I could feel the air around me change. It got colder. I told myself that my mind was just playing tricks on me, but humans actually have decent instincts. I told myself that I was just freaked out by the dark, but I knew I was wrong.

Then I heard it. It was just a whoosh. It could have been the wind, but it was too quick and loud. Not to mention that it was a breezeless night. My heart sped up, so I sped up my walking. I was almost at a jog when he came into view. One minute there was nothing in front of me, and the next he was there.

I stopped abruptly and stared up at him with my jaw dropped in shocked fear. He smiled in a sinister way. I turned around and began running as fast as I could in the opposite direction, but within seconds he was in front of me again.

He grabbed my arms roughly and threw me down onto the street. My head and back seared with pain. He got down on top of me, and I screamed. He covered my mouth with my hand and held my face in place so that I was staring directly into his eyes.

Don't move. I heard the voice in my head and I saw his lips moving. I tried to flex my fingers, but I could no longer even do that. My heart was racing faster and faster with my growing fear.

The man unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans. He pulled them down and then did the same to his pants. Then he pulled his boxers down, and then my underwear. He entered me in a quick, painful push. He was rough, hard, and too fast for me. He reached his climax, and I never reached mine. I was too disgusted and terrified. He let his seed spill into me. I realized he didn't bother to use a condom.

That was when I saw them. Fangs. His eyes turned dark and veins protruded. My fear hit its apex. He leaned down and bit my neck. His teeth pierced my skin like knives. I tried to scream out, but his hand was still covering my mouth. I could feel an unpleasant sensation in my neck as he sucked. He was drinking my blood. I was quickly growing colder and weaker. My vision began to fade. I knew I was about to die. I could hardly tell when he stopped. Everything went black, but I could feel a wrist being shoved into my mouth. Blood was oozing from it. I didn't want to drink, but the position I was in helped the blood glide down my throat. Hands were around my neck. My head was twisted and snapped.

I woke up groggily. My vision was blurry, but I could tell the man was gone. I still couldn't move, though whether it was because the man had paralyzed me or because I was just too weak now I did not know. It was like I was fading in and out. Then I saw someone. I could see a man's pants and shoes. Black slacks and black dress shoes. One moment they were several yards away, and the next they were inches from my head. I was too weak to be frightened now. I was almost begging for death to take me.

Then I passed out.

When I came to, I was sitting on a very large bed in a tastefully decorated bedroom. The comforter was incredibly soft. I was thirsty, though. Really thirsty.

"Here," a man's voice spoke. I turned my head and saw a young man holding out a glass of red liquid to me. I knew it was blood and that it should disgust me, but I was overcome with desire to drink it. I greedily gulped it down. Then I looked at the man. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, maybe early thirties. He had blonde hair and an attractive face. He was tall and lean. His features, however, were very similar to that of my rapist. I cowered away from him.

"Do not fear me. I will not hurt you," he said in a British accent. I began to panic nonetheless. I blurted out all sorts of questions

"Who are you? Where am I? How did I get here? Where is that man? What is happening to me?"

"Relax and slow down. I can explain everything, but I need you to be calm," he said. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He continued. "My name is Elijah Cuthbert. You are in my room because I figured it would be more comfortable than leaving you in the street. I brought you here. That man is gone. He believes you are dead. As for what is happening to you, well there is no easy way to explain that."

"Why am I here instead of at a hospital? I need a rape kit done!"

"There is no need for a rape kit. I know who raped you," he replied.

"Who?"

"My brother, Klaus." I let the words sink in. I know my eyes must have widened in fear.

"What are you?" I asked.

"The same as you are now. Please try to remain calm as I explain things," he pleaded.

"What am I?" I shouted.

"A vampire." I thought he must have lost his mind for a second, but then I remembered that I was still holding the glass that I had just drunk blood from.

"How is this possible? What do I do?"

"Just relax. I can help you," he said reassuringly.

"My parents! They don't know where I am," I suddenly cried. I realized I would be in so much trouble.

"I'll give you a ride home, and maybe we can come up with a story to tell your parents," he said.

"Alright," I agreed. I got up slowly, still feeling weird. The pain was all gone, though. I felt my neck. There wasn't a wound. "I'm Jenny, by the way."

He nodded and the handed me back my high school class ring. It had a blue stone in it for my birthday. I hadn't even realized he had taken it. "Wear this at all times. Vampires burn in the sunlight, but I had a witch put a spell on it while you were unconscious. Don't ever lose it."

We got into his car, which happened to be a very sexy black Mercedes, and he drove me home. We decided to tell my parents that I was hit by car. It was a hit and run. Elijah had seen what had happened and taken me to the Emergency Room to make sure I was all right. The doctor determined I was fine and Elijah offered to take me home. Well, at least the last part was true.

He pulled into my driveway and walked up to the front door with me. The door was locked so I rang the bell. My mom came running to the door. Evidently I had been missed. My father was right behind her.

"Where have you been?" my mom cried. That was when they spotted Elijah.

"Excuse me, I'm Elijah Cuthbert. Your daughter was an unfortunate victim to a hit and run. I saw the incident and I took her to the hospital, but she is perfectly fine," he explained smoothly.

"Thank goodness they weren't speeding," I laughed nervously. My mom hugged me tightly as my father thanked Elijah over and over again.

It was a couple of days before I heard from Elijah again. He had evidently put his number into my cell phone. I did not know when he did this, and I was impressed. He called to say that I needed to go hunting soon or else I might eat my mom. I agreed to meet him.

I followed the directions he gave to his house. I had not realized what a monstrosity it was when I had first been there. Guess I was preoccupied. The house was huge, though. I rang the bell and he answered the door promptly. He invited me inside.

"Your home is beautiful," I said.

"Thank you," he replied. "Now, there are some woods behind my house that I prefer to hunt in when I choose not to drink human blood." I spun around quickly and quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

"Forgive me. I have not explained this well. You will start by hunting animals. I don't want a teenage girl to have to murder someone. You do, however, need human blood to remain strong. I prefer to steal blood donor baggies. They're like juice boxes. Very portable," he smiled and I noticed how attractive he was. Hell, the guy was hot.

"Okay so I'm hunting squirrels. I hope they taste good," I said. He led me out to the woods. Walking across his backyard made it seem endless, but we finally got there. He explained how all my senses were heightened and how I use each one for hunting. Then he demonstrated by catching a rabbit. I was rather grossed out, but then the smell of blood hit me and I was suddenly thirsty. It did not take me long to catch a squirrel. I was very proud, but I had blood all over me.

When we were back inside the house, Elijah let me take a shower and borrow his robe while he cleaned out the blood stains on my clothes.

"So how did you become a vampire?" I asked him.

He sighed. "I was part of the first family of vampires. All vampires were created through those my family and I created. We are the oldest vampires, and therefore the strongest."

"You are not like your brother, but what is the rest of your family like?"

"Not like Klaus, either. But they are all dead now. Klaus hunted them all down one by one and killed them."

"You are the last one?"

"Yes."

"Are you frightened?"

"No. I do not fear death."

"That sounds like you've given up."

"Perhaps I have."

"But you cannot!" He turned to look at me. "It sounds as if you are the only hope any future victims of Klaus have. If you give up on life, you are essentially giving up on them."

He took a minute to absorb what a said. Then he held up my clean shirt. I took it wordlessly and went to his room to change.

The next time I saw Elijah was a week later. I had already gone hunting twice, but I had blood on my shirt from a deer. I took it with me to ask him how he got the stains out. He had called me this time, however, to teach me some vampire basics. I learned about witches, werewolves, the fake Curse of the Sun and the Moon, and of Klaus' curse that prevented his werewolf side from appearing.

"Elijah, how many people know that the Curse of the Sun and the Moon is fake and that the real thing is only about Klaus?" I asked.

"Just you and me at the moment," he said.

"Why tell me this?"

"I do not want to lie anymore," he replied. I nodded in understanding. I felt my mouth go dry, but I wasn't thirsty. I knew by now that I had a terrible crush on him, but he was thousands of years old and I was only seventeen. I was a child in his eyes.

"Elijah, how old are you physically?"

"Twenty-seven. Why?"

"Just curious. Oh, I wanted to ask you how you remove blood stains from your clothing. I brought a shirt with me."

"Go get it and meet me in the laundry room," he said. I did as told. He was waiting for me with the sleeves of his blue button-up rolled up. I handed him the shirt.

"Okay, first of all, you only ever use cold water on a blood stain. Now there is a salt method and a soap method. Personally, I like both. I wet the stain and then rub some salt on it. Then I lather the soap on it, like this. Look at that! Brand new!"

I smiled at him, and he smiled back. "Thank you, Elijah."

"Your welcome."

I saw Elijah at least two or three times a week after that. He decided that he should teach me how to fight vampire-style. Mostly that just meant cool tricks like compelling and super-speed and messing with people's dreams. The fog and changing into animals was pretty cool, too. I changed into a kitten and a cardinal. Elijah laughed and applauded the whole time.

Okay, I will admit I didn't completely listen to his warnings. Obviously I knew I shouldn't use my new ultra-cool powers for amusement, but there was this one guy at school who I had always had a crush on but who had treated me badly. So I became a cardinal, perched on a tree outside his bedroom window, and forced him to dream about being in love with me every night for a couple of weeks. I tried saying hi to him at school one day and he took off running in the opposite direction shouting, "I can't be in love with you!" Okay, so I may have compelled him to shout it, but the running and the actual words were all him.

My growing attraction for Elijah was impossible to ignore, but he was still such a mystery. I figured he had been uncharacteristically honest with me when he told me about the curse on Klaus, but I believed that that was due to guilt over his brother raping me and turning me into one of the undead. I was very curious about Elijah's past now.

"Elijah, you never told me how you and Klaus fell out."

"It is a long story, Jenny."

"I understand, but I want to know. Please. You can trust me. I understand that that is probably hard for you to do, but I promise you can," I said truthfully.

"Very well," he said and continued to tell me the story of his dealings with Klaus and Katherina Petrova. He mentioned that he had urged Klaus to spare her life.

"Did you love her?" I asked, unable to stop myself.

"I did."

"Do you still?"

"No, and I never will again. Klaus was right about that at least. Love gets in the way."

"You do not believe that," I said.

"But I do," he replied.

"No, you don't. Otherwise you would be just like Klaus. And we have already established that you are nothing like him," I said confidently. He looked straight into my eyes and I felt as if he was truly seeing me for the first time. He brushed my hair back gently.

"It is getting late," he said quietly.

I nodded. "I'll go." And I got up and left, unsure if I would be invited back.

But I was invited back. Two days later, Elijah called. He said he needed to talk to me. When I got there, he was pacing nervously. I had never seen him so agitated before.

"I cannot stop thinking about all of the conversations we had. You are right. I am not Klaus and I must stop him."

"Uh…"

"Love is not weakness. It is a strength."

"Okay…"

"Klaus is psychopath. He must die. He can never become a hybrid."

"I agree." Part of me was proud of him, but the other part of me was fearful of what could happen to him.

Elijah had stopped pacing and was staring at me. "Come with me," he said.

I followed him to the great room. He stopped in front of the huge double-story, ceiling-to-floor windows. He stared out for a few minutes before speaking again.

"I will not leave for a while, but I cannot ignore my feelings. I do not wish to waste what time we may have together." He turned to face me. "Jenny, I adore you. I have to ask if you feel the same way."

"Of course I do," I said, hardly believing this was happening. He leaned down to kiss me. It was the best kiss I'd had. He was much better than the immature high school guys I had dated who had not yet figured out what they were doing. Elijah was several thousand years old. He had learned a few things.

"Wow," I said. He only smiled and kissed the top of my head. We spent the rest of the afternoon just talking and sharing a few stolen kisses.

My meetings with Elijah became less about training and more about making out. Neither of us were complaining, though. My parents had finally begun to wonder where I had been going every day. I told my mom it was a guy, but I refused to elaborate. They would think Elijah was too old. Boy, wasn't that the truth. I was seventeen. He was like three thousand.

Elijah and I were making out one day, getting very frisky. He was lying on top of me, and I was on the floor next to his couch. The front door was on the other side of the couch, so neither one of us were visible. His hands were running down my body and he was placing kisses all over my neck. My legs were wrapped around his waist.

"You make me feel incredible," I whispered without even realizing it. He smiled into the kiss that he placed on my throat.

"I love it when you do that," he said before he lowered his mouth to mine.

"Do what?" I asked after we broke apart and he began to trail his lips down my chest. I was particularly glad that the dress I had worn today had a low neckline that gave him better access.

"Praise me," he said between kisses.

"You're worthy of it," I responded. That was when the doorbell rang and we both jumped. Elijah got up to answer it while I stayed on the floor.

"David! What a surprise!" I heard Elijah's voice say.

"Where is Jenny?" David asked. I froze. That was my dad.

"Behind the couch," Elijah said calmly. I began to mentally freak out, but I stayed calm on the outside.

"Hey dad. What are you doing here?" I asked casually.

"I could ask you the same thing. This man is like thirty. We're leaving now."

"Hold on, dad. I think you have the wrong idea," I said, hoping Elijah would jump in at any time.

"David, if I may, I have been discussing college options with your daughter. I'm a Harvard man myself," he smiled coolly. I wanted to rip his clothes off.

"Yeah right, Jenny admitted that she was seeing a boy to her mother."

"I was. That's over now, though. We didn't have much in common," I said. Elijah threw me a look over my father's shoulder. "Mr. Cuthbert has just been so helpful, dad. With the hit and run and now all of this college advice. I really don't know how to thank him."

"No need, it is my pleasure. I would gladly help out a potential fellow Ivy Leaguer," Elijah said. My dad seemed unsure now. "You're welcome to stay and help Jenny and I with her college essays if you like, David," Elijah offered.

My dad shook his head, apologized to Elijah, told me not to be home late, and left. I burst out laughing when he was gone. Elijah did not join me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"He will never accept me," he said.

"True, but it's not like he will be in my life much longer, Elijah. I'm undead now. He won't know me for long. You can know me forever." My words calmed him immediately, and we resumed our previous activities.

I started receiving my college aacceptance letters towards the end of my senior year. I did not get into Harvard, so I hid that letter from Elijah out of embarrassment. I knew that in a relationship as honest and supportive as ours that I should tell him, but I was still only eighteen. I'm allowed my immature moments. I did, however, get into Brown. My parents were excited for me, but it was Elijah who really showed how proud he was of me. He even came to my high school graduation. He actually took more pictures than my dad.

Elijah had to leave after the ceremony for Mystic Falls, Virginia. He heard the Petrova doppelganger was there, which meant Klaus would soon show up. He kissed me goodbye when my parents weren't looking and left. He promised to stay in touch.

And he did for the first few months. I had moved into a sorority house at Brown and was doing well by the time he stopped calling. I began to freak out after a month. I couldn't leave school, and I didn't know what to do. It wasn't until after Christmas break that I finally got a call. He explained that he had been killed and then revived. That was the only call I got until summer came and I went home.

I knew something must have happened again. So I told my parents I was going on a road trip and I went to Mystic Falls. It was a small town, so I figured someone had to have known him. I went to The Grill, a bar. I asked the bartender who in the town would likely know everyone. He said either Sheriff Forbes or the widow of Mayor Lockwood. I asked him where I could find each. Upon discovering that the Mayor's widow lived in a mansion, I decided to head there first. I asked the woman if she knew a man named Elijah. She did.

She said she had last seen him with Elena Gilbert, and I asked her where she could be found. I was given directions to the Salvatore Boarding House. I knocked on the door and waited. A girl about my age with dark hair opened the door.

"Hi, I'm looking for Elena Gilbert," I said.

"I'm Elena," she replied. I felt my stomach sink. She was beautiful, and she was the last one seen with Elijah.

"I'm Jenny. I'm looking for Elijah."

"Elijah is dead," she said. My heart plummeted below my stomach.

"How? Who did it this time?"

"Klaus."

"Oh my God," I cried. A man with dark hair and eyes came up behind Elena and asked what was going on. Elena told him I was looking for Elijah.

"Why do you want to find him?" he asked.

"Because he saved me," I said. The man told Elena to invite me in. I walked inside and sat down with them.

"This is Damon, by the way," Elena said, pointing to the man. "Now why don't you tell us what's going on."

"I need to know first if you are the doppelganger," I said, making sure I wasn't telling just anybody. If she was the doppelganger then she was obviously involved.

"I was, but Klaus broke the curse already," she said.

"Dear God, he is a werewolf then?"

"Yes, but how do you know all of this?" she asked. Damon had his arm protectively around her shoulders. He seemed poised for an attack, I noticed.

"Elijah told me. I have to find me. He saved me when Klaus raped and nearly killed me. He taught me how to hunt for blood and use my other abilities. I owe him everything. Please, I must find him."

"All we know is that Klaus killed him," Damon said.

"Tell me all that has happened," I said. They told me about Elena trusting Elijah and Elijah's betrayal after Klaus had broken the curse and Damon had been bitten by a werewolf. Then Damon told how Klaus killed Elijah and then Stefan traded himself for the cure to a werewolf bite.

"But then, Stefan must have been with Klaus when he put Elijah's body…wherever he put it. Stefan must know!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, but how do we get Stefan to tell us?" Damon asked.

"Well you obviously have to help your brother get back on his rocker, so I suggest we help each other. My biggest hope in finding Elijah is Stefan, so we must find him."

We began to trace rumors and news of strange attacks to try to find Stefan. We skyped and e-mailed. It took a month to decide to go to San Francisco. We bought plane tickets and took off. It was July, and my parents were confused as to why I was taking so many trips.

We took to the streets at night, looking for suspicious things. That was when I decided to ask the homeless people if they had been told to beware of a murderer. One man said he had seen a young man with dark eyes and blood all over him. I asked him where, and he directed me to a pier that was not often frequented. Damon and Elena followed. Stefan came out of the shadows, ready to attack, but Damon and I held him back. That was when he set eyes on Elena and stopped fighting us.

We had to restrain him and tie him up in an abandoned warehouse until his body could detox. It took a week. My parents called every day, wondering if my sporadic behavior was due to drugs. After that I stopped taking their calls. When Stefan could finally be trusted to talk to me, I asked him if he knew what Klaus had done with Elijah's body. He said he could take me to it.

We went straight to the storage locker that Klaus had and broke in. There were eight coffins in there. Damon found the one with Elijah in it. I wanted to cry when I saw him. His face was dry and grey. He looked like a zombie. I grasped the dagger and yanked it out. Now I only had to wait.

Elijah began to holler and twist about in the coffin until he got his color back and could stand. He looked around, breathing deeply, trying to shake off the feeling of being dead.

"Elijah," I said softly. His eyes snapped to mine.

"Jenny," he breathed. I threw myself into his arms and kissed him passionately. When we broke apart we were alone. The others had left to give us privacy. Elijah then proceeded to take the daggers out of his family's bodies. One by one, each was revived. I was introduced to Elijah's siblings and parents, all of whom wanted revenge on Klaus.

We said goodbye to Damon, Elena, and Stefan before leaving them to deal with their odd love triangle. We returned home together, and we spent that first night back at his house. I went back to my parent's house the next morning. They still didn't know whether or not I was on drugs or not. I told them not to worry because I was eighteen and therefore a legal adult, only I was actually still seventeen and would never be eighteen.

I spent the rest of the summer blissfully happy. I had to return to Brown in the fall, but Elijah bought a house near campus. Apparently, the older you are the more money you are bound to make. He spent his free time tracking Klaus. The Originals had decided that they would attack him unexpectedly and together just after a full moon when he was most vulnerable. I was kept away from the majority of the planning as Elijah wanted me to focus on school.

I went to Elijah's house one day and waited for him, but he never did come home. I found this very odd and I began to worry. The next day, however, he was waiting for me in front of my sorority house. Klaus had been killed, and his family could live on peacefully, though they would need some help adjusting to the twenty-first century.

I finished my undergraduate degree in three years. I had applied to Stanford Law School and was accepted. Elijah was very supportive, but he had also had me apply to Oxford in England. I didn't understand why until he got down on one knee after my college graduation ceremony and proposed. I hadn't even introduced him to my parents as my boyfriend yet.

I obviously said yes. What girl wouldn't? His entire family congratulated me on my success, and then I saw my parents and brother walk over. They were obviously confused as to why I was hugging a different family. Of course, my relationship with my parents had now been strained for a couple of years.

I tugged Elijah along as I walked towards them and introduced him as my fiancé. My parents obviously remembered who he was, and their suspicions. They gave a tight congratulations before my father took Elijah for a talk and my mother started telling me that getting engaged to an older man was stupid and dangerous. I told her that if she felt that way than she could never see me again. She was not pleased.

Elijah's family was ecstatic to have a wedding. It would be the first in the past three thousand years. Elijah then asked if I would like to live with him at his home near Oxford University. I agreed readily. We moved, got married, and lived happily ever after for the most part. Elijah paid for my parents to come to England for the wedding, and once they saw his house, which was really a huge mansion, they softened up a bit. I finished law school and worked until I could no longer pass for my age.

My father died without ever knowing the truth, but we told my mom our story after she asked one too many times what my secret for youthful skin was. My brother also received the shock, but he just made me promise to look after his descendants since vampires couldn't have any children of their own. I promised.