This Is What I Want

A bang on the door jolted Damon from a dead sleep.

“What the hell?” he mumbled sleepily and mussed his bedhead as he made his way toward the door.
Before he could get it open, it flew open and Katherine stood on his doorstep. She looked nonchalant, her normal picture, but Damon could sense a small bit of fear underneath her exterior.

She sauntered in.

“Hello, Damon. Surprised to see me?”

“Well, yeah. What are you even doing here?”

“Oh, Stefan! How lovely to see you again!” she called as Stefan appeared around the corner.

“What do you want, Katherine?”

“Ooh, Stefan getting all icy on me,” she taunted. She flipped her curls and sauntered further into the
room.

“I can practically taste the tension coming off of you, Katherine. What do you want?” Damon asked.
Katherine gave up the façade and allowed the fear to show on her face.

“Klaus is back in town and searching for me.”

Silence met her statement.

“And what are we supposed to do about that?” Stefan asked, patience thin.

“Well, he’s going to go for my doppelganger in an effort to bring me out or to lure either of you out to get my whereabouts from you, I think,” she replied slowly. The Salvatore brothers tensed at her statement, each brother thinking of his girl. Damon cursed himself silently for being such an ass and driving Delaney from his protection. How could he have been so blinded by his own bias? The implications hit Damon hard as Katherine’s information hit him.

“What are we going to do?” Damon asked quietly. He sank into a chair, his hands running through his hair.

“We’re going to head to Elena’s, now. I need to know she’s okay and you need to see Delaney,”
Stefan responded. Damon leapt up. Both brothers grabbed their coats and headed for the door.

“Hey! What about me?” Katherine cried. Damon turned to face her.

“What about you? You’ve been running from Klaus for centuries, Katherine. Maybe it’s time to let him find you.”

Damon spun on his heel and followed Stefan out the door leaving a stricken Katherine in their wake.

----

“Answer the damn door!” Damon growled in frustration. He rang the doorbell three more times before an exasperated Elena came to the door.

“What the hell do you want, Damon?! Stop ringing that damn bell!”

He shoved his way past her and burst inside.

“Delaney! Delaney! Are you here?” he yelled. His voice was frantic with worry.

“What’s going on? Why does he sound so scared?” he heard Elena ask in the background.

“Katherine showed up at our door this morning. There’s a dangerous vampire in town, and she thinks that he’s going to go for you, her doppelganger, to try to force our hand into giving her up, not that we’re hiding her. We came straight here to protect you and Delaney from him.”

“Who is ‘him’?”

“His name is Klaus. He’s one of the remaining Original vampires.”

“Original?”

“I’ll fill you in later. Right now, we need to find Delaney. Is she here?”

Elena shook her head as Damon spun around.

“Well where is she? Why did you let her leave alone!” he was frazzled with fear.

“She went to the market. She should be back soon.”

Just as the words left Elena’s mouth, Delaney came in through the door, hands laden with bags.

“Hey, Elena? Could you grab some of these?”

Elena hurried over to help and whispered something in her ear.

----

I looked up to find Damon standing in the entryway, his eyes wide with fear. I could practically taste it coming off of him in waves.

“Damon? What’s wrong?” I dropped everything and ran into his arms. He pulled me close to him.

“What’s wrong? What’s happening? Is everyone alright?” My own panic began to rise as Damon’s
silence greeted each of my questions. “Someone please tell me what’s happening!”

“There’s a dangerous vampire in town looking for Katherine. She’s trying to hide but thinks that he’ll come here, for Elena, who happens to be Katherine’s doppelganger,” Damon began.

I pulled back slightly.

“Katherine? The girl you’ve told me about?”

He nodded.

“Why is she hiding here?”

“Mystic Falls was her home once, too. Maybe she felt safer here than anywhere else.”

“Why does she think this vampire is going to come here? What’s a doppelganger?” I asked. Questions swirled around in my mind as I tried to process what was happening. “What’s going to happen to us? What if he finds us? Is he going to kill us?”

The questions spilled out faster and faster as my fear grew.

“A doppelganger is a supernatural occurrence, nature’s way of balance, I guess. It’s someone who looks exactly like someone else. So Elena looks exactly like Katherine. Klaus, the vampire after Katherine, has been searching for her for centuries. She owes him a debt she has yet to repay, and he’s on the hunt to get his payment.

Nothing is going to happen to you, not if I can help it. If he finds you, he’ll have us to contend with.”

Damon stroked my hair as we all stood in silence.

“Well isn’t this a lovely picture?” a strange voice broke our silence. Damon immediately pushed me behind him, Stefan mimicking his actions with Elena. I peeked around Damon’s shoulder to see who was at the door.

“Klaus.”

Damon tried to be the picture of nonchalance, but I could feel the tension in his shoulders. I had never seen him so rattled before.

“What are you doing here?” Stefan asked.

“Well, as Damon so eloquently explained, I’m here for Katerina, although I see she isn’t here. I’ll settle for her doppelganger for now.”

I squeaked in fear which caused Klaus to turn his attention to me.

“And who is this pretty little plaything?”

His tone made my heart sink.

A growl escaped from Damon’s throat which elicited a chuckle from Klaus.

“Ah. I see. Damon’s new toy?”

Damon snarled.

“Oh? Something more? Well, we’ll just have to see what comes of this little situation then, won’t we?” Klaus smiled which sent chills down my spine.

I knew then and there that Klaus’s obsession over the doppelganger had been split. He now had two pawns to play with. I could see in his eyes that he knew the Salvatores would resist harder, struggle longer, and fight fiercer than any other vampires. The curl of his lips told me that he was excited by the challenge. Something told me he had something sinister planned for me. I moved closer to Damon.

“Well this has been a lovely chat, hasn’t it? Good bye, all. I’ll be in touch very soon.”

He wiggled his fingers and sauntered off into the daylight. The chills lingered on my skin. Damon turned to face me, but I was frozen in place. The way Klaus had looked at me…

I couldn’t finish the thought.