Eternal Contemplations (7/?)
Title: Eternal Contemplations
Author: fading_tales
Pairing: Damon/Blair (Vampire Diaries/Gossip Girl cross-over)
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl or any of their characters.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Timing means nothing and everything when you have an eternity to live.
chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Chapter Seven
"When are we going?" Blair asks.
"Now."
"Now?"
"You were just complaining about us not doing anything," Damon accuses.
"It's always like a game of 'red light, green light' with you isn't it?" she retorts.
"What can I say? I like to keep you on your toes."
Damon moves to put back a book on the bookshelf behind Blair and for a brief moment their faces are mere centimeters apart. If he wanted to he could just lean in and kiss her. She almost wants him to.
"So that thing about becoming friends with benefits?"
Almost. She smirks and pushes him out of her way. Despite the rapid beating of her heart, which Damon mentally notes, she's a bit relieved that he had not kissed her. That would have just complicated things and she likes things the way they are.
"If we're going to be trekking about in the woods, I'm going to need to change into something more... comfortable."
He raises a quirked eyebrow.
"Do you have something like that? I've never even seen in you jeans before."
"That's because jeans are for cowboys and lumberjacks," Blair answers over her shoulder as she turns around to exit Damon's room.
As Damon watches Blair leave he fantasizes how good those slender legs of hers would look like in a nice pair of tight Americana blue jeans. Better yet, how good she'll look with them off.
Katherine won't begrudge him some mental fantasies right?
xxx
Blair emerges a few minutes later in a handsome pair of slim fitting chino slacks that look fresh off the runway along with a complementing cream silk blouse. Her hair is done up in a loose bun with strands that frame her face attractively. She's the picture of someone ready for a leisurely day at the country club, not a muddy hike through wild woodland.
"So this is your definition of 'comfortable'."
"I'm wearing pants aren't I?" Blair retorts with her hands on her hips.
"You are aware that we would be walking at least two miles into the forest."
"Yes," she answers as if he was stupid.
"And you're going to wear those," Damon looks pointedly at Blair's matching nude Louboutin pumps.
"These are my comfiest pair of shoes."
He doesn't doubt her for a minute.
With a sigh Damon walks over to the hallway coat closet and rummages through it. He comes out with a pair of worn in sneakers in his hands.
"Wear these."
Blair wrinkles her nose at them. "But they're… ugly. And dirty."
"You won't be complaining when your feet aren't hurting halfway to the tomb. They're Stefan's. The boy has remarkably small girlish feet. They should fit you if you double up on socks and tighten the laces some."
"I don't want Stefan's ratty old sneakers."
"You know… this whole thing would be easier if I could just compel you to do what I say."
"If you could compel me to do what you say then there wouldn't have been a point in me even being here because then I wouldn't be a witch," Blair counters.
"Blair, I'm not going to have you whine about a broken heel five minutes into the hike up to the tomb. Just take the shoes."
"Can't I just ride on your back like how Bella did on Twilight?"
"I am neither A) Edward or B) a horse. So the answer is no."
"Ugh!" Blair rolls her eyes and kicks off her heels, replacing them with the mud encrusted sneakers. "There. Happy?"
"Delightful," Damon answers with a condescending smile. "Now, about your blouse…"
How is it that he manages to make her seesaw between wanting him to kiss her one minute and slapping the smirk off his face in another?
xxx
After much discussion about proper attire followed by threats of manual labor and shoveling (they are going to a tomb after all, grave digging is part of the gothic theme) the pair finally make their way to the tomb. Blair had relented to switching her silk blouse with, God forbid, a T-shirt, but would not budge on the chino pants.
The trip was more of a reconnaissance mission anyhow. With the witch's amulet last seen blown to smithereens, Damon needs to find the witch's grimoire which he suspect is buried in the Bennett ancestral graves. From what he knows from past experience with witches, the spell book is most likely enchanted so that only another witch could touch it, which was what prevented him from looking for it on his own in the first place.
After a several minutes of trekking through the overgrown woods, they reach the clearing before the ancient mausoleum. Just as Damon motions to approach the great steel gates he hears the sound of a twig breaking in the forest. He snaps his gaze back at the direction they came from, his eyes searching for the intruder.
"Get behind me," Damon warns Blair. She's quick to follow his directions. "Come on out! I know you're there! I can hear you breathing," Damon shouts at the supposedly empty trees.
After a long silent interlude, a voice from the dark emerges.
"Back for round two? You just don't give up do you?"
He would recognize that voice anywhere.
A figure steps out of the shadows, a girl with pretty olive skin and dark eyes and dark hair.
"You!" He glances at the amber pendant hanging around the newcomer's neck. "I thought that thing was destroyed the last time you and I spoke."
"Apparently some things aren't meant to stay broken," the girl answers ominously.
"Someone you know I'm guessing," Blair says from behind him.
"Yes, but not fondly," Damon snarls.
"Obviously…" Blair mutters under her breath.
The witch has taken on her descendant's body again. How and why? He doesn't know, but he has a taste for vengeance tonight.
"Damon…"
Damon turns his gaze back on the witch in front of him.
"Emily."
"I see you've brought more people into your sick twisted schemes. Nice shoes by the way," Emily addresses the last part to Blair.
"Don't remind me," Blair drawls out contemptuously. "Just for the record, the T-shirt was not my idea either."
In spite of themselves, Blair and Emily share a small smile before quickly retreating back to their respective opposing sides.
"Sorry to break up the slumber party, but I have a bone to pick with you, witch."
Damon nudges Blair further behind him as he measures up the young woman before him. Once again Damon finds his eyes settling on the bright stone pendant hanging on a simple silver chain.
"How convenient. You brought the amulet to me. I was hoping to avoid having to dig up your ancestors to find the witch's grimoire. You've greatly expedited my plans for tonight. Maybe it was a good thing I didn't kill you and your little vessel when I had the chance. Not for lack of trying, though," Damon says with an evil grin.
"You won't lay a hand on Bonnie."
"Oh, yeah? And what's going to stop me?"
"You're not going to kill me. You know that me and mine are one of the last few remaining witches left in the world. Even if you do manage to find the grimoire you wouldn't even be able to touch it, let alone use it. You need me to open that tomb."
"Which you have refused to do the last time I tried asking nicely. That was my mistake. Besides I don't need you anymore. Now, you're just in my way."
Without another word Damon rushes the little backstabbing witch, fangs extended, ready to rip her throat out. Emily is fast and manages to throw him backwards with her power. Blair watches from the sidelines with wide eyes at the terrifying power struggle.
"You're being stupid, Damon. If you kill me, there's no other witch you can use to open Katherine's tomb!" Emily cries out in between dodging his attacks.
Damon quickly picks himself back up.
"I already found myself a new witch. All I want from you is your blood dripping from that pretty vertebral artery of yours."
Damon and Emily circle each other, each waiting for the other to strike first.
"Oh, is that what you little girlfriend over there is?" Emily taunts, eying Blair at the corner of her eye. "She doesn't look like much of a witch."
"Hey! I might be new to this whole hocus pocus thing, but I'll have you know I'm the school valedictorian with a 5.0 GPA!" Blair points out at the sidelines.
Emily gives her an amused smirk that makes Blair's hand itch to slap off. So much for that brief moment of amiability.
"I'd worry about myself if I were you," Damon growls.
Without another word Damon lunges at the witch's neck once more, fangs bared. Emily was distracted and gets knocked to the ground. Her head cracks on the ground in a way that makes Blair flinch, but soon enough the witch is back standing up and this time with hands glowing with eerie blue-green fire. Damon makes a strategic move back as the witch composes herself, the fire in her hands changing into a blazing hot white blue. Emily sends various streams of flames towards the elusive vampire, but he dodges all them.
They continue a sort of cat and mouse dance with either side alternating between the roles of predator and prey. The flames of the witch's fire leave various bushes on fire and tree trunks scorched. The heat of it all makes Blair glad that Damon had insisted that she wear a T-shirt.
"Give it up! I'm too fast for your witchfire."
Blair could see that Emily was getting tired and from the looks on her face, Emily knows it, too. Soon her strength will run out and then Damon would finally be able to rip her throat out as he had threatened before. For a second the two girls' eyes turn to meet one another across the expanse of scorched earth. Blair doesn't like what she sees in the other's girl's eyes.
Desperation.
And perhaps a bit of remorse.
Emily breaks their gaze and turns back to address Damon.
"You might be able to dodge my fire… but she won't."
In a scene akin to a nightmare, Emily turns to face Blair, who was watching in what he had presumed to be a safe distance.
He sees it happening, but can't seem to force himself to move fast enough to stop it. His dead heart clenches with a feeling he doesn't quite recognize, or perhaps forgotten.
"NOOOOOO!"
He's within two feet of Blair only to register her shocked, horrified expression before the witch's flames engulfs her and the force of the fire throws him backwards onto the ground.
The fire continues to burn and Damon quickly scrambles to his feet and tackles Emily to the ground. The sheer ferocity of his assault stuns her and Damon quickly uses the opportunity to grip her neck and squeeze.
Emily manages to use her magic to force him off of her and while she's coughing for air she looks up at the blaze that was suppose to be one Blair Waldorf, she's completely shaken like she's never had before and it's not because she still can't seem to catch her breath from Damon's chokehold.
Damon is full of rage. He was so close. If only he ran faster, acted quicker. Done something! He could already smell her singed flesh being burned by Emily's witchfire.
Except he doesn't.
Damon's ready to have his hands around the witch's neck once more, but before he can prepare an ambush a familiar voice stops him.
"Damon!"
He whips his head around to where the flames were still burning. As the fire dies down, to the astonishment of both him and Emily, Blair Waldorf is standing in the exact same spot as when the flames had first swallowed her without a single scratch nor hair out of place. Her perfectly coiffured hair and unmarred tailored chino pants makes for a stark contrast with the charred and burnt ground beneath her feet.
For a long while everyone is just reeling from the shock of such a phenomenon. Considering that all the participants in this little fiasco are some form of supernatural being, the abnormality of the event is even more striking. The smug smirk that soon tugs on Blair's lips is even more striking when contrasted with the baffled party of Emily and Damon.
"Hm! Impressive display of fireworks you have going there. Maybe I could book you for my mother's next party?" Blair jibes.
Panicked thoughts had run through her head when she first saw the flames coming towards her, but the feeling soon dissipated when they couldn't touch her. She couldn't even feel the heat after the first few seconds. All bark and no bite. She quickly rallies the situation to her favor with the realization that the witch's magic can't touch her.
xxx
The utter amazement at the miraculous phenomenon that had occurred in front of their eyes distracts the two supernatural beings from ripping out each other's throats.
"Why aren't you ash?" Emily asks in astonishment.
"Because… I moisturize really well?" she mocks sneeringly.
"Witches aren't themselves impervious to other witches are they?" Damon asks.
Their collective amazement and curiosity makes them forget that just moments ago they were in the middle of a death match.
"No… they're not… But maybe that's because she's not a witch."
"I'm not?"
"She not?"
Puzzlement consumes Blair. If she wasn't a witch then what the hell was she?
"You're just trying to save your own skin because I need a witch to open the tomb," Damon argues.
"Then why don't you explain why she's not dead," Emily counters.
"Then what is it?" Damon's confused and frustrated and a little bit afraid. One hundred and seventy-five years. He thought he'd know everything by now.
"Yes, please. Enlighten me to what just happened here," Blair presses.
"There's only two ways you could have survived witchfire… One is if you had used a counter spell, but I know you didn't because if you did the fire would have been cancelled out in the first place before even reaching you… the other…"
Emily pauses in her speech to collect herself.
"I-I've never met one before, but I've read about them. I just can't believe it…"
"What is it? Spit it out!" Blair cries out impatiently.
Frankly, Blair is tired of this whole supernatural thing. Is she a witch or isn't she? The whole world seemed to be holding its breath as Emily conjures up the nerve to speak.
"… You're an Immune."
Blair Waldorf's world gets turn upside down for the second time ever since she laid eyes on Damon Salvatore.
A/N: In terms of how canon the vampire mythology of the Vampire Diaries is in this fic, I'm gonna take some liberties with it just for the sake of the story. I have been keeping up to date with both shows, but since this is a bit of a crack!fic anyways… a lot of things that happened or is happening in the shows will be ignored or altered to fit my plot purposes. So please bear with me. I left this chapter in a bit of a cliffhanger which can be annoying I know. _ But I'm going to try and flesh out the whole Immune business and update as soon as possible, so stay tuned! Thank you to all people who continue to read and review! I love you all!
A/N #2: Just a clarification, Immunes are something I came up with (well more like ripped off from the Enchanted Inc. series by Shanna Swendson, which are greeeeeeeeat and should totally be read by anyone who loves quirky smart heroines in fantasy romances). I'm taking liberties with the fantasy mythology here and will be building up more background and info on what exactly an immune is in the next chapter. =) Also you can find some chapter graphics/mini picspam of the first three chapters on my livejournal! .. Check them out!
-> Chapter Eight