New Girl (The Vampire Diaries)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The sound of the door unlocking made my head snap in its direction, vamp speeding up from my sitting position so I was ready to combat whatever came in. When I locked eyes with a familiar forest green, I eased up.

"Ziggy?" He choked, flashing over to me in a hurry and pulling me into a bone-crushing embrace. I returned the hug, inhaling his wood-cinnamon scent that I'd become accustomed to whenever he was around. It made me feel safe. Stefan in general did, he was Super-Stef after all. "We all thought you were dead."

He pulled back to look at me, clear smile on his lips. I tried to return it the best I could, but it was hard with everything plaguing my mind right now.

"Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what the hell is happening at the moment," I confessed.

"All that matters is you're alive and okay," he huffed out a breathe of relief, grabbing me for another hug before releasing me when Katherine spoke.

"2 days, I've been waiting," she moaned, shooting up. "I'm supposed to be free of Klaus' compulsion by now. He's supposed to be dead."

2 days? I'd been out 48 hours.

"Wait," I interrupted, a sudden burst of anger overcoming me. "He's alive? If I'm not mistaken, when I died, Bonnie should have killed him."

Stefan avoided my gaze. "We ran into some complications."

"Complications?" I questioned in an outraged tone, while the Petrova took a lighter approach, much to my dismay.

"Doesn't really matter. I just need to find Klaus," The Salvatore explained.

"Why? What's happened?" I asked, when suddenly something from that night dawned on me. "Oh my god, is Damon okay? He was bitten. Please tell me he's okay."

A solemn expression washed over Stefan at my interrogation. "He's not doing okay, the bite has taken a toll. He tried to burn himself by taking his daylight ring off," he sighed. "He thinks you're dead, Ziggy. He's not taking it very well."

"I have to go see him," I advanced over to the door, not a doubt in my mind of where I was going, but I was stopped when I bumped into the original that's been causing so much pain in Mystic Falls recently.

"Klaus. You're back," Katherine noted. She pulled on Stefan's arm, pushing him forward, trying not to seem suspicious. "Look who decided to come for a visit."

"You just keep popping up, don't you?" He quipped sarcastically, sizing up the Salvatore with a quick glare. "And where do you think you're going?" He asked me.

I thought on the spot, quickly making up a story. "Going to knock down the grave stone they put up for me curtesy of you killing me. Think it'll be a sticky one trying to explain why I'm alive and breathing to the town locals when I'm also supposedly dug 6 feet underground."

"You were trying to kill me first, love," He replied to my sarcastic jab. "But that won't be necessary. You're not going to be in town for it to matter," at my confused, raised eyebrows, he elaborated. "I made you a deal, I said I'd help you find your family, that's what we're doing."

I tried to hide whatever excitement and longing I felt at hearing him say this. "Oh, right, it's just that I thought that deal was off because you, you know, killed me," I smiled mockingly. His expression remained the same, playful smirk intact. "I don't have a choice in this, do I?"

"Not really," he patted my shoulder, moving on to address the elephant in the room. Said elephant being Stefan.

The younger Salvatore was the first to speak up after we finished our conversation. "I need your help."