Elena's POV

My stomach hurt. I tried my best to look strong, because I know that if there is no certainty behind my words, then nobody will listen to me. So I had acted. I told Damon that he had lost me forever, and then he had flipped it back around to me and how I had manipulated him to hand over what research he had. I had acted like Katherine, Katerina, whatever. I might never forgive him for killing Jeremy and not knowing he would come back, for forcing himself on me, but...

but I wasn't certain.

Damon's POV

"Long day?" a familiar voice said knowingly. Feeling classy, I grabbed a glass of red wine and sat on the couch, throwing my arm around her. She shrugged it off.

"Briana," I said, "I've had a long life. But you already knew that, because you've stalked me the entire time." She laughed.

"And when I was busy, I had someone else do it." She flashed me a toothy smirk and spread her hands wide through the air. The thought of being spied on my whole dead-life made me shiver.

"Ri-ght," I dragged, "Completely normal."

"Nobody ever said I'd be normal. You slept with me." I downed the wine and settled for a glass of something stronger if this was the way the conversation would turn.

"You asked me to stay in your bed," I retorted.

"You tickled me."

"You kissed me."

"It was a mutual thing."

"Was not!"

"Both of you!" Hair flipping, our heads spun in the general direction of the voice splitting our argument. It was Stefan. "I don't think either of you raped one other so you both obviously chose to sleep with each other. Yes, it's mutual. Whatever you're fighting about, keep it quiet and to yourself. I have a headache and am going to bed." He went up the stairs rubbing his temples, and I glowered at Briana like the night I'd first met her. She stared right back with the intensity and stubbornness of Elena.

"Whatever," I groaned, "I'm going to take Stefan's advice and hit the hay. I'll be in my bed if you want to join me."

I made to get up when there was suddenly someone on me. My toes curled as she leveled her gaze to mine, smiling with a sugary evil. As I turned to look away, she grasped my chin and turned me right back. There was the thick scent of alcohol coming off her breath, or maybe that was mine. There was a pressure on my thigh and I saw her fingers crawling up it. Soft red hair fell past her cheek into her eyes and I brushed it away gently.

"I really do like you. of course I'd like you more if you hadn't tricked me into giving you information to help Elena by seducing me. A cliche tactic, but smart. It's not like you don't have the looks for it, Angelface." She caressed my face, her expression serene.

"What are you getting at?" I droned, I trying not to sound too excited.

"I'm getting at," she pulled on the waistband of my jeans, her voice smoky and sultry, "taking you out for a night on the town!" Immediately, she jumped up a clapped her hands together cheerfully. I stared at her for a moment.

"W-what?" Amusement played in her lioness amber eyes, the corners creasing ever so slightly into laugh lines. "Night on the town?"

"Duh, what did you think I was going to say?" I think that was Stefan's chuckling I heard across the house.

"Not that."

"Well I did. C'mon, I'm taking you to the club in the next town over. We gonna boogie down!" She shrugged her shoulders and swiveled her hips in some completely disturbing form of what she thought was dancing. Unsure, my eyebrows raised . She gracefully picked up my hands and swung me into her arms, looking me down with raw, unkempt lust. "You wouldn't deny me, would you?" I smashed my mouth to hers, warming my entire body, and then pulled back. She looked smug and I hated to contribute to her triumph.

"Of course not."

*****

Briana's POV

Last night was a blur of lights and racy dancing. I faintly remember singing karaoke up on stage with a drink in one hand and the microphone in the other (I was amazing of course... actually, no, probably not), and there was a lot of fist pumping and grinding, stomping an Irish jig on the bar and laughing like it was nobody's business. Kissing Damon and someone- probably him- feeling me up, swinging my shirt over my head and then more kissing. Lots and lots of effing sexy kissing.

Lucky as I was, being undead, I had no hangover when my eyes peeked open in the morning. I grabbed the hilt of my gilded personal mirror and put it to my face. Cringed. There were raccoon smudges of black eyeliner around my eyes and a false tattoo sprouting up from my collarbone and twisting in a delicately arranged rose pattern to just above my brow bone. I rubbed at it and frowned. At least I hoped it was temporary; I didn't feel like waiting for it to fade. There was a ruckus a couple rooms down, and I smelled the familiar jasmine perfume fill my nostrils. The edges of my faintly red lips curled.

I was at the doorway of the room in a second, trilling, "Katherine, my dear!"

Stefan looked at me, confusion and rage playing on his face. Kat sent a demure, hidden look my way, opening her arms for a hug. I rushed forward eagerly.

"Annice! Anne? Briana? I always forget how you change your name. By the century wasn't it?" She had a whispery, bedroom voice, one that men would and have fallen and died for. I grinned and pecked her cheek. Stefan went white as a sheet... whiter.

"Briana, nowadays. So, Kat, honey-"

"You two know each other?" Stefan interjected, seeming horrified. We laughed politely, clasping each others handsand twining our fingers around. It was a habit we had picked up in late 1700s and had progressed up until the year I had been forced to leave. I don't particularly remember why I'd gone in the first place.

"But-" I started.

"Of course-" she returned.

"We do." It had been a fun game to create sentences from the words the other had spoken, something we usually used in the carriages when nobody happened to be with us. We both looked at each other and tittered softly, pressing our foreheads together and sighing. My departure was a sad thing.

"But- you- How? You never said anything about it before," he said to me, frown lines crunching on his forehead.

"I haven't said much to you at all. Most of what I say goes to Damon." I turned to Katherine. "A good thing, too, since your obviously not interested in him, though I don't know how. Everything about him is absolutely angelic- except his personality. I like that act you put up for him. What was it? 'Stefan! It's always-"

"'Going to be Stefan!' Not a complete lie, but I thought the acting was marvelous, thank you. It's nice to have my work appreciated." I hugged her again and welcomed her.

"Briana," Stefan warned, clutching his face, "it would have been nice to know you were... an acquaintance of Katherine's. I don't know who you are, or what you've been doing her, but-"

"Oh, don't worry your pretty little mind. I haven't been spying for her or anything, not that I would need to. We both know everything you've already figured out." I picked up the filmy black and worn gray-yellow photo of Kat on his table and flashed it in her face. She smiled victoriously.

"Yes, Stefan," she agreed, placing one dainty hand on his shoulder, "I didn't even know she was here until I saw her over Damon's shoulder when I kissed him posing as Elena. He loves her so much he was easy to fool, but I almost gave myself away when I saw Briana. Scared the shit out of me." Stefan's fists clenched as he thought over Damon's love for Elena, as did my jaw. I attempted and failed to dispel the possessiveness of that sinister night I'd slept with him.

"I'm going to go get some breakfast. Want to join, Kat?" As I turned towards the door, I glanced back in time to see her smiled and winked with the look she gave me every time she turned on the major charm.

"I'll be right down. I think I'll-" There was a thud, and I flipped around to see Stefan holding a seemingly unconscious Katherine, looking grim. I gasped and backed up against the door. Kat was mostly immune to vervain like the herb in the silver dart sticking out of her neck.

"If you won't give us information, then we'll get it however we have to," he hissed. I nodded and crept from the room.

"I'd get her some more vervain quick and chain her up." He looked at her, worrying his lip. "Now!"

And we parted ways to let both of our own diabolical plans unfold.