In the silence that followed, nobody moved.

Nobody except Alvara.

Elena and Jeremy were the most astounded and confused; relief that Damon would be saved, but grief that Jenna could have lived. What could they do? Hate this girl, scream and shout at her for not saving Jenna? Or help her, question her, be grateful for what she was about to do?

Alaric sensed their confusion, so he once again took charge. The time for their grieving and possible anger, any negative emotion they might feel towards the slayer could wait. But Damon could not. His body had slowly begun to slump, his head lolling forward, but his eyes still flickered open and from across the room Alaric could see the shock and concern in them. Concern for his life? Concern for Elena? Alaric couldn't tell. But one thing he could tell was that Damon was not concerned with the girl. And so, while the younger ones spluttered at each other in astonishment, well Tyler more in anger at the state of his neck, Alaric slowly bent to pick up the various things the girl had lugged out of her bag that had rolled across the floor: the beakers, the tubes, and now he could see more closely, the syringes and chains. She eyed him gratefully, and with no words the two heaved Damon back upright into a sitting position. Were almost one in the same, Alaric thought, both arriving in Mystic Falls to fight off the supernatural, though judging by the growing welts on Tyler's neck they were not quite the same. However, he had found himself an ally.

'How?' a throaty voice broke across the room. 'How can you save him?'

Alaric and Alvara turned towards Caroline's voice. As explanations went, Alvara had done her fair share tonight, but she knew in order to let them do this she would have to explain. 'Come here,' she beckoned to Caroline, and Tyler. They strode over, though warily, as they had probably received the most anguish off the new girl, and stood in front of her. Alvara drew a blade from her pocket and pressed the tip of her finger to the sharp end, drawing blood. She now had the attention of everybody in the room. Damon, even in his weakening state, had caught a whiff of her sweet blood when she had first arrived, but now she had spilt blood the smell was even more empowering. For Caroline, with a fully functional (though dead) body it was even worse, though she was no stranger to blood she had never quite smelt it quite like this. She had ignored it at first, to overpowered by her anger when Alvara had first arrived to pay any real attention to it, but now the blood was there shining in the low light of the parlor, she couldn't ignore it. Though normally she was able to control her reaction, her eyes began to darken and her fangs began to extend. Thankfully, nobody's attention was on her.

With a miniature puddle on the end of her finger, Alvara moved closer to Tyler, who of course was not affected by her blood. Until she pressed it against his cheek. The group heard the slight hissing before they saw the angry red burn forming on his cheek. Tyler pulled away, clutching his cheek in disbelief. 'Yeah try biting into that, count yourself lucky you're not in dog form, that's when I do some damage. Not that you will be grateful to hear this, but as you are now, as a human, you're not that powerful. Well not around me anyway. You, me, the vamp's…I'm kind of equal in strength to you all.'

Then she turned to Bonnie who stepped back but still kept her eyes fixed on Alvara. 'Now, you the blood doesn't bother. You're technically just not able to use any witchy magic on me.'

Bonnie went to speak.

'Yeah please don't bother trying either,' Alvara finished.

'And now we have you, the vampire. You guys are my main task, the rest of the supernatural tend to leave humans alone.' Using the same finger she had pressed against Tyler, she smudged Caroline's cheek, and she clutched it and screamed. The hissing was louder now, and it reminded Alaric of the times he had seen vervain used on vampires, only much more angry and painful. 'Yeah, try drinking it.

Oh and while we're on the topic, no werewolf venom or vampire blood will kill me or change me, my body will just instantly repel it. Which is why my blood tends to kill you off before you can give me any, or try to kill me. Actually, nothing to do with the supernatural will kill me. So far anyway.' Alvara said 'Which brings me to my next point,' and with a flourish she turned back to Damon.

'I can get rid of this werewolf venom from your system with some of my blood, it will vanquish it instantly. But if I put this blood into your system, you're going to die; it will fry you from the inside out.' She paused to see if he had questions, but he continued to fix her with his stare showing no emotion. 'So, we need to mix the two, my blood and your blood, so that it won't harm your body once injected.'

Alaric moved to grab the beakers and syringes, finally realizing what they were for, until Alvara stopped him by gently touching his elbow. 'It's not as simple as that. Is it ever as simple as we'd like?' Alvara said with a bark of laughter. 'For our two types of blood to mix we can't just mix them in a beaker or something. They have to be mixed properly and naturally. So basically, in the body. My body.'

'But you said your body will repel vampire blood,' Alaric protested in confusion.

'What do you think these are for?' Alvara said lightly, as she held up the chains that she had tossed from her backpack. She had an air of ease about her, but the fear in her eyes was obvious.

It was then that Jeremy and Elena, and the rest of them decided to speak up. Or more shout up.

'What do you mean?'

'Have you ever done this before?'

'What's happening?'

Realization dawned on Alaric at the risk the girl was taking, and he watched as the others fired questions at her and she silently began to assemble the beakers, the tubes and the syringes onto the table beside Damon.

Damon was watching her intently too. The pain from dying was still there, but it was like a distant pain, as were the sounds of the others shouting among themselves in frustration. It was as though he were underwater. With her. His eyes never left her as she began moving a chair on the other side of the table and he found he couldn't speak. He was too astonished to even think, let alone utter words like 'Stop.' He was lost for words.

It was when Alvara picked up the heavy chains and the metal clinked against itself that the others were silenced. Jeremy in particular. He didn't know who this girl was; he hadn't even known slayers existed. Then again, a year ago he hadn't thought vampires did so he probably should have known about slayers. He was perplexed by her to say the least, but he wasn't angry at her for the Jenna thing. That hurt too much to think about, but he had seen the raw emotion in the girls eyes when she had told them and he knew that it had not been deliberate. He had also seen the raw fear when she had explained what she was about to do but that she was more than willing to repay the debt she thought she owed. To Jeremy an apology would have been enough.

Alvara finally realized that the time had come and she couldn't put off the inevitable any longer. She had never experienced the blood of a vampire in her system, but judging by the natural effect her body and their bodies had on each other she was certain it would not be good. For her protection, the two had been designed to never connect via blood. The secret of curing a vampire of a werewolf bite was well kept among Vespa anyway, but it had never been used. Because, after all, what slayer would willingly offer to save a vampires life?

Alaric and the boy, Jeremy, began to help her into the seat and with tying her hands and feet to the arms and legs of the chair with the chains. The others continued to shoot her questioning looks, but they passed her equipment when she asked. For example, a thin clear tube, like that from a hospital drip. Alaric followed her instructions and thrust the tube into her arm, in the crease between her forearm and bicep. He figured now was not the time to follow hospital procedure. Caroline then passed a syringe to him, and shaking, he pierced Damon's arm and drew a small, but not too small, amount of his blood. Again, following instructions, Jeremy pinched the middle of the clear tube, as Alaric slipped the syringe of Damon's blood into the other end of the clear tube and released it slowly. Still pinching, Jeremy looked at Alvara, as did the others with the same questioning troubled looks. She knew they wanted to know exactly what would happen during this 'transfusion' but the truth was that she didn't know.

But as Jeremy released the tube they did know. Because the screaming started.