A/N: This is an updated version of Chapter 9 that I had written. Thanks to a lovely reviewer who helped me realise that I had made a few mistakes. Thank you x

Dayana Sullivan

I woke up the next day and Immediately felt a lot different, and so much better. Damon hadn't wiped my mind last night, just allowed me to move on from what had transpired and so far, it felt fantastic. I headed into the bathroom and took a shower, washing away any grime or blood that had been left. I had gotten no wounds anymore.

The gash that Jeremy had given me that one time was gone, and the bruises were fading, I felt a lot more confident about myself now. I got out the shower and dried myself, before going into my room and changing into a red vest top and a pair of blue jeans. No more hiding, I didn't need to.

I attached a small chain to my jeans before I headed out, hearing voices in Stefan's room. The chain was there so If I ever got nervous, I would be able to play with it, just like I used to play with my sleeved. "Morning Stefan, Damon, Vicki." I paused for a moment.

"Hello Vicki..."

She stared at me and Stefan grabbed her shoulder, while Damon just lounged on the side a glass of bourbon in his hand with a paper. "Hey no snacking on the resident here," I warned her and Stefan gave me a suspicious look. "Oh come on Stefy Boy! I already know, I've known since you compelled me in my room. Mental note, check me for vervain first."

Stefan's expression went from suspicion to shock as I continued. "Look you guys weren't very secretive about it... I mean most of your 'private' conversations, I actually over heard," I continued and moved around closer to Damon, doing a wide circle of Vicki since she appeared to be new to all this.

"Let me think, Damon mentioned something about Vervain, Then so did Zach, and I slowly pieced it together and ended up keeping a small sprig of it in my pocket." I finished explaining and Stefan nodded. "You don't have to be scared of us."

I chuckled. "Scared? Scared? Oh God no, not of you two, not even of Vicki here, I've had a hell of a lot worse." My expression darkened before I took Damon's glass of bourbon and downed it in one go and before he could even complain I had punched him in the face.

"That was for killing the only guy I've ever liked."

He rubbed his jaw and looked back at me, eventually moving his hand. "You didn't need to do that..." I shrugged and punched him again, his nose snapping. "That was for biting me and making me have an episode." He gripped his nose and grumbled grumpily before picking up the newspaper he had also dropped as I hit him.

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you Daya," Stefan suggested and I shrugged. "Oh well, I gave up on really living years and years ago. I gave up on life... what when I was... 7." I stated to him, looking him in the eye.

"You got a great swing," Damon growled and I gave him an innocent smile.

"I don't understand why I have to stay cooped up here. Why can't I just go home?" Vicki asked and I poured me and Damon another glass to drink from, I know what he had done to me, but right now, I was on cloud 9, and was willing to push past most of it. "Because you're changing, Vicki, and it's not something you wanna do alone." Stefan explained and I passed Damon the glass, drinking from mine too.

"There's nothin' about that Logan guy I killed in here. Not a word. Someone's covering it up." Damon stated after a little while, putting the paper down, watching me in case I was to take another swing at hiim. "What is that?" Vicki asked about the compass and I looked a little intrigued too. It seemed... magical. "This is a very special, very old compass. What was Logan Fell doing with it? Aren't you curious?" Damon finished by talking to Stefan who just shrugged.

"Well, if you're so worried that somebody's onto you, why don't you just leave town, Damon?"

"We should all be worried." He exclaimed and I downed the rest of my drink, "Hey, um, I'm hungry. Do you have anything to eat?" Vicki kept staring at me as she spoke and I sighed. "If she attacks me I will kill her." They both looked at me as though I had grown another head. "Look, I'm a woman who has put up with way too much shit in just 14 years... Give me a break. Or I will break something myself."

"Like my nose..."

Damon was grumpy, and I laughed, unable to stop myself, even though I knew his nose was already fixed. "Here." Stefan stated as he came in with a glass of blood. Though I highly doubted it was human because even Damon looked disgusted. "What is it?"

"It's what you're craving,"

Damon make a sound like a short laugh before he spoke. "Don't lie to the girl. It's so not what you're craving, but it'll do in a pinch, right, Stef?" He used the short nickname making Stefan give him a look before I settled down on the sofa, away from Damon but away from Vicki too.

"What is it?" Vicki repeated and I sighed. "Yeah, what is it? Is it a skunk? Saint Bernard? Bambi?" I asked making Damon smile at me. No, don't do that, I'm allowed to make jokes, you can't find them funny. "See she gets it!" Stefan sighed and I just rolled my eyes, I knew this wasn't me but right now, I was pissed off with the world and the fact that I was still being haunted by nightmares of my father, so I was definitely going to take it out on everyone else.

"Go on. Give it a try." Stefan pushed Vicki to do it and Damon shook his head. "She's new. She needs people blood. She can't sustain on that stuff." He explained and Vicki looked up at him. "Yeah, why can't I have the people blood?"

"Because it's wrong to pray on innocent people, Vicki." I mimicked Stefan's voice and he glared making me shrug. "Look, you don't have to kill to feed, if you had to kill to feed, I would be dead as mop-head here decided he was going to attack me too." I gestured to Damon who just looked at me. "Mop head?" I shrugged again.

"God that's as worse as being called Dude."

"No, no, no. There's no guarantee that you can control yourself, okay?" Stefan argued. "It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody, and then you have to carry that with you for the rest of your life, which, if I haven't made clear, is eternity."

I clicked my tongue, and Damon spoke up. "Don't listen to him. He walks on a moral plane way out of our eye line. I say snatch, eat, erase." I liked that, you could shorten it to S.E.E. Snatch. Eat. Erase. Simple as that.

"Hey, look at me. We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are." Vicki looked like she was getting pissed off with Stefan and pushed past him, heading for me, where I got to my feet ready to stop her if she was going to grab me.

"Fucking try it." I growled at her making her pause. "Okay, count deepak. I am outta here." Damon said to Stefan before he also got up. "Count me in too, Damon," I stated and grabbed my bag from the side. "I need to get outta here." I headed down the stairs first, allowing Damon to follow behind me just as the doorbell went.

Opening the door, I came face to face with Elena, who just looked at me a little shocked, wondering why the hell Damon was right behind me. "Is Stefan here?" She asked and I nodded my head, letting Damon start explaining first. "Yep!"

I chuckled at his response and he nudged me a bit, I guess maybe he hoped we could get on, I don't know. "Where is he?" She asked and Damon sighed. "And good morning to you, little Miss 'I'm on a mission'." He stated and I laughed this time, earning a look from Elena like she believed I was under his control. "How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything that you've done?"

"He's Damon, he's probably done a lot worse." I stated, shocking myself that I was standing up for the arrogant prick, while Damon just smiled. "Couldn't have put it better myself," he continued afterwards. "And how can you be so brave and stupid to call a vampire arrogant and glib?" he asked and Elena shrugged, "If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead." She stated confidently and I shook my head.

"Yes, you would."

"But I'm not."

"Not yet," Damon smiled sweetly before she asked the question again. "Where's Stefan?"

"He's upstairs singing 'the rain in Spain'. Knock yourself out." I stated and headed out, Damon following behind. "Where you wanna go then?" he asked me and I shrugged. "Let's go get drunk at the grill." He smiled and patted my back. "You are a very smart lady."

Being at the Grill was brilliant. Trying not to hold a grudge felt a little good, and it really did feel good to have someone by my side, whether it be drinking or talking, it just felt normal, something I really wanted to feel. Not that it mattered, he was listening in to a conversation he had over heard and I wasn't about to interrupt him until he started to talk to me again. "Well that's interesting." He muttered and I glanced at him. "What is?" I asked him, already on my fourth shot of Vodka and I wasn't even feeling it. Well, that's a lie, I could feel a little buzz.

"The Mayor and his Wife are the ones who know about the little compass..." We paid for our drinks and He got up, helping me to my feet. "You are a very fun girl to be with, even if you can't hear music. I would definitely love to be able to drink more."

"Drinking buddies!" I cheered a little before chuckling and headed back to his car. Going back to the boarding house was a bore, but there was a party going on tonight I think, a Halloween thing at the High School. I didn't feel like going, but oh well, maybe I would.

We got back home eventually and me and Damon went separate ways. I went to go grab myself a glass of hot cocoa to combat the buzz of the alcohol. Damon, however had decided he wanted to go find out what music was playing in the house, whereas I had absolutely no idea it was even there.

I saw Damon head outside with Vicki in tow and I really had to see this play out. Following them, I stood leaning against the brick wall, sipping my cocoa on this cool day watching as Damon tried to teach her the ropes. "Come on Vicki, live a little, no pun intended." She vamped and disappeared, leaving me to laugh and Damon to just look at me. "Uh... My bad..."

Stefan come out, and glowered at Damon before he also vamped off and I shook my head. "Wanna go to the Halloween party with me?" I asked him and he shrugged. "Depends, what's gonna be there?" I pursed my lips and began to think. "Alcohol and warm bodies pulsing with blood?" Those were the only two options that I could come up with.

"How have you gone from the girl who was terrified to the girl who just doesn't give a fuck?"

"You compelled me to be fine with everything that's happened lately. I'm living life to the fullest since I've been a house wife for the last 14 years.." I explained before we headed inside again. "Well. I'm going to the Grill again, see if I can find out what Mrs Lockwood knows about Vampires, and see if I can compel her, wanna come or wanna stay here?"

I thought about it. "If I can drink from your alcohol here. That would be fantastic." He smirked and shook his head. "Knock yourself out, just not all the bourbon." Damon vamped away leaving me to my thoughts alone, before I realised. I really didn't want to be alone.

I headed inside once again and began to do what I had gained as a habit over the years; cleaning. So I went around, making sure things were tidy and in the right place, before I decided to pop down to the baseent as well, making sure the vervain supply down here was still growing fine

I missed Zach, I missed talking to him and feeling happy in his arms when we sat down to read books. I missed the smell and the way he made a gorgeous cup of cocoa. Letting off a sad sigh, I chose to try not to remember it, heading up the stairs again before settling down on the sofa with a book, one that I had started a few days ago but never really had the time to finish.

Darkness soon began to fill the room and I turned the lamp on, yawning slightly as I found myself drifting where I sat, half awake when I heard someone walk inside, giving a chuckle. "You need to learn you have a bed," I heard Damon speak but I was already falling asleep in his arms, exhaustion setting in.

"Night, Dayana."

I felt the soft bed beneath my back and then a blanket get placed over the top of me before someone left, shutting my door behind them. I smiled and shifted a little, to get more comfortable before I fell asleep, dreaming of a good life ahead of me.