When Liza had stopped seizing Damon was the one to give her blood, tears almost falling, scared for the little banshee in front of him. Stefan had never seen Damon act like this, at least not in the last 145 years. It was clear to Stefan that Damon cared for the red head, not in the way he cared for Katherine once before, but almost the same. It was clear to both the Salvatore's that the other cared for Liza, in different ways. At the moment their eyes met over Damon's shoulder, they made a silent agreement, no words needing to be spoken, for they already understood that the two of them, would go to the end of the earth for the girl with red hair.
Stefan was quick to call Elena and Bonnie, making it known to them just what occurred and that she would need to be watched for a few more days. Elena and Bonnie agreed to keep an eye on her, searching for anything unusual, before letting Stefan know they were coming to check on her. When they arrived and saw the state of the red head, still unconscious and pale, they let out a quick and worried breath. For as long as Elena can remember, Liza was never one to get sick. Always preppy and excited, even at the smallest things, seeing her so pale and sickly, made Elena shed a few tears in fear. She could not lose her cousin, for Liza was her rock, the only thing that kept her going at the worst of times. She was her best friend, even over the burnette beside her. Bonnie was scared, no denying it, for she too had shed a few tears for the banshee in the bed. She has only known Liza for a short while, but already, she could not imagine a life without her.
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Liza woke up in the middle of night in an unfamiliar room, and in pain. The last thing she remembered was the voices, screaming at her so loud that all her senses all but shut off, leaving her to only feel a burning pain and see nothing but the blackness behind her eye lids. As she sat up in the bed and looked around the room she saw not only Elena and Bonnie passed out on some chairs by the side of the bed, but she also realized she was in the Salvatore house. "Elena? Bonnie?" When they simply stirred she realized they must have been exhausted before falling asleep, leaving them in a deep slumber. She went to get out of the bed, gasping at how cold she was once she took off the covers. It was obvious to her that she had been in bed quite a while, especially with the way her throat burned and stomach rumbled, desperate to be nourished.
She made her way out of the room as quietly as she could, not wanting to wake the other two girls. She walked down the steps, making her way to the kitchen, desperate to find some form of food. When she reached the kitchen however, she did not expect Damon to already be there, making pancakes of all things, her favorite. "Damon?" Her voice was hoarse and breaking as she said his name, causing him to turn around and smile at her, one filled with sympathy and calmness, "Hey there, little banshee" Liza looked at him weirdly, astounded by the fact that he was not only cooking for her, but also not being a total ass. "I feel like I was hit by a train, what happened?" Damon shot her a quick glance and smirk before going back to cooking as Liza sat down at the table. "I'm not entirely sure, but we think that you could have unlocked the rest of your abilities by going so close to the tomb." "Oh." Damon sat a plate down in front of her before handing her a glass of water, "Eat up" Liza nodded and took a bite of the food in front of her before looking up at the blue eyed man in front of her, "Damon, why are you being nice to me?" Damon looked at her, "I'm doing this for Stefan, he sees you as a sister of sorts. Don't expect something like this again." Liza nodded, taking in his words as he walked out of the kitchen.
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When Liza went back to her room that night after getting a very stern talk from Stefan about taking it easy the next couple of days, she was not expecting to be bombarded with hugs from not just Elena, but Bonnie as well. She figured they had been worried, but she clearly underestimated the amount of fear she had placed in them. When it was clear they were not letting her go for some time, she melted into their arms and smiled. She knew she was loved, but until this moment, she didn't really know how much.
Once the girls had finally let her go she had explained what she could to them, not really knowing much about what happened herself. It wasn't until the sun started to creep through the windows did she send them home, knowing the parental figures would freak if they saw they had not been in their beds. Liza herself had decided to get a few more hours of sleep, feeling exhausted herself even though she had been sleeping the past 24 hours. As she laid down and closed her eyes, she felt another presence in the room, "I can feel you lurking." She opened her eyes and looked at the vampire at the foot of her bed. "It isn't nice to stare." Stefan chuckled at the red head, happy she was almost back to normal. "I'm just checking on you before I head over to check on Elena. How are you feeling?" Liza smiled at him, "I'm ok, tired, but my body is going through some form of change, so that is expected." Stefan smiled at her before patting her foot and heading off, Liza smiling as she followed him with her eyes till he left the room. When he was gone, she let the emotions in, tears quickly flowing as she let out a sob. She wasn't ok, not even close, but she would fake it till she makes it.
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Stefan had decided it was ok for Liza to go home, as long as she was easy on herself, and took precautions. So here she was in Elena's room with Elena and Stefan, texting Tyler as she was listening to the conversation. "Stefan, who was that man in the road?" Stefan shook his head, smiling at her in reassurance to mask his worry. "I don't know, do you remember anything else about him?" Elena looked to be deep thought as she brought the memory to the surface, trying to remember anything else, "I wish, I never saw his face. He was wearing a hoodie. All I can remember is that there was these black boots coming towards me." Stefan looked at her for a moment, "I brought some vervain, for you and Jenna, and I made a bracelet for Jeremy, few extra ones for your friends." Liza looked up from her phone, going over to the bed to see what he brought. "You can put it in jewelry, or you can even put it in food or drink, but as long as its on you or in you, no vampire can control you." Liza looked at him, "What about me?" Stefan looked up at her from his position on the bed, "As a banshee, you can't be compelled, it's part of your ability to protect humans." Liza nodded, taking in the information. "Wow, so much to remember." Liza looked at her cousin, "Preaching to the choir sister."
Down stairs, Jeremy was drawing at the table when the doorbell rang, signaling the food they had ordered was here. He opened the door, greeting the delivery man before he was told the price. "It's gonna be $22." Jeremy called for his sister, "Elena, I need the money!" He looked back at the man on the porch, "Uh, here, come in. Just put it on the table." Elena came down and gave the delivery man the money, "Keep the change." He smiled at Elena, quickly glancing towards the stairs before looking back to the human in front of him. "Thank you, and you have yourself a nice night." Liza and Stefan came down, the vampire leaving after saying good bye, as the banshee joined her cousins for dinner.
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The next day at school as they were heading out to lunch, Elena had given Caroline the necklace laced with vervain, "It's so pretty! Thank you. God, it'll go with, like, everything. What's the occasion?" Liza and Elena glanced at each other before Elena answered the blonde beauty queen, "No occasion, just a little friend gift." As they sat down Caroline joked around with her, "Lesbian friend necklace? Cause we're freaky like that?" Liza laughed at her blonde friend, happy to know that she was feeling better. "You're friendship is important to me." Caroline looked at the burnette while taking out her food, "Why are you being so mushy?" Elena looked at Liza, the red head taking that as her sign to leave, knowing what Elena wanted to talk to Caroline about. So the red head made her way over to Tyler and Matt, who were at a few picnic tables down from them.
As she sat down by Tyler he automatically put his arm around her as she leaned into his side and laid her head on his shoulder. Matt looked at them weirdly, not expecting them to act so coupley, when as far as he knew, they weren't even a couple. Tyler looked at the red head next to him, noticing how exhausted she looked, "You ok?" Liza nodded and picked her head up before looking at him, "I'm ok, just tired. I stayed up too late watching documentaries again." Tyler laughed at her, knowing she definitely would do that, because he knew Liza. He knew her favorite color was red, her favorite food was pizza, and she hated dragon flies, which he used as his advantage to scare her sometimes. "You're such a nerd." Liza hit his arm playfully, smiling at him. Matt took her good mood to his advantage, "Liza, can I talk to you?" Liza looked at him with a small glare, letting him know he was on thin ice for ignoring and being so cold towards her, "Fine, you get between here and my next class." Liza got up and started walking towards the school, Tyler wishing Matt luck, knowing if it was him, he'd be pleading for forgiveness. Matt followed after the banshee, hurrying to her side as he started talking, "Look, I was a jerk. I'm sorry. I took out my anger for Vicki on you and I was wrong. I shouldn't have done that." Liza didn't look at him as she replied, "You're right, you did take it out on me, but that's not what I'm mad about. The main thing I'm mad about is the fact that you haven't asked out Caroline when you both clearly feel something for each other." She looked at him and smiled, showing he was forgiven, "Just make a move already." With that she left Matt confused as she walked into her class.
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Bonnie, Elena, and Liza sat at a table in the Grille, "I can't believe you're adopted. I never saw that coming." Liza herself was shocked, she never thought her mother would lie about something like this, but she could see why she did. It was up to Grayson and Miranda to tell Elena the truth, but they never got around to it. Still, she knew how Elena was partially feeling, finding out you're adopted was a big shock to Liza, even if she was just five when her mom told her. "and it gets weirder." Liza looked at her cousin, "How weird?" Elena looked at her, "I looked at my birth certificate. It lists Miranda and Grayson Gilbert as my birth parents. None of it makes any sense." Liza nodded, "So basically, we need to talk to my mother." All three girls sighed, already knowing it would be an intense conversation. Bonnie looked at Elena, "Well first of all, the Elena I know would want the truth, good or bad." Elena looked at them, "And second of all?" Liza looked at her, "Second of all, you just found out your boyfriend is vampire, and your cousin is a banshee, so unless your birthparents are aliens, how bad could it be?" Elena smiled at the red head, always trying to brighten up her sour moods. "Ok, we have to go the store, our outfits for the dance are severely lacking accessories." Liza and Elena got up and grabbed their things, as Bonnie grabbed her wallet, "Alright I'll pay the bill." "Bye." With that, the cousins walked out, arms looped and smiles on their faces.
Their smiles and laughs could be heard through out the square as they walked to Liza's car. When Elena's phone rang, Liza decided to test out her super hearing and listened into the phone call. "Hello?" "Hello Elena." Elena looked at her cousin with furrowed eye brows as Liza got out her keys. "Hey, who is this?" "You hit me with your car." Liza's head snapped up to look at her cousin, quickly surveying the area as she all but pushed her cousin into the passenger seat and raced to the drivers side, climbing in, but not before seeing a hooded figure across the street. Elena hung up the phone when Liza got in and aped out of the parking space. "Where are we going? Home is the other way." Liza looked at her rearview mirror, "To the Salvatore's, I can't protect everyone alone if he shows up at the house. At least with Stefan and Damon, we have a higher chance of not dying."
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It was the next afternoon as Elena and Liza had decided to spend the night in the Salvatore home once again, and then proceeded to ski[ school, going over everything they knew about this new vampire. "Why me? What does he want with me, and if he's trying to kill me, why call me first?" Elena had lots of questions, she was freaked out while Liza was on edge. "They're predators Elena, they hunt, they stalk. I'm sure for them it's just as exciting as the kill." Liza went back to pacing, she couldn't keep herself still as the voices all but screamed at her to hunt this vampire down. Stefan looked at her before sitting in front of Elena, "Here, I want you to take this." He then handed her the pocket watch that Jeremy asked them to be on the lookout for. "This is Jeremy's pocket watch, how did you get it?" "I took it from Damon, who took it from Logan, who must have taken it from you." Liza groaned, seemingly even happier now that Logan was dead. Elena opened the watch, probably to check it's condition, "What happened to it?" Liza looked at the watch, realizing it wasn't the same as when they last saw it. "It's not just a watch. It's a sorta compass, but it points to vampires." Liza chuckled, and looked the ceiling as she said "Of course it does." Elena looked between the two supernatural beings in the room, "Why did my father have it?" Liza looked at Stefan with raised eyebrows, expecting him to answer the question. "Gilberts were one of the founding families, and back in 1864 they were among those who sought to eradicate the vampires. The compass was used to find us." Elena and Liza looked at each other before looking back at the compass, "Did you know them?" Stefan nodded, "Yes," He then pointed at the compass in Elena's hands, "I want you to keep this, that way you'll know if you were ever in danger." Elena and nodded and leaned into his hand as he placed it on her cheek, leaning into kiss her, making Liza make an internal "aww."
Just as Liza and Elena were getting ready to leave, Stefan had asked the red head to stay behind, hoping to talk about her new abilities. "What's up?" Stefan looked at her and motioned for her to sit down, thinking it would be easier to explain if she was more comfortable. "I want to talk about these new abilities, find out what they are and what you can do." Liza nodded, knowing this talk was going to come at some point. "Well, as far as I can tell, I have enhanced hearing and strength, I'm faster than humans but not vampire fast, my eyes turn black when I'm in what I like to call banshee mode, and just earlier today I accidently gave myself a papercut and it healed, like right before my eyes healed. It was freaky." Stefan nodded, taking in the information, :What about the voices, and your scream?" Liza looked at him with furrowed eye brows, "What about them?" "Well have they been acting unusual?" Liza thought about it, and noticed the voices weren't giving her a headache like they usually would, but that they were also constant, not really stopping, just becoming so quiet she could barley notice them if she didn't pay attention to them. "Well the voices don't really stop now, just become more hushed, as for my scream I haven't tried," Liza looked at her hands, "honestly, I'm kind of cared to. What if I hurt someone Stefan?" She looked at him with teary eyes, making him sit next to her and rub her back in a comforting manner. "Hey, you won't hurt anyone, and we can wait till your ready, but not too long, you may need it sooner than you think."
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Just as she finished her makeup, Elena knocked on her bedroom door and came in, quickly collapsing on the red heads bed. "You talked to Mom?" Elena looked at her cousin, taking in her outfit and nodded in approval, "Yeah, apparently my mother was 16, a runaway and left me with my parents, so dad was able to forge the birth certificate in case they needed documentation." Liza nodded and turned to face her cousin, "Well, at least you have something, right?" Elena nodded, knowing that she had more than Liza ever did.
Just as Liza was walking down the stairs she heard Elena yell her name from upstairs, "Liza!" When she looked up and saw Elena running down the stairs holding the compass, she went on alert. She made sure to listen for surrounding sounds, not noticing the vampire hanging on the ceiling. When Elena hanged up the phone after Damon told her Stefan was on his way, Elena seemed to calm down. Liza was still on alert, so when the vampire jumped down and made a move for Elena, Liza was quick to pull him off and throw him over the couch as Stefan rushed in and held Elena. Liza's eyes were once again back to black as she stared down the vampire as he sped out the door.
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Ok, so I'm splitting this chapter into two parts, only because it's already super long. Both parts will be posted tonight so don't worry.
~Sami