They drove up until they reached the edge of the National Park.

From there, they got out and sped alongside each other, listening intently to find Alaric and Elena. Esmeray was the first to hear them, and directed Damon deeper into the forest, nearest the lake.

"I don't know why you think that you're a lost cause," Elena was saying as she removed her jacket. Alaric was kneeling off to the side, looking through his backpack.

Damon, being Damon, launched forward and tossed Elena right into the water below as he and Esmeray came to a halt beside Alaric, who put up a crossbow in surprise, accidentally firing. The hybrid caught the stake with ease before handing it back to him as Elena coughed and spluttered below.

"Damon!" she cried in shock, wiping her face and looking at the two new arrivals. "Esme— how are you even here?"

The vampire smirked. "Thanks for the tip, brother," he said, nodding to Alaric.

Elena looked offended. "You sold me out!"

Alaric snorted. "You think I'd take you to a mountain range of werewolves on a full moon without backup?"

Esmeray cast her a little wave, as if to say, 'we're the backup.' Elena scoffed and let herself sink lower into the water, almost defiant. "Get out of the water, Elena," said Damon impatiently.

"If I get out of the water, you're gonna make me go home."

"I can ask Esme to levitate you out if you keep acting like that," warned Damon. "Unlike you, we're not idiots, and Esme would very much like to get home before it gets dark."

Alaric groaned. "Right now, you're both acting like idiots." Esmeray laughed appreciatively at this, but Elena was unamused. "You gave up on him, Damon."

"I didn't give up on him, Elena, I faced reality," Damon clarified. "Now get out of the water."

"No!" she huffed.

"What's your big plan, Elena?" he said, jumping off the ridge and going into the water. "Huh? You gonna walk through a campsite full of werewolves, roast a marshmallow, and wait for Stefan to stop by?"

Elena moved away, thinking he was going to toss her over his shoulder and make her leave. "My plan is to find him and help him. Damon, this is the closest that we've been to him since he left. I'm not going home."

"This isn't safe," Damon insisted. "If you won't do it for me, do it for Esme. She came so that you won't get killed, and wouldn't it be rude if you let Klaus snatch her up?"

Elena really was stubborn. "I'm not leaving before we find him."

"Hello, what part of 'it's a full moon tonight' do you not understand? You do realize that if we're still here by then, we could all get killed?"

"We'll find him before then," Elena insisted. "Damon, please."

Esmeray, personally, would have much rather froze Elena like a statue and dragged her off no matter what she said. Damon, instead, stopped arguing. "Okay, okay," he sighed in exasperation. "But we are out of here before the moon is full and I'm werewolf bait."

"I promise," said Elena.

Damon wiggled his eyebrows. "Unless you wanna relive that whole deathbed kissy thing."

"I said I promise."

"Fine."

Esmeray and Alaric shared a look and both rolled their eyes as Damon and Elena got out of the water.

The group started to traipse up the mountain until Esmeray cleared her throat very loudly and started to walk faster. "Can we just hold hands and superspeed?" she complained. "Damon and I have that power for a reason. This is stupid. We won't make it to the ridge at human pace."

"I'll try to pretend I'm not offended by that," said Alaric, making a face.

Elena pursed her lips. "She's right." She took Damon's hand, and Esmeray held onto Alaric's arm before they began to move at vampire and werewolf speed, stopping when they reached the ridge, where they could hear movement in the distance.

"How are you doing?" asked Damon to Elena, who looked like she might throw up after how fast they were moving.

"Fine," she said, pretending she didn't feel sick.

"You're gonna barf. I could carry your bag."

"Yeah, with my luck, you'll use it to knock me back the way we came."

"What are you guys, twelve?" said Alaric in exasperation.

Esmeray giggled, and tucked her hands in her pockets. "I think I can sense people up ahead. But the sun is going to set soon— I don't think we're going to make it back to Mystic Falls in time."

Elena tensed. "What does that mean for you?"

"It means I should probably stray away from the group," she admitted. "That's the safer option."

Elena shook her head. "That's not a good idea. The moon doesn't reach its apex for a while. We have time."

There was the sound of twigs snapping, and they all stopped, whirling around as a man covered in blood walked up to them. Alaric held up the crossbow and pointed it in the man's direction. "Stay where you are!"

The man stared up through his bloodshot eyes, focusing on Damon. "Vampire."

He lunged at him, but Esmeray was ready. She thrust her hands out and the man was slammed into a tree, bound to it magically. "He's not an ordinary wolf," she observed, coming closer as the man struggled against her spell.

"Let me guess," muttered Alaric. "A hybrid."

Esmeray traced her hand over the blood on the man's face. "No... he should be one, but he hasn't transitioned. He's... being torn apart from the inside."

Elena gulped. "What does that mean?"

"It means Klaus's attempts haven't been successful," she said, her brows furrowed in concentration. "Whatever he's been trying hasn't worked. I just don't get it. The point of the ritual was to unlock his wolf side. He should be able to make hybrids."

"Do you think you can see into his mind to find out where Klaus and Stefan are?" asked Elena.

Esmeray bit her lip. "I can, yes, but I think it might kill him."

"Huh?" scoffed Damon. "I thought your Mind Spells didn't hurt the person."

"It's very different with those who are living or dead. This man is neither— he's not undead because he hasn't transitioned, but he's not alive anymore. Look at the state of him. His brain is being fried in his skull, that's where the blood is coming from." She grabbed the man's face gently. "Can you speak?"

"G-Get away," he said hoarsely, more blood leaking from his eyelids.

"Who did this to you?" she said, and the man flinched, before suddenly letting out a loud yell, his fangs protruding from his gums and his body thrashing against the tree.

"Is he turning?" Damon exclaimed.

Elena looked alarmed. "That's impossible— it's still daylight!"

"Tell him that," said Alaric as Esmeray wove her hands over the man's forehead, trying to soothe him. He snapped his jaws at her, as if trying to bite her. She bit her lip and placed her hand on his, murmuring a spell quietly to see into his mind. She saw only brief flashes before he slumped back, unconscious.

"Klaus killed a whole pack of them," she said darkly. "Meaning we're going to have more rabid almost-hybrids coming any second. You all need to leave."

"We're not going to leave without you, Esmeray," said Elena, as if this was a reasonable thing to say.

Esmeray turned to face her. "You will leave without me. Those unfinished hybrids won't hurt me, they'll sense my wolf nature and I'll be fine. The same can't be said for you. So leave, before it gets worse. I'll see what I can do."

Damon looked at her as though he definitely didn't agree, opening his mouth a few times and thinking to argue with her, but ultimately saying nothing. She nodded to him, and he grabbed onto Alaric and Elena before speeding them away. Esmeray turned back to Ray with a sad expression on her face before twisting her wrist, using magic to start tearing his heart out and alleviate his suffering. Despite her guilt, she knew that she was saving him from more torment, and with a final flick, his heart jumped out.

The sky above began to darken rapidly. Esmeray paused for a moment, closing her eyes and listening to figure out how close she might be to Klaus.

A furious yell tore out at the same time that her stomach churned painfully, preparing to start breaking her bones. "I did everything I was told!" she heard Klaus yelling. "I should be able to turn them. I broke the curse. I killed a werewolf. I killed a vampire. I fed from the doppelgänger and used her blood. The whole bloody point of using the werewitch was to ensure this went into completion!" There was a pause, and Esmeray decided she needed to take the chance to get further away now, before he could sense that she was nearby.

She shouldered her backpack and sped to the other side of the forest, only stopping when she was too far to hear Klaus and Stefan, who appeared to be leaving anyway. She crashed down in a small clearing as her bones began to break, and to ensure they didn't find her, she grabbed her sweater and forced it into her mouth, muffling her screams as she began the first of approximately nine hours of torture.

_

When she woke up two days later, she shakily sat up, and to her great surprise, she had already been covered with a blanket. She looked around, her vision blurred for a moment until she rubbed her eyes and saw Damon sitting on a lawn chair not too far from where she was.

She winced as she held the blanket tight around her, getting to her feet. "Have I been out for more than two days?"

"Nope, it's been exactly two days," he said, tossing her the backpack. She frowned, and he rolled his eyes. "What, do you need me to hold the blanket up as a curtain? I didn't think you'd mind, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"It's not that," she said. "Why did you come back for me?"

"Because how else were you going to get back? You can't drive and you are not ballsy enough to steal someone's car."

"What happened?" she asked, letting the blanket fall as she got dressed.

"Well, Elena and I went to Chicago, we saw Klaus and Stefan, it was a complete bust and now, I'm here. Not the most eventful trip. Klaus does seem to be trying to figure out why he was unable to sire hybrids. Any theories?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. It should work for him. I did my best work on the spell."

"Here's what I've been thinking," said Damon. "The hybrids need to feed on specific blood to transition. My guess— either yours or Elena's."

Esmeray mulled it over as she tied her hair up and slipped on a jacket. "That makes sense. It'd be more likely for Elena's blood to be needed. Which... is interesting to think about."

Damon furrowed his brows. "How so?"

"The doppelgänger's blood was used to bind Klaus in the first place. Now, Elena's blood was used to remove that binding. Had I not been the one to perform the spell, Elena would have had to die. It's odd, isn't it? If I hadn't been found in time, Elena would be dead and Klaus would never have been able to make hybrids."

They shared a look, and Damon groaned. "Don't tell me what I think you're thinking..."

"There's more to this than we know of," she confirmed. "My guess is, Klaus is going to figure that out soon enough."

He huffed and picked up her bag, shoving her old clothes into it. "Let's get out of here. Our first stop should probably be a diner or something because I can hear your intestines gurgling."

They stopped at a restaurant near the freeway entrance. Sure enough, Esmeray was able to eat three plates of hotcakes, sausages, and hash browns before they hit the road, which earned her some weird stares.

"I don't understand why some people can't mind their own business," she said irritably, crossing her arms as they drove back. She shook her head. "How did you even find out that Stefan was in Chicago?"

"Would you believe me if I said it came to me in a dream?" he asked hopefully.

"Not at all. Who told you?"

"Katherine."

Esmeray gritted her teeth. "I have mixed feelings about her. She's the reason Klaus got me in the first place. But she's also the one that helped me realize that he was trying to get in my pants, which taught me to keep my guard up."

"She's a bitch, don't let those mixed feelings be mixed. No matter what she did, she's still terrible."

"I don't like to think of people that way. There was some good in her, in those days that we were trapped in Alaric's apartment. I don't think she'll ever be genuinely nice the way she once was, but I don't want to say she's entirely terrible just because of that."

Damon snorted. "Change of subject. Are you going to enroll in Mystic Falls High School or not? Caroline was nagging about it."

"Ugh, I already told her no. I have college knowledge, why would I go and be near a bunch of teenagers? I'd be damaging the school property constantly with my mood swings."

"Good to know you're not completely hopeless," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Not another ditzy kid who enjoys that. I can't imagine why Stefan likes pretending to be seventeen. He's not seventeen anymore."

"Maybe it's his coping mechanism. It calms him and helps him feel normal. Makes him forget he's a Ripper. How does that even happen, anyway? Is it genetics? Mutations?"

Damon pursed his lips. "I don't know. I haven't met many Rippers and it's hard to know how it comes about, but if I had to guess, I'd say mutation. Why are you asking me, anyway? You're the one who saw into the mind of a Biology Professor."

She tucked her hand under her chin, leaning on the window. "Would you allow me to see into your mind?" she asked casually. "You've got a hundred years of knowledge and firsthand experience. I didn't get around to seeing Elijah's memories."

"What, so you can see what it was like to fuck you from my perspective?" he teased, making her smack him.

"Very funny," she said, rolling her eyes. "Nevermind. I don't want to see all the women you've been with. I have plenty of memories of that from other people."

"You could if you want to, I don't care. You just have to understand that you're sworn to secrecy."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What kind of scandalous things have you done?"

There was an almost pained look on his face. "Not... scandalous. Just things I've never told anybody."

"You'd trust me to see that? I don't want to do it if it makes you uncomfortable, Damon."

"I just want to know if you can keep a secret."

"I can. But again, I won't do it if it makes you uncomfortable."

He offered her his arm. She gave him a skeptical look before taking it and closing her eyes, concentrating as she mumbled the spell.

As soon as the memories were internalized, her eyes welled up with tears. "Damon," she said softly. "You..."

"Don't mention it," he said in a strained voice. "Just use the knowledge however it'll help you."

She took his hand and squeezed it. She was the first person to learn about the torture he'd succumbed to with an apparent society of Augustines that she'd never heard of. She saw a fire and the death of a vampire named Enzo, who'd kept him company. She saw how Stefan forced him to turn and felt every emotion that had coursed through Damon's body in the past; betrayal, sadness, a longing so strong that she felt like she could cry.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "No one should have to go through that."

"You can't tell anyone."

"I know. Why did you let me see?"

Damon didn't want to elaborate. He wanted to tell her that he trusted her because he knew that she understood how it felt to be alone. She had been there for him in a vulnerable moment and the least he could do was give her knowledge that might help her feel less out of place. He had seen how after every full moon, there was a thoroughly exhausted look on her face that made him hate Klaus even more for having betrayed her when he promised to give her a solution for her torment. He knew she missed her parents and that she'd never see them again because at the time, they hadn't known how to help her. He remembered his own mother when she spoke about hers. The night she'd hugged him from behind had brought memories that stirred his deepest emotions.

In just a short span of time, Esmeray felt like family to him. She and Alaric were the only people Damon felt like he could truly be himself with. Even Elena wanted him to change, but Esmeray understood it and didn't force him to try and be better. She accepted him as she was and told him with her gentle voice that he wasn't a monster.

"So that you know what kind of person I am," he said in a strained voice. "So that you understand why I see myself as a monster."

"You know what I see?" she asked, looking over at him. "I see someone who has been through Hell and persevered even when everything was against him. I see someone who uses violence to protect himself because you've been hurt so many times. I see someone who is passionate and loyal. You've made mistakes and done reckless things, but who hasn't? You've dialed it down a lot compared to what you used to do. You do it in defense of yourself so that no one else can bring you down the way people have done in the past. You've protected Elena with every inch of your being and that's incredibly selfless. I don't see you as a monster."

The rest of the ride had been quiet. He'd driven slower than usual, and they'd made only one more stop to get some milkshakes, because he knew she'd gotten hungry again. It was dark when they arrived back at the Salvatore Boarding House, and he opened the door to let her in.

"I need to shower," she told him, taking her backpack from him. "If you need anything, I'll be in my room."

He stopped her before she could go upstairs. He knew what he needed, and it was her, because she made him feel comfortable, and her touch relieved his stress. He couldn't have Elena, and though he still desired her, Esmeray was the alternative that brought him, perhaps more than anyone, the relief that helped him sleep through the night. "Come to my room when you're done," he said quietly. "If... you want."

She cast him a smile. "Sure. I'll be there."

She had taken her time with her shower only because she felt filthy after being in the mountains, which was drastically different from the scenery she was used to in the quarry. All the smells were foreign, and she'd scrubbed it off hard, letting the water run down her sore body to feel some sense of normalcy again.

Damon hadn't been able to wait. She had gone into her bedroom, a towel wrapped around herself, and he was waiting on her bed, a book propped open on his lap.

"Should I not bother getting dressed, then?" she inquired.

"Definitely don't bother," he muttered.

She looked at him as she slipped the towel off. He watched her intently as she dried her hair again, then set the towel aside before walking over to him, crawling onto the bed, which made him set the book aside.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" she asked as she sat down on his lap. "I can just listen to whatever you need to say."

"And here I thought I'd have to worry about you," he said, holding onto her hips as she unbuttoned his shirt.

"It's therapy with sex, I had to ask," she said, making him chuckle lightly.

"Then, you're my favorite therapist," he replied, growing impatient when she took her sweet time removing his shirt. "You're just slow. Tortoise and the hare, much?"

Esmeray smirked. "Is it torturous to wait? I knew you were impatient but I thought you'd last longer."

"Maybe I'm just too eager," he said as she wiggled off of him to unbuckle his pants. "And you seem to be doing this on purpose."

"I'm sore," she pointed out. "Even with hours in the car, the pain doesn't go away so quickly."

He furrowed his brows in concern and brought his hand up to cup her face. "Then let me take care of you."

"You can do that another time," she promised, pushing his hand down as she started to pull off his pants. "Right now, I want to help you."

Damon knew he was getting himself into a problem. He would be a fool to believe that this arrangement could work for an extended period of time. The last thing he wanted was for Esmeray to catch feelings despite him being in love with another woman. It'd break him to know that she felt the same agony as he did, he who was smitten with his brother's girl. How damaging would it be if she felt jealousy? If she loved someone whose heart belonged to another? He didn't want to know. And yet, he couldn't help but groan and respond to her touch as she traced her lips and fingers over unspeakable places. He knew she was generous but this made him feel guilty, because he hadn't been so attentive to her before. He kept running over her words in his head.

It doesn't have to mean anything.

You can do that another time.

She didn't want to end this anytime soon, and neither did he, but he had a feeling that if they didn't put a stop to it soon, it'd cause discord.