"Nice punch Tyler..." Elena said. Still freaked out, Tyler nodded his acceptance of the compliment. Elena pulled the stake out of Stefan which was followed by a blood-curdling yell. Nobody heard Rebekah and Klaus enter The Mystic Grill, everyone too interested in the events of the last five minutes.

"Oh dear..." Rebekah said, revelling in the new-found drama they'd stumbled on.

"Sister, behave," Klaus warned.

"Is this your doing?" Elena sniped venonously.

Klaus feigned hurt and told her in no uncertain terms he had known nothing about the mysterious attack. Stefan gingerly sat up and looked down at his still out-cold 'brother'.

"What did you hit him with?" he asked Tyler.

"My fist. I had to do something, man. He was going to kill and who knows who else!"

Stefan held his hand up, looked Tyler in the eye and thanked him from the bottom of his heart.

"You saved my life,"

Tyler averted his gaze, awkwardly. He wasn't comfortable with the gratitude being a hero yielded.

"Aww, such a beautiful moment and far be it from me to ruin it but why does he have a black eye?" Rebekah asked while her brother compelled all the bystanders to leave the building a forget what they'd just witnessed.

Stefan shook Damon by the shoulder and he too noticed the rapidly blossoming bruise.

"It should have healed. Damon, get up!"

For the presence occupying Damon's body this wasn't how things were supposed to turn out. It was supposed to be a swift movement. He had possessed a vampire for goodness sake. He just wished he'd realised the vampire powers didn't come with body. Wherever Damon Salvatore was they weren't doing him any good. He flickered the body's eyelids open.

"Stefan..." was all he could manage.

"Have you lost your mind?" Elena said, "You almost killed Stefan!"

"I think that was the idea," Stefan ventured.

"How can you be so calm?" Elena asked him, "I thought you two had made peace with the whole patricide thing?"

"We had," Stefan said in 'Damon's' direction.

Klaus got down on his knees and gazed into 'Damon's' eyes.

"What are you?"

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked.

"Stefan," Rebekah said reading her brother's mind. "Ask him something only Damon would know."

Stefan had a feeling he knew where they were going with this, "At father's birthday celebration what was it that you spiked his drink with to get him to have a good time?"

"I'm not playing this game, Stefan."

"You will answer me." Stefan shook him so hard it nearly gave the body whip-lash. The last thing the spirit wanted to do was find another one. He had no option but to attempt an answer.

"Whiskey. I put whiskey in his drink. I figured it would liven the old man up a little."

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Damon?" Stefan snapped. Klaus had a smug 'told you so' look on his face and Tyler and Elena were just perplexed.

"I take it that was the wrong answer," Tyler ventured.

"My father never had birthday celebrations. Had no sense of fun, my old man."

"How would I know what Dad was like, Stefan? You killed him before I ever got to know him. All I was ever good for was continuing the family name."

Stefan sat back dejected and noticed Elena's dropped jaw.

"Everybody, meet Zachariah Salvatore. The half brother."

Damon's form had returned to resembling normal. His tie to the body he used to own was strong enough to lead him to it.

"Son of a Bitch!" he muttered. "Zachariah..."

Stefan's face suddenly took on its rage expression.

"Stefan... Don't. Don't do it,"

Not hearing his older brother's pleas Stefan broke Zachariah's neck. Zachariah was finally dead but now Damon had nothing to go back into. He was as good as dead too.

"Nooooo!" He cried, "You did not just do that. Stefan!"

Klaus winced.

"Shouldn't've done that, mate."

"What? Zachariah's gone," He said.

"I'm sorry, Stefan." Rebekah said. "We would've warned you not to do it but you were too quick."

Elena's heart was thumping like a drum-beat in her chest. Tyler's too. Stefan's panicked face was too much for Rebekah to take. The notion of what was about to happen was her worst nightmare. She couldn't bare to watch another lose a sibling. The body that used to be Damon took the grey tint of a dead vampire. Stefan lost his mind...

Keep reading, people. :-) . Cheers for the reviews so far. As always they keep me motivated. E X