Potential (Book Four, The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 4__The Five

At home, a few days later, I was in the library, observing the hunter's mark on a wooden stake.

Damon walked into the room with some boxes on his shoulder.

"So what is all this?" I asked.

"Some personal items that I snaked from the vampire hunter's RV," Damon answered. Stefan walked into the room from behind him. "May he rest in peace. I'm searching for a supernatural handbook."

"And you know for a fact that he was supernatural?" Stefan asked.

Damon's mood instantly turned bitter. "Definitely was't natural. The guy magically appeared just as someone blows up the entire Founder's Council. He's covered in a tattoo that only Jeremy Gilbert--of all people in the world--seems to be able to see. Klaus mentioned something about him being one of the ive. Then he kamikazes himself with explosives. Sound natural to you?" 

"What's the Five?" I asked.

"That's what I'm hoping is in the first chapter of the handbook," Damon told us. I nodded sarcastically. Damon's phone rang. he answered. "Liz Forbes, my favorite Sheriff." He looked worried. "What? That's . . . concerning. Keep me posted." 

Damon hung up.

"What?" Stefan asked. "You're not gonna tell me?" 

"Can't tell you," Damon told him. "Private. We're in a fight." 

"You're in a fight," Stefan told him. "I'm not in a fight. I'm over it. I've been over it." 

"Not still mad at me about Elena?" Damon asked.

"You let her feed on you," Stefan told him. "I'm always gonna be mad at you, but we're not in a fight." 

"Just kiss and make up," I told them.

Damon and Stefan gave me a weird look.

I shrugged.

"Very well, then," Damon said awkwardly. "They didn't find any remains at the explosion site." 

"So Connor's still out there," I said. 

"Apparently so," Damon told us. "I'm gonna need you to get on this today. I have to take Elena to college." 

Stefan looked surprised. "I'm sorry, you have to do what, exactly?" 

"I'm teaching her how to feed," Damon told us. "She needs to learn snatch, eat, eraze now more than ever." Stefan opened his mouth to speak. "Ah, ah, we're not in a fight, remember?" 

Damon walked out of the room, leaving.

I looked at Stefan, inhaling. "So, you talk to Klaus, and I'll look around here. Sound good?" Stefan opened his mouth to speak. I cut him off. "Good." 

I walked away. 

While I had been researching through what very little was in those boxes, Damon was gone all day with Elena and Bonnie at Whitmore College, and Stefan was gone all day dealing with Klaus.