As the crow had abandoned her, Bonnie started to notice that Damon Salvatore suddenly had developed a habit of showing up unexpectedly, looking at her from the parking lot at school or from across the street as she entered the supermarket. The first time this had happened, she had frozen to the ground, but he had made no attempt to approach her and only watched her thoughtfully, his eyes intense in his otherwise impassive features. Most of the time she stared back at him, her face contorted in a dark scowl. The moment she would turn around, he disappeared.
He was there again, when she left school after a, thankfully uneventful Monday, standing in a far corner of the carpark, his gaze fixed on the young witch. Bonnie's feet changed direction and she marched right up to him.
Damon raised his eyebrow, but didn't move as Bonnie came to stand in front of him, a little breathlessly from her sudden action.
"Why won't you just leave me alone?" She growled accusingly, her gaze fierce in her chocolate eyes.
A melancholy expression for a moment ghosted over his sarcastic features before he smirked indulgently. "You wouldn't want that, witch."
Bonnie opened her mouth for a heated retort, when she realized in shock that some unclear part of her actually acknowledged truth in his words.
"Oh, won't I?" She countered rather pointlessly but Damon simply looked at her, then suddenly, with a swiftness indiscernible to the human eye, grabbed her hand and unfolded it, revealing the partly healed cut.
"Paper cut?" He asked innocently, while trailing a surprisingly soft finger along the ridges of the scab, surrounded by new, pink skin.
Bonnie was thunderstruck. All she could do was look down, her gaze fixed on the almost tender caress. Her intuition warned her that there was something to his question, as if he knew something she failed to see, but the sound of his voice pulled her from her thoughts and she quickly snatched back her hand.
"Splinter," she responded softly, thinking back to her crow in sadness.
"You should be more careful." He lifted his hand to her temple and his gaze thoughtfully trailed to the strand of raven hair slipping through his fingers."Your magical blood is very sweet to certain creatures and we don't want Emily's descendent to be attacked again, now would we?"
His ice blue eyes momentarily filled with longing as his hand brushed the caramel skin of her neck as he let go of the soft curl. Then he stepped back, patiently, amusement scattered in his eyes, watching her struggle with a fierce anger flaring up.
Bonnie balled her fists and looked away. "Then you should get started with protecting me against yourself, Damon," she retorted through clenched teeth.
Damon smiled joylessly. "Believe me, I am."