Jasmine sat at the bar beside Damon and far away from Elena. The doppelganger doesn’t remember what had happened thanks to the raven-haired Salvatore and he promised not to tell Stefan about her slip up, either. She knew she had to tell him, but she knew telling him would mean she was losing her battle with the darkness.

     “Let's just say that I'm descended from Katherine...does that make me part vampire?” Jasmine rolled her eyes at the slightly drunk doppelganger.

     “Vampires can't procreate, idiot.” Elena glared at the smirking vampire before Damon answered her.

     “But we love to try. No, if you were related, it would mean Katherine had a child before she was turned.” Damon drank the rest of the alcohol and smirked at her.

     Jasmine mulled over the thought of the evil doppelganger having a child. Katerina was once sweet and innocent, but that all changed the moment she became a vampire. She wished immortality hadn’t changed her for she had actually enjoyed her presence. 

     “Did Stefan think that he could use me to replace her?” The thought had crossed the vampire’s mind, she still wasn’t sure if that was the case. Elena looked towards Damon expecting him to answer while she picked off the pickles from her burger.

     “Kinda creepy if you ask me.” Damon scoffed when he noticed her actions, reaching over to her plate to grab the pickles and placing them in his mouth. “Come on, what? You don't like pickles? What's wrong with you?”

     Smiling, the doppelganger looked at the vampires with a questionable expression, “How can you even eat? If technically you're supposed to be...”

     Damon looked around before leaning towards her, whispering, “Dead? It's not such a bad word. As long as we keep a healthy diet of blood in our systems, our bodies function pretty normally.”

     The doppelganger smiled towards the unusually kind Salvatore brother, “this nice act. Is any of it real?”

     “Probably not.” The raven haired Salvatore playfully pushed the laughing vampire. Bree suddenly appeared them with filled glasses in her hands.

     “Here you go.”

     Jasmine slowly grabbed the glass from the witch’s hand, their fingers accidently grazing, “Thank you.”

     The witch and the vampire looked at each other, neither averting their gazes. It was as if guilt was flooding the witch’s eyes and Jasmine wasn’t sure why. Before she could ask, Elena cleared her throat and looked at the witch bartender.

     “I'll have one too.”

     The three of them looked at the underage teenager with shock. Damon raised his eyebrows, “Hmm?”

     Elena sighed and brought her hands together to form a ‘T’ as Bree grabbed a bottle of beer for her, “time out, remember? For five minutes? Yeah, well, that five minutes is going to need a beer.”

     “There you go.” Elena was quick to take a sip of the liquid whilst Damon gave her an amused grin.

     Jasmine shook her head with a disapproving expression, “I don’t condone underage drinking, Bree. I might have to call the cops on you.”

     Everyone laughed and went back to what they were doing while the vampire raised an eyebrow, “I was being serious.”

▪▪▪▪

     A while later, a group had formed around the three, seeming to want to compete with the plastered doppelganger.

     “Ready....Go!”

     Several people downed the shots in their hands and cheering when they finished. Jasmine sat with a wide grin as she looked at the doppelganger, who seemed to be having fun. Drunk Elena was fun to be around.

     “That's three! Aw, do you need a bib?” The trio laughed as Damon rolled his eyes.

     “Sorry I can't unhinge my jaw like a snake to consume alcohol.”

     “Whatever. All right. Who's next? Another round, Bree.” The witch smiled and turned around to fill up everyone’s shot glasses once more.

     A blonde woman leaned against the counter as she looked at the hyperactive doppelganger, “honey, you should be on the floor!”

     “I am not even drunk. My tolerance is, like, way up here.”

     Jasmine looked towards her phone, seemingly growing bored with all the people who were currently getting wasted next to her. As if sensing her stare, her phone rang and she quickly answered it.

     “Tell me you’ve got something.” Jasmine smiled reassuringly towards Damon, who looked at her concerned. She placed her hand towards the microphone of her phone and leaned towards Damon, “nothing to worry about, promise. I just need to check on something. I’ll be back.”

     The raven haired vampire stood up and walked towards the entrance of the building, stepping out into the chilly weather, she waited for the other voice to speak up.

     “Not exactly.”

     Jasmine closed her eyes in frustration before letting out a breath of air, “that’s not what I want to hear, Jaminson.”

     The rapid breathing on the other side of the line made Jasmine curl her hands into fists, “we couldn’t find an exact location on any of them, but there have been whispers.”

     “I’ve heard the whispers! I don’t want rumors, Jaminson, I want facts.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and walked farther from the loud bar, “look, I need to find them, now more than ever. So, don’t call back without knowing exactly where they are, understood?”

     She didn’t wait for a reply as she hung up the call. She let out a small yell and hit the side of the building. Pieces of brick fell from the wall and it still wasn’t enough to satiate her anger. Her breathing was ragged as she continued to punch the wall. She didn’t care about the flow of blood leaving her knuckles or the aches that were forming on her arm, all she wanted was for her anger to subside.

     The sound of a rapid heartbeat caught her attention and she was quick to find its source. A man stood at the front of the alleyway, looking at the girl with wide eyes. A smirk made its way towards Jasmine’s lips as she slowly walked towards him. The man wasn’t able to move, paralyzed with fear, and his breathing become rapid much like his heartbeat.

     She felt her hands clasp around the man’s neck and pin him against the wall. He whimpered and tears began to fall from his eyes. Jasmine’s main focus was on the vein that was visibly pulsing on his neck. Leaning in slowly, she latched her mouth onto it and began to drink.

     The man attempted to push her off, but was becoming too weak to succeed. Jasmine pulled away and smirked at the man as she dropped him onto the floor. Without hesitation, he began to drag himself away from her. She let out a small chuckle as she walked towards him and grabbed him by his legs, dragging him back.

     “Please! Don’t kill me! P-Please, I have a family! A little girl who needs her father! Please, don’t do this!”

     Jasmine stopped walking and flipped the man over so he was laying on his back. She tilted her head to the side and knelt down to take out his wallet. She rummaged through it until she came across a picture of a little girl, probably only five years old at the time of the photo, she was holding a giant lollipop and smiled wide showing off her two missing front teeth.

     Any other day, Jasmine would’ve immediately regretted her actions and compelled the man to forget about her, but today wasn’t one of those days. No guilt or regret was visible in her expression as she flung the picture towards the man’s face. She took out his driver’s license and placed it inside her back pocket. Stefan wrote down his victims’ names, Jasmine kept pictures of her victims.

     “Well, Thomas, I guess your little girl is just going to have to survive without you.”

     The man’s scream was silenced as Jasmine lunged forward and ripped his heart out of his chest. His head lulled to the side as his eyes went blank. Jasmine took a deep breath in and released it before getting up. She looked around the alleyway, spotting a garbage bin a couple feet away. The man’s body was carelessly thrown into it as Jasmine dusted herself off.

     Smiling, she began to walk back towards the front of the building, but stopped when she heard Damon’s screams. His grunts directed her path towards the back of the building. She saw Damon on the floor while Lee, Lexi’s boyfriend, was beating him with a wooden plank.

     With her hands behind her back, Jasmine directed Lee’s attention towards her, “Lee. What a surprise. What are you doing?”

     Lexi emerged from the shadows and sped towards her best friend, ready to attack her in case she decided to interfere, “just a little payback, J.”

     From the corner of her eye, Jasmine noticed Elena trying to get closer to Damon, but she was quick to halt her movements, “don’t move, Elena.”

     Jasmine turned towards her best friend and smiled, “come on, Lex. Don’t do this, not now.”

     Lexi’s expression was one filled with guilt as she looked at her long time best friend, “I don’t want to hurt you, Jasmine, so just let us do what we have to. He deserves it.”

     Jasmine’s smile quickly fell as Lee grabbed a container of gasoline and poured it all over the Salvatore vampire, causing him to cough. Her need to protect the Salvatore brother quickly made her natural instincts resurface. She turned towards Lexi, her ‘vampire’ face on full display causing the blonde vampire to step back.

     “Leave, Lexi. Now.”

     Jasmine’s step towards Lexi caused Lee to quickly hold Damon in a choke hold to try to use him as leverage, so Jasmine wouldn’t hurt his beloved girlfriend, “get away from her, Jasmine, or I will kill him.”

     Laughter sent chills down each person’s arms as Jasmine held her hand out, “I’d like to see you try.”

     Jasmine’s eyes visibly darkened as the green and blue filled irises slowly changed to an almost pitch black. She began to slowly pull her outstretched hand back towards her causing Lee to gasp and grasp his chest. The feeling of his heart being slowly ripped out of his chest caused him to drop Damon to the ground, who sped towards Elena and moved her out of harm’s way.

     Lexi’s eyes widened as she looked at her boyfriend who was yelling out in pain, blood beginning to pool around his shirt. She turned to look towards her best friend and noticed her blood stained hands. Lexi visibly swallowed as she looked at Jasmine’s rage filled eyes.

     “It’s back, isn’t it?” Lexi continued to take steps backwards as Jasmine stalked towards her. “You have to fight it, Jasmine. The more you let it control you, the more guilt you’ll feel when it’s over.”

     “Right now that doesn’t matter. Let Damon be from here on out and I won’t do something we’ll all regret later.”

     “This isn’t you, Jasmine! Please, let him go.”

     The pleas of her best friend were ignored as she slowly stalked towards Lee. She held out her other hand causing him to fall to his knees. Lexi didn’t know what to do, she didn’t want to advance towards Jasmine knowing she would retaliate faster than she could move, but she couldn’t stand there and watch her one true love be tortured and possibly killed.

     “Jasmine, stop. Look at me. Hey!” Damon walked towards the vengeful vampire slowly, his hands out in front of him, “They let me go, alright? Come on. Don’t do this. Control it.”

     Jasmine began shaking and breathing rapidly as she forced her arms down. Lexi was quick to catch Lee’s head before it hit the pavement.

     Jasmine looked at her best friend, guilt washing over her, “I’m so- Lexi, I’m…”

     Lexi attempted to give the heaving vampire a reassuring smile, but the blood that had pooled in her hands made her look away instead. “It’s not like before, is it? It’s stronger.”

     Jasmine looked at her hands and kept her gaze on them, “I don’t know if I can control it this time.”

     “You will. I know you can.”

     She looked towards the blonde vampire and watched her walk away with her boyfriend in her arms.

     Jasmine’s hurt Lexi before, more than she cared to count, yet the blonde vampire never left her side. This time though, Jasmine hurt the one person Lexi loved with all her being and she wasn’t sure if she was going to forgive her.

     Damon slowly put a hand on Jasmine’s back and sighed at the distraught expression she held, “come on, Jas. Let’s go home.”

▪▪▪▪

     The walk to Damon’s car was silent. The doppelganger thought it best to not express her thoughts which Jasmine thanked the heavens above for. The one thing she couldn’t figure out was how Lexi and Lee knew where Damon was. Last she heard from Lexi, she was ‘living it up’ in Washington and that was yesterday afternoon.

     Her face contorted to annoyance once more when she remembered that Bree was also friends with Lexi. It wasn’t a coincidence. She stopped walking and looked at the two, smiling, “I think I forgot my phone inside. It’ll just be a minute.”

     “I’ll go—”

     “I don’t think I’ll get into too much trouble, Damon. I promise I’ll be quick.” With a reluctant nod, Jasmine walked towards the bar, fists clenched and eyebrows furrowed.

     The sound of the bell vibrated along the bar. Bree quickly finished her drink and set it down in front of her before turning around and seeing Jasmine leaning against the counter.

     “We were just leaving, I wanted to say good bye.”

     Bree’s face remained stoic as she stared at the vampire, “good to see you again, Jasmine.”

     Jasmine scoffed and stood up straight, smiling at the rigid witch, “what? No proper send off?”

     “I'm full of vervain. I put it in everything I drink.” Jasmine’s smile widened as she took a step closer to the counter.

     “And you're telling me this why?”

     Tears began to pool in Bree’s eyes as she looked towards the amused vampire, “Lexi’s my friend. How could you think we’d let Damon get away with almost killing her?”

     Bree turned back around and let out a gasp as Jasmine was quick to appear in front of her. Desperately, Bree held out her hand slightly, “the tomb can be opened. I know you want to help Damon get to Katherine. Well, there’s another way.”

     Jasmine stood still, looking at her before shaking her head angrily, “you're lying!”

     “Emily's grimoire, her spellbook. If you know how she closed the tomb the reversal process will be in her book. You can open that tomb.” Bree’s voice quaked with fear as Jasmine walked towards her.

     “Where is it?”

     “I—I—” Bree’s back hit the counter as Jasmine smirked at her.

     “You have no idea, do you?” Tears slowly made their way down Bree’s cheeks as Jasmine tilted her head to the side.

     “I'm telling you the truth.”

     Jasmine brought up a hand to caress the side of her face while sighing, “and I believe you. My dear, sweet Bree. That's why I'm almost sorry.”

     Bree’s mouth flew open when she felt Jasmine’s hand pull out her heart. Jasmine’s eyes were void of emotion as she watched Bree slowly fall to the floor, lifeless. Sighing, Jasmine washed her hands in the sink behind the counter before grabbing her phone and walking out the door.

▪▪▪▪

     Jasmine continued to tap against the window to the beat of the song, trying to tune out Elena and Damon’s conversations. She was currently freaking out internally about what was happening to her. She didn’t like it, not one bit, but she didn’t know what to do about it yet since it hasn’t taken over her completely. It’s as if it was coming in episodes instead of a full blown mental breakdown.

     She knew Stefan would worry if he knew about it so she decided to prolong not telling him until she knew there was no other choice. She stopped tapping the window and took out the driver’s license from her pocket. The man was barely twenty-eight and she had taken his life away from not just him, but from his wife and little girl. She hadn’t cared about her own family, but she was sure they would miss him.

     She slid the card back into her pocket and looked towards the never ending talking pair in the front.

     Elena let out a laugh as she looked at Damon, “I saved your life!”

     “Um, excuse me, but I’m pretty sure that was me.” Elena rolled her eyes playfully at the smiling vampire in the backseat.

     “I helped!”

     Laughing, Jasmine shook her head, “if by helped you mean crying out Damon’s name then yeah, you ‘helped’ a lot.”

     “Oh, whatever!”

     Laughs and pointless conversations echoed throughout the inside of the car all the way to Mystic Falls.

▪▪▪▪

     Once arriving, Jasmine received a phone call. Reassuring Damon that she was fine and encouraging Elena to talk to Stefan about his doppelganger fetish, Jasmine answered the call.

     “You better have something, Jaminson.”

     “I have confirmation that he’s in France. We don’t know how long he’ll be there, but we’re certain it’ll be a while until he moves again.”

     “Text me the rest of the location. Thank you, Jaminson.” She ended the call and quickly walked inside the boarding house. She sped towards the guest room she was staying in and prepared a luggage.

     She knew she shouldn’t look for him, for any of them, but she needed to see them. To be reassured of the person that she was becoming again. To have a tie to someone she knew while she was human.

     Damon was quick to step in her way before she reached the front door. “Whoa, where are you going?”

     Jasmine rolled her eyes, “to France, now let me through.”

     The raven haired Salvatore blocked her once again causing her to groan, “did you forget that there’s another vampire in town? We might need your help.”

     “I’m sure you’ll do fine without me. Please, let me go.”

     Damon grabbed onto her waist as she pushed passed him, “no can do, Jas. I need you here, so I’m pulling out the best friend card and shoving it in your face.”

     Jasmine muttered curse words at him as she trudged back up the stairs. Throwing her luggage onto the floor and running a hand through her hair, she cursed the day she became friends with the Salvatores. Sighing, she pulled out her phone and quickly called Jaminson.

     “Hello?”

     “Change of plans, Jaminson. Seems I won’t be leaving Mystic Falls soon, so I need you to get his phone number instead.”

     “That’ll be harder to obtain, Jasmine.”

     She clenched her fist while rolling her eyes, “I didn't ask if it would be easier to get, Jaminson. Now, get Elijah's phone number or so help me, I will personally take a visit to see your cozy little family up in New York. I hear the weather is lovely this time around.”

     She tossed her phone onto the bed and began unpacking her belongings. Jasmine had a feeling that maybe visiting her old friend might not have been wise, but she wasn’t thinking rationally. A knock on her door made her sigh, “what now?”

     Chuckling, Damon entered her room and sat on her bed, “what was so important in France that you were ready to drop everything here and leave?”

     “A friend. He helped a while ago when these urges first surfaced and were worse. I was hoping he could help me again, but apparently I’m needed here.” Jasmine raised her eyebrow at the grimacing vampire.

     “I’m sorry, I should’ve let you go, but you know we can’t do this without you.” Jasmine smiled at him and sat beside him.

     “I have to tell you something,” his attention was fully on her as her expression turned serious, “before we left Atlanta, Bree told me there was another way to open the tomb.”

     “What? How?” Damon’s eager eyes caused her to wince, not wanting him to get his hopes up just to have them possibly destroyed.

     “Emily’s spell book. If she wrote down the tomb spell then she must’ve also wrote down the reversal spell. The thing is, I don’t know where Emily’s grimoire might be.”

     “Do you have an idea at all?”

     Jasmine looked down towards the floor, trying to remember back to 1864, “if the founding families knew about the vampires, do you think they finally figured out that Emily was a witch?”

     “There’s only one way to find out.”

     Jasmine pulled on his arm as he got up to leave, “we can look tomorrow, I promise. Just get some rest first.”

     Damon sighed and nodded. Giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, he sped out of her room towards his own room. Jasmine changed into her pajamas before turning out the lights and laying on her bed.

     "The Salvatores will be the death of me, I swear."