UNLEASHED

─────────

Dinah’s head was spinning as she left the dining room in a rush. She thought she heard the chair she'd been sitting on fall over in her hurry to get up and get out of the room as fast as possible. She stumbled up the stairs, gripping the railing with white knuckles to keep herself upright until she made it to the second floor. As soon as she made it into her bedroom she closed the door and leaned her forehead against it, squeezing her eyes shut as the tears that had been gathering there started to fall.

She couldn't tell Selena.

But it wasn't just that she couldn't tell Selena she was cursed now, that she was going to start dying in just a few short months. Now she couldn't tell Selena anything. She couldn't tell her what they were, what she could do, who she really was. She couldn't teach her to use magic just as she'd been taught. All because everything she told her, every single thing that she learned would mean that her death was worse and more painful.

Her knees gave out under her and she slid to the floor, pressing her mouth closed to stop herself from making any noise. She breathed in deeply through her nose, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out carefully and slowly.

This was supposed to be a fresh start. Moving to Beacon Hills was supposed to be a change from the chaos, the horrible things they'd been forced to go through. She wasn't supposed to find out that she was cursed to die and she wasn't supposed to have to watch the same thing happen to her cousin, knowing it was going to happen, knowing it was coming, and not be able to tell her a thing for fear of making it worse.

Let's find who did this, those all too familiar voices in her head told her. Let's find them, stop them. Show them who they messed with.

Another tear slipped down her cheek. She should do it. She should listen. Find the coven her aunt had spoken of, the ones who had done this. If anyone could reverse the curse, they could. But she would have to leave to do that. And she couldn't leave Selena. Not now.

Dinah leaned back, first using her sweater sleeves to wipe her eyes before reaching into her pocket and grabbing the tissue that was there and using it to wipe her nose. She got to her feet and leaned back against her bedroom door. The red light of the alarm clock on her bedside table stared back at her. How could so much have happened and she still be expected to go to school in just a couple of hours?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, her head dropping back against the door again when she saw the notification that popped up.

"Shit," she swore, running a hand through her hair as she stepped away from the door.

She'd been in a different headspace when she put that notice in her calendar. She'd thought that it would be good for her. And while that was still correct, she didn't know how she could go to school and try and get on the cross country team after what her aunt had just told her.

Dinah crossed over to her closet and dug through the drawers in the bottom for the workout clothes that she'd barely used since the end of the cheerleading season back in Mystic Falls. When she first found out about the curse, she hadn't thought she'd ever want to dig this stuff out again. Then, well, she'd figured that staying in shape might help her fight off the curse's effects in this stage for a while longer.

As she pulled on a clean pair of leggings, Dinah dug out her phone from the pile of dirty clothes she'd taken off, dialed Stefan's number and put the call on speaker as it rang, setting it down on her bed so she could continue getting dressed.

"Hello?"

"Stef! I need you to pick me up early for school," she said.

"I thought your aunt wouldn't let you leave the house with me," he said teasingly.

"Yeah, I don't care this morning," she told him as she struggled to get a sports bra on. "I need to be there early and I think you should, too, and Selena didn't come home again last night it seems."

"She didn't come home?" Stefan asked, his tone concerned.

"She had a big fight with Lucy, she's probably hiding at Stiles' place," Dinah explained. "But that's not important right now.”

“What could be more important right now?”

“The concern for my cousin is cute, but Selena and Lucy are always fighting. Especially this past year. She'll hide out with Stiles for a few days, they'll make up and she'll come home. It's fine.”

“Alright, what do you need?”

“Right now I need you to pick me up. Soon. Like, in the next five minutes, preferably. And be ready for a workout."

"You want to tell me why?"

"Oh, right. Cross country. We're gonna join the team," she told him, pulling on a t-shirt.

"Why would we do that?"

"Well, I heard that all the lacrosse players have to be on the team to keep in shape or something and since you played football back in Mystic Falls, I thought you'd want to join the team here," she explained to him.

"Okay… That doesn't explain why you want to join the team," he pointed out.

"I thought staying in shape might help… stave off the curse a while longer," she admitted.

"Alright. I'll be over soon."

"Thanks, Stef."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Is everything else okay, Dinah?"

"I— I'll tell you about it later," she said. "And Stefan?"

"Yeah?"

"Bring your motorcycle."

Stefan laughed and they said goodbyes as Dinah pulled on socks and found her running shoes. She put a change of clothes into a spare bag, then grabbed her school bag and went to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and, after staring at her own reflection for a while, she decided to wash her face with some cold water.

Downstairs, Dinah found her aunt and uncle still sitting at the dining room table, but Derek was gone. They gave her a funny look when she came down, looking totally fine after the way she'd run from their last conversation, but she pretended that she didn't see that.

"Dinah, honey?" Lucy said.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Is that a trick question?" she asked, pausing in her rifling through the cupboards to give her aunt a confused look before turning back to the cupboards. "I'm cursed to die, Aunt Lucy, as far as I can tell, I'm never gonna be alright again."

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh, you were asking if I'm okay with the fact that I'm gonna have to watch my cousin die a horrible death that I can't do anything about, including warning her because that'll make her horrible death worse? Or were you asking if I'm okay with the fact that I can't tell my cousin that not only is she a witch but one of the most powerful witches ever? That she can never learn who she truly is when who she truly is, is incredibly important? Is that what you were asking?"

Lucy sighed. Dinah heard a sound from outside and looked out the window to see Stefan pulling up on his motorcycle. She smiled and turned back to her aunt, holding up the protein bar that she had been looking for that she'd found.

"Got what I was looking for so the answer is no, of course I'm not okay with it. But here's a question for you. What can I do about it?" Dinah asked, watching as her aunt looked down, not having an answer. "That's my ride, so I'm going to head out to school."

As Dinah stepped out from around her aunt and gathered her bags, heading to the front door, Lucy stepped up to the window and saw what Dinah had seen. Stefan on his motorcycle, helmet in his hands, holding a second one out for when Dinah got there.

"Dinah Evette Barnes, that better not be—"

"Gotta get to school! Love you, Uncle Steven!"

Dinah dashed out the door and to where Stefan had parked, taking the helmet that he was holding out to her.

"You sure this was a good idea?" he asked, looking around her to see Lucy's angry face in the window.

"Oh, it was a great idea."

─────────

Luckily, Coach Finstock was more than amenable to the idea of not only Stefan and Dinah joining the team but Jeremy as well. When Stefan had explained why he was leaving early, Jeremy had decided that he wanted to join the cross country and eventually the lacrosse team as well.

The three of them had parted ways at the locker rooms, the two boys going to the boys locker room and Dinah going to the girls. There weren’t that many girls in there as Dinah went to the locker she’d been assigned. Dinah figured that the boys locker room would be more full since the entire lacrosse team was there. It didn’t take her long to put her things away and then head out to the track.

Outside, she didn’t see Stefan or Jeremy anywhere so she just waited, doing a few stretches. She spotted Stiles and Scott standing a little ways away from her and gave them a smile and a wave but turned away quickly when she remembered what she’d been told that morning. Selena’s best friend and her boyfriend. Dinah knew that Selena was going to die in under a year and she couldn’t say a word to two of the people who cared about her the most.

She looked up when there was a hand on her arm and saw Stefan giving her a concerned look.

“A lot happened this morning,” she told him.

“Worse than last night?” Stefan asked.

“What could be worse than finding a dead body at a pool?” Jeremy asked.

Dinah sighed, cast a look around her and then lowered her voice. “My aunt and uncle explained more of the curse. They said that the reason I can’t tell Selena anything is that… is that the stronger we are as a witch, the longer it will take and more painful it will be.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Dinah, I’m so sorry,” Stefan said.

“It’s just…” Dinah scoffed. “A thousand years of being reincarnated and this will be the first time she’s died without knowing how important she is. First time for either of us.”

“We’ll figure this out,” Stefan promised her.

She nodded, not believing they would but also not wanting to lie to her friend.

“I guess this is the time to tell you what we overheard in the locker room,” Jeremy started.

Dinah gave him a confused look, wondering what could possibly have happened that was of note when Coach Finstock yelled out that it was time for everyone to line up. The three of them went, not saying anything with all of their classmates now so close. A moment later, once everyone had gathered up, Finstock blew his whistle and everyone started running.

As they continued running, everyone slowly started to disperse more and Jeremy took that as their cue that it was now safe to talk about whatever had happened in the boy's locker room.

“You said Scott works at a vet clinic, right?” Jeremy started.

“Yeah, apparently his boss is pretty chill. Lets Scott let his friends in if they need to hold some dogs or cats to feel better,” Dinah confirmed.

“Well, apparently one of their clients went missing last night,” Jeremy said.

“Missing?”

“Left his car and dog,” Stefan told her.

Dinah’s brow furrowed as she took a moment to think about that and catch her breath. “Just… left all his things?”

“And then Stiles was really insistent about asking if the missing client was a virgin.”

“This is Stiles, that’s not too weird,” Dinah countered. “What did Scott tell him?”

“Simplest way to put it would be that Scott said he didn’t know,” Stefan said.

“Then what happened?” Dinah asked.

“It… wasn’t relevant,” Stefan said while Jeremy laughed.

“Okay, so we have a dead guy at the pool, another one mysteriously missing and a crazy bird attack in English class,” Dinah said. “Are we sure Damon was home all of last night?”

“It wasn’t Damon,” Stefan said confidently.

“Are you sure? The birds, one dead guy and another potentially dead? Sounds like him to me.”

“The body at the pool was too messy for Damon,” Stefan countered. “He would have no reason to leave such a display when he isn’t trying to make a point.”

Dinah nodded, conceding to his point. “And the only thing he’s got going on right now is being suspicious of your landlord so there’s no point to make, got it.”

Before they could discuss anything further, like perhaps their suspects or theories about what was going on, a scream rang out, causing everyone to stop, heading towards where the scream had come from.

As soon as she saw it, Dinah came skidding to a stop, one hand coming up to cover her mouth in shock and the other gripping Stefan’s hand, in part for support and in part to help hold him back and keep him grounded with the blood that was in front of them now. In front of them was a boy, not one she recognized, tied to a tree by a garrotte around his neck. There was blood everywhere, coming out of his ears, all down the front of his clothes and on the ground below him.

A few feet away, Scott and Stiles approached with Isaac Lahey, looking at the body tied to the tree with shock and surprise.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Stiles asked Scott. Dinah understood in an instant. That was the client of Scott’s boss that had gone missing.

─────────

It didn’t take long for the police to arrive after they were called. Stiles’ dad, the Sheriff, was the first to come rushing through the throngs of students gathered around to get closer to the body, a deputy that Dinah didn’t recognize following behind him. As they got everyone to get back, Dinah, Stefan and Jeremy happily stayed further away from the body.

If it had to happen, Dinah was thankful it had happened out in the open like this, where there were many other smells that could easily distract Stefan from the scent of blood. Of course, the spell she’d muttered while they were waiting for the police to arrive that made the wind blow the smell of blood away from him was definitely also helping.

Still standing up close to the body, Stiles pulled his father over, pointing to things on the body like he recognized them while the Sheriff looked on disapprovingly. It didn’t surprise Dinah in the least that Stiles was the type of person that always wanted to butt into his father’s investigations, not only just to help because that was the kind of person he was but also because he’d no doubt been looking into it on his own, wanting more interesting intellectual stimulation.

“Coach, give us a hand here,” the Sheriff said, looking back at Finstock.

“You heard the man!” Finstock shouted to all the students gathered around. “Nothing to see here! Probably just some… homeless kid.”

“Coach?” Scott said.

“Yeah?”

“He was a senior,” Scott told him.

Finstock gasped, bringing a hand up to his mouth. “He wasn’t on the team, was he?”

As Dinah stifled a laugh at Finstock’s priorities, a girl screamed again. Everyone looked towards the source of this scream and found a blonde girl running towards the body and calling out for it to not be someone named Kyle as the deputy caught the girl to stop her from getting too close.

Dinah watched as the Sheriff ushered Stiles, Scott and Isaac away from the body and the three boys went, talking amongst themselves as they walked, occasionally glancing back a little suspiciously at two other new students that Dinah had hardly taken note of, a pair of twin boys.

“They don’t seem all that surprised,” Jeremy noted, also watching the three boys.

“No, they don’t,” Dinah admitted. “Stiles is the son of the sheriff so he’s one thing, but even still… And they keep looking at those two over there.”

“They look surprised,” Jeremy said.

“Along with everyone else,” Stefan said, still a little tense.

“So that’s two,” Dinah said. “The guy at the pool and now this guy. Two’s not a pattern, but it’s almost one.”

“It doesn’t look like a vampire,” Jeremy said.

“Too much blood left,” Stefan agreed, glancing back only briefly.

“Agreed. But it’s definitely weird.”

“Could someone be, I don’t know, trying to get our attention?” Jeremy asked.

“Someone?” Dinah echoed suspiciously.

“You know who,” Jeremy told her.

“If he or any of them came here and decided to do that,” she said, pointing to the body, “instead of just texting me, I’m going to kill them myself.”

“No, you won’t,” Stefan said.

Dinah gave him a skeptical look. “Well, if I don’t, someone in this mess I call a brain will. And they’ll be worse.”

“They’re the least likely to kill him,” Stefan countered.

“Yeah… maybe… All but one of them, that is.”

“And that one is the least likely to kill anyone.”

She made an angry face at him and pointed a finger in his face. “Stop knowing my past lives so well, it’s not fair.”

“I knew one of them longer than I’ve known you, Dinah,” Stefan said.

“I know that, she’s in my head,” Dinah said.

As Stefan smiled back at her, Dinah had to fight down her own smile. As she thought about Theodosia and all she’d learned about her life in Mystic Falls in 1864, she couldn’t help how her smile fell into a sad expression. Everything that they’d been through, all the plans they’d made those nights they’d spent laying on the roof of the boarding school, watching the stars and Stefan would still be left with more memories of someone who had been dead for almost a hundred and fifty years.

Dinah quickly looked down and muttered something about going to get changed, making a beeline for the gym again, not stopping until she was in the changing room. She sat down heavily on the bench and let her head drop into her hands, pressing her lips closed tightly as tears started falling down her cheeks.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to everyone around her that she was going to die on them before they’d graduated. Part of her didn’t even care how unfair it was to her because she knew this was the deal, this was how it always happened. In each previous life, they always died young, they had to, that was the bargain for them being reincarnated, that was how nature found its balance for how unnatural their souls were. It was everyone she loved that she cared about. In previous lives, it had only really been people that would definitely be there when they came back that they were leaving behind.

“Dinah?”

She looked up quickly, immediately wiping her eyes when she saw Stiles standing apprehensively in the doorway.

“Stiles, you startled me.”

“Are you… okay?” he asked her.

“Oh yeah,” she managed, her voice breaking. “Dead bodies all over the place and definitely nothing else going on, why wouldn’t I be okay?”

Looking up and down the hallway first, Stiles quickly ducked into the changing room, sitting down on the bench next to her.

“Whenever someone says there’s definitely not anything else going on like that it usually means there definitely is,” Stiles said.

“That’s right…” she said, taking in a stuttering breath as tears started gathering in her eyes again. “You never say it like that unless— unless you’re lying.”

“Do you need to talk about it?” he asked her.

She bit her lip for a moment, looking up until she was sure that she would be able to speak without starting to cry. After a moment had passed, she opened her mouth, but all that came out was a sob and the tears immediately started falling. She felt an arm wrap around her and she fell into Stiles, sobbing into his chest as he held her, rubbing a hand up and down her back to comfort her.

It felt like she sobbed forever, letting out all the emotion that she’d been bottling up for months now in her tears, but she knew that it was likely only a few minutes at most. When she stopped and was finally able to catch her breath, she pulled back from Stiles a little sheepishly. He told her to wait for just a moment as he got up and went over to the sinks, pulling out some paper towels and bringing them back over to her.

“I know they suck, but it’s better than using your sleeves,” he told her.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Do you have a water bottle?” he asked her.

“Uh, yeah,” she said. “I left it in my locker so I wouldn’t have to carry it while running. It's that one there.”

Stiles was quick to get up and hurry over to the locker she had indicated, grabbing the water bottle out of it and bringing it over to her. He sat back down as she started drinking out of it, waiting patiently until she was done.

“So,” he started.

“So,” she agreed.

“You gonna tell me what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said.

“Great.”

Dinah took a deep breath and then took another long drink of water before she set the water bottle down next to her. She didn’t quite know where to start, but she knew that it didn’t really matter.

“I’m going to die.”

“Like… soon? Or just eventually? Because we all die eventually.”

“Soon. In less than a year, but I don’t know exactly when.” She paused. “It's a curse.”

“Curse? Like… supernatural magic kind of curse?”

“Yeah. There’s not many other kinds.”

“So, how do you know about all the supernatural stuff?”

“Well… my best friend started dating a vampire at the beginning of the last school year. Naturally, that led to all kinds of trouble and I found out I was a witch.”

“Oh.” There was a beat of silence. “Does Selena know?”

Dinah shook her head. “She doesn’t know about any of it. Lucy made me swear not to tell her and I’m sure you know how scary my aunt can be.”

“Trust me, I know,” he said, the ghost of a laugh in his voice.

“Plus…” Dinah bit her lip to stop her from crying again. “Selena’s cursed too and if she knows that she’s a witch, it’s gonna make her death more painful.”

“Selena’s going to die?” Stiles asked, looking over at her in alarm. Dinah just nodded, keeping her eyes ahead as they had been. She didn’t want to see the heartbreak on his face at the thought of losing not his girlfriend but the best friend he’d known all his life. “How do you… how do you know it’s gonna kill her too?”

“It's a curse on our bloodline. That’s why our parents both only had one kid. They never meant to have children. Neither of us were planned.”

“Well, yeah, you definitely seem like an accident…”

Offended, Dinah turned to look at Stiles only to see him smirking at her. She rolled her eyes and jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. He’d succeeded, though, he had broken the tension that had built with the seriousness of what they’d been talking about.

“Promise me you won’t tell Selena until it’s time for her to know.”

“When is it going to be time for her to know?” he asked, beginning to wring his hands in what was most likely anxiety.

“When the curse activates. On her seventeenth birthday.”

“Is that when yours… activated?” he asked. Dinah nodded. “But that was in July.”

“Glad you remember my birthday.”

“Have you been keeping this to yourself since your birthday?” Stiles asked her sadly.

“No. My friends from back home, they found out about the curse and they came out here to help me break it. Well, help me try and break it,” she explained to him.

Stiles opened his mouth to say something, likely to ask how they knew if she had to make a guess, before he stopped and his brow furrowed as he looked at her. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.

“You don’t think it can be broken.”

“My aunt and uncle were quite clear. Because of how the curse came to be, there’s no way to get the information on how it would be possible if it’s even possible at all,” she explained. “The information basically just doesn’t exist.”

“So all of us, everyone who knows and cares about the two of you, we just have to stand by and watch you die?” he asked her.

Dinah took a deep breath and then let it out as she thought of the best way to explain this. “Selena and I, we’re witches, as I said, but we’re not just your run-of-the-mill witch. We happen to be a little bit… special.”

“Special?”

“Yeah. So, the simplest way to put this would be that a thousand years ago, there were these two girls, Delilah and Phoebe. They were cousins and witches, the same as their mothers. When there was this awful death in their village, their mothers struck a bargain with this other witch. They would help this other witch protect her children if she helped them protect their children. You with me so far?”

“I think so.”

“Okay good. This other witch, her children became the first vampires. In return, she helped save Delilah and Phoebe. Their souls were saved, so instead of eternal life, they would be reincarnated every two hundred years, give or take. While they wouldn’t initially remember their past lives, they would be able to gain access to them through spells and with every new life, their magic would only grow, making them more and more powerful. Make sense?”

Stiles nodded. “Delilah and Phoebe are reborn every two hundred years, getting more powerful each time.”

“Exactly. Witches are servants of nature, though, and our job is to keep it in balance. Being reincarnated every two hundred years with the same soul and keeping some of your original power, not exactly the most balanced thing so nature had to find some way to balance them out. It did this by making it so that, though they would live again in another two hundred years, they would always die young.”

“That doesn’t seem like a fair deal.”

“Well, it’s the cost of trying to play god. In the twenty-first century, Selena and I are the current reincarnations of Phoebe and Delilah, respectively.”

Stiles continued nodding as though he was processing the information before he suddenly stopped and looked at Dinah with wide eyes.

“Are you telling me my girlfriend is one of the most powerful witches in the world?”

“One of two. The other one is sitting next to you.” Dinah watched as Stiles processed that for a moment. “So, that’s why there’s no way to break the curse. It’s kind of our destiny to die young. If it wasn’t this, it would be something else that kills us. We can never escape our fate.”

─────────

Dinah pretended that her moment of weakness in the change room with Stiles hadn’t happened as she went about the rest of her day. She cleaned up her face before everyone else filtered back to the change rooms and she got out of her sweaty clothes along with the few other girls that were on the team. Though both Stefan and Jeremy were curious about why she’d run off, she just said that she’d felt sick suddenly and didn’t want to throw up in front of everyone. Though Stefan had been a little skeptical of this — likely because she didn’t smell of vomit — all she had to say was that she didn’t actually end up throwing up and the nausea had passed after a moment of sitting down.

She ditched her next class of the day, heading to the library to get some peace and quiet and give her a chance to relax. There was something going on here, of that she was sure. Two people killed in exactly the same way, the birds, their vague suspicions of Derek Hale beyond the fact that he knew Lucy somehow and their definite suspicion of his uncle… none of it added up. But Lucy hadn’t told her anything about something going on in this town like in Mystic Falls and despite everything else Lucy had failed to tell her, Dinah couldn’t — wouldn’t — believe that she wouldn’t warn her about there being the supernatural in this town, if only so she didn’t get dragged into something unknowingly. Again.

Sighing, Dinah leaned back in her chair, looking down at the textbook that she was failing to focus on. As she struggled to wrap her mind around everything that was going on, she began to tap her pencil against the pages of her textbook, the steady beat and action of bouncing the pencil actually helping clear her mind for a moment before she got a dirty look from someone sitting a few tables over. She gave them an apologetic smile as she stopped, dropping her pencil next to her notebook.

With another sigh, Dinah sat forward again, trying to focus on her textbook once again. She only had to fail at it for a few moments before she was startled by someone sitting down in front of her and looked up to see it was Elena.

“Figured I’d find you here,” she said.

“What are you doing here?” Dinah asked.

“You didn’t come to class and after we heard about what happened this morning, I figured you had blown off your classes to find a quiet place to think. Library was the first place that came to mind so I asked the teacher if I could finish my work in the library,” Elena explained.

“You know me too well…”

“We’ve been best friends our entire lives, that’s my job.” Elena paused when Dinah didn’t answer, just stared down at her textbook. “Alright, and as your best friend, this is when you tell me what’s wrong.”

Dinah struggled to find the words for a moment as she looked back up at Elena. “Today is… not going according to plan. The body is making me seriously reconsider that there’s nothing going on here and on top of that, well, I’m feeling a little guilty because I told Stiles about the curse.”

“You did what?”

“Yeah. We were standing around after seeing the body and Jeremy mentioned that it could have been someone we knew trying to get our attention and, well, the conversation came around to mentioning Theodosia and I got really sad about how you’re all going to cope when I’m gone—”

“That’s not going to happen,” Elena insisted. “We’re going to figure this out.”

“—So I ran off to the bathroom and Stiles found me and I started crying and because of that I couldn’t think of an excuse so I just told Stiles the truth. All of it. About Selena and I, that I knew about the supernatural, the curse… that his girlfriend, his best friend, is going to die. And then I had to tell him he couldn’t tell Selena.”

Elena reached across the table and gripped Dinah’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Dinah gave her a smile for a moment before it fell again.

“I’m sorry you had a bad morning.”

“Thanks. I wish I could say I’m not getting used to it.”

“I wish you could, too.”

There was a moment of silence as both girls wondered about what to say next. Despite that, Dinah did feel reassured by talking to Elena. After all the years they’d known each other, they’d gotten very good at comforting each other.

“Wait,” Elena finally said. “Did you say you think something might be going on here?”

“Yeah… I needed a quiet place to relax but it made it a little too easy to think about everything I didn’t want to think about.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Not any one thing,” Dinah admitted. “And I stand by what I said about my aunt not telling me anything being a vote against something going on but… The more I think about it, the more I have this feeling that I can’t explain. I don’t trust my aunt to tell me the truth so before you sat down I was like this close to calling someone who knows about the supernatural basically everywhere.”

“You don’t mean—”

“No! No, no. Mine of the brothers.” Dinah’s nose wrinkled up. “God, that feels weird to say in this life. I’d get a straight answer out of him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Anyone else might not, but he’d give me a straight answer. I look like his wife a few times over and they’re in my head, so, you know…” Dinah explained with a shrug.

“Right.”

“It’s just…” Dinah sighed, failing to find the words. “We were the first to figure it out back home, right? Maybe we’re supposed to be the first ones to figure it out here.”

Elena smiled. “Are you asking me to be the Watson to your Holmes?”

“If convenient. If inconvenient, I’m asking anyways.”

They both laughed for a moment before their expressions turned serious again. While there was some relief in playing detective with her best friend again, it was accompanied by a sense of dread because of what it was they were investigating. There was a time they’d played detective over less life and death things, it was a shame they wouldn’t get the chance to do it again before she died.

“Why don’t we start with Stiles?” Elena suggested. “What kind of name is Stiles, anyway?”

“It’s just a nickname,” Dinah said with a laugh. “Apparently his first name is a mouthful.”

“Can’t fault him for that. How did he react when you told him about the curse? Did he seem surprised? Apart from being told his girlfriend is going to die, of course.”

Dinah’s brow furrowed. “You know what, he didn’t, come to think about it.”

“You told him about a magical curse and he wasn’t surprised and you didn’t ask any questions?” Elena asked her. “That’s not like you at all.”

“I was kind of in the middle of a breakdown, wasn’t on my A-game.”

“I suppose you can be forgiven, then,” Elena said with an exaggerated sigh. “Why wouldn’t he be surprised to know the supernatural are real?”

“Maybe he was… pretending for my sake?” Dinah suggested. “He didn’t want to add a freak out on top of a breakdown?”

“So… how do we figure out what he knows? Corner him the next time he’s at your house?”

“We’d have to wait an awful while, Selena has been hiding out at his place to avoid Lucy.”

Elena leaned around Dinah to look at something behind her. “What if we corner him now, then?”

Dinah turned to look at what Elena was seeing and spotted Stiles coming out from one of the aisles of books balanced precariously in his arms. He looked one wrong misstep away from losing the entire pile. She was a little surprised he could even see where he was going.

A smirk crept up on her face as she turned to look back at Elena. She loved Selena but Dinah had really missed having someone around who knew her so well.

“You want to ambush him while he’s trying to balance that stack of books to throw him off?” she asked.

“We want information, don’t we?”

“God, I love you.”

They gathered their things into their bags again quickly and then darted over towards where Stiles was carefully trying to maneuver with the stack of books in his arms. Dinah took the lead, immediately darting in front of him and startling him, causing him to almost drop his stack of books.

“Dinah, hey…” he said, eyes wide and voice nervous.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“You know, I really don’t have time and I should put these books down before I drop them, maybe we could talk later—”

Stiles stopped suddenly where he’d tried to escape down the nearest aisle when he bumped into Elena, who had cleverly blocked his path of escape. He looked back at Dinah with an even more nervous look as he realized he’d let himself get boxed in.

“How about we talk now?” Dinah said.

“Yeah, sure. Now works. Now’s great, actually.”

“That’s a good boy,” she said. Stiles’ brow furrowed at that comment but he was immediately distracted when Elena took two books off the top of his stack so he could see better. “Now, I just have a few questions. Mainly about why, when I told you I was a witch, you acted as if that wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d said.”

“Pfft, I mean, you were saying a lot of weird things—”

“In fact,” Dinah interrupted him, “I remember it being you who first mentioned it could be a supernatural or magical kind of curse and asked me how I knew about it all. Care to explain why that might be?”

Stiles’ eyes darted over to Elena before looking back at Dinah. “You brought backup?”

“Of course, I did. I’m not exactly new at this.”

“I’m impressed.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Dinah said, taking a step closer. “How exactly do you know about the supernatural?”

“I, uh, well… see—”

“Are all of these books about human sacrifice?” Elena suddenly asked, looking from the two books in her hands to the stack Stiles was still holding. “Why do you need so many books on human sacrifice?”

“Extra credit assignment.”

They all turned to look behind Dinah to find Selena standing at the entrance to the aisle they had backed Stiles into. In her hands, she was also holding a couple of books on human sacrifice. Why did this school have so many books on human sacrifice?

“Right!” Stiles agreed quickly. “This is all for extra credit in…”

“History,” Selena supplied.

“Exactly, history.”

Dinah wasn’t buying it. Their story reeked of being poorly concocted and she was pretty familiar with poorly concocted lies. Unfortunately, she couldn’t continue interrogating Stiles now that Selena was here. Whatever Stiles knew, however slim the chance was that Selena didn’t know it, she just couldn’t risk it. Anything Selena didn’t know was saving her, the more she learned, the more danger she’d be in come November.

She hated it, she hated that this meant she’d have to let them get away with their lies and whatever they were keeping from her for now, but Selena learning she was a witch just wasn’t a risk Dinah was willing to take. She’d just have to plan better and find a time to interrogate Stiles when Selena wouldn’t be there to rescue him. Easier said than done…

“You need extra credit in history?” Dinah asked, turning a teasing smile back on Stiles. “First you need tutoring in physics and now you need extra credit in history?”

“Well, you know…” Stiles said with a shrug. “Harris has it out for me. And so does our history teacher.”

“I’ll be amazed if you actually manage to graduate, Stilinski,” Dinah told him.

“Good luck with your extra credit,” Elena said, dropping the books she’d taken back on Stiles’ stack.

Looping her arm through Dinah’s, Elena pulled her away from Selena and Stiles. They walked towards the doors of the library in silence, only breathing a sigh of relief when they’d passed out of the library entirely.

“Time for Plan B,” Dinah said.

“Plan B better not include a Mikaelson,” Elena said.

“No, that’s Plan C. If we hit that point, Klaus might just side with Selena simply because of who she is. God help us if we need to resort to Plan C.”

─────────

There had been a lot of times in Dinah's life when she had wanted to kill Damon. It had been her initial reaction to him, in fact. He was the dick of an older brother to her best friend's new boyfriend who she was becoming fast friends with as well.

She'd wanted to kill him when he told Elena and herself about how Stefan was, incorrectly, still in love with his ex, Katherine, in an attempt to break them up just after they had gotten together. The only thing stopping her was when he mentioned Theodosia — her last life, though she hadn't known it at the time — and she saw real humanity in his eyes for the first time. She'd wanted to kill him when he started messing with Caroline's head and feeding on her. Though she had still wanted to kill him, her hand was stayed long enough for her to lose her shot when they learned that just because he was messing with her head, he wasn't messing around with Caroline. If he had been, nothing could have stopped her even though she didn't know she was a witch yet.

Many more times followed. When he attacked Bonnie, when he betrayed them, when he attacked Stefan, when it was his stupidity which led to Bonnie losing her Grams, when he had fed Elena his blood even though she didn't want to be a vampire just because he didn't want to lose her. She could really go on.

But none of those times compared to when she confessed to him and her friends how she was finally willing to accept that something was definitely going on in Beacon Hills. The smug look on his face was enough to make Dinah want to kill him just to make him stop. She'd considered giving him a magical migraine, but she'd just get shit for that so decided against it for the time being.

“I knew you'd realize I'm right, Spitfire,” Damon said. “Our landlord is up to something.”

“Derek isn't behind it,” Dinah countered. “Peter might be, but not Derek. He's friends with my aunt. Apparently there was a fire and almost his whole family died and Lucy let him stay in the house after. If they're that close, he's not masterminding anything.”

“He's immune to vervain,” Damon pointed out.

“I know. But that just means he's not human. Not that he's behind anything.”

“Stiles knows something,” Elena added. “When Dinah told him about the curse, he wasn't surprised about the existence of the supernatural.”

“I'm still surprised you told him,” Bonnie said.

Dinah sighed. “Yeah, yeah, everyone's shocked about that. I mentioned the part where I was having a breakdown and there was no avoiding it, right?”

“Still unexpected.”

“And not the point we're trying to make,” Elena pointed out. “He knows about the supernatural.”

“Do you think Selena knows? She is his girlfriend,” Stefan asked.

“I… I don't know. Honestly. Lucy said she doesn't know but she could have figured it all out and not told her mom. We didn't all tell our parents immediately when we learned, if we told them at all,” Dinah said, letting her head fall to the back of the couch so she was looking up at the ceiling. “If she had no reason to think Lucy knew, she wouldn't go to her about it. The only reason I went to my mom was because my magic was scaring me and I thought she had to know about it so… so if she knows, it means she doesn't know she's a witch and any magic she has displayed has been able to be explained away.”

There was a pause as they all took in Dinah's rambling, thinking-out-loud speech. It had mostly been her figuring it out as she spoke so she wasn't surprised it was taking everyone, herself included, a moment to think it all over.

“Supernatural, yes, but witch, no?” Jeremy asked.

“I think so,” Dinah agreed.

“Then who else knows?” Elena asked. “Derek, Selena and Stiles but who else?”

“Scott has to know,” Stefan said. “He definitely didn't smell human, he knows.”

“You have got to stop smelling strangers.”

“I'm not doing it on purpose.”

“Your strange nose aside, Stiles, Selena and Scott have been practically inseparable forever, no way one of them figures something like this out and doesn't tell the others,” Dinah pointed out.

Elena nodded in agreement. “I mean, we sure didn't. Almost as soon as you guys figured out you were witches, you told me.”

“You were being all sad, what were we supposed to do?” Bonnie said.

“That does kind of explain how Selena knows our landlord,” Caroline added. “If he knows your aunt and has stayed at her house, it makes sense he'd know Selena. Which explains why she was here. Doesn't totally explain why he was at our school.”

“Alright, so why don’t we just go and get the one who we know is human — the really annoying, fidgety one — interrogate him and then make him forget it ever happened?” Damon suggested.

“Fidgety…? Oh, you mean Stiles? Selena’s boyfriend Stiles? Selena’s boyfriend Stiles who not only do I get along with but my aunt and uncle both really like? That one?” Dinah questioned.

“Yeah, sure, that one.”

Dinah rolled her eyes. “It’s cute that you think Lucy hasn’t been dosing him with vervain since she knew you guys were in town. You couldn’t compel a word out of him.”

“I could torture it out of him.”

“And then my aunt would torture you. And I’d help.”

“Stop shooting down my ideas, Spitfire.”

“Get better ideas and I won’t have to.”

Damon scoffed and walked towards the door, grabbing his leather jacket from where it was hanging on the stand next to the door and starting to put it on.

“Where are you going?” Stefan asked.

“Out.”

“Out where, exactly?” Caroline asked.

“I’m gonna go blow off some steam if that’s alright with you,” Damon said, his tone a little condescending.

Before any of them could say anything else or try to stop him, he was gone in a flash. Even though she knew his sour mood was going to end poorly for them, Dinah couldn’t help feeling a little relieved that he was gone.

“We’re gonna have to clean up his mess, aren’t we?” Caroline said.

“Yeah, probably,” Elena agreed with a sigh.

Dinah sighed before pushing herself to her feet. “I should probably get home. My battery is running seriously low after the day I’ve had.”

“I’ll give you a ride,” Stefan said, immediately standing up.

“Good, I was so not looking forward to walking the whole way.”

─────────

Stefan’s motorcycle slowed to a stop out front of the Barnes home and Dinah released her hold on him so she could remove her helmet and hop off the bike. Stefan remained seated, using one foot propped against the edge of the sidewalk to keep the bike upright as he removed his own helmet.

“Thanks for the ride,” she told him.

“Anytime,” he said. “As much as I don’t want your aunt to hate me, you can always call me for a ride.”

“Well, I appreciate you being willing to—”

Dinah cut herself off as she watched Stefan’s brow furrow and his eyes turn towards the house behind her. She turned to look herself, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and so looked back at him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Damon’s here.”

Her expression dropped into a scowl. “What?”

“I can hear him,” Stefan said. “He’s in your house.”

“He’s gonna wish he wasn’t.”

She didn’t wait to see what Stefan would say or what he’d do, she immediately turned and ran towards the front door. It slammed open but she didn’t care, leaving it open behind her as she followed the voices she could now hear into the kitchen.

There, to her horror, she saw Selena and Damon sitting across from each other with cups of coffee. How the hell had he managed to get into her house? Why would Selena invite him in?

“What the hell is going on here?” she demanded.

“Hello to you, too, Spitfire,” Damon said, smirking at her.

Dinah narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you doing in my house?”

“Just having a cup of coffee with your cousin, who has just been so welcoming,” Damon told her easily.

“Why?” she asked, not being able to find any other words.

She heard the door close and a moment later felt Stefan’s presence behind her, which made her feel better about making sure Damon would get out when she told him to.

“Oh, brother!” Damon said, looking delighted at Stefan’s appearance. “Funny running into you here with Dinah.”

“Damon,” Stefan said.

“Selena’s here too,” Selena said quietly. “What’s with the tension?”

“No tension,” Dinah said, plastering on a smile. “Damon was just leaving.”

“Was I?” Damon asked. “Your cousin just poured this coffee, it would be a shame to waste it.”

Dinah narrowed her eyes at him again. “Coffee never goes to waste in this house, don’t worry.”

“We go through at least twelve cups a day in this house,” Selena added with a meek smile.

“Exactly, so you have no reason to worry about being wasteful,” Dinah continued, walking over to Damon and putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him an aneurysm.

Selena looked to Damon in concern as he reached for his forehead in pain. “Another headache? Maybe you should go see a doctor. That’s the second one in what, the past ten minutes?”

“Two headaches in ten minutes, Damon? That’s really worrying,” Dinah said. “Stefan, why don’t you take your brother to the doctor. He’s just so stubborn about taking care of himself.”

“That’s a good idea,” Stefan agreed.

He crossed the room to take his brother’s arm, keeping a tight grip to pull him to his feet even as Dinah didn’t let up on the spell. Dinah would keep this spell going until he couldn’t walk if she had to.

“Such a shame you can’t take care of yourself, Damon,” Dinah said, watching Stefan lead him towards the door.

“Feel better,” Selena called after them. “Maybe we could finish that cup of coffee—”

“No,” Dinah said, cutting off her cousin. “Feel better soon, Damon.”

“Thanks, Spitfire, Baby Barnes,” Damon groaned before they disappeared from sight.

Dinah immediately turned towards Selena. “Why the hell did you let him in the house?”

“Was I not supposed to?” Selena asked, looking thoroughly confused.

“Did I not tell you he was a dick?” Dinah threw her hands in the hair. “We only put up with him because he’s Stefan’s brother!”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“What did he want?” Dinah sighed. “Why was he here, Selena?”

Selena took a sip of her coffee. “He was worried about you and honestly, so am I. You’ve gotten better but I know you, you’re still hurting and we—”

“There is no we, there’s no you and Damon anything,” Dinah cut her off.

“The point is that he was worried about you and wanted to know if I had noticed anything,” Selena explained, looking down at her cup of coffee. “And sure, he was being a bit of a dick before you got here but he seemed genuinely concerned about you.”

“You can’t trust anything he says or does,” Dinah said, crossing her arms. “The only person he cares about is himself.”

“You didn’t see the way—”

“No, he doesn’t care, Lena,” Dinah insisted. “You don’t know him, you can’t trust him.”

“Do you think I would have invited him in if he didn’t seem genuine?” Selena questioned her.

“And I’m telling you that he’s a really good manipulator,” Dinah said. “There was a reason Stefan didn’t speak to him for years before he came back to Mystic Falls.”

“Was it their parents?”

Dinah’s face dropped at hearing her cousin say that. What could Damon have told her? What lies was he planting now? Even Damon didn’t like talking about his father, why would he have brought it up?

“So it was,” Selena said, placing her mug of coffee back on the table.

“It was… one of many reasons. Damon has always taken after their father, unlike Stefan,” she explained. “It’s a long story and it’s not my story to tell, but that’s all you need to know. Whatever Damon said is a lie.”

Selena studied her for a moment before her expression turned to one of exasperation. “What is it with everyone lying to me today?”

Without another word, Selena stood up and pushed past her, making her way upstairs with her coffee cup in hand.

─────────

After the spectacular failure of her conversation with Selena, Dinah remained downstairs while her cousin stayed upstairs in her room. How could this day have gone so wrong? She thought that starting off the morning with being told she couldn’t tell Selena what was going on because it would make her death more painful, she didn’t think the day could get worse. And yet somehow, it did.

She was least looking forward to Lucy getting home. She’d have to explain to her about Damon getting access to the house and what that would mean. Though, she supposed, it did mean she’d get to rub it in her aunt’s face how it was her rule about not telling Selena anything which allowed it to happen. If she’d been able to properly warn Selena, it never would have happened.

Finally, Lucy arrived home and was surprised to find Dinah sitting in the kitchen with her school books, failing once again to focus on them.

“How was school today?” Lucy asked, her tone cautious.

Dinah had almost forgotten about their fight this morning…

“School was… fine, I guess,” Dinah said. “We, uh, have a problem, though.”

“What is it?” Lucy asked, turning away from the coffee maker.

“So, I got home today and found your daughter having coffee with Damon Salvatore.”

It was probably a good thing Lucy hadn’t gotten her cup of coffee yet because if the expression on her face was anything to go by, she would have dropped it.

“You invited Damon Salvatore in?” Lucy asked, her voice cold.

“No, actually,” Dinah said. “Selena did. Because she didn’t know not to because you told me we couldn’t tell her anything.”

Lucy turned back to the coffee maker and picked up her mug. “I see.”

“Thought you should know.” Dinah stood up, gathering her things. “Hope you know how to keep him out of the house…”

Without bothering to wait for her aunt’s reply, Dinah walked out of the kitchen and headed up to her own room. Worst day ever.