It had been weeks since Elena fell into her sixty-year slumber. The first couple of days, everyone was lost. No one knew what to do, what to speak, or how to act. It was as if we were all lost without the presence of Elena Gilbert. To the town of Mystic Falls, that girl had died in the horrible accident that happened in Alaric's wedding. They had mourned her, celebrated her in a way by putting up her picture and accomplishments at the high school. So, each person that entered the high school would be greeted with a large smiling picture of Elena, a plaque of her name underneath, and her accomplishments listed below.

   I had helped Caroline and Bonnie coordinate everything, from the fake funeral with the closed casket too small get-together at the Salvatore home where kind words were spoken about the not-dead Elena Gilbert. There were several people that came up to me, grabbed my hands, and said that I was nice that I was now taking care of Caroline and Bonnie, since their families were gone and their best friend had died. Instead of ripping off their heads or scaring them, I forced a smile on their lips and thanked them for coming before leaving to another room. Damon stood by the window, hand in his pocket while the other held a tall glass full of bourbon. At that moment, he said that we should leave to Europe, away from Mystic Falls. It wasn't just me, Bonnie too decided to come.

   The three of us ended up grabbing Alaric and forcing him to come. He was still grieving, as one does when the person one loves most was killed in front of them. The man was basically half asleep as Damon and I dragged him out of bed, to the car, and even to the plane. Out of the three of us, it was Bonnie that looked most excited. She had never truly left the United States, not counting the time we went to Nova Scotia to search for the cure. This was a time for her to have fun, and at the same time grieve the loss of her best friend.

   It was how we ended travelling across Europe, drunk for most of the travelling. The only time Damon and Alaric were not drunk was when they woke up, one with a terrible hangover and the other with the little hangover vampires got after a night of binge drinking. I had drank several drinks in the beginning, but the taste got sour in my mouth so I stopped and drank anything else.

   I leaned back on the chair and crossed my legs, watching Damon and Alaric chug down steins of beer while people cheered behind them. A bit o the liquid dribbled down their chin as they tried to drink fast. I made a face as they finished their beers and belched. That earned them more cheers from the people behind them.

   "Halfway across Europe and they're still drunk," I said with a sigh, shaking my head. Bonnie sat in front of me, a three tall bottles of water in front of her along with a cup of green tea. She was writing on the journal Elena had given her, several pages in detailing our trip.

   She looked up and rolled her eyes. "They're both grieving so terribly."

   "One actually is allowed the grieve." I glanced at Alaric. There was still a sadness to him whenever one looked at him, as if that sadness was pushed onto you. I looked at Damon, who was staring at the menu with furrowed brows. "The other is just a big baby."

   "I heard you!" he called, lifting a finger and pointing it at me.

   "You were meant to."

   Alaric began to poke his cheeks with his fingers, a half-faded look on his eyes. "I can't... I can't feel my cheeks." He looked over at Damon. "What are we drinking?"

   "No idea," Damon said as he continued to stare at the menu. "Can you read German?"

   "That's Dutch," I corrected him with a roll of my eyes.

   He frowned in confusion and looked up, at nothing exactly. "Wait. Where are we?"

   "Amsterdam," Bonnie piped up with exasperation, not looking up as she continued to write in the diary.

   "Are you that drunk?" I asked. "Have you even drank anything other than alcohol since we left Mystic Falls?"

   He lifted the bottle of water that Bonnie had slammed in front of him before they even began drinking. The bottle was not even open. I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair, continuing to stare at him. 

   As the nights passed, Damon sneaked into my bed. It wasn't sex, but for the comfort of being beside someone else. At first, I had gotten annoyed with him and pushed him out of my room—and bed—by force. But he continued to sneak in, I got tired of it. So, we slept in the same bed, close, sometimes too close. There were times where I woke up with his arm over me, or with his head on my back when I slept on my stomach. Even though I had been uncomfortable, I stayed still to let him sleep.

   "Is that really necessary?"

   I blinked to see him half-glaring at Bonnie, who wrote on her journal.

   Bonnie grabbed some nuts from the bowl on the table and munched on them. "Elena told me to keep a journal of everything she's missing! When she wakes up in sixty-odd years and finds out that Ric died from alcohol poisoning, she's gonna want to know what happened."

   Damon's lips spread into a smirk. "Unless you tragically choke to death on those cocktail peanuts. Then, I can tell her myself."

   She cooed sarcastically. "Aw, so sweet." She stood to her feet and pushed her journal into the backpack she wore. "I'm gonna go rent a bike and see the city like a normal tourist."

   "In what part of this are we normal tourists?" I asked, pointing at the table. It was full of empty glasses, all of them once full of some alcoholic beverage. "Two vampires, one witch, and one ex-vampire. I'm pretty sure everyone at this table has died at least twice."

   "FYI, they don't wear helmets here," he sarcastically told her.

   Bonnie let out a scoff and rolled her eyes, but she still held amusement. "Keeps getting funnier," she said, walking away.

   "Hey! Ride in the tram-tracks, don't look both ways..."

   "Can you stop being childish?" I asked him, rolling my eyes.

   Instead of answering, he shrugged his shoulders and drank the pittance of beer that was left at the bottom of the stein. That was my answer.

   Alaric burped and shook his head at the same time a chuckle came from his mouth. "Are you sure you don't want to go with her?" He turned his head towards Damon as he tapped the glass of whatever he had drank against the table. He leaned back so casually, like he had done before everything happened.

   Damon gave him a look. "Nice try. I'm not leaving you, or Clara."

   "We don't need a babysitter," I said with a scoff. I continuously pointed at Alaric and I, but kept my eyes on him. "Out of the four people that came to this trip, we're part of the three that don't need a babysitter. You're not included, by the way."

   Alaric nodded and pointed at me with the hand that held the glass. "What she said. I don't need a babysitter."

   "This isn't about what you need, Ric," Damon said, half-rolling his eyes. "It's about what I need. Just keeping you from jumping off a cliff is keeping my mind off the fact that Elena's magical comma is linked to a Bennett witch that has a knack of avoiding permanent death."

   "And I'm here to prevent that Bennett witch from dying," I said with a sarcastic grin. "And him from killing her. And you from dying from alcohol poisoning."

   Alaric rolled his eyes. "So, my misery is merely a convenient distraction for you?"

   "Yup."

   Alaric looked at Damon for the longest time, then smiled. "I'm glad you're here, buddy."

   They drank down the menu, beginning at the top and continuing down everything that was alcoholic. I ordered them two grilled chicken sandwiches so that they wouldn't be full of just liquid, and so their hangover wouldn't be terrible once they stopped drinking. But, they haven't. Ever since we arrived in Portugal weeks ago, they hadn't really stopped. Especially Damon. For him, drinking was as necessary as breathing.

   Bonnie arrived about an hour later, holding on to a bottle of water and commenting about how we should all walk down the canals at night. The tourists she had ridden bike with said that they were beautiful at night, especially with the people and the lights. 

   My phone began to ring on the table, Stefan's name flashing back at me. I swallowed and pressed the button to the side, silencing it. If I were to be honest, I didn't know what was the exact definition of our relationship. Or whether what we were could even be called a relationship.

   As soon as the call ended, Damon's phone began to ring. He pulled it from his pocket and answered it, Stefan's name leaving his mouth. His brows furrowed as Stefan talked fast. He leaned back on his chair and raised his hands, almost by instinct. "Slow it down, brother. I can't understand what you and Donovan are saying."

   "We got two bodies here," I heard Matt say. "We think it could have been your mom."

   "What the hell happened?" Damon asked, glancing over at me with confusion on his face.

   "Listen, these bodies? They're not Lily's style. It's got to be the Heretics," Stefan joined.

   Damon's smile faltered for a moment. "Reception went a little fuzzy, brother. It sounds like you said Mom got her family of crazies back."

   I choked on the bubbly water I was drinking and blinked the tears back. "What?" I glanced over at Bonnie and Alaric, who both looked horrified. 

   Damon bit his lips together and then nodded. "Can I have some details?"

"One victim had bite wounds, and the other one was scorched beyond recognition," Matt said, clear disgust in his voice.

   "Matt found a house that's been in foreclosure for the last two years," Stefan said, "and it's power mysteriously turned back on just days after Ric's wedding, so Caroline's staking it out."

   I stared at the table with a hint of confusion. From the little I knew about Lily Salvatore and her family full of crazy vampires was that they were in that prison world for a reason—murder. They had murdered a large amount of people and the Gemini coven took notice of it, decided to take it upon themselves and punish them. If the Heretics were anything like Lily, or worse by the accounts of the bodies, they had to be taken care of. And no one took care of supernatural bad guys like the Save Elena Gang, if we could even be called that anymore.

   Stefan then asked Alaric how to build a bomb. Alaric took the phone backwards, proving that he was drunk. He rolled his eyes drunkenly and clapped Damon on his shoulder with his free hand. Whenever Stefan talked to him, he blew air from his mouth and moved his hand in a speaking motion. If he was drunk enough to do this, he was drunk enough to mess up in how to build a bomb. 

   "Alright," he breathed. "Well, I'm gonna have to call you back from a less populated place, and then I'm gonna blissfully pass out and pretend that this never happened." He ended the phone call and handed the phone back to Damon. He struggled getting up, and almost lost his balance when he tripped over a chair. He managed to avoid any injury, and laughed it off, swaying on his feet. "Whoa, okay!" he laughed to himself. He managed to get his things and stumble away. 

   "Lily won," Bonnie breathed with a frown. "As much as we did everything to stop her, she actually got her family back."

   "If Stefan says he's got it, he's got it," Damon said with a shrug of his shoulders.

   She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you really believe that, or is that just some excuse to continue your slow crawl towards rock-bottom?"

   Instead of answering, his jaw clenched. His eyes fell to the glass of alcohol in front of him, his jaw clenching more than before. I wondered if his teeth could break with the force. He reached for the glass and swallowed what was left, then reached for Alaric's drink. When he took a drink, he made a disgusted face. "Ugh, I've had some janky-ass bourbon in my time, but this is..." He made another disgusted look on his face and slid it across the table towards Bonnie.

   She took the glass and took a sip, then rolled her eyes. "It's not bourbon," she said with annoyance. "It's tea."

   "What?" I reached for the glass and took a sip. It was a strong and sweet taste, familiar. I nodded as I smacked my lips together from the taste. "Of course. None of us know Dutch or were paying much attention to it."

   "I thought you spoke every language known to man." Damon smiled at me, obvious sarcasm there.

   I resisted the urge to flip him off and just spread my lips in a tight smile. "Sorry that I wasn't paying attention to what you were ordering. I was making sure Alaric didn't drink himself to death, Bonnie wouldn't die, and you wouldn't do anything reckless!" I stood up and ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath. "Let's split up."

   "Like that works," Damon said in a nonchalant tone, throwing an arm over the empty chair beside him. "Out of every other time we've split up, you almost died."

   I scratched the corner of my eye as I laid my other hand on my waist. "You know, I really don't need a reminder of how many times I almost died because they're too many." I began to take steps back and nodded, controlling the anger that had suddenly built in me. "So, I'm going this way. You two go the other way. Call if you find him." I turned around and took a deep breath, continuing to walk away from them.

   I pushed my hands into my pockets and continued to walk. Walking around Amsterdam alone was some sort of blessing, silent but at the same time full of a kaleidoscope of languages all combined. There were tourists from all around, laughing and joining in with other tourists. There was laughter in every corner, a bit of drunken words slurred with their high counterparts. I stopped a few tourists and showed them a picture of Alaric on my phone, and asked whether they have seen him. They all said the same thing—no.

   In the end, I found him sitting on a bench by one of the canals. I took a deep breath and took a seat beside him, leaving my hands on my knees. "I just spent three hours looking for you," I softly said. "I'm not telling you so that you feel bad, but because I want you to know that I care that much about you." I turned my head towards him and gave him a small smile. "You're a great actor, by the way. Had all of us fooled."

   "Experience," he grimly said, keeping his eyes on the water. 

   I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back against the bench, crossing my arms and legs. "I don't understand your pain, so I won't say that I get it. But, I do know how it feels when the universe doesn't want you to be happy. Trust me, I'm an expert at that. But, Ric, you don't need to experience it alone. We're here for you—I'm here for you."

   A small huff of a smile fell from his lips as he looked up from the water. He glanced over at me and laid his hand over mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Thanks, Clara."

   I gave him a smile in return. "Hey, we're two people who just can't seem to get it right," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "And, I know the universe is conspiring against us at the moment, but... Something good is bound to happen sometime. And with you being human now, you'll get it sooner than later."

   "You should take your own advice," he chuckled, giving my hands another squeeze. "You know, I have an alcoholic friend who would like to go on a date with you."

   "Ha!" The sarcastic laugh left my lips without hesitance. I looked down at the water and shook my head, staring at the stillness of it. "I don't think Damon and I would work out."

   "Why?"

   I bit the corner of my lip and furrowed my brows. Why was such a strange question, one that I had thought about for too long but had never gotten a solid answer for. The answer always changed, to something I liked to something I didn't like. But, there was one thing about it that I was sure of. I took a deep breath and let my shoulders slump. "When I saw Damon, the first thing that went through my mind was: this boy is going to break my heart," I confessed, with a little smile forming on my lips. I swallowed hard and looked up at the sky. "I never cared how many times he broke my heart because I loved him. And maybe I still do, but... I'm not Elena. I don't want to be her replacement for the next sixty years, and then be dropped like nothing once she wakes up. It already happened several times, and I don't want it to happen again."

   "Who says you have to be Elena's replacement?" Alaric asked.

   "Well, first of all, every action he's ever done," I said with sarcastic intent. But, we both knew it was the truth.

   Alaric opened his mouth to say something, but words fell short as he kept his stare on something behind me. I followed his eyes to see Damon standing a few feet behind us, Bonnie beside him. His lips were set into a tight smile that was barely there, his fingers inside the pockets of his jeans. I looked away from him and kept my stare on the water, clenching my jaw so that I would keep my mouth shut. My mouth was ready to open and apologise, for everything he had heard and for hurting me. But, he didn't deserve my apology.

   "We're going back," Bonnie said, taking a step forward. "We're going back home. They need us over there with the whole Heretics thing..." She glanced from Damon towards me and made a face, her eyes widening for a moment. It was pure discomfort and confusion, but more discomfort. She cleared her throat. "We leave in two hours..."

   "Great." Alaric stood and laid patted my shoulder. "I already saw the city, so I'm going to head to the hotel and start packing." He smiled and walked away. 

   "Me too!" Bonnie quickly joined. "I have too many things to pack. I also need to talk to you about how you had us fooled for all these weeks." She walked by Alaric, smiling widely. When she was a few feet away, she looked back at me and gave me a small smile. I didn't know what that smile meant, whether it was of reassurance or something else. 

   I stood from the bench and crossed my arms, avoiding Damon's stare. "I'm going to go too," I said, beginning to walk away. As I passed him, he grabbed my arm. I stopped and avoided turning to him, kept my eyes to the front.

   "You and Elena are not alike," he said, his breath touching my cheek. He stunk of all the alcohol he had drunk, and a hint of peppermint. "So, amuse me: why do you think you're her replacement?"

   I swallowed and took the courage to turn to him. As soon as my green eyes met his blue ones, I froze. It was one thing I hated about him, the way his eyes captivated me and made me forget what I was going to say. I composed myself and looked away. "Aren't I always?" It came out of nowhere, the distaste and the hate and those three words. Maybe it was what I was truly feeling, what I had felt for some time. 

   His hand fell to his side as he took a step back from me, brows furrowed. "You think I would do that to you?"

   "Well, you did cheat on me, so how would this be any different?" The words flowed from my mouth, the anger a great companion to them. They flowed from my mouth, as if the small amount of alcohol I had drank was more.

   "Katherine—"

   "—Compelled you, I know!" I finished for him. "But, you told me yourself, that it was only once. She compelled you once, and the other times were willing."

   He stayed quiet and turned to look at the canals. His mouth opened and closed, as if the words had failed him. He laid his hands on his waist and leaned on his right foot, turning to look back at me. "I'm exceptionally great at two things," he said. "Being extremely handsome is one of them. The other is lying." He took one last look at me and then walked away, his shoulder bumping against mine. 

   "Damon, what are—" When I turned around, he was nowhere in sight. Tourists and locals walked about, and I thought he could be walking between them. I hurried to the large throng of them and looked around, but to no avail. A groan escaped my mouth as I dragged a hand through my hair, annoyance eating at me. I wanted to know what he meant about lying. Sure, he was a grand liar, but what did that have to do with what we were talking about?

   He was already packing when I returned to the hotel room. I opened my mouth to say something, but decided against it. Instead, I packed and moved quietly. Even the twelve-hour plane ride back to Virginia was quiet, except for Bonnie and Alaric. Even though I spoke with them, laughed with them, and shared what was on my computer with them, I couldn't help but steal glances over at Damon. He was either reading a magazine, speaking quietly with Alaric, or asleep with his headphones in his ears. 

   The car ride back to Mystic Falls was an hour-long. That hour was full of silence as well, with Damon driving, me in the passengers side, and the only two humans asleep in the back. Again, I stole a look towards Damon.

   "What did you mean by lying?" I broke the silence between us, the one that was so uncomfortable that it almost made me want to vomit. 

   His fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he took a deep breath and slightly pursed his lips. He shrugged his shoulders as a response.

   "Damon, please." I bit my bottom lip and waited for an answer, raked my head for an answer. And that's when I sort of realised what he meant. My eyes widened as I looked back at him. "Did she or didn't she compel you those times?"

   He looked over at me, blue eyes bright. "I was going to marry you, Clara. You think I would deliberately cheat on you?"

   I opened my mouth to say something, but the words failed me. I didn't know what to say, or what to do, so I closed my mouth and shrunk back into my seat. Instead of looking back at him, I kept my eyes out the window. There were too many cars driving out of Mystic Falls, a grand majority of them full with whatever belonging the families could fill inside. As we passed the welcoming sign, police officers were preparing to block the entrance. Their faces were solemn, as if they hadn't slept for a while.

   Damon dropped off Alaric back at his apartment, and Bonnie got off then because she wanted to see what was happening. I stuck with Damon, deciding that it would be the best thing to do considering that his mother was somewhere around town.

   In the three months I was stuck in the cellar, she had tried—this word could be very vague in her since she just stood there and stared at me—to get my humanity back. She would ask me several questions about the past, about Damon and Stefan. Since I had no humanity, I never answered. I had only stared at her as she spoke of her past, of how she never wanted to marry Guiseppe, or have Damon. It was the only part of all our conversations that I truly remembered. After my humanity returned, it was one of the many reasons why I disliked Lily Salvatore.

   I was too deep in thought to notice that Damon had parked further away from the boarding house. When I opened my mouth to ask him why, he put his fingers to his lips to silence me then pointed to his ear. A sign to listen. With a huff, I did as he said. From inside the boarding house, I heard unrecognisable voices. They didn't belong to Caroline, or Stefan, or Matt, or even someone from the town. 

   "Who the hell is living in our house?" Damon asked as he drove away. He was headed straight downtown, speeding like he always did. This time, the speed didn't bother me.

   "Lily's infamous family, probably," I said with distaste. "Who else could it be?" 

   The town was empty, except the few people that were boarding up store windows or still packing whatever they could into their cars. They were in some form of hurry, anxious to get out but at the same time they didn't want to leave. Of course they didn't. This was their home, the only one a grand majority of them had known for their whole lives. 

   The silence of the town square reminded me a lot the Other Side, those few days I had spent entirely invisible to everyone except Bonnie Bennett. And even then, I refused to bother her because I was on my search for vengeance towards Helen Otto. But, back then the town had no scent. Now, it smelt of burnt skin and old blood. 

   I stopped and picked up a newspaper from the ground. "Mining fires force evacuation," I read out loud, then dropped the paper back on the ground. Besides the paper were several flyers. "Mystic Falls mandatory evacuation, underground mining fire."

   "That's an obvious lie," Damon said as he made a face.

   "Is this for Lily and her goddamn family?" I asked, with pure disgust. "What the hell happened while we were gone?" 

   Damon raised a finger and pulled out his phone. After several rings, Stefan answered. "How's Europe?"

   "Ric was kind of 'eh' on the Mona Lisa," Damon answered with a shrug of his shoulders, beginning to walk. He was making way towards the Mystic Grill, which was boarded up as if a hurricane was coming. "Anything I should know about?"

   "It can wait until you get back."

   I opened the door to the Grill and walked in. Stefan turned, beer in hand while his phone was in the other. I gave him a smile. "We're here now," I said, a bit of sarcasm in my tone as I crossed my arms. "Want to tell us what the hell happened and who the hell is living in our house?"

   Stefan sighed and took a few steps forward, leaning against one of the bannisters. "Mother's Heretics are back," he began, "Their magic keeps them protected. They're faster and stronger than us, and they're willing to tear our town apart for their own entertainment." He smacked his lips together and shrugged his shoulders. "I negotiated something with Lily: we get time to clear all of the residents out, and in return, anyone who trespasses is fair game for the Heretics."

   I blinked and let out a scoff. "So, what, we just give up the town to your mother's crazy family?" I glanced between Damon and Stefan, wide-eyed and with a bit of adrenaline running through me.

   "The whole town would have been slaughtered," Stefan explained.

   Damon pulled a bottle of liquor from one of the boxes and took a large swig from it. "So we kill them and call it a day!"

   "We already tried that." Stefan turned and walked back towards the bar, continuing to pack.

   "You sent Matt to blow up a house," I said. "Matt Donovan. He's reliable at times, but not when it comes to vampires."

   Damon nodded. "Try harder."

   "Look." Stefan turned towards us. "The deal has been made. We don't mess with them, they don't mess with us."

   I rubbed my temples and leaned against my left foot, trying to comprehend what was happening. "So, you're telling me we're just giving up our home and our hometown to your mother's crazy family?" I opened and closed my mouth several times, the words a jumble in my head. The idea of leaving Mystic Falls because of another supernatural threat made my chest ache. The four months I had spent in that apartment by Whitmore College were terrible, considering that I couldn't go home, and that the Salvatore brothers had disappeared.

   Stefan sighed. "What's done is done."

   "It can't be!"

   Damon took a stand next to me, his hand on my shoulder. "Forgive her. She's been moody lately."

   "It was the only way for a peaceful resolution, Clara." Stefan grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He kept his hold there for a couple of seconds, staring down at out hands. His thumb rubbed up and down, just like he had done before. After a couple of moments, he sighed and pulled away. "I was able to pack a few things before they moved in. Clara, there's a few bags back at Caroline's place. Damon, do me a favour—box that bottle up on your way out." He turned and walked out of the Grill.

   Damon sighed and took yet another swig from the bottle. "Of course," he breathed, keeping his eyes down on the bottle. "Stefan the Saint is back yet again. What happened between you two?"

   "What do you think happened?" I glanced over at him. "You, Damon. You happened." Before he could say anything, I hurried out of the Grill. 

   Rain fell from the sky, the small bit of sound in the quiet town. I didn't mind it as I crossed the streets, but embraced it. For a moment, I even stopped and let it fall over me. I closed my eyes and breathed in, wanting to forget every emotion that cursed through my being. Each and every emotion, flowing away, almost like turning off my humanity. And for another moment, I almost considered it. 

    I opened my eyes once the thoughts raced through my mind. There was a part of me, a grand part of me, that wanted to turn off my humanity. There wasn't a specific reason why, but just because I wanted to forget every single emotion that I felt. The confusion of not knowing who to love, of now knowing where I belonged, of sacrificing every single ounce of happiness for everyone around me.

   "Enjoying a shower, aren't we?"

   I turned towards the voice and sighed. "Enzo, I haven't seen you since..." My words failed. It was as if I couldn't even bring myself to speak about the wedding. Instead, I forced a smile as I watched him walk closer to me. "Do you have like a GPS tracker on me? The whole stalker thing isn't as charming as you think it is."

   He let out a chuckle and closed the distance between us, taking a stance right in front of me. "Last I heard, you were in Europe."

   "Needed a break from everything. You know, the whole psychotic witch-vampire hybrid thing that happened, and is now happening." I spread my lips into a small smile and pointed at him. "I never got to thank you, for getting me out of that barn."

   Enzo stared at me for a couple of moments, a small frown on his face. It left fast, replaced by a small smirk. "Which you ran back into, I recall. But, that's your speciality, ain't it? Helping others, taking faults that aren't yours..."

   "Who are you helping today?" I decided to change the topic of conversation. "Is it us or Lily?"

   He arched a brow and tilted his head to the side. 

   "Oh, don't play, Enzo. One day you're helping us, and then the next your back with Lily. It's hard not knowing which side your in, so why don't you just pick one?"

   He chuckled and nodded, a look of amusement appearing on his face. "You know, I've been thinking that if I want people to trust me, then I've got to earn it." He sped towards me and stabbed a needle into my neck. 

   I tried to breathe, but what came out where choked breaths. It was vervain, quickly moving through my system and shutting everything down. I began to fall to my knees, but Enzo put an arm on my back and held me from completely hitting the ground. My vision was blurry as I looked up at him, but I could still see a small smile on his lips.

   "I reckon it goes without saying I chose Lily."