DAMON

Another day passed without any news from Bonnie. She was pretty sure by now that the spell Emily had used to tie Katherine to her daughter was not in her grimoire. She had started to go through all the other spell books at her disposal, but again, this would take time.

Time that the rest of us were just idly sitting by, waiting for another axe to drop. And I knew Katherine was not sitting idle, either. I had started looking for Katherine, hoping that knowing about her whereabouts would give us some advantage over her. But unlike the stupid vampire who had attacked Bonnie and Elena months ago, Katherine knew how to cover her tracks. Most likely, she had simply killed and taken over the house of someone unfortunate enough to live alone.

Except for the hours Elena was on campus – guarded by Stefan, Alys and Bonnie – I didn't dare leave her side. I almost wished I could lock her up in the basement until Katherine was dealt with. But apart from Elena probably not being okay with that, it wasn't particularly helpful either.

So all I could do was to pressure and pester Bonnie to find a way to break the blood tie. It was definitely not a situation I was even remotely comfortable with.

It made me impatient, furious and a tinge desperate, and I didn't handle impatience, fury and despair very well. A vampire with a bad temper did not make for good and safe company, yet Elena couldn't afford to be without it just now. I just had to hold it together.

Feeling restless, I paced the living room, wondering how Elena and Alys could even pretend to be remotely relaxed. Elena sat on the sofa, writing in her diary, and Alys was deeply engrossed in a book. I briefly stopped by the coffee cart to pour myself a third glass of bourbon. Drinking at this rate really was squandering a lot of money, especially since I wasn't appreciating its taste properly. This was just for curbing cravings and soothing my edginess.

The buzzing sound of Elena's phone broke the silence. She looked at the display with a worried frown. Phone calls lately seemed to announce trouble, and whoever was calling her, she was obviously not expecting it.

"Ric?" She asked, dread in her voice. Alys and I looked up, exchanging worried glances as Elena visibly paled on listening and then broke out in tears.

She dropped the phone as her hands started shaking uncontrollably with her sobs. Alys jumped to her side, pulling her into a hug and letting her cry on her shoulder. I picked up the phone and put it on speaker.

"Ric? What's going on? Elena is pretty freaked out here..."

"Damon? Listen – she needs to come home. Something happened to Jenna... She's in hospital right now. She fell down the stairs and broke her arm." He paused. There was surely more to it. I could hear it in his voice.

"And apart from that?"

"It's not a complicated fracture. They set it right and stabilized it. But what has us concerned is the fact that she is also – confused. Something has her memory all fuzzy. She says it was Elena who pushed her down the stairs in a fight."

I clutched the phone in my grip, feeling ready to commit murder. Katherine again. Another thing I should have seen coming. Keeping my voice carefully even, I answered Ric's unspoken question. "It's impossible, you know that, right?" I asked him back. "Elena was here the entire time."

"I know. That's what has me so concerned. Yet Jenna is absolutely positive about it. She gave me an almost word to word narrative, with all the details. I couldn't convince her that she must have imagined all of it – or somehow dreamed it while unconscious. She believes it was Elena – and she's freaking out because of that."

I wondered if Elena's life could get any worse. Katherine surely knew how to hit her where it hurt. Isolating her from friends and family was even worse than hurting her physically, and there was nothing I could do to protect her from that.

"How could Katherine even get into the house?" Elena cried, desperate and oblivious to the fact that the phone was still on speaker. "With the protective spell she wasn't supposed to be able to enter."

"What are you talking about?" I heard Ric's confused voice. "Who's Katherine?"

"Never mind that for now. We'll be coming home first thing in the morning. We need to talk. Where are you right now?

"We're at home. Jenna is still in hospital, though. They wanted to keep her for the night to make sure she hasn't suffered a concussion or other brain injuries. She's so upset. I'm afraid she doesn't want to see Elena."

"And she shouldn't. Listen, Ric – this might sound weird to you, but I need to ask you a favor. We'll explain everything to you tomorrow. But please tell the hospital staff that they should not allow Elena to see Jenna until after we talked, alright?"

"Damon – what's going on? You're kind of creeping me out, here."

"I know. Just trust me on this, Ric. Get Jenna home first thing in the morning. If you don't think she'll want to see Elena by then, don't tell her that we're coming. But she needs to hear us out. Okay?"

"Fine. But I sure hope you'll have a damn good explanation."

"Oh, it'll be one hell of an explanation, I assure you! Bye, Ric!"

I turned the phone off and sighed. "Well, I guess we can add that to the growing list of how everything is falling apart."

"What are we gonna do?" Elena asked, visibly trying to pull herself together. Yet I could see that she was still trembling, and I so didn't like the defeated expression in her eyes. "Do you want to compel them to forget what happened?"

"I'm afraid that's not going to work. The memory I want to hide needs to be fresh, and it works best combined with shock."

"It worked when you hid your true nature from Caroline..."

"Because I erased each memory of my feeding immediately after. Besides, Ric and Jeremy are now expecting an explanation, which is exactly the opposite frame of mind to longing to forget something."

"So what's your plan, then?" Alys enquired, looking worried.

"We'll just tell them the truth."

"You want to tell them everything? But – you were against telling Matt and Caroline..."

"I was against telling Caroline," I corrected, "for very sound reasons. Now, I'm just thinking ahead. You all will be heading back to Mystic Falls for summer break. And I suppose Elena will want to stay in her house, with her family. Now, unless she wants to pass me off as her boyfriend and explain to Jenna why I am sleeping in her bedroom every night, I don't really see another solution..."

I gave her a lopsided smirk and raised a brow at her suggestively. Usually, that served to get her hackles up, and I'd rather see her scolding gaze than the anxiousness in her eyes. But her expression remained desolate. I sighed. I was pretty much out of ideas how to console her. Not that I was in a position to offer comfort, being the cause of her grief. In fact, I was expecting every moment to see her eyes fill with hate and disdain, when she finally realized who was to blame for all this.

"Look, I'm not happy about all of this either," I said, sighing. "But we don't have a choice. The house isn't safe anymore." Alys looked stricken, already having guessed what I was getting at. Elena still looked confused, so I spelled it out for her: "Katherine has been invited in."

"You mean, Jenna...?"

"Jenna or Jeremy. It's their house, too."

"'So we'll have to renew the proctions..." Elena correctly concluded. "Meaning we'll have to let them in on the secret..."

"Yes. It it's any comfort: I have a feeling that it won't be too difficult to explain everything to Ric. In fact, he might not even be surprised..."

That caught Elena's attention. "What do you mean?" she inquired, drying her tears.

"Well, Ric is not only a history teacher. He's also into occultism, mysticism and paranormal activities. In fact, it was Ric who had gave me the idea for my cover story of researching local myth and folklore in the first place. That's what he does. He's convinced that vampires exist. He just doesn't know that I am one of them." And his theoretical knowledge about vampires was amazingly astute. He'd have a ball tomorrow.

"Ric knows about vampires?" Alys was equally surprised.

"Purely theoretically. But he really is an expert in his field. It all started with his wife, who was very much a part of all this."

"His wife? Jenna said that his wife is dead..."

"She was declared dead after she went missing," I corrected. "Ric is convinced that his wife got herself turned and ran off with a vampire."

"Oh my God... That sounds..."

"Like he was crazy? It sure does. Except that we know better. Anyway, it will help us considerably in convincing him that we're not crazy, either. Your family needs to be aware of the danger."

"You're right," Alys jumped in, surprising me – she usually wouldn't even agree with me about the weather. Admittedly, it felt good that she was with me on this. "Jenna has a right to know the truth – especially about Stefan."

"Provided she'll agree to see me and listen to me," Elena said bitterly.

"She will," I assured her. At least that much I could promise. Because if worse came to worst, I could always make her."

Still wrought up and perturbed by Katherine's attack on her family and the prospect of confronting them with the truth tomorrow, Elena soon left the living room. I figured that she wanted some privacy to fall apart without me and Alys being there to witness, yet when I passed Elena's room on the way to my own a little later, the door was slightly ajar and the room dark.

Wondering what she might be up to and concerned that it might be something stupid, I went looking for her. Despite its many bedrooms, there weren't that many possibilities to get lost in this house, and so I soon found her in the fitness room, lifting weights.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, slightly puzzled. I knew that she loved jogging, but I had never seen Elena work out before.

"I am... training," she said, her voice strained by the effort of keeping barbells in the air which seemed way too heavy for her delicate frame. "To better... defend myself."

I shook my head in bafflement. This girl was an ever growing enigma. While I had expected her to break down for sure this time, she had obviously shifted into full fighting mode instead, refusing to be a helpless victim. For all her human fragility, Elena really was tough, I had to give her that. "What's your plan, oh, warrior princess?" I asked a little jokingly. "Bench-pressing evil vampires?"

"I need to... get stronger." There was determination in her voice, but also a touch of despair. She was dead serious about this. I stepped closer and put a hand underneath the handle, just in case.

"What... are you doing?" she asked between clenched teeth.

"Helping you out – before the whole thing comes crashing down on you." She seemed annoyed by the fact that I considered two fingers to be safeguard enough and frowned. "No matter how many barbells you lift, you still won't be a match for any vampire," I pointed out soberly. "You know that, right?"

Frustrated, she let go of the bar, trusting that I would hold it - which I did - and sat up to face me. "Then teach me how to fight," she demanded, lifting her chin with resolve as I put the weights back onto the rack.

I raised my eyebrow, unsure if I should be amused or empathic about her plea. There simply were no defense movements that would enable her to hold her ground against Katherine, not even for a minute. But she was distressed, and probably felt the same need as I did to physically lash out at someone. Maybe this was her way of trying to do something where nothing could be done. If it made her feel better... I sure liked the idea of mock fighting and wrestling with her, given it involved physical contact. Not quite the kind I had in mind more often than not, but still better than nothing.

Accommodating her, I took a couple of stakes from the weapon cabinet. "Here, let's see how you handle the 'Hunter's special'..."

She got to her feet and gave them a puzzled look. "What do you want me to do with these?"

"To attack me, of course."

"But I don't want to hurt you," she protested.

I couldn't stifle my grin this time. "Elena – you won't be able to hurt me, believe me. If you were, I wouldn't be so concerned for your safety. Now come on, and don't be shy."

She hesitantly took a step towards me. Then, registering that this was not an approach that would get her anywhere, she suddenly picked up speed and jumped at me. Nevertheless, I was ready and deflected her attack easily enough.

She came at me again, trying to outsmart me this time by bringing her knee up, dangerously close to my groin. That might actually have worked, as I had not thought her capable of such meanness. And she wasn't. Her move was halfhearted, and so I was able to turn the tables on her. With quick move to the side, I had her in deadlock, and made a mock-biting move for her throat.

"Now – you really sure you want to play dirty?" I asked, raising my brow questioningly. She blushed. I loved it. "Maybe it would be more efficient if I showed you a way of getting out of a hold like this..." I murmured. The basic self-defense moves would not do any good if a vampire had her headlocked, but vampires weren't the greatest danger out there. I clearly remembered seeing her utterly defenseless like this in a dark alley not so long ago. A sight I would gladly erase from my own mind, if I could.

Elena complied, and we practiced for a while, with me attacking her, giving advice and correcting her stance. Yet defending herself was clearly not what she had in mind tonight. She wanted to attack. So we switched roles again, which put her in position to pounce on me instead, but resulted in her sitting on her behind an awful lot.

At least I was giving her a good work-out. She was sweating now, acting much more aggressive in the knowledge that she couldn't inflict any damage on me and getting slightly frustrated by the fact. At some point, her efforts got less and less purposeful and only served as means to let off steam. Admittedly, I was a willing victim and allowed her to punch, hit and pound on me until she was utterly exhausted.

Taking mercy on her, I finally showed her a move that might actually be successful, if she was ever able to pull it off fast enough and with the element of surprise on her side. Just to give her a little feel of success, I allowed her to score a hit on me with the stake.

"Damon!" she squealed in horror, shocked that she had met flesh at all – or better to say, a bone of my ribcage. Her angle was all wrong.

"Don't worry, it'll heal quickly enough."

I took her hand and put it flat on the middle of my chest. "Here, feel this?" She visibly inhaled, which was a little surprising considering that we had been invading each other's personal space constantly in the last hour. "It's the sternum. A solid plate of bone." Still holding her wrist, I twisted her around with a quick move so that her back was pressing against me now. She was still breathing hard, her rapid heartbeat pounding unmistakably in her artery. I felt my fangs itch to come out, yet firmly told them to stay put.

Trailing my fingers down her side – which was bare to my touch thanks to the low cut sleeve seam of the tank top – I found the place I was looking for. "Right here," I murmured, applying a little bit of pressure to her slightly moist and heated skin, "beneath the ribcage, close to the spine – that's the way to a vampire's heart."

Her breath caught and she stood utterly still for a second. I liked the effect my touch obviously had on her – but was also starting to feel a little troubled by the effect she had on me. Burning with hunger and longing, I wanted nothing more than to bury my teeth in her tender flesh and taste the sweetness of her blood.

Well, truth be told, there were a few other things I longed to do just as much. But I also didn't want to scare her away, and so I reluctantly released her from my hold and took a step back. "I won't let anybody hurt you, Elena," I vowed, meaning to give her some reassurance. "Especially not Katherine."

And most certainly not myself.

ELENA

Telling Jenna, Jeremy and Ric that Stefan, Damon and Alys were vampires was surprisingly easy. After Damon had flashed his teeth at a distrustful Ric, who had first suspected that his friend was pulling some kind of tasteless joke on him, he looked like he had won the lottery. "I knew it!" he exclaimed, slapping his thighs with glee, while Jenna and Jeremy kept eyeing him and Damon with dumbfounded expressions. "Even though I was never able to prove anything, there was so much evidence... especially around Mystic Falls. But how was I to know that my very own assistant and drinking buddy was actually a bloodsucker..."

"Hey, watch it!" Damon warned, "or you might end up as an entirely different kind of drinking buddy to me! I only kept you around because you were highly entertaining and able to hold your liquor."

Ric groaned. "I can't believe I've been telling you all about my theories while you were sitting there straight faced, listening to my babbling and never saying a word!"

"Well, it was entertaining, and pretty impressive, too, to be honest. You have most of it figured out accurately. But the idea of letting you in on the secret just kind of lost all appeal when you showed me your impressive arsenal of anti-vampire equipment."

"You have weapons to fight vampires?" I asked Ric, taken by surprise.

"I've only played around with a few ideas..." he shrugged. "I never had the chance put any of those to the test, though."

"You might get that chance soon," Damon said drily. "There's a really evil vampire running around that's been giving us trouble. A nifty weapon that can take a vampire down without actually killing her would really come in handy..."

"Her?" Jenna asked, probably suspecting where this was headed.

"The vampire who attacked you," I confirmed, and summed up what we had learned about Katherine, the tomb and everything else that they needed to know about the current situation. It took the better part of the evening, especially since it meant revealing the family secret, which peaked with the exposure of Stefan as my quite undead brother. That came as the greatest shock to Jenna and Jeremy.

Considering that it was all an awful lot to take in, their reaction could have been worse. After getting through the initial emotional upheaval, some vocal outbursts and a few spilled tears, Jenna was finally able to accept that Stevie was indeed alive, and that there was more to her sister-in-law's family that any sane person could have guessed.

Jeremy wasn't disturbed at all to learn that vampires really existed. He thought it was actually kind of cool. "So that's why Alys was so careful to keep her distance all the time..." he mused, obviously pleased that there might be a reason that had nothing to do with his age.

"Hey, Gilbert! Hands off my sister until I give you permission!" Damon warned.

Jeremy only snorted. "Yeah, likewise, dude!"

"Dude?" Damon echoed, incredulous. "Seriously? Dude?"

"Damon, don't!" I begged, fearing some kind of alpha male showdown about their sister's virtues that Jeremy was clearly going to lose.

"Don't 'Don't Damon' me!" he said, furrowing his brows at me.

"Jeremy is right," Ric put in firmly, straightening himself so that he was actually half a head taller than Damon, who was by no means small. "From what you're telling us, your sister is pretty capable of watching out for herself. Unlike Elena. So you had better be careful and behave, or I'll have to get out my stakes and turn hunter myself. I can be pretty mean, too..."

"Hey, guys, can you please all take a deep breath and try to get those testosterone levels down a bit?" Jenna interrupted, trying to cover up the mooneyes she'd been making at Ric by playing cool. "I understand that we have an evil vampire slut to kill. And frankly, after what she did to me, I'd rather stake her myself."

Damon grimaced. "Well, unfortunately, that's not an option right now, otherwise I would have done so already. But we can't harm her without harming Elena, too." He told them about the binding spell that I had somehow inherited, and the spell that Bonnie had done to protect me from it.

"But if we killed Katherine now, wouldn't Bonnie's spell protect Elena from that backfiring on her?" Ric wondered.

"No, most likely not. From what Bonnie explained, it's a protective shield that prevents Katherine from hurting her. But it does not eliminate the much more powerful original spell."

Jenna frowned. "Why did Elena inherit this binding spell, and not Stefan, who's also a descendant of Katherine's and the firstborn of my sister-in-law?"

"Because he's male. This seems to be something that is passed from mother to daughter, mirroring the original spell. Besides, he's a vampire now. For obvious reasons, the binding spell can only work effectively with a mortal."

"Well, simple then," Jeremy said, clearly wondering what we were fussing about. "Elena just needs to turn."

I stared at him, aghast. How could he be so casual about it? Couldn't he see what this implied? "Jeremy! Do you even know what you're suggesting? I don't want to be a vampire! It's actually not cool to be one..."

"Well, I guess that depends on perspective," Damon put in, objecting to my rather biased assertion. "I personally think it's pretty cool." He smirked, and shrugged his shoulders in a 'what-can-I-say' gesture.

I shot him a brief, admonishing glance and chose to ignore his comment, addressing Jeremy instead. "Apart from the obvious problem of having to feed on humans and hurt and manipulate them, you never grow old, while all the people you love mature and die in front of your eyes." I felt myself shaking slightly, just thinking about having to go through that ever again, standing at yet another grave and watching another coffin being lowered into the ground. "I could never become a mother, I'd never age. Can you even imagine what that means? I suggest you talk to Alys about it."

"Ah," Damon grimaced, finding fault with the idea, "she's probably not the most objective source of information on that matter... Just saying!"

"I can't be a vampire!" I said, desperation probably clear in my voice, now. "All I ever wanted was to grow up, to have my own family and to grow old with them! We have to find some other way!"

"And we will," Damon said, sobering when he looked at me. "But until we do, we need to make sure that Katherine won't be able to harm anybody. And we need Bonnie to tie you all into the protective shield so that Elena is protected at all times."

Jenna suddenly came to stand beside me and put her arms around me tightly. "We'll do anything we can to make sure you'll get through this. I'm so sorry for blaming you for what happened..."

"Don't be. You couldn't possibly have known. And you're not the first to be led on by Katherine's acting skills."

Jenna wiped tears from her eyes. "As crazy as this might sound – I can't help but feel a little elated, too ... My nephew is alive! We actually have Steve back!" She actually smiled. "I'm glad that Miranda and Grayson knew... that they never really lost their son. When am I going to meet him?"

I promised her that I would bring him over right the next weekend, and was able to leave with the comforting knowledge that I had my family behind me to support me, whatever may come, and Damon drove us back to Greenville for the remaining two days of college.

Can't be much longer now, can it? If only Katherine gave them some respite... ;)