AN: Alright, here's chapter 10 as promised! I hope you all are enjoying this story, we have now reached over 8,000 views so thank you! Chapter 11 is finished and should be posted over the next few days. I wanna get chapter 12 finished before I post it because as of the moment I'm not sure what I'm doing for chapter 13 and would hate to leave guys for so long without posting. So I'm gonna try to spread the updates out a little. Now onto chapter 10. Enjoy! Please Review!

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Chapter 10- Invasion

Everyone was at the grill for an early lunch, having a good time relaxing seeing as things have been quiet for a week since the death of Sara's ex. The light and fun mood everyone was in was a complete 180 to the depressed and disappointed mood everyone had been in when the results of the phone found on Pelicarpo turned out to be less than adequate.

Flashback

After having less than expected results from the abandoned house, everyone sat around the living room in the boarding house eating and drinking. The fact that there were no signs of the shadow people left them all with little to be happy about. They had no doubt that the creatures with the ability to possess humans were gone after they had received their warning from Sara. It was the Striga's damn near depressive mood along with Jeremy's and Bonnie's that had everyone else also in a down mood.

Even Katherine was in a down right pissy mood. Anything Matt or Jeremy said was received with a snappy sneer from the oldest vampire in the room. Caroline was getting so fed up with the vampire that whenever Katherine let out some snide comment, the blonde vampire would roll her eyes and mutter something just as snide directed at the woman. If any of the other vampires in the room heard her, they never let on.

With the arrival of Sinjin, Sara's contact from France, the mood of the boarding house was lifted considerably. Sara, who had been drinking far more than anyone else in the room acted as if all she had drank was water. The Striga was hardly affected by the alcohol and Jeremy was seriously starting to wonder if the woman had ever been drunk during her cursed existence. When she and Damon finally came back into the living room after getting Sinjin set up, Jeremy had asked her as such.

"Well, that depends on how much I drink and how strong it is. Personally, I've never allowed myself to get fully… what is it, plastered?" She looked around to see if she was using that term correctly. Having received nods, she continued. "I've never been plastered, but that's mainly because alcohol still has its affects it just takes a hell of a lot more. Even for you vampires, you can consume far greater amounts than you could as humans before even catching a slight buzz. For me it's just so much more that there are times where drinking just doesn't seem worth it. Plus, with that type of inhibition, control isn't something you have a whole lot of. As someone who needs to maintain control a hundred percent of the time, it would be extremely irresponsible of me to get drunk."

"Wow. Talk about a wet blanket." Jeremy laughed so hard that he fell of the couch. It didn't help matters that Bonnie had shoved him as well.

Sara had grabbed onto Damon's arm to keep him from strangling the drunk hunter. She gave him a look that said what Jeremy had called her was fine.

"Jeremy, don't you think that a creature of Sara's caliber losing control would be a bad thing?" Stefan asked from his spot in one of the arm chairs.

"How so?" Jeremy asked once he finally gained control over his laughter.

"The woman feeds off souls, you idiot! If she lost control she could wipe out entire towns, cities even!" Caroline shrieked as she stood up from her spot between Bonnie and Elena on the couch.

"Damn." Matt whistled. "I bet she could wipe out entire populations." He suggested before turning his gaze to the Striga. She still terrified the shit out him.

Even though everything they were saying was true, Sara was getting uncomfortable with this topic of conversation. It was one thing to talk about how things did or didn't affect her, it was another to talk about how easy it would be for her to wipe out entire populations.

"Um, let's talk about something else." Sara suggested, wanting to move away from this topic.

"Why?" Katherine sneered from her spot next to the liquor tray, holding the decanter of vodka in one hand and an empty glass in the other. "Exactly how easy would it be for you to drain the population of, oh let's say, Mystic Falls of all its souls?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her lips.

With the question out there, everyone turned their gazes to the Striga who still stood near the entrance. Even Damon looked down at her with mild curiosity. Sara was unsure if she should tell them the truth, but with the truth came brining up her past. Despite having relived some of it as of recently, she really didn't want to talk about this. It was bad enough she had dealt with Pelicarpo, she was not talking about this now. No, she had made up her mind. This question was going unanswered. She was doing her best to protect everyone, she didn't need her friends or her boyfriend thinking that she was some sort of uncontrollable monster the moment they learned that she could easily drain this entire town in mere minutes if not seconds if she truly wanted to.

Thankfully, she didn't have feed like that in order to survive. Something she was rather grateful for. She remembered when she drained an entire village for the first time, the intense amount of guilt she had felt after would've made a human commit suicide. However, the longer she had thought about what she had did, the more she had come to terms with it and the less the guilt ate away at her. It didn't take too long before she was at peace with what she had done. That village may have been her first, but it was not her last. She would devour other villages, towns, cities, leaving the deserted buildings in near a state of ruin over the years.

"Excuse me… Miss Sara?"

Everyone turned their gaze to Sinjin, who had suddenly appeared in the doorway. Sara turned around, actually grateful that the man had interrupted when he did.

"I am sorry to interrupt…."

"Oh that's quite all right, Sinjin. What is it? Have you found something on the phone?" Sara asked in French, her voice carrying a hopeful tone. Despite the fact that no one understood what they were talking about, the hopeful tone in Sara's voice had caused everyone's mood to rise even further. The unanswered question was soon forgotten as they waited for the answer. Unfortunately, the look that appeared on Sinjin's face did not instill everyone's hopeful demeanor for long.

"I am sorry, Miss. Sara. I have failed you." Sinjin spoke, his voice contained a near mournful tone as he hung his head in shame.

"You found nothing?" Sara asked, incredulously. She had never allowed herself to think that Sinjin would discover nothing on the phone. Despite never finding anything herself, she had hope that Sinjin would have been able to access phone records, anything, that could have given them some clues as to what the hell was going on and who was doing all of this. Sinjin never answered Sara as he stood there.

"Well that's just fucking great! What the hell are we supposed to do now?!" Damon shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. They were no closer than they had been this morning. Hell, it hadn't even taken Sinjin 2 hours before he came in and said that the phone was fucking useless.

Sara shot him a near murderous look before grabbing Sinjin by the arm and practically dragged him out of the room. Needless to say, a very heated conversation in French on Sara's part could be heard from the other room. When it got extremely quiet, everyone feared the poor man was dead. However, he quickly appeared along with his several duffel bags and made his way out of the house, following a new set of orders from Sara. What the hell were they going to do now?

End flashback

So now everyone was enjoying themselves. That was everyone except for Katherine, she had declined the lunch invitation stating that if she wanted food she'd find someone more appropriate than that of one of Mystic Falls local drunks who no doubt had vervain in their system. Currently, the group of seven supernatural individuals sat at one of the larger tables off to the side near the pool tables.

"Yo, whose up for a game of pool?" Jeremy asked as he pushed back his empty plate and stood up, the sound of his chair scrapping across the floor of the near empty bar. When no one jumped at the suggestion of playing a round he turned to the raven haired vampire sitting across from him. "Damon?" He asked, hoping he could redeem himself from their last game where Damon practically cleaned the entire eating establishment with the young hunter as he beat him every time.

"It's a little too early to be cleaning this place Gilbert." Damon responded as he sipped at his glass of bourbon, his arm around the shoulders of the woman who looked exactly like the hunter's sister.

Jeremy rolled his eyes at the vampire's arrogance before he shifted his gaze to the woman next to Damon. "Sara?" He grinned "Up for a game?"

The Striga let a gentle smile grace her lips before she shook her head. "I'm afraid it wouldn't be much of a game; I rather suck at it." She giggled with a sigh. The game had never appealed to her anyway.

The immortal creature's response caused Jeremy to frown before he began to look for his next victim as the others snickered at her choice of words. The meaning lost on Jeremy, which was rather funny seeing as he liked to make fun of Sara from time to time by doing his best to impersonate the Striga's feeding method.

"Is there anything you won't suck?" Stefan asked, causing a few looks be thrown his way. Damon glared at his brother, Sara lifted a brow a him, Caroline's mouth hung open, while Bonnie nearly spat out her soda and Elena gave him a near murderous look that could've rivaled Damon's. When the words finally resonated to Stefan's mind at what he had said he cleared his throat. "Never mind." He muttered before standing. "I'll play with you Jeremy." He said as he quickly walked towards the pool tables.

"Alright!" Jeremy said as he fist-pumped before trailing after the vampire, the entire conversation missed by the hunter.

As the two played their game, everyone back at the table shook their heads. "I am so sorry, Sara." Elena said, mortified as she shook her head, apologizing for her boyfriend.

"No worries. Bad choice of words on my part." The Striga said with a shrug as she ran her left hand up and down Damon's right thigh, trying to calm the tense vampire next to her. She knew Stefan hadn't meant it the way that it had sounded.

Damon snorted into his bourbon before downing the rest of his glass. Whose idea was it for all of them to get together for lunch again? He couldn't remember and it was probably a good thing. Damon stood and made his way to the bar to get another glass from Matt who was currently behind the bar. "Another bourbon, Donavan." He said as he took a seat on one of the empty stools.

"Sure thing Damon." Matt said as he sat down a clean glass in front of him and poured in the vampire's favorite drink. Damon quickly downed it before motioning for Matt to refill. Matt shook his head and rolled his eyes, but did as asked. He liked living and he knew better than to come between Damon and his Bourbon. "And another whatever fruity thing Sara was having." He said, unable to recall the name of the cocktail his girlfriend had ordered with her meal.

For a girl who still required the nutrients of real food on occasion she could really put away her alcohol if last week's binge drinking session had shown Damon anything. A drink or three at lunch and the girl still hadn't caught a slight buzz while Bonnie had to stop after one drink. Elena and Caroline were on drink number three as well, but they were on the strong stuff like he was and even he could see that the effects of the alcohol were starting to take place in the two youngest vampires. He was on drink five, sorry six, and he was in the same boat as his girl. Like everything else, Damon had mastered the art of drinking a long time ago. The only person he'd found to ever keep up with him was Alaric, God rest his ghostly soul, till Sara walked into his life. While he missed the conversation with Ric, he found Sara to be the better drinking partner. Well why wouldn't he, he could never crawl into bed with Ric after a night of drinking.

"Thanks Donovan." Damon said as he picked up the two drinks Matt had placed in front of him and made his way back to the table. He sat the colorful drink down in front of Sara as he took his seat.

"Aw, thank you baby." Sara smiled before leaning over and placing a kiss to his cheek. "I was just saying I needed another."

"Yeah, that was real sweet of you Damon. You couldn't, oh I don't know, get us all a refill?" Caroline whined as she motioned to her and Elena's equally empty glasses.

"Now why the hell would I do that, Caroline? I'm not sleeping with you." Damon sneered, causing Sara to snort.

"Ew, Damon! Gross!" Caroline gagged as she rolled her eyes.

"It's not gross. Shame on society today. Sex is perfectly natural." Damon smirked as he watched Caroline all but flee from the table to get her and Elena another round of drinks while muttering something about being the only one not getting any.

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" Sara sighed as she shook her head, but her tone contained laughter.

"And welcome to life with Damon." Elena smirked.

"Oh and you should know, we don't accept returns." Bonnie giggled as she grinned with the straw in her mouth before sipping at her soda. She was still affected by her one glass of an alcoholic beverage from over an hour ago. Then again, a long island ice tea could do that to a person and Matt had made that one stronger than normal per Bonnie's request.

"Hey!" Damon whined, feigning offense.

Sara laughed before wrapping her arms around Damon and giving him a squeeze. "That's alright. I think I'll keep him." She smiled before placing another kiss to his cheek. Personally, she wouldn't have the vampire any other way, not to mention her sex life had never been this good.

"Well, nice to know someone around here appreciates my company." Damon responded as he took a sip of his bourbon, an arm snaking around Sara's shoulders once more. Just then Caroline came back with another round of drinks.

"Here you go Elena and look you didn't even have to ask. See that's what a good friend does." Caroline said as she sat the drink down in front of the brunette vampire all the while glaring at the only male at the table.

"But that would imply that we're friends or that I'm even remotely good." Damon smirked as he downed his bourbon. Before Caroline could even take a sip of hers, Damon had snatched it from her. "You however are a good person Caroline, thank you." He said before downing Caroline's drink or at least he would've if Sara hadn't snatched it from his grasp.

"Alright, that's enough children." Sara chided before setting the still full glass of alcohol in front of the blonde vampire.

"Thank you Sara." Caroline said giving Damon a pointed look as she downed her drink before he could try to take it again.

Everyone continued drinking while occasionally munching on fries, their meals long since finished. Damon eventually got up from the table, deciding there was far too much estrogen around him and joined his brother and Jeremy at the pool tables. Soon the bar was empty save for their group and Bonnie suggested that if they were going to continue drinking like this then they should head back to the boarding house so she could join in. She was one of the two people here with a car sitting in the parking lot and the other was the vampire that had left the table to join his brother and her boyfriend.

Damon, having heard the option of leaving, was all for moving the party to his house seeing as everyone was there all the time anyway. However, he really hated it when they all helped themselves to his alcohol, his bourbon more specifically. He was about to complain and suggest that some of them make a pit stop for more booze when he heard Sara mention that when Sinjin came to town last week she had him bring not only several bottles of one of her favorite wines, but also a bottle of Glendronach's Recherche; a single malt scotch from 1968. The words of Damon's complaint died in his very dry throat. It wasn't just because the sound of Sara speaking with a French accent had to be the sexiest sound on the planet, but also because he had only ever had that specific type of scotch once in his life and what he had had cost over $250 a shot, not that he had paid for it.

"Okay, so are we out of here or what?" Jeremy asked as he and Stefan returned to the table.

"Yeah, we're leaving." Bonnie said as she got up to pay her bill. Her tone was a bit clipped when it came to talking with Jeremy and it was no secret to those with excellent hearing that their relationship was not doing so great as of late. If Bonnie was being honest with herself, their issues had started long before Sara even came to Mystic Falls and now that it seemed that the Striga was not a threat to any of them, the high of having Jeremy back safe and sound had worn off and their issues had come back full force.

"Cool. Drinks back at yours Damon?" Jeremy asked, ignoring his girlfriends clipped tone. He was well aware of the fact their issues were coming back after they had pushed blissfully aside, but he was hoping that they could resolve their issues and make things work. Something that he was afraid Bonnie didn't want to do.

Damon nodded. "Seems so Gilbert." He said before turning his attention from the hunter to the Striga. "Baby, you ready?"

Sara nodded as she finished the rest of her drink. "Yeah, I just have to use the ladies room before we go." she said before standing, Damon helping her into her jacket.

"Alright, I'll pay and then wait for you at the bar."

"I already took care of it, just wait for me in the car." Sara said as she pulled her hair out from underneath her jacket.

"You took care of what?" Damon asked as he wrapped his arms around Sara's waist, eyeing her. She knew how he felt about her paying for things.

"The bill silly." Sara said, patting his chest as she grinned up at him.

"Hey Sara, did you pick up all our tabs by any chance?" Jeremy asked, giving her a hopeful look.

"Sorry Jeremy, you're on your own this time." Sara said as she looked his way. Jeremy grumbled while digging his hands into his pockets searching for dollar bills.

"I got you covered, Jer." Stefan said, clapping Jeremy on the shoulder as he made his way towards the bar to pay for him, Elena and now her brother.

"Jeremy, let's go!" Bonnie called as she and Caroline made their way outside.

"So you paid?" Damon said as he looked down at Sara.

"Yes, Damon I paid." She said as she rolled her eyes. "I do have quite the cash flow reservoir you know."

"Yes, well be that as it may and despite the popular misconception, I am a gentleman and letting my girlfriend pay for me is just something that doesn't sit well with me."

"Alright, fine." Sara groaned. "I'll let you pay next time."

"And all the times after that." Damon grinned before claiming her lips in a kiss, cutting off the Striga's eye roll. "I guess I'll go wait for you in car."

"Alright, well you're going to need this if you plan on paying next time." Sara grinned as she handed him a plastic card before making her way towards the bathrooms. Damon looked at what she had placed in his hand and found it was his debit card.

"How the hell...when did she... how did she…." Damon quickly fished out his wallet and found that his debit card was indeed missing. "She is good." Damon muttered before looking towards Elena. "Did you see her take this?" He asked as he placed the card back into his wallet.

Elena shook her head. "Just be glad Caroline wasn't able to convince her to put all our bills on there, because she tried." Elena giggled as she and Damon made their way out to the parking lot. She and Stefan were riding with him and Sara back to the boarding house.

"Remind me to kiss her later." Damon said as he held to door open for her. "We'll be in the car, Brother."

"Yeah, be there in a minute." Stefan said as he waited for the waitress to finish running both tabs through the POS system. Five minutes later Stefan was placing his card back into his wallet as he made his way towards the door when he nearly ran into Sara. "Sorry Sara." He said as he looked up.

"Not a problem Stefan." She smiled. "No harm done."

"Yeah, um look … about what I said at the table. I ..."

"Stefan, I'm over 2000 years old, with that comes a pretty good sense of humor and a really twisted one at that. So really, don't worry about it. I know you didn't mean it the way it had sounded." Sara reassured him, placing a hand on his bicep.

"Oh okay then." Stefan said, a little stunned. He had expected a lecture or even being yelled at, not calm understanding.

"C'mon. Damon and Elena are waiting for us and if we don't get to the house before Bonnie and the others, you know Damon's gonna be pissed if they get to his bourbon before he does." Sara giggled.

"Yeah, well we better hurry then because I'm pretty Bonnie already drove off." Stefan laughed as they made their way outside. As Sara exited the Grill she stopped abruptly at the sight of the crowd outside. Stefan took one look at the crowd in front of them and whistled. "Hey Matt! Looks like you got another rush coming in!" He called back as he took in the sight of 12 men and women in front of him as they got out of various cars.

"Thanks for the heads of Stefan!" They heard Matt call back before the door slammed shut.

"C'mon Stefan." Sara said as she eyed the group suspiciously. She didn't like the way these people were staring at them. She quickly scanned the area for Damon's Camaro. When she found it she grabbed ahold of Stefan's hand, wanting to get the hell away from these people. "They're over here." She said as people passed them and made their way into the grill.

"What's the rush, Sara?" Stefan asked as the Striga nearly dragged him towards the car.

"Nothing, I just want to..."Sara was cut off as a woman with pale skin and black hair blew something into her face.

"What the hell?!" Stefan shouted as the woman said something in another language causing Sara to pass out. Stefan was going to catch her, but at that moment one of the men that had passed them snapped Stefan's neck. Both supernatural creatures fell to the ground as the group of newcomers surrounded them.

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In the Camaro, Damon's patience was growing thin. Why is it that women, wither they were human or not, took so god damn long in the bathroom? When Elena sighed for the up-teenth time in the back seat, Damon's eye began to twitch.

"Elena if you sigh one more time, I swear I'll reach back there and snap your neck." Damon threatened with a growl.

"And here we all thought Sara was taming that bad temper of yours." Elena snapped in response, despite her good mood. At least it had been good two minutes ago. She knew she should've ridden with Bonnie and the others, but she had wanted to wait for Stefan.

"Elena, no one can tame Damon Salvatore," Damon said as a smirk broke out on his lips. "But I'll let you in on a little secret; Sara sure is having the time of her life trying." He chuckled with a wink.

"Ugh, is it always just sex between you two?" Elena groaned as she let her head fall back against the seat with a thud.

Damon continued to laugh as he stared at Elena through the rearview mirror. He was about to give her a rather serious response about his relationship with Sara when something threw the back windshield caught his gaze in the mirror. He turned around to get a better look and it was then he noticed the group of people surrounding his brother and girlfriend. His eyes widened as he watched Sara fall to the ground and someone snap Stefan's neck.

"Stay here." Damon growled as he quickly shuffled in the front seat to get out. If these people were after his brother and Sara, then he had no doubt that they wanted the other doppelgänger in his car.

"Why? What's going on?" Elena asked, concern growing on her features. "Damon!" she shouted after him.

"Hey!" Damon shouted as he got out, slamming the door behind him. Before he could take even two steps towards them, several people turned around and began chanting in a language Damon could on discern as that used by the Travelers. Before he knew it, he was seeing lights exploding before his eyes as he was given the migraine of a life time. "Ah!" Damon shouted as he fell to his knees in pain. As much as he wanted to save those he loved, he couldn't move because of the pain in his head. He watched with tunnel vision as two men picked Stefan up off the ground and carried him into one of the waiting cars while another guy picked up Sara and put her into a different one.

"Damon!" He heard Elena shouting from inside the car.

"Elena...they're taking..." Damon couldn't finish his sentence before his vision went completely black and he collapsed against the pavement.

Elena watched from inside the car, struggling to get the door open, break a window, anything that would get her out of the car and to her friends. She was trapped somehow, forced to watch these people attack her boyfriend, his brother and Sara. She watched them put Stefan and Sara into separate vehicles and drive off with them. It was only when everyone else remaining had gotten back in their cars, drove off and were out of sight that Elena was finally able to open the unlocked door and get out of the car. She searched around her despite knowing that she wouldn't see any signs of the cars that had driven off.

"What...How?" Elena gasped, wondering what the hell had just happened before her gaze landed on the unconscious form of Damon. "Damon!" She shouted as she knelt down next to him, shaking him, trying to get him to come around quicker. "Damon!" She shouted again before reaching into her pocket to pull out her vibrating cell phone. She looked to the caller ID and Caroline's name flashed a crossed the screen. "Caroline!" She answered. "We have a major problem!" She said, cutting off her friend who had been calling to ask where they were. Damon groaned beside her as he began to come to. What the hell had just happened?

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In a small restaurant, well on the other side of town from the grill, Katherine sat at a small table set for two. She had a glass of what looked like red wine in her hand to the other customers around her, but as she brought the glass to her lips and sipped at the thick red liquid with a metallic taste a smile broke out on her burgundy painted lips. Humans were so blind, in more ways than one.

"I'm surprised you came."

Katherine looked up to see a woman standing before her. She spoke with a thick accent that Katherine thought to be either Bulgarian or Czech. She was tall, with tan skin, brown eyes and long curly brown hair. She wore a black leather jacket, a white blouse and black cigarette pants with dark brown heeled boots. Katherine liked her immediately.

"You said you had information worth my wild. I thought I'd listen to what you had to say, but make no mistake if you think I won't make a scene should you try anything." Katherine threatened as she sat back in her chair, arms folded across her chest and one leg over the other.

"Of course. May I sit?" The woman asked as she placed a hand on the single chair across from the vampire. Katherine nodded for her to have a seat and with that the woman pulled it out and sat down. A waiter came over and asked what he could get her to dink. The woman asked for a glass of what her friend was having, pointing the glass of blood in front of Katherine. The compelled waiter nodded and went to fill the drink request leaving the two women alone once more.

"Now start talking." Katherine demanded.

"I'm not sure where exactly to start. There's so much I want to tell you." The woman spoke softly as she stared at Katherine, a look of wonder in her eyes.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "How about your name? You never told me it in your letter." The night before, Katherine had discovered someone had left a letter addressed to her in her room at the boarding house asking her to meet them at the restaurant she was sitting now, saying they had news concerning the doppelgangers and the travelers. She decided to meet them on a whim that if they had any useful news, she could possibly use it to get a leg up on Sara.

"It's Nadia. Nadia P..."

"Well then Nadia." Katherine interrupted as she leaned forward onto the table. "Tell me what you know about the Travelers latest plans with the doppelgängers, but more importantly tell me what you know about a creature called the Striga."

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A/N: Okay, so as you can see Katherine is now just meeting Nadia. In this universe, she was never part of the whole Silas debacle. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, once again things are heating up. So, what is Katherine up to? Does Nadia know more about Sara than what she's let on? Why have the travelers taken Stefan and Sara, but not Elena? Find out in chapter 11. Please review!