It has already been established that Lily Salvatore and her minions, the Heretics, are going to be the main villains of Season 7 of "The Vampire Diaries".
And spoilers indicate that Lily won't even let her sons stand in the way of achieving whatever she has set out to do.
Lily and her friends have destroyed Mystic Falls, and the task of cleaning after them has been left to her son Stefan and his current love interest Caroline. Lily's ways will also cause Damon and Stefan to butt heads in the beginning of the season, but they'll soon realise her true motives.
"What I love about Lily is that I don't think we ever see her lift a finger on the show," executive producer Caroline Dries told TVGuide. "She has a way of being manipulating and calculating and she knows how to push her son's buttons. We'll see the brothers start to turn against each other, but they'll catch on and Lily, as much as she loves her sons, has her own agenda. So, she is a villain in that what she wants opposes what our heroes want, but in her mind all she wants is peace and she would love it if everyone would get along."
As for what's in store for Damon, showrunner Julie Plec hinted to The Hollywood Reporter that Damon will be getting into a lot of trouble in the next season, especially as Elena isn't around to guide him.
Damon will also have a serious confrontation with the Heretics, who are like his step-siblings.
"They fight like cats and dogs, and they fight for each other and against each other all the time," Plec said about the Heretics. "It's fun to watch them do their thing. They have no regard for the rest of the people in the community, and they have no regard for Stefan and Damon, who they consider to be the stepsiblings they don't want to know."
"The Vampire Diaries" returns to the CW in October.