**Chapter ten**

Crazy freak

*Hailey*

The silence that followed my blunt confession seemed to last hours. In reality it probably only lasted a minute, if even. I just stared up at my older half-brother with a raised eyebrow. I wondered how he would take the news.

I saw Jace go through the stages, his green eyes showing it all like a movie screen as he went through them. At first, he thought I was just joking and there was an amused little grin on his lips. Them he realized I was serious, and the grin was wiped off. His eyes widened, disbelief obvious. Denial came next, and he shook his head slightly. Jace's eyebrows furrowed when he started thinking about the facts. Maybe I wasn't completely insane. Slowly, acceptance dawned in his eyes. He opened his mouth and I smirked slightly. That hadn't taken so long. Maybe unfiltered bluntness was the way to go.

"You're a freaking psycho."

Or, maybe not.

"Not completely," I said. I knew that his seemingly quick acceptance had been too good to be true. "I mean, sure, I'm not completely stable upstairs, but I'm not crazy when it comes to this."

Jace laughed humorlessly. "You've been watching too much True Blood, Hailey," he told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Please, I'm so much more badass than Sookie."

"Vampires aren't real." Jace said slowly and deliberately. "Fairies aren't real. You're insane if you think I'm a fairy and you're some hybrid."

I sighed. "Jace, you know you're not normal." I told him quietly. He knew it just like I had known it. He just didn't want to admit it.

"I'm a slightly alcoholic bartender who sleeps around. That seems pretty normal to me," he said dryly.

"Correction: you're a slightly alcoholic bartender who sleeps around and has a tendency to set things on fire." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

Jace's eyes widened. "How'd you-?"

I shrugged. "I do my research."

Jace still shook his head. "So I'm a pyro, okay? I take my meds and go to therapy. I'm fine. I'm normal," he repeated.

"Yet, you still started a fire with your mind back there," I said, gesturing with my head to the bar.

"No, that wasn't me," He insisted, though I saw straight through his lie.

"Yeah, it was. You know it, I know it, so there's no point in lying about it."

Jace shook his head insistently. "I'm not a fairy, Hailey!"

"Why are you denying it when the proof is right in front of you?" I asked, starting to get annoyed.

"You know you're not normal, Jace!"

"I'm not a freak like you, Hailey!" he shouted. "I'm not a psycho who thinks I'm some freaky vampire-fairy hybrid. God, if I'd known I'd find my half-sister who was a crazy freak, I'd never gone looking for my dad."

I was surprised that his comment hurt me as much as it did. I think Jace saw the hurt in my eyes, because his face softened. "Hailey-"

"Do you want proof?" I asked shortly, my eyes hardening.

"Hailey, I didn't mean-" Jace tried to say, but I cut him off.

"You did, though. It's okay, you're not the first person related to me who wished I wasn't who I was." I laughed humorlessly, bitterly. I was the anti-girly girl cheerleader my mom didn't want as a daughter, and I was the crazy, psycho freak that my brother didn't want as a sister. I didn't have any family that wanted me just how I was. "Do you want proof that the sister you wish you didn't have isn't the crazy freak you think she is?"

Jace didn't answer, so I took his silence as a yes. I took a deep breath and decided to prove I was a fairy first. It'd be less intimidating and easier to accept than my vampire face.

I focused my gaze on a stack of crates in the alley we were in, and they went flying against a wall. I heard Jace gasp, but I already had my sights set on a broken fridge. I lifted it high up in the air using my telekinesis, higher than the tops of the buildings on either side of us. Then I let it go.

The crash echoed through the silent fall day. It was loud, and broken bits of refrigerator went all around the alley. I stared at the mess I had caused for a few seconds, before looking back at my shocked brother.

"I'm half-fairy," I said, sounding almost indifferent. "I have visions of the future- and sometimes the past- and I'm telekinetic."

"I see that," Jace said, green eyes wide as soccer balls.

"Now I'll show you I'm a vampire," I said, already preparing myself to let go of my control over my thirst.

"No, really, you don't need-" he started to say, but I had already let go.

The veins darkened under my red eyes. My fangs extended out of my gums and I let out a feral growl for good measure. If he wanted to see the scary, abnormal freak he thought Hailey Ellis was, I'd show it to him. One tenth of a second later, I had crossed the alley and stood in front of Jace. He jumped away from me.

"Holy shit."

"I'm a vampire," I told him, my face going back to normal. My eyes turned green, my veins lightened, and my fangs went back into my gums.

Jace and I stared at each other in silence for the longest time. I didn't let myself care that he was going through the shock of his life. He thought I was insane, a freak. He didn't want me as a sister anymore. I didn't care what he was going through.

"So, you know what I am now," I said coolly, turning my back on my brother and slowly walking away. "And you know what you are. Call me when you stop being a dick long enough to accept the truth."

Jace didn't follow me when I walked away from him. I was still too pissed at him for saying those things to me, for hurting me. I was even more pissed at myself for letting a guy I had known for days in long enough to let him hurt me. That was my mistake.

~EL~

"You don't look too happy."

"My brother's a jackass," I announced as I walked into the living room of the boarding house where Stefan and Damon were sitting.

"I can relate," Stefan said, causing Damon to roll his eyes.

"What did Jace do to piss you off?" Damon asked as I sat down in his lap and he wrapped an arm around my waist.

"I told him about vampires and fairies, and he said some not-so nice things," I explained. I was feeding on my anger rather than my hurt of what Jace had told me. Being angry required

nothing other than annoying, dickish people. Hurt required letting somebody in and allowing him or her to hurt you. And that made a person weak in my eyes. I wasn't weak.

Stefan's eyebrows furrowed. "Why did you tell him?" he asked.

"Because Jace is a fairy."

A smug smirk made its way onto Damon's lips. I covered his mouth with my hand. "Not a word, Damon," I said, giving him a stern look.

Damon didn't say "I told you so," but the smirk didn't leave his mouth. I hated it when he was right.

Stefan was still confused. "Jace is a fairy? How is that even possible?"

I sighed. "Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that he's' a fire fairy, which breaks the rules that him being a dude didn't already break."

"How did you tell him?" Stefan asked curiously.

"I took him out of the bar we were in and told him that he was a fairy and I was a fairy-vampire hybrid," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Why does it matter?"

"That's exactly what you did? You just told him?" Stefan's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yep." I leaned against Damon's chest and blew my bangs out of my face.

"Hailey, you can't just tell somebody about the supernatural. You have to ease them in first."

Stefan frowned at me, like this was common knowledge.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not like there's a right way, Stefan," I argued.

"Well, that definitely isn't it."

"That's how I would've done it," Damon defended me

"That only proves my point. If you just announce to him that you're supernatural, he isn't going to react very well," Stefan explained.

My face darkened. "His reaction had nothing to do with how I told him," I muttered, standing up.

"What did he say, Hailey?" Damon asked me, concerned.

I turned around and smirked sarcastically at the brothers. "He told me he wished he had never found out I was his sister." Then I marched away from them.

I heard Damon sigh as I made my way to the front door. Then, suddenly, he appeared in front of me. Damon didn't apologize. He didn't say anything. He held my gaze for a few seconds before finally looking away and handing me my jacket. "Let's go."

I frowned. "May I ask where we're going?"

Damon smirked at me. "The bar. Where else?"

~EL~

"Play pool with me?" I asked Damon a glass of bourbon and a shot of tequila later.

"No way," Damon said. "You cheat."

I pouted. "I do not."

"And you're a bad cheater too,' he continued. "Even when you cheat, you still lose. How does that work?"

"Shut up!" I said, pushing him. Then I reached across the table for my scotch.

"Hey, it's not my fault you can't cheat right." Damon smirked at me, and then he stole my scotch.

I frowned up at him. "You're mean."

Damon's smirk grew. "I'm always mean."

"I can't argue with that," I muttered as Damon finished my drink.

Damon chuckled and wrapped an arm around my waist. I pushed him away, but he was stronger and persistent. Damon kept his arm around me and I sighed.

"Why are you so grumpy today?" he asked, and I frowned.

"I'm not grumpy," I defended myself.

"You kind of are."

I sighed. "It's nothing."

Damon frowned. "Is this about what Jace said, about not wanting you to be his sister?"

"It's nothing."

Damon ignored me. "Want me to rip his throat out for you?"

I shook my head. "I'm fine, Damon. It was a jackass thing to say, that's all. It's not like it hurt me or anything."

He rolled his eyes. "Bullshit. I see right through your lies Hailey, remember that. It hurt you, what he said. You actually cared about your brother."

I shrugged. "Hey, he's not the first family member who didn't want me. It's cool. I don't need family," I told myself more than Damon. Jace proved to be a mistake. He wasn't my family. He was a bastard child of my father's, that's all. He and my mom could both burn in hell.

Damon's face softened, and he handed me a glass of bourbon. "I want you, Hailey," he told me quietly. Then he kissed me.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around his neck. I still had Damon. I wasn't completely alone.

"Bella?"

I frowned and pulled away from Damon to look up at a redheaded woman. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Sage?" Damon said sounding surprised.

My eyebrows furrowed. Who was this Sage, how did Damon know her, and why did she call me by the name of my dead fairy ancestor?

~EL~

A/N:So, to give you guys a heads up, this story is going to incorporate the prequel about the original fairies, True Love Never Dies. If you haven't read it, I suggest that you do, to have things make more sense. It's newly finished, too. If you really don't want to, I'll try my best to make it so that nonreaders can understand. But I recommend that you do. And from here on out, there will be pretty major spoilers in this story about TLND, so I suggest that if you do want to read it, that you finish it before continuing to read this story.

Thank you to: MissCaityGrace, Lady Syndra, kate, SomebodyWhoCares, colleenrawr, 5alvatore, and JellyBear7 for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)