Hey everyone. So I know there were other things I needed to update before this but I'm trying to get Season 1 over with so we can get to the good stuff, so I decided to go ahead and write/upload this chapter. Next up is 1x20, Blood Brothers, and we'll be one step closer to the finale!
Enjoy the chapter! Review at the end if you can, please.
Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
Miss Mystic Falls
Claire's feather-light touch seemed innocent, but it was vicious. With just a single tap, she had her husband lying flat on their bed, and the next thing he knew, she was on top of him, straddling his waist. Wasting no time, Claire brought her lips to Christopher's and he kissed her back with a need he hadn't felt before. 1864 was different from the time they were in now. Back then, things were nurturing. Calm. Serene. At least, that's what it'd been like with Claire the very first time they consummated their marriage. He couldn't speak for the others in Mystic Falls at the time, but for their relationship, it was like that. It was love. But with these different times came a different intensity from his wife, and a different intensity for himself, as well. Claire was ruthless in the best way possible—she drove their kiss harder and further without mercy. Christopher's hands came up to cup her face, grabbing strands of stray pale blonde hair that fell between the cracks of his fingertips. Claire practically whimpered in his mouth as she arched her back in desperation.
Suddenly, there was a tsk beside the bed, and Claire and Christopher both broke away to find Damon leaning against the chest with a scowl on his face. Claire shrieked and pulled herself off of Christopher, who had risen to his elbows to look at Damon.
"You're doing it all wrong," Damon informed the bronze-haired vampire on the bed.
Claire practically snarled, "What the hell are you doing, Damon? Get out of my goddamn room!"
Damon ignored her. Christopher ignored her. Her husband just frowned. "What do you mean I'm doing something wrong? There isn't a wrong way to do this."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Of course there isn't a wrong way to do it, you idiot, but there is a right way. And that wasn't the right way. She doesn't like to be in control like that."
"And how would you know what she likes?" the other vampire scoffed. Claire just swung herself off the bed, tired of being ignored. Damon straightened when he saw her movement.
"I don't know what game you're trying to play with me, Damon, but you need to knock it off and go mind your own goddamn business! I said, get out!" Claire warned him, fire tracing the serenity of her eyes. Damon took step closer, limiting the space between them.
"When will you stop lying to yourself?" the dark-haired vampire purred, a smirk on his face. Claire tried to step back, but she just ended up backing into the nightstand, which shuddered when she hit it. Damon kept stepping forward until he trapped her between his body and the nightstand. "He's not what you want. He's never what you wanted."
"You're wrong." Claire swallowed hard, trying to get Damon's scent out of her head. "You're wrong. I…" She tried to choke it out, but it wouldn't come up. The word just couldn't leave her mouth. It could never.
Damon chuckled. "You love him?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes. Claire's breathing quickened when she felt Damon lean closer. "How can you love him if you can't even say it?"
"I do," Claire tried, but it was failing. She was failing. "I do. I have to."
"You have to?" Damon repeated to her before he shook his head and tsked again. Claire looked over to the bed where she last left Christopher, but he was no longer there. He was gone. "You don't have to do anything. You're Clarissa King." He whispered the name like it was a title, and in a way, it kind of was.
Damon's strong hands moved to her waist, and Claire gasped when he pulled her up to sit on the nightstand, fitting his body into hers. An angry scream threatened at Claire's throat, but when Damon was just inches away from her, she couldn't get it out. She was frozen in place like she'd been turned to ice. Damon kept coming closer, his fingers tilting her chin up, until she finally just let her eyes flutter closed as she waited...
Claire shot up from her bed, making the mattress shudder and her companion start to wake. Her skin was sweating, but lucky for her, she'd put her hair up in a messy bun before she'd fallen asleep, so it wasn't sticking to her face. Christopher, having been violently awaked by her jolt, opened his eyes and pulled himself up, his voice just a grumble.
"Are you okay?" It was spoken tiredly, but nonetheless full of concern.
Claire brought a fist up to her mouth nervously and looked down at her husband, catching up with his words. "Huh? Um…yeah, I'm fine." She coughed. "Bad dream, that's all."
A grumpy Christopher just turned to the side and grabbed his new phone to check the time. He was still learning all the features the mobile phone had to offer, but it was a nice way to cheat the system. "It's three-thirty," Christopher muttered as he put his phone back down on the nightstand on his side of the bed and rolled back into the sheets. "Get some rest, Clarissa."
Claire leaned back in her bed, her head hitting the soft pillow. Christopher had rolled onto his side so that only his back was facing Claire, but she took a look at him. When her head returned to looking at the ceiling, all she could do was force the image of Damon Salvatore trying to kiss her out of her head and hoped that it stayed out.
The blonde vampire turned on her own side, folded her hands beneath her head, and tried to sleep again.
She didn't end up getting much more than an hour of sleep after waking up from that dream. She tossed and turned, but when the alarm hit and told her that it was time to get up for the day, she'd barely had a drop of sleep. By the time Claire and Christopher came down to start the new, exciting, possibly deadly day, Stefan had surprisingly already gone out to school.
"You think that's a good idea?" Claire asked as she sipped her breakfast blood from a crystal glass. Damon was doing the same, but he also nursed a glass of bourbon with it. "Stefan going back to school so fast? If he's not in control…"
Damon groaned. "God, you're such a worrier. Relax. Stefan can handle himself. He'll be fine. You and I however, will not be," Damon pointed out. Claire raised an eyebrow at him. "Hello? Sheriff Forbes? John Gilbert? Mystic Falls hunting vampires again? We need to put a stop to this."
"Okay," Claire agreed, a little shaken by Damon's insistence. "Fine. What do we do?"
There wasn't a plan in motion—of course, there was never a plan in motion when it came to Damon, but if there was one thing that they needed to do, it was see Sheriff Forbes again. She had called Damon to inform him that there was news on vampires and she had also asked him to come down to the Founder's Hall. After positive reassurance on Damon's part, he got Sheriff Forbes to agree to let Claire go down there, as well. Claire didn't want to go with Damon, but the best way for them to handle things was to go together.
Unfortunately, the very problem they were trying to get rid of happened to be in Sheriff Forbes's trusted circle, too—John Gilbert was waiting for them with a smug smile right when they stepped into the Founder's Hall.
"There was a disturbance at the hospital blood bank last night. Some of the supply was compromised," Liz told Damon and Claire, filling them in on the situation at hand.
"Compromised?" Damon repeated. "You mean…stolen."
Liz nodded. "We almost missed it. The inventory records had been altered. But when the night manager was questioned, he had no recollection of changing them."
"Meaning the vampire who stole the blood used mind control to hide the theft," John clarified. Claire bit down her tongue while Damon turned to John.
"I know what she meant."
"We wouldn't have noticed if John not alerted us to recent discrepancies at other hospital blood banks in the county," Liz commented to both undercover vampires. Claire gave a tart smile.
Damon let out a deep sigh and stepped closer to John. "Well, lucky for us, we have…John."
Claire nodded in agreement. "Uh huh. What a do-gooder. So what are we doing to prevent this from happening again?" Claire asked Sheriff Forbes, who was just about to explain the same thing even if Claire hadn't inquired.
"We're stepping up security at the hospital…giving the guards vervain just in case."
"Sheriff," John intervened, stepping forward with an early glass of alcohol. "Might I offer a suggestion? Why don't Damon, Claire, and I all put our heads together on this one? I'm sure, with the three of us on it, we can track down whoever's doing this."
Claire and Damon's eyes both cut into John. Claire just smiled again. "Oh, lovely. I was waiting for a brilliant idea."
Sheriff Forbes shrugged. "Truthfully, I could use the extra hands," she confessed. Her eyes moved back and forth between Damon and Claire. "Is that something you two would be willing to do?"
Damon nodded and tried his best to act humanly innocent. "Well, of course. I mean, if it'll help."
"And I'll help in any way that I can," Claire said, giving Sheriff Forbes a genuine smile this time. Too much shit went down in Mystic Falls for Claire to really hold a grudge against a human. "But I am working with Carol Lockwood getting ready for the pageant coming up so…I might not be as big of a help as I might seem."
"Well, I think we'll make a great team," John piped up from behind Claire and Damon. Genuineness lacked in his tone. "Don't you two?"
Damon sighed and turned to the annoying Uncle Gilbert. "John, whatever Claire and I can do to help keep this town safe. Even if it means spending time with you." Damon gave a polite smile, to which John returned, but there was a hidden meaning behind both of those smiles.
When Claire and Damon were outside and by Damon's car, free of all prying human eyes and ears, Claire let out a groan. "I am so sick of that John Gilbert! He's got this face that just makes me want to—"
"Tear into his throat and never look back?"
"Exactly!"
"I understand completely," Damon agreed as the two of them climbed into his car. Then, he sighed. "But we've got more important things to deal with. Like who's stealing that blood."
Claire looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't you?" Damon looked over at her, giving the blonde a pointed glance. She just threw her hands up into the air. "Hey! It just seems like something you would do."
"I wouldn't be that careless," the other vampire snapped while he backed out of the parking space he was in and began to head back to the boarding house. Claire sighed.
"Then who could it be?"
Damon shrugged. "What about Christopher?"
"I'm forgetting that you asked me that."
"It's a valid question," Damon defended himself. Claire scoffed. "What? He's been trapped underneath the ground for a hundred years. It makes sense he'd be hungry."
"Damon," Claire snapped, earning Damon's attention. "It's not him. I've been teaching him how to feed from blood bags and we even tried the vein once. He stopped on his own will. It's not him," she repeated.
"Fine," Damon said after a while and relaxed against the wheel. "Then it's got to be the others. Anna. Pearl. The other tomb vampires."
"That makes the most sense," Claire agreed. Silence filled the car for a while before Claire turned her head at Damon and watched him while he drove. "You don't think it could be…?"
A name washed over the two of them silently, but they both knew how to fill in the blank. It, too, made sense. Damon knew very well that his brother could've gone off the rails. He left that cup for him the night of the Founder's Day Kick-Off. It was possible.
"Maybe." Damon turned his attention back to the road. "But let's hope, for both our sakes, that it's not."
On top of trying to tame John Gilbert and trying to get the town off of the blood trail that led to her vampire existence, Claire was also swamped with helping Carol Lockwood with the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Carol was a control freak and she did much of the work herself, but everything that went through her, Carol also had Claire as a second opinion. It wasn't much of a job, though—if Claire liked something Carol didn't like, Carol would have it her way. If Carol liked something Claire didn't, Mrs. Lockwood would go with it regardless. Claire was starting to regret her decision to ever say yes to the mayor's wife, but what kind of fellow citizen would she be if she had declined?
When she got home from helping Carol announce the Founder's Court, where surprisingly Elena Gilbert and undoubtedly Caroline Forbes had both been announced, Damon had quickly filled her in on the fact that their hope for earlier in the morning had been shot. Anna and Pearl, unless they were lying, were not responsible for taking the blood. That could only mean one thing.
Stefan.
"You really think it could be him?" Christopher asked Claire as they waited in the study for Damon to try and get the truth out of Stefan. The elder brother was highly doubtful that Stefan would give them any kind of truth, so he made Claire stay with her husband until further notice.
Claire shrugged. "I don't really know who else it could be. I didn't steal the blood. You didn't. Damon didn't. Anna didn't. It's got to be him, which means he relapsed." A hard sigh escaped her mouth. "And that means that we're all going to be in for one hell of a rude awakening."
"Is it that bad? I mean, he was a little out of control at the Kick-Off party but to rob a blood bank dry? Would he do something like that?" Christopher asked the pacing Claire in front of him. She peered to the side to see Christopher and the tiniest nod from Claire's head was answer enough. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Damon come to the threshold of the study and make his way into the room. Claire took in a deep breath.
"Did he say anything?"
Damon shook his head as he came over to Claire and Christopher. "Nope. He's lying. I looked in the basement and found his stash. Unless we catch him, he won't tell us anything."
"Let me try," Claire offered. Damon scowled at her.
"If he didn't tell you that he even took Elena's blood in the first place, he definitely won't tell you about him relapsing now. Come on." Damon jerked his head to the exit of the study. "He's bound to go down sometime."
"Okay," Claire said to Damon as he headed out of the room. With a worried glance to Christopher, Claire followed him, and her husband just stayed in the study, being that it wasn't his place to catch Stefan in such an act.
It wasn't long before Stefan came back down to the basement to get his blood, which Damon had shown to Claire earlier. Pints and pints of blood just sat in the fridge, just waiting for Stefan to drain each and every one. Having caught Stefan in the act, Damon stepped out from the shadows with Claire by his side.
"Well, well. He's a liar and a thief." Stefan turned his head to see Claire and Damon standing there, waiting for him to explain himself. The younger vampire just stood by the fridge, the only light in the basement being the tiny one that was inside. "So…when were you going to share?"
"Go ahead." Stefan gestured to the blood. "Help yourself."
"No, no. I'm talking about the fact that you're a closet blood junkie."
Stefan shrugged. "So I'm drinking blood again. You're the one that shoved it on me. What's your problem?"
"You shoved it on him?" Claire asked Damon lowly. The vampire just shrugged and Claire stepped forward. "Whatever. Stefan, you can't be doing this. The whole town's on our asses. You don't handle human blood well—"
"I have it under control, Claire."
"Under control?" Damon repeated, scoffing. Claire's eyes softened as she tried to make her friend listen.
"Stefan, you robbed the hospital."
Again, the younger Salvatore just shrugged. "So what's your point?"
Damon and Claire both stepped forward to Stefan at the cooler. "Fine. Whatever, man," Damon said carelessly. "Drink up. Just remember we're trying to keep a low profile. Why don't you just walk up to Sheriff Forbes? Ask her to tap a vein?"
Stefan just laughed. "Have my actions negatively impacted you?" He took in a sharp breath playfully. "I can't imagine what that must feel like."
"Yeah, what's Elena think about the new…you?" Damon asked his brother skeptically, trying to get in his head about the situation. Stefan dropped the conversation for a moment, but then he shook his head.
"Nothing's changed. I'm still the same person."
"Clearly."
"Elena doesn't need to know anything yet."
"You're saying Elena doesn't even know that you're feeding on human blood?" Claire interjected, her eyes wide. Stefan looked over at her. "Stefan! You could attack her. Feed from her or…or worse. You've been off the human stuff for so long..." Her eyes softened as Stefan's green eyes poured into hers.
"If you're having trouble controlling it, Stefan—" Damon began, but was interrupted by his brother.
"I'm not having any trouble controlling it."
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Damon snapped, his voice now hard, cold, and angry. Stefan instantly shut up. "I know what it's like. That Jekyll and Hyde feeling. There's that switch, sometimes it goes off and you snap. Right now is not a good time for me to be worried about you snapping!"
Stefan rose his hands in front of Damon's face, shaking them to prove his point. "I know that it pains you—both of you," he added, his looking over at Claire, "to see this, but I'm fine. Okay?"
"Stefan," Claire began, but Stefan just repeated it again.
"I'm fine." Things went silent as Stefan grabbed a pint of blood from inside the cooler. "So please. Do me a favor, mom." The younger Salvatore's eyes turned to Claire and then to Damon. "Dad. Back the hell off."
Stefan shut the fridge angrily and stormed up the stairs of the basement, leaving Claire and Damon alone. A bubbling anger started to rise within Claire as she watched him leave, and she gritted down on her teeth.
"Did he just call me his mother? He did not just call me his mother!" She tried to go after Stefan, but Damon just gripped her shoulders and forced Claire back to the fridge, pinning the blonde between his body and the cooler.
"Hey. Hey, stop it." Claire growled, but Damon shook her to get her out of the anger spell she was in. "It's no use. We won't get through to them. Not tonight."
Claire had calmed by now, but the situation she was in completely escaped her mind before she realized exactly how it looked. The second Claire realized that she was in an uncomfortable position with the vampire she used to screw for kicks, she knocked his hands off her shoulders and angrily stormed upstairs, having had enough of the Salvatore brothers for one night.
"You don't understand, Damon." Claire groaned as she bounced down the stairs as fast as she could and slipped on her jacket. Damon followed closely behind, not in nearly as much of a hurry as she was. "I'm already late to help Carol teach the contestants the dances and I'm not going to sit here and keep going back and forth with you over Stefan's diet."
"I'm not disagreeing with you, Claire," Damon tried as she slipped her cell phone that was lying on the table in the foyer into her back pocket. "I want Stefan back on bunnies again. It's a real inconvenience when the town is riding our asses trying to catch and kill another vampire."
Claire turned around at him sharply to find that Damon was closer than she would've liked. She didn't say anything, though; she merely sighed. "Then why were you the one who pushed him to drink it in the first place?"
"Because he needs to know how to control it!" The blonde rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to the door, earning Damon to brush it off. "Fine. Be oblivious, but be oblivious on your own."
As Damon turned to get himself a drink from the parlor, Claire opened the door so the bright sunlight hit her face—that was, what was left of it with John Gilbert's shadow on the Salvatore doorstep. Seeing him with his tight, smug grin and offensive stance put the fact that she was late to meet Carol in the back of her mind.
"Hey, partner," John greeted.
"John." Claire smiled sourly. "What a lovely surprise…" John brushed past her with a fake smile and walked into the foyer without an invitation from her. "Please…do come in."
"Don't mind if I do, Claire. Thank you." Jackass, Claire commented to herself before shutting the door with her on the inside. Damon, who disliked John's annoying presence as much or more than Claire did, wasted no time in playing games with the spiteful human.
"What do you want?" Damon asked shortly.
"Well, neither of you returned my calls," John accused. Claire crossed her arms and stepped forward as John looked around the boarding house and made his way into the parlor like he was at home.
"Most people take that as a hint," Damon replied.
"Yeah, I have this new app on my phone called 'block the jackass'. Works like a charm," she taunted. But John ignored the both of them, ready to engage in whatever war he needed to.
"Where do we start looking for vampires?" he asked loudly.
Damon sighed, tired of John's presence already. "Why the act, John? I mean, you obviously don't care about catching vampires; you're here talking to us."
John turned around to face Damon and Claire, who stood side-by-side and were ready to throw bullets if needed. "Actually, I care very much."
"What did Isobel say about that? I mean, considering that she is one," Damon shot.
The Gilbert looked caught, but not for a second did he even falter. "Isobel and I share a…mutual interest." Damon hummed, but he wasn't buying it. "The original Jonathan Gilbert had an invention that was stolen by a vampire. That vampire was then burned alive in Fell's Church, or so Jonathan thought. An invention that was lost forever." Again, Damon hummed, but he didn't break a sweat as he went down into the parlor to stand next to John during their testosterone fight. "But, then, the vampires weren't killed, were they? They were trapped. And now they're free, thanks to you two, which means the invention is retrievable."
Damon feigned interest in helping John. "Well, what is it?"
"The only thing that matters is that I want it back and you both are going to help me if you want to keep your secret safe." Claire stepped down into the parlor as John did a circle around Damon.
Damon and Claire looked at each other before the raven-haired vampire turned back to the demanding Gilbert. "I mean, w-why bring us into it John? I mean, I don't even know what you're talking about, much less who has it. Claire?"
"Absolutely clueless," the blonde agreed.
"Oh, come on." John turned around to face the two vampires at his disposal. "You were both around back then. You know who these people are, what they look like. He was friendly with a woman who turned out to be a vampire. Her name was Pearl. Does that ring a bell?"
Though both Claire and Damon obviously knew who Pearl was, neither one of them said anything. It would be a cold day in hell before Claire helped a vindictive vampire-hater get something he wanted. She kept her mouth shut and let Damon do the talking, and eventually, he did. The Salvatore just narrowed his eyes at John.
"I'm not playing anymore. Get out." Damon turned and gestured towards the door. "Get out."
"I beg your pardon?"
As Damon made his way to the door, he began to clarify, "You know, I only entertained this whole blackmail scheme thing of yours because I thought that you and Isobel could lead me to Katherine. But see, now I know you have no idea where Katherine is, because if you did, you would know that Katherine and Pearl were best friends." John fell completely silent, and this Damon took as an admission of shame. "See? You don't know everything, do you, John?"
John stepped forward and looked back and forth between Claire and Damon. "I'll tell the entire Council about the both of you."
"Go for it," Damon said quickly. "I'll kill every last one of them. Then I'll sever your hand, pull your ring off, and I'll kill you, too. Do you understand that?" he threatened. Claire straightened and came up behind John.
"But I called dibs on killing him." John turned around to see Claire behind him, putting him right between the two vampires. Her pout turned into a frown on a dime, "You piss me off, John, if I haven't made that clear enough. And the fact that you'd storm our household trying to blackmail us into doing your dirty work is pathetic, so do yourself a favor and get the hell out and never try to pull that again."
John stared at the pale-haired vampire, and when he looked back to Damon, he found that the other vampire had moved to open the door for John as a silent order to get the hell out of his house. Without speaking again, a head-held-high Jonathan Gilbert left the Salvatore household, leaving Claire and Damon to themselves.
Damon came over and stood by Claire, who was looking at the door as if remembering John's exit. Through clenched teeth, she hissed, "If John wants that invention, it must be pretty damn important. What do you think it does?"
Damon shook his head slightly. "I have no clue. But we better find it before he does."
A prideful Anna walked into the Founder's Hall, looking over the current residents of her hometown. Once inside, she took off her jacket and proceeded into the center of the party with one intent and one intent only: to get involved. Because Anna wanted to stay in Mystic Falls, she had to make sure that she kept up with the social events that were just as important as anything else. To live in Mystic Falls without being branded as suspicious to the secret council that hunted vampires, one had to make sure to show herself in daylight to rid all suspicion. The suspicion was rightfully placed, but the town was too behind on their vampire folklore to notice.
And she wasn't the only vampire at the event, either.
"In the running for Miss Mystic Falls?" Damon asked with a signature smirk as he made his way over to Anna with a glass of champagne in his hand. He was all cleaned up in a fresh tux; it was definitely a sight for sore eyes.
Anna averted hers. "Sometimes you have to wear uncomfortable heels to blend in." Damon hummed under his breath as he finally reached her and looked down at her shoes for good measure. When he didn't say anything, Anna took the liberty. "I remember this event from 1864. I was…supposed to enter, before everything happened."
As Damon looked over the crowd of fake people in nice clothes, he sighed. "Ah. Nostalgia's a bitch."
Anna laughed, but she was far from amused. "If you're just gonna mock me, can you…move along, please?"
Taking this as his cue, Damon cut right to the chase. "John Gilbert thinks your mom stole an artifact from Jonathan senior…senior back in 1864."
The dark-haired female looked over at Damon. "What are you, his errand boy?" she joked.
Damon brushed past it. "I don't know what it is, but I don't want him to have it." Damon spoke through clenched teeth. Anna circled him, stopping when they were face-to-face.
"I could ask her," she agreed. "But, you know, you've made it pretty clear that you don't trust us so…why should I even bother?"
"Because you want to stay in Mystic Falls, and John Gilbert's in town, making that impossible," Damon proposed. Anna said nothing, so Damon continued in a stern voice. "Find out where it is. He leaves, you can buy a welcome mat."
Damon walked away after his proposal to Anna, and he knew that he left her watching. It was when Damon was far enough away from Anna that Christopher, inside the Founder's Hall, spotted Anna as she turned around and sighed. With a glass of sparkling wine in his hand, Christopher walked up to his old acquaintance.
"I think Damon forgot to ask nicely," Christopher commented as he reached Anna and gave her a genuine smile. Anna did the same in return. "He does that a lot."
"I've noticed," Anna agreed as she looked Christopher over in his crisp, expensive tux. "I see married life with Clarissa treats you well."
Christopher never lost the smile on his face; it just grew more teasing. "She goes by Claire now. It's more modern. We started thinking that I could go by Chris, but…" Christopher gestured to himself and scrunched his nose. "I don't think I look much like a 'Chris', do I?"
"It's all about opinion," Anna told him. Christopher took a sip out of his champagne glass with a smile as a silence came upon them. When he was done sipping the alcohol, he finally opened his mouth and spoke.
"Look, I know Damon can come off strong and demanding," Christopher reasoned, seriousness coming into his voice. "But John threatened all of us. We only just found out that he's after this artifact and unless we find some way to use it against him, he's just going to keep coming after us. All of us. He's putting this town on red alert."
Christopher and Anna stared at each other for a while before Anna sighed, responding much better to Christopher's attitude than Damon's. "I'll talk to my mother when I get home, but I can't guarantee she has it."
Christopher smiled. "Thank you, Anna. That's all we're asking for. Enjoy the party."
Without saying anything else to Anna, Christopher walked around her and over to Damon, who had rejoined the crowd of residents that were waiting for the pageant to begin. Once Anna was inside the Founder's Hall and out of hearing distance over the noise, Christopher joined Damon at one of the standing tables.
"Well?" Damon asked as Christopher came over to him. Christopher smiled.
"What was that term you used before?"
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Good cop, bad cop?"
"Good cop, bad cop!" Christopher exclaimed as he snapped his fingers. With a small laugh, he grabbed the champagne he had set on the table. "Well, it definitely works. Maybe next time we can switch it up. I'll be the bad cop, you can be—"
"Ah." Damon held up his hand to stop Christopher from continuing. The other vampire raised his eyebrow in question to what Damon was doing. Damon lowered his hand and shook his head at the Fell before him. "No. No, no. I don't play the good cop."
A smile twitched at Christopher's lips. "Come on, Damon. Everybody enjoys a good change in character once in a while." Damon rolled his eyes playfully and set his glass down on the table as he began to walk away. "Wait. Are you going to see Elena with Claire?" Damon nodded and watched as the Christopher's smirk grew. "See? What'd I tell you? Good cop."
Damon frowned. "It doesn't work that way." He shook his head. "I'll be back. See if you can find Stefan and, if you do, keep an eye on him until Claire and I come back down."
Without waiting for a response from Christopher, Damon went ahead and walked inside of the Founder's Hall, went up the winding staircase, and met Claire at the top of the stairs as she directed one of the contestants downstairs and told her to hurry. The blonde vampire was exhibiting some sense of responsibility as she tried to help Amber with her sudden panic attack by telling her to get a breath of air before coming back and getting changed. If Claire weren't a vampire, she'd be sweating from the pressure she had on the weight of her shoulders from Carol and everyone else breathing down her neck. But, since she was a vampire, she handled everything with grace and managed to keep all of the hairs on her head in their pinned places and also to keep her lavish black and beige dress from getting ruined. She tried to remember the last time she dressed up so often, but then she remembered that it was Mystic Falls she was living in now. If you didn't own a cocktail dress, you were run out of town.
Damon finally reached the top of the stairs, and when Claire saw him, she let out a long exhale. "Elena's in the dressing room. Alone. Where's Stefan?"
"Somewhere." Damon shrugged. Claire gave him a pointed look. "Relax. Christopher's trying to find him and when he does, he'll make sure to keep an eye on him. He won't be able to stop us."
"Good." Claire gestured to the door that led into the girls' changing room, and Damon took the lead on it. In one swift gesture, he opened the door to Elena as she jumped around with a blue dress still on its hanger in her hand.
"Hey," Elena said, a little breathless from the interruption. Damon just gave her a smile as he entered the room and Claire followed in, shutting the door. "Um…what's going on?"
"We need to talk," Damon warned her, his eyes dead serious. Elena held up the dress in her hand.
"Does it have to be right now."
"Unfortunately, yes," Claire breathed out, earning Elena's undivided attention as she could clearly see that something was wrong.
The human looked back and forth between the two vampires just as Damon opened his mouth and sighed. "Normally, I would have a completely different outlook on what we're about to tell you, but since it could really inconvenience me, I'll…squeal."
Elena just laughed nervously. "What are you talking about, Damon?"
"It's Stefan," Claire said solemnly, her eyes softening. "He's…still drinking human blood."
"What?" Elena gasped.
"Yeah." Damon shrugged. "A month ago, I would've rejoiced. But with the Council back on the alert, it is not a good time for Stefan to fly off the handle."
"I know he's been a little edgy lately, but he said that was normal." Elena scoffed. Claire shook her head.
"It's not normal, Elena. Damon and I found him with a fridge full of stolen blood from the hospital," she explained. A quivering Elena walked over to the couch in the changing room and set her dress down as she, herself, sat down on the couch with a hurt and shocked expression.
"Oh, my God," Elena whispered.
Damon didn't stop; he continued to try and make Elena realize how dangerous it was for Stefan to be flying off the handle. "He has no idea what normal is. His entire existence isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood. But he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning how to control it. And now it's controlling him instead."
"Damon and I are having a disagreement on what's best for Stefan and his dietary habits right now," Claire commented, throwing a glance at Damon for good measure. He shrugged. Claire turned back to Elena and shook her head again. "Regardless, it's not safe for any of us if this keeps happening right now."
A shell-shocked Elena let her voice turn out shaky, "I-I can't believe this! I mean, it's Stefan that we're talking about here."
Damon disagreed, "It's Stefan on human blood, Elena. He'll do anything, he'll say anything; because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me."
Elena lowered her eyes, trying to let the information sink in, and while she did that, Claire sighed and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I've…got this."
Damon threw her a glance, and the both of them caught gazes for a moment before Damon gave a solemn nod, having done his job. The door clicked shut, and the room was silent for a minute or two before Elena got up from the couch and began to pace.
"Look, we can try to help him get back on the animal diet again—" Claire began, but she was interrupted by Elena, who rambled guiltily.
"This is all my fault! I'm the one who fed him the blood in the first place…"
Claire shook her head. "It's definitely not your fault, Elena, he just—" Again, she was interrupted, but this time, it wasn't by Elena. Instead, the door behind them opened to reveal a curious Stefan that had undoubtedly heard the tail end of their conversation.
"Uh…what's going on in here?" Stefan asked. Claire turned around and sighed at him.
"I'm just…telling Elena what she needed to be told." The blonde straightened, but Stefan wasn't giving in so easily. He scoffed and put his hands into his pockets with a shrug.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, but he knew damn well what Claire had told Elena about.
But when Elena blurted it out, there was no turning back. "I know about the blood, Stefan."
When the silence loomed over the couple in the changing room, Claire realized quickly that her job as a mediator was done and she had to get back to her current job of being a coordinator of the current event. "Uh…I have a few things to take care of before the pageant starts so…"
Did Claire feel bad about betraying Stefan? Sure. Did she know that it was for the best? Without a doubt. So maybe Stefan gave her a cold glance on her way out of the room, but she kept repeating to herself that it was for the best. She hated seeing Stefan suffer, and that's exactly what he did when he was on human blood—suffer. As much as she hated to admit it, Damon was right. He should've been learning to control his bloodthirst but ended up pushing it off for so long, every time he fell off the wagon, it took ten times the effort than the last to get back on it.
It all made Claire very afraid that she would have to fill in for Lexi's place. Lexi knew how to do things other vampires couldn't, and those were big shoes to fill. At the moment, she was thinking about going after Sheriff Forbes for killing Lexi, but she wasn't a complete monster. Descending the stairs, Claire shook out her wrists and took in a deep breath to calm herself down.
"I…think Stefan might've gone upstairs." Claire looked up to see Damon with a worried expression as he held an empty glass of champagne in his hand and swallowed. "Is everything okay?"
Since she was only about halfway down the winding stairs when Damon spoke to her, Claire continued down them before answering as she was at the last step. "No. I don't think it's ever going to be okay unless we fix this."
Damon sighed as they began to walk out to the outdoor dance floor where the contestants would soon come. He set the empty champagne glass in his hand down on a server's tray and let the server take it away.
"And by 'we' you mean me, since I was the one who got him onto the blood in the first place, right?"
Claire stopped Damon right on the dance floor, pulling back his arm. He turned to face her as they came to a stop, watching as she shook her head with serious eyes.
"No. By 'we', I mean we." They stared at each other, each of their blue orbs consuming the color of the other. "Damon, he means a lot to the both of us. It's the one thing we've had in common for our entire lives. He's my friend, he's your brother. We're doing this together. Let's just hope that telling Elena was the right thing to do."
Damon sighed. "The right thing…yes." He paused. "But the thing that'll make him stop feeding off of human blood…I'm not sure."
Claire shrugged. "Well, we had to try." A silence panned between them before Claire took in a sharp inhale and looked towards the bar. "Okay. I need a drink before Carol comes and finds me."
A thousand different emotions ran through Stefan's head by the time he found himself alone in one of the bathrooms on the second level of the Founder's Hall. Elena had found out that he was feeding off of human blood again, courtesy of his best friend and undoubtedly his brother, who couldn't keep a secret to save their own lives. Anger, rage, despair, hurt…it all blurred into one emotion: hunger. Stefan's breaths were short and full of fury, and the fact that he had confined himself in the small bathroom didn't help. Mumbling expletives to himself, Stefan leaned over the bathroom sink and felt the emotions bubble up inside of him. All the people he thought he could count on had betrayed him—hadn't believed in him.
In a flash of blind anger, Stefan ended up punching out the mirror in the small bathroom, and he watched as the shards of the glass fell into the sink and onto the bathroom floor. He groaned to himself, feeling as if he was on overdrive because of his burning throat, and when the door opened up, the rage got the better of him.
"Stefan," Christopher tried, but he saw Stefan's monstrous face on, indicating his growing, disastrous hunger. In a calmer voice, Christopher repeated, "Stefan? Stefan, it's me. Christopher. Relax. I'll go get Claire and—"
Stefan let out a breathy groan before he experienced another episode of blind rage, and he barely even felt it when he snapped Claire's husband's neck, rendering him temporarily dead. His body laid in front of the bathroom door, visible to all and any humans who walked by, but Stefan couldn't have that. Still facing the burning hunger in his throat, Stefan dragged Christopher's body into the bathroom and noticed that his elongated fangs and the veins under his eyes hadn't gone away. He was hungry and he wanted food. He wanted vampire food. Blood.
It was when Stefan finally crammed Christopher into the small bathroom when he heard a gasp behind him, and the sound of a beating human heart captured his attention immediately.
"Oh! God, sorry…" A pretty blonde high school student—Stefan recalled her as Amber, though her name didn't really matter—gasped when she saw Stefan's vampire face when he turned around. She backed away, afraid, but Stefan moved closer to her. Before she could scream, Stefan had her by the neck.
"Miss Tina Fell, escorted by Bartholomew Whitmore," Richard Lockwood announced, earning the Mystic Falls crowd to applause. Claire and Damon stood beside each other in the crowd, and they both clapped respectfully for the beautiful blonde in pink that joined arms with a boy in a tux and together walked outside onto the dance floor.
"Where's Stefan?" Claire asked as she peered over the crowd, something that was easy to do in the routinely high heels she was wearing. "And Christopher? I haven't seen either of them."
"I have no idea," Damon murmured, looking around himself. "But this is not good."
"Tell me about it. Elena's about to be called soon!"
Damon frowned. "I was sort of referring to the fact that Stefan's pissed and he's nowhere to be found…which means he got hungry."
"Miss Caroline Forbes and her escort, Jeffery Lockwood Hamilton." The crowd applauded again, as did Damon and Claire unconsciously as they watched Caroline in her floor-length green dress descend and join hands with her fill-in. Luckily, Claire had thought of a fail-proof system just in case anything went wrong with the pageant—a few secondary escorts had been taught the dance and were put in the back of the filing line for any emergency, and this was a flat-out emergency. Claire almost scoffed to herself. And Carol thought there wouldn't be an emergency.
Claire moved her way out of the crowd over to Richard, who was waiting to introduce Elena. Knowing that Stefan wasn't waiting for Elena at the bottom of the staircase, she told the Mayor the name of the next fill-in escort she had waiting at the bottom of the stairs: Dylan Maxwell. Richard nodded to her in understanding and Claire returned back to the crowd.
"You had a fail-safe pageant system?" Damon whispered to her as she returned to his side. Claire shrugged and listened while Elena was introduced.
"Doesn't everyone?" she proposed, causing Damon to roll his eyes at her without her knowledge. They clapped for Elena and the fill-in escort, and Claire could tell that Elena was shaking in her high heels. But it wasn't because she was nervous of the crowd, it was because she came to the same conclusion as Damon and Claire: Stefan was doing something that was going to screw all of them over.
But it would look too suspicious to leave the pageant—or for Elena to drop out. It was when Carol Lockwood came to her husband's side that Claire realized there was one contestant missing from the line-up.
"Amber," Claire whispered to Damon as they moved to the threshold of the Founder's Hall to watch the dance. They stood at the front, right in full view of the contestants. The two vampires didn't look at each other and tried to keep their mouths tight as can be so no one would know they were talking.
"What about her?"
"She's not in the line-up. Stefan took her, he had to."
"Damn it," Damon hissed while the dance started and happened right before their eyes. It was a blast from the past, back to 1864 when the dance was the trend. Neither one of them said a word after they realized what had happened, and they didn't have to. Elena looked over at them multiple times during her uncomfortable dance to silently tell the two vampires to not to anything before she gets done with the pageant, and Damon and Claire knew that they couldn't leave the crowd or else it'd be suspicious. So they stood there, just a few inches away, watching the pretty girls in pretty dresses dance with the handsome boys in handsome tuxes.
The prestigious event came to a close after the dance, when the contestants waited all of five minutes for the judges to come up with their answers. As they were all subjected upon the stage, the crowd applauded the mayor for his presence.
"Before I crown the winner, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to all these young ladies for their efforts to better our community," Richard started and prompted the crowd to clap for them. After the applause died down, Mayor Lockwood continued, "So…without further adieu, it is my honor to announce our very own Miss Mystic Falls…Miss Caroline Forbes!"
From within the crowd, Claire gave a look of approval and thought to herself how impressed she was that Caroline actually one. And, since Claire and Caroline were both cut from the same cloth, Claire found herself smiling at the glory she felt in watching a younger version of herself take a sash labeled Miss Mystic Falls. Damon had been called away by a few scruffy men in tuxes, and she was forced to wait for Elena to be done with the pageant alone.
"Claire." The blonde turned her head and expected to see Damon, but instead, she saw Christopher walking up to her with his hand cupped around his neck. She moved through an empty space in the crowd and walked over to him, but she pulled Christopher into a private room so that they were away from the commotion.
"What happened?" she asked him. "Where were you?"
"Stefan," Christopher said simply. "He snapped my neck. I woke up just seconds before the Sheriff and John Gilbert came to inspect the bathroom he shoved me in. But he was out of control, Claire. Have you seen him?"
Claire shook her head. "No. He ditched Elena at the line-up, I made one of the fill-ins escort her. God damn it, Stefan," she cursed to herself.
"Snapping his neck wasn't all he did," Damon came up to the threshold of the private room with an unsettling look upon his face. "He broke a mirror in the bathroom, there was blood on the shards and it was definitely human blood."
"The blood turns him into a completely different person," Christopher noted as Damon spotted Elena out of the corner of his eye and went to greet her as she looked around for them. Claire nodded.
"I told you, he doesn't handle the human stuff well. We need to stop him." Damon brought Elena into the room, and Claire and Christopher turned to them so they could all discuss the major problem they had on their hands.
"What is it? Did you find him?" Elena questioned.
"There were signs of struggle in the upstairs bathroom," Damon told her immediately. "There was blood."
"It's Amber," Claire said without a doubt. Elena turned her gaze to the blonde vampire. "I mean…it has to be. Otherwise, the girl chickened out and ran home, but I doubt she would do that, even if she had a panic attack."
Elena shook her head. "He…he wouldn't hurt her. He won't." No one bothered arguing with Elena, but they all knew she was wrong. Stefan was capable of things she wasn't aware of.
"Let's just find him. Okay?" Damon proposed, brushing past Elena's outburst. "Let's get your coat. Come on."
Once outside, it didn't take the group long to find Stefan—all they had to do was follow the sound of a shrill, mind-numbing scream from a high school teenager. Elena ran as fast as she could for being a human in a floor-length dress, but the rest of them had no problem keeping up.
"Stefan!" Elena shouted once they all reached him as he puled away from the blonde teenager and let her drop to the ground.
"Stefan," Damon started firmly. "Come on. Get control of it. Come on. It's okay. Come on. Breathe through it, man." Damon inched closer with every second, and while Damon tried to get Stefan to calm down, Claire and Christopher stayed back with Elena just in case—she was human, after all. Elena cringed at the sight of Stefan and his bloodstained lips and chin, revolting at the picture.
But when Damon tried to touch his brother, Stefan just flung him in the other direction with an animalistic groan. Elena gasped, and no one really had time to realize it, but Bonnie Bennett had now joined them, watching as Stefan unraveled before her eyes. Damon recoiled easily, but the two brothers faced each other head-on.
"Stefan, stop it!" Elena cried.
"Make sure she stays back," Claire hissed at Christopher before she inched closer to Stefan, causing him to turn to her. "You're better than this, Stefan! Look at me. I can help you. I can help you," she repeated, but Stefan looked at her with those same wild eyes. "Just listen—"
But he wouldn't listen. Stefan Salvatore was so beyond the point of listening that he attacked his best friend by the throat and threw her against the ground with another animalistic growl. Before Claire had time to react, Damon did, and he rushed over to Stefan and plucked his brother off of Claire before Claire could even have time to gasp for air against Stefan's hand. Just as Damon had, Claire flashed up from the ground in rebound and the two vampires faced the out-of-control one across the way, both sides braced for a fight.
But it didn't come to that. Instead, Stefan fell to the floor, grasping at the hairs on his head, groaning, and panting like he was experiencing a migraine. Everyone looked to Bonnie, who stepped closer and stared Stefan down with her eyes, and they all came to the same conclusion: she was the one doing it to him.
The witch closed her eyes, and in a few moment, she finished. Stefan stopped grunting in pain and he just looked around, lost. His gaze turned to Damon and Claire, and Damon held up his hands in surrender.
"It's okay," Damon whispered, but he could see the pain in his brother's eyes. "Stefan…"
The younger Salvatore gasped out of shame watching Elena, who stared at him open-mouthed in complete disbelief, and no one could stop him as he stumbled away into the forest with a thick stream of blood falling out of his mouth.
Because of the commotion, Damon and Claire called Sheriff Forbes outside after they'd compelled Amber into forgetting what happened and they spun a story to where Bonnie and Elena found Amber and had called Damon, Claire, and Christopher. Bonnie reluctantly went along with the story, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the whole thing disturbed her. Amber was going to be okay, but no one was sure about Stefan.
Claire had found Elena after Bonnie left in a hurry, leaving Elena to feel guilty about dragging her friend into everything. Because of the way Elena looked and the conversation that Claire didn't have to overhear to know how it went, the blonde vampire walked over to the human and sighed.
"You okay?" she asked.
Elena turned around at her and clutched her coat closer to her body before scoffing. "No." Claire nodded in understanding, and Elena bit down on her lip, holding in her misty eyes. "I've never…seen him like that before, Claire. He's scaring me…and I know that this isn't him. It can't be."
"The blood affects us all in different ways," Claire whispered low enough so none of the people around them could hear. "It changes us. And unfortunately for Stefan, it turns him into something dark. Something he absolutely despises and…well, without Lexi, I don't really know what to do," the vampire admitted.
Elena remembered Lexi; she remembered the lie Damon told Claire while they were on their Georgia road trip, and she tried to prevent herself from spilling the truth at that very moment. So, instead of going onto the topic of Lexi, Elena just sighed. "I think I do."
A few minutes later, Claire found Alaric swinging his keys and bouncing down from the Founder's Hall steps. When he saw the blonde in front of him, he stopped and gasped at the startle. "Jesus. Claire, you scared me."
"Sorry." But she didn't really care about apologies. Alaric waited for her to speak, and after looking down at the ground and back up, Claire finally found the will. "I need a favor."
Thankfully, Claire found Stefan up in his room, still sweaty and covered in the scent of fresh human blood. He was pacing back and forth and practically gnawing at his own hand in burning hunger and a mixture of other emotions, but he was home, at least. He wasn't out wrecking havoc on the entire town, spilling blood where it shouldn't be split.
As soon as Stefan realized her presence at his threshold, he called over his shoulder, "Get out of my room, Claire."
"That's my line and it can only be said to Damon." Even though it wasn't a situation she wanted to laugh in, she needed to get a joke through before she crumbled into pieces watching her best friend fall apart.
Stefan turned around at her and looked at his friend with cold eyes. "I said get out."
"Stefan." In opposition to what he said, Claire stepped into the room with her fists clenched and her head pounding. "You've got to stop this. You're scaring everyone. Christopher, Damon, Elena, and I…we're all worried for you. You're taking a plunge off the deep end."
"I'm not taking a plunge, Claire. This is who I am," the Salvatore growled under his breath. Claire frowned.
"That's not true. You and I both know, it's the blood that makes us this way. The monster that everyone believes we are is inside of us, but it doesn't have to come out. We can control it." She inched closer to Stefan, not afraid for herself but afraid for him. Stefan scoffed under his breath.
"It's not a monster that's inside of me, Claire, it's who I really am. The blood brings out the real me."
"The blood brings out the monster in you. The monster in all of us." Claire shook her head in disbelief. "It's happened to me, it's happened to Damon, and it's happened to you before, too. And though I may have stood by you the entire time, I didn't do it for the right reasons. But now, I am. Let me fight this with you."
"There's nothing to fight!" Stefan shouted, his arm dragging across a stack of books that fell onto the floor in pure, white-hot rage. Claire stepped closer to him and watched as Stefan paced over and over again and held out a hand to her, trying to prevent her from stepping. "Don't come any closer. Stop!"
"You're my best friend, Stefan," Claire snapped at him, her eyes hardening. "You've been my friend for years and if you think I'm giving up on you right now you've got another thing coming." Her voice was just as hard and icy as Stefan's, causing him to back down and watch as she moved closer to him. "Because I don't care if you don't want my help, Stef. You're getting it. Even if I have to tie you down and do it for you."
"You don't have a choice in this, Clarissa! I don't have anything to fight. I've only been exposed to the real me," Stefan growled.
"You're full of bullshit, Stefan, and you know it!" Claire shouted.
"Stop!" Stefan boomed as he flashed the two back to the cabinet in his room, and he banged on it so hard that if it hadn't been made of solid wood, it would've crumbled underneath his fist. Claire didn't flinch one bit, but Stefan could see the pity in her eyes when she looked at him—the hurt. Silence hung for a long time as the two friends gazed at each other, and Claire tried not to let Stefan see the pain she felt watching him terrorize everything closest to him, including her.
"You're the only thing that's been constant in my life for years, Stefan," Claire whispered, shaking her head slowly. "You're all I have. I need you to stop this. Please."
All seriousness flooded into the two pairs of eyes that stared at each other, and Stefan found himself realizing how bad the situation had really become. Elena looked at him like he was a monster, Claire looked at him like she was losing her life, and Damon looked at him like he was disappointed beyond belief. Eventually, it all dawned on Stefan that he was terrorizing everyone. All for the blood.
"I'm so sorry," Stefan whispered, immediately conceding. Claire nodded to him, her eyes welling up, but it wasn't because Stefan was apologizing to her. It was for what she was about to do. The vervain dart in her hand burned a hole as if she was carrying a hot stone. Stefan folded into her, and Claire let him. "I'm so sorry, Clarissa. I really am."
"It's okay, Stefan. We're gonna get through this." Claire wrapped one of her arms around Stefan's neck and gave him a comforting hug. "We're gonna fight this and we're going to do it together, I promise you. Okay?"
"Okay…" Stefan whispered brokenly, and Claire found herself wavering as she hovered the vervain dart over his back. But the sight of a broken Stefan realizing all the pain that he'd caused was what made Claire finally stab the dart into her best friend's back, letting all of the poison into his body. Stefan whimpered as he crumbled, only being held upright by the will of Claire. Biting down on her lip, Claire moved Stefan's body so that he fell on the ground, and she watched his eyes flutter closed with a look of betrayal hiding beyond them.
When Claire looked up, she found Damon walking up to Stefan's door, ready to take his brother down to the cellar so they could start the process that Claire knew Lexi would approve of. Damon gave her a tight grimace as he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Sure you want to do this?"
Claire swallowed hard as she nodded. "Elena was right." Claire looked down at Stefan lying at her feet. "We have to do this."
"Claire." The blonde looked up at Stefan's brother and saw him nod to her slowly. "Just because Elena wants this doesn't mean we have to."
Claire shook her head and Damon watched as her eyes glistened. "No, Damon. We do. We have to. Not for Elena, but…for him. It's the only way to fix all this."
She knew she was right, Damon knew she was right, and even Stefan knew she was right—not that he would come around to it so quickly. But Damon wasted no time in dragging Stefan's body to the Salvatore cellar, where they would all be forced to watch as Stefan deteriorated while they curved him back onto the animal diet. The heavy iron door shut with a squeal and Damon locked it, sealing his brother inside.
"There's no guarantee that this is going to work," Damon warned her. Claire stared at the cellar door before moving her gaze to Damon.
"I know. But I don't see any other way we can do it." She paused. "Do you?" Damon's silence was deafening, and it caused Claire to change the subject as she sucked in a breath and wiped her face with the palms of her hands. "Where's Christopher?"
"He's still out dropping Elena back home, I guess," Damon answered her and watched as Claire backed up to the cellar wall and nodded. He waited for her to start heading upstairs with him, but when he saw her sliding down the wall in front of the cellar, he realized that wasn't happening. "You're not coming?"
Claire shook her head wordlessly and tilted her head back against the wall. She waited for Damon to go, but she found herself surprised when Damon ended up sitting with his back to the wall her feet were positioned on, and she just gave him a look of understanding.
"For the record," Damon began slowly, trying to think his words before he said them, "Stefan's…not all you have, Claire."
The two vampires stared at each other for a long time before Claire's lips turned into a sad smile and she whispered, "I know."
Here's just a little topic of conversation here: How did you all like that TVD promo that came out today? I'm conflicted but I'm really excited to see Season 6 air. What about the rest of you?