Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

by NFWrites

Summary:

Nadine Branson came to Mystic Falls looking for her sister, Lexi. Her heart is broken when she discovers the truth about where her sister is, but she finds a friend in the form of Enzo St. John

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

2 Weeks Ago

It had been too long since I had last seen my sister Lexi. About five years, to be exact.

I know what you're thinking, five years is a long time to not see your sister and not wonder where she is. Except we weren't exactly normal sisters.

Before the story continues, there's one thing I probably should mention. I'm a vampire. And so is Lexi. I was born over three hundred years ago. Five years doesn't seem like a very long time to a vampire anyway, considering we're immortal

And yes, like all vampires I do drink blood.

I don't feed on humans, and my sister and I got our blood from blood bags at the local hospital. I didn't steal from there, Lexi was a nurse and always took a bit more from a patient than was actually required, but not enough that they would notice or that would do them any long term damage. She'd gathered up a pretty big supply over the years, and after she had left, when I had finished our stock I had been on somewhat of a vegetarian diet since then, getting my blood from wild animals. Which actually bothered me more than the humans. I hated hunting.

We had to move around a lot too as we didn't age, so no one ever got suspicious. I had been living in San Francisco for the past three years, in one of the properties we had purchased years ago and came back to every fifty years or so. Enough time that most people had moved on or were old enough to think we were the grandchildren of those who had once lived here. We had a schedule of when we'd move, so I was sure Lexi would have known where to find me if she had wanted to.

This wasn't the first time Lexi had been away from home for a while. Lexi tended to go off and do her own thing, she loved to travel and always seemed to be off on some crazy adventure. Me, I preferred settling into somewhere for however long we had there, trying to build a life with a job and friends and occassionally a relationship, though knowing eventually that I would have to move on and start fresh somewhere new and would likely never see them again.

Lexi and I had a bit of a disagreement the last time we had been together. I had been on my way home when I'd witnessed a hit and run. A kid, who couldn't have been any older than five or six had gotten hit and left for dead. I'd hurried over and on realising his injuries were likely going to kill him, I'd used my blood to heal him up. Vampire blood was like a miracle cure for human injuries. But once I'd realised how busy the streets were, I realised I'd put us in danger of being exposed. I had compelled the few passer-bys who had come to help to forget what they saw but couldn't be certain that no one else had seen. Lexi had told me it was stupid and I should have just let medics deal with it, even although he probably wouldn't have made it that far.

I knew Lexi was only trying to protect us from being exposed, but since both of us were pretty stubborn and I was certain I had done the right thing, I had stopped speaking to her before she had taken off somewhere.

Anyway, another Christmas had just past, my 357th on this Earth, and I decided in the spirit of Christmas cheer that I was going to try and find my sister. I figured enough time had passed now that we'd forget any argument and we'd just go back to being best friends again.

I had no information on where Lexi had actually gone when she left that day five years ago. She hadn't taken much stuff with her, but Lexi seemed to have a great skill of being able to acquire things wherever she went. She had a few friends around the world that she had stayed with before, going everywhere from Europe to Asia to Australia, but I'd hoped that she might have been somewhere closer to home to prevent me having to travel too far. Though, I probably wouldn't have said no to a nice sunshine holiday in Australia.

Us vampires are supposed to hate the sun, but Lexi told me that when she turned she had met a woman who was a witch. This witch had made her a ring that allowed her to walk in daylight and the sunshine without bursting into flames. I got one too, when I turned.

One of my best friends these days was a witch. Her name was Scarlett, and we had met in college. On my ninth time of going through college. Well, to tell the truth I had kind of sought her out. See, Scarlett was a descendent of the witch who had made our daylight rings, and Lexi had once told me it was always beneficial to have a witch on your side. She was right. Their magic really did come in handy when I needed a little supernatural help with something. I trusted her, and Scarlett knew I was a vampire.

So I had asked Scarlett to help me find my sister. I knew she would be able to do a locator spell to show me where she was. I took along a picture of Lexi and asked her to see if she could find anything. Scarlett had taken some of my blood and placed it onto a map, and worked her magic, literally. I watched as the blood danced along the map, before it pooled in the area of Mystic Falls, Virginia.

As soon as I saw it was Mystic Falls, I was almost certain I knew who Lexi was with.

Stefan Salvatore. I knew Lexi considered Stefan to be her best friend, and she had helped him through many of his 'Ripper' situations. Stefan was another vampire, except when he went out of control he really went out of control, and it ended up with heads rolling. Many of them.

Lexi had been away to Mystic Falls for a few days here and there before to celebrate birthdays with him and go to concerts or whatever, but she tended to be there longer when he needed help. When he had let his Ripper side get the better of him, or when he had turned his humanity off. To be honest, I don't know why she did it, spent so much time helping him. She had told me how his brother had once left her locked on a rooftop without her daylight ring, to die. They didn't seem like good people. Well, good vampires.

I had only met Stefan twice before, once in 1965 when Lexi had him drying out in our basement, to try and get him to turn his humanity back on, and another time briefly when they had returned from a trip to Europe in 1993. I don't think Stefan would probably even be able to recognise me.

I had Googled (I mean, it was as good an idea as any these days) 'Salvatore Mystic Falls' and I had found articles relating to an old Salvatore Boarding House that was situated there. It seemed as good a place to start as any. So after a plane journey and a long bus trip from the airport, that's where I had come.

I now stood outside the front door, hesitating on knocking. It was a large house, rather imposing. I had no idea if any of the Salvatore's actually lived here now or not. I wondered if this town even knew of vampires and all the other supernatural beings that existed along with humans. I had come straight here, so hadn't really had much time to explore the area.

I eventually knocked on the door, three times, hoping someone in this giant house would hear me. It was only around ten seconds before someone did indeed answer. A girl, with long dark hair opened the door and smiled at me.

"Can I help you?" I could tell she was a vampire. I didn't have the urge to bite into her that I had to resist with humans, when I could smell their delicious blood running through their body. Every time someone got too close to me I'd have to will myself to calm down. The only time that didn't happen was around other vampires. They didn't have the same appealing scent. I cleared my throat and returned her smile.

"Maybe. I'm looking for someone named Stefan Salvatore."

The girl defensively closed the door a little, as if trying to keep me from seeing inside. I assume she had sensed by now that I wasn't human either and she probably thought I was here for trouble. "He's not here at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"So he does live here?" I asked. Google really was a modern wonder. I thought I would have had to do a bit more digging to find him than pop a couple of names onto the internet.

"Well uh..." I knew the girl was trying to be wary before answering.

"Look, I'm not here to cause any trouble," I clarified, just looking to get an answer. "I'm just hoping that he can help me find my sister. Maybe she's here with him?" I tried peeking into the house, but she was doing a pretty good job of blocking the doorway. "Lexi? Lexi Branson?"

"Lexi?" the girl repeated. I could have sworn I seen her expression change to panic then she tried to compose herself again. She knew something. "Look... uh, I think you should talk to Stefan. If you leave me a phone number then I can get him to call you."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Look, if you know something, can you just tell me so I can find my sister?" I had a bad feeling Lexi had gotten herself into some sort of trouble. I heard another female voice shouting from within the house at that moment.

"Elena? Come on, we have to get to Whitmore before Kai pulls another one of his tricks. There's a doctor there who I want to speak to about helping my mo- oh, hello." I watched as a blonde girl appeared behind the girl I assumed to be Elena. Another vampire. Wow, not only did this town know about vampires, but it seemed they were certainly not rare here. "Who is this?" she asked Elena. Elena looked between me and the blonde girl and opened the door a little further, maybe feeling less threatened now she wasn't alone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"I'm Nadine."

"Nadine. I'm Elena, and this is Caroline," Elena gestured to the blonde girl next to her. "Maybe you should come in."

Caroline looked at Elena and frowned. She seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. And away from Kai, whoever that was. "Elena, we really have to get going soon. I called Stefan and he's going to meet us at Whitmore."

"Stefan?" I asked. He obviously wasn't in the house. "Look, I can see you're both busy, so if you could just tell me if you know where I can find my sister then I'll be on my way."

"Your sister?" Caroline asked.

"Her sister is Lexi," Elena said quietly. Caroline stared at me, her mouth frozen open like she was going to say something but stopped. I realised then that they both definitely knew Lexi and waited impatiently.

"So?"

"I shouldn't be the one to talk to you about your sister," Elena looked at Caroline for help. Caroline gave me a sad looking smile.

"I really think you should come inside."

---

I'd walked around this stupid town for hours. Crying.

Lexi was dead.

Really dead this time. Elena and Caroline had told me how she had came to Mystic Falls around five years ago, probably just after I last seen her, to celebrate Stefan's birthday. Stefan's brother Damon had just come back to town and was causing mayhem, killing all of its residents.

The people of the town were starting to get suspicious and he had murdered Lexi, fooling them into thinking she was the one causing trouble.

My innocent sister.

He had staked her in the heart.

Elena had gone to call Stefan and asked him to come home to talk with me, but when she was out of the room I noticed pictures of her and Damon on the walls. I recognised him from pictures Lexi had shown to me. They were friends with him, the monster that he was.

So when she was distracted, I had ran out of the house and away from them. I didn't want to speak to them, or Stefan. I didn't want to speak to anyone.

My heart felt heavy in my chest. I was heartbroken, angry, dazed.

Lexi was the last family member that I had. She was the only person that I was actually close to. We had been together since I was born, not always liking each other but always loving each other. And now she was just gone. And she had been murdered for someone else's mistakes. No one had thought to look for her family to tell them what had happened to her. It felt like they didn't care, and yet Stefan was supposed to be her best friend.

I was sitting on a bench in the park and realised I had nowhere to go. I had actually come to this town without a plan. I just thought I would find Lexi here and everything would be OK. I'd maybe hang around here for a couple of days and then we would go home. Just me and my sister.

It had started to rain about thirty minutes ago, but I had welcomed the water on my face, taking away some of the sting in my eyes, from the tears that just kept coming. I'd have to stay in a hotel for the night before I could travel back home, it was too late to do anything now.

But I decided I wanted to talk to Stefan once I had calmed down, I needed to know more about what happened to her. Where was her body? Had they given her a proper burial? Did they not care enough to try and contact anyone she might have known to let them know? And what about Damon Salvatore? Was he just happily living his life after what he had done? Did he feel bad about it at all? Well, if not then maybe I could stay and make him feel bad about it.

I noticed there were lights on in a building up ahead and read the sign. 'Mystic Grill'. It wasn't by any means ideal but it would do for now, a place to get out of the rain and try and gather my thoughts before making any moves.

I got up and started making my way towards it, my one bag of belongings I had brought with me still over my shoulder. I opened the doors to Mystic Grill and looked around. The place was fairly empty, and the two bartenders were standing chatting behind the bar rather than serving anyone.

There was a smell of food in the air, but I didn't find it appealing. I'd have to drink some animal blood soon to stop any cravings for biting into the necks of one of these people. I could just kill this whole place in an act of revenge and be gone, but that wouldn't really help anything and it wouldn't bring Lexi back.

I looked around for a bathroom and headed straight in there. The mirror showed exactly what I thought it would. My wet hair, water dripping off the ends, my mascara running down my cheeks and of course, my eyes red from crying. I took a breath and turned on the hot water tap, trying to clean up what I could. Once I had cleaned the mascara off my cheeks and tied my hair into a ponytail, I took a piece of tissue and dabbed at my eyes before going back out into the bar area and taking a seat on one of the bar stools.

I picked up a menu, which was a little on the sticky side for my liking and stared at it blankly, just trying to get my mind to be quiet. I could feel the bartenders eyes on me as she kept glancing over. It was another five minutes before she actually decided to approach me.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked, looking between me and the menu in my hands. "Or do you need more time?" I could hear the sarcasm in her voice and I didn't like it. She was clearly thinking that she'd be kicking me out soon if I didn't spend any money here.

By the state of me I probably looked like I was just in sheltering from the rain. The poor girl had caught me at a bad time and one wrong comment from her could end up being her death sentence. I put the menu down. "I'll just have a water."

"We can only give water to paying customers," the girl replied matter of factly. It sounded like she was enjoying herself at least.

I decided she wasn't worth the hassle. "I'll just have some fries." I watched as she hurried off to the kitchen giggling with her coworker. I hated people who got a kick out of making fun of someone. I closed my eyes and fiddled with a napkin on the bar, trying to drown out the sounds of everyone's conversations, that I could hear clearly with my enhanced vampire hearing.

About five minutes later, the bartender appeared from the kitchen and placed down a small bowl of fries in front of me, along with two glasses. One was water and the other was filled with a brown liquid, if I had to guess I would have said some kind of whiskey.

"Enjoy," she smiled, but clearly not meaning it, and turned to leave.

"I didn't order that," I told her, though the smell of the alcohol was enticing.

"I know," the bartender replied, frowning. She gestured to a man who I hadn't realised was standing next to me. "He did."

He sat down on the bar stool next to me.

"You look like you could use a proper drink, love."

(Authors note: Just a quick note to say I've previously posted this story on another site if it seems familiar but I'm moving all my stuff to AO3! There's 16 chapters of this one done already which I'll post over the next couple of days!)

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Today

I had been drinking pretty much all day for the last two weeks. Since the first drop of alcohol had touched my lips in The Mystic Grill that night, I was hooked. I had never been much of a drinker, but it really did numb the pain of losing Lexi. Just enough that my mind relaxed a little bit and I could distract myself from thinking about her.

Getting drunk seemed like a far less problematic option than turning my humanity off was anyway.

Turning humanity off turned us vampires into monsters. Vampires with no humanity would kill for fun and feel nothing when they did it. Only when they decided to turn their humanity back on again would all the crippling guilt come crashing back to them. But it was such a struggle to get someone to turn it back on when they were in that dark place, because they really didn't care about anything.

So I was forcing myself not to do it. I knew if I did there was no one I cared about enough who would be able to bring me back. I didn't want to turn into a monster. And I knew Lexi absolutely wouldn't have wanted that. After she spent so much time trying to get Stefan out of those dark places.

So I had stayed cooped up in this motel I had booked into and lay on the bed, going through bottle after bottle of whiskey, gin, rum or whatever else I could get my hands on. I was stealing them from the motel owner's stash. That I didn't feel guilty about. Compared to what I could have been doing. I just compelled him to forget that he was buying them. Conveniently he would then go and get another bottle, which I would also take.

The TV had been playing constantly in the room but I had barely been paying attention to it.

I'd sort of lost track of what day it was. I was going to have to figure out what I was doing here soon. I didn't want to stay in Mystic Falls too long.

I hadn't been out of my room, and I doubt Stefan, Elena or Caroline knew I was still in town, or cared, so no one was looking for me.

There was only one person who knew exactly where I was.

I heard a knock on the motel door and groaned. I ignored it for a few minutes but the knock came again, louder this time. I slowly sat up and steadied myself, before stumbling over to the door. There was a small curtain covering a window on the door that I pulled back, and immediately regretted it when the sun burst through. Not because it was burning my skin or anything but because my head was starting to hurt from another mild hangover (thankfully they were a lot less painful for vampires than they were for humans) and the fact my eyes had barely seen the light for two weeks.

I seen Enzo standing outside, grinning and holding up a coffee cup and a blood bag. I reached down and fumbled with the lock for a moment before getting it unlocked, and opened the door to let him in.

He breezed past and looked around the room with mild disgust, probably at the collection of empty bottles and empty blood bags all over the floor, before turning to face me.

"Get dressed. We've got someone important to meet today."

---

2 Weeks Ago

"So what's got you looking so upset on a Friday night?" The man spoke with a charming British accent. Another vampire. I was becoming more surprised when I spoke to someone in this town who wasn't. I knew he would be able to tell that I was too, so he wasn't buying me a drink to try and feed on me later. Perhaps he was just being friendly, but I had the feeling he had some ulterior motive.

I picked up the glass and sniffed it. I was correct in thinking it was whiskey. I stared at it for all of about five seconds before downing it, and looking at my watch. "Well, about three hours ago I found out that my sister was murdered. Five years ago. And I'm only finding out now."

The man appeared taken aback. "Ah… well, maybe I should get you another." He gestured towards the bartender and then to the empty glass sitting on the bar. She hurried over and smiled at him with flushed cheeks, clearly melting under the gaze of his brown eyes. "Another please." The bartender nodded and rushed away to refill. There was silence for a minute before he spoke again. "I'm Lorenzo. Or just Enzo".

"It's nice to meet you 'just Enzo'" I forced a smile. "I'm Nadine."

Three more drinks later and I was feeling a bit more relaxed and open to retelling the tale of how I found out Lexi had died. "And that is how I learned that Damon Salvatore murdered my sister." I only realised when saying the last part that I had probably been speaking a bit loud when some heads turned to look at me. After a few drinks I really didn't feel like compelling a whole bar to forget that I had been talking out loud about vampires or murders.

Enzo chuckled quietly but seemed to share that thought and stood up.

"Why don't we take a walk?"

I was a vampire, but I definitely was aware of stranger danger. Although, if it turned out Enzo was trying to kill me, then at least I would be reunited with my sister. "Ah what the hell, why not". I grabbed my bag and followed him out of the Mystic Grill and back into the rain. I still didn't have anywhere to stay for the night. I was going to have to find some cheap place somewhere and hope they had a room free, and if not, then I'd be compelling someone to leave. "I need to find somewhere to sleep."

Enzo nodded. "I think I know a place". I'm sure if he was familiar with this town then he would choose somewhere not too terrible. "So, are you going to be staying around Mystic Falls?"

"I don't think so," I admitted, thinking of my house in San Francisco. "Lexi was the last of my family so I don't really know what my plan is right now," I rubbed my forehead and took a deep breath, willing myself not to cry again. "I need to talk to the Salvatores about what happened, maybe I can get some closure from that. But everytime I think about it… about what Damon done…" I could feel my fists clench involuntarily as soon as I had mentioned his name. "It makes my blood boil."

"You want revenge on the Salvatores," Enzo spoke the words like he understood. "It's natural. Maybe I can help with that."

"Oh yeah?" I knew revenge probably wasn't going to make me feel any better but I wasn't in the right frame of mind right now to make good decisions. And right now, I felt like I wanted them to suffer. "What did you have in mind?"

"You just let me handle it for now." I noticed Enzo had pulled out his phone as we paused walking while he read a text message. The rain was making it difficult to see his screen but I did manage to make out the words 'Sarah Nelson, Duke'. I looked away, trying not to invade his privacy too much. He put his phone away and we started walking again.

"So what's your issue with the Salvatores?" I asked, genuinely interested in what they had done to other people.

"Damon and I… we used to be close," Enzo kicked a stone with his boot. His next words sounded bitter. "Not so much anymore."

I studied him carefully. I hoped this wasn't a trap. How much of a coincidence was it that a potential ally to try and ruin the Salvatores had just turned up right when I needed it? But his face looked serious and from what I could gather he was telling the truth. Maybe the Salvatores really weren't liked in this town. But honestly, after a few drinks, what did I know.

"Do you mind me asking what happened?" I couldn't help but think that hearing someone else's betrayal story might be nice, the distraction I needed from my own misery.

"Actually, I do," Enzo didn't appear to want to elaborate. "Let's just say he left me on my own at the time I needed him most. I then found out that he killed someone… quite dear to me". He went quiet and looked around the empty streets. "All that before his brother killed me and I got stuck on the Other Side. I was a damn ghost for weeks before that witch friend of his brought me back."

My eyes snapped to his with sudden interest. "The Other Side? Like, for spirits?" I had heard rumours about The Other Side before, from being around witches. It was said to be a place where spirits were trapped before finding peace and moving on for good. Except none of them knew how to find it or if it truly even existed. "You've been there?"

Enzo nodded. "Not the most fun I've ever had."

I suddenly had a thought and hurriedly pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked through it to find a picture of Lexi. I held it towards Enzo's face, probably a bit too enthusiastically as he leaned backwards. "Do you think my sister could be there? This is her."

"Look love, I wasn't there to make friends." He placed his hand on top of mine and gently pushed the phone down. "I couldn't tell you whether she was there or not. My only real focus was getting out. But it doesn't matter anyway. The Other Side was destroyed the night when I came back through. Honestly, it was madness and half this town died and came back to life." Enzo rolled his eyes. "It was too much for the witch and she and Damon blasted off into some Prison World", he waved his hand in the air. "Damon got out, but the witch is still stuck there."

"A prison world?" I asked. This was just getting more and more confusing.

Enzo shrugged. "I think it was somewhere to trap a powerful witch named Kai Parker. I heard he escaped but I don't really know much about him. Considering he siphoned a no magic spell away from Mystic Falls though I know he's probably best avoided..."

Wow, a lot of stuff really had gone down in this town. Maybe Kai was where I could find answers about Lexi. If she had been on the Other Side when it was destroyed and Damon and a witch had too and ended up in a Prison World, then maybe, just maybe, Lexi was in there too. And if Kai had gotten out, then surely others could. "Do you know where I can find this Kai?"

Enzo laughed then, but not from humour, more of a 'what you're thinking about doing is stupid' type laugh. "I wouldn't go seeking him out if I were you."

I nodded.

Except I had every intention of seeking him out.

---

Today

I was feeling much better after a shower and some good O negative blood. Since the night we had met, Enzo had been coming by the motel every few days to drop off some blood for me and check that I was OK. I was actually very grateful and glad that I had met him. It was nice having someone care enough to check in on me, I wasn't sure what kind of state I would have been in if I was left alone that night.

It turns out that Enzo's plan for the Salvatores was nothing too sinister, and didn't involve us killing anyone, which part of me was thankful for, but that little part with the need for vengeance didn't like. He told me he had found a way that he could cause a rift between the two brothers. He seemed intent on causing problems for them living happily as a family. But I still didn't know any more than that. He seemed to have a particular dislike of Stefan, though given that Stefan had killed him before I couldn't really blame him.

My own plans that I had been keeping from Enzo, to seek out Kai, hadn't come along too far yet either. Mostly because I had been constantly drinking. But the internet had failed me this time when I searched for Kai Parker. There were articles on him and what he had done to his family in 1994, but nothing that would give me a lead on where he might be in Mystic Falls. The only other thing I had found was a Twitter profile, and I highly doubted that this all powerful witch used Twitter. But I was going to keep working on it. I needed to speak to him, to see if there was a chance my sister could still be out there somewhere.

I had a plan.

From what I had read about him, he sounded like the pure evil type. He had killed his own siblings in the family home and taken out his own sister's spleen. It wasn't really shocking that his family had put so much power into creating a whole new world for him, where he couldn't ever hurt them again. I briefly wondered about his family members that were left alive and whether or not they knew that Kai had escaped.

Right now, we were in Enzo's car. He hadn't told me who it was that we needed to meet, only that it was crucial to his plan.

Enzo pulled out his phone from his coat pocket and handed it to me. "Make a call, will you?" He kept his focus on his driving.

I looked down at his phone, and clicked on Contacts. His phone was a bit cracked and I held it closer to my eyes to read some of the names. "OK, who am I looking for?"

"Matt Donovan".

He was driving fast, like we were late to be somewhere. I scrolled down the list until I got to M and found Matt. I pressed the name and waited for it to ring. "Who is Matt?" I asked, pressing the button for loudspeaker, as the phone started to ring, but before Enzo could answer someone picked up.

"Alright, we're here, where the hell are you?" The voice that answered, that I assumed to be Matt, sounded very irritated.

I could see Enzo smirking as we drove. I didn't really know where we were considering my knowledge of Mystic Falls so far was the Salvatore House, then the Mystic Grill then a motel. It looked like there was a tunnel coming up in the distance, just off the road. "I'm here, can you not see me?" Enzo replied.

"No, I can't". The voice on the other end now sounded confused. Just as confused as I was. The car sped up as Enzo put his foot on the accelerator. To the point where I was starting to feel uncomfortable with just how fast he was going.

"Hey, maybe you should slow down a little," I suggested. Enzo was making no signs of attempting to slow to go round the corner up ahead and it looked like he was headed straight for the path with the tunnel. It wasn't a road and there was a good chance it would be full of walkers and cyclists. "I don't think you can go-"

"Take a few steps to your left," Enzo instructed whoever was on the phone, cutting me off. "Here I am."

My eyes widened in shock as Enzo drove down a grass bank and straight for the tunnel. Honestly, being in a car crash wouldn't hurt me that much but it was not on the list of things that I wanted to do today. And then, from seemingly out of nowhere, I watched a blonde man step right into the path of the car. There was a split second before we were going to hit him and all I could do was close my eyes. "ENZO!"

But it was too late, and I flinched as the car sped into the man, sending him flying over the bonnet, causing the windscreen glass to smash around us from the impact of his body. Once the noise of the glass breaking had settled I heard someone scream behind us, it sounded like a female, and I could see in the now cracked mirror someone running over behind us to the man lying on the ground. Enzo drove away, so that we were out of sight and then quickly slammed on the brakes, and after a lot of screeching the car came to a stop. I immediately opened the door and climbed out. Minor pains here and there but nothing that wouldn't fix itself in the next ten minutes. "Enzo, what the hell!" He didn't respond to me and instead ran over in the direction of the man and woman under the tunnel. Of course, his vampire speed meant he would be there in less than a minute.

I followed after him and we were soon there, looking at the male on the ground. There was a lot of blood and I turned my head away trying to ignore it. Now wasn't the time to get hungry.

"Are you OK? What happened?" Enzo asked as he crouched down next to them. "We were walking nearby and we heard a scream." The blonde male on the ground looked like he was trying to get away from Enzo, as if he knew him, but he was in no fit state to go anywhere. I noticed there was a phone on the ground and picked it up. It was unlocked and I went into the call history. The last call was from Enzo. For whatever reason, Enzo had clearly set this up.

The girl next to him, who was wearing a camera around her neck was trying to apply pressure to the males wounds. "We're waiting for a stupid ambulance, he's in really bad shape. His breathing, it's-".

"I think he has a punctured lung," Enzo appeared to be examining him, as I watched, completely stunned by what had happened. Why did he bring me to run someone over, only to end up coming to help? "Look, I can help," Enzo said after a moment. "What's your name?"

"Sarah," the girl replied.

"Alright Sarah, I need you to remain calm," Enzo stated, as he looked at her. "What you're about to see is something that you've never seen before". I made a face to him that I was certain screamed 'what are you doing' but he ignored it and looked back down at the male on the ground. "Just promise me you'll remain calm, Sarah."

Sarah was becoming frantic. From what I could tell she must have had some connection to the male, because she was too emotional to be a random passer-by. "I promise, just fix it!"

I watched in a mix of horror, confusion and intrigue as Enzo bit into his wrist and started to feed his blood to the male. As soon as he had exposed his teeth, Sarah had made a gasping noise and backed away so fast she almost fell over. I was ready to have to run after her and compel her to forget everything. Enzo was just exposing us right in front of her. He looked up with his wrist still in the males mouth and winked at me. "Staying calm?" he called to Sarah.

The male on the ground started coughing, and I knew that the healing process in his body had began, thanks to Enzo's blood. Before I could see if he made a full recovery, I felt myself being pulled away by Enzo and we had ran until we were way out of sight from the pair. "And now we wait," he said, as we stopped next to a bench and sat down. Enzo turned to look at me, with a grin on his face and licked his fingers of the blood he had gotten onto them, from the man we had hit. "Want some?" he smiled, waving his hand in front of my face.

I had so many questions. "Enzo… what…"

"That was Sarah Nelson." The name seemed familiar, but I couldn't think where from. I watched him lick the blood from his fingers and really wanted to taste it. Drinking from a blood bag was one thing, but there was nothing more satisfying than fresh blood, just out the body. "At least, that's what she thinks," he added, causing me to stop thinking about a nice warm bloody body to drink. "Except I know better. That was Sarah Salvatore."

I was suddenly very intrigued. "As in, a relative of Damon and Stefan?" I asked.

Enzo nodded and stood up. "Go back to the motel and lay low for a few hours so we don't bump into our new friend again until I'm ready. I'll pick you up for dinner at seven."

As he walked away, I felt my phone begin to vibrate and hesitated a few moments before pulling it out of my pocket. I wanted to make sure Enzo was out of hearing range before I answered. I smiled as I seen Scarlett on Caller ID. She had been the only person I had really spoken to other than Enzo since I had found out about Lexi.

I pressed the button to answer. "Hey, Scarlett".

"Hey. I got a lead on the guy you asked me about."

Chapter 3: Chapter 3

I was certain I was in the right apartment block.

Scarlett had only been able to give me an approximate location for where I needed to be looking for Kai Parker. While I didn't have any real connection to Kai, or any of his personal belongings for Scarlett to do a locator spell, after I had given her a bit of information, she had thought of a spell that she was able to use, thanks to her extensive knowledge of witchcraft.

When I had first told her about Lexi and Enzo and what I'd heard about Kai, she had picked up on me repeating what Enzo had said about Kai siphoning some kind of protective magic out of this town. Scarlett had told me that some witches were siphoners that were born without their own magic, but could absorb other peoples. She had said that if he absorbed magic that was used on the whole town, he would have likely been very powerful.

And since he had this great power, that would let her perform a spell that would allow her to see where there was a great magic concentration in the area.

And that's how I had ended up here.

Her map reading had suggested there was a lot of magical energy coming from this building, but she couldn't be any more precise and the only way I would be able to find out would be to try each apartment individually.

So far, from the doors I had knocked on, all I had managed to do was disturb two old ladies and a frazzled looking mother who answered the door with a toddler in her arms. I apologised for bothering them but I had also compelled them all to forget that I was there.

I only had two apartments left to try

I moved on to the next door and waited a second before knocking.

I heard footsteps at the other side of the door, along with loud music. This probably wasn't the place either, and I was starting to think maybe the spell hadn't actually worked and was picking up on something else.

"Well that was quick." The man that opened the door stared at me for a moment before frowning. "Mmm, no, you're not my pizza delivery."

"No, I'm not," I confirmed, but stared at the man in the doorway.

This was certainly Kai Parker.

He looked exactly like the images from the articles I had read online. Exactly like he did in 1994. I was fairly certain that he wasn't a vampire, so whatever happened in those prison worlds must have frozen him in time or something. I had been expecting someone a bit older now. I snapped out of my thoughts and smiled. "It's Kai, right?"

"That's me." He looked confused. I imagined not a lot of people tried tracking him down. "Oh… I get it. This is like one of those things where you come to try and sell me something isn't it?"

"I'm not selling anything." I could tell he didn't get visitors much. But he didn't seem that threatening. It was probably best just to get to the point. The less time spent around crazy, potentially evil people the better, in my opinion. "Actually, I came here because I thought… well, I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me."

"You need my help with something?" Kai started grinning. He definitely looked a little unhinged, but stood to the side of the door. "Come on in!"

It probably wasn't the best idea I had ever had but I warily stepped forward and into the apartment. I was barely through the door when I felt a hand on my shoulder and a searing pain where he was touching me. I looked down and noticed a red glow from his hand. "What the…"

"Oh, well that's interesting," Kai lifted his hand. "You have some kind of magic in you if I can do that."

Now that I was in the apartment, I noticed the body slumped in a chair in the corner. I couldn't see any blood, but I also couldn't hear any heartbeat or blood pumping in his body so there was a pretty good chance whoever was in the chair was dead. Kai followed my gaze. "Ah, meet-" He paused and picked up an envelope from the coffee table and read the front. "Marvin Williams. He lived here before I decided I was moving in. I really should move him soon before he starts to smell."

OK, this guy was definitely trouble. I felt for my phone in my pocket and considered sending Enzo a message, but I didn't want to make Kai suspicious. Besides, I couldn't say I hadn't been warned not to come looking for him.

"So which one is it, huh?" Kai squinted his eyes to study me. "Vampire? Witch? Werewolf? This town seems to have them all." My eyebrows shot up at the mention of werewolves. Mystic Falls really was full of surprises.

I was distracted by how loud the television was. Kai caught me looking at it and picked up a remote, turning it down. "Sorry, I love Beyonce. She's fantastic. What do you think?"

I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't come here to bond over pop music. "Uh… she's OK I guess." I debated making a run for the door, but decided against it. I'm sure I'd be able to take him on if I had to. "My name is Nadine... and I'm a vampire."

"A vampire, coming to me for help," Kai circled around me like a shark. Whatever he could do with his hands, which I guessed was his siphoning trick had been really quite unpleasant and I wanted to avoid that again. "I am intrigued. Ever since I got to Mystic Falls all you vampires have done is try and kill me. And since I merged with my brother and developed some kind of feelings… well, I gotta say, it hurts those feelings."

I had no idea what he meant by merged with his brother. It didn't sound pleasant anyway. "I don't want to kill you," I assured him. Well, I didn't right now anyway. Unless he became a threat to me personally. "I just have some questions about the prison world that you came from."

Kai picked up a bag of chips from the table and sniffed them before popping one into his mouth. He didn't even question how I knew about the prison world. "Shoot."

"Well, I'm wondering if there's any chance that my sister has somehow ended up in a prison world somewhere." I watched as he sat down on the sofa and stretched out. He seemed more focused on what he was eating than me. "You see, I found out she was murdered. Someone I know told me about The Other Side and that it really existed and some souls were stuck there, not able to move on and find peace. And then it got destroyed and some people who were on The Other Side somehow got sent to a prison world, and-"

"And you're wondering if your sister is stuck in one too," Kai finished, without looking at me. He started nodding. "Mmm, OK, yeah." He sat up and turned to face me, his expression confused. "So like, why do you want your sister back?"

I was confused by the question. Then, I remembered Kai had killed his own siblings and realised that he obviously didn't share the same bond with them that Lexi and I did. "Well, she's my sister, and I love her," I replied. "That's my main reason really."

"Yeah, I don't get that," Kai looked thoughtful for a moment, before a small smile crossed his lips. "But I'll answer your questions. If you help me with something."

Of course he wanted something in return. I'd have been stupid to think he was just going to tell me what he knew and let me be on my way. Depending on what it was, would decide whether or not I agreed. "What do you need my help with?"

"Do you know Elena Gilbert?" Kai asked.

I figured she was the same Elena as the one who opened the door at the Salvatore house. Kai confirmed this when he held up a phone with a picture of Elena on the screen. "Sort of… why?" I was not going to kill her. Friend of Damon or not, I had my limits and I was not going to kill her. She had seemed like a decent enough person.

"I want to talk to her," Kai said simply. "But she won't take my phone calls and she keeps declining my Facebook friend requests."

"So why don't you go over to her house?" I asked, but I had a feeling he wasn't welcome there.

"Yeah, not a good idea. Damon and Stefan don't really like me," Kai make a sad face. "I don't know why."

"Why do you want to speak to her?"

"I want to talk to her about her friend, Bonnie," Kai got up and walked over to a table next to the front door where I noticed him pick up a small metal device. I had no idea what it was for, but it looked like it had some sort of supernatural purpose. "Bonnie was trapped with me in the prison world, and I know Elena has been trying to get her out. I just thought, maybe I can help her. I liked Bonnie."

I didn't trust him, but I needed to know if there was any way Lexi could still be out there somewhere. His explanation could have been legit, but it seemed like an excuse. To talk to Elena would mean I'd have to go to the Salvatore house because that was the only place I knew that she might be. But I agreed. "So you want me to set up a meeting?" I contemplated it for a few seconds more. "Time and place?"

Kai smiled once more. His smile really gave me the creeps. There was just something about him. The energy he projected made him like an evil, excited puppy. "Shall we say midday tomorrow? Mystic Falls High School."

"A high school?" I questioned. It was an unusual setting for a meeting to 'talk'. "Why there?"

"It's not important," Kai replied as he walked over towards the door and opened it, signalling it was time for me to go. He had made his offer, now it was up to me to deliver if I wanted the information. "It's neutral ground, you know. She doesn't feel threatened by having to come to my place and I don't feel threatened going to her house with the army of vampires."

I made my way out the door and looked at him over my shoulder. "We'll be there."

---

"You're late."

I had hurried across town as fast as I could, but it was still ten past seven by the time I got back to the motel.

Enzo was outside my room door, leaning against it with his foot propped up.

I almost didn't recognise him at first. His hair was more groomed than usual, it looked like he had shaved and he was wearing sunglasses. I hoped we weren't going anywhere fancy because I was not dressed for fine dining, and my clothes had already been through a car accident today.

"I know, I'm sorry," I realised I would need to come up with something to tell him where I had been. Enzo knew I had barely left my room so would have found it strange that I was out and about in Mystic Falls. "I was feeling a bit run down so I went to see if I could hunt any animals around here," I had always been a terrible liar and hoped that Enzo wouldn't have too many follow up questions. "I just lost track of time."

He lowered his sunglasses and stared at me for a moment, his gaze piercing, before sighing and started to walk. "OK, let's go. We're walking. Had a bit of a bump to my car earlier."

I looked down at my arms where the cuts I had suffered from the car accident had been, of course, they had all healed up now though. "Yeah, I know, I was there." I followed behind him. It was unusually warm for a January evening and there were a few other people walking around.

I was feeling more positive that Lexi was still out there somewhere and I hadn't completely lost her. Hopefully whatever I could learn from Kai might mean I could get her back, or any least see her and talk with her, but I had to be careful working with someone like Kai.

Enzo had gone quiet and when I looked at him he seemed to be lost in thought. "So what's the deal with the girl?" I asked. "Sarah?"

"She's the daughter of Zach Salvatore. A distant nephew of Damon and Stefan. Damon thinks that he killed her before she was even born," Enzo explained. "He had attacked her mother while she was pregnant. Her mother passed away but it turns out that doctors were able to save her baby. She was adopted. Except it turns out Uncle Stefan knew this all along and has been hiding her existence from Damon so that he lives with the guilt. He's been making sure that she never finds her real family. Probably sends a lot of money her way too."

"So… you want to introduce her to Damon and hope he hates Stefan for keeping it from him?" I guessed. It was something, but I was worried it would do more good than harm, if Damon found out that something he had been feeling guilty for didn't even happen.

Enzo shook his head. "I want more." I stopped to look at him. I did too. "What's the one thing that Stefan has been protecting her from her whole life? Knowing where she comes from. "

I thought for a moment before it suddenly clicked. "You want to turn her."

He smiled at me, and I took that to mean that I had guessed correctly. "Well, all I'm saying is I think she should know more about the family she comes from."

I enjoyed being a vampire. But I knew that a lot of us didn't. Some new vampires struggled to make it through a day before getting themselves killed or taking their own life. Becoming something that could turn you into a murderer was terrifying. You could be a saint and never have had a thought to hurt anyone, but the moment you turned it was a whole new story. We needed blood to survive, and the urge to kill someone just to feed on them was always there. Even if you fought it as best you could. It was a hard thing to adjust to, and the thought of turning someone against their will made me a bit uneasy.

But in the spirit of revenge, I was open to playing along with this for a bit to see what happened.

We continued walking through the town. "I haven't heard you mention your own family much," I said, trying to learn more about Enzo. Him and I hadn't exactly had a lot of heart to hearts but all the time I had talked to him about Lexi or my family, I hadn't heard him mention any of his relatives, parents or siblings or anyone. "Do they live in this town?"

"I can't tell you about my family," he replied quietly. I wondered why. Maybe it was incase they had done something terrible and he was worried I wouldn't trust him.

"Ooh, why? Keeping the mystery?" I was half joking but I could see by Enzo's facial expression that he didn't find anything funny. His mouth was set in a firm line.

"We're not talking about my family," he said, his tone warning it should be the end of the conversation. But I wanted to know. I would feel better if I knew more of his background.

"Oh come on, we're working together but I don't get to know anything about the St John's?"

"I don't have a family," he snapped. I immediately regretted asking. "I can't tell you about my family, because I don't know them."

When I looked at him out the side of my eye his face looked pained, even though his sunglasses were doing a good job of hiding it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"I was orphaned," he said quietly, looking away. If he wanted to talk about it I was open to listening but I didn't want him to tell me anything he was uncomfortable with. "I was sent to a workhouse when I was four. Don't have any memories of my parents and I don't even know if I had siblings. So that's why I can't tell you about them. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't."

I felt tears welling in my eyes again. I was still sad for me, but now I was also sad for him. I couldn't imagine not knowing my family or where I had come from. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand to try and ensure that they didn't start falling.

We walked in silence the rest of the way and we had soon arrived at The Mystic Grill. I briefly wondered if this was the only place in town to get something to eat.

Enzo took off his sunglasses and I stopped to look at him before we went in. "I'm sorry for pushing, I really am. I shouldn't have asked."

"You didn't know," he replied as he pushed open the door and held it for me to go inside. "Let's just forget about it."

I entered the Mystic Grill and looked around for an empty table. It was busier than it had been the last time we were here. There was some space in the corner next to a window and I pointed it out to Enzo. We walked over and sat down. Enzo was looking around the place, like he was trying to find someone. His eyes finally settled on a girl sitting at a table up on the balcony. I followed his gaze and immediately recognised her from earlier in the day. It was Sarah.

"And here I thought we were just here to have a nice dinner," I joked, picking up a menu. "But we're 'working', right?"

Enzo chuckled. "Sorry, love. Business before pleasure." He watched Sarah typing on her phone, staring at the screen intently. I watched her too. She was young, pretty, probably had a really good life ahead of her. I saw a camera sitting on her table and remembered she'd had one earlier at the scene of the accident, so she must have had an interest in photography.

I wondered how she would handle being a vampire if we turned her.

The waitress came over to take our order. I ordered some spaghetti bolognese to appear normal, though what I really wanted was to bite into her neck. Soon I'd be home and happy with a blood bag. She left with our order and I looked back to Enzo. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "About your sister."

"I'm OK," I replied, trying to convince myself that was the case as much as anyone else. "I miss her. I hadn't seen her for a while, but now, knowing that I can't see her again..." I couldn't tell him about my hope that I was going to find Lexi in a prison world, because he would know I had spoken to Kai. "But I guess I have to accept that she's not coming back and start trying to move on."

Enzo nodded. "I may not know a whole lot about family, or relationships," he looked down at his hands and twisted one of his rings around his finger. "But I know what it feels like to lose someone close."

It had taken a while for me to get over the loss of my parents, and then every other family member who died off one by one. Being immortal definitely had its cons as you outlived nearly everyone that you loved. "I've lost a lot of people," I said as I watched the candle on the table flicker. "But before, I've always had Lexi there and we'd help each other through it. Now, I've got… well-"

"Me," Enzo interrupted. "I'm here."

I smiled at him and we shared a look for a moment before I became aware of a girl standing next to our table. At first I thought maybe it was our waitress returning with our drinks but when she didn't move or speak for a moment both Enzo and I looked up and I froze when I saw Sarah. She looked between the two of us before her eyes settled on Enzo.

"It's you."

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Enzo reacted very calmly and looked up at Sarah, his face pretending to be confused. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Yes… you saved my friend Matt," Sarah replied, probably wondering how he could forget. "Earlier today… with your blood?" It wasn't exactly like it was a normal thing to do.

"Oh yes," Enzo nodded. "Sarah, right?"

"Sarah Nelson, yes," she smiled at me too and I returned it.

"Care to join us?" Enzo asked, gesturing to an empty chair next to him. He moved his chair over a little so Sarah would have space for her stuff and she sat down. "Brave, I like that," Enzo said, quietly enough that only I would be able to hear with our enhanced vampire hearing.

Just then, the waitress returned with our drinks. "Oh I see you have another addition," she said, looking at Sarah. "Can I get you anything?"

"Go on, it's on me," Enzo told Sarah, and she smiled gratefully and picked up a menu and ordered a coffee. The waitress nodded and left and Sarah went to set down her menu, letting out a gasp as she did so.

"Ah… papercut," she laughed as she picked up a napkin on the table and started to dab at the small, yet very appealing bead of blood that was forming on her finger.

I hadn't eaten since this morning, before the car accident, and Kai. I was hungry. And I could feel it in my veins, I could feel my face change at the smell of the blood, even though it wasn't much. I felt Enzo nudge my leg under the table, but I couldn't look away from it. Sarah had clearly noticed the change in my behaviour and before I could do anything, she had dropped the napkin, picked up her camera and taken a picture of my face. I closed my eyes from the flash and managed to regain my composure.

I shot an apologetic look to Enzo. I figured it hadn't been his plan to tell Sarah about vampires today, and maybe just get to know her a little better, but now she had already seen my reaction to blood.

Sarah was staring at me, clearly spooked by what she had just seen. "OK, I have no idea what going on here or what you people are, but I watched you," she turned to look at Enzo, "make someone drink your blood and it miraculously healed his injuries, and you," she turned back to me, "I have pictures of your veins doing weird non-human things." She paused and opened her camera, taking out what I thought was a memory card from inside and she held it in the air. "They're all on this little card."

"So what, you want to blackmail us?" I asked. I knew there was no chance of that happening anyway. Maybe Sarah wasn't so innocent after all.

"No, I want to know more about you," she seemed intrigued. Not the reaction I was expecting. "Both of you."

"You want to know about us? Fine. One, we're very fast," Enzo snatched the memory card out of Sarah's hands and threw it towards me. I just managed to catch the tiny thing. Sometimes I was still amazed by modern technology and how this little piece of plastic could store photographs, videos and more. "Two, we're very strong," Enzo added, and knowing what he meant I snapped the memory card in two and put the pieces down on the table.

"Hey! That was like 70 bucks," Sarah said sharply, narrowing her eyes at me.

"I'm sorry, I'll replace it," I said, and I had every intention to. Just because we may ruin her life and turn her into a vampire I didn't want to be a complete asshole and start breaking her stuff. "Just can't have you having one that can expose me to the rest of the world." I closed my eyes again as I realised what I had said. I really was putting my foot into it here.

"Expose you as what?" Sarah questioned. "So you're strong, fast. You have weird veins. And you can heal people with your blood." Neither Enzo or I spoke for a minute, giving her some time to figure it out. But she came up blank. "What are you?"

"Is this a joke?" Enzo asked, waiting for Sarah to try and piece the puzzle together. "We're fast, we're strong, you seen how she just reacted when she could see blood?" he asked, referring to me. "You wanna hear me say it? Fine. We're vampires."

And there it was. No words were spoken at the table as we looked between each other. I was waiting for Sarah to get up and run. To scream or try and call out for help. Or even just to laugh if she thought this was some kind of joke. But instead she just shifted slightly in her seat.

"And?"

Enzo and I exchanged a glance.

"Perhaps you didn't hear him. He said we're vampires," I put some emphasis on the word, hoping it would spark a reaction. "You know, like Dracula, Spike and Angel… the Twilight series?" Maybe that's why she wasn't threatened and thought we were like the sparkly, family friendly Cullens. Although I couldn't say that I didn't enjoy the series...

"I heard you," Sarah confirmed. "I guess I just thought there'd be more to it."

Before either one of us could speak again, I became aware of someone standing behind me and heard a vaguely familiar voice.

"It's OK. The whole vampire thing is over anyway."

"Caroline," Enzo nodded to her. I realised then that she was the girl who had been at the Salvatore house with Elena.

Caroline looked at Sarah. "Who is this nice girl we're divulging all of our deepest darkest secrets to, Enzo?"

"I'm Sarah," she introduced herself, holding out her hand to shake, but Caroline ignored it and took a sip of the drink in her hand before she seen the camera on the table and her eyes lit up with excitement.

"Photographer Sarah? Stefan's-"

"Darling", Enzo interrupted, causing Sarah to turn and look at him. I watched his eyes change as he began to compel her. "You need a drink from the bar." Sarah didn't say anything but got up from her chair and walked in the direction of the bar as she had been instructed to.

"It is so nice to not care what you're up to with that poor girl," Caroline appeared cheerful as she watched Sarah go. "Old me would have been in such a moral quandary right now."

I wondered at first what she meant by 'old me'. But then I realised. She had turned her humanity switch off.

Enzo had figured it out too. "No... you didn't…"

"I did," Caroline smiled, a little too enthusiastically. "Right after my mom's funeral." I suddenly felt very sorry for her. She was suffering a loss, just like me. She clearly remembered who I was and that I had lost someone too as she grinned at me. "Hey, you totally should too. We could cause mayhem around here."

"Come on, we're leaving," Enzo said as he chucked a twenty dollar bill down on the table. He walked out the door of the Mystic Grill.

"What about Sarah?" I asked, hurrying after him. "She knows about us and she could tell everyone."

"I trust she won't. She's not bothered that we're vampires," he replied, frowning. "I don't get it. Something's not right."

"Caroline knows that she's a Salvatore?" I asked.

"Yeah. Stefan and her had gone to Duke where Sarah studies to see if there was a doctor there that could help her mother. I followed them because I knew Stefan was up to something. And that's when I caught him sneaking off to Sarah's art exhibit."

"And Caroline found out," I concluded.

He started to walk away before turning around. "I'll see you tomorrow, OK?" I nodded and he walked off before stopping once again. "Nadine?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me you won't do that."

"Do what?" I asked, confused.

"Turn your humanity off." Enzo looked serious. "If it ever feels like too much… talk to me."

I looked him straight in the eyes. "I promise."

---

I had woken up just after ten, which had given me some time to shower and get ready. I was going into today with no idea what to expect, but hopeful it would end with me having some way to talk to my sister.

I had made my way over to the Salvatore house and staked it out for a bit. It was big and I wondered just how many people actually lived here. It seemed like a lot of unnecessary space if it was just Stefan and Damon. So far I had seen two other people leave the building. An older looking man and woman, she had long, dark hair and I watched her accidentally set a newspaper that was laying on the lawn on fire, which the man had scrambled to put out. A witch, I assumed, but not a very experienced one. From the distance I hadn't been able to make out too much of their conversation, but I was certain he had called her Jo.

I wasn't sure who was going to answer the door when I knocked, if anyone, and I went through my stories in my head that I had prepared for all the possible options.

But by some shred of luck, it was Elena that opened the door.

She stared blankly at first, before seemingly recognising who I was. "Oh hello... uh…"

I could tell she was struggling with my name so decided to save us both time and help her. "Nadine".

"Nadine, right," she nodded as if it was obvious. "Lexi's sister. I didn't know you were still in town."

I wondered if Stefan or Damon or anyone else had even tried to find me when they knew I was in Mystic Falls. Not likely. My own fault for running out when they told me about Lexi I guess. "Yeah, I just had some stuff to figure out here,"

"Of course," Elena smiled sadly. "Do you want to come in? Stefan's not here right now but you're welcome to wait around for him."

I could understand why she thought I was here to speak to Stefan. There weren't really many other good reasons I would have to be there.

"Actually no, I came to talk to someone about your friend Caroline".

I really hoped this was going to work. When I had seen Caroline in the Mystic Grill last night it had given me an idea. Vampires with no humanity were always up to no good and were usually killing people left, right and centre. If Elena thought that Caroline was putting people in danger, hopefully she would do the right thing and try and stop her.

"You know where Caroline is?" Elena asked, surprised. "We've been trying to get to her, to somehow get through and try and turn her humanity back on. She turned it off when her mom..."

"Died" I finished. Elena obviously thought she was going to upset me by saying the word out loud. "I know. I bumped into her in town last night. She told me she was planning something today at... some High School?"

I hoped that wasnt too far fetched and Elena didn't question why Caroline would share her plans with me, but vampires with no humanity were known for bragging about whatever they got up to.

"Mystic Falls High School," Elena's eyes widened and she disappeared from the door for a second and came back with a jacket in her hand. "I better go and check it out. Thanks for letting me know." She closed the door and moved past me. "If you ever want to come back and talk… you're welcome."

"Wait… I'll come with you," I said as I followed her down the path. "Two is better than one against a vampire with no humanity, right?"

Elena looked mildly shocked then like she was thinking about it before she nodded. "Alright, thanks."

We walked together, the atmosphere definitely awkward, and her pace brisk. I didn't actually know where the High School was so I was just following her. "I'm sorry about your sister," Elena said eventually. I wondered if they had known each other well. I wasn't sure just exactly what Elena's connection to the Salvatores was. "She was a really good person. Actually, if it wasn't for her, some of my friends might not be here today."

"Oh?" I wasn't sure I wanted to talk about Lexi right now, I was nervous about what was going to happen today, but Elena was continuing anyway.

"See, something happened a few months ago and some of my friends died. And me too. We ended up in somewhere called the Other Side. Lexi was there." I was filled with even more hope then. "My friend Bonnie was helping us all come back through to this world with another witch. But the spell was getting too strong and... it was killing them. Stefan told me that Lexi was there, but she must have sacrificed herself to let the others pass through first. Then…"

Elena went silent and I knew she was about to say the Other Side collapsed. "That sounds like Lexi alright," I wondered if Lexi had thought of me when she did it. That she might have been leaving me here alone. "Always looking out for others."

I checked my watch. 11:45am. Kai should already be at the school, I hoped. I hadn't really figured out what I was going to do when I was there. Hang around until he had finished his talk with Elena? Go to his apartment to talk to him later?

We walked for around five minutes more, before we finally reached the building. I noticed that Elena hadn't used her vampire speed and she must have had some faith that Caroline wouldn't do anything too extreme. Well, had Caroline actually been there...

The school was bigger than I thought. I had no idea where Kai was going to be. "Alright, let's go find a crazy blonde," Elena smiled at me as she walked through the front doors.

She didn't seem like a bad person. If the circumstances were different, I felt like we would have been friends.

We walked through what felt like hallway after hallway as Elena checked all the classrooms. I noticed pictures on the wall and looked at the names underneath. I might have been in the minority but I had really enjoyed High School the few times I had gone through it. There was always something new to learn, even after over three hundred years. It's even how I'd learned to be 'down with the kids' and how the internet and technology worked.

"I'm not surprised Caroline is at the High School," Elena caught me looking at the pictures. "She practically lived here when we attended. Always running another committee or organising some kind of social event".

I smiled but stopped when I saw a picture of Elena on the wall next to a man who looked familiar. The description underneath read 'Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore, Senior Year'. "Are you and Stefan a couple?" I asked Elena.

"No, it's uh… complicated". That was an answer to me that suggested that they had been a couple at some point. "I've been having some… memory issues lately," Elena frowned like she was trying to recall something. "I was with his brother, Damon. But I thought he had died after he didn't come back from the Other Side and I was compelled to forget him, but then it turns out he had been stuck in some prison world and now, well…" She looked over and smiled. "Sorry, it's a long story that you probably don't want to hear right now. Maybe if you're sticking around here I can tell you it some other time."

Elena walked into another classroom and I followed her, almost bumping into her back when she froze.

"Hello, Elena."

Kai was sitting on a desk and stood up when he seen us arrive. Elena was now standing as still as a statue as Kai walked towards us and looked at me. "I can't believe you actually did it," he laughed as he pat me on the shoulder. Elena looked at me, her face a mixture of confusion and fear. "Brilliant. If only there were more vampires as stupid as you."

"I want to know about my sister," I said firmly. This couldn't have been all for nothing. It couldn't have. I needed Lexi back. "Please, Kai". I hoped he had actually developed some kind of feelings and the one I was hoping for right now was a little bit of sympathy.

"You want to know what happened to her?" Kai asked, moving to sit down at the teacher's desk. "She didn't come through to the prison world, and if she didn't come through the little witch Bonnie back to Mystic Falls, then she got blasted off into oblivion with the rest of the Other Side." He lifted his hands and made an explosion gesture. "Boom".

I felt my eyes burn as I stared at him. "But…"

Before I could say anything more, I seen Kai lift his hand towards me and suddenly felt myself being lifted into the air, and sent flying backwards.

I was thrown out into the hallway, my back hitting into some lockers before I slumped to the ground. I groaned in pain and tried to sit up. The door to the classroom in front of me slammed shut, and I crawled along the floor to it. Managing to reach up to the handle, I opened it up, but found an invisible force keeping me out. And I'm guessing that force would also keep Elena in.

Kai looked at me from inside, where I noticed Elena was now on the floor.

Oh no. This was all my fault.

"Get out of here," he instructed calmly. "Elena was all I wanted today, but if you decide you want to stick around I won't say no to killing both of you."

I had clearly underestimated his power, even though Scarlett had warned me he would be strong. I was supposed to be powerful too, considering I had been a vampire long enough, but right now I just felt hopeless and didn't know what to do.

I got to my feet and ran down the hallway. But I couldn't just leave Elena there. This wasn't her fault. Lexi being killed wasn't her fault. God, my stupid conscience. Why couldn't I just be a good vampire and not care about anyone else.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and my hands fumbled as I tried to unlock it. I frantically scrolled through the contacts, stopping when I got to Enzo's number. It felt like it rang for hours before he finally picked up. Before he could speak, I did. "Enzo… I messed up. Kai, Elena, High School…"

"Slow down," he instructed. He sounded tired. "What's happened?"

Time to own up.

"I made a deal with Kai," I admitted. "I thought I had anyway. I took Elena to him at the High School, thinking that he would help me get Lexi back, but..."

"Oh, bloody hell". I could picture his face. The 'I told you so' look. "OK… let me think. Kai is dangerous. Just get out of there".

"But… I can't just leave her," I protested, looking towards the classroom where she was.

"Get away from there, Nadine. I'll fix it."

---

It had been seven long hours since I had heard from anyone, after I had alerted Enzo to the fact that Kai had Elena. I had tried calling him since but no one was answering. I couldn't get her look of fear when she had seen him out of my head. I had been hiding out in my motel room since then, having barely moved from being sat on the bed with my head in my hands.

There was no getting Lexi back.

I had been stupid to even think that Kai was going to help me. I had just been used for his awful plans. The sadness and the guilt felt unbearable. Emotions really did suck.

I heard the door open and realised I had forgotten to lock it when I had come back here. I hoped no one was trying to rob me because now was not the time.

Enzo walked in, I could see he looked tense and angry and I honestly didn't think I could handle his judgement, but I noticed his face soften when he seen me sitting on the bed.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered as the tears started to fall again. Although I knew it wasn't Enzo that I should be apologising to. "I did it for Lexi. I just thought it could save her. I…"

"Hey, hey," Enzo sat down on the bed next to me and I leaned into him until my head was resting on his chest. I wanted him to hold me, desperately in need of the comfort.

"Is Elena OK?" I asked in between sobs.

"She will be," Enzo said, his hand moving tentatively to stroke my back. "Kai seemed to be practising some magic on her for a couple of hours, but Damon and Stefan and I got her back."

"You helped?" I asked. I definitely hadn't wanted to put Enzo in danger.

"Killing Elena wasn't in our plan, Nadine."

"I know." I felt so guilty. Of course I wanted Damon and Stefan to feel bad for what had happened to Lexi, but not for Elena, an innocent person in all this to almost die permanently because of me. That made me just as bad as them. Sarah was different. I know we'd have to technically kill her to make her a vampire, but she'd still be here. "Does she remember how she got there?" I asked, worried that I was now going to be added to the Salvatore hit list for almost delivering Elena to her death.

"Yes," Enzo confirmed. "Stefan and Damon want to speak to you in the morning."

"Great," I sighed. They couldn't care less about my sister but as soon as Elena was hurt they were straight onto me.

"Pack up your things," Enzo instructed and stood up, looking around the room. "I don't want you staying in this motel any longer. You can stay with me, for however long you decide to be in Mystic Falls... You don't need to be here on your own."

"Are you sure?" I asked, wiping my eyes. The motel was by no means luxury, but I had gotten used to it. Though it would be nice to have the company. And I think Enzo was worried that I was going to turn my humanity off, even though I had promised not to.

"I'm sure. I don't live far, we can go now."

I put my clothes into the rucksack I had brought with me, along with the other odds and ends like my electronics and spare blood bags Enzo had given me. I left some money on the bed for the owner. I could have compelled him to completely forget I was here, but I thought of myself as a better person than that.

Enzo and I walked through town, mostly in silence. The night air was cool, but the sky was clear and the moonlight was illuminating the town. We stopped when we reached a small apartment block near the church.

He lived on the third floor. When we got inside I noticed his place was really just the basics, and I guessed that he hadn't lived here long. There were no pictures on the walls, and no personal touches. He seen me looking around. "I'm not a big lover of decorating."

"No, it's nice," I smiled, not wanting to be impolite. I noticed a guitar leaning against the sofa. "You play?" He didn't strike me as the type of person who made music, but maybe there was more to him.

He nodded and picked up the guitar, strumming it gently with his fingers. He sounded good at it. "Sometimes. Bedroom's through there," he pointed towards a door. "I'll take the sofa."

"No, this is your place," I sat down on the sofa. "I'll be fine here."

"Alright, if you insist," Enzo disappeared into the bedroom and came back a few seconds later with a blanket which he sat down next to me on the sofa. "Help yourself to anything in here, there's some blood bags in the fridge. Just… don't make me regret this if I find you sitting in here at 3am crying into my ice cream."

I laughed then, for what felt like the first time all day.

I watched as Enzo started to retreat into his bedroom. "Thank you for this. I mean it." I really was glad to have found him.

"You're welcome. Goodnight, love".

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

I waited nervously outside the Salvatore house. This was the third time I had been here now, except the difference this time was that I knew Stefan and Damon were inside and that I was going to have to speak to them.

Enzo had offered to come with me, but I knew there were issues between him and Stefan and I didn't want that getting in the way of our talk. So I had told him I was fine on my own and instead he was going to try and track down Sarah and find out more about why she seemingly wasn't interested in vampires.

I ran a hand through my hair, and knocked on the door, then paced back and forwards in front of the door while I waited for someone to answer.

After what felt like forever, but was actually only around 30 seconds, it opened, and I was face to face with Stefan Salvatore.

I didn't know what to say, and waited for him to speak first. I wasn't sure if he'd even recognise me.

Instead of saying anything he stepped outside and pulled me into a hug. I tensed at first, before hesitantly returning it. He looked down at me. "I'm so sorry about Lexi."

I had been expecting anger for what had happened to Elena, or excuses about Lexi's death. Almost everything apart from that. "Thanks," I said quietly as Stefan stood back and gestured for me to come inside.

I followed him through to a large sitting area, where Elena was on a chair drinking from a blood bag. She looked up as I approached and I really hoped she didn't hate me for what had happened with Kai. "Elena, I don't even know where to begin-"

"Stop," she smiled weakly. "You didn't do this. Kai did."

"Yeah, but I'm the reason he got to you." She motioned for me to take a seat and I sat down on the edge of the sofa.

"You thought he was going to help you get Lexi back," Elena looked OK, no lasting scars or anything on her, but that would be due to her vampire blood having healed her up. "It's OK. Enzo told us everything. I'm not blaming you. I would have done the same if it was my brother."

It seemed she really was a good person. I hadn't expected her forgiveness so easily.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions," Stefan looked at me and handed me something. I looked down to see a picture of Lexi and him, standing next to a pool table. "This is the last photograph I have of her," he explained. "It was taken on my birthday, just before…" I nodded in understanding, signalling that he didn't need to finish that sentence. My fingers traced over the picture. She looked so happy.

"Didn't you try and find me?" I asked. "Or one of her friends? Anyone?"

"Lexi turned up here out of the blue," Stefan explained. "I don't know where she had come from but she barely had anything with her. Her phone was locked and I looked through her things when she was gone, but I couldn't find anything, no phone numbers, no addresses. I had no way to find you. Or anyone."

It made sense in a way, I suppose, but he'd had 5 years to try. I pocketed the picture he had given me. "What about her body? Did you give her a proper burial?"

"She's in the Salvatore crypt," Stefan replied. "I know she's not a Salvatore but… she was like family to me. I can take you to see her if you want to."

I shook my head. I didn't think I was ready for that just yet. But at least I knew where she was when it was time to say a proper goodbye.

I suddenly felt bad for my harsh feelings towards him. Stefan had lost Lexi too. I'm sure he hadn't planned for anything bad to happen to her. "Nadine, about Damon…"

"What about me?"

I looked up to see a man standing in the doorway. I recognised him easily from the photographs, he had a very distinctive look.

Damon Salvatore.

He walked into the room and over to a drinks cabinet, pouring himself a glass of bourbon before looking at me. I knew that the face I was making wasn't giving off friendly vibes. He walked over to a chair, sitting down across from me. "Did my brother offer you a drink?"

"I don't want a drink," I replied flatly, all hints of forgiveness towards the Salvatores gone the second he had walked into the room. "I want to know why you murdered my sister."

Damon sighed as if he had been expecting this. "Have you ever done something you're not proud of?"

I couldn't say that I hadn't, because I think all vampires had at some point in their lives. "Maybe I have. But I'm not here to talk about me."

"Honestly, the truth?" Damon looked at Stefan and seemed to be considering his words. "At the time, Lexi was just collateral damage. I'd killed one too many people in this town and the Sheriff was onto me." I couldn't tell if he had a smug expression or it was just his permanent face. "And me and my brother weren't exactly on the best of terms at the time, so... I set her up and I staked her."

Elena shot him a look. "Damon," she hissed under breath.

He held up his hands. "What? There's no point in lying about what happened."

I felt the rage I'd been holding in take over me and before I could think what I was doing I had gotten up and ran over to him. I was older than Damon. Stronger than him. I could probably kill him if I tried hard enough.

I wrestled him to the floor and reached out for the end table next to us, breaking off a piece of the table leg, causing the glass he had sat on it to smash to the ground.

I held the now broken piece of table leg, wooden and sharp and perfect for staking, just above his heart. "You want to feel how Lexi felt when she died?"

Stefan rushed up from his seat and over to me and pulled me off Damon. I let him, because I knew if I actually killed him I'd probably regret it. Probably. "Look, Damon wasn't himself when he came to Mystic Falls-" Stefan tried to interject. "He's not the same person now as he was then. And he is sorry, right Damon?" He looked at his brother lying on the floor.

Damon slowly sat up. "Very sorry. Look, Nadine… I could write you a letter to say how sorry I am. Or sing you a song. But nothing I can say or do now is going to bring your sister back." I felt like he was stating the obvious. "You can either hate me for it forever, or you can accept I made a mistake that I'm deeply sorry for now." He dusted off his trousers. "But if you ever threaten me, my family, or Elena, then you bet-"

"No one is threatening anyone," Elena helped Damon up off the floor. She was clearly hoping to be the peacemaker here.

Maybe he was right. I could spend the rest of my immortal life wasting my energy on hating him, or I could try and move on and find some peace. But I would never really forgive him for this. I hoped that I wouldn't have to see him again once I left Mystic Falls anyway.

I stared at him as Stefan and Elena watched warily. There was silence in the room that was broken by the noise of a phone ringing. It was coming from Stefan who took his phone out of his jean pocket.

He looked at his screen and frowned. "It's Caroline." We all knew that a vampire with no humanity wouldn't be calling just to have a friendly chat.

Damon and Elena both looked concerned when they heard her name as Stefan pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

All three of us were able to listen in clearly without having to get close, vampire hearing once again coming in useful.

"Stefan," I could hear the smile in Caroline's voice without seeing her face. She sounded like she was having a great time, and I did kind of envy her having no cares in the world. "I just wanted to let you know that your little toy, Sarah… well, she's in a bit of trouble."

"Sarah?" Elena asked. I figured the knowledge of Sarah didn't go any further than Stefan, Caroline, Enzo and I. And the man we had ran over of course, but I wasn't sure if he knew the whole story.

"Oh, she's just a friend from Savannah," Stefan told her, clearly trying to throw her off the scent. He started to walk towards the front door. Elena went to follow him but he held up a hand, signalling her to stop. "It's OK, I got this. Let me figure out where Caroline is and we'll check it out." Stefan stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

Elena raised her eyebrows but didn't follow him. "That was weird." She looked at Damon who shrugged and then back to me. The air was so tense I couldn't bear to be here much longer.

"I should get going," I said eventually, partly just wanting to get out of the house but partly wanting to know what had happened to Sarah. I didn't think they would try and stop me but before either one of them could say anything I had practically ran out of the front door.

I looked for Stefan, he was still on the phone and his face looked pained. I listened in on the conversation.

"She hasn't done anything to you, Caroline," Stefan said, sounding worried. "Let her go. Please."

"You heard me Stefan," Caroline replied cheerfully. "You have three hours to join me, or I'll get my friend to do some good old amateur surgery on her." I heard a noise that sounded like Caroline had disconnected the phone call.

Stefan sighed and rubbed his forehead, before noticing me standing outside their front door and walked over. "Look, I'm sorry Nadine, you should go. If you want me to take you to Lexi sometime then-"

"She has Sarah Salvatore?" I asked, knowing that would get his attention.

Stefan's eyes snapped to mine and he pulled me away from the house. "How do you know about Sarah?" he whispered. "I don't even know why she would be in Mystic Falls unless…" I seen the realisation form on his face. "Oh, Enzo, right?"

"Yeah," I wondered if maybe I would have been better staying quiet. I was essentially blowing everything if Stefan found out what Enzo was planning for Sarah, but maybe that was best. She could go back to living her life safely, I could go back to San Francisco and Mystic Falls could move on with their lives. "What does Caroline want with her?"

"She wants me to turn my humanity off and join her." I knew that for Stefan turning his humanity off was the one thing that he would not want to do. Considering what it turned him into. "Or she's going to compel someone to kill Sarah." He took a deep breath and looked like he was concentrating. "I need to find Caroline. I don't know where Sarah is, but if I can get to Caroline I can stop the compulsion."

"Then I'll come with you," I offered. After what had happened with Elena I still felt bad, and even given what had happened to Lexi, I no longer felt like my problem was with Stefan. It was Damon that was at fault. Maybe I could understand now why Stefan had been keeping Sarah a secret from Damon. He was dangerous.

Stefan didn't try and argue, probably thinking that there was more chance of finding Caroline with two of us. "I'll drive," he said, pulling his car keys out of his pocket. I followed him to his car and got in. Almost as soon as we had left the house, I heard his phone ring again and looked down to see the screen showing it was Elena. Probably wondering why we had taken off and not told her what was happening with Caroline. Stefan declined the call.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"There's a few places to check. The Grill, Caroline's house, she could even be at her college dorm at Whitmore," Stefan listed. I seen him check the clock in the car, probably making a note of how much time we had left.

I remembered then that Enzo had been planning on finding Sarah today. Maybe if he got to her before we got to Caroline he could get her to somewhere safe. I pulled out my phone and sent him a text, a simple 'Call me'.

"You really care about Sarah, huh?" I said quietly, realising that he was very worried something was going to happen to her. Enzo had told me that she was the only other Salvatore left.

"Yeah, this is exactly what I've been trying to avoid," Stefan said, his hands gripping the steering wheel. "Never telling Damon about her, keeping her out of Mystic Falls. Hell, I even compelled her to not care about vampires, so that she'd never take an interest incase she ever did find out something about us."

"That would explain it," I said out loud, thinking about why she wasn't bothered when Enzo had told her what we were.

"Explain what?" Stefan asked, still looking at the road ahead.

I contemplated not telling him, but decided he should know. "She knows that Enzo and I are vampires," I admitted. "She barely blinked an eye when we told her."

"Not even sure I want to know what you were planning," Stefan said disapprovingly. "Let's just focus on getting her back from Caroline. And then we can all talk." I nodded in agreement. "So what's the deal with you and Enzo anyway?" Stefan asked. "Should I be worried you're going to double cross me and try and kill me?"

I laughed slightly. "No. He helped me out a bit when I found out about Lexi. I still don't really know that much about him, I mean, we've only known each other for a couple of weeks," I pointed out, though it felt like I had been here much longer than that. Time was just passing by. I had only planned to stay in Mystic Falls for a couple of days. "He told me... that you killed him." I approached the subject, wondering what Stefan would say.

"I didn't have a choice," he looked out the window, away from me. "He went after Elena one day and I fought him off. But then he practically forced his chest onto my hand so I would take his heart out."

"Why would he do that?" I asked, confused. "I mean, if he really wanted to die then why did he come back? From the Other Side?"

"I have no idea," Stefan replied. I wondered if he was telling the truth. It seemed a bit far fetched that Enzo would try and kill himself but then want to come back from the dead. "I think he was angry because Damon didn't hate me."

"But… why?"

"Because I didn't come and find him when he was captured by the Augustine Society." Augustine. I had heard that before but only in stories from other vampires. It was supposedly a place where vampires had been captured and experimented on by scientists.

"The place where they experimented on vampires they held captive?" I asked. "That place really exists?"

"That's where Damon and Enzo met. Enzo was already there when Damon was captured and they were both kept in a cell, pretty much tortured."

"Oh…" Enzo hadn't told me how him and Damon had met before, but I didn't think it would have been under such terrible circumstances.

"Damon and Enzo made a plan to get out that involved Damon consuming both their blood rations to make him strong enough to fight back," Stefan continued. "So the one day a year that they got out of the cells, at some party on New Years Eve, Damon attacked the society which ended up with the building going on fire, allowing him to escape. Enzo was still in a cage and Damon tried to get him out but…"

"He couldn't," I concluded. Damon had obviously left him there to die. Maybe not intentionally but all the same. "Then I thought his problem would have been with Damon, not you."

"So did I," Stefan agreed. "But apparently I'm the bad guy for not getting Damon out. I didn't even know he had been captured by the Augustine Society until about a year ago when it turned out they were still a thing. Elena and Damon got captured again when they were at Whitmore. Enzo was still there."

"How long were they with the Augustine Society?" I asked.

"Damon about five years. Enzo got rescued from the fire by another scientist, only to get captured again. I think in total he was there for around 70 years."

70 years. 70 years of loneliness and torture was a damn long time.

Before I could ask any more questions about the Augustine Society, we had arrived outside the Mystic Grill, and Stefan parked the car. We both got out of the car and looked at the entrance.

There was a faint noise from inside, it sounded like someone singing. I had only met Caroline twice, but from what I could recall it sounded like her. It almost felt too easy, finding her already. Like it was a trap. Or maybe today was just our lucky day.

"You ready?" I asked.

Stefan nodded and we headed inside.

The first thing I noticed was the man sitting at a table. He was the one that Enzo had ran over with his car. Matt, if I remembered correctly. There was another man sitting next to him, with dark hair. They both looked worried, almost scared. I then noticed that the whole place was filled with people with blank expressions, staring at the woman singing on the karaoke machine.

Caroline.

Her bad rendition of Britney Spears' Toxic would almost have been funny had it not been for the fact I had a very strong feeling something sinister was going on.

She finished her song and the whole room, apart from Matt and the man next to him, started clapping. I realised then that they had been compelled to burst into applause. "Now go," Caroline ordered them all, as she stepped down from the stage and I watched as they all filed out one by one, leaving me, Stefan, Matt and the other man with Caroline.

Caroline eyed me with annoyance. "Stefan, I thought I told you not to make this into a rescue mission," she smiled at him and took out her phone. "I think we're just going to have to reduce the time that poor little Sarah has before she gets her surgery." I watched as Stefan tried to take her phone off her and the pair argued.

I looked at Matt and the other man who clearly hadn't been compelled and were still sitting staring at Caroline in shock. "Matt, right?" I asked. "And…?"

"This is Tyler," Matt introduced him and looked at me. "You're Enzo's friend… you were with him... when he hit me with his car."

I nodded. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that." I watched as Stefan and Caroline fought over her phone and frowned. He was going to end up getting his neck snapped if he wasn't careful. I looked back at Matt and Tyler. "You two should get out of here before things get really ugly."

"We can't," Tyler said, his voice quiet. "Caroline compelled us, and if one of us leaves, the other kills themselves."

I wondered if I could override Caroline's compulsion somehow but before I could attempt it, she was standing next to me. "Don't try anything," she warned, lifting her phone up. I noticed she had called someone and the phone was on loudspeaker. "You have her ready, Liam?"

A male voice on the other end of the phone shakily replied. "Yes, she's… please don't make me do this." I heard the clatter of metal, on the other end of the phone, and a female crying. It was only when I heard her screaming for help that I realised it was Sarah.

"Good," Caroline stared at Stefan with a smile on her face as she made instructions to whoever was on the phone. "Start by taking out her kidney."

"Stop this now, Caroline," Stefan's voice was threatening, as he watched her. "I'll do anything you want, apart from turn my humanity off. This has nothing to do with Sarah. If your mom seen you like this…"

"My mom is dead, Stefan," Caroline narrowed her eyes. "But I don't care. You know how to stop this."

I could hear Sarah's cries on the other end of the phone. I had no idea where she was to try and find her, and rescue her.

"Do it, Stefan," Matt pleaded. "He's going to kill her if Caroline doesn't stop him."

Caroline sighed and looked bored, examining her fingernails. "This is taking too long, Liam. Stop with the kidney and take out her heart instead."

The man on the other end of the phone was crying now. "I'm so sorry, I can't stop, I…"

We all froze as we heard Sarah scream.

Just then, there was a crash on the other end of the phone. "Sarah?" I heard a voice call out. It was Enzo.

Caroline looked angry. "Liam… what's going on? Liam?!"

Trusting that Sarah was now in the hands of Enzo, I took the opportunity to deal with Caroline and rushed over to her, and before she could react I had her head in my hands and snapped her neck. She fell to the ground with a satisfying bang, and I picked up her phone. "Enzo?"

There was silence for a moment before a rustling noise on the other end, like someone picking a phone up off the ground. "Nadine, is that you?" Enzo asked. "We have a problem."

Chapter 6

We were back in the Salvatore sitting room, waiting on Enzo arriving with Sarah. He had told me to meet him back at his apartment, but Stefan had insisted that he return Sarah to the Salvatore House. Something was up, but Enzo wouldn't say what on the phone, when he knew that I was with Stefan.

I hesitantly sipped the tea that Stefan had made for me, hoping that it wasn't laced with vervain.

Caroline was now safely being held in the Salvatore basement, conveniently located underneath the house. I didn't know what their plan was for her, but I imagined they were going to try everything they could to get her to turn her humanity back on. Elena was with her right now, as well as the witch named Bonnie, who apparently in the time we were away had somehow gotten out of the prison world.

Matt and Tyler had both gotten home safely while Caroline was temporarily "dead". Stefan had told me on the way home that Tyler was actually a werewolf, who used to turn on a full moon. His family had some kind of curse where the males became werewolves if someone died because of them, either directly or indirectly. But since he had also died and come back from the Other Side his curse hadn't been retriggered, so right now, he wasn't a threat to us. I was starting to think everyone in this town had been on the Other Side at some point. "So Caroline dated him too?" I asked. We were discussing possible ways we could get her to turn her humanity back on. We needed someone that would trigger a real emotional response from her.

Stefan nodded. "Yeah, but it didn't end well when Tyler's mom was killed and he went on some vengeance quest. Caroline ended up sleeping with Klaus, who was the one that killed Tyler's mom…"

"Wait, Klaus?" I asked. There was only one person I had met in all my years named Klaus. "Klaus Mikaelson?"

Stefan looked surprised. "You know the Mikaelsons?"

Boy did I. I had spent a lot of time with Rebekah Mikaleson in New York in the early 1900's. Klaus was her overprotective, volatile brother. I didn't dislike him, but in all honesty he scared me a little. Considering they were Original Vampires too, and that he had so much more power than us. I'd also heard from Rebekah that Klaus had werewolf blood in him, making him a hybrid, but he had to activate it somehow. I much preferred her other brother, Elijah, who I had come to know quite well. I had learned all about their history and they had helped me when I was trying to find out more about how vampires had originated and about our line. "Yeah. Do they ever come to Mystic Falls?"

"Once they did," Stefan's mind seemed to drift off. "Long story, but uh… I think we're all on OK terms now. The Mikaelsons moved to New Orleans though and I haven't seen them in a couple of years."

I had a feeling if Klaus had been in town he would have definitely stirred things up. But he apparently had a soft spot for Caroline.

I made a mental note to try and contact Rebekah once this was all over. I could use a friend and maybe I could have some fun in New Orleans for a while when there wasn't really much left for me elsewhere.

I thought back to Caroline. "And she dated Matt too?" I asked.

"Yeah, except that didn't really end on the best terms either," Stefan sighed. "I think at the time Matt was still in love with Elena, who at the time was with me, so it was just like a rebound for him. Caroline was really jealous of the way he acted when they were around Elena."

Poor Caroline. It sounded like she'd had as much luck in the love department as I had. "And what about now? Was she seeing anyone before her mom died?"

"Uh well…" I could have sworn Stefan went a bit shy and I was expecting him to start blushing. "We kind of…"

He was cut off when we heard a car pulling up outside. I stood up and walked over to the window, to see that it was Enzo in his car. I noticed his windscreen had been repaired, but there was still a crack on the car mirror from where poor Matt had hit it.

Enzo got out first and I waited to see if Sarah was with him. He walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door, pulling out a body which he put over his shoulders. "Uh oh... " I whispered, wondering if Stefan had noticed yet.

I went to open the door for Enzo and he carried the person into the house. Once he was close I realised it was indeed Sarah. She was very bloody, it was all over her clothes and her skin, looking like it had dried in now. I had hoped that she was going to be fit and healthy when Enzo returned her. "Is she…"

"Yes," Enzo confirmed. "Well, no."

"Sarah!" Stefan ran over when he saw them coming in. "What happened?"

"Where to start," Enzo looked exasperated as he went to set Sarah's body down on the sofa, setting her down carefully as she slumped onto the fabric. "When I called Sarah this morning to find out where she was, she told me she was at Whitmore. Caroline had told her to be there."

"How did Caroline even know where to find her. Or her phone number?" Stefan asked confused.

I realised the night we had left her in the Mystic Grill that Caroline had been there too. She must have gotten to Sarah and gotten her details, probably hoping it would hit a nerve with Stefan. Our fault for thinking that she would just ignore the fact that Sarah was in town. "They were both in the Mystic Grill the other night," I explained, leaving out the full details.

"Anyway," Enzo continued. "I thought I would meet her at Whitmore and try and find out…" He looked at me. "Y'know…"

"It's OK, Stefan knows," I told him. "He knows Sarah found out about vampires but it turns out she's been compelled not to care." I looked at Sarah's lifeless body on the sofa. I wondered if Enzo would be angry that I'd spilled to Stefan.

"That would explain why she wasn't the least bit bothered by what I could do," Enzo seemed relieved, as if it had concerned him that Sarah wasn't impressed by his vampire abilities. "So I met her for coffee at Whitmore, she wasn't afraid at all. In fact, she picked up a knife from the table and sliced her hand right in front of me. Talk about testing my restraint. She wanted me to do what I had done to Matt and give her my blood to heal it."

"And did you?" Stefan questioned.

Enzo nodded. "I did. Her cut healed right up. But then she got a phone call, and she left the table to take it. Hadn''t come back ten, fifteen minutes later so I decided to look for her."

"Caroline?" I wondered out loud and Stefan nodded as if he agreed.

"Couldn't find her anywhere until I got a phone call from Sarah's phone about ten minutes later," Enzo continued. "When I picked up no one was on the line but I could hear Sarah's crying in the background. I thought she was in trouble and just managed to dial my number. I heard someone mention a surgery. So I went to check the college hospital, and that's where I found her like that," he pointed at Sarah. "Some idiot was halfway through cutting her heart out. Just managed to stop him."

"What happened to him?" I remembered hearing a scuffle when Caroline's phone had been on loudspeaker. Whoever she had been talking to, I think it was Liam she had called him, was the one she had carrying out her orders.

Enzo was quiet for a moment. "Did what I had to."

Both Stefan and I exchanged a look as we knew that meant that there was a very good chance that Liam was now dead.

"So I go to check on Sarah, but she's lost so much blood, and there's no pulse. I tried giving her more blood to heal her but she didn't wake up."

We all looked at her and slowly came to understand what had happened. "She was already dead," Stefan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "With your blood in her system."

---

A few hours later, Stefan, Enzo and I were in the sitting room, waiting for Sarah to wake up, assuming we knew what was going to happen. She was still on the sofa so we could keep an eye on her, even although there wasn't exactly a shortage of bedrooms here.

Stefan hadn't told Damon or Elena yet who she actually was, only that she was a friend of his from Savannah, Sarah Nelson. Apparently he had fled there for a while when everyone had thought that Damon was dead, so the story checked out for now.

Stefan had agreed that Enzo and I should be there when she woke up, considering that she knew us better than anyone else in this house. Not to mention that I was Lexi's sister. She was the queen of self control. If anyone could help Sarah adjust to her potential new life, I think Stefan thought it would be me. Enzo he was a little more reluctant about but now wasn't the time for whatever they had going on.

I looked up as a woman I hadn't met walked into the room, along with Damon, and Stefan stood up and smiled warmly at her. "Bonnie," he walked over and pulled her into a hug, which she returned. "It's so nice to have you back."

So this was the witch who had been trapped in the prison world. I thought of how she'd had to endure months of isolation. She must have been pretty strong to not go completely insane in there. Though given that prior to that she'd had Damon and Kai for company I wondered if maybe she had preferred being alone.

"It's good to be back," she looked at Enzo and me. Enzo nodded to her. If I remember correctly she had been the one to get him out from the Other Side. Me however, she didn't know.

Stefan caught her staring. "This is Lexi's sister, Nadine," he introduced, and Bonnie gave me a sympathetic look when she realised what that meant. I wished people would stop looking at me like that because I was the one with the dead sister.

I gave her a small smile. "Hi."

"How's Caroline?" Stefan asked her, and I was thankful for the change of subject.

Bonnie laughed, though she looked more tired than amused. "Stubborn as ever. But Elena is with her now and we're working on it."

"You must be glad to be back," Stefan smiled again and she nodded. "Have you spoken to Jeremy yet?" I wasn't sure who that was, and I didn't think I had met him yet.

Bonnie shook her head. "Not yet. I'm going to call him as soon as I get back to Whitmore, but before I go there was something I wanted to show Damon and you," she said, as she sat down. I noticed she was holding a camera in her hands. Which by the looks of it came straight out of the 90's. I remembered it well because it had been one of my favourite times to live in. She looked warily at Enzo and I, as if we weren't to be trusted.

"It's OK," Stefan assured her.

Bonnie nodded and opened the camera as Stefan and Damon walked over to stand behind her where they could see the screen. I felt Enzo shift from next to me and he walked over too, but hovered in the background a bit more. Bonnie, Stefan and Damon all looked at him. "Oh come on," he raised his eyebrows. "I rescued Sarah and I don't get to see whatevers so interesting?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Just play it, Bonnie," he instructed and Bonnie nodded. I heard a noise as the footage began.

"OK, well, when I was leaving the 1994 prison world, something happened and I seemed to be transported between two places," she explained. "This other place… it was snowing, and I could see the Aurora Borealis. I was at the Salvatore House there, but there was no electricity, the pictures on the wall looked old, really old." Damon and Stefan studied the video, probably trying to figure out if they could make out what time it was filmed. "I went to do the spell to get me out, but before I left, there was someone else." She pressed a button on the camera and appeared to be looking for something in the footage, before stopping. "Aha, there!"

Damon and Stefan both stared at the screen, looking like they had seen a ghost. It was Stefan who said it. "Mom…"

My eyes went wide at the revelation. As far as I was aware, Stefan and Damon thought that she was dead. But then I heard Enzo speak too.

"Lily?"

Damon turned to look at him, with a frown on his face. "How do you know our mother?" I looked around to see if there were any pictures on the wall that might have given it away, but the only pictures I could see had people I knew in them. Elena, Caroline, Stefan, Damon.

Enzo was quiet as he looked at the picture on the camera screen. "Because she's the one who turned me."

"That's impossible," Damon shook his head. "Our mother died in 1858. She didn't turn you," he pointed at Enzo, and then looked back to Bonnie "And she isn't stuck in some damn prison world. She's dead. Buried in the ground. We were at her funeral, Stefan."

"I know what I'm looking at Damon," Stefan said firmly. "That's mom. She's right there."

"Bonnie was probably just having a vision of some sort," Damon dismissed as he went to pour himself another whiskey. He sure did seem to like a drink.

"That doesn't make sense," Stefan stared intently at the camera screen. "Why would our mom be in Bonnie's vision and why would she be on camera if she wasn't actually there?" Damon simply shrugged and took a long drink. Stefan looked at Bonnie. "Bonnie, is there some way I could get in there. To look for her?"

Damon sighed. "Oh here we go, Stefan always the mommy's boy."

Bonnie ignored him. "Not without an ascendant… a Bennett witch…"

"OK and say we had those things," Stefan sounded almost excited. "You could just transport us in there, we'll find mom then you transport us all out?"

"Count me out of 'us'," Damon muttered quietly but Stefan didn't seem to be paying attention.

"Well uh…" Bonnie looked worried. Probably at the prospect of something going very wrong and her getting stuck in another prison world for who knows how long. "Stefan, I'm sorry, I don't really know much about this other place and I don't think it's a good idea for us to just go in there with no idea who's in it or why. We'd need someone with the knowledge of the prison worlds, from the Gemini coven."

"Jo?" Stefan suggested, though Damon suddenly shook his head. Jo was the inexperienced looking witch I had seen leave the house before

"Jo isn't a witch anymore," he told them, maybe hoping he could stop Stefan from going. "Alaric told me that she had to give up her magic to…"

"Kai," Stefan finished.

"No… no way," Bonnie was shaking her head. I remembered how Kai had told me that he had liked Bonnie, but Bonnie didn't seem to feel the same way. Given that Damon had gotten out of the prison world first, then Kai, I was assuming maybe it had something to do with them leaving her there. Then again, Kai was clearly insane so who knows what happened while the two of them were trapped together. Bonnie looked at Stefan defiantly. "I'm not doing it, I'm not working with him."

"Please, Bonnie," Stefan begged. I wondered if Bonnie was the only witch left from her family if it required a specific bloodline to do the spell.

"We don't even have the ascendant," Bonnie pointed out, taking out a little metal device from her pocket and holding it up. "I have the one from 1994, I somehow bounced between there and the other world before I got out, but I don't know how I'd even get there."

I studied the metal thing that Bonnie was holding and recalled something similar sitting in the apartment where I had found Kai. "Kai has one of those," I told them. "I seen it when I went to talk to him about Lexi."

"Then please Bonnie," Stefan was practically down on his knees. "Let's speak to him and see what he knows and if we can just get in there long enough to find out why my mom is apparently alive and trapped in a prison world..."

Bonnie's mouth opened and closed a few times like she wanted to say something but didn't.

Stefan persisted. "I won't let anything happen to you Bonnie. I promise."

I had a feeling Bonnie really didn't want to, but she seemed reluctant to say no. "OK," she finally agreed.

Enzo, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up. "I'll go too."

---

"Are you sure about this?" I asked as Enzo and I sat on the other sofa next to where Sarah was asleep. Her wounds had slowly started to heal up now and it wouldn't be long before she was awake.

Bonnie and Stefan were in the kitchen making preparations to go to the prison world, which included Kai coming over to give them the ascendant. Enzo told me they had called him to ask for his help and he had told them that he would help on one condition - that he got to go along too. I wasn't sure why he would want to, but they had reluctantly agreed. Kai had told them that the world Bonnie had ended up in was a 1903 prison world, but if he knew why Lily Salvatore had been sent there, he wasn't sharing.

"I'm sure," Enzo replied, as he scrolled through Sarah's phone. I knew this wasn't how he had planned for Sarah to turn and he was angry at Caroline for interfering and probably me for getting Stefan involved. "I need to make sure Stefan finds his Mother to ask her about why she turned me and… left. The day after she just vanished and I had to figure out the whole vampire thing by myself."

"What year did you turn?" I asked.

"1903, maybe just before she ended up in a prison world," Enzo looked thoughtful. "I was 27. Had spent the last thirteen years on the streets and I ended up with consumption. It was killing me," he went quiet for a moment. "I tried to get on a ship in Southampton that was going to New York where I'd heard of a doctor with a cure. Of course, they weren't going to let me on when I couldn't even afford food, nevermind a ticket. That woman," he said, and I knew he was referring to Stefan and Damon's mother, "She got me onboard somehow and took me to a doctor. I wasn't getting any better but then she had me drink something… I realise now it was her blood. I woke up the next day and she was gone. I felt better but had an overwhelming urge for blood and I fed on the doctor on the ship, which completed my transition."

"That must have been hard," I smiled sadly, knowing that I wouldn't have been able to get through mine without Lexi. "Not knowing what happened to you."

Enzo nodded. "I don't know why she did it. If she knew something about my family or who I was, or what I could do… So I have to find her and speak to her." He stood up, getting ready to leave. "You'll stay here for Sarah, right?"

I knew I'd be alone with Elena and Damon, and Caroline in the basement, but I felt safe enough. "Yes," I assured him and he nodded before walking off. "Enzo?" I said and he paused in the doorway and turned around. "Be safe."

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

The good news was that Sarah had woken up about thirty minutes ago.

The bad news was that suddenly all her compulsions had worn off, and not only did she now care about vampires, but she appeared to be terrified of us. And that was a bit of a problem, because we had to explain to her that she was now a vampire too. Well, she had the choice to be of course, but the other outcome was pretty grim.

Sarah was now cowering away in the corner of the bedroom that Elena and I had moved her to before she had woken up. This house really was beautiful, it still had a lot of its original features.

She definitely remembered me, that was for sure. "Get away from me," she cried as I tried to approach her for a third time.

"Sarah, please," I tried to keep the blood bag I was holding out of sight, not wanting to spook her anymore by telling her that she would need to drink it soon to stop her from dying. "We just want to help. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

"But you're… a vampire," Sarah said it out loud like she didn't believe it, even though she hadn't been bothered by it not even 48 hours ago. Probably a good thing, because if she had reacted like this in the Mystic Grill when Enzo had told her what we were, him and I would have been in trouble. "And you too?" Sarah asked Elena.

Elena nodded. "I am. But that doesn't mean we're going to hurt you or that you should be afraid of us," Elena said as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "Sarah, there's something you need to know. When you were attacked at Whitmore today… you lost a lot of blood."

Sarah looked down at her body, probably wondering why there were no marks. But she still had her bloodied clothes on. "I remember getting a phone call. The woman, Caroline, told me to go to the college hospital. Then I lay down on the surgery table…" Caroline had clearly compelled her. Sarah's face dropped as she remembered the events of the day. "Someone… there was a man there and he started cutting me. Where are my wounds?"

"That's the thing," I said quietly. "When you took Enzo's blood after cutting your hand today, it healed you. But it stayed in your body. So, after the incident earlier," I wasn't really sure how else to describe it. I bit my lip. Knowing that Sarah had died and turned because of someone else and not what me or Enzo had done didn't really make it easier. "After you died…"

"What do you mean I died?" Sarah cut in and looked between us as if we were talking rubbish. She checked her body again for any marks, but her skin was perfectly clear. "How would I be here if I died?" She waited for one of us to respond, but neither Elena or I wanted to do it. But Sarah soon figured it out on her own anyway. "You turned me into the same as you?!"

"We didn't have a choice," I explained quickly. "That's what happens when you die with vampire blood in your body." I didn't want to say it was partly her fault for asking Enzo to heal her earlier in the day, but I mean...

Sarah looked completely devastated. "I'm a monster?"

"We're not monsters," Elena suddenly became defensive. I had a feeling that she really valued her humanity and tried to be as un-monster like as possible. "My friends and I are good people. We're just a little different." That was one way of putting it, a bit of an understatement in my opinion.

"How can you say that?" Sarah narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for vampires. Enzo called me here pretending to be interested in my photographs. I realise now it was just a trap. And your friend was the reason I ended up in that hospital."

"Caroline's not herself right now," I tried to begin to explain it but realised it was probably not the time to start talking about humanity switches and turning off our emotions. "She's… a bit upset because her Mom just died."

"A bit upset? So she just tries to murder people?" Sarah asked incredulously. "I don't want to be some emotionless killing machine," Sarah looked like she was about to burst into tears again.

"We're far from it," I told her. I felt like I was more in touch with my emotions than a lot of humans were. Not only in the past couple of weeks since I'd lost Lexi, but even before that. A movie about puppy dogs could make me cry easily.

"Well... you drink blood, right?" Sarah asked. "You must kill people." Of course most people thought that as soon as they heard 'vampire'.

"Actually no," I held up the blood bag I had been waiting to show her. I mean, it was true some of us did kill people, but that didn't have to be the case if she chose not to. "There's other options out there. We mostly get our blood from these blood bags, or some of us from animals. You don't have to kill anyone. In fact, we actively try to avoid that."

"Speaking of blood…" Elena looked at the clock on the bedside table, probably working out how long Sarah had left. She'd become weak soon if she didn't drink blood before eventually passing away. "You need to drink some soon... to complete your transition."

"What happens if I don't?" Sarah asked, looking like she was scared to hear the answer.

"You'll die. Permanently." I held out the blood bag in my hand to Sarah as an offering and she stared at it looking momentarily disgusted. She slapped my hand away and the blood bag spilled out over my clothes. I groaned in annoyance, trying to keep as much of it from going into the carpet as I could.

Sarah looked at me. "I need…" I knew the blood would smell appealing to her, but she was fighting it. Her last connection to her human self. Only, she wouldn't have too much longer to consider it. "I need to think about this."

Elena nodded in understanding. "Is there anything we can do? Any questions that you have for us?" Sarah remained silent as Elena tried to help. I'm not sure how much information Sarah could handle about vampires right now anyway. Humanity, feeding, daylight, healing, compulsion. Where to start? "Is there someone I can call for you?"

Sarah began to shake her head, but stopped. "Actually yes... I want to speak to Matt."

"Matt?" Elena appeared confused, probably wondering how the two knew each other. I considered telling Elena the real story of why Sarah was in Mystic Falls but decided she should hear that from Stefan, when the time was right.

"When I came here, Matt told me to be careful in this town." Sarah slowly stood up. I hoped she didn't try and run off. She'd be be alright at night time, but if she was exposed to the sunlight with no idea what to expect she would be in trouble. "Matt is human, but he knows about vampires, doesn't he?"

I looked at Elena for confirmation. Considering that Enzo and Caroline hadn't exactly been subtle around him I had a feeling he did, but I wasn't sure if he was ever compelled to forget. "He does," Elena nodded. "I'll call him."

---

I checked the time on the clock. 19:40. This felt like it had been a really long day and I really wanted to just lie down for a while.

It had been over 3 hours since Bonnie, Kai, Enzo and Stefan had gone to the 1903 prison world.

Elena had shown me to one of the other spare bedrooms where I could clean up, and get rid of the bloody clothes I was wearing. Luckily, Elena and I appeared to be around the same size so she had given me clean jeans and a jumper to wear for now. The shower had felt good, and I had spent a little longer than necessary in it just to try and relieve some stress.

I got dressed in the bedroom, listening to the noise of the rain on the window and the storm outside. I looked for a hair dryer but couldn't find one, so tied up my wet hair. The room didn't have any personal effects so I assumed no one had used it for a while.

I hoped Matt would be able to convince Sarah to complete her transition. I didn't know if he was the best person for the job considering he was a human, but Sarah seemed to trust him more than any of us vampires right now. I also felt that Stefan should speak to her. Maybe if she knew that she was actually a Salvatore and that she had family here, that would help convince her.

Now that Enzo's plan was ruined there wasn't really much reason for me to stay in Mystic Falls. But I was beginning to get to know the people here and I was no longer desperate to get back to San Francisco. I liked Elena and Stefan wasn't that bad. And of course, there was Enzo.

I went back downstairs, expecting to find Elena and probably, and unfortunately, Damon. I wasn't sure if they were officially now back together or not. My plan was to check in with them and go back to Enzo's apartment for a couple of hours until everyone else got back from the prison world.

So it came as a huge surprise that Stefan, Bonnie, Elena and Damon were all already in the sitting room. Along with another woman, who look like she had come straight out of… well, 1903. "Hi," I said warily as I walked into the room. "You made it back OK? And I see your trip was successful…"

Stefan saw me looking at the woman next to him and stood up. "Nadine, this is my mother, Lily Salvatore."

"It's nice to meet you," I smiled and she returned it though she looked like she was feeling very out of place and confused. Damon's expression was stony, but Elena seemed excited that she was there. "So everything went OK?"

Stefan nodded, though not too enthusiastically. "Everything worked like it should have. We found my mother in the 1903 version of our house. Was strange to be back there."

"Well I'm glad that you made it back safely," I said honestly. Maybe a mother figure would make Damon less of an annoyance, and it could be good for Sarah having her around too.

"We couldn't have done it without Bonnie," he smiled at the witch and she looked away shyly.

"And Enzo?" I asked, seeing that he wasn't in the sitting room. "Did he go back to his apartment?" I wondered why he hadn't checked in on Sarah. Maybe he was still angry at the fact that his plan for her had been ruined and he was no longer interested. I noticed Kai wasn't around either but I didn't think he would have been welcome here after they had returned. He was probably kicked out at the earliest opportunity.

Everyone went quiet and I waited for someone to respond. Their faces were hard to read. "About that…" Stefan cleared his throat. "Enzo and Kai didn't come back with us."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused. Bonnie now had a guilty look on her face. "You mean like, they did a different spell, or…?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "They're still in the prison world," he said flatly. "Bonnie and Stefan left him and Kai in there." He looked at Stefan. "Right brother?"

"Look, we went in there to get mom," Stefan sounded tired. "We all split up so we could get out quickly and Enzo was supposed to be keeping an eye on Kai while we went into the house. We were going to go back for them before leaving, but…"

"It was my fault," Bonnie spoke up. "I decided that I was going to pull us back out and leave Kai in there. He's too dangerous to be in this world and after everything he's done... I had to. If we had gone back for Enzo then Kai would have found out what I was planning to do. So when Stefan was finding his mom, I looked for the 1903 version of the ascendant and then when we were together I did the spell to get us out."

I stared at her in silence for a moment. "Wow," I was almost speechless. They were just planning to leave Enzo in there alone with Kai. "So that's it?" I knew Stefan didn't like Enzo and Damon and Elena didn't seem interested in fighting for him. "You leave Enzo in a prison world?"

"I'm sorry, I agreed with Bonnie's plan," Stefan admitted finally. "Kai is too dangerous to risk it."

I closed my eyes and gathered my thoughts for a second. I thought about how Enzo had looked out for me since I had gotten here, even though he didn't have to. "Send me in."

Elena looked concerned. "What?"

"Send. Me. In… to the prison world," I clarified, looking at Bonnie.

"I'm not going back there," she said quickly. "If Kai knows that we left him he'll go after me for sure and I don't want to see him ever again."

"I'm not asking you to go with me," I pointed out. "It just requires some of your blood and the ascendant, right? So just give me your blood, get me in and I'll figure out the rest from there."

"I don't think it's a good idea, Nadine," Elena said softly, clearly trying to talk me out of it, but I glared at them all.

"Yeah, we don't have time for this," Damon rubbed his hands together. "We've got a wedding to organise." I briefly wondered who was getting married before I realised I was being distracted.

"Don't you get it?!" I snapped. I think I was understanding now why Enzo had a problem with these people. How betrayed he must feel. I wasn't sure exactly how long Stefan, Bonnie and Lily had been back, or if Enzo even realised they had left yet, but he would soon. "This… his whole life… Enzo has just been left behind by the people he trusted. First his parents," I looked at Lily "Then you, after you turned him," I turned to look at Damon, "And you. You left him to burn in a fire after he helped get you out of Augustine." Damon briefly looked shocked that I knew about Augustine. "No wonder he has issues with you all. I'm not leaving him stuck in a prison world with Kai." I was getting angrier by the second. "Send me in there, now."

I thought about Sarah but decided that Stefan could handle that for now. She was his family after all. The room was silent before Stefan sighed. "If that's what you want. Bonnie, can you do it without going in yourself?"

Bonnie frowned, trying to work it out. "As long as she's the only one holding the ascendant when I do the spell it should work to get her in. But… without a witch to do the spell to get you back, you'd be stuck in there. And with nowhere to get blood…" She paused.

"Please, Nadine. Think about this," Elena urged. "If you don't have any blood, you won't be able to keep going and you could get stuck in there."

"Yeah," I understood it meant that I would eventually dessicate. But I would rather keep a friend company than have them go through that alone. Even if it meant the end of me too. And who knows, maybe someday someone else would stumble into the prison world and we would be freed.

Bonnie still looked unconvinced. "Kai is able to do the spell. How do I know you won't just go to him for help? It'll ruin the whole thing if you let him get out."

"Perhaps I can help?" Lily stood up to my surprise. "You see, I have some… family… in the 1903 world. They are all born witches, later turned into vampires."

"Oh great," Damon spoke up. "The last thing we need are more hybrid abominations. They aren't even your real family."

Lily ignored him, probably trying to keep her calm composure. "If you could get to them, they could maybe help with performing a spell. And hopefully," She looked at her two sons. "You'll be able to bring them back with you."

"Where are they?" I asked, wondering if I'd have to travel halfway across an empty prison world to find them, with a limited blood supply. "And how many are we talking about?"

"They're in the attic of the Salvatore House," Lily replied, much to my relief. That should be easy enough. "Oscar, Malcolm, Beau, Valerie, Nora and Mary-Louise. But I'm afraid my blood rations weren't enough for all of us and only I could stay awake. But I miss them terribly, and if its alright with my sons I'd like to bring them back here."

Damon scoffed but didn't say anything. It was hard to tell what Stefan was thinking. I could feel everyone's eyes on me as they waited for me to make a decision. "I'm going in."

 

Chapter 8: Chapter 8

The snow crunched under my feet as I walked through the forest, looking for a light or any sign of life that might tell me I was getting closer to the Salvatore house. I had made it here in one piece, as far as I could tell anyway. The spell had been fast and I hadn't felt anything painful as I was transported between the two worlds.

I put my hand on my back pocket, looking for some assurance that the small vial of Bonnie's blood was still there. I would need it to get me and Enzo back to the present day, along with Lily's vampire witch friends, that Damon had looked furious at the prospect of bringing back. That had actually made me all the happier to do it, though Stefan and the others had also seemed reluctant.

I had a strict set of instructions on what I needed to do. First, I had to find the 1903 ascendant that Bonnie told me should be out front of the house, which is where they had left it to travel back the last time. I needed to use her blood to activate it, and one of the vampire witches would need to say the spell, that was also written down on a piece of paper in my pocket. Anyone holding on to the ascendant at that time would be transported back. All of this had to take place during a celestial event. The Aurora Borealis was still visible in the sky right now, probably due to the lack of electricity and pollution back in 1903. But failing that, we had quickly researched before I left and there was a meteor shower due in two days. I didn't want to be here that long if it could be avoided.

Elena had given me four spare blood bags - enough that meant I should be able to rouse Lily's friends from their dessicated state, but also enough that would keep Enzo and me going.

I wondered if he had worked it out yet, that he had been abandoned again. Several hours had passed now since the others had arrived back.

After walking for what felt like ages through the trees that all looked the same and the odd looking bushes I could have sworn I'd seen five times already I got a faint smell of something smokey, like someone was burning something nearby. A sign of other life hopefully.

I wiped my eyes to try and focus in the snow that was coming down thick and fast in front of me. I knew that if it had been left outside in front of the house then the odds of finding the ascendant in this weather were slim and I'd likely be spending until the morning here until it was bright, and waiting for the snow to ease off a bit.

Finally, the shape of a large house could be made out in the distance. I started to run towards it to get there faster, and as I got closer I could see it was the Salvatore house. As glad as I was, I really just wanted somewhere to shelter.

I walked up to the front door and opened it up to darkness. I had assumed Enzo and possibly Kai would have come back here looking for the others but given how quiet it was I was no longer confident in that. I set the blood bags I'd been holding down on a table in the kitchen, but kept Bonnie's blood safely in my pocket. It was the one thing I couldn't get a replacement for and the difference between getting stuck here and getting back to the present.

I looked around for something I could use to help me see, settling on a candle and box of matches from one of the drawers. Fire wasn't exactly my favourite thing, given that it was one of the few things that really could kill me, but it would have to do. I put the candle into a holder then began exploring the rest of the house. The first several rooms I went into were empty, the sitting room, the dining room and the library.

The more I searched the more worried I got. I was starting to think that coming here had been stupid but it wasn't like I had much going for me for back in the present.

Sometimes I had wondered what it would be like to die, to finally be at rest and hopefully, if the afterlife was how I imagined, see my family again.

I knew that as well as the ascendant, the one other thing I needed was magic, and without Kai I had to rely on what Lily had promised on being in the attic. She didn't know me so I didn't think she had reason to lie to me but I wanted to see for myself anyway, to put my mind at ease.

I started to make my way upstairs, checking some of the bedrooms I passed, that were also empty. Maybe Enzo and Kai had gone into the 1903 version of the town, instead of coming back here. I looked at the paintings on the wall of the house as I walked through the hallways. What I assumed to be the Salvatore family. I thought about Sarah then and hoped that Matt was able to convince her to complete her transition. If she died then me staying in Mystic Falls would have been pointless and all we would gain is an angry Stefan.

I seen one last small flight of stairs with a large wooden door at the top and made my way up. Slowly I pushed it open, glad that it wasn't locked. I assumed Lily had checked in on them before leaving. I used the candle to illuminate the room and spotted them almost immediately. Sitting in the centre of the room at what looked like an old dining table, as still as statues. I cautiously stepped closer, even although she had told me all six of them were long dessicated, making sure nothing was going to jump out at me, and examined each of them individually. Three females and three males, just like Lily had said. I couldn't help but think that if we made it back to the present day that their wardrobe would need updating.

I had never met a vampire with witch powers before and given the uncertainty in the group that had sent me here I assumed they hadn't either. I didn't know what they were capable of.

Which is why I decided it best to leave them in their current state for now, at least until I had everything I needed to get back. Or I wasn't on my own. I left the attic, making sure to close the door behind me. I know vampires shouldn't get scared easily but they had kind of given me the creeps. I just hoped I could bring them onto our side once they woke up.

I made my way back down the stairs and back to the kitchen where I looked at the blood bags on the table. I was going to have to ensure that I rationed it, given that I needed to make sure there was enough to wake everyone up. I opened one and took a small drink from the bag. It was always difficult to stop once I had started.

That's when I heard the music.

I followed the noise down another hallway and paused outside the room it was coming from. The sign on the door told me that it was the study. I started to push the door open but before I could enter I felt someone rush into me and was pinned against the wall. Enzo. He quickly dropped his hands from my arms when he realised it was me. "Nadine? What the hell are you doing here?"

I pushed past him and made my way into the room. On the desk in the middle sat three empty glasses and a bottle of something, which I assumed to be alcoholic. The fireplace in the room was lit and I could see a pile of books had been thrown onto it, which was most likely where the smell of smoke had come from. "It's nice to see you too, Enzo." I sat down on the desk chair, which was surprisingly comfortable. In the corner of the room I discovered where the music was coming from, an old record player. Or rather, as it had been known as back in 1903, a phonograph. It made me sort of nostalgic for this time and had it not been that I only had enough blood for a few days I'd liked to have spent more time here exploring.

"I thought you were Kai," he walked over and poured himself another glass of the mystery liquid before holding the bottle towards me. "Drink?" I shook my head, wanting to keep my thoughts clear. I could see his babysitting Kai hadn't gone well, given that he no longer seemed to know where Kai was. "They went home, didn't they?"

I looked at Enzo's face, he was keeping a perfectly blank expression, making it difficult to know how hurt he was by the betrayal. "Yeah, a couple of hours ago," I confirmed.

"What are you doing here then?" Enzo asked.

"I wasn't going to leave you in here," I said truthfully, watching as he looked up and met my eyes. He looked confused, like it wasn't something that someone would do for him. "I have a plan to get us back to the present." In my mind I had added 'I hope' to the end of that sentence, but I needed to at least pretend I was confident it was going to work.

Enzo was quiet for a minute, taking another drink, this time ignoring the glass and swigging it directly from the bottle. "Why?"

"Why what?" I asked, as he sat down on the corner of the desk.

"Why would you come back for me?"

My heart ached for him in that moment. I realised he was so used to being left behind he had probably already accepted that he was going to be stuck here, destined for the same fate as those in the attic. I knew he and Stefan had history and Stefan and Bonnie were trying to protect their friends by leaving Kai here but I couldn't help but hate them just a little bit for this. "We're friends, right?" I liked to think that's the direction this was going in. "Friends don't leave each other behind."

Enzo didn't reply but I took his lack of denying it as a sign he agreed. He moved off the desk onto a sofa in front of the fireplace and I left the desk chair to join him. "So what's the plan then?" he asked and I looked around the room as if to ensure there was no one listening in. "Don't we need a witch to get us out of here?"

"We have six," I took the small vial of Bonnie's blood out of my pocket and held it up to show him. "This will activate the ascendant, and then we need someone to say the spell. Luckily, Lily had left behind a few surprises in the attic. Six witches who were turned to vampires. They still have their magic. Only problem is they all dessicated when they got stuck in this prison world, so we'll need to wake them up first."

Enzo looked surprised, likely also never having encountered the hybrid before. "And it's as easy as that?"

"Well, we need to find the ascendant first," I pointed out, looking over at the window where the snow was still coming down heavily. "Bonnie said it should be out the front somewhere but I think our chances of finding it before daylight are slim." I didn't particularly want to spend the night here but I felt slightly better now that I was no longer on my own. I lowered my voice then, thinking of the other obstacle that could potentially be in our way. "Where's… Kai?" I said his name so quietly like it was going to accidentally summon him if it was too loud. I knew he'd also be trying to figure out a way home, but hoped he had left the ascendant alone, given that he didn't have the Bennett blood required to activate it.

"He took off after he realised Stefan and the witch had gone," Enzo said as he put down the now finished bottle. "I doubt he would be too far by now but I didn't try and find him. I'd rather waste away on my own than in his company."

I got up from the sofa and looked around the room. The house seemed to be in good condition, I assumed Lily had been looking after it. My clothes were damp from the snow and sticking to me. "I'm going to see if I can find something to get changed into," I told Enzo. "Looks like we're spending the night here at least." I left him looking through the drinks cabinet again and headed upstairs towards the bedrooms.

The master bedroom was easy enough to find, thanks to the extravagant door. I held up the candle I had brought with me and sat down on the bed for a moment, just looking around the room. As much as I was trying to hide it I was nervous this plan wasn't going to work. I'd be stuck in this house forever, in a frozen state, having to hope that one day someone would stumble across me, the same as they had for Lily.

I made my way over to one of the drawers in the room and opened it up. The clothes inside were folded away neatly, they didn't look dusty or worn, they still looked quite fresh, although the style definitely wasn't new. I pulled out at least three corsets and several dresses, all of them embellished with extravagant decoration, before I got to anything that looked remotely comfortable. How times had changed, I thought back to when my wardrobe used to contain items looking exactly the same as this. I found what appeared to be a long dressing gown, that minus the lace detail around the neck, seemed simple enough that I could get some rest in it.

I took off my wet clothes and hung them up around the room, hoping they would be dry by the morning but not certain given how cold it was and got changed, before heading back downstairs.

I checked the study first but it was empty now, and I noticed the glow of light had moved to the kitchen, where I found Enzo sitting at the dining table, an open blood bag next to him. He looked up at me when I walked in and looked my outfit up and down. "Suits you."

I playfully did a little twirl around before pointing at the blood bag. "Take your time with those, we need to make them last."

Enzo nodded and pushed the bag away, still half full. He looked deep in thought. "Nadine, sit down for a minute."

I did as he asked and sat across from where he was at the table. He was quiet for a moment, fiddling with one of the rings on his hand. He looked like he was contemplating his words. "Are you OK?" I asked, wondering what was on his mind.

"We need to talk about your sister," he said quietly. "I haven't... been completely honest with you." I frowned, I thought he had no idea who Lexi was. Enzo sighed before looking up to meet my gaze. "When you showed me that picture of her before and I told you I'd never seen her, I lied. She was on The Other Side at the same time as me."

I wasn't angry at that. I already knew now that Lexi had been on The Other Side, after Elena had told me she had helped to save their friends. Maybe Enzo just hadn't recognised her the first time I had shown him a picture. "It's OK, I already know she was there," I reassured him as I pat his hand gently, but he quickly pulled it away.

"I'm not done. She… she was next in line to cross back over," Enzo continued. "Everyone else had been sent back already. Bonnie was reaching the limit of what she could do, and it was killing her." I thought about how difficult it was on Bonnie, and I felt a bit bad for criticizing her choices, it sounded like she did a lot for her friends. "But I…" Enzo stopped and looked away from me. "I pushed in front of her and I came back through. I was the last one to make it back before it collapsed."

We were both quiet then as I processed this. Lexi had been so close to being saved. If it wasn't for Enzo then she likely would have been sent back to Mystic Falls. I didn't really know what to say.

"Why are you telling me this?" I finally asked, confused as to why he just hadn't said anything. I didn't think the others would know since they had already been back from The Other Side, apart from maybe Bonnie.

"Because you put yourself at risk to come here and save me," he said quietly. "I thought you should know. I was selfish. Lexi had friends and family who wanted her back, I.. didn't. If you want to leave me here I wouldn't blame you."

I shook my head. "It doesn't make you any less worth saving, Enzo." He'd had a hard life too. First, left behind by his parents, then Lily, then Damon in Augustine. I understood why he had put himself first for once. No one else was going to. I thought on it for a minute and Damon was still the one I was angry at. He had put her there in the first place. Besides, nothing said or done now was going to bring her back. I felt a single tear roll down from my eye before Enzo reached up and gently brushed it away from my cheek.

"I'm so sorry," his voice was a whisper, his own eyes looking pained. He kept his hand on my cheek. "I know I can't fix it, I can't replace her, but from now on I promise, I'll be there for you, whatever you need."

I smiled sadly at him and let my face lean into his touch as we sat quietly.

Until we were interrupted by a third voice coming from the doorway.

"Aw man, I feel like I'm walking into something I shouldn't be here. Typical me."

It was Kai.

"What are you doing here?" Enzo asked, quickly standing up and moving closer to Kai. I warily followed, but stayed behind Enzo.

Kai shrugged but looked at me. "I assumed if you had been sent here on a rescue mission that means we're going home." He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a piece of metal. It took me a few seconds to realise it was the ascendant, and all my hope was suddenly lost. "Figured, I have something you need, and you probably have something I need. So we should, you know, like, work together." Kai was grinning.

I remembered I'd left Bonnie's blood in the pocket of my jeans which were still in the bedroom and considered making a run for it but I didn't want to alert Kai as to where it was. If he found it he had everything he needed to leave us behind. He didn't require the vampire witches from the attic as he had his own magic. But now I had a feeling there was no way to get back without Kai coming with us. "What if we do take you back?" I asked, wondering what his plans were. I knew Bonnie and Stefan would be in danger for one, after leaving him here. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll be a good boy, I promise," Kai was smirking, tossing the ascendant from one hand into the other like it was a juggling ball and not a precious item that he needed to keep in one piece. "I'll leave Mystic Falls if that's what everyone wants, maybe find myself a nice little beach house somewhere."

I didn't believe him one bit, but other than trying to overpower him and take the ascendant, knowing that he could siphon from us until we were weak and begin the search for Bonnie's blood, what choice did we have?

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Enzo and I sat in the sitting room with Kai in the kitchen making himself something to eat. I was well aware he could be listening in on anything I said, he was good at being sneaky. We had agreed that we would take him back with us if he disappeared once he got back to Mystic Falls. Kai had promised he would, though I knew that meant nothing. He'd even gone as far as saying he would cloak himself with an invisibility spell until we were back incase the others saw us arriving, so they wouldn't have to know. 

We were still going to have to wake those in the attic so the others didn't become suspicious as to how we had returned. I was trying to think of ways to ditch Kai at the last minute but I'd seen what his powers could do. I'd felt it. "He's not going to just go away, is he?" I asked, watching the flames burning brightly in the fireplace.

"Wouldn't bet any money on it," Enzo shook his head. "But he's not our problem." I took that to mean that it would be up to Damon and Stefan and everyone else back in Mystic Falls to deal with him. "What happened with Sarah?"

"She was terrified of us. Tried to get her to drink from a blood bag to complete her transition but she said she needed some time to think about it." I looked at the clock. I'd been in this prison world for around three hours now, which meant Sarah would have had to have made her choice by now and taken a drink if she didn't want to die. "I left her with Elena, but she wanted to speak with Matt."

Enzo raised his eyebrows at that. "Should never have gotten involved with her." He looked guilty again, the same as when he had told me about Lexi earlier.

I shrugged, I knew why he had done it. "You were angry at Stefan." And maybe Damon a little too, I thought. I didn't bring up that I knew about Augustine, imagining he didn't want to open up about it yet. If ever. If being stuck alone in a cage all that time wasn't torture enough then surely the experiments they had done on him were.

We both looked up as we heard Kai come into the sitting room, balancing three plates very badly, a piece of food falling onto the floor. "Damn, guess my next job isn't gonna be a server." He put two of the plates down on the table in front of Enzo and I and the last one on the floor, which he sat next to, crossing his legs and smiling at us both. "Dig in!"

I looked at the plates, not even sure what was on them but pushing it away. I think he had just taken a piece of everything that was left in the kitchen and tossed it together. The chances he had poisoned it with something were greater than I was willing to take. "I'm not hungry," I told him. I was actually hungry, but for blood. We'd almost made it through one bag already and we'd probably need to leave at least two so there was enough blood for everyone in the attic.

Kai pretended to be disappointed but started eating anyway. "So, we're getting out of here tomorrow?"

I nodded. "Hopefully."

"May I ask…" Kai began, eyeing me carefully. "How were the two of you planning on getting out of here if I hadn't offered to help?"

The question annoyed me. It wasn't like we had sought him out, he had practically threatened us into letting him come back with us by holding the ascendant hostage. "Lily Salvatore told me about some witches in the attic," I began, wondering how much I should tell him but figuring out he would find out anyway once we woke them up. "They were turned to vampires before they got sent to this prison world, but they still have their magic. I just need to feed them some blood."

Kai's mouth formed into an 'o' shape. "Of course, it's 1903. The Heretics."

"The… what?" Enzo asked.

"The Heretics," Kai repeated. "That was the name they were given." He seemed excited but I couldn't tell if that was just his erratic personality. "It was my family who put them here, in the prison world. Oh the things they could do."

I swallowed, looking over at Enzo who looked equally as concerned. "Like what?"

"Imagine me," Kai began and I screwed up my face, it hadn't started well. "Well, six of me, but they have the bloodlust of you two, and they've never learned how to control it properly." Maybe Damon had been right not to want them back. But Lily seemed to trust them. I just needed to make sure that Kai didn't sway them to his team. If we could get home then Lily could work it out with her sons as to what was going to happen to them. Kai yawned and stretched before standing up. "Well, I guess I'll go catch up on some beauty sleep before we get this show on the road in the morning."

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, once we've woken up… the Heretics, we'll need to wait until night, for the Aurora Borealis." I wasn't sure how long it would take to wake them once they'd had a taste of blood but I hoped it would happen fairly quickly. I imagined they would need some time to adjust to life again however. 

Kai shook his head. "Nah, not for me. I'm the leader of the Gemini coven, I don't need to wait for some celestial event. I come and go as I please."

"Good for you," Enzo muttered, closing his eyes as if it would block out Kai completely.

"Either way," I said, shaking my head. "If we come back in the day time then Bonnie and the others will probably start asking questions. If you want us to take you, then we're waiting until it gets dark."

Kai pouted. "Well, you're the boss I guess." He headed for the door, most likely on his way to find a bed for the night. "Goodnight, my dear friends."

We both ignored him and I waited until he was out of sight with the door closed behind him before I reached into the pocket of the dressing gown I was wearing to feel for Bonnie's blood. I had quickly disappeared upstairs earlier, pretending to check on my stuff and switched it from the pocket of my jeans. I wanted to keep it close to me and away from Kai. It was safe.

"Maybe getting some rest isn't a bad idea," I said quietly, knowing tomorrow was going to be a challenge. As vampires we didn't necessarily have to sleep, but a few hours every now and then was refreshing and made me feel less groggy. I looked over at Enzo but he looked like he was too on edge to sleep. 

I got comfortable on the sofa, not wanting to be too close to where Kai was, and closed my eyes. The sound of the fireplace crackling was somewhat relaxing and I drifted off quite quickly but not into a deep sleep. I was still able to feel Enzo putting a blanket over me and speaking quietly. "Sweet dreams."
_________________________________

It was already bright outside when I woke up and I sat up slowly. I hadn't been planning to sleep that long but maybe I'd needed it more than I thought. The room was colder, the fire had gone out and the window was still covered in snow. Not that it would matter now that we had the ascendant.

I went to the bedroom to change back into my clothes which were still a little damp but an improvement from last night, before going back downstairs where I found Enzo in the kitchen. Kai was nowhere to be seen. Enzo was measuring out the blood bags into six equal servings, which I assumed to be for the Heretics. There was another bag to the side that was only half full, probably all we had left. Enzo seen me looking and picked it up and tossed it over to me. "Keep your strength up."

I nodded and started to drink before helping him. "You ready to do this?"

"Ready to get out of here," he replied.

Once we had the blood ready, we both headed up the stairs to the attic. They were in the exact same place as when I had last seen them. Enzo went to look at them with fascination. He waved his hands in front of their eyes which were frozen open but they didn't even flinch. Their faces were grey and cracked, their limbs stuck in place with cobwebs hanging from some of them.

"We'll do one at a time," Enzo decided, picking up one cup of blood. "If they turn out to be a threat then it's easier to deal with one than six." 

I nodded in agreement, that made sense. He took it over to the female who was sitting on the right hand side of the table and put his hand under her chin, tilting up her head so she would be able to drink. He slowly lifted up the cup and poured, I watched nervously as the first drops of blood went into her mouth. Once he was satisfied she'd had enough he stepped back and we both watched, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing at first. But then slowly, the changes became visible. First her face started to heal up, the cracks covering up and her skin turning back to it's own color instead of the dull grey. Then the hair, going from a tangled mess into long golden locks. She was actually becoming very beautiful. 

Eventually her fingers started to twitch and she was regaining movement in her arms and legs. After a few more minutes she was able to turn her head. She looked at her friends sitting at the table, then at Enzo and I. "Who… who… who are you?" she asked, taking a few tries to get the words out, probably after not using her voice for over a hundred years. I noticed she had a British accent too. She looked threatened but at the same time like she was too weak to attack us yet, but she did flash her teeth.

Enzo rolled his eyes. "Don't wanna bite us, love, we're not to your taste."

I stepped forward, taking care not to approach her too quickly. "I'm Nadine and this is Enzo," I introduced ourselves. "We're here from the future." I immediately cringed at my own words, I made us sound like some sort of time travellers. "We were sent here to look for you, by Lily Salvatore." 

"Lily?" her face softened slightly. "What happened to her?"

"We have a device that can transport us between worlds," I began, not really sure how to explain it as I still didn't fully understand how the ascendant worked myself. "You've been stuck in 1903, this is a prison world made by a coven of witches. Our world is the present." I wondered what it was they had done to piss off the Gemini coven so badly that they had been sent here. "One of our friends got sent here by accident and she found Lily and got her out."

"But we got sent back for you," Enzo continued, figuring out my plan. If we convinced them we had only been sent here to rescue them then hopefully they wouldn't become suspicious.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

She was quiet for a moment, probably still deciding whether she trusted us or not. "Mary Louise."

"Well, Mary Louise, you think if we wake up your friends you can keep them all in check?" Enzo asked as he picked up another cup of blood. "If either of us dies then you're stuck here and you'll never see Lily again." A little on the direct side I thought, but true. Well, unless Kai befriended them and got them out himself.

Mary Louise nodded and looked at the woman who had been sitting next to her. "Please, wake Nora next."

Enzo obliged and gave the next cup to the dark haired woman. We went through the same process of watching, waiting, for the slow change. Mary Louise seemed anxious and I watched her movements carefully to make sure she wasn't going to turn on us. But her focus was solely on the woman she called Nora. 

When Nora was finally able to move Mary Louise practically jumped at her before pulling her into a tight hug, then a passionate kiss. That would explain why she was so desperate for Nora to wake up. They were together. It was then that Nora noticed us standing there and looked at Mary Louise for reassurance. "It's OK, Lily sent them," Mary Louise pulled her into another hug, burying her face into Nora's shoulder. "They're here to help us get out of this prison."

"Back to our time?" Nora asked Mary Louise but Enzo answered.

"Not exactly."

Things would have changed quite drastically since the Heretics were last outside the prison world. 

I picked up another cup. "Time for three." Just at that moment, I noticed something at the attic door. 

It was the ascendant, and I was damn sure it was floating. 

I blinked my eyes a few times to check I wasn't imagining it as no one else seemed to have noticed. I handed the cup to Enzo. "I'll be right back."

I followed the ascendant down the stairs and along the hallway before it came to a stop outside one of the bedrooms. I waved my hand over and under it to see if anything was holding it up and almost shrieked out loud when Kai appeared right in front of me. I quickly stepped back a bit. "What the hell?!"

Kai was grinning. "Cool trick, huh? It's how I'm coming back unnoticed. I think I've decided on my next job and I should be a magician."

"Yes, very good," I said in annoyance, I had wondered when he was going to show up today. "We're making progress with Lily's friends," I noted, making sure to keep my voice down so they wouldn't hear me talking to someone else. "It shouldn't be long now."

Kai held out the ascendant. "This is for you."

"You're just giving it to me?" I asked, wondering what the catch was, but I took it from him anyway.

"Yes." Kai started to flicker then, becoming visible and invisible every couple of seconds. "But don't think about trying to leave without me." He disappeared again then reappeared behind me. "Because I'll be right beside you for the rest of the day. You just won't know it."

I sighed but put the ascendant in my pocket. "That's not creepy at all."

I couldn't see Kai the next time he spoke but I could still hear his voice. "Come on then, take me to meet our new friends."

I headed back towards the attic and up the stairs, expecting to see Mary Louise and Nora, as well as probably one of the others up and about but got a shock to see that every one of the other four was starting to come back to life, with Enzo looking annoyed in the corner. "What happened to one at a time?" I said quietly.

Enzo narrowed his eyes at Mary Louise. "Blondie here couldn't wait."

Mary Louise ignored it and excitedly helped everyone come to. They all looked surprised, concerned, confused. She pointed at them in the order they were sitting. "This is Valerie, Beau, Oscar and Malcolm. The time has come," Mary Louise told them all. "We're getting out of here."
________________________________

A couple of hours had passed since we had woken the Heretics, just until it was dark enough to start to see the Aurora Borealis in the sky. The Heretics had finished off our blood supply and were back to full strength vampire wise. I wasn't sure how their magic was affected by being dessicated for so long and didn't want them trying to siphon anyone when we got back to the present.

I looked around the sitting room at everyone, they couldn't be more different, yet they acted like a very close family. If one of them left a room they all followed and they all stayed close together. Oscar was the exception and he was currently sitting with Enzo while they looked at the ascendant, trying to figure out if it was ready to go.

Valerie seemed to be the moody one, but I couldn't tell why. I'd have thought she would be happy to leave the prison world but the look on her face said she'd rather be dessicated than coming back with us. 

Beau hadn't said a word since he had woken up, which none of the others seemed to find strange but I sure did. He had a large scar running across his throat and I didn't want to stare or ask, but I wasn't sure if that had something to do with it.

And then there was Malcolm. Malcolm I already didn't like. He had asked the most questions when he had woken up, like he didn't believe a word we said. He was currently sitting with a book, occasionally shooting glances over at Enzo and Oscar as if to see what was taking so long, like it was an annoyance to him.

Finally, Mary Louise and Nora just seemed genuinely happy to be in each other's company again. They actually made me smile.

Nora had agreed to do the spell, given that she'd had time to work on her magic before they had been sent to this prison world. I'd given her the piece of paper that Bonnie had written it on and she studied it carefully.

I took out the small vial of Bonnie's blood and held it up. We had enough for one shot at this. I felt a hand on my shoulder and it made me jump, fumbling to keep hold of the blood in my hands. When I turned around there was no one there and I realised it was Kai, just letting me know he was still around.

"I think it's time," Oscar announced, as he stood up with the ascendant. Everyone else made their way over as we stood in the middle of the sitting room, forming a circle around the ascendant.

"Lily better be where you say, and unharmed," I heard Malcolm remark quietly as he was first to put his hand on it. The women followed, each one only touching a piece with one hand to make sure there was enough space. Enzo and I went last, and before I grabbed the ascendant I gently tipped the vial of Bonnie's blood into it. We all watched curiously as it started to glow. 

I put my hand on it then, feeling something grip my other hand and at first I thought it was Kai again but then I saw it was Enzo. He gave my hand a small squeeze and I squeezed his back.

Nora opened up the spell and began to chant, the ascendant becoming brighter as she did so. I closed my eyes though after already experiencing this once I was sure it wasn't going to hurt us. Soon the light had become so bright I could barely see the others standing around the ascendant. I took one final look at the 1903 house before the bright light engulfed us all.

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Of all the things I had expected to see when we arrived back to the present day, this was not on my list.

We were in the Salvatore sitting room and the light was on, which was a good sign there was electricity at least. But standing in front of the eight of us, or nine if you included the invisible Kai, there were two women with one hand raised in the air, the other hand clasped together. I realised I had seen her before, this was the witch who had been here, Jo. The other girl was a stranger to me, she had long curly blonde hair and looked younger than the rest. I then noticed Damon standing in the corner watching.

I let go of the ascendant and stepped back, as did Enzo, but the six guests we had brought back with us were frozen in place, not able to move anything but their eyes.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe it actually worked,” Jo sounded excited.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking around. The two women appeared to be casting some sort of spell. I noticed the younger one was starting to get a nosebleed.

“I knew it,” Malcolm sneered, and I realised they were still able to talk, just not move apparently. “You set us up, didn’t you?”

Before I could answer him, Damon rushed over and snapped his neck before he dropped to the ground. Whatever had been keeping him in place seemed to have worn off now. Damon did the same to Valerie and Beau.

“Hey, stop it!” I warned, going to intervene, but I felt Enzo grab my hand and pull me back.

“Trust me, it’s better if he does this,” Jo spoke again, her face screwed up in concentration as she kept one hand up, waiting for Damon to complete the job. “If they got out of this house, disaster. There’s a reason they were in that prison world.”

Damon finished snapping the necks of Oscar, Nora and Mary Louise before looking at them all lying on the floor. He looked to Enzo then and I couldn’t read the atmosphere between the two of them. “Help me get Lily’s little monsters to the basement, would you?”

“Where’s Lily?” I asked, imagining she wouldn’t have agreed to this if she had known what their plans were.

“She’s already in the basement,” Damon shrugged, lifting Mary Louise up and tossing her over his shoulder like she was a bag. “About to give her the family reunion that she wanted.” I noticed Enzo frown at this.

“You put your mom in the basement?” I asked, but it was less of a question and more a statement of disapproval. I should have known to expect that from Damon anyway. Before I could say anything else Damon had already left with Mary Louise and Enzo looked at me before picking up Nora and following. He was carrying her with a bit more care at least. I then looked to Jo and the other girl who had been silent until now. “What the heck was that?”

“A spell to keep them frozen,” Jo stated. “We adjusted it so that it would only work on those with magic in their blood.” That would explain why I hadn’t been affected. “You see, when Bonnie and Elena called me to ask me if I knew anything about why Lily had been kept in a 1903 prison world, I immediately told them about the Heretics. They were witches turned vampires who were incredibly powerful, able to siphon magic from other beings, which coupled with their vampirism made them nearly unstoppable. They killed a whole ship full of people in 1903, which is why my family sent them there.”

“You’re a Gemini coven witch?” I asked, before realising what that meant. "Wait, that means you're related to…"

"Kai," Jo finished, nodding her head. "He's my twin brother. God I hate saying that out loud." I studied her for a moment. She looked much older than Kai did but I assumed that had something to do with him being trapped in the prison world. Jo looked at the other girl. “And this is my sister, Liv.”

The other girl gave a small wave and I returned it with a smile.

“So as soon as they told me you had been sent in there and were coming back with them, I knew they had to be stopped,” Jo continued. “I hurried over here with Liv and we decided we wouldn’t be able to kill them, but hopefully we could at least trap them for now until we figured out what to do with them. Maybe my family can find a way to send them and Lily back.”

I remembered why Jo hadn’t been able to travel to the prison world instead of Kai. “I thought you lost your magic?”

Jo smiled warmly then and placed a hand on her stomach, and I had to look at it for a moment before realising she was stroking a barely there but just visible bump. “It’s not my magic.”

“You’re pregnant,” I realised and she nodded in confirmation. I wasn’t sure how raising a baby in Mystic Falls would be an easy job but then the baby would probably have it’s own magic if it come from the Gemini coven. Suddenly I thought of Kai and looked around the room. Of course he wasn’t there in visible form but I had a feeling he was still hanging around the house. What if he was after Jo’s baby? I looked at her smiling down at her stomach and suddenly felt a bit sick at the thought that he would harm it.

Before I could say anything Elena had walked in to the room along with Stefan and Bonnie. “You made it back,” Elena smiled and looked at the four remaining bodies on the floor. “I see the plan worked out too.”

Jo nodded. “I’m just glad my psycho brother didn’t come back with them. At least now I can get married in peace.” So the wedding Damon had been talking about was Jo’s. “You’ll come to it, right?” When no one else spoke I noticed Jo was looking in my direction and realised she was talking to me.

“Oh.. I don’t know,” I said quietly, not wanting to be rude but also not sure if I wanted to attend a social event yet. I still felt like I didn’t really know any of them and that I was an outsider here.

Jo looked a little disappointed. “I don’t know that many people here. I’d like it if you came.”

“Come on,” Elena interjected, seeming to like the idea. “You can get to know everyone a bit better and maybe we can all finally put the past behind us. Now that Kai is gone.” She looked over at Stefan and hesitated for a moment. “Maybe you can bring Enzo too.” Stefan’s expression darkened a little but he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t imagine the two of them wanting to spend an afternoon together but maybe Elena was right and it was time to start moving on. Though that was easier said for her, who hadn’t spent 70 years locked in a cage. “You can borrow one of my dresses too!” I was going to have worn everything in Elena’s wardrobe soon.

I thought on it for a moment, “OK, I guess it might be nice to go to a celebration for once.”

At that moment the door opened again and Damon and Enzo returned. As they walked past the others I noticed Bonnie and Stefan stand up. “Enzo…” Bonnie began, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“I don’t have anything to say to either of you,” Enzo pushed past them and he and Damon went to collect the next bodies on the basement list, taking away Valerie and Oscar this time. Bonnie looked upset as she watched them go. I still wondered why all of Enzo’s hate seemed to be directed at Stefan and not Damon.

“What about Sarah?” I asked then, looking at Elena and Stefan. “Did she transition?”

Elena nodded. “She’s still with Matt now, she doesn’t want to speak to any of us yet. Before you came back Bonnie was in the middle of making her a daylight ring. We won’t give it to her until we’re certain she’s not going to take off.”

I made eye contact with Stefan and hoped he could tell I was wondering if he had told the truth to the others about who she was yet. Seemingly understanding, he shook his head. He was probably waiting to get Damon alone first.

Once the rest of the Heretics were in the basement, everyone started to leave. Jo, Liv and Bonnie all went home and Enzo and I were getting ready to return to his apartment. Sarah was going to be staying in the Salvatore house for now. Elena had offered me one of the spare bedrooms here too but I had refused. I felt safer in Enzo’s apartment. Caroline was still down in the basement too and I was starting to think Damon was trying to start a community down there. Elena walked us to the door and let us out.

I took a deep breath of fresh air as we walked back to Enzo's apartment. It felt good to be back in the present. "We did it."

"You did it," Enzo corrected, putting his hands into his coat pocket. "Without you I'd have been stuck in there. You coming back for me was…"

"I'd do it all over again," I said simply, watching a dog run around in a park to the left. The sky was clear and the stars were out. I looked up and for a moment wondered if Heaven really did exist and if Lexi and the rest of my family were happy up there now. And I hoped that's where I'd end up eventually too. "Jo invited us to her wedding," I told Enzo. "Elena seemed pretty keen that we go."

I looked at him to see what his reaction was but he was smirking. "Are you asking me on a date?"

I laughed it off but I couldn't help but feel like I'd be blushing if he could see me in the light. My face became more serious then. "I think Kai might do something at the wedding," I said quietly, still nervous that Kai could be following me around. I doubted it, now that we were back in the present, he was probably off working on some evil plan, but I couldn't be certain. "Jo is pregnant too."

Enzo simply shrugged. "I don't care. Let them deal with Kai."

I stopped walking and he turned to look at me. "I care. I don't want any of them getting hurt because they think Kai is still in a prison world and they let their guard down. I think we should tell them he came back through."

"They don't care about us, Nadine," Enzo looked angry again. "Why should we care about them?"

"Because I'm not the kind of person who just sits back and waits as innocent lives get lost. It's a baby, Enzo." I realised I was starting to raise my voice and tried to calm down, as there were still plenty of people walking around the town. I seen a bench beside us and sat down on it, in a sort of protest that I wasn't moving any further until Enzo agreed with me. "And I don't think you are either." I knew Enzo was still hurt by what the others had done but I had a feeling deep down he wanted to be a good person.

Enzo shook his head. "I don't want to get involved with them any longer."

"That's the thing, Enzo," I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. "We're already involved." I thought about everything that had happened since I came here. All I had wanted was to find my sister and go. "First Sarah, who's now a vampire because she got mixed up in the Salvatore revenge plot and may I add absolutely hates it. Then we freed a bunch of powerful who knows what from the prison world, and now Jo's baby is probably at risk because we let Kai out of the prison world and didn't tell anyone." Believe it or not, I'd had a relatively peaceful life before I came here, now I felt like I was living in a drama movie. "Maybe I should just go back to San Francisco."

Enzo was silent at first and I looked up to see his mouth had set into a firm line. "Fine, whatever, maybe you should," Enzo turned around and stormed off in the direction of his apartment. I hadn't expected that much of a reaction from it and I sighed in annoyance as I watched him go. I wasn't sure I was welcome to follow him and maybe I'd be taking Elena up on that spare room offer after all.

I kicked my feet on the ground for a few minutes, moving some stones around. I decided I would ask Stefan tomorrow to take me to see Lexi. And maybe I would tell him about Kai. Then there was nothing stopping me from going back home. I looked for my phone, thinking I could call Scarlett just to talk to a friend, but realised I had left all my things at Enzo's apartment. I was going to have to go back.

After fifteen minutes or so of sulking on the bench I got up and walked to the building and up the stairs. I knocked on the door but there was no answer for at least sixty seconds and I wondered if Enzo was just planning to ignore me. Well, I thought, if that was how he wanted to play it I'd just break through his door to get my things. Before I could consider it any further however the door clicked open and Enzo stood back to let me in.

"I just need to get my stuff," I said quietly, noticing the sitting room was dark apart from one candle burning in the corner. I'd find somewhere else to go for tonight, maybe back to the motel I had started in. I collected all my bits and pieces from around the sofa area where I'd been sleeping and put them into my bag.

I walked towards the door with my bag over my shoulder and opened it up, but Enzo put a hand out to stop it. I wasn't in the mood for another argument but he looked apologetic. "I shouldn't have walked away. After you said you were thinking about leaving, I…"

Did the thought of me leaving upset him that much? I'd said it out of frustration more than anything. "Enzo, I'm sorry," I put my bag down and looked at him. "I don't want to leave… you. But I don't want to be a bad person and it seems like I'm attracting trouble wherever I go."

He laughed softly then. "You have the kindest heart out of anyone I've met," he closed the door fully then and turned to face me. "I don't know if I'll get another chance to do this," Enzo said as he looked me in the eyes. His face leaned in to mine and I closed my eyes in anticipation for what I thought was about to happen.

We were kissing. It was slow, soft, tender, almost like he was trying it out to see my reaction. Enzo pulled away and I opened my eyes, staring at his face for a moment.

I couldn't deny I had been attracted to him since we had first met, but I'd been pushing it to the back of my mind to focus on other things.

It was me who started the second kiss. My hands moved to his neck and I pulled his lips down to mine, the kissing this time more passionate. The kind that would leave you breathless. His hands gripped my waist and he slowly pushed me against the wall. Vampire lust was stronger than any human attraction and I pulled back to try and compose myself.

Enzo continued to hold on to me. "I don't know if you can tell," he said quietly, as he rest his forehead against mine. "But I really don't want you to go."

---

"Thanks for doing this," I said to Stefan as we walked through Mystic Falls on our way to the cemetery. I had messaged him this morning and he had told me to come straight over.

"Sorry we've not been able to do it before now," he replied. "Things have been a bit crazy."

I raised my eyebrows. That felt like an understatement. "I noticed."

"Nice break from trying to get Caroline to turn her humanity back on anyway." He looked tired. Spending time with a stubborn, humanity off vampire who didn't listen to a word you say would do that. "Well… not a nice way to get a break but you know," he corrected, realising what he had said.

I laughed quietly. "It's OK. No luck with her then?" I asked, referring to Caroline.

Stefan shook his head. "I've tried everything I can think of. We even gave her a letter her mom had written to her but she just tore it up without even reading it. I don't know what else to try."

I didn't really have much to suggest, given that I didn't know her well. "What normally works for you?"

Stefan was silent for a moment before sighing. "Lexi. I've never had to deal with my humanity being off since she's been gone. Even before The Other Side collapsed she came back to me as a spirit when I needed her."

"Oh," I looked down at the ground. Lexi had never visited me as a spirit. I wasn't sure how it worked and if there had to be a certain reason for her to come back to this world. But if she had come back somehow and told me what had happened to her I wouldn't be here. Whether she was able to or not, I felt a little hurt. It seemed like everyone her seen her since she died apart from me. Stefan had gone quiet now too and I put a hand on his arm.. "I know it's not been easy on you either."

"I miss her," he said finally and I could tell he really did. "We'll be lucky to have someone so alike sticking around if you stay in Mystic Falls."

"You think I'm like Lexi?" I asked. I wished I was. Everyone had loved her. She made friends wherever she went and was so selfless.

Stefan nodded. "The way you didn't even care about getting stuck in that prison world when you went in. That's exactly the kind of thing she would have done."

"I couldn't leave Enzo in there alone."

"Are you a couple?" Stefan asked then out of the blue.

"Uhh," I thought about last night and our kiss. After we had broken apart and Enzo seemed satisfied that I wasn't just going to pack up and leave Mystic Falls, he had gone to bed and I had stayed on his sofa again. We had walked to the Salvatore house together this morning, where he was going to question Lily about his family, but neither of us had mentioned it again. I wasn't sure if that meant he had regrets or he was just nervous.

Stefan spoke again, snapping me out of my thoughts as I realised my mind had been wandering. "Sorry, that was a personal question."

We reached the cemetery, walking through large iron gates and past a number of graves. I briefly wondered how many of these belonged to vampires or other magical beings. Mystic Falls seemed to be the hot spot for that.

The Salvatore crypt was large and imposing, standing on its own away from the main cemetery. Stefan took a key out of his pocket and I waited as he unlocked the door before following him in. The crypt even had its own light switch and he flicked it on, illuminating a spider scurrying along the wall. The names of all the Salvatore family members who were at rest here were written on the wall and I studied it while Stefan went to open Lexi's coffin. He reached in and I assumed he was trying to make sure she looked presentable. "Hey Lex," he spoke softly. "I brought someone to see you." Stefan looked over at me and I took a deep breath, preparing myself. "I'll give you some privacy. I'll be outside if you need me."

"Thanks," I replied quietly, waiting until he was out of the crypt before I made my way over to the coffin. I moved slowly, her body coming into view a piece at a time.

She was grey, her body still. She reminded me a bit of the dessicated Heretics. And she was dressed in a typical Lexi outfit. A simple black t-shirt, a leather jacket and jeans. "Oh Lexi." I picked up her hand and rubbed it with my thumb but it was like stone. I felt my eyes start to water and reached into my pocket for a tissue, which I had stocked up on before coming here, knowing I'd need them. "I wish I could talk to you properly, tell you about everything that was happening. I know you'd have the best advice for me." I wiped away a tear that had fallen. "You're my big sister. You weren't supposed to leave me on my own."

I stroked her hair gently. She looked sort of peaceful, and I wondered where her spirit was now. "I hope you're happy, wherever you are. If you're with mom and dad, tell them I said hello."

I stood silently still, for a few minutes, before placing a kiss on her forehead. "I miss you." I sighed sadly as I moved the lid of the coffin back so that it was covering her, before resting my hand on top of it. "Goodbye Lexi."

I knew I needed to do the right thing. For Lexi. For Jo. For me. I went outside to look for Stefan who had sat down on a wall. "I need to talk to you about Kai."

Chapter 11: Chapter 11

2 Days Later

The day of the wedding had arrived. The sun was shining down outside which I took to be a good omen, considering it had been raining for the past couple of days.

I was sure once Jo had found out about Kai that I was going to be uninvited to the wedding but she actually just seemed grateful to know that he was here. She was super friendly, which made me feel worse about the whole situation. After we had come back from seeing Lexi, Stefan had told Damon and Alaric so they could prepare but Jo was refusing to postpone the wedding until Kai was dealt with.

Things had been reasonably quiet since our return from the prison world but I felt that was a bad thing rather than a good thing. The calm before the storm. Lily and the Heretics were still trapped in the basement and were incredibly angry about it. Luckily they were still weak from not using their magic in so long and weren't able to find a way out of their imprisonment. Yet. Sarah was still in the Salvatore house under the supervision of Matt of all people. Matt had asked if he could bring her to the wedding but we all knew that wouldn't be a good place for her first public outing since drinking blood, so they were both staying here. I planned to speak with her soon, to see if I could help her get the hang of this new life. And then there was Kai. There had been silence from him.

I was sitting in Elena's bedroom, getting ready with her and Bonnie. Elena had insisted I come over. It was weird because it felt oddly comfortable, like I was in the company of some good friends. Maybe I was their replacement for poor Caroline who was also still stuck in the basement, although that was her own choice given that she still refused to turn her humanity back on.

I sipped from a champagne glass, the second one I'd had this morning already, feeling a slight buzz.

Elena had been handing me dress after dress to try on and I started to feel a bit like I was in a fashion show. It had been a while since I had worn a dress, as I didn't really have any need to, and I struggled to find something I thought looked good. I'd have been much more comfortable in my jeans and a sweater. I watched as Elena picked up a blue dress from the pile and stroked it lovingly with her fingers. "Look Bonnie, my first Miss Mystic Falls dress." Elena sighed as she held it up to check the size but she looked like she had outgrown it now. "This is the dress I was wearing when Damon and I had our first kiss."

"Are you and Damon back together?" I asked, picking up a red dress that looked like it would fit.

Elena nodded. "I think so. We haven't officially announced our feelings yet but I think I'm ready." She sat down at her vanity table and began to brush through her hair. "After they wiped my memory I could only think of all the bad things he'd ever done. But I can see it in his eyes.. even after all those things, we loved each other." While I wasn't Damon's biggest fan Elena looked happy at least.

I finished changing into the red dress and looked at myself in the mirror. I seen Bonnie in the background nod in approval. "That's the one."

Deciding to stick with it I continued getting ready, doing my hair and make up next. Elena also had a vast shoe collection and had picked out a pair of red heels to match. I put them on and wobbled slightly, getting used to the extra height again after years of wearing nothing but flat shoes.

Bonnie got up from the bed where she had been sitting. She was already dressed and ready to go. "I should go and help Jo and Liv prepare the spell."

"Spell?" I wondered what it was for.

"To keep Kai away, hopefully," Bonnie looked nervous. I could tell she felt threatened by him too, given that she and him had a bit of history. "It's a protection spell, it's not that powerful but we'll know if Kai comes close. She gave us both a wave and left me in the room with Elena.

"I'm glad you came," Elena smiled, putting on a necklace with a beautiful green stone to match her dress. "It's nice to have someone else I can talk to that I don't have to worry about spilling our secrets to."

"Thanks for being so welcoming," I said honestly, knowing that I had already endangered her once. Vampire friends were special. The good thing was knowing that no matter how long immortality felt sometimes, there was always someone else there to share it with. I had thought Lexi would be my person for that. I was suddenly curious about Elena and her history in Mystic Falls. "If you don't mind me asking.. how did you become a vampire?"

"I got into a bit of an altercation," Elena stared into her mirror, running her fingers through her hair and touching a part of her head. "I had a head injury that I didn't realise was serious until I passed out a few hours later. Turns out I had a bleed on my brain. There was this Doctor at the hospital who had found out about vampires and was using blood to heal human patients. She gave me vampire blood to try and heal me, which turned out to be Damon's."

"But you passed away from the head injury?" I guessed.

Elena shook her head. "Actually no. It worked and I was OK after that. But then, Matt and I were driving out of town." I remembered Stefan telling me how Matt and Elena had dated before and sensed they were still close. "We got into a car accident on a bridge, there was a vampire named Rebekah who tried to run us off the road." Rebekah Mikaelson no doubt. I decided not to tell Elena that we were familiar. "We started to drown in the car and Stefan found us, but I told him to save Matt first. That's how I died."

"So you weren't afraid of becoming a vampire, knowing what the blood would do?" I asked. Maybe Elena had done it willingly so she could spend eternity with Damon.

"I didn't know," Elena said quietly. "I didn't know that I even had vampire blood in my body but I was willing to sacrifice myself for Matt."

"Wow, that's.. " I trailed off, it had left me a little speechless. She had thought she was going to die and accepted it.

"After I adjusted to it I realised it was probably for the best in Mystic Falls anyway," Elena continued. "We've had our fair share of things thrown our way and being a human felt like I always had to be protected and I couldn't do it myself."

"So it never quietens down around here?"

Elena laughed at that. "You have a lot of stories to hear. Katherine, Original Vampires, Silas, the Travellers." She looked at her clock. "But I don't think we have time before the wedding. We should get going."

I walked down the stairs, feeling like I was having my own 'She's All That' moment. Damon and Enzo were standing in the hallway, both of them in suit and tie. Damon was Alaric's best man and Jo's sister was going to be her Maid of Honor. I hadn't actually properly met Alaric yet and wasn't sure what his connection to them was but Damon and Stefan seemed to consider him a good friend.

"Gotta go get the rings," Damon said, patting Enzo on the shoulder before leaving us alone. I raised an eyebrow at the exchange, they seemed to be getting on reasonably well today.

"Hi," I said quietly, feeling self conscious now that I was all dressed up.

Enzo took my hand and kissed it gently. "You look beautiful, love." I relaxed slightly. He had been quiet the past couple of days and I couldn't tell if it was because of me or if it was because he'd had no luck getting any answers about his family or his past from Lily.

Since we were alone I decided to take the opportunity to voice my concern. "Enzo.. about the other night..." I bit my lip, not really knowing what to say and wishing I had thought it through first. "If that's... not what you want for us, we can forget it ever happened."

Enzo silenced me by placing a gentle kiss on my lips and I was surprised he had done it knowing Damon and Elena were nearby. "It's exactly what I want. But I don't want to rush it with everything else going on. I want to take you out properly."

I couldn't hide my smile. "Hmm.. I'll think about it." We both laughed.

Damon returned with the rings as Elena joined us and we got ready to leave. Enzo offered his arm. "Shall we?" I put my arm through his and we followed Damon and Elena out. I noticed Elena didn't lock the door behind her but Matt and Sarah were still within. Anyone would have been stupid to break into a house with a vampire in it.

We were walking since it wasn't too far. The wedding was being held in a nearby barn. A church was probably out of the question given that none of us could really be considered saints.

Once there the number of people surprised me. For someone who didn't know a lot of people Jo had somehow managed to fill the room. Elena told me that Jo had assured her they were all witches, so we didn't have to worry about accidentally exposing ourselves. I assumed that they were all from the Gemini coven and were some sort of relatives to Jo. Stefan and Bonnie greeted us as we arrived and we all took our seats, Enzo to the left of me and Elena on my right.

The ceremony was beautiful and went off problem free. Alaric and Jo exchanged their vows and rings with Liv and Damon beside them. Even though I didn't know them well I could tell they were very obviously in love and it made me a little emotional. To have found your soulmate was very special indeed. Elena was dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

After the ceremony, everyone had moved through to a large room full of tables and a dancefloor, the whole place illuminated by candles and fairy lights. As we were shown to a table I noticed a wall covered in photographs of Alaric and Jo and smiled as I looked at them.

We took our seats and were served dinner. Of course, as nice as it was presented, none of it was that appetising to us vampires and I guessed it was to keep the other guests happy. We still ate it anyway, to be polite, but we had all ensured to feed ourselves before leaving the house earlier.

After dinner Jo and Alaric cut their wedding cake and moved to the dancefloor where a band had set up to have their first dance. They both laughed and smiled as Alaric span her around and soon they were joined by family and friends, with Elena and Damon leaving the table to join them.

Enzo stood up and extended his hand towards me. "Dance with me." It was more of a command than a request but I wasn't going to argue anyway. I took his hand and we walked over to the dance floor as the band began another song. One of my hands was holding Enzo's and the other was resting on his shoulder, while his was on my waist.

He swayed us gently to the music and I rest my head on his chest, just taking the time to enjoy a moment of happiness. "Today was nice," I said softly, glad to have been part of something happy for a change. And thankfully it hadn't been ruined. I knew telling the others had been the right thing to do. I watched the other couples dance happily alongside us. Elena was grinning at us and I shyly smiled back.

"So you're a romantic," Enzo looked down at me and I felt myself get hotter under his gaze. "I'll remember that."

I laughed into his chest, and as the song finished everyone started to change partners for the next. I let go of Enzo's hand and moved on to Stefan. This was strictly a friendship dance and I made sure to keep my distance from him. Enzo and I continued to exchange glances as he danced with Elena and I couldn't help but giggle at how uncomfortable he looked now.

Soon everyone was back at the table and relaxing as the music played. Stefan was the only one who didn't seem to be enjoying himself that much but I couldn't decide if that was because of Caroline, Sarah or because Enzo was here.

Elena lifted the bottle of wine that was sitting on the table and filled up everyone's glasses, before raising hers. "Here's to Alaric and Jo. And happily ever afters." Everyone raised their glass, apart from Bonnie and Elena looked at her in confusion.

"Kai," Bonnie said quietly, her expression turning to one of panic.

"What?" Elena put down her glass. "Is he close by? The protection spell?"

"No." Bonnie had frozen in her seat, her eyes fixed on the door. "Kai is here."

"Ooh, and I was hoping for the element of surprise with my little trick," Kai was standing in the doorway and everyone had turned to look at him, the band still playing obliviously in the background. He looked around before his eyes settled directly on me. "But I guess someone blew my secret." He raised a hand and it glowed, like it was absorbing something. It was the same glow he had when he had touched me for the first time. He was siphoning the spell away. "Protection spells are so puny anyway."

Kai took one step over the doorway and before anyone could react he raised both his hands this time, emitting what felt like a shockwave and knocking everyone off their seats. "Come on then, who's going to stop me?" Kai was challenging us to a fight.

The vampires all got up and ran towards him but my mind was on Jo and the baby. I saw Kai fighting his way through Damon, Stefan, Elena, Enzo. Every one of them was knocked off their feet as they tried to approach him. Protection was the best option I could come up with, rather than fighting him. I tried to make my way unnoticed up the side of the room to where Jo was struggling to get up from the initial blow.

The witches in the room had all gotten up now too and looked like they were trying to recreate the protection spell but Kai didn't seem to be affected by it at all. In fact, he seemed to have suspiciously more power than usual and was quickly advancing through the crowd.

"Come on, what's the problem?" Kai asked, his gaze focused on Jo. "I just wanna talk to my sister. Congratulate you on your nuptials and everything."

"You're not welcome here Kai," Jo said firmly but it wasn't looking like she could do much about it. That wasn't going to make him leave.

I cursed the damn shoes I was wearing before taking them off and throwing them to the side. Kai had been approached by his younger sister, Liv, and I watched in horror as he stuck a knife deep into her chest. She was still for a moment before falling to the ground, and I noticed the werewolf, I believed to be Tyler, dropping on to his knees next to her. Jo's shriek seemed to amuse Kai and he pulled the knife from Liv before continuing towards her. Another raise of his hand sent everyone who was pursuing him backwards and I gripped on to a table for support.

Kai finally reached Jo and stood in front of her, one wave of his hand knocking her to the ground where she grabbed her stomach protectively. She glared up at him defiantly as Alaric shouted her name from across the room. "You'll regret coming here Kai. If you do anything to hurt the babies..."

Babies? Then it clicked. Jo was pregnant with twins. Just like she and Kai were. This was even worse than I thought.

"Oh please, what are you going to do?" Kai seemed to find the whole thing funny and pulled another blade out of his pocket, spinning it around in-between his fingers. "Are the twins going to turn me into a giant teddy bear?" He crouched down in front of his sister. "I can't have these two getting out," he reached out for Jo's stomach but she backed off. "I mean, I'm the Gemini leader now, after merging with Luke. You don't want his sacrifice to be for nothing do you?"

"I swear to God Kai, my friends will make your life hell if you hurt us," Jo's voice was breaking and I knew I needed to help. I approached quietly.

"I'm looking forward to it," Kai smirked as he closed in on her. "It's been a pleasure knowing you Sis. Actually, who am I kidding, it hasn't."

Kai raised the blade and was ready to strike and I felt like everything went in slow motion as I jumped in front of Jo. The blade plunged into my stomach as I landed directly in front of Kai. I gasped at the pain but put my hand onto the blade to keep it in place and stop Kai retrieving it before looking at Jo. "Go," I whispered quickly and she staggered to her feet, looking around for help. My stomach was burning. A stab wound wouldn't kill me but I hadn't expected it to be pleasant either. This however made me feel like I was on fire and I realised Kai had laced it with vervain too.

He laughed as I was on the ground and struggled to sit up. "I knew you'd interfere. The second we got back from the prison world, I could just tell."

I clenched my teeth trying to bear the pain. "Yeah well you didn't keep up your end of the deal," I looked him in the eyes and hoped he could tell how much I despised him right now. "You were supposed to disappear."

Kai put a hand on my shoulder and I could feel him siphoning again. "Yeah I thought about it but I had a change of heart." I should have been able to overcome him but between the vervain and the siphoning I could feel the energy draining out of me. I was useless against him. "You know, I wish I had brought some stakes and I could help you get back to your sister just like you wanted."

My vision was becoming hazy but I seen Damon grab hold of Jo in the distance and felt a sense of relief that he would hopefully get her out of here unharmed, which was all I wanted right now. "You won't win. Fuck you Kai."

The last thing I could remember was his arms around my neck before I heard the crack.

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

The room that I woke up in was unfamiliar to me. It was dark, but illuminated by a soft glow from the street lights outside. I was in a bed but had no recollection of how I got here.

I had a quick look around but I didnt appear to be in any danger which was reassuring.

I tried to focus on the last thing I could remember and suddenly the events of the wedding came rushing back to me, the confrontation with Kai that ended with him snapping my neck. I realised I'd been unconscious.

As I tried to lift my head up off the pillow my neck still felt stiff and my whole body in general. A snapped neck, vervain, stab wound and siphoning really weren't a great combination.

I noticed a lamp on the bedside table and struggled to reach out to turn it on. The room lit up but I still couldn't figure out where I was. There wasn't much other than a wardrobe and the bed, no pictures or personal items lying around.

Then I heard the door open quietly. I wasn't really in a position to fight if I had to so I let out a breath of relief when Enzo walked in, holding a blood bag. He had taken his suit jacket off but was still in a shirt. "Welcome back," he smiled as he sat down on the edge of the bed. I looked through the door behind him into the sitting room and realised it was his apartment and his bedroom I was in. "You've been out for a few hours now. Thought I was going to have to spoon feed you this to wake you up."

I took the blood bag from him gratefully and tried to sit up, groaning from the discomfort as I did so. I became aware I was only in my underwear and hastily tried to pull the duvet up to cover me as Enzo looked away and cleared his throat. He pointed to a chair, where Elena's dress was sitting folded up neatly. Even though the dress was red I could see the dried in blood, contrasting with the lighter red of the fabric. "I didn't think you'd want to wake up in that," Enzo said quietly.

I nodded in understanding. He was right. I guess I owed Elena a new dress now. I reached under the cover to touch my stomach where Kai had stabbed me but it had already healed up, good as new. "If I'm staying in Mystic Falls I'm really going to have to go back to San Francisco and pack up my things." I had pretty much worn the same three outfits that had been in my bag in rotation since I had got here.

Enzo stood up and went to his wardrobe, sorting through it for a moment before taking out a simple black t-shirt and throwing it towards me. "For now."

I smiled gratefully before putting the t-shirt on then sat up properly, picking up the blood bag for a drink. It was just what I needed to get my energy back. "Jo?" I asked then, wondering if the whole thing had at least been successful and she had made it out of harms way.

"She's safe at the Salvatore house, and I don't think she's going to be out of their sight until Kai is dealt with." Enzo sat back down. "Alaric took her to the hospital to get her checked over but she's absolutely fine," he reassured and I sighed in relief.

"What about Kai?" I asked. "Where did he go?"

Enzo shrugged. "Jo was his target so when Damon got her out of there, after he snapped your neck he took off." Enzo looked annoyed. "Should have been able to kill the bastard but he was too powerful. He's probably off working on his next plan." Enzo stared out the window. "I just wanted to get you somewhere safe."

"Thank you," I sipped from the blood bag while thinking about what that meant for us next. Without knowing where Kai was he could pop up at any time.

Enzo was quiet for a minute before looking at me. "Damon called me after he got home. Kai had been to the Salvatore house after we left." I frowned, wondering what he could have been looking for when he knew Jo and everyone else would be at the wedding. "When Stefan went to give Caroline blood she told him that Kai had been down in the basement. He siphoned power from all the Heretics."

Kai was basically 7 witches in 1 on the day of the wedding, his own power combined with the Heretics. "That's why he was so powerful," I said in realisation. He had been able to knock down a whole room full of people in seconds. "Are they… OK?" I asked, wondering whether Kai left them in one piece when he was finished with them. I didn't particularly care for them but thought of Nora and Mary Louise, who I found myself liking a little.

"They're fine," Enzo confirmed before looking down at the ground. "But Kai got to Sarah. She's dead, Nadine."

I blinked, wondering if Enzo had forgotten that she had been turned into a vampire. Of course she was dead. It took me a moment to figure out what he meant. "Wait… really dead?"

Enzo nodded solemnly. "Matt's still alive. They found him with Sarah's body. When Kai went to the house Sarah had been able to smell his blood and Matt said she freaked out and went after him. He told Damon that Kai had lured her outside and stopped her from being able to get back inside or run away. She didn't have a daylight ring yet."

I closed my eyes. Burning to death in the daylight was such a horrible way to go. So I had been told anyway. Between Stefan, Elena and I, we had promised Sarah we would help her, that we would protect her and help her adjust, and she had been left on her own when she needed us most. I was surprised Matt had managed to survive a Kai encounter but I was starting to think Kai liked to let some people live on purpose just so they could suffer at their loss.

"I said we'll go over there," Enzo mentioned and I snapped out of my thoughts. "Maybe together we can work out how to get rid of Harry Potter from Hell."

I pulled the duvet cover off, ready to plan anything that would end this. "Let's go then."

Enzo laughed quietly and shook his head. "Not yet, love. It's the middle of the night. You should get some more rest until you're feeling back to full strength and we'll head over in the morning."

I didn't really want to waste anymore time but knew he was right. Jo, Alaric, Bonnie and all the other non-vampires that could potentially be of help to us were probably asleep. I nodded and turned the bedside lamp off before laying back down but I didn't feel much like sleeping anymore. Enzo had gotten up and was about to leave but I looked up at him. "Will you stay?"

He seemed to be thinking about it for a few moments before finally turning around and kicking his shoes off, getting into the other side of the bed. We lay in comfortable silence for a bit before I rolled over to face him, propping my head up with my elbow. I could see from the dim glow outside his eyes were still open and he was staring at the ceiling, looking like his mind was racing with thoughts.

"Why did you come to Mystic Falls?" I asked, wondering if he would divulge to me more about his past and his history with Damon.

"I was looking for someone." Enzo seemed more tense already and I could tell that he didn't like talking about his history. I wouldn't push it but I wanted him to be able to open up to me.

"Damon?"

"No. Damon and I go back a while," Enzo turned his head away so he was staring at the wall. "I was captured in 1943 by a group who called themselves the Augustine Society." My eyes widened in the dark. He was going to tell me about Augustine. "I fought in World War 2 in Europe and there was a Doctor there who became suspicious of how quickly I healed after my injuries. Obviously he knew about vampires because he started to suspect I was one. He had some sort of connection to this family named Whitmore. One day when I was in for a medical he injected me with vervain to see if it would affect me. It did of course and he got me into a coffin and shipped me off to Whitmore House."

I'd heard the name before, I was sure Elena and Caroline had mentioned Whitmore when I first arrived here.

"I became their first little experiment," Enzo continued, sounding bitter.

I was hesitant to ask. "What were they trying to do?"

"At first it was just my blood, sampling it, trying to find out what made it different from human blood. They thought my blood would be some kind of wonder medicine." Enzo's voice quietened. "But then they started to see what else they could do. They took my organs out, brutalised me with power tools, cut off limbs. Of course, my body sorted itself out but... I felt everything."

I was silent. I wasn't really sure what the appropriate response was to that. The pain must have felt unbearable at times but knowing that he couldn't die meant he would have no way to stop it.

"There was a woman there named Maggie James." Enzo spoke her name softly, like he was fond of her. "She was assigned to study me when I wasn't being experimented on, take notes, monitor my behaviour. But she wasn't like anyone else at Whitmore. She would sit and talk to me like I was a person and not a test subject. She didn't care that I was a vampire and didn't think I was some kind of monster. She was my friend."

I had a feeling the story didn't have a happy ending.

"One day she asked me to turn her. She wanted to have the strength to get me out and she wanted to run away from Whitmore" He turned his head to look at me for the first time since he had began the story and I could see the pain in his eyes. "You know how it is though, adjusting to vampire life. I couldn't put her through that and risk Whitmore going after her. She had a vervain bracelet that stopped me from compelling her so one day I took it off her and compelled her to leave, forget about vampires and... forget I ever existed."

Maybe the saying was true. If you love someone, set them free.

"It wasn't long after that Damon got captured," Enzo swallowed and I felt like he was trying to hold back tears. "We became friends too, or so I thought anyway. I gave my blood rations up to Damon for almost a whole year, hoping he would be able to overpower the Whitmore's when they let us out of the cage to show us off to all their rich friends." I knew how the rest of this went, from what Stefan had told me. "Damon succeeded but it started a fire. I was stuck in my cage. He tried to set me free but the cage had been covered in vervain. He had to turn his humanity off and leave me there."

I was shocked at the fact that Damon had turned his humanity off for Enzo. Other than Stefan and Elena I hadn't thought there would be anyone who could make him care enough to do that so the two obviously had a deeper connection than I thought.

"How did you get out?" I asked.

"Another scientist found me and rescued me from the fire, only to lock me up again," Enzo ran a hand through his hair. "I was too weak to fight it. Then I was there for years again until Damon got recaptured and his brother actually bothered to look for him the second time. They fought everyone at Whitmore and I got out too."

"So that's why you wanted to get back at the Salvatore's? Because Damon left you in the fire?"

Enzo shook his head. "I had forgiven him for that. He didn't really have a choice and I know how hard it was on him." Enzo was surprisingly less angry at that than I thought he would have been. "Once I was free, I thought… maybe there was a chance I would find Maggie somewhere. I wanted to thank her for everything she had done, for stopping me from giving up. But I found out that she had come to Mystic Falls after Damon got free the first time. I think her journal had started to trigger some of her memories of vampires and the compulsion was wearing off… I found out that Damon had killed her."

I wondered if Damon had known who she was when he done it, or why he had actually done it. "I'm really sorry." At least now I understood his reason for wanting to get back at him. Just like he had taken Lexi from me.

"I ended up staying in Mystic Falls after that because of Damon. I wanted to mess with him a bit, but I didn't hate him because... he was the only person I had." Enzo turned to his side so he was facing me. "But then I met you."

"I'm glad you did." I reached out to feel for his hand in the dark. I couldn't help but think maybe I was supposed to come here when I did and that our paths were meant to cross.

"Me too." Enzo went silent before I eventually heard his steady breaths and looked over, his eyes were closed. He had fallen asleep and it was the first time I had seen him look so peaceful.

I closed my eyes to try and get some rest too.

---

I was barely through the front door of the Salvatore House before Jo had her arms around me and was hugging me tightly, to my surprise. "You saved my life. And my babies."

I hesitantly hugged her back, just happy she was still alive. "It's what any of us would have done." What I really wanted to do was protect them for good by getting rid of the biggest threat they faced.

Jo sat down on a chair, rubbing her stomach as she smiled up at me. She looked like she wanted to say something but was nervous. We sat in silence for a few minutes before she finally spoke. "I want you to be their Godmother," she said quickly, lifting up a hand to stop me from answering yet, probably due to the shocked look on my face. "You've already risked your life for them and I don't know how I can repay you for that.. You'd be perfect for it. I know we can't really do it formally and all but in every other sense."

I wasn't really sure what to answer and looked over at Enzo who was trying to hide a smile. I think having a vampire as a Godmother was probably frowned upon but Jo's eyes were full of hope. She had lost her sister now too and I think Kai was the only close family she had left. I decided to go for it. "I'd be honored."

Jo grinned back at me as Elena, Damon and Stefan came into the room.

I noticed someone else coming in behind them who stormed straight towards Enzo. It was Matt. Matt grabbed Enzo by the collar and raised his fist to punch him but Enzo blocked his hand with his faster reflexes. For someone human going up against a vampire Matt didn't seem to be afraid at all. "You," Matt hissed out between clenched teeth. "You're the reason she's dead!"

"Easy, mate," Enzo's voice was quiet but threatening as he pulled Matt's hand off his collar and I noticed Damon and Stefan edge closer, likely ready to intervene if needed.

"You brought her to Mystic Falls!" Matt was still in his face, his hands balled into fists by his side. "She got mixed up with this stupid place because of you and now she's gone!"

Sarah.

They stared each other in the eyes and I could see Enzo was holding back from hurting him. Matt's expression flickered between upset and furious.

I seen Elena approach them cautiously and put a hand on Matt's arm to try and calm him down. "Hey Matt, come on, this isn't going to help." Matt shoved Enzo to the chest, to which Enzo looked irritated but didn't react, before allowing Elena to pull him away from the situation. She looked at Damon as Matt stormed out of the room. "I'll go after him, make sure he gets home without doing anything stupid."

"Well then.." Damon looked confused at the scene. He didn't know Sarah's history and was probably wondering why Enzo had brought her to Mystic Falls. On the bright side, he didn't seem to care and didn't ask any follow up questions. I could almost feel the relief radiating from Stefan. "So what's the plan?" Damon asked the room, but his eyes were focusing on Jo.

"Uh," Jo didn't look like she had a plan to be completely honest and that we were just going to have to make this up as we go. "OK so, we know Kai siphoned from the Heretics, and that he's incredibly powerful right now, so we'll need him to be weaker before we make a move."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Enzo had sat down on the edge of the sofa.

Jo seemed uncomfortable, probably trying to work out how we'd get close enough without getting hurt. "I... think we actually need help from the Heretics." We all looked at her like she was crazy and she quickly continued. "They can siphon too so if we can find some way for them to get close to Kai and somehow get their magic back.."

"Then once he's weak we finish him for good and put him in the ground," Damon interrupted, smiling like he enjoyed the thought.

"Actually," Jo sighed. It was never going to be simple. "There's another problem. Kai is the leader of the Gemini coven right now. If he dies the rest of us die with him. Me included."

That was a big problem. I thought about the other options it gave us. Cage him up? Find a way to send him back to the prison world? Wait until the coven had a new leader? I assumed that role would eventually fall to one of Jo's babies but not until they were old enough, which would mean years before the end of Kai. Not a great thought.

"How do we know they'll even help us?" I asked, thinking of Lily and the others in the basement. We had taken them out of one prison and essentially put them into another. They didn't trust us to begin with so I couldn't see that being any better now.

"You know what they're going to want," Enzo was the one to say it but we all knew what he was thinking. Freedom. They weren't going to help us if they were being held hostage.

"Let's go see what we're dealing with first," Damon stood up and made his way to the door that led to the basement, as Enzo and I followed. I noticed Stefan stayed behind and could tell he was less pleased than Damon at the thought of his mother being stuck in the basement.

I wondered how many prisoners the Salvatore brothers had kept down here over the years as we walked down the stairs.

The Heretics and Lily were all being held in a cell together. As I approached the bars keeping them secured I began to feel uneasy. While they were also witches their vampire need for blood was still strong and on the rations they had been given it was just enough to stop them from desiccating again. They would be starving should they be let out. Lily stood up as we got closer and walked over and I could see how weak she was looking. "Damon." She looked at her son. "Have you finally decided it's time to stop keeping your mother locked up?"

Damon didn't acknowledge it. "We need your…" He gestured his hands towards the Heretics. "Whatever the hell they are, to help us sort out a little problem."

"You expect us to help you when we're caged up?" Lily asked.

"If you ever want out, yes," Damon said firmly and I noticed the Heretics look at Lily pleadingly. If this was their only opportunity to be released they would beg her to take it. Nora was huddled into Mary Louise in the corner and I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. "The idiot you helped feed with power," Damon continued and I knew he was talking about Kai. "He needs to be stopped." I wondered if Kai had siphoned from them with no choice or if they had complied willingly, maybe under the belief that he would help them.

"How can we help with that?" Lily didn't seem convinced but I knew she wanted out too.

"It'll take some figuring out but long story short is they," Damon pointed at the Heretics. "Need to siphon the power back out of him so we can figure out what to do with him from there."

"We'll consider it," Lily said finally, but I knew at the prospect of freedom she was likely to agree. We turned to leave but she reached an arm out through the bar to stop Enzo. "I'd like to speak to Lorenzo," she said then, before looking at me and Damon. "Alone."

Enzo nodded at us both signalling that it was OK and we reluctantly left the main basement area. Damon however held up a hand as we walked up the stairs and I stopped. He put a finger to his ear and I understood he meant that he wanted to listen in on the conversation.

"Darling, it's so nice to see you again," Lily sounded like she wanted something, I could tell by the sweetness in her voice. "I didn't realise you were close to Damon. I can't believe you've come so far from the dying boy that I rescued on the ship that day." I wondered if she was planning to use that as some kind of leverage against him. Lily was his sire, given that she had turned him. I knew how hard it was to refuse anything they asked. "If we agreed to help… in exchange, I'm wondering if you can do something for me too. I'm trying to find something. It's a stone."

Damon and I exchanged a look. "I don't trust her." His voice was quiet, knowing Lily's vampire hearing might allow her to hear us too.

For the first time, we finally agreed on something. "Neither do I."

Chapter 13: Chapter 13

By the next day, Lily had set out her terms and conditions. The Heretics would help as long as they were released in exchange and Lily got the stone that she was looking for. I wasn’t really sure what it was. When we had been in the basement, Lily had ended up lowering her voice when speaking to Enzo and Damon and I couldn’t determine if she had done it on purpose or not, if she knew we were listening. Enzo hadn’t said much afterwards, only that it was of sentimental value to her and he was going to look into it.

Damon and Stefan had agreed that the best way to let the Heretics out was going to be a ‘trial run’. Lily would be released first, along with one of the others to ensure that we were able to get their bloodlust under control before setting them loose and the town of Mystic Falls wouldn’t be savaged within minutes. Bonnie had also, reluctantly, agreed to help and try and prevent them from using any dark magic, not that they had much of their own magic left, but they were still able to siphon from other people and objects.

I was in the Salvatore sitting room with Elena when Damon and Stefan came up the basement stairs with Lily and Mary Louise. Damon had a grip of Mary Louise’s arm and she was trying to pull away from him. “Stop manhandling me,” she growled at him but he simply ignored her and continued. I watched Lily cautiously, Damon and Stefan weren't holding onto her, but I knew she was of less concern to the brothers, since she had more time to get her vampirism under control before she had been locked in the prison world, and was less of a flight risk.

Elena opened up a blood bag as they approached and handed it to Mary Louise. “Welcome to the modern world. This is how we get our blood. We don’t need to murder anyone here.” Mary Louise looked at the bag in confusion for a moment before ripping it open and drinking from it greedily. The blood was spilling down her face onto her dress and Elena watched, shaking her head in bemusement. “Could have just opened it at the top,” she muttered to me quietly.

Mary Louise ended up having three blood bags in total before we were satisfied she wasn’t going to sink her teeth into the first person we came across when we tried to take her outside. Lily had confirmed that they wouldn’t need daylight rings due to them being a sort of hybrid. Their siphoner side would stop them from burning.

I heard a vibrating and Elena took her phone out of her pocket, looking down at the screen. Mary Louise walked over to her and looked down at it, her eyes watching in amazement. “What on earth is that?”

“It’s a phone,” Elena held it up and showed her the screen. I noticed the wallpaper looked like a picture of her, Caroline and Bonnie from when they were younger, possibly in high school. “Like a telephone? To make calls?”

“How did the people get in there?” Mary Louise took it from her and held it closer to her face.

“It’s just a picture,” I took out my own phone to show her. My own wallpaper was a picture of my cat who had passed away about three years before I had come here. I had been planning to get another pet soon but over the years losing them had never become any easier. I almost wished my blood would work on them the same way it would work on humans so I could have a lifelong pet companion. “We don’t trap people in them.”

Suddenly Elena’s phone started to ring, and Mary Louise let out a small shriek as she dropped it to the ground. Elena rolled her eyes as she went to pick it up, examining it for any damage before she left the room to answer.

Damon looked exasperated with Mary Louise already which was surprising considering he himself was not an easy person to be around. “We can’t take you out looking like that,” he looked her red, velvet dress up and down and waved for her and Lily to follow him. “I’ll show you where you can stay for now. Get you into something a little less Edwardian era so we don't draw more attention to ourselves than we need to.”

Once they were gone, I looked at Stefan who had been sitting quietly in an armchair since Lily and Mary Louise had been released. “Stefan, I wanted to talk to you about Sarah.” I moved closer and noticed his grip on the chair tighten as he looked away. “I know what happened.. was everything you were trying to stop by keeping her hidden away.”

“Yeah, well it’s a shame that someone had to mess that up, isn’t it?” I could tell by the bitterness in his voice what was happening here. Just like Matt, Stefan blamed Enzo for her death.

“It wasn’t his fault,” I said quietly, not wanting to start an argument and alert the others.

“Don’t defend him,” Stefan rubbed his face tiredly, then sat forward, putting his head into his hands. “You said it yourself. She came to Mystic Falls because of Enzo and then you two told her that you were vampires. I don’t know what you were planning to do but I sure as hell know she wouldn't be in the ground and she'd still be taking pictures at Whitmore, living her life happily, if he hadn't gotten involved."

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Might I remind you who the one to have her heart taken out was?” I knew Stefan cared about Caroline, which is probably why he was choosing to ignore that she was the reason Sarah had become a vampire in the first place, before Kai had killed her. Enzo may have had intentions to eventually turn Sarah, but he didn’t in the end, and given he and Stefan’s history I had a feeling Stefan was just choosing the easy person to blame in his mind.

Honestly, I had been beginning to feel like maybe Stefan and I would become close but that was currently going down the drain.

Stefan looked like he was about to say something but Elena coming back into the room stopped him.

"Sorry, that was Jo calling," she said quietly. "She got a call from her father to tell her that one of her Uncles has been killed in Maryland. Given how he died, I think Kai is working his way through the rest of the Gemini coven."

"He's trying to make it so there's less people to protect the twins," I guessed and Elena nodded in agreement. At least if he wasn't in Mystic Falls for now that gave us a bit of time to work out how we were going to get the Heretics close to siphon his power away. But it also meant Jo's wider family were in danger. And then he would start coming for people who were close to her.

Eventually, Damon, Lily and Mary Louise returned. Mary Louise was now wearing a white dress that ended at her knees, and she was pulling at the fabric, as if trying to work out where the rest of it was. Damon threw a leather jacket towards her and she put it on before looking in the mirror in the hallway. She tilted her head to the side. “I’m not sure I understand your style in this time.”

Elena stood by my side as we both watched her. “Do you think she’s ready for Mystic Falls?”

I let out a long sigh. “I don’t think Mystic Falls is ready for her.”

---

Enzo was sitting on the sofa with a laptop and a pile of open books sitting next to him. He looked stressed, like a college student with a deadline. "How did it go?" he asked, his eyes momentarily looking up from the screen.

"Well, she was amazed by every single invention made beyond the year 1903, but thankfully… we made it back without any casualties," I set my jacket down before picking up one of the books and taking a seat next to him. The page was open to a picture of a red gemstone. "The Phoenix Stone," I read the words on the page, my fingers tracing over the picture. "Is this what Lily wants?"

Enzo nodded and set the laptop down. "She said it was in her family for years and the only reason she wants it back is because it's special to her, but there's something else to it… I just can't figure out what."

I looked at the words on the page. The book suggested it was of Native American origin, created by a Shaman, but it didn't seem to specify what the stone's purpose was, or if it was magical. In fact, there wasn't much detail about it at all.

"How does she expect you to find it?" I asked, looking at the size of it. It looked tiny, like tracking it down anywhere in the world would be an impossible task without having some indication of where it may have been.

"Lily last had it on the ship where she turned me, before they got trapped in the prison world." Enzo turned the laptop screen around to show me what looked like an old news article with a picture of a shipwreck. "The ship sank not long after. The wreckage was eventually discovered by divers and everything they managed to recover is in a maritime museum in New York. I thought maybe if they found the stone..."

He looked up and I followed his gaze. It was then I noticed a bag sitting in the corner of the room. I turned to look at Enzo. "You're going to New York?"

He nodded.

"OK, I'll come with you," I offered. Two people looking would be faster than one and to be entirely honest I didn't want him to leave me in Mystic Falls. Plus a change of scenery for a couple of days would be nice. "Just let me get my things together and-"

"You can't," he cut me off and I frowned.

"Why not?"

Enzo lowered his voice. "Lily told me that if anyone finds out I'm looking for it I'll be in danger. I'm not putting you in that position too."

"Then no, you shouldn't go," I stood up, annoyed at the thought of him even considering putting himself at risk for Lily. When he had been a part of Lily's rescue mission they had left him behind in the prison world without a second thought. The stone obviously wasn't just 'sentimental value' for Lily if people were after it. "You don't owe her anything. Stay here, Enzo. We'll find some other way to deal with Kai without their help."

"There is no other way," Enzo said quietly and I had a sick feeling that he was right. I sure didn't have any ideas anyway. "I have to, Nadine. It's not about protecting Jo or the Salvatore's anymore." He didn't look up at me but I could tell what he meant.

Kai had attacked me. He could have probably very easily killed me if he had a wooden stake instead of a blade at the wedding, and given that I had stopped him from killing the twins that probably meant I'd been added to his hitlist now too. Enzo was worried he would try it again.

"When are you leaving?" I asked, trying to hide the sadness in my voice as I stopped pacing the room and sat back down.

"This afternoon. The sooner I go the sooner I get back," Enzo turned to look at me. "I called Elena earlier and I want you to stay at the Salvatore house while I'm gone."

"What? Why?" I felt like I never left the place. Plus, I didn't really want to see Stefan again right now or be in the same house as him.

"There's strength in numbers there. They have plenty of spare rooms and..."

"I don't need them to babysit me," I said angrily, having no intention to stay anywhere other than Enzo's apartment. I seen his face flicker with irritation.

"It's not babysitting," Enzo closed his eyes tightly. "It's knowing that you have someone close by who can help if you need it. If Kai turned up here then…"

"I don't even think Kai is in this state," I said, thinking of his family murder spree across America. "I'm perfectly fine where I am Enzo. I'm not staying at the Salvatore house."

Without warning, Enzo suddenly leaned over to kiss me, his kisses more intense than before and as irritated as I was I couldn't bring myself to pull away. "Yes you are," he whispered fiercely between kisses, his breathing heavy. I looked up to meet his gaze. "When I'm away I need to know that you'll be here for me to come back to."

I huffed but couldn't say no to that. He was only doing it because he was worried. "Fine. But don't think that kissing me like that is going to make you get your way every time."

Enzo smirked. "Don't be so stubborn about me trying to keep you safe and I won't have to."

I leaned over to kiss him again, my lips leaving his mouth and slowly kissing a trail down his jaw and neck. I heard him groan softly and to his annoyance I pulled away before getting up and picking up his bag, tossing it towards him. "Just giving you a reason to stay alive and come back to me too."

---

I sat cross legged on the bed of one of the Salvatore's spare rooms, browsing through my phone. Enzo had left about five hours ago and I had made my way over here reluctantly. I half expected him to walk me to the door just to make sure I did.

Even although Jo and Alaric had temporarily moved in too, there was no shortage of space here, given that it was an old boarding house.

I heard a soft knock on the door and saw Elena pop her head around. "Any chance I can hide out here from the madness downstairs?"

"Of course," I smiled as Elena came in, holding two cups in her hand. After Mary Louise's insistence, Nora had now also been released from the basement and Bonnie was trying to help her control her magic, given that she was probably one of the stronger witches from the Heretics. She hadn't accidentally set the house on fire yet so in my opinion it was going well.

Elena handed me one of the cups and sat down next to me. "I don't know if you drink tea but I find it helps me relax sometimes," she took a sip from the cup. "Everything has just been so crazy around here I just wish it would stop for a minute. I just want to start thinking about college again and spend some time with Damon without having to wonder who is going to attack us next."

I nodded in understanding. "If there's one thing I can say about Mystic Falls it's that I've not exactly been short of things to do since I came here."

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes just listening to the background noise of those downstairs.

"What about Enzo?" Elena probed, and I raised my eyebrows at first pretending not to know what she was talking about. "I saw you two get pretty close at the wedding. He seems to really care about you."

I looked down at the cup in my hand and sighed. I could dismiss it or I could tell her the truth. Which is that, honestly, I felt like I was falling for him. I'd even packed the t-shirt he had given me and considered wearing it to sleep but at the risk of looking like a lovesick puppy I had talked myself out of it. "I like him," I admitted finally.

"Romantically?" Elena pushed and I laughed at her interrogation.

"Yes, it's just difficult," I knew Elena would understand. "Dating as a vampire isn't exactly normal anyway but right now with everything else… I just wish we could escape from it somewhere."

"Do you ever wish you were human again?" Elena asked out of the blue.

I looked at the younger girl as I considered the question. She was a much more recent vampire than I was and she probably still had fond memories of her human life, and probably missed that too. "Sometimes," I said honestly. "I see people starting a family, growing old and being laid to rest and knowing that I'll never be able to do that makes me a little sad. But… sometimes no. The opportunities we have… I think being a vampire can be amazing if you can find the right people to spend a lifetime with."

My phone started to buzz on the bed next to me and I looked down to see that the screen had lit up. Scarlett, my friend from back in San Francisco, was calling me. I instantly felt bad that I hadn't been in contact with her since I decided I was staying longer in Mystic Falls. The only times I had called her were when I needed to use her magic for something, which didn't make me friend of the year. I looked at Elena and held a finger up. "Excuse me for one second." I pressed the button to answer and held the phone up to my ear. "Scarlett, hey! I'm really sorry I-"

Her voice cut me off however. "Nadine," she sounded panicked, and like she was rushing to go somewhere. "I think you're in trouble."

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Whatever Scarlett wanted to tell me, she had refused to do it over the phone and insisted we met in person.

I didn't really want to leave Mystic Falls with everything going on so offered to cover the cost of a flight to Virginia and Scarlett had gotten the first flight available in the morning. Elena had driven me to the airport to collect her, and now the three of us were sitting in a diner between the airport and Mystic Falls. I trusted Elena enough now that I didn't mind her staying to hear what Scarlett wanted to talk about.

It was just after 6am and thankfully it was quiet in the diner. I took a bite of the pancakes I'd ordered. "So what brings you all the way to Virginia?"

Scarlett had taken some books out of a rucksack she had brought with her and set them on the table in front of us. They looked old, like they had recently been cleaned but with traces of dust remaining. I opened the front cover of one and it was handwritten, like it was someone's journal or personal notes.

"OK, so, when I was younger my Mom used to get premonitions," Scarlett explained, keeping her voice quiet. "She always told me that I would when I grew older and into my powers too but I never did and I assumed she was wrong." I knew premonitions for a witch meant visions of what was to come in the future. "Until I was helping my grandmother sort some things in the attic when I came across this," Scarlett pushed one of the books on the table towards me.

"What happened?" I asked, flicking through the pages to see if there was anything I could recognise.

"At first I had no idea," Scarlett picked up a spoon and stirred the coffee that was in front of her. "It completely threw me off. I picked up the book and then suddenly it's like I was in a dream, I was seeing things, people. Then two minutes later I was back in the attic."

"You had a vision?" Elena asked, as she also looked through some of the books. "A premonition?"

"I think so." Scarlett looked up at me. "You were there. Someone was stabbing you with a sword."

That was better than I thought she was going to say. While I wouldn't look forward to it, I could at least relax knowing that it wasn't deadly for me. But Scarlett would know that too so I couldn't understand why she had come all this way to tell me. "What did they look like?" I asked, thinking if at least I knew who the assailant was then maybe I could avoid it.

Scarlett looked like she was concentrating as she tried to remember. "Um.. it was a man, he was maybe in his twenties, dark hair…"

That didn't really narrow it down and could have covered half of Mystic Falls.

I noticed Elena typing on her phone next to me before she turned the screen to show Scarlett. "Is this him?" Scarlett nodded and I looked down at Elena’s phone. It was a news article with a picture of Kai. I should have known it would be him.

"Well… thanks for the heads up, but I'll be OK," I assured Scarlett but she was shaking her head.

"No, there's more." She took the book from me and started thumbing through the pages. "I couldn't understand why this particular book had triggered the premonition so I started reading. The sword wasn't just any old sword, it had something in the handle that started to glow when you were stabbed. Like something magical." I frowned in confusion as she stopped on a page and turned it around to show me. "This."

The picture was hand drawn but I could tell what it was. Even if I hadn't been able to, it was helpfully scribbled underneath anyway. The Phoenix Stone.

"I started reading about it," Scarlett continued and I tried to make sense of the notes myself. "When it's attached to this particular sword that I saw, it traps the soul of any vampire stabbed with it within the stone. You'll basically be stuck in there forever unless the soul is ever reunited with your body, by placing the stone back on it."

"So the stone is full of vampire souls?" Elena was leaning over me trying to read the same page. She shook her head, looking tired. "And just when I thought all that was over with. It's like the prison world but shinier."

"This is what Lily sent Enzo to find," I said quietly, trying to work out why Lily would need a stone full of dead vampires, unless she didn't know what it was for. I doubted that however. I hadn't heard from Enzo since he had left yesterday afternoon and didn't know if he'd had any luck getting his hands on it yet.

"What about the sword?" Elena pointed towards the other picture on the page. "Does it have to be a special one that the stone is attached to?"

"I think so. It's called the Phoenix Sword. It looks like the sword and the stone both belonged to a vampire huntress," Scarlett told us. "Her name was Rayna Cruz. This notebook belongs to my great grandmother. From what I can see in her notes, Rayna last used the sword and the stone in a fight in 1903." I stiffened at the mention of 1903 and suddenly realised that Lily likely knew way more about this stone than she had initially told Enzo. "They were both lost in the fight and it seems Rayna came to my family looking for help trying to track them down. But it doesn't look like they were ever found."

"What if they were put back together again?" Elena asked, but I felt like we both knew the answer already.

Scarlett shrugged. "I can't say for sure but it seems like it would be a pretty powerful way to get rid of any vampires."

Kai would be delighted to get his hands on them. Most of Jo's close protection were vampires. But I was trying to figure out how he knew about the sword in the first place, if he had used it on me in the future.

"So you saw me getting stabbed with this and I guess my soul ended up in the stone?" I let out a deep breath. Now that would be a problem. I was hoping it was a premonition I'd be able to change.

"We need to stop it then," Elena stood up so quickly the table shook when she brushed against it and I felt like she had momentarily forgotten she was a vampire with increased strength. "If Enzo is out looking for the stone you need to get him to come back."

"Maybe it's best he finds it," I said quietly, I'd rather know it was safe in our possession than out there for anyone to take. "We can find some way to get rid of it. We should try and figure out how it ends up with Kai and how he knew about it in the first place."

Elena and I both said it at the same time. "Lily."

Right now, apart from Scarlett, she was the only person who seemed to know more about the stone and maybe she was where we could get our answers from.

Scarlett took a final sip of her coffee. "I think this stone leads to something bigger. I've never had a premonition until now and this… it's like I was meant to stop it from happening."

I looked up at her. Having her family's knowledge of this and an extra witch around would be greatly beneficial. "Will you come back to Mystic Falls with us?"

---

Lily had taken the Heretics out of the Salvatore house which meant we had time to update the others on what we had discovered before confronting her directly.

"So you're saying there's a weapon out there that we didn't even know about that will kill us?" Damon was looking at the book Elena had handed him as we sat in the Salvatore sitting room along with Stefan and Scarlett. "I love a good surprise."

"It's not exactly going to kill you," Scarlett said quietly, looking slightly uneasy in a room full of strangers. I had warned her that they were all vampires which probably didn't help her nerves. She wasn't bothered by me but we had known each other for years so she knew I wasn't a threat. The others she was less sure about.

"Sorry, who are you?" Damon tilted his head and Elena gave him a light slap on the arm.

"Damon, don't be rude," she scolded before giving Scarlett a small smile. "She's Nadine's friend and the only reason we know about this in the first place. Scarlett had a vision of the sword and stone being used on Nadine, by Kai."

Scarlett nodded to her in thanks before continuing. "It's more like a vampire prison from what I can make out from these notes. It takes the soul out of the body and unless the stone is placed on the body to reunite them, it's basically a deep sleep. But I have to assume that since the stone was used by a vampire huntress it's not exactly a peaceful sleep."

"I'd rather not be the one to test that theory," I fiddled with my daylight ring on my finger as I tried to think of how we could get some answers.

"We need to find out what Lily knows about it and why she sent Enzo to find it," Elena leaned back in her chair. "But we won't know unless we ask her."

"Perhaps I can help with that." We all looked up to see Valerie, one of the Heretics, standing at the door with her arms folded. "Pardon me, I didn't mean to listen in but the others are still out exploring Mystic Falls and I was getting a little tired of watching Oscar and Mary Louise get excited over a money dispensing machine."

"Ah, eavesdropping were we?" Damon was eyeing her warily as she stepped into the room. I passed the book I was holding back to Scarlett to keep it out of the way until we could figure out what Valerie was up to. "Why would we need your help?"

"Because if you want to stop the sword and the stone falling into the wrong hands, then you need to know…" Valerie sat down on an empty seat. She looked around as if to check none of the Heretics had followed her back. "Lily is lying to you all."

"Well there's a surprise," Damon muttered, getting up to pour himself a drink. "You hear that Stefan? Mommie dearest isn't being honest about what she's up to." Stefan was quiet, his mouth set into a firm line.

"Lying about what?" Elena was the one to ask her.

"She was never planning to help you in your fight against the siphoner," Valerie was very forthcoming to my surprise. I wasn't sure why. Maybe she and Lily didn't get on well.

"Kai?" I felt like I needed a drink now too.

Valerie nodded. "When he came to siphon from us, Lily tried to get him to set us free. He had no interest and told her he only wanted our power so that he could hold off a room full of witches and vampires to kill his sister."

"Before the wedding," Damon downed the glass of whatever he had just poured. "We know this already."

Valerie looked irritated at his interruption but continued. "Lily… suggested that she knew of something that would be able to help him if they were to work together."

"Our mother made a deal with Kai?" Stefan finally spoke. He had been the one who was desperate to bring Lily back from 1903, probably thinking that they would play happy families but it seems Lily had her own agenda.

"Yes," Valerie confirmed. "She told him all about the Phoenix Stone and Sword, and what they could do to vampires and he was suddenly very interested. Lily told him that she needed the stone, but if he were to find the sword she would give the stone to him after, once she had gotten what she needed, for him to use with the sword as he pleased."

I assumed that to mean trapping me, and every other vampire that might try and stop him from getting to the twins, inside the stone.

"Why didn't Kai just go after them himself when he found out?" Elena looked puzzled, it wasn't exactly like Kai to make friends.

"Lily didn't trust him not to, so she didn't tell him what she knew about the stone's location," Valerie played with a pendant around her neck. "She allowed him to siphon from us after that and counted on you coming to us for help after the attack. She knew she could bargain for her freedom, and get her little pet to go and find the stone for her, while Kai would go and look for the sword."

"Why tell Kai about them in the first place?" Stefan looked confused. "If Lily doesn't need the sword, why would she get Kai involved…"

Valerie stared at him for a moment and I could have sworn I saw something between them. Like they already knew each other.

Damon groaned. "Do I need to be the one to say it brother? Lily wants Kai to get rid of us too." He shrugged as if it was obvious before looking at Valerie. "Right? She thinks if she gives him the stone then he'll use it to deal with us and she can move you lot into our house and take over. She's replaced her family, Stefan. She thinks we're a threat."

Valerie didn't say anything in response but looked down at the ground awkwardly. We weren't exactly on the best of terms right now but even I felt slightly bad for Stefan finding out that his own mother wanted him out of the way.

"Why does Lily even want it?" I asked, confused as to why a vampire would want to be in possession of a stone that could potentially imprison her inside of it if she was attacked with it. Surely she would prefer to keep it away.

"Because the love of her life, Julian, is trapped inside of it." Valerie almost spat the name out like she couldn't stand Julian, whoever that was. "And she thinks if she can get the stone and his body she can set him free."

"Where is his body?" Stefan shifted in his chair. I couldn't see him and Damon being happy at the prospect of a new vampire stepfather.

"She has us working on finding it," Valerie said quietly and I noticed how tense she had become. Whoever Julian was, I had a feeling that Valerie didn't want his soul to be reunited with his body. "Spells, locators, sending Oscar out looking, she's planning on trying everything."

"Is that why you told us?" I asked, and she looked away. "So we can stop Lily letting Julian out?"

I took her silence to mean yes. There was no other reason she would have told us all of this unless she wanted us to do something about it. We needed to make sure Lily didn't get her hands on the stone. "Why Enzo?" I said quietly as I took out my phone, knowing I would need to let him know. "If Lily managed to talk us into letting her go free, why wouldn't she just send one of you?"

"She wouldn't risk us getting killed," Valerie said confidently. "She thinks Lorenzo is going to be on her side anyway, if it comes down to choosing."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Stefan's voice would have been barely audible to humans but us vampires heard him perfectly well. I shot him a glance from where I stood, but he didn't look up to meet my eyes.

"No, he wouldn't do that," I looked at Elena who nodded in agreement but she looked uncertain.

"So what do we do now?" she asked. "Do we need to move Jo out of the house and out of danger?"

"No," I stood up. "We don't do anything until we have the stone and make sure it's out of Lily's reach. We can't let her get suspicious before that."

I looked around the room. If I didn't know better I'd say even Damon looked a little defeated like this would be one battle he might not be able to win himself.

If we could get the stone and find out how to keep it away from Lily, that would solve one problem.

But if it came down to a fight, we needed help.

I wasn't sure any of us would be able to stop Kai if he could get his hands on the sword and the stone. But I didn't know how.

And then it popped into my mind.

I decided to keep it to myself for now, as I wasn't sure how they would react, given that they all seemed to have different opinions on a particular family.

Our mutual friends in New Orleans.

---

I lay on a pile of blankets I had set out on the floor as Scarlett got ready for bed in the ensuite. I had dragged her halfway across the country, the least I could do was give her a bed. I took out my phone. There were still no messages or updates from Enzo. I scrolled through my contacts until I found his name and my finger hovered over it for a moment. I wanted to call him, to hear his voice and check that he was OK, but I had no idea what he'd be doing right now and if I would interrupt his plans. Instead I settled on sending a text message.

'If you find the stone DO NOT bring it to Lily. Will explain when you get back. I hope you're safe.'

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

I woke up to my phone vibrating and picked it up from beside me. The screen said that it was just after 7am. I looked up at the bed to see Scarlett was still fast asleep, her body probably still on San Francisco time. I sat up, unlocking my phone and noticing I had a new message from Enzo which quickly snapped me to attention. 'Come to my apartment.'

I frowned at the phone. Was he home? I pressed the button to call him and waited but the phone rang several times before going to his voicemail.

Or was it a trap? Perhaps Kai had learned to manipulate technology now and was trying to get me on my own. I could take back-up just in case, but then I'd potentially be putting someone else in danger. Besides, I didn't think we'd hear from Kai again until he had his hands on the Phoenix Sword.

I decided to risk it and go alone. I got dressed as quietly as possible, leaving Scarlett a note that I would be back soon and slipped out the door of the Salvatore house.

On my way over, I saw Matt in the distance, putting up tape over various doors in Mystic Falls and laying out road signs that stated the roads were closed. Curious as to what he was doing, I cautiously made my way towards him. He looked angry, focused on whatever his task was and didn't acknowledge me at first as I stood behind him.

He was in uniform. Police uniform. I assumed he was new to the role because no one had mentioned to me before that he was in the Police.

"Matt? What's going on?" I noticed buses parked up in the town, and people were loading on to them with suitcases and other bits and pieces.

"I'm evacuating the town," he replied, continuing to put up signs, before he turned to look at me. "Elena told me what you brought back from the prison world. I'm not just going to stand here and wait while they tear through Mystic Falls and kill everyone with a pulse."

"So you're moving out all the humans?" I wasn't even sure he had the authority to do that. He handed me a flyer and I looked down at it. It was addressed to the residents of Mystic Falls and noted that there was a suspected gas leak in the town, and that they would all need to leave immediately. Accommodation had been arranged for them in a nearby town.

"Yeah, sorry, you'll need to find your dinner somewhere else," Matt picked up a bag and started to walk away from me but I followed after him.

"You can't just move everyone out forever," I pointed out, imagining the residents weren't best pleased at having to leave their homes. "We have them under control."

Matt stopped walking and rolled his eyes. "I've heard that one before."

"Why do you stay?" If I were in Matt's position I probably would have given up on Mystic Falls long ago. But he didn't seem phased that he was up against the supernatural.

"Because this was my home before it was taken over by your kind," Matt looked like he was getting upset. "And Elena, Bonnie, Caroline… they were my friends before they were vampires and witches. So I'm not going to give up on trying to keep the people I care about safe. And if that means killing the Salvatores, Enzo, you… I'll find a way."

"We're not the threats, Matt," I said quietly, but understanding why he thought that. It was only a couple of weeks ago Enzo had gotten him to the brink of death. "I want the same thing as you. Your town to be safe for everyone and your friends to be safe. I'm just trying to work out how to do that." I sighed as I sat down on the sidewalk. "You wanna know what's funny? My sister and I got into an argument once because I told her I wanted to join the Police."

Matt snorted a laugh but his face softened a little. "You know we use pepper spray and tasers on people and not fangs. A little less lethal than what you're used to."

"I haven't killed a human in fifteen years," I admitted, thinking back to the last time. "I was walking home one night and heard a commotion in an alleyway. I followed the noise and there was a man there, attacking a woman." I thought back to it and I could still remember her face. She was terrified and I had seen red. "I got him off her but he was fighting me back and so… I killed him."

"So what, that makes you some kind of Saint?" Matt shook his head. "Just because you don't kill doesn't mean you're not very capable of it." He ran a hand through his hair. "I have to be honest… I don't trust you "

"I'm not asking you to," I gave him a weak smile. "Just remember we're fighting for the same people."

I got up and continued on my way to Enzo's apartment, leaving Matt to get back to what it was he was doing. He had momentarily paused and I wondered if he was having second thoughts about the evacuation but then I saw that he continued to put up the signs.

I turned the spare key Enzo had given me in the lock of his apartment door, taking a breath before I pushed it open, and praying it was him inside.

I found him sitting on the sofa when I went in, quietly strumming on his guitar.

"You're back," I smiled widely as I walked over to greet him. He stood up and we looked at each other for a moment before I wrapped my arms around him for a hug. "I missed you."

He laughed but returned the hug. "I think you're the only person to ever say that about me in Mystic Falls."

I pulled away after a minute. "I thought you might have called when you were on your way home." I didn't want to tell him off but I couldn't say I hadn't been a little worried by almost two days of silence from him.

"I got your message about the stone last night," He lifted his bag from the floor and opened it up. "Figured until I knew what was going on then the less people that knew I was back, the better."

"You found it?" I asked, a little nervous to know it was now in Mystic Falls.

He nodded and pulled a folded up t-shirt from out of the bag, carefully unwrapping it to show me the stone sitting in the middle. It was smaller than I'd thought, but definitely the one from the pictures, the sparkling red catching the sun that was shining in the window. I debated whether to reach out and touch it or not but knowing I'd potentially end up inside it one day soon, decided against it. "Only had to pull off a museum heist to get it," he grinned.

"How very James Bond," I laughed as I sat down on the sofa. "Lasers and a high speed getaway chase?"

Enzo shook his head. "More like compulsion and simply turning off the security cameras." He set the stone down on the coffee table and sat next to me as we both looked at it. "So… what do I need to know?"

I told Enzo everything. About the sword, how Scarlett had a vision of Kai using it and came here to tell me about it, how the stone once belonged to a huntress but had been lost in 1903, how Valerie had told us all about Lily's lover trapped inside it and how she wanted it back to free him, before planning to give it to Kai to deal with Damon, Stefan and the rest of us.

He looked deep in thought as he tried to absorb all the information. "We destroy it then," Enzo said as if it was obvious. He picked up the stone to examine it, and I was half expecting him to try and snap it in two. "If it's gone it's no longer a problem."

"I don't think it's that easy." Destruction would have been too simple. If Lily couldn't get her hands on it, then she couldn't use it to reunite with Julian and she wouldn't be able to give it to Kai to use afterwards. But given that it was full of vampire souls, it didn't seem like the stone would just simply cease to exist if we were to somehow break it. "I don't think it's just going to go away. At the very least I think it would require magic."

He chewed on his bottom lip before turning to look at me. "You said it belonged to a vampire huntress?"

I nodded, recalling what Scarlett had said about the woman who had gone to her family for help. "Yes, her name was Rayna Cruz. I think Lily and the Heretics might have been the last vampires she was hunting before she lost her sword."

"Is she still alive?"

I shrugged, not really knowing much other than her name. "I don't know."

"Then maybe we find out," Enzo suggested, taking out his phone and I saw he had pulled up a search engine. We'd probably need more than the Internet to track this one down.

"I doubt she'd help us," I didn't think a vampire huntress who had spent her life hunting down our kind would be willing to help vampires destroy her own weapon. But at this stage I was willing to give anything a try. "I'll talk to the others, see what they think." He nodded and put the stone back into his bag as I got up. "I think you should stay here for now," I knew he wouldn't like the idea of being stuck in his apartment. "If Lily doesn't know you're back yet then she won't start asking questions."

"So I'm just supposed to sit around and do nothing to help?"

"You're helping by keeping the stone away from them." I wondered whether or not to tell him what Valerie had said. "You know Stefan doesn't trust you, right?" He raised one eyebrow but didn't look surprised at all. "One of the Heretics thinks that you'll side with Lily if it comes to choosing between them and us."

He was quiet for a minute. "Do you trust me?"

I didn't hesitate in answering. "One hundred percent." Enzo was the only person in Mystic Falls I had fully trusted since arriving here. Maybe I was letting my heart make the decisions over my head but I was confident that he wouldn't betray us. Me.

"Then that's all I care about." He sat back down on the sofa. "Guess I'll make myself comfortable here then."

---

That afternoon, Elena, Scarlett, Bonnie, Jo and I sat in the library of the Salvatore house, looking through various books that Scarlett had brought with her and we had been able to find in the library that may have had any reference to the Phoenix Stone. We had considered inviting Valerie for her input but I still didn't fully believe that she wasn't reporting back to Lily.

Jo sighed as she leaned back in her chair and took a sip of water. "Three witches, two vampires, and we still can't work out what happens if we destroy a damned tiny stone."

"Hey, we'll figure this out," I tried to reassure her, but was also trying to reassure myself. Her bump was more prominent today, no doubt due to the fact there were two babies growing within. "How are you feeling anyway?"

She smiled, but I could see the sadness behind her eyes. "I'm OK. I just…" She twisted her wedding ring around her finger. "This is the time when Alaric and I should be planning what color we want the nursery to be, going through baby name books and buying cute matching outfits. Not fretting about when my own brother is next going to try and kill my children."

I reached out to squeeze her hand. "We'll get through this. Soon the biggest worry you're going to have is whether you've stockpiled enough diapers or not."

"My brain refuses to process any more words," Elena threw the book she was holding onto the floor in frustration. "There is nothing in here about destroying the stone."

"Enzo thinks we should try and track down Rayna Cruz," I kept my voice quiet. We had made sure Lily was on the other side of the house but I wanted to be careful so neither her or her minions could pick us up with their vampire hearing. "He thinks if anyone knows how to get rid of the stone it'll be her."

"Is that safe?" Jo looked concerned, no doubt thinking the same as me and that the only thing Rayna would want to do is kill us. I was hoping without her weapon however she'd be useless in a fight against a vampire.

"Safer than waiting around and not doing anything," Bonnie shrugged. Maybe if she or Scarlett were to speak to Rayna instead they would be able to get more out of her.

Elena looked at the three witches. Well, it was more like two and a half. "Is that something you could do? Like a locator spell?"

"We'd need something that belongs to her," Bonnie looked down at the stone. "I mean… I guess that would do. We might not get an accurate answer but it could be a start." She picked up a map and placed it down in front of her, as Scarlett joined to help.

We watched as Bonnie closed her eyes and held Scarlett's hand, both of them chanting quietly. "Phasmatos Tribum, Nas Ex Veras, Sequitas Sanguinem."

"Anything?" Elena asked hopefully as Bonnie opened her eyes and quickly scribbled down a note on a piece of paper.

"I saw a hospital," she took out her phone and started typing on it before holding it up to show us. "This is it. Oh no… it looks like it's in Ohio."

I'd been hoping Rayna was a little closer to home. "Hope y'all like roadtrips."

"Knock, knock."

A voice came from the door and I quickly stood up, as I noticed Bonnie push the map away and Elena moved to stand in front of the books. An unexpected guest wasn't ideal right now.

It was even more surprising that it was Caroline walking into the room. Humanity Caroline, I hoped, but I couldn't see Stefan letting her out any other way.

"Caroline?" Elena stared at her for a moment, looking like she was also trying to figure out if her humanity was back on, before running towards her for a hug. "You're…"

"Back to my old self?" Caroline sounded nervous as she hugged Elena back. "Yes. Stefan told me everything." She sat down on one of the chairs and looked at everyone in turn. "I'm so sorry for what I've done. What I had done to that poor girl…" Her face looked pained before I saw a tear roll down her cheek and she took out a tissue to dab at it. "Ugh, I've had my emotions back on for less than two hours and I'm already a mess."

I knew the feeling well. "You were grieving," I said in understanding. "No one blames you for what happened." Vampires with their humanity off were basically two different people. While I didn't know Caroline that well I was confident she wouldn't have done anything to hurt Sarah had her switch been flipped.

She smiled gratefully and sniffled, trying to compose herself. "I came to see if you needed any help here."

We spent the rest of the afternoon exhausting all the reading material we could find. Bonnie, Scarlett and Jo looked tired, while Elena and Caroline just seemed to be bored. Elena had even resorted to doodling on empty pages. We couldn't figure this out ourselves now and the only option left was to try and find Rayna.

Jo eventually got up and stretched. "Well, I'm eating for three and I'm about to pass out from hunger so I'm calling it a night." We all said our goodbyes as she left and Elena looked at Bonnie.

"You should go and get some rest too, Bon. We could really use your help in Ohio."

"Of course," she waved as she left too, leaving me, Elena, Scarlett and Caroline. "See you tomorrow."

Elena placed a hand on my shoulder. "Go and spend some time with Enzo,"

I shook my head. "I can't, the stone…" I had to admit I was also tired of looking through pointless books. "Scarlett."

I looked at Scarlett but like she could already tell what I was thinking she shook her head and smiled. "I'm absolutely fine here with Elena. Honestly I just want to eat and sleep too."

"I didn't forget the conversation we had the other night," Elena said quietly. "There's not much we can do about finding Rayna until tomorrow, so take every minute you can get for yourself until then."

I contemplated it for a moment before nodding. "Thank you," I said sincerely.

She was fast becoming someone I'd consider to be a friend.

---

I opened the door to Enzo's apartment, and was greeted by the smell of something cooking. The room was dark, apart from a candle burning at a dining table in the corner which also had a bottle of wine sitting on it. Enzo appeared from the kitchen and smiled.

"What's this?" I asked, wondering if his confinement had turned him into a chef.

"Dinner. I told you I wanted to take you out but since I'm stuck in the apartment this is the best I can do," Enzo was holding a wooden spoon.

I tilted my head to look at him. The only way he could have planned it is if he knew I was coming back here. "Wait… did you talk to Elena?" I was starting to think she was trying to become my wingwoman.

He smiled sheepishly, pulling out one of the dining chairs for me. "I might have. Any luck tracking down Buffy the Vampire Slayer?"

"We think she's in Ohio," I told him, picking up a breadstick from the table and nibbling the end. "We're going to take a drive and see if we can find her."

"Great, another trip out of Mystic Falls will stop me from being stuck in here."

I opened my mouth to say something but Enzo disappeared into the kitchen. I wasn't sure that Elena and Bonnie would appreciate Enzo coming along but he seemed to have made up his mind. As long as he allowed the witches to do the talking. Enzo returned not long after with two plates of food which he set down on the table.

The food looked like it had been made by a professional chef. I used a fork to pick up a piece of pasta, surprised at how good it was, even if it was more suited to humans than a vampire. "Where did you learn to cook so well?"

"When I was a child, actually," He took a bite before taking a long drink of wine. "After I got sent to the workhouse. When I was young my concept of family was so limited I convinced myself the Italian line cook there was my father. Sometimes he would sneak me into the kitchen, let me help him, and that's the closest thing I have to a family memory. I spend time in the kitchen making things because I remember enjoying it."

Hearing snippets of his past just made me want to take away all of his painful childhood memories. "Did you ever want to look for your family?"

"There was a time when I did," Enzo admitted. "But I had a lot of time to think when I was in Augustine. If they wanted me to be a part of their family they wouldn't have abandoned me. So I'm not going to waste any energy on it."

"What's your plans then?" I wondered out loud as Enzo picked up the wine bottle and refilled my glass. "After all the Mystic Falls drama is over? Are you going to stick around here?"

"I thought when I became a vampire that I'd have all the time in the world to explore, see everything," He picked up a piece of pasta with his fork and stared at it. "Getting locked up wiped out around… seventy years of that. I want to see the world," he smiled. "Paris, Tokyo, Rio…" He reached across the table to touch my hand and stroked it gently with his thumb. "Maybe we could do it together."

I wanted to travel more. I had always been a little annoyed at myself that I had barely ventured out of America. Enzo being there would be a very welcome plus. "I'd like that."

"Long term though, I think this is the place to be," Enzo waved a hand around. "It's not like Mystic Falls is short on the supernatural."

"You know Matt is evacuating all the humans out of the town," I mentioned, the thought only crossing my mind now that the supply of blood would plummet. We'd have to get our blood bags from further afield or the others would have to get used to hunting animals like I had. "He's worried about what the Heretics will do."

"He's right to be," Enzo said finally, and I knew he must have really seen the Heretics as a threat for him to agree with Matt.

After we finished dinner, Enzo declined my offer to help clean away and carried our plates through to the kitchen. I looked at his guitar for a moment before picking it up and starting to run my fingers over the guitar strings. I had never been musically gifted, that was for sure. I played a couple of notes before Enzo returned from the kitchen, his face looking amused. "If you're not careful love you'll wake up the dead."

"Shut up," I laughed as I tried to play anything that resembled a song I knew.

"Here, you're not even holding it right," Enzo moved so that he was behind me, his arms reaching round to reposition the guitar. He guided one of my hands to hold a chord while he used the other hand to play. My mind however was now completely off the guitar and was only thinking about his warm breath against my neck. I swallowed as I stepped away, making some distance.

"I think I'll stick to my paintbrush," I tried to focus my mind on something else.

"You paint?" He set his guitar down, a cheeky smile spreading across his face. "I'd be happy to model for you anytime. Clothes optional."

"Enzo…" I tried to keep serious but couldn't help the laugh that escaped. "Thank you for dinner but it's getting late.. I should really go to the house and make sure everyone is OK."

He closed the distance between us, placing a single kiss on my lips. "Mmhm, you probably should."

"Right?" I returned the kiss which quickly gained intensity as I found my hand on the back of his neck, pulling him towards me, his own hand resting around my waist, gently brushing the skin.

The problem I had was that Enzo could easily tell what effect he was having on me, his enhanced vampire senses meaning he could feel the blood rapidly rushing through my body. Just as I could with his.

I slipped a hand up the front of his t-shirt, over his stomach and he reached out to stop me. "If you're gonna go you better do it now because ten more seconds and I won't be able to let you leave."

But I found myself kissing him again as our bodies naturally moved towards his bedroom. I had made up my mind.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Chapter 16: Chapter 16

I lay with my head on Enzo's chest which was gently rising and falling, feeling more content than I had in a long time. It was still dark outside but I knew the sun would be due to rise soon. Bringing a new day, and new things to do.

I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to make sure I didn't drift off. I hadn't gotten any sleep last night. It felt like it had just been our own little world for the night where I'd temporarily forgotten all our troubles. "Can we just stay in bed all day please?"

He laughed softly as he played with a strand of my hair he had wrapped around his finger. "Nothing would make me happier."

"Why do I feel like there's a but coming?" I stretched out, untangling my legs from his so I could roll over to check the time. My phone said that it was just after 5am. We'd have to be on the move soon if we wanted to make it to Ohio at a reasonable time, considering we had a drive of six hours or so coming up.

"But… we have a vampire hunter to track down," Enzo sat up and took a drink of water from a bottle that was on his bedside table, before leaning over to place a kiss on my shoulder. I just wanted to lock us in the room and stay here forever. "Soon we'll have all the time in the world to do whatever we want."

I hoped he was right but I couldn't help thinking of Scarlett's premonition and that I may not have that much free time left at all.

I got out of bed, frowning at how cold it was to be out of his warm embrace and sent Elena a message, asking her to meet us by the clock tower in an hour, with Scarlett and Bonnie. If we avoided going to the house then it would be less risky given that Lily or the Heretics wouldn't find out where we were going. Only Damon, Stefan and Caroline knew the plan.

Enzo got out from under the covers too and we both got dressed before packing some things into a bag to take with us, including the Phoenix Stone. If it was in our possession then at least we knew Kai didn't have it, so even if he'd managed to find the sword by now it would still be useless.

I didn't take much, hoping we could be in Ohio and back in the same day so we wouldn't have to find anywhere to stay overnight. The benefits of not having to stop driving for a nap.

I went into the kitchen and packed a few blood bags, enough to keep us and Elena going, but couldn't help notice Enzo's supply was running really low. I sighed as I looked into the fridge, also picking out a few snacks for the road.

"Everything alright?" Enzo asked from behind me. It was difficult to hide my worries as vampires found it easier to sense what others were feeling but I smiled anyway, trying not to let it show.

"Yeah, all good."

I could tell he didn't buy it by the way he was looking at me. "We'll find a way through this. What your friend saw... it's not going to happen. You have my word."

I nodded in uncertainty, knowing that while he likely meant what he said it's the actions that would count and it was a question of whether we'd be strong enough to defeat Kai, Lily and the Heretics. "We should head out before we lose any more time."

Elena, Scarlett and Bonnie were all standing under the clock tower, holding their bags, as we pulled up just before six. I admired their timekeeping skills and how quickly they had prepared as we got out of the car to greet them.

"Good morning," Elena looked bright and ready to get going while Bonnie and Scarlett looked a little less enthusiastic, both cradling a cup of coffee each, their eyes giving away how tired they were. Enzo started to put their bags into the car while Elena turned to me, smirking. "Nice dinner?"

"Very," I caught Enzo's glance before looking at Scarlett. "I don't believe you two have officially met yet."

Enzo extended his hand out to Scarlett, which she took for a handshake. I chuckled quietly at how formal it was, like they were at a business meeting and not about to go track down a vampire hunter together. "Sounds like we're lucky to have you on our side," he said as he finished loading the car, before getting into the driver's seat.

"He's coming?" Bonnie asked quietly, looking uncertain at spending the day with him. I knew it had been tense between them since Enzo had come back from the prison world, still blaming Bonnie and Stefan for leaving him there. He had probably heard her hesitation just now too.

I nodded, hoping that the car journey wasn't going to be too awkward. "Is Jo going to be OK at the house with Caroline?" I was certain she wasn't a threat with her humanity back on but I felt bad that we'd be hundreds of miles away if Jo needed us. Hopefully between Caroline, Damon and Stefan they'd be able to handle it, especially with the others not knowing we were gone.

"She'll be better once we figure out how to get rid of this stupid stone and knows Kai doesn't have access to a vampire super weapon," Elena got in the back of the car, followed by Scarlett and Bonnie.

I got in the front, taking a final quick look around the still very quiet Mystic Falls before we drove off.

---

We had made it to Ohio early afternoon, thanks to Enzo's disobedience of speed limits and only having to stop once for a restroom break for Bonnie.

The drive had been uneventful, with Scarlett and Bonnie asleep in the back for most of it, while Elena and I entertained ourselves between our phones and a book. Enzo had remained focused on the driving and kept conversation to a minimum.

Now, Bonnie, Scarlett, Enzo and I walked up the stairs to the hospital that Bonnie had seen in her vision, as Elena stayed back with the car to keep watch over our belongings. It had started to rain quite heavily, puddles quickly forming across the almost empty car park.

The building itself was very isolated in the middle of nowhere, and had taken several back roads to get here.

As we went inside I was thinking about how eerily quiet it was. There was nothing I'd expect from a normal hospital. No noise of doctors and nurses hurrying around, no smell of cleaning chemicals in the air, no people waiting to see their loved ones. I noticed there was an entry system on one of the doors, which looked like it was operated by some sort of key card system and I had started to get the feeling it wasn't a medical hospital. It was more of an asylum. A fairly secure one too.

The reception was manned by a single older woman, pressing buttons on the keyboard that was in front of her very slowly, like she was struggling to find them. As the four of us approached she looked up, appearing startled by our arrival. I was guessing they didn't receive many visitors here.

"May I help you?" The lady asked, and I looked down to see the name on her badge was Grace.

I stepped forward to take the lead. "Yes, hello, we're looking to visit an old friend," I smiled sweetly at the woman hoping she wouldn't question us too much. "Her name is Rayna Cruz." I had no idea what other information I could give her. Considering I knew nothing else about Rayna. I didn't know what she looked like, how old she would be now. If she was even still here.

"And what is your connection?" Grace's eyes were darting between the four of us, looking each of us over in turn. I racked my brain to try and come up with something on the spot, wishing I had planned ahead.

"Um, we lived in the same town," Bonnie's voice came from behind me. "She hasn't seen us for years and we heard she was in here, thought it would be nice to surprise her." Maybe we should have brought flowers.

Grace looked unconvinced but started typing away on her computer. "I'm afraid Ms Cruz doesn't have anyone down on her authorised visitors list."

At least it was confirmed she was still here.

Enzo sighed and walked towards the desk, leaning over to gaze into Grace's eyes. I could see her eyes widen as he compelled her. "You're going to tell us which room Rayna Cruz is in. Then you're going to give us access to the building and then forget we were ever here."

Grace was frozen for a moment before she started to fumble through some drawers that were next to her, eventually pulling out a card and handing it to Enzo. She still looked transfixed by the compulsion and stared blankly in front of her. "Rayna Cruz is in room seven."

"Now that wasn't so difficult," Enzo walked over to the door and swiped the card in the reader, holding the door open for us to walk through. "You lot coming or what?"

Bonnie looked annoyed that he had gone into full vampire mode rather than try and talk his way in, but we all went into the main area of the hospital which was a maze of corridors by the looks of it. I saw a few people wandering in and out of rooms further down the corridor that looked like they were staff. Enzo quietly pointed to a map of rooms on the wall and we followed after him.

Soon we had reached room seven. I wasn't sure if Rayna was able to magically sense that we were vampires but Enzo and I agreed to stay outside not to give her the chance. We would be able to hear the conversations anyway. Bonnie and Scarlett prepared to enter and I caught a glance of the inside of the room through the small window on the door.

The woman inside was old. She was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room, a book in her hands but not looking at the pages. She was simply staring at the wall in front of her. "Are we sure this is the right person?" I felt a little unsure about disturbing this elderly lady who didn't seem like much of a vampire hunter to me.

"Only one way to find out," Scarlett looked at Bonnie and lightly knocked on the door to the room, before opening it up and the two of them walked inside. "Ms Cruz? Rayna?"

There was no response from the woman, who didn't even acknowledge that they had entered. I kept my distance from the window so she wouldn't be able to spot us easily but kept an eye on Scarlett as she slowly approached Rayna and crouched down in front of her.

"You don't know me but my name is Scarlett. My great grandmother is Rose Avery." If Rayna recognised Scarlett's family then she certainly wasn't showing it. "We came here to see if you could help us with something."

"Something's off with her," I whispered to Enzo, as I saw Bonnie take a piece of paper out of her pocket and show it to Rayna.

"Do you recognise this Rayna?" Bonnie asked her, trying to get her to look at it. "This stone?"

It was like she was in a trance. The woman hadn't spoken a word yet and I was starting to think she just wasn't going to communicate with them. We could risk trying to compel her but if she did know about vampires then there was a high chance she'd have some sort of vervain protection.

"I believe it belongs to you," Scarlett said softly, placing a hand on Rayna's. "My family thinks you might know something about it."

"You see, we're having a little trouble where I come from," Bonnie put her hands on her hips and sighed, sounding exasperated already. "With vampires."

Rayna's head suddenly snapped to stare at Bonnie and I jumped from the unexpected reaction. That had certainly gotten her attention anyway. Rayna got up, and started pointing at the door, signalling for Scarlett and Bonnie to leave, before whispering over and over, gradually becoming louder. "No such thing."

"Look, Ms Cruz, please…" Scarlett tried to approach her again, raising her hands by her side as if to show her that they weren't a threat. "We're just trying to find out what you know about the Phoenix Stone. My friends are in danger if the wrong person gets their hands on it."

Rayna started looking all around her, her breathing speeding up. "They're here."

"Who's here?" Bonnie looked confused.

"You brought them here," Rayna's eyes fell on the door and I stepped back. Maybe she could sense us a lot easier than I'd thought. "You're with them."

Rayna lifted a pillow from her bed and I glimpsed a flash of metal as she picked up a knife, before lunging towards Scarlett. For an old lady she was surprisingly fast. I quickly opened the door and rushed over to Scarlett, pulling her out of the way.

Rayna was now on Bonnie and had the knife to her throat. Bonnie looked like she was trying to chant a spell but it was having no effect on Rayna whatsoever. Before I could help her, I watched as Enzo pulled his own knife out of his pocket and threw the blade towards Rayna with deadly precision.

The knife impaled right into her neck, the blood immediately spurting out and over Bonnie as Rayna fell to the ground, clutching at the blade. She writhed around on the ground for a few seconds before her body became limp, the blood pooling out around her head.

"Did you have to do that?" Bonnie snapped at Enzo, using her sleeve to wipe the blood spatters off her face.

"You're welcome." Enzo looked annoyed as he leaned down next to Rayna's body and took his knife out, causing even more blood to spill out onto the ground. "Wasn't like she was going to be of any help."

"Yeah, well she certainly isn't now," Bonnie rolled her eyes and I cleared my throat trying to stop it escalating into an argument. Scarlett gagged next to me, glancing at the body and then away every couple of seconds, before hurrying out of the room.

"We need to get her out of here." I looked at Rayna on the floor. We didn't exactly have the tools to clean up the mess we had made but we couldn't leave her corpse behind. While we were hardly threatened by Police starting an investigation into her death the last thing we needed was more people coming to Mystic Falls to snoop around, especially once the Heretics started to get hungry and realised how empty the town was. But it wasn't like we could just dig a hole out the back and hold a funeral for her. "We can uh… drive her away and figure out what to do once we're clear."

Bonnie was sorting through Rayna's things, trying to see if there was anything left behind that might be of help, now Rayna wasn't going to be much use.

Enzo lifted Rayna up, her blood quickly staining the front of his clothes. "You do the talking, I'll do the lifting."

I nodded and left the room in front of Enzo, ready to compel anyone that I met between now and the exit. Compel them to forget what they were about to see, and compel them to forget that Rayna had ever been here. I made a quick mental note to come back in and delete any trace of her on the system once we had her body out of the building.

The corridor was dark, illuminated only by a few dim lights coming from patients' rooms. I saw the first person up ahead and got my compulsion speech ready but froze in place when the person got closer and I realised they were a lot more familiar than I was expecting.

"Valerie?" I asked, looking around to see if she was alone. She appeared to be. "What the hell are you doing here? Have you been following us?"

"Stefan told me what you were doing today," she said quietly, and I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering why the two of them seemed to be best buddies.

"Why would he do that?"

"Perhaps he has trust issues with the company you keep," Valerie lowered her voice and I knew she was referring to Enzo. Stefan really wasn't able to hide his hate. "Don't worry, I'm the only one that knows. Anyway, I came to make sure that you didn't do anything stupid when it comes to Rayna Cruz."

"What do you mean?" I wanted to know what she meant by anything stupid but our conversation was interrupted by the noise of Enzo trying to get Rayna's body out of the door down the hallway.

I looked back to Valerie who took off towards them at a rapid speed. She looked down at the body in Enzo's arms, her expression turning to one of horror. "What have you done?!"

"What does it look like?" Enzo muttered as he tried to keep Rayna's body from dripping blood onto the floor. A trail was the last thing we needed to leave.

"She attacked us," I explained, as Scarlett left where she was leaning against the wall to join us. She was still staring at the body in shock, looking a lot more pale than usual. I figured she wasn't used to seeing death as much as the rest of us. "She went crazy as soon as we mentioned vampires and Enzo had to stop her from killing Bonnie."

"Oh no," Valerie's eyes were still fixed on the corpse. "That woman right there is going to become your biggest problem."

"Was," Enzo corrected as he started to walk down the corridor and looked at me for assistance. "She's dead."

Valerie stayed where she was, and was shaking her head. "No… you don't understand."

"Understand what?" Bonnie folded her arms over her chest, her face still streaked with red.

Valerie nodded towards the room that Rayna had just come from and we followed her back in. She looked at the floor which was still soaked in Rayna's blood before sitting down on one of the chairs. "She's not dead," Valerie said quietly. "Rayna."

"She seems pretty dead to me," I hadn't exactly checked her pulse but the fact that she was bleeding out all over the building had me thinking that she was beyond the point of saving.

"You can't kill her." Valerie rubbed her eyes, also looking exhausted. "Whenever Rayna's body dies, she doesn't just disappear like a normal human. She's magically protected and she'll… regenerate in a way."

"Like back to a baby?" Scarlett seemed perplexed at the idea.

Valerie looked deep in thought. "Every time I've seen it happen before she goes back to being a young woman. I think it's around the time when the Shamans sacrificed themselves to give her multiple lives." I wondered how many times Valerie had experienced Rayna dying before and how she knew this information. "When I learned that you were coming here to find out about the stone, I had to follow to make sure that.. well, this exact thing wouldn't happen."

"So you're saying we just gave her a new chance at life again?" I ran a hand through my hair wondering why nothing could ever just go right. "Except now instead of an old lady she's going to be in prime shape to hunt us down?"

"What if we burn the body?" Enzo was pacing around the room, now looking more concerned by what he had done.

"It doesn't work like that," Valerie stood up. "The best thing we can do for now is make sure she doesn't get her weapon back. If you have the stone we need to get it out of here."

"Elena has it," I noted as we got ready to leave again. I looked back down at Rayna. "Maybe we should leave her here after all and make as much distance as we can."

"I'll spell the door shut for you," Valerie offered, and I nodded thankfully. Maybe she was truly working against Lily. "Buy some time. It won't stop Rayna getting out but hopefully it will prevent anyone from finding her until her regeneration is complete." Valerie had her hands on her necklace and I saw a soft glow coming from it, like she was siphoning. She must have been getting power from somehow but I didn't have time to ask.

"Let's go," I looked at the others and we made our way back through the hospital towards the exit. Grace was still sitting at reception and looked up as we passed but didn't question why four blood soaked strangers were in the hospital. Enzo's compulsion was clearly working.

The parking lot was still mostly empty, with another car parked at the opposite side from Enzo's, presumably belonging to Valerie. I wondered if Elena had noticed her entering the building. I looked at Enzo's car and couldn't see anyone inside.

"What's that?" Scarlett reached up and pointed and I followed her eyes to a body that was lying on the ground. I had to squint slightly to focus through the rain, but I soon realised who it was.

"Elena!" I hurried down the steps of the building with Bonnie and Scarlett fast behind me. Elena was lying on the ground next to Enzo's car. She was unresponsive, her clothes soaked. I quickly scanned her body for wounds but there was nothing obvious. "I think her neck has been snapped."

"By who?" Bonnie was crouched down beside me but slowly stood up, reaching into the car. She pulled her arm back out, holding Enzo's bag that had been emptied out. Our clothes were lying on the back seat of the car but I had a feeling one thing would be missing.

The Phoenix Stone.

I swallowed, turning to look at Valerie who had now joined us.

"I don't think you were the only person following us."

Chapter 17: Chapter 17

In the tiny room of the motel where we had checked in, Bonnie and I helped lay Elena down on a bed. "Guys, I'm fine, please stop worrying," Elena said, moving her neck from side to side as she adjusted to being conscious again.

The original plan was to return directly to Mystic Falls, but with our new circumstances, that had changed.

The new circumstances being that Rayna Cruz was now likely undergoing some sort of regeneration back into a vengeful vampire hunter and we had no idea who was now in possession of the Phoenix Stone. Elena hadn't seen anyone approach her before someone had snapped her neck and raided our things.

Valerie was still with us, observing silently from the corner, while Scarlett sat on the other bed that was in the cramped room. It was very dimly lit, and not somewhere I think any of us particularly wanted to spend a whole night.

Enzo hadn't yet made it inside yet, appearing to be favoring spending time in his car.

"So, who do we think has it?" Bonnie asked, and we all knew what she was referring to without her having to say it.

"Well, considering who wants it the most, my money is on Lily," I rummaged through the bag that the stone had been stolen from, glad that the still unknown thief had at least left our blood bags alone, taking one out and opening it for Elena to help her regain her strength. "Only I doubt she was doing her own dirty work and am guessing she sent one of your kind," I looked at Valerie.

"How do we know you didn't tell her where you were going?" Elena questioned her and I realised Elena didn't know how much Valerie had divulged to us about Rayna so probably still didn’t trust her. At this stage I still wasn't sure we could either.

"Because I want nothing less than for Lily to have that stone back," Valerie replied quietly, but not able to disguise the bitterness in her voice. "As far as I'm concerned Julian can rot in that eternal hell for the rest of time."

"You still haven't told us what he did that means you're willing to betray Lily," I pointed out. I had a feeling this went way beyond a little family argument.

"And I'm not going to," Valerie sat down at the dresser in the room, looking into the mirror. "It's personal. It's up to you whether that's enough for you to believe that I'm on your side here."

Bonnie and Elena looked to be considering this as I took a seat next to Scarlett on the bed.

"What about the other Heretics?" Elena wondered out loud. "Could any of them be convinced that Lily is using them for selfish reasons and turned against her?"

Valerie looked like she was thinking about it but from my own personal observations of them I wasn't certain that any of them had much of their own free thinking and it was simply 'do as Lily says'. "Malcolm, no definitely not. Oscar and Beau, I don't think so." Valerie paused before considering the other two females. "Mary-Louise and Nora, maybe. I think they would love to live their life in a time they were accepted but.. Lily's guidance is all they've known for so many years." I hoped she was right. Two more Heretics on our side would make a world of difference.

"So there's really no way to kill Rayna Cruz?" I asked, reminding them that we now had another problem in addition to the Phoenix Stone. "Like, for good?"

"Not that I know of," Valerie shook her head. "She was hunting us... Lily's family in 1903. I overheard Lily talking to Julian about her one night. Julian admitted that he was the reason Rayna's father had died. He had compelled her to kill him. So you can understand why she had a particular disliking for him. That's when she decided she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and had the Shamans link their life to her."

"The more I hear about this Julian it's no wonder we don't want him resurrected," I rubbed my temples trying to clear the haze going on in my head from so many problems arising at once.

"Well, maybe if she knows that we're trying to stop Julian from coming back then she'll be on our side," Elena's optimism was falling on deaf ears as no one else looked convinced.

"Once she knew we'd brought vampires to her she lost it Elena," Bonnie sighed, looking down at her blood splattered clothes. She'd come within inches of death if Enzo hadn't killed Rayna. "Her urge to hunt goes beyond everything else. She's not interested in helping one vampire against another."

"Maybe if we just leave her here in Ohio then she won't find us," I said hopefully, though had a feeling there was more to it.

Valerie made a quick job of dashing any hope I had. "Actually, she'll be drawn right to Mystic Falls. Beau was marked by her sword. The scar that he has on his throat. Which means that Rayna is able to track him. Same goes for any other vampire that she marks."

Bonnie threw herself back on the bed. "This just keeps on getting better and better."

---

Enzo hadn't come inside the motel, so leaving the others in the room I had gone to check on him, assuming he was still in the car. The sky had gotten dark outside and it had started to rain heavily. It was almost like the weather had changed itself to match our situation.

I opened the passenger side door, getting into the car where Enzo was gripping the steering wheel in silence. I didn’t even need my enhanced vampire senses to tell that he was incredibly tense, as he stared blankly ahead.

"Hey," I kept my voice quiet, although I doubted Elena or Valerie would be able to listen in from inside the motel anyway. "Are you OK? You've barely spoken since we left the hospital."

Enzo remained silent for a good twenty seconds, before loosening his grip on the wheel and letting his hands fall into his lap. "What happened back there. If I hadn't killed Rayna..."

"Then she'd have killed Bonnie," I finished, realising he was feeling guilty for what had happened. "You weren't to know what was going to happen. None of us were. Other than Valerie," I muttered, wishing she had put her foot down and gotten to the hospital a little faster. Although we couldn't blame her that we had come here in the first place. "We'll sort the Rayna situation. Just one more thing to add to the to-do list."

But Enzo didn't seem relaxed by this. "I just can't shake the feeling that I've put you in harm's way," he admitted quietly, his voice laced with regret.

I placed a gentle hand on his cheek, forcing him to meet my gaze. "Enzo. I trust you with my life, and I know you're trying to protect me," I said earnestly, trying to let him know that I felt safe with him. "Besides, I don't think Rayna's any more of a threat to me than you, Elena, Stefan, Damon or the others. She seems to hate all vampires equally, so-"

"I'm not concerned about them," Enzo admitted and I briefly thought back to when he had said he didn’t care about what happened to Jo or the others once we had gotten back from the prison world. I thought maybe he had started to warm up to them a little but realised he probably wouldn't have gotten himself mixed up in any of this if not for me.

“But I am,” I said softly, thinking about how it was odd that I was now fighting for people I'd never even met a few weeks ago. “I chose to stay in Mystic Falls, knowing the risks that come with it.”

Enzo sighed, resting his head back on the drivers seat. “We could just leave them all to get on with it. Find us a nice little cabin in the woods. We'd have all the time in the world to do whatever the hell we wanted to.” He turned his head to smirk at me and I laughed and shook my head.

"But where's the fun in that?" I teased, glad to see a hint of his usual charm returning. "We'd miss out on all the drama, the near-death experiences, and the adrenaline rush of constantly being in danger."

Enzo gave me a small smile, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. "You can make even the worst things sound exciting, love," he said, his voice soft with affection.

I leaned in closer, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. "That's what I'm here for," I murmured against his mouth, feeling the familiar warmth and comfort of being close to him. “There's no one else I'd rather have by my side in all of this than you.” I rest my head on his shoulder, closing my eyes while I tried to think of an actual plan that didn't involve us locking ourselves away in the middle of nowhere, as nice as that sounded.

Everything was snowballing and one problem had now turned in to three. The number of people who wanted us dead were starting to outnumber the people we had as friends.

Outnumbered. That was it. If we were going to fight, we needed more help.

I sat up straight, Enzo looking at me with curiosity as I remembered my earlier plan.

Maybe it was time we finally took that trip to New Orleans.

---

"I'm sorry, you want to ask Klaus Mikaelson for help?" Damon was squinting his eyes as he stared at me, as did everyone else in the room. It was a little unsettling, even for a vampire. Just because most of the human population would freak out if they knew the truth about us it didn't mean vampires were any more fond of public speaking than humans were...

"Well, I didn't specifically say Klaus," I pointed out, shifting awkwardly. To be honest, I'd been more erring towards approaching Elijah first, with him being the more level headed one. "I just said the Mikaelsons."

"From our experience they tend to come as a package deal," Stefan was sitting on Enzo's sofa, along with Jo and Alaric next to him. "Where one goes, the rest of them will follow."

There were currently eleven people squeezed into Enzo's apartment, with squeezed being the key word. This was one of the few places we thought we'd be safe from anyone listening in, Heretics, Kai, Lily or otherwise.

Enzo stood in the doorway of the sitting room, with Bonnie and Scarlett sitting at his small dining table, and Elena on another chair, with Damon perched on the edge. Valerie was once again standing in the corner, no doubt feeling like the outsider. And I had kneeled on the floor by the fireplace, with Caroline next to me.

I was ninety nine percent certain that everyone in this room was trustworthy enough to be here.

After we had gathered everyone here, we explained to them all what happened with Rayna, and the Phoenix Stone. We still didn't know for sure if it was now back with Lily but Valerie had explained that it was still useless without Julian's body. So Lily had tasked Oscar with tracking it down. Valerie had put a cloaking spell on the grave for now, after finding out where he was buried herself, but we knew that wasn't a permanent fix.

So I had put forward the idea of asking the Mikaelsons to join us in this fight.

"You have no idea the hell he caused for this town," Bonnie said bitterly. She was right. I didn't. I knew Klaus wasn't all sunshine and butterflies but I wasn't up to date on his full history. Elena had mentioned it before the wedding but I had never gotten around to hearing the story. Maybe it was worse than I thought.

"But how much better are things now, Bon, really?" Elena spoke up and I was hoping she was going to support the plan at least. Maybe we could get all bureaucratic and take a vote if we couldn't settle it between ourselves.

Damon had turned to look at her, a confused expression on his face. "You're OK with this? After everything he did to you? Stefan? Jeremy? Jenna?"

"I didn't say I was OK with it, Damon," she responded to him, looking annoyed that he had almost snapped at her. "But don't you want all this to be over too? No more Kai, no more Lily, no more Heretics," she paused to look at Valerie. "No offence. And no more Rayna."

"And we'll take care of it," Damon said confidently, as we all watched the mini lovers spat that seemed to be occurring between the two. "We don't need to add another ingredient to the already shitty mix we have going on here."

"So what do you propose the next move is then, Damon?" I asked, happy to hear him out if he had any solutions to put forward.

Damon fell silent, his normal cocky demeanour disappearing behind a more uncomfortable looking one. "Uh.."

"How do you know they'll even help?" Jo asked, and my eyes were drawn to her ever growing stomach. Those poor babies weren't even born yet and they already had a target on their heads. I half wanted to fly Jo out to New Orleans with us to get her away from this place, but wasn't sure she and Alaric would want to spend their honeymoon trying to convince some vampires to help stop her psychotic brother, a hunter and whatever strange reunion Lily had going on.

"I don't," I said honestly. They had no reason to, but it was worth a try.

"Perhaps I can help with that." Caroline shifted awkwardly as we all turned to look at her, but she leaned in closer to me. "I'd rather not explain in front of an audience but I'd be happy to come with you."

"Then it's settled," I stood up. "Enzo, Caroline and I will leave tomorrow."

Enzo, who had been quiet, opened the apartment door as a signal that it was time for the others to go.

We said our goodbyes as the others left. I once again offered Enzo's sofa or to pay for Scarlett to stay in a hotel if she didn't feel safe in the Salvatore House but she seemed happy to go back and have her own space, plus said she had wanted to check out some more books from their study. Elena assured me that she'd be looked after.

Caroline hung back, and after it was just the three of us left and I gestured her to sit on the sofa, as I took a seat next to her. "So you're the key to getting the Mikaelsons to help us then?"

"Well, I'm not saying for definite," she replied, before sighing quietly. "Klaus and I have... history. He told me that if I ever needed him for anything then I should just reach out." I wanted to ask if they dated but Caroline and I weren't that close yet. "I still feel so guilty for what happened with Sarah. Stefan says that he knows it wasn't truly my fault because my humanity was off but I'm the reason she became a vampire in the first place and Kai got to her. I think he's just trying to make me feel better."

"You're not to blame," I reassured her, gently patting her hand. "We've all done things we're not proud of, humanity on or off."

"I don't know how you managed it so well, when you lost your sister," Caroline admitted, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "You had the option to turn the pain off but you just battled through it."

"I had some pretty good support," I looked up at Enzo who was pouring himself a drink.

Caroline looked between the two of us and smiled before getting up and walking to the door. "OK, well, I shall see you two at the crack of dawn then I guess."

"Don't forget your passport!" I half joked as I waved her off but realised we probably were in fact faster flying to New Orleans than driving.

I had no sooner closed the door behind her when I felt an arm around my waist and Enzo's stubble on my cheek as he brushed his face against mine.

"Guess we have some time to kill then."