Chapter Three
In between them they were able to cobble together enough of a story as they dressed for dinner. Elena was supposedly dealing with head trauma, so it would be easy enough to put her hand to her head and claim fatigue or blurry memories.
Emily was putting the finishing touches on her hair. Elena turned to her and said "Thank you…its lovely."
She beamed with pleasure. Elena turned and directed her question at both of them. "How long do you think it will be before I can go home?"
They exchanged a look. Emily sighed. "I will try to send you back as soon as I am able, but it would be best, for now, if you tried to acclimate yourself to this life for a time."
Elena pressed the subject. "How much time? Days? Weeks? Months?" She wouldn't mention years, years was just absolutely unacceptable.
Katherine placed Elena's hand in the crook of her arm like they were best friends in some Austin novel. "For now, the kind and handsome Salvatore brothers are waiting to escort us to dinner. We shouldn't keep them waiting." Then, with an impish smile, she led the way.
They were waiting at the bottom of the staircase, both in evening dress, both heartbreakingly handsome. Katherine shot Elena a smug look and whispered "Have you ever seen anything more delicious?" Elena didn't miss the pun, but even as she smiled for Katherine's benefit, she knew it didn't quite reach her eyes. She'd meet these men in 145 years…and neither of them would recover from what Katherine did to them, was doing to them, right now.
Damon offered his arm to Katherine this time and Elena had to ruthlessly beat down her jealousy. He looked at her like she was the ocean and he wanted nothing more than to drown in it.
Stephan offered her his arm and she took it lightly. "Thank you, Mr. Salvatore." Coming here had been a mistake. She knew she couldn't change the past (anymore than she already had); but every time she thought about the way Katherine had left them to pine for her for a century and a half her fingers itched to drive a stake in Katherine's heart, and then send her body COD to Klaus… She was stranded in the past, and her only way back was through Emily…who owed a blood debt to Katherine.
Stephan (She needed to try to think of him as Mr. Salvatore, before she blew her cover completely), Mr. Salvatore glanced at her and flashed his best smile. "Are you well tonight, Miss Elena?" She smiled at the ground. "I am." She was lying through her teeth. "And how are you this evening?"
He shot Damon and Katherine a look before he returned his attention to her. "I am honored to be your escort tonight. The entire town is in awe that the most beautiful woman they had ever seen has an identical twin sister." She knew her smile was sad. His face took on a sympathetic air, the one she was so familiar with. "Losing one's entire family must be quite a blow, even without the head injury."
She drew on her memories of her parent's funeral and she knew he could see the raw emotion in her eyes. "It's very fresh to me Mr. Salvatore. I didn't even remember I had a sister until a few days ago." Katherine shot her a warning look, but neither Stephan nor Damon noticed. They both stared at her with empathy-filled eyes. It was strange. Stephan was much the same…but Damon, she could read Damon so much more easily here. She felt her heart contract a little as she really understood how much the years had changed him, how much pain he'd gone through since he became a vampire.
Katherine:
She made sure she was especially charming at dinner that evening. Elena was terribly boring, but the cover story Katherine had given her was exciting (she couldn't help herself), so Elena did take a rather large share of the attention at dinner.
She could tell that old Giuseppe was charmed by having two such lovely sisters living under his roof, though she very much doubted that he intended both of his sons to marry penniless orphans. And that was where it would have been headed, if she had been what she pretended to be. She would choose one Salvatore and her sister would have the other.
But she was not what she pretended to be, and she had no intention of sharing the brothers, not even with her doppelganger. Once the threat of Klaus was eliminated once and for all, she intended to turn them both, marry one, and lead Mystic Falls society until she faked their deaths in a few years and moved on to the next town. It wouldn't be the first time she'd played that card.
The arrival of her doppelganger was hardly a hiccup in the plan. And, if something happened and she failed to eliminate Klaus…well, a living doppelganger was what he needed for his spell after all…perhaps he would give up his vengeance in trade for her and the moonstone that bound the curse.
Something in Katherine recoiled from that idea. Part of it was that she didn't want Klaus to get what he wanted. And who knew…if Klaus were eliminated and for some reason Emily couldn't get the doppelganger back to her own time, Katherine could turn her. It might be fun to have another version of herself around.
A whispered word at dinner was enough for Damon to be waiting in her room once Elena was safely tucked away for the night. She allowed herself a moment to melt into his passionate kisses and clear away every worry she had in her mind. One of the reasons it was impossible to choose a Salvatore…Damon shared a certain character flaw with Katherine. Once his heart was made up, decided as to where it would belong, there was not high or low, no line he wouldn't cross. He was naive, but impetuous and so ready to learn every trick she'd picked up over the centuries…and she had every intention of teaching him. Stephan's brand of sweet devotion was equally addictive, but for practical matters, like blood donation and feeding those other urges that threatened to overwhelm a vampire, Damon was the brother she needed.
She lapped up the final drops from the small wound in his upper thigh and then moved up to cuddle him contentedly. Adoration was like air to Katherine and Damon was her surest source here in Mystic Falls.
He wrapped his pale arms around her and kissed the top of her head. She nearly purred. Damon was hers…next she had to snag Stephan, and then…
Damon interrupted her self-satisfied plotting. "You never mentioned your sister…is she…like you?" Katherine wasn't sure she appreciated him even thinking about another woman while they were still sweaty and entangled from some fairly spectacular (even by her standards) sex. But then, he was probably thinking more about the vampire issue. She still had to work to make her face flirtatious. "Not yet. And she doesn't know that you know…or about…this." She ran her fingers up his chest to tease him then allowed them to move slowly down to his belly…finally cupping him and feeling the changing texture as he responded.
She laughed. "No more tonight love. I need to be wide awake and doe-eyed tomorrow so I can spend time with my dear sister." He wasn't in on the joke, but he noticed the tone as he obediently pulled on his pants and threw his shirt on. He leaned down for another kiss and she deliberately ran a finger along the ridge in his pants, laughing as it jumped under her hand. " He gasped and caught her hand. She allowed him to press a fervent kiss to it. "Why are you so cruel?" She grinned at him as she rose from the bed, nude. She pressed a gentile kiss to his lips and said 'Because, it's in my nature."
Elena:
Her room was just down the hall from Katherine's, and she wasn't surprised when she heard a quiet footstep on the landing, and then the near silent sound of Damon's door closing. The pain she felt when she heard that soft footstep was acute. Damon. Katherine was going to end both of their lives…she was going to hurt both brothers. But her love destroyed Damon.
Oh, a small part of what she felt was jealousy…She felt like she was invisible when she was in the room with Katherine…like the dresses and corsets (and most of all the great big fat LIE she was living) was sucking all the joy out of her body, as if there was magic in assuming the surname Pierce…as if by denying that she was Elena Gilbert, that she was no longer Elena Gilbert.
She rolled over in her bed and beat the feather pillow for a moment. Then she came to a decision. She was here. Her very presence had already changed everything. Trying 'not' to change things wasn't really an option at this point. If things didn't play out exactly as they had…her time wouldn't exist as it had been.
But thinking of the men laying down the hall from her, thinking about all the pain and guilt that lay in their future…she couldn't help but wonder…what if Katherine just left them alone? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if they lived out their normal human lives here, in their own time, without the events that ripped their brotherly bond to pieces? It would mean giving them up. She would never meet them. There was a chance she might die in the same car accident that killed her parents. Was she good enough, strong enough to take that risk for them? And if she loved them, why wouldn't she?
She didn't sleep well. Katherine looked radiant in the morning. Elena sighed over the bags under her eyes. She looked like she'd been crying.
As Emily arranged her hair, she decided to go with it. Katherine had cast her as the tragic, delicate sister…and she was feeling a bit tragic and delicate anyway, at least compared with the vampire she was setting herself up to oppose. She was crazy. But she was going to try to stop Katherine. She just didn't really know how yet…but she was here. It wasn't in her nature to just stand aside and let the events fall in the same pattern as before.
She walked down to the garden to join them.
Author's Note: Ok, so Katherine is getting all the action right now…well, she's Katherine…what did you expect! Lol Don't worry. Delena is coming. ; )
(It will come faster with a few reviews…just thought I'd mention that…)
