Chapter 14

"Elijah?"

I snapped my head around for the second time that day, almost giving myself a whiplash with my hair, and saw Elena standing outside her door staring at the man before me with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here? I thought you weren't going to be back for a while." She said. I could hear the slight anxiety and panic in Elena's voice and it made me wonder why she seemed to be afraid of this guy. The only reason she would be afraid of him was if he was a vampire. Damn, how many vampires were actually here in Mystic Falls?

The man, Elijah, still couldn't seem to take his eyes off of my face. "I came back early to make sure everything was still okay here. But you seem to have found yourself in even more trouble than when I left." His eyes still remained transfixed on me. "Who is this, Elena?"

"This is my friend, Scarlett, she's staying with me for awhile." Elena said cautiously walking towards me and Elijah. She seemed to sense that this Elijah guy seemed to be in shock about something.

"Scarlett," He whispered letting my name roll on his tongue "Any relation to the Watson founding family?"

I was surprised as soon as he mentioned my last name like he knew about it. "Yes there is. How do you know that? I mean I've been called Savannah twice already, so you must be a vampire to think I look like her too, right?" I asked looking at him curiously. He didn't even seem to recognize the name Savannah though.

"I do not know a Savannah, but I did know Sylvia Watson. I believe she may be an ancestor of yours."

Elena and I exchanged looks at the mention of Sylvia. "So you must know about the curse, right? And who caused it?" I asked him. He seemed surprised that we knew about the curse, but before he could even say anything, we were interrupted.

"What the hell is going on here?"

We all turned around at the interruption. There in all his glory stood Damon looking pretty angry. Right next to him was Stefan who just looked annoyed at the sight of Elijah in Elena's house. Damon stalked towards us and roughly grabbed my arm, pulling me away from Elijah.

"Does no one is this town knock anymore?!" I asked annoyed shooting a look at the three vampires who randomly had appeared in the house. Damon pulled me behind him shooting me an annoyed glance.

"I leave you for one freaking hour and you're already talking to an original." He said in an icy tone. I tried tugging my arm out of his grasp, but he tightened his old on me. He turned towards Elijah, "What the hell do you think you're doing here at this time? I thought I told you to leave us alone."

"I just came to check up on Elena and make sure she hadn't gotten herself killed." Elijah said in a soft calm voice. He looked back at me and raised an eyebrow, "Imagine my surprise when I instead come face to face with another curse. You Salvatore's really do love getting yourselves in trouble, don't you?"

"What do you know about the curse?" Damon demanded still holding onto my arm.

"He was about to tell us before you rudely interrupted, Damon." I said aiming a punch at his stomach to make him let go of my arm. Surprisingly, he did let go, but not before making sure he stood between me and Elijah. Please, like my futile attempt at a punch had even hurt him.

"I know that this is a very deadly curse that you seem to have stumbled upon. As soon as Klaus finds out about Scarlett here, he will try everything in his power to kill her. After all, he has been searching for the Tainted Bloodline for many centuries. But they all did a very good job of hiding from vampires." He looked at me with amusement in his eyes, "Well at least until know."

"Do you know how this curse started or the cause of it?" Stefan asked from beside Elena.

"Well it started with Klaus of course." He said slowly starting to pace. "Klaus fell in love with Sylvia Watson many centuries ago, but our father was against it. He believed love was for the weak and he did not want his children to be weak. So he plotted a scheme to make Klaus kill the girl he loved."

"But that's so cruel." I said wide eyed. "How could his own father do that to him?"

Elijah looked at me with a calculating look. "You don't know our father. He was evil, he made us into the originals we are today and than tried to destroy us. He is capable of anything. He got a very powerful witch to curse the Watson's making sure that they would not be able to live happy. They were cursed with blood that was so tainted that it would lead them to madness and destruction if they did not die."

"So you're saying that you're father got a witch to curse Sylvia's family?" Damon scoffed, "But that still doesn't explain what Klaus has to do with the curse."

"Our father put Klaus into an unfortunate predicament. He understood Klaus because he was like him in so many ways. He knew that Klaus craved power more than anything, even love. So when he cursed Sylvia, he told Klaus that her tainted blood would make the vampire that sucked her dry and killed her, the most powerful creature in the world. Of course Klaus wanted power, so he set out to kill her."

"She killed herself, didn't she?" I whispered softly, but everyone seemed to hear me anyway.

"Yes she did." Elijah replied calmly. "She realized what had happened and killed herself to save everyone else. Ever since then, every few centuries, a girl is born into the Watson family with tainted blood. I have never met one before you."

"Is there a way to break this curse?" Elena spoke up. "I mean if we can find the witch that cast it or anyone in her family that might know how to stop it; maybe we can break the curse?"

"The witch that cast the curse was killed, as well as her family, my father made sure of that." Elijah said. He looked at me with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "I'm afraid there is no way to break this."

My heart felt like it had been ripped out of my chest and stomped on. Was I going to go crazy or would someone kill me before that could even happen? I could feel everyone's eyes on me waiting for me to crack. I put on a strong façade, and looked back up at everyone.

"Well, if we're done talking here, I'm pretty tired so I'm going to bed, Good night." I walked back towards my room.

"Scarlett," I stopped in my tracks at the sound of my name coming from Damon's lips. "I promise you we will find a way out of this, okay?" My eyes met his for a few seconds, before I looked away and went back into my room, locking the door behind me.

I probably could have cried myself to sleep, and I would have if there weren't any vampires in the house right now. I was sure that with their super hearing they would have been able to hear my sobs and cries. So instead, I closed my eyes and imagined that this was all a dream before I went to sleep.

The next morning at school, I could feel the pitying looks I was receiving from Bonnie and Caroline. Apparently, Elena and Stefan had told them about what Elijah had told us the night before, and they were all worried about me. I could understand why they were worried, but I hated being treated like I was about to break into a million tiny pieces at any moment.

I could barely pay attention in any of my classes but I forced myself to participate in them anyway just to take my mind off of the gloomy details of yesterday. I couldn't even go to the bathroom alone without one of the girls coming with me to make sure I wasn't going to kill myself. I mean, seriously, how could I kill myself in the school bathroom? Perhaps I could die in the bathroom by flushing myself down the toilet or drowning in the sink.

But I refused to even think about killing myself right now. My ancestors were probably unselfish and pure good if they could kill themselves just to save humanity, but I was a selfish teenager who still had the rest of her life ahead of her. I couldn't kill myself just to save people I didn't know, maybe I could to save my friends, but I would rather go crazy before I had to come to that conclusion. Plus, I doubt I could even get close to anything dangerous that might cause me harm with my friends and Damon keeping such a close eye on me.

"Guy's seriously, if someone asks me one more time I 'm okay or follows me into the bathroom, I well kill myself just to spite you, understand?" I asked beyond annoyed as we all sat down at our lunch table. I had gone to throw away my trash, and Bonnie and Elena had stood up to come with me, before realizing I wasn't even leaving the cafeteria.

"Sorry, it's just that we're worried about you." Caroline said sitting back down and grabbing a spoon to eat her pasta. "You're not going to do something stupid are you?" She asked raising an eyebrow at me.

I rolled my eyes, "Of course not. In fact I promise to you guys right now I will not try to kill myself. You guys know how I hate the sight of blood anyway, no offense or anything." I added as I saw Stefan raise an eyebrow and look at me amused.

"None taken." He said chuckling.

"Good," Caroline replied, "Because if you do kill yourself before Prom, I swear to God, I will make Bonnie use her witchy powers and make you come back to life just so I can kill you myself."

I cracked a smile as everyone else laughed at Caroline's words, "I promise I will try to keep myself from dying before Prom, after all, a high school dance is much more important than some stupid silly curse, huh?"

"Speaking of this curse," Bonnie whispered leaning closer to us so no one would hear our unusual conversation, "I've been looking for protection spells in some books to help you stay protected from vampires while we come up with a way to break the curse."

"Did you find anything that might work?" Stefan asked frowning.

"Well, there are multiple protection spells, but there small ones that might not work. What we need is a powerful spell, and even if we do find one, I might not have enough power to cast it."

"I'm sure you'll find something, Bonnie." Elena said reassuringly, "You always do find something to help us."

Later that day, I was sitting on my laptop on my bed randomly googling 'tainted blood' into the search engine just to see if anything would come up. Unfortunately, all that came up were some random stories online or medical websites.

"I doubt that the internet will help you much."

"Damn it! Will you vampires please stop sneaking up on me like that?" I screamed turning around to see Elijah leaning against my window. "We do have doors in this century that are used for knocking to signal when there is a visitor."

"I do know what a door is." He said dryly, "But human reactions are much more enjoyable."

I closed the laptop and put it back on my desk. "What are you doing here anyway? If Damon sees you here he's just going to go all crazy on me and I don't know about out but I hate being yelled at about safety and stuff from a vampire."

"Damon is overprotective isn't he? I'm surprised though considering he just met you."

"It's only because I look like his dead ex fiancé, Savannah, who was also a tainted blood." I said standing up and standing far from with the bed between us. I really didn't trust him just yet. "I guess Damon blames himself for her death and is trying to prevent the same thing from happening to me."

"Well for your sake, I hope he accomplishes breaking this curse. But once Klaus arrives, everything will become more difficult." There was a blur and then Elijah was standing inched away from me. "You won't be able to hide from my brother once he finds you, Scarlett. I would be very careful if I were you."

I actually gulped and took a step away from him, "How come you aren't killing me right now? I thought you would crave power just like you're brother."

His eyes roamed my face, "I am nothing like my brother. He is cruel and doesn't care for his family, while I do care about my family, no matter how dysfunctional it may be." He reached out a hand and stroked my cheek causing me to flinch and take another step back. "I also promised Elena I would not harm any of her friends." He froze for a second almost if he was listening to someone. "I must leave know before you're watchdog arrives." He nodded once more at me before disappearing in a blur.

I stood there confused still looking at the place where he had been standing just seconds before. What in the world did he mean by watchdog?

I found out exactly what he was talking about twenty seconds later when Damon barged in through the window. Well, it wasn't really barging since he would have had to be noisy to have barged, and he was very quiet as he climbed into my room through the window that Elijah had just left through. My room just happened to be vampire central today.

"What do you want?" I asked him not even trying to disguise my annoyed tone.

But Damon didn't even look at me. He stood still in the space Elijah had just vacated and then looked around the room.

"Who was just here?"

I was surprised at that he even knew someone had been here. "What are you talking about? No one was here, well now you are, but no one was here before you. I mean I would have had to been blind not to see anyone just waltzing into my room, ok maybe not waltzing because that would be weird but you know what I mean." I trailed off slowly as Damon gave me a look that he definitely didn't believe a word I was saying. I happened to ramble nonsense when I was nervous or trying to lie. It was really sad when anyone could pick out when I lied.

"I know Elijah was here, I can smell his scent." Damon scoffed, "And please stop trying to lie, you're really bad it."

I grumbled profanities at him under my breath, knowing he could probably hear them. I stumbled back towards my bed and sat down staring at Damon.

"Are you now my watchdog?" I asked him, mimicking Elijah's words from earlier.

"I'm just here to make sure you don't do something stupid. What was Elijah here anyway?" He asked sitting down next to me on the bed. I instantly stood up and sat down in the desk chair away from him instead. If I didn't trust Elijah, I definitely didn't trust Damon.

I shrugged, "I'm not really sure, but I think he was telling me to be careful because Klaus was very dangerous and would stop at nothing to get me. I'm not sure if that means to kill me or kidnap me."

Damon eyed me warily, "You seem pretty calm about all this. Most girls would be crying and whining."

I avoided eye contact and instead twirled around and around in my desk chair. "I just don't understand why everyone is waiting for me to break down crying. What's happening is happening, there's really nothing I can do about it to stop it until we find a way out of this curse. Plus I really hate whining, and I only whine when I don't get my way." I said shooting Damon a fake grin. The way he was looking at me was a sure sign he didn't buy my fake cheeriness.

Before he could say anything, Jenna's voice from downstairs called me to dinner.

"Try not to go through my stuff while you're up here, okay?" I asked giving him a stern look before going downstairs to dinner.

After dinner, I made my way back up to my room expecting to see Damon still there, but he was gone. I frowned wandering where he had gone off to before shrugging carelessly and going to the bathroom to change into my pajamas and get ready for bed. When I came out, he still wasn't there.

It wasn't until I had lain down in bed and closed my eyes, that I heard his voice from Elena's room. I sat back up in bed and leaned towards the wall that separated mine and Elena's room. I knew that if I stood up and walked to the wall, Damon would hear me eavesdrop for sure.

"Why are you in my room?" I heard Elena demand. I guess I wasn't the only one that hated vampires appearing into my room out of nowhere.

"Relax, I'm just here to keep an eye on Scarlett." Damon answered, "I just came to ask you if Scarlett seems a bit… carefree?"

There was a moment of silence before Elena spoke, "That's just her way of coping with things Damon, she just pretends they don't exit."

"But it's not healthy for her to hide her emotions like that; in the end it'll only hurt her more."

"You know, this emotion hiding thing reminds me of someone else I know." I heard Elena say.

"I should have expected you to turn this around on my feelings and that crap." Damon muttered, "Never mind, goodnight Elena."

"Wait a second, Damon," Elena said, "Please be careful with her, she's going through a lot right now, and it may look like she's okay up front, but I know she's really not."

Damon didn't reply. I quickly lay back down in bed again and pretended to be asleep. I wasn't sure if Damon came into my room or not, but he was so quiet I wouldn't have heard him even if he was in my room. He could probably read my rapid breathing and knew I was awake, but he didn't say anything.

MERRY CHRISTMAD AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Because of the wonderful reviews i decided to give you guys another chapter as a christmas present! Thank you soooo much for reviewing you guys are really wonderful!