"This is Logan Fell coming to you live from the scene of a brutal animal attack, which claimed the life of beloved high school football coach and history teacher, William Tanner, late last night." The TV anchor's voice was grave, but his eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Animal attack?" Maggie snorted and flicked off the TV with a remote. She turned to Damon; he shook his head.

"Probably not. Agent Blye went to check out the body."

"A vampire then?"

"Highly likely, Animal Attack is there usual go to cover for vampire activity. Agent Blye will be able to confirm either way."

"It could have been a human that murdered him." Stefan said, shrugging when the looked his way. "I was only in his class for a week, but I can already tell you that calling him a beloved anything was the biggest lie that reporter told. Nobody liked that man."

"I doubt they'd be screaming animal attack if it was a straight up human killing human murder."

Damon poured three glasses of bourbon and handed them out. He handed them out to his companions, who looked as grim and tense as he felt. Enzo was in the back garden with Maya, teaching her how to wield a sword. Damon could hear the clack of wood against wood and the occasional laughter of the girl. He was glad she was having fun, but he was under no illusions about how long it would be before she would be asking to practice with a real blade. Hopefully he'd be able to handle that, a lie, he knew he absolutely wouldn't handle it well, but he wouldn't deny her either. For now, though, it was keeping her nicely distracted while the rest of them discussed Coach Tanner's death.

Before he could sit down, Dobby escorted Agent Blye into the room.

"Whiskey?"

"Not while I'm on duty, thanks."

"Would Agent Blye be liking something else?" Dobby asked, "Tea? Coffee? Or perhaps a cold drink?"

"I'll take a cola if you have one, please Dobby?"

"Dobby be fetching Agent Blye one right now."

He disappeared from the room and returned a second later with a can of cola in his hands.

"Thank you."

"Agent Blye is being most welcome." Dobby looked over at Damon, "Dobby will be preparing lunch, unless Mister Damon is needing him for anything else."

"Not right now, thank you Dobby."

"Lunch is being ready at 1 p.m. sharp."

"I'll make sure Enzo and Maya are back inside and washed up before then."

Dobby gave a sharp nod and disappeared once more. All eyes turned to Agent Blye who'd settled into an armchair with a grim expression.

"I examined the body, definitely a vampire attack. Either a newbie, or someone who really didn't care about covering their tracks. I'm leaning towards newbie."

Damon frowned and took a sip of his bourbon, before speaking.

"Why?"

"Wound pattern mostly. It wasn't just one bite or a torn-out throat. They were messy and erratic. Not just a single bite or a slashed throat. There were several punctures on his neck, as if the attacker had difficulty locating the artery. And there was no attempt to conceal the marks. Even vampires who don't care about covering their tracks by hiding the bodies, are usually careful enough to cover up their bitemarks so people don't go screaming vampire through the town square."

"Could it have been a ripper?" Stefan asked, his voice tense.

"Anything's possible, but I find it unlikely. I had a colleague of mine look into it and there are no other reports of similar deaths within a hundred miles of Mystic Falls, no uptick in the usual amount of missing persons cases either."

"Which adds to the likelihood that this is some newly turned vampire." Damon said, his eyes narrowing.

Agent Blye nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were turned right here in town, a local. I managed to gather what information I could, but it's not much. There were no witnesses, Mr Tanner was last seen during half-time and was discovered by a Mr Donovan as he exited the locker rooms after the game."

She sighed and rubbed her temple slightly.

"It was a human killed by a vampire so technically it's outside my jurisdiction as both an Auror and an NCIS Agent. I could ask the Sheriff for a look at her file on the killing, but that would just open me up to questions that I don't want to answer unless it becomes absolutely necessary. I think we should just keep an ear out and hope this was a one-off incident and whoever did it moves on."

Damon nodded, accepting her logic. Maya was his only concern, and unless more bodies turned up, there was no reason to alert the Sheriff that she was under the protection of a team of highly-trained special agents. If more attacks occurred, they could always reassess, but for now, Damon was confident with his ability to investigate the matter himself if he needed to. He knew how most vampires thought, the places they were most likely to hole up in a small town like this. And thanks to Zach, he had an in with the Sheriff and thus with the Founders council. If he ever needed to use it.

"Thank you for looking into it Agent Blye."

"Just doing my job. There are some curses that could easily be mistaken for an animal attack."

The doorbell rang and Dobby popped into the room.

"Mrs Sheriff Forbes is being at the door."

"Thanks Dobby, I'll go."

Damon exchanged grim looks with the others and left the living room to answer the door. With Agent Blye's confirmation that it had been a vampire attack, he was almost certain that he knew the reason the Sheriff was at the door. When he opened it, he found her staring off to the side a decidedly bemused expression on her face. Damon followed her gaze and saw that Enzo and Maya's lesson had moved from the back garden to the front and had become more of a duel than a lesson.

Maya's voice rang out loud and clear as she challenged her opponent.

"Surrender foul pirate cur!" She brandished her wooden practice sword, and aimed a blow at Enzo's midsection.

"Never!" Came Enzo's cry as he parried the blow, she'd aimed at him. "Victory shall be mine! It is you who should surrender fair maiden."

Maya lofted her sword as high as she could.

"We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, and we shall never surrender!"

With that strange declaration, for Damon couldn't quite work out why she'd gone from pretending Enzo was a pirate to quoting Winston Churchill. Maya lunged forward and poked Enzo in the stomach with her sword.

"A hit!" She crowed, "A palpable hit!"

And now she was apparently quoting Shakespeare, he loved his daughter, but there was no denying that she could be a strange child at times. Then again Enzo was no better. He clutched his stomach and staggered back dramatically.

"Oh, fair maiden thou has struck a mortal blow. Into deaths dark embrace I go." He recited, falling to the floor in the most theatrical way possible. He lay there motionless, pretending to be dead.

"Victory!" Maya waved her sword through the air, "We have victory!"

Damon wasn't sure but he was pretty sure that one came from a movie she'd been watching last week.

"The pirate army has been bested; Gondor is saved!" Maya declared triumphantly.

Ah, of course. Lord of the Rings, the film that had renewed her determination to learn how to use a sword.

Liz finally seemed to notice that he'd opened the door and she turned to him, eyebrow raised.

"Is this normal?" she asked gesturing at Enzo and Maya who were now engaged in some strange ritual of handshakes and high fives.

"That was practically tame for the two of them."

He thought back to the previous weekend, when they had decided reenacting an iconic duel would be helpful revision in both History and Math. That they had chosen a fictitious duel from Star Wars hadn't seemed to shake their claims that she was revising for history, and how exactly math had factored into it, Damon had no idea. They had gone all out, with lightsabers, masks, capes, and even sound effects. They had also added their own twist, with confetti cannons and glitter bombs that they had set off at random moments.

"Last week we were treated to a full-scale reenactment of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalkers first duel. There were even confetti cannons and glitter bombs believe it or not."

Liz frowned looking thoughtful.

"Strange, I don't remember confetti cannons or glitter bombs in The Empire Strikes Back."

"There weren't." Damon answered dryly, "but it was still deemed necessary for full authenticity."

"Ah, I see." Liz said, even though it was clear she really didn't. "Anyway, I came to speak to you about something important."

"Oh?"

"Have you seen the news this morning?"

"Yes, animal attack. Wasn't it?"

Liz shook her head sorrowfully.

"A necessary cover for a truth we cant reveal to the public. Not if we want to protect this town. Coach Tanner was killed by a vampire, we're sure of it. Bite marks on the neck and completely drained of blood, I mean what else could it be?"

"I see."

"We're hoping it's just a one off, but in case it isn't I would like to make sure we've got enough vervain."

"Of course. Of course. How much do you need?"

"It's a small circle…Founding families, a few city officials, and my deputies. About forty people all in all."

"I'll get some boxed up and bring it over to your office as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Damon."

"No problem."

"If you change your mind about joining the meetings, you'll always be welcome."

"I'll let you know."

She smiled and left, heading straight for her car. Enzo and Maya had once again disappeared round the back, so Damon shut the door and headed back into the lounge.

"Is it wise to be giving the Sheriff vervain?" Maggie asked as soon as he was in the room, neither Stefan nor Agent Blye looked shocked, so they'd clearly been listening-in, and being kept up to date, on his conversation with the Sheriff.

"Probably not," Damon shrugged and picked up his abandoned drink. "but I think it would be more unwise not to, after all what self-respecting vampire would be given vervain to a secret society of vampire hunters."

Maggie and Stefan were forced to concede that he had a point.

"Rule number one of being undercover. Make your enemy believe you're exactly who you say you are." Agent Blye said with an approving nod.

"I can confirm that a 12-foot puma mountain lion attacked a hunter and was subsequently shot and killed. The hunter is in stable condition."

Stefan's brow furrowed as he watched the news interview with Sheriff Forbes on the TV Screen. It seemed obvious to him that someone was using the mountain lion to try and cover their tracks. The only question was who. Damon wandered into the room and Stefan past a suspicious gaze over him.

"Was this your doing?" he asked pointing at the TV screen.

Damon arched a brow and followed Stefan's finger. He saw the image of the dead mountain lion and heard the reporter say,

"…the animal terrorizing Mystic Falls has been caught."

He shook his head and scoffed. He knew from the updates the Sheriff had given him over the past couple of weeks that the situation wasn't going to be fixed by faking that an animal had been behind the attacks. Since Tanner's death, no more bodies had been found, but there had been a few more suspicious missing persons cases than usual. Campers and hikers that had vanished without a trace in the area around Mystic Falls.

"A mountain lion?"

"That's what they said on the news."

"Clearly someone's trying to cover their tracks, but there's no way the Founder's Council will truly believe it was a mountain lion. They know Tanner was killed by a vampire and with a slight upsurge in campers and hikers around Mystic Falls being reported missing, the Council is convinced that a vampire is living and hunting in and around Mystic Falls. This isn't gonna change that."

Damon's tone was cynical, but Stefan knew he was being honest. He wouldn't have gone to the effort of setting a mountain lion on a hunter if he already knew it wasn't going to work.

"Why bother covering their tracks now? Why not before?"

"Who knows." Damon shrugged.

Stefan did have a point though, why go to all the trouble now when they hadn't bothered before. Maybe there was more than one. Agent Blye had suggested that the person who killed Tanner was a new-turn, maybe whoever had turned them had decided to cover his or her tracks, or was just teaching the newbie how to do it themself. After all, there had only been one body in town, and campers and hikers did go missing with frequency and without a trace, all it took was one misstep. It wasn't too much of a stretch that a mountain lion could have killed some of the campers and hikers, at least to most people. Something to contemplate later, right now he had a brother to interrogate.

He pinned Stefan with a piercing gaze.

"So, what's new with you? The bond between you and Elena still muted?"

"As far as I can tell."

"No desperate desire to seek her out and declare your undying love for her?" Damon pressed, a slightly mocking tone in his voice.

"None."

Stefan's reply was firm and convincing, and Damon might even have believed him, except for one tiny detail, that he'd neglected to mention, and that Damon had found out from Maya, who'd been told by Caroline.

"Yet you're still going to the Founders Ball with her?"

"She asked me to go with her as a friend and I agreed?"

"So, no underlying tension? No simmering passion? Just friends?"

"Just friends Damon."

"Good."

"If that's all, I'm going to school."

"Be good." Damon yelled at his retreating back, "Remember Stefan, don't give in to peer-pressure."

"Agent LaSalle."

Maya stood at the edge of the treeline and called out for him, hoping he would be close enough to hear, seconds later he appeared, with a frown.

"Maya. Is everything okay?"

"Yes." She replied firmly, then hesitated. "Well no. But it's not me. It's my friends."

LaSalle's lips twitched slightly as she worked her way from the beginning of the sentence to the end, with significant pauses between each individual statement.

"Okay, what's wrong with your friends, and how can I help?"

"I got a letter," Maya waved a piece of parchment through the air, and he could just make out the dark scrawl of words inked upon it. "It's from my friends back at Hogwarts."

"Is it about Sirius Black? Has something happened?"

"No. Well not directly." She hesitated and stared at him chewing her lip for a moment. "Do you know anything about dementors?"

"Dementors?"

"Yeah."

"What's this about."

Maya waved the piece of parchment she was holding once more.

"I got this letter from my friends, and they said the Ministry of Magic in Britain has posted dementors around Hogwarts to protect the students from Sirius Black."

He frowned. Dementors around a school? Dementors that Black had already slipped past once. It wasn't something he'd do, surely aurors and heightened security measures would be better than soul-sucking fiends. But then again, he wasn't a politician, what did he know.

"None of them like having the dementors around, but one of my friends has a really bad reaction when they get too close, and I was just wondering if you know a way to get rid of them."

"There is a charm to ward of dementors, but it's really advanced. Your friends might be too young to manage it." He warned.

She frowned at him a determined light in her eyes and a mulish set to her twin.

"What's the spell?"

"It's called the Patronus charm. The incantation is 'expecto patronum', tell your friends that they shouldn't practice it without an adult supervising them, and let them know that they might not be able to do it yet, even adults have difficulty summoning a Patronus, it's a very complex spell."

"Okay. Thanks."

She turned to go but paused when he said her name again.

"Tell your friends, chocolate helps combat the feeling dementors leave behind."

"Thanks, Agent LaSalle."

"You're welcome, Maya."

Damon, Enzo, and Maggie went upstairs to where the heritage display was located the first chance they got. It was the real reason Damon had agreed to come to this party, he wanted to get Emily's crystal back, keep it out of unsafe hands. If he could have stayed home, he would have, Maya had her two best friends over for a sleepover, Lexi and Lee were in town and acting as the responsible adults until Damon could slip away without ruffling any feathers.

Damon stepped into the room hoping it would be empty, unfortunately it wasn't. Stefan and Elena were both in there looking around. Stefan raised a brow at his entrance, but didn't say anything, playing the attentive date for Elena's sake.

"The founding families in Mystic Falls welcomes you to the inaugural founder's council celebration." Wow, look, it's the original guest registry. Look at all these familiar names—Sheriff William Forbes, Mayor Benjamin Lockwood. Is that Damon Salvatore? And Stefan Salvatore?"

"The original Salvatore brothers. Our ancestors. Our family likes to recycle the same names every so often. I think there's been what seven Zacariah's?"

Elena whirled around looking startled by the sound of Damon's voice.

"Six." Stefan replied, his tone tinged with amusement.

"Hello, Damon." Elena inclined her head and smiled at him, "It's nice to see you again."

Her gaze moved past him and landed on Maggie and Enzo.

"Hi, I'm Elena."

"Dr Maggie St. John, and this is my husband, Dr Lorenzo St. John."

"You're both doctors? Do you work at the hospital?"

"Maggie's a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, at a private hospital. And I just have a PhD, I teach." Enzo replied.

Damon gave Stefan a significant look and casually inclined his head towards the door, trying to make his message as obvious as he could, whilst still being subtle. Stefan seemed to understand his silent message though because he offered his arm to Elena with a smile.

"Let's go get a drink, yeah?"

"Oh, yes. Of course." Elena slipped her arm inside Stefan's "it was nice to meet you both."

"Hurry." Maggie ordered as soon as Stefan and Elena were out of sight.

She and Enzo turned to keep an eye on the door whilst pretending they were looking at a part of the display. Damon opened the box he needed, pried open the secret compartment, grabbed Emily's amulet and slipped it into his pocket before putting everything back to the way it was before.

"Got it, let's go mingle like good little guests."

The three of them headed back downstairs, Maggie and Enzo slipped away to dance, and Damon headed for the bar. He needed a drink if he was going to survive having to make small talk with people. He was on his way outside when he was waylaid by Carol, who was talking with a younger woman.

"Damon. You've been avoiding me." She chided with an amused smile.

"Not at all, Carol, I just didn't want to monopolise your time when you have so many guests."

"Too charming for his own good this one," She said to the other woman before turning back to Damon. "Have you been introduced yet?"

"I haven't had the pleasure." Damon replied.

"Well, Damon. This is Jenna Sommers. Jenna this is Damon Salvatore, he just moved here this summer."

"Salvatore? As in Stefan Salvatore?"

"My little brother, I take it you've met him?"

"He escorted my niece Elena tonight."

"How lovely," Carol said cheerfully, "Well I'll leave you two to get acquainted." She rushed off before either of them could say anything else.

"So, miss Sommers."

"Call me Jenna."

"In that case, call me Damon." He smiled winningly at her and reached for her hand, laying a gentle kiss on the back of it before placing it back down by her side.

"Carol was right. You are a charmer."

"I try." He waggled his eyebrows making her laugh. "So, Stefan insists that he and Elena are just here as friends. What's your take on it?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Elena said the same thing, but I don't know if I believe her."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"I guess we will." Jenna took a sip of her champagne, and carried on. "So, is it just you and your brother?"

"Nope. My goddaughter, and my two best friends live with us as well. Maggie and Enzo, they're around somewhere, probably dancing."

"Your goddaughter?"

"Yeah, Maya." Damon's smile grew fond. "She's only thirteen so she didn't come with us tonight, She's having a sleepover instead."

"Yeah, my nephew isn't here either, he's less than a month off turning fifteen, so I let him stay home alone."

"Ah, I see I'm not the only one responsible for a pair of teenagers."

Jenna snorted softly.

"No, you are not. It's been tough."

"Yeah, it is," he smiled softly thinking of Maya and how much he loved her. "It's tough, but it's worth it in the end."

"I hope so." Jenna looked to the side and stiffened slightly, Damon followed her gaze and saw a man watching them, her really. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get another drink."

"Of course. You know we could always grab a coffee sometime. If you want? Talk about the difficulties of raising teenagers."

"I'd like that, It was nice meeting you Damon."

"It was great meeting you too, Jenna."