I ran from the café, with tears running down my cheeks.

Damon attacked my brother.

I didn't even want to believe it. I'd felt alive around him, for the first time in months, and all along, he'd been dead. How could it be?

I didn't know what to do, except stumble home and hide in the smallest corner I could find.

And that's exactly what I did. I sprinted all the way back to my house, which thankfully wasn't too far. Once home, I fumbled with my keys and launched myself up the stairs, shutting myself in my room.

Damon was a vampire. This was really happening.

I slid down my wall and leaned my head in the crook of my tight corner. My knees pulled up to my chest and my whole body shook with sobs.

My mind was on autopilot, racing at light speed.

The horror stories that founded this town were all true. Monsters really did hide under children's beds. Things that we told ourselves couldn't get us, we're very much real.
And Damon was one of those horrible beings. Damon had nearly killed my brother, and he wouldn't have thought twice about it, had I not called him out. And Stefan, too, was a monster. Quiet, sweet, boyish Stefan. A murderer.

They were both murderers. Criminals. They should've been in jail-I needed to tell someone.

Unless...what if they thought I was crazy? Who was I going to tell? Who would believe me?

I realized with a squeeze of panic that no one would listen to me, even if I did try to tell. I was alone in this.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. No more crying-I needed to pull myself together and figure this out.

I remembered the To Do list I'd made this morning. I'd almost forgotten that I wanted to have a meeting with Sheriff Forbes. Was there any point to it now? I'd found out Damon's secret-and it was worse than I'd feared. She probably didn't know anything I didn't.

Unless she did. Had he told her anything? I couldn't imagine why he would tell a cop about being a murderer, unless maybe...

She was one of them.

No. No, it couldn't be. Of course not. After all, she had a daughter, and a job-a normal life. She couldn't be a vampire. Caroline would know, and she would've told me about it.
Right?
Except, maybe that was how they kept their secrets. Maybe the humans didn't know because for whatever reason, Sheriff Forbes was protecting the vampires.

Thinking about it now, it seed pretty possible. But I had to know for sure. So, I collected myself up off the ground, and I wiped my wet cheeks. Then I grabbed my keys determinedly and headed for the station.

My hands shook as I drove down my street for the first time in months, but I knew at some point I'd have to get over my fear. I couldn't walk everywhere. Nevertheless, I was in a nervous sweat by the time I reached the station. I was also still unscathed, which was nice. I didn't hit any squirrels or birds or even the curb On my way. So far, everything was on track-driving wise. Everything else was falling apart.

I stepped out of my car and ran up the stairs and through the doors before I could stop myself.

Inside, everything was very orderly. The walls were painted a cold blue, the carpets matching. People in uniforms milled around their desks, and I could see Sheriff Forbes going through files in her office, a room enclosed in glass.

There was a receptionist fingering through tidy paperwork at her desk.

"I need to see Sheriff Forbes," I requested. When she looked as though she were going to turn me down, I added, "It's urgent."

The woman pursed her dark lips, wrinkling her deep brown skin. "I'll need to-"

"Elena!" I turned upon hearing my name being called. Today appeared to be my lucky day; the Sheriff had seen me, and she was now beckoning me over. "Is everything all right?"

I shook my head. "Is there somewhere we could talk privately?"

Her eyes went flat, and concern flashed across her features. "Right this way."

I followed her quietly to her office. She closed the door tightly behind us, and then pulled blinds down all around the window-walls to conceal us from any nosy onlookers.
She took a seat at her desk and gestured toward a hard plastic chair. I sat down in it, and she leaned forward with her hands clasped tightly on the cluttered tabletop. "What brings you down here?"

"I-" I took a deep breath and hoped I wasn't making a huge mistake. "I know about the vampires."

Her eyes widened just long enough for me to grasp that she did in fact know about the creatures living amongst us.

"What are you talking about?" Her eyes seemed to be warning me.

"It wasn't an animal that attacked Vikki and Jeremy, it was a vampire. And I know you know that I'm not crazy."

She put her head in her hands. "Oh, Elena. How did you find this out?"

I almost told her about Damon, but something stopped me. I wasn't quite sure why I didn't give him up, but I lied straight to the Sheriff's face to protect him, as stupid as it was. "I just figured it out. There were bite marks in his neck, and he'd lost blood and..." I pause. "So I called a friend. And he told me that he knew about them too. About the vampires."

Her forehand creased. "Are you talking about Damon Salvatore?"

I nodded hesitantly. "He told me everything, but I had to ask first."

"I'm not surprised; Damon's wanted to tell you about what's been going on since he first met you. He was with me when Jeremy and Vikki were attacked; we were discussing you. He'd asked me if you were aware of the town's dangers. He looks out for you, Elena."

"Wait, are you sure he was here?"

She nodded. "I'm positive."

"Huh," I whispered and sat back. "You seem to really like him."

She nodded. "He's a wonderful help to me; it's nice to have help from the humans. He knows everything about everything, somehow."

I fought my gasp.

She thought he was human.

I blinked. "Sheriff, I...I came here to find out more about them. I was hoping you could help me."

She frowned. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"How about..." I sighed, thinking hard. Which question to ask first? They were all so pressing. "What about..mind control? Are they capable of that?"

She nodded solemnly. "Yes. There is, however, an herb called vervain that will repel their tricks." She squinted at the ring Damon had given to me. I'd forgotten to take it off in all the craziness. "I do believe that you're wearing some right now."

"Sorry, what?"

"Your ring is stuffed with vervain, Elena...Who gave that to you?"

"Damon," I whispered, my heart fluttering chaotically.

Her eyebrows rose appreciatively. "I should've guessed, I suppose."

I held my fist tightly. "Is that all vervain does? Protect me from...what do you call it? Mind control?"

"Compulsion," she corrected. That made sense; I'd been right about that eye-thing the Salvatore brothers did; it actually hypnotized people. "And no, that's not all. It also will burn them, if you touch it to their skin; and if they consume enough of it, it can poison and even incapacitate them."

That surprised me. Why would he give me something so powerful? It didn't add up.

"What else fends them off?"

"A crucifix should, but don't rely on one. It's easy for the vamps to disarm you, so my advice would be to try your best to avoid them." She paused. "They can't go out in the sunlight."

My eyes widened. "You're sure?"

She nodded. "That's how we knock quite a few suspects of our list."

I put my hand up. "Whoa, wait. List? Suspects? What are you talking about, Sheriff?"

She pursed her lips. "The original Founding Families were the first to know about Mystic Falls' vampire problem. They protected this town from some of the worst creatures when they locked them all in a tomb underneath the Fell Church in the late 1860's."

It seemed that everything that was important had taken place in that time period. "So they were vampire hunters? How else did they kill them?"

"Well, a stake to the heart would usually do the trick; or they would set them on fire. Of course, the Original vampires were much harder to kill."

"The Original vampires?" I prompted.

She nodded. "Yes, there were five of them. I don't know much about them. In fact, that's about a far as my knowledge of the vampires stretches."

I tried to conjure up a grateful smile, but my lips just barely twitched. "You've been very helpful, Sheriff. Thank you for your time." I got out of the creaky chair stiffly and rubbed my finger over by ring once more, making the connection.

The Salvatores' rings protected them from the sunlight.

"Yes, of course...and Elena?" She answered.

I turned. "Yes?"

"Be careful. It's a dangerous world, even more now for you and Jeremy, after his attack."

My tires screeched with my ridiculous speed as I pulled into the Salvatore driveway. I couldn't believe my courage; it was as if I had stopped driving. In fact, I was driving more recklessly now than ever. Not that that was necessarily a good thing; it was just an unexpected thing.

I pounded on the big, solid door until Stefan came and opened it.

"Elena," he said, surprised. His shirt was tattered, his hair disheveled. "I do believe we need to speak."

"Actually, I believe I need to speak to your brother," I bit with hostility. "Where is he?"

Stefan seemed to want to say more, but was unable to form his thoughts into an adequate sentence, and so instead he stepped aside and let me in. "He's upstairs."

I pushed past him, muttering a begrudged 'thank you' on my way. "Damon!" I called as I jogged up the stairs, nearly knocking a gold-framed picture off the wall in my haste.

I walked into the first door I came to. Inside, there was lots of clutter, and a slept-in, white-clothed bed. The pillows were limp, and there was a picture that had fallen over on the bedside table. As I looked around the room more closely, I noted that the small picture wasn't the only thing to have been trampled. An entire dresser, made of the beautiful dark wood that flowed throughout the rest of the house, was tipped over on its side. A bottle was shattered on the floor in a glassy puddle beneath the opened window. What was spilled looked like what Damon had been drinking at the café earlier. I stepped carefully around the floor. Clothes had been ripped out of the closet, and they were now strewn about the floor, as were a few classy pairs of shoes. A single wooden stake laid in the mess as well.

I panicked a bit. Had Damon staked himself? I thought back to Stefan's ripped up shirt.

Oh. Had Stefan staked him?

I was on the verge of crumpling to the ground in tears when, out of nowhere, Damon landed in the glass. His body shot right through the window, and there he stood in all his inhuman beauty.

The sides and nearly the entire torso of his shirt had been torn out. Pale, muscled strips of his skin showed through the once white fabric. His deep black hair was tousled in a somehow attractive, bedraggled look. I wanted to run my fingers through it, and fix it for him.

He stared at me with desperate, hungry eyes-and not blood-thirsty hungry.
In a matter of mere seconds, I was pulled against that bearly bare chest, and his mouth was on mine.

It suddenly didn't matter to me what he was, or what he'd done. The Damon I knew was not a monster, and as his teeth tugged gently on my bottom lip, I found myself unable to understand why I'd ever doubted him.

He spun us implausibly fast, and crushed me softly against the wall. His hand cradled my head, tangling in my hair, caressing my temple with his thumb. His head bent as his lips moved to my neck, and I leaned into him.

My arms held him to me. I felt safe here, with him. That ring he gave me was made to defend me against his kind; everything he'd done had been to keep me out of harm's way. Even lying to me about Jeremy was to save me. He'd tried to keep himself out of my life, tree to make it easy for me to hate him. And it had worked; I would've been completely out of this world full of these dangerous creatures. My life would've moved on, and eventually, Damon would've been nothing but a haunting memory.

I realized that in choosing Damon, I was choosing this life as well. It could put me, my friends and my family in jeopardy, and at some point, I was going to have to decide whether he was worth it. I knew that that choice would probably be procrastinated until something truly terrible happened to Jer or Bonnie or I, and then I would have to change something.

But right now, I had this moment with Damon. His kisses trailed over my shoulder, back up my neck, and then met my lips again.

I smiled against his mouth jut as we both began to pull away. His hands rented on my hips. I pushed a few piers of hair off my face, and then mussed with his. He let me, a smile sparkling in his eyes as he looked down at me.

"What changed your mind, Elena?" He traced his finger lightly down from the sensitive skin in between my eyes, to the tip of my nose.

I shrugged lightly. "You were lying to me."

"Well, yeah, we established that. I didn't expect that to...please you."

I met his eyes. "You didn't attack those kids. You were with the Sheriff."

"And you weren't supposed to find that out."

"I'm glad I did."

He snorted. "Mm, me too."