Well if it hasn't been only 20 days. How awesome for me is that?

I'm kinda depressed about the lack of reviews. Like seriously guys…

But I'm jazzed about how many people follow/favourite this story and then go check out my other ones, too. Those email alerts make my day.

Thanks to Guest and XxMikaelsonForverxX for reviewing. Gold stars all around. Real ones, because I have connections. My friend's boyfriend is a gold miner up in Yukon during the summer.

Now here is the moment you've all been waiting for. Okay, maybe its just one of those moments. It's not THE moment. But it's pretty important.

My unofficial Beta/Editor told me, and I quote, "Well, there goes my heart. Bitch."

On that note,
Read. Review. Enjoy.


"No."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask." Damon was persistent she would give him that. Alice shut her book with an audible snap. Damon's smile was the usual combination of condescending and teasing but his eyes were big and pleading, like a baby seal. If he thought she was falling for it, he was sorely mistaken.

"Yes I do. You were going to ask me if I would like to join you and Elena on your lovely excursion to Denver," she pasted on her best Caroline smile, "Thanks, Damon, but I already have an appointment in hell."

"It was Stefan's idea."

"Hell? I thought that was a Katherine's idea?"

He grinned at her. "That's just where she's from. You would be helping two brothers not one. And I know you love the mountains."

"I hate the mountains. Too high of an altitude and the oxygen level makes my hair frizzy. I don't know how, but it does. Besides, why would I want to help you? All you do is pick on me."

"I'll write you as many sick notes as you want. I'll even talk to the principal personally."

"I want first class tickets and VIP lounge passes."

"Done." Alice deliberated for a moment. He had been depending on her compassion. Again. And she didn't really hate the mountains. And she would be missing class.

"That's bribery." Damon just smiled. The tiny bit of will power she still possessed crumbled. "Fine. Off to hell we go."


Upon arrival in Denver, she felt like she needed to take a shower. For the entire trip she had been subjected to Damon's usual remarks and Elena trying to drown him out by worrying about Jeremy. The mental torture of being caught in the clouds of tension (argumentative and sexual, but mostly sexual) between your brother and your other brother's ex-girlfriend is delightful.

At the batting cages, Alice agreed to wait at the car. She was sure Elena had mentioned at some point that apparently Damon and Stefan had a recently not-dead sister to Jeremy, but it was still better to ease the kid into it.

Leaning back against the windshield from her seat on the rental's hood, Alice zipped her jacket up tighter. Denver was colder than Mystic Falls. A lot colder. The usual leather jacket, boots and scarf weren't cutting it. As she shivered (fricking Damon. He had to take the keys, didn't he?) she listened for any signs of unwanted trouble. That sign came in an echoing accent that made her theoretical heart skip a beat.

She flashed inside the gate to a more secluded area. She stopped in front of Elena, who had nobly pushed Jeremy behind her. Jeremy was watching everything with large, freaked out eyes. Damon was sprawled out on the ground, a gleeful Kol standing over him. A wooden baseball bat was broken into splintering halves and Kol looked as if he was planning on using the metal bat on her brother as well.

"Kol!" she yelled. She proved to be a powerful distraction. As his head whipped around, Damon snatched the broken bat from the ground by his head and plunged it into Kol's heart. Alice sucked in a shocked breath and heard Elena do the same.

"Great timing," said Damon as he stood and wiped his hands on his pants.

"Does anything that comes out of your mouth not sound sarcastic? Is it really so hard to say, "Thanks Als, I owe you one."?"

"Who the hell is she?" asked Jeremy through his current state of bewilderment.

"No time," answered Alice, snatching the keys from Damon's grip, "Introductions would be nice but he's going to wake up soon and want to kill Damon again. We've got to move." She directed the last part at Elena, who began to shepherd the boys toward the parking lot. Jeremy seemed like he wanted to argue but didn't.


She had been driving for 10 minutes when Alice decided that plane rides could be full of awkward silences but car rides could not. She made eye-contact with Jeremy in the rear-view mirror. "Allessandria Salvatore, but you can call me Alice." The boy floundered for a moment.

"Salvatore as in-"

"Yes, as in us, Little Gilbert. Elena, I thought you said he'd been getting better grades since coming here?"

"Damon," chided Alice, "Be quiet. You nearly got us killed."

"You're their sister," asked Jeremy slowly, still trying to get a sense for everything he must have missed. Alice backhanded Damon's chest to keep him from commenting.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Why hasn't anyone said anything about you?" He was suspicious. Smart kid. She would be suspicious of new people too if her only new friend turned out to be an evil vampire using him as blackmail.

"Considering we thought she was dead until two weeks ago-"

"Damon!" shouted Alice as she hit him again, "What did I tell you? No comments, now shut up." She took a calming breath to refocus on the road. They had almost swerved into the other lane. Jeremy was vaguely stunned. No one spoke to Damon like that, mostly because he didn't listen to anybody. "That, Jeremy, would be a question for your sister." Elena shot her an annoyed look.

"I was going to tell you, Jer, but you were still settling in and you finally had a normal life. You didn't need to know yet."

"And then there was the possibility that we would all be dead before you came home, so what was the point." This time Alice didn't try to control him.

"He's got a point," she relented. A hush fell over the car. Was it normal when coming oh so close to death didn't cause any kind of stir?

"So you're their sister."

"Yes."

"And they didn't know you were alive?"

"No we didn't," grumbled Damon, "146 years and we thought she was dead. Turns out she was just gallivanting around the world."

"Gallivanting? Really? You're going to insult the driver?" she said as she hovered her hands above the steering wheel threateningly.

"Two weeks! You've been back for two weeks! I think we've been plenty accepting, but what are we supposed to do when you never say anything? Just forget about it?" Damon had his whole crazy eye thing going on.

"That would nice," mumbled Alice.

"Two weeks!"

"And have you forgotten how many times I've saved your ass in those past two weeks? Hmm?"

"That wasn't important the other night when you froze," Damon grumbled. Alice whipped her head around to the back seat.

"Elena!" she screeched furiously.

"I didn't tell him," she defensively said.

"Well you told someone! It's not like Matt would say anything!" Alice hissed, turning her attention back to the road.

"I may have mentioned something to Caroline," whispered Elena. An apology was painted across her face.

'Great,' thought Alice, 'Caroline. That's just fantastic. And she would have said something to confirm whatever Stefan was thinking and he would just have to tell Damon. Amazing.'

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel. Damon was gazing out the window and sulking. Elena chewed on the inside of her lip and Jeremy sat with his hands clasped in his lap. "Where are we going?" he asked hesitantly.

"As far away as we can as fast as we can. Your new buddy, Kol? Bad news, and Damon complicated everything."

"Oh, so I'm to blame?" snorted Damon.

"Yes." Alice voiced what everyone was thinking.

"Why can't we blame this on Little Gilbert? It was his fake friend."

"Maybe you should have kept me in the loop then," muttered Jeremy.

"We'll tell you everything, okay Jer?" soothed Elena, "Apparently even the other side of the country isn't safe enough to send you."


The motel they checked into thankfully wasn't one of those sketchy-at-best, deadly-diseases-at-worst type places.

"So what do you need?" mocked Damon as he went through the mini bar, "Candles? Incense? A Ouija board?"

"It doesn't work like that."

"I know, I know. They push from that side, you pull from this one," conceded Damon.

"Can we just get to the point?" whined Alice, "I've been driving for hours. My hands are permanently curved into claws." Damon held up some cash.

"Here's five dollars. Stop complaining, go buy yourself a snack and get out of my hair."

"Yeah," she snorted, "because I'm the problem." She grudgingly grabbed the money, stuck her tongue out at her brother and sauntered out. The door slamming shut behind her was just a bonus.

Alice returned a long while later with a packet of skittles, ruffled hair, messy clothes and a speck of blood in the corner of her mouth. Damon was the first to comment.

"That wasn't the type of snack I was referring too. Next time, wash your face." She licked her lips once before wiping the back of her hand over her face. She smiled sheepishly.

"In my defense, the night manager thoroughly enjoyed himself." Elena smiled but it seemed strained. The ever-present tension in the air seemed to have tripled in viscosity. It was thicker than the City of Heavenly Fire book. She slid her focus to a grumbly Jeremy. "What I miss?"

"Got a hit on Rose's sire, and said sire's location. Pack up," announced Damon.

"Really? Already? Who?"

"You've been gone for 4 hours, Alice," said Elena. She was avoiding eye contact with everybody. Alice's interest was peaked. She had missed something big when she was… otherwise occupied. "Her name's Mary Porter. She's in Kansas."

"Mhhm. Scary Mary."

"You know her?"

"Of her. Never met. Very in with the Originals at one point."

"And you know this how?" questioned Damon with a knowing smirk.

"Just, you know, heard it somewhere." It sounded like a bad excuse to her own ears, "Unlike you, I have friends," she rushed to add. Damon brushed past her, swinging the keys and whistling a tune that sounded a lot like "Liar, liar, pants on fire." She didn't know what he was accusing her of lying about; the source of the information or the friend thing.

"Shotgun!" called Jeremy.

"Not a chance Little Gilbert."


Alice refused to drive this time. Instead, she fell asleep on Jeremy's shoulder more than once. When she was awake, she tried to convince him to play I Spy with her. He refused. Apparently it wasn't fair with her supernatural senses. It wasn't like there was much to see anyway. Fields. Lots of fields. And cows. There was a fair amount of cows, too. The front seat was oddly quiet. Damon made no attempt to add in a witty, yet totally unnecessary remark, and Elena stared out the window. The whole freaking time. It was bothering Alice, this silent brooding that everyone else was doing. She can't even enjoy herself for 4 hours anymore with something life-changing happening.

They pulled up to an old Victorian style house. The siding was painted a soft blue deepened by the darkness of being in the middle of nowhere and the peaked roof pierced the starless sky. Decorative shutters adorned all the windows. Scruffy trees clumped together along the property and shielded the house from view until you were almost standing on the porch.

"This is the address," announced Jeremy. Alice was the first to escape the confines of the vehicle.

"Looks about right," muttered Damon.

"Very scary," added Alice. 'Like an advertisement for Creepy Person Lives Here.'

"Wait here," directed Elena. Alice went to step forward but Elena shook her head. "You too."

"What? Why? So you two can go make out some more?" argued Jeremy. Alice's eyes jumped out of her head like a cartoon character.

"What?" she yelped. Her surprise was overlooked. Elena was too taken aback by her little brother's vocal disdain.

"Don't be a dick," scolded Damon, "Listen to your sister." His eyes sought out Alice's. He needed her to stay here. She bit her cheek to keep from bursting out a comment that would be unappreciated at the moment. Alice focused on Jeremy. She had a teenage boy to interrogate.

She waited until the other two reached the porch before she asked. "What happened?"

"Beats me," snorted Jeremy, "but they weren't getting ice." He shrugged and kicked at the ground, "I woke up to Rose telling me that she got a location, I go out to find them and tell them we could find you and leave, and I find them making out with Damon's shirt half off."

"Compromising."

"No shit." He was angry. More than angry. He didn't think his sister should be involved with someone as psychotic as Damon proved he could be. Alice was just torn. How could she side with one of her brothers over the other?

"Sorry if I freaked you out earlier. But the guy was so into it and the only hot guys in Mystic Falls are evil, my brothers, or collateral damage. I may have gotten a bit carried away." Her giggle was too roguish to be girlish.

"It's good. It's what really sold me on you being Damon's sister. Before that you seemed too normal."

"Normal? I am anything but normal, Little Gilbert." She was about to tell him about the whole I-just-about-threw-a-hissy-fit-when-I-found-out-I-couldn't-storm-dramatically-into-your-house thing when a cry of pain echoed the still air. Alice tensed. "Did you hear that?" Jeremy gave a WTF look. "'Course you didn't. Human. Right."

A crunch of gravel sounded to their left. Like lightening, Alice pushed Jeremy against the car and stepped defensively in front of him. A slow, demeaning clap plucked a string of irritation in her.

"Well done, Dia. Very impressive. Almost as protective as your brother." Alice bristled at his carefree manner.

"What did you to him?" she demanded.

"Oh nothing really, Darling. I got even. Give it a quick listen and I'm sure you'll find that he's still breathing." Her anger flared like a volcanic eruption. Before she knew what she was doing, Alice lunged towards him in a haze of red. Kol caught her wrists and she clawed sloppily at him.

"You bastard," she hissed.

"Temper, temper, Dia." Alice growled and aimed an elbow at his throat. He easily blocked before twisting her around so that she was trapped with her back forcefully pressed against his chest.

"I already told you that you have no right to call me that." She tried to wiggle out of it but Kol's arms were like iron around her. Alice cursed the blind loyalty she so obviously had for her brothers. Kol had known how she'd react before he'd even left the house.

With a quick glance, Alice tried to convey to Jeremy to stay out of it, that trying to help her would make things worse.

"Considering I made it up, I do believe that I have the most right to it." Kol's chest rumbled as he spoke. The vibrations against her back resonated throughout her entire body. The last time that had happened…

'Snap out of it!' she screamed inside her head.

"It's called forfeit," she snarled as she tried to dig the heel of her boot into his foot, "And you clearly forfeited that when you left me." His grip on her tightened unbearably for a fraction of a second, then released her entirely. She stumbled from the sudden lack of restrictions.

Kol's dark eyes were magnetized. He studied her like he was placing her face in a distant memory before whispering half to himself, "If only you knew."

He disappeared into the night. Meanwhile, Alice was stuck frozen to her spot. Her mind was reeling. What had he meant? He had left her. She was the heartbroken one, not him. To him it had all been a game. Hadn't it?


Alice wasn't sure if it was actually quiet or if the buzzing in her head was cancelling out all the noise. The airport café was deserted. It was early, much too early for a domestic flight, but Damon had insisted on leaving as soon as possible. The only ones in the entire airport it seemed like, was their party of four and the very bored barista.

She was trying to focus on the textbook in front of her but it wasn't working. Biology was boring and there were other subjects that took precedent. Not that those topics were overly pleasant. They caused a much too deep internal process of thought and inner revelations and whatnot.

What had he meant?

"If only you knew." God, how cliché could he get?

"If only you knew." Knew what? What was she missing? Why did he have to be so damn complicated? He couldn't just say something, no, he had to make a riddle out of it. It was so un-Kol like, but that made it so in-character because he lived for spontaneity.

Alice sunk down in her seat and rested her head on the back edge. Her hair— more in resemblance to an eagle's nest— draped around the IKEA style chair. It wasn't comfortable but she was too lazy to stand up and, well, just too lazy to stand up. And a good spot still close to the coffee source would have taken too much effort to find. Those corporate people did it on purpose. You either had to choose between a comfy bum or caffeine deprivation, no in between.

"Hey." Alice flinched when Elena spoke. She was standing in front of her with a steaming cup of coffee that Alice had somehow missed her buying, even in the abandoned terminal. She was really out of it.

"Hey," she answered, absently accepting the offered drink. Her last one would be half full and stone cold by now.

"So," said Elena as she fiddled with the lid of her cup. Alice felt her stomach drop. Every sentence Elena ever started with "so" generally meant trouble for her. "Jer told me that some interesting things were said when we were in the house."

"Elena-" The other girl held up a hand to stop her excuses.

"No, Alice. For once, will you just listen? I tried to get you to tell me earlier, but now its affecting you. Rose said something to Jer about you and Kol, something about fate never being on your side. And now I'm worried.

"You're hiding something about him, and you've been hiding it for over a century. That's too long to keep it bottled up. I get that you don't want Damon or Stefan to know, I really do. But you need to let it out before you explode."

"I won't explode," mumbled Alice. Elena fixed her with the most motherly expression she had.

"Oh really? Whenever you see him or hear his voice, you shut down. Everyone is starting to notice. Ric, Stefan, Jeremy, me— we've all seen something. Not firing that crossbow was a big give away. Damon knows more than he's letting on and Caroline obviously knows what it vaguely is. Why is it so hard to finally free yourself from it?"

"Would I really be free of it?" Alice paused for a second, "Elena, it's— it's complicated. It was a long time ago; I wouldn't even know where to start. And-" she shrugged helplessly and tugged on a particularly resilient curl. "-And it hurts, okay? Every time I try to think about it my heart turns to ash and an elephant sits on my chest."

"Talking usually helps," offered Elena. Alice remembered her own offer to Alaric. He had understood. Sure, talking could help, but it would also make her deal with it. You don't deal with demons you've been running from for 114 years.

A chair scraped across the tile floor as Elena scooted closer. She nudged Alice until she was facing away from her. Quick hand gathered hair at the back of her head and started to gently finger-comb through it.

It had been a long time since someone had done something as simple as braid her hair for her.

It had been a long time since she'd trusted someone to get close enough to braid her hair.

"1898 was a good year. Damon was relatively normal and Lexi was putting Stefan through remission, again. It was the end of May, and I've always had a thing for the East Coast in early summer. I decided on Boston. I guess you could call it the initial incident.

"I compelled my way into a prominent family, much like Katherine had done to mine 34 years earlier. I enjoyed the life they had to offer, the prestige and leisure I had been born into. I was a little homesick, but this more than made up for it. The family were so kind, so incredibly generous, that as long as I kept to my story they never questioned anything. I rarely had to compel them. The only problem was the other houseguest; the young son of an English business associate. I never saw him, only heard of him and his charming accent and noble poise. Then they decided to host the Midsummer's Ball.

"He said I was intriguing, that he'd never seen eyes quite like mine. When we danced, I noticed the blood on his lapel. So I whispered in his ear that he should probably be more careful when cleaning up after a meal. As I slipped away I could feel the power radiating off of him. He was old, so much older than Katherine or Lexi.

"I tried to avoid him. The old ones are dangerous— apparently more so than I thought. I lasted a little over a month. When Kol wants something, he does everything in his power to get it. And he did.

"He tried so hard to woo me, to win my affections, and I loved it. The gifts, the attention, the things he could teach me— I basked in the glory of it all. Especially because all he ever seemed to have eyes for was me.

"I loved him, Elena. God, I loved him. Still do if the overwhelming wave of relief I felt when we found out they weren't linked is any kind of indicator."

"What happened?" Elena was finishing the braid off for the third time, tears glistening in her giant doe eyes. Alice wrapped her hands more firmly around her slowly cooling coffee.

"He left. We fell asleep in my room one night, and he just packed up, compelled the family and left." She swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back the tears that hadn't fallen. "He just left me."


If you didn't at least didn't feel your heart string contract during that last part then you are a soulless creature. I was blinking back tears as I wrote it. Partly because I know what Kol meant. *Insert evil laugh*

Songs for that last bit: These Four Walls and Good Enough by Little Mix. Over and Over again.

Some slight bonding with Jeremy. I don't really want to focus on that, though. It just kinda happened.

Guess where the cute baby seal thing came from...

City of Heavenly Fire may not work since it's technically printed four years in the future, but have you seen the size of that thing? I'm scared to open it. Damn Cassie.

I took creative license and tweaked some of the dialogue because Ouija Board worked so much better.

Sorry if I insulted anyone from Kansas. All I know comes from The Wizard of Oz and The Suite Life on Deck. I've never been to/driven through the state but I pictured it as driving through Central Alberta. Oh look, another hay field...

So Alice was a bit more, um, active than previously mentioned. But hey, a vampire has needs. And I didn't feel like typing out the conversation with Rose.

Don't expect an update for awhile. Dark Light and Original Twin take precedence since I've updated this three times in a row.

Have a nice night. Even with school tomorrow. Almost makes me wish I drank something stronger than coffee.