The next morning, Emily and Elena sat in the middle of the Salvatore boarding house as they waited for Alaric to arrive. Stefan and Elena had came knocking on Emily's bedroom door in the early hours, saying that they needed to contact Alaric so they could get some information from him. Emily wasn't really sure what they needed to talk about, but since Elena already knew what was going on, she decided to just follow along.
"Thanks for coming, Ric," Damon greeted as the man of the hour entered the living room. "Can I get you something to drink?" He questioned as he stood over the alcohol table, "coffee, bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?"
Alaric shook his head as he looked at Damon, "I'm good." He glanced over to the Gilbert girls and focused his attention on the new vampire for a moment longer before stating, "Emily said you needed my help."
"Yeah," Stefan sighed lightly as he held Elena's hand in his. "We were hoping you could shed some light on the Lockwood family," he explained once Alaric had sat across from them.
Emily looked over at Stefan in confusion as she questioned, "wait, why do you want to know about Tyler's family?" She didn't even know there was anything to suspect; especially if it involved the supernatural part of life.
"Your bestie's family is hiding some secrets," Damon smirked at Emily as he made his way over to the toasty fireplace.
"But why would you think I'd know anything about the Lockwood's?" Alaric questioned as he stirred the conversation back on topic.
"Well, you wouldn't," Damon drawled out as he looked over at Alaric, "but your dead, not dead vampire wife might."
"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together," Elena clarified.
"You said that she spent years researching this town," Stefan added.
Alaric looked down at his lap as he played with the ring that the aforementioned woman had gave him years ago. "Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted in folklore and legends," he explained once he had looked up at the faces that were watching him closely, "but at the time I thought much of which was fiction."
"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon uttered with a smirk.
Elena cleared her throat awkwardly as she was not used to that word being something to describe her. "Aside from vampires, what else?" She questioned lowly.
Alaric furrowed his brows as he racked his mind before he responded simply, "the lycanthrope."
While the three vampires confusingly glanced at each other, Emily looked at the history teacher with her green eyes widened. "You're telling me there are werewolves here in Mystic Falls?" She questioned in astonishment.
Damon quickly shook his head and denied, "no way, impossible, way too Lon Chaney."
"Is it?" Stefan questioned.
Damon rolled his eyes at Stefan before he began to explain, "I've been on this planet for one hundred and sixty some odd years, and never came across one." He looked at each face around the room as he challenged, "if werewolves exit, where the hell are they?"
Alaric looked at the older vampire with uncertainty in his eyes as he interrogated, "why do you suspect the Lockwood's?"
Damon sighed tiredly before he recalled, "because vervain didn't affect the mayor at Founder's Day, but the Gilbert device did and it also affected his son, Tyler."
"And at the school carnival, his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought with one of the carnival workers," Stefan added to his brother's explanation, "it suggests to some sort of supernatural entity."
Emily moved her eyes between the Salvatore brothers and her sister as she questioned, "so, you guys really think the Lockwood's could actually be werewolves?"
Elena looked at Emily with a small shrug and stated, "it's worth a shot to find out." She moved her brown eyes to Alaric as she continued, "we were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is."
"Well, all her things are still at Duke," Alaric stated before he cleared his throat and corrected himself, "I mean her office is still there." He glanced over at the vampire that had turned Isobel as he declared, "she's technically still missing."
"So, can we get access to it?" Damon questioned eagerly.
However, Damon groaned loudly when he noticed the history teacher wasn't going to give him an answer. "Ric, we need to know what we are dealing with," he stressed. "If this wolfman thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's not good," Damon uttered as he tried to convince Alaric, "it means Mason Lockwood is a real life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney junior, which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed."
Emily huffed as she threw a ray of different colored tank tops into her large black duffel bag as she packed for Duke University. If she was going to the famous university any other time, she would've been so excited. But now she was just annoyed since she had to go with the one person she couldn't stand lately.
"Are you sure you want to go?" Stefan questioned lightly as he stood by Emily's desk. He didn't really like the idea of the older Gilbert girl going away with Damon when he couldn't be there.
Emily glanced over at Stefan before she sighed, "well, it's not like I really have a choice." She shrugged her shoulders carelessly and stated, "we need answers and this is the only way we can, so I guess I will just have to stick it out with Damon." Emily mumbled under her breath as she continued packing, "hopefully I don't have to kill him."
"Please don't do that," Elena begged as she strolled into her sister's bedroom.
Emily ignored the tension she could definitely feel from Stefan as Elena walked into the room. Instead, she sighed dramatically as she looked over at her twin sister with a smirk and muttered jokingly, "I guess I can try."
Stefan cleared his throat once the room grew painfully silent and looked over at Emily as he questioned curiously, "so, how are you feeling about having to go through Isobel's things?"
Emily bit down on her bottom lip nervously as she busied herself with zipping up her bag, before she uttered quietly, "I don't really know how I feel." She rose an eyebrow as she wondered, "it's weird, right? I mean, I don't even like this woman and now I'm going to go through her life's work."
Elena jumped onto her sister's bed before she suggested, "maybe I should come with you. We could go through Isobel's things together."
Emily quickly shook her head as she gave Elena a reassuring smile. "No, no. You should stay here so Stefan can teach you and Caroline about the whole vampire thing," she exclaimed. Emily grabbed Elena's left hand as she subconsciously rubbed over Elena's new daylight ring, "I want you to be okay, so you should only focus on that. You don't have to worry about me."
"Even though I'd rather go too, Emily's right," Stefan told Elena, "I need to focus on you and Caroline to make sure you both can get control before we can go any further."
Elena huffed out a sigh but nodded her head in agreement. She swiftly shifted her eyes towards her sister and ordered, "you have to tell me everything you find out. We need to know how we are connected to Katherine."
Emily rolled her eyes playfully at her sister, "yes, I know, Lena." She gave the stressed out girl a small smile, "I promise I will find out as much as I can and I will tell you everything."
Elena groaned as she threw herself onto Emily's soft pillows. "I hate this. I wish I could just come with you. I don't like being left out," she complained.
Emily chuckled, "oh, come on, you big baby." She pulled her sister from the bed as she stated with a smirk, "we will come back together and I'll give you all the details and you can tell me all about you killing cute little animals."
Stefan shook his head and snickered as he watched Elena's face turn to one of disgust. "Come on, we should get going," he told the two girls before leading them out of Emily's bedroom with her bag thrown over his shoulder.
Emily and Elena followed after Stefan and made their way down the stairs as they joked and shoved each other playfully. Emily was happy that their relationship didn't change after Elena became a vampire. They were as close as ever, maybe even more. Once they reached the front door, Emily noticed a frown on her aunt's face. "Hey, are you okay?" She questioned softly. Emily knew Jenna wouldn't exactly be happy with seeing Alaric again after she had just learned about Isobel.
Jenna gave her oldest niece a tight smile with a shrug as she uttered, "yeah, just men with their baggage."
Emily rubbed Jenna's right shoulder gently as she stated softly, "I'll be back in a day or two, but maybe we can go get some ice cream and talk about whatever you want when I get back."
Jenna nodded her head with a real smile before she suggested hopefully, "or maybe we could go to the Grill and spend our time at the bar and be irresponsible for a few hours."
Emily chuckled, "or that." She knew her aunt didn't mind her drinking as long as it was with her. It's how they got closer over the last couple of months. Emily gave her aunt a tight hug as she stated, "I'll see you soon," before she followed after Stefan and Elena out of the Gilbert house as they made their way towards Alaric's SUV.
"Sorry you can't come too, Stef," Damon sassed once he had seen the trio make their way towards him as he leaned against the black car.
Stefan ignored his brother and threw Emily's large bag into the backseat before he turned to the young girl. "Call me if you need anything," he told Emily as he pulled her into a tight hug.
Emily hugged Stefan back just as tightly and whispered softly, "I will."
"Oh, don't you worry, Stef. I'll make sure to take good care of our girl here," Damon smirked.
Emily rolled her eyes in annoyance as she looked at the older vampire before she exclaimed, "I'd rather drop dead."
Damon placed his hand over his dead heart playfully as he mumbled, "ouch. You wounded me."
"Good," Emily stated as she glared into his blue eyes.
Damon pouted at the older Gilbert girl before his lips turned into a smirk as he looked straight at Elena and requested, "make sure you eat a bunny for me."
"Goodbye, Damon," Emily deadpanned as she pushed Damon towards the inside of the black car before she walked up to her twin sister. "I hope you have fun," she told Elena with a teasing smirk. But when Elena rolled her eyes, Emily grew serious, "no, but honestly, I hope you learn everything you need, and I love you, Lena."
Elena's brown eyes softened for a second before she swiftly pulled Emily into a tight hug as she whispered, "I love you too." She knew her sister meant well, and it made her feel better that Emily didn't treat her any differently with her being a vampire. She was glad that she still had her twin sister by her side.
Emily gave Elena and Stefan one last smile before she jumped into the back of Alaric's black SUV with a huff. She knew she had to push her hatred for Damon to the side as best as she could, so she could focus on getting the information that they all needed.
Emily played with her silver and red necklace that hung around her neck as she watched the fields and trees pass by from the backseat window. They still had an hour and twenty five minutes until they would reach Duke University. The first hour on the road was filled with Damon's annoying voice as he sung horribly to a rock station. But Alaric had finally turned off the radio all together before Emily had the chance to knock the vampire out, or at least try to.
"How you doing back there?" Damon questioned as he took a quick glance at the brunette girl. But when Emily only glared at him before looking back out the window, Damon uttered, "you know, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly."
Alaric scoffed at the vampire before he exclaimed, "I don't think she's pretending. You did kill her brother."
Emily crossed her arms over her chest as she stated dully, "point one goes to the vampire hunter." Emily didn't like talking about how her brother basically died. It just made her even more angrier and upset when she thought about it.
"There is a huge asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life," Damon remarked as he defended his actions.
"No thanks to you," Emily mumbled. "The only reason he is still walking around Mystic Falls is because of John's ring that you obviously didn't see," she added bitterly.
"Why are you so sure I didn't see it?" Damon wondered.
Emily rose an eyebrow at the vampire as she questioned, "did you?"
Damon took a long pause before he finally looked back at Emily and responded quietly, "yes."
Emily rolled her eyes, "yeah, right."
"Emily, I saw the ring!" Damon exclaimed, "it's a big tacky thing, hard to miss."
Emily didn't bother saying another word to Damon. There was no point to even argue about it. Her mind was set, and there was no changing it. She had seen the horrible event transpire for herself and there was no denying what she had seen. Instead, Emily took a deep breath as her eyes focused on the colorful flowers they passed and counted down the seconds until she could get away from the vampire that had caused her distress.
Emily's green eyes brightened as she, Alaric, and Damon walked through the inside of Duke University. Before Emily even knew about Isobel, she had always dreamed of going to the famed institute. Everyone that she knew that went to college have always gone to a state school, but Emily was someone who shot for the stars. Emily guessed that she had gotten that from Isobel.
"So, Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department, given that most paranormal phenomenon is rooted in folklore," Alaric explained as they walked into the Friedl building, where Isobel used to spend her human life studying. "Excuse me," he uttered politely as they walked up towards an occupied desk. "Hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier," he stated once the woman had looked up at him.
The woman smiled, "yes, of course." She shook Alaric's hand as she introduced herself, "I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant, comparative folklore." She glanced over at the two other people in the room, before she quickly looked away and mumbled nervously, "uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys."
Alaric had noticed the way Vanessa kept on eyeing the two people with him. He thought she was just curious, so Alaric introduced them, "I'm sorry. These are my friends Damon and Emily. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition."
Vanessa chuckled as she waved her hand lightly and uttered, "oh, please." She pointed to the room behind them as she stated, "Isobel's office is right through there." She went behind her desk and grabbed a set of keys as she explained, "Isobel was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student. She was brilliant, and one of the reasons why I went into folklore." Vanessa glanced down at the keys in her hand as she questioned anxiously, "has there been any news?"
Alaric shook his head and mumbled, "no, I'm afraid not."
Vanessa frowned before she quickly uttered as she walked, "it's this way."
Emily was the first one to enter the room once Vanessa had unlocked the door. She could tell no one had been inside the room for years. There was dust covering every little thing that occupied the room. It almost felt like no one had cleaned in here since Isobel was still human. Emily walked towards a large bookcase as she heard Vanessa mutter behind her, "I'll grab the light."
It was quiet as they all looked around the room before Damon spoke puzzledly, "where did she go?"
Emily looked away from the book she was gazing at with furrowed brows as she heard Damon's question. But her eyes suddenly widened in shock when she spotted Vanessa. The older woman stood by the door as she held a crossbow pointing directly at Emily. "Damon," she whispered. Emily didn't like Damon at the moment, but she'd like to think he would save her if he had the chance. But Emily still closed her eyes as she waited for the pain to run through her body, if by chance she was wrong. However, when Emily opened her eyes, the only thing she could see was Damon's dark grey shirt.
Emily sighed in relief once she realized that Damon had taken the arrow for her. She couldn't be anymore thankful for Damon, even though she was currently not on good speaking terms with the vampire. But at least she knew for certain that she was safe with him. "Are you okay?" She whispered as her green eyes nervously went to Vanessa, who was held against the wall by Alaric.
"No," Damon groaned as he fell to his knees, "you need to pull it out of me."
"What? No!" Emily gasped as she looked at the weapon that was covered in blood as it was embedded into Damon's back.
"Emily, I took an arrow for you, so the least you can do is pull the damn thing out!" Damon yelled with a mixture of anger and pain in his voice.
"Oh, this is gross," Emily moaned as she wrapped her pale hands around the dark arrow.
"Pull it out now!" Damon growled in frustration.
"Stop yelling or I won't do it!" Emily commanded as she grew more nervous as she stared at the long rod. Once Emily realized that Damon wasn't going to yell at her again, she gripped the arrow tightly in her hand, before she took one large yank. She fell back with a huff. "Ew," Emily mumbled briefly as she threw the bloody arrow to the side.
"That bitch is dead," Damon snarled as he stood up from the hard ground.
Emily quickly ran in front of Damon and pushed his shoulders back. "No, no, no," she swiftly uttered. But when Damon glared at her, Emily continued, "look, I agree that she should die. I mean, she did almost kill me. But we need to find out what she knows first, right?"
Damon stood there for a moment as he thought it over, before he silently nodded his head. "Fine, after she is no use to us anymore, I get to kill her," he compromised.
Emily held her hands up in innocence and stated, "whatever you do when I'm in the car, is your business."
Damon smirked, "this is starting to be a beautiful friendship."
Emily rolled her eyes and mumbled, "don't push it," before she walked towards the room Alaric had pushed Vanessa into. She needed to know why this woman wanted to kill her so badly.
"Please, I freaked out, okay!?" Vanessa yelped as she was pushed harshly into a desk chair. "Alright, you would have done the same thing, it's not possible! Damon Salvatore died in 1864 and Darina Petrova died in 1492!" She quickly explained.
"Wait, who's Darina Petrova?" Emily questioned in confusion once she walked into the small office as she was listening to the woman's explanation. She had never heard that name a day in her life, and Vanessa thinks she's this Darina person?
Vanessa swiftly moved her crazed eyes towards Emily before she calmed down and revealed, "she's Katherine's twin sister. She never made it to Mystic Falls in 1864 with Katherine though." She swallowed thickly before stating, "and you look exactly like her."
Emily's brows furrowed as she questioned, "so, does that mean I'm a doppelganger?"
"Well, if you aren't Darina Petrova, then yes, you are her doppelganger," Vanessa stated cautiously.
Emily couldn't believe that she was also a doppelganger like Elena was. She honestly had never heard Darina's name or that Katherine even had a sister. That was just another thing to add to the list that she needed information about. "My name is Emily Gilbert, not Darina Petrova," she introduced herself as she watched the woman closely. She pointed behind her as she felt the blue eyed vampire walk into the room, "and this is Damon Salvatore, who you just shot."
Damon stared at Vanessa in anger and stated, "I'd be extra nice to me right now."
"Look, we don't want to cause any problems," Emily began as she tried to convince the older woman to help them, "we just need to see Isobel's research, especially anything to do with Mystic Falls."
Vanessa watched the short brunette closely. But when she believed that the girl in front of her wasn't Darina Petrova, she took a deep breath and muttered, "what do you want to know?"
Emily's lips twitched up into a tiny smile as she knew that they had the anthropologist's attention. "What do you know about doppelgangers?" She questioned curiously before adding, "obviously you know I'm apparently Darina's doppelganger, but my twin sister, Elena, is Katherine's."
Vanessa bit down on her bottom lip for a moment before she nodded her head as she stated, "I think I can help you with information about the two sisters."
Vanessa grabbed a small box from the very top of the wooden bookshelf before she walked back to Emily, who was sat at the table as she read through articles and paperwork about her hometown. "Here is the information on Katherine Pierce or Petrova, we never knew exactly which last name - we figured she changed it before appearing in Mystic Falls. This box contains about her arrival in April 1864."
Emily looked through the box and noticed there was only a couple of pages about Katherine in Mystic Falls. She rose an eyebrow as she looked up at Vanessa, "is this all of it?"
Vanessa nodded her head and stated, "all that I'm aware of."
Emily sighed quietly as she stared at the very small stack of papers about Katherine. This was definitely not what she wanted. How was she supposed to figure out the connection between Katherine with the small amount of documents? Emily decided that she would look around Isobel's office a little while later, see if there was anything Vanessa missed. But for now, she looked back up at Vanessa as she wondered, "you said Darina Petrova died in the 1400's, do you have anything on her?"
Vanessa nodded her head without hesitation, as she was waiting for that question. "Isobel actually has a journal in her desk that belonged to Darina. It's addressed to her next doppelganger," Vanessa stated, "so, I guess that means its for you."
"Could you show me it?" Emily questioned hopefully. It must've been important if Isobel didn't even keep it with all of her other anthropology findings. She was also curious to why Darina would write to her doppelganger that she didn't even know.
"Yeah, of course," Vanessa uttered, "just let me go get it real quick," before she dashed away to the desk the group had found her at earlier.
While Vanessa ran to get the journal, Emily looked over the documents about Katherine. There was nothing they could use that they didn't already know. It only stated about Katherine arriving in Mystic Falls and then her disappearance not to long after. Isobel had to have something else about Katherine, this couldn't be it.
"Here you go," Vanessa stated as she held the old brown journal out to the Gilbert girl. "I never personally read it, but Isobel always mentioned that it should always be kept safe, so I suppose it's important."
Emily nodded her head and gave Vanessa a small smile, "thank you for this," before she sat back at the table. She looked at the brown cover carefully and noticed small specks of blood and how the journal bent; as if someone held it closely. Emily slowly opened the centuries old journal and began to read the first page,
Dear future doppelganger,
I may not know of you or if you will exist or if you will ever get these words; but I wish to protect my own. You see, you are very special. But, you must know, danger is coming for you. I write to you as my demise is close to be met. I would be lying to say I was not scared. But I would rather protect someone than to be frightened by the monster that looms over my very head.
Our blood and soul is quiet different from anyone else. I was the first protector, but you are the next one. There was no one ever like me. But because you are my doppelganger, as they like to say, you have the contents of my blood, that was spelled, inside of you. You see, as I learned around the troubles that would come for me, a witch helped me.
You might have felt the need to protect everyone over yourself as you grown, and that is because of the spell that was placed over me. But I must warn you, you must not tell the man who is after you that you have the blood of the protector. The man you shall never tell is called, Nik -
Emily paused what she was reading as she suddenly felt something fall to her feet. She bent down and picked up a small rectangular piece of paper. Once she turned the paper around, Emily noticed that it was a painting. Emily's eyes quickly widened as she looked at the picture of Darina and Katherine in the 14th century, that looked exactly like her and Elena.
Emily looked up at Vanessa as questioned, "hey, what do you know about doppelgangers?"
"Well, the word means a lot of different things to different cultures," Vanessa began to explain, "but typically a doppelganger is a living, breathing double of oneself."
"Did Isobel have anything that explained the connection between Darina and I and Katherine and my sister, Elena?" Emily continued to question.
Vanessa shook her head as she stated, "that stack of papers is the only thing she had on Kathrine and the journal is the only thing she had about Darina." She added after a moment, "but I can tell you that doppelgangers usually torment the people they look like, trying to undo their lives. It's not exactly uplifting."
Emily bit her lip as she thought it over. "Obviously Darina didn't follow that as she seems to want to help me, but that sounds right about Katherine," she commented. Emily sighed heavily, "looks like we are back to square one and no luck on the Katherine front." She was tired of coming up short when they needed the information about the older vampire and the connection that they all shared.
"Head scratcher, isn't it?" Damon questioned as he leaned against the far bookshelf with his arms crossed over his chest.
Emily rolled her eyes and mumbled, "do you know something or are you just trying to piss me off?"
"Well, if i did find anyhing, I'm not gonna tell you, certainly not with that attitude," Damon uttered with a smirk.
"That's real nice, Damon," Emily stated with a glare. "I'm sure my sister would love to hear how you didn't help to find out something that's important to her," she added before she walked away in annoyance.
Emily had decided that they should split the workload so they could go home quicker. So, while Alaric focused his attention on the lycanthrope and the Lockwood's, Emily focused on finding anymore information on doppelgangers, Katherine, or Darina. But, of course, she wasn't getting any closer to finding anything useful.
"Any luck?" Damon questioned as he walked up to the frustrated girl.
Emily groaned, "nope. There is nothing here that could help us understand the connection with Katherine and her sister."
Damon clicked his tongue before uttering, "well it's too bad that you still hate my guts, because I might have found something interesting."
"Are you trying to manipulate me?" Emily questioned as she rose an eyebrow at the vampire.
Damon rolled his eyes, "oh, don't act like you didn't manipulate me when you mentioned Elena. You are just as manipulating as I am."
But before Emily could say anything, Alaric suddenly called out from the main room, "hey guys, check this out."
"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls," Vanessa began to explain before she scanned the old book that Alaric had passed to her, "but here are some records of some lesser-known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz."
Vanessa placed the book onto the table for everyone to see. She pointed to an ancient drawing as she stated, "Tonartsliitsii Metslii, which roughly translates into the curse of the sun and the moon."
"It's Native American," Alaric commented.
Emily shook her head as she corrected, "no, this is definitely Aztec."
Vanessa nodded her head as she looked over at Emily, "that's correct." She glanced at each face as she continued, "it explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story; 600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible." Vanessa pointed towards a colorful drawing before adding, "until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, who's ever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."
"Can they control the transformation?" Damon questioned.
"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse," Vanessa stated. When the room grew silent, she continued the story, "werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice; vampires."
As soon as the shocking words fell from Vanessa's mouth, everyone's attention went straight towards the vampire. "Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, I would know about it," Damon uttered with a smirk as he tried to convince himself and everyone that there was no werewolves.
"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive," Vanessa countered, "hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them almost to extinction."
"Why would they try to get rid of each other?" Emily questioned curiously.
"To protect themselves," Vanessa answered before adding, "legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires."
Emily's eyes widened as she glanced between the vampire and hunter. "That is not good," she mumbled under her breath before she quickly pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket. She went to her contacts and pushed the familiar name as she tapped her foot against the floor nervously.
"Hey, are you okay?" Stefan questioned after only two rings.
"Listen, we found something important and we don't know if it's real or not, but it would be better to be safe than sorry," Emily quickly began.
"What is it?" Stefan wondered.
"Okay, so the legends says that a werewolf bite could cause harm to a vampire," Emily explained. "I know it sounds crazy, but after what you saw Mason do, it could be true," she added.
Stefan nodded his head before he stated, "I'll be careful."
"Stef, there's a possibility that the bite can kill a vampire," Emily mumbled into her phone. "Please tell me you have eyes on Elena and Caroline right now," she begged nervously. She definitely didn't want anything to happen to her sister and best friend when they barely started their vampire lives.
It was silent on Stefan's side of the phone as she heard lots of movement before Stefan exclaimed, "uh, I gotta go, we'll see you soon."
Emily stared at her phone with her eyes widened as she heard the dial tone. That didn't make her feel any better, not knowing for certain if her sister and best friend were safe at the moment. Emily hated that she couldn't be there right now to help. But they were two in a half hours away from Mystic Falls. Emily just hoped that nothing bad would happen to the three vampires back home.
After another hour of researching through the anthropology department, they decided to call it quits and head back to Mystic Falls. Even though Emily didn't necessarily get everything they needed, it was at least something that they found information about werewolves like they originally planned. But Emily was grateful that she also found something about Katherine's sister, even if she didn't plan to learn about her. She just hoped the journal would give her some insight on Darina, Katherine, and the troubles that were apparently coming her way.
Emily was the last one to make it out of Duke University. She was constantly amazed by the whole campus as she could still picture herself attending. Once outside the building, Emily waited for Damon and Alaric to go to the SUV before she turned to Vanessa. She pulled out the plant of vervain that she had found in one of the boxes. "Here, you might have tried to kill me, but you should take this," Emily told the older woman.
Vanessa carefully took the plant before she looked up at Emily in wonder, "so, this stuff really works?"
Emily nodded her head as she pointed to her necklace. "It's filled with vervain. So as long as you wear it or ingest it, they can't get into your mind," she explained.
"Thank you," Vanessa uttered softly before she apologized, "I'm really sorry for trying to kill you. I hope you can understand."
Emily nodded her head lightly, "I didn't understand at first, but you were just doing what you thought was right. You were trying to protect yourself. I can understand that. I would have done the same thing if it kept my friends and family safe."
Vanessa gave the Gilbert girl a small smile as she stated, "I hope you found whatever you were looking for today."
Emily responded with a smile as she pointed towards the journal in her hand, "I think I found a start, so thank you."
"Honestly, it was nothing. It was yours to begin with. You just needed the push to find it, I suppose," Vanessa stated. She came to a stop as she turned to the brunette, "it was nice to meet you."
Emily gave the older woman a smile as she uttered, "you too, Vanessa." She pulled her into a hug as she added, "stay safe," before she made her way towards Alaric's SUV. But Emily rolled her eyes when she noticed that Damon was blocking her door. "What do you want, Damon?" She groaned tiredly.
"I have a little present for you," Damon sung before he pulled out a thick book from behind his back.
Emily furrowed her brows as she looked up at Damon before she grabbed the book from his hands. She studied the large book carefully and noticed the familiar name on the spine; Petrova. "Where did you find this?" She questioned.
Damon shrugged lightly, "you didn't dig deep enough. It was on the back shelf."
"Petrova is Darina's last name," Emily stated before questioning, "how does Katherine connect to this?"
"Katherine originally came from Europe," Damon explained, "Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova to be exact."
Emily nodded her head as she thought out loud, "so she was a Petrova in 14th century when she was still in Europe with Darina before changing it when she came to Mystic Falls." She looked up at Damon as she wondered, "how did you know that?"
"Back when, I saw it engraved on an old heirloom," Damon explained before smirking, "men snoop too, you know." He glanced down at the book as he added, "let me know what you find, I'm very curious myself."
"I'm sure my sister will tell you all about it," Emily muttered before she moved around Damon to get inside the SUV.
However, before Emily could get into the car, Damon quickly grabbed onto Emily's arm as he stared into her green eyes. "Look, I get you don't like what I feel for Elena. But I do have something for her, like you have feelings for Stefan." Damon held his finger up as he saw Emily was about to argue and added, "don't try to deny it, not to me." He sighed lightly as he stated, "I hope you can somehow forgive me for what I did to Jeremy. I truly believe we have become friends over the last couple of months, and I'd hate to lose you as a friend."
"You killed my baby brother, and just suspect me to just forget about it and become best friends with you again. It doesn't work like that," Emily mumbled before she finally got into Alaric's car. She was just ready to go check on her twin sister and best friend. She was beyond tired and done thinking about these feelings she had been having lately.
Emily huffed out a sigh once she had closed the front door of the Gilbert house as she made it inside. They had spent over four hours on the road and almost a full day looking through Isobel's research. But as Emily closed her eyes to relax, she suddenly remembered what had happened. She quickly dropped her duffel bag to the ground before she pushed herself up the stairs and ran to her sister's bedroom.
Emily opened Elena's bedroom door and sighed thankfully when she saw her sister sitting at the head of her bed as she wrote in her light green journal. "Hey, are you okay? Nothing bad happened did it?" She quickly interrogated as she down on Elena's bed, "no one was bitten, right?"
Elena chuckled lightly before she stated, "well there was some bumps in the road, but other than running from a real werewolf, it went pretty good." She suddenly scrunched up her nose as she added, "and I fed from a bunny today!"
"No way!" Emily giggled. "Did you think about Snowball when you did it?" She wondered teasingly.
Elena's brown eyes instantly widened in shock. She slapped Emily's arm with her pillow as she yelped, "why did you have to go and say that!? You knew Snowball was always my favorite animal that I ever gotten!"
Emily smirked as she shrugged her shoulders lightly, "I thought you would have already thought about her as you were eating her cousin."
Elena groaned loudly, "ugh, you're the worst," before the two sisters began to laugh together. But after they had calmed down, Elena questioned, "so how did it go with finding stuff on Katherine?"
"Well, it seems like you are not the only doppelganger anymore," Emily told her sister. She then began to explain everything. Emily told Elena all about Darina and the journal that now belonged to her. However, Emily decided that she would leave out about how she was in danger. There was no reason to worry her sister until she read more into the journal. Instead, she pulled out the Petrova book that Damon had found. For the rest of the night, the two Gilbert sisters sat up together as they tried to read through the Bulgarian book that told the story of their true ancestors
