I put the piece of paper in the pocket of my dress, and watched him as he walked out of the gardens, almost hypnotised by the graceful way that he walked.

"Where are you off to now?" asked Stefan gently, shaking me out of my thoughts. "Oh. I was going to take some pictures of the Diana as they've drained it, practise taking some landscape shots."

"I'm parked near there, I'll walk with you. If you don't mind that is." I looked up from putting my camera away, "course I don't mind. Don't be silly!" Stefan smiled at me, a mischievous glint in his bright green eyes.

"Well I wasn't sure if you wanted to take a walk on your own, or perhaps it wasn't me that you wanted to take a walk with," I laughed.

"You're as bad as my boyfriend! There's a certain easy listening artist I like and he's always teasing me about liking him," Stefan laughed.

There were a hundred questions that I wanted to ask him, did he get married to Elena? Was she a vampire or was she human? Where were they living now? But I was too shy to ask, so after a few minutes of awkward silence Stefan turned and asked "so if you don't mind me asking, how and when did you find out about the books?"

"Oh when I went on holiday I used to choose a book for the car ride down. I remember it really well actually, I must have been about 13 and I'd been going through a horror stage, I'd read Point Horror but some of them disappointed me- particularly The Vampire. I drove Mum mad that day as I couldn't make my mind up, but I kept going back and looking at them, so eventually I grabbed The Awakening and the Struggle. They sounded interesting so as I had two out of the three I thought I'd read a bit of the Awakening rather than wait 'till the car journey. I was hooked and I finished it really quickly, so I went back and bought The Fury." I grinned at Stefan, "I blame you for getting told off for being unsociable that week. All I wanted to do was to finish the books and find out what happened next."

"They've obviously struck a cord with you then, if you still remember them ten years later," he said. I laughed out loud which confused him, "what did I say?"

"It's nice when someone knocks ten years off your age. If you keep saying things like that I might have to switch my allegiance." Stefan couldn't keep the astonishment from his face; he narrowed his eyes and gripped my chin. "Say ah for me," he chuckled. I laughed even harder, "get off!" We stood there for a minute until the laughter died down, we had made it to the car park and I hadn't taken a single picture along the way.

"Well I'd better go. It was a pleasure to meet you properly Liz, keep in touch won't you?" I smiled shyly at him.

"I will. Thank you for the photos and the company, take care Stefan." He nodded and walked over towards the black Porsche, I walked away towards the huge fountain that sat in the middle of the road through the park as a roundabout. I managed to run across the road and started to walk down towards it, I'd never seen it empty before and was curious, a car hooted besides me, I turned and waived at Stefan as he went past and went back to taking pictures of the fountain.

From when I got home, twice a day I checked the web for any more updates on the books, interviews etc. When a story about Damon and Bonnie was posted on her website I e-mailed both brothers immediately, Stefan replied with a nice e-mail asking me how I was and expressing interest in the story, I heard nothing from Damon though.

Then a few days later the news broke that a pilot was being made of the TV series- I sent a text and e-mailed Stefan and sent Damon a separate but much briefer e-mail updating him. I heard nothing back from either of them that day or the next. Then as I walked out of work one day there was a black Ferrari parked right outside, as I looked at it the window wound down and Damon's face appeared, "get in" was all he said. I obeyed and he sped off before I could put my seatbelt on, not very happy either. "You got my e-mail then," he didn't even glance at me but kept his eyes on the road.

"Yes."

"Okay, so where are we going?"

"To have a chat."

"About what?"

"About your e-mail." I could feel my temper starting to bubble; it was like getting blood from a stone.

"Why are going to have a chat about my e-mail? I don't have any other information other than what I've sent you. I checked just before I left work." He didn't answer, just kept his eyes on the road, "Damon, will you please tell me what's going on?"

"Stefan called me and asked him to bring you back to his place to have a chat and perhaps some tea and biscuits if you're good." I shook my head in frustration, "you could have told me that at the beginning," I mumbled. Damon said nothing but kept driving, I took my phone out of my pocket and managed to log onto the internet. The news wasn't good; someone had gotten hold of the script. I peered at my phone trying to make out what was written when a cold voice asked me what I was looking at. "I'll show you when we get to Stefans' place, after I've had my tea and biscuits," I grinned at him sarcastically. He laughed and which annoyed me, but I suppose it was better then him getting angry and throwing me out of the car.

We drove all the way to Richmond, we stopped outside some flats near the park and Damon switched the engine off and got out. I went to open the car door but he was there already holding it open for me and as soon as I was out the door was shut behind me and the car locked. Damon led the way into the front entrance as he seemed to know the security code and went to go up the stairs when I asked him what floor we needed to go to. "Why? Something the matter with your legs?" he sneered.

"Actually there is. The muscles behind my knees don't work properly and climbing stairs is really difficult and painful for me. If you don't like lifts tell me the floor and I'll meet you up there." Damon looked surprised but came back down and we waited for the lift.

"Did my e-mail upset you or have I offended you?" We got in the lift and Damon pressed the fifth floor. "Why would you think that?"

"You ordered me to get in your car, you've barely said a word to me on the way here and now you're sniping at me."

"Why should I be nice to you? You're just a human. You're nothing to me, just a silly young woman who thinks that she can change me, can see into my soul and make me care about her. You and hundreds of others," he snapped, his eyes no longer had any of those dancing lights in them. They were cold, hard and black. "You know what? There's only one bit of your little statement that's true, I stupidly thought that we were on good terms and that one day you might think of me as a friend, after all, it's not as if I've had a thank you from you for doing your dirty work and warning you of everything that's going on. Oh well, serves me right for wanting to be friends with a heartless monster like you that threatens 5 year olds so he can have their elder sister just because he can't bear to see her with his younger brother." My blood was boiling and my words hit home, he was furious and his fist shot past my face at lightening speed into the mirrored glass in the lift, causing it to break.

"I'd be very careful what I'd say of I were you, one more foot out of place and your last thought will be regret over crossing me." The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and on my arms, my heart was pounding so loudly even I could hear it. I was that scared.

The lift door opened and across the landing stood a worried looking Stefan holding the front door to his flat open, I went to storm out of the lift but I felt Damon tread on my lace which I hadn't realised was undone. It was too late, I was already falling and although I could see Stefan rushing out to catch me he wasn't quick enough. Neither was Damon who I felt try to grab my arm but just missed and sent me falling instead of flat on my face, on my arm.

I screamed out loud at the sickening crack as I hit the wall sideways and fell awkwardly to the ground. As I lay on the ground Stefan had already rushed over and was trying to say something to me, I heard female voices come from inside the flat and I saw Damon's boots in front of my face.