Saudade | D. SALVATORE

8 | there are weirder ways to learn about death

"I don't understand why I have to stay cooped up here," Vicki whined. "Why can't I just go home?"

"Because you're changing, Vicki, and it's not something you want to do alone," Stefan answered.

"There's nothing about that Logan guy I killed in here," Damon explained after placing the paper down. "Not a word." He picked up the compass from the night before and twirled it around, "Someone's covering it up."

"What is that?" Vicki inquired, the shiny object catching her attention.

"This is a very special, very old compass," he replied simply before looking at Stefan. "What was Logan Fell doing with it? Aren't you curious?"

"If you're so worried that somebody's onto you, why don't you just leave town, Damon?" Stefan countered.

"We should all be worried."

"Hey, um, I'm hungry," Vicki announced. "Do you have anything to eat?"

"Here." Stefan handed her a cup of some animal blood.

"What is it?" she asked and Evelyn was wondering the same thing.

"It's what you're craving."

"Don't lie to the girl," Damon stated. "It's so not what you're craving, but it'll do in a pinch, right, Stef?" Evelyn whacked Damon in the back of the head with the newspaper he had previously been eating.

"What is it?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Damon repeated. "Is it a skunk? Saint Bernard? Bambi?"

"Go on," Stefan suggested. "Give it a try."

"She's new. She needs people blood," Damon pointed out. "She can't sustain that stuff."

"Would you shut your undead mouth before I shut it for you?" Evelyn commented from her spot and Damon narrowed his eyes.

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

"Yeah," Damon agreed.

"Because it's wrong to pray on innocent people, Vicki."

"You don't have to kill to feed," Damon pointed out. "Just find someone really tasty and then erase their memory afterwards. It's so easy."

"No, no, no," Stefan shook his head. "There's no guarantee that you can control yourself, okay? It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody, and then you have to carry that with you for the rest of your life, which, if I haven't made clear, is eternity."

"Don't listen to him," Damon suggested. "He walks on a moral plane way out of our eye line. I say snatch, eat, erase."

"Hey, look at me," Stefan said to Vicki, "We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are."

"Okay, Count Deepak," Damon rolled his eyes, getting up, "I am out of here."

"Can I have some more?" Vicki asked as the doorbell rang.

"I'll go see who it is, before Damon scares them away," Evelyn told Stefan before getting up and heading downstairs.

"Is Stefan here?" Elena asked from the door and Evelyn immediately hid.

"Yep!" Damon answered, far too chipper to be good.

"Where is he?"

"And good morning to you, little miss 'I'm on a mission.'"

"How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything that you've done?" she asked.

"And how can you be so brave and stupid to call a vampire arrogant and glib?"