The Original Hybrid

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The first thing I hear is Damon choking on whatever he was drinking. A smile spreads across my face when I hear fake Katherine say, “Stefan? Stefan, are you okay?” But all of my satisfaction disappears when I feel something grab my arm and begin to pull me away.

“Was that really necessary?” Anna asks in an irritated voice once we are outside of the Grill.

“Of course it was! That bitch Ellen was talking shit about my hair! And Stefan laughed along with her.” I can see sympathy in Anna’s eyes and she lets go of my arm.

“Her name’s Elena, by the way, not Ellen.”

“Like I give a shit,” I say, kicking a rock on the ground. It disappears out of sight and I sigh.

“Why wasn’t that nearly as satisfying as it should have been? I mean, my brothers did not know that I was alive for what? 145 years? And all I get is cliché drink choking and speechlessness! They should be, like, sobbing over me! God!”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize you wanted us to have mental breakdowns.”

Anna and I both spin around, and I instinctively run towards the voice before I register who it belongs to. I grab Damon by the neck and shove him against the brick wall of the Grill. He coughs awkwardly and tries to squirm, but I squeeze his neck and he stops struggling. I feel Stefan’s hand hover over my shoulder, but then it disappears, so I assume that Anna is holding him back.

“Do not sass me, Damon Salvatore.” He rolls his eyes. I anticipate his next move before he tries to do it, so I grab his foot with my free hand and snap it backwards. Damon tries to stifle his scream, but fails.

“What do you want?”

My breaths grow heavy after Damon asks his ignorant question.

“What? No ‘how are you alive’? Or ‘how did you become a vampire’?” I ask, but I am just getting started. “How are you stronger than the infamous Damon Salvatore? In fact, how are you stronger than both of the Salvatore brothers? What are you doing with Anna? What did Katherine do to you? Where is Katerina Petrova right at this very moment? What have you possibly been doing the past 150 years? Not even how did you feel to find your own father drained of his blood with a wooden chair leg straight through his stomach? No, because all you care about is why I have suddenly decided to show my face!”

The color is draining from Damon’s face now. Even if he is a vampire, he still needs air. He’ll go unconscious without it, but then he will wake up again, unlike average humans. I choose to let go of Damon’s neck, but only so I do not have to patiently wait for him to wake up from his vampiristic coma.

“Wait, Damon why did you turn Kariana?” Stefan asks my older brother who is gasping for breath. I give both of them a weird look. “Damon didn’t turn me.”

“Who the hell did?”

Damon stands up and leans against the wall to keep his “cool guy” stance in check. I roll my eyes.

“Katherine, obviously. Well, technically it was Anna’s blood. Katherine fed on me, but then Anna saved me with her blood, and then Katherine killed me with the vampire blood in my system so I died,” I explain. Stefan has looked worried since I first said I was turned by Katherine. Oh, right, Stefan did not know that Katherine and I were friends back then. He fell for her so quickly that everyone else’s lives were insignificant to his own. “Anna and Emily Bennett helped me complete the transition.” Damon groans dramatically.

“Emily Bennett, really?” He asks and I feel suddenly defensive of my old friend. Emily is the only reason that I am still alive today. I would have been killed a long time ago if it weren’t for her spell.

“Damon,” Stefan says in a warning tone. I would bet money that Emily is on the other side watching this conversation unfold right this second, so I can see why Stefan would be worried. The few Bennett witches that I have known are all pretty insane; especially after they pass on.

“What’s going on, Stefan?”

I spin on my heel to face the door, and I have to resist the urge to charge at her on spot. Ellen is standing there running her hands along her arms. Seriously? It isn’t even cold outside right now!

“Nothing!” Stefan answers too quickly. Amused smiles spread across mine and Anna’s faces.

“You should just head back inside, Elena.” My smile grows when I see Elena’s angry expression after Damon tells her what to do. Her appearance really does remind me of Katherine, but the similarities stop there. “Don’t tell me what to do!” She whines.

“Kariana,” Stefan calls my name and I look over at him. “Just tell us why you are here.”

“It’s very simple. My dear friend, really she is like the sister I never had, Anna would like to see her mother, who is stuck inside of that stupid tomb that Damon had Emily Bennett create. So, I am here to help Anna get Pearl, and then the three of us will run off into the sunset!” Anna cracks a smile at the last part. “Not to mention that my other dear friend, Lexi Branson, came here to visit you,” I point to Stefan. “Two months ago for our birthday, but she has yet to return. So where is Lexi?” Stefan visibly winces when I say her name. I immediately know that something is wrong. I already suspected that something was when Lexi wasn’t returning my calls or texts, but Stefan must know something that I do not.

Everyone, besides Anna, looks uneasy when Stefan opens his mouth to speak. It seems as if even the people passing by across the street are giving off a worried vibe. Ellen is glaring at Damon, who is staring at me with slightly wide eyes. What did he do?

“How did you know Lexi?”

Did? Did. That one word jumps out at me and takes hold of my emotions. Suddenly I feel like throwing both of my brothers against these brick walls and running away, but I remain standing frozen in place.

“What happened to her? Tell me now, or I will kill you all.”

Anna lets go of Stefan’s arm and backs away into the street. She knows me well enough to know that if I don’t like what I am about to hear, I will go off.

“Calm down, grandma,” Ellen says and I instantly think of everything I could say to ruin this girl’s self esteem right now, but somehow I bite my tongue. “Damon killed her to save him and Stefan.”

I should have figured that my selfish brother was the one to kill her. He almost did it before on that rooftop, but Lexi was fooled by lust. How the hell did Damon lure her into his death trap once again? Lexi was much smarter, and stronger, than him. And what does Ellen mean that he did it to save himself and Stefan?

Does his reasoning really even matter?

Within seconds I have Damon pinned against the brick wall, once again, and my arm is pressed against his throat. I can feel the anger boiling inside of me. He killed Lexi. Damon killed one of the only people in this entire world who understood me. Damon killed one of my best friends.

So now, I am going to have to kill him.

I can feel the veins appear around my eyes and my fangs come in. I hiss at Damon, whose eyes are now wide with fear rather than worry. Ellen shrieks, and I hear Stefan let out a soft gasp.

“Kariana… Your eyes!” Stefan exclaims with a shaky voice. I bare my fangs at him, and Stefan immediately wraps his arms around Ellen protectively. Yes, like my bite could do anything to her that cannot be healed.

“You aren’t a vampire,” Ellen points out, and I roll my eyes. “Vampires eyes are black and yours are yellow! What are you?”

“It’s a lovely creature known as a hybrid. I’m sure my brothers can give you a history lesson.”