Twin Gilbert

Vampire Blood & Karaoke

Damon's POV

"You okay? Can you stand?" Veena held a slight hint of pain (or maybe it was confusion?) on her face. Damon had figured she would be uncomfortable, she had just been in a car crash, for God's sake. "Is anything broken?" She shook her head, and he couldn't help but be surprised.

Damon carefully lowered her to the ground, only for her knees to buckle and give out. His arms reached out and caught her, holding her upright before she could fall. "Whoa- You are fading fast, Veena." Veena remained unresponsive. "Veena. Look at me. Focus..." He tilted her chin up. "Look at me." Her eyes slowly opened, and now he could see that it was clearly confusion that was taking the main focus in her head rather than pain. "Okay..." He whispered, knowing that loud sounds might startle her in her weakened and mostly unaware state.

"I look like her..."

Shit.

Veena's body lost the ability to support itself once again and Damon caught her one more time that night. Any and all traces of discomfort left her face, a content and rather blissful look replacing it as she was far gone, falling into the depths of unconsciousness. He nearly chuckled at her rare expression; all she had ever had on display for him was disgust, and for good reason, he had to admit.

Damon sighed and brushed Veena's hair out of her face slowly, blue eyes slowly traveling over her face. A trail of blood seeped from a small wound on her forehead down the side of her face. Veins slowly crawled under his eyes and he reacted quickly to get rid of them. He wasn't surprised by his own reaction to the blood; he was a vampire, after all, and he had grown used to the common aspect of his nature. If he had no humanity left, like Stefan so vigorously believed, he would sink his fangs into the girl's pulsing artery right now, but unlike Stefan believed, he did have humanity. A small, minuscule sliver of humanity, but it was still there, even if he didn't admit it to himself. Sure, there were times when he had flipped the switch and killed mercilessly. Now was not one of those times. Little did anyone know, it was because of Veena's resemblance to Katherine that he had any sort of guilt, or pain, or empathy for anyone who he had hurt, and even killed. The first time they met, he had sworn it was Katherine who stood in front of him.

Katherine.

Damon would be lying to himself if he said the thought of Katherine didn't hold him together. Actually, it was more so the idea of reuniting with her. One hundred and forty five years had passed since he had simply looked at her. It was Stefan's fault really; he had let their father, Giusuppe know of Katherine's nature, and his father had helped orchestrate her destruction.

Even then, that wasn't true. Emily Bennett, Katherine's friend and personal witch had in fact orchestrated a different plan, one that ensured her survival, if it could be called that. Instead of burning in the church with the rest of the town's residing vampires, she was escorted safely to a tomb beneath the church. Katherine was still laying beneath the ruins of the church to this day, decidedly immobilized and mummified by now, but alive. It was Damon's every intention to free her. Then she would see how loving Damon had always been to her, and she would pick him over Stefan. His baby brother, as he liked to call him, even now, had never really loved Katherine. Stefan's love had been compelled, but Damon's wasn't. Katherine never had to compel Damon to love her, to cherish every moment with her, to show her affection. Once he freed her, there would be no question about it. She would chose him willingly and easily.

Saving Veena's life (multiple times, no thanks to her) brought Damon some kind of elated joy. It reflected in him the way he would soon be saving Katherine. It was easy for him to pretend she was Katherine. She resembled the vampire in ways he couldn't explain, and more so than her twin sister Elena. Katherine was witty, devastatingly alluring, seductive, clever, manipulative. Veena possessed those aspects on a greater scale than Elena. It was easier to see fragments of Katherine within Veena than it was with Elena.