Thanks for the reviews Tvdlover87654 and GrapeJuice101 :D

I've been looking forward to this chapter J Okay so I have this plan with the whole Tyler thing...so don't get miserable...a little Jealousy is good in a relationship...

Chapter 25: Bad Moon Rising

I had made sure Bonnie got home safely and I'd went home, I just hoped she got over this, I felt so bad for her. I was with Elena, Alaric, and Stefan and...Damon, in the boarding house. It was really had to be around him constantly, but I knew it was for a good cause. I had met Tyler on the way back home last night, and for some reason he was being really nice to me...why? I don't know, but no doubt I'd soon figure it out.

"Thanks for coming Rick" Stefan said.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Damon asked "Coffee, Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?"

"Elena mentioned you needed my help" Rick said.

"Yeah, we were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family" Stefan said.

"Now why would I know anything about the Lockwood's?" He asked.

"Well, you wouldn't, but your dead not dead vampire wife might" Damon said. I rolled my eyes.

"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together" I said.

"You said that she spent years researching this town" Stefan said.

"Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted to folklores and legends, but at the time I thought much of which was fiction" He said.

"Like that amazing vampire story" Damon said.

"Aside from vampires, what else?" Elena asked.
"The lycanthrope" Rick said.

"As in werewolves?" I asked.

"No way, impossible, way to Lon Chaney" Damon said.
"Is it?" Stefan asked.

"I've been on this planet one hundred and sixty some odd years, never came across one" Damon replied "If werewolves existed, then where the hell are they?"

"Why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Rick asked.

"Because Vervain didn't affect the mayor, at the founder's day but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler" Damon said looking at me, I smirked at the sound of his name, gaining an odd look from Damon.

"And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behaviour when he fought with of the carnival workers" Stefan said. "It suggested it's some sort of a supernatural entity"

"We were hoping Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is" I said.

"Well, all her things are still at Duke, I mean her office is still there, she's technically missing" Rick said.

"So can we get access to it?" Damon asked.

Rick hesitated.

"Rick we need to know what we're dealing with, if this wolf men thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good" Damon said "It means Mason Lockwood is a real life Lon Chaney and that little punk Tyler may just very well be Lon Chaney Junior which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed"

"Ha" I said and folded my arms, everybody giving me a look "What? That was stupid"

Damon glared at me and I smirked.

"So who would be going?" Rick asked.

"I will defiantly be going" I said.

"Me too" Damon said.

I gaped at him and then shook my head "Craptacular" I huffed.

"I want to go...but I want to stay and help with Caroline" Elena said.

I shrugged and moved away from the table, my phone began to ring and it was Jeremy.

"Hello?" I asked walking away from everyone else.
"Hey, um Aj" Jeremy said sounding confused.
"Yeah Jer? What is it?"

"Tyler was here looking for you" He said.

"Oh...why?" I asked.

"He didn't say, he just asked if you were here"

"Anything else?" I asked.
"Just that he wanted you to call him"

"I'll give it some thought" I mumbled "I'll be home soon"

"Okay" Jeremy said. "Bye"

"See ya" I said and put the phone back in my pocket and when I turned Damon was in front of me.

"You got something going on with that Tyler Punk?" He asked.

"No, and even if I did it would not be any of your concern" I said and moved away from him and back into the living room "So, when do we go Rick?"

"Um, I'll pick you guys up outside your house, I'll need to talk to Jenna before we go"

"Ah" I nodded and turned. "Bye"

-LATER-

I was putting things in a bag, just in case it took more than a day...I wanted to be clean.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" A voice asked.

I jumped and saw Stefan and sighed "Which part? Digging through my birth mother's life work or going to Duke with Damon?"

"Either, um both" He said.
"Well, Im not really bothered about the first one" I said "But then again Rick is a good buffer so we can bond in our anti Damon solidarity, I wish you or Laney were coming though"

"You know what, maybe we should wait a few days, huh? Wait until Caroline is less of a danger and then we could all go"

"It's okay that I'm going right? Caroline will be fine here with you and Laney, everything should be fine" I said and I was telling myself this more than I was Stefan.

"Listen, you want to go" He said "You and Elena have questions about your linage to Elizabeth and Katherine and...look Damon is an ass, but don't let him keep the opportunity for you to get some information"

"I hate it though" I mumbled.

"I hate it, but it's gotta happen" He said.

I smirked "very poetic"

He laughed and I grabbed my bag and went downstairs, we walked out of the house towards Rick's car.

"Sorry you can't come too Stef" He said "You too Elena"

"Call us if you need anything" Stefan said eyeing Damon.

"Oh, I'll take really good care of her"

I glared at him and shook my head, hugging Elena and then I hugged Stefan.

"Okay, time to go" Damon said.

He got into he got in car and I followed him sitting in the back.

-LATER-

We'd been driving for a while and I caught Damon glance at me.

"How are you doing back there?" He asked "You know, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly"

"I don't think she's pretending, you did kill her brother" Rick said.

"There is a huge asterisk next to that statement: he came back to life" Damon said shrugging.

"Yeah, thanks to a ring you didn't know he was wearing" I snipped.

"Why are you so sure I didn't know?" He asked.
"Did you?" I asked.

"Yes"

"You're lying, you're a terrible liar"

"April, I saw the ring! It's a big tacky thing, hard to miss" He said.

"Yeah, Damon whatever" I said and folded my arms, staring at the window.

I pulled my phone out to see a text, from Tyler. I frowned and opened it up to read it.

Hey, just wondering, we're having a party, you should come – Ty.

Can't on a road trip, maybe next time – Aj

I text him back and sat for two minutes he text back.

There will defiantly be a next time – Ty.

I smirked and shook my head, what was he playing at ?

We finally got to Duke and got out of the car.

"So Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomenon is rooted in folklore" Rick said.

We walked into the office and stood.

"Excuse me, hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman I called earlier" he said.

"Yes, of course. I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant comparative folklore" She said giving me a funny look. "Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys"

"These are my friends Aj and Damon, I hope this isn't too much of an impostion" Rick said.

"Oh please, Isobel's office is right through here, Isobel was one of my first professors" She said "I'm a grad student, she was brilliant and one of the reasons I went into folklore. Uh I have to ask, has there been any news?" She asked.

"No, I'm afraid not" Rick lied.
"It's this way" Vanessa said.

She opened the door and let us go in "I'll grab the light, feel free to look around, it's fascinating isn't it?"

She left and we all went different directions, and I stared at the hundreds of books in front of me.

"Where did she go?" Damon asked.

I turned and saw Vanessa with a crossbow and I gasped as she shot it at me, I waited for the impact but when I opened my eyes Damon was in front of me...he...he took an arrow for me..why?

I hesistated, not wanting to pull the arrow from his back in fright that it would hurt him.

"Pull it out, I can't reach it April, just pull the damn thing out it hurts" He groaned.

I yanked it out and put it on the table.

"That bitch is dead" He said and I moved in front of him.

"You're not gonna kill her"

"Watch me" He said going to go past me.

"You touch her and I swear I will never talk to you again"

He turned to look at me "What makes you think that has any power over me? Because I took an arrow in the back for you? You're severely overestimating yourself" He said.

I folded my arms "Right, I forgot I was talking to a psychotic mind who snaps and kills people impulsively. Fine, go ahead and do whatever you want"

"You're trying to manipulate me"

"If by "Manipulate" you mean "Tell the truth" okay, guilty"

I stared at him and pushed past him and I knew he wanted to grab me, so I deliberately knocked our shoulders together.

"Please! I freaked out okay? Alright you would've done the same thing, it's not possible, Elizabeth Pierce can't be alive and Damon Salvatore died in 1864, okay I read Isobel's research" Vanessa panicked.

"Well, then you should know just how possible it is"

I walked into the room.
"I'm Aj Gilbert, Isobel's daughter, I have a sister, who is Elena and we're descendants of Elizabeth and Katherine Pierce, and that is Damon Salvatore who you just shot" I said.

"I'd be extra nice to me right now"

"Look, we need your help ok, we need to see all of Isobel's research, anything related to Mystic Falls" I said.

-LATER-

Vanessa brought a box over to me and she smiled slightly.

"This Box checks the arrival of the sister's to Mystic Falls in April of 1864"

"Is that all there is about them?" I asked.

"All that I'm aware of" She said.

I looked in the box, seeing the vervain and I looked over at Damon and picked it up.

"Here take this" i whispered.

"Does vervain really work?"

"Nope, not at all" Damon said.

"Can he hear us?" Vanessa asked.

"No, that would be creepy" He said.

"Can he read minds too?" She asked.

Damon turned to look at us and I frowned at his impending grin.

"You know, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask"

"Nobody would want to" I said "No, he can't read minds he is very capable of being a first rate jack ass"

Vanessa put the vervain in her pocket and I caught Damon's smile before he turned away.

I moved into the other half of the room and sighed and then I felt breathing on my hair.

"Any luck?"

"There's nothing here about Elizabeth and Katherine that we don't already know" I said.
"Ah, it's a bummer we're not friends anymore because I could tell you what I know" He said.

"Now who's manipulating who?" I asked.

"Hey guys, check this out!" Rick called.

I brushed past him, gently this time and went into the other room.

"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls but here are some of the lesser known legends. Everything from scandanavian skin walkers to Aztecs legends"

She handed us a book.

"It's translate into the "curse of the sun and the moon" She said.

"It's native American" Rick said.
"Aztec, it explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia" She said "The short story: 600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires, they terrorized the country side, made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon when the full moon crests the sky who's ever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf"

"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked.

"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse" Vanessa said "Werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwire them to hunt their prey of choice, vampires"

"Well if werewolves were hunting vampires we'd know about it" Damon said.

"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive, hundreds of years ago vampires hunted them to almost extinction" She said.

"Why would they do that?" I asked.

"To protect themselves, legend has it, a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires" She said.

I called Stefan to make sure he knew about the curse and to ask him if everything was okay with Caroline, it was ok he'd replied. I looked through a box and found a picture of the two sisters.

"Hey, have you done research on doppelgangers?" I asked.

"Well, the word means lot's of different things to different cultures but typically a doppelganger is a living breathing double of ones self" Vanessa said.

"Did Isobel have anything that explained the link between my sister and Elizabeth and Katherine?" I asked.
"That's all she had on the Pierce sisters, unfortunetly, but I can tell you that doppelgangers usually torment the people they look like, trying to undue their lives. It's not exactly uplifting"

"And more things we already know, Just...I want to know why we look alike" I said.

An arm went around my shoulder and I looked up at Damon.

"Head scratcher isn't it?" He asked.

"Do you know something? Or are you just being you're usual self?"

"Well if I know anything I'm not going to tell you with that attitude" He said.

"That's no good Damon, this is coming from someone who wants to be my friend, but you know what, Friends don't manipulate friends, they help each other" I said and stalked away from him.

After another half hour, we were leaving, and I went out to the car, Damon then appeared and opened the door for me.

"Here, allow me" He said and went to let me in but stopped me "You're not going to be able to hate me forever"

"Can we just go?" I asked.

He handed me a book "You didn't dig deep enough"

I looked at it and stared at the side "Petrova...I saw this on the shelf"

"Elizabeth and Katherine originally came from Europe, Petrova were their real names" He said "Katerina and Elisaveta Petrova to be exact" He said.

"How did you know that?"

"Back when, I saw it engraved on an old heirloom, men snoop too, you know. Let me know what you find, I'm very curious myself" He said.

I went to get into the car but he stopped me again.

"You have every right to hate me, I understand but you hated me before and we became friends, hell we kissed, and I know how you feel about me, or you wouldn't constantly try and save me...It would suck if that was gone forever, so is it? Have I lost you forever?" He asked.

"Thank you for the book Damon" I said trying to hold back my tears and I got into the car.

-LATER-

We were on the porch and I wanted to tell him...that I loved him...because I knew myself that I did but I couldn't.
"Road trips work well for us" He said.

"That doesn't mean things are back to the way they were Damon" I said.

"Oh come on, You know I chipped a little bit off of your wall of hatred" He said.
"I need to know the truth " I said he looked at me saying go on "When you broke Jeremy's neck, did you know he was wearing that ring?"

He sighed "No, No I didn't Elizabeth had really pissed me off and I snapped...and I got lucky with that ring, I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't wearing it, April I'm sorry, now answer me something"

I frowned.

"I just want the truth" He said moving closer "Do you love me?"

I stared at him, not answering, and he knew...somehow he knew, probably because he could hear my erratic heartbeat.

"I knew it" He said.

I looked away and then he cupped my face in his hands but I pushed back, away from him and he stared at me, confused.

"I can't" I said. "Not after everything you've done to me"

"But-"

"I just can't Damon" I sighed "after Jeremy...it made me realise what if she gets under your skin again...and I say something, who are you gonna kill then? Huh? Elena? Jenna?" I asked.

He stared at me "You knew this already didn't you?" He demanded angrily.

"No, I didn't actually"

He moved in to me "Then please don't make this hard for either of us"

"I don't want to...believe me...I don't I wish I could Damon, but I can't" I said.

"You know, at least she was honest with me, she strung me along for long enough I don't need it again"

I became confused "Who?"

"Elizabeth...she lied to me about loving me, but then told me the truth...but you? You're stringing me along now too, there's alot more in common there than I thought"

"I am not!" I growled at him and I shoved him, he'd snapped me "I might look like her but I AM NOT HER I WILL NEVER BE HER, I love you and there isn't much we can do about it, because you're obviously still madly in love with her and I am not opening up to someone who doesn't love me like I love them! It doesn't work that way! I will not be broken down that way...not now, not ever, I will not go through it again"

He stared at me, appalled by my sudden outburst. "I-"

"Just don't" I said and I turned and went into the house, slamming the door and going into the kitchen. Alaric stared at me.

"Where's Jenna?" I asked.

"Toilet" He said.

"Right"

"I heard" He said.
I frowned and sat the book down "Heard what?"

"Your little outburst" He said "With Damon"

"It was nothing" I said.

"Ok" He said and I grabbed the milk from the fridge and began to drink it.

"I'm gonna head up to bed" I said and gave him a smile.

"Ok" He said nodding "Night"

"Night Rick"

"Aj?" HE asked.

"Yeah?" I asked turning to face him.

"I'm here when you need me"

I smiled and gave him a small wave "Thank you"

And I went upstairs and went into my room, shutting the door behind me, I slid down it and stared at the window in front of me...what did I just do?