Disclaimer: I only own my OCs

A/N: After a crazy long time, we have a new chapter! Season 5 is proving interesting to write but I think I have settled into it. It's also helped that I have been rereading the entire story to get back into it! I've found that I oddly enjoy writing Silas and his interactions with Alexa, which leads into some drama for her! Hope you enjoy and that it has been worth the wait!

XXX

It had been a slow few days, with absolutely no drama. And it was making my skin crawl. I knew that shit had hit the fan, but nothing was actually happening. I officially hated it. Even though I wanted my loved ones to be safe, I also needed something to happen so that I could remove the threat to them.

Alaric was currently searching for Katherine with Matt's help. Jeremy had tried to insist on going with them, but since he still had school, Jenna had put her foot down. The little shit had pouted down the phone to me when he told me. But I refused to give him any sympathy. Our aunt had done the right thing by keeping him at home.

Silas had disappeared after murdering Bonnie's dad. That was unnerving, as I would much rather he be where we could see him. But we just had to hope that he was content to let his mind-controlled minions search for Katherine. Once we had her safe, a disgusting thought, we could worry about the immortal.

Back in Whitmore college, life was calm. Elena was still investigating the mystery of Megan and our dad, although other than needing a bit of compulsion to get the death certificate, it was proving to be a quiet investigation. When she wasn't busy with that, she was attending classes with Caroline. I had compelled the admissions office into enrolling me. Of course, I had no intention of actually doing the work. But it meant that I could go to my sister's classes if I needed to. Because I had to keep her safe. And since there was a rogue vampire on campus who had ripped out her roommate's throat, I knew that that wouldn't be an easy job.

Because of all of that, I hadn't had a chance to see my boyfriend since we said goodbye in Mystic Falls. Oh, we talked daily. Because we needed to keep each other up to date with all of the bullshit that was going on. It was enough to keep me going, even if it wasn't ideal. But I was able to talk to him about things that I hadn't told my sister. Like the fact that Stefan was missing, that Silas was apparently his doppelganger and the fact that Bonnie's dad was dead. It was a list that was growing more and more uncomfortable. It wasn't that I didn't want to tell Elena, I just didn't want to cause her any more pain. My sister was happy here. I didn't want to ruin that. And I just knew that if I told her everything, that if I revealed the secrets that I was keeping, then that happiness would be gone.

I sighed deeply, dropping my phone onto my stomach, as I rested my head on the back of the sofa. It was far too early for me to be awake, but I just couldn't sleep. Everything was weighing on my mind and I just couldn't shut it off. It didn't help that my favourite distraction was putting out fires in Mystic Falls. And phone sex just wasn't enough at this point.

"That was quite some sigh."

I glanced to the side to see Luke leaning against the doorway. That was another problem of mine. Oh, don't get me wrong, he was really sweet. And he had a wicked sense of humour. I loved spending time with him. But he reminded me far too much of my ex, of my dear friend, who I had lost far too soon. As much fun as it was hanging out with him, it was painful too. It reminded me of what I had lost. It was a pain that I thought that I had long buried.

"Do you ever feel like the universe is against you?" I shifted slightly so that I was facing the blonde.

A pained look flashed across Luke's face for a moment before he shrugged, "Sometimes. Whenever that happens, I just take a shot and give it the finger."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, "I mean, that's one way of dealing with it. I did that once, you know. I just ditched town with my boyfriend and had a sex-filled road trip. It was amazing." I paused for a moment before wincing, "Sorry, was that too much information?"

"Nah," Luke laughed, moving to sit next to me. "I get it. Sometimes you just need to ditch. And sometimes, that includes a lot of sex."

"Have you ever done that? Run away and had meaningless sex?"

"Nearly. Unfortunately, Liv caught me before I could actually ditch town with my boyfriend at the time."

"Well that sucks. Honestly, responsible older sisters are the worst."

"Alexa!" a scolding voice called my name and I rolled my eyes.

"An that is my annoyingly responsible older sister," I snorted as Luke turned around to face Elena. "She's a pain, isn't she?"

"It's bad enough that you say that to people at home, do you really need to introduce me to people like that?" my twin gave me a disapproving look before facing Luke. "I'm Elena."

"Luke," my friend laughed, reaching out to shake her hand. "I love twin drama."

"It's fun when you aren't involved in it, isn't it?" I smirked, winking at my sister when she shook her head at me. "Unfortunately, my capacity for fun has just dramatically decreased. But since I won't be going home for a few more days, do you want to go get a drink sometime?"

"I'll drop you a text and let you know when I'm free," Luke agreed with an easy smile before glancing between me and Elena. He dropped his voice slightly, muttering, "Good luck!"

After the blonde had quickly disappeared from the room, my twin turned to face me, crossing her arms. But before she could get started, I held up a hand, climbing to my feet, "Els, you might as well save your breath. Because I can tell you right now that I won't listen to a word that you are about to say."

XXX

Eager to escape the scolding that Elena still wanted to give, I quickly made my way back up to her dorm room. I knew that Caroline was still up there. I didn't know what she was up to, but I was positive that it was something that I could use to distract my sister.

I dashed up the stairs, using a cheeky bit of vampire speed, leaving my sister to trot up them at human speed. Care glanced up as I entered, moving to sit down on her bed, next to the box. She took one look at my expression before laughing, "What did you do to make Elena want to lecture you?"

"I was making a friend and I may have said that responsible older sisters are the worst," I laughed. "I don't know why she is getting her panties in a twist. He has an older sister too, so he was agreeing with me. But since she didn't approve of my attempts at making friends, can you do me a favour and distract her with something?"

"Fine, but you owe me," the blonde smirked slightly, causing me to sigh dramatically.

"Deal."

It was lucky that I agreed when I did because a second later, Ellie walked through the door. She gave me a look but directed her next words to Caroline, "Megan's memorial outside is growing by the minute."

That immediately soured Caroline's good mood, as she scoffed, "Ugh, college kids are so dramatic. She was on campus for, like, one day. She couldn't have made that many friends."

It took all of my effort to not laugh at her words. Even though Megan was dead, rest in peace Megan, Care was still being bitchy about the poor girl. It was quite funny, even if Elena didn't think so.

"Caroline," my sister gave her friend a look before rolling her eyes. "She's dead. You can stop competing with her."

"Sorry, I'm in a mood," the blonde shook her head, actually sounding like she was in a mood. I wasn't surprised. Our friend wasn't at all happy with how her college experience had started, and it wasn't all Tyler's fault.

"It's okay, Care," I reached out to pat her hand. "A bit of competition in life is healthy. Why don't we use our next college party to find a living person to compete with?"

"You make it sound so tempting," Care snorted but she quickly agreed.

It seemed to improve her mood again, which was why I sighed so loudly when my twin asked, "You talked to Tyler?"

"Elena!" I loudly said her name. "What have I told you? We don't mention the 'T' word in this room."

"It's okay, Alexa," Caroline shot me a quick smile before replying to Ellie. "He's deferring from enrolling and deferring from returning my phone calls, so I'm deferring from having sex with him ever again."

"Damn straight," I nodded sharply. "You know what, let's forget finding you some competition at the next party. Instead, we'll find someone for you to have sex with."

"Should I be worried about your determination to hook me up?" Care laughed, shaking her head, blonde hair bouncing.

"Nope, you should be worried about the determined look on Elena's face," I shrugged, ignoring the look she gave me. "Come on, Els. Ask whatever it is that is on your mind."

"How's the snooping going?" Ellie asked, deciding to ignore me. "Any explanation as to why our vervain-laced," my sister paused to glance over her shoulder, making sure that no one was listening in, "vampire-slaughtered roommate had a picture of our dad on her phone?"

"No," the blonde sighed regretfully. I knew that she had done some snooping of her own, when she wasn't moping over my idiotic adopted brother. Honestly, Tyler was such a dumbass. He knew that Caroline was one of the best things that had happened to him, and he was screwing it up.

Everything was silent for a moment before Elena made a noise, pulling a brown folder out of her bag, "Oh, um, I went by the hospital this morning."

"Yes, did you get whatever it was that you wanted from the person I compelled?" I asked, shifting to look at the folder.

"I did," Ellie answered, flicking open the folder and laying it out for us to see. "Megan's death certificate. It says that she died of suicide. No mention of the gaping vampire-bites on her neck. So, whoever signed off on the cause of death was part of the cover-up, just like the Founders Council back home."

Our blonde friend nodded, reading the death certificate before pointing to the name at the bottom, "Dr Wesley Maxfield."

"A.K.A, our Applied Microbiology professor," my sister nodded proudly. "I managed to switch our classes around, so that we could-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Caroline interrupted, "Applied – what, what? Uh, Elena, we are supposed to be taking Intro to Communication. What happened to getting drunk and making bad decisions about boys? What happened to our fun freshman year at college? I am supposed to be a drama major!"

"You're not going to be an Anything major if you and Alexa are exposed as vampires!" everyone paused as we realised that Ellie's voice had steadily risen. It was just fortunate that no one was lurking outside the room. As one, we all took a deep breath before my sister smiled, "We are still gonna have our fun year, Caroline, but we have to protect ourselves. The way Damon kept his secret in Mystic Falls was because he infiltrated the Founders Council. So, bust out those alleged acting skills, and let's get on it, okay?"

"Yeah, let's take the Damon route and buddy up with everyone," I agreed, leaning back against the pillows on Caroline's bed. "Although there was a lot of flirting involved with that, so you'd best be prepared."

I wiggled my eyebrows, earning a snort of laughter from the blonde. She glanced between us before laughing and shaking her head, "Fine! Let's go to this Applied Microbiology and do some digging."

XXX

I followed Elena and Caroline into Dr Maxfield's classroom, nose buried in my phone. I had quickly flicked through the text book that Elena had managed to get her hands on while walking over. It brought back a lot of memories, ones that I didn't even realise I could remember again. I guess it was impressive what the brain could absorb. Oh, if my dad could see me now, remembering stuff about microbiology. He would be so proud. But still, it was lucky that I could remember the details, because my sister quickly confiscated the book so that she could flick through it. And the last thing that I wanted was to go into that room unprepared. If this Dr Maxfield was signing off on dodgy death certificates, then he knew about vampires. And that meant that I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Well, any more attention than sneaking into his classroom would give me.

It wasn't until I heard his voice that I realised that Jesse was in this class too, "Hey, Blow-Off Girl. Aren't you a freshman? How are you in this class?"

"Aw Care, isn't that sweet? You already have a nickname," I cooed, nudging my friend with my elbow. She nudged me back, a lot harder than I had nudged her, before smiling awkwardly. I could see Jesse's eyes shining with amusement. He seemed like a good guy. If I didn't have Damon, and if Caroline didn't like him, then I would definitely be making some moves on him.

"What? I love…" she stuttered, looking at the blackboard. Fortunately for her, the name of the class was written in big letters. "… Applied Microbiology… It's, like, my favourite biology. You know, little things are just so… cute."

"Good lord this is painful," I muttered, rolling my eyes. Even Elena agreed with me, as she winced and looked away.

Fortunately for the blonde, Jesse was an absolute sweetheart and look pity on her by switching the topic of conversation, "Are you going to the bonfire tonight? Or are you just gonna get really close and then turn around and leave again?"

"She'll be there," Ellie was quick to answer for the blonde, shooting her a smirk. "We wouldn't let her miss it."

"Sweet," the cutie smiled brightly at our friend. "We'll hang."

"Damn right you will," I laughed as Elena gave him a thumbs up. I could practically sense the dirty look that Caroline gave us as she pushed us towards the back of the classroom. I just laughed and shook my head. We were just helping her out, and she knew that. But our friend was too stubborn to accept it.

"What?" Ellie shrugged innocently as we sat down. "You said that you wanted to make bad decisions about boys. He's cute, he's interested, and most importantly, unlike Tyler, he's here."

The blonde narrowed her eyes at my sister, but before she could respond, someone else walked into the classroom. From the way that everyone else sat up a little straighter, I figured that it would be safe to assume that this was the mysterious Dr Maxfield. He was younger than I was expecting. In fact, he was annoyingly good looking. He had neatly styled blonde hair and light blue eyes. I wasn't impressed. Hopefully he was an asshole.

"Morning, everyone," he stood at the desk in the front, sharp eyes scanning the room. "I'm Dr Maxfield. First name is Wes, but call me Dr Maxfield." Yep, he seemed like an asshole. I could tell by the voice. "One day, when you're out of med school, you'll understand. So, you're all going to this bonfire tonight, right? Well, here's a quick history lesson for you. Whitmore was founded as a hospital during the Civil War. Deadliest war in American history, over 600,000 casualties. Disease was so prevalent that once a week, they had to gather all the dead, rotting bodies, put them in a pile, and light the whole thing on fire. So tonight, when you're getting drunk and partying, stop for a second, close your eyes, and imagine the rancid smell of a hundred rotting corpses."

Well, what a way to kill the party vibe. He had to know that no one would do that. Because it was just weird.

"Creep-y," Caroline muttered, staring at the teacher with a less than impressed expression.

"Which brings us to microbiology…"

"But hott-ie," Ellie muttered back, looking at the man with an expression that I didn't like. Yes, the man was annoying hot. But she shouldn't be interested by it.

As the girls giggled quietly together, I was actually paying attention while Maxfield continued his little spiel, "Because that rancid smell comes from a very specific bacteria. Isn't that right, chatty girls in the back?" I rolled my eyes as the two besides me suddenly went silent. Of course they got caught. The idiots. They stared at the teacher with wide eyes, their smiles fading. "And what is that bacteria?"

"Uh, that's the," Elena frantically flicked through her textbook while Caroline closed her eyes in despair. "Um… um… I don't know."

"Maybe because you're freshmen, who shouldn't be in this class," Dr Maxfield smirked, pointing at the door to the classroom. "How do I know? I'm observant, a skill that you will learn in Bio 101, down the hall."

While the two next to me shuffled uncomfortably in their seats, I narrowed my eyes. I was not impressed with the way that he was treating my friend and sister. He was acting like a dick, and I did not approve. No one got away with talking to my loved ones like that, no one except me.

"Is the bacteria that you're looking for putrescine, by any chance?" I crossed my arms, leaning back in my seat. I could feel the surprised eyes of my girls, but I kept my gaze fixed on the man at the front.

"Impressive," Dr Maxfield nodded. "But not enough to keep you all in the class."

XXX

After one of the most awkward classes of my life, which was hilarious considering my beef with Mr Tanner back in the day, we escaped outside. I couldn't help but stare down Dr Maxfield as my sister dragged me from the room. But the teacher just ignored me. Annoyingly, it just made me want to confront him even more. Which was probably what he wanted. The man struck me as someone who liked to punish students. Maybe I was being unfair, but I didn't particularly care.

After bidding goodbye to Caroline, Elena dragged me over to one of the courtyards that decorated Whitmore college's grounds. She was complaining about Dr Maxfield, how embarrassing it was, and asking how I knew what the name of that bacteria was. That was one was easy to deal with, I just told her the truth. Whenever I was grounded but couldn't remain at home, dad used to take me into his medical practice with him. And to give me something to do, he got me reading his textbooks. I was always under the impression that he wanted at least one of his kids to be a doctor like him. So I played along, reading the boring books. But I guess some of it stuck in my mind.

Fortunately, I was saved from my sister's moaning by a phone call. And I couldn't hide the smile on my face when I saw Damon's name flash up on my phone. Elena gave me a dirty look when I answered, wanting to moan and plan a bit more, but I ignored her. I didn't need a recap of what had happened, when I had actually lived through it. Although I did tell the story to Damon, emphasising my sister's embarrassment.

"It was hilarious," I snorted, sitting down on one of the benches in the courtyard, while Elena paced around me. "The other two sat there, looking utterly humiliated, while Dr Maxfield couldn't quite work out if he was impressed that I knew the answer to his little question. Of course, now that we know who he is, Ellie is determined to get answers out of him."

"Let me guess, she's going to get you to help her do that," my boyfriend scoffed and I could practically sense him rolling his eyes.

"Of course. I mean, I am the muscle, while she is the reckless dumbass," I glanced over at my sister, a cheeky smirk on my face at the disgruntled look on her face. "Love ya, Els."

"Just make sure that you're careful and don't let your sister get you into too much trouble."

"You're adorable," I laughed. "Don't worry, Day, I'll be fine. I'm a badass now, I won't let some college professor get the best of me."

"Was he at least old and wrinkly?" Damon asked, as I heard voices in the background. He had mentioned that he was at the quarry. Liz had apparently agreed to lend him some deputies to search the area, looking for Stefan.

"Nah, he was actually a lot younger than I was expecting him to be," I shrugged before allowing a teasing tone form in my voice. "And actually kinda cute. I believe my twin called him a hottie."

Damon returned the teasing, his voice giving me the shivers, "Don't play games, Alexa. Because I can quite easily drive up to Whitmore college and play some of my own."

"Promises, promises," I giggled, crossing my legs under me, enjoying the warmth of the sun. "What would it take to get you to come up here and rescue me? Or at least come and deal with the itch that I can't seem to scratch."

"All you have to do is ask, baby."

"Oh Damon, darling, will you please come to Whitmore and fuck me senseless?"

My boyfriend laughed, deep and throaty, "Now, how can I deny a such a request?"

"I'll be seeing you soon then," I sighed happily, resting my head against the back of the bench. "And until I do, I can think of ways to deal with Dr Maxfield that don't require ridiculous risks."

"I'm assuming that you've decided against beating him up?" Damon asked before giving a few orders to the deputies around him. Branches cracked under his feet as he made his way back to the Camaro.

"Elena immediately vetoed that idea," I rolled my eyes. "And I just went with it. Maybe if he proves difficult, I can try it again. It's just annoying, as I can't even compel the guy. Because he definitely knows about vervain, thanks to his handy vampire knowledge, and he is almost definitely wearing or taking some."

"You could always threaten him."

"The thought did cross my mind," I snorted, moving my head to the side so that I could keep an eye on my sister. "But he seemed like the kind of guy that threats wouldn't work from. Well, threats from me anyway. I reckon if you threatened him, it could work."

"I'll add it to my to-do list for the trip."

"Awesome, now you can get in trouble with Elena instead of me," I laughed, shaking my head. "Because she does not approve of how I want to get answers out of the man. She keeps comparing me to Stefan, saying how we didn't need to resort to bloody methods."

"Ah, the Stefan card. That's always a fun one."

I opened my mouth to respond, only to pause, a frown forming on my face as I saw who was approaching my sister. I sat up, slowly lowering my feet to the ground, "Stefan?" I then remembered Damon's warning. "Fuck, no, not Stefan. Silas."

Damon's voice was urgent, "Ally, get out of there."

"I can't, he's talking to Elena," I shook my head, quickly moving as the immortal menace greeted my sister. "Get here quick, Damon."

I quickly hung up after he promised that he would. I could already hear the wheels of the Camaro squealing as he sped off. Now I just had to find a way to get my twin away from Silas.

XXX

I cursed myself failing to tell Elena the truth about Silas and Stefan. That the younger Salvatore was MIA and that Silas was his doppelganger. Because she had no idea that she was currently hugging a very dangerous person. And I had no idea how to get her away from him without looking suspicious.

I arrived just as Silas, who was doing a scarily good job at pretending to be Stefan, gave Ellie a small smile, "I know you're upset that I didn't call, so I just wanted to apologise in person."

My sister gave the immortal a friendly tap on the shoulder, "Never do that again, okay? I thought something terrible had happened to you."

"Well, something terrible did happen to me," Silas gave a cheeky smile, looking so painfully like Stefan. It was uncanny. I honestly thought that I would never get over doppelganger hijinks. If I didn't know that this was Silas, I would have thought that it was Stefan. "I lost you and I had to prioritise getting Alexa through it instead of grieving myself."

"Was that why you left town? To get your head around it?" Ellie asked, her eyes soft as she rested a hand on the immortal's arm. I was itching to pull her away from him, which Silas could sense. He gave me a cheeky wink the moment my twin took her eyes off of him. He knew that I knew that he wasn't Stefan. Thanks to his annoying mind-control powers. But he also knew that I wouldn't risk exposing him with my sister right beside him. I was powerless, and I hated it.

Silas agreed with an easy shrug, "I needed a bit of space and since you were back in the land of the living, I felt like I could."

"Where did you go? You worried me when you didn't answer any of my calls," Elena stepped closer to the immortal and it took all of my self-control to not just yank her away. I instead compromised with just resting my hand on her shoulder. Fortunately, ever since she came back to life, I had taken to frequently initiating physical contact, as a way of making sure that she was actually back in the land of the living. So I knew that she would think nothing of my sudden clinginess.

"That's not important," the male doppelganger was quick to wave away the question. "I'm sure Damon will fill you in eventually. And if he doesn't, Alexa certainly will."

I winced as the shithead thoroughly dropped me in the shithouse before glaring at him. I could feel Ellie's eyes burning into the side of my face but I couldn't bring myself to look at her. Because what could I say? I had been keeping the truth from her, because I didn't want to ruin her happiness. Again.

"Alexa," Elena finally hissed out my name when it became clear that I was not going to look at her. "Why didn't you tell me that you had been speaking to Stefan?"

My eye twitched as I resisted the urge to continue glaring at the asshole in front of me. I could see the smirk fighting to form on his face as he enjoyed the drama that he had unleashed. It was only when my twin hissed my name again that I sighed, "Well, sis, I had only very recently spoken to him and that was to make sure that he was okay. After that, well, it was Stefan's responsibility to check in with you."

It was a piss-poor excuse, but I didn't know what else to say. Because there was no absolutely no way that I could tell her the truth. That I hadn't spoken to Stefan, that the man in front of us was actually Silas. If I wasn't protecting her from that, I would have called out 'Stefan's' bullshit, since I hadn't actually spoken to Silas myself, that was just Damon. Ugh, this was a really complicated mess.

"Oh, it's not her fault," Silas clapped me on the shoulder with more force than was necessary. If I was human, it would have sent me staggering forward. It was only because of my vampire strength that I was able to keep myself in place. "She's probably been busy dealing with everything back in Mystic Falls."

"What do you mean?" Elena narrowed her eyes, giving me one of the most vicious death glares that I had ever seen from her. "Alexa, what haven't you been telling me?"

Before I could say anything to ease her fears, because goddamn it I needed to ease them, the immortal douchebag piped up again, "It's nothing, Jeremy has just run away from home."

"Fuck off, he hasn't," I snapped, losing my cool. It was bad enough that he was stressing out my twin, but now he was just full-on lying. "The kid is at home and I'll prove it." Unfortunately, life wanted to fuck me over. I pulled out my phone only to see several missed calls from Jenna and Ric, followed by numerous texts. For fucksake, I put my phone on silent to deal with immortal asshole's putting my twin in danger, and I miss the drama from the rest of the family. It only took me reading Jenna's first text, 'Jeremy is missing. Have you heard from him?', for me to curse out loud, "That stupid, fucking child."

"That doesn't sound like proving it," Silas shrugged, leaning over my shoulder to read the texts. I wasn't quick enough to hide my phone from him, but fortunately, there was nothing about Katherine or Ric's location in the texts still on the screen.

"Fuck off, Si-Stefan," I stuttered over his name before wincing as Ellie grabbed my wrist.

"How did I not know about this, Alexa?" my twin squeezed my wrist, her short nails digging into my skin. "Where the hell is Jeremy?"

"Does it look like I knew, Elena?" I rolled my eyes, tugging my wrist out of her grip as I replied to Jenna and Ric. "Just wait until I get my hands on that little brat, I'll throttle him myself."

"Maybe he had a fight with Damon, and that's why he ran," the immortal suggested, giving Elena a look. I didn't know what he was playing at, but I did know that he wasn't particularly happy with my boyfriend. Damon had quite successfully foiled his plans to grab the cured Katherine. "But you don't need to worry, I'm here and I'll help you find your brother."

The hell you are.

XXX

I followed Elena and Silas as they walked. Despite my insistence that I would handle the Jeremy situation, my stubborn sister had insisted on getting 'Stefan' to call the kid. I knew that he wouldn't pick up to Elena's number. If he had indeed ran away to do something naughty, something which I strongly suspected was related to the missing cured vampire currently running around, then he definitely wouldn't pick up to Elena. Whether he would to me was another story. But Silas had somehow used his mind-control to stop me from calling the kid. Probably because he knew that I would just order him to ignore all calls from his sisters' numbers.

"Jeremy's still not answering," Silas sighed, doing a wonderful impression of worriedly distraught, as he tucked my sister's phone into his pocket. "I'm gonna hold onto your phone in case he calls back."

I rolled my eyes from my place behind them. Thanks to her annoyance with me, Ellie was standing even closer to 'Stefan' than before. Which made it virtually impossible for me to get her to safety. Especially since every time I thought about it, Silas would place his hand on my twin's shoulder, pretending to comfort her. It was disgustingly frustrating.

"Thank you, for helping me find him," Ellie gave the immortal a sweet smile and I cursed myself for hiding the truth. I should have just ruined her happiness. Then we might not be in this mess. But no, I wanted her to enjoy her college years, especially after being dead for a few months. Ugh, I really did hate myself a times.

"I was always going to find him, Elena," Silas shrugged, doing a wonderful impression of bashful. "The moment that I heard that he had ran away, I knew that I had to come and help you. Especially since I had a feeling that you hadn't been told."

And cue the dirty look from my sister, "Did you really think that I wouldn't find out, Alexa?"

"Els, I didn't even know that the kid was missing," I shook my head, fingers twitching, desperate to smack the smirk off of Silas' face. "You found out when I did."

"But why did Jenna and Ric message you instead of me?" Elena pushed, clearly feeling a bit wound up that none of the family had reached out to her. I could understand it, even if it did frustrate me at the time.

"Maybe because I'm actually in the position where I can ditch Whitmore without worry?" I suggested, raising an eyebrow as I tried to be nice. Ellie had every right to be snappy, since our brother was MIA. "Maybe they messaged me because they knew that I would tell you when I saw them? It wasn't because no one wanted you to know, Ellie. Don't start thinking that."

"I don't know what to think, Lexa," my twin sighed heavily, momentarily turning her back to the immortal at her side to stare at me with her big brown eyes. They shone with worry and panic and stress. And it broke my heart. I had worked so far to keep that gaze full of happiness. And now it was ruined.

"Think about all of the ways that you're going to punish the kid," I suggested. "Because I am currently up to 30. Between us, we can probably think of 100 ways."

"How about we find him first?" Silas laughed, an indulgent look on his face. It was exactly like the one that Stefan used to give me. Like, fuck me, did Silas get Stefan to teach him how to act like him before he hid him away? Because it was really getting unnerving. He placed a hand on each of our shoulders and I could feel my skin crawl at his touch. His hand was warm against the bare skin of my shoulder and I was just itching to shrug it off. But I couldn't. There would be no logical reason for me to do so. Which meant that I had to endure it.

In my mind, I was practically screaming that I wouldn't let him anywhere near my brother. And there was no way in hell that I would let him find the kid. It was obvious that Silas knew what I was thinking as his grip on my shoulder tightened. I could feel my bones creaking beneath my skin and gritted my teeth, fighting to keep my discomfort from showing. Before he had abandoned Mystic Falls for the streets of New Orleans, Klaus had mentioned just how strong the immortal was. But I didn't believe it. Apparently I was a fool for doing so.

"I hope he's okay," Elena sighed, completely oblivious to the silent exchange between Silas and I. She had a wounded look on her face as she lingered over the fact that our brother had ditched town without telling anyone. Without telling her. As if he would tell the responsible sibling that he was running away to do something stupid.

"It's okay," the immortal gave her a perfect copy of Stefan's sympathetic smile. "Jeremy is a smart kid, he'll be fine."

"If you really believe that, then why are you showing up, causing drama?" I muttered, finally shrugging off the hand that the hand on my shoulder. But not before I felt his fingers twitch. Good. Hopefully I was annoying him as much as he was annoying me.

Luckily for me, before Silas could say something else to get me into trouble with my twin, Elena's phone in his pocket buzzed. He gave me a look before pulling it from his pocket. I was able to read the text over his shoulder, 'Katherine Pierce. Route 9.' before he tucked it away. The sender read as unknown, which made me think that it was one of his horrible little minions that was contacting him.

"Sorry, I don't mean to cut this short, but someone says that they just saw Jeremy on Route 9," the immortal faked a concerned look. "Do you know where he might be going?"

Liar, liar, pants on fire. That text did not mention Jeremy. But the fact that he tied Katherine to Jeremy meant that the kid really had run off to help with the 'keeping the bitch away from Silas' plan. Honestly, I was going to throttle that kid when I saw him next. And there as no one who could save him from me.

"Route 9?" Elena frowned, ignoring my silent attempts to shut her up. I tried to verbalise my disagreements, but apparently Silas was playing his little mind control games again. "I mean, there was this old campsite that we used to go to when we were kids." As Silas let out a musing noise, a thoughtful look on his face, my sister frowned, "Wait, who texted you?"

XXX

Now that he had what he wanted, Silas wanted us out of the way. So he used his mind control on Ellie to get her to go get some stuff to do just that. His exact instructions were to "get rid of Damon and Alexa", the asshole. He knew that we were threats to him and he was going to use my twin to get rid of us. Ugh, I definitely hated this guy.

While Elena did as ordered, a blank look in her eyes, Silas wrapped an arm round my shoulders. My skin crawled at his touch and I didn't even begin to attempt to hide it. I even told him, before grunting as he squeezed my shoulder beyond the point of pain.

"You know, you're a real asshole," I hissed as the immortal began to lead us in the direction of my sister's dorm room. "I can see why that Qetsiyah woman cursed you. I would too, if I was able to."

"Ah Alexa, you're still as delightful as before," Silas smirked down at me. "I have missed your sharp tongue."

"Aww how sweet," I snorted, rolling my eyes. "I haven't missed you at all. So tell me, is there a particular reason as to why you want me out of the way? Or are you just intimidated by my awesomeness?"

"Well, you do have the particularly annoying habit of interfering in my plans," the immortal started before I quickly interrupted.

"Er, excuse me, I don't interfere with your plans," I snorted, shaking my head. "In fact, I was more than willing for you to carry out your plan a few months back. It was everyone else who tried to interfere."

"But you and your boyfriend certainly stopped me from getting my hands on Katherine Pierce," Silas sneered, ignoring my mutterings. I wasn't even in Mystic Falls at the time, I don't know why I was getting the blame for that. I mean, yeah, I didn't want him to get his slimy hands on Katherine, even if she did deserve it. "So I need you both out of the way until I do manage to get her. Fortunately, Damon is so ridiculously overprotective when it comes to you, it was easy to lure him away from that damn town."

"I'm feeling so attacked right now," I pouted, looking around for any potential backup. But unfortunately, there was no one around who could save me. Honestly, this was why I didn't want Elena to come here. Even though Caroline was around to protect her, she couldn't be everywhere, as proven right now. And yes, I was ignoring the fact that some of this was my own fault. If I had told my sister that Silas was Stefan's doppelganger, she might have been more alert. But there was nothing that anyone could have done to defend themselves against a psychic immortal douchebag.

"You'll get over it," the asshole shrugged and I felt my nose twitch in annoyance.

"I'm sure that you never used to be this sassy," I frowned. "I definitely preferred it when you were all growly and mysterious. You were a lot less annoying like that."

"You'll like me a lot less if you keep getting in the way," Silas smirked darkly, his green eyes hidden by the shadows of the trees. "I know that hurting you will do nothing, you're annoyingly used to pain. But you have plenty of loved ones for me to threaten. And you know that I will hurt them."

He was right. He would hurt them. He had killed Bonnie's dad to prove a point. Hurting his enemies was nothing to a man like Silas. Especially if it had the added bonus of mentally torturing his other enemies.

"And you know that if you lay a finger on anyone that I care about, I will rip you apart," I bared my teeth, only just keeping control of my vampire face. "And you know that I will enjoy it."

"Perfect, it seems as though we are in agreement," Silas squeezed my shoulder and I felt my collar bone crack under his grip. The sharp pain had me gritting my teeth, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing my pain.

Fortunately, although I feel that should be unfortunately, my sister arrived before my mask could crack. The immortal's attention was immediately taken off of me and I let out a slow breath. I could feel the bone already begin to heal, but it was still sore and tender.

"Ah, Elena, perfect timing," the asshole let go of me but as I tried to move my body, I felt it disobeying me. I knew why. Silas was using his unfair little ability to stop me from moving. It was very annoying. Just like the dick himself. "Did you do what I wanted?"

My twin nodded, that blank look still in her eyes, "I've got everything set up. All I need is Alexa and the trap is set for Damon."

"Perfect, well, she is all yours," the immortal gave me a wink. "I have a different doppelganger to go play with tonight."

"I don't even like Katherine and I feel bad for her," I sneered, enjoying the fact that I was still able to talk. "Hopefully someone breaks your face and then your body. And we will finally be rid of your dumb ass."

"Such a way with words," Silas smirked, but I could see the anger in his eyes. "I'll miss you."

"Well, I won't miss you," I muttered as he turned to face my sister.

"Now, Alexa won't give you any trouble, but do try to stop Damon from doing so. He deserves to suffer for ruining my plans."

Elena nodded before we watched the male doppelganger make his exit. My sister's hand landed on my still healing shoulder, her fingers unknowingly pressing against my collar bone. I just gritted my teeth, ignoring the discomfort. Because I had bigger problems. Like saving my boyfriend and my sister.

XXX

Thanks to Silas' mind-control, I wasn't able to resist as Elena dragged me back to her dorm room. I tried to use my words, telling her that she didn't need to do this, that she could fight his mind-control. But it had no effect. Silas's control was too strong.

So while I was taken hostage, a disgusting thought, I muttered unflattering things about the immortal. I didn't know if it was my imagination, but every time I muttered Damon's name, I felt Elena's grip on my arm tighten. I wasn't entirely sure what her orders were but I knew that it was not going to be pleasant for my boyfriend or myself.

"Els," I sighed as we entered the dorm building. "Can we press pause here? Do you really want to do what Silas wants? I mean, he did technically kill you, along with Katherine."

"I don't know what I want," she snapped back, shaking her head. "All I know that is his voice is in my head, his anger is in my head. And for some reason, I want to do something to help ease that anger."

"Hurting me and Damon won't help ease it," I tried to point out, hoping that my bullshitting abilities were enough to reason with mind-control. "In fact, it will just make things worse. Because surely he would want to be the one to get rid of his biggest annoyances? He wouldn't appreciate someone taking that away from him."

The look Elena gave me was to be expected. I knew that my bullshit was ridiculously weak. And I had just been proven right. Which sucked. Because other than hurting my sister, I had no way of breaking Silas' mind-control. And I absolutely refused to hurt her. I couldn't hurt her. I would much rather hurt myself.

Which was why I didn't struggle when she dragged me into her dorm room. One of the dining chairs was close enough to the fireplace that she was able to drag it over without any difficulty. I just sighed as my twin pushed me down on the chair, it was getting hard to just play along. Of course, I had forgotten that Silas' previous words. He had promised that I wouldn't give her any trouble and that was promise that he had ensured wouldn't be broken. Because when I went to get up, my body failed to listen to me. Somehow, that psychic asshole had gotten into my head and forced me to play along.

I scrunched up my nose in annoyance as I realised that I was truly helpless. I really would need to wait for my boyfriend to come and save me. Which was very annoying. It had been so long since I was forced to play the damsel in distress and I had not missed it. I mean, I was a fucking vampire now. I shouldn't need saving all the time.

I was so caught up in my annoyance that I failed to pay attention to what my sister was doing. It wasn't until she was stood in front of me, an old iron fire poker in her hand, that I looked back at her. The blank look on her face had been replaced with an angry one and I felt an uneasy feeling deep in my stomach.

"Uh, Ellie, my sweet sister, what are you planning on doing with that?" I asked slowly, a part of me not wanting to know the answer. And I was proven right a few seconds later.

With every ounce of her human strength, my twin silently brough the fire poker down, driving it through my thigh. It took everything in me not to scream and draw any unwanted attention to us. I tried to shift my leg, only to realise that my sister had somehow managed to force the poker through the wood of the seat too. I knew that she had been working on building her strength all summer, but I didn't realise that she was this strong.

Once I had managed to fight back the scream building in my throat, I wheezed out a "Motherfucker." Of course, this was just in time for Elena to drive another fire poker through my other leg. I spat out a few curse words in her direction before I felt the burning. It took me a few seconds to realise what was happening before I spat, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

The iron was coated with vervain. Not only I had been stabbed in both of my legs, I had been stabbed with vervain coated metal. I swear, I was never going to let Elena this this down. Once this was over, I was going to hold it over her head for the next decade. No, for the next five decades. I was going to bring it up at every single opportunity that I had. Nothing was going to stop me from repeatedly reminding her that she had done this.

It was only my vengeful thoughts that stopped me from passing out. Because fuck me, the pain was overwhelming. It was enough to consume your mind, to take over all rational thought. If it wasn't for the fact that my boyfriend was walking into danger, that my sister was being controlled by a psychic psychopath, I would have let it take over. But I was needed. And I refused to let my loved ones down.

So I gritted my teeth, doing my best to force the pain to the back of my mind, and I looked up at my twin. Elena was pacing in front of me, an angry look on her face as she clenched and unclenched her fists. A part of me wanted to speak up, to ask what had pissed her off or whether it was just Silas' creepy mind-control. But I stayed silent. There was no need to draw her anger in my direction, especially since I was in no position to do anything about. Hopefully some kind of backup arrived soon, before my twin did something that she would regret.

XXX

Unfortunately, my plan not to draw Ellie's ire wasn't as successful as I would have liked.

"Silas told me that you had been keeping secrets from me," Elena snapped, breaking the silence. I glanced up at her from where I had been examining the iron pokers. The initial pain had dulled but the incessant burning from the vervain lingered. It was enough that I wasn't able to ignore the fire pokers impaling me, but that didn't stop me from trying.

"Silas is a little bitch with a big mouth," I muttered, rolling my eyes. Of course he had played that card. It was a petty little move, one that I would have respected if it wasn't inconveniencing me. It also meant that there would be no persuading Elena not to carry out his wishes. Her anger at my secrets was enough to prevent me from breaking the mind-control.

"Alexa, was he telling the truth?" Elena glared at me, stepping forward. I glanced at the bottles of water behind her. I knew that they were filled with vervain, courtesy of Megan. Don't rest in peace, Megan, for giving my mind-controlled sister access to vervain.

"The truth can be subjective," I tried to brush it off before wincing. Even I knew that that was a bullshit response. But I genuinely couldn't tell her the truth. That I had been keeping things from her. Because in this frame of mind, she wouldn't understand. She wouldn't understand that I was trying to protect her from all of the bad things that had been happening. That I had been trying to protect her happiness and let her enjoy her college experience. But I didn't know how long I would get away with dancing around the topic. Especially when her hand started twitching towards some of the other sharp objects in the room.

"Alexa," my twin growled my name, sounding truly furious. "What have you been hiding from me?"

"Look, Els, this is not a good time to be discussing this," I sighed, shifting slightly in my seat, only to wince as the movement aggravated the wounds on my legs. "Thanks to Silas, you aren't thinking clearly. And you won't understand what I am saying. So why don't we postpone this conversation for a few hours? Or a few days?"

"No, I want to know now."

"I want doesn't always get," I automatically replied, my mom's words echoing around my head. It was something that she loved to say, especially when we hit our teenage years. But in hindsight, it probably wasn't the best thing to say to my pissed off sister. I shouted out a loud "fuck" when she poured some vervain water on my leg. My skin burned as I squeezed my eyes shut. It had been so long since this had happened and I definitely hadn't missed it.

"Alexa, tell me!" Ellie shouted, throwing the bottle to the side.

"Fine!" I shouted back, the pain causing me to lose my composure. "Yes, I been keeping things from you! Silas was right! But it was for your own good, you idiot!"

"You don't get to decide that!"

"Why not? You do the same for me! Why is it so wrong that I wanted to protect you? Protect your happiness?"

"I don't need protecting!"

"You died, Elena! Of course you need protecting! For the past few years, you have constantly been in danger and putting yourself in dangerous situations. And now I can finally do something to look after you. Of course I am going to take advantage of that opportunity!"

Shouting at my sister was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do. But there was no way to avoid it now. Pain was clouding my mind. Silas' control was clouding hers. There was no way to remain rational here. And maybe a part of me didn't want to remain rational. Keeping these secrets from my twin had been exhausting. I could only talk to Damon about them and I could only do that through phone calls. And I didn't always get privacy with those calls. So it had all been weighing heavily on my mind.

"You don't get to make that decision for me!"

"Well, tough shit, because I already did," I wrapped my hand around the poker sticking out of my left leg. But my body refused to let me pull it out. I knew that I had Silas to thank for that. And I would make him pay for it. Because fuck me, it was annoying having them there. Not only could I not stop feeling them, I could see them. Fire pokers weren't exactly short and I could see them with every look.

"And look what's happened," Elena sneered, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Dear god, Silas has turned you into a spiteful little bitch," I snorted, shaking my head. I knew this wasn't really my sister. Silas had gotten into her head and that was causing her to say stuff that she normally wouldn't. And because of that, I knew that I would feel guilty about our little spat at a later time.

"Or maybe I'm just not willing to put up with your nonsense right now."

I repeated her words in a mocking mutter before allowing my head to slump back against the back of the seat, "That's a good one, Elena. My nonsense. That's it, I am officially no longer going to protect your happiness. I hope you enjoy your college experience while learning about all of the bullshit that happens back home."

"I managed to enjoy high school while dealing with all of the supernatural stuff, I'm sure I can do the same with college."

"Yeah, except I know that you didn't enjoy high school. I mean, you tolerated it and embraced the good moments when they came along. But there's a reason why you were looking forward to college. Because the supernatural drama shouldn't have followed you here. But shocker, it did, and now it is going to ruin college for you."

XXX

We somehow descended into silence after our little spat. Not that I was going to complain. I knew that I was definitely going to regret most of the things that I had said. Especially if Elena remembered what was said. I didn't quite know how Silas' mind control worked. And if the controlled person remembered that they were being controlled. I hoped that they didn't, because there was no way that I wanted my sister to remember what was said. But I knew that my shitty luck would lead to her remembering all of this.

Thanks to that silence, I was able to hear Damon calling my name. I opened my mouth to call back to him, only to pause. I was only one half of Elena's orders. She was also supposed to take out Damon. And there was no way that I was going to put him in danger, just so he could rescue me. So, I remained silent.

Unfortunately, I didn't count on Ellie not doing the same. The blank look was back in her eyes as she shouted, "She's up here, Damon."

"Elena, shut up!" I hissed, going to kick her, only to pause when the movement tugged on the open wound on my leg. I spat out a curse, before resorting to just glaring at my sister instead. Because thanks to her big mouth, there was nothing that I could do to protect my boyfriend.

I closed my eyes as I heard his footsteps on the stairs. As much as I wanted to shout, to warn him away, I knew that it wouldn't work. Damon wouldn't just speed up towards me. Because I knew that I wouldn't be able to hide the pain in my voice and my love knew me far too well to not pick it up. So I just sighed and prayed that he would be able to overpower my human sister without hurting her.

I knew the moment Damon opened the door, as I heard him gasp out my name before a gentle hand settled on my knee. I opened my eyes and gave him a shaky smile, "We have a problem." I glanced up at my sister, only to see her just standing there. "And you need to get out of here before that problem does something stupid."

Damon's hand resting on my cheek, thumb wiping away a few traitorous tears, distracted me into looking back at him, "What happened?"

"Silas got into Elena's head and now she has officially lost the plot," I replied as his free hand wrapped around the poker sticking out of my right leg. I heard his hiss slightly as the vervain burned his skin, but he didn't let go. unfortunately, before he could pull it out and before I could warn him that Elena is likely to do something stupid, my sister did just that.

I was so distracted that I hadn't noticed her pick up a syringe from the bed and step forward. It wasn't until it was shoved deep into Damon's neck that I noticed her movement. My boyfriend let out a shout as the vervain was injected into his body. I yelled out his name, before cursing out my mind-controlled sister.

I could see Damon fighting the effects of the vervain, but the concoction in the syringe must have been strong as it didn't take long for him to slump forward. I stared down at his head, resting on my knee before I glared up at Elena. Logically, I knew that it wasn't her fault, and that wasn't able to fight against Silas' mind control. But I was also thoroughly fed up with the situation.

"Seriously," I growled, before shaking my head. "That's it. The next time that I see Silas, I am going to rip him apart. There will be no mercy from me. He is going to pay for this and I will not be talked down. I mean, for fuck sake, this is absolute bullshit."

"Shut up, Alexa," my mind-controlled twin snapped at me as she crouched down by Damon's body. I went to grab her, feeling relieved that my hands were still free, when she upended another bottle of vervain water over my thighs. I hissed out my pain, squeezing my eyes shut, and because of that, I missed my opportunity to stop her from moving Damon away from me.

By the time I was able to control the pain and open my eyes, she had somehow managed to get him onto the chair opposite me. Thankfully, she spared him the fire poker treatment and instead just tied him up with some rope. I stated at his unconscious body before sighing, "So, are we going to wait for him to wake up before you continue with Silas' plan? Or do I get to enjoy some more of that fucking vervain water before that happens?"

"That depends on you," Ellie shrugged, picking up another bottle. Honestly, the stupidest decision that we made was not getting rid of Megan's bottles of vervain water. The moment she died; we should have ditched it. But no, we didn't, and now my mind-controlled sibling was able to use it against me. "If you tell me what you've been hiding from me, then we can wait. Silas just said that I had to kill you, he didn't say anything about torturing you."

"Huh, how generous of him," I muttered, rolling my eyes. But a part of me was surprised, I had assumed that the immortal douchebag would want us tortured first. Especially after I gave him so attitude earlier. I raised my voice, "Sorry, Els, but I'm not telling you anything until your mind is Silas free."

Elena soon made her feelings about the clear. And I didn't really appreciate how she did so. Seriously, that vervain water of Megan's should have been in the bin the moment she died. Next time we are in this kind of ridiculous situation, that will be the first thing that I do. Any vervain water will go straight in the bin.

XXX

By the time Damon woke up, I had effectively exhausted my entire curse library. And I had run out of creative ways of adding to it. So when he glanced at me, I gave him a sharp smile, "Why is it that every time someone takes you out with a vervain syringe, I get tortured? I really don't appreciate that pattern."

"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice soft as he tried to sit up. From the small wince on his face, I just knew that the ropes had been enhanced thanks to the most annoying herb on the planet.

"I've been better," I rolled my eyes before glancing to the side as Elena approached us. "But I am not Ellie's biggest fan right now. Remind me to find my rational hat later on."

"We might both need to do that," Damon muttered before he narrowed his eyes at my twin. "What did 'Stefan' tell you to do, Elena?"

My sister shrugged as she reached to the side, picking up one of the stakes that Ric had given her, "Get you two alone, weaken you and then kill you."

"Surprisingly, there were no instructions related to torturing," I helpfully added as Elena stood in front of Damon. "Although, considering the fire pokers that are holding me down, I think Els got creative."

"I can tell," my boyfriend muttered, sounding distinctly unimpressed, before he did something that I wasn't able to do earlier. As my twin lifted the stake, intending to drive it into Damon's heart, he kicked out, getting a direct hit to her shin.

Ellie let go of the stake with a shout, stumbling back a few steps. Everything was silent for a moment before she looked up, glancing between us with a horrified look on her face, "Alexa, Damon, oh god. I'm… I'm so sorry. I don't know… what the hell is happening?"

I exchanged a quick look with Damon before reaching out, somehow hiding the resulting wince, and grabbed her hand, "Els, it's okay, just breathe."

"You're in some kind of Silas-trance," my boyfriend added, keeping his voice soft at the obvious panic in my sister's voice. "But I think I managed to snap you out of it."

A look of pure confusion formed on Ellie's face, "Silas, but he's… he's gone, he's in the quarry."

"Yeah, about that," I sighed, shaking my head as she glanced over at me. "He's kind of not. He was the one that you spoke to today, not Stefan."

"Is that one of the secrets that you've been keeping from me?" Elena frowned, stepping away from me. "The secrets that Silas told me about."

"Of course she remembers that," I rolled my eyes, unable to hide the bitter edge to my voice. "Because why wouldn't she."

"How is that even possible?" my sister snapped, an angry hint to her voice. "We were surrounded by people. I hugged him! We were talking about the summer and about Jeremy. You let him talk to me!"

"I couldn't exactly stop you," I shook my head. "Not with his annoying little mind control ability."

Unfortunately for me, an even worse thought occurred to my twin then, as she gasped loudly, "Wait, if that was Silas, then where's Stefan? What happened to Stefan?" When we kept silent, Elena raised her voice, "Where is he?"

"Can we talk about this when you don't have that murdery look in your eyes?" Damon asked with a sigh, seeing the same thing that I was. The angrier that Elena got, the more her fingers twitched towards the stake on the floor next to her.

"Yeah, I tried that earlier, it didn't work," I winced at the vicious look that Elena gave me at my words.

"You're right," she spat, sounding like she was firmly back in her fury stage. "Every time I look at you both, every time I hear your voices, all I want to do is kill you."

"Charming," I muttered, unable to help myself. I mean, if my little quips stopped me from having a little breakdown at the thought of my sister wanting to kill me, I would keep them coming. It was a shitty situation and I would do whatever I could to cope with it. Especially since I could feel my blood forming a puddle beneath me, staining my sandals.

"It must be Silas' mind-control," Damon murmured, thinking deeply. Luckily, he was able to think quickly and find a way to get us out of this mess. And I was more than happy to let him. "He's using your anger at us, like a trigger. You have to resist it."

"I can't!" Elena snapped back, shaking her head.

"Els, if you don't find a way to resist it, then we are every so slightly fucked," I added my voice to the mix, actually saying something useful for once. "So come on, I know you can do it."

Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say as she shouted, "I'm trying!"

She tangled her fingers into her hair, tugging harshly, before she dropped to the floor. Her knees hit the wood with a loud thud before she reached out to grab the stake next to her. And then, she did something that just proved that she was a total dumbass. Something that made me yell out her name.

Elena grabbed the stake and drove it deep into her thigh. She let out a cry of pain, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the stake, before she forced out through gritted teeth, "Tell me what's going on."

"Only if you take that stake out!" I snapped back, trying to shift myself forward. But the combination of the blood loss and vervain had weakened me, and I wasn't able to do anything to help the stubborn fool.

"Alexa, it's the only thing keeping my mind clear," Ellie shook her head, refusing to do what I wanted. And there was nothing that I could do to force her to take the stake out of her leg.

XXX

I let Damon take over updating Elena on everything that I had been hiding from her. All of my concentration was on the blood that slowly dripped down her thigh. There was far too much of it and my stubborn sister was refusing to allow one of us to heal her. And we were unable to break free from our bindings to force our blood down her throat. My only hope was that Caroline came back and helped us.

"Poor Bonnie," Ellie shook her head as she struggled to absorb everything that she had been told. "She must be heartbroken; I should have been told. I should have reached out to her. She's been left alone to deal with this. Has anyone talked to her, is she okay?"

"I've tried, but she isn't answering her phone," I muttered, wincing at the look that she gave me. It was not a happy look, but fortunately, it wasn't as murderous as the other ones were.

"I left it to Alexa and Jenna," Damon shrugged, his arm twitching as he tried to subtly loosen the ropes. "I've had other, more important things to worry about."

"My best friend's dad died," Elena snapped, and I could practically sense her anger levels rising. "It's pretty damn important."

"Yeah, well, so is protecting your family, finding my brother and figuring out what the hell Silas wants with Katherine, all while helping keep Alexa calm so she can sort out the issues that you have here," my boyfriend snapped back before taking a deep breath. I could tell that the situation was getting to him. He didn't like feeling weak at the best of times, let alone in front of my sister. And when you factor in the fact that I was also hurt, it was not an easy thing for him to deal with.

"I just left," my twin growled, her hands shaking in anger. "What the hell is wrong with you two? Can't you go a few days without causing trouble?!"

"Uh, excuse me," I protested loudly. "I didn't cause any trouble. The supernatural bullshit that plagues our lives caused the trouble; we've just been trying to deal with it without anyone dying."

"And look at what a great job you've done!" Elena scoffed, shaking her head.

"Rude," I muttered while Damon spoke up.

"Elena, you're getting angry at us again. Remember what the trigger is."

"Of course I'm getting angry!" Elena shouted, losing all control. "Jeremy ran away without telling anyone! You've got him and Ric playing white knight to Katherine, who's tried to kill me, repeatedly. Jenna is now unprotected at home. Stefan's been… god, Stefan's been suffering, for months, while I've allowed you two to persuade me that everything is okay. Oh my god. Oh my god."

"Els, you need to calm down," I tried to keep my voice soothing, even as I exchanged a worried glance with Damon. "This isn't helping anyone." Of course, my worry skyrocketed when she dragged herself across the floor, reaching to grab something from under her bed. My voice reached a whole new pitch when I saw what she had, "Where the fuck did you get that?!"

"It wasn't hard," Elena's voice was dripping with fury as she pointed the shotgun at us. "Neither was sourcing the woodchips."

"Ellie, that is a shotgun. Fuck me, that is a shotgun!" I grabbed the fire poker sticking out of my left leg and tugged at it. Unfortunately, there was too much pain for me to pull it out myself. "I knew that you would be the reason why I died. I've been fucking saying it for years. And now you want to shoot me with a shotgun!"

Fortunately, Damon's voice was a lot more calm, even if I could hear the panic hidden within, "Elena, stop. You don't really wanna kills us. You have to realise this before you're able to break Silas' compulsion."

"I can't, okay!" Elena shouted, her hand shaking as she aimed the shotgun directly at my heart. "All I can think about is killing you!"

I went to speak, although I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say, but I paused when Damon held up his hand. I examined his face before slowly nodding, agreeing to stay silent. I mean, it was probably a good thing. I hadn't exactly said the most rational things today. Knowing my luck, I would say something that would cause my twin to pull the trigger.

"Well, you're gonna have to think about something stronger than your desire to kill us," my boyfriend kept his voice soft. "Or you are going to end up killing your twin sister."

When Elena shook her head, unable to think of something, I couldn't stop my whispered, "Stefan. Your anger reignited when you found out the truth about Stefan."

Damon immediately seized upon that, repeating his brothers name, "Stefan. Stefan. Think about Stefan. Caroline told me that you've been worried about him, that you had a pit in your stomach whenever you thought about him. Describe it, tell me about it."

I held my breath as Ellie's slowly lowered the shotgun, even as she shook her head, "What? I… no, I can't…"

"Think about him," my boyfriend encouraged her. "Think about the feelings that you're getting. Describe it to us."

"It's… it's like a chill, but I can't explain it…" Ellie shook her head, a frustrated look on her face as she searched for the right words. "It's like I can feel him. He's trying to reach out to me, but I don't know where he is, and I can't understand what he's trying to say. All I know is that he's scared and he's lonely and he's in a lot of pain. He's in a lot of pain. We have to find him."

"And we will," Damon nodded. "I swear."

A look of realisation formed on my sister's face as she finally placed the shotgun on the floor, "The rage… it's gone."

Everything was still for a moment before the door to the room opened. As one, we all turned to look at the newcomer. Caroline glanced around the room before rolling her eyes, "I think we need to set some ground rules for when boyfriends come to visit."

I couldn't stop my snort of laughter at her words.

XXX

At my urging, the first thing that Caroline did was heal Elena. There weren't any arguments from the blonde, as the human in the room had definitely lost far too much blood. And the smell of it was making my nose itch. I somehow managed to stop my face from vamping out, which was a huge achievement because my own blood loss was making me hungry. Something else that Caroline must have realised because, after she cut the ropes off of Damon, she quickly ushered Elena into the bathroom. My sister put up a fight, clearly eager to start making amends after the past couple of hours, but Caroline's grip on her arm was firm.

It was lucky that Caroline got Ellie out of the room when she did, because I quickly lost my composure as the scent of the blonde vampire's blood was added to the room. I squeezed my eyes shut, even as I felt my fangs poking at my lips. It had been a tough day and I had lost far too much blood. And that usually didn't mean good things for my hunger levels.

It wasn't until a gentle hand rested on my cheek that I opened my eyes again. Damon had a sympathetic look on his face as he carefully wrapped one hand around the poker in my left leg. He softly murmured, "This is going to hurt."

"Can't hurt any worse than it going in," I tried to give him an understanding smile, but judging from the wince on my boyfriend's face, I didn't do a very good job. Of course, I was quickly proven wrong when Damon quickly pulled the poker out of my leg. I let out a low groan, muttering curses before I hissed, "Fuck, I was wrong. Oh fuuuuuck, I was so so wrong."

"You're okay, baby," my boyfriend pressed a kiss to my sweaty forehead before pulling the other fire poker out of my leg. I let out a low groan at the pain before sighing in relief. Now that the pokers were out of my legs, my body was able to finally heal. The itchy, burning pain from the vervain was subsiding and I felt myself begin to relax. Of course, the fact that my body was beginning to heal meant that it wanted fuel. And that meant blood.

My hunger, my insatiable goddamn hunger, which I had gotten so good at controlling, was buzzing in my mind. It felt like it was consuming me. And with my vulnerable twin in the next room, with a building full of human students, that was not a good thing. I would have plundered Caroline's blood bag supply, but it was running woefully low. Despite the blonde's annoying habit of being too prepared, she hadn't found a blood-bank in the area for her to borrow from.

I wasn't aware of the fact that my face had changed until Damon gently ran his fingers beneath my eyes, lightly tracing the pulsing veins. I opened my eyes, looking down into the worried ones of my boyfriend. I poked one of my fangs with my tongue before sighing, "I'm fucking starving."

"I'm sure your sister can offer up a vein," Damon muttered, sounding very annoyed with Elena. Not that I could blame him. While logically, I knew that she was being mind controlled, it was hard to remember that in the moment. Being tortured for the afternoon, seeing my beloved boyfriend get hurt, it didn't really allow logic to take over. At my exhausted snort, he carefully eased me off the chair and into his lap. I didn't care that my legs were resting in the pool of blood under my chair. I just enjoyed the comfort of my boyfriend's arms.

"You know, I can find something else to eat," I mumbled as Damon adjusted me enough that he was able to hold his wrist in front of my mouth. I could practically sense the blood hiding beneath the pale skin. And it hard to stay in control and not just sink my fangs into his skin.

"I know," my boyfriend nodded, tucking my head beneath his chin. "But I want to do this. Let me help you, Ally."

After those words, I felt my control melt away. I reached up to grip his hand before carefully biting into the soft skin of his wrist. The arm that Damon had wrapped around my waist tightened slightly before he rested his cheek against the top of my head. I let out a muffled groan as his blood filled my mouth. My eyes fluttered closed as my body got what it needed.

I knew that Damon would control how much blood that I took from him, so I allowed myself to fully relax into his body, drinking steadily. I blocked out everything around me, the noises of the students returning from the party, the voices in the next room, the feel of the blood drying on my skin. I just let Damon, his body and his blood, consume me.

It wasn't until my boyfriend gently murmured into my ear, carefully pulling his wrist away, that I opened my eyes again. I licked away the blood on my lips before tilting my head back, looking up at Damon. He seemed a lot more relaxed that he did before as he checked that the wounds on my legs were healing. I was content to let him do his mothering act. It had been a shitty day and I was more than happy for my boyfriend to look after me. If I was being completely honest, all I wanted him to do was take me to the shower and wash the blood off of me, being wrapping me up in his bed and not leaving my side. But I was not going to get that. We had issues to deal with, the most pressing one being the fact that Elena knew all of our secrets now. And I had to sort that out, now that she was no longer being controlled by Silas.

All I could do was hope that she wasn't too mad with me.

XXX

I stood to the side while Caroline helped my sister load a suitcase into the trunk of Damon's car. She wasn't mad at me, although she wasn't the happiest. It wasn't exactly a win, but I would take it. Not happy was a lot better than the murderous rage from yesterday. At least she was talking to me while she packed up her suitcase. Even if it was talking about her plans for looking for Stefan and reaching out to Bonnie. She probably talked to Caroline about it after I left the room, retreating to the roof with Damon. That was where we spent the night, enjoying the cool air and the quiet. It gave us the opportunity to check in with each other, to make sure that injuries were healing, that the bullshit of the day wasn't weighing too heavily on our minds.

"I'll be back, roomie," Ellie smiled at the blonde, drawing me from my thoughts. "I don't know when, but I will be back."

There was a sad edge to Caroline's returning smile, "Just call me the minute you hear from Bonnie, okay? I've left her, like, a hundred messages."

"I will, I promise," my twin nodded as the friends hugged. I glanced away as I felt my sister's gaze flicker towards me. After yesterday, talking about our missing friends was difficult. Logically, I knew that she was no longer being influenced by Silas. But it didn't help soothe the worried feeling in the back of my head. I didn't know if something would kick her back into that murderous rage. But at least I wasn't alone with her now, if she did decide to stab me with something else.

"You're gonna find him, Elena," our friend said softly as they pulled apart, giving my sister's shoulders a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah, I know," Ellie gave a determined nod before the two exchanged goodbyes. While my twin turned back to the car, making sure that the suitcase was securely resting in the trunk while she waited for Damon to arrive, Caroline walked in my direction.

I scuffed my shoe against the ground as I leant back against the tree behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr Maxfield slowly approach my twin, an interested look on his face. I kept an ear out, ready for when he made his grand entrance but otherwise; I was content to remain against my tree.

"How are you doing?" the blonde asked quietly as she stood next to me. I appreciated that, as it meant that not only could I keep an eye on Elena, I was also able to hide my expression from her. Because I wasn't sure if I had recovered enough to actually discuss my feelings about the shitshow that was yesterday.

"Just peachy," I sighed, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm fully healed and Elena seems to be talking to me. So I guess it could be worse."

Care gave me a hard look before sighing and resting a hand on my shoulder, "Alexa, what you went through yesterday sucked. Just do me a favour and don't bottle it all up?"

"Don't worry, Damon will definitely make me confront it," I snorted, shaking my head. "Besides, I kind of deserved it. I was keeping a lot of shit from Elena; I'm not surprised that Silas was able to use that to manipulate her."

"That does not mean that you deserve what happened to do," my friend sighed, pulling me into a quick hug. "And trust me, Elena agrees. She feels so guilty for what she did to you."

"She shouldn't, it wasn't her fault at all," I muttered, patting the blonde's back.

"It wasn't your fault either."

When I finally agreed that what happened wasn't my fault, Caroline made her exit. She still had classes to attend and she had even agreed to take notes for Ellie too. After waving her off, I turned my attention back to my twin and the mysterious Dr Maxwell.

"I didn't think that the Gilbert twins would give up so easily," the blond introduced himself, a surprisingly charming smile on his face. "Sorry about being a hard-ass earlier. It's kind of my thing. You're Grayson Gilbert's daughters, aren't you?"

I shifted slightly against my tree, drawing Elena's attention, before she slowly asked, "You knew our dad?"

"Knew of him" Dr Maxfield was quick to reply. "He's a legend around here. Brilliant. I've studied all his research. I can only hope to do the kind of work that he did."

I rolled my eyes at the sassy look on my twin's face as she rested a hand on her hip, "So, does that mean that he forged death certificates, too?"

Well, good to know that she was back to being a foolish idiot. With a sigh, I pushed myself away from my tree and walked over to the pair. The teacher glanced over at me before giving my sister a wry smile, "And here I thought that you were just passionate about microbiology. I have office hours tomorrow. Come by, we can chat."

"Um, yeah," Ellie winced. "I would, but I've got other important things on my plate right now."

"Let me know when that plate clears," Dr Maxfield nodded before walking away. My twin stared after him with a curious look on her face while I just shook my head. That Dr Maxfield was bad news. He knew about vampires, he was helping to cover up that supernatural goings-on around campus, and my dumbass sister wanted to get more involved with him. I knew why. He knew, at least on some level, our dad, despite his words otherwise. And Elena would not give that up.

I glanced to the side as my boyfriend approached, wrapping an arm around my waist as he hummed, "Well, I guess that's how a hero would do it. Honestly, who'd've think it? Aren't you the least bit curious about the whole Nancy Drew and the creepster-professor thing?"

"Caroline'll take over," Ellie shrugged turning to face us. She glanced down at the arm that my boyfriend had wrapped around me. It was slightly on the tight side, but I knew that after yesterday, he would be very much overprotective. "I can't stay here, knowing that Stefan's out there somewhere."

Damon nodded as he pulled something out his pocket. I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as I saw Stefan's daylight ring sitting in his palm. If he had it, then poor Stefan definitely didn't. But the question was, where did he get it from?

"That's Stefan's daylight ring," my twin frowned, her fingers hovering over the ring, almost reluctant to touch it.

"Snagged it from Silas yesterday," Damon replied, curling his fingers back around the ring when Ellie didn't pick it up. He tucked it back into his pocket. I could tell that he wanted to say more, but before he could, the phone in his pocket began to ring. I exchanged a glance with him as we saw Sheriff Forbes' number flash up on the screen. "Yeah?"

"We found something."

XXX

Sheriff Forbes met us at the edge of the quarry, a worried look on her face, before she turned to lead us further into the woods. We followed in silence, the only noise the crunching of the leaves beneath our feet. I kept a close eye on my sister, taking note of the worried look on her face. But Damon's hand clasping mine stopped me from saying something. I knew that until we saw what the Sheriff had found, there would be no reassuring my sister. So I just made sure to keep her in my line of sight.

It wasn't until we had been walking for around twenty minutes that Caroline's mom began to talk, "We didn't find anything in the quarry," she paused to gesture to something in the distance. It looked like an old, wrought-iron safe. One that felt oddly familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. "But a deputy found this a few miles away. Didn't open it. If Stefan's been in there for three months, well, chances are that he's hungry."

"Understatement," I muttered as Damon let go of my hand. We exchanged a glance before I ushered Elena and the Sheriff back a couple of steps. If there was a ravenous vampire in there, then I was not going to let the vulnerable humans get too close. Once I was content that they were a safe distance away, I gave my boyfriend a nod.

Damon opened the safe, his movements quick and fluid, ready to hold down a starving vampire. But instead, he just frowned. I stepped forward, before raising an eyebrow. Well, that was not what I was expecting. Like at all.

"Oh my god," Elena gasped, edging forward when it became clear that there was no immediate danger. She held a hand to her mouth as she stared down at the dead body inside. The poor person, a hiker, if I was forced to guess, had had their throat ripped out. Blood stained their clothes and skin, like the person feeding cared only for the blood and not the finesse. "That's not Stefan."

"Well, you were right," my boyfriend glanced over at Sheriff Forbes as we surrounded the safe. "He was hungry. I bet he still is."

XXX

A/N: I hope you enjoyed :) and thank you so much for the reviews, they have really helped kick my butt into gear to get the chapter finished! Please keep them coming :) I don't know when the next chapter will come but with the football season back, I should have a lot more free time, let's just hope that my husband's team does well lol Until next time, I hope you enjoyed reading xoxo