CHAPTER TEN | CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

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EVELYN EVENTUALLY PULLED UP TO THE GILBERT'S LAKEHOUSE IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT. As she headed toward the house, she noticed that there appeared to be nobody inside. She was only able to be invited inside by a member of the Gilbert family, but Jeremy was nowhere to be seen. Her head lifted as she heard rustling in the distance, her eyes narrowed in the direction as she let the veins underneath her eyes grow.

"If I were you, I'd turn around and leave me the hell alone." Evelyn hissed viciously as she edged forward and ran her tongue against her fangs but Damon soon appeared with a smirk on his face.

"Rather rude, don't you think?" The Salvatore vampire gave Evelyn his signature smirk. No matter how upset and angry she still was with him, she couldn't help but smile. "Don't suppose you've seen Donovan or little Gilbert running around out here?"

"You mean you don't know where they are?" Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows with a dumbfounded look on her face while Damon shrugged.

"I know where they are, I just can't seem to find them at the present moment and the fact that there are a dozen bloodthirsty vampires running around thanks to Klaus, I'm a little concerned," Damon revealed as soon as Matt stepped into view with a bite mark on his neck and Elena Gilbert by his side. "Oh. Found him."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Evelyn immediately turned her sights to the doppelganger. She was sure that she had left Elena in Mystic Falls and yet, here she was.

"Uh, Matt called me." Elena vaguely responded breathlessly as the human held his hand up to the wound on his neck. "What're you doing here?"

"Get to the house! Hurry!" Jeremy ran up beside the vampire's hand pushed them in the direction of the lakehouse while a dozen vampires followed behind them. "Suns up. They're long gone," Jeremy informed as he turned away from the window and looked at Elena, who was dabbing a towel on Matt's vampire bite.

Damon stepped into the room and irritation suddenly grew onto Elena's face as she stood up. "What the hell were you thinking? All I asked you to do was to teach him how to fight."

"He's not the best student in the world." Damon defended, earning a look from the younger Gilbert.

"Wait. Now, this is my fault?" Jeremy Gilbert scoffed in disbelief considering it wasn't his idea to get Klaus' help.

"Stop talking." Damon then turned back to Elena, who seemed displeased. "Look, I know you're angry but my way was the easiest, fastest, and safest way to complete his mark to get you the cure."

"I don't care about the cure, Damon, not if it means putting the people that I love in danger." Elena shook her head while Evelyn scoff from beside Damon.

"Oh please, everyone is just dying to put themselves in harm's way for Elena Gilbert. You may as well just accept that." Evelyn felt Damon jab her in the side, almost as if he was silently telling her to be quiet.

"Hey, there would've been no danger if he hadn't gone all bleeding heart," Damon interrupted the tension and then pointed to the youngest Gilbert.

"He killed someone. These were innocent people." Elena quickly pointed out.

"But the mark grew, didn't it?"

The female let out a slight sigh. She knew that Damon was right. "Okay, look. We need a plan. There's a group of compelled vampires out there and as soon as the sun goes down they're gonna come after Matt, so we have to find a way to protect him."

"Yes, I know, but there will be no problem when Big Jer, Evelyn, and I go on a hunting expedition. Elena, I know it's tragic, I get it but we also agreed that he had to kill them. Now we have added incentive. So you take the least most valuable player home, and we'll finish this." Damon turned his eyes to Evelyn. "Together."

"I'm sorry, are you saying that I should leave him here with you two?" The doppelganger looked between Evelyn and Damon in utter disbelief.

"Trust me," Damon stepped forward, knowingly invoking the sire bond. "I will keep him safe, okay?

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"You really think they went back to the bar?" Evelyn heard Jeremy ask from behind her as she closed Damon's car door. Damon had suggested that the vampire's compelled to kill him had sought refuge in the bar that Klaus turned them in.

"It's probable, I mean they can't be in the sun otherwise they're gonna burn to death." Evelyn shrugged immediately as she wandered around to the trunk of Damon's car.

"Exactly, plus it's all cabins and vacation homes. They can't get in anywhere." Damon dug through the back of his car and lifted out a gun, presumably loaded with wooden bullets, and handed it straight to Jeremy. Then he gave him a crossbow. "Alright, there you go."

"Fine, let's get this over with." Jeremy rolled his eyes. He seemed focused and desperate to complete the hunter's mark.

"Listen. Just go one at a time, only shoot for the heart—" Damon began to teach before he was cut off.

"Don't hesitate, and please don't miss otherwise we're going to have to save your ass." Evelyn wriggled her eyebrows toward the boy who scoffed.

"Save the teaching moment, Elena's not here. You don't have to pretend like you give a damn about me." Jeremy scoffed in the direction of the Salvatore yet seemed strangely thankful for Evelyn's input.

"I'm trying to keep you alive, dumbass."

"If you're quite finished, let's get this done. The air out here is making my head spin." The brunette vampire began to walk inside the bar with the boys swiftly behind her.

They looked around the notice that the bar was deserted with no sign of life anywhere. Evelyn continued to move in further as she followed the scent of blood. She looked down and saw crimson red stains on the floor leading to a kitchen and that was when Damon pushed past her and kept her behind him as he made his way into the room first.

"Ah." He whispered as he looked around the room to see a pile of desiccated vampire bodies scattered around. "Looks like we're going to have to find some new vampires. What a waste."

"Something's wrong. Somebody killed these vampires. Somebody that wants to stop us from getting the rest of this map done." Evelyn muttered as she stared at the desiccated vampires.

"Oh, Evelyn Austin, you clever girl." A familiar voice spoke which caused the three to quickly turn on their heels just as Kol appeared behind them with his hands in the air. "I confess, I did it."

"Kol." Jeremy pointed the crossbow directly at the Original.

"Jeremy, good to see you, mate. Sorry about the mess, it was a little crowded when I arrived. I prefer more intimate gatherings, isn't that right, Evelyn?" He shot her a quick smirk before getting back on task. "We four need to have a little chat. Care for a drink?"

Damon glanced at the bottle of bourbon in Kol's hold and then shook his head. "He's underage. She drinks way too much and I don't like you. So, let's just cut to it."

"My brother bragged about his plan to complete Jeremy's hunter's mark. It was easy enough to track this lot down, they were all hiding in the shadows. Now, killing young vampires is easy—" Kol viciously narrowed his eyes toward Damon. "Or old ones, for that matter."

"Klaus bragged? I wouldn't dream of him doing something so childish." Evelyn scoffed. "What's any of this got to do with you?"

"Because, you fools, in your zeal to find the cure you risk waking someone very dangerous." Kol snapped.

"Oh, you must be talking about Silas," Damon spoke as Kol's eyes began to widen.

"What do you know of him?"

"Nothing, don't want to." Damon shook his head.

"Exactly, not our problem." The female continued.

"A few hundred years back, I came across a group that worshipped Silas. His followers told me that he would rise again, and when he did, he would trigger the end of all time. You know, being an immortal, you can see why I'm opposed to time's ending. So I murdered all of them. And, now, here you are willing to risk raising him in your search for the cure. I can't exactly sit back and let that happen, can I?"

"We're not gonna back off the cure because you were told one too many scary bedtime stories, you idiot." Damon mocked just as Kol shoved past Damon and Evelyn to get to Jeremy.

"Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You're a smart lad. Why don't you call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?"

"I'm not calling anything off, mate," Jeremy responded while he kept his crossbow aimed at the Original.

"Well, I could kill you all. But then I'd have to deal with the hunter's curse. And, I don't particularly feel like being haunted for the next century. Better idea, I'll just rip your arms off." As soon as Kol attempted to speed towards the Gilbert, he was slammed against the wall by Damon.

"Evelyn, get him out of here now." Evelyn grabbed hold of Jeremy's hand and sped him out of the bar.

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Once Evelyn had sped Jeremy out of the bar, Kol had compelled Damon to find and kill Jeremy. Damon didn't want to hurt him but he couldn't fight the compulsion so instead, he was shouting through the forest telling Jeremy to run. Luckily. Evelyn and Elena were hot on the vampire's trail and ready to help stop him. 

Evelyn's eyes immediately widened in relief when she saw The Salvatore halt in front of her. "Damon! Damon, stop."

"Damon, stop! Please. I know you don't want to hurt Jeremy, so please stop." Elena begged with the sound of fear echoing in her voice. "You can resist this because you love me. And you wouldn't do a single thing to hurt me—and hurting Jeremy would hurt me."

"—I can't." Damon breathed for a second before trying to rush off just as Evelyn stood in his way. The brunette vampire placed her hands tightly onto his upper arms and looked him straight in the eyes. He didn't want to disappoint Evelyn, but the compulsion was too deep. "Evelyn, I can't—I just can't stop this."

"Then try, for me. Please, he doesn't deserve to die, especially by your hand. You're better than this, so much better." Evelyn took a shaky breath as she watched the Salvatore lock eyes with her. "Damon, if you feel even the slightest sort of feelings for me, hold onto that, use it to fight the compulsion."

At that moment, Elena finally realized that Evelyn was in love with Damon obviously had some unresolved feelings for her, too. But somehow he was blinded by his affection for Elena. He was able to stop hunting Jeremy for a moment until they heard a drop of blood hit a leaf. He sadly looks back at Evelyn, but before he got to disappear, the brunette snapped his neck. 

Elena glanced at Evelyn, who had sighed out in relief once Damon's body fell to the ground. "Uh—thank you for—"

"Elena, you don't need to thank me." Evelyn rolled her eyes. She and the Gilbert girl hadn't spoken since her confession about sleeping with Damon. "I'm not exactly going to let Damon kill Jeremy, am I?"

"No, but you didn't have to help me." The doppelganger voiced once more as Evelyn turned around to face her. "I'm sorry for sleeping—"

"You and Damon can whatever the hell you like. It doesn't matter to me." 

"It does because you're in love with him, Evelyn." Elena sighed out. "You came back to Mystic Falls for him, didn't you? Caroline told me. I wish I'd have known sooner."

"What difference would it have made, huh?" Evelyn chuckled softly. "He's in love with you and you're in love with him. I am nothing but a spare part, Elena. Anyway, you're welcome for the save."

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