Fic: A Vampire's Policy [Vampire Diaries | R | Elena/Damon | 21/?]
Yes, I know, it's been WEEKS since I've updated, but this chapter is longer than usual and very talky. No Elena/Damon goodness in this part, because I'm evil that way, but don't worry, it's still to come :-)
Title A Vampire's Policy
Author: jinxed_wood
Characters/Pairings: Damon /Elena, ensemble.
Rating: R
Category: Drama
Spoilers: All of season one.
Warnings: There be smut, blood and vampires, in no particular order...
Show/Bookverse: Show
Summary:Stefan reignites his hunger for human blood, Elena tries to hold on as she deals with being turned, and Damon ensures he gets his own way...
Previous parts: PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE | PART TEN | PART ELEVEN | PART TWELVE | PART THIRTEEN | PART FOURTEEN | PART FIFTEEN | PART SIXTEEN | PART SEVENTEEN | PART EIGHTEEN | PART NINETEEN | PART TWENTY
PART TWENTY ONE
Katherine was back.
Katherine was back and she had taken Elena.
His mind went white, refusing to make sense of the words. He scooped up the drop of blood from the leaf and tasted it. It was Elena's. He collapsed onto the ground, his thoughts racing as pain, anger, and panic coalesced into one thought.
He scrambled to his feet, and blurred back into the house. “Change of plan,” he said flatly. “We're all going.”
“Where's Elena?” Jeremy asked.
“Katherine has her,” Damon said coolly.
Anna's eyes snapped to his. “Then she's probably dead.”
Damon gave her a dark look. “Probably,” he said, as he struggled to keep his rage leashed. He needed to stay in control.
“I'm not going to die for you, Salvatore,” Anna warned.
“No, but chances are you'll die for him,” he said sharply, nodding at Jeremy.
“Is that a threat?” Anna asked, rising to her feet.
“Just an observation,” Damon said. “Or did you actually think Katherine was going to stop at just one Gilbert?”
Anna's eyes flickered with doubt, as she slowly sat down again.
“Wait a minute. We don't know anything yet,” Jeremy said. “Elena could still be alive.”
“He's right,” Alaric piped up. “After all, if she was just going to just kill her, you'd have found her body, right?”
“There's no such thing as just with Katherine,” Anna muttered. “If Elena is still alive, chances are she's already wishing she was dead.”
Alaric shook his head slowly. “You know, maybe I'm missing something here but what exactly did you see in this woman - her sparkling personality?”
Damon ignored him as he pulled out his cell. “Do you have a number for your uncle?” he asked Jeremy.
“Why do you want it?” Jeremy asked, as he took out his own cell and started scrolling through his contacts.
“You know the old adage, enemy of my enemy...?” Damon drawled.
“But John is working with Isobel, which means they're working with Katherine,” Alaric reasoned.
Damon shook his head. “I wouldn't be so sure of that, not anymore. Katherine changed the playing field when he took Elena.”
“I though we'd already established the fact Isobel doesn't give a flying fuck about her daughter,” Alaric said.
“That's the party line, but even if that's true, I'm thinking Daddy may have other ideas,” Damon said.
“Daddy?” Alaric's eyes widened. “You mean John Gilbert is Elena's father?”
“Seriously? You haven't already figured that out?” Damon asked. “Why did you think the guy is so pissed with us?”
“He's a hater. People like that don't need a reason,” Anna said quietly.
“Well, I guess we're going to find out if I'm right,” Damon said, as Jeremy held up his phone and he read the number. He tapped out a text. “Katherine has Elena. We need to talk. My place. Now.”
“You really think that's going to work?” Alaric asked, reading it over his shoulder.
“If he doesn't show up in the next fifteen minutes, we'll at least know where he stands,” he said, as he at last dialled the number he'd rather not.
“Yes?” answered Stefan.
“Katherine has taken Elena,” he said, getting straight to the point.
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Are you certain?” he eventually asked quietly.
“Yes,” he said shortly.
The was another long pause, and in the background he could hear Bonnie's voice, taut with worry. “Stefan, what's wrong?”
“Bring the witch with you,” Damon said promptly.
“She may not be amenable to that,” Stefan said.
“I don't care how you do it, drag her here by the hair if you have to,” Damon said. “Just get her here. We're going to need all the fire power we can get-” There was a knock at the door, and Damon's eyes narrowed as he picked up the tell-tale heartbeat. Daddy dearest had arrived; that was quick - too quick. Gilbert had obviously missed his calling as a stalker.
“Who's that?” Stefan asked.
“Just get here fast, brother,” Damon said, nodding at Jeremy to answer the door. “I'm not waiting for stragglers.”
“How are we going to play this?” Anna asked lowly, as Jeremy disappeared down the hallway.
“Not very nicely,” Damon answered.
“He's Jeremy's uncle,” she reminded him.
“Ah, so that's why you haven't killed him yet,” he said.
She shrugged. “I have no objection to roughing him up a bit.”
“If it is in a good cause,” Damon said, with a knowing smile. “Make it look good.”
“All the usual suspects, I see,” Gilbert said, as he strolled in. “Although I don't see Stefan. Trouble in paradise?”
Damon eyed him. He had cleaned himself up since he'd last seen him, but he could see the strain around his eyes. “I'd quit the bad boy act if I were you. You're way too breakable to get away with it, nowadays” he said. “Where's Isobel?”
“I'm not her keeper,” he said.
“Ah. Already left town, has she? Or is she busy cosying up to Katherine instead? Maybe watching her daughter get tortured gets her off.”
Gilbert glared at him coldly. “You really are a piece of work.”
“Well, you know what they say. It takes one to know one,” Damon said.
Anna was a blur as she slammed Gilbert up against the wall. “Let me spell things out for you,” she said, through gritted teeth. “I know you killed my mother, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to ram my hand into your chest and rip out your still beating heart.”
“Then why haven't you done it?” Gilbert asked harshly. “Taking your time, aren't you?”
Anna's eyes darkened, her teeth lengthening. “Good question.”
“Anna,” Jeremy said softly. “I know this is a lot to ask, but we need him alive. He's the only contact we have to Katherine.”
Anna looked over her shoulder at Jeremy, her eyes smoothing to their natural colouring, as she slowly gathered herself and let Gilbert go. His feet eased back onto the floor, and he straightened his jacket.
“Thank you, Jeremy,” he said.
“I didn't do it for you,” Jeremy said shortly.
“And, trust me, it's only a reprieve if you don't give us what we need,” Damon added.
“I'm not afraid to die, Vampire,” Gilbert said.
“Cute,” Damon said. “And does Jenna agree? Oh wait, you never actually told her the family secret, did you? Kind of makes her vulnerable, don't you think? Almost like open season.”
“Elena would never forgive you, if you did that,” he said.
“Oh please, you have no idea what Elena would or wouldn't do,” Damon snorted. “You didn't even have a clue when she was still human - and, in case you haven't noticed, Elena isn't around to give her opinion; what with her being in Katherine's clutches, and all.”
“Katherine didn't take Elena,” Gilbert said flatly.
Damon felt his teeth lengthen, as anger coursed through him. “Time to set some ground rules,” he said. “Lie to me again, and I'll take the fingers from your left hand, lie after that, and I'll take the fingers from your right - I think you know where I'm going with this.”
“I'm not lying,” he said. “Don't you think it was the first thing I checked before I came over here? I had Isobel phone her. She's in San Francisco.”
Damon flashed him a cold smile. “Don't say I didn't warn you,” he ground out. “Say good bye to your little pinkie.”
For a moment, Gilbert's bravado slipped as he shrank back. “No, I told you-”
“Damon is right,” a smooth voice interjected, and Damon turned to see Isobel saunter in from the kitchen. “It's Katherine's scent. I guess she lied to me.”
Anna was the first to recover. “And you're surprised by this?” she asked archly. “I guess you don't know Katherine very well.”
Isobel ignored her as she eyed the room. “My, my...three ex lovers in the one place; how novel. Maybe we should play twister?”
Alaric gave a grunt of disgust. “We didn't ask you here to play games, Isobel,” he said.
“You never asked me here at all,” she pointed out.
“We asked Gilbert,” Alaric said. “Apparently, it's practically the same thing.”
Isobel smirked. “Are we jealous, Rick?” she asked. “After all this time?”
Alaric just stared at her, as if he didn't recognise her at all. Which he didn't, Damon supposed. His own memories of Isobel while she was still human were vague at best. There was an attraction, yes, but he didn't get attached to humans. To him, they only got interesting after they got turned... at least, that had been true until Elena Gilbert had strolled into her life.
The front door slammed open, and Stefan flashed into the room. Damon glared into the empty space behind him. “Please tell me you didn't come alone?”
“Bonnie needed time to gather her things,” Stefan said. “I came ahead.”
Damon rubbed his eyes. “Christ, Stefan, could you just try to remember Bonnie isn't exactly our biggest fan? You should have stayed and kept an eye on her.”
“Elena's her friend,” Stefan said. “She'll come through.”
“And if she can also find of a way of getting rid of every other vampire in town at the same time, she'll consider it a twofer,” Damon said.
“You really don't trust her, do you?” Jeremy asked, amused,
“You didn't see the look on her face when she realised Elena was now a Vampire,” he said shortly. “Add to that the little fact I tried to kill her once, and her Grandmother's death, and it all tallies up to one pretty heady revenge cocktail.” And Damon couldn't really blame her, to be honest, but that didn't mean that he was going to let the witch pull a fast one on him.
Gilbert frowned. “What has Bonnie got to do with anything?” he asked.
“Witch,” drawled Isobel.
Gilbert's eyebrow's rose. “Really?”
Damon rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You really didn't keep track of Emily's descendants? Or did you think that after old John Gilbert burned her at the stake, all your witchy troubles disappeared into the smoke?”
Gilbert sighed. “Another problem to put on the list.”
Stefan's eyes narrowed. “Bonnie is not a problem to be fixed,” he said coldly.
“Speak for yourself,” Damon said.
“Seriously, it's beginning to feel like supernatural Grand Central Station around here,” Jeremy muttered.
Damon pulled a face. “I don't trust her, but we do need her,” he said. “Katherine is old; older than any of us here. Anna might be able to slow her down, but the rest of us would be doggie chow. We need the edge a witch would give us.”
“Isobel gave him a long look. “You're seriously considering this, aren't you?”
“Let me spell this out to you,” Damon snapped. “Either you help us, or I put you down. Your choice.”
Isobel smirked. “You think it would be that easy?” she asked.
Something inside Damon snapped, and before he even thought about it, his fingers were already around Isobel's neck. “It seems you need a refresher course on how this works,” he hissed, as he slammed her back onto a chair. “All three of us are over a century old, and you haven't reached your first decade yet - translation? Small fish, big pond. Do we understand each other?”
There was tentative cough, and Damon's head swerved around to see a very nervous looking delivery man holding a small package. “The door was open,” he croaked. “Parcel for a Mr Damon Salvatore?” Damon sighed, flashing a look at his brother, who quickly moved in on him.
“Thank you,” Stefan said smoothly, taking the package from his nerveless fingers. “Do you need me to sign for it?”
Gulping, the delivery man, pulled out a digital pad from his pocket, and Stefan signed it before putting a hand on his shoulder and catching his eyes. The tension leached out of the delivery man's shoulders, as Stefan spoke to him in a low voice. “You saw nothing here,” he said. “You didn't even enter the house. I signed for the package at the door and gave you a good tip.” He slipped a twenty into the delivery man's shirt pocket. “You can leave now.” The delivery man turned slowly and walked silently out of the house.
“Who's it from?” Damon asked.
Stefan frowned at the return address at the back of the parcel. “It's from a jewellers.”
Damon felt something inside him clench. It was Elena's ring. He eyed the slit in the curtains. Sure enough, dawn was on the horizon. It was the end of second longest night of Damon's life, the longest being the night he'd been turned. With a curse, he let go of Isobel's throat. “No more games,” he said. “Are you in or not?”
“I didn't want this life for her,” Isobel admitted quietly, rubbing her neck. “She might be better off dead.”
“Not at Katherine's hand, she isn't,” Anna said. “None of you know her as well as I do. I've been on the receiving end of that bitch's games for centuries.”
Damon raised a eyebrow. “Then why did you put up with her?” he asked.
“Because for some strange reason, my mother loved her,” Anna said. “I never could figure out why...you know Katherine was the one who turned us, right?”
“Know? No. Suspected...?” he shrugged. “It seemed to fit.”
“She fed my father to us, you know,” Anna said, and Damon caught Stefan's flinch out of the corner of his eye. “She said it was all part of the process, severing familial ties. I guess she didn't follow her own advice, seeing as I can't seem to move without stumbling over her descendants these days.”
“Katherine doesn't follow any rules,” Stefan said. “She just dictates them to others.”
“I just wish I could figure out what her game is,” Damon said aloud.
“I think I may be able to help you there.”
Damon rolled his eyes as Bonnie stalked into the room, her chin at a determined tilt. “Does anybody knock any more?” he asked. “Maybe we should just install a revolving door.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?” Bonnie asked coldly.
“Fine,” Damon bit out. “Dazzle me with your insight.”
Bonnie's eyes narrowed, but she continued on her trajectory to the dining table. “You were right,” she said bluntly, as she emptied her bag onto the table. “Emily did lie to me.”
“And I'm sure we're soon going to get to the part I don't know,” Damon said impatiently.
“As I said, Emily did lie to me,” Bonnie repeated, throwing him a dirty look. “But not for the reasons you think. She really was trying to protect us from what was in that tomb, but it wasn't the vampires from 1864 she was trying to protect us from...” She cleared her throat, as she flipped to the back of Emily's Grimoire. “I never noticed it before, but what you said when I was last here got me thinking, and I went through the pages again - and this time, I noticed the last two pages were gummed together, so I peeled them apart.” She held the Grimoire up, pages facing outwards. “And this is what I found.”
Damon scowled as his eyes first focused on the line drawing. It was a tall, cadaverously lean man, whose fingers were almost drawn into claws. His lips were drawn peeled back and showed fangs, and his eyes were drawn as dark pools. His hair fell to his shoulders. “So it's a Vampire, so what?” he asked impatiently.
“Not just any Vampire,” Bonnie said. “This is Katherine's sire and, apparently, she really, really misses him.”
Damon took the Grimoire from her fingers, and began to read. “You have got to be kidding me,” he muttered, as his eyes flew through the text.
“I guess it wasn't the lure of the Salvatore brothers that kept her here, after all,” Bonnie said, with brittle sweetness.
“Bitch,” he said succinctly.
“Right back at you,” she said.
“Can someone please fill us in?” Jeremy asked.
“She'll need a witch,” Damon said, ignoring him.
“I'm sure she came prepared,” Bonnie said tersely.
Anna grabbed the Grimoire from his hands and read it. “Does she really think she can do something like this and nobody will notice?” she asked.
“Well, it's not as if she's planning on leaving any witnesses,” Damon said dryly.
“What's going on?” Gilbert asked sharply.
“It seems that my dearest departed father wasn't as forthcoming about the origins of the Founder's Council as I thought he was,” Damon said. “And from the look on your face, I'm guessing you weren't in on the dirty little secret either.”
“You really didn't suspect anything at all, back them?” Bonnie asked Damon. “You didn't even ask yourself how the Founder's Council were so prepared?”
“I had other things on my mind at the time,” Damon muttered.
“That's one way of putting it,” Anna snorted.
Stefan read the pages over Anna's shoulder, his face going still. “She's crazy,” he said.
“She's desperate,” Damon countered. “Not necessarily the same thing.”
“It doesn't matter what she is,” Stefan said. “We can't let her do it.”
“Do what?” Gilbert asked again.
“Resurrect her dead maker,” Bonnie said.
Silence fell in the room “That's impossible,” Gilbert said eventually.
“Not impossible, just very difficult,” Anna said softly, eyeing him speculatively.
“And very messy,” Damon reminded her, not liking the expression on her face. “How many people in this town are descendants of the original council?”
“Too many,” Stefan said. “It'll be a bloodbath.”
“And Elena will be the first to die,” Damon said, as he felt his world contracting.
“Why?” Gilbert demanded.
“Because she is of both bloodlines,” Bonnie said. “The bloodline that killed him, and the bloodline that descends from him. The perfect catalyst for the resurrection spell.”
Gilbert paled. “What are they going to do with her?”
Damon snatched the Grimoire from Anna's hands and gave it to him, nodding in satisfaction as Gilbert fell into a chair as he read. Guess he had called it correctly, after all.
Johnathan Gilbert may be an asshole, but he did love his daughter.
TWENTY TWO
Title A Vampire's Policy
Author: jinxed_wood
Characters/Pairings: Damon /Elena, ensemble.
Rating: R
Category: Drama
Spoilers: All of season one.
Warnings: There be smut, blood and vampires, in no particular order...
Show/Bookverse: Show
Summary:Stefan reignites his hunger for human blood, Elena tries to hold on as she deals with being turned, and Damon ensures he gets his own way...
Previous parts: PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE | PART TEN | PART ELEVEN | PART TWELVE | PART THIRTEEN | PART FOURTEEN | PART FIFTEEN | PART SIXTEEN | PART SEVENTEEN | PART EIGHTEEN | PART NINETEEN | PART TWENTY
PART TWENTY ONE
Katherine was back.
Katherine was back and she had taken Elena.
His mind went white, refusing to make sense of the words. He scooped up the drop of blood from the leaf and tasted it. It was Elena's. He collapsed onto the ground, his thoughts racing as pain, anger, and panic coalesced into one thought.
He scrambled to his feet, and blurred back into the house. “Change of plan,” he said flatly. “We're all going.”
“Where's Elena?” Jeremy asked.
“Katherine has her,” Damon said coolly.
Anna's eyes snapped to his. “Then she's probably dead.”
Damon gave her a dark look. “Probably,” he said, as he struggled to keep his rage leashed. He needed to stay in control.
“I'm not going to die for you, Salvatore,” Anna warned.
“No, but chances are you'll die for him,” he said sharply, nodding at Jeremy.
“Is that a threat?” Anna asked, rising to her feet.
“Just an observation,” Damon said. “Or did you actually think Katherine was going to stop at just one Gilbert?”
Anna's eyes flickered with doubt, as she slowly sat down again.
“Wait a minute. We don't know anything yet,” Jeremy said. “Elena could still be alive.”
“He's right,” Alaric piped up. “After all, if she was just going to just kill her, you'd have found her body, right?”
“There's no such thing as just with Katherine,” Anna muttered. “If Elena is still alive, chances are she's already wishing she was dead.”
Alaric shook his head slowly. “You know, maybe I'm missing something here but what exactly did you see in this woman - her sparkling personality?”
Damon ignored him as he pulled out his cell. “Do you have a number for your uncle?” he asked Jeremy.
“Why do you want it?” Jeremy asked, as he took out his own cell and started scrolling through his contacts.
“You know the old adage, enemy of my enemy...?” Damon drawled.
“But John is working with Isobel, which means they're working with Katherine,” Alaric reasoned.
Damon shook his head. “I wouldn't be so sure of that, not anymore. Katherine changed the playing field when he took Elena.”
“I though we'd already established the fact Isobel doesn't give a flying fuck about her daughter,” Alaric said.
“That's the party line, but even if that's true, I'm thinking Daddy may have other ideas,” Damon said.
“Daddy?” Alaric's eyes widened. “You mean John Gilbert is Elena's father?”
“Seriously? You haven't already figured that out?” Damon asked. “Why did you think the guy is so pissed with us?”
“He's a hater. People like that don't need a reason,” Anna said quietly.
“Well, I guess we're going to find out if I'm right,” Damon said, as Jeremy held up his phone and he read the number. He tapped out a text. “Katherine has Elena. We need to talk. My place. Now.”
“You really think that's going to work?” Alaric asked, reading it over his shoulder.
“If he doesn't show up in the next fifteen minutes, we'll at least know where he stands,” he said, as he at last dialled the number he'd rather not.
“Yes?” answered Stefan.
“Katherine has taken Elena,” he said, getting straight to the point.
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Are you certain?” he eventually asked quietly.
“Yes,” he said shortly.
The was another long pause, and in the background he could hear Bonnie's voice, taut with worry. “Stefan, what's wrong?”
“Bring the witch with you,” Damon said promptly.
“She may not be amenable to that,” Stefan said.
“I don't care how you do it, drag her here by the hair if you have to,” Damon said. “Just get her here. We're going to need all the fire power we can get-” There was a knock at the door, and Damon's eyes narrowed as he picked up the tell-tale heartbeat. Daddy dearest had arrived; that was quick - too quick. Gilbert had obviously missed his calling as a stalker.
“Who's that?” Stefan asked.
“Just get here fast, brother,” Damon said, nodding at Jeremy to answer the door. “I'm not waiting for stragglers.”
“How are we going to play this?” Anna asked lowly, as Jeremy disappeared down the hallway.
“Not very nicely,” Damon answered.
“He's Jeremy's uncle,” she reminded him.
“Ah, so that's why you haven't killed him yet,” he said.
She shrugged. “I have no objection to roughing him up a bit.”
“If it is in a good cause,” Damon said, with a knowing smile. “Make it look good.”
“All the usual suspects, I see,” Gilbert said, as he strolled in. “Although I don't see Stefan. Trouble in paradise?”
Damon eyed him. He had cleaned himself up since he'd last seen him, but he could see the strain around his eyes. “I'd quit the bad boy act if I were you. You're way too breakable to get away with it, nowadays” he said. “Where's Isobel?”
“I'm not her keeper,” he said.
“Ah. Already left town, has she? Or is she busy cosying up to Katherine instead? Maybe watching her daughter get tortured gets her off.”
Gilbert glared at him coldly. “You really are a piece of work.”
“Well, you know what they say. It takes one to know one,” Damon said.
Anna was a blur as she slammed Gilbert up against the wall. “Let me spell things out for you,” she said, through gritted teeth. “I know you killed my mother, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to ram my hand into your chest and rip out your still beating heart.”
“Then why haven't you done it?” Gilbert asked harshly. “Taking your time, aren't you?”
Anna's eyes darkened, her teeth lengthening. “Good question.”
“Anna,” Jeremy said softly. “I know this is a lot to ask, but we need him alive. He's the only contact we have to Katherine.”
Anna looked over her shoulder at Jeremy, her eyes smoothing to their natural colouring, as she slowly gathered herself and let Gilbert go. His feet eased back onto the floor, and he straightened his jacket.
“Thank you, Jeremy,” he said.
“I didn't do it for you,” Jeremy said shortly.
“And, trust me, it's only a reprieve if you don't give us what we need,” Damon added.
“I'm not afraid to die, Vampire,” Gilbert said.
“Cute,” Damon said. “And does Jenna agree? Oh wait, you never actually told her the family secret, did you? Kind of makes her vulnerable, don't you think? Almost like open season.”
“Elena would never forgive you, if you did that,” he said.
“Oh please, you have no idea what Elena would or wouldn't do,” Damon snorted. “You didn't even have a clue when she was still human - and, in case you haven't noticed, Elena isn't around to give her opinion; what with her being in Katherine's clutches, and all.”
“Katherine didn't take Elena,” Gilbert said flatly.
Damon felt his teeth lengthen, as anger coursed through him. “Time to set some ground rules,” he said. “Lie to me again, and I'll take the fingers from your left hand, lie after that, and I'll take the fingers from your right - I think you know where I'm going with this.”
“I'm not lying,” he said. “Don't you think it was the first thing I checked before I came over here? I had Isobel phone her. She's in San Francisco.”
Damon flashed him a cold smile. “Don't say I didn't warn you,” he ground out. “Say good bye to your little pinkie.”
For a moment, Gilbert's bravado slipped as he shrank back. “No, I told you-”
“Damon is right,” a smooth voice interjected, and Damon turned to see Isobel saunter in from the kitchen. “It's Katherine's scent. I guess she lied to me.”
Anna was the first to recover. “And you're surprised by this?” she asked archly. “I guess you don't know Katherine very well.”
Isobel ignored her as she eyed the room. “My, my...three ex lovers in the one place; how novel. Maybe we should play twister?”
Alaric gave a grunt of disgust. “We didn't ask you here to play games, Isobel,” he said.
“You never asked me here at all,” she pointed out.
“We asked Gilbert,” Alaric said. “Apparently, it's practically the same thing.”
Isobel smirked. “Are we jealous, Rick?” she asked. “After all this time?”
Alaric just stared at her, as if he didn't recognise her at all. Which he didn't, Damon supposed. His own memories of Isobel while she was still human were vague at best. There was an attraction, yes, but he didn't get attached to humans. To him, they only got interesting after they got turned... at least, that had been true until Elena Gilbert had strolled into her life.
The front door slammed open, and Stefan flashed into the room. Damon glared into the empty space behind him. “Please tell me you didn't come alone?”
“Bonnie needed time to gather her things,” Stefan said. “I came ahead.”
Damon rubbed his eyes. “Christ, Stefan, could you just try to remember Bonnie isn't exactly our biggest fan? You should have stayed and kept an eye on her.”
“Elena's her friend,” Stefan said. “She'll come through.”
“And if she can also find of a way of getting rid of every other vampire in town at the same time, she'll consider it a twofer,” Damon said.
“You really don't trust her, do you?” Jeremy asked, amused,
“You didn't see the look on her face when she realised Elena was now a Vampire,” he said shortly. “Add to that the little fact I tried to kill her once, and her Grandmother's death, and it all tallies up to one pretty heady revenge cocktail.” And Damon couldn't really blame her, to be honest, but that didn't mean that he was going to let the witch pull a fast one on him.
Gilbert frowned. “What has Bonnie got to do with anything?” he asked.
“Witch,” drawled Isobel.
Gilbert's eyebrow's rose. “Really?”
Damon rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You really didn't keep track of Emily's descendants? Or did you think that after old John Gilbert burned her at the stake, all your witchy troubles disappeared into the smoke?”
Gilbert sighed. “Another problem to put on the list.”
Stefan's eyes narrowed. “Bonnie is not a problem to be fixed,” he said coldly.
“Speak for yourself,” Damon said.
“Seriously, it's beginning to feel like supernatural Grand Central Station around here,” Jeremy muttered.
Damon pulled a face. “I don't trust her, but we do need her,” he said. “Katherine is old; older than any of us here. Anna might be able to slow her down, but the rest of us would be doggie chow. We need the edge a witch would give us.”
“Isobel gave him a long look. “You're seriously considering this, aren't you?”
“Let me spell this out to you,” Damon snapped. “Either you help us, or I put you down. Your choice.”
Isobel smirked. “You think it would be that easy?” she asked.
Something inside Damon snapped, and before he even thought about it, his fingers were already around Isobel's neck. “It seems you need a refresher course on how this works,” he hissed, as he slammed her back onto a chair. “All three of us are over a century old, and you haven't reached your first decade yet - translation? Small fish, big pond. Do we understand each other?”
There was tentative cough, and Damon's head swerved around to see a very nervous looking delivery man holding a small package. “The door was open,” he croaked. “Parcel for a Mr Damon Salvatore?” Damon sighed, flashing a look at his brother, who quickly moved in on him.
“Thank you,” Stefan said smoothly, taking the package from his nerveless fingers. “Do you need me to sign for it?”
Gulping, the delivery man, pulled out a digital pad from his pocket, and Stefan signed it before putting a hand on his shoulder and catching his eyes. The tension leached out of the delivery man's shoulders, as Stefan spoke to him in a low voice. “You saw nothing here,” he said. “You didn't even enter the house. I signed for the package at the door and gave you a good tip.” He slipped a twenty into the delivery man's shirt pocket. “You can leave now.” The delivery man turned slowly and walked silently out of the house.
“Who's it from?” Damon asked.
Stefan frowned at the return address at the back of the parcel. “It's from a jewellers.”
Damon felt something inside him clench. It was Elena's ring. He eyed the slit in the curtains. Sure enough, dawn was on the horizon. It was the end of second longest night of Damon's life, the longest being the night he'd been turned. With a curse, he let go of Isobel's throat. “No more games,” he said. “Are you in or not?”
“I didn't want this life for her,” Isobel admitted quietly, rubbing her neck. “She might be better off dead.”
“Not at Katherine's hand, she isn't,” Anna said. “None of you know her as well as I do. I've been on the receiving end of that bitch's games for centuries.”
Damon raised a eyebrow. “Then why did you put up with her?” he asked.
“Because for some strange reason, my mother loved her,” Anna said. “I never could figure out why...you know Katherine was the one who turned us, right?”
“Know? No. Suspected...?” he shrugged. “It seemed to fit.”
“She fed my father to us, you know,” Anna said, and Damon caught Stefan's flinch out of the corner of his eye. “She said it was all part of the process, severing familial ties. I guess she didn't follow her own advice, seeing as I can't seem to move without stumbling over her descendants these days.”
“Katherine doesn't follow any rules,” Stefan said. “She just dictates them to others.”
“I just wish I could figure out what her game is,” Damon said aloud.
“I think I may be able to help you there.”
Damon rolled his eyes as Bonnie stalked into the room, her chin at a determined tilt. “Does anybody knock any more?” he asked. “Maybe we should just install a revolving door.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?” Bonnie asked coldly.
“Fine,” Damon bit out. “Dazzle me with your insight.”
Bonnie's eyes narrowed, but she continued on her trajectory to the dining table. “You were right,” she said bluntly, as she emptied her bag onto the table. “Emily did lie to me.”
“And I'm sure we're soon going to get to the part I don't know,” Damon said impatiently.
“As I said, Emily did lie to me,” Bonnie repeated, throwing him a dirty look. “But not for the reasons you think. She really was trying to protect us from what was in that tomb, but it wasn't the vampires from 1864 she was trying to protect us from...” She cleared her throat, as she flipped to the back of Emily's Grimoire. “I never noticed it before, but what you said when I was last here got me thinking, and I went through the pages again - and this time, I noticed the last two pages were gummed together, so I peeled them apart.” She held the Grimoire up, pages facing outwards. “And this is what I found.”
Damon scowled as his eyes first focused on the line drawing. It was a tall, cadaverously lean man, whose fingers were almost drawn into claws. His lips were drawn peeled back and showed fangs, and his eyes were drawn as dark pools. His hair fell to his shoulders. “So it's a Vampire, so what?” he asked impatiently.
“Not just any Vampire,” Bonnie said. “This is Katherine's sire and, apparently, she really, really misses him.”
Damon took the Grimoire from her fingers, and began to read. “You have got to be kidding me,” he muttered, as his eyes flew through the text.
“I guess it wasn't the lure of the Salvatore brothers that kept her here, after all,” Bonnie said, with brittle sweetness.
“Bitch,” he said succinctly.
“Right back at you,” she said.
“Can someone please fill us in?” Jeremy asked.
“She'll need a witch,” Damon said, ignoring him.
“I'm sure she came prepared,” Bonnie said tersely.
Anna grabbed the Grimoire from his hands and read it. “Does she really think she can do something like this and nobody will notice?” she asked.
“Well, it's not as if she's planning on leaving any witnesses,” Damon said dryly.
“What's going on?” Gilbert asked sharply.
“It seems that my dearest departed father wasn't as forthcoming about the origins of the Founder's Council as I thought he was,” Damon said. “And from the look on your face, I'm guessing you weren't in on the dirty little secret either.”
“You really didn't suspect anything at all, back them?” Bonnie asked Damon. “You didn't even ask yourself how the Founder's Council were so prepared?”
“I had other things on my mind at the time,” Damon muttered.
“That's one way of putting it,” Anna snorted.
Stefan read the pages over Anna's shoulder, his face going still. “She's crazy,” he said.
“She's desperate,” Damon countered. “Not necessarily the same thing.”
“It doesn't matter what she is,” Stefan said. “We can't let her do it.”
“Do what?” Gilbert asked again.
“Resurrect her dead maker,” Bonnie said.
Silence fell in the room “That's impossible,” Gilbert said eventually.
“Not impossible, just very difficult,” Anna said softly, eyeing him speculatively.
“And very messy,” Damon reminded her, not liking the expression on her face. “How many people in this town are descendants of the original council?”
“Too many,” Stefan said. “It'll be a bloodbath.”
“And Elena will be the first to die,” Damon said, as he felt his world contracting.
“Why?” Gilbert demanded.
“Because she is of both bloodlines,” Bonnie said. “The bloodline that killed him, and the bloodline that descends from him. The perfect catalyst for the resurrection spell.”
Gilbert paled. “What are they going to do with her?”
Damon snatched the Grimoire from Anna's hands and gave it to him, nodding in satisfaction as Gilbert fell into a chair as he read. Guess he had called it correctly, after all.
Johnathan Gilbert may be an asshole, but he did love his daughter.
TWENTY TWO