Chapter Two

"Hello, sister."

I stood there a moment, staring in shock before I was able to speak the one simple word that was buzzing around my head. "Ana."

She leaned in the doorway with a hand on her hip. Her dark brown hair was still long and curled just like the last time I had seen her. She had on a black tank top with a black jacket over it. She also had dark blue skinny jeans on with black leather boots.

"I got some bad news, sis and uh…it's going to suck." She said

I stared at her a moment, then realized something was off, something that had my gut screaming at me to take off running. I concentrated on what exactly my instincts were screaming. Finally, I figured it out, composed myself, and answered by saying "You're a vampire."

"As you can clearly see? Not what I was going to say but uh…I guess that's one way to break the ice."

"Break what ice?" I asked feeling confused and as if I was in one of those dreams where you try so hard to understand just exactly what's going on but can't.

She ignored my question and answered, instead, by saying 'Mom and Dad are dead'

I could feel my eyes widen in disbelief and shock. Dead? How could they be dead? Everything was changing in a matter of seconds. All of my hopes of us being able to be together again, to be a family again, unlikely as they were, were now gone.

"How and how long?" I asked her

"Uh…let me in?"

I felt stupid for not realizing that she needed to be invited in now that she was a vampire. I told her to come in, despite what my instincts told me, and moved to the side. She took a slightly hesitant step over the threshold and into my house, dropping a bag I hadn't noticed before I had heard it hit the ground.

"They died in 1995…the same year I did, fighting Masin." She said

I hadn't turned away from the door yet so I used shutting and locking it as an excuse not to turn at that very moment. My eyes filled with tears at the new knowledge of my parents being dead. I turned the deadbolt until I heard the soft click saying that it was locked. I fought the tears back, but not the emotions. As I turned, the candles on the entry table burst to flame.

"Did they kill him? Or…?" I trailed off not wanting to finish the sentence, for fear of my voice breaking or me losing my grip and breaking down. Now was not the time for me to break down and cry. That could happen later.

"Mom used to much power and killed him for killing me and Dad. Wanna know what's sad however?" she asked me as she pulled out her phone. She turned it to show me a picture of a double headstone that said 'Analynn D. Salvatore 1978-1992' and 'Anakin C. Salvatore 1978-1995'

"They thought I was dead…" I said more to myself than to her.

"That's all they could conclude, you weren't locatable for years. Mom and Dad put out a search warrant for us and tried to locate us but couldn't, at least not you. Then in '92 they deemed you dead, which is how I was caught. I saw the graves and stopped and then BOOM! I was ripped to shreds and then vampire blood was shoved down my throat and I went and found Mom and Dad aaannnnd yeah."

I wasn't as upset about their death now as I was pissed off at myself. I couldn't help thinking that if I would have just knocked on the door when I had, had the chance they wouldn't have thought I was dead. Then Ana wouldn't be a vampire and they wouldn't have died trying to kill Masin and this would've all been avoided. As the thought came so did the memory of when I had returned home the intentions of talking to my parents.

~1864~

I had gone back to the place Ana and I had grown up, stopping when I saw the house. It was an elegant white house with a porch, the width of the house. Four pillars held the awning over the porch. There were nine windows on the front of the house and two chimneys. I remembered that even though the outside was beautiful, it didn't do the inside justice. The last time I had seen the house was the night Ana and I had ran away, leaving our parents only a note that Ana had wrote for the two of us saying:

Dear Mother and Father,

It is treacherous for me to explain why we had to leave, but just know that we love you. Very, very much.

Goodbye,

Analynn and Anakin

I felt tears threaten to spill over my eyes as I took a step towards the house. I didn't know what I was going to say once I saw them. I finally made my way to the porch and raised my hand to knock, when suddenly I couldn't make myself do what I came to do. I closed my eyes and turned to leave. I stepped off the porch and started walking away.

I got back to the edge of the forest and turned to look back at the house. As soon as I had turned my mother opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. She stood there a minute and looked out towards the forest. I stood there unable to move, unable to speak, unable to do anything but stare at her. She looked the same as she did in 1864. The same way she had looked my whole life. The tears started streaming down my face, warming my cheeks for a few seconds before becoming cold in the fierce December wind. After a few minutes she turned, crying, and walked back into the house.

"Wasn't that the point? To not be locatable?" I yelled. I blamed myself for their death and for Ana's becoming a vampire. The next thing I knew I was pinned to the wall. Distantly I heard her yell "SHUT UP! Yes, it was the point. Did I say anything was wrong with it?" I couldn't answer. My every thought was about getting unpinned, to get away from the vampire, to follow my instincts. Without thinking about it, I sent a brain aneurism spell over and over again towards the vampire that was pinning me to the wall, Ana, until she let go. Once unpinned I said "But, that's why you're a vampire." I noticed her glaring at me and added "What?"

"Don't do that."

"Don't pin me up to the wall." I countered

"Calm down."

"I am calm"

"Not when I pinned you."

"Well I don't particularly like being pinned to walls, besides it was all instinct."

"And I don't like my sister being angry over nothing. I'm alive aren't I?"

'More or less.' I thought but didn't say anything.

"More or less anyway." She said causing me to smirk at how alike we were. "At least I'm living dead instead of you know…dead, dead, as in death and not coming back." She continued

"True." I answered

"So, it's been 147 years…what have you been doing with your life?"

"Keeping myself unlocatable, improving my powers, the whole nine yards." I told her.

"Well that sounds a little more eventful than me."

"What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know busy skipping serial killer and going straight to vampire."

"Sounds suckish…" I said smirking

"Yeah and the worst part about it is dying."

"I bet." I said instantly serious

"Yeah" she said and sighed "Are you a better witch than you are human now?"

I smiled to myself and thought 'of course I am.' Then added 'earth come to me and bring some force with you.' The house shook momentarily with the element coming to me. A simple spell for me now that over 100 years ago would have made my nose bleed like crazy and make me pass out. "Answer your question?" I asked

"EARTHQUAKE!" she yelled as I rolled my eyes at her and smiled "So, what's there to do around this place at night?" she asked looking at her phone "Its 9:12…we've got hours of the night to chill before I have to barricade myself in the shadows."

Forgetting she couldn't walk in the daylight I thought 'barricade herself to the shadows? What did she mean by that?" then it hit me. Vampires can't walk in the daylight without the help of a witches daylight spell.

"There's a lot to do here but..." I said dragging out the 'uh' in but for a second. "I can help with the daylight thing."

"I'll do anything to feel the sun on my skin again."

"You still got the necklace?" I asked her.

Her hand raised and she lightly hit the charm with her finger. I held my hand out to her and told her to let me see it. A look of panic crossed her face. "Didn't Mom say that if were alive for a long time the second we took it off, we'd die?"

"You already died." I told her and felt the instinctual gut feeling that told me I was right to confirm that what I had said was true.

"Uh…well…true…" she said and hesitantly took it off and handed it to me.

"Come with me." I said, headed towards the spare bedroom, as Ana followed.

I walked over to the shelf and grabbed my white pillar candle then sat in the floor, directly in the center of the room. "I call the element of fire to come to me." I said and the candle wick burst into flame. "Permissum meus sanctimonialis ingredior in sol solis. Is mos haud diutius existo reus per atrum nox noctis quod umbra. Is mos quondam iterum ingredior in lux lucis per utor illae." The lattin spell came naturally to me. In my head I was saying the spell in English but I knew that what I said out loud was Latin instead. As I said the spell I held her necklace over the flame letting the charm dangle in the fire. The charm did not burn but instead went from the dark blue to pitch black then back to blue. Once the charm was once again the same shade of blue it was to begin with I lifted the chain until the charm was out of the fire and into the palm of my hand. It wasn't hot to the touch as it should have been from sitting in the fire, instead it was cool, like a piece of ice.

"You should be good now." I told her holding the necklace out to her.

"What the hell?"

"What?" I asked confused

"What did you do?"

"I made it so that you can be in the sun as long as you wear this." I said not understanding why she asked me what I did when I had told her I could help her with her daylight issue. I saw the understanding cross her face and she took the necklace from me. The next thing I knew I was being attacked in a huge hug.

"I love you!" she said before putting it on.

"Glad to help. So, in your opinion, better witch than human?" I asked smiling.

"I'll answer that when the sun comes up as of right now…take me to the fun." She said

"Alright, Rec. Center, amusement park, skating, movies, or a lot of other stuff. So question is what do you want to do?"

"All of the above and don't worry about paying. I got this."

I nodded "Compulsion?"

"Is there any other way?"

"Well you could always put a confusion spell on them…" I mumbled

"Analynn, that's a little more obvious."

I shrugged. "Been working perfectly fine for me." I said then smirked. "All you gotta do is wave your hand in front of them and say these are not the droid you are looking for."

"Okay, Obe one." She said rolling her eyes.

"Alright, Anakin." I said laughing which was cut short by her glaring at me.

"Don't go there with me. I have to tell people that's why I was named that now!"

I held back my laughter "Really? Wow…I'm sorry, sis."

"What am I supposed to do? Tell them 'oh, I was named that because the senator's middle name was Anakin and he was our grandfather?"

I thought about it for a second saying "You could just…I dunno..." when I came up blank for an idea on how to help her out.

"Yeah and so if you come up with something better, tell me. Until then… LET'S GO!"

We walked out the door and to the garage.

"What are we taking? Your magic broomstick, Ms. Latin Spells and Grim wires?"

I scoffed and thought 'Broomstick? I'll show her magic broomstick' as I lifted my hand up to the padlock on the doorframe of the garage. I started typing in the password. 0-4-2-8-5 while saying "Gah! Stupid Stereotypes! Broomstick! HA! We are taking this." I hit the enter button and the garage door raised up to reveal my bright red mustang convertible along with my other tow favorite car at the moment."

Ana laughed before saying "I was joking, very, very nice. That's something we need to do… I need a truck."

"Yeah, I'll keep my eyes open and look for one." I told her knowing where I could probably fine a truck for her for free then added "Meanwhile you can drive either my Jeep or Charger."

She rolled her eyes and said "Jeep."

"What?" I asked her confused by why she had rolled her eyes at me.

"You. What other things do you own in surplus?"

I had acquired more than a dozen houses since Ana and I had run away. The first house I had bought had been around 1873. From then on I had bought a new house and moved every three to four years at the most. Deciding to only tell her about the houses that I had in, and near, Mystic Falls, Virginia I said "I uh…have three houses other than this one."

"I want one. Give me one, please?" she said smiling

I pulled out my iPhone and glanced at the time before unlocking it and looking for the pictures of my houses. It was 6 a.m. the spell had taken me longer than I had thought. I saw the square blue app that had a sunflower on it with the word 'Photos' under it and tapped on it. Half a second later it took me to a screen that had a list of albums. After finding the right one, I tapped on it and scrolled until I found the pictures of three of the four houses that I was going to show her. The first picture had been taken around dusk. I remembered, as I looked at its picture, what the inside looked like.

It was a 10,000 square-foot, 3 story house. The house faced a large lake and sat at the edge of the woods. It was about four to five miles away from the house I was currently living in. It sat on 100 acres of land.

The bottom story was partially above ground and partially below ground. It had a guest room with a bathroom ensuite with windows that when looked out of were right above the ground, a billiards room, a bar and wine cellar, another bathroom, laundry room, mechanical room, hobby room that was my spells and rituals room there, and a storage room. The bottom floor also had a media lounge and exercise room that both opened up to a covered patio, at the back of the house, that had stone bricks built up around it to the top of the ground and a few steps. There were two stair cases that led up to the first above ground floor.

The next floor, or what I called the entry floor, had a porch with steps leading up to it. Through the door was the foyer that had a double grand staircase. There was a second guest room with a bathroom and walk in closet, a study and conservatory, grand salon, dining room, another bathroom, kitchen that had a pantry and was separated from the breakfast room by a bar, and connected to the breakfast room was the family room. There was also a family studio and another stair case.

The top story had three guest suites that each had their own walk-in closets and bathrooms, a balcony that went over the four and grand salon, a laundry room, library. And the master suite that had two walk-in closets and the master bath.

The second house was considerable smaller, although it was three stories. The first floor had the entry that opened into the living room. The living room had a small hall that connected it to the kitchen and dining room on the left side and a hall on the right leading to the utility room. The guest bathroom was also located in the hall.

The second floor had the master bedroom and master bathroom ensuite. The master bedroom had one large walk in closet and a door to the balcony. The second floor also had a guest bedroom with a bathroom ensuite. There was also a small sitting area that opened to the balcony.

The third floor was designed to be an attic. I had planned to use it as a spells and rituals room or a game room when I was there.

The last house I showed Ana also sat near a body of water. It was a three story yellow house. The entry was two stories tall and opened up into a ball room or a formal sitting room to the right. To the left was the door to the kitchen that was connected to the dining room. There were two guest bathrooms downstairs and the utility room.

The second story held two guest bedrooms that had a jack-and-Jill bathroom connecting the two.

The third floor had the master bedroom and bathroom with a walk in closet. There was a large office and a small library there also.

After showing her the three pictures I asked he which one she wanted. She thought a second before answering and pointed to the first house I had showed her. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"Alright, but if I want to stay there I get to." I told her

"Yeah, well no dip, Sherlock, now" she cut her sentence off then gasped. "OH MY GOD! It works! Yes!" she yelled

"147 years of practicing spells, it damn for sure better work." I said smiling

She laughed before continuing her original sentence. "Now here is the test of a truly amazing town. Are there any hot boys?"

"I'll let you figure that one out for yourself." I told her thinking of at least four.

"Well let's go find some."

"Alright." I said getting into my 2006 Grabber Blue Ford Mustang convertible and starting it. "Let's go!"

Ana climbed into the Jeep while I put my top down.

"Where to first?"

She was quiet for a second then asked "Rec. Center?"

I wondered, to myself, for a second if she had a swim suit with her. Finally, I asked. When she said she didn't I suggested that we shouldn't go to the Rec. Center first and asked if she wanted to go to the amusement park instead. She declined and decided to go to a store first then go to swimming. I realized that it was stupid of me to think she'd want to do something else. Even though I hadn't seen her in over 100 years didn't mean that I didn't know her just as well as I had before we had run away. I knew that she would rather go swimming over going to an amusement park and I couldn't figure out why I had asked in the first place. I backed out of my garage and into the street.

"Race ya!" Ana yelled out the window as she pulled out.

I smiled accepting the challenge and mumbled "In a Jeep? No way." Then I sped past her. Within a few seconds she was speeding past me pushing the Jeep's engine as far as it could go without causing it to damage it. Half way through town I stayed right on her trial but couldn't pass her. Before long she was pulling into the store's parking lot. After I parked the car I told her that she cheated. She denied cheating with a smirk. We exchanged a few more jokes before she went inside. She was walking back with a sack in her hand in a matter of seconds.

She walked past me got into the Jeep and started it while I opened the door to the Mustang.

"Rec Center." She said before speeding off wheels squealing. I got into my car pulled out of the parking lot, and followed her.