So, this is the fifth part of my Dalaric Series. Thank you so much for the lovely reviews on the last part. Again I used some (okay quite a lot) of the original story, but altered it a bit. (I just couldn`t allow Damon to kill Ric). Reviews would be lovely.
Out of Control
Looking at his watch with a sigh, Damon started pacing while he waited for Sheriff Forbes. After the latest, disastrous attempt at saving Stefan in Chicago a few days ago, things had pretty much returned to normal. Or as normal as they ever got in Mystic Falls. Damon stopped by at the Gilbert home daily to check up on Elena, who was holding up surprisingly well. His relationship with Ric on the other hand was still a little strained after their argument in Chicago.
Damon had stopped the nightly visits, preferring to spend his nights lying awake, staring at the ceiling instead. He had let the teacher come way too close already. His feelings were getting the better of him and it scared the vampire, so he had decided it would be best to take a step back. Feelings were weakness and he couldn`t afford that weakness at the moment.
Of course Alaric didn`t understand his sudden change of heart and Damon suspected he was a little pissed and had drawn the wrong conclusion. Which served his plans just fine. If Ric thought he was still in love with Elena then Damon wouldn`t correct him. They were both better off this way.
Finally the sheriff arrived and asked him to follow her. "So Mayor Lockwood called your gay ex-husband to torture your vampire daughter?" he asked, remembering what she had told him on the phone. "Yes. I've been keeping him detained to make sure the vervain is out of his system. So you could, you know..." Damon rolled his eyes when she tried to mimic compulsion. "Can't we just kill him?"
"No, Damon! He's Caroline's father." Liz snapped. He shrugged. "He sounds like a douche-bag to me." The sheriff stopped and looked at him. "Yeah, well, just 'cause you and I are on ok terms doesn't mean that I'm a suddenly a big advocate for your 'lifestyle'." she reminded the vampire. They reached the building and went inside.
"Double check him for vervain before you compel him." Liz ordered before they entered the cell, where her ex-husband was tied to a chair. Damon watched the two of them bicker about Caroline for a moment. When he`d heard enough he crouched down in front of Bill, bit his neck and drank some of the blood to ensure that he was really vervain-free. Liz looked the other way and told him to get on with it and erase her ex-husbands memory. She seemed uneasy about the whole situation. Bill kept arguing, but Damon was getting bored already so he compelled him to forget everything and leave town.
Satisfied with his work Damon went to the party the Founders insisted on holding. Really you would think they had better things to do than throwing parties all the time. He looked at the many different chillies with disgust. He`d told Elena to make something else, but of course she didn`t listen. When did she ever?
The vampire was mildly surprised when Alaric joined him at the table and handed him a beer. After taking a sip Damon leaned over and whispered conspiratorially: "I'm going to let you in on a little secret... Founders parties are just an excuse for the council to gather in back rooms and plot against vampires." Ric didn`t react at first. When he finally answered his words surprised the vampire. "Hey, uh, I think you need to take a beat with Elena."
"Excuse me?" Damon raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was coming from. "Whatever it is you two have going on, I think it's a bad idea." Ric told him honestly. "Why, are you jealous?" the vampire shot back. Alaric`s flinch told him he was right, even if the teacher denied it. "No. Why the hell should I? But I'm supposed to look after her, and this is me doing that." he claimed.
"What do you think I'm doing?"
"What I think is you need to take a beat." Ric repeated. Damon didn`t get a chance to reply, because Liz called him to the council meeting. The vampire followed her, more than a little pissed that Ric thought he could boss him around.
The council meeting proved to be boring as ever, with Liz and Carol claiming there had been no incidents since spring and Damon agreeing with them. However once the other council members had left they were suddenly joined by Bill Forbes. The guy still being here was surprise enough, but then he let them know that he remembered everything and proposed a few stupid ideas to improve the council, proving that the compulsion clearly hadn`t worked. Damon had no explanation for that. But he knew he had to do something to stop the guy. And fast.
Leaving the women to deal with Bill for now he went in search of Alaric. He might need some help with this one. The teacher and Elena were just about to leave the party. "Wait, wait, Houston, we have a problem." Damon stopped them and told them about Bill Forbes. "Apparently he's impervious to compulsion." Alaric frowned. "How?"
"I have no idea. But he threatened to out me. Don't get me started on the irony of that." Damon murmured, rolling his eyes. When Elena wanted to know how he had found out, Damon decided it would be better to ignore her and instead concentrate on Ric, who asked what Bill wanted. "He wants to control the council. Says it's been compromised." the vampire snorted.
"It has!" Ric pointed out, which did nothing to lighten Damon´s mood. "He wants to put vervain in the town's water supply." he told them. Elena shrugged. "Maybe it's not a bad idea. I mean, it'll help you keep yourself in control now that Stefan's not here to..."
"To what? To keep me in check? Make me behave? I should have killed him this morning." Damon snapped. Why the hell did she always have to try and change him. She reminded him that Bill was Caroline´s dad. Like he really cared. "Yeah, and when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than we do."
This comment caused Ric to step in his way and try to placate him. Unfortunately by now Damon was way too angry to listen to reason. Today simply wasn`t his day and everyone trying to boss him around only made it worse. "You're repeatedly killing my buzz today, Ric. Step aside." he ordered. But the teacher didn`t budge. "Yeah, it's not going to happen." They stared each other down and Damon was seconds from snapping Ric`s neck.
In the end he couldn`t bring himself to do it and instead just punched him. Ric fell and landed hard on his back staring up at him with a wounded look, that the vampire chose to ignore, even if it made his insides turn. "Stay out of my way!" he warned before storming off to go in search of Bill Forbes.
He found him in the office, pouring himself some scotch. Mocking the guy had about as much effect as the compulsion. He just kept cool and bragged about his skill, which spiked Damon`s anger even further.
"I knew what I was risking when I didn't leave town, but I figured... You're not self-destructive enough to kill the sheriff's ex-husband." Bill murmured, looking at him, seemingly unafraid. Damon gave a humorless chuckle at those words. "Makes you the third person to underestimate me today." he hissed before rushing over and biting him.
And damn he`d missed that. Blood fresh from the vein. He`d been behaving way too good lately. He could only enjoy it for a few seconds though. Suddenly Caroline was there. The blonde attacked him without warning to save her daddy. He would never understand that girl. Maybe she was secretly into torture or something.
He watched vampire barbie leave with her father in tow just as Elena entered. And he could see the lecture coming from miles away. "You can't do this anymore, Damon. Not in this town. Not around me." she demanded and he had a hard time keeping his temper in check. Today was so not a good time to provoke him.
"Why not? It's nothing I haven't done before. Why is it suddenly so important for everyone to keep me in check?" he wanted to know. "Because I don't want you to be what other people think that you are." Elena whispered, which only served to spike his anger even further. "What? A monster? Sorry to disappoint you, Elena, but last time I checked, I was still a vampire! I am not Stefan. How about you stop trying to turn me into him?" he spat and turned on his heel, leaving the stunned Elena behind.
The walk home helped him to cool off a bit and slowly his anger dissipated. He spotted Ric in front of the boarding house, obviously waiting for him. The teacher`s face was swollen from Damon`s punch and the vampire suddenly felt guilty. "You hit me." Alaric accused as soon as he was within earshot. "You pissed me off." he answered honestly. "You hit me!" Ric repeated. Damon shrugged. "Ric, no hard feelings, all right? I was on a bit of a tear. Everyone was trying to tell me how to behave." he explained.
But this time his friend was really pissed. "Well, maybe they finally realized you're just a dick." he snapped and stormed off. Damon entered the house and tried to ignore the sudden lump in his throat. This was for the best, wasn`t it? They`d had too high expectations of him. Tried to change him. Even Ric. Ric should have known better. Ric was the one who understood him.
He tried to push the guilt aside and drown his sorrows in bourbon. When someone knocked on the door about half an hour later, the vampire contemplated not opening it, but then decided to have a look. He was hoping to see Alaric and was disappointed to find Elena there. Only it wasn´t Elena. "Katherine. Wonderful. What do you want?" he grumbled. Just what he needed right now.
"I'm just a girl looking for a partner in crime. Feel like hitting the road? Getting the hell out of dodge?" He contemplated this for only a second. "Impeccable timing. I was told I need to take a beat." Maybe it was for the best if he left for a while and waited for things to cool down. Without thinking twice about it he followed Katherine outside.
They drove around for hours until Damon had enough and demanded to know where she was taking him. "Far enough away so that you can't go running back." Katherine told him. "Not to worry. Mystic Falls and I are on a bit of a break." he assured her. "You and Mystic Falls, or you and Elena?" she asked. Damon was just about to answer when she continued. "Or maybe you and Alaric?"
He managed to hide his surprise quite well. Katherine had always been way too observant. But he wasn`t about to let her know. "Let's just say we are having a bit of difference of opinion on how I should behave." he answered evasively. "Ooh. Let me guess... Elena wants you to be the hero, and you don't like playing pretend."
"Something like that." He didn`t like Katherine`s smile at that. "Her loss." she whispered and leaned over to kiss him. He allowed it for a second, before pushing her off of him. She was genuinely surprised by his action. "I thought I'd give it a shot. Truth is, you just don't do it for me anymore." Damon told her, grinning at her dumbfounded look. And it was true. He was finally over his obsession with her.
And he was fed up with her games, so he made her stop the car and demanded and explanation. Finally she conceded, took Elena`s necklace out of her pocket and told him Klaus wanted it. Damon frowned. Why would Klaus want Elena's necklace? That didn`t seem to make much sense. But what did with Klaus?
"It's leverage, Damon. Always stay one step ahead of your enemy." Katherine lectured. "But more importantly, when I stole the necklace from Bonnie, I found out something else... Something better." "Oh, yeah? What's that?" Katherine didn`t answer right away. First she made sure he wasn`t turning back. "Because this isn't going to win you any points at home." she noted, as she wallked around the car and opened the trunk.
Damon looked down on the unconscious boy with a frown. "Jeremy? Really?" Katherine sat down on a nearby bench and explained how Pearl once told her about a vampire who knew how to kill Klaus. But not who the vampire was or how to find him. According to Katherine Pearl only told one other person. Her daughter Anna. Damon sighed and reminded her that Anna and Pearl were both dead. "Which brings us right back around to..." Katherine started, but was interrupted by another voice.
"To me. Back around to me." Jeremy spoke up, causing the two vampires to stare at him. "Why to you?" Damon asked with a frown. Katherine explained how Bonnie had accidently told her that Jeremy could communicate with ghosts. "So he asks Anna, she`ll tell him and we have a weapon against Klaus." she said.
Of course it wasn`t that easy. Anna didn`t want to help them at first and Damon had to threaten Jeremy to make her talk. Finally she told them the name Mikael. "He's a vampire and a Hunter, and you guys would be idiots to wake him." Jeremy relayed her words to them. The vampires weren`t concerned and decided to risk it anyway. Before they started again, Damon demanded that Katherine give him his phone back, which she had taken off him during the drive.
Of course she had to protest, but in the end she handed it over and he noticed, surprised, that Bonnie had been texting him. "What is it?" Jeremy asked, leaning closer. "It's Klaus." he felt like his insides had turned to ice as he read the text. Damon handed Jeremy the keys. "Stay with her so Anna can guide you. I'm going back." he declared.
"You're going to get yourself killed." Katherine warned. "The Damon I remember wouldn't have been that stupid." He only glanced at her for a second. "I wouldn't have done it for you." Then he was gone in a flash, hurrying back to Mystic Falls as fast as he could.
He found Klaus in front of the hospital and the verbal fight that ensued quickly turned into a physical one. It didn`t take long for Damon to lose. Just as Klaus was about to stake him he ground out the name Mikael, claiming that he and Katherine found him and he would be on his way to Mystic Falls by now.
To his own surprise it worked and Klaus left. Picking himself up off the floor Damon entered the hospital and went in search of Elena. He finally found her in one of the rooms, attached to a machine that was pumping out her blood. "Damon..." she whispered weakly. Without hesitation he unhooked her from the machines and carried her out.
Alaric looked up in shock when Damon carried Elena into the house. "What happened?" he asked, jumping up and staggering slightly. Damon only had to take one look at him to see that he was drunk. Really drunk. "Long story." He brought Elena upstairs and put her into bed. Taking one last look at her he put the necklace he had stolen back from Katherine onto the nightstand and went back downstairs.
Ric was still standing in the living room, one hand on the wall to steady himself. "What happened?" he asked again, his words slurring heavily. "Klaus is back." Damon answered. "Klaus? But what... how..?" The teacher took a step forward and almost stumbled over his own feet. Damon caught him and put an arm around his waist to steady him. "Hey, easy there. Elena can tell you everything in the morning, okay? For now let`s get you into bed."
Alaric protested only half-heartedly while Damon dragged him upstairs to his bedroom, where he undressed him and helped him into bed. The teacher sighed softly and cuddled deeper into the cushions, falling asleep almost instantly. Damon remained sitting at his bedside and watched him. "I shouldn't have left." he whispered, reaching out to run a hand through Ric`s hair. "I promise you... I will never leave you again."