Mystic Falls, 1864

     Jasmine walked through the corridor of her house as she heard a knock on her door. She was quick to answer it, hoping it was one of the Salvatore brothers, but was disappointed when it was the mail man.

     “For you, miss.”

     “Thank you. Have a lovely evening.”

     With a smile, they both parted ways. Jasmine opened the envelope and her once disappointment turned into happiness as she noticed the handwriting of her best friend.

     “Dear Jasmine,

     I am now staying in a small village in… who knows where, really. I’ve come to the conclusion that traveling the world without you is quite boring, so I decided to invite myself over in a few days. Respond soon, so I know you’re still there. I’ll see you soon.

     Sincerely, Alexia

     P.S. How are things going? You know ever since you know who showed up?”

     “Oh, you drama queen.” Jasmine laughed as she ran up the stairs, so she could immediately respond. It’s been over two years since she had seen Lexi and she has missed her terribly. She sat down at her desk and pulled out her stationery.

     “Dear Alexia,

     I told you, you couldn’t bear to be away from me for so long! Yes, I am still residing here in what they now call, Mystic Falls, so feel free to make an appearance. And as for your question… things have been hectic.

     She’s only been here a few weeks and already she’s causing mischief. She’s not like the girl I once knew; she’s more troublesome and heartless.

     She’s taken a liking to the Salvatore brothers and I just know that she is planning to turn them. You know I can’t let that happen, Lexi. Not to them. They deserve so much more than this everlasting life of dread. Plus, knowing Stefan, he wouldn’t be able to handle it. Poor kid, already hates ‘my method’ of surviving, can you imagine him as a vampire?

     I know what I’m about to do is probably going to send me to hell, but hey, aren’t I already destined to go there? You might hate me for it, or not, but I cannot allow Katerina to turn them. So, if preserving the Salvatores humanity means going to such lengths as in betraying your own kind, then I will do it.

      Please, still come visit me, no matter your feelings on this. I would love to see you again, my dear friend.

     Sincerely,
Jasmine.”

     Mystic Falls, Present Day

     “Who gave this nutjob a journal? Everything in here is all chicken scratch, mostly.”

     Damon laughed and turned to face her, handing Jasmine a passage he found, “here’s a reference to Emily Bennett.”

     Jasmine grabbed the page and began reading out loud, “the Fell family believed it should be I, not them, who protected the witch’s book. But I feared she would haunt me from the hereafter. They mocked my fear, but it was Giuseppe Salvatore—”

     Upon hearing his father’s name, Damon was quick to retain the paper again, continuing where she left off, “it was Giuseppe Salvatore who removed my fear. He told me he would protect the secret of the spell book. He said he would carry it to his grave.”

     “Aw, isn’t that sweet?” Jasmine let out a small laugh as Damon sat there as if remembering a distant memory.

     After a few seconds of silence, Damon spoke, “I know where it is.” He began to quickly gather all the scattered pages and put them all in a single pile.

     “Wait. Please, don’t tell me it’s actually in…”

     Damon stood up and smirked at her, “yup, get your shovel ready. It’s time we took a visit to Papa Salvatore’s grave.”

     “Let’s do it.”

     Jasmine always knew Mr. Salvatore was literal in his words, but actually taking your secrets to the grave? Giuseppe was a whole other level of being literal. Damon told her he was going to wait in the car as she insisted on saying goodbye to Jenna.

     The Gilbert aunt was washing dishes as Jasmine stood behind her. Clearing her throat, she let out a small laugh as Jenna jumped, startled, and dish soap bubbles flew everywhere.

     “I apologize, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

     Jenna let out a laugh as she shook her head, “I shouldn’t be so paranoid.”

     “Paranoia is good. Keeps you on your feet.” Jasmine grabbed the rest of the dishes and put them away after drying them, “I just wanted to say thank you for having us and sorry for leaving so sudden without even having a proper conversation with you.”

     Jenna smiled at her newfound friend, “it’s okay. You can make it up to me over breakfast. I want to get to know you better.”

     “It’s a date.” Jasmine sent her a wink and held in a laugh as Jenna’s cheeks reddened and words were spewing nonsense out of her mouth.

     The raven haired duo looked at each other, both smirking, “you just enjoy making people squirm, don’t you?”

     Shrugging, Jasmine let out a sigh, “it’s nice to know I have an effect on people.”

▪▪▪▪

      From the moment Stefan Salvatore saw Anna’s face, he immediately recognized her. She was Pearl’s, an old friend of Katherine’s, daughter. Once Anna and Jeremy finished with their ‘date,’ Stefan asked Elena to drive Jeremy home while he followed Anna.

     Anna unlocked the door to the motel room and entered. Before she had the chance to close it, Stefan sped inside and grabbed her by the throat. Surprised, Anna let out a small yell, but was quick to grab hold of Stefan’s throat.

     Both were groaning and making choking noises, but refused to let go until Stefan finally gave in, “okay, alright!”

     With a gasp they both let go and stared at each other. Stefan coughed and rubbed his neck, “didn’t think you’d be so strong.”

     Anna scoffed and crossed her arms, “I am older than you, Stefan.” She pushed him back a bit as she made her way over to take a seat on one of the two beds, “I was wondering how long it would take for one of you to find me.”

▪▪▪▪

     Jasmine scowled as they reached the tombstone, “I hate your father for being so literal, you know that right?”

     Jasmine stood in front of the grave, flashing the light on the tombstone while Damon set up torches around it and took out some supplies. “You’re certain that the grimoire is in there with him, right?”

     “Yup, as certain as I can be.”

     “Great, well, let’s get to it.”

     Jasmine picked up two shovels and tossed one to Damon. He took a moment to gather himself before they began digging. Dirt was flying everywhere and with every toss, she could sense Damon’s dread. As much as he hated his father, digging his grave up wasn’t a walk in the park.

     She debated whether or not to tell him the truth. That the only reason she is helping him is because she feels guilty. Well, guilty for causing him that sort of heartbreak. She was certainly not guilty for what she did to Katerina.

▪▪▪▪

     “How long have you been here?”

     Anna set her bag to the side and looked at him, a smug yet sarcastic smile set on her lips, “I arrived half-past comet, watching your brother screw up every chance he had to open the tomb.”

     With his arms crossed, Stefan gave her his signature brooding face, “how do you know about that?”

     “I didn’t say much back then, which means I heard everything.”

     Stepping towards her, Stefan tried to intimidate her. Which would’ve have worked if it was anyone but Stefan doing it. Anna simply smiled, not fazed at all by him.

     “If you’ve been here the entire time, then why are we just crossing paths right now?”

     Slightly shoving past him, Anna stood in front of the mirror, “I like to use others to do my dirty work.”

     Stefan tilted his head as he thought about it, scoffing, he turned to face her, “Logan Fell. You slipped him some blood before he died, didn’t you?”

     “I couldn’t let him die. I needed his family’s journal. I thought it contained the location of Emily’s grimoire, but according to Honoria, she gave it to Jonathon Gilbert. And, according to this…”

     She walked back to the bed and grabbed her purse. She shuffled through it before pulling out an old journal, “he gave it to your father. So, now you’re going to help me find it.”

     Shaking his head, Stefan smiled, “and why would I help you?”

     “Because you and I both want that tomb open.”

     Anna handed Stefan the journal opened to the page where she left off, the location of the grimoire. Stefan read over it and smiled, “hmmm, back then I would have, but now?”

     He shut the journal and placed it on the counter, “you’re wrong. I don’t want that tomb open.” He gave her one last smile before exiting the motel room.

     He called Elena and agreed to her continuous asking to take her with him. Soon, they were on their way to his father’s grave, hoping to get there before Damon.

▪▪▪▪

     Damon and Jasmine were still shoveling up dirt and digging deeper into Giuseppe’s grave ten minutes later. Neither of them had spoken and Jasmine left it at the fact that maybe Damon was having a hard time doing this.

     “Why didn’t you want Stefan and Elena to know about the pages?” Damon stopped and looked at her as she sighed.

     “Don’t get me wrong, I trust your brother, but I know him better than anybody else. There’s a chance that he might go back on his promise and makes sure the doppelbitch isn’t released.”

     Damon tilted his head, pondering the thought, but eventually shrugged as he looked at her, “thanks for having my back.”

      He continues to shovel dirt out of the grave as Jasmine decided to stand beside him and hold the flashlight. She started smiling and shaking her head as Damon looked towards her, a small smile grazing his lips.

     “What?”

     Jasmine shrugged as she looked all around her before settling back to looking at him, “this is by far the most fun I’ve had in the last couple days.”

     “Well, if you didn’t go all psycho on us, we wouldn’t have to keep a close eye on you.”

     “Oh, please. If by ‘keeping a close eye,’ you mean ‘letting me get away with murdering a few dozen people in the past twenty four hours’ then you’re doing a fantastic job.”

     Damon was about to respond until his shovel hit something solid. He looked at her with anticipation as he threw the shovel to the ground and began using his hands to get rid of the dirt that littered his father’s coffin. He gently opened the lid and breathed heavily as he saw the grimoire lay nestled in his father’s corpse’s arms.

     Jasmine got out of the hole and helped Damon out as he closed the lid. They crouched down beside the book and ripped the front cover off. They looked at each other and smiled, happy they finally found the damn book.

     “I’m not surprised.”

     Stefan’s voice rang through the forest as Damon and Jasmine quickly stood. Stefan and Elena walked towards them both sporting looks of disappointment. Before anyone could react, Stefan sped towards them and snatched the book from the ground.

     “Well, this is an interesting turn of events.”

     “I can’t let you bring her back. I’m sorry.” Stefan stood in front of Elena, his stance rigid, not knowing how Damon might react.

     “So am I… for thinking for a second that I could trust you.”

     Stefan scoffed as he looked at his brother, a sneer etched onto his lips, “you are not capable of trust. The fact that you’re here means that you somehow read the journal and you were planning on doing this by yourselves.”

     Jasmine barked out a laugh as she looked at her best friend, “of course we were going to do it by ourselves, Stefan! Look at where we’re at now. You obviously weren’t going to let us know that you found the location of the grimoire, either.”

     Damon stepped forward and stood beside Jasmine, “turns out I can only count on Jasmine and myself. You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan. But you…”

     Elena dropped her head in shame as Damon looked at her, hurt, “you had me fooled. So, what are you going to do now? Because if you try and destroy that… I’ll rip her heart out.”

     “You won’t kill her.” Damon nodded, knowing Stefan was right, so he looked at Jasmine. She smiled and sped towards Elena, placing her in a choke hold.

     “She can do one better.”

     She bit her wrist and forced her blood down Elena’s throat. Elena coughed out as she struggled against Jasmine, “give us the book, Stefan, or I’ll snap her neck. Then, you and Damon will have a vampire girlfriend again.”

     Stefan’s eyes widened and he held his arms out a bit, afraid that she will do it, “let her go first.”

     Jasmine pulled her wrist away from Elena’s mouth and held out her hand, “the book, Stefan.”

     “I’m not going to give this to you until she is standing right next to me.”

     Damon sped towards Stefan and snatched the book from his outstretched hand, “yeah, the problem is that we no longer trust you.” He looked at Jasmine, signaling they can go now.

     “Okay, you have the book, now let go of Elena, Jasmine.”

     Jasmine smiled at him as she pressed her face against Elena’s hair, looking as if she might not let go, but slowly she pulled her arm away. Elena slowly edged to the side of the grave, then she quickly sprinted towards Stefan and let him embrace her. Elena looks at Jasmine terrified and Stefan leads her out of the woods. Damon watches them go with a sullen look on his face.

     Jasmine sighed as she followed Damon towards the opposite direction, “you know you can’t blame him forever.”

     “Why not? It’s his fault she was caught in the first place.”

     She stopped him, “actually Damon, it was me. I told Giuseppe that Katherine was a vampire.”

     Mystic Falls, 1864

     It was after the Founders’ party that Jasmine decided best to approach Mr. Salvatore. He was in his study, writing inside his journal as she knocked on the door. Inviting her inside, he stood up and greeted her with a smile.

     “Ms. Saunders, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

     “I have some news that I’d like to share with you, Mr. Salvatore and I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”

     Intrigued, Giuseppe gestured her to sit as did he, “what is it?”

     Taking a deep breath, Jasmine pushed her nerves away. This was going to hurt her friends, but they didn’t mean much to her as the Salvatores did, “I fear I might be going a bit out of line, but I have a theory that you have a vampire living right under your roof.”

     Giuseppe’s eyebrows furrowed as his gaze went to the floor, considering the possibility, “and how would you know?”

     “The time the killings started was the same time that a certain young girl came seeking refuge. Not only that, but both of your sons seem to be under some sort of mind control ever since she’s arrived. You can perceive it as envy, Mr. Salvatore, but please, don’t rule out that maybe Katherine Pierce is a vampire.”

     With that, Jasmine got up and walked out of his study. She wondered what Stefan and Damon would do if they ever found out. She only hoped that they would see that she was only trying to protect them and their humanity.

     Mystic Falls, Present Day

     “I’m sorry that it hurt you, I never meant for that. I was only trying to protect you from all of this. Good load that did, huh?”

     Jasmine frowned as her apology drifted in the wind, Damon already leaving after hearing her confession.