ELEANOR HAD SPENT THE LAST FEW DAYS DOING RESEARCH. She wanted to know who everyone was and what was left of the founding families and the people she left behind. Elena was a Gilbert, and her brother Jeremy was one of the guys checking on Vicki Donovan the night of the bonfire. Matt was Vicki's brother, and Tyler was his best friend.

Tyler was a Lockwood, and his father was the mayor. Not much had changed there. Caroline was a Forbes, but she already knew that. Her mother, Elizabeth, was the Sheriff. She was best friends with Elena — shockingly after her breakdown the other night — and Bonnie, the girl that had been comforting her. What piqued Eleanor's interest was Bonnie's last name.

Bennett.

Emily Bennett had been a witch, and she traveled alongside Katherine and Eleanor for a few years before they landed in Mystic Falls. If Bonnie was her descendant, that meant that she was a witch as well, which was perfect because the Chetwood woman needed some magic for what she was trying to accomplishment. The problem would be getting close enough to Bonnie to be able to ask her for help.

It was a good thing she had an in with one of her best friends. Speaking of, Caroline came up to Eleanor while she was pulling books out of her locker, and she leaned up against the wall beside her. "Hey, Ellie, you didn't happen to move here with a really hot older brother or something, did you?"

"No, why?" the brunette questioned with raised eyebrows.

Caroline let out an exaggerated sigh, causing a smile to appear on the vampire's face as she explained, "The other night, I saw the most beautiful guy that I have never seen before, and there's no way three new people moved to town in one week."

"I wish I could help you," Eleanor responded, but in her head, she was wondering if this new guy was the person that attacked Vicki at the bonfire. Was he a vampire? Did she know him? "What did he look like?"

"He was tall, black hair, blue eyes, amazing in bed..." the Forbes girl described wistfully.

The Chetwood girl's eyes widened in shock. She had not been expecting that, and if Caroline had slept with him, how did she not know his name or anything about him? "You slept with him?"

"No, but I could just tell," Caroline answered, and the other girl nodded with a light chuckle. Switching gears, the girl leaning up against the wall turned so that she was looking at her new friend. "Who did you move here with anyway?"

"Oh, um, my parents, but they are pretty much always out of town. So, it's basically like I live alone. I live in an apartment. Top floor. Great view of the town," Eleanor informed her. There was only one apartment complex in town, so she assumed that Caroline knew where it was.

The blonde's eyes shot open in excitement and slight jealousy. With the Sheriff as a mother, she must not get a lot of unsupervised free time. "Oh, my God. That sounds like a dream. No parents breathing over your shoulder, no curfew, living in an apartment on your own."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," the brunette girl responded. She did get rather lonely at times, but for the most part, she enjoyed the peace and quiet.

"Still, sleepovers will be happening at your place," Caroline informed her, but she paused, looking scared that she said something wrong. "Oh, my God. That sounded so crazy and weird. We've only known each other for a few days, and I'm talking about sleepovers. I'm sorry."

Eleanor waved her off because it wasn't that odd. She kind of liked that the girl was so forward. She hated people that would not say what they were feeling and just made you try to guess whether they hated you or not. At least she knew that Caroline liked her enough to want to sleep over. "It's fine. I'm just really busy right now, and the place is a mess. But it's definitely a plan for the future."

"Sounds like a date!" Caroline responded enthusiastically before turning on her heel and practically skipping down the hallway. Eleanor watched her go with a grin, shaking her head as she closed her locker and headed to class.

《❂》

THAT NIGHT, THERE WAS YET ANOTHER EVENT IN THE TOWN. Mystic Falls seemed to celebrate everything they possibly could, and Eleanor was not exactly complaining. It was a lot, but they were also opportunities to talk to more people without it seeming weird. That night, there was going to be a comet passing over the town, and they all gathered in the square with candles. Eleanor had a specific target for the party, and she spent about ten minutes looking for her before she spotted her.

She headed over to the girl under the ruse that she needed someone to light her candle. She stopped in front of her and offered a smile before introducing herself. "Hey, you're Bonnie, right? I'm Eleanor."

"I know. We don't get very many new people here, so you and Stefan have been the talk of the school lately. Welcome to town," the Bennett informed her. Instead of offering a hand to shake, she extended her candle, and the vampire used the flame to light her own wick.

"Thanks," Eleanor responded with a nod. She frowned for a moment, feigning a bit of stress, like she was upset about something. She had to act like a normal teenager that moved to town, and a normal teenager would be freaked out by a girl getting bitten on the neck on her first day. "I'm still a bit shaken up about that girl getting attacked at that bonfire. That was pretty crazy."

Bonnie nodded with a wince. "As much as I would like to say that that was completely out of the ordinary, that wasn't the first time something weird has happened here."

"Really? I thought this would be a quiet little town," the brunette girl lied. Mystic Falls, despite seeming like a regular small town from the outside, was anything but normal. It had never been normal, at least not since Katherine and Eleanor had shown up back in 1864. The place was riddled with supernatural juju.

"It is, most of the time," the raven-haired girl assured her, like she was trying to calm down a child who saw a monster in their closet. Eleanor acted more at ease, even though she would love it if this new vampire even tried to come after her. "But something happens every once in a while to make things interesting, keep us on our toes."

The Chetwood raised her eyebrows, asking, "Anything you're a part of?" She was trying to get her to admit that she had something to do with weird things happening.

"No, trust me. I'm a very boring person," Bonnie replied with a chuckle. Eleanor wasn't sure if she was just straight-up lying or if she did not know about her powers yet. She might not even have powers for all the vampire knew.

"I doubt that," the brunette told her, and she froze when she heard a scream and some voices. It was not loud enough to be heard with human ears, but her vampire hearing picked it up easily. She turned back to Bonnie. "Excuse me."

She walked back toward the street and listened once again. One of the voices belonged to Stefan, and the other to someone that Eleanor had not seen in a few decades at least. The sound of his voice actually gave her a headache because she knew that him being there was going to be a pain in the ass.

She sped to where the voices were coming from, which was the roof of a building. There, she saw Stefan and Vicki Donovan. Vicki was being held at the edge of the roof, and as soon as Eleanor layed eyes on the person holding her, her assumptions were confirmed.

Damon freaking Salvatore.

"Ah, Eleanor, how nice of you to join us. We were just discussing who attacked Vicki here the other night," he informed her with a smile. She just stood there with her arms crossed, glaring at him. Everyone on that roof knew that it was him who attacked her except for Vicki herself. He grabbed her Donovan girl and looked right in her eyes. "Stefan Salvatore did this to you."

She repeated his words back, in a trance under his compulsion. The poor girl had been through too much in the past week, and he was being an ass. "Stefan Salvatore did this to me."

"He's a vampire. A vicious, murderous monster," Damon added, and Vicki repeated those words back as well.

Eleanor rolled her eyes, wondering why he had to be such a pest all of the time. There was no way that he wanted his brother exposed and killed. He was doing this because he wanted something. "Is this really necessary, Damon?"

"Please, Damon. Please don't do this," Stefan begged. Eleanor furrowed her eyebrows, wondering why he couldn't just compel her into forgetting it all.

"If you couldn't fix it before, I don't know what you can do now," Damon responded, and the Chetwood woman realized that Stefan must have tried to undo Vicki's previous compulsion and failed. Damon was stronger than him. If it really became a problem, Eleanor would easily be able to overpower the Salvatore man. She drank human blood from blood bags, and she was four times older than them.

Damon pulled off Vicki's bandage on her neck and pushed her over to Stefan. He was trying to tempt him, and he continued, "Your choice of lifestyle has made you weak. A couple of vampire parlor tricks is nothing compared to the power that you could have, that you now need. But you can change that. Human blood gives you that. Just ask Eleanor. I'm sure she doesn't live off of chipmunks and deer. You have two choices. You can feed and make her forget. Or you can let her run, screaming 'vampire' through the town square."

"I forgot how annoying you are," Eleanor sighed, tapping her foot impatiently. She really did not want to be involved in this, but unfortunately, anything involving vampires in the town somewhat involved her.

"Oh, please. You love me," he said, waving her off before turning back to his brother. "I want you to remember who you are!"

Stefan scoffed, wondering why Damon was so intent on making him feed, "Why? So what, so I'll feed? So I'll kill? So I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again? You know what, let her go. Let her tell everyone that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls. Let them chain me up, and let them drive a stake through my heart, because at least I'll be free of you."

"Vicki, come here," Eleanor ordered, and the older brother rolled his eyes, muttering something about her being no fun. The Donovan girl walked over to the female, and the brunette placed her hand on her shoulder, looking straight into her eyes. "Forget everything you have heard about vampires. You don't know how you were attacked. It must have been an animal."

Vick snapped out of her trance all of a sudden, looking around with a confused expression and grabbing her bloody neck. "What happened? Where am I? Oh, I ripped my stitches open. Ugh..."

"You okay?" Stefan asked her, but she was already walking away, saying something about pills as she made her way back down to the ground level. Damon clapped his hands together, causing them both to turn back to him with annoyed expressions.

"It's good to be home. Think I might stay a while. This town could use a bit of a wake-up call, don't you think?" he asked before his eyes landed on the female standing in front of him. "Plus, I haven't seen our dear Nora in a while."

Stefan questioned, "What are you up to, Damon?"

"That's for me to know and for you to...dot dot dot," his brother answered, but a smirk spread across his face as he glanced at Eleanor. She frowned because after that, she had a pretty good idea of why he was there. "Give Elena my best."