Disclaimer: don't own Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. The plot and the OC's are my creations, though.

Part Two

"So, how do we this?" Elena wondered as they walked down the street a day later. "We need to know as much as we can about the murders."

"I still say we talk to the cops," Damon answered.

"You mean compel them to tell you what's in the files."

"Of course. They're never gonna tell me anything without that. You might have a bigger chance of getting them to tell you something if you take some clothes off," he said, giving her his Damon-face; all smirk and eyebrows.

"Damon!" she exclaimed and aimed a fist at his arm, but missed when he easily dodged the blow. "I would never do something like that!"

"That's a shame. I'd love to see you do that."

"I'm not Katherine," she said angrily.

"I know you're not," he said and held up his hands in surrender. "I was only trying to lighten the mood."

"Well, you didn't succeed with that," she muttered irritably. What kind of thing was that to say? It certainly didn't make her happier. But she let it go when she accidentally bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she apologized with a tiny, sheepish smile.

The young woman turned to face them. There was no mistaking it. She was the one from the nightclub. Now in daylight Elena could see that the abundant curls that tumbled heavily over her shoulders all the way down to her waist with fantastic volume were two-toned, top layers golden-brown and bottom layers chestnut-colored.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled. "It didn't hurt."

"You're the one who danced with two guys on a table last night," Damon said, recognizing her as well.

"Oh, you saw that?" she spoke pleasantly, a smirk playing around the corners of her mouth.

"It was hard to miss."

The smirk took over her face completely. "Something tells me that you wanted to be one of them. Don't worry, the next time I'm going to do that, I'll give you a call so you can come with me and have me all to yourself."

Talk about being straightforward. Elena stared at her, while Damon's eyebrows lifted. "I'm flattered that you so openly tell that you're attracted to me, but sadly I'll have to decline," he said.

"That's all right. It doesn't matter to me who it is as long as someone does it," she replied lightly.

Elena puckered her eyebrows. "Okay…" she said slowly.

"You're bleeding," Damon said suddenly, eyeing one of the young woman's knees.

"Oh." She looked down and spotted the red trickle beneath the hem of her black trench coat. "Must've dripped," she mumbled, licked her index finger and wiped it off her leg. Then she held out her bloody finger in Damon's direction. "Wanna taste?" she asked with a lopsided grin.

"Why would I?" he replied.

She raised her eyebrows as if it were obvious, with a teasing glimmer in her eyes. "Because you're a vampire."

"What makes you think I am?" he said, surprise and defiance making his voice harsh.

"You said that I was bleeding before you looked down," she answered simply. "A human wouldn't have known because they can't smell it, but vampires can. And since you don't want it, I'll take it," she added and put her finger into her mouth.

"So," Elena spoke warily, "you're a vampire, too?" She had had her share of violent and malicious vampires. She had to be careful.

"Obviously," the curly-haired woman drawled. "Name's Cindy."

"Well, aren't you unusually friendly?" Damon commented sardonically.

Cindy smiled wryly. "Not particularly," she objected. "My mission here's to kill someone, but you don't have to worry about that."

"Oh, really?" Damon's voice still hadn't lost its acid tone. If anything, it had increased.

"Really," she nodded confirmatively. "You're not even the right species. And if you're worried about your human companion, I can assure you I have no intention to hurt her whatsoever. Truth to be told, I might be able to help you."

"Why would we want help from you?" he asked, rudely emphasizing the 'you'.

Elena jabbed her elbow into his side. Normally she would've said his name in a disapproving tone, but she was still unconvinced about Cindy's so-called harmless intentions concerning her.

"I couldn't help but overhear about the little problem you have with the police," she drawled. "You need the classified information, but you can't come to an agreement on how to do it. Am I right?"

"And your point is?"

"I can get the information for you," Cindy clarified. "I'm going to take a look at it myself, and I have no problem sharing," she said with a smirk that strangely enough only could be described as lecherous.

"You'd do that?" Elena wondered disbelievingly.

"Do you really think we're gonna trust you?" Damon countered in the same tone as Elena.

"You should give it a shot," she insisted. "How could it hurt you?"

"In plenty of ways. We just don't know them yet."

Cindy pursed her lips. "Well, it's your choice. I'm gonna go and get the information. If you want it later, you can stay here when I get back with the copied files." She put her hand into the pocket of her coat and fished up a round make-up mirror and eyeliner.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked incredulously.

"I'm getting ready," she said, expertly rimming her eyes with more black color. "Having accentuated eyes is very important when you're going to talk people into doing something they shouldn't or don't want to do."

"Uh-huh." Both Elena and Damon watched quietly as she replaced the eyeliner in her hand with a lipstick.

She gave Elena a crooked smirk with her now blood-red mouth, looking very much like she had last night at the club. "If you're ever going to persuade someone by using your womanly attributes, use this," she said and held up the lipstick long enough for Elena to catch the name of it before she put it back into her pocket. "It works wonderfully. Hold this," she added as she untied the wide strap around her waist, and handed her coat to Elena.

Now Cindy's outfit was exactly what Damon had told Elena should wear to get the police to tell them the details; a spaghetti-strapped, deep-cut bustier top in dark red satin with a black lace pattern and trimming, short denim shorts and black stiletto knee-high boots with a pointed toe — the complete opposite of Elena's dark blue jeans and green long-sleeved top under a black jacket with sneakers.

"It sure doesn't look like you could fit a bra under that top," Damon commented, nodding at its tightness around her chest.

Cindy smirked, her eyes glimmering. "That's because I'm not," she revealed, turned around and walked away, displaying her back that would've been bare if it hadn't been for the corset lacing of black ribbons holding her top in place.

"Is she serious?" Elena asked uncertainly.

"She seems to be," Damon answered.

"Should we wait for her?"

"Do you think it's worth a try?"

"I do," she said hesitantly. "I mean, what do we have to lose?"

"Probably a lot, but I guess it's worth a shot. But we still don't know how trustworthy she is," Damon pointed out. "She could be on Klaus' side for all we know."

"Why don't you go ahead and ask her? You seemed to like her attention."

"Are you jealous again?"

"I am not jealous," Elena replied. "You don't even know her."

"I don't have to know a woman before we hook up," Damon retorted.

"Stop," she asked him, her nose wrinkled a little. "Just stop. I don't wanna hear it."

"Embarrassed over the naughty details?" he smirked.

She gave him a withering glare. "No. Can you do me a favor and shut up for a minute?"

"Just one minute? I could do that."

Cindy came back a short while later, with an amused grin on her face. "Well, what do you know," she said. "You stayed."

"Are those the files?" Elena wondered and pointed at the folder in her hands.

She fanned herself with it. "It is," Cindy confirmed. "It was so easy to get it that it was barely any fun to do it."

"What do you mean by that? You compelled him, didn't you?"

She smirked. "I usually don't need to compel men to get them to do what I want them to do," she said superiorly. "I have other ways to get people to do what I want."

"So what you're saying is that you're irresistible?" Damon said.

"On the contrary, I'm pretty easy to resist," she objected. "It's just that most men don't. Like this time, for example. This was a piece of cake. He was young, inexperienced. Seducing him into copying me the papers was child's play."

"You seduced him into doing it?" Elena said disbelievingly, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes. Wasn't that what you wanted her to do, Damon?" Cindy asked, his name sensually rolling off her tongue, her eyelids lowering.

"I never told you my name," he deadpanned.

"No, but I heard her say it before," she replied slyly.

"What's your reason then for wanting to know about the murders?" Damon questioned, crossing his arms over his chest. "We'd love to know, Cindy." He emphasized her name harshly, sardonically.

"'Cause I'm gonna kill the one who's doing it," she answered lightheartedly as she looked through the papers in her hands. "He's crossed the line, rampaging in my city, and I won't allow that. Normally I don't have much against werewolves, but this one is going down." She let out small chuckle at the end.

"It's a werewolf doing this?" Elena asked.

"Uh-huh," Cindy hummed as she looked up again and handed them the folder. "Most of this has happened during full moon, and not just here. He started in New Orleans and has made his way up here, killing innocent people every month."

"That's awful," Elena said, appalled.

"It doesn't look like it's a werewolf who's done it," Damon commented as he and Elena inspected the material in his hands, looking at the pictures. "I'd say there's too much blood around the corpses."

Elena frowned in distaste at the careless word. "Maybe a werewolf and a vampire are working together," she suggested. "It's happened before."

"That's one theory, but it wouldn't work during full moon," Damon pointed out. He fastened his eyes on Cindy, who looked mildly interested. "How much do you know exactly about this?" he asked her.

"More than you do," she said with an arrogant smirk. "But like I said, I'm willing to share the information. Why are you so interested in knowing about it anyway? Don't the newspapers suffice?"

Elena and Damon glanced at each other, unsure about how much they should tell her. "Well," Elena began slowly. "There might be a possibility that if there's a vampire involved in this, we could know him."

"Only a ripper would do something like this," Cindy remarked.

Elena's shoulders slumped. "I know. That's why I'm afraid it's him."

Cindy thoughtfully cocked her head to the side. "So you want to know if there's a vampire involved in this, and if there is, if you know him," she analyzed. "I just wanna kill the werewolf. Something tells me we'd gain more if we work together on this."

Damon was silent for a while, thinking it over. "You could be right," he said. "The more the merrier." He flashed an unamused momentary smirk.

"Right," Cindy laughed. "So is that a yes?"

"It is."

"Unfortunately I can't talk right now because I have somewhere to be," she went on. "I'm free tonight, though. How about we talk things over then?"

"Works for us. Our hotel room?" Damon asked.

"Works for me," she grinned. "I have a thing for hotels."

Elena gave her a weird look as Damon told Cindy the name and room of the hotel. "We'll be waiting. And for your own good I hope you won't betray us," he threatened.

"'Cause you'll hurt me if I do?" she smirked. "Don't worry, I don't plan to. I like doing things for men. Even if they have a girlfriend." She glanced shrewdly at Elena.

"Oh, I'm not his girlfriend," she objected.

Cindy raised her eyebrows. "Really? It looks like you are, the way you two look at each other."

"Well, we're not together," Elena went on, hoping it wouldn't look like she blushed.

"What's your name?" Cindy scowled. "You haven't told me."

"It's Elena."

"Hm. Damon and Elena. Sounds good together." She grinned amusedly at them. "Since I'm in a bit of a hurry, I need to leave. I'll see you tonight." She stretched out after her trench coat that Elena still was holding, put it on without tying the waist strap, gave them a little wave with her hand and then turned on her heels.

"What does 'doing things for men' mean?" Damon wondered, sounding rather confused. "'Cause it sounds sexual."

Cindy stopped and looked at him over her shoulder in that weirdly lecherous manner. "You can interpret that in any way you want," she drawled lazily. "It's probably right either way."

It kind of made sense now. Her behavior at the nightclub, her outfit, how easily she had decided to seduce a policeman of all people to give out classified information.

"You are such a slut," Damon said.

She threw her head back with a laugh. "I've never claimed otherwise." With that, she left them, gaining many turned heads on her way.

"So we look like a couple, huh?" Damon said.

"You're all I have at the moment," Elena replied and looked up at him. "I'm glad you're here."

His lips quirked. "Don't mention it. I enjoy it."

"I bet you do," she countered with a roll of her eyes.

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