For the next few weeks they took turns keeping an eye on my house, and I trained with Alaric and Jeremy. I trained day and night, even when they told me that I was done for the day, I still kept it up. I was sick and tired of being the typical damsel in distress. I may not be able to kill this Original but at least I could kick a little bit of ass while doing it.

Three weeks had passed and I was finally able to hold my own pretty well against Jeremy and Alaric and I was pretty damn proud of myself. We decided to test me out on an actual vampire though to see how well I could hold up. I thought for sure they would have gotten Stefan to do it, or at the very least Caroline. I was a little pissed off when I saw Damon walk in.

"Well well well...how's all the training going? Have you become Buffy yet?" he sauntered in.

"Really? You guys got Damon?" I scoffed.

"He was the only one that was willing to do it." Alaric replied.

"What? Why wouldn't Elena or Caroline or even Stefan volunteer?" I asked.

"Probably because they all know they'd go easy on you. I won't be making that mistake." he gave me a stern look.

"You're okay with this?" I looked at Jeremy.

"Not really, but we don't have another option that's somewhat safe." he responded

Damon didn't say anything, just stood there smiling. I have never wanted to punch someone in the face so badly as I did in that moment.

"Fine. Let's get this over with then." I replied...and then I did it. I punched him in the face.

"What the fuck?" he stumbled backwards, clearly surprised.

"Well I mean no other vampire is going to warn me they're about to attack are they? So I just went for..." I was cut off by him trying to swing back at me but I managed to dodge him.

I was quick on my feet and I managed a few more punches in at him, keeping an eye on the stake that was hidden nearby. He didn't know about it, we decided that it would be easier that way.

We went a few more rounds and then finally he put his hands up.

"This is ridiculous." he sighed, walking towards the front door.

"Where the hell are you going, Damon!? We had an agreement!" Jeremy began to follow him.

"There's no way she can take on an original vampire. This is stupid to even try." he was getting angry.

"You're just pissed that I was able to fend for myself!" I spat at him.

For a moment he didn't say a word. Then before I had a chance to do anything, he used his vampire speed to charge towards me and pin me down on the floor. Straddling me he held one hand on my throat. Wasn't enough to keep me from breathing but enough to keep me in place.

"What are you doing!?" I tried pushing him off of me but it was no use.

"You think he's going to go easy on you? Do you really think you stand a chance!?" he was growling at me and I was so stunned that for a few seconds I didn't do anything.

I saw Jeremy initially go after him but Alaric grabbed him and told him to back off for a minute. I guess he wanted me to prove that I could do it.

I finally made my move to grab the stake that was taped under the couch that I was lying next to, but Damon was too fast and knocked it out of my hand, his other hand coming up to pin my arm above my head.

"He's a lot faster and certainly a lot stronger than I am. You think that's gonna work on him sweetheart?" as he said the words his eyes grew darker and his fangs began to descend.

"He's going to do whatever he can to get a taste of you...so you damn well better do better than this!" he hissed, his fangs inching closer to my neck. I could hear Jeremy begin to protest behind me again, and I saw Alaric falter on holding him back. They were getting nervous...and so was I. I was beginning to panic. This wasn't the Damon I was used to. He was actually scaring me a bit.

Finally a light went off in my head and I knew what to do to get him off of me. I kicked him right in the balls, rolled the both of us so I was the one straddling him, and grabbed the stake and jammed that fucker in him! Of course I didn't go right for his heart, but it was close enough.

I stood up as he rolled to his side and groaned out in pain.

"Good thinking." Jeremy quickly walked over towards me.

Damon rolled onto his back, pulled the stake out, and then stood up.

"You got lucky." he looked annoyed but not nearly as scary as he did just a moment ago.

"And that's what I have to use to my advantage. I know i'm not as strong as you...or as strong as he is! But luck is all I have right now."

"Damon I think you should go. Thanks for the help, I'll call you later." Alaric ushered Damon towards the door.

Jeremy guided me towards the couch to sit down

"Are you okay?" he asked me, concern all over his face.

"Yeah I'm alright." I told him.

"You look a little freaked." he replied "That must have been scary for you, almost being bitten by a vampire."

I couldn't meet his gaze and only managed to mumble out a "Yeah it was" to him. I didn't want to admit that the reason I was freaked out was more because I actually liked the adrenaline rush and not because of the vampire bite thing. Granted he didn't know that I've been bitten before...many times...and by Damon. But he didn't need to know that. I'd just let him believe that that's what scared me.

Another week went by and I continued to train. Damon agreed to help out again but he didn't pull another stunt like he did last time. He didn't exactly go easy on me either and I was super sore after every training session because of it.

I was beginning to become discouraged at one point during the training and the three of them could tell.

"What gives? You're usually a lot more spunky than this." Damon asked.

"We don't even have that white oak stake." I sighed "I feel like all of this training is for nothing. If we don't have that stake then it's pointless, isn't it?"

"Bonnie is working on that." Jeremy told me.

"Yeah and how long has she been doing that? It's been almost a month, Jeremy! And we're lucky that he hasn't come for me at this point! How do we know she will even find the damn thing?" I was yelling.

"You need to have a bit more faith in me than that." Bonnie told me as she walked through my front door smiling.

I was expecting her and Jeremy to make some sort of sweet moment together but all that happened were a few quick glances between them. Things must still not be going so good. For a brief moment I felt bad because I hadn't even asked Jeremy how things were going. I had been so busy with training.

"What are you on about?" I asked her, intrigued by her behavior.

"You're gonna love me." she smiled as she pulled out a long piece of black cloth. She unwrapped it and there it was...a white oak stake!

"Where did you get that from?" I questioned, stunned but happy.

"I put some feelers out. Some elders helped me out in finding it." she replied.

"Bonnie! Thank you so much!" I gave her a huge hug.

"No problem!" she squeezed me tight. "I've also put a protection spell on your house. If anyone comes here and tries to harm you, they'll be thrown out of the house. Literally."

"Wow...that's pretty awesome. I didn't know you could do spells like that!" I was impressed!

"It's a new one I learned. Might come in handy for me, too." she glared at Damon.

"Don't worry your pretty little witchy head. I won't dare come knocking on your door and bugging you." he replied.

The stake was to stay with me at all times. Easier said than done so I had to make sure I carried some type of bag with me everywhere I went, which became annoying when I just wanted to head to the Grill or the coffee shop in town. But I didn't dare let it leave my side.

I decided to have another girls night, it had been way too long. All of the girls agreed to come over and it would be nice to have the extra protection of two vampires and a witch with me.

"Jeremy says you're doing really good with your training." Bonnie said as we all sat in the living room together.

"Yeah I think so." I replied.

"Says that Damon also tried to scare you the one time and your response was to kick him in the balls." she smiled.

"Now that is the best thing I've heard all week! How is it I didn't know about this until now?" Caroline laughed.

It was good to laugh and see them. Life was so busy all the time with all of the crap that had been going on that I had forgotten how nice it was just so be normal for a while and hang out with my girlfriends.

We watched movies and talked most of the night about anything and everything. I told them how scared I really was of Klaus and him possibly watching my every move. I was beginning to resent not letting those vampires kill me when they had the chance.

"Don't be stupid! You'll be fine. We're all here to help you!" Elena tried reassuring me.

Bonnie and Caroline both fell asleep first and left Elena and I awake and talking about how our semester was going. Not so great for either one of us with all of the other things on our minds but at least we still had passing grades.

She then got really quiet for a minute and looked down at her hands in her lap.

"I have to tell someone this." she almost whispered.

"What's going on? Is everything okay?" I asked.

'It's about Damon." she replied. NOT what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to discuss anymore about the guys tonight. Leave it to Elena to bring it up though.

"What about him?" I asked anyway. She clearly wanted to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her.

"We sort of..." she trailed off but I already knew what she was going to say.

"You slept with him again?" I was shocked "When did this happen?"

"A few weeks ago. Stefan and I got into another fight and I was stupid and went right to Damon again." she had tears in her eyes.

"I feel so stupid! I love Stefan! I don't know why I keep doing this! Please don't hate me!" she finally looked at me.

"Why would I hate you?" I asked her.

"Because! I bitched you out not long ago for sleeping with him and then I turn around and do the same damn thing! I'm a hypocrite!" she moaned.

"Elena look, I don't hate you." and it was true...though for some reason I was a little pissed off at her and it wasn't because of her yelling at me when I slept with him. I couldn't put my finger on why but I decided to just ignore it.

"People make mistakes. It happens. But Elena...you really need to talk to Stefan. I think he has a right to know." I took her hands in my hands to help calm her.

"You're right. I have to figure out how to tell him. I just …...i don't want him to leave me. I'm afraid if I do tell him that he'll just leave. And he would have every right to." she cried.

"Well...that's just something you'll have to deal with when it happens. He may very well do that, but it's the right thing to do." I told her.

"You're right." she sniffled "Thank you for listening. You're a great friend, Vi. I'm so glad you're here." she hugged me.

"We better get some sleep." she yawned.

"Yeah we should. Goodnight." I said before drifting off to sleep.