Hey, everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last update, finals have been a little tough. But they're over now and I've got some free time to write. Next update will be Double Vision, sorry for all of those who have been waiting for that. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this chapter! Review when you're finished if you can!

Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

Children of the Damned

Mystic Falls, 1864

Stefan and Clarissa walked the streets of the brightly lit town square, arm in arm, laughing over memories that just felt like yesterday. Clarissa noticed that Stefan's mood had lately been heavily increased, and she had her own suspicions as to who was the cause of this.

"So," she began with a sigh. "This…Katherine Pierce. Am I mistaken or have you and your brother become quite taken with her?"

Stefan turned his head to glance at her in just the slightest as the two friends leisurely walked. "She's…wonderful, Clarissa." The female just tilted her head in a sort of disbelieving manner. "Really. You two would get along nicely."

"I highly doubt it." She pulled them to a stop and looked her best friend in the eyes. "I'm worried for you, Stefan. You are aware that Miss Pierce is toying with both you and your brother, correct?"

Stefan raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you begin to care about Damon again?"

Clarissa stopped at the question, and her eyes drifted to the side to see the very subject of the dreaded question standing just a few yards away with Miss Katherine by his side. When she turned back to Stefan, she gave him a smile. "I haven't, Stefan. I am merely concerned for your safety." She paused. "I have begun to see a change in you that I never thought I'd see."

Stefan's smile brightened at the question, though it was a dark subject that Clarissa was trying to touch on. "Clarissa, that's happiness." His smile forced one out of hers, but she was so skeptical of Katherine Pierce that it was hard to fake happiness for her friend. "Much like yours with Christopher."

Her heart sank in her chest. Christopher Fell, her fiancé. The future panned out in her head between them and, quite frankly, she saw herself unhappy. But Christopher was whom her parents wanted her to marry, and so then it'd be.

"Yes." Her voice was merely a whisper. "Your happiness is…much like mine, Stefan."

There was a rapping sound on her door that brought Claire out of her much needed sleep, considering the track record of this town in such short time. She groaned loudly, trying to tell whomever it was at the door to leave, but it was more than persistent. Claire tried to ignore it, refusing to give into the aggressive way of waking her up. Sure enough, the knocking ceased, and she smiled to herself with closed eyes and turned on her side, clutching the sheets around her.

It was when she sensed another person in her bed that she opened her eyes to find them pouring right into Damon's. Immediately, she jumped up.

"Damon!" she shouted at him, pulling the sheet around her tighter. But his body weight prevented the sheet from covering anything above her camisole-covered torso, but it was a good thing that Damon had been on the outside of the sheet. Though she had decent clothing on top, underneath the sheet, she had nothing but a pair of boyshorts on. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

Damon shrugged beside her. "You didn't answer the door."

"Yeah. I don't know if you know this, but that's the international sign of leave me alone," she retorted, pulling herself up on her knees and running a hand through her hair. She looked back at Damon, who just smirked. "Okay, quick question: why are you still in my bed?"

For safety precautions, of course, Claire had sent herself back to her bedroom after being with Damon—and it was a good thing, too. Stefan and Elena had decided to come back to the boarding house and spend the night there. She ran into them getting an evening glass of bourbon and then she went back up to her room and slept off the last couple hours. However, Damon, the persistent bastard, had obviously invaded her solitude.

"Well, I thought we could—"

"I'm going to stop you right there." She held up a hand for him to see and listened. Elena and Stefan were awake, she realized, and relayed this to Damon. "Stefan and Elena are up. He'll hear."

Damon frowned. "I was going to say, I thought we could work together to figure out who the other vampires are in this town," he admitted, causing her to fall silent. "But, I mean, if we're talking about that—"

"Hold on a second. Who says I'm helping you with anything? All you want is to get into that tomb."

Damon shrugged. "Yeah. But Stefan agreed to help me, and since you and Stef are joined at the hip…" Claire raised an eyebrow in prompt, and Damon sighed. "Whatever. You want to be boring, be boring. I put Stefan and Elena on Gilbert Journal duty. You can help them." With that, he swung his legs off of the other side of her bed and stood up. Claire watched as he walked around the bed, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"You know, now it's my turn to be skeptical of you." Damon turned around at her with a puzzled expression. She continued without hesitation, "What are you up to? You were so insistent upon getting revenge on this town. You expect me to believe all you want is Katherine now?" It would've been a shock to Damon that she learned this, but she managed to get him to talk about it in the midst of their fun while Stefan and Elena were gone the night before.

Damon stared at her for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. I expect you to believe that." She scoffed, but he continued. "Don't act like I'm not doing this for you, either. Once I get Katherine back, I'm gone, and you'll never have to deal with me again."

"Oh, so bringing Katherine back so she could kill me again is completely for my benefit, right?"

This time, Damon shook his head. "I told you I'd keep her away." He moved towards the door. "I meant it."

In an instant, he was gone, and Claire was left to get dressed. In no time at all, she was downstairs, where she met Stefan and Elena who were conversing in the parlor with each other. "Where's Damon?" Claire asked, coming up to the threshold and leaning against it.

"He went down to the basement," Stefan told her, to which Claire nodded in understanding. "So…you ready?"

Claire raised an eyebrow as Stefan and Elena came towards her. "For what?"

"Damon put us on journal duty," Elena said with certain distaste. "Stefan and I are just about to go to my house and see if we can dig it up."

Stefan spoke next, "Are you coming?"

Claire looked towards the basement and then back at Stefan with a nod. "Yeah, I guess. Let's go."

It didn't take long for them all to get back to Elena's house, where she immediately pulled out several boxes and began to rummage through them. Stefan watched as Elena searched through Jonathan Gilbert's things, and Claire was the one who got seconds on the interesting items.

"Who knew the Gilberts were such pack rats?" she muttered to herself with a shrug as she put down a book that looked like it was from before she was born.

Elena sighed worriedly. "Do you think Damon really believes us?" she asked, making it an open question to both vampires. "That we're all trying to help him?"

Claire snorted. "Damon the Skeptic? Hell no."

Stefan sort of agreed with her statement, but put it in a nicer way. "I…don't think Damon really knows what to believe. Trust isn't something that naturally comes to him. Hence…" Stefan gestured towards Claire.

"Damon the Skeptic," she finished off, giving Elena a small smile. But Claire could see right through the human—she was sensing a feeling of compassion towards Damon that oozed out of Elena.

"You know," Elena started, "I really think that Damon believes that everything that he's done, every move that's he's made, he's done for love."

Claire shook his head. "No, Elena, Damon…" How did she even begin to describe Damon's ways of affection. "Damon doesn't…know what love is. He knows what infatuation is. He knows what obligation is. Love is something that Damon hasn't fully…grasped yet."

Elena looked up at the blonde vampire sitting across from her. "Have you ever been in love?" she asked, fishing for something that she knew Claire wasn't going to give her if she asked directly.

It was a good thing Clarissa King had a knack for picking out fishing statements. "Aw, who needs to be in love when you've got Stefan Salvatore as your best friend?" She evaded the question, throwing a glance to Stefan, who rolled his eyes playfully.

"I think you're the one who hasn't grasped the concept of love, Claire. I mean…how many boyfriends have you had over the decades?" Claire shrugged simply at Stefan's question. "Yeah. And let's not forget JFK."

She groaned. "What is with everyone bringing him up? It was a fling! Sue me, he was our best-looking president. To be honest, if I wasn't here right now, I'd probably be making a move on Prince William." Claire looked over at Elena. "But, there's a difference between me and Damon. I know how to love, I just choose to…not fall in it," she confessed as she picked at the book beside her. "Damon falls head first. It's not healthy."

Elena sighed. "Well, I think it's twisted…sure, but it's kind of sad," she said, her voice compassionate and despaired.

Stefan was the one that answered this time. "There are other ways to get what you want," he explained. "You don't have to kill people. Damon has no regard for human life. He enjoys inflicting pain on others." Claire thought that Stefan's statement might be taken a little too far, but she had seen the way he was after Damon left him. It broke his heart. "For a hundred and forty-five years, every single time that I have let my guard down and let Damon back into my life, he's done something to make me regret that. I'm not going to make that mistake again."

"So what do you think will happen if the tomb gets opened and Damon gets Katherine back?" Elena asked, this being a valid question. Claire let Stefan explain this one.

"I think that, no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die."

Elena straightened and exhaled, realizing quickly what they had to do to stop Stefan's brother. They had to find the journal. She reached forward and grabbed the first thing she saw in the box in front of her, and Claire looked over her shoulder.

"That's Jonathan Gilbert," she noticed, and was aware of Stefan now shuffling to get over to them.

Elena reached forward, setting the picture down, and grabbed a box with a confused expression. "What's this?" she asked before opening the lid of the wooden box. Stefan, Elena, and Claire all peered inside to see a muzzle. Stefan and Claire straightened, and they threw suspicious glances towards each other.

"What are you guys doing?" The three of them were interrupted when Jeremy, Elena's brother, came into the kitchen to see two people he knew and one girl he didn't. Elena shut the box in her hand and put it back in the cardboard one in front of her.

"Hey. Just…um. Going through some stuff. Feeling sentimental. Dad had this whole family journal from years ago. I thought I'd dig it up," Elena tried to make it sound nonchalant, and it worked.

Jeremy hopped up on the counter. "Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"

Elena tilted her head. "Yeah, what do you know about it?"

"I just did a history report on it," he responded immediately.

"Oh!" Elena exclaimed, still keeping her voice calm. "So…where is it now?"

"I gave it to Mister Saltzman. He wanted to see it." Elena and Stefan looked at each other and Claire sighed. But Jeremy was confused as to what a random woman was doing in his kitchen with his sister and her boyfriend. "Um…"

Elena looked back at Jeremy and then to where he was looking, and she inhaled sharply. "Oh. Sorry, Jeremy, this is Stefan's friend, Claire. Claire, this is my brother Jeremy." She turned back to Jeremy and made an excuse. "We, uh...we just all made plans to hang out today." Jeremy nodded once, and things were silent for a moment before Stefan looked at Claire.

"Well, uh…we've got to go back to the house, don't we?"

"Yep," Claire said, giving Jeremy a small, awkward smile. "Uh, yeah, definitely. Nice to meet you Jeremy." He just nodded again and Elena got up from her chair to walk Stefan and Claire to the door, where they made their plans to get the journal from the shady history teacher.

Stefan wanted Elena to stay back at the house while he and Claire went to get the journal, and she did. Claire followed Stefan through the hallways of the school cryptically, using their vampire stealth to get into Alaric's classroom. The two of them didn't have to do any distracting, for the History teacher was already out of the classroom by the time they'd arrived. To their surprise, though, the journal was nowhere in sight.

It was when Claire heard the sound of something being fired that she whipped around and caught the wooden stake in her hand inches before it touched her heart. Before them stood the History teacher with a secret, and she was pissed to say the least.

Alaric hastily began to reload his weapon, but Claire just chucked the wooden stake to the side.

"Not. Cool," she warned before flashing behind the teacher, who was having trouble with his device. He turned to face her with a gasp, and she gave him sickeningly sweet smile. "I knew there was something off about you." She grabbed the weaponry from the teacher without using an unnecessary amount of effort to get it.

"Claire, take it easy," Stefan warned in front of her, but she pushed the teacher to the side so that he crashed into a bunch of desks. The timid human desperately grasped at the chairs to sit down. "Claire…"

"Relax, Stefan," she said, sauntering forward. "I won't hurt the guy. I just want to know what a boring high school History teacher is doing shooting out wooden stakes at the first person he sees." She shrugged. "Granted, yes. It wasn't without cause, but it still pisses me off," the female vampire sung.

Stefan walked up to her and gently grabbed the weaponry from her hand. He studied it closely and then looked at Alaric.

"What is this?" he asked. "Compressed air?" Alaric didn't say a word. "Did you make it yourself?" Again, silence. "Who are you?" Nothing but the sound of the heat radiating from the school's filters. "Look, we're not going to hurt you."

"Unless you try to kill me again. Then I'll hurt you," Claire added and watched as Stefan passed the weapon back to Alaric with caution. He took Claire's arm and helped her over to one of the desks, where he let her sit in the chair while he was placed on the actual desk part.

"Now," Stefan began, "Who are you?" he asked again.

"I'm a teacher," Alaric responded. Claire scoffed.

"You're not seriously trying to lie to us right now, are you? I'm warning you, I don't want to do this the hard way, but you did just try to turn me into a kebab, so…" she trailed off, pursing her lips. "Choice is yours, buddy."

Alaric was silent for a moment, but then he inhaled sharply and gave in. "I'm also a historian. And while researching Virginia, I—I made a few discoveries about your town."

"So you show up like Van Helsing?" Stefan questioned in disbelief. "Come on. Tell us the truth."

Realizing that he wouldn't get out of this until he gave the vampires what they wanted, Alaric chuckled softly, "My wife was a paranormal psychologist. She spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area." Now it made sense. "It was her work that lead me here."

"Where's your wife?" Stefan asked.

"Dead," answered Alaric. "A vampire killed her."

Claire snorted. "Figures. Vampire hunting History teacher out for revenge for a dead loved one. This story never gets tiring, does it?" She sighed and crossed her legs, putting her head on her hand. "All right, so tell us where the Gilbert Journal is."

"What do you want with it?"

"Where is it?" Stefan repeated the question out of his friend's mouth, his voice relentless. Claire approved of the badass-Stefan form. It suited him sometimes.

"It's on my desk," Alaric answered, as if it were obvious. Claire's eyes drifted to the desk and back to Alaric.

"This isn't a game, Van Helsing," she taunted. "It's not on the desk. Tell us where you put it."

Alaric looked back at the desk, himself, and then turned to both the vampires that were waiting for an answer. All he could say was, "It was on my desk."

Before the conversation could progress, there was a pinging sound in Stefan's pocket. All talk was halted for a moment when Stefan reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone to see a text message from Elena. Stefan sighed, causing Claire to raise her eyebrows and ask, "What is it?"

"Damon," Stefan said simply, turning his head to Claire. "Apparently, he just…showed up at Elena's house and...is making dinner."

"Damon being domestic?" Claire wrinkled her nose. "Nope. I can't see it." Stefan looked over at her with hopeful eyes, and she quickly caught on. She groaned, "Stefan…come on…"

"I'm worried," he defended himself. "You know Damon can be…persuasive. And I'll handle…things here." Stefan's eyes drifted up to Alaric, who just sat in his seat quietly.

Claire looked over at the History teacher and grumbled, "Too bad. It was much more fun here." She sighed and straightened, pointing a finger at Stefan. "You owe me. Big time."

Elena answered the doorbell as promptly as it was rung, and she was relieved to find that it was Claire standing at the doorstep. She would've been happy with either Claire or Stefan, she just didn't feel comfortable with Damon in her house, sharing her food, and conversing with her family like they were his own. Elena mouthed a "thank you" right when Claire crossed the threshold, and Claire nodded as they began to walk to the kitchen to find Damon cooking sauce by the stove. He picked up a wooden spoonful to taste it, and then basked in his own cooking skills. He was just about to throw the spoon back in when Claire flashed to him and caught the wooden spoon.

"Okay, ew," she complained, taking the spoon out and clutching it in her hand. Damon gave her a taunting smile. "That's like spitting in the whole meal."

Damon sighed and turned to Elena. "You invited her?" Elena shrugged and began to set the plates that she had just started to arrange before Claire walked in. Damon looked back at the blonde vampire. "Are you going to be breathing down my neck the entire time I'm cooking?"

"Hey, if I'm eating anything you're cooking, you can bet your ass I'll make sure you didn't spit in my dish." She gave him a sour smile before moving to the sink, where she placed the wooden spoon down in it and Damon scowered the kitchen drawers for another one.

Claire walked over to Elena next, who was already annoyed by Damon's presence. She relieved the human of her duties, to which Elena was grateful, and the teenager went upstairs to stay as far away from Damon as possible so she didn't spill the beans. Damon walked over to the kitchen as Claire walked back to the counters, searching through it for the glasses, and when she came back with all five, she wasn't surprised to find that Damon brushed against her, trapping her body in between him and the counter behind her.

"Whoa!" He smirked. "Mm."

Claire shook her head and chuckled to herself as she moved past him.

"Cute," she said pointedly. "But stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Damon asked in an offended tone. She didn't bother with his childish games but responded in an uninterested tone to discourage him.

"You know what. That move was deliberate."

"Well, yeah, I was…deliberately trying to get to the sink." She didn't turn to face him, but Claire chuckled under her breath as she continued to set the table. Damon's voice was evident behind her. "Speaking of Stefan, where is he? I thought he'd be with you."

Claire sighed and circled the table, setting down the glasses. "He'll be here soon, Damon. He just had a few…things to take care of."

"What kind of things?"

"Things. He'll explain when he gets back."

The two of them went silent after this, and Damon stirred his sauce on the stove. Without looking back at her, he spoke again. "Is it real?"

Claire let out an exhausted sigh. "You're going to have to be more specific." She walked over to the drawers and picked through them until she found the silverware. Damon spoke while she picked out the utensils she needed.

"This…renewed sense of brotherhood," Damon clarified, peering back at her. "Can I trust him?"

His voice was serious this time, and she saw a change that she'd never seen before. Something was in Damon's eyes…almost as if he was hoping she'd tell him that he could trust his brother again. She remembered, very distinctly, how it used to be between the two of them before their own falling out. It seemed that every relationship Damon had involved himself in—romantically or brotherly—fell through the cracks. The point Elena had made earlier in the day had raced back into her mind, but she pushed it out immediately. The last thing she wanted to feel for Damon Salvatore was pity.

She tried to keep herself in check, making sure she didn't slip and sound too nice to him. "Yes, Damon, you can trust him. I, however, am not sure that he can trust you."

Claire turned back to the table to continue placing the items at each set, and it was no surprise to her that he was standing behind her just as she turned around. Damon was close to her—perhaps too close. "Can I trust him?" he repeated his question, his eyes staring hardly into hers.

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Vampires can't compel vampires, Damon. You know that. Knock it off."

"I wasn't compelling you," he retorted, incredulous. "I'm not an idiot, Claire. I just want you to answer me. All…past aside, I need to trust you right now." She straightened, and his eyes wandered across her features. "Answer me. Honestly. Can I trust him?"

Claire sighed at him, her hot breath almost mixing in with Damon's. "Damon, of course you can. He's your brother." She answered the question with a straight face, and she felt strangely terrible for lying. Maybe it wouldn't have been that hard if she was actually enemies with him like Stefan thought they were—but knowing what they did behind those closed doors, it made her feel terrible inside. Using Damon to veer him away from suspicion was a terrible thing to do, hatred or not.

Regardless, she put her emotions to the side and brushed past Damon to grab the napkins spewed out on the center isle.

"I know he's my brother," Damon retorted, spinning around to see her. "You know there was a time that I could trust him more than anyone."

"Of course." Claire scoffed, folding the napkins.

"There was a time when I trusted you more than him," Damon admitted, earning her attention. She glanced up at him to find him staring at her over by the table, but she just cleared her throat and shrugged.

"That was a long time ago."

"Yeah, and that's kind of my point." Frustrated with the topic, she put down the napkins and listened to him, looking back at the Salvatore to find him with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against one of the chairs in the kitchen. "You don't think that we could ever get back to that? Being friends again?"

She started at him incredulously and couldn't help the tiniest smile that slid onto her lips. "Are you saying that you want to be friends with me again, Damon?"

"I think that I'm getting Katherine back," Damon retorted, shrugging. "And that's going to require a change between us."

At this, she scoffed. "Wow. All right, so you just want to make sure I don't go seducing you at night." An amused smile twitched its way onto her lips and Damon copied it. "Well, you don't have to worry. I'm sure I'll find another boy toy to play with." Claire sighed deeply and returned to the napkins, but moved on from the topic at hand. "As for Stefan...all I'm trying to say is that you can trust him if you let him know that he can trust you." "

Damon raised his eyebrows. "You sound like you're lecturing me."

"Depends on if you need to be lectured," she countered, giving him a teasing glance. Damon scoffed, half-chuckling, half disinterested, and then he spoke again.

"I just want her back," he defended himself, causing Claire to straighten. "I'm sure you can at least understand that, all differences aside."

It was a hard thing to admit such understandings, but Claire didn't want to lie to him about this. There was already enough lying to go around for a century of hate. Plus, she'd seen Damon with Katherine back in eighteen sixty-four. The surge of jealousy was still there, even after all these years.

"Yeah. I get it. You'd walk through water for her. Jump through flames. Do anything. I understand."

Claire brushed past him with the table napkins in her hand, and she began to place them at the table. Damon's voice was in her ear right behind her, "Then you will understand what I will do if anyone gets in my way."

She didn't even turn around at him while scoffing, "That sounds like a threat."

"Maybe it is," he agreed, and she could feel the slight pads of his fingertips brush against her hip. "But, trust me when I say this, Claire. This is in your best interest, too."

She raised an eyebrow and forced herself to turn around. "What do you mean?" Claire asked, beyond confused. Damon's eyes poured into hers, and for a moment, time was completely lost. Neither one of them spoke a word, and Damon just let his eyes linger until a sad, almost hurt smile curved up on his lips that were barely inches from hers.

"Sauce is probably ready," he whispered and turned on his heel to go back to the stove, leaving the question unanswered.

Claire and Jenna had been introduced with Elena's interjection, and the three of them were in the kitchen after dinner while Jeremy and Damon were playing video games in the living room. Elena searched through more boxes with Claire and Jenna's help, but all Jenna seemed to be focused on was whispering about Damon's looks.

"He is ridiculously hot," Jenna exclaimed in a hushed tone that could still be heard by Damon. Elena immediately hushed her, and Damon's smile was painted elegantly across his lips at the compliment.

"Shh," Elena demanded. "Come on, Aunt Jenna."

"What?" Jenna shrugged harmlessly. "I'm simply stating a fact." She looked at Claire. "Seriously. You can't tell me you don't think he's hot."

"Oh, you're right. He's hot." Claire shrugged as well, earning a smile from Jenna. "But that doesn't change the fact that he's a raging asshat." She peered up at Jenna with a mischievous smile, knowing Damon could hear her.

Damon rolled his eyes on the couch, and the conversation was dropped with a chuckle from Elena's lips. Jenna moved on to asking about the box that Elena was digging through, "What are you doing with all this stuff?"

"I thought there might be something about my birth parents," Elena confessed, sighing as she closed the box.

Jenna swiveled on her heel. "Have you told Jeremy?"

"I will," Elena answered. "When the time is right. In the meantime, Claire's offered to help me find her." It was true; ever since the Georgia trip where Elena had learned about her situation, she had asked Stefan to help, who had asked Claire.

"Yeah, not much to go on in that department." The vampire sighed. "You'd be surprised how many women named Isobel live in a fifty mile radius. And that's not even taking into account if she moved or not…"

Jenna let out a heavy breath. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

The three women wanted to continue the conversation, but there was a ring at the doorbell, to which Elena realized quickly, "That's Stefan."

On the couch, Damon immediately jumped out of it and went to the door, earning a sign of distaste from Jeremy, who wasn't pleased with the fact that Damon up and left. Claire, Damon, and Elena all answered the door to see Stefan, who just sighed at the presence of his brother, but was relieved that Claire was there to help. "Well?" Damon prompted, and then Stefan told his brother about the fact that someone stole it—Stefan didn't figure out who. "Who took it?"

"I don't know," answered Stefan as the four of them went out on the porch together. Damon turned around and pointed at his brother suggestively.

"You know what, I bet it's that teacher. There's something really off about him…"

"No," Stefan answered immediately, happy that Claire hadn't once opened her mouth. "He doesn't know anything. Somebody got to him right before me."

"Who else knew it was there?" demanded Damon. Stefan turned his head inside at the one person who knew the answer to this question, and Damon quickly realized. Elena, however, wasn't so pleased with Damon's new plan.

"No. Damon, leave him out of it!"

"Why?" Damon protested in a high-pitched tone. "What's the big deal?"

"Damon!" Elena complained, but Damon wasn't listening to him. The two vampires and the human teenager followed the raven-haired vampire on a mission inside, where Damon sat next to Jeremy on the arm of the couch.

"So," he began sweetly. "I hear you found a really cool journal from back in the day. Who else did you show it to?"

"Huh?" Jeremy asked, confused, as he focused on his video game.

"Don't ask questions, just spill," Damon prompted, keeping his tone light. But, on the inside, everyone but Jeremy knew he was absolutely mad.

Jeremy turned to him and chuckled. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Jer, did you tell anyone other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Elena asked, the question sounding harmless yet interrogative coming from his sister. Jeremy was obviously deeply confused on the couch, and quite annoyed, it seemed.

"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?"

"Who else did you tell?" Elena pushed.

Jeremy shrugged. "Just that girl, Anna."

Surprisingly, Damon knew what he was talking about. "The hot, weird one?"

"Yeah."

"Who's Anna?" Stefan asked. Damon turned around at his brother sharply.

"That's…what I wanna find out." The vampire turned back to Jeremy. "How do you know her?" Behind them, Elena's phone rang, and she immediately turned to go answer it. Meanwhile, Stefan, Damon, and Claire all stayed in the living room listening to Damon's interrogation.

"I just…know her," Jeremy answered. Thinking of something helpful, he added, "She wants me to meet her at the Grill tonight."

"Perfect!" Damon exclaimed. "I'll drive." He tilted his head. "Come on." Damon dragged Jeremy with him, and the confused teenager went along with him. Claire turned to walk out with Damon, but Stefan grabbed her arm back and they waited until Damon was outside to speak in a hushed tone so that Damon couldn't hear.

"Stefan, if we don't go with him—"

Stefan shook his head. "I've already got it," Stefan whispered, pulling out a roll of papers. "It seems our shady History teacher is actually pretty smart."

Claire felt bad about sending Damon on a wild goose chase, and his words echoed through her head: "This is for your best interest, too." She had no idea what it meant, but she wasn't willing to find out. Getting Katherine out was a risk that no one should be willing to take.

Elena had found the location of the Grimoire, and not a second after they'd found it, they headed out after it before Damon could figure it out. The three of them grabbed shovels from Elena's garage and wasted absolutely no time in getting over to the woods over by the original Salvatore mansion. There were no other gravestones; just Giuseppe's. While Elena pressured Stefan about the sureness of the location of this Grimoire, Claire set up around the grave so that they could start digging. Claire had her shovel, Stefan handed Elena hers, and then he gripped his own in his hand, broke ground, and they all began to dig up Giuseppe's grave.

Elena grew tired after a while, which was understandable. Stefan and Claire kept digging up the deep grave, and eventually, Claire sighed and stopped, putting her shovel in the dirt for just a moment. "Just so you know, Stefan, that's two favors you owe me after today."

Stefan laughed to himself. "I'll keep that in mind," he agreed, and Claire stopped for a moment while he slaved away.

Claire paused for a second, thinking over the past. "What do you think would've happened?" Stefan stopped digging for a moment to look up at her, confused. "If I was revealed as a vampire before they tried to burn them all in the church. I was just lucky Emily was on my side and made me a daylight ring against Katherine's wishes." She paused. "Do you think your father would've burned me in that church, too?"

Stefan leaned against his shovel. "I have no idea," he admitted truthfully. "It was one thing with Katherine…he just barely knew her. But, honestly, I don't know what he would've done. He watched you grow up."

Claire pursed her lips thinking about it. "Then again, he was the one that killed you and Damon, so…"

Stefan sighed. "Yeah. I'd say there's a pretty good chance you'd be in that tomb right now."

Claire let out a deep, frustrated sigh. "Your father's a pain, Stefan," she grumbled, and they resumed digging up the grave again. "Even after a hundred and seventy years."

She pulled out her shovel and thrust it into the dirt again, but this time, there was a thud sound. Elena peered over the grave with her flashlight, shining it down on both Claire and Stefan, who looked over the dirt and realized that they hit the coffin. Stefan immediately began to shift the dirt around with his shovel and, sure enough, a coffin door was evident. Both vampires threw their shovels on level ground and then bent down and to the side, using their strength to lift the coffin and pull it upright. Elena was gagging up on higher ground.

"Is that it?" she asked.

Stefan and Claire pulled open the grave and, sure enough, there was a book inside of it, right next to Giuseppe's skeletal body. A look of sadness crossed Stefan's eyes before he and Claire stood up in the grave, Elena bent down, and Stefan desperately ripped off the protective covering on the Grimoire and tossed it to the side. Sure enough, it was the book they were looking for. Emily's Grimoire.

A voice brought them all out of their increased intrigue, and the voice was one of which they were not happy to hear.

"Well, what do you know?" Elena, Stefan, and Claire all turned their heads and Elena stood up, raising her flashlight to come upon Damon's angered face. "This is an interesting turn of events," he spat.

Stefan climbed out of the grave and helped Claire, who brushed herself off while Stefan faced his brother head-on. "I can't let you bring her back," he said simply. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," agreed Damon, but his apology was for a different reason. "For thinking for even a second I could trust you."

This caused a spike in Stefan's anger. "Oh. You are not capable of trust. The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."

"Of course I was going to do it by myself, because the only one I can count on is me!" Damon shouted, causing Stefan to fall silent. "You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan." Deafening silence surrounded Giuseppe's grave, and Damon let his eyes wander towards Claire, who was just standing at the edge of the grave with no expression on her face.

"But you…" Damon's eyes were filled with betrayal and hurt, something she hadn't seen in a long time. He caught on his words. "You had me fooled," Damon admitted, nodding once. She felt herself grow confused and angry all at the same time. "I thought…for just a second that maybe, only maybe, we could finally put the past behind us once this was over."

Claire felt herself become suddenly ashamed. Damon's eyes were hot like fire, and they looked down upon her like they were reliving the past all over again. Like he'd just gotten his heart broken for the second time. But, she didn't let this bother her, because as a vampire, she needed to show him that she could stand up to his bullying. "You thought wrong," she said simply, trying not to let her voice break. "I can't let Katherine come back and destroy my life again."

"This isn't about Katherine, damn it!" Damon growled, his lips twitching with anger and hurt. She flinched in the slightest. "I thought I had a reason to trust you today. I thought that we could be friends again. But you fool people, Clarissa. You make them believe that you care when you don't." At the mention of this, she felt like she was about to crumble. She didn't mean to hurt Damon this way. She thought it would just be another thing to add to the list of things they'd done wrong to each other.

Stefan watched as his brother and his best friend were in the midst of an argument that he had never seen before—an argument that he didn't like. For a second, a split second, Stefan could see something in Damon's eyes. Something that he hadn't noticed before. Something that Stefan couldn't quite place a finger on quite yet. He didn't have a chance to when Damon turned to him.

"So what are you going to do now? Because if you try and destroy that"—Damon gestured to the Grimoire in his brother's hand—"I'll rip Elena's heart out without blinking."

"You won't kill her," Stefan retorted, shaking his head. But he hadn't thought of Damon's pride but only for his own, and Damon had something to prove. He flashed around and grabbed Elena by the neck, holding the human by her throat so that Elena gasped for air. There was nothing Stefan or Claire could do without Damon snapping Elena's neck in that very instant.

"I can do one better," Damon agreed, pulling up his sleeve and ripping into his wrist. Elena struggled against him, and then he pressed his blood to her mouth so it involuntarily flowed down her throat. "Give me the book, Stefan. Or I'm snapping her neck and you'll have a vampire girlfriend on your hands."

Stefan grew weak at this, and with a side glance to Claire, who could do nothing without Damon getting to Elena first, looked back at Damon with worried eyes. "Let her go first."

Damon dropped his hand from her mouth so that blood dripped down Elena's chin, but the sadistic vampire did not release his hold. "The book!" he snapped.

"I am not going to give this to you until she is standing next to me."

"The problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back!"

Stefan fell silent, and then he spoke clearly, "You just did the one thing that ensures that I will."

But Damon wouldn't give. He nodded his head for Stefan to return the book, and the younger brother stepped forward, the book outstretched in his hand. Slowly, he placed it down on the ground, and Damon released Elena slowly, pushing her over to Stefan. She was frightened beyond believe, and Stefan immediately grabbed Elena in his arms and flashed away. Claire was staring at Damon with hateful eyes, but he shamed away from her, walking over to grab the Grimoire.

"Was it worth it?" Damon peered up at her, and she just stared at him blankly. "I hope it was, Damon, because then ruining whatever bond you had with your brother again would be a complete waste."

She didn't say anything about herself. Damon could hate her all he wanted, it wouldn't change a thing. What she couldn't stand was Damon hurting Stefan over and over again, getting his brother's hopes up of actually being a family again. Stefan could tell Elena all he wanted about how Damon was a monster, but deep down, Stefan wanted his brother to be good, and Claire knew this. Damon knew it, too, he just refused to make it true. She didn't lecture him, she didn't hit him, she didn't say a single word past that.

Honestly, she hoped Damon got what he wanted. Because, without it, ruining everything would be for nothing.

Claire had gone back to the boarding house after leaving Damon at Giuseppe's grave. She realized all too quickly that the idea of friendship with Damon again as they'd talked about earlier was completely shot now. Not that it mattered to her, but she did wonder what it would've been like if her intentions had been pure. Honestly, though, what bothered her about this whole thing was that Damon gave her so much grief regarding her betrayal when Stefan had made an excellent point: Damon had come to Giuseppe's grave all alone, proving his own distrust towards them all. Damon Salvatore was such a hypocrite sometimes, it killed her.

Suddenly, there was a beep in her pocket as she poured herself a glass of bourbon in an empty household, seeing as Stefan was with Elena and Damon was off doing whatever the hell he wanted to do now that he was close to bringing Katherine back. After draining all the contents in her cup without stopping once, she slammed the glass back down on the counter and whipped out her phone, almost angrily. Claire was glad she'd set the fragile glass down when she realized what the beep was from.

Damon's text message was prominent on the screen of her cell phone.

I know where it is. Meet me at my father's grave.

He had sent the text message, she realized, to her and only her. Now was the time where she felt like a horrible person, despite the fact that she'd convinced herself she did this because Katherine could not be allowed to return to this world. She felt like complete and utter crap lying to Damon...betraying him. There was a time when she'd do anything for him.

The sound of a slammed door made her slip her phone back into her pocket and turn around to face Stefan, who bore a worried expression. He didn't even need to say the words for her to realize what was happening. Regardless, Stefan said them anyway.

"Elena's missing."

So, I guess friendship is off the table for Damon and Claire; at least, for now it is. Anyways, hope you guys all enjoyed that chapter! I'm going to be kind of cycling through my updates now, so the last one updated will get updated next and blah, blah, blah, we all get the picture. But I'll update as soon as I get back around to this one. Review, please!

Love,

BellaSalvatore1918

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