Deep brown ringlets hang down over the yellow stained pages of the Gilbert journals. From above, Katherine lets out a discontent sigh, leaning further over the arm of the couch. The vampire's fingers curl around my shoulder as she hems and haws, trying to pull my attention. Growing annoying, I roll my eyes up, staring at Katherine's chin. "Can I help you?"

"I'm bored," Katherine answers with a lazy yawn.

Instead of answering, I turn my attention back to the journal. There are plenty of things Katherine can do to keep herself entertained. I will not give her the pleasure of my company. She's trying to drive a wedge between everyone in this house. It's best for all of us not to indulge her attempts.

"'Emily Bennett was taken by the council today," Katherine begins, still trying to draw my attention. "They kidnapped her from her home and took her to the same location as her ancestors were burned a hundred years ago.' So Emily died on the sire of the massacre, too. Does it say where?" The vampire tries to snatch the book away.

Tucking the book between my side and the couch, I shake my head, "Nope." Keeping Katherine in the dark is the best way to ensure that our plans stay safe and uninterrupted. The less she knows the better. That means keeping her away from the Gilbert journals. "You know this whole friendly, cooperative thing?"

"Mm-hmm," Katherine nods, encouraging me to continue.

"I don't buy it."

The brunette rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as she begins to pout, "I have no reason to lie to you, Damon."

"Lie," I counter.

Katherine lets out an agitated growl, "I'm hungry."

"You're the unwanted house guest. Go feed yourself." After a few moments hesitation, Katherine disappears, her presence soon replaced with my brother's. He's been distantly lately. The only people Stefan talks with are Elena and Diana. The two vampires disappear to the roof for hours, talking in quick whispers, passing a bottle of rum between themselves. I know he's doing his part in helping, but the least he could do is be around more, act like he was a willing participant.

Stefan drops a stack of journals onto the side table, running his fingers through his hair, "Well, nothing in any of these. Find anything?"

Pulling the Gilbert journal from the side of the couch I flip through it, nodding as I do. Once I found the entries talking about Emily, it was easy to determine where the massacre site is. If Katherine gets her hands on this journal she'll know everything. We can't let that happen. "Nope." Handing the journal to my brother, I tap on the pages.

"That's too bad," Stefan answers, eyes scanning over the script scrawled across the pages.

Nodding, I lounge against the wall, scrolling through the text messages Diana sent. Jeremy agreed to try her experiment. Together, they were able to find the massacre site. Diana still isn't sure if she'll be welcome on the grounds but noted the witches readily revealed themselves to Jeremy while the powers pushed onto him lasted. She goes on to say that while the transfer of energy only lasted for a few minutes with me, Jeremy was able to hold onto it for about half an hour. Neither one will be back till later tonight. Diana decided to take Jeremy to dinner to pay him back for cooperating. Jealousy bubbles up inside of me. She cares about him, no matter how much she tries to deny it. For a while, I thought little Gilbert was out of our lives completely. This experiment probably only brought them closer. "Yeah, bummer."

"Have you heard from Di?" Stefan questions, continuing to flip through the pages of the journal.

Once again I nod my head, yes, saying to opposite just in case Katherine is eavesdropping, "Negative. Jeremy and she struck out so they decided to got to The Grill."

"Just the two of them?" Stefan presses, his attention drawn from his reading.

"Don't worry Stef, she's not going to snack on him in front of the locals," I rebut, trying to break the strain that has fallen over the room. Stefan is worried that Elena is going to find out Diana has been using her brother as a breathing blood bank. That would sure put a kink in my brother's seemingly perfect relationship.

Before my brother can respond, Katherine yells from the basement, "Damon!"

"Katherine!" The edge of fear in the vampire's voice sends me flying through the kitchen, jumping the basement stairs. Katherine is hunched over in Elijah's cell. Sticking out of her side is a broken piece of the cot sitting in the corner of the stone room. "What happened?"

The brunette's gaze shifts from her injury to the dagger stuck in Elijah's heart. Slowly, it begins to slide out, "Damon."

Grabbing the discarded flamethrower, I flip it on, running the flames over the dead vampire's body. What the hell is happening? My heart pounds in my chest; sweat beading on my forehead. This has to be Luka's dad, supercharged from stealing Bonnie's powers. No one else would benefit from Elijah being alive. Diana should be here. She'd know what to do, how to stop this. This magic stuff isn't something we're equipped to handle without a witch on our side. With Luka's dad being all-powerful Diana is our only line of defense. She doesn't get to go gallivanting through the forest and on movie dates while we're at war here.

"What are you doing?" Stefan questions from the bottom of the stairs. He seems oddly calm for someone who just walked into an all-out attack.

Curling my hand around the handle of the dagger, I fight against the force that is trying to remove it. "Shutting down a crazy ass psychic witch attack! Either get over here and do something about it or find someone who can."

Stefan opts for the second option, dragging Katherine along with him. I stay, knees glued to the cement floor, arms tense, holding the blade in place. Elijah's dead, unblinking eyes stare up at me as if daring me to give up, to not be strong enough.

Thirty minutes later, Stefan reappears, lounging against the cell entrance, "Diana took care of it."

"And where is she now?" I question, tentatively releasing my grip on the dagger. Once I'm sure it's not going to come out, I stand.

Stefan opens the ice chest, tossing me a few blood bags. I pull the first one open, squeezing until the sticky liquid fills my mouth. I drink heavily, tossing aside the empty plastic wrapping. "She's still out with Jeremy. She has to stay with him until all the vampire blood is out of his system, ya know, in case someone tries to kill him."

"And Katherine?"

My brother nods his head toward the ceiling, "Upstairs, trying to figure out where the massacre site is."

"It'd be a shame if she found nothing."

Stefan smirks, pulling the Gilbert Journal out from under his jacket, "Such a shame."

As my brother disappears upstairs, I look around the basement. For now, everything is calm, as it should be. As I go to lock Elijah back in his final resting place, I pick up the piece of wood. Grabbing another blood bag from the freezer, I head back upstairs. Katherine lounges on the couch, flipping through one of the journals. She looks defeated as she casts it aside.

"Here you go," I toss the blood bag onto the couch. As Katherine goes to reach for it, I drive the makeshift stake through her stomach. The vampire winces in pain, face twisting with betrayal. "That's for not telling me the dagger would kill me." Pulling the stake out, I drive it back in a few inches below Katherine's cold, dead heart. "And that's for trying to put a wedge between Diana and I." Holding the stake in place, I curl my fingers around Katherine's chin, forcing her to look at me. She looks genuinely hurt by my actions. She always has been good at faking it. "Next time, it goes in your heart."

As I step away, Katherine curls her fingers around the piece of wood, "Is that how you treat someone who—" The vampire pulls the stake out, tossing it aside "—is trying to help?"

"Want to help?" I spin back around, facing Katherine. "Start talking."

Katherine pulls open the blood bag, beginning to drink as her wounds heal, "I'd love to, but you're not going to like it."

"Try me."

"Fine," Katherine spits back, "John Gilbert and Isobel want you and Stefan out of Elena's life."

This is old news. I shouldn't be surprised. Katherine isn't going to share any new information. That would give away her advantage in the situation. Just like we're keeping her in the dark, she's keeping us there too. Any information that doesn't fit the persona she's playing right now will be left out, only added in once we're getting too close to figuring it out. That's how it's always been. Manipulative bitches don't change. "That's old news."

"Not the part where he offered me a deal. He knew that killing Elijah would get me out of the tomb, so he gave me a choice. Either I stay and help with Klaus, or he kills Stefan." Now we may be getting somewhere. Where does John Gilbert get off thinking he can just waltz in here and start offing Mystic Falls' vampire population? Sure he's got one of those fancy rings, but rings come off. Threatening Stefan or myself is a dangerous game to play.

"But he still tried to have me killed."

Katherine shrugs, as if this point means little to her, "Right. That was part of our deal. I could only save one of you."

"So you chose Stefan." It's all starting to make sense. The only reason why she chose to share this part of the story is to try and take a stab at me. Typical. This routine is starting to get tiresome. "Of course you did."

Once again the vampire shrugs, pouring herself a drink, "You wanted the truth, Damon. Would you rather I lie, like your little girlfriend?" Katherine chuckles, an evil smirk spreading across her thin lips. "Her deal is rich. You know she's going to throw both you and Stefan under the bus. For who, you may ask. No one. She doesn't care about you or Stefan. She's doing it for herself, so she can finally stop cleaning up you and your brother's messes. She gets to walk off into the sunset baggage free with the only man that cold-hearted snake has ever really loved—" Katherine pauses, trying to create a dramatic effect in her blatant lie. "—Klaus."

"And here I thought we were going to start telling each other the truth," I take a step forward, forcing Katherine back onto the couch. "Diana loves Stefan and me, unlike you, you manipulative bitch."

As I turn to leave, the front door swings open, Diana stepping inside the house. She looks distraught, deep green eyes searching the room. "Where's Stefan?"

"I thought you had to stay with Jeremy."

Diana shakes her head, "Bonnie's there. He'll be fine. Stefan called. He said Luka is dead and his dad is out for blood. Elena's blood. We need to go, right now."

"Wait, what?"

"Luka's dad is going to kill Elena unless we get to The Grill right now," Diana grabs my hand, pulling me towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Of course, she was eavesdropping. Why wouldn't she be?

Rolling my eyes, I turn to address Katherine. "Luka Martin's dead. His father's going after Elena. Bonnie doesn't have her powers so," I look back at Diana, smiling, "we're probably gonna a witch."

"I'm coming with you," Katherine asserts.

Diana squeezes my hand, shaking her head. Adding in more people will probably only disrupt the plan Diana and Stefan have already come up with. "No, you're not."

As we turn to leave, Katherine puts herself between us and the door, "Wait."

"We don't need your help," Diana asserts, stepping forward to face off with Katherine. When the blonde takes a stance there's not much you can do to make her back down. "We don't want it."

"I know a better way. I can take Elena's place at The Grill. I'll be harder for Luka's dad to kill. Elena will be safe the whole time." Katherine pleads with Diana. Why is she trying to hard to help? A few months ago Katherine could have cared less if Elena lived or died. I wonder if this is part of her deal. Looking past Diana, Katherine tries her chances with me. "Let me do this, Damon."

Outside of The Grill, Diana paces back and forth, addressing Katherine and me. She chews at her thumb as she talks, shooting glances at the building across the street from us. "I can only step in as a last resort. He'll know if there's another witch in the building. I'll stand across the street. Katherine, I'm only doing this because it would kill Stefan if something happened to Elena. I don't trust you and I never will. I will only intervene if he gets to Elena. If he tries to kill you, I can't help."

"I wouldn't expect you to. Your deal only works if every last one of us is dead," Katherine answers back, crossing her arms over her chest. Even now, when she's working with us, she's still working against us.

Diana swings around, curling her fingers around the brunette vampire's throat. For a second, I think I see a flash of fear in Katherine's eyes. "I made a deal to eliminate you, you lying, conniving, egotistical bitch! Everyone else, including Stefan and Damon, are safe. I'd never make a deal to put their lives in jeopardy, unlike you, Katherine. Now go, do something useful with your pathetic life."

I don't believe we're all safe until we've gathered in Elena's dining room. The familiar smell of box brownies and microwave meals fills my senses. Elena leans against Stefan, clinging to him as if he's the only one keeping her grounded right now. Upstairs, Katherine moves around, cleaning up the destruction of her kill.

"How did you guys convince her to do this?" Elena questions.

The words feel unnatural even before they have been spoken into existence. There will be consequences. That's just how Katherine operates. "We didn't. It was actually her idea." We may have just made the biggest mistake of our lives.