A/N: Hey guys... sorry for not updating in so long, I feel awful. So it's taken me a couple months to write such a lame chapter, I know, I suck. I wanted to make it longer but I also just wanted to update as soon as possible. Also, I was wondering if maybe I should also make Damon a love interest? Review to tell me what you think, also sorry for the spelling mistakes, I wrote this in a rush when inspiration hit me. Anyway, On with the story!

CHAPTER 5:

Damon stroked Katie's hair, squeezing his eyes closed to hold back his tears. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he didn't hear his brother come in. Stefan took one look at the scene in front of him and froze. Damon and Katie were covered in her blood, his brother was rocking her body back and forth and stroking her hair and he couldn't hear Katie's heartbeat. Never had Stefan Salvatore been so scared.

"What happened Damon?" he demanded, his voice surprisingly steady. Damon just shook his head.

"I have no idea. One second I'm sitting by the fire the next I hear a thump on the porch and Katie's lying there, looking like she just had brunch with Freddie Kruger," Damon said irritably, trying not to attack his brother. Stefan sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"What did this to her?" Stefan demanded. Damon's blue eyes were suddenly glazed with anger.

"I was a hunter, I picked out all of the pieces of the gunshot wound but when I get my hands on the son of a bitch who did this…" Damon trailed off, unable to find words that voiced his fury and pain. Suddenly Katie stirred, startling the two brothers. They listened and found that her heart was still wasn't beating and yet she was awake. They heard a quiet rasping sound that they realized was Katie. Damon was pushed out of his shock by the sound and immediately bit into his wrist to heal. For once, Stefan didn't argue, but Katie did. She thrashed in his grasp and kept on whispering a name. Elijah. Elijah. Elijah. That's all she was rasping. The inside of Katie's hand started glowing to reveal a mark with an unfamiliar pattern. Her body started convulsing and the wound shone with a bright, red light. The brothers closed their eyes and when they opened them Katie was laying on the bed as fine as ever. He breathing was normal, her pulse was normal and the wound had completely disappeared. The only evidence that she was ever injured was the blood on her white tank top.

About 20 minutes later Katie woke up. She was not a heavy sleeper and the phantom wound of where the gunshot wound used to be was quite agonising. She opened her eyes to see the Salvatore brothers jumping away in shock.

Damon and Stefan had seen Katie's eyes and were taken aback by their unusual colour. Instead of their usual soft brown, they were a startling green. She blinked open her eyes and resisted the urge to glare at the brothers' prying gaze. She braced herself for the question that she'd only ever had to answer once.

"What are you?" Damon asked slowly.

Katie sighed and stood up in Damon's bed. She knew that a million questions were running through their minds, but there was a big one she wanted them to answer first.

"Why aren't I at a hospital?" she asked curiously, earning a sheepish look from Stefan.
'We've got something to tell you," Stefan paused for dramatic effect. Katie rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him. Stefan ducked and looked pointedly at her. She only shrugged.

"Next time get to the point quicker," she said, feeling absolutely no remorse or guilt for throwing a pillow at her best friend.
"Fine. Damon and I, we're vampires," he said wincing, expecting Katie to crap on him for playing with her emotional state after being seriously injured. Imagine his surprise when she only sighed and banged the back of her head into the headboard.

"Really? Of all people why did have to my best friends that were vampires?" she asked looking up and the ceiling. Damon and Stefan looked at each other in surprise.

"Wait a second, you know about vampires?" Damon asked, sounding confused.

"Yes, but that's not important-" she was cut off by Stefan.

"How is that not important?" he demanded incredulously.

"What's important is how long have you been vampires?" she continued as if he hadn't even spoken.

"Roughly 160 years, give or take a couple years," Damon answered, realizing that they weren't going to get anything out of Katie until they answered all her questions.

"Right," she said pursing her lips, "Did you ever compel me," she asked the fateful question. Both he and Stefan winced at it. Of course they'd compelled her, if they hadn't she would've realized that they were vampires and all hell would've broken loose. She nodded in understanding and swallowed down whatever insult she was going to throw at them.

"Alright, I understand why you did it and I completely agree with it. I would've done the exact same thing if I was in your position," she said crossing her arms so they wouldn't see her clenched fists.

"Now, about the question you asked me. I am something called a shifter," as soon as the words left her mouth she almost groaned, Elijah was going to kill her.
"Now what exactly is that?" Damon said irritated. Katie rolled her eyes.

"A shifter is a human with the ability to change shape into the form of any animal," she said.

"Right, because those really exist," Stefan said sarcastically. Katie shrugged and morphed into wolf, startling the two boys. She morphed back immediately and studied their reactions.

"Believe me now?" she said with a smirk. The boys were still staring at her opened mouthed.

"What happened to you?" she looked at him with a confused smile.

"Umm, you'll have to be more specific," she replied teasingly. Damon and Stefan's expressions remained stoic so Katie lost her smile and let out a deep breath.

"Nothing happened to me, I've always been like this, I just didn't know it," she stated, running a hand through her short hair. Damon rolled his eyes.

" Stop with the vagueness and explain to us what the hell is up with you!" he exclaimed.

"Okay, alright, just give me a second, I'll explain it to you the way my father explained it to me, no interruptions okay, it's a weird story," Katie muttered the last part.

"Right, so get on with it," Stefan gestured for her to begin. So she did.

*Flashback*

Martin Charleston sat on the end of his daughters bed, he looked sad, weary even. Katie stared worriedly at her father, he'd been distant for the last couple of days and it was worrying her. when she thought about it, it was around the same time that she got sick that he started acting this way.

"Red, can I tell you a story?" her father asked. Katie laughed.

"Dad, I'm not a kid, I don't need bedtime stories!" she complained, causing Martin to chuckle.

"I know, Red, I know, but just humour me, alright?" he asked. Katie nodded and snuggled into her bed.

"A long time ago, before the sun was even called the sun, there were these… things we now know as humans. Because nature was their creator, they had a special connection to it, as a child does to their mother. Nature loved her creations so much that she didn't make them bend to her will, like she did with her other children, but this proved to be a fatal mistake. Some of her children grew greedy, some but not all, and wished for more than what nature had given them, as they had never been shown restraint or respect. These children were so filled with rage that they lost their connection with nature and this broke her heart. As a result of her loss, she tried to keep the ones that still had their connection as close as possible, and presented each one with a choice between two gifts. They could either keep their connection with nature through magic, or keep their connection with nature through shifting. Many chose shifting and many chose magic, and as a result, two new races of humans were born, the witches and the shifters. But let us not forget about the humans that were separated from nature, they were jealous of their kin and sought out to take their powers from them. They believed that by killing a shifter or a witch you would attain their powers, so they slaughtered them by the thousands until there were only a few left. Nature was enraged, not only had they separated themselves from her but they were killing the small numbers of her children that she was still connected to, so she cursed them. Nature made it so that every human that had killed a shifter was cursed, and so was their line. Every full moon, they would gain the powers they craved, but with a price, they would lose themselves and become ravenous beasts who could no longer distinguish friend from foe. The werewolf curse. Nature intended it to be inescapable but the shifters begged her to spare the innocent, the ones who hadn't killed. Nature said she would, but at the expense of the shifters, only one child in each line would inherit the shifter gene and in order for it to be activated, the parent who carried the shifter gene, had to die. The shifters accepted their fate, as long as the innocent were spared, they would obey nature. In return the wolves promised that for every child that was born a shifter, their would be a wolf born nearby with the sole purpose of protecting that shifter child," Martin finished his tale and smiled sadly down at his sleeping daughter, it wouldn't be much longer until she became what he was, and he dreaded that day.

*End Flashback*

Katie didn't tell the Salvatore brothers the whole tale, she stopped just before werewolves came into the picture, they didn't need to know about that yet. But she did explain that in order for a shifter to inherit their powers the parent who carried the gene had to die.

"Is that why your father died? He drove off Wickery Bridge in order to activate your powers?" Stefan said quietly. Katie smile sadly and nodded.

"But why activate your powers in the first place? Why not just let you stay normal?" Damon asked, it was the one thing he didn't understand.

"If the parent who carries the gene doesn't die, both that parent and the shifter child will die," she stated calmly. Stefan and Damon Stared at her opened mouthed.

"If my father didn't kill himself that night, we would've both died," she whispered, covering her face with her hands.

"He'd put it off for so long, I was getting sick, and so was he. If he'd waited any longer, we definitely would've died," she continued.

"When was he supposed to do it? I don't understand what you mean by him putting it off?" Stefan asked. Katie shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, as if it was to hard for her to answer. Damon knelt beside her bed in an attempt to get her to open her eyes.

"Hey, Kitty Kat, it's okay, it's just us, you can tell us anything," he said in a soothing voice. Katie let out a shaky breath.

"He was supposed to die on my 8th birthday, after he didn't die, I got really sick. That's why when you met me, I had lung problems and I could hardly see. I was also skinny and pale because I could hardly keep any food down. The sickness left my eyes permanently damaged, the only time I can see properly is when I shift," Katie explained.

Both Stefan and Damon looked really angry, how could Martin do that to his own daughter? Katie looked at them and smiled.

"I know what you're thinking and I'm not angry at him. He just didn't want to die. One day I'll know what it feels like, I'll have to say goodbye to my son and it'll suck, but it's what every shifter as to endure," she told them. The two brothers were in shock, Katie would have to die?

"Why do you have to die? Why do you even have to have children?" Damon asked.

"A shifter physically can't die, until they've had a child in order to continue their line. if i don't have a child, i can never die and that scares more that anything else in the world,"

A/N: And done! I'll update soon just for you guys and I PROMISE that I'll never take that long to update again. CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO CRY! Also can anybody notice a pattern with the shifter's genders? Okay bye and remember REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!