If We Had Met First

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen:

            “It’s time both of you know the truth. You have been ready for it for awhile but your mother and I both wanted to keep you out of it. But with her gone and everything that is happening you both deserve and need to know.”

            Elena had been woken up about fifteen minutes ago by her dad. His eyes had flashed when he saw that Damon had spent the night in her bed but all he said was that they needed to deal with some family stuff which was when Damon said goodbye. After changing into jeans and putting on a hoodie Elena just put her hair in a ponytail before going downstairs where she found both her dad and Jeremy sitting around the table.

            Her dad didn’t waste any time getting to the point, “a very long time ago the founders of this town discovered an ancient secret. That not only do vampires exist but they walk among normal people, using people to quench their thirst for blood.”

            So Damon was right, her dad did know about vampires. He definitely didn’t seem like the type to believe in something like that, he was a doctor and was so logical and sensible. Even though he was sitting right in front of her talking quite bluntly about vampires Elena still had difficulty associating with anything that was in the least bit supernatural.

            “In order to protect their descendants the founders all wrote in journals about these beasts. They wrote about what they could do, how to recognize them and of course how to kill one. The council that me and your mother were members of are everyone who knows about these journals and has knowledge of vampires.”

            If he expected a reaction from them he certainly didn’t get it. Both his children just sat there silently, Jeremy was looking anywhere but his father and Elena was biting her lip and looking at the ground. What if one of the journals he was talking about said something about the Salvatore brothers? What if he already knew what Damon was?

            “Why are you telling us this?” Jeremy asked.

            “Because you are both Gilberts, this is all something you would have found out about eventually anyways. That and recent evidence has led us to believe that there is at least one vampire in town.”

            This made Elena’s head snap up, would he actually tell her if he knew Damon and Stefan were vampires? Somehow she doubted it but she still waited eagerly for his explanation of this evidence they had.

            “You both know about the two campers that died a week or so ago. The official story is of course an animal attack but the sheriff and the coroner both confirmed that it was a vampire. There were only two puncture marks on their neck and they had been completely drained of blood, it couldn’t have been anything else. At first we thought they were just passing through but that’s when Liz began to get calls from the local blood bank about blood going missing and when we looked into it we discovered the same thing was happening to the surrounding area.”

            “So have you guys been trying to track it down?” Jeremy asked.

            Their dad nodded, “we started with the founders party, anyone who arrived during the day were eliminated as suspects and Liz is still investigating those that came during the night.”

            Elena let out her breath that she didn’t realize she had been holding. Her and Damon had arrived at the party in the middle of the day, the mayor as well as the sheriff had seen him. Not to mention her parents had first met Damon in complete sunlight. Obviously the journals said nothing about magic rings that made vampires able to walk in the sunlight if they were only searching for people who show up at night.