Maya sat down in one of the chairs on her balcony, sketchpad, and pencils in hand. It was a bright sunny morning, and she was planning on sketching out some ideas for her mural wall before breakfast. Hedwig swooped down and landed on the little table next to her, the dead mouse she dropped onto it evidence that she had been out hunting. Leaving the mouse for now the snowy owl hopped up onto her shoulder and began nuzzling her cheek, hooting softly. Maya ran a gentle finger down Hedwig's back.

"Hello Hed, Happy Hunting?"

"Hoo-hoo!"

"I see that, is it easier hunting here than it was in New York?"

"Hoo-hoo-hoo?"

"Because I miss New York."

"Hoo, Hoo-Hoo."

"I know, I know."

Hedwig gave Maya one last nuzzle and then hopped back down to the table to devour her catch. She missed New York, she missed going places with Damon and meeting up with Sora and Kamala at the Enchanted Bean and so many other things. But as Hedwig had reminded her, this was all for her safety, protecting her from the man who wanted to kill her. Maya picked up her pencil and placed it against the sketchpad, there was no point dwelling on things that couldn't be changed. Maya had a couple of ideas she wanted to try and incorporate into the mural, she just needed to sketch them out and see how they could fit in. She began sketching out an image of some planets with spaceships flying in between for the background of her mural.

"Grrr-ah"

Maya looked up at Hedwigs bark and saw another owl, a barn owl, swooping down towards the balcony holding a small package. She didn't know the owl, and everyone had told her not to accept packages from owls she didn't recognise, so she ignored the leg it was holding out to her and called for Dobby. He popped in seconds later.

"What can Dobby be doing for Miss Maya this morning?" He asked, before taking one look at the pyjamas she was wearing and let out a distressed moan. "Miss Maya is being outside without even a jumper on, Miss Maya will be getting sick."

"Dobby, it's 18oC. It's too warm to wear a jumper, and I'm not going to get sick just because I sat outside."

"Kree-ee"

Hedwig let out a loud screech and flew at the barn owl, which had been hopping closer to Maya whilst she was talking to Dobby. The unfamiliar little owl, rapidly backed up in the face of her enraged protector, hopping backwards along the balcony railing, whilst still trying to hold the package out for Maya to take. It nearly lost it's balance several times. Normally a sight that would amuse her, but she couldn't help but remember the warnings that had been drilled into her by everyone about unfamiliar packages. That they could be from Sirius Black, an attempt to harm her.

Dobby knew the dangers too. He clicked his long fingers and the strings tying the package to the barn owls leg unknotted. The package floated away from the owl and towards Dobby. With a disgruntled hoot, the barn owl launched itself into the air and flew away. Hedwig satisfied that Maya was no longer in danger from the stranger, shook her feathers out, and went back to devouring her food.

"Dobby, will be taking the package to Miss Agent Blye, to be checking out."

"Thanks Dobby."

"Miss Maya is being very welcome. Dobby will be seeing Miss Maya at breakfast in ten minutes."

With that unsubtle reminder, Maya stood up and went inside to get dressed. Hedwig who had finished swallowing the little mouse swooped in after her and landed on her perch, tucked her head in and promptly fell asleep.

Maya was the first one in the dining room, but everyone else quickly shuffled in. None of them wanted an irate Dobby thinking up creative ways to punish them for being late. Damon leant down and kissed the top of Maya's head before taking the seat next to her.

"You okay kiddo? Sleep well?"

"Yeah. I got up early to do some sketching and greet Hedwig when she returned from her hunt."

"Anything interesting?"

"Hedwig caught a mouse, and I sketched some ideas for the background on my mural wall."

Maya added some blue berries to her bowl of porridge and was about to start eating it when Dobby popped in with the package the barn owl had delivered, which he placed on the table next to Maya.

"Agent Blye is checking it and is saying it is being safe."

"Thanks Dobby."

Maya picked up the package wrapped in brown paper, it was large, but slightly squishy rather than bulky like a box would be. With a glance at Damon, who gave her a nod of permission, she ripped it open to reveal a shiny black jacket with an underlying iridescent hue. Maya picked it up to examine it and a letter fell out. She quickly exchanged the jacket for the letter, ripping it open and reading the contents with a slight frown, before looking up at Damon.

"It's from Katherine."

"What did she say this time?"

Maya thrust the letter at him.

"Belated Happy Birthday wishes, and well, um I think you should read the rest of it."

Damon arched an elegant eyebrow and glanced down at the note.

Dear Maya,

Belated Birthday wishes, apologies they're so late I had a rather busy summer. The jacket is made from Dragon Scale and can repel most spells, hexes, and curses. It's layered with sizing charms so you shouldn't grow out of it either.

Please remind your godfather that Mystic Falls is a dangerous place for vampires and those who associate with them.

Also be sure to remind him that I wasn't the only vampire in Mystic Falls in 1864, nor was I the only one who wasn't in the church when it burned down.

Love Katherine.

P.S. Congratulations on your win.

Damon glared so hard at the letter that Maya was surprised it didn't burst into flame. She stroked a hand over the jacket, it was silky smooth and absolutely gorgeous. If anyone but Katherine had sent it to her, she would have been absolutely thrilled. That it was a present from the woman who had hurt her Babbo so badly made her want to hate it, which was difficult because it was just so lovely. Whydid Katherine have to get her nice gifts, why couldn't she have sent Maya something awful. Damon let out a huff of annoyance. Maya wasn't surprised when she looked up to see that Stefan had reached across the table and snatched the letter from Damon and was now scanning it's contents, whilst Enzo read it over his shoulder.

Damon leant down and kissed the top of Maya's head again.

"Keep the jacket, kiddo. Dragon Scale really will deflect spells, hexes, and curses. It will keep you safer andit is a nice jacket I suppose. It's not really the jackets fault that Katherine's… well you know."

He glanced down at the bowl of porridge that Maya had consumed whilst he'd been busy glaring at Katherine's snide little messages for him.

"If you've finished breakfast, then why don't you go and finish your English Homework, and then the rest of the day is yours to do with as you like."

"You're gonna talk about the letter, aren't you?"

"Yeah, kiddo, we probably are."

"And you don't want me here when you do."

He groaned slightly.

"It's not that I don't want you here Maya, because I love spending time with you. But You have homework to finish. I promise I will tell you what we talk about later. Okay?"

Maya nodded and picked up her bowl, to drop off in the kitchen, and the jacket Katherine had sent, and headed off, leaving the note behind for them all to discuss as she knew they would.

Damon listened to the quiet pad of his daughter's feet as she left the kitchen and headed upstairs to her bedroom. Katherine's surprise present for Maya and the accompanying note, both of which indicated that she knew far more than she rightfully should, had not been a great start to his day. Damon had figured out last December with Katherine's surprise appearance that she must have people checking in on him and Stefan and reporting back to her. How else would she have been able to single Maya out in the crowded market like she had.

Today's note reiterated that, and gave him the impression that her spies were watching them all much more closely than he'd realised. The jacket she had sent had been chosen carefully, with full knowledge that Damon wouldn't get rid of it because it was added protection for his daughter who was in danger from known and unknown threats alike. He hated that Katherine knew him well enough to know that, and he hated that she had thought of something that could help protect Maya that hadn't even crossed his mind to get her. The note had now passed on to Maggie who was reading it with a dark look in her eyes.

"Well, I'll say this for her, the woman knows her audience." She said finally once she'd finished reading the note. "The jacket was a shrewd choice. One she knew you wouldn't discard out of hand."

Damon just grunted in response. Of course, Katherine knew her audience. And of course, he wasn't going to throw away the jacket.

"That reminder that Mystic Falls is dangerous was a nice touch." Was Enzo's snarky contribution, "Almost makes it sound like she cares."

Stefan stayed silent looking lost in thought. Damon wondered what part of the letter had him so contemplative.

"Maybe she does care." Maggie suggested, carrying on over the disbelieving snort Damon made, "Her actions last Christmas and the notes she has sent since indicate she has a clear interest in Maya. Maybe cares was the wrong choice of words, but what if her interest is deep enough that she is vested in Maya's safety."

"Katherine Pierce has a vested interest in the safety of one person and one person only. Herself." Damon declared, his gaze still fixed on Stefan who still hadn't said anything and who was beginning to look troubled. "What's eating you Stef?"

"Huh,"

He looked up startled and realised they were all focused on him.

"I was just thinking about her warning about the church."

"What about it?"

"Just wondering why, she included it."

"Probably because she'll get a kick out of watching us chase our tails around her vague statements." Enzo muttered.

"There not exactly vague though are they love." Maggie said, looking back at the letter. "I mean 'be sure to remind him that I wasn't the only vampire in Mystic Falls in 1864' is a pretty clear statement. So is 'nor was I the only one who wasn't in the church when it burned down.'"

"They may not be that vague in and of themselves, but her reasons for including it could be many."

Damon was too lost in thought to get involved with the discussion Maggie and Enzo were having. Stefan was right, it wasn't the content of the statements that mattered so much, as why she'd included it. There had been many vampires in town in 1864, some had arrived around the same time as Katherine and others had been turned by them. They didn't exactly need a reminder of that, the amount of vampires in town was the reason everything had turned out the way it did. That she wasn't the only one who'd managed to escape wasn't much of a surprise either, there had to be one or two who'd avoided capture. It was the why that was important. Why had she mentioned it.

"Damon." Stefan said suddenly.

"Hmm."

"If you hadn't found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb, when would you have tried to open it?"

"Eh… This year I suppose. Emily used the comet to power her spell and from what I know the comet is needed to remove the spell as well. Why do you…"

Damon stopped talking as he came to the same realisation Stefan had. Katherine was warning them that she wasn't the only one who had escaped. A vampire attack had occurred in Mystic Falls shortly after the comet had appeared overhead. That couldn't be a coincidence. Not really.

"You think whoever killed Tanner or turned the person who killed Tanner, escaped from the town in 1864."

"I think that's what Katherine thinks. She clearly has people collecting information for her, so she probably knows about Tanners death. She probably knows about the spell Emily did too."

"But the spell was juts supposed to protect Katherine."

"Given Katherine's warning I think we can assume that there is a vampire from 1864 who escaped the round-up and is in town. They probably know about Emily's spell which leaves us with two possibilities." Stefan said after a few minutes of silence. "Possibility one. Whoever it is doesn't know Katherine escaped the church and has come back to town to free her."

"Not hard to believe that Katherine had her manipulative claws into more than just us."

"No, it isn't." Stefan agreed, "Possibility two. Whoever it is believes that Emily's spell protected more than just Katherine and they've come back to town to free someone else."

"Is that even a possibility?" Maggie asked, "That Emily's spell protected others?"

"It doesn't matter." Enzo said shaking his head.

"It kind of does."

"It doesn't love. All that matters is someone believes its possible. What I want to know is why Katherine thought to warn us."

"Probably doesn't want whoever's in there to get out and go after her. She's just watching her own ass." Damon said with a derisive snort. "Either way, whoever it is, isn't gonna be successful. Not now the crystals been destroyed."

And hadn't that been a relief. Aradia had destroyed the crystal as soon as he'd explained everything to her. With the crystal gone, no-one was getting in that tomb. Not now, not ever. Damon had always known it was a possibility that Emily's spell had protected some of the other vampires who'd been inside the church. But with the crystal gone that no longer mattered.

Maya had mostly finished her essay for English, she just had to write the conclusion and polish up the introduction, which didn't take her long, leaving plenty of time for her to contemplate the letter Katherine had sent. The warnings she'd wanted to pass on to Damon had been both straightforward and cryptic. She figured he would have discussed it with Maggie, Enzo, and Stefan. She wondered what they'd come up with, and if he'd tell her. It wasn't that he kept secrets from her because he told her pretty much everything. He just tended to give her the sanitized version, didn't want her to know all the gory details.

Damon had said the rest of today was hers to do what she liked with, so she decided to start painting the dragon she'd sketched onto her wall last weekend. She was taking her time with the mural, doing it piece by piece, making sure each image was perfect before she moved on to the next. She'd used Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a guide when drawing the outline of the dragon, it was sort of a cross between an Antipodean Opaleye and a Hebridean Black, but she was planning on painting it in a vibrant rainbow of colours.

After setting her iPod into her docking station and putting her favourite playlist on shuffle, she began gathering up her paints. She was in the middle of deciding whether the eyes should be pink or purple in colour when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Damon pushed open the door and came inside. He raised an eyebrow when he saw her getting ready to paint.

"Did you finish your English homework?"

"Yes Babbo." She nodded towards her laptop, "It's all done."

Maya turned back to her drawing. Purple. Purple was a good colour for the dragons eyes, she could make them look like jewels or semi-precious stones. She was pretty sure she had some nice purple stones that she could base the eyes on. Maya began searching the small shelf unit on which she stored her collection of crystals and stones. Stefan had given it to her as a birthday present, it was pretty cool, made of black wood and shaped to look like a cauldron. She adored it, even more so because Stefan had carved it himself, especially for her.

Whilst she searched the shelves for the right kind of stone, Damon wandered into the room, greeting a sleepy Hedwig with a light brush of his fingers across her feathers, and then wandering towards her desk to have a look at the essay she'd been writing for English. They'd been studying The Tempest in her class and had been given different options to write essays about. Maya had chosen to write hers on 'The representation of Power in 'The Tempest''. He quickly scanned through the essay, it was good, she'd discussed a lot of different points, he even recognised some that had come out of their own discussion on the play.

"This is pretty good kiddo. An 'A' for sure."

Maya had finally decided that her Purple Jasper stone was the right choice because the striations on it kind of already looked like an eye when Damon spoke. She glanced back at him with a grin.

"Thanks."

She set about mixing up different purples to match the stone she'd found, whilst Damon settled into the same armchair he always chose in the small 'sitting area' she had set up in her room.

"So, we discussed the letter."

"What do you think she means?"

"The first part was pretty clear, she thinks we shouldn't be in Mystic Falls, but since we are it was a pretty cryptic way of her telling us to be careful."

"Why would she do that?"

"We think that you interest her, and she'd rather you didn't die anytime soon."

"Me too."

"Me three."

Maya grinned and looked back down at her colour palette, it was almost perfect, one of the mixes just needed to be a tiny bit darker.

"The second part was a warning that someone might be in town trying to get into the tomb, the one Emily sealed to 'protect' Katherine."

"Do you think that's who killed Mr Tanner? And Mr Fell?"

Damon had told her that both men had died and there was indications a vampire was responsible for the killings. He'd told her not to worry about it too much, because the wards on the house and the grounds made it pretty safe from hostile vampires. And whenever she went beyond them in Mystic Falls, either himself, Stefan, Maggie, or Enzo would be with her and the Special Agents would be keeping watch as well, so she was probably the safest person in Mystic Falls right now.

"We think it's a possibility. We also think they're here because they're trying to get in the tomb, either to free 'Katherine' in the mistaken belief that she's in there. Or to free someone else who might have been protected by Emily's spell in 1864."

"But Professor Aradia destroyed Emily's crystal."

"She did."

"So, no-one can get into the tomb?"

"Yes."

"But Katherine doesn't know that?"

"No."

"So, she decided to warn you?"

"Apparently."

"Do you think she knows who it is?"

"I think, it's highly likely. I also think she's never gonna tells us. Katherine's warning has more to do with protecting herself, than with helping us."

"Why?"

"Katherine's just like that."

He stood up and came over to give her a hug.

"It's a pretty nice jacket though, isn't it?"

"Yeah."