Never Let Me Go (Book 8, Vampire Diaries)

Chapter 1__Hello

It had been a few months since Rayna Cruz had set me up. Since she had a shaman activate the Hunters side in me and made me want to kill every single person, aside from my sister Sarah Nelson/Salvatore, that I loved.

Months since I had marked my ancestors Stefan and Damon Salvatore and Stefan's girlfriend Caroline Forbes.

Months since Damon and Enzo St. John had been taken over by a demonic messenger called a Siren, who was making them bring the baddest of humanity to her so she could feed on them.

Months since I had started hunting and feeding on any vampire that I could to distract myself from going after the ones that I cared about, but I was getting closer and closer and closer to Damon and Enzo. I was mainly focusing on them so that I could stop them from going bad and so that I wouldn't go after Stefan and Caroline.

Through the marks that I had left on Stefan, Damon and Caroline, I could see everything and hear everything that they did.

I knew that Damon and Enzo were bringing their victims to the Siren in an abandoned slaughterhouse. That they were constantly moving so that I wouldn't get the jump on that.

And I knew that Stefan, Caroline, Bonnie Bennett and Alaric Saltzman were doing all they could to find Damon, Enzo and me, thinking that they could save all of us from our fate.

I knew that Damon and Enzo were fighting against the Siren's control, though Damon was acting like he wasn't and acting like he had his humanity off, but I knew better because I could literally see into his mind and see that he was always dreaming of the first time that he had seen Elena Gilbert.

And through the connection to Caroline, I saw that the girl from the insane asylum, Virginia St. John, had gone after Lizzie and Josie, but Caroline had saved them.

And through the connection to Stefan, I could see that he was trying to convince Bonnie not to lose hope and to keep fighting for Damon and Enzo. And that they were investigating their own leads on their whereabouts.

Damon and Enzo had also been turning vampires and sending them my way so that they could distract me while they moved on.

It wasn't working.

I walked into the abandoned slaughterhouse they were using that night, having my sword ready in my hand. "Damon."

I stepped onto a crate over bloody water.

I heard Damon's voice. "Nicola." I looked up. Damon stood there, smirking. "Hello, Nikki."

********

I looked around at the bodies that Damon was cleaning up. "What is all this? What are you doing?"

Damon walked toward a mop, cleaning the blood from the floor. "Daily chores."

"I know what was in the vault, Damon," I told him. "I know what has a hold of you."

"Eh, it doesn't matter what has me," Damon told me. "Only that I've been had. You should be proud of me. I'm killing bad people." He turned to face me. "But the Huntress inside you is probably raging. Thinking that it doesn't matter what the humans do. All that matters is that I'm the one killing them."

"You're not the only one," I told him, stepping closer. "Where's Enzo?"

"Go home, Nicola," Damon told me. "We're all good here."

"I can't do that," I told him. "See, there's a part of me, the real me, that wants to help save you two. And then there's the Huntress, nagging at me, pushing me to drive this sword through your neck and watch your head fall to the floor. Or rip it off with my teeth."