AN: I feel bad because I forgot to thank the reviewer for the first chapter. Thank you very much! And thank you to the reviewers of the last chapter. I'm glad to see my little idea has you all interested. I don't have much to say, but I will explain that the "Previously" sections are worked so that they are the preceding portions of the situation from the first part of this chapter. In other words, they won't necessarily be the last part of the last chapter, just so no one gets confused. Enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any characters affiliated it. They belong to CW Network, Julie Plec, and Kevin Williamson, respectively. Some concepts used belong to L.J. Smith and her publishing company. I own the character of E.J., and she cannot be used in any way, shape, or form without my permission. I own Mrs. Whitewater, too, but she's not really important.
Previously . . .
"My name is Rebekah," the other vampire introduced herself, her tone anything but friendly, "and you will do well to respect me."
"Hello, Rebekah," E.J. greeted. "I'm E.J. Now that we've officially met, can you please get off me and get the hell out of my room?"
Rebekah grinned playfully and stood up, reaching up to smooth her hair away from her face. "You're cute. I like you." E.J. sat up and stared up at her. Rebekah glanced at an iPhone she'd dug out of her back pocket and swore under her breath. "I've got to go. Let's hope the next time we meet will be more pleasant."
"Why?" E.J. asked, letting a hint of mockery into her voice. "Do you have a curfew?"
Rebekah glared at her. "You try living with four older brothers who feel the need to know where you are every second of every day!" The moment the tirade had begun, it was gone, and Rebekah was back to emotionless. "Be smart, little one, and don't ever cross me or my brothers." She leaned down and into E.J.'s face, once more pinning her to the bed. "Or I will rip out your heart and feed it to you."
E.J. squeezed her eyes shut and, when she'd opened them, Rebekah was gone. "Well, that was weird," E.J. grumbled to herself, sitting up and rubbing the spots where Rebekah had been holding her down.
"You wanted to see me, darling?" E.J. turned to see Gloria standing behind her, looking concerned.
E.J. sighed and flopped back on her bed. "Never mind. I'll figure it out tomorrow."
"Why wait?" Gloria pestered. "When you called me, I came quickly because you said it was urgent. Now you want to wait until tomorrow?"
E.J. sighed and sat up. "Fine, fine. I want to know how to compel someone who's on vervain."
Gloria simply smiled. "For you, that is quite simple." The witch stood and strode toward the closet at the far end of the room, tugging at it until it opened and swinging the door aside. "Take a peek for yourself."
The girl raised an eyebrow at her old friend but obeyed. "Vervain," she breathed in disbelief.
"It is actually quite simple," Gloria explained. "To fight the effects of vervain you must be full of it. It would not work on a normal vampire, but you are special, my dear."
E.J. hissed and stepped into the closet, picking up the bundle. "No pain, no gain, right?" she laughed humorlessly.
The next hour she spent scarfing down small amounts of vervain and then experiencing severe stomach cramps and tightness in her chest for several minutes. She managed to chew and swallow almost all of the vervain that Gloria had brought, but not without a price.
E.J. groaned and held her aching stomach, reaching up and wiping a trickle of blood away from her mouth. "I'm bleeding," she said, staring at the drop of blood in shock and horror.
"You should be elated, dear," Gloria soothed. "A normal vampire would have been physically incapable of ingesting that much vervain in that short of an amount of time."
"Vervain doesn't affect me all that much," E.J. replied, still groaning. "It mostly keeps me from compelling people."
Gloria grinned. "But that will no longer be a problem."
E.J. hissed and massaged her stomach with one hand, saluting Gloria with the other. "Thanks a bunch, dear. Now get lost."
Gloria mock-pouted before blowing her a kiss and disappearing.
Now for E.J. to recover from these cramps and go compel the hell out of Damon.
TVDTVDTVDTVDTVD
"Well, would you look at that?" Kol was grinning evilly as he stood outside his older brother's room, holding a Polaroid camera. His sister stood beside him, looking bored, if not a little jealous of Niklaus at the moment. "They're so cute!" Kol giggled, snapping a third picture.
"Kol," a voice drifted from the bed, "lay the camera down and walk away or I will come over there and shove the pieces of it down your throat." Finn turned over and yawned, glaring murder at his youngest brother. "Or, of course, you can come over here and take your beating like a man."
Before Kol could say something stupid and tick Finn (who clearly was in a very bad mood) off further, Rebekah snatched the camera from Kol's hands and tossed it far into the room.
"Hey!" Kol cried, turning around and grabbing Rebekah in a headlock. She squealed and clawed at him, but his arm would not give. "Go get the camera or I'll shove your face somewhere you know you don't want to be!" Kol threatened, tightening his grip and swaying her back and forth.
In two seconds, Rebekah was safely taken from his grasp and Kol was slammed up against the wall by none other than Elijah. Kol had never seen his brother so—not perfect. Elijah's hair was wild, his eyes bloodshot, and his suit looked like he'd slept in it . . . Oh, wait.
"I am not in the mood, Kol!" Elijah growled, further pressing his large hand against Kol's throat. "Do you understand me?!"
Kol squeaked, clawing at his throat and desperately trying to loosen his older brother's grip. He tried to speak, but could only force out garbled sentences that made no sense. Elijah finally sensed his dilemma and dropped him, Kol falling to his knees and rubbing furiously at his throat to relieve the constricted feeling.
Elijah rubbed his tired eyes as he approached the bed that he and Finn had put Niklaus on and that Finn had passed out on last night. The all-night vigil had not gone as planned, since both of the "guards" had fallen asleep on duty.
Elijah collapsed beside Finn, turned over, and buried his face in one of the pillows. Finn reached over and patted his older brother's back, but Elijah was too exhausted to swat at him.
Niklaus suddenly sat up, wide awake, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Once he could see, his face morphed from calm to alarmed within seconds at the sight of all of his siblings in his room, two of them on his bed with him. "What is going on here?" he asked in a low voice.
Finn turned over, stared at him in disbelief, and then reached out to whack him on the back of the head. Niklaus was so startled that he jumped, rubbing the spot and staring wide-eyed at his older brother. "Well, looks like somebody's all better," Finn quipped, tone dull but eyes alight with emotion.
Niklaus looked blank. "Huh?"
"Last night," Finn explained patiently. "You really had us panicking, Nik. Are you actually okay or are you just faking it?"
Finn had called him "Nik." Finn hadn't called him that since . . . well, since before he'd daggered him. It sent an oddly warm feeling through him that he normally would have been repulsed at.
Niklaus's attention was suddenly diverted as he peered past Finn and noticed the state that his eldest brother was in. "What on—?" Finn frantically waved his arms and slid a finger across his throat, pointing at Elijah. Niklaus raised an eyebrow and smirked. Did Finn really think that Niklaus was in any way, shape, or form afraid of—?
"Niklaus, if you do not wipe that smirk off your face this instant, I swear to Thor I will beat you so badly last night will seem like a vacation!"
Niklaus blinked several times, processing what his brother had just said. His smirk had indeed disappeared: how Elijah had known he was smirking, he didn't and had no desire to know. "What is this about last night?" he quietly asked his second eldest brother.
Finn yawned as he leaned back against Niklaus's enormous headboard, eyes partially closed. "Ask me after I've had my coffee," he mumbled.
Niklaus frowned. "Finn, what happened last—?"
"I said, 'ASK ME AFTER MY COFFEE'!" Finn bellowed, slapping Niklaus in the face so hard he saw stars. "Thor's hammer!" Finn swore, turning over and cuddling back down into the bed.
"Ow," Niklaus mumbled, hurriedly climbing down from the bed, warily eying his older brothers, and glancing toward his younger siblings. "I don't suppose you two know what's going on?"
"Not a clue!" Kol sing-songed, earning him another threat from Finn and a menacing promise from Elijah. "Anybody want coffee?" Kol squeaked before scooping his camera back up and bolting for the door.
Rebekah shook her head, both in embarrassment and in answer to Niklaus's question. "No, I don't." She frowned. "I think I fell asleep before that. Damn, you really do lose when you snooze!"
A pillow sailed over their heads, narrowly taking Niklaus down, and the two Originals decided that outside was a very good place to talk indeed.
Kol was busily preparing two steaming mugs of coffee in the kitchen, humming horribly off-key to himself, some punk song that Niklaus heard on the radio far too often, when Niklaus and Rebekah entered the room. Rebekah trotted over, picked up a butcher knife, and leaned in to jab it into her brother's abdomen. Apparently she hadn't appreciated being grabbed in a headlock.
Despite his apparent obliviousness, Kol sensed her coming, spun around, and caught her hand before she could stab him. "Peace, little sister," he teased, tone malicious. Rebekah growled at him as the butcher knife was pried from her hands and tossed across the room into the sink, where it left a noticeable scratch down the stainless steel.
Niklaus sighed as he trotted over and assessed the damage. It could be repaired, but for a cost. He could hear the sounds of a growing argument between his two younger siblings, but he chose to ignore it as he carefully moved the butcher knife to the other side of the sink.
He turned to find Kol and Rebekah in a cat fight and, strangely enough, they were evenly matched. "Men aren't supposed to be good at cat fights, Kol," Niklaus called. Kol ignored him, managing to grab Rebekah in another headlock and tackle her to the floor.
Noticing the cups of coffee sitting on the island, Niklaus decided that perhaps he could bribe his older brothers into telling him about last night. He couldn't remember anything, and it frustrated him to no avail.
Niklaus hated being in the dark. It made him feel less in control, especially when it was one—or, in this case, two—of his siblings who were keeping him that way. He needed to know! He carefully went around his squabbling siblings, plucked the two mugs up from the island, and strode out of the kitchen.
He cautiously ascended the winding staircase, careful not to spill even a drop of coffee on the expensive porcelain, wondering to himself how to broach the topic. He told himself that he wasn't nervous at all, but Finn and Elijah were suddenly acting a lot more like they had when they had all still been human. He hadn't been spoken to like that in so long, it felt almost unreal.
He cautiously tapped open the door to his room with his elbow and maneuvered himself inside. His brothers were still lying on his bed, looking rumpled and exhausted. Niklaus held his head up as he approached the bed.
The smell of coffee must have tantalized his brothers' senses, for they soon groaned and turned over, practically in sync. Finn and Elijah both sat up when they saw Niklaus standing before them, holding the two coffee mugs out like a peace offering.
"What do you want?" Finn muttered, making no move to take the offered mug.
Niklaus withheld a frown. "Why can I not simply do you a kindness out of the goodness of my heart?"
Elijah rolled over, looking even more tired than before. "I don't care what his motives are. I just want the coffee."
Niklaus decided that perhaps he should give his brothers the mugs before asking about last night. They would probably not be willing to talk before they had had their caffeine. He carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and held out one of the mugs to Finn. The older Original eyed him suspiciously before taking the mug and handing it to Elijah. The eldest Original promptly guzzled the bitter liquid down, very out-of-character for him. Finn took the second mug when Niklaus handed it to him and sipped out of it more slowly.
Niklaus waited patiently for the caffeine to begin to wake his brothers up. "Now, what do you want?" Finn asked, thankfully sounding more awake.
"Last night," Niklaus sighed, no longer able to avoid the subject. "I want you to tell me about it."
"You were sick, Niklaus," Elijah spoke up. He had attempted to smooth his hair down, to no avail, but his suit remained rumpled. The coffee in his mug was already gone and he delicately placed it on the nightstand to his left.
"What are you talking about?" Niklaus snapped. "I am the hybrid! I do not get 'sick'!"
"You were coughing up blood," Finn jumped in. "You were scaring us, Nik. We had to carry you upstairs, change your clothes, and put you to bed. When is the last time one of us had to do that?"
Niklaus wasn't sure if he should walk away now or further pursue the matter. "That's not possible," he finally said.
Elijah sighed and stood up. "You deal with him, Finn. I am going to go shower and change." Finn only nodded as his elder brother hurried out of the room. He had probably just realized how unkempt he looked. Elijah prided himself on his appearance.
"Believe what you will, Nik," Finn sighed, turning back to stare at his younger brother. "But that is what happened. You had fallen asleep on the couch with Bekah and Kol, and Elijah and I had carried them upstairs already. We came back and you were awake. Then you just started hacking your lungs up, and you were even coughing up blood. Something was wrong with you."
Niklaus finally nodded in resignation. "All right, say I accept that something was wrong with me last night," he said slowly. "I have lived for a thousand years and never once have I been sick. Why would I suddenly start now?"
Finn shrugged and hopped to the ground on the side of the bed opposite Niklaus. "No clue, little brother. That sounds like a personal problem."
Niklaus frowned when his older brother disappeared out of the doorway. He knew he wasn't the easiest company to keep, but they didn't have to treat him like a disease. He sighed and settled back against his pillows, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply.
He was already dressed in sleepwear (he would rather not think about how he had gotten into it) and he might as well take a little nap. He was still exhausted, after all.
TVDTVDTVDTVDTVD
Damon was sitting alone in the kitchen, sipping out of a coffee mug (although E.J. doubted that was what was in it), when E.J. skipped over to him. Damon's gaze slid up to her momentarily before he returned his attention to the newspaper in his hand.
"Good morning!" E.J. chirped, dropping down in a chair beside him and pulling it close to him. Damon ignored her. "How was your sleep?"
"What do you want?" he asked, not in an irritated way but matter-of-factly.
E.J. leaned in close to him, her pupils dilating. Damon glanced over at her to raise an eyebrow and smirk, and fell right into her trap. "I want you to answer my question," E.J. spoke in a soft but commanding voice.
Damon blinked and nodded. "I slept fine. Andie came over and she and I had a swell—"
"Okay!" E.J. interrupted, standing up and moving away from the table. "Never mind!"
"Is this why you wanted to know how to compel someone on vervain?" a voice asked from behind her. E.J. groaned and turned around to glare at Gloria.
Completely forgetting she was not alone in the room, she snapped, "What I do is none of your business. You're the one who went and died on me, so I don't need any of your crap!"
Damon stared up at her. He felt strange, as if he had just been compelled, but he knew that was not possible. "Who are you talking to?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "I assure you, I am very much undead, thank you very much."
E.J. swung around in shock, hurriedly grabbing him by the collar and leaning back into his face. Before she could even attempt to compel him, he grabbed her by the wrist and threw her stomach-down over his knees. "What do you think you are doing?" he growled.
E.J. grunted and squirmed. "Let me up!"
"Answer my question," Damon purred mockingly. He was tempted to smack the girl's bottom a couple of times, but even he admitted that that was inappropriate.
E.J. growled and hung her head, defeated. She hated feeling so weak. As "special" as Gloria had always insisted she was, she had never been as physically strong as other vampires. Then again, any other vampires she had ever had contact with had been a lot older than she was.
"I was trying to compel you again," she answered honestly. "I thought that maybe if I really was an Original, why not, you know?"
Damon sighed and turned her over so that she was sitting upright on his lap. E.J. tried to struggle away from him, but his grip was iron-strong. "Do you really not know what an Original is?" he asked quietly, almost sympathetically.
E.J. stopped struggling for a moment to stare at him. "No, I don't," she grumbled. "Do enlighten me."
"A thousand years ago, a witch did a spell that turned her entire family, excluding herself, into vampires," Damon explained slowly. "They are the Originals, vampires next to impossible to kill. Trust me, you are not one of them."
E.J. sighed and laid her head on Damon's shoulder. "Okay, I promise I'll stop trying to compel you then." If what Damon's saying is true, then how in the world can I compel other vampires? I'm definitely not one of those Originals, that's for sure. Maybe there's another breed of vampire that Damon doesn't know about?
E.J. suddenly found herself being lifted up and set aside as Damon stood up. "Shouldn't you be heading to school?" Damon asked, voice gruff and stern.
E.J. blinked up at him. "Why would I do that?"
Damon smiled wickedly, and E.J. got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "You can go out in sunlight, right?"
E.J. raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Then come with me. We're going on a little road trip."
TVDTVDTVDTVDTVD
Elena was at her locker when she saw Damon enter the school with a young girl she had never seen before. She shut her locker and watched curiously as he practically dragged her toward the school office. "What was that all about?" Elena turned and smiled at Bonnie. Her friend had been through so much, but she still managed to keep a smile on her face. Not only recently, but in the rest of her life as well.
"No idea," Elena answered, shifting her books in her arms so that she could slip them into her book bag.
"Does anyone know who the new kid is?" Both girls turned to find Caroline behind them. None of them had gotten much sleep last night, but the sleepover had been well-worth it. Once they had haggled Damon into agreeing to it, despite all of the weirdness with the fireplace.
"What are we talking about?" Elena turned to find Stefan smiling at her, and Caroline and Bonnie made a hasty exit. Elena smiled as Stefan leaned down to peck her lips, still smiling.
"Damon brought in a girl," Elena answered after a brief make-out session. "I've never seen her before."
Stefan frowned and sighed. "E.J."
Elena's eyes widened in surprise. "Your new boarder?" Stefan nodded. "The girl Damon's convinced wrecked your fireplace and then tried to fix it with magic, even though she's a vampire and couldn't possibly have done that?" Stefan chuckled and nodded again.
"The one and only," he said. "She's a nice girl, but a little weird."
Elena raised an eyebrow. "Weird how?"
Stefan shrugged. "Well, she keeps up conversations with herself. Not like somebody else would, but genuinely like she's talking to another person. It's . . . creepy."
Elena frowned and shook her head, reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I think you and Damon are reading a little too much into this. We girls talk to ourselves all the time. There's nothing 'creepy' about it."
Stefan shook his head. "You didn't hear her, Elena. Trust me, it was creepy."
Elena rolled her eyes and stepped past him. "Well, I have English next, so I'd better get going. You wouldn't want to miss your trig class, Stefan."
Stefan groaned in mock-horror. "Oh no, that would be terrible."
Elena smiled back and waltzed off down the hall, swaying her hips as she went. Stefan sighed and shook his head like a lovesick puppy, hurrying off to his own class.
"We should make sure to meet this new girl," Kol said, grinning, from around the corner. He and Rebekah had gotten to school barely on time, but neither was in a hurry to get to class. At twenty-three-physical-years-old, Kol was far too old to be going to high school, but he and Rebekah were posing as twins. Why, because the four oldest Originals were paranoid and hated letting their little sister out of their sights for any length of time. Especially now that she was no longer allowed out of the house without one of them.
"Yes, Kol," Rebekah sighed sarcastically, walking briskly to her locker, heels clicking the tiled floor rhythmically, and quickly spinning the lock, "we definitely should do that."
Kol grinned wickedly, shadowing her just because he knew it would annoy her. "Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
Rebekah rolled her eyes as she yanked open her rusty locker and picked out her schoolbooks. "I've already met her anyway. She's nothing special."
Kol raised an eyebrow and leaned his shoulder against the locker next to hers. The third bell had already went off, but the two Originals were not concerned about receiving detention from their teachers. A little compelling, and they would act as if nothing had happened. "Oh, do tell. Is that where you were last night?"
"It was so weird," Rebekah mumbled, closing her locker and following Kol to his locker, which was only a few down from hers.
"What was?" Kol asked, more out of boredom than interest, as he expertly opened his locker. For having been basically dead in a coffin for over a century, he had adjusted to the modern world very well.
"I felt something," Rebekah answered in a small voice. "I finally pinpointed the source and found her."
Kol plucked his own schoolbooks up, slammed his locker door shut, and raised an eyebrow down at his sister. "What do you mean by 'felt something'?"
Rebekah shrugged as she trotted off to her class, Kol on her heels. He had somehow managed to get the exact same schedule as hers, much to her annoyance, which meant that he could shadow her all day. It was enough to make her want to scream, but she didn't want to make a scene even in a deserted hallway. "I can't really explain it," she answered just so that he wouldn't come up with some creative way to get it out of her. "I just 'felt' something. I've never felt anything like it, and I doubt any of you have."
Kol looked thoughtful, a rarity for him, as they finally neared their first class: English 401, the same class as Elena's. "Huh. Have you thought about saying something to Elijah? He might know something about it."
Rebekah sighed and shook her head. "Just drop it, okay? I shouldn't have said anything."
She pushed the door to the classroom open, and Kol had to drop the topic for the moment. He made quick work of compelling their English teacher, Mrs. Whitewater, the widowed elderly woman who was the most hated teacher of the school, and took his seat across from Rebekah.
Before a now very confused Mrs. Whitewater could begin the class, the door opened and a girl entered with Damon Salvatore.
Kol raised an eyebrow. Well, this should be interesting.
AN: I wonder if anybody's trying to guess what's so "special" about E.J. yet. If you would like to, tell me in a review. I'm considering a little contest for whoever figures it out first, but I haven't decided yet. We haven't gotten to that point in the story, but we will. I will update soon, but please review first! I haven't been getting a lot, and I'm not one of those authors who demand a certain number before they'll review, but they do help motivate me. Thanks for reading!