[ Everything in Elena is trying to hold on to her humanity. She can feel how easy it would be to give in to her new predator instincts, to just let loose on everyone around her and feed, to delight in overpowering her prey, but that's not who she is. The Elena Gilbert who drowned beneath the bridge that night might not have been perfect, but the memory of her is all she has to cling to while stumbling through this madness, and it'll be over her twice-dead body that she lets go of it.

But at the same time-- she's starting to feel different in ways that don't bother her. With the gentle influence of Damon and a few others here, she's ever so slowly starting to let go of the box she's always kept herself in. Every day she feels a little more free, and it's... nice, when she lets herself feel it. ]

But someone else could try something. There are a lot of people here who have a stake in this, and we don't know what lengths they'll go to. So I'll protect Gil with my life, because that's what you do for family.

[ That's what she does, what she's always done. Her life has never mattered as much as the lives of others, and she knows that Damon would be furious to hear her say it now. There are just some things that can't be changed as easily as he might like. ]