A/N: More than two years since the last update, and here we are! Covid 19 miracle lol More seriously though, the extra time (and infinite boredom) doesn't hurt, but it's definitely your reviews and messages here and your asks on tumblr that motivated me to pick up that old dusty fic and write new chapters again. So thank you for all the messages of love and support
I hope the lockdown has been treating you well and that this chapter is going to entertain you for a little while ;) Hopefully, it was worth the wait? *fingers crossed*

As usual, let me know what you think, and more importantly, stay safe! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines.

Damon's POV

When the car stopped next to us, a woman came out of it. I didn't get the chance to see her face properly though, since Katherine dashed to push her forearm against the stranger's collarbones, pinning her against the car.

"Where is she?" Katherine snarled.

"Who?" the woman managed to articulate, despite the fact that the blow had knocked the air out of her lungs.

"You know who!" Katherine pressed her arm further into the base of her throat. The vaguely familiar woman grabbed the origin of her pain with both hands and tried to push it away. Needless to say, to no avail.

"I have no idea!" she snapped, gasping for air. "I haven't set a foot in Mystic Falls for years!"

That was when it hit me. I knew that I had seen that face before.

"Holy shit...you're the witch that helped us double-cross this bitch with the moonstone," I murmured, stunned to see her again. And with Katherine, of all people. "Why would you even want to help her again?"

"Well, it's a small price to pay for hexing me when she was supposed to have my back, isn't it? I could've just ripped her heart out," Katherine answered for her through gritted teeth, piercing holes in the woman's skull.

"She promised me that after helping her for that, we would be even," the witch said in a tight voice, her throat muscles twitching at the pain.

"And you believed her?" I mocked in disbelief.

"She doesn't really have a choice now, does she?" Katherine drawled.

"I think she finally learned her lesson not to mess with Bennett witches." The woman stared at the vampire strangling her with defiance. "Can we talk like civilized people now?"

Katherine stared back darkly into the woman's eyes before finally backing away.

"Geez Kat, chill..." The witch pushed herself off the car, wrapped her hands around her throat and rubbed the bruised flesh with a wince.

"Oh, that's not going to happen. The cat is in a mood, today. Well, in a bitchier mood than usual, that is."

Katherine shot her head toward me sharply.

"I don't remember allowing you to have a say in this conversation." Her deadly glare made my smirk drop instantly. She then looked back at the woman in front of her. "You're better not be lying to me, Lucy, or I'll rip your every limb to shreds so slowly that you'll beg me to snap your own neck."

"Grim mood. Told ya," I joked to Lucy.

Katherine stomped a foot on the ground and pushed her bottom jaw forward, making a face that clearly screamed exasperation. The witch didn't miss it either and quickly spoke up to distract her attention.

"Why did you call me? What happened to her?"

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. She was talking about Maya, no doubt.

Suddenly, it dawned on me. "You're the witch that cast that spell on her..."

It wasn't a question but Lucy answered me anyway, after a moment of hesitation and a side-glance toward Katherine. "Yes."

As the word left her mouth, I saw red, remembering the shocked and trembling Maya that I had to hold for hours to calm her down after that fucking spell. I marched toward the witch, fists clenched into tight balls.

"What the fuck did you do-" My air supply was cut off before I could finish.

Katherine was strangling me again, her face only a few inches away from mine. Her eyes were pitch-black with warning and she arched an expectant eyebrow. I raised my hands to the side of my head as a peace offering.

"I'll behave," I sputtered in a strangled voice. She let go of me roughly.

"She's missing," Katherine said, answering to Lucy's previous question but keeping her eyes on me. "Who did you tell about her?"

"She's missing? What do you mean?"

Katherine tore her eyes away from me to look at the witch, resentment and disapproval written all over her features.

"I told you to be discreet!"

"Yes well, you also wanted results!" Lucy snapped, her nose flaring with indignation. "And patience is surely not one of your virtues!"

Both women challenged each other with a defiant attitude. When the vampiric one of them finally spoke, her tone was low and threatening.

"Who did you tell?"

The witch sighed and rubbed her forehead, breaking the direct confrontation.

"I couldn't learn more than what we had already figured out by ourselves inside the witch world. I was starting to lose hope when an old witch -a distant relative- told me that she might know someone who could help me. She's a respected elder in the community and I would've felt it if she had bad intentions, since we're-"

"Get to the point or you'll never get the chance to grow old enough to be a respected elder yourself," Katherine shot sharply, proving one more time that the woman had zero patience.

Lucy blinked once in annoyance.

"I met a young man. He said that his father had dedicated his life to studying this species. He was actually quite helpful. But I already told you what I learned from him, Kat..."

"What did he tell you?" I asked, eager to know more about Maya's powers.

Katherine instantly raised up her forefinger in front of the other woman to shush her.

"You said she was your friend, didn't you?" Katherine sing-songed to me in a sickly voice. "Well then, you'll have to ask her if there's something you want to know."

The glint of victory in her eyes made it crystal clear that this was payback for our previous tiff. I clenched my jaw and flashed her a murderous glare.

"Did he ask if you knew one of them?" she asked the witch, resuming the conversation. "Or anything vaguely suspicious?"

"He tried to be subtle about it, but of course he did. He also asked what I was doing in the area. But you know me...I didn't fall for it." She flashed a knowing lop-sided smile at her "friend" before continuing. "I met him about half an hour west from here. And since she can't be tracked with a spell, I don't know how he could've found her! He had thousands of miles to cover, and Mystic Falls doesn't even appear on most maps."

"When was your meeting?" Katherine asked intently.

Lucy gave it some thoughts. "Last Friday."

I tensed at her answer. It was only a day before Maya's powers went all crazy and she started running freely through the forest. From the displeasure written on Katherine's face, I knew she had made the same connection.

"Where did you find her?" I asked her without further indication. As I had assumed, she understood my question perfectly.

"North road. Not even close from here."

It should have been comforting, but we were fully aware that none of us knew where she had been and what she had done, before Katherine managed to put her hand on her- not even Maya herself.

"What kind of impression did he give you? Did he look strong? Powerful?" She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side, focused as she waited for the witch to answer.

"I'd say in good shape...tall and athletic. But other than that, I felt nothing special about him. He's human for sure."

I clenched my jaw and cursed under my breath. "He's not the guy we're looking for, then."

"Call him," Katherine ordered, her intent gaze still locked on Lucy.

"What?"

"You have his number, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Call him."

The witch breathed out an irritated sigh.

"Kat, it's not like we're study buddies working on an essay about the supernatural together! What am I supposed to tell him?!"

"Tell him that you dug up something crazy. That you need to speak with him but not over the phone," she answered like she had made up that plan two hours ago already. I frowned, certain that she had caught on something that had eluded me so far. "Once he's here, tell him you found one of them but you're afraid to face them alone. Let him convince you to go with you and then fix a time with him for tomorrow."

Lucy nodded to the instructions and pulled out her phone.

"You think he's going to lead us to whoever took Maya?" I asked Katherine while we walked away from the witch to make sure the guy wouldn't hear us.

"It's a possibility...or he's going to lead us straight to her."

I raised my eyebrows skeptically.

"Wait. You think a human could've kidnapped her?"

She turned her head slowly to look at me, a mysterious glint shining in her eyes.

"No. But did you ever wonder why you never felt that Maya was supernatural?"

Maya's POV

The door opened slowly, only revealing half a leg and two hands carrying something, but that was all I needed. I suddenly understood why that presence was somewhat familiar. My kidnapper was like me. I couldn't tell why I was so sure but I felt it in my gut.
It was impossible. My heart started to drum so loudly against my ribcage at the mere idea that I thought, for a second, that it might bounce out of my chest. I compelled myself to calm down, not wanting my jailer to know the effect they had on me. Then I realized that anyone in that kind of situation was supposed to be terrified. If I succeeded in remaining relatively calm, it would give them the confirmation of what I was. Or even worse, give them a clue that I knew what they were. Playing dumb was the safest thing to do, right?

I didn't get a chance to make up my mind as my kidnapper finally came into view. He was young. Maybe three or four years older than me. His eyes were almost black, the unusual color giving them a deep, scary intensity. The complexion of his skin was a dark brown, his bob of black hair as thick as mine. The prominence of his jawbones and his height made him look like a giant from my spot on the ground. He was wearing blue jeans with an ordinary white tee-shirt and sneakers so worn out that they seemed ready to disappear into thin air. His features were hard, but there was surprisingly no trace of malice or anger on his face. His appearance combined with his general nonchalance made him look a lot more like a surfer than a convicted felon. But even though he was quite lean, one glance at his biceps informed me that I wouldn't stand a chance against him if he was indeed like me.

"Good. You're awake."

There was a faint accent in his low voice, but I barely noticed it as the intensity of his gaze made my heart rate going through the roof again in fear. He stepped forward and squatted to put the tray he was carrying on the floor near me. His closeness made me want to crawl to the opposite side of the room, and I unconsciously tugged on the chain holding my wrists. He noticed my reaction and frowned, but remained silent as he grabbed a bowl and a towel. He dampened the linen and stretched his hand toward the arch of my eyebrow. I instantly shot my head to the side, as far away of him as I could possibly go. I glared sideways to signify him that he wasn't going to come nowhere near me.

"It's just to clean your wounds. You have blood everywhere," he said, moving his hand toward the back of my skull. "Let me at least-" He didn't finish his sentence when I whipped my head away from him again.

"Fine. I guess I deserve that. But you must be hungry and thirsty."

I was both. I was in fact so thirsty that the thought of drinking an entire lake sounded like paradise. He took a small bottle of water from the tray and uncapped it before guiding the neck toward my mouth. I pressed my lips firmly together and turned my head to the side once more. The guy had knocked me out, kidnapped and chained me up to a radiator, and he thought that I was going to drink his water? I had no idea what he had put in it and I was not going to let him drug me.

"Come on...it's not poisoned- I swear. If you don't eat or drink, it's going to take you a lot longer to heal."

My eyes darted up at his words. I was aware that the human body needed food to heal like any other living creature, but when suffering blooding head injuries, I had never heard anyone say "eat a carrot and drink some water to heal faster".
The guy definitely knew about my abilities. Or at least suspected them. Could he feel me like I could feel him?

He tried again and moved a sandwich close to my mouth this time, but I stubbornly refused to take anything coming from him. In my book, people hurting, kidnapping and locking down other people were total nutjobs. I was having a hard time already keeping my brain from picturing the numerous horrifying ways I was going to die, no way I was going to give this sociopath more opportunities.

He sighed and dropped the food back on the tray. "I'm really not the enemy here."

I was so surprised by his statement that my eyebrows disappeared in my hairline, causing pain to flash through the right side of my head. The guy was delusional. With my luck, he suffered from a hero complex and was convinced that he was doing the right thing by holding me prisoner.

"I'm sorry about your injuries. I didn't want to hurt you," he said in a gentle tone, "but we both know you're really strong and fast."

I felt my breath catching in my throat and my muscles tensed, and it took all my willpower to go against that first instinctive reaction. Play dumb, Maya, keep playing dumb. I plastered a confused expression on my face.

"And I didn't enjoy kidnapping you and locking you up either, but I needed to talk to you."

"Then why didn't you just do that instead of using my head as a punching bag? You knocked on my door. That was a good start," I croaked sarcastically before freezing at what I had just said. Really? Even in that kind of situation and despite my fear, I couldn't tie down that damn tongue of mine? I needed to befriend my jailer, not piss him off.

At my utter surprise, he chuckled.

"Ah, strong-headed. I have to admit, it doesn't really come as a shock... I expected you to be."

He stood up and walked toward the only window to peer outside. What did that sentence mean? He didn't even know me. Right?

"I couldn't talk to you in your town because you've surrounded yourself with dangerous enemies."

I bit back a snarky comment about who I thought was dangerous at the moment and opted for a wiser sentence to say instead. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the vampires and the witches you chose as friends," he answered matter-of-factly.

A lump instantly formed in my throat. How could he know who my friends were and what they were? I swallowed with difficulty and tried to act stunned and on the verge of laughing.

"Okay, this is a prank, right?" My question caused him to turn around and do a double-take.

"I don't joke with that kind of matter."

"You mean, with witches and vampires? I'm sorry to break the news to you, but such creatures don't exist."

He walked away from the window and stopped just out of reach of my feet, staring at me with piercing eyes.

"They're extremely dangerous, Maya."

I tensed instantly as he used my name. The blatant proofs of him invading my personal life were causing a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Vampires are drawn to our kind at first, because of the power their predatory side unconsciously feels exuding from us. But as soon as they figure out what we are or what we're capable of, they cannot rest until they've killed us."

My heart sank deep into my chest and I felt dizzy. He said our kind. How could he be like me? Wasn't our species supposed to be extinct for centuries? His mention of being vampires magnets made me panic furiously. Was it the reason why Damon had a crush on me at some point? What about Katherine acting suddenly so interested in me? Would Stefan and Caroline eventually try to kill me? I shook my head to dismiss the thought, horrified by the fact that I had even considered it for a second.

"No. They're my friends. They would never hurt me." I looked up slowly to bore with determination into his dark eyes.

"They already have. They slaughtered our entire tribes with the help of witches to make sure our ancestors and their line of descents could never endanger their kind. Only a couple of us survived," he explained with an urgent need in his voice that seemed to plead me into believing him. He stepped forward to kneel down at my side and face me. "We can't be friends with them because guardians were created to destroy supernatural creatures. I know you haven't realized that just yet, but we're powerful. We can kill vampires -even the oldest ones. We're nothing but a threat to them."

The room around me suddenly disappeared. My heart was hammering loudly but steadily against my ribcage like a running engine that nothing could ever stop. I tried to wrap my mind around what my kidnapper had just said but it remained stubbornly blank.

"What did you say?" I eventually mumbled.

"It must be difficult for you to accept, but vampires are-"

"No. About what we're called."

The most happy and genuine grin appeared on his lips, and I suddenly realized I had admitted that I was indeed one of these creatures. But I was craving answers too much to care.

"Guardians. We're guardians, Maya."

His words came as a bombshell to me. It was as if I had found the last missing piece of a complex puzzle and that finally, everything just clicked. The feeling was overwhelming.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was aware that it was ridiculous to feel like I finally knew who I was, like I was whole at last, just because there was a word to label me. But after all these years, it made me feel like I did belong somewhere. I belonged with a community. The joy and comfort it brought me made me forget for a minute that I was tied down to a radiator in the middle of nowhere, and held captive by an unstable stranger.
The sound of his voice shook me out of it.

"Your parents didn't tell you?"

"They knew?"

"Considering who you are, I can assure you that they knew."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped defensively, not even sure why.

"You're already so powerful...it's incredible. You really live up to your family reputation," he murmured pensively, more to himself than to me. His eyes roamed over my entire body as if he was trying to see inside me. "No wonder I felt you so easily in the woods."

"What..?"

Was he referring to the blackout I had a few days ago? The one that made me run through two different state forests? I was certain that I would have felt the guy if he even had set a single foot in my vicinity. But then again, maybe I had. I could barely remember anything from that day.

"I wanted to introduce myself then, but a vampire got in the way."

I frowned at that revelation. He must have been referring to Katherine. Was it his presence that pushed me to leave the forest and pop up on that road where she had found me?

"I should be thankful for that, though. She led me right to your little town," he added with a pleased smile.

"What were you doing in those woods anyway?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"A witch in the area needed her questions about a certain extinct species to be answered." He gave me a mischievous glance. "I naturally deduced that a specimen of that species might be around...hence, the woods."

"A witch?" I mumbled, confused.

How did a witch even know about our existence? Bonnie was clueless about it, and despite the thousands of books she had on witchcraft, guardians were barely mentioned and in only one of them. And why was that woman around here? Was it an unfortunate coincidence that she led that guy to me?
Suddenly, blood left my face and turned to ice in my veins. The witch Katherine used to cast that spell on me...it must have been her. It had to. Anger boiled quickly inside my chest and my jaw clenched tightly to stop a growl from escaping my lips. If I managed somehow to survive this and flee, I was going to kill Katherine with my bare two hands.

"That's what I meant when I said you surround yourself with dangerous people," he said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "They're going to kill you just like they killed your parents."

I whipped my head around to shot him a fierce glare.

"I forbid you to talk about them. You don't get to talk about things you know nothing about!"

"You're right, I don't know how they died...but let me guess. Animal attack? Robbery that went wrong? They disappeared without a trace?"

I was on the verge of blowing him off again when I noticed the bitter smile at the corner of his mouth. He looked incredibly sad.

"Whatever their killer chose to cover their tracks, I know for sure your parents are dead. Because mine are dead too. The same goes for everybody else."

"Everybody else?" My jaw dropped in shock and I was staring at him so intensely that it felt like my eyes were about to bug out of my skull. "How many of us are out there exactly?"

"Just a few. But all orphans," he stated gravely.

I remained speechless for a while until irritation overcame my shock.

"So what are you saying? That there are like...vampires tracking us down to kill us all?"

"Something like that."

I snorted dryly and shot him a disbelieving look. "Yeah right! And now you're going to tell me there's a secret society? That they called it let's-kill-a-species-that's-already-been-extinct-for-fucking-centuries? Ooh, better. Their hitman -or well, hitvampire- is an ancient ninja. Am I getting close?"

I didn't know if I was having a nervous breakdown or if things were getting too crazy to wrap my mind around, but I was seriously tired of this shit.

"This isn't a joke, Maya. There's no secret society, but there was one vampire that dedicated his eternity to kill us all. One by one." His eyes glazed over, his face becoming strained as he talked. "He was among the first generation created by the original vampires. When they attacked our tribes and slaughtered our entire kind, he was their henchman. A few decades after the massacre, he informed them that a few of us had survived, but the original family had already made its point by proving that they had the upper hand over us. A tacit truce resulted from it, with the only condition that our species stayed out of their way and vice versa." He lowered his head, his hands making tight balls against his lap. "Unfortunately, their little pet knew exactly how dangerous we were for the vampire kind, and he wasn't as immortal as the originals are."

"You're talking about him in past tense..." I murmured cautiously.

"Because his reign of terror is finally over. My dad dedicated his life to two things: finding and getting together every guardian alive, and connecting the dots between that vampire's murders and tracking him down. With another guardian and a witch, he managed to kill him but none of them walked out of that battle alive." His voice broke at the mention of his father's death, but his face also glowed with pride. "I promised myself to carry on his legacy and to make our tribe, our species come back to life again. And look who I found...the daughter of the sun."

A loud pang resonated through my chest.

"What did you just say?" I croaked, not even recognizing my own voice.

"You're a Tonatiuh. The insurgent guardian family. I'm Alejandro Quiyahuitl. It's nice to finally meet you, Maya."

He smiled at me like he had found a loved one that went missing after years of search. I frowned, remembering what Vanessa had told me at the University.

"Quiyahuitl. You're the son of the rain..."

"I see someone is not as clueless as she pretends to be."

I glanced up and shot him a fierce glare, but it didn't stop him to keep talking.

"You and I represent the main families, Maya. We're even more powerful than you could ever imagine."

"Considering my predicament," I started, wriggling the chain tied around my wrists, "I hope you won't hold against me that the pleasure to meet you is not mutual. Main families or not."

"You're probably not going to believe it, but I'm really sorry about that." He gestured toward the restraint and my face. "I knew that if I had approached you openly, the vampires and witches in your life would've come between us and messed things up. I needed to make sure you were safe before I took you to meet everyone else..."

I remained silent, watching him closely, as fear started invading my every nerve again. He actually believed what he was telling me. That he had kidnapped and chained me up for my own safety. That those strangers he kept talking about and me were just one big happy family. I could tell from his pupils and his heartbeat.
It was terrifying, because it made his next move impossible to predict. I had no idea how far his delusion was going to make him go. I swallowed around the lump in my throat.

"Meet everyone?" I asked, trying desperately to cover up the edge in my voice by something more flippant.

"Yes. The rest of the group didn't follow me here, in the US, but they're all waiting for you at home."

My stomach sunk into a bottomless pit. He wanted to kidnap me out of the country? It couldn't be happening. A thousand thoughts ran through my head frantically. I had to find a way to stop this, because if he managed to force me to leave the country...

"This is my home. Why don't they come over here to meet me?" I tried as calmly as I could muster.

"This isn't your home, Maya. Mexico is home." He looked at me like he was patiently remembering to a five year old what her last name was. "I know you see them as complete strangers for now, but you're going to love them...and you're finally going to meet your other half!"

"I'm sorry, what?" I stared at him, stunned by the absurd proportion this horrific day had taken.

"You're destined to mate with a member of the dominated families."

"Domin-" I cut off, at loss for words. "Mate? What do you think I am? A freaking horse?"

"I told you already...I'll do anything I can to make our species come back to life again. To ensure our survival and our development, we need all the guardian DNA we can get. And if each of our couples has several kids, it doubles the chances to increase the number of guardians for the next generation," he said, like he was talking about repopulating the Amazon rainforest with trees. I blinked at him a few times, trying to decipher if this whole situation could still turn out to be a giant joke.

A nervous chuckle escaped my lips. "Seems really nice, dude, but that's not going to happen. Not with me, at least. So you better untie me, and I'll just find my way home."

His expression froze with shock, as if I had just said the most outrageous thing I could have possibly told him.

"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere," he stated lowly, making it clear that this was a threat. "You can't simply dismiss the thought of saving your own tribe just because you're uncomfortable with this tradition. You haven't even met the guy. You might like him. We actually all clicked with our other half when we met!"

Oh I can assure you it's not going to happen, I thought to myself and made a decision quickly. Talking myself out of this situation wasn't going to work. I shifted my weight to the left and discreetly folded my legs to gain momentum. I tensed my muscles and threw my feet toward his face as fast as I could and hit him in the chin. When I tried to wrap my legs around his neck, he snacked out of my reach so quickly and so gracefully that if I still had any doubt he was my kind, it had now disappeared completely. He was up before I could even register what had just happened and he looked down at me, disappointment and hurt shining in his eyes. My breath caught in my throat, scared of what would be his reaction to my failed attack.

A sudden vibrating sound startled us both and broke the tension. He fetched his phone from his pocket and frowned at the caller ID.

"I have to take this," he said in an icy cold voice. He walked away and left the room, but not before piercing me with a warning glare.

All I had been able to catch from the phone call was a feminine voice. Five minutes later, I heard an engine come to life and a car drive away.