The Cousin

The next morning I woke up alone. I frowned hoping that Damon would’ve stayed the whole night. Sighing I get up and get ready for school. I jog downstairs seeing Jenna packing her bag for school as well. I smile a good morning to her and open the door for the dogs to go outside.
“Jeremy’s got his sketch pad out,” Elena smiled as she reached the bottom of the steps.
“You’re kidding,” Jenna smiled back.
“Nope, but don’t say a word. The minute we encourage him he’ll put it away.”
“Psychology major. Check that.” She picked up her bag. “And you and Stefan? Update?”
Elena set her phone down, “He knows how I feel and where I stand. And I know where he stands but it doesn’t matter. He’s leaving, moving away.”
“Where’s he going?”
Elena opened the door and Jenna and I followed her out, “I’ve stopped asking questions. The answers get scary.”
Jenna sighs as we walk out into the morning sun, “Oh. Yours leaves, mine returns.”
“Logan?” questions Elena.
“He’s back,” Jenna sighs again.
“Ugh,” Elena and I groan.
“I didn’t let him pass the front door.”
“I hope you slammed it in his face,” grumbles Elena.
“Ah, medium slam.”
“Three-strike rule, Jenna. You’re not even allowed to watch the news.”
“Exactly. No more Logan ‘Scum’ Fell.” Smiles Jenna.
I giggle as we part was to the two separate schools.
“So, how did last night go? I see you’re still alive. Is Damon?”
I nodded, “He’s alive.”
“You okay?” she asked placing a hand on my shoulder. I nod. “What did he say to you? Anything?”
“He—We understand each other more now.”
“Selene,” she whispered, I looked over at her. “You need to stay away from him, okay?” I frown but nod. “He’s dangerous, Selene. He’ll hurt you.” I nod again as we reach the school and meet up with Bonnie.
“Hey, Bonnie, how are you?” asks Elena. She shrugs as we walk into the school. “Did I miss something?” Elena questions looking down at Matt and Caroline as the chat playfully in the hallway.
“They’ve been hanging out,” shrugs Bonnie.
“Kind of weird, don’t you think?”
“She needs someone nice like him. As opposed to a homicidal vampire like Damon.” I frown casing my eyes down to my feet.
“Yeah, how are you doing with all that?” asked Elena.
“You know, I’m freaked out. Damon attacked me. I could be dead right now. But I’m also grateful.”
“Hmm?”
“To Stefan. He saved my life.”
“Mm,” mumbles Elena as she pulls the scarf from around her neck and opens her locker.
“Have you seen him?”
“Not since he told me he was leaving, for all I know, he’s already gone,” she sighs.
“He wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.” Bonnie says shaking her head.
“Yes, he would. He thinks he’s protecting me. Clean break and all that,” she grumbles closing her locker.
“So, what are you gonna do?”
“What am I supposed to do? I already begged him not to go. If I ask again, I’m being selfish. It is what it is,” she sighs.
“Oh. Maybe it’s for the best.”
“What? Why?”
“I mean,” Bonnie says quickly, “what kind of future could you have had with him, even if he stayed?”
Just the a banner a few of the students were hanging up fell in front of Elena, Bonnie, and I. Elena read the banner and frowned.
“Did you just--?”
“No, I swear,” Bonnie said quickly.
Elena flicks up the banner and walks under it. “Ah. God.”
Bonnie and I frown, but follow after her to our first class.
******
After school I walk out of the doors, listening as Caroline tells me about her and Matt hanging out.
“And then he made me watch Family Guy,” she shuttered. “Ugh. What a horrible show.”
I giggled, “I like that show.”
“Ew!” she squeals. I giggled again.
“Hello, ladies,” came a familiar voice.
I turned around and smiled at Damon. “What do you want?” snapped Caroline.
“I want you to do something for me,” he smiles.
“And why should I?” she asks folding her arms over her chest.
Damon glares at her, “You will do this for me.” I frown realizing he’s compelling her.
Caroline smiles, “Sure. What is it?”
He smiles, “Take this and follow it to where ever it points to.”
“M’kay,” smiles Caroline and then Damon disappears. Caroline’s phone rings and she answers it, “Hello?”
“Follow it,” Damon says through the phone.
Caroline looks down at the spinning compass and begins to follow it. I quickly jog after her as she walks further away from the school. We finally stop and Caroline stands, annoyed, in the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse.
“So, what do I do now?” she asks.
“Just wait. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Can you hurry. I have things to do.”
“You can give me that,” Damon says behind us.
Caroline and I both jump turning to face him. Caroline puts her phone away and hands him the compass. “So why did you need us to do this?”
“Because I interfere with the signal,” Damon grumbles looking at the building.
“Well, can I go now? This has boned like half of my day.” Caroline says folding her arms over her chest.
Damon turns to her, “Yes do that.” He begins to compel her, “Get in your car. Go home. Forget I asked you to do this.”
She smiles, “Okay. Bye, now.” And she walks off.
I turn to Damon, “What’s going on?”
“There’s another vampire in town,” he sighs. He then turns to look at me, “Go back to school. You’ll be safe with Elena right now, since Stefan’s playing stalker.” I shake my head. “Selene. Go.”
“Nope. I wanna help.”
Damon rolls his eyes, “You can’t help. You won’t be able to defend yourself and I don’t know how many vampires are in there.”
I shake my head pulling a stake out of my bag. Damon chuckles shaking his head. “You don’t know how to stake a vampire, Selene.”
“I could practice,” I say holding it up above his heart.
He sighs, “Fine, you can come. Just stay hidden and don’t make any noise.” He frowns at me, “Are you sure you won’t go back to school?” I shake my head. “Thought sow,” he grumbles walking up the steps. He turns to me again. “Once inside, hide. If something goes wrong, stay hidden until it’s safe to run. Don’t worry about me either.” I nod slowly. He kisses my forehead. “Good, Princess.” Damon then opens the door and I rush inside. He walks past me motioning for me to stay there. I hid between the shelves and watch him. He turns to look down the aisle and gets shot I jump watching him get hit multiple times before he falls to his knees in pain. Tears form in my eyes.
“I have tons of these wooden bullets, so nothing funky,” Logan Fell said as he walks out from between the shelves waving a gun.
“You don’t wanna do this,” grunts Damon, “trust me.” Logan shoots him again. “Ow!” shouts Damon.
“That’s what you get,” mocks Logan.
“For what?” growls Damon.
“You made me like this,” Logan said kneeling down in front of Damon.
“I killed you, but I didn’t turn you,” he pants pulling bullets out.
“See, I know what you and your brother are. I’ve been watching you. I knew you’d show up here. And I’m glad you did because I have some questions.”
“Me first,” huffs Damon. “Who turned you?”
“How should I know?” shouts Logan. “Lost thing, I remember is I’m about to stake your brother and then you grabbed me. That’s it. Until I wake up in the ground behind a used-car dealership on Highway 4. Somebody buried me.”
“It happens,” Damon pulls another bullet out, “Ow.”
“You bit me. It had to be you.”
“Damn it,” he grunts pulling out another. “You have to have vampire blood in your system when you die. I didn’t do that. Some other vampire found you, gave you their blood.” Damon falls backs against the ground onto his back.
“Who?” questions Logan.
“That’s what I wanna know,” Damon snaps propping himself up on his elbows.
“Dude,” Logan says standing up, “it’s not like the welcome wagon was waiting with a Bundt cake and hand book. It’s been a learn-as-you-go process. You know, one minute, I’m a small-town, on-the-rise news guy and the next thing I know, I can’t get into my house. Because my foot won’t go through the door.”
“You have to be invited in,” groans Damon.
“I know. I live alone.”
“Oh,” chuckles Damon, “that sucks.”
“So now, I’m at the Ramada watching pay-per-view all day, eating everything in sight, including housekeeping.”
“It could be worse,” shrugs Damon.
“All I can think about is blood. And killing people. I can’t stop killing people. I keep killing. And I like it. I’m conflicted.”
Damon groans, “Welcome to the club. Wait. Cops only found once body.”
“I left one. I was tired. But I’ve been hiding the rest of the bodies. They’re right back there.”
“You’re kidding,” whispers Damon.
“They’re just piling up. Because I can’t stop,” Logan begins to pace. He then sits down, twirling the gun. “Why am I so overly emotional? All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend. I wanna be with her and bite her and stuff.” Aunt Jenna, I thought.
“Well, you probably lover her. Anything you felt before will be magnified now. You’re gonna have to learn how to control that.”
“What about walking in the sun? I’m a morning person. You can walk in the sun. Which, by the way, is pretty cool. The council would never suspect you.” I watch Damon’s hand close, shielding his ring from Logan’s eyes. “That’s not in the journals.”
“The journals?”
“Yeah. The Founding Fathers, they passed down journals to their kids. Come on, man,” groans Logan. “You gotta tell me. How can you walk around in the sun?”
“Who turned you?” Damon shot back.
“How do you walk in the sun?” growls Logan.
“Who turned you?” Damon hissed.
Logan stands up, angry. “You know, I’ve been really nice so far. But I will kill you.” He points the gun at Damon.
“Then you’ll never know,” Damon growls and then stands up. “You’re not answering my question.”
“You first,” snaps Logan.
“Seems we’re at a bit of an impasse then, don’t it?”
“I have things to do, people to kill. Guess I’ll be needing a little head start.” Logan then shoots Damon again. Sending Damon falling to the floor. Logan walks closer and closer towards me and the door. I slowly start to back away, walking towards the other end of the aisle. Until I trip backwards over something sending a loud crash throughout the room. I see Logan stop and start towards me. I quickly get up and run. Bet he appeared in front of me I take my stake and stab it into his side and turn to run but he grabs my shoulder and sends me flying back into the wall.
“You know her?” yells Logan.
“No,” hisses Damon as he stares at me. I shakily stand up. My head throbbing from the impact.
“Oh, then I guess I can kill her then,” Logan says as he appears behind me and grabs my hair.
“No! Stop!” Damon shouts just before Logan bites me. “Let her go.”
Logan chuckles, “So, you do know her.”
“Just let her go. She’s not involved in this.”
“The hell she’s not! She tried to stake me,” Logan growls throwing the piece of wood across the room.
“You tried to stake my brother, we’re even,” Damon growls back.
“You know what. I’ll just keep her.” He yanks my hair back. “You’re a niece of Jenna’s aren’t you?” I nod. “Promise not to scream?” I nod again. “Say it--!”
“She can’t talk,” hissed Damon.
Logan smiles, “Perfect.” He then puts a few more bullets in Damon and starts to walk away. I look to Damon who stares angrily at me. ‘I’m sorry,’ I mouth to him as Logan drags me out into the night.
******
“You are going to be good,” he hissed in my ear as we walked up to the school. “No trying to escape and no drawing attention. Got it?” I nod, tears in my eyes. “Good.”
We walk inside and he holds onto my shoulder as we make our way around. I saw Aunt Jenna spot us. She glared at Logan and quickly walked off into another room. I watched biting my lip. Then Stefan came out and I sighed in relief. Logan smiled and waved to Stefan, as Stefan glared. Logan held my shoulder tighter and pulled me over towards Stefan.
Elena came out of the room with Jenna. “Stefan, what’s going on?”
“Jenna, are you dodging me?” Logan questions.
“It’s a form of self-preservation,” she spat.
“Um, Elena, why don’t you, Jenna, and Selene go somewhere else,” Stefan said to her.
“Let’s go,” Elena said grabbing Jenna’s arm and then tried to grab mine but Logan pulled me away.
“I think Selene would like to stay here and learn more about journalism, wouldn’t you, sweetie,” Logan smiled closing his hand harder around my shoulder. I nodded slowly.
Elena looked to Stefan and he nodded for her to take Jenna and go. Elena grabbed Jenna and towed her away.
“What are you doing here?” Stefan asked once they were out of hearing range.
“You know, your brother asked me the same thing. In fact, why don’t we just skip past all the ‘Who turned you’ stuff and get the answer that I want. How can I turn into a day-walker?”
“Damon and I are the only two that I know of.”
“But you’re both very cagey on the how. Which tells me there is a way. I do have a little girl here who I know ill not scream. I could kill her with in a millisecond. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m quite the celebrity in this town. It would be very, very easy for me to expose you.”
“You wanna know how you can walk around in the sun?” questions Stefan.
“I do.”
“You can’t. Don’t ever threaten me or the people I care about, again.” Stefan quickly grabs me and pulls me from Logan’s grasp. Stefan then pulled me away from Logan and down the hallway. Stefan pulls me outside, “Are you okay?” I nod with tears in my eyes. Stefan’s phone rings. “Hello?”
“Logan Fell is a vampire,” I hear Damon say on the other end. “And he as Selene. And when I find him again, I am gonna destroy him, limb by limb.”
“I have Selene,” Stefan said quickly. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“Thank God. And no, I’m not okay. I was ambushed. I was shot. He took Selene. Now I’m vengeful. Just gotta find him.”
“Well, there’s no need. He’s here at the school.”
“You’re kidding me. Why the hell is he there?”
“He’s working the crowd. Tried to use Selene to get information.”
“Well, I’ll be right there.”
I smile and turn to see Elena. “So? Anything you’d like to share?”
“I’m gonna go inside and find Jenna,” I whisper.
Elena and Stefan nod and I quickly make my way back to the door. I hear something rustle in the bushes. I frown looking back at Elena and Stefan as Stefan tells her about what’s going on. I hear it again. I turn back around and see Logan.
“Gotcha!” he chuckles before grabbing me and running back around the school at vampire speed. He shoves me into the back seat of his car. “Stay or I’ll kill you.” I nod as he slams the door shut and climbs up front. He turns holding out his hand. “Phone, please.” I hand him my phone and he throws it out the window. “Oh, look. It’s your friend Caroline Forbes. She is your friend right?” I nod. “Well lets go see if she need a ride him, shall we?” Logan drives the car forward to distress looking Caroline. She hangs up her phone as we reached her. “Hey, damsel in distress, need a right?”
“Oh, my God. Logan Fell, channel 9, is that you?” Caroline says in fake enthusiasm.
“I use to babysit you, Caroline Forbes. Don’t mock me.”
“Well, I was supposed to go home with Bonnie but I can’t find her,” frowns Caroline.
“It’s not a problem, really. It’s on my way.”
“Okay,” she sighs walking over to the passenger side. “You know, this is fate,” she smiles after she closes the door.
“And why is that?” smirks Logan.
“Because I’m interested in broadcast journalism. So can I ask you a couple of questions?”
“Anything you want. But first, buckle up.”
“Okay,” she whispers and turns around to get her seat belt.
Logan grabs the back of her head and slams it into the window, leaving a blood print and making her go unconscious. I gasp and sit forward touching her neck for a pulse.
“She’s not dead,” Logan snaps pushing me back into my seat. “Sit there and be good. I have a few calls to make.” Logan pulls out his phone.
“Where are you?” asks a female voice.
“Your daughter has expressed an interest in journalism. I think it’s important to foster young minds,” mocks Logan.
“What do you want?” asks the sheriff.
“The satisfaction of turning your daughter into a vampire,” smiles Logan as he comes to a stop at a stop sign.
I hear metal bending and watch as Logan is pulled out of the SUV. I sit up and look out to see Stefan. I hear gun shots and Damon comes into view. I open the back door and Stefan looks at me surprised.
“Paybacks a bitch, isn’t it?” Damon smirks at Logan.
“Selene, what are you doing here?” questions Stefan.
“Logan grabbed me before I made it in the school again.”
Damon turned, “Get Caroline out of here. Selene, stay in the car. I’ll take you home.”
I nod and shut the door again watching through the window. Stefan nods and grabs Caroline and then takes off.
“Logan, what happened? Logan?” The sheriff cried into the phone.
Damon picks it up, “Sheriff, it’s Damon.”
“Where’s Caroline?”
“She’s okay. Uh, I’m on Elm Street.” Damon then hangs up the phone and looks at me. “Stay here. Got it?” I nod as he goes around the car and opens up the trunk and grabs a tire iron out from the back. “I’m gonna try this one more time,” Damon says turning to Logan and takes a practice swing. “Who turned you?”
“I told you, I don’t know,” grunts Logan.
“This tire iron could take your head clean off. Is that your final answer?” he prepares to swing.
“How can you side with them?”
“I don’t side with anyone. You pissed me off, I want you dead. Who turned you?”
“I don’t know!” Logan shouts.
“Oh, well, then you’re screwed.” Damon brings the tire iron back to swing.
“No! No! Wait! I do know!” Logan cries.
“You’re lying.”
“You think you’re the only one who wants to get in that tomb underneath the old church?”
“If you are lying to me I will end you.” Damon threatens. I frown.
“I am not lying. There’s another way to break the spell. We will help you.” Sirens can be heard as they race towards us. “Meet me at the old church.”
“Take me down. Make it look real. Make it look real.” Damon growls at him. Damon swings the tire iron and Logan dodges it. Logan then shoves Damon back into the car and takes off. I hope out of the car as the sheriff runs towards us.
“Where is she?” questions the Sheriff.
“She’s okay,” Damon pants touching my arm. “My brother is taking her come. I’m sorry, Sheriff.” Damon grunts as I help him back up. “I just wasn’t strong enough.” He grips his right arms as he bends over slightly.
The sheriff cursed and then looked at me, “Get her home. We’ll get thing sorted out here.”
Damon nods taking my arm and pulled me down the road. When we’re far enough away he picks me up and takes me to the Boarding house.
“Are you okay?” he asks quietly as I sat down on the stone railing. I nod staring at the ground. “You could have been killed tonight, Selene. You know that right?” I nod again. Damon lifts my chin up. “Don’t ever try anything like this again, okay? Promise me.”
I looked into Damon’s beautiful grey-blue eyes and smiled, “I promise.”
Damon smiled and then kissed my forehead. “Elena and Stefan will be here soon. I’m gonna go back and talk with the Sheriff, all right?”
I nod, “Thank you, Damon.”
He smirked, “No problem, Princess.” And at that he took off.
I sat alone for a few moments and then Elena’s car pulled up. They sat there for a moment and then Stefan got out. I stood up.
“No,” Elena said as she slammed her door shut. “You don’t get to make that decision for me. If you walk away, it’s for you. Because I know what I want. Stefan, I love you.”
Stefan turned around and quickly walked over to Elena and kissed her. I blushed feeling as if I was intruding. They finally pulled away and Stefan took Elena’s hand and pulled her towards the house. Stefan tossed me something as he pulled blushing Elena into the house. I caught it and realized it was the keys to her car and my phone. Smiling, I walked over and climbed in the car and headed home.
******
A few hours later I woke up to Elena sobbing into the phone, asking me to come pick her up. I agree and quickly pull on a pair of ripped skinny jeans and drove out to get her. On my way to the Boarding house I see her walking on the side of the road. I pull over next to her.
“Let me drive,” she whispers tears falling down her face. I silently clime bovver to the passenger seat.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” I whisper as we sped down the road.
She gasps and slams on the breaks. I only get a glimpse of a man standing in the road before the car hits him. Elena turns the steering wheel, sending us in a barrel roll down the road. I hit my head against the car and fall unconscious.