PURE ⇉ KOL MIKAELSON

The faint scent of blood still lingered in the air, clinging to the heavy, antique furniture of the Salvatore boarding house. Angelina Knight, a mere human, tried to ignore the lingering metallic tang, a grim reminder of the vampire attack that had just shattered the quiet morning. Damon Salvatore, her self-appointed protector, stood amidst the wreckage of her living room, a dead vampire slumped against the wall, its heart having been violently removed.

“Relax, Lina,” Damon drawled, a smirk playing on his lips as he casually kicked at the lifeless body. “I compelled your parents to New York. They’ll forget this ever happened.”

Angelina’s stomach churned, not just from the sight of the corpse, but from the chilling realization that her ordinary life was irrevocably gone. Someone wanted her, a human, over Elena Gilbert, the doppelgänger. The world had truly turned upside down.

“Someone’s out to get me, Damon,” she murmured, picking at a loose thread on her leggings, a nervous habit. “But what would they want with me? I’m just some human.”

Damon’s smirk vanished, replaced by a rare moment of genuine sincerity. “Don’t say that, Angelina. You’re more extraordinary than any of us. I won’t let this person get to you.”

Just as the words left his mouth, a shattering crash erupted from the Salvatore's window, glass exploding inward. Another vampire, this one fast and brutal, lunged. Angelina barely had time to register the blur before a vice-like grip seized her.