AN) Hello everyone! Thank you to RHatch89, m. , twilightlovengirl, NeonEnigma88, vampirelove41, Jojo657, Twisted Musalih, BeaGiil, love angel moonlight, steph A15, Vivi H88 , winxgirl1997, lis3011, vampgurlkisses, 01katie, Alice Gone Madd , twilightfanjm , GoddessxNyte , Lilithcase39girl , shadowhunterherondale, Guest, kimberr94 , Original Sister , litanolastar , and IsAbElA M Cullen for reviewing the last chapter! Your words of encouragement really pushed me to continue writing and post this chapter! Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, reviewed, and/or read my story! Thank you all so much!
On a somewhat different topic, I have decided that I'll let my readers decide who they would like to see Bella date, so feel free to tell me who you would like to see Bella with! :)
I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
~UnicornNinja12
Dpov
"Climbing out the back door, didn't leave a mark
No one knows it's you Miss Jackson
Found another victim
But no one's gonna find Miss Jackson, Jackson, Jackson"
~Ms. Jackson by Panic! At the Disco
"That's all she had on Katherine, unfortunately," Vanessa said to Elena apologetically.
"Maybe did she have any research on what doppelgängers are?"
"It varies culture to culture, but typically doppelgängers are living breathing doubles of the same person," Bella says carelessly. "Not to be confused with clones."
"Hey, have you done any research on doppelgängers?" Elena asked turning her attention toward me.
"No, no I haven't," I say in the same bored tone as before as she sets down the paper she was reading to look at Elena. "But unlike you, I used Google. You should try it," Bella says offering her the paper she was reading. Elena rejects it with a shake of her head. Bella shrugs and go back to reading it.
"She summed it up pretty well, but I can tell you that doppelgängers usually torment the people they look like, trying to undo their lives. It's not exactly uplifting," Vanessa said apologetically.
"And more things we already know. Just... I want to know why we look alike," Elena said frustrated.
"If all questions had an easy, immediate answer, there would be no questions, Elena. But I'm sure we'll find an answer soon." Bella said attempting to calm Elena down.
I smirked at Elena's frustration and say, "Head scratcher, isn't it?"
Elena sends me an annoyed look. "Do you know something, or are you just being yourself?"
"Well, if I know anything, I'm not gonna tell you, not with that attitude," I said further taunting her.
"That's good, Damon, and this is coming from someone who wants to be my friend, but you know what? Friends don't manipulate friends, they help each other," Elena said bitingly.
Her words cut through me like a knife, leaving me completely silent.
It was silent except for Elena's footsteps as she walked past me until I hear Bella say, "You're right Elena." Elena stops and turns toward Bella. "Friends don't manipulate friends. But anyone in their right mind knows a friend doesn't manipulate a want-to-be friend because that shows the beginning a corrupt friendship."
She scowls at me. "This has nothing to do with you Bella."
"Maybe or maybe not. I may not have grown up with a single group of parents, but he is my father and I will always protect him." Elena goes to turn away, but Bella's next words make her pause. "I don't know you Elena." Seeing she had Elena's attention, Bella continued. "I don't like thinking poorly of people and my opinion of you could change. But from what I have seen you're not the saint you think you are," she says before making her way toward the door.
"And you are the saint you think you are?"
She stops and turns toward Elena. "No, I'm not. I'm not so self-righteous to think I'm by any means perfect. I do my best to be perfect, but I know I will never be perfect. I am simply Bella and always will be." She looks at Vanessa, Alaric, and, I, who had watched the scene unfold. "Excuse me for my part in the quarrel. It shouldn't have been done in front of you all." With a quick bow of the head, she exits the room.
"Are you okay Elena?" I ask half-heartedly. Part of me wanted to run after Bella and check on her, while the other part wanted to check up on Elena.
Elena sends me a sharp look before marching out of the room.
I didn't bother looking behind me. For the life (or maybe death) of me couldn't figure out why the two didn't get along. Bella didn't seem to be the type of person who disliked people without a reason.
"Why didn't you go after her?" Alaric asked breaking out of my thoughts.
"Elena?" I ask.
"No, Bella, you're daughter." I shrug and Alaric lets out a sigh before saying, "Elena is a bit stressed and is snapping and Bella stood up for you. Why didn't you go after her?"
"I don't know."
"Well if I were you, I would go after her and check on her. Bella's a good person and doesn't deserve to be hurt," Alaric said, his fondness for my daughter evident in his voice.
I look at him briefly before leaving the room.
-BOS-
"And then he just walks past me with a blank look on his face. I think something's seriously wrong with him," said a man in a letterman's jacket to his friend. "I mean I know he has a questionable past with the drugs and alcohol problems, but he hasn't been this bad."
Oh my goodness! Just shoot me now, I thought as I walked toward the exit of the building. A stake to the heart doesn't sound so bad now.
"Jackson is all kinds of messed up," says his slightly shorter friend, "I've heard all the rumors about him and women. All the girls he's messed with and, from what I've heard from the team, he was the last one to see Janet and everybody saw how she tried to avoid him the whole night-"
Jackson? The same Jackson who was hitting on my daughter?
"Have they found her yet?"
"No." the two boys share a look. "But I don't know. I just- I just don't hear a lot of good things about him. Especially when it comes to women."
"But he does throw the best parties."
"Yeah, but women beware."
Yup, that bitch is dead I thought darkly pushing past the two jocks and out of the building.
-BOS-
Arriving at his dorm room, I was greeted by a loud, "OWW!" I smirked at the sound.
A large group of people were gathered around his dorm, trying to get in and on the phone, probably with a hospital.
"Back off, I have to get in there," I said shoving people out of the way.
"You hold on a second! You cannot just enter into the room! Only the RA's can do that!" said a girl with a whiny voice.
"Well I am heading in and you'll say the door was broken by the RA. You will not remember me," I said compelling her before shoving past her.
As I approached the door, I turned around and ordered them to go away. The few that didn't go got compelled to leave.
Not wasting any more time, I breakdown the door, just in time for Jackson to hit himself again.
"Hey Jackson, did you miss me?" I ask as I approached form. He quickly dropped the bat and curled up on the floor and cried. "Yikes, did that hurt?" I asked sending him a dark look.
"Jackson, look at me." He look up at me and I began my compulsion. "Did you kill the girl?"
Jackson nodded.
I punch him in the face. "That it is for hitting on my daughter in front of me." I send another punch to his face. "That is for trying to hurt my daughter." I send another punch to his face. "This is what you get for messing with a Salvatore." I send a punch that sends him crashing onto his mattress. "You're a fool to think I would let something like that be forgiven."
I blurred down and grab him by the collar of his shirt. "You little punk. That was the last time I'll let you try to hurt my daughter. Scum like you are better off dead."
I begin to go for the kill when I hear something.
"Hmm…" I said, hearing the sirens in the background. "While I can't kill you now, I can kill you later. So until then," I jerked him so he was staring into my eyes, "I want you to tell the police what you did to Janet and show them the body. The RA broke the door down and prevented you from hitting yourself. You will not mention me to anybody, but you will feel fear when you think of me or any women you touch. Understand?" Jackson nodded blankly before repeating what I said. "Good. See you soon Jackson."
I quickly found a RA and compelled them before quickly escaping the dorms and heading toward Alaric's car
-BOS-
Approaching Alaric's car, I notice Elena trying to get in.
"Here. Allow me." I quickly unlock the door, before saying, "You're not gonna be able to hate me forever.
Elena: "Can we just go?" Elena asks moodily.
"You didn't dig deep enough," I say, handing her the Petrova book. I feel slightly guilty just handing it to Elena, but I know I'm going to have to bribe her with something if I'm trying to form a friendship with Elena.
"'Petrova'. I saw this on a shelf," she says.
"Katherine originally came from Europe. Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova, to be exact," I say explaining what I had learned about Katherine.
"How did you know that?" Elena asked.
"Back when, I saw it engraved on an old heirloom. Men snoop too, you know. Let me know what you find, I'm very curious myself and Bella hasn't gotten around to reading it."
"Bella hasn't read it yet?"
"Yeah, she's the one who found it."
"Huh?" she says, looking lost in her thoughts for a moment before trying to get into the car, but I'm quick to stop her.
This was it. The moment of truth. "You have every right to hate me, I understand but you hated me before and we became friends. It would suck if that was gone forever. So, is it? Have I lost you forever?"
Elena just looks at me blankly and says, "Thank you for the book, Damon," before going into the car. I don't bother to stop her this time.
A moment later, I hear Bella breathe out, "Alice." I quickly turned my attention toward her and notice Bella staring at pixie looking girl with a shocked and hurt, yet happy expression. I catch my father's as well as her attention when I say this. As she begins to walk toward the pixie, the pixie turns and walks away. "Wait Alice," Bella says walking faster and enters into a fenced outyard area. I pause where I'm at, unsure if I should snoop in on the conversation. "Alice Cullen!" Cullen? As the Edin kid? "I know you know I'm here, just stop and talk to me!" she said sternly.
The pixie stopped for a moment and slightly turned to say, "Bella."
I decide to give her a little privacy, but listen in anyways. Just because I decide to give her privacy doesn't mean I can't listen in, right? And for what it's worth, they didn't talk too much, just a lot of unanswered questions, which lead me at several points to growl slightly and had to fight the urge to fight the (AN please pardon the language) bitch.
Not long after the conversation started, the pixie chick (Alice I thought bitterly) ran off leaving Bella alone and I was left with a decision: do I let Bella know I was listening and reveal I was listening or do I pretend I wasn't there? I hang back a few moments before slowly making my way toward the entrance of the courtyard and cautiously look at her. And that all too familiar feeling returned.
Bella looked like she was in ruins. With her head in her hands and her body curled tightly, she looked so… broken. So unlike the Bella I knew. It almost hurt me to just look at her so sad.
"Bella?" I call out, breaking her out of her thoughts. I almost ask how she is, but chicken out and say, "We have to get going. Alaric's getting grumpy."
She clears her throat and says, "Okay, I'm coming." Bella gets up and wipes off her jeans before wiping below her eyes and heading quickly toward me. Had she been crying?
I catch her as she tries to go past me. She looks up and I ask, "Are you alright Bella?"
She offers a shaky before saying, "Alright as I'll ever be."
I study her, waiting for her to truly tell me how she is. After a few moments of silence, I quickly realize that she isn't going to tell me the truth. "Well, I'm here if you need me."
"Thanks Dad," she says gratefully.
"Anytime," I say noticing Alaric getting into the car. "We better get going." I quickly wrapped an arm around her before running at vampire speed to the car.
"You know you two could have walked over here; I would have waited for you," Alaric said as we entered the car.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" I asked smirking. I saw Bella smiling causing a smile briefly.
So what did you think? Feel free to tell me what you think!
Until next time! :)
~UnicornNinja12