The Supernatural Diaries {Book One}

Haunted: Dean I

When I woke up the next morning, it was to the sound of muffled voices coming from down the hall. Almost immediately, I noticed that I was in one of the rooms at the Salvatore Mansion- not Damon's, thank God. I got out of the bed, cringing slightly when I realized that I still had on the same grimy clothes from yesterday, and walked out of the room to find out what was going on.

I tracked the voices down to the opposite end of the second-floor hallway in Stefan's room, where I heard him talking to Damon and Vicki. I was just about to knock on the open door when all three of them turned to look at me. "Hey, Dean," Stefan sighed. "How'd you sleep?"

"Uh, fine, I guess," I mumbled, turning to eye Vicki warily. "So what's going on?" Before Stefan could answer, Damon whirled around in his chair dramatically, setting the newspaper he must have been reading down on the desk, and let out an exaggerated groan. "Well, for starters, Vicki keeps trying to go home even though we told her it's not safe," he began. "On top of that, there is no mention anywhere of the Fell guy that I killed last night in today's newspaper, which means that somebody's covering it up."

I rolled my eyes and scoffed, "I thought you always covered your tracks."

"I am, but if there are people in this town who know about vampires and are trying to kill us, it does make things a little more difficult. However, it does give some insight as to why Logan Fell had that compass you nicked off of his body last night," Damon explained.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What's so important about a compass?"

"Back in the day, the original founding families used the compass you found to suss out who was a vampire and who was not," Damon explained. "Luckily, you found it, so now the Founders are back at square one."

"Well, if you're so worried that someone's on to you, why don't you leave town?" Stefan smirked.

"We should all be worried," Damon glared.

"Hey, um, I'm hungry," Vicki interjected. "Do you have anything to eat?" Stefan immediately got up from his lounge chair and grabbed a cup from off the small end table and handed it to her. Vicki immediately downed the glass of red liquid before gagging obnoxiously. "What is that?"

"It's what you're craving," Stefan answered.

"Don't lie to the poor girl," Damon chuckled. "It is so not you're craving. But it'll work in a pinch."

I scrunched up my nose and covered my mouth with my hand in disgust. "I'm with Damon on this. Human blood smells horrible on the best of days, but this is like the inside of a skunk's ass. God only knows how it tastes," I choked.

"See? Dean gets it, and he's not even a vamp!" Damon exclaimed. "She's a new vampire, Stefan. She needs people blood."

"Yeah, why can't I have people blood?"

"Because it's wrong to prey on innocent people, Vicki," Stefan responded.

"True, but we all know that there are other ways for vamps to drink human blood besides going straight for the jugular," I remarked. "Just get her a blood bag from the blood bank or something." "That and the fact that you don't have to kill to feed," Damon added. "Just find someone tasty and then erase their memory afterwards. It's so easy."

"Not if they are new Damon," I chided. "She needs to start in the shallow end of the pool and test the waters with bags first before we throw her fangs first into the middle of the ocean."

Damon frowned. "Aw, c'mon! I thought you were finally on my side." "I am to a certain extent, but I see both sides of the argument here. Plus, I just successfully came up with a middle ground solution that ensures that she doesn't kill anyone and gets to have what she's really craving," I shot back.

"Even with blood bags, there's no guarantee that she will be able to control herself," Stefan interceded. "Introducing her to human blood so soon after her transition could trigger a negative reaction that could make her..." "Into a Ripper?" Damon smirked as though he knew the punchline to a joke the rest of us were still trying to figure out. Stefan glared at him but remained silent.

"A Ripper?" I inquired. "What the hell is that?"

"A type of vampire whose bloodlust got out of hand and turned them into a murdering psychopath," Damon surmised. "They no longer hunt for food, they just hunt for the thrill of the kill. They are ravenous and uncontrollable and are more prone to turning off their humanity."

"So... you?" I snarked.

"Damon is a lot of things, a killer, an asshole. But he's not a Ripper, not even close," Stefan groaned before turning back to Vicki. "Either way, our hunger does not define us. We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are."

"Okay, Count Deepak. I'm outta here," Damon sighed. Then he got up and walked out of the room. Not wanting to stick around due to the God-awful smell, I quickly followed Damon out of the room.

I had to get to school anyway.