Chapter 1

Grayson Gilbert sipped coffee standing at this kitchen counter and stared at his niece. He called her 'niece' but she may as well of been his daughter. Her parents had been killed when she was two and he took her in. He'd raised her, protected her, loved her, and made sure she had the most normal life he could offer her. He started to notice it when she was three but he did his best to ignore it. However, by the time she was 10 there was no denying the resemblance. He dismissed it as an ancestral likeness until he saw the creature watching her. One day as he pulled up to the school to pick her up he saw it standing at the edge of the parking lot watching her every move. Then its electric blue eyes turned to him with a smirk and it gave him a little finger wave. Grayson had all but dragged her away from the school with an unnerving sense that they hadn't seen the last of the deceptively attractive monster.

She was angry with him for an entire year when he pulled her from school and started tutoring her himself. Eventually she forgave him and they became inseparable. They did regular school subjects for three hours a day but instead of normal gym class, he taught her to defend herself in every way he knew how. Much as he wanted her to have an ordinary life, he doubted things would be that easy for her and he had a feeling she was going to need her strength.

His wife left shortly after John and Isobel died and she took their young son with her. He couldn't say he blamed her. This life was dangerous and his brother's death had changed him. It was just the two of them now. It was probably for the best since Elena, his niece, was the only person who seemed to be able to tolerate him anymore. Fortunately family money was plentiful and he was able to quit his manager position at the print factory so he could devote himself entirely to her. Now she was 18 and every time he looked at the lovely face that fate had seen fit to give her, he could only think of the danger it would put her in. It wouldn't be long before she wanted to venture outside the neighborhood he had thus far been able to keep her in and he was terrified of what would happen to her out in the world.

"Uncle Grayson, you're staring at me again" Elena said, peering up at him from the kitchen table.

Elena didn't know what was wrong with her uncle. She'd turned 18 three months ago and after her birthday he'd begun staring at her for long periods of time. He would get eerily quiet and stare at her face with this strange look in his eyes; like he couldn't decide what to do with her.

"Sorry dear" he said "Are you ready to start the day?"

"Yep!" she replied.

She picked up her cereal bowl, finished her milk, and pushed away from the table. She gathered her schoolwork and followed him to the living room where they'd set up their makeshift classroom. They sat down together at the long library table in the center of the room and the day went by as normal. English first, math last, and today they ended with weights. She hated weights but Uncle Grayson insisted. As of late he'd demanded an extra hour of her in the basement gym he'd set up. "You never know what's out there." He would say.

The mantra had never made any sense to her but it was obviously important to him so she tried her best not to complain too much. Her uncle had always been an intense man but the last three months he had been relentless in her training and he seemed to be distancing himself from her. She felt like he was prepping her for battle and it left her hurt and confused. He was her only companion and she was starting to get lonely. They had always been so close, spending every waking minute together. Sometimes they would spend hours making up stories together. Their favorite game was to have one of them start a story and then pass it back and forth. Maybe he'd start with a detective story and she would turn it into a love story and then he would somehow make it a ghost story. Every once in a while he would cut their day short and they'd watch movies until they fell asleep on the couch. But since her birthday, he would lock himself in his office after the day was over and stay there all night. She missed him and she didn't understand what she'd done to drive him away.

"Ok, we can stop now" he said after a final set with the 50 pound dumbbells. Relieved, she dropped her weights on the floor with a thud. Her muscles screamed at her and she took a moment to close her eyes and take several deep breaths. By the time she'd opened her eyes, Uncle Grayson was halfway up the stairs.

"Goodnight" he called over his shoulder.

"Goodnight…" she mumbled, annoyed he was abandoning her again.

Grayson closed the door to his office and locked it. He sat at his desk and put his head in his hands. She was starting to suspect something, though he was reasonably certain she still had no idea what was going on. The faces of his brother, his beautiful sister-in-law, and the baby they never really got to know stared back at him from the silver photo frame. John Gilbert had been a good man before his sanity abandoned him. Elena thought her parents had been killed in a car accident. Sheltering her from the truth seemed like the kind thing to do. How do you tell a girl her mother deserted her? Or that her father, his little brother, had been driven to his death by rage and jealousy? Then there was the demon vampire who had been ridding the world of Gilberts for over a century. Before the tragedy that befell his brother and Isobel, Grayson had worked hard to foster peace with the creature after his father died. It had worked surprisingly well for nearly a decade. Grayson had never liked taking life, even if the person he was killing was technically already dead, and the obligation to hunt and kill vampires had died with the previous Gilbert patriarch. The vampire had taken notice and, for a time, he let himself believe his family had finally rid themselves of the supernatural. He should have known better.

When John and Isobel died, he knew the peace was over. Soon after discovering the bloodless bodies of his two closest cousins, Grayson purchased a house for him and Elena. Then he'd turned it into a veritable fortress. The best security system money could buy, weapons hidden all over the house, reinforced windows and doors, locks that were supposed to be impenetrable, and all of it invisible to the naked eye. Of course Elena knew there was a security system, but aside from that he'd never told her about his little improvements. With a sigh, he opened his bottom drawer and took out a long wooden stake and turned it over in his hands. It looked much like all the other wooden stakes he had, except this one was stained with blood and if you looked very closely, you could see tiny carvings underneath the crimson stain. This particular stake had only been used by two men since it had been forged over 100 years ago. It had been in his family since the day his ancestor rammed it into the heart of one of the cruelest vampires ever to walk the earth.

The man his brother had been named for, the first Jonathon Gilbert, had always been a madman in Grayson's mind. He'd been brought up to think him a hero but all he could see was a man blinded by hate and fury. Grayson supposed he should have had some sympathy for his forefather since a heartless creature had made a meal of his wife and unborn child while he was away hunting. Based on the journals he left behind, finding his wife's broken body, with her throat mangled, and their baby dead in her womb, had broken something inside him.

1864 - Johnathon Gilbert

Being a member of a founding family, he had always been aware of the supernatural element that existed in Mystic Falls and after the initial shock of finding Margaret's mangled corpse, he knew immediately what had done this brutal thing. That night he swore that his life's mission would be to end as many vampires as he possibly could. His older sister took pity on him and adopted his two young children. Johnathon knew he would never be a proper father to them. The faces of his daughter and son only stood to remind him of the wife and child he had lost. After ensuring their safety, he sought out the most powerful witch in Mystic Falls, Emily Bennett. She helped him make a powerful stake made of white oak. When driven into the heart of a vampire, it would absorb the creature's strength and transfer it to the person holding it. Stake in hand, he set out to find the vampire who killed his family. It was then that he realized the town of Mystic Falls was infested with vampires. Dozens of them pretending to be normal people and all the while draining their neighbors of their blood. Johnathon was enraged and after finding and killing his first vampire, the rage turned to madness. With every kill he made using the stake, his body became stronger and his mind got weaker. The townspeople came to know him for his temper and they began to avoid him at all costs. All save his oldest friend, Giuseppe Salvatore, who refused to give up on him. Giuseppe was the only one brave enough to speak to Johnathon, to listen to his ranting, and try to keep him calm. His efforts were wasted. Johnathon's obsession and hatred ran far too deep. It had completely consumed him. Still, Giuseppe never abandoned him and it was during one of their talks that Johnathon learned of his friend's new house guest. A girl who claimed to have been stranded by a fire had appeared on Giuseppe's doorstep a short while after Johnathon's wife had been killed. Giuseppe was concerned about her coming between his sons. They were competing for her affections and the longer it went on, the farther apart the brothers grew. Johnathon had known the Salvatore brothers since they were just boys and he decided they needed a talking to. When he knocked on the door of the Salvatore mansion the next day a stunning young girl answered the door.

"Hello" she said with a small smile "I'm Katherine."

The hunter's instinct washed over him and he knew instantly what she was. The stake was at his home and while he was sure he would survive a fight with her, he wasn't certain he could kill her.

"I came to see Stefan and Damon" he told her through his teeth.

"They're not here at the moment. Who can I tell them came to call?" her voice was low and silky and her big brown eyes sparkled with mischief.

He could see why they were fighting over her. It made no difference to him. She still had to die.

"You can tell them John Gilbert came to see them." he said and turned to leave.

He rushed home to get the stake and started making his way back to the Salvatore mansion. It was dark when he returned and the house was very quiet. There should have been lights burning this time of night. It was dinnertime and he was immediately alarmed. He crept slowly up to the house and onto the porch so he could see in the window. What he saw broke what little sanity he had been holding onto. The vampire bitch was standing in the living room. She had just begun tearing into his friend's neck when she noticed Johnathon at the window. She dropped Giuseppe to the floor, licking her lips and smiling. Damon's body lay next to Stefan's. Their necks were bent at an unnatural angle and had apparently been snapped. He couldn't understand why their throats hadn't been torn open. He didn't think about it for long. He burst through the door, grabbed Katherine by the throat and shoved her against the wall. She was clearly surprised but it only lasted a moment. She smiled an evil little smile, pried his fingers off her neck, and threw him across the room. He recovered in seconds and before she could make another move he was back across the room. He knocked her down and put his knees on her chest. He'd caught her by surprise again and he drove the stake toward her heart. She grabbed his wrist but he knew he had her.

"Your wife died screaming" Katherine hissed "She begged me not to kill her baby"

Johnathon's eyes bulged and he shrieked before he drove the stake down through her chest and into her heart. Her face drained of color, turning a sickly shade of gray. When he was sure she was dead he walked calmly back to his house and penned the whole sordid tale in a journal. He then wrapped the stake in a cloth and left a detailed note explaining why it should never be used by anyone. After that, as far as anyone could tell, he walked into the woods and was never seen or heard from again.

The bodies of Katherine and the Salvatore brothers mysteriously disappeared. Shortly thereafter Gilbert's started to die horrible deaths. The few who survived the attacks spoke of a ruthless, blue eyed demon. It didn't take the Gilbert family long to start seeking out vampires and killing them in an effort to survive.

Grayson was lost in thought, turning the stake over in his hands. He thought about the girl sleeping upstairs and his desire to protect her. He loved her but he'd had trouble looking her in the eyes lately. It was becoming harder and harder to lie to her but he couldn't think of a good way to tell her any of it. Elena my dear, you come from a long line of vampire hunters. In fact, you're the first Gilbert not to hunt vampires in 40 years. He was pulled out of his musing when he heard the noise above him. The alarm system was quiet but instinct had him leaping from the chair. He was already too late.