Twenty Fourth.
I woke slowly, sluggish and drowsy. Morning light came in through the window illuminating the room. I sat up and rubbed my eyes looking out the window to see if there was anything recognizable, but there was nothing. I tried to open it to get some fresh air into the room, but it wouldn't lift. I considered breaking the glass for just a moment, but my thoughts were cut short as Katherine's voice broke the silence, "You won't be able to open it." I turned and saw that she was sitting just outside the open door. Her clothes and hair were impeccable, her face so much like Elena's but darker somehow, one could tell by looking at her that she was no normal teenage girl, this young woman had lived.
I sat up at the head of the bed holding a pillow in my lap, I still didn't trust her. "Why did you bring me here? What could you possibly want from me, I have nothing, you've already taken everything and everyone."
She looked in at me and said "I am trying to protect you, but you made it very difficult for me in Mystic Falls so I had to get you out of there. I brought you here so that I can keep a closer eye on you and make sure that no one could find you."
I was confused. "Why do you need to keep an eye on me, is it because the Originals came after me?"
She laughed, "the Originals haven't come after you. They don't even know you still exist, but since they decided to make Mystic Falls their home base it was only a matter of time before they did find you."
That made no sense. "I was attacked in the woods, closed in the tomb and knocked senseless in a room filled with vervain. It had to have been the Originals, who else would have done that?" It hadn't even dawned on me that Katherine might be behind it all. She stood up and paced around the chair as she told me what had happened.
"The attack in the woods was unplanned. One of the "newborns," as you like to call them, had made his way into the woods. He had wandered away from a town nearby and gotten lost, and you was the first person he saw. He was hungry so when your back was turned he saw his chance, it was he who bit you, not one of the Originals."
"A newborn?" I asked. "It couldn't have been, newborns don't know how to stop, they suck their victims completely dry. It takes years before they have the restraint necessary to leave their victims alive, even if just barely. I wasn't dried out, I still had a small amount of blood left in my system."
Katherine sat back down. "You wouldn't have had any left at all had I not come out of the shadows and attacked him. That was when he released you and you fell to the ground, but don't worry about him, I ripped his head off and left his body in the woods for the wild animals." So Katherine had killed him to save me. I probably should have felt gratitude, but all I felt was distain towards her
"How was it that he was able to drink my blood though, vampire blood is toxic to other vampires," I chimed in.
"Well that is another one of your 'Unique' traits, clean blood." So my blood didn't have the same toxic qualities. I guess I should have been thankful that I'd never been attacked before now.
"The tomb, why was I closed in the tomb?"
She rolled her eyes as if I should have already figured all of this out. "You were alone and exposed, I wasn't going to take a chance that you would be found by the wrong people. Originals, Hybrids sired by Klaus, even Damon on a bad day all posed a threat to you, and therefore to me. You made it easy for me by entering the tomb willingly, I simply had to wait until you fell asleep and then close you in."
"Now the basement of the Salvatore's house was a bit of a fluke. I had come in earlier in the evening and moved all of the blood that was in the refrigerator down into the basement cooler. I knew that at some point you would have to go looking for it since you hadn't left the house to hunt. When you did I counted on your curiosity to help me get you into the basement room. My plan had been to knock you out and then to grab you and run before anyone came home. I wasn't counting on you getting back up to fight, you're stronger than you look, I'll give you that. Knowing that the vervain would eventually do the trick I had only to wait until you blacked out. I waited upstairs, but then I heard them coming and bolted. I was trying to keep you safe, would it really kill you to thank me for all the trouble I had to go through to get to you?"
My head was spinning, I couldn't believe that she thought I would appreciate all that she had done to keep me "safe." She was lucky that I didn't die, especially since I would have dragged her right along with me into the afterlife. While I tried to make sense of everything she placed a mug on the floor. "Here, consider this a peace offering." She stood and pushed the door closed, leaving me to brood alone. I grabbed the mug which was filled much more blood than the meager cup I had yesterday and drank. I knew that she was being careful about how much she gave me, not wanting to allow my strength to surpass her own. When I finished I threw the mug at the door, shattering it and leaving a dark red spot where it hit.