Bloodlines

Chapter 17:Dead Man on Campus

Beta: PrincessOfSilence

Disclaimer: I own nothing of TVD or TO. I only own my characters and my plot.

"Damon! I'm home!" Cassandra called as she stepped inside the foyer of the boarding house. Her arms were filled with shopping bags which she dumped in the living room before flinging herself on the couch. Damon sauntered into the room, a drink in hand and he threw a wink at her. His eyes then found the shopping bags and she gave him a coy grin.

"What is all of this?" He wondered and peeked inside some of them.

"Some clothes. A little of this, a little of that." She took off her jacket and placed it over the arm of the couch.

"More clothes?!" He sat beside her.

"Uh, yes, because in case you haven't noticed, my clothes upstairs are not meant to fit a pregnant body." She explained.

Damon chuckled softly and placed his hand on her thigh. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," she yawned contently.

"Wanna go upstairs and nap for a little bit?" He suggested with a grin. He wanted nothing more than to snuggle with his wife.

"Hmm, maybe later, but for right now..." She kicked her boots off and wiggled her feet at him. "Can I have a foot massage?" Damon sighed exasperatedly and Cassandra moved her toes around. "Pleeeaassee?"

"Alright, alright." He took her feet and kissed them both before flashing upstairs and grabbing a bottle of moisturizer from the bathroom. "You know, I'm beginning to think you just married me for my foot massages." He plopped down on the couch and squeezed some moisturizer into his hands.

"That was part of it." She giggled and her phone rang. "Hey Elena."

"Hi! How are you?" The teen vampire greeted cheerfully.

"Well, I have my handsome husband massaging my feet, so life is good." She smiled down at Damon who rubbed more moisturizer into his wife's feet. Thankfully they hadn't swelled up, but she would occasionally feel shooting pains through her feet, so she would have Damon rub them to increase blood circulation.

"Ooh, I could go for a foot massage." Elena smiled as she walked along the campus and held out flyers. "Listen, I have to ask you guys something. Okay. I know this is going to sound lame, but-"

"Anytime you start with 'This is gonna sound lame,' guess what? It is." Damon droned and kneaded the balls of her feet. Cassandra slumped further into the couch, thoroughly enjoying the sensations of her feet being pampered. She was a sucker for any kind of massage, but she especially loved getting pedicures because she always knew that a hot towel and massage was waiting at the end.

"It's a party for Bonnie since she's finally back. It'll be at the school and since you both had a really big part in bringing her back, so, I think you two should come." She suggested and Cassandra made a face.

"Oh, I don't know, Elena..."

"Why not? We should go." Damon piped up. His fingers were now working in between her freshly painted toes.

"Oh! Wait. Hang on. Wait." Elena moved the phone away from her ear to rush across the grass and talk to Aaron. "Hey! Aaron, hey!"

"Hi." The teen greeted.

"Who is Aaron?" Damon wondered.

"One of the kids up at school, I guess." Cassandra shrugged her shoulders and leaned back on the couch. "Damon, I don't know about going to this party."

"And why is that?" He scooted closer to her, placing her feet in his lap.

"Well, clearly this campus has some kind of information about vampires. And if there is this mystery vampire running around and killing students, I don't want to be around it." She explained. "Plus, Dr. Maxfield is a creep."

"You're scared," he stated.

"I'm not scared for me." She rubbed her hand over her stomach and Damon placed

his hand over hers.

"Hey, listen to me. We'll go to the party for a little bit, make an appearance and leave, okay?"

Her nose crinkled slightly, weighing her choices. "I don't know, Damon..." She suddenly jumped up when he tickled the bottom of her foot. "Hey!"

Damon gave her a playful smirk before doing it again and she shrieked loudly. "I never knew that you had ticklish feet."

"No! No, I don't!" She tried to squirm away from him, but he was not having it. He pulled her towards him and tortured the bottoms of her feet. Cassandra was howling with laughter so hard that she was having trouble catching her breath, so she decided to even the playing field. She jumped up, straddling him on the couch and the pair wrestled around until the lost their footing and toppled to the floor.

Elena tucked a wave of pink hair behind her ear as she watched a newly compelled Aaron walk away from her. She wanted the two of them to start over, so she wiped his brain to forget the conversation and to have him come to the party at the dorms. She sighed and lifted the phone up to her ear again.

"Sorry about that. I-" she stopped talking hearing Cassandra giggling loudly.

"Damon! Damon, stop that!" She squeaked and Elena could hear Damon placing wet kisses along her skin.

"Uhm, guys?"The teen cleared her throat loudly.

"Oh! Sorry 'Lena." Cassandra managed to get out in between her giggles.

"No, we're not sorry." Damon added and Elena blushed.

"So...I, uh, I'll see you guys tonight?"

"Sure! What-Stop it! No!" She heard more rustling around on the other line. "We'll be there around 9."

Elena's brown eyes found the colorful flyer in her hand. "But, the party starts at 8."

"We know." Damon purred and the line went dead, leaving a blushing Elena with a dial tone in her ear. She hung up her phone and stuffed it in her pocket as she marched over the campus lawn to meet with Caroline who was getting alcohol for the party.

Because every good college party had unlimited amounts of alcohol.

Just as Elena expected, Damon and Cassandra both showed up to the party around 9:30, but she would rather them take an extra half hour to make themselves more presentable then to walk in with disheveled clothes and messy hair. Cassandra looked adorable as ever in a pair of jeans, ankle booties, a loose fitting tank-top and a cardigan that hid her belly very well. Even though she was getting bigger by the day, she still rocked her style. Elena was positive that Cassandra would still be wearing sky-high heels even when she was a full nine months pregnant. On her arm, Damon was dressed in the usual black V-neck with dark wash jeans and he kissed his wife's cheek and left to have a nice chat with Dr. Maxfield. Once Jesse had been turned, Elena spoke with both Damon and Cassandra since she knew that Dr. Maxfield was the reason that Jesse turned. If they could get some answers from him, then they'd be in better shape about what the University knew about vampires. Cassandra promised her husband that she would check on him later and she glanced around the room for any familiar faces. The moment the girls eyes met, they made their way towards each other and embraced tightly.

"Great party!" Cassandra praised with a beaming grin.

"Thanks! Caroline helped a lot." Elena nodded and she saw that Cassandra was now looking at Caroline who was dancing with a young darker-skinned guy.

"Whoa, she moved on fast." She whistled.

"Well, there's more to it." The teen vampire took Cassandra's wrist and led her to a quiet part of the dorms, a staircase where they could talk in private. "Jesse is a newly turned vampire."

"Oh no, Caroline didn't turn him, did she?"

"No, actually, Dr. Maxfield did."

Cassandra's eyes grew wide. "What?!"

"Jesse already had vampire blood in his system and Wes killed him. He was telling us how Wes did all of these weird experiments on him down in his lab." Elena explained and Cassandra pinched the bridge of her nose. "So, Caroline is showing him the ropes."

"Looks like Wes is a bigger problem than we thought." She said. "I knew that creep was up to something. I just didn't think making lab rat vampires was it."

"Jesse was telling us that he was in a cell all day and night. He'd be taken out only for Wes to do experiments on him and he'd inject him with blood or something. Now that Wes knows about vampires, that means that Caroline and I aren't safe."

"Maybe that's what Wes was talking about..." Cassandra wondered and Elena raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

"At the Halloween party, Wes kept telling me to take you home because there were people watching you." She spoke quietly. "Maybe he meant that this entire school knows about vampires."

"But why would he tell you that when he is the one making vampires? He was looking out for me, but-"

"I still don't trust him." She cut her off with a growl. "Maybe he was telling me to get you back to Mystic Falls to bait me, but that still doesn't explain why he is making vampires in his basement lab."

"That's why Care and I are trying to blend in as much as possible around here." She replied.

"Good. Keep it that way." Cassandra sighed and leaned against the wall. "How is Jesse adjusting?"

Elena pursed her lips. "Pretty good. We were showing him the ropes before. Care more than me, but I think that's because she has a crush on him."

"Well, he's cute." She smirked just as a sad looking blonde haired guy entered the party. She vaguely remembered his face from the costume party, but she wasn't entirely sure. "Who's the sad sack?"

The teen turned and waved at him. "That's Aaron." She waved him over and he awkwardly made his way through the crowd. "You made it."

"Yeah, I did." He smiled solemnly and looked oddly at Cassandra. "Uh, hi. You new on campus?"

"No, just visiting." She held out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Cassandra and I'm a friend of Elena's."

"I'm going to get some drinks. Aaron, Cassandra, do you guys want anything?"

"A beer is fine." Aaron replied.

"Water, please." The hybrid smiled and Elena was on her way.

"You come to a college party and you're not drinking?" He joked.

"Trust me, Aaron. I wish I could." She sighed wearily, sincerely wishing that an alcoholic beverage could be in her future.

"Why can't you?" He asked.

"It's a long story." She dismissed the matter completely, not wanting to spill everything to a kid that she had just met. "So, Aaron. How do you like college so far?"

"It's been...interesting."

"Elena told me about your friend Megan. I am so sorry."

"Thanks. I'll just have to get used to the fact that everyone dies around me, I guess." He shrugged and the tone of his voice was making Cassandra uneasy.

"What do you mean?" She wondered.

"Never mind." She caught his arm before he stood up to walk away and compelled him.

"Sit. Talk." He followed her commands and started talking.

"My parents were killed when I was 6. We went camping and I woke up to the sound of my mom screaming. I went to check it out, and I saw blood everywhere. They had bite marks all over their neck." He replied.

"Bite marks?" Cassandra wondered aloud.

"Yeah. They said a bear got into the camp. So I shuffled around distant relatives for a while. Eventually, Wes took me in. So Wes is the closest thing to family I have left."

"Hmm, so Wes is your legal guardian."

"Yes." The teen nodded and then Cassandra removed her compulsion from him.

"Forget that we had this little chat. You were wondering where Elena went with that beer." She dictated and as soon as he blinked, he glanced around the party curiously.

"Where's Elena with that beer?" He asked her and she shrugged.

"I'm not sure, Aaron. As much as I would love to stay and chat, I have some business to attend to." She left him sitting there and slipped out of the party without anyone noticing that she had gone.

Damon whistled an upbeat tune as his nimble fingers moved over rows of small bottles and he plucked a few from their carefully placed spots. The cool air from the fridge that he was searching through sent a chill up his arms, but that hardly bothered him at all. He was more concerned with getting answers from Dr. Maxfield who was tied down to a gurney in his own lab. After finding the bottles he needed, Damon closed the fridge and took the assortment of bottles to a small table to place them on.

"What do you want?" The disgruntled doctor asked as he tested his bonds.

"What I want is to be drinking copious quantities of booze and making out with my wife, but unfortunately, I can't do that until I get a bunch of answers out of you." Damon replied with a wide grin and his eyes snapped to the glass door which was pushed open. "Well, if it isn't my sexy lab assistant."

Cassandra was sure to shut the door behind her and she glanced around the lab. Giving a low whistle, she met Damon halfway. "Nice place you got here, doc."

"Coming to check in on me?" Damon wondered as he watched her walk around the lab.

"What kind of lab assistant would I be if I didn't?" She smirked at him over her shoulder.

Wes gritted his teeth and tried to get himself free. "I should have known that you two would be working together."

"You should be counting your lucky stars, doctor. It's not every day that someone gets to be questioned by us." She told him and opened up the same fridge that Damon was looking in. "Whoa!"

"Careful with those." Wes pleaded as he watched her snatch up a tray of bottles.

"What? These?" She guessed and took out the tray to place it on the table beside the bottles that Damon had placed there. She picked up a few of them and read the names. "You know, I have to wonder why a college professor would have an entire fridge full of infectious diseases. That's not dangerous at all."

"My title is M.D. PhD. I'm a researcher," Wes explained.

Damon nodded as he looked for some syringes. "That explains it. I know a lot of people like you. Science over medicine, right? Let me guess. You use these diseases on your little vampire lab rats, don'tcha?" Wes didn't answer him and Cassandra tsked. "Not in the mood to talk?"

"Such a shame." Cassandra pouted.

"Nurse Salvatore, would you kindly select something for our dear doctor friend?"

He smirked and she grinned coyly at him.

"Of course." Her neatly manicured nails skimmed over the array of bottles that she had to choose from and she pursed her lips as she read over the labels. All of these diseases would be very deadly to humans, but these could easily be healed by a couple sips of vampire blood. Finding a bottle that tickled her fancy, she grasped it and handed it to Damon who had prepped a syringe.

"Thank you, sweetheart." He kissed her cheek lovingly and turned to Wes. "We're going to play a little game, where I inject you with whatever the hell "necrotizing fasciitis" is."

"It's a flesh-eating bacteria." The doctor cringed.

"Gross." Damon stuck the needle into the bottle and turned it upside down so that he could pull the plunger back so the liquid would fill the tube. Once there was enough, he pulled the syringe from the bottle and flicked the tube to get the proper measurement. "So, I'm going to do that and I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, and if you answer me correctly, I'm going to give you some delicious vampire blood and we'll heal you on up. If you don't answer me correctly, we're just gonna have to see how much flesh these little guys can eat."

"Let the games begin." Cassandra smirked and without any mercy, Damon stabbed Wes with the syringe and injected him with the liquid.

Only a few minutes had passed and the virus was wreaking havoc on Wes. His skin was deathly pale, he was sweating profusely, and the site where Damon had injected him was festering. His breathing was shallow and his entire body was weak from the bacteria.

"You don't look so good." Damon frowned sarcastically.

"Yeah, you look a little pale." His wife observed and Wes swallowed thickly. "Not so much fun when you're on the other side of the table, is it, doctor?"

"Turning a kid into a vampire so you can experiment on him? Harsh. What is it about this place that turns people into mad scientists?" The vampire crossed his arms over his chest.

"Human trials are a vital part of modern medicine." Wes spoke up.

"Don't people usually volunteer, or sign waivers to maybe get some dough for tuition?" He rolled his eyes and looked through the bottles that he and his wife collected earlier.

"And I doubt Jesse was getting any kind of compensation for being forced to stay in a cell and be tested on." She glowered.

"Sometimes, you do what's necessary for the greater good." He said.

Damon chuckled heartily. "I'm not the greatest guy in the world, but sounds like some Mengele-level crap that you're spouting out, so I gotta ask, what is your greater good?" He used his teeth to pull the cap off of a syringe and he spit the cap onto the floor. He then wheeled himself on a rolling chair over the table and hummed as he chose a bottle.

"What is that?" Wes asked weakly and Damon showed him the bottle.

"Ooh, Rabies. Sounds fun, doesn't it?" Damon wheeled himself back over to the doctor.

"And very appropriate, given the circumstances." Cassandra stood over Wes and held his arm down so Damon could inject him with the rabies. More time had passed, but Wes's condition still remained the same. His body was still reacting to the flesh eating bacteria, but he was showing no side effects of being injected with the rabies virus. Both husband and wife were sitting in front of him, pondering what they should do next.

"Well, rabies was no good." Cassandra sighed and Damon threw away the needle. He rolled himself back to the table with the vials and looked for another one. "Better give him some answers, Wes, before he finds something worse to stick you with."

"I wanted to turn Jesse into a new kind of vampire." Dr. Maxfield finally cracked.

"Well, that's awfully ambitious of you." Damon grumbled.

"I am awfully smart." Wes retorted and Damon pushed himself back to the gurney with a new vial in hand and a wicked smile on his lips.

Cassandra took up the bottle and read the label. "Hmm, Ebola sounds lovely. Nothing like uncontrollable hemorrhaging from the eyes, nose and mouth." Wes visibly flinched and watched carefully as she handed Damon a syringe. "Why?"

"Your kind is dangerous to humans. You're dangerous because we're your food source. I want to change that." Wes explained hurriedly in an effort to stop the dynamic duo from killing him with another deadly virus.

"Keep talking." Damon growled.

"If vampires don't need to feed on humans, they're no longer a threat."

Damon angrily slammed his fist onto the table, making Wes jump and shy away. "I'm not buying the good doctor bit."

"Neither am I." Cassandra took up the now full syringe and brought it closer to Wes.

"Human blood will only satiate Jesse temporarily until he gets a taste of what he really craves." The doctor blabbed and shifted away from the sharp point of the needle as much as his bonds would allow.

"Well, what exactly does he really crave?" Damon asked, but Wes kept quiet. Growing tired of his game, Cassandra sunk the needle into the side of his neck, but she didn't press the plunger down.

"I suggest you answer him. Now." She threatened darkly.

"Vampire blood! Jesse craves vampire blood!" Wes shouted painfully and his eyes screwed shut as he waited to be injected but the feeling never came. Instead, the syringe was removed and tossed aside.

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Cassandra cooed sweetly and fished through her pocket to find her ringing phone. "Nurse Salvatore speaking."

"Hey. What did you find out?" Elena asked.

"Dr. Maxfield was just telling us that Jesse craves vampire blood." She replied.

"So, Jesse feeds on...vampires?" The teen asked.

"That's what Doogie said, and apparently once he starts, he can't stop." Damon added.

"And the fact that he told you this means that he's still alive, right?" Elena hoped and Cassandra kicked the bottom of the gurney seeing Wes's eyes fall closed. His condition was worsening and they didn't need him unconscious after all of the information he'd given them.

"Yeah, he's...hanging in there."

Elena let out a grateful sigh. "Good. Please don't kill him."

"Not sure if we can promise that." Damon tsked.

"Promise me that you two won't kill him." The teen begged and Damon rolled his eyes.

"Fine. We'll leave him alive." Cassandra appeased her friend and hung up the phone. The pair stood over Dr. Maxfield and exchanged a sideways glance with one another.

"Problem is I know people like you a lot better than you realize. If I let you live, you're just gonna do it again. You're gonna turn another vampire, you're gonna do another experiment. The only way to really handle you is just to snuff you out." Damon leaned closer to Wes who was honestly questioning if he would make it out of this alive. "You're lucky I don't feel like burying a body." The vampire bit into his wrist and held it to Wes's mouth, but before the doctor could drink, Jesse stormed into the lab.

"What the hell did you do to me?" He demanded of Wes.

"Easy there, killer." Damon held him back, but Jesse was seething.

"Wasn't bad enough that you locked me up and poked me full of needles? Now I want to feed on the girl I like?"

"You feed on monsters, Jesse." Wes told him and Jesse suddenly became aware of Damon's cut wrist. The smell of vampire blood ignited his senses and he vamped out, ready to attack Damon, but the raven haired vampire held him by the neck.

"In case Professor Forbes forgot to tell you in your training, sweetie, I'm a lot older than you, and that means I'm a lot stronger than you." Damon told him.

"Actually that's not 100% accurate." Wes mentioned and Jesse used all of his strength to shove Damon through the glass lab door. They fell out into the hallway with Jesse on top and Damon was fighting back.

"Damon!" Cassandra shouted as she watched them fight.

"I'm fine!" Her husband called back and managed to push Jesse off him. Cassandra turned to Wes and gripped his neck tightly.

"What will stop him?" When Wes didn't answer, she squeezed harder. "Tell me!"

"Jesse can't be stopped. Once he has a sip of vampire blood, he won't be able to stop himself." He breathed out and Cassandra was ready to give Wes's neck one more squeeze, but she felt two strong hands on her shoulders. Baby fangs were embedded into her neck and she growled loudly as Jesse drank her blood. Thinking quickly, she let go of Wes and bent her body downward. Her hands reached behind her and gripped her captor's neck, ripping his fangs out of her skin and throwing him across the room. Jesse's hard body hit the fridge and left quite an indentation, but he was hardly out for the count.

"Don't you know that it's impolite to put your hands on a lady?" She hissed as her own features morphed into that of her hybrid form. She hadn't noticed, but Wes was suddenly intrigued that she was showing both the transformations of a vampire and a werewolf. Amber eyes were surrounded by the whites of her eyes that had now turned crimson and when she snapped her teeth at Jesse, she had four fangs as not two. Jesse looked somewhat frightened by her and cowered back into the corner slightly, but he managed to find the courage in himself to get on his feet and face her. He lunged for her and she caught him as they tumbled back into the hallway. Jesse was able to get her against the wall with one hand at her neck and she fought back as hard as she could, but Jesse was too strong. He was choking her to death and Cassandra saw little spots blind her vision. Smirking, Jesse bent down to her neck again, but Cassandra wouldn't go down without a fight. When he moved closer to her, she bit the side of his face, injecting him with her deadly werewolf venom and Jesse let go of her. He stumbled back, holding his face and crying out in agony as the venom burned him. Damon had woken up from his temporary state of unconsciousness and rushed to Cassandra who was sucking in all of the air she could.

"Hey! Look at me! Are you okay?" He checked her over and saw that Jesse's deep bite mark on her neck had almost healed.

She nodded and looked to Jesse who was shaking his head around in an effort to get the burning sensation to stop. "I'm fine, but he's stronger than the two of us put together."

Jesse let out another scream and growled at the couple. "What did you do to me?!"

"The venom should hold him down." Damon helped his wife get to her feet.

"I don't think so." Cassandra trailed off to see Jesse getting himself back on his feet as the pain of her bite subsided. "Once he gets his first taste of vampire blood, he won't stop."

Damon's heart dropped and his fingers trailed over Cassandra's neck where Jesse had bitten her. If what Wes said was true, Jesse would have to feed on Cassandra until he got his entire fill of blood which meant that he'd drain her dry. A roar from Jesse made them glance down the hallway and before they knew it, he was rushing toward them at an incredible speed. Cassandra couldn't move fast enough, but a hard shove from Damon was able to get her out of the way from Jesse's attack. She hit the floor and braced herself on her hands, but Damon had taken the brunt of it. Jesse but into Damon's neck roughly and he fed at an alarming rate once he got a taste of vampire blood. Cassandra pushed herself onto her feet, bits and pieces of glass embedding in her hands from the door being smashed, but she shook it off.

"Cassandra! Damon!" She heard Elena shouting as she ran down the hall towards them.

"Elena, get back!" Cassandra told her but Elena didn't stop. Her brown eyes grew wide seeing Jesse feeding from Damon.

"Oh my God, Jesse! Jesse, stop it!" She yelled at the newborn vampire, but he didn't listen.

"There's no use talking to him." The hybrid told her and grew conflicted as Damon became weaker and weaker by the second. She knew what she had to do, but she was hesitant to kill Jesse because none of this was his fault.

"He's gonna tear my head off. Cass, please." He begged and Cassandra picked up a piece of broken wood from the door that lay discarded on the floor. Taking careful aim, she plunged the stake into Jesse's back right through the muscle and pierced his heart. Jesse's body went stiff and his grip on Damon loosened as he felt his life force leaving his body. He fell to the floor by Elena's feet and Cassandra caught Damon as Caroline watched what unfolded at the end of the hallway.

"No! No!" She ran to Jesse and kneeled by his side. She cradled his head in her lap and he looked up at her blankly. She cried while she held him and begged for him to pull through, but she knew that he wouldn't make it. "No, Jesse! Jesse, come here. Hold on. Hold on. Just stay with me, please. Jesse, just stay with me, please." Cassandra fed Damon some of her blood and they watched on as the light in Jesse's eyes grew dark. His eyes fell closed and he breathed his last breath in Caroline's embrace. The blonde vampire whimpered and grieved over the loss of her new friend, but that sadness quickly turned into anger. A pair of angry blue eyes turned on Cassandra and Caroline stood.

"What did you do?"

"He was going to kill Damon-" Cassandra tried to explain, but Caroline cut her off.

"But I promised that I would help him." She snapped.

"She didn't have a choice, alright? Once he had the taste of vampire blood, there was nothing stopping him." Damon defended his wife from Caroline's wrath and the blonde backed down slightly, knowing that she was outnumbered and outlived by the two of them. "If you don't believe me, ask Dr. Frankenstein."

Caroline huffed and bent down to Jesse's body to lift him up. Cassandra moved to help her, but the blonde screeched at her. "Don't touch him! You've already done enough!"

"Caroline..." Cassandra whispered.

"No! Just leave me alone." She cried and with Elena's help, they lifted Jesse up and carried him down the hall.

Cassandra ran her hands through her hair. "I didn't want to kill him, Damon, but I had to."

"I know." He took her in his arms and kissed her temple. "Thank you." She smiled against his skin and hugged him tightly, breathing in his scent.

"I love you." She whispered softly and kissed his cheek. She sighed tiredly in his hold and gave a small yawn.

Damon pulled back and tuck a curl behind her ear. "Listen, you're exhausted. Head home and I'll meet you there, okay?"

"But, Damon-"

He placed a finger over her lips. "No buts. I'll be okay here. Just get yourself home"

As much as Cassandra didn't want to leave Damon alone with Dr. Maxfield, the adrenaline from the fight with Jesse was draining out of her and all she wanted was to head home and go to sleep. She hesitantly nodded and peered up at him. "Meet you at home?"

"Promise." He sealed the deal with a loving kiss on her lips and he handed her the car keys. She took them and he watched her as she walked away. Once she was out of sight, he cracked his neck and shuffled back into the lab where Wes was still tied up.

"You and I have some unfinished business to attend to." He smiled at Wes.

"What the hell is your wife?" Wes suddenly asked him. He saw how her bite effected Jesse and was intrigued to know more. "She was showing transformations of a werewolf and a vampire. So, what is she?"

"That'll be my little secret, doc." Damon ignored his question and rifled through more vials to inject Wes with.

"If you're gonna do this, I'd much rather prefer a bullet through the brain." He said and Damon walked back to him with a small blade to cut the ties that were holding him to the gurney.

"Actually I'm gonna wait until I can compel all this out of your head." The vampire told him and took the tray of vials back to the fridge where he and Cassandra had gotten them. He opened up the door and placed the vials where they were, but before he closed the door, his gaze landed on a blood bag. Normally he would have bypassed it, but stuck to the plastic was a tag with a five digit number typed on it. He grabbed the bag and examined it closely. "Why does this say 12144?"

"What do you care?" Wes wondered.

"Because I was 21051." Damon replied and Wes stared at him.

"21051. Hang on. You were an Augustine vampire?" The very name sent Damon hurdling full force into flashbacks. They were blurry and hard to make out; Damon remembered every single thing that happened to him. He was strapped to a table, bleeding from his eye in one moment and in the next, a pair of latex gloves covered in blood were taking an organ from his abdomen.

"Augustine." His voice was quiet as the memories cleared. Haven't heard that name in decades. Vampire lab rats, coded subject names. I thought you guys shut down 60 years ago."

Wes smirked widely, as if knowing something that Damon didn't. "You thought wrong."

Damon then threw the blood pack in the fridge and slammed the door shut with a growl. "You know how I said I wasn't gonna kill you? I lied." He began filling up a syringe, but Wes had managed to cut himself loose and he rushed for the exit. Damon beat him to it, of course, and sped to grab him, but Wes's fist pressed a red button on the wall. A gas was released into the lab from vents up above and it immediately burned Damon's skin and lungs. In seconds, a cloud of the gas filled the entire lab and the raven haired vampire was coughing and groaning on his hands and knees.

"Atomized vervain. When working with vampires, you can never be too careful." Wes stood over Damon and watched as he passed out from the amount of vervain that was infecting his body. Damon gave a final groan before collapsing onto the floor and falling into unconsciousness and Wes kicked his body to make sure that he was incapacitated. Once the smoke cleared, he smirked to himself and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sure Augustine will be thrilled to have you back."

"NO!" Cassandra's body bolted upright as she was awoken from a nightmare. She fought with the sheets, thinking that they were hands grabbing at her, but she quickly realized that she was home and that she was safe. She wiped the sweat off her brow and she let the covers pool around her waist. Her heart still thudded loudly in her chest and she tried to calm her erratic breathing. A frown graced her features seeing that Damon was not in the bed beside her and she peered over at the clock.

2:45am

She left the college around one in the morning without saying goodbye to anyone and it took her about 30 minutes to get home with no traffic on the roads. That put her at 1:30am when she had gotten home. She remembered climbing into bed a little after 1:45am, so she was really only asleep for an hour but it felt like a lifetime. Sighing heavily, she slumped back down onto the bed, flopping about like a fish out of water and she laid there for a few quiet moments. She couldn't remember what her nightmare was about, that was typically the case whenever she had a nightmare, but it must have been terrifying for her own screams to wake her up. She guessed that Stefan was still out since he didn't come in to check on her and for that she was somewhat grateful. She hated making a fuss or having people worry over her and since everyone knew that she was pregnant, she found that they were fussing over her even more. She was thankful for that, of course, because it did help to have extra help around when she needed it, but she never wanted people to worry about her. Maybe it was because she spent so much time worrying over them. Cassandra was the oldest of the Mystic Falls gang and often times she felt like an older sister to the rest of them.

Her phone vibrating against the wooden end table made her sit up and she quickly snatched it, hoping that it was a message from Damon. There were a few messages on her phone actually. Some from Elena who wondered where she had gone, some from Caroline who apologized for yelling at her, and one new message from Damon.

Hey. Sorry for the hold up. Had to clean up. Be home soon.

She did feel a lot better that she at least heard from him and if he just texted her now, then he would be heading home within the next hour. She typed back a quick reply and placed her phone back on charge. She fluffed up her pillows and grabbed one of Damon's shirts from his drawer to wear to bed instead of her sweat soaked nightgown. She lay on her side, hugged her pillow close to her, and she closed her eyes, hoping that Damon would be home soon. She rubbed her belly with a smile and she soon found herself falling asleep.

That's okay. See you soon. Love you xoxo

Dr. Maxfield read over the message with a grin before placing it back in the pocket of his white lab coat. He had managed to heal himself with some sips of vampire blood from his stash of labeled blood bags and he never felt better. He looked at the clock that ticked on the wall and decided to call it a night. It would be a long day for him tomorrow and he needed all the rest that he could get.

The same held true for the vampire that was being held in a cold, dark cell in the basement.

It was the smell of clean, damp air coming into his lungs which made Damon stir slightly from his place on the floor. His eyes slowly cracked open and they had to take some moments to adjust to the lack of light. The vervain was gone, but it was still being circulated through his body after being inhaled. He felt groggy and weak as he leaned himself against the hard wall. Looking around him, his surroundings were oddly familiar to him and that was his worst nightmare come true. He remembered being in this very cell when he was a part of Augustine. Under his head, he felt that some parts of the wall that he was leaning against were not smooth. Turning to look at it, his stomach dropped further seeing a faded 'D.S.' carved into the hard stone. Underneath that, he could make out the number 53.

His initials and the year he was subjected to the torture of Augustine. More flashbacks assaulted him as he recalled the horrors that he endured for years. He would scream as doctors and lab assistants opened him up to have a look around inside his body to do some tests and then close him back up. Every single part of his body was tested on, every single day was spent being ripped open or having something ripped off him. At the end of a long day of being a vampire guinea pig, he would be thrown back into his cell where he would be left to rot in a pool of his own blood from a botched close-up job. In this very cell, he remembered carving his name and year because deep down, he thought that he would die there.

Maybe this time, he would.

Oh, boy. Damon is in trouble! Will Cassandra be able to find out and get to him in time? And what new alarming secrets will she find out about Damon's past? Will Wes succeed in his plan?

Thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed this story and those of you who have been so patient with my sporadic updates. Your reviews help me to keep going and show me that you care about my work just as much as I do. I love you all so much and please review :) Also, please check out the work of my beta, PrincessOfSilence. She is an incredible writer and a wonderful friend!

twin of a sister: No problem, girl! Thank you for being an amazing friend! I'm glad you enjoyed the update and I hope that you enjoyed this update! I do wish that my characters were on the show sometimes. Thank you for reviewing :D

grapejuice101: Thanks for reviewing! Klaus is definitely jealous ;) And Elijah is very sweet to Giuliana :)

SomebodyWhoCares: Yes ma'am! The plot thickens indeed ;) Thank you for reviewing!

lovinurbuks: Thanks for posting a review! Hayley is becoming closer and closer to finding her real family. Elijah and Giuliana will share a few special moments in the next chapter, so you and other members of Team Elijah will be happy :)

binks13: Thanks, babe! I do wish that I was writing for both shows. Maybe if this teaching gig doesn't work out, LOL! If I was given the chance to write for the show, I'd pack my bags in a second and go! I haven't heard if The Originals was renewed for a second season, but I do know that TVD will have a season six. Klaus is very jealous that Giuliana is getting a lot of attention from Marcel and Elijah too. Giuliana is still a very mysterious character and she has a lot of walls built around her especially because she is rubbing elbows with vampires/hybrids/werewolves. She and Elijah have a few very special moments in the upcoming chapter, so do look out for those :) I have next week to catch up on watching TVD and TO, so I will try to twist my own stories around to have it fit the show. Hope you enjoyed this update :D

Whitttyyy76: Thank you for reviewing! I do like having Giuliana and Elijah together. I think they fit very nicely and have a lot of chemistry! In the next chapter, they will share a few special moments, so keep a look out for those! I do not want Hayley to end up with Elijah either, so don't feel bad, LOL!

Guest: Thanks so much for reviewing! I hoping to keep my updates as often as possible, but school/work gets hectic sometimes :/ I definitely plan on working Enzo into my story. He is such a HUGE part of Damon's past and it will cause a lot of angst and friction with Damon/Cassandra and Enzo/Cassandra.

Shining Ruby: You certainly do sense jealousy from Klaus! His jealousy will only grow as Marcel or Elijah spend more time with Giuliana. I am glad that you enjoyed the update and thank you for reviewing!

Bangbaby: Thank you for reviewing! Here is your update! Hope you enjoyed it :)

KlausLover: Thanks girl! I do hope that I can think of a plot and OC for a story idea. I'm a little hesitant to do another Originals story only because a lot of the scenes would be written over from this story and I don't want my stories to be too similar. But I will definitely take it under consideration :)