Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

The Sun Also Rises

Damon and Katherine stared down at the growing wolf bite, both of them silent and still as they studied every curve of the veins that popped out of Damon's skin and the bumps that formed over the infected area. Katherine let out a shaky breath.

"So that's what a werewolf bite looks like."

"Yep."

"It's not that bad..."

"Will be." Damon sighed and pulled his sleeve down as he got up from the stool in Alaric's kitchen. Katherine watched him with a frown.

"So that's it?" she asked, confused. "You're just...gonna die?"

"Well, that depends. You know anything about a cure?" She shook her head, but the question was far from optimistic. He nodded at her. "Me, either."

Katherine stared at the center island in Alaric's kitchen as Damon walked over to the couch and grabbed his jacket that someone had thrown onto one of the seats. As he slipped it over his shoulders, Katherine turned to him, trying not to say something sappy and heartfelt that she knew she would regret later in her life; no, instead, she just increased the sarcasm in her tone.

"145 years and...no last goodbye?"

"You don't get a goodbye," he told her bitterly, turning to walk out. Quickly, she flashed in front of him and pressed her palm to his chest with a hard shake of her head.

"Don't! Don't leave mad."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Us ending up on good terms isn't exactly on my bucket list, Katherine."

"Klaus made me call Jenna to lure her out!" she defended herself, blocking Damon's multiple attempts to get around her and leave. "There was nothing that I could do. I didn't have a choice!"

"That's why I gave you the vervain," he countered. "So you had a choice."

"It was her or me. I chose her."

"I helped you," Damon argued, looking at the brunette in front of him with extreme disappointment. "You owed me. Now, when Klaus dies, you're gonna walk out here without a scratch and Elena's aunt dies. Somehow you're the only one that wins! How'd that happen?"

She shook her head and replied softly, "I didn't let love get in the way."

"Enjoy an eternity alone, Katherine." After a pitiful look, he walked around her and started for the door, but before he could get far, he heard Katherine behind him.

"What are you gonna do?"

He turned and sighed. "I'm gonna offer myself as a replacement to Klaus."

"He won't take you!" Katherine told him again. "He saw your bite. He said that your blood is impure. I'm sorry, Damon. But Jenna's dead, there's nothing you can do about it."

Damon held his head high, but he didn't say anything else. Without so much as a goodbye, he turned on his heel and walked out of the apartment, practically slamming the door in Katherine's face. But as much as he hated her, as much as he wanted to stick it to her and tell her to get lost, she was unfortunately right and there was nothing he could do to change that. All he could hope for was Claire—that she had listened to him and was halfway to Montana in his car, lucky enough not to see his inevitable death.

The car ride was painstakingly silent—highly uncomfortable, too. Christopher and Claire hadn't spoken a single word to each other since she had asked him to turn up the AC for her since her vision was too blurry to see the controller. He was extremely worried about her state of mind; whatever drug Klaus had given her, it was getting worse. She was sweating perfusely, breathing heavily, and blinking rapidly as if trying to get her eyes to stay focused. He tried to ask her if she was okay, but she barely responded to him most times. But the truth of the matter was, she didn't want to respond to him. Though she was hot as hell and shaking, she still remember what he did and everything he said to her. She didn't want to look at him, let alone speak with him.

And ten minutes into the uncomfortable car ride, Christopher couldn't take it anymore. He sighed heavily. "Claire, please. You can't stay mad at me forever."

She shifted, clutching her stomach as she wheezed out, "Watch me."

"I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely, looking over at her to make sure she was okay. "You don't know how sorry I am for what I did. I was jealous and I wasn't thinking clearly. I heard you and Damon and I...I flipped, okay? You lied to me."

Claire swallowed and, though her mouth was as dry as a desert, managed to croak, "Christopher, I-I tried to make it work with you. You left me. I don't know what more you wanted me to do...I was already married to you. The second I found out you were alive, I stopped sleeping with Damon. I don't know what more you could've asked for."

"I asked for the truth, Claire."

"You don't think Stefan did, either? You weren't the only one we lied to. We did it because it was fun for us. We did it because we didn't want to make it a big deal, to admit that we...that we actually...cared about each other. Because we didn't. We hated each other, Christopher, and that didn't change until recently."

"I believe you," he promised. "And I told you, I'm sorry. Those things I said, none of them were true. You believe that, right?"

She was quiet for a moment before she finally sighed. "I don't believe you wanted to hurt me. But that doesn't change the fact that you did."

Before he could get the chance to respond to her accusation, there was a sharp ringing noise in Claire's pocket. Though her bones ached, she reached into her jacket pocket and, with shaking hands, produced a small pre-paid flip phone that didn't belong to her. She looked down at it in wonder.

"What is that?" Christopher asked, trying to keep his focus on the road while also trying to figure out what was in her hand. Claire didn't answer him. Instead, she blinked a few times and then used her thumb to open the phone, answering the call on the screen.

"Hello?" Christopher waited, unable to hear anything on the phone over the engine of the car. Claire listened for a few moments before taking a slow deep breath. "Yes. Okay. I'll call you back."

She ended the call, holding the flip phone in her sweaty palm. Christopher looked over, confused. "Who was—"

Suddenly, she reached over the passenger seat and grabbed the steering wheel, jerking it so far to her right that the car did a complete 360 until it lost balance and flipped over. As the car flipped over in mid-air, she reached out and snapped Christopher's neck with all the strength she had left, causing his head to fall over his chest, indicating that she had killed him—at least temporarily. The car landed on the roof in the middle of a desolate street, a backroad that Christopher was taking so they could avoid Klaus and company as they left town. Claire struggled in her seat, but eventually, she kicked open the door and managed to crawl onto the road, lifting herself up from the gravel with shaking legs. Wasting no time, she pulled out the flip phone and dialed the last incoming call.

"Is he taken care of?" Klaus asked her over the line. Claire swallowed thickly.

"He'll be out for a while, yeah. W-What about Jenna?"

"Jenna will be fine, love. Greta hasn't forced her to turn yet. Get to the quarry within five minutes and I promise you that no further harm will come to her. That is, of course, if you so choose to sacrifice yourself instead."

She closed her eyes and said softly, "I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Klaus chuckled. "Unfortunately, no. The toxin in your blood will continue to degrade your strength for a few more hours before your body gives out. The spell is slow, painful, and fetal to a vampire. Once you hand yourself over, Greta will give you the antidote."

"Am I supposed to be thanking you for this?"

"No thanks is necessary, love."

With that said, Klaus hung up the phone, acting as if he had all the cards in his hand. He did, but she was still bitter about it. She dropped the flip phone in her hand and crushed it underneath her foot so the phone shattered into pieces. Having no other choice, she looked around her and with whatever ounce of strength she had left, she split.

"Oh, my...my head," Jenna hissed as she rocked back and forth on her knees, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "What's wrong with me?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Elena asked, kneeling beside her aunt. Jenna looked up at her and nodded.

"You called me. You were so scared. Oh...ah, I should've realized that-that it wasn't you. The second I walked out of the house, someone grabbed me. A vampire."

"Klaus." Elena nodded, assured. "It was Klaus."

"He made me drink his blood," Jenna continued, her voice shaking. "And...I-I don't remember anything after that. Where...are we? What happened?"

The young human reached forward and gripped her guardian's hands tightly. "We're at the quarry. He brought us here."

"Why don't I remember anything?"

"Jenna, do you remember..." Elena trailed off as she tasted the salty words in her mouth, hating the acrid taste as she forced them to surface, "...when I told you how someone becomes a vampire?"

"Yeah, if you die with vampire blood in your system, it's—" Jenna stopped herself and Elena waited as her aunt suddenly put two and two together, her eyes widening. "Oh, God. He killed me."

Elena leaned forward, desperately trying to control her tears and remain strong. "Jenna, listen to me. Listen to me! Everything's going to be okay, I'm going to get you out of here."

"I-I'm a vampire?"

"And I bet you're hungry!"

Before Elena could get a chance to continue her conversation with Aunt Jenna, Greta spoke from behind them with a soft smile resting upon her face as she stared at the family reunion in the dim light of the quarry. The witch sauntered forward, inching her way over to Jenna as Elena realized what she would do. Thinking fast, Elena spotted a rock a few feet ahead of her and decided to go for it. There was no way she was going to let Klaus turn Jenna into a vampire for the ritual. She had done what he asked and she didn't deserve to be punished for anything. So she got up from the floor and ran over to the rock, hoping to grip it in her hands and throw before Greta had a chance to retaliate, but she was too slow. Elena reached for the rock and then felt as if she were flying, causing her to let out a sharp scream. She landed on her back, rolling over onto her side with only a split second to recoil. Again, she tried to run, but a ring of flames surrounded her, sealing her into a fire circle. She attempted to move over the flames, but there was an invisible barrier preventing her from crossing the ring of flames.

"Don't bother trying to get through," Greta warned her. "I spelled the circle. You're trapped, no matter what you do."

"Greta...please," Elena begged as Greta picked up the rock Elena had gone for, holding it in her hand tauntingly. Elena's mouth suddenly went dry. "Just let her go!"

Greta smiled. "There's only one way I'm letting her go, and that's if—"

"I'm here!" Greta spun around and watched as Clarissa King fell over at her feet, her entire body dripping with sweat and her skin ten times paler than normal. With a grin, Greta dropped the rock in her hand and walked over to Claire, leaving Jenna and Elena to watch as Claire forced herself up on her knees and panted, "I'm here, I'm here. Let Jenna go."

"Claire, what are you doing?" Jenna asked, slowly rising from the ground. Claire looked behind Greta and shook her head at Jenna.

"Being a vampire...it's hell, Jenna. I'm giving you an option. I'm saving you from an eternity of regret." She looked back at Greta with a scoff. "Although, it's not like I have much of a choice, anyways."

Greta shrugged. "Did you really think he would leave you alone without assurance?"

Claire scoffed, but though her exterior was less than intimidating, her tone hadn't ceased to frighten. "Wishful thinking, I guess. Let Jenna go. Now. Or I'll kill you."

"And die."

"Yes, that seems to be a repeating theme around here."

Greta stared at Claire, her eyes narrowing as she thought to herself how brave and stupid the vampire was before her. But though it was stupid, it was still brave, and for that Greta could commend some credit. Regardless, without turning to Jenna, she spoke aloud, "You're free to leave us now, Jenna. Be aware that you're still in transition and have roughly twenty-four hours to decide whether or not you want to become a vampire."

Jenna stared at Greta's back, swallowing and looking at her with bewildered eyes. Jenna turned herself to look at Elena, who was standing on the other side of the fire just as scared as Jenna was, but sucking up that fear, Elena turned to Jenna and nodded.

"Go," Elena told her aunt firmly, and though Jenna was hesitant to leave, she did, taking off in the opposite direction at a full-on sprint. When Jenna was gone, Greta stepped back and raised her hand, causing a ring of fire to appear around the vampire on the ground. Claire was too sick to notice or fight back, but Elena watched in disgust and intrigue as the witch pulled something out of her pocket. A vial of some sort. Before Elena could even think of what to ask the evil witch in front of her, Greta suddenly threw the vial down on the ground and the flames jumped ten feet higher. Merely two seconds later, Claire doubled over on her side and started to vomit up her own blood. Suddenly, Elena turned to Greta, her eyes wide. "What did you do to her?"

"I saved her," Greta told the doppelgänger pointedly as they both watched Claire chuck up an unfortunate amount of blood. Elena winced at the sounds that her friend was making, hearing the unpleasant heaves. "We poisoned her blood. I gave her the antidote."

"And the antidote is supposed to make her throw up her entire blood supply?"

"It's supposed to expel the poisoned blood, yes." Greta turned to Elena with a shrug. "And she'll be as good as new for the ritual."

Claire pushed herself up on her hands and let out one long heave before wiping her mouth and pushing herself up onto her feet, where she turned to Greta with a look of utter disgust. "I couldn't have taken a pill?"

Greta frowned. "You're all better now, aren't you?" Claire didn't respond, but it was obvious: the vampire's color was back in her pale skin, her body temperature was beginning to go down, and she had stopped shaking. Greta turned and walked away, leaving Elena and Claire to themselves while she did the rest of Klaus's bidding.

When Damon arrived home, he was fully expecting an empty house. By the time he had managed to get from Alaric's apartment back to the Salvatore boarding house, he was sure that Stefan, Elijah, Amelia, and Christopher would be at the witch house trying to put the final details on their plan. However, when he stepped into the house, he realized there was something utterly wrong. In the parlor, there was a figure with her back to the front of the house as she faced the fireplace. From the angle, it looked as if the hair was blonde, but as Damon took a closer look he knew that it wasn't as pale as Claire's or as golden as Amelia's, it was more of a golden brown. He closed the door with an audible slam, but whoever was inside didn't turn around.

As he neared closer, he realized who it was, but it didn't make sense. Damon stopped at the threshold of the parlor and, with narrowed eyes, hissed, "Jenna? What are you doing here?"

Jenna turned around, her eyes wet and wild, her hands shaking uncontrollably. Damon was entirely confused and he waited for Jenna to answer his question. He stood on one end of the coffee table while she stood at the other, trying to form the words.

"K-Klaus took me," Jenna stammered, her eyes everywhere but Damon's. "He...he killed me. He fed me his blood and then he killed me and dragged me to this...this place..."

"What place?"

"The quarry," she answered. Damon walked around the coffee table and stood next to her as she let a tear roll down her face. "She said I was a vampire o-or...or, I will be one. Elena told me something about that...I have to feed, right? I have to feed on blood to become a vampire."

"Yeah, you have to feed on human blood to become a vampire. Jenna, look at me." Damon reached out and turned Aunt Jenna's shoulders towards him, watching as she sniffed and tried to hold herself together while he looked at her with widened eyes. "How are you here right now?"

"The witch let me go."

"Why?" Don't say it, Damon pleaded in his thoughts, trying desperately to maintain some hope. There would only be one reason why Klaus would let his vampire go and he hoped by some magical force that Klaus had found himself a different King; a long, distant relative to Clarissa. But, of course, nothing had been going his way so far.

"Claire showed up," Jenna whispered to him. Damon closed his eyes with a sigh and dropped his hands from Jenna's shoulders. "I think she was...sick or something. She said she was coming to save me from being a vampire but she said she didn't have a choice. Greta said something about having assurance. I left before I got to see what happened after that."

"Damn it," Damon cursed under his breath before he turned around and pulled out his phone, leaving Jenna to herself as he listened to the dial tone. He could hear her ask him who he was calling, but he didn't answer. Instead, he waited for the phone to pick up and listened to his brother on the line.

"Damon," Stefan answered immediately, waiting for good news. Unfortunately, Damon had none for him.

"You're not gonna like what I'm about to say," Damon muttered.

"Is the sacrifice happening or not?"

"It's happening," Damon assured him. "I tried to stop it, but it got...complicated."

"We're sticking with the original plan. We're meeting Bonnie right now. Claire's safe?"

"No." The words were so sour coming out of Damon's mouth. He wanted to kick and punch and scream, but he could barely keep himself up. The werewolf bite was slowly degrading his strength minute by minute. "No, that's why I'm calling. He's got Claire, Stefan. He took Jenna earlier. She's in transition and Claire went and saved her."

Damon could hear Stefan's hesitation. "What?"

"He got everything he wanted, Stefan. He did something to Claire that didn't give her a choice and he used Jenna to make an example out of us. But I can handle her, just...tell me that you found something that'll save Claire." Stefan was silent, causing Damon to lean onto the counter of the bar and clench his fist as tightly as he could. "Damn it, Stefan, talk to me!"

"Damon—"

But he knew the tones in his brother's voice could only mean one thing. Angrily, Damon snapped his phone closed and set it down on the bar behind the couch, completely forgetting that Jenna was standing a few feet away from him as he let himself seethe for a few moments and then suddenly swept everything off of the bar in a fluid motion, the anger blinding him. Jenna flinched, frightened at the sudden outburst, but Damon just stared at the glass on the floor with a big, empty pounding his head as he realized that everything he spent the day risking had all been for nothing.

"How are you feeling?" Elena asked Claire as the two stood around in their circles. Claire looked up at her and nodded.

"Fine. Throwing up all the poisonous blood out of my system really did the trick." She crossed her arms and looked softly at the human. "And you?"

Elena gulped. "Do you really have to ask me that?"

Claire stayed silent, watching as Elena gave her a pitiful look. The two stared for a while before Claire let her eyes drift down at the fire and with a sigh, she lowered herself down onto her bottom, pulling her knees up to her chest. Elena did the same, at the very edge of the circle but with her knees tucked underneath her body and her hands on her thighs. Claire ran a hand through her hair and leaned against her hand, looking as if she were lost. Elena didn't blame her; she was lost, too.

"I'm gonna die, Elena," the blonde said quietly, whispering the words with tears in her eyes. Elena took in a heavy breath, feeling so guilty about everything. If it wasn't for her, this wouldn't have happened. Klaus wouldn't be in Mystic Falls and no one would've gotten hurt. Claire looked up at her with a rare, completely serious facial expression. "I never really thought about it like this. I was so worried about what would happen to...to you or to Jenna or Caroline and Bonnie...I-I never really thought about what would happen if I was the one that ended up here. You can get out of this mess, but me? There's no way to save me."

"Claire..." Elena trailed off slowly, trying not to let the tears overcome her. She'd never seen Claire this somber and if Claire was acting this way, it essentially meant the end of the world. In a way, it sort of was.

"It's very vain of me," she added bitterly. "I'm a very selfish, girl, Elena. I told you that. I can claim that I hate Katherine all I want, but I want to be alive. I want to stay alive. I may not like what I am—I can bitch and moan about how I hate what she did to me, but I'm alive. And I don't want to die."

"I'm not gonna let that happen." Elena looked at Claire sternly and shook her head. Claire looked away, not wanting to hear any of Elena's excuses. "I don't care what I have to do—"

All of a sudden, Claire and Elena stopped hearing a sharp shout in the distance. They conversation halted, they looked to see Greta forcing someone out of the shadows, someone who was bent over groaning. Claire rose to her feet and Elena squinted in the darkness.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"The werewolf," Claire answered quietly as she backed up and observed Greta forcing Jules, the female werewolf friend of Mason's who tried to kill her and the rest of the vampires in Mystic Falls, onto the ground. Jules fell down, too weak to get back up and fight. She clutched her stomach as her breathing quickened.

"What's happening to me?" Jules demanded.

"I cast a spell to slow down your transformation," Greta told her, almost condescendingly. It sounded as if the witch was having a little too much fun; it was sick. "Your insides are trying to tear themselves free."

She stepped far enough away from Jules and swept her hand across her body, igniting a ring of fire around the werewolf as there was one around the doppelgänger and the vampire. Elena stared across the fire at the dark witch.

"Greta, witches are supposed to maintain the balance in nature!" she scolded. "It's your duty to them to keep this curse sealed."

"My duty is to Klaus!" she retorted angrily. "The new order."

"Glad to know I still have a dance partner." Elena, Claire, and Greta all turned to see Klaus emerge from the shadows. Jules looked over as well, although weak, and noted the British vampire looming over them looking at his salvation. Claire's blood boiled inside, Elena's eyes filled with tears, and Jules quivered in fear as he looked around with a smile. "Hello, my lovlies. Are we ready?"

Christopher stomped into the house, his entire appearance evidence of his earlier death from a car accident caused by his ex-wife. He was certainly not happy about the fact that she had just killed him, let alone the fact that he had lost her to Klaus, as he was most likely the person to call her on the phone. Either he had compelled her or gave her an offer she couldn't refuse, he didn't know, but all that mattered was that he stormed into the Salvatore house, walked up to the bar in the parlor, and poured himself a glass of bourbon. With an exhausted, angry sigh, he pulled the glass to his lips and prepared to drink, but before he could, the glass slipped out of his hand and crashed all over the bartop as someone pinned Christopher up against the nearest wall. When the confusion had settled, Christopher realized it was a very furious Damon that he was staring at, holding him up by the collar of his jacket.

"How could you?!" Damon snarled. "I gave you one job! One job! Come back home, find a way to save her! And what do you do? You go off gallivanting like a moron and manage to screw up everything!"

"Get off of me!" Christopher shoved the dark-haired Salvatore off, finding it surprisingly easy to slap Damon's hands away and keep him at arms length. Damon wobbled for a moment, something that Christopher didn't notice because he was too focused on trying to excuse himself. "You actually think I was going to listen to you? I'm not your brother, Damon, you can't boss me around. I followed you to the cemetery so I could make sure she was okay. And it's a good thing I did, too, because you left her and she was in absolutely no condition to drive! So I did."

There was a brief silence, causing Damon to widen his eyes at Christopher, prompting him, "Okay, then, why the hell are you back here and why did Claire turn herself over to Klaus?"

Christopher let out a frustrated sigh. "She...she killed me, okay? Crashed your car and killed me! I don't know why, but she did. I was out for at least an hour."

"You crashed my—!" Damon stopped, the anger bubbling up inside of him becoming too much for his weak body to handle. This time, Christopher saw the pause in Damon's sentence and cocked an eyebrow.

"Damon, uh—"

"Shut up," he growled, waving his hand at Christopher once he had regained control of his stance. Christopher did so involuntarily, crossing his arms and waiting for Damon to continue. Damon walked over to the bartop behind the couch in the parlor and leaned his fists on it, rocking back and forth for a moment with his eyes closed as he hissed, "Jenna said she had no choice. She was weak when I left her, he probably...had his creepy witch do a spell. Okay, listen, here's what we're gonna—"

Before Damon could finish his thought, there was an insistent knocking on the front door of the boarding house. At first, it was normal, and then it came again, and then it came again, and it wouldn't stop. The two vampires in the foyer were looking at it with confusion, but after a while, Damon sighed and managed to walk forward with the strength he had left in him and swing open the door, only to come face-to-face with none other than John Gilbert. Damon frowned.

"Great. You know, now that I think of it, I could use a bite to eat."

John ignored him and sauntered into the house. "Elena hasn't returned any of my calls for days. I need to see her."

Damon sighed and turned at him, closing the boarding house door. "Well, you're a day late and a daughter short, John."

"What are you talking about?"

"Klaus has her, doesn't she?" Christopher stepped forward out of the parlor into the foyer and stared at Damon, who had his mouth open and ready to respond. Instead, he shut it softly and nodded. Christopher paused briefly before looking at John and explaining, "The sacrifice happens tonight, John."

John looked at Damon with wild eyes. "How could you let that happen? You were supposed to keep her safe! Wasn't that the sum total of your plan; to keep her safe?"

"Claire was supposed to keep her safe. It was her plan," Damon returned sharply. John threw up his hands.

"Fine! Then where's Claire?" The two vampires around John were silent, leading John to scoff and shake his head. "He took her too, I'm assuming."

"Relax, John." Damon snapped, wanting not to deal with John Gilbert and his selfish concerns. "Your daughter will be fine. Elijah gave her an elixir that's supposed to revive her after Klaus breaks the curse. She'll live. Believe me, that's not what you should be upset about."

John scoffed. "It gets worse?"

"Yeah, John." John turned around as Christopher and Damon looked over his shoulder to see Jenna stumble down the hallway from downstairs, wrapped in a blanket, shaking, with her skin as pale as a ghost. It was clear that the transition wasn't treating her well, and if she didn't feed soon, she would die. John's face turned down as he realized what was happening and Jenna, who was never really fond of John, deadpanned, "It gets worse."

"I've got the moonstone."

The only sound within the distance was Jules's screaming. Elena cringed, Claire stared, and Klaus ignored it. He looked down at the clear stone in his hands with nostalgia, forgetting for just a moment that the witch before him had her hand raised ready to take it from him.

"I spent 500 years looking for this. I hate to part with it." He looked up at Greta and extended it to her, where she took it gently and lifted her eyes to the sky.

"The moon has passed its apex." She glanced at him with a smile. "Remember everything you need to do?"

"I remember," he whispered assuringly before she threw the moonstone down, where it landed with a spark, and began to chant. Jules screamed louder, the agony washing all over her. Elena looked over at the werewolf with weary eyes and watched as Jules looked up at both Elena and Claire with guilt in her eyes.

"Everything I did," she choked out, "I was just trying to help Tyler..."

"Are you Jules?" Elena asked, surprised. She looked at Claire for confirmation, and Claire nodded at her. Jules continued from her fetal position on the ground.

"I didn't want him to be alone," she admitted, following a groan. By this time, Klaus had walked over to her circle and looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Shall we?" he suggested. Jules let out a painful scream as the fire around her withdrew, giving her only a few seconds to escape. She realized this and once the fire was completely dissolved around her, she let the wolf inside of her take over, feeling her eyes change into that of her wolf form. Klaus watched in anticipation as she barred her teeth and moved quickly to escape his clutches with an animalistic growl, but she was no match for him. He pinned her body to the ground and lodged his hand into her heart, pulling out the live organ right from her chest. Claire and Elena watched in absolute horror as Jules's body arched with a gasp and he held the heart in his hand as if it were a trophy of his victory. With disgusting grace, Klaus lifted himself from Jules and walked over to Greta, who was focusing on the spell without instructing Klaus to anything. He took the heart in his hand and squeezed, the blood of the organ dripping all over his knuckles and into the water that was lit by the witch's fire. The water was completely red, soaked in werewolf blood.

"Does that mean it's working?" Klaus asked his witch hopefully.

"It's working," Greta promised.

"Do you have any secrets?" Claire asked Elena quietly as the two of them stood around as closely as they could with the fire separating them. Elena looked over at her, distracted from Klaus and Greta's proceedings, and cocked an eyebrow. The blonde turned and faced the brunette with a nod. "You know, like a secret you've never told anyone? A secret that you probably should've mentioned deca—well, in your case, it'd probably be years ago, but you still never said anything?"

Elena paused for a moment, then nodded. "Well, um...when I was twelve, I shoplifted a pair of Gucci sunglasses from a department store."

Claire knotted her eyebrows and tried to resist a smile. "That's your big, dark secret? You're telling me that you're about to be sacrificed in an archaic witch ritual for a lunatic vampire/werewolf and all you want to tell me is that you shoplifted a pair of sunglasses from Macy's?"

The doppelgänger frowned. "Look, I never told my parents. They always expected so much of me...I did it on a dare, it was stupid, but I still did it. And I was ashamed of it, so I never told them. Then...then they died. I'll never have the chance to tell them." Claire was silent for a moment, but she seemed to accept the answer and slowly turned around to observe Klaus and Greta. Elena cleared her throat. "Wait, don't you have a secret, too?"

The blonde looked over her shoulder. "Me? I have eons of secrets, Elena. I never said I would share them, though."

A small smile drifted onto Elena's lips, but she couldn't help the third round of tears in her eyes. If somehow she survived what was about to happen to them and Claire didn't, she'd never forgive herself.

"Claire," Elena whispered, causing the vampire to slowly turn around, tearing her eyes away from Klaus and Greta, who were undoubtedly coming after her next. With a hard swallow, Claire looked at Elena across the fire as the doppelgänger nodded. "There's a reason he fought so hard to keep you here. Your blood is special, we both know that." Claire nodded in agreement and watched as Elena lowered her voice to a soft tone and demanded low enough so Klaus nor Greta could hear, "So use it."

"How are you feeling?" John asked Jenna as he walked into the study, noticing her sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, ticking her fingers as if she was itching to get a bite of human flesh. He had no doubt that she was, but he was prepared to fight her if she tried.

Jenna looked up at him with red eyes and snapped, "Elena's gonna die in a sacrifice ritual and someone killed me earlier. So now I have to decide if I want to be alive for the rest of eternity or die. Actually, I'm feeling a little under the weather. How about you?"

John let out a sigh and sat down on the coffee table across from Jenna. "I know this is hard..."

"Oh, shut up," she stopped him. It was partially the anxiousness of the transition talking, but also the fact that she just really didn't like him. "I've got a million problems right now and you are not going to be one of them." John was quiet as he put his hands together and leaned on his knees, watching as Jenna stared off into the fireplace silently and her eyes started to water. He waited for her to continue to speak, trying to contain herself. "The day that the lawyers called to tell me that I was going to become Elena and Jeremy's guardian, you know what my first thought was? Isn't there someone else who can do this? It's just the thought that I almost passed up taking care of them..."

"But you didn't, Jenna. You helped them," John reasoned. She looked over at him and wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"Look at me, John! Look at me!" she yelled angrily. He didn't flinch as she leaned forward and snapped, "How can you sit there and tell me that I helped them? I failed them! I didn't know what was going on in Mystic Falls until a few days ago! You did! You knew! I was supposed to know! I was supposed to be the one to help them! I..."

"Hey...hey, Jenna, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay," John repeated as he moved from the coffee table onto the couch, trying to comfort the crying transitional vampire. She slapped him away as she cried, the emotions overwhelming her, but eventually, she stopped trying to fight it and let him hold her for a few seconds.

But when she finally let him be there with her, he did what he had to do. John produced the knife he was hiding in the waistband of his jeans and slowly entered it into Jenna's back. He took a deep breath and listened as her breathing stopped and came to a slow and her body fell limp in his arms. Her eyes were huge as she dropped to the floor, face-first, the knife standing tall in her back. John looked down at the body with disgust, oddly feeling ashamed of himself. It was one thing to kill a vampire; it was another thing to kill his sister-in-law who was in transition. But he couldn't let her turn, could he? All vampires were monsters no matter who they were as humans. However, it didn't make him any less disgusted with what he'd done.

So respectfully, he dropped down to the ground and removed the dagger from Jenna's back and rolled her over onto her stomach to witness her look of horror. Swallowing back the bile in his throat, John took his hand and brushed it across her face, closing her eyes so that she rested peacefully. With that done, he lifted himself from the floor and sat back on the couch, hanging his head over his body in shame.

Meanwhile, Damon was sitting on the couch in the parlor, staring at the fireplace himself with the decanter of bourbon in one hand and a glass in another. He could feel the werewolf bite growing by the minute, causing him to become increasingly weak as the clock ticked on. Within the hour, Claire would be dead. Within a day, he would be, too. None of it mattered.

"Damon!"

All of a sudden, there was a gust of wind, and Damon looked up to see Christopher settling from the vamp-speed he had exerted to get all the way from upstairs down to the parlor. Christopher walked up to Damon across the coffee table, pacing back and forth in front of him. Damon took a sip of his bourbon and shook his head as he leaned forward to put the decanter on the table.

"Quit pacing, it's making me dizzy."

"I know how to save her," Christopher blurted out, causing damon to stop cold and look up sharply.

"How?"

He unfolded something in his hand and pressed it flat on the table. Damon leaned forward and took it carefully, knotting his eyebrows as Christopher pointed at it over and over again. "When I was in Germany, I met this witch. Of course, she wasn't too fond of the fact that I was a vampire, but...I don't know, maybe German witches aren't too difficult because we—"

"Spit it out!" Damon demanded, setting down the piece of paper that he couldn't read because it was all in German. Christopher slowed and sat down on the couch across from Damon, looking at him carefully.

"I was curious, so I looked through her spell books. And I found this one...in English, it says 'to revive a creature of the night'." Damon and Christopher were both quiet before the bronze-haired vampire pushed, "I've read the spell, Damon, and it's something that applies almost to this exact situation. We can bring her back."

And the two vampires stared at each other, hoping they had found salvation for the girl they both loved. They wasted no time in getting to the witch house, where Christopher went immediately to speak with Bonnie about the spell he had discovered. Damon, however, stayed up on the first floor to speak to Alaric, who had requested his attention. Once Alaric had said what he needed to, Damon stared at him from across the room in the witch house that the vampire was now allowed to be in, practically fuming upon the news that his idiotic brother had followed Claire's idiotic sister to Steven's Quarry so they could offer themselves as the sacrifice for the ritual instead of Claire. Alaric stayed silent as Damon blew up.

"They did what?!" he demanded. Alaric shrugged.

"Amelia wasn't going to let her sister die and Stefan wasn't going to let Amelia sacrifice herself so he followed her."

The dark-haired vampire stared incredulously. "We have a witch! She kills Klaus! No one has to die!"

"Except for Bonnie."

"God, Stefan, damn it!" In a moment of rage, Damon clenched his fist and punched the nearest thing to him, which was luckily a wall. After the surge of strength, he faltered, feeling the effects of the wolf bite through his veins. Alaric noticed Damon's strangeness immediately, stepping forward cautiously and holding up his hand.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Damon growled, taking a moment before looking up at Alaric. In a dark tone, he sighed, "Well, that's younger siblings for you. Always cleaning up our messes."

With a stomp, Damon brushed past Alaric and tried to figure out a way to get them out of the mess that kept growing.

Klaus sauntered towards them, and Claire knew it was time. He kept his eyes locked with hers in an uncomfortable way. She didn't know whether she wanted to kick his teeth in or cower into a shell, and that was not a good thing. Clarissa King did not cower and for someone to make her want to...well, that was a whole different story.

"Hello, Clarissa," Klaus began, her name rolling off of his tongue like no other. She stiffened, but didn't break his gaze.

"Let her go!" The plead came from Elena, who walked around to have a clear view of Klaus. The vampire unfortunately broke his staring contest with the blonde in front of him to look at Elena, and Claire relaxed for a moment, trying to contain her fear. Klaus waited for her to continue. "I understand that I have to die, but she doesn't—"

Elena moved towards the edge of the circle—too close. The ring around her went aflame, causing her to step back by natural human reflexes. Klaus looked at her with wide, worried eyes.

"Careful!" he scolded. Claire looked back at Elena and shook her head.

"Elena, it's okay."

"No, Claire! This isn't right!" The brunette heatedly turned her eyes to Klaus. "She didn't do anything wrong! You can use another vampire, Klaus, please! I followed all your rules, I did everything that you asked, I didn't run...and you still turned my aunt into a vampire. The least you can do is let Claire go. She doesn't deserve this."

Klaus looked at Elena cautiously, but she couldn't tell whether he was really considering her proposal or not. But when he spoke, the words weren't directed towards her or Claire—they were for the two vampires that were fighting each other as they both stumbled upon higher ground overlooking the ritual site.

"Well, well." Klaus turned around sourly and looked up. "I don't recall you two being on the guest list."

Elena and Claire followed Klaus's eyes to the top of the hill, watching as Stefan angrily released Amelia's hand and start to pace. The blonde vampire stood above on the hill, her face stern and her look cold. Claire's eyes widened as she saw Stefan grasp his hair frustratedly while Amelia spoke to the vampire below.

"I'm here to talk, Klaus."

"Very well, then." With one final look at Claire, noticing her expression as Claire's sister stood on the top of the hill clearly about to do something that Claire would never approve of, Klaus took off and met with the two other vampires on the hill with a smile. "What can I do for you, Miss King? Mr. Salvatore?"

"Amelia, don't do this," Stefan begged her, coming up behind the blonde's shoulder to whisper the plead in her ear. She swallowed back the lump in her throat, but ignored Stefan as she stiffened and locked eyes with Klaus, watching as his wicked grin grew on his face.

"Do you realize what this means?" Bonnie asked Christopher, looking up at him from the piece of paper with the spell written on it. She had done a simple spell to translate the words on the page into English so he wouldn't have to translate it all for her. Christopher was leaning up against the wall of the basement of the witch house, staring at both Jeremy and Bonnie as they looked at him with either judgement or pity, he couldn't tell. Christopher nodded.

"Yes. I know what it means."

"And you're willing to do this for her?" Jeremy scoffed, confused. Christopher looked over at him sharply as Jeremy shrugged. "What? Aren't you her ex-husband now or something? You left, didn't you?"

"I left because I found out what happened with her and Damon," he corrected, straightening so that he was staring at the witch and the human both with stern, decided eyes. "He's always been the problem with us. Not her. Not me. It doesn't matter if she loves him now because I still love her. I'll always love her, so yes. I am willing to do this. For her."

"But Christopher," Bonnie said slowly, shaking her head, "witches require a balance in nature. She died once, she came back as a vampire. The human part of her is gone so...if she dies as a vampire, that vampire part of hers is gone, too. This spell is used to save her vampire life, which means—"

"It requires the life of a vampire. I get it." He looked between Bonnie and Jeremy with a single nod. "Like I said, I'm willing to do this." His gaze focused on Bonnie. "The question is, can you?"

Bonnie snuck a glance at Jeremy, who looked weary about the entire situation in general. But when she looked back at Christopher, she knew he was desperate. She was desperate, too. They were all desperate. If she didn't perform the spell before Claire died, Christopher wouldn't die and she wouldn't come back to life.

So she nodded, slowly but surely, and he nodded right back at her in agreement, ready to begin the spell.

"You don't need to kill my sister," Amelia told the powerful vampire in front of her, trying not to tremble with fear. She sucked in a deep breath. "I-I'm a King, too. My blood is just as good as hers. You can let her go; I'll take her place."

Klaus cocked his head. "You really think I'm that incompetent, Amelia? Did I expect you to come and attempt to save your sister? Yes. But lying is such a nasty habit. You're a Gilbert by blood, Miss King, no matter how you identify yourself."

"Then take me regardless," Amelia snapped at him, her eyes narrowing. He just gave her a smile. "You cannot kill my sister."

"No." Stefan stepped in front of Amelia, earning Klaus's attention. "Don't you dare try to take her. Take me instead. Take me."

Klaus shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I rather appreciate the symmetry of three women—three goddesses, sacrificed at nature's altar."

"Don't play games with me. You'll get what you want. King blood or Salvatore blood, you'll break the curse. Just let Claire go."

"Quite the hero, aren't you? I've heard that about you."

"Just make the trade. Me for Claire."

Amelia turned to the light-haired Salvatore. "Stefan, no..."

Down below, Elena panicked and looked at Claire for answers, watching as the blonde listened to the conversation with minimal reaction, driving Elena insane not being able to hear the conversation. She tried to step closer to Claire's circles, but the flames stopped her from moving any closer.

"Claire. Claire!" Elena snapped. Finally, Claire looked over at the brunette with wide eyes almost watering. Elena knew by the look on her face that it wasn't good, whatever as going on. "What's happening? What are they saying?"

"Amelia wants to trade herself in my place," Claire whispered, sickened, and shook her head at Elena as she turned to her. "And Stefan won't let her, so he's offering himself instead."

Elena took a moment to process the information, suddenly realizing why Claire was so alarmed. The brunette's heart began to pound hard in her chest and she looked up at the top of the hill, preying that Stefan grew common sense and walked away. After a moment, she started to pace, running her hands through her hair as every worse scenario raced through her mind.

"Elena..." Claire trailed off, trying to get her to stop moving. The doppelgänger shook her head desperately.

"I have to do something," the human whispered. "This can't happen. None of it."

"Quite the predicament." Elena's head whipped around to see Klaus walking up to the two flamed circles with Stefan and Amelia by his side. Claire stiffened as Klaus smiled at her. "You know, it's funny. All this talk about Clarissa not deserving death and here's two vampires willing to sacrifice themselves for you, granting Elena's wish."

"You idiots," the blonde whispered, a tear falling down her face at her sister and her best friend standing in front of her, both willing to die in her place. Behind them, Klaus stepped around and prompted Claire.

"Well? Who's it going to be, Clarissa?" He waved a stake in his hand back and forth between the two people that mattered most to her, and with heated eyes, she stared up at Klaus angrily.

"You're sick! You think I'm going to choose who gets to die?!"

"Would you rather Elena choose?" He shrugged, watching Claire as her lips turned down and she became immediately furious. Klaus grinned. "Relax, love. There's actually no choice." Suddenly, he flashed around behind Stefan and stabbed him right in the back using the wooden stake in his hand, causing Stefan to scream out in pain and Amelia to shout just before Klaus snapped her neck. Claire tried to move forward but was forced back by the flames that jumped, creating a whooshing sounds that did nothing to overpower Elena's shouts of protest towards Stefan's injury. Klaus looked up at the two females left in the circles. "Amelia is of no use to me and well...I have other plans for Stefan. I want him alive. But for now..."

He reached down and suddenly spun Stefan's head, snapping his neck as well so that he did a complete three-sixty in the air and landed on the ground with a hard crack of bones. Elena gasped and flinched and Claire's head spun as she realized what was coming next. Sure enough, Klaus looked over his shoulder and called out, "Whenever you're ready, Greta!"

She chanted a phrase of the spell and the ring of fire around Claire extinguished. She looked around her with a hard swallow as Klaus turned back to her wickedly.

"It's your turn."

"No. No, Claire, no!" Elena tried to fight, coming closer to fire again only to be cast back. Claire turned her icy blue eyes towards Elena and nodded.

"It's all right, Elena. I can do this." Elena watched as Claire's fists clenched, turning her knuckles as white as paper, and she turned back to Klaus with a vicious look. He noticed it, but merely took it as a challenge. But instead of going for him, she decided on a better way. He'd had thousands of years to think about this moment. He had time to train to fight a King that knew what she was doing. To fight a King that didn't know how to control her magical blood powers? Well, that was a different story. She couldn't fight him; she didn't stand a chance.

But she did stand a chance against the witch on the altar. In the blink of an eye, she had her teeth ripped into the witch, prepared to drain the human's blood in merely seconds. But Klaus was too fast for her. He ripped her body off of Greta fast enough to salvage what was left of the witch's life and moved to strike against Claire. But she fought back, trying with all of her strength to use her blood against him. He swung a stake at her, but she whipped around and caught his hand, preventing the stake from piercing her body. Her grip was stronger, and therefore she ripped the stake out of his hand and tackled him to the ground, raising the stake above her body to strike down and into his chest. Before she was able to get that far, however, he flipped them in an instant and grabbed possession of the stake, his hand pinning her down so hard she wasn't able to move.

"Trust me when I say this," he muttered under his breath, staring right into her eyes. She listened carefully, utterly confused. But there was not a trace of doubt in his eyes; nothing but complete seriousness filled them. "You will be okay."

Elena watched as Klaus loomed over Claire and she shouted when, after a brief second, Klaus drew down the stake and it pierced the center of Claire's chest. She arched as the stake pierced her heart, gasping for air. Klaus watched her as a grey color faded on her skin, her veins slithering as a snake's and claiming her pale, perfect skin. Tears spilled over in Elena's eyes as she watched Claire die less than a few yards away from her, the evil vampire watching sadistically while the lovely Clarissa King took her last breath.

Klaus stepped away from the body, the blood-soaked stake in his hand, and he dropped it into the fire.

Claire's thick blood flowed as a thick stream into the bowl of fire. With the qualities the blood possessed, in addition to the blood-soaked stake staight from the root of the source, Klaus would be powerful than any other vampire in the world; as if he weren't already. Elena was sitting with her knees to her chest, tears soaking her face as she watched Klaus stare at Claire's blood entering the ceremonial bowl. Stefan and Amelia had by now both come to terms, both of them weaker than when Klaus had snapped their necks and not strong enough to do something about it. They both slowly looked over at the altar, noticing Claire's lifeless, desiccated body lying on the sacrifice altar, dead. Amelia's eyes filled with tears as she rested her head down on her arm, sobbing for her sister's death. Stefan slowly looked back from the altar, sickened by the image of his best friend's violent demise. He looked up at Elena and her post-sob expression, which had now only turned to anger. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't even think of the words, himself. His best friend was dead and there was no changing it.

"Are they going to kill him?" Elena whispered to Stefan, catching his eyes so that her voice could be as low as possible, unable for Klaus to hear. Stefan looked up at her and nodded slowly.

"Yes." She nodded in agreement and he reached his hand behind him, desperate to pull the stake out of his back in time for Klaus to approach Elena so he could do something about it. However, the shard of wood was too high up for him to reach, and by the time he realized this, Klaus had already approached Elena at the circle that self-extinguished its flames.

"It's time," Klaus told her seriously. Elena, a sour expression on her face, lifted her body from the ground, ignored Klaus's aid, and walked up to the sacrifice alter across from Greta. Another tear escaped her eyes as she looked at Claire's body on the ground, and she kept her gaze as far away from Klaus as possible. She could feel him come up to her side, his eyes roaming the surface of her recognizable face. His hands reached up and his cold fingertips touched her jaw, where he forced her head over to look at him, noting the tears on her cheeks. Staring into her chocolate-colored eyes, he whispered, "Thank you, Elena."

"Go to hell," she hissed, only causing him to give her a slight smile. Keeping her in his grasp, Klaus walked around Elena's body and tilted her head back, tearing his fangs into her neck. Elena kept her eyes open as long as she could, feeling the blood being drained from her body by the second. It was painful—excruciating—and her body was starting to become numb and limp from all the blood loss. Klaus held her form up by wrapping his hands around her body until every single drop was drained and her eyes rolled back into her head. He released her from his grasp, letting her fall to the altar, and looked up with doppelgänger blood dripping down his chin. His chest rose up and down, taking in the breaths of a new era. The fire beside him vanished with the end of the ritual, causing everyone to be in complete darkness. Stefan stared at the dead Elena on the altar, preying to every God there was that the elixir would work.

Klaus raised a deep breath and stumbled his way in the darkness, power consuming him.

"I can feel it!" he declared lowly as he walked, one step after another. His eyes lifted to the moon overhead. "It's happening!"

And then he shouted as his bones cracked, transforming into another beast. The power of the moon ripped his flesh apart, creating a monster that defied nature. The sick bastard took pride in it, shouting out exclamations of his happiness as the wolf transformation took place. Two different species raged inside of him, and he welcomed all of it.

But just like that, it came crumbling down. That pleasure that rushed through him turned into pain, and he was thrown out into the air, interrupting the transformation. Lightning flashed and he screamed aloud, the pain too much to handle. Greta, who was standing at the altar about ready to fight back, was taken by surprise when Damon reached forward and snapped her neck, causing her to fall to the ground in an instant, dead. He looked around in the sudden bursts of light, searching desperately for Claire.

Through the midst of all the chaos, Stefan had managed to crawl his way to Amelia and get her to look at him, to stop weeping over her dead sister, long enough for her to agree to pull the stake out of his back. She did so quickly, but Stefan was still to weak to get up. By that time, she had regained most of her strength and Stefan pulled her face closer to his and nodded.

"Take Elena to the witch house!"

"What about you?" she shouted over the thunder. He shook his head.

"I'm not leaving until he's dead. Go!"

Nodding, Amelia raised herself from the ground and flashed over to the sacrifice altar, where saw Damon staring down at Claire's body in horror. She watched as he bent down and picked Claire's lifeless body in his arms and threw a look at Amelia.

"We found a way to save her!" Damon shouted over the lightning and wind. Amelia was taken back, shocked, but happy at the same time. "She's gonna be okay! You have Elena?"

"Yeah! I got her!"

"Stefan?"

"He wants to stay!"

Damon nodded once and continued with carrying Claire away. Amelia did the same with Elena, managing to escape during the uproar around them.

He thought it'd been the longest time that she was quiet. Death; that was the only way he'd get Clarissa King to be quiet. Damon was starting to miss the judgey, rude, copy-cat one liners that she threw at him or others with him. He was starting to miss how she would ramble on and on about what she hated about him or how she would lecture him about what he was doing wrong. It was the little things that he'd miss that he realized staring down at her lifeless, cold body. He would miss her smile, her laugh, the look that she would get in her eyes when something made her happy or even mad. She would survive this—she would. Damon, on the other hand, would not. And besides his brother, she was all he had. Besides his brother, she's the only person he would want to stay alive for.

Amelia followed closely behind him, carrying Elena's dead body as well. As Damon came to the first room in the witch house, Amelia set the dead Elena down on the couch so that her body slumped over the arm, and Damon did the same on the other side of it. He wasn't even focused on Elena at the moment, though he did wish that the elixir wasn't a complete scam and that it actually worked. Claire, Claire, Claire. His only thoughts were on her.

"I've spent my entire life loving you," Damon whispered softly in Claire's ear as he set her down. The sight of her made him want to punch a wall—she was so lifeless, so dead. Her chest was stained with dark liquid from where the stake had been entered, and her wrists were slit from where Klaus had gathered her magical blood. He pushed a piece of hair away from her eyes. "So don't you dare die on me today."

Her death was a sight he begged never to see again. He thought of all the times she'd said she hated him, all the times she looked at him with pure disgust. Truth is, he hated that she hated him. Sometimes, yes, she pissed him off; but he could take that if it meant spending the rest of his life seeing her every day. He loved her, despite her arrogance, her extreme opinions, and her hypocratic flaws. Though he didn't have much time left, he would never forgive himself if he'd let her die.

Jeremy suddenly rushed up from the basement, stopping short at the threshold of the door. "How are they?!"

"We don't know yet," Damon said quietly as he kept his eyes focused on Claire, waiting for her to return to life. He turned around at Jeremy anxiously. "What has Christopher said? Did the spell work? Will she be okay?"

Jeremy opened his mouth, but staring at Damon, he realized that Damon never really knew what the spell was about. With a hard swallow, the teenager began, "Um, Damon, Christopher—"

Before Jeremy could finish, there was a loud gasp. Elena choked for air, crossing the threshold from dead to very much alive. She took a moment to get aware of her surroundings, but suddenly Jeremy rushed up to her and Alaric, too, crowding her. Amelia stepped off, coming up to Damon's side as they both waited for Claire to return. Amelia sat down on the couch beside Claire, pleading for her sister's return. Damon straightened, running a hand through his hair in desperation. She should've woken by then, being that she was killed first. The clock ticked, and Damon bent down and stared desperately at Claire, chanting a plead over and over in his head a million times.

And then it started to happen. Inch by inch, the veins on her skin started to disappear. The grey hue enveloping her began to fade, replacing the dead skin with her perfect, lively white skin that claimed her a King. Damon tensed up and anxiously awaited Claire's arrival back into the world of the living, and he watched as her eyelids fluttered open to reveal her vivacious crystal blue eyes.

"Claire," the dark-haired vampire whispered breathlessly, finding himself utterly relieved that Christopher's German spell had worked. Amelia watched in anticipation as her sister took a moment to let her eyes wander around the witch house, trying to get a grip on reality. He could see the look of confusion on her face as she let her eyes drift slowly to his and she tried to sit up straighter.

"I-I was...dead," she noted quietly, her eyes staring into Damon's with fear and misunderstanding. Claire shifted, turning to Amelia, Elena, Jeremy, and Alaric, who all stood watching her return. Desperately, she let her eyes wander to all of them. "Klaus killed me! I was dead! Not human dead, vampire dead. Dead, dead. How did I survive that?"

"Claire—" Damon began, and her head snapped to him with a gasp.

"Damon, please tell me you didn't do anything stupid."

Damon shook his head and prepared to tell her that Christopher had found a spell that would bring her back from the dead, but before he could, Jeremy spoke first, surprising even him with his words.

"Damon wasn't the one who did something stupid, Claire." She locked eyes with the teenager, alarmed. Jeremy gulped. "Christopher did."

"What?" she whispered, low, soft, and bewildered. It all happened in a blur after that. Claire forced herself off the couch, despite Damon and Amelia's protests. There was no way that a spell had brought her back. Elijah would've known about it. She let her feet carry her through the witch house, although she was aware of those chasing her down, obviously concerned that she had only been alive for a few minutes and was already up and running. But she persisted, stumbling in the house until she finally made it down to the basement where Bonnie had been living temporarily and stopped, completely frozen. Damon, Amelia, and Alaric came up behind her on the staircase and were only left to witness the horror of what happened next.

"No!" Claire shouted, running and stumbling over to Christopher's grey, desiccated body that was lying on the wooden floor, surrounded by a ring of salt and lit candles. She found an opening and fit herself through it, dropping to her knees and shaking Christopher's shoulders, attempting to wake him up as she screamed his name over and over again. Amelia slowly walked forward and watched as tears spilled over in Claire's eyes as she clutched Christopher's dead body to her chest, not sure whether it was the fact that she had just come back to life that had made her so emotional or the fact that her ex-husband sacrificed himself for her that made her want to die, instead. Damon stared at Claire as Amelia walked up and tried to comfort her sister, who rocked back and forth as she cried into the dead man's shoulder.

He should've known. Spells like that didn't just happen. He should've known. If he had known, it would've been easier. She wouldn't have to have lost two people; she would only have to lose one. Now, in addition to losing Christopher for his sacrifice, she would lose him, too, to the werewolf bite. And his heart broke into pieces watching Clarissa King—the strong, independent, kickass Clarissa King—weep at her husband's side.

The days following the sacrifie ritual could only be summed up into one word: hell. They'd found Jenna's dead body on the floor of the Salvatore study, along with a note for Elena written by John with his ring lying by it's side. He confessed to killing Jenna, and the deed had made him so sick to his stomach that he decided, since it was his fault they were in the mess with Klaus in the first place, that the best thing for his daughter would be to leave Mystic Falls for good. He left the ring for Elena and future Gilbert generations, saying that they would need it more than he would, as he vowed to stop getting mixed into vampire business once and for all.

Claire spent her days in devestation, her only comfort being her sister. Stefan was too busy trying to make the arrangements for the funerals and trying to help the Gilberts over their aunt's death to want to bother Claire while she mourned. Damon left them all alone, not wanting to make things harder for Claire, especially, so soon after Christopher's death. He'd decided not to tell her about the werewolf bite—he hadn't told anyone, in fact. Because Elijah betrayed them on the night of the ritual and had let his brother trick him into keeping him alive, Katherine and Klaus were the only two vampires that knew about his fatal secret.

On the day of Jenna and Christopher's funerals, Damon met Stefan at the Gilbert house so they could take Elena to the cemetery. Amelia had already told the Salvatore brothers that she would take Claire, and although she offered Damon a space in her car, Damon respectfully declined. If he spoke to Claire, she would know. If he looked at Claire, she would know. She couldn't know.

"We all set?" asked Stefan.

"Yeah," Damon alerted him as he approached his brother in the Gilbert living room. "Plenty of room with the Gilbert family plot. Jenna, obviously, will be buried there and Christopher will be buried with the Fells. I compelled two of the gravediggers to do the dirty work. How's Elena doing?"

"She lost the only parents she had," Stefan replied solemnly. Damon nodded in understanding. "John killed Jenna so she wouldn't be a vampire and then he left. She's in shock."

Damon was hesitant, but after a moment of silence, he looked up and asked quietly, "And...uh, Claire? Did you talk to her yet?"

Stefan and Damon eyed each other very carefully until the younger brother pointedly crossed his arms and stared at the dark-haired Salvatore with prompting eyes.

"Is there a reason you haven't?" Damon shifted uncomfortably, and Stefan realized that he had caught Damon red-handed. Stefan sighed. "Damon, she's not...handling it well, Christopher's death. She's heartbroken over the fact that he...sacrificed himself for her. You know how she is. You should talk to her."

"I don't think that's a good idea. I'm not the right person to be helping her through this."

"Why? Because you're in love with her?" Stefan didn't mean it as angry, and it didn't come out that way, either. It came out as if Stefan was trying to pressure his brother, who was so worried about what she would say to him that he didn't want to go within two feet of her. "Damon, don't forget that before she turned to me, you were the person she went to for everything. Like it or not, you will always be friends first. And you're going to be friends for a long, long time."

Damon looked up at Stefan and tried to bite his tongue to refrain from saying anything. If only Stefan knew what was really going on...he wouldn't be saying the things he was. He didn't have a long, long time. He had a day—two, at most. Then, he would be as dead as those they were burying in an hour.

Claire stood in front of the mirror in one of the bedrooms of the lofty King home, avoiding her reflection as she combed her long, stick-straight blonde hair calmly and selectively. She knew she looked like the stereotypical widow minus the black netted veil, but she didn't care. In fact, she didn't know whether to be angry or grateful that Christopher had sacrificed himself just to save her. She knew that he loved her, whether he was the one to cut the ties and say the awful things he did or not. The fact that he had gotten so angry at her for lying proved that. She wanted to be furious with him for doing something so stupid, but that was foolish. He did it for her, and the only thing she could do was live her life and make it worthwhile.

That didn't mean that his death didn't hurt like hell, though.

Amelia had supplied her with food and shelter ever since the sacrifice ritual. She would normally stay at the boarding house, but she couldn't bare it. Stefan came to see her once or twice, to check on her, but Damon didn't. He stayed as far away from her as humanly possible since the death of her husband, and it just confused her. She didn't know whether to be mad or grateful with him, either.

All she knew was that she was hurting inside and that she needed someone. The truth of the matter was, however, she didn't believe that person should be Damon. As much as she wanted him, it felt like a betrayal, almost, to be even near him so soon after Christopher's death. Regardless, there was still something inside of her that wanted him by her side. But Amelia and Stefan were enough; and for that, she was most definitely grateful.

She'd stopped crying, mainly because she was sick of it. She only cried at times of dire situations, and this was a dire situation that would unfortunately never go away. But she knew there would be no stopping of the tears at the funeral. Jenna...Christopher...she didn't want to face either of their graves, if she were being truthful. It was too much.

"Knock, knock," Amelia announced softly as she knocked on the door of Claire's toom in the King home and stepped inside. Claire turned to her sister, who was dressed in a black dress similar to her own, her hair swept away from her face in an elegant bun. The older sister noticed quickly that in her younger sister's hand, she held a folded piece of paper.

"Are we leaving now?" Claire asked quietly, stepping away from the dresser. Amelia nodded.

"Soon. But here." She reached out and extended the folded piece of paper to her sister. Claire looked at it, confounded, and Amelia shrugged. "Bonnie, uh, dropped it off earlier. She said...she said that he wanted her to give it to you."

Claire stiffened, and after a moment, she tentatively took the folded paper from Amelia's hands. She looked down at it, only imagining what would be written inside. The thought made her head spin with grief. Amelia saw the look of anxiousness on her sister's face, so she cleared her throat and started to back away from Claire's room.

"Read it, take your time. I'll wait downstairs for you."

Amelia gave her sister a small smile and turned to walk outside, but she was stopped when Claire called her back.

"Amelia?" The teenager turned and was surprised when her sister hesitated for a moment and then rushed up to her, pulling her into a hug. Momentarily, Amelia processed the situation, but then she wrapped her arms around Claire as tight as she could and Claire did the same. The two beautiful sisters hugged for a long time before Claire whispered, "Thank you. For not being dead and all."

Amelia gave a soft, solemn chuckle, but when she pulled away Claire could see tears threaten at her eyes. "Don't mention it, sis."

She gave her sister's hand a tight squeeze and then left to wait for the grieving widow to join her downstairs and head to the funerals. Once Amelia was gone, Claire turned back into the room and sighed to herself, willing her eyes not to spill over in tears. She didn't want to cry yet—if she cried, she wouldn't stop.

Cautiously, she opened the folded letter to find Christopher's handwriting scribbled down the page. With a deep breath, she read:

My beautiful Clarissa,

I spent over a century in darkness, trapped underground with no way out, and surrounded by twenty-six ravenous vampires who would do anything to get out. And while the others craved blood on their lips, I did not. Despite our situation, despite the fact that you were not originally intended to be a Fell, all I wanted was you. I sat in the corridors of the dark cave for a hundred years and...all I could think about was you.

She couldn't help herself. As she read the words, hot tears drifted down her face, but she didn't dare release the letter. She gripped the page so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and she couldn't care less if she sobbed again.

Knowing your stubbornness, I can only imagine what you must think right now and how angry you must be with me for wanting to give up my life for your own. But I don't want you to think of this as a sacrifice, I want you to think of this as a new start. A new beginning. You had saved me countless times down in that dark tomb, intended or not. It's about time I save you.

Elena led the crowd through the cemetery to her family plot. Caroline, Bonnie, Claire, Stefan, Amelia, Jeremy, Alaric, and Damon all followed closely behind towards the tombstone of Jenna Sommers. Elena's hands shook with sadness that she felt inside for the loss of her aunt. But though John had done what he thought was right, saving her from an eternal life, Elena was sure that her aunt would've chosen to die either way.

The brunette stopped at the graves of her family and placed a rose on each of the plots—the plots that listed her dead guardians. Not bothering to hold in tears, she cried as she placed three roses on each of them and stood. Everyone hung his or her heads in silence as she sniffled and turned around, walking back to her comforting group of friends. Alaric stepped forward next and placed a rose on Jenna's grave for his dead girlfriend and turned, holding back tears.

And although Claire didn't want to, Amelia nudged her forward to walk to the other grave they were going to visit. She thought she'd cried all she could, but when she reached Christopher's grave and saw his name on the tombstone, she broke down. Her sister reached out to console her, but Claire just sunk to the ground and placed her own rose on top of her husband's grave, weeping as much as a human widow would.

Although our marriage made you Clarissa Fell, you never once stopped being Clarissa King. That is what I love most about you. And with my death, it's time for you to move on. Our human lives were forced into unison, and our vampire lives have been complicated enough. My hopes for you, my beautiful wife, is to find happiness in your eternity. True happiness.

Claire looked up, unwilling to look at her husband's fresh grave any longer, and she caught sight of someone moving away from the crowd. Damon, with his head hung, walked away from the cemetery, unable to help eyeing her. When he saw her eyes capture his, he gave her a tight smile and kept walking. Claire rose from her position on the ground and wiped away at her red eyes to give the best smile she could produce in the circumstance. Behind her, Stefan came up and touched her arm in comfort, and Claire looked at him with a sad smile, but her eyes inevitably flickered back to the other Salvatore brother, who was moving away from her as if the sight was too much for him.

I have never heard the words "I love you" from your mouth, and now I suppose I never will. But the truth is, I never had to hear the words. You loved me in your own way, Clarissa. You love everyone in your own way. But what you must know is that I love you with all of my heart. I will forever be grateful that by some act of God I was privileged enough to be called your husband and I was able to call you my wife.

Human or vampire, I have always loved you, and I always will.

Christopher.

While Jeremy and Elena clung to each other for support and Amelia cried into her sister's arms, Bonnie backed away from the crowd and made sure that she was not seen slipping away. She was the only one who knew the truth; the only one who could make Claire's pain dissolve. She turned and walked to the place in the cemetery where she'd promised she'd be, and once she reached the statue that would shield them from her friends, she found the human waiting for her.

Christopher Fell straightened upon her presence.

"Did you give her the letter?" he asked anxiously, a human gleam in his eyes. Bonnie still found it hard to believe at how he'd transformed by a simple spell. She knew what the spell entailed once she had translated it, but she'd only told Jeremy half of what it went over. Christopher did have to be sacrificed in order to save Claire, that part was true, and it had to be done before Claire died, yes, but the spell required a balance in nature. By taking Christopher's vampire life force away, it restored his human soul. Hours after Claire had found him in the witch house, he had woken up with a fresh heartbeat. She cast a spell to create a duplicate body that she let Damon bury.

But most importantly, she had turned a vampire into a human again.

"Um, yeah. I did. I told Amelia that you wrote it before you died." Bonnie swallowed thickly while Christopher nodded in thanks and looked off into the distance, staring in the direction of the widow, who was crying like he'd never seen her cry before. It broke his heart to see her this way, but he knew it was for the best. Bonnie looked in the direction as well, feeling guilt swarm her. She looked back at him curiously. "Why don't you just tell her that you're alive? That you're...human? You can still leave, you know, if that's what you really want."

Christopher hesitated for a moment or two, but then he looked back at the witch and shook his head.

"The best thing for her is to think that I'm dead. If she doesn't, she'll never learn to grow. She'll never know what it means to love somebody. I'm helping her realize what love feels like." He looked towards Damon's direction and sighed. "And hopefully she'll put it to good use."

Bonnie realized who he was looking towards, and she looked back at the vampire with a scowl. "Don't tell me you faked your own death so that you could get Damon and Claire together."

The bronze-haired human chuckled softly and removed his eyes from Damon, looking at Bonnie with a soft smile. "Bonnie, you don't understand. This wasn't just for Claire, it was for me, too. As selfish as it sounds, I did this for myself. Not only did the spell turn me human again, it gives me a chance at a real life! Even before Katherine turned me and I ended up in that tomb, my life had never really...been mine. I was a Fell; I had responsibilities. One of those responsibilities was to marry a beautiful girl and...do I regret it? Of course not. But it's about time I get a second chance. She should, too."

The two were silent for a while, processing his words, until Bonnie finally asked, "Are you ever gonna tell her?"

The witch eyed the human, searching for signs of hope that he'd one day return and reveal to her friends what they had done so she could rid herself of the secret. At last, he shrugged. "Who knows? I may, I may not."

Bonnie scowled. "Could you be any more vague?"

"Here." Christopher cracked a smile and looked down, reaching into his pocket to grab something. He produced his wedding band, encrusted with lapis lazuli that acted as his former daylight ring. Bonnie took it hesitantly and looked up at him with confused eyes.

"What's this for? Do you want me to give it to Claire?"

"No. I want you to keep it. If you ever need me, Bonnie, just do a locator spell. If you're really in trouble, I promise I'll come back." He paused and looked up towards Claire's direction with a sigh. "If...if she's ever in trouble..."

"I know." Bonnie nodded and clenched the ring in her hand, encasing it in a fist. She smiled up at him sadly. "Good luck, Christopher. I hope this is worth it."

"It is." The new human smiled at Bonnie and then walked away in the opposite directions of all the vampires and humans who were all misty-eyed. The witch sighed, watching Christopher leave, and she knew that the likelihood of it was that she would have to take this secret to the grave.

When the dust had settled and everyone was ready to move the melancholic event elsewhere, Stefan came up to the isolated Damon who was staring off to the sunset in nostalgia, frozen in time. Not wanting to impose on his brother's silent thoughts, Stefan came at a safe distance behind the dark-haired vampire and put his hands in his pockets.

"We're...gonna head back to the house."

"I think I'll skip the coffee and tea cakes."

"Damon, Claire needs us right now." As much as Stefan knew Damon was trying to be a good person and was trying to keep his distance, he also knew it was the opposite of what Claire wanted. "So does Elena. They both need us. All of us."

The bitter vampire sighed. "And then what's the plan, Stefan? The curse is broken. How does one go about killing an all-powerful wolf-vamp and his two-faced older brother?"

Stefan closed his eyes and shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Well we need to get an idea. Fast!" Damon turned around to face his younger brother, who was standing around waiting for Damon to come back with him. Stefan shook his head again tightly.

"I'm not gonna let Elena or Claire lose anyone else. We've all suffered enough."

"I wouldn't make any promises, brother."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tyler Lockwood bit me." Damon rolled up the jacket of his suit to reveal the infected area on the crease of his elbow. He witnessed his brother immediately knot his eyebrows and step forward to examine the bite closer. Damon looked down at it himself, feeling as if every time he looked at it, it was getting worse. With a shrug, he added, "It's actually more of a nip, really, but...there it is."

Stefan touched his brother's arm in disbelief, trying to blink his eyes as if to get rid of the lethal sight. Damon yanked his arm back, having let Stefan look at it long enough, and Stefan looked up at his brother with teary eyes. Damon avoided the gaze of his sibling at all costs, not wanting to see the look on his younger brother's sad face, fearing that it might make him feel sad as well.

At last, Stefan said softly, "We'll find something. A cure."

Damon scoffed. "There is no cure, Stefan."

"Christopher found a way to bring Claire back from the dead!" Stefan persisted, despite Damon's negative attitude. "He found a way when there was no way. Hey!" The vampire brought Damon's attention back to him with a serious look. "I will do this."

Damon eyed his brother carefully, but didn't respond to Stefan's declaration. instead, he sighed. "You want to do something for me? Keep this from Claire. The last thing she needs is another grave to mourn."

With a small, bittersweet smile, Damon clamped a hand on his younger brother's shoulder and watched as Stefan looked as if he was breaking apart. Unable to bear the sight, Damon turned on his heel and walked off from the rest of his friends, leaving Stefan to watch as his brother poetically walked off into the shimmering sunset, ready to die.

Thanks for reading! Please review!

grapejuice101: Thank you! Here's the update! Sorry it took so long...

NicoleR85: Thanks! Here's the update!

RHatch89: Thanks! :)

HPuni101: Thank you! Here's the next chapter!

ThisIsMeAndYou: Yeah he really does. Unfortunately, it's not gonna be that easy for Stefan. He's gonna hit a lot of bumps on the road and Elena and Amelia will be the casualties. Think of it this way: they're basically the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle, except instead it's the Elena/Stefan/Amelia triangle. So unfortunately his split decisions between Amelia and Elena won't end anytime soon but it'll be fun to see what happens along the way! Thanks for reviewing!

klandgraf2007: Well Claire wasn't under the bite. Though now that I think about it, I guess she kind of did show some symptoms. Anyways, it's only Damon under the bite and the flashbacks are gonna be pretty interesting! Haha thanks so much! Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!