Stefan was walking into school side by side with Tyler.

"Caroline should be okay, but if you could help me keep an eye on her. Just in case?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Thanks, Tyler."

"Stefan!"

Tyler looked past his shoulder and saw Elena, heading towards them and stepped back.

"That's my cue, I'm gonna go be… anywhere else."

Stefan rolled his eyes and shook his head, before turning to face Elena. He still hadn't sorted out all his feelings for Elena. What was the spell, and what was real. But he was absolutely certain that he didn't want to date her, wasn't really attracted to her or Katherine, so that had to have been the spell. Whether he could build a friendship with her was still very much in the air, and depended entirely on whether she changed her attitude towards his brother or not.

"Hey, Elena. How was your weekend?"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and smiled at him.

"It was okay. I guess you heard about my trip to Duke yesterday?"

"Yeah. Damon did mention Mr Saltzman invited him along. How did that go?"

"Well, other than finding out that Jeremy knows everything and is somehow still dating Anna despite what she did before Christmas… It went okay. It's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, I found out some things."

He checked the time, they still had a while till classes started, and Caroline was coming with Bonnie today, so she wasn't here yet. He supposed it would be worthwhile finding out what she'd learnt, there was a possibility Isobel had discovered something Aradia and Himiko didn't know. A remote one, but still.

"Yeah sure, over there?" He pointed to one of the benches and began heading that way, without waiting for an answer. Elena dutifully followed, once she'd sat down, he took a seat opposite her, he saw the disappointment in her eyes, but he shook it off. He'd been very clear in September that he wasn't looking to date her, and nothing had changed.

"So, what did you find out?"

"Not a lot about Katherine, unfortunately. But I did find out werewolves are probably real… and you don't seem surprised so I'm gonna put that in the yes, they exist column."

"They exist, they're pretty rare these days, mostly keep to themselves."

"Because vampires hunt them down?"

"In the past they did." He agreed, "not sure how much it happens these days. I've certainly never hunted them."

"You never mentioned them when you were telling me your story."

"Because they weren't relevant. Werewolves had nothing to do with how I became a vampire."

She frowned, but let it drop.

"Yeah. So, anyway. Isobel's research assistant told us about this curse that traces back the origin of the werewolf legends through Virginia. It had some fancy Aztec name, but she called it the 'curse of the sun and the moon'. That 600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible 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."

"I've never heard of that curse before." He replied because he knew he had to say something.

He also knew the curse couldn't possibly be a true story. Vampires were created a thousand years ago, and werewolves were older than that. Plus, Aradia would have mentioned it when she was telling them about the origins of vampires if it was true. He should probably discuss telling Elena the truth of what they'd learned, at least some of it, that was only fair after all. He'd wait and talk it over with the others before he did anything though.

"Yeah, well she couldn't tell us much else, but she did say that a werewolf bite was fatal to vampires, so…"

"I promise to avoid forests on full moons." He said with a smirk.

"Yeah okay." She pouted, "I was just trying to help."

"It's okay, Elena. I already knew about the werewolf bite thing. Thankfully werewolves are pretty rare, so I do not foresee any danger on that front."

Before she could respond the bell rang, he got up ready to head to class, when she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"Umm, did you feel anything weird, last night?"

"Weird in what sense?"

"I don't know, I just. It felt like something snapping inside my chest, and ever since I can't help but feel like something's missing… and it sounds stupid, but it feels like it's connected to you somehow."

He shook his head.

"No, sorry. No weird feelings of any kind."

"Oh. Okay, I guess we'd better head to class."

"Yeah. Oh, and erm, Anna's not a bad person and I think she really likes Jeremy, and he seems to really like her too, so maybe… don't be too big sistery about it."

Damon pulled open the door of the boarding house and smiled at Jenna.

"Hey. Thanks for coming over."

"No, problem. I needed to get away from my dissertation for a bit anyway. Anything's better than that nightmare right now."

He hid a wince, as he led her into the living room.

"You may wish you hadn't said that, once we've talked."

She gave him a strange look as she sat down. Without asking he handed her a glass of bourbon. She laughed.

"We're day drinking now?"

"Normally, no. but given what I'm about to tell you I have a feeling you're gonna need it."

Her laugh was a bit more strained this time.

"Okay, Damon. Whatever it is, just spit it out. I'm sure it's not as terrible as you're imagining."

Damon had been thinking about this since Thursday. Elena had been against it, and under different circumstances he might have followed her decision. But Jenna was his friend, and she was in danger. She deserved to know the truth. He took a deep breath.

"I'm a vampire."

Jenna laughed. He flashed his fangs at her, let the veins darken under his eyes. She stopped laughing and stared at him in shock for a moment, before knocking back the drink he'd given her and holding her glass out for another. She drank that one in a single gulp as well, he eyed her with concern but obediently filled her glass for a third time when she held it out again. Relieved that she didn't immediately knock this one back like the others.

"Okay." She said after a few minutes of silence. "Explain."

Maya, Kamala, and Sora were all skyping with each other as they worked their way through the questions they'd been given as their science homework. Maya was nibbling on the apple slices dipped in peanut butter, that Dobby had popped onto her desk, as she scribbled down the answers.

"How does increasing the mass of an object affect its acceleration, assuming the force applied remains constant?" Maya said, reading the next question on the worksheet.

"Newton's second law states that acceleration is inversely proportional to mass." Sora answered, thinking back to their earlier lessons.

"So then, increasing the mass of an object would decrease it's acceleration, given the assumption that the force applied to it remains constant." Maya said, scribbling it down on her worksheet.

"Guys, can we take a break from physics and talk about something more interesting please?" Kamala begged.

Maya sighed and put her pen down, Kamala had been begging to talk about whatever she wanted to talk about since the skype call had begun. Sora had insisted that homework should come first. Maya was somewhere in the middle, she wanted to get her homework done, but she wasn't opposed to a little bit of gossip either. Whatever it was, Kamala had to have heard in their afternoon PE lessons, because if she'd heard it earlier, she would have told them at lunch or during their science lessons, where they sat together.

"We might as well take a little break." Maya said to Sora, "She's not going to stop asking till she tells us."

Sora rolled her eyes, but nodded. Kamala cheered, finally having won the argument that had gone on all the way through their math homework, and now halfway through their science homework.

"Okay, so you know we have the junior school dance coming up in a few weeks?"

"Yeah," Maya said absently picking up another apple slice and nibbling at it.

"Yes." Sora said at the same time, rolling her eyes again, "We do know, because it's all you've been able to talk about, all day."

Maya laughed at the mock affronted look on Kamala's face at Sora's teasing.

"It is not. We talked about our half-term breaks as well!"

"Only because you got distracted by what Maya said about hers!"

"Well Maya's half-term was pretty crazy compared to either of ours!"

"What gossip were you so desperate to share about the dance?" Maya interrupted, steering her back on track before they could decide to carry on the conversation they'd left off at lunch when Maya had told them about her half-term.

"Well, someone in my P.E. class may have told me that someone else is thinking about asking a certain person named Maya to go to the dance with him."

Maya's face bloomed with colour at Kamala's words, and two very different voices spoke at the same time.

"Ooooh! Who was it?" Sora asked, invested now.

"Nope. Absolutely not! No Boys!" came from the doorway.

Maya's head shot up and saw Damon standing in the doorway, hand frozen in the air, where he'd been about to knock, shaking his head, having heard exactly what Kamala had said.

"Oops." Kamala muttered, having heard Damon on her end.

"Babbo!"

"We'll talk more tomorrow." Sora said.

"Yeah, see you at school." Kamala added, as they both quickly ended the call, leaving Maya to face her babbo, who was still shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Maya folded her arms across her chest and gave an unimpressed huff, in a perfect impression of Maggie, when they boys were annoying her. Damon actually whipped his head around expecting to see her, Maya's impression was so spot on, and let out a relieved sigh when he realised, she wasn't there.

"No boys." He said pointing at Maya, "No going to dances with boys. No dancing with boys at dances. No dating boys. Not till your –?"

"Fifty?" Maya asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No." Damon shook his head, "Fifty is way too young."

It took Maya a moment to realise he was deadly serious. When she did, she stomped her foot.

"Babbo!"

"Nope!" he shook his head again, "You're too young, much too young."

"It's one dance! And he hasn't even asked me yet!"

"Who?"

"No. I'm not telling." Maya said stubbornly, Kamala hadn't actually said a name, but given who was in Kamala's P.E. class on Mondays, she had a feeling she knew. "If I tell, then you and Uncle Enzo will try and scare him off."

"Maya," Damon practically whined.

"I'll tell Aunt Maggie!"

"You wouldn't!"

"Even better, I'll tell Aunt Cissa, and Aunty Lexi as well!"

Damon's face was a strange mix of horrified at her threat, and proud of her for making it.

"Okay. I wont make you give me a name, yet. If you promise not to tell your aunts. But!" He locked eyes with her, "If whoever it is does ask you, I want a name, before I say yes to you going with them."

Maya sighed, but unfolded her arms, it was a fair compromise she supposed.

"Fine. Can I finish my homework now?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you, about some stuff. Can we sit?"

Damon strode into the room and led her over to the sofa in her seating area. He gently guided her down onto the cushions and took a seat beside her, angling himself so that they were face to face.

"Is this about Katherine's visit yesterday?" She asked. They hadn't really had a chance to talk about it, before she left with Aradia and Stefan to do the spell, and she'd been really tired afterwards, so they hadn't talked about it then either.

"A little bit, but I also wanted to talk to you more about what Aradia and Himiko said when they came to visit on Friday."

Maya stared at him for a moment, she knew he hadn't told her everything that had transpired during their visit. If it had just been about Stefan and the spell, then they wouldn't have sent her out of the room. He looked, not worried, but concerned and anxious, she wondered what it was they'd discussed that he wasn't sure about telling her.

"But first, were you scared when Katherine came by yesterday?"

"No," she answered honestly, shaking her head. "She didn't get too close, and I thought she was just trying to stay out of easy reach of Avanyu, but her bite wouldn't really have harmed Katherine, would it?"

"No. It wouldn't." Damon confirmed.

"Right, and there was enough space that I could have used my portkey if I got scared, but I didn't. I didn't… I didn't feel threatened by her."

"Okay." He pulled her forward and kissed her forehead. "But if you ever do feel threatened, you use your portkey, okay?"

"I will," She promised.

"Good." He stayed silent for a moment just holding her, before sitting back and meeting her eyes again. "So, when Aradia and Himiko came on Friday, they didn't just tell us they had a way to undo the spell on Stefan, they told us some over stuff as well."

"I figured that out."

He smiled, chuckling slightly.

"Yeah, I thought you would." He paused again, and sighed, "They told us a lot of stuff, and I'm sure if you ask Himiko about doppelgangers, she'll tell you all about it. But some of the stuff they talked about it was… it was about your dad."

"My dad?" She was a little stunned, "They hadn't really talked about her dad, not since she'd first moved in with Damon anyway."

"Yeah. See the thing is, your dad, your biological dad, Niklaus. He has some history with Katherine, some not so good history, and I wasn't really sure how to tell you about it. But I didn't want to keep it hidden from you either."

That didn't sound too promising.

"What happened?"

"Okay, so you know your dad is a werewolf, right?"

"Yeah, because I'm one too, so he must have been, because mum wasn't right?"

"Right. And he's also a vampire."

"An Original." Maya nodded, remembering what Ragnuk, Narcissa, and Damon had told her about them.

"Yeah, an Original. A first-generation vampire. So, it turns out that his mother, your grandmother, was the witch who created vampires. She turned her husband and her children, including your dad, into vampires."

"She did?"

"Yeah. But, as it turns out, your dad was the only one with the werewolf gene."

Maya wasn't Hermione, but she wasn't stupid either.

"So, she had an affair?"

"Yeah, and she got pregnant with your dad from that. But he didn't trigger his curse until he became a vampire, which is when her husband found out and he made her bind your dad's wolf so he wouldn't ever be able to shift."

She didn't really know what to say to that. Apparently, the lives of her biological family on her dad's side had been a bit like a supernatural version of those Spanish telenovela's Enzo liked to occasionally binge-watch.

"So, she cursed him?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Why would she do that? Did she hate him?"

"I don't know kiddo, people usually have a lot of different reasons for the things they do, and it's rarely as simple as love and hate. The world isn't nearly as black and white as most people want to believe."

He pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on top of her head and letting her gather herself a bit more before he continued telling her everything.

"There's more. Are you ready to hear it?"

She nodded.

"Okay. So, it turns out that the reason Katherine and Elena are identical is because they are planētōn synodias zeugē, a special kind of doppelganger, who's blood is very powerful when used in spells. And when your grandmother cursed your dad, she used blood from their ancestress who also looked just like them."

"Another one? How many are there?"

He chuckled.

"I don't know. I don't think anyone does, but apparently, they pop up throughout history because of something else that happened a long time ago, and if you want to hear that story you should ask Himiko or Aradia to tell you about it."

"Okay."

"Okay. So, your grandmother she used this woman's blood, and if your dad wants to break the curse, he needs to use Elena's blood."

"Why not Katherine's?"

"Because the doppelganger has to be human for it to work."

"You said he had history with Katherine, so did he…?"

"Yeah. So apparently, Katherine met him, and he was going to use her to break the curse, only she ran away and got herself turned into a vampire before she could."

"Why?"

Damon sighed again, much heavier this time, and Maya instantly knew this was the part he wasn't sure about telling her.

"So, according to what Aradia and Himiko learned, in order to break the curse, he has to sacrifice three people, a vampire, a werewolf, and a doppelganger, and I guess Katherine didn't want to die."

"He needs to kill people?" she asked, hating how small her voice sounded.

She didn't like Elena. Doubted she would ever like Elena. But she didn't wish her dead. Not to mention he would also need a vampire and a werewolf, and all the vampires in town were her friends, and so was Tyler, and he wasn't the only werewolf, but she didn't want her dad killing his family. Even if Tyler's dad was a, well a word she wasn't allowed to say.

He was her dad though, and she wanted to meet him, but not if meeting him was gonna end with people she loved being sacrificed, and…

She didn't realise she was sobbing until Damon once more pulled her into his arms, murmuring softly and rubbing her back gently.

"It's okay, kiddo. It's okay, we'll figure it all out, I promise."

"Elena, Jeremy." Jenna said as soon as she heard the front door open, "Get in here, now. We need to talk!"