The last thing that Jenna remembered before waking up in the forest was being staked in the heart by a man named Klaus, whom she had recently learnt was a vampire. As if that didn't sound crazy enough; she was almost certain that she had been turned into one as well. She felt different. She wasn't quite sure how to describe it at first but all of her emotions felt... heightened. Looking around, she realised that she could see nothing but trees so decided to try and get up and find her way through the forest back to her house.
She managed to stand up and, not feeling any pain, started walking. After a few seconds it hit her. Elena was dead! That Klaus man had killed her for his stupid sacrifice. Suddenly, Jenna felt a wave of uncontrollable rage hit her as she ran out of the forest to find the man who had killed her niece. She soon stopped, however, when she reached the edge of the forest and looked out at her surroundings, surprised that she didn't recognise anything. Mystic Falls wasn't that big, surely there wasn't some city near the woods that she was unaware of.
She was disrupted from taking in her surroundings when she noticed a blurry figure in front of her, moving very fast in her direction. She started to run away when the figure tackled her to the ground. Looking up, she was greeted by Elena; or at least someone who looked exactly like her but was a vampire. Katherine, Jenna figured.
"Well aren't you lucky to have survived that." She sneered.
"What's happening? Where am I?" Jenna asked frantically.
"A lovely little place called Canada."
"I need to get home... Mystic Falls... Jeremy!"
"Don't forget dear, sweet Elena." Katherine replied.
"What?"
"Oh yes, she survived. Her little witchy friend made sure of that. Why can't that girl just die?"
"She's alive?" Jenna exclaimed, the most intense feeling of relief washing over her.
"Yes, and so are you. Well, sort of. You're to start a new life here, Damon's orders."
"Damon?"
"I owed him a favour. Everyone in Mystic Falls thinks you're dead and he wants it to stay that way until he gets rid of Klaus. This way, no one can use you to get to Elena again, or something ridiculously sentimental like that. I sort of switched off, he was boring me." She admitted, not sounding at all apologetic. "Anyway, here's a handy little daylight ring to help you walk in the sun and he said to tell you not to go round killing everyone. Don't ask me when he became such a killjoy, I have no idea."
"I need to see them. I have to make sure they're ok!"
"They are fine, unfortunately. Damon said he'll find you when it's safe for you to come back." She said and with that, she left just as quickly as she'd arrived, leaving Jenna very confused in her wake.
Jenna sat down against a tree and put the ring on her finger, thankful that it was still dark for now. She tried to think back to everything Elena had told her about vampires as she attempted to suppress the burning desire for blood. She remembered what she'd said about some vampires living off of blood bags from the hospital, and how Stefan survived drinking animal blood. Damon had warned her against killing people, this must be what he meant. Figuring that she'd give animal blood a try, since she was in a forest, Jenna set off in search of a deer or something to drink from.
After a while of hunting, Jenna finally managed to find a lone deer. She ran up to it and, on instinct, went for it's neck. It tasted nothing like that witch's blood, but it was tolerable. She likened it to drinking tequila. By no means was it her favourite alcohol, but she could tolerate it if she drank it quickly.
Once she had managed to quench her hunger she decided to focus on something else practical, in order to stop herself from thinking about the mess that her life had become. How was she going to make a living until Damon found her? She wasn't sure how long it would be but she didn't want to get her hopes up. When had anything in her life been that simple? And now, with all this knowledge about vampires and werewolves, it had just become even more of a mess. She decided that her first steps would be to find somewhere to live and get herself a job. Remembering what she'd been told about compelling people to do as she asked; she figured that this wouldn't be too difficult. She'd find a small apartment and start looking for jobs as soon as she could.
It had taken her a couple of days to get sorted, but Jenna had managed to find a nice apartment in the centre of the city and moved in without having to pay a dollar. As guilty as she felt about it, she didn't have much of a choice and this whole mind control thing had come in very useful. She began searching the internet for local vacancies that would cater to her... special needs. When she saw an open position on a predator control team she decided to go for it. It allowed her to be close to animals so that she could feed easily and her new found strength and speed could be helpful, especially when it came to dragging a moose, or something similar, out of the forest.
She settled in to her new job quite quickly and spent her nights researching the animals she came into contact with so that she knew what she was dealing with. Her partner, Tony Drake, seemed to really know what he was doing, which was helpful, but she needed to know what was happening as well to keep him safe and fit in with her cover story as the animal behavioural specialist, Dylan Weir.
A month had passed and she still hadn't heard from Damon that it was safe for her to return to Mystic Falls. In what seemed like no time at all a month became a year, and then a year and a half. For the most part, she had managed to stick to a diet of animal blood. She could suppress the urge to kill but there were a few times when she hadn't been able to stop herself drinking from a human. She had also got into the habit of stealing blood bags from the hospital. She wasn't proud of it but it tasted so much better than animal blood and she felt a lot better when she drank it.
One day she found herself walking through the woods in search of some unknown animal or creature that had killed someone the night before. The body had been left in such a state that part of her would have been convinced that it was a vampire attack, if not for the amount of blood still left in the corpse and the fact that his neck was untouched. The smell of it made her almost lose control right then and she would have, if not for the crowd of people that had begun to gather around them as they investigated it. If it wasn't a vampire, her thoughts drifted to the possibility of there being a werewolf in town which, according to Elena, was bad news for her. She had to be extra careful on patrol, just in case.
Later that morning, Jenna was walking through the trees in a park near the site of the attack when she came across a man on his own, a good ten minutes walk from where people usually stayed.
"Woah! Don't shoot, ranger. I'm not a bear." He said, holding his hands up to show that he was unarmed.
"Sorry about that." She replied. "What are you doing?"
"Just collecting golf balls." The man lied. Jenna was well aware that he knew she didn't believe her but neither of them said anything.
The man introduced himself as Evan Cross, claiming to be an old friend of her work partner Drake.
"You seen anything unusual in the area?" She asked him, trying to find out if there was a wolf involved as they weren't usually found in these parts of the city.
"No, not a thing."
Jenna heard something rustling in the nearby trees and looked around. She tensed, ready to run and attack if whatever it was proved to be a threat to her and Evan.
"Did you bring friends?" She asked.
"Not eight foot tall ones."
"We should go." She said, wanting to get this man out of danger as soon as possible. Sure, she could handle herself against most creatures, given that it was no longer a full moon so there was no chance that there was a werewolf roaming the park at this hour, but she was worried about her companion and about him finding out about her if she did have to defend them. "Slowly." She added, not wanting to attract the attention of the animal if it didn't already know that they were there.
They ran away from the creature, only to be led to a shiny circle of light under a bridge.
"What the hell is that?" Jenna asked. "Is it dangerous?"
"Yeah." Evan replied. "Stay close to me."
Jenna turned around and saw what was probably the last thing that she was expecting.
"Evan, don't move." She whispered, not wanting to alarm the creature, which she would be certain was a dinosaur if it didn't make her sound so crazy. She also wanted him to stay facing the shiny thing that he was currently taking photographs of so that he wouldn't see her attacking this creature. She should have guessed that she would have no such luck, however, as he turned around as well.
The creature began to charge towards them and Jenna tried to knock Evan out of the way, only to end up pushing them both into the ball of light; still not used to her increased strength. She landed on top of him and, as a reflex, her eyes began to turn dark as she found herself close to his neck, sensing the blood running through his veins and wanting nothing more than to drink it. She managed to pull herself together before he noticed though, being that he was too focused on the fact that they were no longer in the park and the creature was still facing them.
They managed to get up and Evan pulled her back through the light to the park, just as it disappeared.
"What the hell is going on?" She asked.
"I don't know." Evan admitted. "But we went through it."
"To where?"
"I'm not sure."
"Can you explain any of this?"
"I'm working on it."
"What do you mean you're working on it?"
"Just come with me." He said. Jenna complied, wanting answers to what that creature was and where they had just gone. It was in the running for the strangest thing to happen in her life and she was a vampire who had died twice releasing a vampire-werewolf hybrid from a curse. Her life wasn't exactly what could be called 'normal'.
She followed Evan back to his office where she found out that the ball of light was a magnetic anomaly and the creature apparently was a dinosaur, some sort of raptor.
Her partner, Drake, was tracking what he thought was another creature of the same species and her, Evan, and his friends were now on their way to help him. Jenna figured that she'd have to try and lose them at some point. She couldn't risk them getting hurt when she could heal quickly and was stronger and faster than them. They were talking to Drake on speakerphone when she heard the sound of claws on the other end of the line with her vampire-enhanced hearing. Her heart skipped a beat as she feared for her friend's life. She yelled his name, begging for him to get out of there and wait for them. The line went dead and she fought hard to suppress the urge to scream and lash out. As a vampire her emotions, particularly her grief, were heightened. As much as she wanted to turn it off she never would, for fear of losing herself.
They arrived at the scene to see Drake's body being dragged out of the building. She could smell his blood as she got out of the car and this fact only amplified her guilt for not being able to save him as her instincts told her to feed on him. She couldn't do that, though. He was her mentor, her friend. He was like a father to her in this new life. The one time she'd had to compel him to forget what he'd seen her do had left her feeling awful but he couldn't know about her. No one could.
After examining his body, she filled Evan and Mac in on what she'd found. Detective Harlow informed her of another possible attack in the park and, as much as she wanted to go back to her apartment and cry, she agreed to check it out.
That evening, Jenna made her way back to her apartment, exhausted from the day's events. She'd been around more blood and danger than she was used to and keeping herself under control had been even harder than usual. She'd managed it, though, and for that she was proud of herself. While relying on weapons was not her first choice when it came to dealing with these creatures, she was glad that she hadn't had to compel her new friends into forgetting what she was just yet. She didn't want to have to do it, especially after what she'd been through with Katherine when she made her spy on Elena and stab herself. Part of her was glad to be away from all of that but another part of her couldn't help enjoying the adventure that the day had brought and she had a feeling she'd be doing a lot more dinosaur hunting. Evan had offered her a job which, at first, she had declined but in retrospect she realised that she couldn't carry on working in predator control. Her partner was dead because of these creatures and she couldn't let that happen to anyone else.
Picking up the phone, she dialled Evan's number and prayed that he would pick up.
After two rings he answered.
"Dylan, hi!" He said; calling her by the name she'd given him and everyone else since she'd been here.
"Evan, I was just thinking about your job offer."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It was pushy."
"No it's fine. I actually wanted to take you up on it. You said so yourself that you need someone like me on your team." She replied, thinking about how she could be of use as a vampire, not just an animal behaviourist expert. Her psych major had definitely helped in that area when she was teaching herself about the animals she dealt with.
"That's great!" Evan exclaimed, trying not to sound too excited. "I'll see you first thing tomorrow then."
"Ok." She agreed.
"Oh and Dylan..."
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about Tony. I know how close the two of you were."
"Thanks." She whispered, once again fighting back tears. She hung up the phone and went to bed, wanting to forget about what had happened to Drake but also nervous about what would happen the next morning as she started working for Evan at Cross Photonics.
