VD: Datherine

The Skirmish (Damon's POV)

It's a dark night, as I walk the streets of New Orleans. The year is 1864 in the cold month of October. I have just left my brother, for I could not stand to watch him kill anymore humans. Stefan says it's just because I'm weak from not feeding. I choose not to feed, because I still have my humanity. I don't want to kill. I won't. It's wrong. Stefan doesn't see how wrong a path he's on. He's too blood crazed. He's like...what did I once hear? A Ripper? Yes. I think my brother is turning into the Ripper; a vampire that is too blood crazed to care about anything but blood. And I don't know how to stop or help him. So I'm on my own.
As I walk, the thirst wants to over power me. Something inside me is telling me to feed to become a vampire, but I'm too stubborn. I'd rather die. Dying is better than being a monster and killing.
I'm not sure how long I walk, my mind spinning with thoughts, but I suddenly find myself in a desolate area of the city, not far from a dark alley. And from that alley, a man steps in front of me. I can guess that he's a vampire.
"Can I help you?" I ask him.
"You can by telling me where Katerina Petrova is. I'm Niklaus by the way, but you can call me Klaus."
"I'm sorry. Who?"
"Maybe you don't know her as Katerina. Let's try this again. Where's Katherine?"
"Sorry to bare bad news, but she died back in Mystic Falls in a church with all the other vampires. She was burned alive."
"I checked and she somehow escaped."
My spirit rises. She's alive? Now I'm thrilled. When Klaus leaves, I can go find her. Then she'll be at my side until the end of our existence, once I feed and transition.
"I don't know where she is," I inform him.
"You better second guess yourself. I'm not someone you want to have on your bad side."
"I'm telling the truth."
He pins me to a wall of a building, hand around my throat. Then I feel pain, as he stabs me in the gut with a dagger. I realize suddenly, somehow, that he's only half vampire, as his eyes flash the color and shape of werewolf eyes. Until now, I thought werewolves were just folklore. As I feel the pain, I groan and then everything goes black.

I don't know how long I'm out, but when I come to I'm chained to a wall in a basement. I'm not alone. Klaus is leaning against a wall across from me, a table at his left, examining a knife; probably the one he stabbed me with.
"Good. You're awake. That'll make things more fun."
"I told you. I don't know where she is."
"True. But if I torture you, she'll come. She'll feel it since you have her blood in your system. She'll feel your pain. That's the gift of siring someone."
That never occurred to either me or Stefan.
"Why do you want her so badly?" I have to ask in curiosity.
"She's important to me. She escaped me back in Bulgaria before I could perform the ritual to awaken the werewolf in me. She was my doppelganger. I had to kill her, but she was turned by Rose before I could find her. So I killed her family to get back at her for escaping me. Now I'm going to get what I want. I'm going to kill her. After she's dead, I'll look for her doppelganger."
"Revenge then."
"Something like that."
He goes to stand in front of me and then says, "This will be so much fun."
He stabs me in the side.

I don't know how long it goes on for with him torturing me, but when I'm weak and about to black out again, Katherine walks in. And as darkness starts to cloud my vision, I see him drop the knife and start towards her.
"Glad you could make it," he tells her.
They rush at each other at vampire speed. Then everything goes black for me.

When I wake up, I'm on the floor on my back with the chains off me, Kat kneeling at my side.
"You came," I say softly, still feeling weak, though my wounds are healed. She probably gave me some of her blood while I was out.
"Of course I came. You're my only family I have left."
"Where is he?"
"Staked. But he's an Original. He won't be dead for long."
I then see him on the floor on his back with a stake in the middle of his chest.
She puts an arm around me, helping me to my feet. Then together, we leave to find Stefan and get a place to stay.