CHAPTER EIGHT | DEAD MAN ON CAMPUS 

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SINCE BONNIE'S RETURN BACK FROM THE OTHER SIDE, CAROLINE AND ELENA HAD PLANNED A PARTY. It was a well-needed welcome home party to celebrate Bonnie's return from the dead— again. Caroline had invited Evelyn and Damon to the event, though Damon did not seem too thrilled about going to a college party.

"So, you're seriously saying you want your lovely girlfriend to attend this thing on her own?" Evelyn pouted toward Damon as she wandered back into their bedroom from the bathroom. She raised an eyebrow toward the Salvatore, who was laid across the bed.

"I'm not saying that." Damon rolled his eyes as she lifted himself upright the minute Evelyn moved over to him. "I just don't think the partying with a bunch of college students is the best use of my time."

"Right. But, it's for Bonnie. Under usual circumstances, I'd be against it." Evelyn knew that she was wearing Damon down the minute she heard a heavy sigh leave his lips.

"Do you really want to go?"

"Yes. Of course, I do." Evelyn immediately nodded with a hopeful look in her eyes. "It's a party, Damon. There aren't any more threats, Bonnie is alive, and I want to get absolutely wasted with you." There was a moment of silence, and Damon's stone-cold expression turned into a smile. "You're the best. Oh, by the way, Caroline wants Stefan to be there. You know, after everything that he's been through lately it might actually be good for him to get out and enjoy life for once."

"One problem, he has his memories back which means he hates all of us— apart from Barbie, and potentially you." Damon's eyes studied his girlfriend, who immediately started looking through dresses to wear for the party.

"Well then, you make him like you. Do that whole brotherly-love type crap that you know you're secretly good at, but choose not to do it because you wanna be all kinds of manly." The brunette vampire shot him a smirk.

"Oh, trust me." Damon sped up behind her and placed his hands on her hips. "I'm plenty manly."

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The two had completely given up on the idea of Stefan coming to this party. He was too busy getting drunk on his own, and no matter how hard Evelyn tried, Stefan was insistent that he wanted to be alone to deal with whatever he was going through. Damon had informed her that before they headed to the party, they had to take care of Dr. Wes Maxfield— the professor that threatened to out Elena and Caroline as vampires.

"No. The party is the other corridor." Wes groaned out the minute that Damon and Evelyn entered his lab. Evelyn sped behind him and pushed him straight down onto a gurney, while Damon strapped him in.

Evelyn hummed in satisfaction when she started to hear Wes' heartbeat begin to race. "Wes Maxfield. I think it's time we three had a little chat, don't you?"

"What do you want?" Wes asked with fear in his voice as Damon rolled his eyes.

"What I want is to be drinking copious quantities of booze and making out with my beautiful girlfriend over there. And before you ask, yes, she wants the same. But, unfortunately, we can't do that until we get a bunch of answers outta' you." Damon answered as he looked through the fridge in the corner of the room.

"So, Doctor, Doctor. You should probably start yapping or I may be inclined to something that would be extremely detrimental to your health." Evelyn smirked. Her left hand hovered over the tools that were placed to the side of her thigh.

As soon as Wes noticed Damon going through the fridge, his eyes widened."Careful with those!"

"These? These right here? Why? I mean, we're on a college campus, right? Full of students?" Damon chuckled softly as he lifted out the contents of the fridge. "I can't imagine an MD has a bunch of infectious diseases just lying around."

"MD Ph.D." Wes corrected with a low growl. "I'm a researcher."

"Well, that explains it. I've met a lot of people like you. Science over medicine, right? Let me guess, you use these on your little vampire lab rats, don't you?" Damon raised an eyebrow and waited for Wes' answer, though he didn't reply. "Not in the mood to talk? Fair enough."

The Austin vampire hummed, pouted, and turned her attention back to the Professor. "Remember what I said about not talking?"

"We're gonna play a little game where I inject you with whatever the hell necrotizing fasciitis is."

Wes rolled his eyes at Damon's incompetence. "It's a flesh-eating bacteria."

"Gross." The brunette mumbled with a light chuckle.

"So, I'm gonna do that. And, I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions." Damon began while he pulled a fresh needle from the drawer. "If you answer me correctly, I'm gonna give you some of my delicious vampire blood, and it'll heal you right on up. If you don't answer me correctly, we're just gonna have to see how much flesh these little guys can eat."

As Damon stuck Wes with the needle, his eyes looked between the two vampires. "Turning a kid into a vampire so you can experiment on him? That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow, while Wes shook his head.

"Human trials are a vital part of modern medicine." The Professor shrugged without a single hint of remorse for his actions.

"Yeah, but don't people usually volunteer or sign waivers? Maybe get some dough for tuition."

"You do what's necessary for the greater good."

"The greater good?" Evelyn scoffed as she sat herself down on the gurney that laid beside Wes'. "That's what you're calling it?"

"I'm not the greatest guy in the world, but sounds like some Mengele-level crap that you're spouting out." Damon headed over with, yet another, infection to give Wes. "So, I gotta ask, what is your greater good?" He stared at the needle Damon held up. "Rabies, sounds fun, doesn't it? And, appropriate, given your circumstance."

The couple waited a while and the Rabies did absolutely nothing to Wes causing Evelyn to frown and then go in search of a more lethal infection. "I wanted to turn Jesse into a new kind of vampire." Wes finally blurted out.

A scoff of disbelief left Damon's lips, as he glanced over to his girlfriend. "Well, that's awfully ambitious of you."

"I am awfully smart."

"And awfully irritating, can we cut to it please? I'm really starting to get bored." Evelyn puffed out then she strolled back over to them with "Ebola. Are you gonna tell me why you're doing this, do I need to inject you?"

"Because your kind is dangerous to humans because we're your food source." The Professor stated plainly. "I wanna change that. If vampires no longer need to feed on humans, they're no longer a threat."

Damon lowly growled as he glanced to Evelyn, who still held the Ebola needle. "Well, I'm not buying the good doctor bit."

"Human blood will only satiate Jesse temporarily until he gets a taste for what he really craves." He finally blurts out. Evelyn jumped to her feet and Damon got up in the Doctor's face.

"Well, what exactly does he really crave?"

"Vampire blood," Wes revealed, but as soon as he did, Damon and Evelyn's eyes widened. Jesse was at the party with their friends— most of whom were vampires.

"I need— I'll call Elena." Evelyn's voice was panicked as she pulled her phone from her pocket and darted into the hallway with it against her ear. "Elena got some bad news for you. Jesse feeds on vampires. He's a Ripper."

"The fact that he told you and Damon this means that he's still alive, right?" Elena asked with a voice full of concern. "Evelyn, please don't kill him."

"Ugh. Fine, okay. I'll assist in whatever moral-crisis-bender you're on." A grunt left Evelyn's lips as she glanced back into the lab where Wes and Damon were. "Look, just keep your distance from Jesse, okay?"

An immediate sigh of relief escaped the doppelganger's lips. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Evelyn rolled her eyes, ended the call, and slipped her phone back into her pocket as she wandered back into the lab. "So, we aren't allowed to kill him."

"Are you joking?" Damon scrunched his face up and then glanced back to Wes. "I know people like him. If we let him live, he'll just do it again. He'll turn another vampire, he'll do another experiment. The only way to really handle you is just to snuff you out." He then glanced to Evelyn, who eyed him cautiously. "You're lucky I do what that beautiful woman says otherwise I'd be burying your body."

Evelyn sighed in relief as she watched Damon slice his wrist open to offer Wes his blood, but as he did so, the door swung open to reveal and angered looking Jesse. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"Woah. Jesse, just calm down. We're handling him, and we can explain everything." Evelyn lifted her hand up in the air out of surrender the minute Jesse stormed in.

The Ripper completely ignored Evelyn's comment and set his eyes on Wes. "Wasn't bad enough that you locked me up and poked me full of needles? Now, I wanna feed on the girl I like?"

"You feed on the monsters, Jesse." Wes corrected him with a proud look in his eyes.

"We are not monsters," Evelyn grumbled back but immediately noticed the veins underneath Jesse's eyes start to grow the minute he caught the scent of Damon's vampire blood. Jesse attempted to speed toward Damon, but Evelyn caught him by the throat. "Nice try, but I'm older than you. Which means, I'm a hell of a lot stronger than you."

"Actually, that's not one-hundred percent accurate." Wes clears his throat to comment yet again.

Jesse pushed Evelyn off of him with ease and threw her across the room before he sped over to Damon, who tackled him into the hallway. He pinned Damon to the ground of the hall and attempted to bite his neck several times.

Evelyn rolls her eyes and grabbed hold of a knife that was on the table. She sliced straight through the middle of her palm as the blood suddenly ran out and down her arm. Then, she stepped into the hall. "Come on, Jesse. You smell that? You should probably feed on me. I mean, even Damon agrees that I taste great."

Jesse removed his grip from Damon, then threw him straight down the corridor. His eyes narrowed toward Evelyn as he sped straight for her and grabbed her by the throat. A scream left her lips as soon as she felt Jesse's fangs pierce the skin against her neck.

"Evelyn!" The panicked voice of Elena Gilbert called from the end of the hallway as she saw Evelyn within Jesse's grasp. "Jesse. Jesse, let go of her. Jesse!"

"Elena, he's a Ripper. He's not gonna stop unless you stop him, please! Evelyn breathlessly pleaded as she felt the life slowly drain from her body.

Elena grabbed a piece of broken wood from the floor, then she stabbed it straight into Jesse's heart. As soon as the doppelganger staked Jesse, Caroline sped down the corridor and dropped to the floor with Jesse in her arms.

"Evelyn." Damon helped the lifeless girl get to her feet. He gave her a small smile, then moved her brunette locks from her face to gave her a once-over. "You're okay. Everything's gonna be okay."

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Caroline disappeared after Jesse's death, and Elena was nowhere to be found. That left Damon and Evelyn to deal with Professor Maxfield. They stepped back into the lab as they heard a groan leave his lips. "If you're gonna do this—" Wes began with a tired voice. "I'd much rather a bullet through the brain."

The Austin vampire folded her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall. "Shame you didn't give poor old Jesse that choice, huh?"

"Actually, I'm gonna wait until I can compel all this out of your head," Damon spoke with a low tone of voice. He headed over to the fridge and paused with a confused look on his face. "What the hell is that? Why does this say 12144?"

"What do you care?" Wes scoffed.

"Because I was 21051."

Evelyn's eyes widened fearfully as soon as she saw the look of terror spread across Damon's face like a wildfire. She had never seen Damon Salvatore scared—truly shaken. She stepped over to him with concern. "Damon, what's going on. What is it?"

"21051." Wes trailed off, almost as if he were slowly trying to put the pieces together. "Hang on. You were an Augustine vampire?"

"I haven't heard that name in decades," Damon muttered quietly. "Vampire lab rats coded subjects names. I thought you guys shut down sixty-years ago."

"You thought wrong."

In one fit of rage, Damon slammed the fridge shut and then attempted to speed at Wes, but he was immediately stopped by a sudden influx of gas that swept through the laboratory. "Atomized Vervain. When working with vampires you never can be too careful." Wes chuckled softly as Damon and Evelyn both fell unconscious at his feet. I'm sure Augustine will be thrilled to have you back." His eyes then turned to the brunette vampire that laid beside Damon. "As well as another new test subject."

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