The smell of the Mystic Grill was extremely unpleasant today, with the odours of all the different alcohols mixed together whisping through the stuffy air, combined with the odour from the non-deoderant-using locals and the dust that covered the tables and windowsills. The lemonaide I'd order was set down in front of me, overspill leaking down the sides and hitting the counter.

I picked it up gingerly, sipping it to take the risk of overspill away, and studied the outside of the glass in a faked interest. I waited for him for an hour, and by the time I'd seen his face grimance at the crowd of humans who were eagerly leaving, I'd completely drained the glass.

I set the glass down in front of me just as he pulled up beside the bar.

"I'll have a bourbon," he stated, resting his forearm on the counter. He was handsome, I had to admit. Most of them were. His eyes were a bright blue from what I saw in the pictures, but nothing I'd seen then had compared to this. His body, his hair, everything was so pretty.

They were supposed to be.

"I'll have another," I cut in after him, gesturing towards my empty glass. As I hoped, he remembered what I'd ordered an hour ago easily, and shuffled away with both our orders.

I waited awkwardly, looking at the bartender as I saw him study me for a second out of my peripheral vision.

"See something you like?" I joked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I see many things I like," he said with dry humour. "You aren't one of them."

Harsh, I thought.

"Oh please!" I laughed, raising my hands above my head, "don't let me stop you on your quest for ten dollar love. You know, I hear there's this girl new girl here from Australia. She's got quite a reputation in your area of interest."

He smirked at me. "I don't buy hookers." he stated. "I charm them with my delightful presence."

"And how do you get them to not scream when you shove them into the trunk of your car?" I asked lightly.

He didn't laugh, but I knew this was his type of humour. "I have my ways,"

"Ah."

He frowned and looked at me. "Ah?"

"By your 'ways' you mean compulsion, right?" I tried desperately to keep the humour in my face and voice, and was fairly successful. He, on the other hand, went quiet, studying my every move and gesture.

"I don't know what your talking about," he said stiffly between his teeth.

"Of course you do," I told him. My drink arrived just then, and I grabbed it before it hit the table, swigged the whole thing down, and slammed the glass on the table. The bubbles burned my throat, but I wanted out of here. If this vampire was going to get difficult, I didn't want witnesses. "All I ask is that you don't kill your dessert."

As I tried to move away, his hard hand gripped my shoulder.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Elena," I stated. "And you are Damon, and your brother is Stefan and you two are vampires. Your best friend is Alaric, but most people call him Rick. Don't worry-" I said as he stiffened. "I'm not a hunter. But I do know quite a bit about you, Damon Salvatore, and I know that if I stay here any longer, I'm going to interrupt your little man date with Alaric Saltzman. Now if you excuse me-"

As I tried to shake him off, he clutched tighter. I bent down to his ear.

"If you don't let me go, Mr. Salvatore, I will cause a scene. I promise." I told him, fetching a small piece of paper from my back pocket I had written on earlier. "But if there are things you'd like to discuss, you can come and see me."

I shoved his hand away once more, and I walked away with confidence, having a small hysterical panic attack on the inside.

Jeremy was in his room when I returned home. I slammed the front door behind me to make sure he knew I was here, and then fixed myself a sandwich in the kitchen.

"Could you make me one of those?" he asked, leaning against the counter with a grin stretching from ear to ear. I sighed and forfeited my sandwich, which he took with grateful eagerness.

"I'm so glad you're home, Elena. We missed you."

I smiled a little without him seeing. I gave him nothing but facts in return.

"I'm expecting some people over," I told him. "If the two Salvatore brother's come, I want you to invite them in."

His smile faltered. "Sure,"

I gave him a small smile. "Thankyou, Jeremy. Really."

I sprinted up the stairs two at a time to reach the top and made my way to the bathroom. I was half way through drying off the beads of water from my shower when I heard a knock on the door. They were here sooner than expected.

I wrapped the towel around my body and climbed down the stairs slowly, watching both Stefan and Damon standing in the threshold, eyeing me.

"Mr. Salvatore and... Mr. Salvatore! What a delightful surprise."

Before anyone could respond, Damon threw me over the railing of the staircase and into the wall just beside the door. His hands were then around my throat, his teeth not too far away from ripping my flesh to shreds.

"Damon!" Stefan hissed, but he didn't make a move to help me.

"You know so much about me, eh? Now we want to know more about you." Damon snarled into my calm face.

I closed my eyes, and very calmly spoke. "Jeremy, go up to your room, and please, for the love of god, stay there."

Jeremy left with little complaint, and when I was sure he was out of earshot, I directed my words back to the Salvatore brothers.

"You would do well to let go of me, Damon," I told him. "I mean you no harm. Not unless you hurt me first," as I said it, I felt blood ooze from a gash in the back of my head. I swallowed my fear. "Or.. not unless you hurt me again."

Damon released me, smelling the blood. His face told he didn't mean to do me damage.

"We are just curious," Stefan began, "as to why you're here."

I shrugged as I walked into the kitchen, the vampires following behind me. I grabbed a tea-towel from the third draw and placed it against the gash.

"I grew up here. I have every right to be here."

"And why do you want to be here?" Damon asked tightly.

I paused, leaning against the countertop. "I think it's better if I just tell you the full story; maybe then you wouldn't be so passive towards me. Like I said, I mean you no harm, but how do you get a vampire's attention without causing somewhat of a scene?

"I'd like to make friends, not enemies here. I figured it was best to not surprise you."

"Surprise us with what?" Stefan asked.

"As I said, I grew up here. But I moved away after my parents died.. I just couldn't be here, be reminded of them. I set out, and when I reached Chicago, I met this girl.." I looked towards Stefan. "She talked about you, a lot. You were her example for almost everything. 'Don't judge people. When Stefan..'. I didn't really understand.

"Lexi," he muttered happily, the very name etching a smile to his face.

I nodded. "She was supposed to turn me, and she tried."

Stefan looked puzzled, his eyebrows in a curious frown. "What do you mean she tried?"

"It's not rocket science. Drink blood, die, drink blood." Damon chimed in from his place against the far wall. "There's no tried. You'd be dead if you'd tried."

"We did everything we were meant to, but when I woke up I wasn't hungry, and the blood I drank made me throw up. And as I'm sure you can hear, I still have a heartbeat."

"You're still human," Stefan agreed.

I shook my head. "No, that's the thing. I'm not, I'm not human."

"You look human enough. You smell human." Damon had now begun to walk towards me, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his eyebrow raised.

"If you don't believe me, then there's no point in trying to convince you otherwise." I told him before turning back to Stefan. "But I know you do."

"Can you show us?" Stefan asked, "Can you prove it?"

I hesitated. I had two tricks, as far as I was aware. One would kill them both, the other.. Well.. It was worth a try.

I nodded. The boys stepped back as if I was going to make a coin disappear, not knowing they had full part in this. I turned to Damon.

"Please note that this isn't my house anymore, as it's under Jeremy's name. I don't live here," I told him and smiled. "But I recind all invitations given to you to be in this house."

Damon frowned in confusion, but as soon as the words had left my mouth he was walking, walking without conscious thought. When he realised, he tried to resist it, but it was like an invisible brickwall was slamming against him, again and again, until he was outside the front entrance.

He stared at me horror.

I turned back towards Stefan. "I am built to kill vampires," I told him. "I don't, but if you ever have a vampire situation, I could become useful."

Stefan frowned, quietly amused at his brother's shock. "If you're built to kill vampires, why not kill us?"

I closed my eyes. "Lexi had great faith in you, Stefan. You were her pride and joy. She didn't say such nice things about Damon.." I looked at him apologetically. "When we were attacked, Lexi gave her life to save me. We'd tried to figure out what was going on with me but.. Word had gotten out about the girl who could kill a vampire with the blink of an eye. They wanted me dead, and they came for me. There were too many.. I blacked out. When I woke up, she was staked, and they had thought I was dead.

"I didn't know where to go.. But I wanted to meet you, Stefan. I want to help you, and since Jeremy was here it was just.. perfect."

Stefan was quiet.

"Please," I half begged. "Think of me as an ally. I wanted to make my presence known here, incase there was an attack and you ended up being the one dead. I mean you no harm."

Damon breathed in deeply, and as I looked at him, his eyes were serious. "If you don't want to be Stefan meat, you'd better let me back inside."