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Bornkiller9: Thank you. And you'll find out the answer to your questions here...

Hello everyone, I'd just like to apologise for not uploading last week. Some personal problems came up, I won't bore you with the details, but to make up for it I've got two chapters for you this week. It's not exactly how I envisioned the first double upload of this story going, but needs must. So enjoy and let me know what you think!

Chapter 13: The New Order

Klaus had made himself comfy on a fallen log in the middle of the campsite. Leiah sat next to him, with Stefan on his other side. Stefan was looking impatient as usual, waiting for the theatrics to end so they could get onto whatever came next on Klaus' little check list. That was how it was with him, and frankly Leiah was starting to get fed up with it. He wasn't here because he wanted to be or because it was fun. He was with them because he owed Klaus, and once that debt was settled he'd move on to something better. It just irritated her that his heart wasn't in it. She'd hoped with time he'd loosen up, but he remained as moody as the day they found him in Mystic Falls.

However, despite Stefan's downing aura, Leiah was still smiling. She was relaxed, lying back on her elbows as she surveyed the werewolf pack that had them surrounded. To anyone looking, it might have seemed like they were in danger. After all, they were surrounded by a group of werewolves, on a full moon no less. But if they took a moment to look closer, they'd see that the ones shaking were actually those that surrounded three intruders. All their attention on them, waiting to see what they would say and do next. They were terrified. Which only made the situation all the more enjoyable for Leiah, as she batted her eyes and smiled at the uneasy werewolves, who shifted whenever her gaze fell on them.

"It's fascination actually," Klaus said aloud. The dreamy look in his eye and a cunning grin told everyone that he had a plan, but that he wasn't going to give it away just yet. "A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun. A true hybrid."

"Thank goodness it didn't go the other way," Leiah teased, looking across to her brother. "Can you imagine. You burn in the sun and you're forced to change into a lousy mutt every full moon. If you'd turned out like, then you'd have a hell of a time with the recruitment process wouldn't you?" Her teasing was not well received, nor was her interruption. Klaus' eyes narrowed at her, concealing the anger behind them from all except her. Otherwise his face was still, trying to convey control to the pack. She was undermining that, which would make what he was trying to sell harder for them to accept. She knew she'd mucked up, spoken out of term. In fact, from the look in his deep blue eyes, Leiah was all but certain that if things didn't improve, she'd get the same treatment as Elijah and Amelia.

Luckily, things took a turn for the better, as Ray's dead body suddenly shot upright. No one had moved him from where Stefan'd originally dropped him and everyone had given him a wide birth, fearing what might happen when he woke up. Now, they were about to find out.

Klaus smiled. "Excellent timing, Ray."

All eyes were on Ray now, watching as he rolled about on the ground, frantically looking around and trying to understand what was happening. He saw his pack around him, but he kept searching for someone to give him answers. Naturally, the alpha would have been the perfect choice. But Ray's gaze passed over every one of the werewolves and instead found Klaus.

"What's happening to me?" begged Ray. But Klaus just smiled back, as if looking at a boy learning how to walk.

But rather than give the man an answer, Klaus turned to Stefan. Stefan understood what was being asked and plastered on a smile as he rose up off the log. Leiah followed suit, her grin returning as she rose. "Are any of you human?" Stefan asked, as he and Leiah looked around. They could work it out silently if they really wanted, but were was the fun in that. Better to watch them sweat and draw out their prey. It would make it all the more exciting when they caught him or her.

"Your friend here needs human blood to complete his transition to vampire."

"And if he doesn't get it. Then…" Leiah mimed slicing her throat, with a sharp hiss to emphasise her point.

No one stepped forward. Hardly surprising. But some of the werewolves were looking in a specific direction. Perhaps trying to warn the person that they were in danger? Or maybe submitting to Klaus, the new alpha, and trying to answer without outright betraying their old alpha.

Leiah turned on the spot, giving her a good chance to look all around as she continued. "Doesn't take much," she explained sweetly. "Just a few drops. Come on, none of you? Not one human among us?" She stopped turning and inhaled. Her Hybrid brother obviously had a much better sense of smell than she. But as a predator herself, her senses were specifically tuned to that of her prey. And she could smell human blood. Beneath the skin, pulsating around the veins. She could sense it in one of them.

With her eyes open, Leiah lifted her finger and wiggled it around in the air. "The wondering finger points to…" she moved her finger around. It passed over werewolf, after werewolf, after werewolf… Until stopping on a young man. The same young man who'd run forward along with the woman when they'd first arrived with Ray. A young man who was terrified and tense and starting to sweat.

"You," announced Leiah, grin broadening.

Horror flooded into his eyes, the realisation that he'd been found out. But before he could even react Klaus was on him. He grabbed his forearm and bit into it, then threw him over towards Stefan. The second Stefan had him, he pinned him down to the ground next to Ray. The soon to be Hybrid couldn't help but look at the bloody bite mark on the young man's arm.

"No!" screamed the woman with him. Her eyes turning bright gold as she went to leap. But Leiah was already behind her, pulling her arms behind her back and pinning her. She struggled but Leiah held firm, as Klaus loomed over them both with a sinister grin.

"If you don't drink it, Ray, I will," said Stefan, holding out the young man's arm for Ray to feed off. But at the declaration, Ray's eyes shot towards Stefan, hearing only a challenge for what could be his meal. The wolf in him demanding he take it and defy the challenger. "Problem is, I don't know how to stop."

Leiah smiled, seeing the sincerity in Stefan's eyes in that moment. The moment were he exposed his soul to this man and the madness seeped through. If given the chance he would drink from the man, and he would drain him dry. Simply because he wanted to.

"It's the new order, sweetheart," Klaus said to the woman Leiah held. "You join us, or you die."

"I'd rather die than be a vampire," spat the woman, to which Leiah tightened her hold, pulling her arms back another inch. The woman hissed in pain, mouth opening involuntarily as Leiah smirked from behind.

"Sorry, not an option I'm afraid," said Leiah, as Klaus bit into his wrist and held it to the woman's open mouth. She tired to shut it at the last second, but only ended up bitting into Klaus' skin. By then it was too late. The blood was being forced into her and a second later Klaus snapped her neck. Leiah then let go and the woman ended up a temporary heap on the floor. She'd be back soon enough, with a hunger for blood.

Looking over, Leiah saw that Ray was now leaned over the young man's arm, drinking from him while Stefan stood ready to pull him off at Klaus' command. But Klaus simply smiled, allowing his first hybrid to indulge while around them the other werewolves backed up nervously.

"Okay, who's next?" asked Klaus, grinning as his blue eyes turned golden and began to fill with blood.

Her throat was painfully dry, her heart beat pounding through her head.

Sarah let out a groan, which only made the pain in her head worse. She hated hangovers. Why she still got them as a vampire was beyond her. She could get stabbed through the heart or shot in the head and she'd wake up the next day like it was nothing. But when it came to alcohol, her liver and body didn't seem to have the same healing factor.

Then again, maybe she was exaggerating with the chest and headshot part. She'd been stabbed before, and if it involved wood the pain could last for days. Perhaps vampire healing just wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Physical injures, no bother. Everything else – one could argue – was made worse by being a vampire. Emotional pain for example.

Because of her vampirism when she was hurt mentally it left a longer sting. Sometimes so painful and drawn out that a vampire's only hope was to turn it all off. If turning it off stopped hangovers, then Sarah would win a fortune betting every vampire would do it. Sadly, it wasn't the case.

As her finger tips touched her forehead she felt a shock of pain radiate from the connection. Grimacing, she pulled back her fingers. Definitely too much to drink. She tried adjusting her head, hoping to move some muscle in her neck that would somehow stop the pain. When she couldn't get comfy on her side she rolled over, frowning as she realised she wasn't in her own room.

She sat up, hangover pain briefly forgotten as she looked around Stefan's room. Last night was patchy, another symptom of when she drank too much. She remembered bits and pieces, like going around the party with Elena and Caroline. She thought they bumped into Scarlett along the way, but couldn't be sure. At some point she met up with Jenna and they drank. Then Elena's angry face mixed with concern. A hollow feeling that had consumed her, as if she'd been stood in the eye of a storm while everything else came crashing down around her.

As she tired to remember another jolt of pain ran through her head. Fingers once again reach up to her temple but this time there was no pain from the touch. She couldn't understand how she ended up in Stefan's bed and not her own. Maybe it was a subconscious thing, just her missing him and having gone so long without even seeing him.

The itch inside her throat reminded her that she needed something to drink. She was dehydrated. A little hungry too. She could kill two birds with one stone by grabbing a blood bag. Or if there were any lingering partiers then she could get something warm. She pushed off the bed, paying little attention to the wreckage around her. Despite the rules she and Damon had tried to put in place, she could have seen this coming. Parties always got out of hand, especially when the hosts got so smashed they didn't care what anyone did to their house. She promised she'd have Stefan's room cleaned up by the end of the day, just in case by some miracle he came home tomorrow.

At some point during the night she'd lost her shoes apparently and the white belt she'd worn around her waist. Luckily she still had on the black dress Caroline had made her wear, so she was happy enough to forgo her morning routines until she'd gotten her breakfast.

She made her way down the stairs, her footsteps light against the wood and leaving no creak as she moved. She wasn't trying to be subtle, it was just the way she moved. Maybe another subconscious decision, to avoid a squeak that might cause her head further pain, or perhaps it was to do with her predatory nature.

As she was coming down the stairs to the first floor, she heard Damon's voice coming from the living room. She hadn't been actively listening for it, but now that she heard him, her curiosity compelled her to focus and listen as she continued on.

"What?!" Damon hissed sharply, bringing Sarah to a stop on the stairs. She was too far away to hear who was on the other end, but she heard Damon clear enough even with his voice lowered. "Well, why didn't you stop them!" A pause, the other person replying. "I don't care if Ric's got a damn bazooka full of wolfsbane, you get after them and… Well make them listen." A long pause, during which Sarah crept down the rest of the stairs, carefully approaching the living room in hopes of hearing the other half of the conversation.

"No, I won't. Because if I go, then Sarah will find out and follow me, and then one of us will get bitten – most likely me – and then everything we've gone through the past few months will have been for nothing!" A pause, but Damon's heavy breathing was so loud that Sarah still couldn't hear the other end of the call. She caught odd words, a woman's voice for sure, but she couldn't identify it. She continued to move closer.

"Well, it's their own fault for going after a pack of werewolves on a full moon," Damon replied bitterly. The woman replied to him but again Sarah only caught patches of what she said because of Damon's damn breathing. "I know it could lead us to Stefan, that's…!"

Sarah froze. A lead to Stefan?

Damon continued, voice tighter now as he forced himself not to shout. "That's what I'm afraid of, Jenna. If they find Stefan then he'll do to them what he did to…"

"Andie," came Jenna's soft voice from the phone.

Sarah frowned, trying to think what had happened to Andie. She couldn't remember anything, least of all what Stefan could have done to her. He hadn't even been around since Damon came clean with Andie about everything and stopped compelling her. From her position by the archway, Sarah looked in with a frown, seeing Damon with his back to her, stood by the fireplace.

Finally, Damon said, "I'll go. Sarah's still not up yet. You can come over and stay with her until I get back. Just keep her occupied so she doesn't try and follow. The last thing I want is her finding out about this and getting her hopes up, again."

"You can't keep this from her, Damon," Jenna argued.

"Yes I can," Damon snapped back. "And you're not going to tell her anything until I get back, got it." Jenna hesitated for a moment, but ultimately agreed, even if reluctant. "You got the coordinates for where they are?"

"Yeah, Ric's been sending me updates. I'll send you the ones for where they parked. Text me when you get there and I'll send whatever's recent, along with where they're heading," Jenna said, her voice notably more gloom now.

"Good," Damon said before hanging up. A beep from his phone and he looked down to see he'd gotten the coordinates from Jenna.

He then began to turn around and Sarah swung back around the archway to hide. But as her back touched the wall she found Damon stood in front of her. A serious and cold look in his blue eyes. "What'd you hear?" Damon asked instantly, no playfulness in his demeanour.

"I heard you got a lead on Stefan. What, not planning to share?" asked Sarah with a curious grin. Damon twitched at her attitude, giving her pause. The serious cold looking doubling down on her as she suddenly felt herself shrink back against the wall. He didn't say anything, he just continued to stand there and stare, silently thinking about what to do and struggling to come to a decision. What Sarah couldn't work out was, why? After all, they'd been searching for Stefan together all summer, why now was he being so secretive?

"Damon, what's the matter? What aren't you telling me?" He didn't answer. His blue eyes held onto her green but they didn't blink. They were distant, trying to hold something back from her. Sarah leaned towards him, asking softly because she knew whatever had happened was meaningful to him. But for that same reason she had to know, "What happened to Andie?"

Shock flew through Damon's eyes before it was hauled back, like a dog being pulled on a lead. The cold look returned, but it was melting now. He was trying to hold it together but Sarah could see he was struggling, that whatever she'd missed had been incredibly painful for him. "Damon–" She was cut off as Damon reached out, grabbing both her arms and squeezing so hard that it hurt her. "Damon!" she snapped, squirming in his hold and trying to shake him off. But he didn't let up, his eyes boring into hers as she met his gaze. His conflicted gaze. There was guilt in there, passion too, and anger, regret and a longing to tell her something that he didn't want to. She could tell he thought this was a second chance but at what she didn't understand.

"Sarah," he said, the word catching awkwardly in his throat as he said it. "Please… Just this once, please, stay here and don't look into this, for me. Just leave this to me and I'll explain everything when I get back." He needed her to do this for him. It was there in his eyes, a pure plea if there ever was one. His life would be so much easier if she just did that for him. But that wasn't the kind of sister she was. She was nosy, especially when it came to her brothers. And now this brother was keeping something from her about the other. She could never walk away from something like that. Whether they wanted her help or not, she'd always force it on them. So, even though she knew it wasn't what he wanted, she asked anyway.

"Damon, what is going on?"

His look turned spiteful, realising she wasn't going to give up this chase. Then he shoved her against the wall. "Damon!" Sarah snapped again, getting annoyed now. He wasn't answering any of her questions and was getting aggressive. He was trying to push her back and she never responded well to that. She had to know what was going on with him, and the more he pushed back the more determined she got. "Will you stop behaving like a three-year-old and just tell me what the hell is going on?"

But as she recovered from the shove, she saw him reaching for her. His hands coming for her head. Self-preservation took over and Sarah ducked out of the way before dashing out of his reach with a burst of speed. "Damon!" she shouted again, confusion running through her green eyes. She really had no idea what was going on. She knew she was missing something, and that that something might explain everything but Damon wasn't telling her.

"It's for your own good, sis," Damon growled, coming at her again. This time she grabbed his outstretched arms and twisted. As he hissed in pain she turned around and pulled on his arm. He couldn't stop himself from stumbling forward and then tripping over her as she flipped him onto his back. Another twist of his arm, pushing it to the breaking point, had him squirming on the floor before he tensed up, waiting for the snap.

"I can make up my own mind, Damon. But it would help if you told me what your problem is?"

"My problem?" hissed Damon angrily. "My problem is that our dear brother killed my girlfriend!"

Sarah's grip fell away from Damon's arm, the shock overriding everything else. And as he said it, something inside sparked. A memory flung to the forefront of her mind. The two of them sat on the bed, crying.

"I saw him tonight… Stefan. He was at the station, when I went to get Andie…"

As the memory played out before her, Sarah found herself thinking exactly what her past self said. As if she was reliving the moment all over again.

"He's coming back, isn't he? He's coming–"

"No…he's not."

Even now, she couldn't help but deny it. To accept it, to think it possible…it hurt too much.

"You–You're wrong."

"He came here to tell us to stop looking for him. He's done with us."

"But–But we're family, he–"

"He killed Andie."

The words rang through her head as she stared down at Damon now, seeing the fury in his eyes. Now she understood were all that anger was coming from. Because Andie was dead…at the hands of their brother.

"Damon…" Sarah whispered. But before she could get out another word he jumped her. And as they fell towards the ground together, his hands got around her head and he yanked hard. Everything went black, and for a brief second before she was knocked out, it felt as though she'd never stop falling.