A/N: So here is an update, it's shorter that the last 2 chapters, but things are starting to pick up. Please let me know what you think.
Ryleigh couldn't say anything as she stared at Damon, trying not to give herself away. Interpreting her silence the wrong way, he let go of the door and smirked. It was such a Damon thing to do that he'd just assume that she was speechless due to his sexiness. In this instance, though, he would be correct. Ryleigh had met Ian before at a convention, but this was Damon, and it was oh so different. He oozed sex and charm, and she had been completely unprepared for it. She idly wondered if she'd be able to get her hands on some vervain because she had a feeling that she was going to need it. Realizing that she was standing there, staring at him like an idiot, she shook her head slightly and smiled at him.
"Sorry, I was supposed to meet my friends here, and I was debating on whether or not I actually wanted to go in and go through with this." Damon's smirk never left his face, and he took a step towards her, causing her pulse to quicken and his grin to widen.
"Well, I can understand with this group, drama all around. I'm Damon, by the way, I'm Stefan's brother. You must be Ryleigh Fell, the long-lost friend that they've been freaking out about inside." He held his hand out to her, and she hesitated. She could ignore it, but he'd get suspicious, and that was never a good thing with Damon. She placed her hand in his and was immediately given an image of him killing the hikers from the pilot episode and several others, including Vicki Donovan. She was unable to hide her jump as the images flooded her and her eyes flew up to his. His eyes narrowed as he continued to hold her hand. He opened her mouth to say something when she heard Elena from the hallway.
"Damon, will you please let go of her so she can come in?" Damon immediately dropped her hand and stood aside.
"Oh, by all means, please do come in." He didn't entirely move out of the way, making her brush up against him to get by, and she knew he did it on purpose to intimidate her. When she followed Elena to the Salvatore's enormous living room, she was greeted with a small surprise party. There was a welcome home banner and several friends, and it slightly deflated her. She'd thought it was supposed to be just the girls, but there were several others there as well. Matt, Tyler, Jeremy, Alaric, and Meredith Fell were there. Meredith, she realized was her aunt and it made sense that she was there because she knew about vampires as well. She stopped in the doorway and forced herself to smile. When Damon passed her, she jumped again, and everyone noticed. Caroline was quick to run to her side and take her hand, pulling her into the room.
"Okay so yes we said it would just be us, but the boys and your aunt wanted to see you too." At addressing her, Ryleigh gave Meredith a genuine smile and walked over to hug her.
"Hi, Aunt Meredith, I'm sorry I haven't come to visit you yet." Meredith enveloped her into a warm hug that was nicer than she expected. She laughed softly as she pulled away from her and held her hands.
"It's okay, Sweetie, I know moving back is a significant change. I just can't believe how beautiful you've become. Promise me you'll set aside a day for me soon so that we can go shopping and have a girl's day, just us." Ryleigh noticed her emphasis on the "just us" part and knew that it was a warning. She nodded at her aunt and grinned.
"That sounds definitely doable." Alaric was standing next to her and reached his hand out to her.
"We didn't get to meet officially; I'm Alaric Saltzman. I'm Elena's and Jeremy's guardian and history teacher." She knew that she wasn't supposed to know about Jenna, so she looked over at Elena with a curious look.
"Wait, where's Aunt Jenna, I thought she was living with you guys?" Alaric immediately sighed and withdrew, and the tone of the room changed. Jeremy was the one to answer her.
"Uh, Jenna died last year, there's been a lot of things going on. Our Uncle John died too, so it's been pretty rough. Mr. Saltzman was kind enough to step in so we wouldn't be put into the system." She watched as a slow redness crept up Alaric's neck as he shrugged.
"It's not a big deal; it just seemed like the right thing to do." Ryleigh sighed and walked over to Elena. She pulled her into a hug which was immediately returned.
"I'm so sorry, Elle." She used the nickname that was in her memories and it caused Elena to chuckle and really hug her back.
"Wow, Rye, I've missed you so much and your nickname." The mood lifted instantly, which was a definite relief. After letting go of Elena, she walked over to Jeremy to hug him as well, and he readily accepted it. Damon interjected causing her to jump out of Jeremy's embrace. She was seriously getting annoyed with her body having a mind of its own.
"Well this is all very touching, Ric, why don't you and I leave the kids to it? Meredith, are you staying or do you want to come with us?" Meredith walked over to where she stood and hugged her once more.
"I'll let you get reacquainted with your friends, but I meant it about us spending time together." Ryleigh smiled and waved as she walked out the door with Damon and Alaric. She was mildly disappointed that Damon wasn't going to be staying, but at the same time, she was relieved. Her reaction to him was much more violent than Caroline's. She noticed Bonnie watching her curiously, and she tried to lighten the mood as she spoke to the group.
"Well, this is awkward, anything we can do about that?" This got everyone to laugh which was her intention. Stefan moved away from Elena and motioned to the table that no doubt Caroline had set up.
"Caroline set up snacks and drinks so please guys, help yourselves." Using the excuse to move away from Caroline, she walked over to Matt, who as pouring soda into cups. She lightly bumped his arm, but not enough to make him spill anything. He threw her a grin that made her smile in return. He really was easy to be around; she was completely relaxed when she was with him.
"So, you decided just to throw me to the wolves, I see." He laughed as he handed her one of the cups.
"Come on; it's no big deal. It's like ripping off a band aid, and it needed to be done. Too much has happened to all of us to throw away friendships." Ryleigh knew that he was right, but fighting with her fear of Caroline and the memories that weren't really hers was beginning to become harder as her memories of what happened on the show seemed to be fading somewhat.
"I know that Matt, but it's all so weird now and it's not like we can just pick up where we left off when I left." Matt raised an eyebrow at her.
"I don't see why not, you seem pretty comfortable with me. Speaking of that, what's up with you and Caroline? You can tell her feelings are hurt by your avoidance." She knew that she couldn't let anything slip, even though Matt knew that they were vampires. She tried to keep her answer as vague as possible.
"I don't really know how to explain it; she just seems…different." He started to reply when Bonnie suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Hey Rye, I need to use the restroom, let me show you where it is." Matt chuckled and walked away while shaking his head. Ryleigh put her drink down on the table and gave her a confused look.
"I'm okay, Bonnie, I don't need to go." Bonnie took her hand, and a different sort of feeling emerged. It was warm like she knew that she could trust Bonnie with anything. Bonnie's mouth opened slightly, and it was evident that she'd had the same current.
"I insist, that way you'll know where to go later." Unable to protest any further, she allowed Bonnie to pull her from the room and down the hall to a bathroom. She shut the door behind them and walked over to the sink, flipping the faucet on. Bonnie whirled around to face her, an expression of complete surprise on her face.
"How long have you known?" That question confused even her usual self, what was she talking about it?
"Bonnie, are you alright? How long have I known about what, why are we in the bathroom?" Bonnie walked over to her and took both of her hands this time.
"You're a witch, I can feel it, why didn't you say anything?" Ryleigh snatched her hands back, instinctively knowing she needed to play it cool.
"Geeze, Bon, how much have you had to drink?! There's no reason to start name-calling, this awkwardness isn't my fault." Bonnie stared for a few seconds before shaking her head as if she didn't know how to respond.
"No, I wasn't calling you a bitch, Rye, you're an actual magical witch. I am too, that's why that current passed between us when we touched, we can always tell other witches apart." Ryleigh began to back away from her towards the door.
"Listen, I don't find this funny at all, I'm just going to go." Bonnie sighed and began to chant. Ryleigh gasped as the water from the sink leaped out of the sink and began to rain down in the middle of the room like a waterfall, getting water everywhere. She squeaked as the cold water started to hit her and jumped back.
"Okay Bonnie, stop it!" Bonnie opened her eyes, and the water went back to normal.
"You really didn't know that you're a witch? You're reaction to Caroline at school though, and to Damon just a few minutes ago. You saw something; I know you did, so you just didn't know?" Ryleigh was breathing heavily at what just happened. It was exhilarating yet terrifying to witness at the same time.
"I…I saw Caroline die and then I saw her kill some guy at what looked like a fair. It terrified me to see her like that. Then Damon, well I saw a lot more when I touched Damon. I don't know what it means, and I just know that I'm freaked the eff out. Enough about that, though, what the hell did you just do?!" Bonnie smiled and shrugged.
"I found out what I was when they arrived too. The first time I touched Stefan, I got a flash like yours only it wasn't as distinct. We should practice together so we can see what you can do." Ryleigh shook her head and held up her hands to stop her flow of words.
"Wait, you saw a flash when you touched Stefan? What the hell is going on, what's wrong with them or us?" Bonnie walked close so that she could whisper the next part in her ear.
"That's just it, Stefan, Damon, and Caroline are vampires." She backed away from Bonnie, her eyes wide in pure shock. She hadn't expected Bonnie to just blurt it out to her the way she had. She stared at Bonnie for a few seconds and then burst out into laughter.
"Okay, you almost had me, this was an excellent prank. How did you guys come up with that so quickly, though? Look, it was funny, but at the same time, I thought we came over here to catch up. I'm going to go; this is seriously lame of you guys." She opened the door and gasped as she came to a halt. Damon was standing menacingly in the doorway. He stepped toe to toe with her, and his face was murderous, Ryleigh was genuinely terrified as she looked at him. He gritted his teeth as he spoke to her softly.
"So, you're a witch, are you? That's just a little too suspicious for my taste." He grabbed her throat and pulled her into the hallway. She heard Alaric and Bonnie yell at him at the same time, but he just slammed her up against the wall. His eyes started to vein up and turn red, and she knew what was coming. Before she could scream, his face screwed up in pain. He let go of her, and he clutched his head, crying out as if in agony. She clutched her throat and gasped for breath, and she vaguely heard heavy footfalls come running into the hallway. She could only focus on Damon; he'd almost killed her. She could hear the chatter around her, but it seemed far away. She recognized Elena's voice from next to her.
"Bonnie, I think he learned his lesson, stop it." She distinctly heard Bonnie gasp out that it wasn't her when hands grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. She was face to face with Stefan, and his face was filled with remorse. His hands cupped her chin as he looked into her eyes.
"Hey, you're okay now, you can stop." She shook her head as if coming out of a trance and Damon's shouting ended very abruptly. She glanced around the room and saw that everyone was staring at her. It was then that she realized that she'd been the one causing Damon's pain. She gave one last look around the room, felt a tear slip down her cheek and then she was running.
