Chapter 4: Rag Doll

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries. I'm not making money off of writing this.

AN: I was looking through leaked info from the upcoming season of Vampire Diaries earlier and realized that I named the head of the werewolf pack the same as Kevin Williamson has named the upcoming werewolf character played by David Gallagher. Coincidence? Yup. Unless they did what I did and named him after the guy that went with Bonnie to the dance in the first book. Yes I have started reading the books. Bweh.

Anyway. Sorry for the wait. Thanks for the reviews. On with the show.

Enjoy.

"He was definitely human when he went into the house," Damon said, "So there's going to be someone inside. Possibly a body."

"Damon," Caroline said softly.

"We're going to have to clean it up," Damon continued without pause, "You should call Judgy, Ric, and Elena."

"Damon?" Caroline repeated slightly more loudly.

"Warn them that they should be careful if they see him," Damon was making his way towards the house, "I killed the owner the last time I was here, so we should be able to get in."

"Damon!" Caroline shouted.

"What!" Damon spun around and glowered down at Caroline, "'Damon!' what?"

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked only slightly more softly.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Damon asked quickly.

"Well, for one thing, you're talking like me," Caroline smirked, "And for another you haven't blinked since Jeremy left."

Damon didn't respond. He simply turned around and continued walking towards the house. He pushed the door open and looked down on the forms of the dead vampires on the floor and stopped. Caroline stopped right behind him and looked over his shoulder.

Damon bent down next to Pearl and pulled the stake out of her chest and placed it gently on the floor next to her. As he knelt there examining her lifeless face he used his vampire hearing to listen for anyone else in the house. No one was there.

"Did you know her?" Caroline asked softly.

Damon nodded.

"She was one of the Tomb Vampires," he said softly, "She dug my eyes out with her thumbs once."

"Oh," Caroline said.

"She didn't deserve this," Damon said.

"Damon?"

"Call Judgy and Ric. I'm going to search the house," Damon said and then walked away.

Bonnie was already staring at her phone when it began ringing, flashing Caroline's name across the screen. It took her a moment to process what was happening and then she pressed the answer key and brought the phone to her head with a fake smile plastered to her face.

"Should I pull my maps out again, Care?"

"Bonnie," Caroline sighed, "Bonnie, we found him."

"Is he okay?" Bonnie rushed out.

"If you see him, don't invite him in," Caroline said softly.

"Care?" Bonnie's voice sounded desperate to her own ears.

"We don't know how it happened, but he was so fast," Caroline went on, "And Damon couldn't catch him. He tried."

"Give me the phone," Bonnie heard Damon's voice coming harshly from the other end of the line, "Judgy, he wasn't a vampire when he came into this house and there isn't a trace of blood here. The only bodies we found are vampire corpses from four months ago."

"Damon?" Bonnie started.

"Yes?" his voice became softer.

"Shut up," Bonnie said firmly.

"Something isn't right about this, Judgy," Damon said.

"Damon-,"Bonnie began.

"Yes, I know. Nothing is right about this. I get that, but something isn't right about this," Damon interrupted, "And I need you and Ric to look into it."

Bonnie hung up the phone.

Deputy Finley Jackson didn't bother to have a social life. He had once, he couldn't even count how many years ago, but for good part of his adult life he had been all about the job. When first became a deputy it had been fairly boring to pull over drunk teenagers or write reports on the stray burglary, but after a few years he was noticed. Sheriff Jerome Forbes had pulled him aside and he'd taken him to the shooting range and then he'd taken him hunting and then he'd run him through combat and evasion training and then after years he had told him about vampires.

Jackson had been twenty-five years old.

These days The Council referred to him as a V5 Deputy, back in the day it had just been him and Sheriff Forbes. They had been vampire hunters. They had tracked down and slain hundreds of vampires in the surrounding counties. Never in Mystic Falls. There were never any vampires in Mystic Falls.

Only that wasn't true was it. "Animal attacks" and missing persons and then the vampires at the Founder's Day Festival and now here he was locked in a cell with partner. He knew who had put him here. He recognized the cell. The last time he had been here he had found it.

He had also noticed how close the latch was to the door's peep hole. It had taken him forever and Hill had been hissing at him to stop the whole time, but he had finally maneuvered his hand so that he could grab the latch and pull it open.

"Told you," Jackson smirked, "Now shush."

With that Jackson led Hill out of the cell.

Elena had spent most of the last year on the edge of terrified, but this was different. She checked the door as she pulled out her phone and peeked out the window as she dialed. Yup, still there.

"Elena? What is it?" Damon's voice came from the other end of the line.

"Something is happening with Jeremy," the words were heavy coming out of Elena's mouth.

"You didn't invite him in did you," she could actually hear Damon glaring at someone on the other side of the line.

"No. I wasn't home when he got here," Elena said, "He was already in the kitchen and...why would I have to invite him in?"

She peaked out the window and saw Jeremy still doubled over on the porch.

"Damon, what's going on?"

"Is he still in the house?" Damon asked.

"No. He's on the porch. Damon, you need to explain what-" Elena was cut off by the sound of the phone going dead.

Elena peeked through the curtains again and saw Damon speeding up the porch steps and to Jeremy's side. He placed a hand on his shoulder and said something to him and then walked over to the front door and knocked.

Elena opened the door and Damon took a step into the front hall and pulled her along with him.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I came home and Jeremy looked like he was panicking and he started to say something and the next thing I knew he was choking and rushing towards the door," she said, "And I mean rushing. I barely had time to blink."

"Then what?" Damon asked.

"Then nothing," Elena said, "He's been like that for the last five minutes."

"He smells human," Damon said absently.

Damon stuck his head out the door and then sighed at whatever it was that he saw.

"Or he did," Damon said.

Elena rushed out the door and found that the porch was empty.

Jeremy was gone.

Caroline was bored. Yes, she knew that was terrible. Jeremy was missing and a vampire and everyone was panicking, but she didn't have anything to do. Damon had insisted that she stay behind and she wasn't any good at the whole research thing; she didn't know how spells worked and her eyes kept glazing over when she tried to read through one of Ric's history and mythology books. So she was bored. So bored.

"Damon's home," she perked up as she heard the footsteps speeding up the driveway.

"Does he have anyone with him," Bonnie asked.

"No," Damon shouted from the doorway.

He appeared in the living room doorway and lay down on a free couch. Bonnie frowned at him, while Caroline smiled softly. Bonnie obviously thought that he was being cavalier. Caroline's eyes shot to where the veins were pulsating softly under his closed eyes.

"He bolted while Elena was giving me an update," Damon said, "He smelled human though."

"That doesn't make any sense," Bonnie huffed, "What did Elena-"

Bonnie was cut off by Damon's head shooting up and his hand waving in her face impatiently. Caroline watched as a small smirk appeared on Damon's face. She turned up her senses to see if she could figure out what had drawn his attention and she heard it. Four human heartbeats in the house. Two in the living room that were obviously Ric and Bonnie and two making their way up the steps from the cellar.

"Fee fie foe fum," Damon chuckled and then sped off the couch and out of the room.

Caroline rolled her eyes and sped after him. When she arrived at stairway to the cellar it was just as the door was being slammed in Damon's face. Damon pounded on the door and it splintered under his strength.

The door finally swung open and Damon and Caroline sped down the steps and when they reached the bottom a pipe was swung at Damon's face, splitting the corner of his mouth. Damon's expression hardened as the two escaped deputies ran down the hall.

Caroline rushed past Damon and cut the deputies off before they reached the end of the hall and she could see Damon closing in on them from the other side. His face was healing slowly. His eyes were flashing and she could tell that he wanted to kill them.

"Damon," she said softly.

Damon's attention shifted to her, his expression calming only slightly.

"Get something to drink," she continued in a calm voice.

Damon didn't move.

"I've got this," she said firmly.

Damon disappeared mid-nod and Caroline moved forward to herd the Deputies up the stairs and into the living room.

"Sit," she commanded.

The deputies looked at the occupants of the room unsure. Caroline rolled her eyes and pushed them both down onto the floor.

"Stay," she said.

Damon appeared next to her, his features now back to normal and he looked down at the deputies sitting on the floor. He smirked at them and then turned to Caroline.

"You've been spending too much time with the puppy," Damon snarked, "You're starting to use doggy orders on other people."

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Can we be done with these two yet?"

Damon squatted down next to the deputies and sniffed them. He turned to Hill and growled, letting his vampire face show.

"You see that," Damon asked Hill, gesturing down to the man's pants.

Hill nodded.

"That's the last of the vervain passing out of your system," Damon smirked and let his face pass back to human.

He looked Hill in the eyes and Hill's eyes glazed over.

"You don't know who any of the vampires in Mystic Falls are," Damon began, "You don't remember anything that happened here in the last three days. You were out of town. You told the Sheriff that it was to visit a sick relative, but you were really visiting your secret lover. They dumped you though."

Damon broke eye contact.

"Okay?" he asked,

The Deputy nodded.

Damon looked up to see Caroline looking at him curiously.

"Insurance," Damon shrugged, "if anyone checks on his sick relatives they'll find out that he obviously didn't go visit, but no ones going to bother tracking down his ex-girlfriends. Take him to the car. We'll take him home after I get his buddy compelled."

Caroline led the freshly compelled Deputy out of the house and then Damon turned to the other one. The man was glaring at him.

"You're clean too, you know," Damon quipped, "I could just wipe that look off your face."

"Then do it," the man growled.

"You're the one who hit me with the pipe, aren't you?" Damon said.

"And that was with my blood sugar low." he replied, "Wait until I get my strength back."

Damon laughed and the looked Jackson in the eye. The Deputy's eyes glazed over and Damon began.

"You've been on a hunting trip. The Sheriff cleared it because you've been doing such excellent work.," Damon said, "You don't know that the Salvatore brothers or Caroline Forbes are vampires. You don't associate anyone in this house with vampires."

Damon broke eye contact as Jackson nodded.

Ric moved to lead the Deputy out of the room, but Damon turned back to him and threw Jackson back onto the floor and looked fiercely into his eyes.

"If Carol Lockwood or anyone on the Council starts pressuring you about finding the vampires in this town I want you to ask them why it was that the old Mayor collapsed with all of the other vampires on Founder's Day. You're going to ask how his wife could not know that he was a vampire. You're going make it your mission to find out."

Damon released the Deputy and then pulled him back to his feet. Deputy Jackson nodded.

"Good," Damon said.

The knocking continued as Matt shouted that he was coming. It was erratic. It was anxious. It was kind of pushy. It was probably Caroline.

He reached the door and was a little bit confused by what he was seeing on the other side. He was confused until he heard the tiny voice.

"Matty?"

.