"Tell me this Damon, because I really just don't understand." I said, walking up to him. I saw his back stiffen as he registered my voice. Before I interrupted, he had been whispering something to Jeremy, something Jeremy apparently didn't like. If the pout on his lips meant anything. He also had a bag of something in his hands that Damon was in the process of taking. "How is it that I was gone for only a day, and you already have a mess for me to clean up?" I continued, stopping a few feet away and crossing my arms, waiting for an answer.

"Gemma!" He exclaimed, turning around smoothly as if he had done nothing wrong. "What a lovely surprise that you've decided to come and visit. Unfortunately, we have a bit of an asbestos problem, so you and Jeremy really need to get out of here as soon as possible while we get that fixed." He said, starting to usher Jeremy toward me. Pants on fire.

"Of course. Wouldn't want that nasty stuff getting into my lungs." I played along, but only for a second. I wasn't stupid. "But shouldn't we take Mr. Lockwood along with us, so that fate doesn't befall him as well?" I asked innocently. Jeremy looked flabbergasted that I even knew that Mason was here with Damon. Damon looked put out. As if he could get anything pass me, whether I'd been gone or not.

"Who told you?" Now he was the one pouting.

"Ran into the witch, she spill the beans after a few well placed... suggestions. Heard you lost a friend. I'm sorry." I was talking about Liz. I knew they had something close to a friendship, even if it was based on lies on his part.

"Well," he waved a hand, "I really only need one friend, and look at that, she's here! Nothing a little time won't heal." He said, nonchalantly.

"Wait, wait, wait." Jeremy interjected. "You know about Mason being... And about Sheriff Forbes and what happened yesterday... How? You were gone." He asked.

"Baby Gilbert, Gemma here has her finger on the very pulse of this town. I'd be more worried if there was something she didn't know."

"Pulse." He repeated, then his eyes got wide. "You aren't... you aren't a vampire too?! Ric said you were like him!" He exclaimed. Damon chuckled. Leave it to him to mislead a teenager with a few carefully place words.

"Not at all, Jeremy. If you ask Ric, he swear up and down that I'm a hunter. And that's because Damon here, thought it would be fun to introduce me as one. He enjoys starting rumors. And all because I just happen to always carry guns on my person." I shook my head.

"She's actually just a regular ole bounty hunter." Said Damon.

"Whoa." Jeremy.

"Stop lying on me Damon." I sighed. "I'm not a hunter, nor a vampire, nor a bounty hunter," Damon chuckled, "although I do know a good amount about some of the more obscure supernatural beings and occurrences. But, just keep that under your hat for now." I winked. "Now, about this wolf..." I trailed off, purposefully looking at Damon.

"Yes, the wolf, well, I was just bidding Jeremy a good-bye, and then you and I can dispatch of the wolf." He nodded to himself, moving to push Jeremy to the door again.

"That won't be necessary." I said. He stopped.

"What?"

"Jeremy can stay."

"Yes!" Jeremy fist pumped. Damon raised an eyebrow at me.

"Are you sure? I would think you'd be the last one to expose your precious ickle Jeremy to the gore that's about to happen up in there."

"That's were you're wrong."

"Awesome!" Jeremy said. I turned to him.

"Torturing innocent people isn't awesome. Honestly." I chastised. Turning back to Damon, I said, "Jeremy can stay because there will be no more wolf torturing. We'll do things the old fashioned way." I said, moving into the parlor where the wolf sat tied up.

"Torture is the old fashioned way." Groaned Damon, following me nevertheless.

"No, through polite conversation." I said, stopping to stand in front Mason. "Hello again Mason." I chirped.

"Thank God," he said, looking up at me, "you'll see reason. Please, convince your vampire to let me go." He pleaded.

"Of course, of course." I said, patting his cheek. "I just have to ask you a few question first. He'll get antsy if I just let you go without anything to show for it, you see. But, you will give me the truth, right?" I asked, staring him straight in the eye, cupping his chin so he couldn't move away.

"Of course." He said, blinking slowly, his eyes flashing between his human brown and his wolf gold.

"Perfect." I purred. Even if the human part of him wouldn't listen, the wolf would. It was more powerful than him, and it would defer to me. That's just the way things were.

"What's this 'your vampire' stuff?" Damon asked, throwing his hands up. "I am my own vampire, thank you very much."

"Dude," Jeremy said, "you're totally whipped."

"No I am not." Denied Damon.

"You were dead set on torturing him and kicking me out. Neither of these things are happening and your prisoner is now making goo-goo eyes at Gemma. You are totally her bitch. It looks like Mason is too..."

"He's not making goo-goo eyes at me." I denied, stroking his hair. He was just deferring like a good boy and awaiting further instructions. He was just easier to manipulate when is wolf was close to the surface, and his wolf just happened to be out the closer I was. He probably really enjoyed the lucidity he had on the night of the full moon.

"I am not her bitch." Grumbled Damon, who then turned to look at me, shock quickly replacing his pouting. "Why are you petting him!" He yelled. I shrugged.

"He likes to be pet."

Jeremy made a whipping noise. I just rolled my eyes. Boys. Time to get this show on the road. I turned my attention back to the now docile Mason.

"Mason." I gently called his attention back to my eyes. "Why did you come back to Mystic Falls?"

"My brother, Richard, he died. I came back for the funeral. You know this." He sighed. I used both hands to smooth his hair behind his ears.

"Of course I do. Was there any other reason that you came back? I heard you were looking for something in Richard's house."

"Hmmm. Yeah." He said lazily. "I was looking for the moonstone."

"Okay." Jeremy said to Damon. "Is this real right now?" Motioning toward me and Mason.

"Are you compelling him right now?" Damon asked, incredulously.

"Of course not. Only vampires can use compulsion." I said vaguely.

"And why are you touching him so much?" He asked. He seemed extremely irritable.

"Wolves are very tactile creatures. He enjoys the touch, and I get more out of him this way." Mason's eyes were now closed and he was rubbing his cheek against my inner wrist. Damon growled. What was with him? "Mason," I called out again, gold eyes locked on mine. "What's the moonstone look like?"

"It's a smooth, oval rock. Milky in color, kind of looks like a bar of soap. It's been passed down in my family for generations." He replied.

"And why do you want it?"

"To break the curse."

"The Curse of the Sun and the Moon." Said Damon, in realization.

"Yeah, that's the one." Said Mason.

"You said the stone's been in your family for generations. Why are you just looking for the stone now?" I asked.

"Because I didn't know that it could break the curse until now. Until she told me all about it."

"Who's she?"

"Katherine." He said, dreamily. Ugh, the hold she had on him what both disgusting and awe inspiring. I exchanged a quick glance with a furious Damon.

"Does Katherine look like Elena Gilbert, by chance?" I asked, better safe than sorry. For all we knew, it could've been a different Katherine. Then there would be no reason to get all up in arms at the current moment.

"Exactly alike."

"And you do know she's a vampire right?"

"Yeah."

"But you're together..."

"Yeah."

"And you're okay with it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay...?" I was at a loss. I looked over to Damon and shrugged. "Care to take over?" I asked, hopefully. He walked over.

"I read about this Sun and Moon curse. It said that the moonstone has to be destroyed in some sort of arcane ritual. And depending on who does this ritual, a vampire or a werewolf, their respective curse will be broken."

"That's right."

"So you're telling me, that Katherine told you this, so you could break the curse of the moon?"

"Exactly."

"And why would a 500-year-old vampire help a werewolf break his curse when she could break the curse on herself?" The dreamy state Mason was in while he thought about Katherine sort of stuttered.

"Because she loves me." He responded, finally. Damon gave a bark of a laugh.

"That's rich. Take it from somebody who's known her much longer that you have. Katherine loves herself first and foremost. The only other person that she might even have an inkling of fond feelings for is my brother. See how you are nowhere even on that very short list of people she thinks about?" Mason shook his head.

"That's... not true." It's seemed like it was getting harder for him to defend Katherine. Excellent.

"Please, she strung me along for 150 years. I would know. Let me tell you a story. Years ago, there was a woman, let's just call her The Devil for simplicity's sake." I couldn't hold in a chuckle at that. "The Devil pit two brothers against each other, who then, fought to the death. And right before she was sentenced to her own death, she somehow evaded her sentence by charming the pants off of the naive son of a founding family. And that family was the Lockwood family." He finished dramatically.

"You're an excellent storyteller." Jeremy supplied. The sarcasm ran deep with this one.

"Thanks, I try." Said Damon. "So you see why I find it awfully suspicious that she just so happened to know all about this curse, and all about this moonstone that your family had since the founding of Mystic Falls. Don't you?"

"I-" Mason didn't even get to finish his thought before Damon interrupted him.

"How did you activate your curse?" At first I thought it was kind of a random question. But then I followed Damon's logic. He was a smart one alright.

"My friend was convinced that I had slept with his girlfriend. I didn't, of course, I had Katherine. But he kept instigating a fight, and wouldn't leave me alone. Then all the sudden I snapped, and he was dead on the concrete."

"Hmmm. That sound suspiciously like what happened at the carnival a few days ago. To Tyler." Mason's eyes narrowed, thinking back the occasion.

"It does." He acquiesced. "That kid was angling for a fight. He wouldn't back down, just like my own friend..." He was slowly but surely putting the information together.

"That's because, dear Mason, I compelled that kid to pick a fight with Tyler, and to not give up. Which seems like the exact same thing Katherine did to your friend. Except hers turned out exactly as planned."

"What!" He roared. "You...! That...!" He calmed himself. "This could all just be an elaborate set up to make me doubt Katherine. You don't really have any real proof."

I stepped in. "We could definitely get some if you'd like." I said, wheels turning in my mind.

"What did you have in mind?" Asked Damon, smiling roguishly.

"Nothing a little good acting can't achieve." I grinned back.

"Oh, I like the way you think." Said Damon as I untied Mason.

"Don't try anything." I warned him. "I just want to see your phone." He handed it to me without preamble. I opened it and scrolled down the recent calls list until I saw the listing 'K'. I turned the phone so Mason could see it. "This her?" I wanted to confirm. He nodded. I handed the phone to Damon. "Better make it believable. Everyone else, it better be as quiet as a grave, this is going on speaker."

Damon dialed the number and put it on speaker. It rang a few times before being picked up.

"Mason." A sultry voice picked up. It was like hearing Elena, but not. Weird. "Did you find the moonstone?" What an opening line, she could have at least said, 'I miss you' first.

"Sorry, wrong boytoy." Snarked Damon.

"Damon." The once warm voice hissed. "What have you done? Where is Mason?"

"Oh, well, his body's right here in front of me, but his heart's across the room. Sorry, I got a little carried away." He smirked. She let out a sound of annoyance before taking a deep breath.

"Well aren't you clever. You may think you've put a big bump in my plan, but I'll have you know that I have a Plan B, and a Plan C, and every letter after that. So what, you got rid of one mangy werewolf. I'll just have to make another then, huh?" And she hung up. Not a moment too soon because Mason let out a soul-breaking howl. I did the only thing I could do, pat his back.

"Well, that's some proof if I ever heard some." Damon said.

"Damon!" I chastised. "Now is not the time." I said, nodding towards a broken Mason. He just shrugged.

"What do we do now?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, Katherine thinks that Mason is dead. So we need to keep that illusion." I looked to Damon. "Send a text to Carol and Tyler saying that Mason's going out of town." I turned to Mason. "For the most part, you don't mind the company of other vampires, right?" He shook his head. "Good, because I have someone who owes me a favor or two. You can hide out with her until we take care of this Katherine problem. And don't worry, she looks nothing like Katherine, so no problems there."

"Wait, wait, what vampire do you know that owes you a debt? You said I was the first one you met."

"Yeah, and after I met you, I met more." I shrugged. Damon frowned.

"Someone's jealous." Jeremy sang lowly.

"Is that fine with you?" I asked Mason.

"I supposed, but who's going to look out for Tyler? I ended up telling him how to trigger the curse, and I bet Katherine's next plan is to get him to do so. Who'll protect him?"

"We can look out for him." I started.

"Hey, I didn't agree to anything-" Yelled Damon. I stomped on his foot and he shut up though.

"And if somehow she gets around us and he turns, well then, I'll keep an eye on him then too."

"I don't know how I can thank you..." Mason said.

"Well, life debts seemed to be very popular currency these days." I hinted, noticing Damon's eyes narrowing on me.

"It would be fair." Mason contemplated. "This torture session was headed toward death before you showed up, and you've opened my eyes to Katherine's true intentions, and promised to help my nephew." He thought for a moment longer. "It's settled, I owe you a life debt." I smiled.

"Wait, wait, wait. What just happened here? What is a life-debt?"

"Well, young Gilbert, you just witnessed a binding contract between two supernatural creatures. Mason now owes Gemma a life debt, which means basically Gemma owns his ass until she releases him, or he returns the favor."

"Two supernatural creatures?" Jeremy wanted clarification.

"Yeah," I said, winking at him, "things aren't always what they seem. But back to the problem at hand, after Damon sends those texts, we need to get rid of that phone. I'll get you another phone so that we can stay in contact. I'll have to call my contact, she'll come when she comes and we'll smuggle you out of town under the cover of night. Yeah, that should work." I hummed, thinking about our plan.

"Do you fake deaths a lot?" Jeremy asked, not expecting an answer.

"Well, I faked my own several times, but it hasn't been until recently that I've gotten experience with others." I looked over at Jeremy. He seemed shocked. "Oh, you weren't asking that seriously." He shook his head. "Well, now that I've exposed more of myself than you all actually wanted to know, how about we get this show on the road?" I looked over to Damon. He shrugged, nonplussed at my admission. "Cool."