Drapetomania | THE VAMPIRE DIARIES [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

one | brave new world

As he continued to pour some blood into a glass, Damon Salvatore asked, "Would you care for one?"

As he came to a halt inside of the room, Stefan Salvatore said, "No. Thank you. I'm not hungry. Just ate."

With a raise of his glass, Damon asked him, "Aren't you worried that one day all the forest animals are gonna band together and fight back? I mean, surely they talk."

With a wave of his hand, Stefan replied, "I'm just happy that's a, uh... a blood bag and not a sorority girl supplying your dinner."

After only smirking to himself, Damon told him, "I like this." As he walked around the table and over towards one of the chairs in the room, he said, "You walking on eggshells around me because you think I'm gonna explode. It's very suspenseful. Is Elena worried, too?"

When Stefan didn't respond and only tilted his head at his brother, Damon said to him, "I bet I'm your every conversation."

In turn, Stefan asked him, "Have you heard from Katherine?"

Instead of responding to Stefan's question, Damon remained quiet for a couple of seconds before he said, "I think the Lockwoods have a family secret because the Gilbert device affected them, but vervain didn't, so they're not vampires. They're something else."

With a raise of his eyebrows, Stefan asked him, "Is this your new obsession?"

Damon replied, "Oh, you'd rather some unknown supernatural element running rampant in our town, fine. I'll drop it."

With a nod of his head, Stefan told him, "We haven't seen the last of Katherine. You do know that, right? We have no idea what she's up to."

With a scoff, Damon said to him, "Sure, we do. She came back to profess her undying, eternal love for you. So, I'm gonna let you deal with her. 'Cause I have more important things to do. Like, explode." Then, as he started to walk out of the room with a raise of the glass that he was holding, Damon said to him, "Cheers."

With a shake of his head, Stefan turned his head away from where Damon was just standing before his eyes had widened when he heard a sigh coming from behind him.

It was then that Stefan quickly turned around to see a young man with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes standing in front of him with his arms folded in front of himself and his head raised as he stared up at Stefan with his eyebrows also raised.

With a bit of a smile on his face and his head now tilted to the side just a bit, the young man said to him, "You must be Stefan Salvatore."

With a nod of his head, Stefan said, "Yeah. Who the hell are you?"

After letting out a bit of a chuckle, the man said to him, "Oh, where are my manners?" Then– as he mockingly bowed to Stefan– he said, "I'm Cormac Mac Conmara."

While Stefan warily eyed Cormac, who was still smiling to himself for reasons unknown to Stefan, Cormac told him, "I'm an old friend of Lexi's. Perhaps she'd mentioned me before she died." When Stefan's eyebrows had only furrowed and he started to frown to himself, Cormac turned his head a bit as he said, "I think it's safe to say that– due to the look that you now have on your face– she hadn't mentioned me, like I thought that she would have."