Chaos (Satisfy Series Book Five, The Vampire Diaries)

Ch. 15: Gone Girl

Damon was still chained up in the cellar. "She is brilliant." 

"We haven't noticed that Katherine's been inhabiting Elena's body for weeks, and that's all you have to say?" Stefan asked.

"Yep," Damon answered.

 "And you realize that it was Katherine who broke up with you," I told him. "It wasn't Elena."

"Mm-hmm," Damon answered. 

'Right," I told him. "So, your little murder spree with Enzo, where you, uh, killed Aaron, you nearly killed Jeremy, and you tried to kill Wes, but you got infected with that Ripper virus. That was all you reacting. To Katherine." 

"I'm trying to figure out why you two decided to tell a starving, blood-thirsty, vampire-feeding Ripper that his nemesis is still walking around, alive and well, while I'm stuck in this cell and can't do anything about it," Damon told us. 

"We have it under control," Stefan told him.

Damon smirked. "I would love to hear this." 

*****

Stefan and I walked upstairs to talk to Matt, Tyler and Caroline. 

"Hang on here," Matt told us. "Katherine's still alive? How is that possible?"

"Remember that time Nadia's ex, Gregor, hitched a ride in your head?" Caroline asked. "Yeah, well, it's kind of the same thing. Katherine is a passenger in Elena, except it's worse, because none of us seemed to notice." 

"She was at my house," Tyler told us. "How did none of us figure it out?" 

"Because it's Katherine and she's smart, and conniving, and sneaky . . ." Caroline trailed. "And we're the worst friends ever." 

Jeremy was on speaker phone. "This makes no sense. She saved my life. She gave me CPR when Enzo tried to kill me. Katherine would never do that." 

Bonnie was on speaker phone. "That's what made her so believable. She played Elena to a tee. If she let you die, her cover was blown." 

"I was sleeping three feet away from her," Caroline told us. "She picked out my Bitter Ball dress. And I let her use my toothpaste." 

"Well, did she lure you into a hotel room to make out with you?" Stefan replied. 

"So, how do we kill this bitch?" I asked.

"Well, passengers can be expelled from the host," Stefan told us. "We saw it happen with Matt. Gregor died, and Matt lived. All we have to do is stab her with the Traveler knife." 

"I still have the knife Nadia gave me," Matt told us. 

"Perfect!" I told him. "Go get it." 

"Wait, you guys," Caroline told us. "This is Katherine we're talking about. She's going to see a sneak attack from a mile away. We've got to get her to come to us. Get her guard down, corner her." 

"Fat chance you'll be seeing her today," Tyler told us. "I'm pretty sure I bit Nadia."

"What do you mean, you bit her?" Matt asked. 

"I mean, she was attacking Caroline, and I might've nipped her a little," Tyler answered.

"And you're just mentioning this now?" Matt asked. 

"Hey, guys," I told them. "Tyler right. Katherine's not going to leave Nadia's side, unless not leaving compromises her identity." 

"Which means . . .?" Matt asked.