PLOT

The beginning of a new year, 2013, saw a lot of change in the small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. A new Mayor, Rudy Hopkins, took over after Carol Lockwood was found dead, and things are.... strange, around town, for lack of a better explanation. But then, things have always been strange, in the eyes of those in the know. Those select people in the thick of things are struggling more than ever these days.

Elena Gilbert, upstanding young citizen and popular high school student, is now a vampire, accidentally having fallen victim to the curse set upon so many of her loved ones. Her love for the Salvatore brothers still causes heartache and trouble, though currently she is in love with Damon, the eldest brother, Stefan being left to deny his true feelings for her, and revert to a former heartless self that no one has had the pleasure of seeing before. His new bond with original vampire, Rebekah Mikaelson is proving a great distraction, and they grow closer by the day. Bonnie Bennett, daughter of the new Mayor, is being coached in magic by a man nobody is too willing to trust, and this new "Expression" is taking over her bit by bit. Little does Bonnie realise, it is one of the darkest forms of magic around, and she is slowly becoming dependent on it.

The search for a cure for vampirism is still at the top of everyone's agenda, and causing strife in every way possible. There are a lot of people who would love to get their hands on that cure, Rebekah, Klaus, Stefan, Damon, Bonnie; and a few who would do anything to keep it from being discovered, like Kol, who is horrified at the thought of raising the creature that is buried with the cure, the mysterious Silas. The only way to get to it, though, is through the Hunter's Mark slowly travelling along the arm of one young Jeremy Gilbert, who is currently being trained to kill vampires, under the orders of an obsessed Klaus, and a vigilant Damon. They are growing closer each day to finding the location of the cure, and who knows what it will take to unearth it, and who will survive along the way...