Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)
Bad Moon Rising
"Thanks for coming, Ric," Stefan greeted the history teacher as Alaric strolled into the vast Salvatore foyer and looked around at the luxurious mansion-like home. Damon shut the door behind Alaric and sighed.
"Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon walked ahead of Alaric and into the parlor where Stefan, Elena, Claire, and Christopher were all lounging in, waiting for Alaric's arrival. They were all waiting to ask Alaric questions about Isobel, who they all presumed knew about the Lockwoods' secret.
"Uh, Elena mentioned you needed my help?" Alaric urged, ignoring Damon's offer. Damon gestured for him to sit.
"Yeah. We were, uh, hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family," Stefan asked slowly as Ric sat down on the couch across from the one he, Elena, and Claire were sitting on. Damon took his seat in the separate armchair and Christopher was sitting on the arm of the couch that was next to Claire, finding no preference to sit.
"Now why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?"
"You might not, but Isobel might've," Christopher pointed out.
"Isobel's research, from when you guys were at Duke together," Elena clarified for her teacher. Stefan pulled himself to lean on his knees.
"You said that she had spent years researching this town?"
"Isobel's research here in…Mystic Falls were rooted in folklore and legend," Alaric explained. "At the time, I thought most of which was fiction."
"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon taunted with a smirk, causing Alaric to smile just the slightest. Claire sighed.
"Well since Isobel's research was obviously not fiction, anything else that she found besides the existence of vampires could help," the blonde offered, giving Alaric a ballpark to work in. Alaric took only a moment of hesitation before giving an answer.
"The lycanthrope."
Every single vampire in the room looked at each other, the word repeating in their head and the danger that came along with it.
"Wait. Like werewolves?" Elena asked, putting the knees that were to her chest on the ground as she leaned forward in curiosity. Before Alaric could respond, Damon spoke up as he leaned forward in his own chair.
"No way. Impossible. Way too Lon Chaney."
Stefan looked to the side at his brother. "Is it?'
Damon looked up at Stefan with an irritated look, detesting the fact that he was being questioned. "I've been on this planet 160-some odd years and I've never come across one." He looked over at Alaric. "If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"
"Well, why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Ric questioned, turning the interrogation around.
"Because vervain didn't effect the mayor on Founder's Day, but the Gilbert device did. And it effected his son, Tyler," Damon replied pointedly.
After Damon was done, Stefan added, "And, at the school carnival, his uncle, Mason, exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers. It suggested some sort of a supernatural entity."
"We were hoping that Isobel's research could…help us figure out what it is," Elena began, getting to the real point of the conversation: the favor.
"Well, all of her things are still at Duke." Alaric cleared his throat. "I mean, her office is still there. She's technically still missing."
"So can we get access to it?" Damon questioned, but Ric was still reluctant to come up with a reply for them all. "Ric, we need to know what we're dealing with. If this 'wolf man' thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means that Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney Jr. Which means Bela Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed."
"But I thought you were going to show me how to feed first," Caroline complained as she and Claire sat down in her room and discussed the plans they were forced to cancel.
Though Claire was determined to help Caroline since her blood made the young vampire, Stefan had suggested that he tried getting Caroline on animal blood first and, if that didn't work out, Claire could teach Caroline how to feed like a normal vampire. But this also meant that Claire had to go on the trip with Damon, Elena, and Alaric, which she wasn't looking forward to because of one irritating vampire she just couldn't seem to avoid.
"I know." Claire's voice was entirely apologetic. She sat down in the dark room, which had been completely sealed from the light that shone outside from the day. "But Stefan thinks it's a good idea for you to try animals first. And…well, that's not my style."
Caroline wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I don't want to feed from animals, though."
Claire shrugged. "Well, just try it once. If you don't like it, I can show you how to control your hunger on blood bags."
After a few moments, Caroline groaned. "Fine. I'll try it." She paused and looked longingly at the window. "How long do I have to stay in here?"
Claire shook her head. "Not long. Stefan's going to talk Bonnie into making you a daylight ring. He and Christopher will bring her over after we leave for the Duke campus."
Unlike Damon, Elena, Claire, and Alaric, Stefan and Christopher had decided to stay back. First of all, they didn't have enough room in the car. Secondly, someone had to stay behind and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happened in Mystic Falls while they were gone. Alaric wasn't quite sure whether or not they'd be back by nightfall, so he had everyone pack an extra set of clothes and essentials just in case.
Caroline looked down at Claire's hands, searching for a daylight ring, but then she saw the large rock on her sire's hands and gasped. "Holy crap! Is that your daylight ring? Do I get one of those?"
Claire raised her eyebrows and looked down at her left hand where Caroline was pointing to the set of wedding rings on her left ring finger. She almost forgot they were there, quite honestly. After slapping Damon the night before, she'd gone home and made a decision—there was going to be no more skirting around this "marriage" thing. She fit the rings on her finger and vowed not to take them off because she wanted the marriage to work.
It was the first time in a long time where she truly wanted something.
Absently, Claire laughed. "What? No. That's my wedding ring set." Claire pulled her daylight ring off of her right hand and showed it to Caroline. "This is my daylight ring."
Caroline frowned, disappointed. "Well…can my daylight ring be an engagement ring?"
Claire shrugged. "Not unless Stefan wants to buy you an engagement ring." Before they could continue the conversation, there was a knock on the door. Claire and Caroline both turned their heads, and Claire raised an eyebrow before looking back at Caroline. "Who's that?"
Caroline's shoulders rose and fell, confused herself, and she swung herself off of her bed to go answer the door. Claire followed the cautious Caroline and the knock sounded again as Caroline pushed open one of the French doors in her home. But she stopped short at a panel of light that shone across the carpet and was sure to burn her if she stepped in it.
"Caroline?" a voice called out at the door. Caroline's face turned down.
"Who is it?" Claire asked again, coming up in front of Caroline right in the line of sun. Caroline's expression was somber.
"It's Matt," she whispered, but then caught sight of Claire's daylight ring. Matt knocked again. Suddenly, Caroline perked up with an idea. "Claire? Can I have your ring? For, like, two minutes?"
Claire looked back and forth between the door and Caroline, but then she realized something. Matt Donovan was a human, she knew that much. Caroline wasn't equipped to handle it, and Claire knew that if she let Caroline try it with her daylight ring that she could potentially be stuck without being able to help. With no other option than to risk everything on a newborn vampire who was most likely not going to be able to control herself, Claire shook her head.
"Caroline, you can't. I'm sorry, but it's too risky." Caroline made a noise of disapproval and complaint, but Claire turned to the door. "I'll…I'll handle it, okay?"
"Seriously?! Claire, come on..."
Claire didn't listen to her, nor did she turn back. Caroline was stuck at the French doors, unable to get out of the darkness, and Claire heard the blonde sigh heavily and sit down on the floor in defeat. Claire opened the door just wide enough for her to squeeze through, and on the porch, Matt cut himself off from saying Caroline's name again as he watched Claire step out and shut the door behind her.
"…Claire, right?" he asked, recalling her name from the hospital. She nodded. "Uh, is Caroline in there?"
"You know, she's actually out," Claire lied, giving him an apologetic smile. "But you can try again later or something."
Matt raised his eyebrows. "Well, she said she was at home."
Claire inhaled sharply and scrambled for an excuse. "Yeah, well…she had a really important errand to run. Some…uh, sale at the mall. Do you need me to give her a message?"
Matt opened his mouth to tell her what he wanted Caroline to know, but he eventually sighed outwardly. "No. No, I'm good. But thanks."
"Yeah. Sure, no problem."
Claire watched as the young, good-looking human walked off Caroline's front porch and started walking away from the house. The second he left Claire's presence, he pulled out the phone and dialed Caroline to leave a message. Sighing, Claire walked back into Caroline's house and shut the door. Caroline was, indeed, sitting on the floor twiddling her thumbs. Claire gave the young vampire a small smile.
"Bonnie will be here with a daylight ring, soon. I promise."
Caroline got up from the floor. "What about you? Are you leaving now?"
Claire nodded and grabbed her jacket that she had put on the couch in the living room when she entered the house. "Mmhmm. I've got to get going. But I'll be sure to check in with Stefan, okay? You don't have to tell him the truth if you don't want to, but when I get back, you can tell me and we can see where it goes from there. Are you gonna be okay for a while until Stefan shows up?"
Caroline nodded weakly. "Yeah. I'll be fine, I guess."
Claire smiled. "Well, you can text me if you need something. I'll see you later, Caroline."
"Bye." And so Claire left, leaving Caroline alone to herself until Stefan could come over and get started on the animal training with her. Claire didn't think it was a good idea to have Caroline start out on animal blood, but she was willing to give it a try. She knew Caroline wasn't too happy about it, but that just made two of them foresee a bad day.
Luckily for her, Caroline's house was only a little ways away from Elena's. When she got to the Gilbert house, she found Stefan, Elena, Christopher, Alaric, and Damon out in front of the house. Elena threw her bag into the car while she also threw an evil glance to Damon. After saying goodbye to Stefan, Elena climbed into the car without a second look at the elder Salvatore. Claire found it entirely amusing.
"Make sure she doesn't kill him before you guys get back," Christopher murmured to Claire as she approached the car. Claire scoffed.
"Easier said than done," she told him. He smiled at her.
"Your stuff's already in the car, so you're all set. Have…fun?" He said the last word with confusion and an adorable smile that made Claire laugh.
"Sorry you can't come too, Chris," a voice interrupted them. Claire looked over to see Damon with a smug smile on his face, watching them as he leaned up against the car. She, however, was unamused at his childish comment and dropped her smile completely.
With a look that resembled Elena's earlier one, Claire reached around Christopher's face and pulled her lips to his, capturing his undivided attention. Damon squinted, not because of the sunlight, but because of the disgust and hurt he felt inside of him. What hurt even more was when he saw the glare from the diamond ring on her left ring finger. There was a very jealous part inside of him that he absolutely despised, and he couldn't stand to bare it any longer.
"Okay. Time to go."
Damon spun around and gracefully stepped into the car's passenger seat without one glance back at Claire or Christopher, who watched him. Christopher sighed and looked back at his wife.
"You're probably going to be the one to kill him, won't you?"
"Yep." Claire looked over his shoulder to Stefan, who was waiting for the car to leave. She looked back and forth between the two. "If anything goes wrong with Caroline today, call me."
"We will," Stefan assured her, nodding. "But she'll be fine. I promise."
Claire nodded as well, and after giving a hug to Stefan, she climbed into the car door that was held open for her by her friend and she moved to sit next to Elena. The second Claire was in the car, Alaric put the car in drive and started off to the Duke campus.
The extensive car ride was relatively quiet. Music from the stereo played in the background, but no one really talked. Alaric was focused on the road, Damon was focused on being Damon, and Claire and Elena were purposely not talking because they both knew that one way or another, Damon would fit himself into the conversation.
"How are you two doing back there?" Damon asked the two of them, looking behind the front seats to the vampire and the human in the back. He could see Elena purposely avoid his gaze, and Damon rolled his eyes. "You know, Elena, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly."
Alaric scoffed from the driver's seat. "I don't think she's pretending. You did kill her brother."
"There is a huge asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life!"
"Yeah. Thanks to a ring that you didn't know he was wearing," Elena commented snidely. Damon groaned.
"Why are you so sure I didn't know?" Damon questioned her validly, earning Elena's attention. But she knew what he was going to say and how untrue it was.
"Did you?"
"Yes."
Her eyes thinned. "You're lying."
"Elena, I saw the ring!" Damon argued, trying to convince her of what she was not believing. Elena turned her head and refused to talk to him any longer. "It's a big, tacky thing. It's hard to miss."
Alaric examined his own ring in the front seat while Damon waited for a response from one of the two females from the back. Eventually, Claire just shook her head in disbelief at the complexity of the elder Salvatore. He never did learn when to quit. Then again, neither did she.
"Doesn't your mouth ever get tired of spitting out lies?"
"Doesn't your mouth ever get tired of kissing guys?" Claire scoffed, unimpressed with Damon's petty remark. Damon, however, was done with the back and forth game. "I told you and I'll tell you again, Claire. I saw the ring."
"You're forgetting that I was there! You never looked at his hand—not once," the vampire accused. "Why can't you just admit that you didn't see the ring?"
"Because I saw it, Claire!" She scoffed again and rolled her eyes, and that was the end of that conversation.
It was one thing for Damon to have killed Jeremy and it was another for him to lie blatantly about seeing the ring on his hand. So, no matter how much he tried to catch her attention the entire ride out to Duke, she wouldn't talk to him. Making up with Damon Salvatore was not on her to-do list and it wasn't going to be on it any time soon.
Alaric soon pulled up to the Duke campus, which was pretty and lively, covered in blossoming flowers and rich green grass. They walked into a building on campus, following Alaric inside of an office in a single-file line.
"So Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomena is rooted in folklore." He rounded a corner to see a woman standing at a filing cabinet. "Excuse me. Hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman. I called earlier?"
Hearing this, the woman immediately recalled Alaric. She shut the filing cabinet with a smile and walked up to him before shaking his hand. "Yes, ah, of course. I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant—comparative folklore." Vanessa's eyes trailed over Damon, Elena, and Claire with a strange look, and the three were slightly confused to what made them so intriguing. Without skipping another beat, Vanessa got back on task. "Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys."
Thinking that her strange looks had to deal with his visitors not being properly introduced, Alaric gestured to them. "I'm sorry, these are my friends, Claire, Damon, and Elena. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition."
Vanessa scoffed. "Please. Isobel's office is right through there." She nodded her head in another direction and walked around a desk to grab Isobel's keys like she'd said. "Isobel was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student. She was…brilliant. One of the reasons I went into folklore." Alaric smiled. "I…have to ask…um, has there been any news?"
"No. No, I'm afraid not."
Moving on from her disappointment that was unsurprising, Vanessa gestured to the door in the office. "It's right this way." She unlocked the door and soon after, the whole group flooded in and spread out, intrigued at all the information that was sitting on bookshelves for them to hut through. "I'll grab the light. Feel free to look around. It's fascinating, isn't it?"
"Mmhmm," Damon mumbled to himself as he played with some of the things on a desk by the window. Elena was looking through bookshelves and Claire tested the dust levels on the bookshelf adjacent to Elena. Turning around to see that the research assistant was not there, Damon raised his eyebrows. "Where'd she go?"
It all happened to quickly after that. Claire wrinkled her nose at the sight of so much dust on the bookshelf and she turned around, only to be surprised by Vanessa who had already launched an arrow at her. Claire braced to move quickly, but Damon flashed so fast that he was in front of her, his back taking the hit of the arrow. Elena gasped beside them, shocked, while Alaric just pinned Vanessa to the nearest wall to subdue her for further questioning after her actions.
"Pull it out," Damon growled to Claire as the vampire stood behind him, debating whether or not to pull the arrow out. She hesitated.
"What if I don't want to?"
"Just pull the damn thing out, Claire," Damon hissed through his teeth. "It hurts."
Claire frowned at him, but nevertheless reached forward to take the arrow out of his back. She was very much capable of doing it, but she didn't really want to. Damon might've saved her life, but she didn't ask him to. She could've been out of that arrow's line of sight in a millisecond if she wanted it. So, expressing her partially feminist-driven anger, she reached forward, grabbed the arrow, and twisted it into him just out of spite. Damon groaned loudly while Claire finally ripped the arrow out of his flesh, earning yet another groan from the Salvatore.
"There." She dropped the arrow in front of him. "Happy now?"
Claire turned her back just as Damon straightened out his spine and shuddered from the pain that arrow caused. Sighing, he then declared, "That bitch is dead."
This caused her to immediately turn around, alarmed. "No, she's not. Alaric and Elena don't want her dead, so you're not going to kill her, okay?"
Damon came to a stop in front of Claire, who was staring at him coldly with crossed arms. He just smirked down at her, deciding to switch it up to a light mood, even though there was always a dark cloud surrounding him.
"Watch me." He brushed past Claire to go out into the main office, but she spun around on her heel to face him as he walked out.
"Lay one finger on her, Damon, and I swear to God, I'll book the next plane ticket back to Rio and never speak to you again," she threatened him. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to see Vanessa die, but she wanted to show Damon up. The best way to deal with a rogue mind was to threaten it with something it couldn't handle losing.
Damon turned around at her with an unimpressed expression. "What makes you think that has any power over me? 'Cause I took an arrow in the back for you? You are severely overestimating yourself." He smirked and tried to sling an arm around her. Instead, she slapped it away and smiled bitterly.
"Because I know you, Damon. And you would rather listen to me than lose me and I know that for a fact."
Damon ignored her. "When did you become such a stick-in-the-mud? Fighting for unimportant human lives?"
"When did you become someone who kills a close friend and your alleged friend's brother?"
"You're trying to manipulate me," he accused, narrowing his eyes.
"Manipulate…boss you around…frankly, I don't care what you call it." Claire shrugged and her eyes turned cold. "But you're not killing her. Got it?"
Damon fell silent, and Claire brushed his shoulder and walked out into the office where Alaric and Elena were listening to Vanessa plead her case.
"Please! Okay? I freaked! All right, you would've done the same thing. It is not possible! Katherine Pierce can't be alive."
"I'm not Katherine," Elena told her, shaking her head. "My name is Elena Gilbert. I'm Isobel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce."
Vanessa shook her head vigorously. "Damon Salvatore and Clarissa King died in 1865! Okay? I-I read Isobel's research."
"Yeah, well, then you should know just how possible this is," Alaric told her firmly. Damon and Claire came up to Elena's sides to face Vanessa, who was staring at them with fear and confusion. Claire sighed.
"You're right, I did die in 1865. I am Clarissa King, but you can call me Claire." She looked back at Damon. "And this is Damon Salvatore, who you just shot."
"I'd be extra nice to me right now," Damon chastised lightly. Claire sighed.
"Look, as long as you don't try to shoot me again, we won't hurt you. But right now, we need your help. All of Isobel's research on Mystic Falls, we need to see it. Do you think you can do that for us?" Claire asked, but it wasn't really a question. Vanessa could see it was a courtesy. So, without delay, she complied and brought out all of the boxes she knew existed on anything relating to Mystic Falls.
"This box checks Katherine's arrival to Mystic Falls in April of 1864," Vanessa announced, putting a box in front of Elena. To her dismay, it was smaller than she'd hoped.
"Is that all there is about her?"
Vanessa nodded. "All that I'm aware of."
Elena took it in stride, however, hoping that she'd find something else among all the books in the room they were standing in. She already had enlisted Claire into helping her, knowing that she was the only one who'd really understand the need to find out about her heritage. Their first priority was the lycanthrope, but that didn't mean the two couldn't search for something else. However, Elena was more concerned about Damon, who she knew had an itching to kill Vanessa with his bare hands. Spotting him with his back turned, Elena reached into the box of things Vanessa had brought over and grabbed two branches of vervain.
"Here," she whispered and handed it to Vanessa. "Take this."
Vanessa looked up at Elena, intrigued. "Does vervain really work?" she asked lowly.
Elena nodded as a reply, but Damon soon shouted, "Nope! Not at all."
"Can he hear us?"
"No, that would be creepy," Damon whispered mockingly, causing Elena to nod her head in disappointment. Vanessa scoffed.
"Can he read minds, too?"
"You know, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask," Damon said cockily as he turned around to face the two conversing humans. Elena gave him a glare and Vanessa straightened with a pointed look.
"Don't listen to him." Claire walked into the room with a bunch of books she'd thought were worth a look into. Vanessa and Elena turned to see her as she dropped the books on the table and sighed, looking back at Damon. "Trust me, it's nothing special."
Though her back was to him, Damon frowned, unimpressed with her notion of his seemingly unimpressive physique. He knew it was a lie. But while he was just disappointed in the one comeback he despised, Vanessa laughed to herself at the comment while Elena just looked at Claire with shock, wondering what, exactly, the comment meant and how Claire had enough experience to make it.
A while after Claire's snide comment to Damon, he actually found his way up to her in the back as she shuffled through a bunch of papers to try and help Elena with finding Katherine. Vanessa, Damon, and Alaric were on werewolf duty, and Elena had enlisted her on Katherine duty. Even though she was supposed to be looking for doppelgänger information, Claire also tried to look for something—anything—that could pertain to why Katherine despised her so much. She wanted a real reason, not the one she already knew.
"What are you doing?" Damon asked, slurring his words together as he came up behind Claire. She sighed and thought about asking him to get the hell away from her, but decided against it. She didn't have much of a fight left in her anymore; it was starting to wear her out.
"Looking through some papers to find something Elena can use. She wants to know more about Katherine."
"Any luck?"
Claire shook her head. "Nope. Nothing about Katherine in here that I didn't already know. Nothing I could use against her, either," she almost scoffed. Damon took in a sharp inhale, causing Claire to raise her eyebrows and stop what she was doing.
"Ah, man. You know, it's a bummer we are in the middle of a huge fight right now. Because I could tell you what I know."
At this, Claire just rolled her eyes. "Go manipulate someone else, Damon. I've developed a tolerance."
"Well, it's only fair. Since you did it first," he retorted, causing her to look back at him. Their eyes locked for a moment, and she wanted to knock the wide, sly smirk on his face. Before she could, however, Alaric spoke, gaining their attention.
"Hey guys. Check this out." Alaric passed the book in his hand to Vanessa, and Claire put down the papers she was holding to go over to them. Damon hung back, still with a smile on his face and his arms crossed over his chest dominantly.
"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls, but here are some records of some of the lesser known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz." Vanessa handed Damon the book in her hand as he approached her and she pointed to one of the drawings scribbled on the page. Then, she read aloud one of the sayings articulately. "Which roughly translates into 'the curse of the sun and the moon'."
"It's Native American," Alaric commented.
"Aztec," Vanessa corrected. "It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story—600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible…until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night, and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, whosever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."
"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked, intrigued.
"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse." Vanessa looked at him pointedly as Damon wandered off somewhere, bored of staying in the same place. Moving on from the question, she continued. "Werewolves will attack humans, but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice—vampires."
This caused a spark in everyone's eyes when they realized that werewolves were gunning after them. If that were true, then the Lockwood boys would cause some serious trouble for them.
"Well…if werewolves are hunting vampires, I would know about it," Damon assured Vanessa.
"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive," she offered. Damon's smug smile just dropped instantly as he heard the reasoning to Vanessa's suggestion. "Hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them almost to extinction."
"Why would they do that?" Elena asked.
"To protect themselves. Legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires."
All of them were silent as they processed this new information. Damon was the one to finally speak everyone's mind as he muttered, "Ooh."
After learning this new information, Elena took it upon herself to go outside and warn Stefan about the werewolf bite so that he would know just in case, seeing as it was a full moon outside. But while Elena did that, Claire was still inside looking through the bookshelves for something that Elena could use. Now that they had their information and it was already dark outside, they were going to head out as soon as they wrapped everything up.
But she froze standing at that bookshelf as she saw a thickly bound book that caught her eye. On its spine read one single word: King.
"No way," Claire whispered, almost scoffing. She was hoping it was a book on her family, but in all reality, "King" could refer to other things. But when she opened the book, she saw a list of names; and she knew instantly that it was the King's family lineage. She flipped through the thin, worn-out pages, through the hundreds of generations that were the Kings, until she finally found her grandfather's name tied to his wife.
William and Regina King, who had a son named Edward King, who married Marianne Dobbs and became Marianne King, and then there was their daughter, Clarissa King…
Claire searched all over the page to find Amelia's name, but she couldn't find it. It wasn't tied to either her parents or her dad's illegitimate children. She even flipped to another page to see if Amelia was somehow moved because of limited space, but she just couldn't find it. She strained her eyes to try to find it, but it just wasn't there.
"What the hell is this?" Claire blurted out to Vanessa, who was packing the stuff on Katherine away. Vanessa looked up at her to see Claire put the King's family lineage book down on the table. "This isn't right. It says I'm an only child, but I'm not. I have a sister."
Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "No…Edward and Marianne King only had one daughter, and that was you."
Claire scoffed. "I'm pretty sure I know that I'm not an only child. Amelia King is my sister. That book is wrong."
Vanessa frowned. "You mean…Amelia Gilbert?" she corrected, trying to come to an understanding. Claire shook her head.
"Gilbert? Have you listened to a word I've said? Amelia King is my sister. Who the hell is Amelia Gilbert?"
Vanessa walked up to the King's legacy book and looked at the page with Claire's name on it. "Claire, if this book says you're an only child, you're an only child. All of these books are up to date and are precise. If the King line had an Amelia King back in 1864, it would be in there. There was an Amelia Gilbert, though."
Claire rubbed her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Jonathan's wife, Elizabeth, died giving birth to her son and after that, it was only Jonathan Gilbert and Michael Gilbert. No one else."
Thinking over Claire's words, Vanessa walked over to a bookshelf and grabbed a book with the last name Gilbert printed on the spine. Walking back over to Claire, Vanessa flipped through the pages until she found the right one, lining up with the correct timeline.
"Here." Vanessa slid the book to Claire, who took it immediately and spotted names she recognized. Jonathan Gilbert, Elizabeth Gilbert, Michael Gilbert…and then there was Amelia Gilbert, produced by Jonathan Gilbert and a woman named Michelle Maxwell. Claire looked up from the book, trying to piece it all in her mind.
"Michelle Maxwell…" Claire whispered, trying to jog her memory. She glanced over at Vanessa, distracted. "I've heard that name before. Where have I…"
And then, just like that, the puzzle was solved.
"What's going on over here?" Damon asked as he approached Claire from the side in her shocked form. He was slightly concerned, but he peered over her shoulder into the Gilbert book. "Jonathan Gilbert…Elizabeth Gilbert…Michael Gilbert—ugh; that guy. He always gave me the creeps. Wait a second, who's Amelia Gilbert?"
Claire swallowed and looked back at Damon. "She's my sister."
It was simple, really, if one were to work it out step by step. Marianne King married Edward King when she was seventeen and they had their first child by the time she was eighteen, and that was Claire. Marianne had a friend, Michelle Maxwell, who was two years younger than her. Jonathan Gilbert had already married Elizabeth, they'd had their son, Michael, and she had died giving birth. There were always rumors that Jonathan was interested in Michelle, or so Claire heard when she was a little girl talking with her friends about the town's gossip.
So if Michelle and Jonathan were to have sex, they could've gotten pregnant. Marianne always said to Claire and Amelia that her friend had married some rich duke and had moved out of Mystic Falls, but what if it were something along the lines of what Amelia did? What if she had a child with Jonathan Gilbert and ran away? What if, perhaps, she had a child with Jonathan Gilbert, had given it to Marianne to take care of, and had run away from Mystic Falls? Then that would mean something unimaginable. Something so repulsive that it was hard to process.
Amelia was raped by her half brother.
And that rape had resulted in an adolescent pregnancy.
After they had all given up for the night, finding no more information on werewolves or any information on Katherine that they didn't already know, Damon, Claire, Elena, and Alaric all agreed to leave. Elena was using the restroom, Alaric was finishing up with Vanessa, but Claire was just ready to get off the campus and back home. She'd just learned that her sister was actually not her sister at all. She was somewhat along the lines of Elena and Jeremy's great, great aunt or something.
When she tried the lock on the door to get inside of the car, she found that it wouldn't open. Of course. Because she didn't have the keys and Damon probably decided to be a jackass and lock it on her. She knew it wouldn't open, but Claire kept pulling at the door handle anyway, exhausted. She sensed it when Damon came behind her and circled so that he was facing her struggle.
"Here. Allow me." He unlocked the car and opened the door for her to climb inside, and the blonde vampire just exhaled and moved to get into the car. Instead, Damon blocked the entrance with his body so she came inches away from him and moved back, cautious. Damon's icy blue eyes poured into hers. "You're not going to be able to hate me forever, you know. You've tried that; it doesn't work."
"I can always try. Can we just go now? Please? I'm not in the mood," she grumbled. Damon sighed and pulled out a book from behind his back, producing it for her. She looked down at it with curious eyes.
"Elena didn't dig deep enough; neither did you." Damon handed her the book and she looked at the spine, confused.
"'Petrova'? How is that going to help anything?"
Damon leaned against the open car door. "Katherine originally came from Europe. Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova, to be exact."
Claire scoffed. "I guess your 145 years of pining paid off, huh?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "Back when, I…I saw it engraved on an old heirloom," he defended himself and looked up at her. "Men snoop, too, you know." She looked down at the book in wonder, proud that she had something to show Elena so the teenager wasn't too disappointed. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Damon inhaled sharply. "I've even done it to you before."
Claire grimaced. "Oh, really? Go on, I'd love to hear this."
"You never locked your door, so that was your own fault," Damon pointed out, crossing his arms. The vampire just nodded and narrowed her eyes, relishing in the fact that he had tried to turn it around on her. "You left me alone upstairs one day, so I decided to go into your room. I was a kid, so I felt guilty about it, but…I did it anyway. You had those combs that your parents gave you for your fifteenth birthday laying out on the dresser. I remember the engraving. Your middle name is Regina, after your grandmother."
The vampire tensed, surprised. "No one's supposed to know that. I purposely kept that a secret." She didn't like the fact that her middle name was Regina; it always struck her as odd that her middle name meant queen and that happened to correspond with her last name.
Damon shrugged. "Well, I've known for a very long time."
"Are you telling this story to severely piss me off? Because it's working!"
Damon frowned at her, unamused. "I'm telling you this because you were right earlier this morning. I would rather listen to you than…lose you. And you have every right to hate me for what I did to Lexi. I understand. But you hated me before and we found a way to make it work," he said, his expression hopeful. Claire stayed quiet for a long time until Damon continued, inhaling again. "It would…suck if that was gone forever. So…is it? Have I lost you forever?"
Damon being Damon, of course, had to give her a smirk at the end of his sentence to cover up the unwanted emotions that he hated to admit were there. Claire saw them and sighed heavily, but didn't answer his question. She couldn't.
"Elena's going to be really happy that you found this," she whispered, nodding a few times as she looked him over. "So…thanks."
Damon waited, still blocking her entrance to the car. He contemplated pressing harder to get an answer, but that would have to be enough. At least she didn't slap him this time. So, he stepped to the side and let her climb into the car first. He shut the door and then climbed in, himself in the passenger seat, and they both waited as Alaric and Elena came back to the car so they could head back home.
"Road trips work well for us," Damon pushed Claire as they both arrived back at the Salvatore house. She pushed open the door with a sigh, annoyed at Damon's persistence, and he followed her inside after shutting the door. The silence in the house indicated that no one else was home, and she realized that Stefan and Christopher were probably still out with Caroline or something like that.
"That wasn't a road trip. Road trips require fun. I learned that my sister's not really my sister. That's not fun," Claire pointed out as she came to a stop just before she entered the parlor. Damon came to face her. "Besides, things aren't nearly back to the way they were."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. You know I chipped a little bit off of your wall of hatred." He smirked. Claire, however, was tired of beating around the bush. She crossed her arms.
"You know what? I need to know the truth. Why'd you do it? Why'd you kill her?" Claire asked seriously, looking him straight in the eye. Damon's smile dropped, and in its place, he became serious and frightened. "Why'd you lie to me about it?"
Damon swallowed a big lump in his throat. "I…I don't know, Claire. I thought it would get the town of my back…which it did. And I lied because…well, because I knew this would happen and I didn't want it to. I liked where we were…sneaking around behind Stefan's back."
"That seems to be your answer for everything, Damon," Claire scoffed, shaking her head. "You wanted sex…you wanted me. But were you that selfish that you were willing to cost me my own dignity to get it?" Damon fell silent, afraid to say what he really wanted to at that moment. He caught sight of the engagement ring on her finger and he swallowed hard, knowing that it was over. It was really…over. "And what about Jeremy? Really, did you know that he was wearing that ring?"
Damon swallowed his pride this time and he decided that there wasn't going to be another lie out of his mouth. He'd already lost her to Christopher Fell when she married, he wasn't going to lose her again. The only way to prevent that was to tell the truth.
"No. No, I didn't. Katherine really pissed me off and I snapped and…" Damon shrugged and looked up at her with relieved eyes. "I got lucky with the ring. And I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't wearing it. I didn't mean to take it out on Elena's brother. He was just…there." Things were silent before Damon finally sighed. "Claire, I'm sorry. Not just for Jeremy, but for Lexi, too. I shouldn't have done it."
Claire looked into his eyes, and she could see how hard it was for him to force out the words. Not physically impossible like her when it came to a three-word sentence, but it was hard for him. She nodded.
"I appreciate your honesty, Damon. I don't think you've ever really given me that courtesy before." He nodded. "But, the answer to your question…from before?" It killed her as she watched his expression grow hopeful, but she knew that she couldn't stand to forgive him. It was easier to hate him than to care about him. The blonde shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I can't forgive you, Damon. Not this time. You have lost me forever."
She waited for just a second, watching as the realization crossed his face. Then, not wanting to deal with the outcome of her rash actions, she turned on her heel to go upstairs. However, Damon immediately pulled her back with his hard voice.
"But you knew that already, didn't you?" he pressed, and she turned back at him with an irritated expression. "Because you've already made your decision. You've put on your wedding rings and now you're pretending like nothing ever happened between us. Like nothing ever mattered."
"It didn't."
"You wanna know why Katherine hates you so much, Claire?" Damon asked her, his eyes cold. "You may not be her doppelgänger, but if you and Katherine were put in the same room, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference." A look of hurt crossed her face, and Damon shook his head at her. "You and Katherine have a lot more in common than you think."
Quickly, he turned and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Claire jolted at the loud sound, and all she could think about were Damon's harsh words and if they were true.
A tired Caroline stirred from her sleep as the sun shone through her window, illuminating her pale skin. She rose from her pillow and sat straight up in her bed, but then she jolted upright. When she saw who it was, she arched an eyebrow. "Elena?"
"Nope. Try again."
When Katherine smiled, Caroline tensed up and her face fell. Her breath was shaky now, this time out of fear. "Katherine."
The dark-haired vampire sat down on Caroline's bed with a signature pout. "Don't be frightened. We're going to have so much fun together."
Caroline peered at Katherine from the side to see the doppelgänger's devious look, and she knew that there was nowhere she could run.
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