Unstoppable | The Vampire Diaries

78. You've Got A Friend In Me

"Hey," Stefan greeted, as Riley let herself and Caroline into the Salvatore house. "Are you sure you wanna be here?"

Riley shrugged, looking around. Unlike the dorm rooms, being there didn't remind her of Aaron. And while she was here, she didn't have parents breathing down her neck. "This place is a second home. I'm not letting Damon take that away from me."

"Plus," Caroline added, handing Stefan the collection of papers that were in her hand. "We have news. Our parents have been tracking Damon and we found missing person cases and animal attacks. But that's not all – the victims were found inside their homes without their heads... and their skin was desiccated."

Stefan looked at Caroline in disbelief, speechless.

"He's feeding on vampires," Riley clarified, her tone detached. She couldn't allow herself to see Damon as her best friend, not anymore. "In case that wasn't clear."

Stefan sighed, looking through the information that Caroline had given him. "I shouldn't have let him go."

"No! You are not turning Damon's roosting chickens into a Stefan Salvatore guilt trip," Caroline insisted.

Riley nodded. "What were you gonna do? Tackle him to the ground and force him to come back here? All with Enzo looking over your shoulder? There was nothing you could have done. Plus, the 'vampires feeding on vampires' thing screams 'Augustine experiments'."

"Yeah," Stefan agreed. "I have to find him."

Sharp footsteps announced someone's entrance into the room before they showed their face. "Well, I can come with you."

"Elena, hey," Caroline said, giving her friend a confused look. "I didn't know you were here."

Before Elena could respond, Caroline's phone rang.

"That would be great," Stefan addressed Elena, who beamed with happiness for some reason. "Riley, will you come? Damon should know that you haven't given up on him."

The smile on Elena's face immediately dropped. Although she tried to recover, Riley couldn't help but notice her disappointed expression.

"I have given up on him," she admitted. "After what he did to Aaron, he's a completely different person to me now," she said, frowning as she fought off the memories of her deceased boyfriend. "If you bring him home, you're doing it for you, not me."

At that point, Caroline ended her call. "Apparently Nadia's been compelling Matt to forget things. I'm gonna meet up with Tyler and find out what's going on."

"Even though he almost killed you when he found out about you and Klaus?" Stefan reminded her.

"He what?!" Riley shouted.

"Stefan's exaggerating," Caroline said quickly, trying not to remember how angry Tyler had been. "Tyler and I need to move into the next phase of our post-break-up, pre-friendship relationship timeline."

"I'm gonna stay out of that one," Elena said, looking like she was about to roll her eyes. Again, she beamed at Stefan. "I'm going to get some clothes and you'll pick me up at my dorm?"

"Sure," Stefan said, watching her as she left.

When the door shut behind her, both Caroline and Riley made a face at Stefan.

"What?"

The girls looked at each other.

"Are you and Elena getting back together?" Riley asked, point blank. The confusion in Stefan's face gave her the answer without him having to say anything.