" I giggled. My brothers were insane.

"I'm glad you think it's funny," Damon said.

"It's a joke," I countered. "Isn't it supposed to be funny?"

"It's not a joke!" Damon said angrily.

"Damon!" Stefan scolded before turning to me. "Serena, this isn't a joke. Damon and I are vampires."

I was silent, not sure how to take in the information. If it was just Damon telling me, I might have been skeptical. But Stefan had never lied to me, I was sure of it. So I had no choice but to believe that he was telling the truth.

"H-how?"

"Katherine fed us her blood. Then we were... killed." Neither of them knew that I had witnessed our father shoot them. "Then we drank human blood, and here we are."

"Wait, you drank someone's blood?!" I couldn't imagine anything more disgusting.

"It's amazing," Damon said. "I've never felt more powerful in my entire life." Then he knelt down to my eye level. "Serena, you can turn too."

"No, Damon," Stefan said. I looked between them, waiting for my thoughts to catch up with my mouth. I'd just found out that the town that I'd grown up in was crawling with vampires. Katherine was a vampire. My brothers, the guys I'd spent my entire life with, were vampires. And I still wasn't sure whether or not I believed vampires actually existed.

"What do you mean 'no'? You don't want Serena to experience this?" Damon asked.

"We didn't choose to die, I didn't choose to drink Katherine's blood. Serena has a choice, and I want her to take time before she makes it."

"That'll take too long," Damon said, biting his wrist. He came over to me, looking me in the eye. "Drink."

In that moment, all I wanted to do was drink the blood from his wrist, so I did.

"Don't do this Damon," Stefan begged. "Don't take her choice away."

"What, like you did to me?" Damon asked. "Not as fun when the shoe's on the other foot, is it?"

"I didn't force you to do anything!"

"Well you may as well have," Damon said, before turning back to me. "Everything will be OK," he said, before grabbing my neck in his hands.

Then everything went dark.

...

"I have the life I want. It doesn't matter if I chose it or not." I couldn't think about that day any more. It took me years to even contemplate forgiving my brother. Some days, it felt like I still hadn't.

"Serena, it does matter," Harper said.

I stood up. "What? If I admit that I didn't want this I suddenly become human again?" I sighed. "Why don't you get some rest, I'm gonna find one of the other bedrooms to sleep in." I ignored his protests, shutting the door behind me and running straight into Elena.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"We never finished our conversation," she said.

"We did. I said no. End of discussion."

"Serena, this is my choice," she said. "I want to be a-"

"Keep your voice down!" I hissed, looking back and forth before pushing her towards the front door. "I'm going out again Damon!"

"Don't care," he responded. Typical.

We got into her car and sat for a second without her even turning the engine on.

"You don't know what you want Elena," I said with a sigh. "You're just like Damon, one whiff of love and you're contemplating eternity!"

"I know what I want!" she said, as stubbornly as ever. "And it's not just about Stefan."

"OK, what about vampirism appeals to you? The intense thirst? The heightened emotions? The being in constant danger of people finding out? Or how about watching everyone that you love die? Take your pick!"

She didn't say anything.

"Look, there are benefits," I allowed. "The speed, the compulsion, the strength... but sometimes it isn't worth the bad parts."

"If I'm with Stefan, I can deal with the bad parts," she said. "I know it'll be hard, I'm prepared for it. But with Stefan by my side, I can do it."

I laughed to myself. When you're a new vampire, love means nothing. All you want to do is feed. It takes everything in you not to feed on the ones you love most.

"Elena, Stefan is the best of the best. The greatest guy in the world. But love... love isn't enough."

"Stefan fights his thirst for human blood every day, for me."

"You're so naive!" I said, probably a bit louder than I intended to. "Stefan fights every day for you, sure. But he also fights for me and Damon, for all the people in Mystic Falls, for his best friend Lexi, for his own sanity. I'm sorry honey but, if it were just for you, he would have succumbed to temptation a long time ago. And you would not want to be around for that."

"I'd be there," she said defiantly. "I wouldn't be with him at his best if I couldn't handle him at his worst."

I sighed. "Elena... have you ever seen a vampire without their humanity on?"

"No," she said, eyeing me suspiciously. I could sense a hint of fear in her tone.

"Buckle up. You're about to."

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