Gwen led Caroline and Hawk into the house.
Stefan, Elena, and Black Witch Bonnie were still outside.
Oh.
And in just another hour, with the sunrise, Damon would be reduced to ashes in endless pain and howling.
But...
Damon didn't want to die yet.
"Stefan, Stefan..."
Damon, whose mouth was freed by Hawk but whose limbs were still bound, called out hurriedly, seemingly wanting Stefan to save his life as he watched Stefan approaching him with an indistinct expression.
Stefan stood in front of Damon, looking at Damon's eyes full of an endless desire to survive, and shook his head bitterly: "Damon, this time, you've hit a brick wall."
This is also why he never uses hypnosis to win women's hearts.
Of course.
The main reason is he doesn't need to, but also because hypnosis is undoubtedly a vile and criminal means.
If they didn't pursue it, that's one thing, but if someone did, and the one pursuing it had far more power than them, they wouldn't even have the right to hold a grudge.
Because Damon was in the wrong first.
It was Damon who hypnotized Caroline first; Caroline might not have the power to seek revenge on Damon, but Caroline's cousin... she has a terrifyingly powerful fiancé who could knock him and Damon out with just a glance.
So...
Stefan shook his head, looking at Damon: "I have no way out this time."
If he had been more powerful than Hawk, he might have forcibly saved his brother by arguing that Damon was naïve and that Caroline wasn't hurt.
This has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with strength.
If he were stronger than Hawk, he really would do it.
After all, no matter how much of a mess Damon is, he's still his brother.
But, unfortunately, Hawk, who could knock him out with just a glance, is terrifyingly powerful.
And Hawk could take Damon away remotely.
Such an existence was not something he could contend with.
The most important point.
He couldn't even stand on the moral high ground to condemn Hawk since Hawk was justified in his actions.
Who told Damon to act first?
Always liking to hypnotize this one and that one, now look, he's finally hypnotized someone he couldn't afford to offend, and he's hypnotized himself into losing his life, right?
Elena, standing by, looked at the bound Damon, opened her mouth, and ultimately chose to say nothing.
Little Black Bonnie shrugged as she looked at Damon being bound: "Next life, be a good person, Damon."
Damon was dumbfounded.
He looked at Stefan, who said he was doomed, Elena, who was speechless, and Bonnie, who told him to be a good person in the next life, and was thoroughly confused.
Wait a minute.
This isn't right; aren't the three of them supposed to do everything they can to save him? But ignoring Stefan, why do Elena and Bonnie look at him with a sense of disgust?
I just hypnotized Caroline.
It's not like he's only hypnotized Caroline; over the years, he's hypnotized many women.
Is this such a big deal that he has to die?
Why.
Thoughts turning, Damon looked at the sky starting to lighten, and then in the direction Hawk and the three had left, shouting: "Caroline, I..."
His mouth opened.
But even though his mouth was working hard to open and close, no sound came out.
Back on the first floor's sofa, having silenced Damon again, Hawk smiled slightly and looked at Gwen sitting next to him: "Continue."
Gwen frowned: "Is there a way to turn Caroline back to normal?"
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
Hearing this, Caroline looked at Gwen: "Cousin, I don't want to go back."
Gwen looked at Caroline.
"But you're only seventeen."
"I know, but I'd rather be myself now than an ordinary person. I can hear far, I can run far, I can even live forever."
Caroline described to Gwen the heightened senses and near-immortal life of a vampire: "Besides, I've seen another world; I don't want to return."
Listening to Caroline's words, Gwen recalled something Hawk had said before and instinctively looked at Hawk.
Their eyes met.
Hawk shrugged, as if saying, see, I told you so.
It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality!
Once again.
A normal person, after becoming a vampire and experiencing the vampire's super strength and speed, would hardly choose to return to an ordinary person's life, panting after just a few steps.
Like in the world of X-Men.
After the development of the mutant cure, which mutants want to get injected to return to human life?
Those who want to become ordinary humans are always those lowest-level mutants with only appearance changes but no abilities.
Even Professor X, who so highly values humans, you don't see him wanting to revert from his mind-reading mutant ability to an ordinary person.
Most human nature is about pursuing benefits.
Though vampires have many shortcomings, compared to those, even near-immortality is enough to offset them all.
Moreover—
Hawk glanced at Caroline and, facing his fiancé's gaze, shook his head: "The transformation into a vampire is irreversible, and even if I could, you wouldn't want me to turn her back."