Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

68. Ghost Whisperer

The Grill was louder and more rowdy than Riley had ever seen it. The patrons were involved in a ceremony which included calling out the name of a dead relative, ringing a bell, and drinking. From what she could tell, everyone was mostly there for the drinking.

Speaking of which, she walked up to the table that Damon and 'Amnesia' Stefan were occupying, placing two shots of clear alcohol in front of them and joining their table.

"Don't you have work to do?" Damon asked, looking at her uniform with a wry smile. Another cheer went up and Riley pointed towards the noise.

"You hear that?" she asked him, shouting over the top of the loudness. "You really think anyone's gonna miss me for a couple of minutes?"

Stefan narrowed his eyes as he tried to place her, based on the information that he had been told by Damon.

"You're... Fletch, right?"

She side-eyed Damon, then smiled at Stefan. "I'm Riley. Your annoying brother here is the only one who calls me 'Fletch'."

He didn't answer, and it took Riley a few moments to realize that this was because he was staring at the vein in her neck. Fortunately, Damon noticed it too.

"Hey!" Damon called, waving a hand in front of Stefan's face. When his brother ignored him, he called him by his name, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, the younger brother snapped out of his daze, staring at Damon with wide eyes.

"What the hell was that?"

Damon smirked. "That, my brother, was you jonesing for something a little stronger than a blood bag."

Stefan looked at his brother incredulously. "So what's the problem? You spent the whole day trying to convince me I was a vampire. Let me act like one."

Damon shook his head, remembering all the times in the past when Stefan drinking human blood had taken a bad turn... literally every time Stefan drank human blood.

"First of all," he said, pointing to Riley. "Fletch is off limits. Permanently. Second of all, as I've spent all day explaining to you, brother, you can't handle moderation."

"It's true," Riley agreed, subconsciously running a finger over the scars on her neck. "You've actually bitten me twice."

Stefan raised an eyebrow, shocked by how much he was learning about his old life. It was hard enough for him to get his head around the idea of being a vampire; it was harder to accept the fact that he was an uncontrollable vampire than went around biting his friends. At least, he assumed she was a friend – she was certainly a friend of his brother's. Or more than that... he hadn't quite worked it out yet.

Someone rang a bell, and more shouting occurred. Damon picked up his shot and Stefan copied. They clinked their tiny glasses together as a fourth person joined their table.

"And here I thought catching up on nearly two centuries would be a drag."

Stefan looked up at the unfamiliar girl, trying to place her. As far as he could remember, 'Fletch', or Riley, was the only girl that Damon had mentioned so far.

"Remind me of your name again," he prompted the girl, whose face froze in shock. Clearly, she was important to him – important enough that him forgetting her name seemed to really hurt.

"Elena," the girl said, turning to Damon. "You haven't told him about me?"

Damon clenched his jaw. "Two hundred years is a long time."

Riley glanced back and forth between the couple, the awkwardness filling the air with tension so thick you could almost see it. She picked up a tray, cleared away their used glasses and excused herself.