A/N: This story is set in the world of Angel: the Series. Some of the dialogue is straight from the pilot (written by, and credit to, Joss Whedon), because I wanted to keep this "pilot" oneshot as close to the original as possible while still deviating some.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Stefan, Bonnie, and the TVD characters are property of L.J. Smith, CW TV, Kevin Williamson, et. al. Doyle, Lindsey McDonald, Wolfram & Hart belong to Joss Whedon, WB TV, et. al.
Boston. You see it at night and it shines like a beacon. People are drawn to it. People, and other things. They come for all sorts of reasons. My reason? No surprise there. It started with a girl...
Stefan Salvatore sat at the bar, running his fingers around the rim of the empty glass in front of him. To the random observer, he would even appear to be drunk, but he wasn't. He was in complete possession of all of his senses, and he knew something was going to go down soon. After three months of living in Boston, he'd become used to the patterns around him.
"She was really, really, really..." Stefan said, slurring his words to help maintain his cover. "No, she was more than just really...she, she had, I mean, her hair was... You know?" He turned to face the man sitting next to him. "You...you kind of remind me of her. Because...because, you know. The hair. I mean, the hair."
The man, an older, balding gentleman, raised a skeptical eyebrow and turned back to his drink, ignoring the apparently drunk blond.
"She was..."
Stefan glanced back over his shoulder at a group of people playing pool behind him. There were three men and two women. One of the men walked over to the bar and addressed the bartender.
"What's our tab?"
As the bartender calculated the total, Stefan looked up at the man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, and gave him a drunken smile. "Girls. Girls are nice." He laughed softly. The guy just gave him a disgusted look as the bartender named a total. He tossed a few bills onto the counter and walked back over to the pool table. Stefan didn't watch, but he kept his ears trained on the conversation.
"Okay, guys, let's go find something fun to do," the guy who paid the tab said to the others.
As the group left the bar, Stefan stood up, pretended to be a bit wobbly, and leaned on his chair until the pool players were outside. The amused expression that had been visible on his face disappeared, and he followed the group outside, into the alleyway, where he watched. He wasn't going to do anything until he was one hundred percent certain these were the men he was after.
One of the girls was clinging to one of the men, and the other was giggling as she asked, "do you guys really know the doorman?" She giggled again. "You can get us into the Hurricane?"
The guy who paid the bar tab answered her. "I don't really want to go clubbing anymore." He grabbed her and pulled her close, making her giggle even more. "I want to party, right here." His friends closed rank on the other girl, who wasn't nearly as amused as her friend.
"Back off!" she yelled, shoving one of the guys away from her.
With a growl, the guy grabbed her, the edges of his eyes darkening with bloodlust.
Knowing it was time, Stefan stumbled forward.
"Excuse me," he said, slurring his words. "'Scuse me. Sorry, sorry. Have you seen my car? It's big, it's red, and it's shiny."
"Get lost, pal," one of the men said. Like his friends, his eyes had darkened around the edges, with veins extending across his cheeks.
Stefan walked up to him and leaned in, getting a closer look at his face. The vampire growled at him, and he leaned back, away from the man. "Ugggghhh." He pulled something out of his pocket. "Breath mint?"
The vampire threw the girl he was holding into a nearby trashcan and swung a punch at Stefan, who stopped pretending to be drunk. Stefan ducked and shoved the vampire in the chest with both hands, knocking him back while he spun, knocking the second vampire to the ground. The third vampire tackled Stefan, but he relaxed into a roll, tossing the vampire over his head. He hurried back to his feet and saw the first two vampires charging at him from opposite sides. Saying a silent thank you to Alaric for his gift, he reached out towards each vampire and triggered the spring-loaded wrist sheathes under his sleeves, staking the pair of vampires at the same time. They both collapsed, dessicating at their sudden deaths, leaving only the third vampire, and the two girls, in the alley with him.
The last vampire grabbed one of the trash cans and slammed it into Stefan, who fell to the ground. Angry with himself for his momentary lapse, Stefan let his bloodlust take control of him.
"You shouldn't have done that," he said to the other vampire. He climbed to his feet, slammed his fist hard into the vampire's stomach, and then threw him. The vampire landed on top of a car several feet away, cracking the windshield. Stefan watched for a minute, but the creature didn't move again.
"Oh my god," one of the girls said as she gathered her friend to her. Stefan didn't turn their way. He could smell the blood running down the forehead of the girl, and he knew he'd have a harder time resisting its temptation if he was facing the girl. "They were..."
"Go home," Stefan instructed, trying to fight his natural instincts.
The girl stepped closer and touched his arm.
"Thank you," she said.
Stefan turned halfway around, pleased that the girl look scared at seeing his face. He stared at the cut on her forehead. "Get away from me."
The girls backed off, heading towards the entrance to the alley, but never taking their eyes off Stefan.
Stefan, disgusted with his own weakness, stormed over to a wooden crate and broke a piece off from it. He walked over to the car and staked the vampire laying on the hood, and then he stalked off into the night.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan looked around the empty street briefly before opening the door to the building and going inside. It was an old, abandoned office building that he had taken up residence in three months ago when he'd arrived in Boston. He hadn't planned on staying this long, but Klaus had apparently settled in and hadn't moved on, so he'd stayed as well.
Stefan had been chasing him for the better part of a year now, ever since Elena had taken it upon herself to derail Esther's plan to kill her children, the Original vampires. She'd been given strong reason to believe that not only would Esther have killed her four vampire and one vampire/werewolf hybrid offspring, she'd also be killing every vampire who partook of that special blood-wine at the Mikaelson's ball, and those vampires included himself, his brother Damon, and Elena's friend Caroline.
After Elena had stopped Esther from killing everyone, the Originals had scattered, and after Stefan had watched Elena and his brother falling all over each other in relief, he'd scattered as well, hunting down the Originals. He'd found Finn Mikaelson easily enough, as Finn had literally shown up on his doorstep. Finn had offered him information on Klaus's location, and Stefan had compelled one of the men in the neighborhood to dagger the Original for him. So, one down.
He'd buried the Original and moved on, tracking Klaus all over the country, until Klaus had stopped at Boston. While Stefan didn't have a specific location on his archenemy, he knew Klaus hadn't left the area, and therefore, neither had he. And he wouldn't move on until Klaus did, or until Klaus was neutralized.
Stefan hurried to the stairwell that led into the building's basement, and he headed downstairs to the set of rooms he'd turned into a makeshift apartment. He shrugged his leather jacket off and hung it on a peg near the door, and then he unfastened the sheathes at his wrists and placed them carefully inside a trunk at the foot of his bed.
"I like the place," a voice said from over near the refrigerator.
Stefan stopped and looked over in the direction of the voice. A slender, dark-haired young man stepped out from the shadows.
"I mean, it's not much," the man said with a noticeable Irish accent, "what with the view and all, but it has a nice bat-cave element to it."
"Who are you?" Stefan asked, not fearing the man, more curious than anything. Not many people would just stroll into a vampire's pad like they owned it.
The guy had a deck of cards in his hands, and he shuffled them a couple of times before answering. "Doyle."
Stefan turned around, sniffing. "You don't smell human."
Doyle gave a half grin at Stefan's words. "Well, that's a bit rude." He sucked in a deep breath. "So happens I'm very much human." To punctuate his words, he sneezed, and blue spikes popped out all over his face. "On my mother's side." With a shake of his head, the spikes disappeared, and his face appeared human again.
"What do you want?" Stefan asked, curious what this half-demon wanted. While he'd never seen anything like Doyle in Mystic Falls, he'd seen plenty of other strange things, enough to make him not question Doyle's existence.
"I've been sent," Doyle answered. "By the Powers That Be."
"By the what?" Stefan asked, frowning slightly. What the hell were the Powers That Be?
"Let me tell you a little bedtime story," Doyle said.
"But it's not my bedtime," Stefan pointed out. His words didn't deter the half-demon.
"Once upon a time, there was a vampire," Doyle began. "And he was the meanest vampire in all the land, a real ripper. All the other vampires were afraid of him, he was such a bastard. And then one day, he meets someone who pulls him out of being a heartless monster."
Stefan sat down on his sofa. "Okay, now I'm falling asleep."
"Yeah, well, it's a fairly dull tale," Doyle editorialized. "It needs a little sex, is my feeling." He walked over to the doorway, opposite where Stefan had taken a seat. "So sure enough, enter the girl. Our vampire would do anything for her, to protect her, and even to protect his brother. Sure enough, something happens to knock our vampire off the rails, turning him into a ripper yet again. He kills again, and again, and it's ugly. So once our vampire is freed from the compulsion to be emotionless, he figures hey, he can't be anywhere near Miss Doppelganger without endangering her." Doyle stopped for a moment, watching Stefan's reaction to his words. There isn't much, just a narrowing of his eyes, but it's there. "So what does he do? He takes off, to hunt down the Original vampires who made his life miserable. To fight evil. To atone for his crimes. He's a shadow, a faceless champion of the hapless human race." Doyle paused again. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have a beer of any kind in here, would you?"
"No," Stefan answered.
"Oh, come on," Doyle said. "You must have something besides pig's blood!"
Stefan stood up and headed deeper into his apartment, away from Doyle. "Okay, you've told me the story of my life, but since I was there, I already know what happened. Why am I not kicking you out yet?"
Doyle, apparently not overly worried, opened Stefan's refrigerator up and looked inside, finding only a few bags of pigs blood Stefan had gotten from a nearby butcher. "Because now I'm going to tell you what happens next." He closed the fridge, giving up on there being anything that appealed to him inside. "You see, this vampire...he thinks he's helping. Fighting the demons, hunting the Originals, staying away from the humans so as not to be tempted. Doing penance in his little..." he looked around the apartment before continuing, "...cell. But he's cut off, from everything. From the people he's trying to help."
"I still save them," Stefan pointed out. "Who cares if I don't stop to chat with them?"
"When was the last time you drank human blood?" Doyle asked.
"Elena..." Stefan whispered, thinking back to the day before Elena stopped the Original Witch's ritual.
"Left you with a bit of a craving, didn't it?" Doyle asked. "Let me tell you something, pal, that craving is going to grow, until one day soon, one of those helpless victims that you don't really care about is going to look way too appetizing to turn down. And you'll figure, hey! What's one against all I've saved? I might as well eat them. I'm still ahead by the numbers." He was silent for a moment, gauging Stefan's reaction to his words. He knew he had the vampire right where he wanted him by the empty recognition in Stefan's expression. "You know, I'm parched from all this yakking. Let's go treat me to some whiskey."
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan walked a couple feet away from Doyle, who was carrying a bottle in a brown paper bag. Doyle hadn't stopped talking since they left the apartment, and while he was starting to get on Stefan's nerves a little bit, Stefan couldn't argue with what the annoying half-demon was saying.
"It's not all about fighting and gadgets and stuff," Doyle said. "It's about reaching out to people, showing them that there's love and hope still left in the world."
"Some change?" an older woman, whose only accessory was a half-filled shopping cart, asked Doyle as the men were passing by.
"Get a job, you lazy sow," Doyle answered, turning back to Stefan as they continued on. Stefan glanced back at the woman, momentarily feeling sorry for her before Doyle's words penetrated his thoughts again. "It's about letting them into your heart. It's not about saving lives, it's about saving souls." He paused, something Stefan felt he didn't do nearly often enough. "Possibly your own in the process."
"I want to know who sent you," Stefan said, stopping. Doyle stopped walking a few feet later when he realized that Stefan was no longer walking next to him.
"I'm honestly not sure," Doyle answered. "They don't speak to me direct. I get...visions. Which is to say, great splitting migraines that come with pictures. A name, a face. I don't know who sends them. I just know whoever sends them is more powerful than me or you, and they're just trying to make things right."
"And why me?" Stefan asked, truly curious. Of all the people, human or vampire, why come to him?
"Because you have potential," Doyle said. "And the balance sheet isn't exactly in your favor."
"Well," Stefan asked, "why you?"
Doyle shrugged. "We all got something to atone for." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square of paper. "I had a vision this morning. When the blinding pain stopped, I wrote this down." He held the paper out to Stefan, who, after a minute of internal debate, took it.
"Tina," Stefan said, reading it aloud. "The Coffee Spot."
"Nice looking girl," Doyle said. "She needs help."
"Help with what?" Stefan asked.
Doyle shrugged again. "That's your business. I just take down the names."
Stefan's brow furrowed as he studied the paper again. "I don't get it. How am I supposed to know..."
"You're supposed to get into her life, remember?" Doyle said. "Get involved. Look, high school's over, boy. It's time to make with the grown up talk."
"And why would a woman I've never met even talk to me?" Stefan asked, looking genuinely perplexed. People in the city didn't just let strangers into their lives.
Doyle laughed at Stefan's innocent question. "Have you looked into a mirror lately?" After a moment, he answered his own question. "No, I guess you really haven't, no."
Stefan didn't correct him as he looked up from the paper. "I'm not good with meeting new people."
"Well, that's the whole point of this little exercise, isn't it?" Doyle asked. "Are you game?"
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan sat at the little table in The Coffee Spot, drinking a cup of coffee, black, no sugar, no sweeteners. He'd been there for about half an hour, studying the patrons and workers alike, looking for Tina, knowing only that she was, according to Doyle, a nice looking girl with long blonde hair. That narrowed the list of possibilities to about a half dozen people.
He still wasn't sure why he was even here. Surely, it was just as easy to help someone without having to befriend them, but maybe Doyle had been right. Maybe, if he distanced himself too much from the people he was trying to protect, he'd start rationalizing his behavior if he lost control over himself. He'd done it before, and the guilt ate at him whenever he let himself think about it. Sure, he could blame Klaus for forcing him to renounce his hard-won control, or he could blame Damon for being bitten by a werewolf and leaving him no other choice but to go to Klaus for a cure, but deep down, he knew that he was the only one to blame for his lack of control.
He missed Lexi. Not just because she'd help him regain control of his life and his bloodlust, but because she was his friend, and he hadn't had many of those, before or after his death. And the ones he'd made in Mystic Falls, he'd done a good job of alienating before he left, before the collapse of Esther's spell had pretty much cleansed him of his latest bout of human bloodlust. He didn't know what had happened with the spell, only that it could have killed him, and instead, it had basically reset him to the Stefan who had originally met and fell in love with Elena, but by then, it was too late.
Just as he finished his drink, a pretty blonde walked towards his table and past, speaking with an older man who was clearly the manager. She was clearly asking about overtime, and the manager addressed her by name, answering that it was all done by seniority.
This was the girl he was looking for, he realized, sitting up straighter as she tried to convince the manager to give her the overtime. He glanced around quickly, looking for something to say to her as she headed his way. Spotting a white dog laying on the floor next to a nearby table, he opened his mouth to speak as Tina walked past.
"Sure is a cute little..." Stefan said, trailing off as she walked past without even glancing his way. "...doggie?" Damn, he thought, mentally cursing himself. He was seriously out of practice. He tried again as Tina started to walk back past, her hands full of empty, dirty mugs. "So, do you..." She looked his way. "How late are you open?"
"Are you talking to-" Tina turned around, her full hands bumping into a partially full coffee cup and knocking it off the table. Stefan caught it before it touched the floor.
"Wow," Tina said, impressed. "You have good reflexes." Stefan sat the cup back on the table. "Thanks, these come out of my paycheck."
Stefan stood up and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He hadn't felt this awkward around a girl in years. "So, you're...are you...happy?"
Tina glanced up at him as she swiped a cleaning rag across the table's surface. "What was that?"
"Well," Stefan said, "you look sort of sad."
"You've been watching me?" Tina asked, sounding suspicious. She looked around the cafe, checking to see if anyone else was watching her the same way this guy had clearly been doing.
The last thing Stefan wanted was her thinking that he was stalking her. "No." He shook his head to emphasize his words. "I was looking towards...there, and you kind of walked through...there."
Tina grinned at his awkwardness. "You don't hit on girls very often, do you?"
Stefan shook his head. "I-no, it's been a while. I'm new in town." He shrugged.
"Do yourself a favor," Tina told him, shaking her head. "Don't stay."
Stefan's brow furrowed. Clearly, Tina wasn't liking it in Boston very much. "You never answered my question."
"Am I happy?" she asked, verifying that was what he wanted her to answer. "Do you have three hours?"
"Do I look busy?" Stefan asked, glancing down at himself before looking back up to meet her eyes.
Tina was quiet for a minute. "I get off at ten."
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan leaned back against his maroon 1963 Porsche 356 Karmann Coupe to wait for Tina. He'd owned the car for a long time, and he'd even done most of the restoration on the vehicle. Now, it gleamed in the moonlight, in stark contrast to his navy sweater and dark pants.
Shortly after ten, Tina walked out the door. She had changed after her shift, and she was wearing a spaghetti-strapped black evening dress.
"Wow," Stefan said, stepping away from the car. "Suddenly I feel underdressed. Did you want to go get a drink or something?"
As Tina walked over closer, she reached into her purse. She pulled out a bottle of pepper spray and aimed it straight at Stefan's eyes.
"I know who you are," she told him, "and what you're doing here. Stay the hell away from me. And you tell Massimo to leave me alone."
Stefan's forehead scrunched in confusion. "I don't know anyone named Massimo."
"You're lying," Tina told him, the pepper spray in her hand not wavering from its position close to his eyes.
"No," Stefan answered. "I'm not."
"Then why were you watching me?"
"Because you looked lonely," Stefan answered, shrugging. "And I figured we had that in common."
Tina stared at Stefan for a minute, as if trying to tell if he was being sincere. Something in his eyes must have convinced him, because she lowered the pepper spray. "I'm sorry."
Stefan gave her a half-smile. "It's okay."
"No," Tina said, shaking her head. "It's not."
"Who's Massimo?" Stefan asked. He must have been someone she feared.
Tina shook her head again, clearly not wanting to discuss whoever this Massimo was.
"I'd like to help," Stefan told her.
"The only help I need is a ticket home," Tina answered, stopping to look at Stefan. "And that wasn't me asking for money."
"Where's home?" Stefan asked, trying to reassure her that he wasn't trying to harm her.
"Racine," Tina answered. "Wisconsin."
Stefan remembered Racine. He'd been once, after he'd been chased out of Chicago and after Klaus had erased his memories of the time they'd spent there with Klaus's sister Rebekah, but before it became the home of one of the women's baseball league teams in the 1940s.
Tina studied Stefan's face. "You've been to Racine."
"During the depression," Stefan answered. He quickly realized she couldn't possibly know he'd been alive then, and he stammered out the first words that came to mind in an effort to cover his tracks. "Ah, my depression. I...I was depressed there." Wow, he thought, kicking himself for his stupidity. Quit while you're ahead. "It's a nice area though."
Tina shrugged. "If you like baseball." She sighed. "I came here to find myself, to make something of my life, but they weren't hiring." She looked down at the ground before meeting Stefan's eyes again. "Well, I have a fabulous cocktail party with some area bigwigs, hence the glamour." She indicated her dress. "The girl throwing the party owes me part of my security deposit." She started to walk away, and then she stopped and turned back. "It was nice threatening you."
Stefan's lips quirked upwards at the joke. "Do you need a lift?"
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Just inside the door to the condo, Stefan could see a young woman walking around carrying a video camera, recording the goings on of the evening. Despite his nice outfit, he felt underdressed as he stepped into the crowded room.
Tina stood up on her tiptoes, looking around the room for her friend.
"There's Char," she said, pointing to a tall redhead standing across the room. "I'll be back in a few." And she was off, cutting through the crowd like a pro.
Stefan glanced around. He felt incredibly out of place. A few people walked into the condo behind him, forcing him further into the room. He looked around for Tina, but she'd disappeared into the crowd completely.
"Have you done any acting?"
Stefan turned to face a short, balding man in a business suit. The man's tie was loose. He held out a business card. Instinctively, Stefan reached out and took it, answering vaguely that no, he hadn't, as he read the card. Ethan Walker, producer, Gator Studios. Stefan had never heard of it.
"Well, if you change your mind, give me a call," the man said, nodding at Stefan and walking off to the next group of people.
Stefan shook his head and tucked the business card into his pocket. He looked around for Tina again, but he still couldn't see her. Listening carefully, he searched for her voice, but he couldn't hear her. He was starting to get worried; after all, Doyle had directed him to this girl for a reason.
He stepped up to the nearest pair of people talking. The man, facing his way, was tall, with short dark hair graying at the temples. The woman, with her back to him, had long, wavy black hair that hung down her back loosely.
"Excuse me," Stefan said, aiming for polite. "I don't mean to interrupt. Do you know a woman named Charlotte Madison?"
"Stefan?"
Stefan looked down at the woman standing to his right, and his eyes widened in recognition. "Bonnie? What are you doing here?" It had been a long time since he'd seen a familiar face. He was surprised how glad he was to see the young witch, who was best friends with Elena.
"One of my friends from school wanted to 'network'," Bonnie explained with a wry smile.
"You're going to school around here?" Stefan asked, surprised. He hadn't known that. But then, he hadn't paid much attention to his old friends the past year and a half, between having been caught in ripper-mode, and then being out of Mystic Falls for months before, and since, graduation.
"Boston College," Bonnie answered. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes strayed from Stefan briefly as she watched her former conversational partner slip away into the crowd, and then her attention returned to the vampire.
"I've been tracking the Originals since they left Mystic Falls," Stefan answered. "Klaus is here."
Bonnie's eyes widened and she looked around the room, startled by Stefan's words.
Stefan bit back a grin at Bonnie's instantaneous reaction. Bonnie had been a huge part of his previous attempts to kill the hybrid, and although they had failed, none of their failures had been Bonnie's fault. He knew she was as much on Klaus's hit list as he was. "He's not here. He's here in the Boston area. He's been here for almost three months."
Bonnie's eyes widened.
"Don't worry," Stefan promised. "I am going to catch up with him, and when I do, he won't be bothering anyone again."
"What can I do to help?" Bonnie asked, offering her services as a witch. She knew just how dangerous Klaus was; he'd killed her mother, the mother who had disappeared from her life for almost fifteen years, just a couple of months after she'd come back into her life. That had been just a little over a year ago, but she hadn't let it go. That was something she'd only be able to let go once Klaus was daggered, and of no danger to anyone.
"I've got it covered," Stefan assured her.
"There you are, Stefan."
Stefan turned around at the sound of Tina's voice. Bonnie, curious, peeked at her from around the vampire's arm.
"Were you able to get your money?" Stefan asked.
Tina shook her head. "But you can go ahead and go. Massimo's going to give me a ride home after the party."
"Massimo?" Stefan asked, surprised. "The same Massimo you accused me of working for earlier?"
"That was all a misunderstanding," Tina answered. "Everything's perfectly fine."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Stefan asked, troubled by Tina's sudden change in attitude.
"I'm fine!" the blonde girl said. Stefan flinched at the tone, and Bonnie reached out and touched his arm, feeling him relax slightly under her fingers, knowing that she had his back. "Just leave me alone!" Tina turned around and disappeared back into the crowd.
Stefan moved to follow, but Bonnie's hand tightened on his arm. Her soft words stopped him in his tracks.
"After that outburst," she said, "if you try to chase her, someone will throw you out of this party. There are at least three bouncers here."
Stefan turned back around to face Bonnie.
"Do you know this Massimo's last name?" Stefan asked.
Bonnie shook her head. "But I can find out." She spotted a burly man headed in their direction. "You should probably get out of here before Gigantor gets over here." Stefan followed her gaze to the bouncer. "I'll text you his name." She stepped forward and gently pushed Stefan back, towards the door. "Go on, before trouble shows up."
Stefan glanced down at Bonnie, her small frame far more powerful than anyone would realize just by looking at her. A part of him was sad to leave this connection to his old life, and his old friendships, behind.
"Thank you," he said, nodding at her before backing away. He nodded at the bouncer and headed for the door.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
12:43 a.m.
"Massimo Stregazza."
Doyle nodded and typed the man's name into the search engine on his computer. Several dozen hits turned up, mostly about Stregazza's business dealings. He was a rich and powerful man in the advertising world, with financial holdings in numerous countries.
"But there's nothing here of use," Stefan said, sighing heavily. "Dig deeper."
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
2:30 p.m.
Bonnie folded her sweater and squeezed it into the box, then covered the box. The lid barely fit, almost springing back up and off from the fullness inside. That was the last of it. She looked around, dozens of boxes covering the surfaces of her bed and her desk, her half of the room otherwise looking empty. The bed was bare, her sheets packed away in one of the boxes.
There's still two weeks left in the semester, Kayla had said to her before she'd headed to class. But that didn't matter. What mattered, to the administration, was that her father had missed his last payment, and she had no way to cover it, even working part time while attending school. She had to leave, return to Mystic Falls, admit to everyone that she couldn't make it in the big city.
She blinked back tears. No, she was stronger than that.
There was a knock at the open door, and Bonnie looked up to find a man in a brown uniform standing there. He was holding a white envelope about the size of a card.
"Miss Bennett?" he asked, holding the envelope out.
Bonnie walked over and took and opened the envelope, which housed a folded sheet of paper. She read the message inside. Please join me for dinner this evening at 7 p.m. I have a modeling job offer for you. Massimo Stregazza.
Bonnie glanced around the room, half tempted to ask if the letter was really for her and not someone else. Not that Bonnie didn't think she looked good, because she knew she did, but she didn't consider herself model-worthy, and she hadn't been at the cocktail party the previous evening because she'd been looking for work (which isn't to say she wouldn't take it if it came up, but still...). She'd only gone to keep her roommate company, because Kayla hadn't wanted to go alone.
The courier waited in her doorway. Bonnie told him that she would be there, and he nodded and left.
Bonnie glanced around the room again. Well, it looked like she wouldn't be leaving today after all. Tomorrow, maybe. It all depended on what Massimo Stregazza offered her.
A chill ran through her. This is the same guy Stefan didn't trust. Surely, he was just a businessman, right? Suddenly, Bonnie wasn't so certain. Still, she was a witch, and she'd faced off against the Original vampire family on more than one occasion. Whoever Stregazza was, she could face him and take care of herself, if necessary.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
4 p.m.
It had taken Doyle hours, but he and Stefan had finally managed to dig up some dirt on Stregazza. There were shady business dealings all over the place, and while he had nothing to verify it, he was almost positive Stregazza was a supernatural creature of some sort.
And that was why Stefan and Doyle were heading towards the address they'd dug up for Tina.
"I shouldn't have left her," Stefan said, worry lines etching his forehead. He slowed his Porsche when he spotted the first of several police cars ahead, and he parked a couple of blocks away.
"Isn't that her apartment building?" Doyle asked.
Stefan didn't answer. Something inside him was telling him what he didn't want to accept. The police? They were there about Tina. He just knew it.
Even now, from two blocks away, he could smell the blood. The wind had shifted, bringing the scent right to his nose, and he turned away as his eyes darkened and his fangs extended. He sucked in a deep breath, trying to fight off the effects of his bloodlust.
"She's dead," he told Doyle, growling from the strain until the wind changed again, taking the scene of Tina's blood with it.
"Stregazza killed her," Doyle said, catching on.
"Or had her killed," Stefan said, his eyes returning to their normal green, his fangs retracting. He pulled back out into traffic and turned the corner.
"Where are we going?"
"We have some planning to do," Stefan said, turning onto the street that would lead them back to his building. "We're going to pay Stregazza a visit."
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
7 p.m.
The mansion was huge. Bonnie's eyes widened to take it all in as the limo drove through the open gate. Even though it was just dark, she could see the mansion, fully illuminated by dozens of lights spread around the grounds.
She couldn't believe she was actually here to meet with a bigwig in the advertising world. She couldn't believe she was sitting in his limo, which had picked her up a few minutes before she'd planned to hop into her car and drive here. She felt like a princess in some sort of fairy tale, but she knew it couldn't be that easy. She was on the brink of leaving Boston to go home because she had no money, and suddenly she gets an invite to dine with one of the richest men in the city, who was considering offering her a modeling job?
Bonnie wasn't one to trust easily. She never had been, and while she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, something about this wasn't sitting well with her. Still, she didn't want to lose a possible opportunity to earn some easy money so she could stay in school.
The limo pulled to a stop in front of the mansion, and the driver hopped out and ran around to her door, opening it. She climbed out of the limo and stepped up to the front door. She lifted her hand to use the knocker when the door opened. An older man dressed in a tux ushered her inside and closed the door behind her.
"Mr. Stregazza will be with you momentarily," he said, turning around and disappearing into an alcove a few feet away.
Bonnie stared at the interior of the main entryway. There were windows around the room, but most of them were heavily curtained, and the only light came from the lighting inside the room. The floors were polished marble, black with blue lines etching it. There were a pair of staircases, one to her left and one to her right, that met up at the top and opened out onto a second floor balcony. Everything around her gleamed, from the pillars, to the shorter pedestals holding what were clearly priceless vases and busts. It looked like a museum, and even in her knee-length blue dress, with her hair pulled back and a couple of loose tendrils framing her face, she'd never felt more out of place.
"Miss Bennett," a voice boomed.
Bonnie looked around, finally finding Stregazza approaching her from one of the hallways behind the stairs. He was dressed less formally than his butler, but he was still wearing a business suit in a medium gray shade, with a light pink shirt beneath his gray jacket. His short dark hair was immaculate, and his face was schooled, revealing little of what he was thinking. That was what made him a good business man. Bonnie found him to be fairly handsome, in a way-too-old for her kind of way.
"I'm very glad you could make it," Stregazza said, stepping forward and offering Bonnie his arm. "Let's go to my study. We can have a drink while waiting for dinner to be set out, and after dinner we can discuss that modeling opportunity I have for you."
Bonnie took his arm, and he led her up the stairs to a small room just off the balcony. Like the rest of the mansion, what she'd seen, this room had dark curtains blocking out the light.
Bonnie watched as Stregazza poured himself and her a drink. While Bonnie didn't drink often, she did drink on occasion, although it was usually beer and not whatever whiskey he was serving. Still, she thought, she could nurse the drink. Her nerves were still on high alert. Even telling herself she was being ridiculous wasn't helping. He held out her glass, and she reached out to take it.
Her fingers brushed his on the exchange. Images flashed through her mind, stark, red, blood, death, fangs. Bonnie gasped, and the glass slipped through her fingers, landing on the floor and shattering. Bonnie jumped back, startled by the glass as much as by the confirmation of her worst fears.
Stregazza was a vampire. An old one. Not as old as the Originals, but much older than Stefan, and he was powerful.
"Is everything all right?" Stregazza asked, grabbing a towel from his drink cabinet and bending down to soak up the spilled liquor and pick up the broken shards of glass.
Bonnie backed away as Stregazza looked up at her. "Yes, everything's fine. I'm just ... clumsy."
Stregazza finished picking up the larger pieces of glass. He dumped them into a small garbage can next to the cabinet, and then he straightened up.
"Miss Bennett, let's not play games," Stregazza said. "You're a witch."
Bonnie's eyes widened. How did he know that? "No-"
"And I'm a vampire," he admitted. "But you already know that."
Bonnie glanced at the door, which was open. Stregazza followed her gaze, then laughed. "If you think you can beat me there, you're welcome to try."
Bonnie stilled and closed her eyes briefly, steeling herself to try and give Stregazza an aneurism. With her eyes open, she attacked him with her power.
Stregazza didn't even flinch.
Bonnie gasped. He hadn't reacted to her magic at all. She tried again. Nothing.
"Now it's my turn, witch," he said, zooming over behind her. He wrapped her arms around her, and before she could even react, he sank his fangs into her neck.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan pulled his Porsche up to the guard shack at the Stregazza estate. When he hopped out of the car to talk to the guard, Doyle slid over from the passenger side.
"Is that the Bruins game?" Stefan asked, staring at the TV the guard was watching. Before the guard could answer, Stefan punched him hard enough to knock him out.
Doyle lifted Stefan's bag from the back seat and handed it to him.
"Now, don't forget," Doyle said. "There's a three minute gap in between guards passing by."
"Just make sure I get in and out before the next guard gets there," Stefan finished. He and Doyle had analyzed building plans and used one of the internet mapping applications to study the pattern of Stregazza's guards.
"And if you run into one, remember," Doyle pointed out, "he's probably armed with wooden ammo."
"Yeah," Stefan said, jogging over to the brick wall to the right of the still-closed wrought iron gate. With a leap, he was standing atop the ten foot high wall.
"Be careful," Doyle said.
At that moment, the windows of the second floor of the mansion blew out. From his perch on the wall, Stefan heard a scream, the cry cutting him straight to the heart.
Bonnie!
"If I'm not out in ten, leave without me!" Stefan yelled, hopping down onto the property.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Bonnie had managed to free herself with a large burst of energy that had shattered all the nearby windows. Now she was on her knees, blood flowing freely down her neck and staining the straps of her dress, with Massimo Stregazza picking himself up off the floor several feet away.
He laughed, and Bonnie wiped a hand across her neck, focusing her magic. It wasn't enough to heal herself completely, but she managed to stop the bleeding.
"You are powerful for a young witch," Stregazza said, "but that's not going to help you."
A loud crashing sounded from downstairs.
"What is that?" Stregazza asked, turning towards the door.
Bonnie clambered to her feet. Whatever was going downstairs, she was going to take advantage of the distraction to try and make her own escape.
Stregazza turned to face her. "Where do you think you're going, witch?"
"Stregazza," a voice said from the hallway. "You killed a friend of mine. Tina Wyers."
"Stefan," Bonnie said, breathing a sigh of relief. She made brief eye contact with Stefan, who gave her a quick nod. It didn't matter to her that he was a vampire, or that he'd gone off the rails not that long ago. He was still Stefan Salvatore, savior, protector of those weaker than he was, protector of those who couldn't protect themselves, protector of those he cared about. Despite all that had happened in the past, she trusted him as she trusted no other supernatural being. He wouldn't let her die here if he could prevent it. And likewise, she wouldn't let him die here either.
"And who might you be?" Stregazza asked, turning his back on Bonnie. He clearly didn't think of her as a threat.
"Just call me your judge, jury, and executioner," Stefan answered, speeding forward. He shoved a wooden stake into Stregazza.
"You missed," Stregazza told him, grunting in pain nonetheless. He shoved Stefan away. Stefan slammed into the wall and slid down to the floor as Stregazza pulled the stake out and dropped it onto the floor. He stepped closer to Stefan.
Bonnie looked around. She was no match physically for the vampires, and she knew her magic was useless against Stregazza. However... She stared at a vase on the other side of the room, and using her magic, she sent it sailing through the air. It struck Stregazza in the back of the head.
The distraction was enough to allow Stefan to gain his feet. He slammed into Stregazza, and the two grappled for dominance in the hallway.
"Bonnie, go!" Stefan yelled. "Get out of here!"
Bonnie raced out of the room, stopping only when she reached the top of the stairs.
"I'm not leaving without you!" she yelled back at Stefan. She wanted to use her magic to help him, but he and Stregazza were so physically close, and moving so much, she wasn't sure if she'd help him or hurt him.
"I'll be right behind you," he promised. "Go!"
Bonnie raced down the stairs as quickly as she could go in her heels. She stopped at the bottom of the steps and kicked her shoes off, grabbing them quickly before heading towards the busted open door. Stefan must have done that when he'd forced his way inside the mansion.
Bonnie could hear the vampires going at it upstairs, and she prayed that Stefan would be okay. She pulled up before reaching the door when the butler stepped out in front of her.
"I'm afraid I can't let you leave," he told her.
Bonnie didn't answer. She just looked at him, and then she swung her arms forward, slamming the man in the head with her shoes. He went down hard, landing on the floor at her feet.
And that was when the hands grabbed her around the waist, and she felt like she was flying as she was spirited out of the mansion. She wasn't able to get her bearings until Stefan came to a stop next to the tall brick wall.
"Do you trust me?" Stefan asked, replaying a scene that had happened between them a few weeks after they'd first met. Bonnie met his eyes and nodded, and then she closed her eyes and turned around. She felt his arms wrap around her, felt her stomach leap as Stefan jumped, and then they were on the ground on the other side of the wall.
"You can open your eyes," Stefan said, releasing her.
"It's about time," Doyle yelled from the car. He moved over, giving the driver's seat to Stefan as Bonnie slid into the back. "Who's this?" He could barely drag his eyes away from the beautiful girl.
"I'm Bonnie," she answered, getting settled into the seat.
"I thought I told you not to wait," Stefan said, backing the car out of the drive. It had taken him at least fifteen minutes to get in and back out with Bonnie, even with his super speed, as they'd had to avoid the guards on more than one occasion.
"You did," Doyle answered. "And I almost left." He shrugged. "I changed my mind."
Stefan bit back a grin. "Well, we're very glad you waited."
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan stalked through the agency, one goal in his mind. The elevator ride, twenty six floors, seemed to take forever, though to a vampire with an infinite lifespan, it was but the length of a single moment. He stepped out of the elevator and strode past the reception desk. He barely heard the receptionist as she jumped up from her desk and followed him, chattering at him that he couldn't go in there.
He slammed the double doors open and stepped into the boardroom. A dozen people were sitting around a long, rectangular table. Stregazza sat at the head of the table at the far end of the room. He vaguely heard the receptionist babbling an apology to the older vampire, who waved her away. She disappeared, closing the door behind her, leaving Stefan in a room with the board of Stregazza Advertising.
"Mr. Salvatore," Stregazza greeted. He'd done some research, and he'd learned much about Stefan Salvatore, who strode resolutely towards him.
A young man, sitting to Stregazza's immediate left, jumped up and stood directly between Stefan and his prey.
"I'm with Wolfram and Hart," he said, handing Stefan a business card. Stefan glanced briefly at the card. Lindsay McDonald, Attorney-at-Law, Wolfram and Hart. "Mr. Stregazza has never been accused, and shall never be convicted, of any crime, ever." Stefan looked him in the eyes, but the young man didn't back down. "Should you continue to harass our client, we will be forced to bring you into the light of day." Stefan stepped around McDonald, ignoring the young lawyer's words. "A place, I've heard, that isn't all that healthy for you."
So, Stefan thought, Stregazza and his lawyers knew he was a vampire. No big deal.
"Stefan, we do things a certain way here in Boston," Stregazza told him.
Stefan shrugged. "I'm new here." And even if he hadn't been, he wouldn't have cared. Stregazza had killed Tina, had tried to kill Bonnie, and he'd likely killed hundreds, if not thousands of other women over the years. He had to pay for that.
"You're a civilized man, Mr. Salvatore," Stregazza said. "We don't have to go around attacking each other. Look at me. I pay my taxes, I keep my name out of the paper, and I don't make waves. So in return, I can do anything I want."
"Really?" Stefan asked, stopping in front of Stregazza, who wheeled in his chair to face him. Stefan put a foot on the chair between Stregazza's legs, and the man gave him a curious look, trying to figure out what he was up to. "Can you fly?"
With that, Stefan pushed the chair hard with his foot, sending Stregazza backwards out through the wall of windows lining the boardroom. The glass shattered outward, and everyone in the room could hear Stregazza screaming. Stefan didn't have to look to know that the vampire, who wasn't wearing any protection from the sun, was bursting into flames, was disintegrating into nothingness. And then the screams stopped.
"Hmmm," Stefan said, turning back towards the rest of the board members. "I guess not." No one rose to check on Stregazza, or to bar his way, except the young lawyer who'd already been standing, but even McDonald wore a stunned expression. Stefan stopped as he walked past just long enough to open McDonald's jacket back up and stick the business card back into the lawyer's pocket before continuing out of the room.
SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI-SI
Stefan stared at his cell phone for a few minutes, studying the picture of Elena he had with her contact info. His last memory of her had been her telling him that while she still loved him, she loved Damon, too, and she didn't know what she wanted. That had been before she had cut Esther's spell short, and he'd left Mystic Falls to track down the Originals, who fled to escape certain death.
Finally, he pushed SEND and lifted the phone to his ear. He listened to the phone ring once, twice, and then the phone was answered.
"Hello?"
Stefan recognized the voice that answered Elena's phone instantly. Damon.
"Stefan, are you there?"
Stefan hit the END button and stared at the phone. So, Damon had finally won.
"What happened with Stregazza?"
Stefan looked up as Doyle walked into his apartment. He set the phone down and stood up. He needed a drink. He crossed the room to the refrigerator, pulled out a bottle of whiskey, and poured himself a glass before answering.
"He went into the light," Stefan answered.
"And yet," Doyle noted, "you don't seem to be in a celebrating mood."
Stefan shrugged. "I killed a vampire. I didn't help anyone."
"Are you certain?" Doyle asked. "Because there are a lot of people whose lives are safer because they won't become Stregazza's victims." Stefan just looked at him, not relieved by the half-demon's words. "And because there's a girl upstairs that is happy about it."
Stefan's brow furrowed. "Who?"
Suddenly, there was a scream from upstairs. Stefan raced up the steps, Doyle following as quickly as he could. They burst into the main entryway of the office building above.
Bonnie jumped at their sudden appearance.
"What's wrong?" Stefan asked, surprised to see Bonnie in his building. She held a feather duster in her hand, and she looked like she'd been cleaning the place for a while now. Stefan wasn't sure he'd ever seen it this clean.
Bonnie blushed. "There's a spider, over in the corner."
Doyle wandered over and grabbed the spider, quickly tossing it out the door.
"We might need to call an exterminator," Doyle admitted.
"And a sign painter," Bonnie added. "There should be a name on the door, so people can find us."
"What is going on here?" Stefan asked, confused. What on earth were Bonnie and Doyle talking about? And why was Bonnie busy cleaning the office area?
"Doyle filled me in on your mission," Bonnie said. "And I agree, while you look for Klaus, you need something else to fill your time. If we're going to help people, then we need to make this place presentable."
Stefan noted her use of we. "I thought you were going to school," he said.
Bonnie bit her lip. "I was," she admitted. "But we missed a tuition payment, and they kicked me out."
Stefan suddenly felt bad about questioning Bonnie's motivation. "Bonnie, you know all you had to do was say something, and I could have-"
"I'd rather earn it," she answered. "And I will, while I help you here. You need someone to organize things." She hesitated. "That is, if you think I can be of help?"
Stefan smiled, glad to have her friendly face about the building. It would be like having a little bit of home here with him. "Welcome aboard."
Bonnie smiled back at him, grabbed a cardboard box, and headed into the next room.
"You've made a good choice," Doyle told him, clearly approving of Stefan's decision. "She'll provide you a solid connection to humanity."
"You think she's hot," Stefan said, astutely reading Doyle's interest in the pretty witch. He'd seen a lot of it since he'd met her. Bonnie had always been pretty, but her strength, courage, and independence tended to scare away a lot of potential suitors, men who needed to be needed.
Doyle just grinned. "I won't lie about that. But she could use a hand."
Stefan nodded. She would have a hand, two of them, and everything else he could do. He had a feeling that Doyle was going to stick around as well.
"There are a lot of people in this city in need of help," Doyle continued.
"So I noticed," Stefan answered.
"You game?" Doyle asked.
Stefan nodded, accepting the challenge. "I'm game."
THE END