Vampires who wear daylight amulets are usually referred to as 'daywalkers' by their fellow vampires and others. In a flash-forward scene, a medical student Elena is seen writing on her diary outside the Salvatore crypt in the cemetery, while a crow flies over her head as she sees Damon. The scene is a nod to the cemetery scene in the show's pilot episode of season 1 when Damon can control fog and crows. They are also revealed to be married, growing old, and finding peace together. As Elena reunites with her family in the Gilbert house, Damon reunites with Stefan in the Salvatore Boarding House with the words, "Hello, brother." This line is both his first and last words in the entire series. Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of Season 4 seems to be looking for reasons to stay. Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him in ' The Rager' to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire. Indeed, a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become drives, Damon and Stefan, apart. The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College. This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt': how to catch, feed and erase. After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party who gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie. She leaves the party and later states that she does not want to be like Damon. In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive. She does and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode. After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human. The magical process to create a Daywalking amulet has been only seen once; when Bonnie spelled a ring for Caroline in Bad Moon Rising. The spell is unknown, as Bonnie muttered the spell, however the amulet (or ring) needs to contain a Lapis Lazuli stone and be place in the sun light as the spell is performed.

In We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes, Damon arrives at the Gilbert house after Elena called him, though he wonders why she asked him to come and not Stefan. Elena admits she doesn't trust Stefan at the moment, and Damon in turn admits that he called Stefan as the younger Salvatore walks in the front door. After Elena finishes showering, she has another hallucination, and this time she imagines that Damon is Connor. She bolts out of the house, where Klaus grabs her and speeds off. Bonnie meets up with Damon and Stefan and they ask for her help in breaking the curse Elena is under. She says the spirits won't let her do that kind of magic to break the curse, but she suggests that Shane might be able to help.The charm placed by witches over the gemstone is not dependent on the caster, since the lapis lazuli jewelry has been known to protect their vampire wearers long after the witch who spelled it have died. It was implied by both Stefan and Katherine that the enchanted jewelry only protects the vampire for whom the witch, who enchanted it, intended it to protect. He plans together with Mikael how Klaus can be killed. Mikael shows him the White Oak Stake, the only weapon that can kill an Original. When Stefan comes, Mikael feeds on him, incapacitating him. At the homecoming dance, he kills a hybrid and confronts Tyler after he injected Caroline with vervain. When Tyler almost bites him, Bonnie stops Damon from staking Tyler with the White Oak Stake. When Mikael and Klaus have a conversation he surprises Klaus after Mikael stabbed Katherine, who was impersonating Elena. He stabbed him in the stomach and was about to stake him in the heart when Stefan stopped him. Stefan is free and Damon gets home, angry. He tells Elena that he had Klaus and could have finished him off. He receives a phone call from Katherine, saying goodbye. Elena calms Damon down and they promise that they will survive life without Stefan. In Welcome to Paradise, Damon and Bonnie go for shopping in a grocery store. He is not willing to admit that someone else must have filled in Bonnie's crossword puzzle. Then she notices pork rinds aren't on the shelf where they have been for the last four months. He doesn't argue. They hear music playing and Bonnie goes outside to see a kid's carousel turning. Damon tries to look for a mechanical reason for the carousel starting. Bonnie reasons that if there's someone else t It was shown in Promised Land that Daylight Amulets do not work under the Anti-Magic Barrier, which may suggest the rings use Spirit Magic.

Damon and Stefan worry after Bonnie shows up with news of Alaric and it is revealed that Elena is missing. Stefan, Damon and Klaus finally agree to save Elena and Caroline together. As they fight Alaric, both Damon and Stefan are beaten as Klaus takes Elena. Later on, Damon, Stefan and Tyler begin to desiccate Klaus' body with help from Bonnie. Damon helps Elena up and takes her out of Klaus' manor. As Damon and Stefan take off to put away Klaus' body they talk about Elena and Stefan mentions that if she chooses Damon he will go away and let them be happy. Damon agrees to do the same and implies towards the trouble they go through for "one girl". Stefan responds saying, "She is a pretty special girl" and Damon agrees. This episode reflects one of the strongest points in the relationship between both brothers. The 2,000 year old witch Qetsiyah is in possession of a spell capable of enchanting a whole location to protect a vampire from sunlight. This is shown in Original Sin where she spells her cabin for Stefan. In Gone Girl, Stefan fills Damon in on Katherine is in Elena's body. "She's brilliant," is all Damon has to say. Stefan assures him to not to worry and that he has a plan. Later, Stefan feeds Damon 4 ounces of his blood, figuring that some every few hours will stave off his hunger. Stefan decides to call Katherine feeling that she won't say no to him like she has shrugged of everyone's attempt to meet her but Katherine instead calls Damon, wanting to talk. He invites her by the house. When she hangs up, Katherine assesses that Damon would never put Elena in harms way again after nearly killing her so he must have known that its Katherine. Stefan and Damon come to the same conclusion: Katherine knows that they know about her being inside Elena's body. Caroline and Stefan try to figure what to do next and then Damon suggests a locator spell.At the start of season 1, Damon was a self-proclaimed loner, [8] often keeps to himself. Despite his initially antagonistic relationships with humans such as Alaric Saltzman and Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes, Caroline's mother. Damon gradually involved himself in the lives of many people in Mystic Falls by developing friendships with several humans. After spending time with Elena Gilbert, Damon becomes more empathetic and falls deeply, madly and passionately in love with her. He always puts her safety first before anyone else, even his. [9] [10] Somerhalder with his Vampire Diaries co-stars Paul Wesley (Stefan) and Nina Dobrev (Elena) at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International Later, Damon is shown to be cured thanks to Klaus. Elena asked Damon if he was alright now and he told her he was fine then she slapped him which made Alaric proud and Lexi laugh. Damon was standing in front of the fireplace and said he wanted to apologize, but then realized he wasn't sorry. Yes, he'd rather die than be human, both because he didn't want to age and because he didn't want to age while she remained the same. He's selfish, and no apology would encompass all the reasons he's wrong for her, he said. Elena said she wasn't going to apologize either then. She's not sorry she met him. Not sorry that in death, he's the one who made her feel more alive. Not sorry that even though she knows it'll be the worst decision she's made, she's in love with him. "I love you, Damon," she said. And then they kiss passionately. During the spell, Silas intervenes and tries to stop it. The power goes out and in the chaos, Stefan who just wants revenge against Silas after what he has done to him kidnaps Amara while Silas and Qetsiyah start fighting. Damon comes in and catches up with Elena on where is Amara gone and she tells him to go find Stefan because he wasn't thinking right. Silas might have put him in that safe but they were the ones who were supposed to get him out of it. Damon reaches the scene and finds Amara dying. He does everything he can to keep her alive for a few more minutes so that Qetsiyah is able to complete the spell. They are finally successful as Qetsiyah completes the spell in time and Bonnie becomes the new anchor. At the end of the episode, Stefan admits to Damon and Elena that he wanted it to be them who would find him and get him out of that safe. While Damon is distracting her, Alaric pours wolfsbane into her drink. Damon talks to her about Mason, claiming to be one of his friends, but she responds suspiciously when he tries to get her to have a drink with him (in other words, to sip the wolfsbane so he can tell if she's a werewolf.) She doesn't fall for it, able to smell the wolfsbane in his drink. Damon threatens her, but she responds by declaring how strong she is on this night in-particular (the full moon). Alaric warns Damon to go home and stay inside, because one bite from the werewolf will effectively end his life. He goes home, where Rose has been waiting. He acts coldly toward her as she tries to apologize about helping Elena, admitting she has nowhere else to go. When Jules, the werewolf he taunted in the bar, leaps through one of the Salvatore's windows, she bites Rose's shoulder before Damon stabs her, getting her to run off. The bite heals immediately, mystifying both vampires. Rose is terrified that her life almost ended, and Damon comforts her with a hug. The two are seen again in the living room, where they begin another heated sexual encounter, but they're interrupted when Damon discovers that the bite on her shoulder has resurfaced. This is particularly devastating news to Damon, because the two of them were just beginning to develop a friendship. Damon joins Elena and Bonnie outside. Bonnie accuses him of wanting Elena to be like him, and he argues that she already is and needs to learn to revel in the feed; not hating herself and enjoying it will be the only way she, like him, can make feeding fun and not get carried away. Damon walks away, leaving Elena crying about what had happened. He accompanies her home and she apologizes for letting things get out of hand at the party, confessing that she hates that, deep down, she agrees with Damon's point of view. She starts to say she doesn't want to be that way, and Damon finishes her sentence to say she doesn't want to be like him. When Stefan opens the door, Damon leaves.