<P> In the episode' We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide . He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane . At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism . However, Elena breaks up with Stefan at the end of the episode after confessing her gradually growing feelings for Damon . </P> <P> In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper", Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally have sex . After that it turns out Elena is sired with Damon, first they think it is the reason why Elena loves Damon, but in episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" they found out that it only affects how you act, not how you feel . The sire - bond can only be broken when Damon leaves Elena and tells her to stop caring about him according to a witch in New Orleans named Nandi . In the following episode Damon goes with Elena to her family's lake house to help with Jeremy's Hunter instincts . In the episode Elena tries to act like a couple with Damon, but he refuses to even kiss her out of his guilt about the sire bond and worry that he's taking advantage of her . In the end of the episode Damon invokes the sire bond telling Elena to return to Mystic Falls while he trains Jeremy "O Come, All Ye Faithful". Elena kisses him goodbye . </P> <P> In' After School Special', Damon is at the Lake House training Jeremy, along with Matt Donovan . Klaus shows up and threatens Damon, wanting him to get Jeremy's mark completed earlier rather than later . Damon is shown to be reluctant, not wanting to hurt innocents for Elena's sake, but Klaus follows through with his plans regardless . Later in the episode Elena calls Damon and confesses she's in love with him and it's the' most real thing she's ever felt in her entire life', in a moment of weakness Damon tells her to come see him . Afterward Damon is confronted with a bar of newly turned vampires for Jeremy to kill concedes that it's the quickest way, however balks when Klaus takes control and compels the newly turned vamps to kill Matt Donovan . In Catch Me If You Can Damon tells the boys to run since Jeremy isn't ready to take on all these vampires . Later when Elena arrives her and Damon argue over the killing of innocents and tells her to take Matt home while he and Jeremy take care of Klaus's newly turned vampires . However Kol shows up and has killed all the vampires, determined to stop them from finding the cure & waking Silas, and threatens Jeremy's life . Kol compels Damon to stake himself and later to kill Jeremy and to forget what Kol compelled him to do . Upon arriving back in Mystic Falls Damon begins to seek out Jeremy due to the compulsion, however when he sees him in the grill he realizes what Kol compelled him to do and tells Jeremy to run . Damon chases Jeremy throughout Mystic Falls and advises Jeremy that he is compelled and he needs to kill him . Jeremy shoots Damon in the head and when Damon awakens later starts cursing the youngest Gilbert, calling him stupid for not killing him . At the end of the episode Damon catches up with Jeremy Elena follows and urges Damon to fight it because "You love me and I love you", but he tells her that he can't, falls to his knees and urges Jeremy to kill him . Stefan shows up just in time to break Damon's neck and lock him up until they can take care of Kol . Damon spends the next episode locked up and bled dry by a jealous and snarky Stefan and engages in a conversation with Klaus about Caroline, Rebekah and Elena . </P> <P> When the group goes to the mysterious island to find the Cure, Damon continues to be suspicious of Professor Shane . When Jeremy goes missing and Bonnie and Shane stay behind to try a locator spell, Damon stays to keep an eye on Shane . He later begins torturing Shane for information, but Shane starts analyzing Damon and telling him Elena will go back to Stefan once she's cured . Elena interrupts the torture session and Damon storms out and Elena follows . She tells Damon that she's sure her feelings for him are real and asks him to become human with her, however Damon tells her he has no desire to be human and that human / vampire relationships are doomed and stalks off . Afterward he is captured by Vaughn, another member of the Five, who tortures Damon and leads him around with a noose around his neck . Damon goes with Vaughn to the cavern close to where Silas is buried and eventually overpowers him, but not before Vaughn injures Rebekah . Elena and Stefan come across the injured Damon and Rebekah, Stefan stays while Elena rushes to find Jeremy . Damon urges Stefan to go get the cure for Elena, uncaring that there is only enough for one, because he wants it for the girl he loves . After Stefan leave Rebekah comments that Damon did something selfless and remarks that he will always love Elena . An exhausted Damon admits that he can't control everything and is tired . </P>

When does elena choose damon in season 4