Song: Song For the Waiting

Artist: Aron Wright

There's no straight road
Tonight to take me home
To lay me in my lover's bed
There's no good way
Tonight to make me okay
No voice to calm
My rainy head

It's not the road
It's not the miles
Or being alone
That tells my heart
She should be aching
The danger's in
The danger's in
The danger's in the waiting

I woke up gasping for air, and immediately my hands went to my neck. I pulled them away, and they were clean. There was no blood, just smooth skin. Had I dreamt it all?

I was in a bed, still wearing my dress. There was dried blood on the bodice and on my chest. Blood that confirmed that it wasn't a dream. My mind was flooded with the memory of what had just happened. Stefan was a vampire. Stefan had tried to kill me.

I looked around. I recognized the room I was in. I had been here before. It was Damon's bedroom. Damon. If Stefan was a vampire . . . that meant Damon was a vampire.

"Good, you're awake." Damon emerged from a dark corner of the room.

I screamed. "Get away from me. Don't hurt me. I know what you are."

"Relax." Damon held up his hands. "If I wanted to kill you, I've had plenty of opportunities to do it already."

He sat down next to me on the bed, and I scooted as far away from him as I could, almost falling off the edge in the process. Damon reached out to steady me, and I flinched at his touch. My eyes darted around the room, looking for a way out. It was pitch black outside. How long had I been out?

"My parents." I sputtered. "They'll be worried sick. I need to talk to them."

"Don't worry about it." Damon held up my phone. "You already talked to them. You're staying at Elena's."

I reached for my phone, and he pulled it away from me, shoving it in his pocked. I crossed my arms.

"Elena. Where is she?" I demanded.

"In the dungeon." Damon replied. "Relax. She's not locked up. Though I could arrange for that if you so desired. She's with Stefan. We had to put him in a bit of a time out."

"Stefan . . ." I felt my heart start to race at the mention of his name. "Stefan tried to kill me."

"Stefan has a bit of a drinking problem." Damon shrugged.

I glared at him. "Is this funny to you?"

"On the contrary, Stefan's caused quite a problem for me." His eyes narrowed. "You see, the Founder's Council isn't too keen on having vampires in town, so we prefer to fly under the radar. Which is kind of hard to do when someone's robbing a blood bank's entire stock, and kidnapping girls in broad daylight."

My hands went to my wound free neck again. "How am I . . . he bit me . . . I thought I was going to . . . how am I alive?"

"I fed you my blood." Damon explained. I made a disgusted face. "It heals humans. We have all sorts of special powers."

A knock came from the door, and I looked over to see Elena walking in. She held a folded pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"I heard you wake up." She said. "I thought you might want a change of clothes."

I nodded. "Thanks."

Elena sat down at the foot of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I was so scared." I whispered. "I wanted to run from him, and I couldn't. Why couldn't I run?"

"We can compel humans to do whatever we want." Damon explained. "It's loads of fun."

Elena glared at Damon. Stefan's expression as he gripped my shoulders and told me not to move flashed through my mind. It felt so familiar. That wasn't the first time he had tried to compel me. The night of the auction . . . and the other day when we were shopping.

"But . . . he's tried to do it before." I thought aloud. "And it didn't work. He tried to get me to stop looking for information on vampires."

"Your necklace has vervain in it, which keeps their powers from working on you." Elena explained. "We didn't know you had it in your pocket when we were shopping the other day. That's why it didn't work."

"We? You asked him to compel me?" My hands went to where my necklace should have been. "Oh my god. My necklace. He threw it into the woods."

Elena reached over to put her hands over mine. "It's okay, Lucy. We'll find it."

"Don't touch me." I jerked away from her. "You lied to me about everything, Elena. You've been lying to me. I asked you straight up if Stefan was a vampire, and you said they weren't real."

"Lucy I was just trying to protect you." Elena sighed.

"Protect me?" I exclaimed. "Elena, your boyfriend tried to kill me."

"I'd like to point out that he's not normally like this." Damon interjected.

"He doesn't drink human blood. Ever. But he was hurt so I had to give him some of mine." Elena tried to explain. "And he hasn't been handling it well."

"Hasn't been handling it well?" I shook my head. "No, Elena. Not handling it well would be missing a few days of school, not draining my blood to the point where I pass out in the woods. This whole time you've been telling me to stay away from Damon and turns out his brother's the problem."

Elena looked at Damon. "Can you give us a moment?"

"And leave you alone to discuss my wrongdoings without giving me the chance to defend myself?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so."

Elena huffed and looked to me for help. I glared back at her. Right now I didn't particularly trust either of them, but I felt more confident that she wouldn't tell me any more lies if Damon was there to keep her in check.

"I want the truth." I ordered. "All of it. What happened tonight?"

"Well Damon thought that right before the pageant was the best time to have an intervention with Stefan." Elena said.

"Hindsight twenty-twenty, maybe not the best idea." Damon admitted. "Vampires have very heightened emotions. So when we're angry, we're really angry. And they all kind of get jumbled together. So anger easily turns to bloodlust, especially with Stefan."

"You just happened to be the person he saw while he was raging." Elena hung her head.

"Where is he now?" I asked, fear lingering in my voice.

"I told you, he's in the dungeon." Damon answered nonchalantly.

I made a face when I realized he wasn't joking. "How did you get him under control?"

"Well," Elena hesitated. "Bonnie disarmed him temporarily."

"Bonnie?" I pried. So it wasn't my mind playing tricks on me when I saw her.

"Bonnie's . . . a witch." Elena revealed.

"Jesus." I exhaled.

It shouldn't have been that big of a surprise to me. If vampires are real, that means other myths could very well be real. I didn't know what to believe or not believe anymore.

"But then he got away." Elena shot a look a Damon that let me know she blamed him for Stefan getting away.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Excuse me, I was a little preoccupied with not letting her die to chase after my lunatic ripper of a brother."

"So I had to find Stefan, and inject him with vervain. So we could bring him back here." Elena finished.

I nodded, trying to take it all in. With the pouty expression on Elena's face, I almost felt bad for her that she had to watch her boyfriend act like this. Almost. Then I remembered that none of this would have happened if she had just told me the truth when I asked, and I wouldn't have felt the need to go off with angry Stefan looking for answers.

"Alright, story time is over." Damon clapped his hands and looked at Elena. "Can I wipe her memory now?"

"What?" I jumped up from the bed. "No you can't do that."

"Lucy, we have to." Elena tried to explain. "It's to protect you."

"To protect me?" I shouted. "Elena, I almost died today because I was trying to get answers from Stefan. How is this to protect me?"

"You can't know about us." Damon said.

"She gets to know." I shot an angry stare at Elena. "Tell me, is this really to protect me? Or is this to protect Stefan."

Elena looked away from me sheepishly. "I can't have you telling anyone."

"I'm not going to tell anyone." I defended myself.

"And why should we believe that?" Damon countered.

I crossed my arms. Who would I tell? It's not like anyone would believe me. I just needed to know. I needed to be able to be on guard, so that I would never be in another situation like the one I was in with Stefan.

"Ask me." I finally said. "I don't have my necklace on. You can compel me. Make me tell you the truth."

Damon stared at me for a moment, pondering my suggestion. Then he shrugged, and stood up. As much as I wanted to retreat, I let him put his hand on my shoulder and look into my eyes. The gesture sent chills down my spine. Instantly, I was brought back to the night I met him, when he insisted on taking me to my car. Had he tried to compel me then?

"Tell me the truth," He began.

"No wait." Elena cut him off. "Don't do it. I trust her."

"Oh come on." Damon rolled his eyes. "Now's not the time to be a do-gooder Elena."

"I'm serious Damon." Elena said. "Lucy trusts us enough to compel her. We have to trust her."

I wouldn't go so far as to call it trust, just desperation. It would be a long time, if ever, before I could trust Elena again. But I wasn't going to stop her. The thought of Damon controlling my mind, even with Elena keeping an eye on him, made me uneasy.

"Fine." Damon huffed and removed his hand from my arm. "We'll do it your way. But don't come crying to me if the council shows up on our doorstep with a bunch of stakes looking for Stefan."

Elena rolled her eyes at Damon, but thanked him. I exhaled when he sat back down, not realizing that I had been holding my breath. I stayed standing, eyeing the two of them.

"Ok, so we're doing trust." I looked at Elena. "Why do you hate him?"

Damon opened his mouth to speak, but I held my hand up. "Don't. I deserve to know."

"Do you want the short list or the long list?" Elena retorted earning a glare from both Damon and me. "Ok fine, let's start with more recent events, like Vicki Donovan. You and Jeremy were right about it not adding up that her body was buried in the woods; she didn't die of an overdose."

I gasped. "Damon . . . killed Matt's sister?"

"Don't look at me, I just buried the body." Damon said. "Well technically I killed her the first time. But Stefan killed her the second time."

"Stefan only killed her because you turned her into a vampire and she couldn't handle it." Elena seethed.

"Why did you turn Vicki into a vampire?" I raised an eyebrow at Damon.

"She was all 'wah I don't remember my dad but from what I can gather he's not worth remembering' and 'I'm the screwed up one when I think of my future I just come up blank' and I thought being a vampire might . . . fix some of that." Damon held up his hands in mock surrender. "Again, hindsight twenty-twenty."

"So what happened? Why'd you have to kill her?" I asked.

"Again, it was Stef-" Damon stopped speaking when Elena glared at him again.

"Because," Elena huffed. "All of her impulsivity and her issues got heightened ten fold when she became a vampire. She became violent and angry and attacked Jeremy and me."

I sat down on Damon's bed again; dizzy from all the information I was being given. Elena's eyes were brimming with tears, and I felt myself begin to feel sorry for her for the second time that night. If I was struggling to take this world in, she must have struggled with it as well. Maybe she really was just trying to protect me from everything she had gone through.

"So the world's down a junkie, what's the big deal?" Elena and I both looked at Damon with disgust as he tried to joke about the situation.

"The big deal? That was Matt's sister. Jeremy's girlfriend. We all loved her." Elena shouted. "And don't even try to act like that was an isolated incident."

"What so ever could you possibly mean, Elena?" Damon's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Lexi?" A tear finally fell from Elena's eyes as she whispered the name.

"Who's Lexi?" I asked.

"Stefan's best friend." Elena said.

"Stefan had a friend?" My thoughts slipped out, earning a chuckled from Damon and a nasty look from Elena.

Elena wiped her eyes. "He did, before Damon killed her."

"She's leaving out the part where I was throwing the council off of Stefan and I's path." Damon countered. "Would you rather it be a stake through his heart?"

"I'd rather it be a stake through no one's heart, Damon." Elena crossed her arms and leaned back against Damon's pillows.

All of this and we hadn't even gotten to Elena's birth mother. Here I had thought she was the reason behind the rift between Damon and Elena. At this point, I was scared to ask, because I was pretty sure I could guess what had happened.

"Did he . . . did you . . . kill Elena's birth mother?" I whispered, not daring to make eye contact with either of them.

Damon let out a low, menacing laugh. "No I didn't kill Isobel, contrary to everyone's belief."

"He turned her." Elena spat out.

"There's a big asterisk there." Damon pointed a finger at Elena. "She came to me asking to be turned."

I looked at him. "What? Why would she ask for that?"

"She was obsessed with the supernatural and bored of playing house with the history teacher." Damon shrugged. "Though I wish she had tied up that loose end, was not fun when he came to town trying to kill me."

"Ric." I nodded. "Wait, so Mr. Saltzman really isn't a vampire?"

"Far from it." Damon confirmed.

"But . . . the rings . . ." I trailed off. There was no way they could convince me that the three of them all wear those gaudy rings as a fashion statement.

"Stefan and I wear these so we can walk in the sun, thanks to a little witchy-woo." Damon held up his hand. "Nineteenth century Bennett witches were much kinder, by the way."

"But why would Alaric need a ring that can help him walk in the sun?" I questioned.

Elena shook her head. "Alaric's ring isn't a daylight ring. It has some other type of spell on it; it makes it so he can't be killed by any supernatural being. I don't know why they look so similar, same era I guess."

"Daddy has one too." Damon wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"Wait . . . John?" He and Elena both nodded in response. "John knows about vampires?"

"Yup." Damon popped the p. "That was a pleasant surprise."

"My parents always told me they agreed to leave town when they adopted me so they wouldn't have to cross paths with John." I thought aloud. "I wonder if he asked them to leave so we wouldn't be around vampires."

"Or maybe," Damon interjected. "He just didn't want to have to see his shame spawn grow up right in front of him."

"Really Damon?" Elena scowled at him.

I stood up again, my breath quickening as I paced back and forth in front of the bed. Everything I knew, everything I believed about the world had been turned upside down in a matter of hours. I ran my hands through my hair, cringing as I touched matted strands and realized they were held together with dried blood.

For the first time that evening, I caught sight of my reflection in Damon's mirror. It looked like someone had tried to clean off where the bite wounds were, but my chest and shoulders were still streaked with blood. My dress was undoubtedly ruined; there was no way the bloodstain was coming out. My makeup was streaked from crying tears of pain and fear, and my hair was tangled and clumped. I was a mess.

"Can I just have a minute?" I requested. "Shower, change, think."

"Of course you can." Elena instantly stood up and handed me the clothes she had brought into the room. "We'll be downstairs if there's anything else you need."

Damon waited until Elena was out of earshot before turning to me. "Don't even think about trying to run. I'll know."

I made a face at him. "I'm not going to run."

Strangely, that was the truth. I had no intention of running away from them. It almost felt like if I stayed in this house, none of it was real. If I stepped outside, knowing what I know now, it would be like carrying that information into the real world, thus making it real. I just needed to process it all, or try to.

I sat on the floor of Damon's shower, letting the water run over me. Admittedly, the four showerheads were an over the top but very pleasant touch. It felt like no matter how long I sat there, the water that pooled on the shower floor continued to hold a pale pink tinge from the blood rinsing out of my hair.

None of this made any sense, and yet it also made all the sense in the world. All the secrets, the hushed whispers and stolen glances, they were all because Stefan and Damon were vampires. I had moved into a supernatural town straight out of a young adult novel.

Did my parents know? Is that why they left? Is that why my family puts vervain over graves, to protect from vampires? Or was it just a coincidence? After what I had learned today, I couldn't allow myself to believe in coincidences anymore. But why come back? Why would they allow us to return to this town if they knew the secrets that it carried?

I thought about all of the times I had been alone with Damon. The night that I had met him, the first night after I had moved here, he had been so determined to get me alone. Then there was that day in the woods, he turned away from the blood on my hands . . . how did he control himself? Why hadn't he hurt me? It would have been so easy to drain my blood and leave me for dead in the woods.

I don't know how long I sat there, my mind running wild, until the water finally ran clear. I stood up and washed myself, trying to rid my body of the feelings I had experienced today. Even though Damon had healed me, I still felt achy and exhausted.

I stepped out and pulled on the clothes Elena had left for me. It felt comforting to pull on something clean and soft. Pulling my fingers through my hair, trying to undo some of the knots, I made my way back into Damon's room.

It was easily the most lavish room I had ever been in. The wooden bed was massive and intricately carved; I couldn't even imagine how much it weighed. I made my way over to a trunk that was stacked with his belongings, wanting to get some idea for who this man . . . this vampire was.

The stack was made up of mostly books, a lot of them first editions. One thing in particular caught my eye, a picture . . . of Elena? Why would Damon have a picture of his brother's girlfriend in his room? It was a black and white print, clearly taken on a film camera. It looked quite aged. My eyes drifted downwards and I gasped when I saw the writing on the photo.

Katherine, 1864.

The floorboards behind me creaked, and I felt my stomach drop as I turned around to see Damon staring at me with narrowed eyes. "Do you often make it a habit of going through other people's belongings?"

I stood in stunned silence, my eyes never leaving Damon's narrowed stare. Katherine, the Katherine, looked like Elena. She didn't just look like her, it's like she was her.

"Well?" Damon pried expectantly.

"What is this?" I held up the photo of Katherine, my voice not half as shaky as I was expecting. "Why does she look just like Elena?"

"Elena's a descendant of Katherine's." Damon said. "Her great-great-great granddaughter or something."

"1864." I whispered, running my thumb over the letters on the photograph. "You said you were in your twenties."

"I was twenty five years old," Damon explained. "When I died and became a vampire."

I nodded. "What happened?"

"I could tell you," He offered. "But it would be easier if I showed you."

My breathing hitched as Damon stepped closer to me, quite literally backing me into a corner. He held out his hands, and I realized that his mind control powers must give him the ability to make me see whatever he wants. I glanced at the door, wishing for Elena to come back in and make sure I wasn't left entirely to Damon's mercy.

The part of me that wanted to know Damon's story outweighed the part of me that feared him, and I nodded, giving him permission to enter my mind. Slowly, he brought his hands to my temples, placing a feather light touch on my skin. I closed my eyes instinctively, and instead of the blackness I expected, Damon's visions filled my sight.

I see my life well rehearsed
And it bores my mind
It's like a show
I've seen a thousand times before
I see my life in reverse and it scares me inside
I see all the ways
I should be giving more

It's not the road
It's not the miles
Or being alone
That tells my heart
She should be aching

The danger's in
The danger's in
The danger's in the waiting

The night is warm but lonely
I should be crawling in

You're fast asleep but I am waiting

The days are so unholy
You make me right again
The night is long
I'll be waiting

A/N: So Lucy officially knows! I know some of you were worried that they would compel her memories away, but I thought she deserves to know. The next Chapter will be entirely flashbacks of Damon's memories that he shares with Lucy, so if you love 1864 Damon you'll love the next Chapter. I'll post it either next Friday, or if I can get 7 new reviews or 7 new follows before then! XO, Eden.