The light outside of the little cellar blinds Jordan's eyes, and in a reflex she lifts her arm to shield her eyes. Even the littlest movement of raising her arm results into a throbbing. The damage done is more than she realises, and it won't surprise her if she can add another bruise to the list. Damon stares at Jordan, "Are you insane? You can barely walk, what makes you think you'll be able to handle those vampires?"

Jordan grins back, knowing she has won the argument before it even starts, "So, you're just going to let me get back to the car. On my own?"

The grip on Jordan's arm tightens a bit, and she knows he's angry with her. "Why do you want to fight them so badly anyways?" he asks.

Jordan doesn't reply. He wouldn't understand. Why there is this drive that is pushing her forward. The only thing that is pushing her forward. If she stops, she's afraid of never getting up again. Damon doesn't need to know that.

"Whatever." Damon presses his teeth hard against one another. "Just stay behind me. Promise me you'll stay behind me."

With his intense gaze fixed on her, Jordan can only nod.

Jordan slips her hand into the one of Damon for support. The electricity that sparks throughout her arm is almost enough to make her lose her head, and she wonders whether Damon feels the same way.

For the first time, Damon looks at Jordan with a look in his eyes she can't explain. She doesn't know if that is good or bad, so to reassure him — and mainly herself — a soft smile grazes her features. Questions of desire and need and loving hang in the air, but neither of the two act upon it.

Damon takes the lead. A stake hovers in front of his chest, ready to use when necessary. With his right hand he holds onto Jordan and tucks her with him into the kitchen. With his back turned towards them, a vampire is minding his own business. Suddenly, the idea of coming with doesn't seem so appealing to Jordan. Her insides are on fire and a sizzling scream rips through her brain. She almost hunches over in pain, but as Damon casts her a worrying glance she urges her pain to subdue.

What's happening to me?

Damon slips his hand out of Jordan's, and soundlessly stakes the vampire through his heart, giving him no change to even consider running away. Jordan's eyes widen, but one look of Damon silences her.

They had no choice, she knows that. But it still hurts her to see him, a vampire whose name she doesn't even know, fall to the ground. He might've not even done something wrong, but ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Wait here, Damon mouths.

Most of the time Jordan would've argued, but the fire is still sizzling and it's draining her of all her energy. As Damon advances further into the house, Jordan leans against the doorpost. Her eyes fall onto the forest outside, and she can hear her mother's voice ringing in her ear: Remember who you are, dear, and know that your 'weaknesses' are your greatest strength. Don't let them overpower you.

Jordan closes her eyes. Her mum is right, of course, but that doesn't take away the fact that it is so incredible hard. To stay true to yourself when everything around you is telling you to change. And Jordan is afraid, so damn afraid, that in her fight to stay true to herself, she's going to lose herself altogether. She sinks her teeth into her lower lip to keep it from trembling.

A deep breath in and a deep breath out do not settle Jordan's nerves, but it is the closest she feels to being in control. The house has been quiet for too long now, and Jordan fears Damon might be in trouble. Not that she would be any help, but it is the thought that counts.

She looks over her right shoulder and lifts her back from the doorpost as she realises no one is behind her. Shuffling, she advances forward. With her heart thundering in her ears she boldly steps into the hallway that connects the kitchen to the living room.

The pair in front of her catches her by surprise, "Mister Saltzman? What are you doing here?"

Jordan's history teacher turns around with a sheepish smile grazing his face, "Being a vampire hunter doesn't pay the bills?" The confidence in his statement is clearly lacking, but Jordan smiles nonetheless.

"Thanks, Alaric," she says, "for risking your life to save mine and Stefan's."

Now that she knows her history teacher is a vampire hunter, she thinks it's quite alright to call him by his first name. Alaric's eyes light up, "No problem, Jordan."

Throughout their conversation, Damon is holding up a bored front. His stake loosely hanging in his hand, and his hair ruffled from fighting gives him an even more 'bad boy' persona. Who knows that the smirk on his face is all an act?

Damon isn't stupid. He hasn't missed Jordan's little slip-up. There is something seriously bothering her, and even though they shouldn't be on speaking terms, with him breaking her heart by kissing Kelly, he can't help but constantly crawl back to her. He is going to demand what is wrong, and he is, for the first time in centuries, going to apologise for his actions. That should do the trick, right?

Like a lot of times the last couple of weeks, Damon isn't so sure of himself anymore. Jordan has the power to make him question all his beliefs and customs.

He clears his throat, "Hate to break your little bonding time, but we should really get going. Crazy vampires are still on the loose."

Jordan nods her head. They might've survived the first wave of vampires, but who knows how many more there are to come.

♛

Apparently, a lot more.

With their backs turned to the door of the house, they are trapped. From every direction, heaps of vampires advance towards them. All deadly and dangerous. All just as willing to rip them to shreds.

"How many more of those vervain darts do you have left?" Damon asks.

My history teacher has a stash of vervain darts?! What has the world come to?

"One."

Damon looks around the field, "Not gonna be enough," he states as if Jordan and Alaric didn't already knew.

The vampires don't speed towards them, and somehow, that's even worse. It shows that they know that they're on the side of victory. They don't need to hurry, for Damon, Alaric, and Jordan are trapped.

Maybe, that isn't totally true. Where vampires walked just moments ago, a pathway has formed, one through which two woman walk with a tremendous amount of authority. Jordan doesn't know who they are, but judging from the look on Damon's face, they are not their enemies: he is theirs.

"Pearl!" Damon shouts, and Jordan swears she can see Pearls shoulders cringe.

The lady, Pearl, composes herself and looks Damon directly into his eyes, "What's going on here? What did you do?"

Not a smart move.

Damon laughs humourlessly, "Me? What did I do? Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother and my..." Damon clears his throat, "Jordan, a human."

He doesn't know yet! Neither does Elena! Jordan's eyes widen. The thought of telling Damon and Elena what she is, is enough for her pulse to pound loudly throughout her whole body.

Pearl swallows painfully, "Trust me, the parties responsible for this will be dealt with. This wasn't supposed to happen."

Jordan feels sorry for Pearl. She deserves to live just as much as they do, but with the stunt her 'merry little band', as Damon called them, pulled, Jordan wasn't sure if that is what's going to get.

Forgetting that vampires – especially Damon – can be vicious, is something Jordan constantly does. The fear in Pearls eyes, however, proves that Damon, can indeed be merciless, and Jordan is blown away by the sheer force of Damon's power of igniting someone with fear by only using his words. "Well, it did," he sneered, "and if I had a good side...not a way to get on it."

♛

Relishing in her freedom doesn't take long. With relishing she actually means sitting in the Salvatore's living room, drinking hot cacao while mustering up the courage to tell her friends she's a nymph.

The ringing of Elena's phone cuts through the air and Jordan jumps up, spilling a bit of cacao on her shirt. It's still coated with blood and her shirt sticks to her body like a second skin. Stefan looks at her pointedly, like he has done for the last hour, and Jordan knows he's urging her to speak up. But she doesn't have the courage to, for heaven's sake, she wasn't even planning on telling Stefan. Now it's too late, because the look on Elena's face can only be described as horrendous. Her hand covers her mouth and her eyes are widened in shock.

The call has long ended, but Elena remains still like a statue, with her hand covering her mouth.

"Elena? What's wrong? You're scaring me," Jordan carefully stands up from the sofa and walks over to Elena with small steps.

"Come on, sis, you can talk to me."

Elena turns towards Jordan with tears threating to spill, "It's...they found Vicki's body. J-Jer, he knows."

Just like that, Jordan hearts starts breaking. Visualising Jeremy curled up on his bed with the realisation of Vicki being dead dawning in on him is not something which warms Jordan's heart, nor does it help that he is very likely to start spiralling down again and turn to drugs.

I promise you, Jer, that I'll be there for you this time. I won't let you down again.

"We have to go, right now!" The raise in her voice makes Damon walk over to her. He rests his hand on her shoulder.

"Not with your shirt and jeans soaked in blood, you're going to scare Jeremy even more that way."

Jordan hadn't even realised that her jeans were decorated with spatters of blood. Shaking her head from left to right brings the headache back to the surface, but with enough willpower she wills it down. Now is not the time for her problems. "No, you don't understand, we have to leave. Now! You don't know him, you don't know how much he's hurting. He needs our help."

Something inside of Damon snaps and he brings his fist in contact with the dark wooden coffee table. It shatters in two at the impact. "You are hurting, Jordan." Each words are like a blow to Jordan's gut. "Can't you see," Damon whispers, "you're destroying yourself by trying to help others!"

Tears well up in Jordan's eyes, and for once, she lets her lower lip tremble, "I don't care! Okay! I. Don't. Care." She turns her body away from Damon, hoping that it'll keep her bubbling emotions inside.

With every stomp in Jordan's direction, the anger leaves Damon's body. He isn't angry at her, how can he be? All Jordan ever wants is to help others, why should it bother him that she seals her fate that way?

But he does. He cares, way too much. Deep down he knows that that had always been his downfall, and when he finally meets someone who does cares, for him, it is enough to open the old wound.

Damon spins Jordan around, and as he looks into her eyes, she feels as if he is peeling away walls Jordan didn't even know she'd created. "But I do, so please, for the love of god, change your jeans and shirt, and then I'll fucking bring you to Jeremy myself."

Jordan nods her head weakly, and heads upstairs, not uttering a word to Stefan or Elena who've witnessed their not-so-fight with wide eyes.

"Did they just...?" Elena asks Stefan in a whisper.

Stefan nods his head, "They did."

They all knew that their whole argument wasn't about the jeans and the shirt, it runs much deeper than that. Much, much, deeper.