A/N: Sorry for the wait! Enjoy!

Chapter 16: A Sick Cosmic Joke

Thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the dark, moonless sky. The wind roared as the rain assaulted the roof and outside walls of the Boarding House. The storm had been quite unexpected and came out of nowhere. The night sky having been clear, full of stars and graced with the presence of a bright, quarter moon when the residents of Mystic Falls had fallen asleep a few hours earlier. Now, it seemed like as if the small, sleepy town was in for a terrible thunder shower that only affected the area marked as Mystic Falls. Anyone traveling outside of the town line would see a cloudless, starry night sky.

Inside the Boarding House, only one creature appeared to be sleeping. Upstairs, Damon was asleep in his bed, that was until another boom of thunder sounded and this time shook the entire house along with it. The vampire released an annoyed growl as he shot up in bed. He had done his best to ignore the storm, but it seemed that the more the monsoon outside raged on, the less likely he was going to be able to stay asleep.

With his dark hair sticking out in all directions, Damon turned his head to his left. "Please, tell me you're awake too?" He half whined, half growled as he released a yawn, shaking the sleep from his head. When no response came, Damon reached for the body he expected to find next to him. Coming into contact with only sheets and blankets, he quickly threw the covers back. He was surprised to find that he was the only one in bed. He had never heard Sara get up.

"Sara?" he called as he got out of bed. Their room was dark, except when lit up by the flashes of lightning every now and again. The ensuite bathroom was just as dark and as he listened to the sounds of the house he couldn't hear her footsteps anywhere, thinking she may have gotten up for a drink. With recent events, Damon was beginning to wonder if something had once again gotten into the house without him realizing and that something may have happened to his immortal lover.

"Get a hold of yourself, Salvatore!" he growled to himself, knowing that had something tried to get into the house he would've heard and Sara would've alerted him had she been in any real danger. So, the question remained, a question that he seemed to be asking a lot lately; Where was Sara?

As Damon turned around to scan the dark room once more, a flash of lighting skittered across the sky. The brief source of light lit up the room and as he stared at the curtains he had drawn across the windows and balcony door and he caught sight of more than just the tree line behind the black fabric. 'Sara?' he wondered as he made his way to the balcony. He threw back the curtains and there, outside on the balcony, was the Striga. What was she doing out in the rain? She looked positively soaked.

"Sara?" he called as he stepped out onto the balcony, the freezing rain hitting his skin like little needles. Sara never even acknowledged that she had heard him. With the roar of the wind whipping around them, Damon would've been surprised if she had heard him at all. As he stepped closer he was able to pick up on the low tones of her voice. She appeared to be muttering something under her breath, but the wind was drowning her out so bad that he had to strain his vampire sense of hearing to even just barely make it out.

Sara stood there, standing stock still as she just stared out into the wet darkness, barely even able to see five feet into the distance as the rain poured down onto them. She was positively soaked to the bone. Her brand new, black, silk negligee that she had gotten to replace the one that had been destroyed during her time with Nadia last week, clung to her like a second skin. Her long, wet, brown locks were plastered to her head and back as she mumbled something that Damon guessed was in an ancient language, probably Greek, under her breath.

Every so often, when she was extremely pissed or irritated, the Striga would often growl out a phrase or a word in her mother tongue. He doubted she was even aware that she did it half the time, but when she did the others, namely Jeremy, knew to steer clear of her for a couple of moments or else they feared she would turn her wrath on to them.

"Sara?" he tried again as he came up behind her, his tone no longer holding back the worry and concern he felt for the immortal woman. When she still refused to acknowledge him, Damon reached out and forcibly turned her around to face him. What he was greeted with was something that rendered him in far more than shock.

Sara's face was a ghostly white, like all the color had been drained from her skin and she hadn't seen the rays of the sun in years. Her eyes were solid white like they usually were when she was feeding, but now it was like the glow was pouring out of her eyes and into the air. Her mouth had changed too, instead of the two fangs that would drop down on occasion all her teeth were now razor sharp and her lips had thinned out. And that wasn't all, her perfectly manicured hands had been replaced with terrifying, sharp claws that looked as if they could rip through steel like tissue paper.

Damon didn't want to know what kind of damage she could do in this state. If he was being honest with himself, he was actually afraid of her in that moment. For the first time he realized that Sara truly was the dangerous creature that she had claimed to be, it wasn't just arrogance or her ego getting in the way.

As he turned Sara to face him, the mumbling stopped and she growled at him as he took in her new features. Standing in shock over her appearance, he didn't see the clawed hand she had raised or else he would've been able to dodge the sharp talons that bit into his right bicep. Damon hissed in pain as well as shock as her claws dug deep into his flesh. However, the moment she drew blood she pulled her hand back as she cried in anguish as if the blood had burned her. The tormented cry that passed through her lips caused Damon to look up from his already healing wound to Sara's face as he watched it return to normal in mere seconds. Her skin returned to its normal sun-kissed, olive-shaded hue, her teeth were blunt like a human's, her hands had returned to normal and her eyes had faded back to their chocolatey hue. As Sara's eyes focused, Damon saw confusion filter across her face.

"Damon? What's going on?" She asked as the feeling of the water pounding on her skin registered and she peered down at her drenched form. "Why are we outside?" She asked as she looked around them, her voice for first time since Pelicarpo had died held fear and confusion. As Sara searched his face for answers, her eyes fell on the blood that was traveling down his arm. "Damon!" She gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "You're bleeding." She whispered, her voice laced with concern for her vampire lover as she took a step closer to him. She brought her hand up to inspect his arm and that was when she noticed the blood on the edge of her fingers where the rain had failed to wash it away. Sara halted in her approach before taking a step back. "I did this." She gasped and it was like the wind had been knocked out her.

Damon finally snapped out his shocked stupor and grabbed onto Sara's arms to steady her as she swayed. "Hey, it's okay. You didn't mean it." He said as he pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her as he whispered calming, reassuring words into her ear.

"Why...how?" She asked, confused, he voice barely above a whisper. She didn't remember a thing, not even how or when she had come outside.

"Let's just get you inside. You're freezing." He said as he pulled her towards the door. He had no idea how long she'd been out there.

Sara pulled herself from his embrace and stood there, refusing to go with him. "Tell me what happened." She insisted.

Damon wasn't entirely sure what to tell her, he didn't know himself. "It was my fault, I startled you. You reacted, no big deal." He said as he tried to shrug it off. "Look, I'm all healed." He said as he held out his arm, showing her the side she had dug into. There were no signs of the claws she had used on him. "Now, can we go inside?"

Sara looked at him, confusion and anguish written on her features. "But why would do that? I would never...I don't understand!" she shouted out in frustration. "Why am I even out here?!" She ran a hand through her sopping wet hair as she began to pace. She couldn't remember. Why? The last thing she found she could recall was falling asleep, curled up next to Damon as he played with her hair and the next thing she knew she was outside, in the rain, and she had attacked her boyfriend. Why?

"Sara, we can talk about this inside. Please, baby?" Damon all, but begged. He was confused too. Scared even, though no longer for himself, but for Sara. She'd been through so much lately, hell they all had, but none of them had been haunted with moments from their past as of late. Poor Sara had dealt with Pelicarpo coming back, being chased out of town by the bastard and his shadow puppets, had been kidnapped three times since she'd been in town, and then there was the discovery of her family's ceremonial chalice and since then Sara had been plagued with nightmares of her past. More specifically the night she had been cursed. It was enough to drive anyone bat shit. Perhaps she was finally experiencing that well deserved breakdown.

Damon hadn't pushed for her to talk to him about her nightmares. She had told him herself about her past multiple times, bits and pieces here and there, but she refused to talk about her nightmares. The first and only time he had tried to get her to talk to him about it, she had shut him down completely, but lately she had started talking in her sleep so he pretty much knew what they were about anyway. So, he decided to just let her deal with it how she wanted, all the while making sure that she knew he was there for her if and when she needed him. Now though, he feared he would need to push and that could make things messy.

Sara stood there for a moment before she nodded her head and moved with him towards the door. She may as well get dry while she tried to figure all this out. They entered their dark bedroom, the sound of the storm raging outside faded as Damon shut the door behind them. He quickly moved to start a fire in the hearth to help bring some warmth and light to the dark, cold room. As the fire raged to life he moved towards the bathroom and flipped on the light. He didn't want to overload Sara's senses any more than they already were.

Sara remained where she was by the door, trying her best to remember what happened all the while dealing with the pain and guilt that she had harmed the only man she had ever truly loved. Something she had always sworn to herself that she would never do. She couldn't understand it. She didn't remember waking up and getting out of bed, why would she have gone outside when it was pouring? Had it even been raining when they went to bed? She couldn't remember.

"Was it raining when we went to bed?" She asked, her voice was small and confused, like a scared child's. Damon hated it on her.

"No. The storm must've rolled in while we were asleep. I don't remember there being any clouds in the sky when we went up to bed." He said as he moved around in the bathroom, turning on the shower. He set the water to a warm enough setting he hoped Sara's cold as ice skin could handle. When he was satisfied with the water temperature he was at her side in a flash. "C'mon, let's get you in the shower." He said as he wrapped his arms around her wet shoulders.

Sara allowed him to move her into the bathroom, peeling her near translucent negligee and black, lacy boy shorts off her body as they went. Damon pushed her into the large walk-in shower, stripping himself of his soaked black pajama bottoms before getting in himself. Sara stood under the hot water, letting it cascade over her body which started shaking as she finally realized how cold she was.

Damon ran a warm washcloth over her body, trying to ease the cold from her skin. Just being out there for no more than 15 minutes had him soaked and nearly chilled to the bone. Having no idea how long she had been out there, he couldn't imagine how cold she was. He was hardly affected by the change in temperature, but he knew Sara would still, on occasion, feel hot and cold. However, it was only at extreme temperatures. He remembered her telling him that her cold was considered near freezing to humans, but seeing her body racked with shakes that could rival a person with Parkinson's he turned up the temperature while holding her to him. He felt her body tense up in his embrace and he responded by squeezing her tighter to him while placing a kiss to her temple.

"Hey, it's okay. We're okay." He whispered, trying to reassure her that he didn't hold what had happened against her. She had hardly maimed him. She'd left more scratches up his back and arms while in the throes of passion than she did when he had found her outside. Hell, she could've gone for his heart, but she didn't. She just went for the arm that had touched her. Well, It did. That face she made, the creature she appeared to be, was that the Striga in her? She always claimed that she fed to keep the monster at bay, he always kind of figured she meant in the sense that he did for himself. That he was this blood thirsty monster who could do whatever he wanted, but he needed to learn how to exercise control. Had she meant something else entirely?

"Sara, does the Striga have an actual form?" He asked her and the moment the words left his lips her body stilled. It was still tense, but the shaking stopped.

"You saw it, didn't you? The creature?" She whispered as she turned around in his arms.

"What, you mean the ghostly piranha that inhabited your face? Yeah, I saw it." He said with a shrug, trying to be nonchalant about it. He wanted nothing more than to make her laugh, make her smile, bring back some form of life to the face that he loved so much that currently held only fear. It didn't work.

Sara's eyes narrowed before she moved past him and exited the shower. She grabbed the matching black silk robe to her new negligee from the back of the door and wrapped it around her wet form as she left the bathroom.

"Fuck." Damon swore under his breath as he turned off the water and got out of the shower. He wrapped a towel around his hips before making his way out to the bedroom. He found Sara rummaging through her half of their shared closet. "Baby, what are you doing?" He asked as he watched her throw clothes behind her. He half feared she was leaving, but he saw no signs of suitcase and she seem to be flinging clothes without a care. "Sara?" He questioned again as she threw more clothes out of the closet, one of them being a pair of his pajama bottoms. He quickly snatched the pair of pants off the floor and put them on in replace of the towel that had been clinging to his hips.

"Where is it?!" he heard her growl from inside the closet. He had no idea what she could've been looking for, it wasn't like she kept a lot of stuff here. She had clothes, shoes and some jewelry here, but most of it was all new stuff since the hotel went up in flames several weeks back, before all this crazy, fucked up shit had started with Travelers. She had a few personal items here and there throughout the room and bathroom, but it was still mostly his stuff.

"What are you looking for?" Damon asked as he watched Sara get on her hands and knees and rifle through shoe boxes, throwing the contents behind her. After nearly being impaled by one of her stilettos, Damon growled and pulled her up off the floor. "Sara, what the hell is going on?!" He shouted.

"I can't find it!" She screamed as she struggled against him, begging for him to let her go.

"Can't find what? Tell me, I'll help you." He offered as he let her go. He never seen her act like this and it worried him.

"It's a book, a journal. Leather bound, old." She said as she continued to search through their closet. When her contact from France, Sinjin, came to Mystic Falls after Pelicarpo's death she had told him to bring a specific journal she had kept over the centuries that contained specific moments from her past. She hadn't seen it in centuries, the means for writing in it again not having been met, but with everything else going on and with her past being constantly shoved in her face she had wanted to have it on hand. She feared that the time to write in it again was coming close and now, after what Damon had said, she feared it was closer than she thought.

The moment Sara said she was looking for a journal and in their closet no less, Damon remembered finding such a described book on the floor of the closet not that long ago. He figured it had to have been misplaced, thinking that it had no place being in their closet. Knowing it to not have been his and even though Stefan kept leather bound journals, none of his were monogrammed with a large SP on the cover. Figuring Sara kept a journal, he had placed it in the night stand drawer on her side of the bed.

"Is this it?" He asked as he pulled it from the drawer. Sara turned around to see him holding the journal she had been searching for.

"What the hell was it doing over there?!" She shouted as she moved and quickly snatched it from him.

"I put it there. I found it on the floor of the closet and figured it got misplaced. I didn't read it if that's what you're so worried about." He said with a shrug. He would never had betrayed her privacy even with all the questions that probably could've been answered by him flipping through the contents.

"It's not. You wouldn't have been able to anyway." She said as she opened the journal, black ink and rust colored splotches coated the pages. He took a look at the black markings and found she was right, he wouldn't have been able to have read it if he wanted to. It was all in ancient Greek.

"What is this Sara?" He asked as he watched her flip through specific entries.

"A recording of some of the most horrific travesties to ever affect the earth's population to have ever happened throughout history." She stated. "On these dates, entire villages, towns, cities were massacred. The explanations given over time were used to cover up what really killed these people." She said as she flipped to the most recent entry. Damon was able to determine the date as sometime in the mid 1700's in someplace over in Europe. He didn't understand. There had been plenty more times throughout history when people have died of war, famine, and diseases. Why did the journal stop there?

"Sara," he paused. "What killed these people?" He asked, though he was certain he already knew the answer.

Sara looked at him, her eyes searching his face as she struggled with if she should tell him the truth. He'd find out soon enough, he'd make her explain it all when he would discover that she was leaving. "Me." She murmured before moving towards the fireplace. Now that she had found the journal, she was finally able to focus and she could feel the cold that still clung to her skin.

"What do you mean 'you'?" Damon asked as he moved to stand beside where she sat in front of the fire. From what he knew of Roman numerals there were literally hundreds to thousands of deaths recorded in a single entry alone and from what he knew about Sara, she had to have control when feeding. She had said that she couldn't feed too much or too little in order to maintain that control. "Were… were these the times where you lost control?" He asked. He figured it must've happened at some point in her existence, though he knew that she would never admit to it. At least not in front of the others, but he was another story. Hell, even he lost control from time to time. Nobody was perfect and he certainly didn't expect her to be.

Sara shook her head. "Not exactly." She said as she looked at the journal in her hand. "These killings were due to a very sick cosmic joke." She said as she held it out to him.

Damon took it and opened the first page to find the writing now in modern English. The journal must've been enchanted. He looked to Sara, uncertainty written on his face.

She nodded. "Go ahead. Read." She said before gazing into the flames.

Damon flipped to the very first entry, it was written on papyrus paper that he feared would crumble under his touch. It was clear that these pages were all made from different sources and were bound together at a later date. As he read the first entry he quickly discovered that he was reading about the day after Sara had been cursed.

x-TOPD-x

A passage from the Diary of Selephia Petrovski…

I am no longer my own person. I am alone except for the creature that now walks in my skin. If I had known falling in love would've lead to this, I never would've done it. It's their fault! Now they're dead and I'm alone. I have nothing and no one. I don't even have my child and I fear if I were to reclaim her, that the creature would devour her as it did to those who used to live in the place I once called home. That village is now nothing, but ashes. All the homes, people and animals are gone. Nothing, but dust in the wind. Their souls never finding peace as the creature devoured every single one of them as it reigned its moral terror, stalking and hunting the villagers. People that I had known my entire life.

I'd never seen so much horror and bloodshed in all my life till last night and I could do nothing to stop It. To stop myself from killing all those that had wronged me. The last thing I did before burning my village to the ground was kill those that casted me out; my family. My mother and father, plus the servants of the house. I found it strange that no other relatives were present, in the house or the village. It seemed that in my absence, my father had been stripped of his title as head of our family due to his sinful disgrace of a whore daughter. My Uncle Cato was made head of the family and he and the others all left our village, moving on to a new settlement outside of Rome where the Petrovski name could no longer be defiled.

If I could no longer be of this world I would not be, but it seems I am forced to walk the face of this world as the monster that I am for all eternity. I know I can never vow to kill again, but by the gods I vow to never be so weak as to fall in love. Love is the true monster here.

- Selephia Petrovski

March, 413 B.C. Rome

x-TOPD-x

When Damon finished the entry, he looked at her as it all sank in. She had killed her entire family, well those who had stayed in the village anyway, and the rest of the villagers to boot. She set the place ablaze and when she had regained control over herself, she had tried to commit suicide. However, being immortal because of the curse, she had obviously not died. He always thought that she must've been in some sort of life threatening danger and that was how she came to learn of her immortal status, but never in his wildest thoughts had he allowed himself to think that she had tried to commit suicide. He truly couldn't imagine what had been running through her mind that night, how broken and alone she must've felt and he had just read her journal. He quickly skimmed the other entries, paying attention to dates and where she was at the time of the mass murders she had committed. There were countries from all over the world listed in these entries and they were so many years apart that Damon couldn't determine a pattern. The only thing he did notice was that they always took place in the beginning of March.

"Every time you killed it was in March. I'd say it was on the anniversary that you were cursed that you kill like this, but these years..." he said as he quickly looked up the dates, "There's no pattern to them. What so significant about 183 B.C., 84 A.D., 453 A.D., 1071, 1304, and 1752? Why kill in March of those years?" Damon, though confused, he wasn't judging. He understood why she killed, he understood her pain, her need for revenge. He understood it probably far better than she or anyone else would ever realize. However, he still didn't understand what she had meant about these killings being a cosmic joke.

Sara sighed as she shifted her gaze from the fire to Damon. Her eyes no longer held confusion, but anger and resentment. "The day that these killings occurred do fall on the day I was cursed, you were right about that. But if that was all that was needed for me to go postal then there would be a major slaughtering every year. Earth's entire population would've been wiped out centuries ago." She made quite the point as Damon looked at the numbers of those slaughtered in each entry, every time the numbers grew larger and larger.

"There is one other condition that must be met in order for the Striga to roam free." Sara continued her explanation. "The night I was cursed, the witch drew power from the moon, a moon that was in the stages of a total eclipse and was red in color. The night the Striga was born, she was created from the magic drawn by that of a blood moon. She exacts her revenge on anyone and anything on the anniversary of the day she was created and only on the night of a blood moon. Those dates fell on the anniversary of my being cursed and there was also a blood moon, so the Striga was allowed to be free and kill to her heart's content while the moon was full and in the sky. For a few hours, on those nights she slaughtered hundreds to thousands of people, feeding on their souls as she burned their homes to the ground. I could do nothing to stop her and if I'm being honest with myself, I didn't want to." The way she spoke, she made it sound like the Striga and Selephia were two separate beings in one body. When in reality she had been in full control. She had known what she was doing, she just didn't care. Overcome by the intense urge to feed and exact her revenge on those that were in her path. On those nights, she could feed freely, not worrying about feeding too much or too little. She could just be the terrible creature she knew she was while knowing that in the morning she could go on to live out her eternal existence as if it had never happened. If she was to feed like that during any other time, she would not be able to say the same.

As she explained the conditions of the slaughtering, Damon quickly calculated that they only had a few days till the full moon and if what he had seen out on the balcony was the Striga coming forth, this moon was to be a blood moon and they were in the month of March. "Sara, does Thursday fall on the anniversary?" He asked.

"Give me your phone, please." She said and Damon flashed to his bedside table and back, handing her the device. Hers had yet to turn up since after the fire at the hotel and she was now certain it must've gone up in flames like everything else despite thinking that she had had it with her. She pulled up the calendar and noticed that not only did the anniversary fall on Thursday, so did the full moon. She quickly pulled up the google app and searched for when the next lunar eclipse was and the articles all called for Thursday and for everyone to look for a red hue. Sara released a heavy sigh as she handed over the phone. She stood and began picking up the clothes off the floor.

Damon watched as she cleaned up the mess she had made. He figured she was going to put them away, but when she dragged out a suitcase he began to panic. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Damon? I'm packing." She said as she tossed the clothes and shoes she had just picked up off the floor into the luggage bag before moving to the closet, pulling more clothes off the hangers and throwing them in as well.

"What? Why?" Damon said as he crossed the room. "Sara?" He questioned again, his voice strained. Was she leaving him? When he didn't get a response, he cut off her path to the bed from the closet. "Sara, stop!" He shouted as he grabbed ahold of her, her arms full of undergarments.

"I can't!" She cried as she struggled from his grip, the bras and panties she'd been carrying falling to the floor. "I can't stay here! Don't you get that?! Come Thursday I can't be anywhere near Mystic Falls!" she cried as she backed away from him. "And clearly the sooner I get out of here the better if I'm turning this early." She began picking up the fallen clothes and throwing them in the duffel bag by the closet. She stood there for a moment before she sighed and turned around to offer him some sort of explanation to help make this a little easier for him. Hell, this wasn't easy for her. She didn't want to leave. "I've never had a place that I could call home. I've never been around people that I truly cared about and who cared about me. All those places in that journal…" she said as she pointed to the book that had been discarded on the floor. "I lived there and fed on people I knew and talked with, but never actually gave a damn about. I can't do that here!" she shouted. "I'd never be able to forgive myself if anything were to happen to you or the others." She was desperate to make him understand. "Don't you see why I have to leave? I have no choice!" She pleaded with him to understand why she had to leave. It wouldn't be forever, she'd be back after the blood moon passed. Until then, she needed to go as far away as possible to ensure their safety while finding a place she could devour that would satisfy the needs of the creature inside her.

By this point her memories of the night were returning as she thought about the times she had killed in her true form. She had been plagued with nightmares yet again and she had gotten up to beat the ghosts of her past away from her.

x-TOPD-x

Flashback

Sara awoke with a jolt as she shot up in bed, her breathing ragged as sweat beaded across her brow. 'Damn, these nightmares.' She mentally groaned to herself as she flung the covers off her. She was careful not to disturb the sleeping vampire next to her as she gently got off the bed and padded her way to the bathroom. If Damon was aware of her movement, he showed no signs of it. He'd been very supportive of her when she would wake in the middle of the night due to the hauntings of her past, always letting her know that he was there to talk if she wanted. But the thing was, she didn't want to talk. She just wanted them to stop. Never had they plagued her this bad or this often. She felt as if she was going crazy.

Sara closed the bathroom door silently behind her before flicking on the lights over the sink. She twisted the taps and cupped the cold water in her hands before throwing it onto her cool and clammy face. As she looked up at her reflection she noticed her skin was paler than normal and she blamed the nightmares for her body's current state. She sighed as she grabbed the hand towel off the hook beside her and dried her face and hands. The water had done little to make her feel better. She quickly snapped the lights off and headed back into the bedroom. As she opened the door the bedroom was illuminated by a flash of lightning, a clap of thunder booming shortly after.

'It's raining?' she thought. When had that started? The sky had been clear when they had gone to bed hours before and there had been no calls for rain that she had been aware of. As she made her way across the room a terrible feeling of dread washed over her. She looked around the room once more to ensure that nothing had gotten inside that could've caused the sleeping vampire in the bed harm. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and if something had gotten into the house, she was sure Damon would've heard it by now. Another flash of lightning followed by a boom of thunder caused her to look towards the covered windows.

Was something outside the house then? More Travelers? Had the Shadow People returned? Or had something else shown up to threaten them? Whatever it was, the storm outside the house seemed to be calling to the one raging deep inside her soul. Instead of returning to bed, Sara made her way out onto the balcony. As she opened the door to the balcony the sound of rain assaulting the house reached her ears and she turned her gaze to Damon's sleeping form. Half expecting him to ask what she was doing, she was surprised that all she got was him shifting in his sleep, not making a single sound. Sara stepped out into the rain, closing the balcony door quietly behind her. Within seconds the rain had soaked her hair and clothes as it down poured. The sky was dark and she could barely see the nose sitting on her face as she tried to scan the back yard for any potential threats. Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the back yard and she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Now she felt that she truly was going crazy. She had moved passed paranoid and dived straight into bat shit. Feeling completely stupid, Sara turned to go in, but her reflection in the glass caused her to stop short.

There in the glass, she no longer saw the beautiful, sun-kissed olive toned skinned, brown eyed brunette, but a creature of glowing white skin, with eyes of solid white, a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and fingers that extended into claws that could rival the strongest of swords, and all around the creature were the wispy tendrils of souls. From then on time seemed to stop as she stared at her reflection, conversing with herself in her mother tongue as the rain continued to pour down on her.

She had no idea how long she had stood like that, but when she noticed movement from inside she began to panic. She quickly turned around and quietly pleaded with the creature to go back to sleep before Damon came out and saw her. She'd been focusing so intently on fighting with the creature inside of her that she hadn't notice Damon join her or heard him call out to her. When he had touched her, she had panicked and the creature part of her wanted to kill the potential threat, but she knew it had to be Damon. Sara had quickly altered the course of the claws aimed for his heart and had buried them into his arm instead. His yowl of pain had caused her to look at him, revealing the face of the creature that she truly was.

While she hated the pain that she had caused him, the creature had yet to understand the purpose of the male in front of her until the claws that had pierced his skin were coated in his blood, causing her to recoil when she realized that she knew this blood; that she recognized his soul. This male was her mate. She released a cry of anguish through her lips as the Striga was overcome with intense guilt at causing her mate harm and was quick to relinquish control back over to the human aspect of Sara's brain, taking the memory of what had happened with her.

End Flashback

x-TOPD-x

That was till now.

As much as she didn't want to leave, Sara could not promise that the Striga would not try to kill him, even if accidentally and she certainly could not ensure the safety of their friends. She'd been so messed up lately, that she didn't trust herself in the state she knew that was coming.

"Then let me go with you. I can't lose you!" Damon cried as he stared at her with wide, fearful eyes. His grip on her upper arms was near bruising as his fingers dug into her flesh as if he was afraid she'd slip through his fingers.

She'd never seen him look so lost, so scared. It hurt knowing that by leaving, by being so honest with him, she was causing him so much pain. She knew he was scared, hell she was scared, but she also knew what to do to fix it. It just really sucked that this was happening now, of all times. She gave him a small, watery smile as she shook her head. "You can't. I can't promise that the creature won't kill you in the heat of the moment. I killed my parents, my friends, people I'd known since birth and I have no remorse for them. But you, Damon, if I lost you I don't what I'd do. There'd be no point in living, no point in maintaining that precious balance of control after the eclipse was to end." She said as she stepped into his embrace and pulled his face into her hands. "You're not losing me, you'll never lose me." She whispered, trying her best to reassure him as she placed her forehead against his. "I'll come back to you, my Love. That, I can always promise you." She said before capturing his lips in a powerful, soul searing kiss.

Damon wrapped his arms around her and swore he'd never let go as he broke the kiss. He knew what she was saying was for the best, but that didn't mean that he had to agree with it or even liked it. "Do you have to leave right now? I mean there's still a few more days till the blood moon." He was begging now and he knew it. He hated being away from her and seeing the only times they had ever been truly apart were when someone had taken her from him, he didn't like the fact that she was now leaving on her own because she wanted to protect him and everyone else from herself.

"Damon." She sighed in frustration. "It's not safe for me stay. I fear that after feeding off Pelicarpo it may have given the creature the added boost it needed to change the rules we've been playing by after all these years. I've been feeding more and more these past few weeks and I see this being the largest number of people I'll have drained thus far. I need to get to a place with a large enough population that would satisfy her all while not putting you and our friends in harm's way."

"What if while we found a place that would work, you stay here and then I'll put you on the next plane out before the full moon?" He offered, trying to keep her with him for as long as possible.

"I don't know, Damon. She's already start to come out, you saw her. I can't ..."

"What I saw was her fleeing when she realized she hurt me and quite frankly you could've ripped my heart out, but you didn't." he interrupted.

Sara sighed, averting her gaze to her floor. "I was going to, rip your heart out…" she said, ashamed of herself. "But I was able to change the course of my claws."

"Yeah, those are some serious weapons there. Kitty got claws." Damon smirked as he held out his own fingers and swiped at the air all while meowing at her.

Sara didn't know whether to hit him or kiss him. "Damon, please, this is serious." She said with a shake of her head. "The closer we get to the blood moon, the less control I'll have. I can't say that I would be able to stop her should she try to come out again." In all truth, she had never had to deal with a situation like this before. Sure, she'd shifted on her own before, but those had been during some dark times and due to extreme measures. This was not the same, she had no control over it this time.

"I don't know, but from the look on your face and the sound you made I don't think she'd do it again. I mean she was gone faster than a vampire flees sunlight. Do you think she'd try it again? I mean you said that your blood recognized me as your mate, and I know how you feel about me." Damon said softly as he pressed their foreheads together. "You know despite the fact that you swore you'd never fall in love again, you just couldn't resist all this unbelievably sexy...ow!" Damon yowled as he rubbed the back of his head were Sara had just slapped him. He knew he deserved it, but damn that hurt.

"Get to the point, Damon." Sara growled. Way to ruin what could've been a very romantic moment.

"Okay, okay." He muttered before wrapping his arm back around the woman. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was so brutally attacked," Sara glared at him and he just smirked before continuing. "If everything else about you sees me as your mate, why wouldn't she? I mean she looked really guilty when she realized what she did, am I wrong?" He asked.

"No, you're not wrong. She knew who, better yet what you are to me the moment your blood touched her." She said as she looked at the hand that had clawed at Damon's arm, dried blood still under her nails that had never got washed away from the rain or shower. She could feel the guilt overcoming her and it wasn't just from her, but also the immortal creature the resonated deep inside her soul. This man, this creature of the night in front of her was the only one that had called to her on every level of her being. The Striga had been born out of bitterness, hatred, and revenge. So against love that they had been on the same page all these years until the day she came to Mystic Falls and met Damon. His soul called out to hers in a way that none other had ever had. She knew the Striga would never intentionally harm him again, but unintentionally was still the main issue here. "I don't think she'd harm you on purpose, but there's still the chance..."

"And I'll take that chance if it means I get another day or two with you. I'm a selfish bastard, Sara. I'll take the risk no matter the cost." Damon said as his gazed burned into her from the intensity of his words.

"But the others, I can promise that she wouldn't hurt Jeremy, Elena, Stefan or... oh my god, Stefan! I have a hard-enough time trying to control myself around him as it is! She'd have a freaking field day if she came out with Stefan around." Sara groaned, letting her head fall onto his bare shoulder. "I'm going to regret this, I know it." She mumbled into his shoulder, but Damon had heard it clear as day.

"You'll stay?"

"Yes, but we are coming up with a plan and if anyone gets killed from now until I leave, I'm blaming you." She said as she poked him in the chest.

"Deal." He grinned before picking her up and swinging her around. Sara squealed as she clung to the back of his neck and shoulders, her feet no longer touching the ground. Damon was so happy that she was staying for the time being. It was just such a shame that they only had a few days to find… "Wait a minute." he pulled back, pausing with Sara still in midair. "Where the hell are you going to go that has that many souls you can devour without it being all over the news?" If thousands of people were about to die, it would be pretty hard for that to go unnoticed. Right?

Sara raised an eyebrow, giving him a look that said 'really?' "Damon, when it comes to this shit, I'm an expert." she said as she gave a pointed look towards her journal on the floor beside them. Obviously, she knew what she was doing. She didn't just go walking into some random area, take a look around, say 'Yup, this is good' and then proceed to suck the life out of everyone. No, she had done that once and has never made that mistake since then.

"Okay." He said sounding a little unsure. "Seriously, though. How do you know that where you're going is going to have enough people?" he asked as he lowered her feet to the hardwood floor.

"It's not the population that's important, Damon. It's the soul count. I won't truly know if it's going to be the right place until I get there, but I'll arrive with an idea. Remember most people typically have one or two souls attached to them that aren't their own, plus there are always cemeteries." She explained as she bent down to pick up her journal, closing it with the intent on putting it away.

Damon nodded. What she said made sense, but how did cemeteries fit in with this? Those people were already dead so their souls were gone, right? "What do you mean there are always cemeteries?"

Sara felt like the answer was obvious, but she had to remember that she'd been doing this for way too long and that he and the others weren't used to being around anything else supernatural other than vampires, doppelgangers, witches and werewolves. It wasn't like the internet was full of information about soul eaters that hadn't been created by some video game programmer in his mother's basement. "Cemeteries are full of souls. Everyone that has ever been laid to rest has a piece of their soul that resides there, still bound to its body. Certain places have plenty of souls attached to them and not just cemeteries, hospitals do too. Anyplace where a lot of people have died. Even some regular buildings like houses." she explained as she put her journal back into the drawer of her bedside table. It was actually a good place for it and the only reason why she hadn't put it there in the first place was because she guessed she had been trying to keep it hidden from Damon. She thought she would have more time.

"So, this place must be crawling with them then." Damon chuckled, only half joking. Plenty of vampires and some humans had been killed here in the past after all.

"Eh, there actually wasn't as many as you think there were. Hardly what I'd call an ample feeding ground." she said with a shrug.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. "And what do you mean were?"

"Damon, I fed on the souls that were attached to this place within the first week I was here. They're gone." she said referring to the short period of time she had been here before she had found out that Pelicarpo was still alive, back to when her control hadn't been compromised.

"Damn. So, if you can clear a place of its souls then why can't you do that to a person?" he asked as he thought about his brother's 'Overdose Feed' status. If a place could have so many souls attached to it and she could clear those out no problem, why was a person different? God, he was getting a headache.

"Because souls that are attached to a person are stronger than those attached to a place. They give off a different kind of energy that have a tendency to be more dangerous to my control." she explained. "And a house doesn't have a soul of its own that could accidentally be devoured as well." If she could resolve Stefan of his ODF status she gladly would, but she had yet to master that particular skill. She wasn't even sure if it was possible for her to do so. She had tried in the past to only feast on the souls attached to a person and not their actual soul. She wouldn't have to kill that way, but she had never been able to do it. She had always failed. Not something she was particularly proud of either.

Damon felt a little stupid for asking such a question, of course houses didn't have souls that could get in the way and mess shit up. "Right. So, where do you think you're going to go that will be able to satisfy you?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his neck. He should've just kept his mouth shut, he really didn't want to think about how far away she would be going from him.

Sara was able to pick up on how uneasy Damon still felt about her leaving and she couldn't blame him. She didn't want to leave him either, especially now. "How about we don't talk about that right now." she said as she walked up to him, running her hand up and down his bare chest and abdomen.

Damon lifted a brow at her. If she was suggesting a subject change he was all for it, especially since the subject she was hinting at was one of his favorites. "Oh? So, what should we talk about then?" he asked coyly with a devilish smirk.

"I'm sure we'll think of something." she purred before pulling his head down for a kiss.

Damon's lips fused with hers, their tongues battling for dominance as he pushed her back towards the bed. When the back of Sara's knees hit the mattress, she let her body fall back, pulling Damon down on top of her. As the two of them fell back onto the bed, the suitcase she had been in the middle of packing bounced to the floor with a thud. The two supernatural creatures pulled away from one another and looked to the fallen suitcase, what little clothes that had been in it had scattered out onto the floor. Seeing it on the floor along with everything else Sara had taken from their closet, they realized that their bedroom looked like a tornado had gone through it due to Sara flinging clothes around. They both laughed at the sight.

"I'll clean it up tomorrow." Sara giggled as she turned back to look at Damon.

"Yeah you will, it's your mess." Damon said with mock seriousness causing Sara to snort in indignation. However, the smile on her lips told Damon she was anything, but mad. The couple erupted into fits of laughter once more before the two reengaged in an old fashion Junior High make-out session that quickly turned hot and heavy.

If Sara was leaving, then Damon wasn't going to waste any more time without committing every inch of her beautiful body to memory even more so than it already was. Damon trailed a hand in between them to undo the sash tied around Sara's waist. With a simple tug the knot was undone and the thin fabric fell away to her sides, revealing her naked body underneath.

A soft moan escaped Sara's lips as he massaged one of her breasts with his free hand while the other was currently tangled in her loose, damp locks. Her hands ruffled through Damon's hair as they trailed down the back of his neck and over his shoulders where they dug into the skin as Damon broke their kiss and sucked the nipple that his hand wasn't currently stimulating into his mouth. Another moan broke through as she thrusted her chest up to meet his mouth. "Damon." She groaned and she could feel his grin against the fleshy globe.

Damon removed his hand from her other breast, replacing it with his mouth as his free hand trailed down her body and in between the apex of her thighs, finding her wet and ready for him. He slid a finger into her tight channel and she bucked, her body pulling his finger in deeper. As he sucked on her nipple his fangs elongated, running the sharp canines lightly over the erect nub.

"Fuck." Sara groaned low in her throat as the sensation of his fangs on her nipple sent electric jolts down to her clit. It pulsed, begging for attention. Sara nails retracted from the skin of his shoulder blades as she ran them down his back, flying to the waistband of his pajama pants. "Off. Now." She demanded with a grunt as she pushed the fabric past his hips and over his ass, giving the flesh there a tight squeeze. Gods, did she love his ass.

Damon used his other hand to remove the only article of clothing he wore, never removing his mouth from her body. He removed his finger from her slit intent on filling her with his erection when another position came to mind. Wrapping his arms around her waist he quickly flipped them over so Sara was on top.

Sara gasped in surprised at the sudden change in position only for it to rapidly evolve into a moan as he gipped her hips, slamming her down onto his cock. She pushed herself up off his chest so she could straddle his hips, quickly removing her open robe and tossing it behind her as she rode him hard and fast. Typically, Damon liked being the one on top, but the way he held her hips in his bruising grip and moved her up and down his thick shaft, Sara had no doubt about who was really in control here. This position just gave him more unimpeded access to her body as a thumb rolled over her sensitive pearl, the button to her utter destruction.

"Damon!" she chanted his name over and over again as he played with her clit while driving himself home repeatedly, her orgasm came quickly as he felt her walls clamped down on his cock. She was coming faster than she would've liked, but knowing Damon there would be plenty more mind numbing, bone melting orgasms before the sun even thought of showing itself. If his intent was to try and kill her by orgasm so she wouldn't have to leave, she'd gladly accept the challenge.

x-TOPD-x

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this Sara/Damon centered chapter. About a good 95% of this chapter was actually written quite some time ago, but the story just wasn't far enough along for it make its debut. I can honestly say that I think this is my favorite chapter yet. It was so easy to write, this was really one of those chapter that just came to me and I had to write it all down as soon as possible. I'm so glad I did consider that happened literally months ago.

We got to learn more about Sara's past and more is still to come. We also finally got to see the creature side of Sara. A little side note, I did not come up with the legend of the Striga, sad to say it is actually not of my own creation. However, the abilities, appearances, and history described in this fic are my own (except the part about the Albanian legend from chapter 2, that I cannot claim).

Also for anyone wondering how to pronounce Striga, if there are any fans of Supernatural present, no I don't pronounce it the same. It is St-rye-ga not St-ree-ga. :)

So, the question is, with Sara going away will the Travelers put their plan into action and more importantly, will this Master finally reveal himself? Can Nadia be trusted to help our favorite group of supernaturals and how far away will Sara have to go to satisfy her inner creature? If she leaves the country, will she be back in time to help save those she cares about if the Travelers do strike?

Stay tuned to find out and please review!

LadySparx