I woke up to the smell of french toast and I knew it had to be Stefan cooking. I had nightmares again but as usual I decided I'd rather not think about it too much.

We had breakfast in silence, and after putting the plates into the sink Stefan announced that he was going to go grocery shopping.

Only then I noticed that the last time he had returned without any groceries.

"Why didn't you get any last time?" I asked, eyebrows knitted together.

"I got caught up. I met an old friend." He smiled reassuringly.

I realised that his reassuring smile was probably faker than Elvis Presley's death.

I hummed in more or less honest agreement.

"If Damon comes back, tell him that we all need to talk," Stefan said.

"About?"

"Everything,"

"Of course. See ya," I walked into the bathroom, rolling my eyes so that he couldn't see.

After he left, Nia and I did the dishes. Well, I washed them and she dried them off and put them on the table.

"I want to go back."

"Technically, you can. I'm pretty sure that the ghost only has a thing for me. If not, we'll find out."

"How did we get pulled into this?"

I stopped in my movements and sighed. "If only I knew,"

"And you've never killed anyone? I mean, by accident, or somethin'?" She asked softly.

I was going to snap at her for even thinking that I could kill someone, but then I realised that she really didn't know much about my past. Which was mostly my fault, too. "If I did, I can't remember."

I handed her the last plate and she dried it off neatly before placing it on the table.

"I'm gonna go draw a bit," Nia said and walked out of the kitchen.

I stacked the dishes in the cupboard before following her into the living/ bed room.

"I'm going out. You'll be fine by yourself right? I gotta do some shopping."

Nia cocked an eyebrow. "I guess. Bring me a chocolate bar? I'm craving something sugary."

"No problem,"

/ / / / /

"Here." I threw the chocolate bar at Nia and it landed on the sketchpad in her lap.

"Thanks."

I dropped my plastic bag on my bed and looked around. "Is any of them back yet?"

"You mean Damon and Stefan?"

"No, I mean AC/DC." I rolled my eyes.

"Enough with the sarcasm. No, they're still out. What did you get?"

"Groceries. Stefan seems to be incapable of cooking something other than breakfast, for some reason. Maybe he's just lazy. So I decided to get some stuff for dinner tonight." It was eerie how effortlessly the lie slipped over my lips. I hid the plastic bag in my over night bag and threw it back under my bed. I think I would take the garlic and mix it into tonight's dinner. For protection.

"Good luck." She bit her lip slightly as she rubbed a part from her drawing.

"Oh and can I borrow your laptop again? Research purposes."

"I wonder why you even ask. You know I won't say no."

"It's polite. You should try it some time,"

Nia snorted and I went over to her bed to grab the laptop. But her pencil sketch captured my gaze, a dark figure hooded by flames was drawn more than professionally.

"Is that...."

"Yes." Her voice sounded unusually sharp and I decided to let it slip. Drawing was better than not talking and being in a constant state of shock. People and their coping skills.

I shook my head lightly before taking the laptop to do my research.

I had decided that I knew much too little about these Salvatore brothers while shopping for garlic and verbena.

I typed in Salvatore but got too many results. I knew I had to be more specific. I added a Damon and Stefan before their last name and tried again.

But I only found a news article about an annual ball held in some place you could barely call a town somewhere in Virginia. There was a list with people, maybe a guest list, and I saw both of their names in between those of others. Gilbert, Lockwood, Forbes. And another Salvatore, Guiseppe. A brother maybe? The article was interesting, but useless. It was from 1864, nearly a hundred and thirty years ago.

That was...strange. If this was actually them, that would mean that they were around a hundred and fifty years old, but there were no immortals.

But there are vampires, a little voice in the back of my head reminded me.

Damon a vampire? I guess he did have that mysterious aura but I thought they all had old money and lived in dark victorian mansions...
Whatever the hell was going on here, I was happy that I did my shopping sooner rather than later.

A memory flashed before my eyes and I stopped my movements. Stefan making his bed at super speed.

Jesus fucking christ.

I had to be hallucinating. There was no way Stefan could be a vampire. He was so sweet, he even hugged me while Damon always had to keep his distance. Damon, maybe, but Stefan?

"This whole situation is a mess." Nia bit the top of her pencil. If only you knew just how big of a mess.

"What can we do," I shrugged, my mind paralysed by the thought. It made sense, in a way. But, they couldn't be vampires....I mean, Nia and I were still alive, weren't we?

What the hell is going on here?

"If there was a way I could forget all of this, I would take it. Man, supernatural shit on earth? What if what we saw was just some kind of gas explosion or something?"

"You know we didn't see a gas explosion. I don't know if it was a ghost or whatever, but I know for sure it wasn't normal."

"But isn't this a little crazy? Two super hot brothers rescue us from a crazy ghost looking for revenge for god knows what and make us stay with them because of safety reasons or whatever. We barely know anything about them, have you noticed? They don't ever talk about their past. They could be your competition in hiding things from others, honestly."

"I guess." I knew it was useless trying to stop her from complaining so I let her ramble while my own thoughts were racing.

"Whatever. I guess there ain't no explanation for any of this, so whatever. Did you catch up on gossip while you were out?"

"Nah." But the memory of two men flashed before my eyes. "Actually, I overheard these two guys. Apparently there had been this weird...case in the neighbourhood of the University."

"Go on." Nia dropped her pencil and looked at me, giving me her undivided attention.

"But all were almost completely bloodless. Today morning, this girl was found in her dorms with a bite mark. She couldn't remember anything. The guys sounded like they knew her,"

They had also snickered something about her partying too hard some times, but now that I was able to connect the dots I didn't think that it had much to do with the consumption of alcohol.

That girl Damon had brought home had a bitemark and now that I thought about it it connected pretty well with that girl that was found in her dorm room without any memory and a lot of lost blood.

"You don't think it's our ghost, do you?"

I snapped our of my thoughts. "No way. I haven't even thought about that. But we know that he can't leave the Uni, remember?"

"Right! Stupid me." She shook her head at herself.

"You aren't stupid. Although you should probably pick up your studies again. It's been a while since you've attended classes,"

She looked scared and her big eyes widened even more. "I'll just get the notes from the cute flanel-shirt guy,"

"Finally an excuse to talk to him! Took you long enough."

"Oh, shut it!" She threw a pillow at me and it hit me in the face. With a laugh I threw it back at her.

It felt good to just talk about normal stuff like the young girls we were. But of course we didn't get very long and Damon ruined the normality of the moment by entering.

I rolled my eyes at him. There was no urgent reason but, I mean, it was Damon. But I couldn't help but look at him differently.

"Girls!" He greeted us with his signature smirk. His teeth were definitely not fangs or even slightly pointy. He had perfect teeth. "Fighting over me?"

"You wish!" I snorted. Of course, Nia blushed. Yay! She was back to normal.

"Please, my standards are way higher than that!" He scoffed before turning around and walking into the kitchen. I heard the bathroom door open and close and then the water started running.

"Damon?" I yelled as I remembered what Stefan had said earlier.

"What is it now?" He sounded genuinely annoyed.

"Stefan said to tell you that we need to talk."

"About what?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

He was quiet after that. I spent the time searching for more information on these animal attacks and noticed that there had been similar ones in the 1940s. Who knew that the University's archive had all newspapers digitalised?

I shut the computer after I decided that I had enough and picked up my book. I kept repeating to read the same line over and over again, still not grasping the concept. When a cloud of heat hit my face and I looked up in surprise.

Damn.

Of course Damon had been showering. He must shower with really hot water cause the room was filled with steam. And it was about to get even more steamy.

Cause standing in front of me was Damon Salvatore, naked except for the white towel wrapped around his waist. Weren't vampires supposed to have some kind of etheral beauty?

I don't know if it was the view or the hot steam but my vision suddenly became cloudy.

He really wasn't as muscular as his brother, at least his muscles weren't as obvious. That didn't mean that he didn't have them, of course. Cause he did. He had a very defined body but he looked more like a greek statue, his pale skin only outlining that. His wet hair fell into his face and his chest was still covered in little water droplets.

A quick glance to Nia told me that she wasn't as stunned as I was. But, how?!

He had a wild-cat kind of body. Lean but muscular. Like a leopard or a jaguar. And I guess that was a pretty good description of him. A predator, ready to strike any time.

"Like what you see?" His eyes glimmed with arrogance and amusement.

"Seen better," I replied, looking back at my book. Of course I couldn't focus, but you know what they say; fake it 'till you make it.

"I didn't take you for a liar, Perse,"

"I feel like we've already had this conversation,"

"What's wrong with having it again? Or is my body making you uncomfortable?" He took a step closer to me, and I had to crook my neck to be able to look into his eyes.

The sound of the door opening and a loud groan told us that Stefan was back. "Put on clothes, Damon. Please."

"The master has spoken." He winked at me before going to the drawer and taking out a shirt.

"That's my shirt."

"Shame. I like it,"

"Don't push it, Damon," Stefan warned.

I hadn't noticed that Damon had moved but he was standing right in front of Stefan in the blink of an eye. Maybe I had been too distracted by Stefan's eyes. They sparkled dangerously, the only thing that told me about his actual emotions.

"What are you gonna do?" He cocked an eyebrow at him, staring intensely into his eyes.

I coughed awkwardly. "I think we have more...pushing matters to discuss?"

"Indeed." But Stefan didn't break eye contact yet.

"Did you do any research? What does the ghost want with me?" I cocked an eyebrow at the two brothers as I waited for one of them to look at me.

"Well, he wants revenge." Stefan said and dropped down on Nia's bed. "Which suggests that you, or someone you are related to killed him,"

"And you're sure that there ain't no murderers in your family lineage?" Nia asked.

I rolled my eyes and sat down on the floor just in front of Nia's bed.

"It's a good question," Damon shrugged and sat next to me on the floor.

"I don't know about any murderers," I said truthfully.

"I did do some research," Stefan said. "I asked a friend for any unnatural deaths here in NYU,"

"And?"

"Nothing. No murders, anyway. But there was someone who died. Dave Edwards. The police said it was an accident. They said he must have fallen onto the fence. Which was made out of wood, back then,"

"So I was right!" I exclaimed. "He was a vampire!"

"We don't know that for sure, but it's not unlikely,"

"So, what? It was a vampire that got killed and now it's searching for redemption?"

"Well," Stefan looked at his brother, a light smile playing around his lips. "I did some more research and I found out that during Dave's time here at NYU, a so called Theodore Nox studied here as well. In a picture taken at a science competition they appear together which suggests that they were friends or at least acquaintanced,"

"So, Dave and Theodore become friends," Damon analysed. "Theo discovers Dave's little secret and decides that he's a danger to society and kills him. He makes it look like an accident, of course. Dave's soul never finds peace and, though he is bound to stay inside the University, he looks for his killer."

"But, technically," I spoke in a subtle attempt to test them. "Aren't vampires already dead? Doesn't that mean their soul is already gone? They're often described as soulless demons, right?"

"Vampires are dead, yes. But their soul is still caught in their body," Stefan explained. How couldn't possibly knows this if he wasn't a vampire, could he?

"I've never heard of any of this soul-leaves-body bullshit in all my life. How do we know it's the truth?" Damon questioned.

"We don't. But it's all we got." Stefan said.

"Right. So how do we stop it from haunting me?"

"You could leave NYU and never come back," Damon proposed his idea. I snorted.

"As if,"

"We could try kill it. Vampires are killed with a stick through their heart, so we could try the same for our little ghost."

So a stick worked? Interesting.

"We should all wear garlic as well," I suggested.

Now Damon looked amused and even Stefan's eyes were sparkling.

"What makes you think that garlic isn't a myth?"

"What makes you think a stick through the heart isn't?" I argued.

"It's all worth a shot," Stefan said. Aha, nice. He was pretty good at hiding it.

"So, what, are we just gonna walk up to him and thrust a stick through his heart, then sprinkle holy water on him and clean his body with garlic?" Nia asked.

Stefan opened his mouth to say something but I was quicker. "We aren't doing anything. Stefan and Damon are going to kill him. He's dangerous. He might possibly kill us,"

"It could kill us as well," Damon said, the twinkle of amusement in his eyes giving me a feeling that he was testing me.

"You wouldn't be here if you weren't overly confident in your skills in killing ghosts,"

"I thought it's a vampire?"

"You didn't know it was a vampire until I discovered it. That means you were in the delusion that this was a ghost. Which means you have probably no ability to kill the vampire-ghost whatsoever." As I spoke I realised it as well. They could get killed, but somehow I felt like they wouldn't. They were here for a reason, and they must have been sure that they could get rid of it as well. If they were vampires, they were nearly invincible, right?

"Who are you guys?" Nia asked the question I had promised myself not to ask.

I didn't want to know the answer. I just had a really bad feeling....

"This is not related to the topic," I said quickly.

"Don't you want to know as well?"

"No." I tried to sound confident.

"Well, I wanna know. Who the fuck are you?"

Stefan glanced at Damon who just rolled his eyes and sighed quietly before looking her in the eye.

"You don't want to know, honestly." He made and effort to sound casual but there was a certain edge to his voice.

"Yeah, whatever," She gave up. I looked at her in surprise. I thought she wanted to know? She could be really persistent when she wanted to know something. I would know.

"The heck was that?" I decided that if this was one of the vampire things, I wanted to know that at least.

"I can be pretty persuasive when I want to be," He smirked.

Stefan's hand was suddenly on his brother's shoulder and I could tell that he was squeezing rather tightly. But Damon didn't seem very affected.
"Out." Stefan's voice was strained as if he was trying to hold himself back. He nudged Damon towards the door, not letting go of his brother's shoulder.

Bipolar much?

"Stop!" I had a feeling that this wouldn't end well if I let them go out.

"Be quiet, Perse." Stefan's voice was warning.

"No." I took a few steps towards them without thinking much. They could possibly kill me, but if they'd wanted to they already would have.

"Stay here. I won't be long."

I noticed how he didn't say 'we'. I'm guessing that he wasn't going to let Damon return. But I was pretty sure that we would need him as well in killing the vampire-ghost. Two vampire are better than one.

"Relax. Look at yourself," I spoke, realising how tense he was. I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye.

"You don't want to be like this," I said quietly. He slowly let go of his brother.

Damon's hand rubbed over the spot where Stefan had held him. "You've grown stronger. You weren't....?"

"No," Stefan snapped.

"Quit acting like babys!" I groaned. "Be nice, okay? This brotherly hatred is making the whole situation a lot worse than it has to be,"

"True," Nia agreed. "If y'all would get over yourselves we could have a much better working climate,"

"We aren't gonna 'get over ourselves'," Stefan snapped.

"No need to be rude." I cocked an eyebrow at him. He was acting weird. I was used to Damon being like that, but not the nicer Salvatore.

"Why don't you take a walk?" I suggested. "Cool off a little?"

"She's kicking you out of your own house!" Damon said in disbelief.

"I'll kick you where the sun doesn't shine if you don't shut up," I shrugged.

"Not you too!" Nia laughed. "There seems to be too much testosterone in this room, so it sounds like a good idea that we continue this conversation later. Maybe over dinner?"

"Good idea. Stefan and I will start cooking," I said and without waiting for anyone to reply I took his arm and pulled him into the kitchen.

"What are we cooking?" I asked, ignoring the tension still evident from earlier.

"I was thinking pasta?" He asked.

"Pasta Bolognese? Or Carbonara?

"Bolognese?"

"The classic, then," I said. "I'm gonna get the garlic, alright?"

He nodded and in less than a minute I was back. He'd already put the pots out and placed the groceries on the table.

"Wow, you actually got groceries this time," I said approvingly.

We worked in silence. I cut tomatoes and herbs while he put the minced meat and cooked the pasta.

"You really want me and Damon to do it ourselves?" Stefan asked sceptically.

I laughed. "Of course not! But I had to tell Nia something so she wouldn't want to go,"

"Do you think it's good to lie to her?"

"I hate it," I admitted. "But as long as it keeps her safe, I'd do anything,"

Stefan gave me an impressed look. "Wow,"

"She's more like family to me than my relatives are," I said while cutting basil. A thought crossed my mind; if they were indeed vampires, blood would make them lose control. All I had to do was cut my finger.... But then, I could possibly die and I wasn't quite ready for that yet. But on the other side, it would help with my...investigations.

But I didn't.

I didn't want to test Stefan. He didn't deserve it.

But if he was a vampire and both him and Damon were planning to kill us we'd do best to be prepared.