Stefan Salvatore was a vampire. And according to him, Gloria was a witch. 24 hours earlier, Riley had nothing to do with the supernatural world. Now, it seemed she was more involved than she knew.
"Mom?" she called the second she got into the house. "Mom?!"
"Kitchen," her mother replied, sounding distracted. When Riley walked into the room, Ciara was typing on her phone, barely looking up.
"Is dad home?" she asked, glancing around.
"No, he's working," her mom said, eyes still on her phone. "There was a situation at a cemetery, a drug deal gone bad."
Riley nodded, glad that her father wouldn't hear the conversation – she didn't know how much he knew, if anything.
"We need to talk."
Her daughter's tone of voice forced Ciara to immediately put her phone down.
"What's up?"
Riley sat down at the table, across from her.
"I need you to tell me about great-grandma Gloria," she demanded. "And I don't want to hear about her bar, or her singing."
Ciara frowned. "Honey, you know as much about her as I do. I only met the woman a handful of times, you know that."
"Don't make me say it mom, I'm gonna sound like a crazy person," Riley said, taking a particular interest in the wooden design of the kitchen table. She didn't want to be the first one to say it, but it looked like she had no choice.
"What are you talking about?"
She sighed, watching her mother's face for tell-tale signs of lies or secrets.
"Was... was she..." she trailed off, not sure how to phrase her question. "A witch?"
She expected her mother to laugh. To brush her off and say 'whatever gave you that idea?'. In a way, this is what she wanted. To prove Stefan wrong.
Instead, Ciara sighed and put her head in her hands.
"Uh... mom?" Riley asked anxiously, gently prodding her mother with one finger.
"How did you find out?" she whispered.
"Who cares?!" Riley exploded all of a sudden. "How could you not tell me? I thought we don't keep secrets from each other?! What about the pinky promises and the 'three of us against the world' stuff? Was that all bullshit?!"
"Watch your mouth!" her mother reprimanded, before her voice softened. "Riley... how was I supposed to tell you this? My mother rejected the 'witch' thing. She rejected her powers, and as a result, I didn't get any. And neither did you. We're not witches, it's not our business. I never thought I'd have to tell you."
"So you were never going to?" Riley asked, hurt. "There's this whole side of our family that we never got to explore."
"Witches, and all the stuff that goes with that... they're fairytales and bedtime stories."
"It's real!" Riley responded.
Ciara sighed, putting her head in her hands once again. She never thought she'd have to have this conversation with her daughter. But at the same time, as soon as she heard about the volume of animal attacks in this town, she knew it was a possibility. Ciara had grown up knowing a lot about the supernatural world; her grandmother Gloria told her anything she wanted to know, until Ciara's parents stopped them having any contact. And it had shaken her to her core. She lived her teenage life looking behind her at every turn, wondering when a vampire would find her and drink her blood, or a witch would use her for mind games. She never wanted Riley to have to worry about that.
"What else do you know?" she asked her daughter. If she knew about witches, eventually, she'd know about everything else.
Riley pulled out the picture that she'd shown Stefan. "You see that guy?" she asked, pointing at him. Her mother nodded. "He goes to my high school."
Ciara looked up, shock in her eyes.
"He's a vampire," she said. "He told me."
"You need to stay away from him, Riley," her mother warned. "They can't be trusted."
"I'm not an idiot, mom," Riley reminded her. The last thing she would ever do was trust a vampire.
"Your ring," Ciara said, taking her daughter's hand. On the ring finger of her right hand, sat the silver ring that she'd given to her before they moved. "It contains a herb, called 'vervain', it stops vampires from being able to compel you. Never take it off."
Riley nodded, the word 'compel' sticking in her mind. Could vampires do mind control?
"Does dad know about this stuff?"
"No," Ciara said abruptly. "I couldn't face telling him. And now I'm worried that..." she trailed off. "You can't tell him anything. I know that we told you never to lie to us, but about this, you have to."
Riley frowned. Her dad was the one person that she couldn't lie to. She was close to both of her parents, but she had a bond with her dad that nothing could shake.
"Then you can't tell anyone about Stefan," she countered. "I promised I wouldn't say anything and the last thing I want is to piss off a vampire."
"Stay away from him," Ciara warned again as Riley's phone began to ring. It was Elena.
"Hi," she said, immediately taking the call and ignoring her mother. If Elena chose to keep seeing Stefan, there was no way that Riley would be able to stay away from him. Elena was friends with Caroline and Bonnie, and so was she. Stefan would become a permanent fixture in their friendship group, and as much as this scared her, she didn't know if there was any way to stop it. "Is everything OK?"
"It's Vicki."
"Who?" Riley asked, before remembering that she meant Matt's sister, Vicki Donovan. The girl that had been causing trouble since day one. "Right. What's the problem?"
"She's-she's in transition."
Riley walked away from her mother, pressing the phone to her ear and whispering into it. "Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means."
"Stefan said she's turning into a vampire. She's gone missing. Matt's looking, and Stefan's tracking her, but Jeremy's freaking out. Can you please come over?"
Riley sighed. She didn't want to be involved, but clearly, she was.
"I'll be there soon," she promised.
***
"How the hell does someone turn into a vampire?" Riley said once she had gotten to Elena's house. They'd sent Jeremy upstairs and Jenna was out.
"I don't know," Elena admitted. "Stefan said that to complete the transformation, she has to drink human blood. And if she doesn't, she dies."
"Well... that's good for everyone, right?" Riley asked insensitively. "I mean, two vampires are better than three."
"Not for Matt," Elena reminded her. "Or my brother, or Tyler. Losing someone you love isn't good for anyone."
Without warning, Riley remembered what Caroline had told her when she'd been drunk at the party. Elena's parents had died.
"Right. I'm sorry."
The doorbell rang, and Elena smiled slightly at Riley as she went to answer it. Even though they didn't know each other that well, it felt good to be going through this with someone who understood how she felt.
Opening the door, immediately she tried to close it.
"You're afraid of me. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess... Stefan finally fessed up," Damon Salvatore said, walking into the house like he owned it, spotting Riley standing in the corner, looking almost as scared as Elena. He leaned towards her.
"Come on, Fletch! Don't tell me you know too?"
She frowned. "Don't give me a nickname. In case you haven't noticed, I don't like you."
"I know," he said with a smirk. "By the way, thanks for letting me out of the cell. It was getting lonely down there."
"Get the hell out of here, Damon," she responded, not letting her fear take over.
The smirk never left his face as he held up his hands to plead his innocence. "Hey, there's no need to be rude. I'm just looking for Stefan."
"He's out looking for Vicki," Elena said, shooting him daggers.
"Don't look at me with those judgey little eyes. Girl's gonna thank me for what I did to her." Arrogance was dripping off of him, both girls could sense it.
"Did you thank Katherine?" Elena asked, an eyebrow raised.
Riley's eyes widened, the name catching her by surprise. "Wait, Katherine was a vampire?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "Tell my brother I'm looking for him. Oh, tip for later: be careful who you invite in the house."
As he left, Elena turned to Riley, tears in her eyes.
"Could you do it?"
"Do what?" Riley asked, confused.
"Be with Stefan?" she responded. "I like him, and I'll keep his secret, but I don't know if I can do this."
Riley walked towards Elena and wrapped an arm around her.
"You gave him today. You gave him the chance to explain, and you're still here contemplating being with him after everything you know. Elena, no one can make this decision for you. If I were you, I'd already be living in a different state by now." They both laughed, a tear falling to Elena's cheek as she did so. "You have to decide. Is being with Stefan... worth it?"
Elena couldn't answer her question. Because the truth was, she didn't know if it was worth it. Stefan and his brother had already destroyed Vicki's life, not to mention everyone who loved her.
Would she just wait around for him to do the same thing to her?
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Now that Riley knows the truth about her family, will she be able to distance herself from the supernatural?
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