A/N: The wait drawled out longer than I expected. Things kept coming up but hopefully this chapter will be filling enough. Thanks to all the comments, I really enjoy hearing you guy's thoughts. They inspire me to keep writing for you. As you read, you will notice that this story doesn't really follow TVD canon. That will be explained at the bottom and you can either wait and read after or skip down and read now. Either way, enjoy!
It was late afternoon and Bonnie had just gotten in from running errands all day. For the most part, things were uneventful on her end but from what she heard from Stefan earlier, both he and Damon had a long eventful day. Evidence of such was apparent from the moment she walked through the door. Bonnie's earthy green eyes surveyed her surroundings. Propped up on a barstool, Damon sat slightly hunched over as Stefan stood behind him with a pair of pliers, digging into his back. Contrary to how painful it looked to Bonnie, Damon sat with an almost bored yet, annoyed expression on his face as he clenched his teeth every time Stefan's hand jerked away from Damon's back.
"There, that was the last of 'em." Bonnie frowned as she walked over to both boys, setting her bags on the couch, and pulled her Ray Bans from her face, clipping it to the neckline of her tank top.
"It's about time, Nurse Stefan," Damon chided just as Bonnie stopped in front of him. He paused for a moment from his teasing to take in Bonnie's features. Her eyes, though vibrant as always, was slightly dim with fatigue. Her smile lines which were usually ever present, had faded overnight which led him to believe that she spent most of the night brooding about the pending drama headed their way. This revelation almost made Damon roll his eyes. How many times did he have to remind her that he had things under control?
"So nice to see you again, Broody Number 2." Bonnie almost smiled at how quickly Damon picked up on her disposition. While Stefan was great at reading emotions, Damon was just as superb at picking up on small, physical details and nonverbal cues. Rather than retorting with a smart remark of her own however, Bonnie simply reached out to caress Damon's cheek momentarily before giving him a less than gentle backhand slap, smiling when her knuckles sounded against his jaw line.
"You're the cause of most of my brooding," she confessed. Some days she was sure he'd send her into cardiac arrest with his reckless actions. "What happened here? Should I be worried?" Her eyes danced between blue and green orbs as she waited for an answer from either of them. Damon decided to let Stefan do the honors as he pulled Bonnie between his parted thighs and hugged her tightly, burying his face into her chest while utilizing the time to inhale her intoxicating scent. For someone who healed quickly and was never prone to sickness, whether he admitted it or not, he liked being babied by Bonnie whenever he came home with some kind of injury. She always expected Stefan to have been the 'mama's boy' but that title easily went to Damon.
"Other than the fact that Damon here thinks he's Hercules, nothing outside of the usual. Some cocky vamp wouldn't pay me for his ring and Damon decided to flex his muscles, not knowing that there were others around waiting on him to make a move." The entire time Stefan spoke, Damon rolled his eyes. Grimacing, he pulled his head from where it rested on Bonnie's abdomen and glanced up at her with a small smirk.
"You should have seen me, ripping out hearts. It was fun." Bonnie's face fell as she backed away from Damon with a look of disgust. Damon rolled his eyes. "What? Did you honestly think I was going to let them kill me? It's not like I picked a fight with them first. They asked for it." Bonnie rolled her eyes and scoffed.
"No one asks to have their hearts ripped out of them Damon. Show some respect." Rolling his eyes, Damon stood up from his seat, Bonnie's eyes following, and brushed past her before calling over his shoulder.
"As much as you love make-up sex, I am notdoing this with you right now." Both Stefan and Bonnie watched as Damon ascended the stairs and disappeared from their view. Bonnie scoffed and bit down on her bottom lip in anger, clenching her fist.
"You'd think it killed him to show a little compassion. Ugh, I swear he drives me crazy." Damon's blatant disregard for the life of others was where they constantly bumped heads. While Stefan had learned to just accept it, Bonnie wouldn't. She knew it was him deflecting as he so famously did but the fact that she knew at heart he wasn't as callous as he tried to make it seem made her want to push him to try harder than he was not to be so cold hearted and brash. Her goal wasn't to change him; no one could do that, but to bring out the best in him. Wasn't that how it went? After all, he knew better.
"Well, that's why you love him. He keeps you on your toes." Bonnie couldn't help the smile that appeared at Stefan's words. They were true no matter how much it irritated her to admit. She leaned in to him and nudged his side and grinned cheekily when he kissed the top of her head. "Come with me, I want to show you something." Stefan grabbed Bonnie's hand and led her away before she could actually agree but rather than protest, Bonnie obliged him as he led her up the flight of stairs.
They ended up in the sunroom and Bonnie blushed as memories flooded her mind of the last time the two of them were up here. Stefan caught on and chuckled as he crossed the room. "Focus, you nasty woman." Bonnie cackled and threw a pen from her pocket at him, chuckling when it bounced off the back of his head and landed on the floor. Stefan was before her instantly and picked her up over his shoulder as she continued giggling. He walked with her across the green room and sat her on the ledge as he took picked up his gloves and slid them on. Bonnie watched intently as he picked up a Vervain plant and wafted it under his nose.
"For a while now I've been trying to dilute this; to make it less toxic for me and Damon. I think I finally got it," Stefan paused to break the plant up into little pieces, barely flinching when some fell on his exposed skin, burning into him. Bonnie quickly brushed the buds of the plant off his arm and glanced back up at him, smiling a little when his eyes met hers. "It'll always burn but I find that mixing it with blood worked better than water or anything else. I didn't want to worry you but on one of our runs, this newbie vamp injected me with Vervain, trying to steal a few cases of blood from us. Since I'm not dead somewhere, I don't think I need to tell you how well that worked for her." Bonnie fought the urge to smile at Stefan's smug tone.
About four years ago, there was a Vampire infestation in California that was getting increasingly out of hand. Not wanting to relocate, the three of them came up with an idea to cut back on the amount of bitten and shredded bodies that came into the morgue night after night. For a year they tried to create synthetic blood so that vampires wouldn't have to feed straight from the vein, in turn, allowing them all to maintain their low profile. It started off as an experiment and grew into much more.
While they began to make a profit from their formulated synthetic blood, now known as 'Her Essence', most of their money came from the Lapis Lazuli rings spelled by Bonnie to allow vampires to walk in the daylight without bursting into flames. Marketing the rings was a risk but it proved to be more beneficial than harmful. The rings came with a condition that should a vampire who bought one from them be caught killing senselessly, Stefan and Damon, known as 'Ben and Chon' respectively, would go out and confiscate them. It was where most of the danger lied but for the most part, they were always successful; mainly because of Damon's 'take no prisoners' attitude. They kept the secrets of their product heavily guarded and for that, they often had people trying everything they could to gain access to such pertinent knowledge.
"Anyway, since then, I decided we should start trying to limit our weaknesses as much as possible; you know, build up a tolerance to Vervain." They weren't exactly sure why Vervain was so toxic to vampires but figured it had something to do with their creation; however they were created. There were so many legends floating around that it was hard to tell which one was true. One thing was for certain however, too much of the deadly plant, depending on how old a vampire you were, could kill you.
"Stefan, this is genius. My only thing is, keep this between you and Damon okay? We can't have other vampires trying to bulk up on us. Humans need SOME kind of defense." As a witch, Bonnie felt a sense of loyalty to humans to protect them from dangers unseen. She was naturally in charge of keeping the balance between nature and the supernatural; ironic since she was dating two vampires. The subject was controversial in the supernatural realm to all that knew about their 'situation' but the three of them never paid the naysayers any mind. After all, a balanced diet was a cookie in each hand.
"We'd be idiots to let this slip to anyone, right Stefan?" Stefan looked up from where Bonnie stood while Bonnie spun around to find Damon walking into the room with Alaric Saltzman trailing behind, snacking on the remnants of a sub. With a mouth full of mauled bread and lettuce, he nodded his head in acknowledgement at Stefan and Bonnie. Chuckling, Bonnie shook her head and greeted him.
"Good to see you, Alaric," she responded, expecting no answer from him while he was still chewing. Alaric was a 'dirty' DEA Agent who worked with them from time to time. He had been investigating Stefan and Damon or, Ben and Chon as he knew them by, for over a year, suspecting them of drug activity.
In the beginning, they used drugs as a means to cover what was really going on. When Alaric began to crack down harder on them, they sold their entire stash but that didn't stop Alaric for delving deeper to find out what was going on. They did a good job of staving him off until one night Alaric followed them on a run and was attacked by a group of vampires who had planned to set Stefan and Damon up. After Stefan and Damon saved Alaric's life, they made sure to keep him indebted to them.
As a result, he helped them cover up murder and track down rogue vampires and in turn he received a cut of their profits. Though they sometimes joke around like buddies, they knew that given the chance, Alaric would turn on them in a heartbeat so they made sure to keep their asses covered that way if they went down, so did he. Bonnie wasn't too keen on their 'business relationship' but she went along with it for their sake. He was useful when it came to dealing with legal matters and he wasn't so bad when his arm wasn't being twisted into doing something for them.
"Did you two dicks figure out anything about these… bigger dicks yet?" Slurping from his giant cup of soda, Alaric flashed Stefan the finger in retaliation to his insult while Damon just rolled his eyes, pulling a folder from under Alaric's arm pits. Bonnie did nothing but roll her eyes at the three of their antics and listened silently as Damon filled them in on what they knew so far.
"So far, all we know is that Punk British Bitch is known as Niklaus or Klaus which is a fucked up name, if you ask me. In fact, all of their names are pretty fucked up. Anyway, there's an older son of a bitch named Elijah, he sounds snooty, and a younger one named Kol. He sounds like a little bitch as well. They have a sister but no record of her can be found so her ass is probably dead or sleeping in a coffin somewhere, yay for her. There's another one named Finn but he got toasted centuries ago, we think. Finn. What a fucking name." By the time Damon was done, Bonnie was trying hard to contain her laugher at his amusing commentary. It was almost impossible to ever stay completely mad at him and judging by the way he grinned at her, he knew what he was doing. Bonnie rolled her eyes with a small smile.
"What Damon so colorfully forgot to mention is that we have reason to believe that this is the legendary Original Family. You know, the world's first vampires and all. Legend has it; they were created by some bull-skate ass reason like, a death in the family caused by wolves. The mother was a witch who performed a spell and turned them all into vampires. You know the whole, hurrah. It sort of checks out and based on how smug this Klaus bastard is in that video, I'd say it's true and if that's the case, we have some really old bastards on our hands."
The longer Alaric spoke, the more the smile on Bonnie's face shrunk. They had heard about 'The Originals' once before but no one ever seemed to know much about them, at least not in this area. The threat of Vampires they probably couldn't kill looming over their heads only added to Bonnie's anxiety but rather than going into hysterics, she hefted her chin and took in the information with stride.
"Old as they are, there has to be a way to kill them. Nature would never allow there to be a truly immortal creature," Bonnie spoke up, leaving her voice light. The three men turned to her; Stefan with a pensive look on his face, Alaric with a blank look while Damon wore a smirk on his.
"Whoa there, Buffy. We're getting to that," Bonnie paid Damon no mind and avoided contact with him for fear of smiling and breaking her entire serious demeanor. Damon however snickered before continuing. "The tree that gave them life can take it away. So all we need is to find a White Oak Tree and stab them with it. Wherever the hell one of those is. Either that or stab them with a silver dagger dipped in white oak ash… wherever the hell that is."
"I can probably find out. Just give me a day or two." Bonnie assured and Alaric and Damon nodded their heads. They all turned to Stefan who finally broke his silence with a furrowed brow.
"Before you guys go out and Cosplay Van Helsing, we should just see what they want first before we do something rash or rush into something we don't know anything about," he reasoned. Both Damon and Alaric rolled their eyes and Bonnie decided to speak up before they said something that would more than likely piss Stefan off.
"Nothing wrong with weighing out our options, Stefan's right," she nodded and gave him a smile. "But we still need a backup plan; two of them to be safe."
"Such a turn on."
"Shut up, Damon."
"I wasn't talking about you, Alaric. Jealous?"
"Hey! Focus," Bonnie admonished even as she chuckled. "Listen. We have a day or two to figure it all out and we will, but I honestly need a break from all this. We'll meet with them, stall long enough until we can get leverage on them, and then get them out of our lives for good. If that doesn't work, I'll turn them all to stone," she joked lightheartedly. All of this 'Original' business was giving her a headache. All she wanted was to go out and enjoy the city with her two favorite people. Was that so much to ask?
Whoever these bastards were, they sure had horrible timing.
Niklaus Mikaelson stepped off the small jet with his brothers Kol and Elijah in tow and surveyed the area around them. When all was clear, they stepped to the side and made way for a fourth person, watching as they descended the stairs of the plane. A black suburban wheeled in front of them and came to a stop as the doors slowly opened on their own accord and the allotted passengers loaded the SUV. For a while, everyone rode in silence until Niklaus spoke up.
"I do hope for their sake they go along without a fight. I'm known to be a bit, moody." The smirk on his face filled the car prompting Kol to roll his eyes and Elijah to chime in.
"Calm down brother, no need to get belligerent. We're just here to talk." Elijah looked at Niklaus from across where he sat and shook his head. Half of the mess the found themselves in was because of Niklaus and his refusal to think level-headedly. It annoyed him to the highest end.
"So you say; and if it doesn't go our way?" Kol chimed in, looking between both of his other brothers with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.
"Then, we take…" added the fourth person.
A/N: Okay, first things first. Who was that last person? You've probably already guessed. The next add will be better, I pray lol. I needed to get the information out of the way. I hope I explained and answered a lot of questions. If you have more, just include them in your reviews and if it's not something I'll cover soon, I'll message you the answer.
As I said in the first Author's Note, things aren't exactly canon. Damon and Stefan were turned by Katherine but instead of them returning to Mystic Falls, they left. Katherine was entombed as she should have been and all is well in the world lol. I don't plan to put that in the story because, that's not really the focal point.
For now, don't get too wrapped up in the back story as much, most of it will be explained further down the road if this story goes as planned. Sometimes when writing a story it's easy for things to get out of hand quickly and the story can go in a completely different direction. That said if you find any plot holes PLEASE point them out because I'm only human and it's easy to forget to close up loose ends. Hope that answers or explain some things.
It will be explained later how they make the synthetic blood later. Well, maybe not in full detail but I'll explain how it works. I took a page from Tru Blood's handbook in a sense and decided to pay homage. I figured this would make more sense than a bunch of Vampires arguing over drugs like in Savages (sans the vamps). Okay, this is long as hell so I'll wrap it up. I apologize for any typos or errors, I am about to pass out as I type all of this lol. Oh and, I'll be going on Vacation for a week later this month so either I'll add before I leave, somewhere in between if I can or whenever I get back. :)
