Disclaimer: I own nothing but Alex. The Vampire Diaries and Highlander are owned but much more creative and brilliant people than me.

Chapter One: Introductions

Damon sat at the bar in the Mystic Grill watching his brother play pool with his girlfriend, Matt, and Caroline, contemplating how he was going to spend the rest of his evening. Seeing as tormenting his brother was not an option tonight, surround as he was by his new found "friends", Damon surveyed the room looking for a quick meal. Catching the eye of Kelly Donovan (who was well on the way to passing out), Damon quickly led her outside and had his fill. Deciding he really wanted nothing more than to go home and nurse his favorite bottle of bourbon, Damon propped his meal up against the side of her car and left for the boarding house.

Damon woke up the next morning on the living room couch to a persistent knocking at the front door and quickly remembered that vampires do in fact get hangovers. Grumbling about unwanted guests who had better be good looking if they wanted to survive the morning, he opened the door, to discover a pale fist about to knock on his already pounding head. Catching the fist in his hand, Damon found himself staring at a pair of green eyes surrounded by a curly mass of ebony hair.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I wasn't expecting the door to open that quickly." Damon looked down at the young woman with a frown,

"If you thought you might wake someone up, why would you knock on their door at this ungodly hour?" The girl looked between Damon and the fist he still held in his hand with a frown now growing on her own face,

"I am sorry for waking you sir, after what, judging by your appearance, was a good night. The last I knew, Zack was living alone and never had guests besides me, so I was not expecting to wake anyone but him." The girl was now trying, unsuccessfully, to tug her fist from Damon's hand.

"Zack isn't here. He's on vacation." 'the permanent kind' Damon thought.

Alex didn't know who this guy was, and understood that he might be a little upset, but not letting go of her hand was starting to tick her off. Now he said the Zack didn't live here. First of all Zack was committed to this house the way the Queen of England was committed to preserving her crown, to him, vacation was a dirty word, and second, even if Zack had a meteor hit his head and decided to go away, he never would have left without telling her where he was going.

"Where did Zack go?"

"Australia. Said something about seeing the wildlife." Damon said with a shrug of his shoulders. Alex ripped her fist out of Damon's hand, gave him a shove (with given his current condition, worked better than it would for most people) and stalked past him into the house.

"First of all, Zack doesn't leave Virginia, second, he hates the heat, and third he loathes anything stronger than him with big teeth." This caused a small smirk to begin to appear on Damon's face. Contemplating why Zack might not have liked anything with big teeth. A tug on his shirt, reminded him that the little spitfire was still raving at him.

"…therefore, you're lying. Now where is he?" Alex started to go through the house yelling for Zack while Damon still stood in the front entrance with a stunned look on his face.

"I'm afraid my brother is telling you at least a partial truth. Zack isn't here anymore." Stephan stood in the living room with a sad look on his face. "I'm Stefan, Zack's nephew, and the one at the door is my brother Damon." Alex looked at Stefan with a look of disbelief.

"What my brother didn't tell you is that Zack didn't go to Australia, Zack died a few months ago. You were a friend of his?" Alex stood in the living room with a shocked look.

"I've known him for many years. I guess that explains why his letters suddenly stopped." Stefan took Alex's arm and moved her to sit on the couch, knocking his brother's empty bottles out of the way. Alex turned to look at Stephan, "How did he die?".

"He fell down the stairs. Broke his neck."

By this point Damon had moved into the room, studying Alex from the fireplace. She was pretty, her green eyes and dark hair were paired with a relatively petite body, yet she had curves in all the right places. She moved with an elegance no commonly seen and while she was clearly upset, she seemed to have good control and wouldn't be the type to fall into hysterics like some other young women. He judged her age to be in her early twenties.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't aware Zack had friends outside of town, as you said, he kept close and never travelled."

"Zack and I rarely saw each other, I live far from here, but we wrote letters constantly." Alex looked up from her lap and extended her hand to Stefan. "I'm Alex Sonders".

"Pleased to meet you" Stephan replied, "Though I wish it was better circumstances and perhaps that you had been greeted a little more pleasantly." At this, Stephan looked over at Damon with a scowl which Damon returned.

"She was pounding on the door at 8:00 in the morning and when I opened it, she tried to use my head instead. How was I supposed to react?" Saint Stephan is at it again Damon thought.

"Perhaps a little hospitality would have been good, it's not her fault you had a solo drinking party last night." Stephan turned to Alex. "I really am sorry about Zack."

"Not your fault. But I do need somewhere to stay. I'm afraid my car has begun to make some interesting noises and I don't want to leave before I make sure it's ok." And find out why the dark one lied to me instead of telling me Zack was dead. What is he hiding?

"Well, I could talk to the owner at the Grill. They have rooms available above it."

"No need to go to that trouble. Zack had a room always made up for me. I do have a habit of dropping by unannounced." Alex had a grin on her face and a far away look in her eyes, clearly thinking of previous occasions. She suddenly snapped out of it and looked at Stephan. "I'll just go get my things and get myself set up." With that, Alex got off the couch and marched past Damon out the door to get her luggage, leaving two stunned Salvatore brothers staring after her.