Hey, everyone. I know I just updated this story like a few days ago, but this chapter was so short and easy to do, I figured I'd just get it over with. So it's not a long chapter, but it's all I could fit in for now. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

The Turning Point

Claire was lounging on the couch in the parlor, turning a page of one of the books she'd found on a shelf in the library. She sat in silence with Damon, who was staring out the window, letting himself bask in the sun on his skin with a glass of bourbon in his hand.

"Do me a favor, Damon?" Stefan sighed as he entered the room, freshly dressed for the day. "Try and keep the girls you bring home quiet. I couldn't sleep last night." Damon smirked to himself, but neither Claire or Damon shared any secret glance towards each other to give it away.

She merely turned the page of her book and said, "I heard it, too, Stefan, and I don't think it was just the girl screaming."

Damon scoffed to himself, but then snuck a glance at his brother, who was at the threshold between another room and the one they stood in. "Doesn't matter, anyways. I thought we agreed upon leaving."

Stefan nodded. "We did," he said, almost sternly. "So…any idea of where you'll go?"

"I don't know." Damon shrugged, turning back to the window and sighing. "London, maybe? See some friends…"

Claire snapped her head up and looked at Stefan as he rounded the couch in her view. She gave Stefan an alarmed glance, silently begging him to talk Damon out of going to London. With a slight smile, Stefan responded, "You don't have any friends, Damon."

"You're right, Stefan. I only have you, so…" He turned around. "Where are we goin'?"

Claire accidentally let a laugh burst from her lips. "That's funny, Damon, because you are not joining me and Stefan wherever we go," she said, putting emphasis on the correct words as she pointed to her subjects.

"But we're a team, guys!" Damon mocked, which earned Stefan to hang his head and Claire to roll her eyes. "Don't you remember? The Salvatore brothers and the King girl! Every kid on the block wished they had a friendship like we did."

"Did," Claire pointed out, earning Damon's attention. "Key word there. Did."

"We are going to live our lives as far away from you as possible," Stefan added on, giving his brother a light smile. Damon frowned.

"But we could travel the world together! We could try out for The Amazing Race," he suggested lightly, looking between Claire and Stefan for any sign of laughter.

Claire just flipped a page of her book and sighed, "Been there, done that." She looked up at him. "You didn't get the postcard?"

"Seriously," Stefan said, the urgency tracing his tone when his brother's attention was pulled back to him. "Where are you going? Because we're not staying in this town."

Before Damon was able to answer his brother's question, the old-fashioned bell at the boarding house door rang promptly, stopping all conversation. Claire, who was as confounded as Stefan and Damon, put down her book and swung her legs off of the couch to walk over to them. "Are we expecting company?"

"No…" Stefan trailed off, wrinkling his forehead before walking over to the door to answer it. Damon and Claire both looked at each other for a split moment before trying to make their way over to the door as well.

"I'm here to see Damon," Sheriff Forbes told Stefan when he answered the door.

Stefan, though still confused, nodded. "Uh…sure. Okay." As he said the last word, Damon and Claire approached his side. Though Damon knew who it was at the door, as did Stefan, Claire didn't. But the words on the visitor's jacket spelled it all out for her.

"Sheriff," Damon said curtly. "What a surprise."

"Sorry to bother you, but…we need to talk," she said cryptically. Stefan and Claire were still confused, but Damon just nodded and shrugged.

"Come in," he said politely and stepped aside, letting the Sheriff through the threshold. He closed the door behind her and the Sheriff walked into the middle part of the foyer, where Stefan and Claire waited. Sheriff Forbes turned to Claire and her eyebrows raised.

"Who's this?" Liz asked as Damon approached her from over her shoulder.

"Claire King," Claire said, giving the Sheriff her best warm smile. She held out her hand and the Sheriff took it gracefully, but was still skeptical. "I, uh…I'm just visiting here."

"King?" Liz said, slowly realizing. "Are you a Founding Family here?"

"Why, yes I am," Claire said, giving the Sheriff a brighter smile. Though she was anything but innocent, she always found it easy to make people believe so. "You might know my grandfather. Jack King? He died a few weeks ago."

Though she hated Mystic Falls, she was never one to not keep up with family affairs. Truth be told, she hated Jack King. He was a bitter old man who was descended from a line of bastards—her father, who couldn't keep his hands off of a pretty woman for his life, had at least two more children with different women. But he was married to her mother, and she was their only child since the age of eighteen, when her sister, Amelia, ran away from home. When Claire turned, she kept a close eye on her parents, and they eventually died of old age.

"That's right," Liz said, nodding her head up and down. "Jack King. He was a member of the Council." She paused. "Are you planning on staying here for a while?"

Claire glanced over at Stefan, but she eventually turned back to Liz with a light laugh. "Well, nothing's definite," she said evasively.

Liz gave another nod. "Well, if you do plan on staying here, you should stop by City Hall sometime. I'm sure Damon can fill you in on what's been going on in Mystic Falls." Claire nodded hopefully, and Liz turned to Damon. "Speaking of…" She turned to the vampire beside her. "Damon?"

"Of course. Here, let's go outside," Damon said, giving Liz a signature smile before leading her in the direction of the patio. Stefan and Claire watched as Damon led Sheriff Forbes away from them, but he knew that they would be listening to the conversation. There was obviously something wrong in Mystic Falls, yet again.

"Um, I hope you don't mind the secrecy," Damon apologized to the Sheriff as they walked outside and he shut the patio door. "Stefan doesn't know about this yet and Claire prefers to be kept out of it when she can. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of course," agreed Sheriff Forbes. "Kids are too young to be brought into this, and people shouldn't have to be if they don't want to."

With a nod, Damon continued, "So, what do you need?"

Sheriff Forbes took in a breath. "There's been another attack," she said, her voice somber. "A female victim, her throat torn out, completely drained of blood. It fits the pattern."

Damon knotted his eyebrows. "I-I'm sorry. I don't understand. I thought I already solved the problem…" He didn't dare mention staking Lexi because he knew Claire and Stefan were listening from inside.

Sheriff Forbes shrugged. "She must've turned someone. Or multiple someones. I don't know."

Inside, Stefan and Claire sat on the couch in the parlor, listening intently to the conversation. Stefan turned to Claire and raised his eyebrows at her. "Did you…?"

Claire shook her head. "No, I'm perfectly fine on blood bags," she whispered, but they knew what this meant instantly—it was Damon.

Outside, Sheriff Forbes continued, "The story for the town is another animal attack, but I'm not sure how long we can keep lying to them. The Council's in an uproar. We thought we were past this."

Damon was silent, but eventually, he nodded. "Okay…so…so what do we do?" He tried his best at playing the timid little human, and because of his inflated ego, he wasn't really amazed at his acting skills.

"You're the only one who's ever taken on a vampire," Sheriff Forbes said. "We were hoping you could tell us."

Claire turned to Stefan, her eyes curious. "Damon staked a vampire for the Council?" Stefan nodded, but he didn't dare say anything else. "Do you know who it was?"

Stefan shook his head. "It was someone we'd never seen before. Damon probably turned her to be the patsy for his mistake." He was lying through his teeth now, but he didn't care. The consequences of Claire finding out was more dangerous than lying to her.

After Damon and the Sheriff finished their "secret" conversation, Damon held the door open for her and gave her a reserved smile.

"Thank you for stopping by."

Sheriff Forbes nodded. "Let me know what you come up with."

"Absolutely," agreed Damon. Liz turned around to Claire, who was on the couch with Stefan.

"It was nice to meet you, Claire," she said with a hopeful smile. Claire rose from her position and nodded, giving off her innocence again.

"Yeah, you too," she said warmly, and watched as Sheriff Forbes exited the Salvatore house. As soon as the door was shut and Liz was away from it, there was a flash, and Stefan was at Damon's throat, holding him against the door by his weak strength.

As soon as Damon's back thumped against the wood, Claire flashed up to them both and watched as Stefan growled, "What is wrong with you? You killed somebody?"

Damon released himself from Stefan's hold, pushing his brother away from him. "Get off of me," he snarled. "A—don't touch me. B—if I had, I wouldn't have been so obvious about it. C—there's another vampire in town."

Stefan was quiet for a moment. "That's impossible."

"Obviously not," Damon said lightly as he turned away from Stefan and Claire. Claire just held up her hand and shook her head.

"Okay, okay, then who is it? Who would be dumb enough to leave a body like that in the middle of the street?"

Damon sighed, exasperated. "Ah, what do we care? We're leaving anyway, right?"

"No, I can't leave now and you know that," Stefan retorted in an obvious tone when he stepped closer to his brother, who was turned away from him. "How are we supposed to find this person?"

Claire scoffed. "If this vampire is dumb enough to leave a body in that condition, there must be a trail of them somewhere. It's probably a newbie. Shouldn't be that hard to track," she promised, placing a hand on Stefan's arm. "Look, I'll take care of it, okay? You should probably just make sure Elena's safe."

"No, I'll take care of it," Damon retorted, turning around to face Claire, who just scoffed and crossed her arms. "And I don't need your help."

"I wasn't asking if you wanted help, Damon, I was telling you that I will handle this so Stefan and I could leave…without you."

"Honestly," Stefan snapped, looking between both of them. "Can't you just work together? It's not that hard."

Damon, without removing his eyes from Claire, spoke, "Let the adults handle this, Stefan."

"Really?" Stefan returned, his eyes wide. "Because, right now, you two are acting like children." Neither vampire said anything. "Work together on this. Twice the strength, faster the kill. Okay?" No one answered him, so Stefan answered it himself. "Okay. I'm going to go find Elena," he said quickly before turning, brushing past Claire, and exiting the household.

Damon and Claire stood staring at each other for a long time. "You did scream loudly, though," he pointed out, a small smirk on his face.

She gave him a copycat smile. "I wasn't the only one."

"This is the most useless piece of garbage I have ever seen!" Claire said, frustrated, as she threw down the vampire-tracking device that Damon had given her so they could track the new vampire without delay. The compass's handle wouldn't stop flickering between her position and Damon's position until it became violent, spazzing out of control at the magnetic force pulling it to vampires. "How the hell are we supposed to track a vampire when it won't stop flickering between us?"

Damon thought to himself, but suddenly, he had an idea. "Easy," he said and snatched the watch up from her hand. She gave an offended sound, but he closed the watch and pulled out his phone. "We get a human to do it for us."

Damon had called Caroline Forbes, a perky high school teenager who was apparently best friends with Elena. According to Damon, he'd been compelling her ever since his return to Mystic Falls. At first, he attempted to be her boyfriend, but then, after Elena intervened, he'd just used her as someone to compel and manipulate.

"You are all class," Claire scoffed at him as the bell run on the front door for the second time. Claire answered the door this time, and her presence was greeted with a confused look on Caroline's face. "Caroline Forbes?"

"Yeah…" Caroline trailed off. "Who are you?"

"Claire King," she said quickly, not wasting time on the introduction. "Come on, Damon and I have something for you to do."

Damon met Caroline in the foyer as she walked inside, and when she saw him, Caroline sighed. Still under the compulsion, she was obliged to do what he said, but that didn't mean she had to like him. "What did you want me over here for?"

Damon just gave a wide grin before looking into her eyes and beginning the compulsion. "I need you to take this"—he held out the compass and placed it in her zombie-like hand—"and track a vampire for me. After you leave here, go to the town square and begin from here. Call me when it's done, all right?"

Caroline piped up. "Okay," she agreed, and gripped the compass in her hand before turning and seeing herself out on her own.

When she was gone, Damon sighed inwardly and Claire just stared after the seemingly perfect high school girl. "So, are you trying to be a pedophile now or is it just a phase?" she questioned, turning to him and glaring into his sea-colored eyes with curiosity.

"She came on to me," Damon defended himself pointedly. "Sort of like you," he added.

Claire laughed. "Is that what you think?"

"No, it's what I know."

"Let's not forget who kissed me first," Claire pointed out firmly, to which Damon instantly shut up. "Yeah, that's right. Don't say anything. Because we both know it's true."

"Well, I was talking about when we started our little…arrangement," he trailed off, his eyes skimming over the length of her body. Claire sighed.

"All right, I'll concede to that," she agreed, mumbling. Damon's lips curled up in a victorious smile. "But you know it all really began with that kiss."

Damon sighed, his eyes moving from her face down her curves and to her feet. "Yeah, I guess you're right." All of a sudden, his hands reached out and he gripped her hips violently, his fingers creating a bruise that would eventually heal through the slight strip of skin that had shown as a result of his violent jerk. "How long do you think it'll take Caroline to find the vampire?"

"Long enough," Claire said sharply before used her steady fingers to rip open all of the button's on Damon's shirt without a single one popping off.

Caroline had called by the time they had both wrapped up and Claire poured herself a drink. They were in the middle of an argument about where Damon would go when he picked up his phone and heard Caroline say that she had found the vampire. After he told her of the address, Caroline sighed, "So what do I do now?"

Damon jerked his head in the position of the door as he slipped on his leather jacket and opened the door. He walked out first and Claire walked out behind him while he responded, "Just wait. We'll be there in a minute."

"Can you hurry? I have things to do."

Damon and Claire both appeared at the warehouse in which Caroline had found the vampire, and Damon stood before the blonde teenager and said in a low voice, "You can give me that."

He took the compass out of Caroline's hand and she spoke, "So why did you need me to do this?"

"Because Claire and I interfere with the signal," Damon answered vaguely as he silenced the compass and closed it.

Caroline, who was annoyed by his evasiveness and indifference towards her, sighed, "Can I go now? This has blown, like, half of my day."

"Oh my God," Claire breathed out in amazement. Damon looked at her, confused. "It's like a human, teenage version of me. I can just smell the hatred for you."

Damon gave Claire a childish glance before turning back to Caroline and pouring his eyes into hers, "Leave. Get in your car. Go home. Forget I asked you to do this."

Caroline took a moment, but then straightened. "Okay," she said cheerfully, giving him a girlish shrug. "Bye now."

"Bye," Damon returned and looked back at Claire. "Really? Caroline Forbes reminds you of yourself? Please."

"Well, not with the whole preppy…teenage girl thing," Claire admitted, shrugging, "but yeah. Too bad Stefan wants to leave this place," she mumbled.

"I thought you hated Mystic Falls."

"I do," Claire returned. "Especially with you in it. It's just…there's something about coming home after such a long time. It's refreshing."

Damon sighed. "Well, I for one, can't wait to get the hell out of here," he mumbled to himself before turning to her on the staircase. "Wait here just in case," he ordered.

Without waiting for her response, Damon walked up the rest of the stairs, pulled open the door, and shut it as quickly as he opened it. Claire thought about going inside with him, but he was probably right. If she went inside and something happened, both of them would be screwed. So, she waited outside, and that's when she heard the first sign of trouble.

The sound of the bullets being fired made her cringe, but she wasn't stupid enough to pull open the door and walk into the lion's den. When she heard Damon's distinct cry, she knew that there was something wrong. Her blonde hair whipped in the wind as she desperately looked around for another entrance near her. Seeing none, she jogged off of the staircase and briskly walked to the other side of the building, all while hearing the conversation inside. Another bullet fired, and Damon screamed again. It was when the conversation between the mad man shooting Damon continued when she finally found a door that led inside through the back way.

"How should I know?" she heard inside—the voice of an angry, newborn vampire. "The last thing I remember is I'm about to stake your brother, and then you grabbed me. That's it!" Slowly, Claire broke the lock on the door, making sure it was silent enough for the newborn vampire to not hear. Swiftly, she entered the abandoned warehouse, complete with spider-webs and unwanted rodents.

"Somebody buried me," the mad vampire continued. She could see this vampire and Damon now—Damon was on the floor, picking out the wooden bullets, and the vampire was crouched beside him.

"It happens," Damon breathed out before pulling out another bullet in his side. "Ow."

"You bit me. It had to be you."

"You have to have vampire blood in your system when you die," Damon snapped. "I didn't do that. Some other vampire found you. Gave you their blood." Damon groaned and slumped against the floor, weak.

"Who?"

"That's what I wanna know!"

"Dude, it's not like the Welcome Wagon was waiting with a Bundt Cake and a handbook!" The vampire shouted. "It's been a learn-as-you-go process!"

Blah, blah, blah, here's your pity party, Clarissa rolled her eyes as she crept around a shelf to get a better view of the situation. The vampire droned on and on about how he was turned, but he knew nothing of real pain. Real pain was being forced to feed against your will with no way out of it. He obviously had a choice, and he just chose the wrong one.

After the vampire was done feeding on his own bad situation, Damon suddenly put two and two together. The vampire had told him that he had been killing people left and right, a normal reaction to becoming a new vampire. "Wait a minute," Damon said, shaking his head as much as he could. "The cops only found one body."

"I left one," the vampire snarled. "I was tired. But I've been hiding the rest of the bodies." Without turning he pointed in a different direction. "They're right back there!"

Damon gave an annoyed expression. "You're kidding," he muttered as he looked in the direction.

"They're just piling up."

Claire turned to the direction this vampire pointed in as well, and she was repulsed at the sight. Sure, as a vampire, you kill people, but you had to be one sadistic, clueless prick to just pile on bodies in an abandoned warehouse. There were so many other ways to cover a vampire's tracks—hiding bodies one on top of another wasn't an option. Fires…animal attacks…even hiding the body somewhere with the bite mark covered up was an option! This vampire was going to get them all killed before they had time to leave Mystic Falls.

A silence passed over Damon and the vampire, and Clarissa watched as the vampire sighed and sat down next to Damon. She didn't make a move yet, because the vampire had the upper hand with his gun.

"Why am I so overly emotional?" the vampire asked Damon quietly. "All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend. I wanna…be with her and bite her and stuff."

Please, Clarissa scoffed in her thoughts.

Damon's tone surprised her when he answered. She thought he would've said something witty and snide, but instead, he shrugged. "Well, you probably love her. Anything you felt before will be magnified now." He became serious. "You're gonna have to learn how to control that."

"What about walking in the sun? I'm a morning person." Unconsciously, Claire let her thumb skim over her own daylight ring that Emily made for her against Katherine's wishes. Emily Bennett witnessed her whole transformation and, sickened by Katherine's ruthless act over a slight hint of jealousy, she protected Claire against the councilmen from suspecting she was a vampire. The ring was fit with a lapis lazuli stone and an antiquated bronze metal that wrapped around her finger. Damon and Stefan's rings were almost the same, but they had a silver metal and a family crest on theirs.

"You can walk in the sun," continued the vampire, "which, by the way, is pretty cool. Council'd never suspect you." Claire saw Damon twist his own ring so that it didn't show on his hand. "That's not in the journals."

"The journals?" Damon questioned.

"Yeah, the Founding Fathers…they passed down journals to their kids—come on, man. You gotta tell me. How can you walk around in the sun?"

Damon was hesitant. "Who turned you?"

"How do you walk in the sun?" the vampire snarled.

"Who turned you?"

The vampire was now getting agitated. "You know, I've been really nice so far. But I will kill you." He got up from his feet, and at this, Claire braced herself to make a move. It wouldn't so bad if Damon was hurt, but she wasn't just going to let him die at the hands of this oblivious asshole.

Damon snarled, "Then you'll never know." Damon rose himself, but the gun harboring wooden bullets was still pointed at him in silence. "You're not answering my question."

"You first!"

"Seems we're at a bit of an impasse, then, doesn't it?"

"I have things to do. People to kill. Guess I'll be needing a little head start." The bullets went off three times, and Damon collapsed onto the floor with a loud groan. Before the vampire was able to walk away, she flashed over to him and the sound made the vampire whip around sharply, but she had gained the upper hand. She hit the new vampire with her fist, and since the vampire was surprised, it took him a moment to bounce back, at which point, she had flashed and kicked him in the side of the leg. He fired off the bullets again, but they were nowhere near her. She was pretty sure that one of them actually hit Damon, according to his yelp.

Seeing that he had no chance against the blonde intruder, the new vampire fled faster than he had hoped for, and she stared after him with a sigh and looked down to see Damon right at her feet, his breathing quick and injured.

"You couldn't have jumped in any sooner?" Damon growled and rolled over. Claire shrugged.

"Well, I mean, it's not like he was going to kill you. We both know that." She paused. "Plus, it was kind of fun to watch."

Damon was pissed by the time he came home, but not at Claire, at Logan Fell, who was the vampire who shot him over six times with tiny wooden bullets. Damon had heard from Stefan that this Logan character was at the school, and immediately, het set out for revenge. Claire went with him and planned to end this vampire once and for all, because now they had the upper hand. Damon had grabbed a gun full of wooden bullets on his way out the door.

Stefan had told them where, exactly, Logan was, and they met up with Stefan on Elm Street, where a car was passing. It stopped at the stop sign oh-so-domestically, and at the opportunity, Stefan yanked Logan out of the car and threw him on the street. When Logan bounced back, Damon, who stood right beside his brother, held the gun up, pointed at Logan, and shot effortlessly, a sadistic smile on his face.

"Payback's a bitch, isn't it?"

Logan struggled on the floor, and Damon turned back to Stefan. "Get her out of here," he ordered, gesturing to Caroline, who had been in the car with Logan when they stopped them. She was knocked unconscious, a bloodstain on the window. Damon studied Logan on the concrete, but there was a sound inside of the door.

"Logan, what happened? Logan!"

Claire jumped at the sound, reaching inside the car to find an open cell phone on the driver's seat. She clearly recognized Sheriff Forbes's voice, and so she answered in the best-distressed voice she could muster. "S-Sheriff, it's Claire."

"Claire? Where's Caroline?"

"She's all right. Damon and I stopped the vampire. We're on Elm Street."

"I'll be there soon," she said quickly, and Claire hung up the phone as a result. She turned to find Damon smiling as she bounced over to the trunk and opened it, all the while keeping an eye on Logan. He found a tire iron and set to work with it.

"We're gonna try this one more time," he said lightly and swung the crowbar like it was a baseball bat. "Who turned you?"

Logan winced in pain, "I told you, I don't know."

Damon examined the tire iron in his hand. "This tire iron here could take your head clean off," he warned, but it was in the snide tone that Claire expected earlier. "Is that your final answer?" Damon braced to swing the tire iron at Logan's head.

"How can you side with them?"

"I don't side with anyone," Damon returned coldly. "You pissed me off, I want you dead."

"Just kill him, Damon," Claire sighed, crossing her arms. "The town won't be safe until we do."

"The town won't be safe until we figure out who turned him, Clarissa," Damon sung, turning back to her before returning to face Logan. With a pause, he continued, "Who turned you?"

"I don't know!" Logan insisted.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Oh, well. You're screwed." He braced to swing the tire iron again, but this time, Logan screamed.

"Wait! I do know!" He put his hand up to stop the iron from hitting him.

"You're lying."

Logan's voice was desperate now, "You think you're the only one who wants to get into that tomb underneath the old church?" Clarissa and Damon both stopped cold, and as she stiffened, Damon softened.

"If you are lying to me, I will end you," Damon growled.

"I am not lying," Logan pushed. "There's another way to break the spell. We can help you."

"Damon, don't you dare," Claire snapped, stepping forward to him and Logan. "Don't do it, Damon, don't—" The sound of sirens covered their ears, and she was interrupted by Logan.

"Meet me at the old church," he said desperately.

"Damon, no," Claire snapped, but Damon kept her away from Logan as he spoke.

"Take us down. Make it look real. Make it look real."

But, with the Sheriff in sight, Claire couldn't retaliate when Damon swiped the tire iron at Logan carelessly and Logan snapped back by pushing the both of them back against the vehicle he had arrived in. Sheriff Forbes rushed out of the car and up to them. "Damn it, Damon," Claire whispered to him as the pain in her back from the impact began to fade.

"Where is she?" Sheriff Forbes asked quickly.

"She's okay," Damon responded. "My brother's taken her home." Claire slumped against the car as Damon stood from his position. "I'm sorry Sheriff. I just wasn't strong enough," he complained, and Claire felt like screaming at him, but she couldn't in front of the human. Every part of her twitched with rage, and Damon was fully aware of this fact when they were released by the other cops that raided the vehicle for any sign of a clue.

When Claire turned around to find Damon, she knew that he had already left.

It was around half an hour after Logan had told Damon to meet him at the old church when Damon finally arrived in the cemetery, slowly making his way towards the church to hear Logan out. He kept the gun with the wooden bullets by his side just in case the bastard tried anything against him.

A ringing sound brought Damon out of his solitude, and he answered his phone with a single word, "Hello?"

"I just wanted to say thank you," Liz said to Damon on the other side of the line. "I don't know how you did it."

"Uh…not following," Damon trailed off, puzzled.

"We found Logan's body out by the old Fell warehouse. It's been disposed of. He was hoarding victims, innocent victims."

"What?" But he wasn't surprised of that, he was more surprised of the death of the man who was supposed to help him bring Katherine back.

"This town owes you so much. So do I." With that, Sheriff Forbes hung up the phone, and Damon stood despaired on top of the old church.

"I thought you were done with this stupid quest to bring her back."

Damon turned to face Claire, who emerged out of two trees. He looked at her with eyes that were both angry and sorrowful.

"No," he returned. "I said you wouldn't have to worry about it because the crystal was destroyed. If there's another way to bring Katherine back, I'm going to do it." Without waiting for her to respond to his confession, Damon began to walk away from the forest, but Claire wasn't letting him off so easy.

"This woman ruined both of our lives, Damon!" Claire snapped, bringing him to a stop. "She not only turned me into a vampire, but she turned you. We both know that you miss being human."

Damon turned around and stared at her for what felt like an eternity, the reflection of the full moon shining her beautiful, long blonde hair and shining her grey eyes. He thought, for just a second, that maybe she was right.

Then again, she was always wrong according to him.

To shut her up, Damon flashed up to her and snapped her neck, unaffected by his actions, and caught her as her lifeless body began to fall into his arms. He pulled her up onto his body and walked out of the forest, her lightweight in his arms, and, for a moment, he thought about dropping her off at the boarding house.

Instead, he put her in the passenger seat of his car and felt around the pockets of her clothes, looking for leverage. He knew he always kept it on her…

Bingo, Damon thought to himself when he felt the material of the small photo in the inside pocket of her jacket. When he pulled it out, he could clearly make out the face of two teenage girls labeled: Clarissa and Amelia, 1860

With a vindictive smile, Damon slipped the picture into his pocket and shut the door of his car.

Just so you all know, I have Driver's Ed for the next two weeks every day until 5:30 after school. Since I'm getting home so late and I most likely will have homework, there's a slim chance I'll be able to update during the week. And next weekend, I have a lot of stuff to do, but I will try my hardest to update 1 or 2 stories of mine. Just be warned that the next two weeks will be sort of radio-silent for me. Hopefully, I can carve some time to write.

But summer's coming up soon so just hold on a little longer! Actually, I'm the one who needs to hold on. A few more weeks of school...

Anyways, hope you liked the chapter. I'll update as soon as I find the time! Review if you can.

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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