The Bourbon Diaries ✢ The Vampire Diaries FanFiction ✢ TVD FanFic ✢ TVDU FanFic

Chapter Sixty-One - Lana Peters

Present day

Mystic Falls, VA

Stef didn't rip out Lorraine's heart.

Lorraine wished she had.

Because at the very same moment Stef's humanity returned, so did Lorraine's.

Regret was the most shattering feeling to come back to her. She should never have looked into Stef's family history three years ago. Her curiosity had led her to a man called Alaric, a former history teacher, Damon's best friend, and an expert on the town's past. He was used to history students seeking him out for information, though she might have been the first fake one.

What she found out destroyed her. For the first time in hundreds of years, Lorraine felt completely alone. Her only purpose was gone---her only family wiped out---brutally ripped away from her by the Salvatore brothers. Katerina Petrova---or 'Katherine Pierce' as Alaric had called her---died in a fire in the underground tunnels that ran throughout Mystic Falls. It had been a trap, set by Stefan and Damon Salvatore... and Stefan lost his life ensuring she didn't survive it.

Lorraine had wanted to collapse, scream, cry, and die. She had nothing left except a growing anger within her that had no outlet. Stefanie was related to her sister's killers, and she too closely resembled the woman she once loved to do anything to hurt her. So Lorraine's humanity had to go, leaving her with nothing but a desire for vengeance. Her first intended target had been Stefanie. Damon had taken away her sister, so she would take away his daughter. It would also rid her of the living and breathing reminder of what she had loved and lost. That had been the plan. Her humanity was off, nothing was stopping her.

Nothing... except Cristian.

The plan changed because of him. He wouldn't let Stefanie die, so eventually they worked together and came to a compromise. The new target: Damon Salvatore. Lorraine hadn't anticipated Cristian dying after it turned out he'd been the witch in the ritual all along. She hadn't anticipated returning to her old plan to kill Stefanie. She hadn't anticipated Adam waking up, having had vampire blood in his system, meaning Stefanie would live, her humanity back, her inability to kill forcing her to release the grip she had on Lorraine's heart. It didn't make a difference... because the most shocking thing she hadn't anticipated was the first invisible slice she felt against her vampirism... the one that switched her own humanity back on.

The one that meant that it was Lorraine's blood that had turned Stef.

A look of horror overtook Stef's face as she removed her hand slowly and gently from Lorraine's chest. Even after everything she'd done, Stef couldn't bring herself to take her life. By leaving her heart in place, she thought the damage would heal. How wrong she was. Only Lorraine knew the truth. Feeling the spell carving away at her vampirism, the bloody hole in her chest only partially closed before her healing ability was then, too, eliminated by the curse.

Stepping slowly backwards, Lorraine felt Gabe's hands on her shoulders, standing behind her, forcing her to stop. It seemed she wasn't the only one who knew the truth.

"I knew there was a chance, Lana," he said, "but I didn't realize you had been donating blood to the hospital for so long." Gabe eased Lorraine down to the floor as the weakness hit her, her legs giving way. He sat her back against a crate. "It was your blood Damon had been using on Stef---your blood that turned her."

Lorraine kept her eyes on Stef, but she was no longer looking at her. All the feelings Lorraine had towards Sorcha hit her like a tidal wave, and she had one final desperate hope that Stef might remember her before she died. But, wrapping her arms around the open wound to her chest---a hopeless masking of her vulnerability---she remained alone in the shadows as Stef turned and ran towards Raid and Adam. They were more important to her now. Stef didn't remember Sorcha... didn't remember Lana... didn't remember the love they'd shared. Lorraine was nothing to her.