It was times like these when Artemis really wished she hadn't ever met a vampire. They had only come into existence about a thousand years ago, and she had encountered her first one only 800 years ago. Yet, it seemed as though every dark moment in her life, she could tie, one way or another, to a vampire. Including this moment. Though nothing had gone bad yet, Artemis couldn't imagine anything good happening in the near future, especially when Damon Salvatore was involved.

They had met about a century ago, and Damon had helped her to survive a tricky situation. In return, she had granted him a favor, which he decided to cash in tonight. Now, she was standing at the front door of the Salvatore Boarding House, the foreboding home of Damon and his brother, Stefan.

The door opened before she had a chance to knock. The man on the other side was unfamiliar to her, with a brooding expression on his face. Artemis almost wanted to laugh at what a stereotypical vampire that the guy appeared to be, especially considering the fact that he was shirtless.

"Artemis!" Damon called, appearing behind Mr. Broody. "So glad you could join us."

Mr. Broody's eyebrows raised. "This is Artemis?" He took in the woman's 5' 6" frame, wavy blonde hair, and grey eyes, and then turned to glance at his brother. "You're telling me that your backup for this dinner is Malibu Barbie?"

"If by 'Malibu Barbie' you mean 'oldest, strongest, and wisest creature on this planet,' then yes," Damon answered his brother smoothly. "Stefan, meet Artemis. Artemis, meet my baby bro, Stefan."

"Charmed," the blonde girl grumbled, crossing her arms.

There was a split second between the time that Stefan's eyes narrowed, and when he leapt forward to test her reflexes. In the next split second, she was crouched down, her arms raised so that she could catch Stefan and launch him a good twenty feet away from the house. The brooding vampire growled as he landed on his feet, ready to attack again, until he heard Damon clapping, and saw the dangerous gleam in Artemis's eyes.

"Congratulations, Artemis, I think you passed my brother's test," he quipped sarcastically, before turning to his brother. "Now, can you put on a shirt and can we go to dinner? We have a fake truce to negotiate."

Neither brother noticed the tremors that began in Artemis's hand. She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her leather jacket, hoping that her strength wasn't going to be needed during dinner. The tremors were just the beginning, and would only get worse. She needed to feed, and soon.

"Niklaus, our guests have arrived," Elijah announced, upon opening the door. "And it seems that one of them has brought a plus one."

Artemis stood just behind the two Salvatore brothers, her hands still tucked into her pockets. While the brothers smiled at their host, she opted to keep a neutral expression on her face. It was a safer option than any one of the negative expressions she could have pulled at the thought of spending her entire night in a vampire den.

"This is Artemis," Damon said, gesturing to the blonde woman. "She's an old friend that was passing through town. It would have been rude to make her eat alone, and I told her that anywhere we were welcome, she was welcome too."

Elijah nodded slowly, a tight smile on his face. "Of course, the more the merrier, right?" he replied, although his smile didn't meet his eyes. "A pleasure to meet you, Artemis. My name is Elijah, Elijah Mikaelson.

She dipped her head once in recognition of his greeting, struggling to keep the expression on her face neutral. She hadn't heard the surname Mikaelson in a while, not since… No, she wasn't going to go there, not tonight. Mikaelson was a common enough name that it was probably merely a coincidence. Sure, they looked alike, but there was no way that this random man in front of her could be related to him. She refused to believe it. Instead of allowing her mind to wander, she simply followed Stefan, Damon, and Elijah further into the house, where another man was waiting.

"Damon, Stefan, Elijah tells me that you seek an audience," the new man greeted. His eyes shifted from the brothers to the woman behind them. "And you've brought a lovely blonde for dessert, how generous."

Artemis glowered at him. "You put your fangs anywhere near me and you might as well kiss them goodbye," she said in a low, dangerous tone.

The new man simply laughed. "Very bold," he commended. "Very bold, all of you. Let's discuss the terms of our agreement like civilized men, shall we?"

"It's better to indulge him," Elijah reminded as he passed them to stand by his brother.

When Stefan took a step towards the smiling man, Artemis felt the muscles in her legs tense. "I didn't come here to eat, Klaus," he stated. "In fact, I didn't want to come here at all, but I was told I had to, because you would hear us out."

Klaus's smile widened into a smug grin. "Well, we can sit and eat, like civilized men and women, or I can reach down your throats, and pull out your insides," he threatened casually, moving to sit down at the far side of the table. "The choice is yours."

The brothers stood for a few seconds, before Artemis growled at them to sit. She had been in this house for all of five minutes, and was looking to get out as quickly as possible. In terms of vampires, she had decided that Klaus was probably pretty bad news, and wanted to deal with him as little as possible. He was a cocky, arrogant son of a bitch with a dash of sociopath, a dangerous combination. Thankfully, the brothers listened, and took their seats at the table.

"Please, Artemis, take my seat," Elijah told her, offering his chair. "It would be improper to make a lady stand through the whole meal."

Artemis shook her head. "It would be improper of me to take a seat at the table, Elijah," she responded. "This is not my discussion, and I hold no stake in it. I'm perfectly fine to stand and observe."

"Very well," Elijah replied, taking his seat at the table.

She allowed her mind to wander while the vampires talked. Most of her time was spent admiring the room that she was in. There were no lights on the ceiling, she noticed, only a chandelier that hung over the table. Most of the light came from wall sconces or table lamps. Her mind plotted exit strategies in case things went south. The windows were all covered by heavy drapes, so escaping though them would likely be difficult. Her best option would be the nearby front door, but several other doorways in the room offered alternative options.

It was the phrase "one more word about Elena, and this dinner is over" that snapped her attention back to the present. It had been Stefan who had said it, she was pretty sure. Damon had mentioned a girl named Elena once. Both Stefan and Klaus had smiles on their faces, although neither was sincere, and Artemis suspected that the tension between the two was the most likely to boil over.

She continued to observe the party before her more carefully, but drew back into her own thoughts when Tatia was mentioned, and Klaus called her "the originator of the Petrova line," or something along those lines. She smiled at the thought that they believed Tatia was the first of the doppelgangers. All of the older beings in the supernatural world, the ones who had been around for millennia, knew that Amara was the first, with her lover Silas, and that she had been turned into the anchor for the Other Side by the scorned witch Qetsiyah. Hell, you could ask any dryad, if you could find one, and they'd sigh and spin you the most romantic tale about the first doppelgangers.

But now that she knew about Tatia, the basis for the spell of immortality that created the vampires made more sense. She had known that Tatia had been used for the spell, but not that she was a doppelganger. With the missing piece of the puzzle finally put into place, she began to wonder if it was choice, or simply coincidence, that resulted in one of Amara's doppelgangers providing the blood for the spell.

Maybe this night wouldn't be too bad.

But then again, she probably spoke too soon, as Klaus began to rise.

"Let's say I do leave her here, under your protection," the blonde man said. Artemis could only assume he meant Elena. "What then? How long before one of you turns her into a vampire? Or worse, how long before she dies caught between your feuding? You see, each one of you truly believes that you're the one that can protect her, and that is simply a delusion. Gentlemen, the worst thing for Elena Gilbert is the two of you."

A smile came across Damon's face, while Stefan's face remained neutral. Neither one of them believed Klaus, or appeared to listen to the points that he made. As much as Artemis did not like the vibes she got from Klaus, just simply going off some of the stories she had heard over the centuries, he was right. With love triangles, at least one person usually wound up dead. Or undead. Either way, it wasn't very pretty at all. Of course, modern times were much less dangerous for secret trysts, but with vampires and humans combined, there were almost no favorable outcomes.

"I'm going to get some air," Damon said, trying to brush off the truths that Klaus had just dropped on them. "Artie, keep an eye on things, will ya?" he added before walking out of the room. Artemis just rolled her eyes.

"Let me deal with this, older brother to older brother," Elijah said, before rising and following Damon out.

That left Klaus and Stefan to stare at one another. Artemis felt like she could cut the tension with a rusty spoon.

Klaus then went for a drink, grabbing one of his waitresses and sinking his fangs into her neck. Artemis was not a fan of watching vampires feed, and simply picked at her nails to distract herself from the grotesque slurping sounds from the other side of the room.

"Well, I guess the only reason you agreed to this evening, Klaus, is to drive a wedge between me and my brother," Stefan said, rising to his feet. Artemis could feel the muscles in her legs coiling up again, ready to intervene in a split second.

Oh no, you're doing that well enough on your own," Klaus corrected smugly. "Because of Elena, you're going to lose your brother, and you'll only have yourself to blame."

Damon and Elijah chose that moment to reenter the room, the dark-haired vampire's arms thrown wide open. "What do you say, Klaus?" Damon called out. "It's time for you to put something on the table. We've made out offer, now you counter."

Artemis moved slowly to the table as Klaus made his offer, each word coming out of his mouth seeming to agitate the brothers more and more. When he offered his hand to Stefan, only to have Stefan reject his deal, Artemis went into action. In the blink of an eye, she was between the two men, hands on their chests, and throwing them against the walls. Klaus was the first to recover, charging at her in full force. She artfully dodged each one of the punches that he threw her way, using her smaller stature and flexibility to her advantage.

It was when he stabbed her with the fire poker that he finally gained the advantage. Artemis cried out in pain as the poker went through her abdomen, and she fell to her knees. Her trembling hands wrapped around the metal shaft and weakly tugged. She could feel her body beginning to shut down, attempting to put all of her energy to healing her. It was like dying, but only temporarily. She gave one last feeble tug of the poker before her vision went black, her hands finally stilling.

There was silence for a brief moment as all four men looked at the woman lying on the ground, her blood pooling on the carpeting beneath her. Klaus was the first to recover, ripping the poker from her body and using it to break Stefan's kneecaps before holding his hands to the fire.

Damon was barely able to process what had happened to Artemis before he was agreeing to get the coffin.

"I'm sorry about your friend," Elijah told him as they exited the room. "A necessary casualty, I'm afraid."

"She'll be fine," he said with a shrug. "By the morning, she'll be a little sore, and probably royally pissed, but she'll be fine."

They quietly arranged the daggers on the silver platter, while the other three Original siblings looked on, blood bags in hand. Each was unaware of the events that had just transpired in the other room, and curious as to why their brother would team up with a strange vampire. All except Rebekah, of course, who knew the connection between the Salvatore family and her two older brothers.

As the siblings attacked Klaus, Damon carefully gathered Artemis's body in his arms, making sure that he was hiding her face from view. She had made it very clear that she wanted as few vampires to know about her existence as possible, and Damon was happy to oblige her in this instance.

None of the Mikaelson siblings gave Damon, Stefan, or Artemis a second glance on their way out, except for Kol. The youngest of the Original brothers looked at the girl in Damon's arms with great interest. There was something familiar about her, something about her hair, or the way that she smelled, that triggered a flood of memories from a different time, a happier time. But he shook the memories from his head. There was no way it could really be her, after all these years. She was gone.