Chapter 8

"So you're hiding a vampire from the future at your house?" Sheriff Forbes asks as Damon pulls his car onto the long driveway of the boarding house.

"Yep," he says.

"And that's just normal for you."

He laughs and glances at his passenger with a wicked grin. "Nope, that's a new one for me. Just like the werewolves and doppelgängers. This town is a vortex of supernatural creepiness."

"Lucky me." Liz sighs and sags in her seat. How can the town she's sworn to protect be this infested with evil? How could she let this happen? Hell, she didn't even pick up on Damon's vampirism. "How am I supposed to help with a time traveler, and how does that help me stop those…witches?"

Damon opens his mouth to explain, but pauses. How does he tell his friend that her daughter died days ago, woke up as one of the immortal monsters she's spent her whole life fighting, and has now traveled from, what Damon suspects is, the far off future? It's been a long time since he's concerned himself with how someone else may feel or react, and Damon decides he doesn't like the alien emotion. Still, he can tell Liz is on the fence about trusting him. She may decide at any moment that killing Damon and every other monster in Mystic Falls is the only morally acceptable option. And honestly, Damon would agree with that decision. It's what a righteous person would do. He's always found the blood of righteous people to have a bitter taste, so Damon would be disappointed in having to kill Liz. That and, you know, he might miss her. That's how he finds himself worried about her reaction to finding out Caroline is a vampire.

"Do you know how people turn into vampires, Liz?"

"Not exactly." She fights the urge to place her hand on her holstered gun. She won't let Damon turn her if that's what he's thinking.

"First, you drink vampire blood. Then, you die," he says. Liz's brow creases in confusion, and she narrows her eyes at Damon.

"Vampire blood kills humans?"

"No, vampire blood heals humans of almost any injury. But if you happen to die with the blood still in your system, you wake up a…"

"Vampire."

"Pretty much." Damon nods his head and parks the car under the carport.

"Why are you telling me this, Damon?"

He pulls the key from the ignition and sighs before meeting Liz's gaze with an unusually serious expression. "Because Stefan and I died when our father, Giuseppe Salvatore, shot and killed us."

"What?" Liz gasps. "Why...How could he do that?"

"He was a righteous man and felt his principals were more important than the lives of his sons," Damon says. "Stefan and I were trying to save a vampire that we…cared about. And our father couldn't handle the shame of raising two sympathizers. I don't think he appreciated the irony when we woke up as the monsters he'd spent his life hunting."

Liz stares at Damon as she tries to absorb everything. How could a father kill his own sons? As much of a brat as Caroline can be toward her mother, Liz can't imagine ever hurting her.

"Damon," Liz says, but he interrupts her.

"Just remember that you are nothing like, Giuseppe. You're a good person and a great parent." Damon jumps out of the car and leaves Liz to follow him through the front door.

She watches him leave then shakes her head in puzzlement. What's that supposed to mean? After deciding to follow Damon, Liz closes the front door behind her and stops behind older Salvatore, who stands in the foyer staring in the direction of Stefan's room.

"What is it?" she asks, unsure why Damon would be standing there in silence. He places one finger to his lips then to his ear, indicating that he's listening. Liz doesn't hear anything but the creaking of an old house.

Damon makes a hissing noise and cringes. "That's got to hurt. I can't say I blame her though."

He snickers and motions for Liz to follow him into the main living area. She fidgets in the center of the room while Damon pours a glass of bourbon. He grabs a second glass but pauses.

"Incoming."

"You son of a bitch!" A familiar voice echoes off the walls from upstairs as it marches closer. "You think that just because you apologize that I'll forgive and forget the fact that you just spent the last couple of hours torturing me?"

Stefan explodes through the upstairs railing and lands in a heap on the coffee table. Liz scrambles out of the way of flying debris and ends up standing at the entrance of the living room, under the balcony from which Stefan fell. Stefan groans as three broken ribs struggle to reassemble around the table leg impaled though his side. Blood bubbles up from his mouth due to an injured lung drowning in blood. He struggles to pull the makeshift stake from his abdomen but finds it too difficult. Damon saunters over, drink still in hand, and crouches next to his little brother.

"So how's that bunny diet treating you, Saint Stefan?"

Stefan growls, clutching at his injury. "I could use a little help here."

"Don't you dare, Damon," Caroline says from the balcony above. "He's getting off lucky after what he did to me."

Damon glances up at the blonde vampire before turning his attention back to Stefan and ripping out the stake. "Don't worry, Brother. I brought the perfect distraction."

Caroline jumps down to the living room with her vampire face unleashed and growls at the Salvatore boys. She stops in her tracks when she finds Liz Forbes standing underneath the balcony. Liz had recognized her daughter's voice from above, but the sheriff's brain cells must've overloaded because she's having difficulty making the connections needed to form thoughts. The shock of seeing her daughter as a vampire is overwhelming, to say the least. Liz just stares dumbfounded as Caroline stops in surprise and drops her vampire mask. Tears well in her eyes, and an instant later, Caroline has her arms wrapped around her mother.

Sheriff Forbes is physically incapable of reacting to the vampire's sudden embrace. Her training to kill the monster wars against her maternal instincts. It's the whispers of love and sorrow from her sobbing daughter that break through Liz's struggle. She wraps her arms around her little girl and kisses her head.

"Liz, meet our time traveler," Damon says.

Several hours later, Caroline and Liz sit in the living room talking as Stefan and Damon listen from the kitchen. The purpose was to give them the allusion of privacy, but Caroline knows better. The only thing Damon has heard them discussing were memories of Caroline growing up. At first, Damon used the time to catch his little brother up on Caroline's appearance last night and everything he's managed to pull out of her. Now, he's getting impatient.

"I guess it's safe to say that she's definitely Caroline. It's good to know the girl eventually learns how to keep a secret. Too bad it's screwing us over," Damon says. He leans against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed and pouts.

"Why are you so eager to hear about the future?" Stefan asks from his seat at the table.

"Are you saying that you're not?"

"I'm more interested in figuring out Katherine's motives and running her out of town. Caroline might be able to shed some light on that situation since she's already lived through it."

"Yeah, and apparently every other big bad we'll face in the name of Elena," Damon says.

"What do you mean?"

"Caroline said that doppelgänger blood, i.e. Elena's blood, is valuable to certain powerful witches and to a twelve-hundred-year-old hybrid named Klaus. I got the impression that Elena attracts a lot of supernatural trouble."

"What's a hybrid? And what kind of trouble are we talking about?"

"A vampire and werewolf cross. And that's what I'm trying to get out of her," Damon says. "Did she let anything slip during your torture-porn indulgence?"

"No." Stefan rolls his eyes. "All she said was that she's from the future, and she's looking for someone."

"Two someone's." Damon raises two fingers. "Twin witches that want Katherine dead. So at least that solves one of our problems."

"Twins? Are they young women with dark hair?"

"Yep, Jo and Lizzie. Get this, they're Caroline's adopted kids," Damon says with a sneer. Stefan gapes as his brother continues, "And apparently they're one of the most powerful witches in the world. They are here along with the actual most powerful witch in the world, Hope, and her father, Klaus, the hybrid."

"So they're here for Elena's blood."

"What?"

"You said doppelgänger blood is valuable to powerful witches and Klaus. And judging by Caroline's strength, she's older than us. That means Elena would have died of old age a long time ago. Maybe another doppelgänger hasn't been born yet and, rather than waiting, they traveled back to this time," Stefan says.

Damon stares at him, surprised that he hadn't made those connections himself. But he knows why. Even the thought of a world without Elena knocks the wind from Damon's lungs, and he turns around to grip the counter for support. He pushes all the roiling emotions away behind his wall of denial and grabs a coffee mug from a nearby cabinet in an effort to hide his reaction. After sniffing the old coffee in the pot, he changes his mind and spins toward the door to the living room.

"I think we've had enough mother-daughter bonding," he says as he bursts into the living room. "It's time to get down to business."

Both Forbes women sit back and glare at Damon's rude interruption. While Stefan sneaks in and earns one of the nastiest looks he's seen from Caroline, Damon saunters over to his crystal decanter with an excited grin.

"Caroline, it's time to spill the beans. Your kids are running amuck killing people, and-"

"What?" Caroline interrupts at the same time Liz sputters in surprise.

"Kids?"

"Adopted," Damon says to Liz, then he tips his glass to Caroline. "They spent the morning killing a dozen people, threatening Liz, and trying to track down Katherine. So it's safe to say that the timeline is shot to hell. So no more need to keep secrets."

"Oh my God, they've killed people?" Caroline leans back into her chair and grabs her chest with a pained expression. "What has Hope dragged them into? They're looking for Katherine? Why?"

"We think it might have something to do with doppelgänger blood. Could that be why they traveled here?" Stefan asks. He sits in the throne next to the living room entrance, hoping that offers enough distance to keep Caroline from attacking him again. Apparently, the girl can hold a grudge.

"People who torture me don't get to speak to me without permission." Caroline narrows her eyes at the younger Salvatore, and he grimaces.

"How often have you been tortured?" Damon asks, amused by the outburst. The blonde vampire actually thinks about it then huffs.

"You'd be surprised."

"Well, given that Stefan is not allowed to speak to you, which I think is a great rule," Damon says with no small amount of humor that makes both Liz and Caroline roll their eyes. "May I ask if you think that doppelgänger blood could be a viable reason for your murderous children to travel across time?"

"They are not murderous." Caroline leaps to her feet in protest. "They are good people with kind hearts. I did not raise them to…"

She pauses mid-outburst and drops her arms, deflated. Her eyes search the room for something as her mind works a million miles per minute. Finally, she closes them and sighs in resignation. "They aren't normally like this. They're not themselves."

Something about Caroline's words reminds Damon of the dead look in Lizzie and Jo's eyes. They were emotionless, like they flipped a humanity switch. But witches don't have humanity switches, right? Damon opens his mouth to ask, but Stefan's phone rings.

"It's Elena." Stefan jumps up to answer. "I better catch her up, since I can't participate in this conversation anyway."

"Hey, don't forget to tell her how you tortured her best friend in your bedroom." Damon snickers, and Caroline presses her lips together to hide her small smile. Stefan jerks his hand at his brother's antics as he steps out of the room with the phone pressed to his ear.

"I have a question about your kids, Caroline," Damon says, quick to get back on track. "They seemed off today. You know between all the dead bodies, threateningly their grandmother, and what-not-"

"I doubt they knew who you were, Mom," Caroline says to Liz. She sits back down to hold her mother's hand. "They've never met you."

"Why haven't I met them?" Liz asks. "Am I not okay with the vampire thing? It's difficult, but Honey, I love you. I can't imagine not being able to get past this."

"No, Mom. You were wonderful. At least after you shot Damon a few times."

"What?" Damon swishes his bourbon in outrage.

"The first time that Mom found out, it wasn't under ideal circumstances. Mason Lockwood kind of ratted you out at the Volunteer Picnic," Caroline says to Damon and then turns to Liz to continue. " So you had your deputies ambush Stefan and Damon then drag them to a nearby cellar. You kind of shot Damon a bunch of times with wooden bullets in an attempt to get him to talk, and you nearly killed Stefan."

"It's good to know that today could have been worse." Damon downs the remains of his glass.

"What happened? Did I change my mind?" Liz is unsure how to feel. That's how she should've reacted to learning of Damon's vampirism today, but it just sounds wrong coming from her daughter's mouth.

"No, I stepped in and stopped you. We kept you locked away for a few days until the vervain left your system, and then I compelled you to forget. It wasn't until a few months later that you found out for real. You handled it a little better that time, but not by much. In the end, you accepted me," Caroline says in a gentle tone that she reserves for her kids.

"I can't believe you...or the other Caroline...has been a vampire for days, and I never noticed." The damn of emotions within Liz finally bursts into tears, and Caroline wraps her arms around her mother. She whispers soothingly to Liz as Stefan re-enters the living room.

"May I speak?" He asks the blonde with a teasing smile. Caroline glares at him as her mother attempts to regain control, but the time traveler can't help the smile that dances across her lips. "Elena, Bonnie, and the other Caroline are on their way over. Apparently, Katherine's been threatening Caroline for information on Elena and me. I told them about your run in with the twins and that Sheriff Forbes is here. Caroline seemed…anxious about the news."

"It's okay," Liz says to him then offers a small smile to her daughter. "We'll be okay."

"Great." Damon rubs his hands together . "Now that we've hugged it out and sung 'Kumbaya,' I want to talk about your kids."

"What about them, Damon? Are you going to call them murderers again?" Caroline presses her lips together and glares at the elder Salvatore.

"Well I wouldn't be wrong, but that's not my point. My point is that when I spoke to them, they seemed off."

"What do you mean?" Stefan asks, but Caroline drops her gaze to the wooden floor and bites her lip. Damon catches her slip up.

"She knows what I mean, don't you Caroline?"

She fidgets, darting her eyes around the room. "It's possible that they….maybe…possibly…"

"Spit it out, Caroline."

"I think they flipped their switches."

Damon gawks at her for a moment before glancing at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

Stefan returns the confused expression. "Caroline, that's impossible. I've never heard of a witch with a humanity switch. It's a vampire thing."

"What's a humanity switch?" Liz asks.

"It's this little switch that vampires have hidden in the back of their minds. Flip that sucker and all those pesky human emotions just disappear." Damon flitters his fingers in a demonstration. "That's why so many of us are so much fun to hang around."

"But you all have your emotions on, including my Caroline, don't you?"

"Yes, we do." Caroline nods.

Stefan glances at his brother. He knows Damon doesn't like to admit to feeling anything, especially after decades without his emotions. But lately, Damon hasn't been able to hide it. Not from him and certainly not from Elena.

But Damon doesn't protest Caroline's claim. Instead, he strolls back over to his decanter and pours himself another glass of bourbon. "So how is it possible that you're witchy daughters have humanity switches?"

"Because they are also vampires," Caroline says.

Damon chugs his drink and slams down his empty glass to pour what seems like his hundredth shot. When Stefan joins him next to the little table, Damon grabs a second glass and pours his brother a drink too.

"So vampires, witches, doppelgängers," Stefan says.

"Werewolves, time travelers, hybrids, and now…witchpires?" Damon says, unsure of the name.

"Heretics," Caroline says. "But I believe you prefer the term witchpires."

"Naturally," Stefan says, sipping from his drink.

Damon nods. "Witchpire does seem more descriptive than heretic."

Liz watches the boys with a small, amused smile as they struggle to wrap their heads around the new threat. She doesn't even attempt to understand. It's apparent that her usefulness is limited to confirming Caroline's identity and maybe legal back up, but otherwise she doesn't see how she'll be able to help with the growing threats in her town. A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts, and Stefan hurries to answer it.

A moment later, Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline pile into the house. Elena and Bonnie step into the living room while Caroline slams into an invisible barrier at the threshold and squeaks in surprise. Everyone watches in confusion as she bangs against the seal until the older Caroline explains the problem.

"Yeah, that's not going to work. We can't be within ten feet of each other."

"Who are you?" Elena glances between her friend and the woman on the couch.

"Oh, Stefan didn't tell you about our time traveler?" Damon says with a faux astonished expression. He opens his arms wide in typical Damon showmanship. "This is Caroline from…how far in the future exactly?"

"Around two hundred years," Caroline says with a sigh.

"What?" Bonnie blurts. "How's that possible?"

"Magic." The blonde offers a shrug and big grin at seeing her best friends for the first time in so long. "Bonnie, Elena, it's so good to see you two. It's been too long."

Both girls fidget as they glance at each. This woman looks like their friend, but it's hard to wrap their heads around two hundred years. The younger Caroline is shell shocked, to say the least. Her future self has traveled two hundred years through time, and her mother sits next to the older vampire like it's no big deal that her daughter is undead.

Meanwhile, Damon catches the sound of something rustling above. He glances at Stefan to find him listening too. When Damon realizes that the noise is coming from the roof, he nods in that direction, and both vampires slip away. The girls will be busy catching up for a while anyway.

Katherine slinks across the roof of the boarding house. Caroline's idea of using Damon to find out about Mason's status was a good one, but she couldn't just call up the older Salvatore and ask. No, she'd have to be sneaky. So she opted to use the teenagers' entrance as a cover to slip onto the roof and eavesdrop. She never expected to overhear the confession of a two-hundred-year-old Caroline. Honestly, who ever thought Caroline would survive that long. Especially since she's supposed to be sacrificed in Klaus' ritual. That's why Katherine turned her. As far as she's concerned, the sacrifice is the sole purpose of Caroline Forbes's existence. So if Klaus didn't sacrifice her, what does that mean for Katherine?

Nothing good. Katherine sucks on her cheek and fidgets in the her uncomfortable stance. Crouching on a roof in stilettos is not an easy task, even for a vampire. Her heels keep slipping on the slanted roof, forcing her to readjust her positioning. She isn't surprised when the Salvatore brothers whoosh into existence at her back. She flashes a wicked smile at her play things as she swirls to face them. Katherine props one hand on her hip and thrusts her chest out playfully.

"Hello, boys."

"Katherine," Stefan says. His tone is smooth as ice.

"I heard you had a run in with a couple of witches that want you dead," Damon says with a smirk. "Come to say your last goodbyes?"

"To Stefan maybe."

Damon's grin twists into a snarl. The bitch always knows how to push his buttons. Before he can decide whether to attack the retched woman, Katherine jumps from the roof and vamp speeds away. Against his brother's protests, Damon dives after her, and Stefan huffs before following suit. All three vampires stop a mile or two down the road.

"What's the matter, Katherine? You don't like the idea of being out numbered?" Stefan says.

"Caroline, the baby vamp, doesn't scare me, but a two-hundred-year-old version plus you two. I didn't survive this long by taking chances," she says with a shrug. "But I'm always happy to play with you two. I know how well you share."

"Cut the crap, Katherine," Damon says. "Why are you here?"

She opens her mouth to speak, but Stefan cuts her off.

"Actually, don't bother answering. You'll just lie like you always do. We," Stefan motions between Damon and himself, "will get answers from Caroline. She's already been through this, so she knows your end game."

"I told you, Stefan. My end game is you. Ask 'future' Caroline." Katherine mimes quotation marks. "She'll tell you how much I love you and that eventually you chose me."

"Over Elena? That's never going to happen." Stefan scoffs at the older vampire, and Katherine's smirk turns sour.

"What? You think she'll tell you all about your life with Elena Gilbert? How your love was epic and all consuming? She's not going to turn for you. We all know that much. So maybe Caroline will tell you about your great love and how you watched Elena age into a withered, old woman before she died in your arms."

"Do you get a trophy every time you out bitch yourself?" Damon asks.

"Don't be bitter, Damon, just because we all know there's no future where Elena picks you over Stefan. I mean, what girl would?"

"Look another trophy," Stefan says.

Damon and Stefan stand a few feet from each other, side by side, and glare at the five-hundred-year-old pain-in-the-ass. Oh, how they ache to kill her. But she boasts a smug smile, knowing she is far stronger than both of them combined.

"Screw it." Damon lunges for her, and Stefan follows right behind him. Before Damon can lay a hand on Katherine, she breaks his leg and slams him into the pavement. An instant later, she has Stefan pinned to the ground by his throat while she straddles him.

"When you have over three hundred years on someone, Stefan, fighting technique doesn't really matter." She leans closer to whisper into his ear and slip her free hand over his chest. She's missed the feel of him under her.

"Well that's just not true," Elena says as she appears above Stefan and Katherine. Shocked, Katherine stares up at her doppelgänger until Elena shoves her hand through Katherine's chest in search of her black heart. Lucky for Katherine, she's older and faster, allowing her to lurch free before Elena's hand finds its target. But Elena follows after the older vampire and tackles her to the pavement. They tumble as Elena grapples for leverage against the stronger vampire.

Katherine may be strong and fast, but she is not a fighter, and vampire Elena has caught her by surprise. A very big surprise. Katherine's flight instincts kick in, and she retreats into the woods after breaking free of Elena's grasp.

"Damn it." Elena watches Katherine run away from her spot on the ground. "I almost had her."

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