CHAPTER SIXTEEN | BECAUSE THE NIGHT

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THE THREE VAMPIRES WALKED THE BUSY STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY. The place was the best place to be, especially for a vampire— there were so many people around, so many unsuspecting victims that the death would surely go unnoticed. It was perfect. Damon was busy reminiscing about his time in the city, while Elena appeared like she couldn't care less.

"You dragged me all the way to New York because you were feeling nostalgic?" Elena scoffed in a bored tone as she walked beside the two vampires.

"No. We dragged you to New York because in a matter of three days you managed to piss off everyone in Mystic Falls. A little more difficult to do in a city of millions." Damon explained as he gestured to the dozens of people around then.

"I was hungry."

"You were reckless." The Austin vampire retorted in a pointed tone which caused Elena to grunt under her breath.

"Look, all that matters is that when I lived here, I fed like crazy and had a blast and went undetected for years." Damon sighed, Elena clearly wasn't getting the point.

"So we're just here to have fun?" Elena eyed the pair up suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

"Why do you always assume we have an ulterior motive?" Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"There's no catch. Look, you wanted out, we got you out. You wanted to feed, I brought you to a city-sized-all-you-can-eat buffet." Damon finally got her attention. "That's the beauty of New York, there's so much life that a little death goes unnoticed. Now, come on." They turned into a bar just off the sidewalk. "Looks about right,"

"I was promised hedonism." Elena pointed out to the Salvatore while Evelyn made her way to the bar and poured herself a shot of vodka. She knew that if she was spending the day with emotionless-Elena, she would surely need it.

"Well, it's early." Damon rolled his eyes. "Hedonism isn't a big fan of the sunlight."

"Or soap."

"Girls got a point, where the hell are we?" Evelyn nodded in agreement with Elena and then turned her attention to Damon.

"Easy, judgy. I happened to like this place back in the day." Damon smirked with his eyes firmly on Evelyn. "Give it a couple of hours, this place will be crawling with more punked-out nihilists than you can eat in a decade, trust me. I spent most of the seventies here. The factory was too clean, CBGB's was too high-profile but Billy's— Billy's was the underground of the underground."

Damon got lost in his own thoughts and began to tell the two vampires all about his time in New York way back when. He killed some girls and gave their ID's to a guy named, Billy, who conventionally owned the bar. Damon and Billy gave new identities for vampires that were on the run. The Salvatore claimed it was his way of doing something good— That was until Lexi showed up to help him.

"You got Lexied?" Elena scoffed in disbelief.

Damon eyed up the two vampires, clearly embarrassed at the fact that Lexi tried to get herself involved. Before anyone could say anything else, Rebekah appeared behind the Salvatore and slammed his face down against the bar.

"Following a lead without me? Poor form, Damon. I have to say I'm a little hurt." The blonde released her grip as Damon managed to stand up-right. "Thought we all made a good team, not without its fireworks but what classic pairing isn't?"

"Rebekah. Wonderful." The Austin vampire rolled her eyes and took another shot of vodka. "Care to explain why you're actually here?"

"You and Damon are following a lead to the cure, and I'm following you." Rebekah tilted her head and smiled the moment she noticed a look of horror appear on the doppelganger's face.

"You're doing what?!" Elena viciously spat as she glanced between Damon and Evelyn.

"How does it feel to be wrong all the time?" Damon rolled his eyes as he slung his arm over Evelyn's shoulder. "We brought Elena here to feed and Evelyn here to enjoy the sights, plus I happen to extremely loved her company." Damon quickly shot his eyes back to Evelyn as he looked her up and down before he turned back to the blonde Original vampire.

"Right, so you drove seven hours to New York City—"

"—Yes, as I was explaining to Elena and Evelyn before we were so rudely interrupted that my history in this city has particular relevance to Elena's current situation. When I had my humanity off."

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The club began to fill at a rapid pace, and Evelyn couldn't help but be amazed by the number of people willing to party in a place that looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in a century. Once Damon and Evelyn noticed Elena was too distracted feeding on locals with Rebekah, the pair left the club and headed to an apartment owned by one of Damon's old friends, Will.

"Jesus, look at this place," Evelyn stated bluntly as she kicked a cardboard box that was laid across the ground. "How the hell are we supposed to find anything here? This is a hoarder's dream."

"Look, all we need to do is find anything that might lead us to where Katherine is now. Okay?" Damon rolled his eyes and noticed a text from Stefan, then he dialed his brother's number and lifted his phone to his ear. "So, Silas is appearing as professor Shane? Wouldn't be my first choice."

"What?!" Evelyn lifted her head up from one of the filing cabinets. "Oh, my God."

"Well, it would be if you needed to brainwash Bonnie into committing a massacre." Stefan bluntly stated with a sigh.

"Stef, Do you need me to come home and help?" The brunette vampire called in the direction of the phone. "I'm sure Damon will be fine on his own."

"No, we got it. How's the cure search going?"

"Not great." Damon sighed out in irritation. "I mean, it's no massacre-in-the making, but Rebekah trailed us here. In addition to my buddy being a brilliant identity theft, he's also a hoarder."

"What are you trying to find?" They heard Stefan's voice fill with confusion.

"Will had a repeat customer, 5'7 brunette. Said she was a runner."

"Katherine."

Evelyn nodded as a small scoff escaped her lips when she glanced up to look at Damon. "Turns out this idiot was helping her run from himself."

"Problem is, I'm pretty sure that his filing system goes by birthdate but I can't for the life of me remember Katherine's." Damon bent down over the filing system with his phone to his ear by his shoulder.

"June 5th, 1473." Stefan Immediately spoke without any hesitation.

"I can't decide if that's sweet, or incredibly tragic." The Austin girl muttered under her breath as she moved over to the filing cabinet near Damon.

"And that, brother, is why you are the better boyfriend," Damon commented just before he pulled out a stack of papers. "Well, would you look at that? It's all her former addresses, including a couple from the last two months. They're mostly P.O boxes but hey, it narrows the search."

"Well, you're welcome. You headed back now?"

"No, tomorrow morning. Elena's suspicious enough with Rebekah showing up and blabbing about the cure. All we need to do is convince her this trip was solely about her." Evelyn shrugged.

Their conversation was interrupted by Elena who shoved the door open and wandered inside of the apartment with a raised eyebrow just as Damon shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Sorry, had to get some quiet. Couldn't hear Stefan over The Runaways 2.0."

"Let me guess," Elena rolled her eyes and feigned sympathy. "He's worried."

Damon fired back with a simple shrug. "He's having acid flashbacks of me and Lexi in the seventies in New York. I'll tell you both about it over a drink, come on."

"Oh, storytime with Damon Salvatore. I cannot wait." Evelyn grunted under her breathe as she and Damon ushered Elena back out into the bar so he could begin his story.

"Lexi stuck with me for months. She was partying with me, showing me a good time. But, late every night, she would torture me in the worst possible way. She would get me wasted and ask me questions about—" Damon immediately froze. He realized he had never really spoken about the story before.

"About what?" Elena furrowed her brows with intrigue.

"She was trying to trigger an emotion in me— she wanted me to flip my switch." Damon shrugged vaguely and then let his eyes finally fall to Evelyn. "She wanted to talk about you. How I felt about you. She thought if I would do that, then I would get my humanity back. But, I didn't want to do that— I couldn't. So, instead, I pretended I flipped it back on then Lexi and I slept together. "

While Evelyn remained seemingly taken aback by the fact Lexi tried to trigger Damon's emotions by asking him about her, Elena seemed more interested in him and Lexi. "You and Lexi? Here? On the bar?"

"On the bar. On the stage. On the roof. It was a very long night." Damon listed with a smirk just as Elena leaned over the bar, grabbed a bottle of Bourbon, and jumped off her stool. "Where are you going?"

"To the roof." Elena smirked, "I wanna hear the rest of the story." Elena left first for the roof, and then Damon and Evelyn followed hesitantly after. Evelyn knew that Elena was up to something, and she wanted to know what. "It's beautiful up here."

"Sure." Evelyn rolled her eyes and glanced to the horizon ahead of her, but the sound of bones cracking caused her to look back. Immediately, she saw Damon's body drop to the floor. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't do exactly the same thing to you, Elena."

"Evelyn, listen." Elena's eyes fell on the vampire that was a lot older than her. "I know you hate me, but I don't have feelings for Damon and I'm obviously not sired to him anymore. Why don't you help us get the cure for Rebekah, so she can get the life she's always dreamed of."

"She would never help us, Elena. Darling Evelyn here, is sired to Damon emotionally. She's in love with him. Pathetic, really." Rebekah's voice called out as she stepped onto the rooftop. "There's one dose of the cure and Evelyn will make damn sure it's cramped down your throat, right Evelyn?"

"I mean—" Before the Austin vampire could even finish her sentence, Rebekah sped forward and snapped her neck as her body dropped to her feet.

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"Evelyn," Damon muttered out as he gently patted Evelyn's cheek in an attempt to wake her. "Evelyn wake up." He watched the brunette's eyes flutter open, but immediately wince due to the fact sunlight had now risen.

"What the hell—" Evelyn lifted her head up to the back of her neck and rubbed it as soon as he got to her feet. "That bitch snapped my neck."

Suddenly, Damon's phone started to ring from his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Elena was calling." Good morning, Damon."

"Where are you?" He groaned out in an irritated tone of voice.

"The better question would be, where are we going?" The doppelganger trailed off in a clueless manner.

"Sorry, Damon. I think I broke your radio." Rebekah called out toward the speakerphone which caused The Salvatore to immediately lose her temper.

"You're in my car?!"

"We weren't gonna take the bus. I wish this could've gone differently, I really do. But, we'll give Katherine your best." With that, Elena Gilbert ended the call.

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" Evelyn croaked out.

"We just got played, Eve."

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