Resurrection
A/N: Thanks so much for the alerts and favs, but especially the reviews! They were incredibly encouraging and kind; y'all are so freakin' awesome! :-D
Disclaimer: Alas, I wasn't lucky enough to buy the TV Rights to The Vampire Diaries, but I do get to play with the characters in fanfiction so it's not all bad. . ;-) I also don't own the lyrics to the truly amazing song "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, nor do I have any claim to the film Interview with the Vampire that is mentioned in this chapter.
Chapter Rating: Mature (Language, violence, gore, and some sexuality)
Special Thanks:
People who favorited my story: Gossipacholic101, mysterious-kitten-xoxo, Jo Harv., CayannePepper, and lunalovegood1dreamygirl.
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Written While Under the Influence of: Daughtry-It's Not Over, George Thorogood and the Destroyers-Bad to the Bone, Broken Frame-Barely Breathe, Kanye West-Stronger, P-Diddy feat. Jimmy Page-Come with Me, People in Planes-Vampire, Lee Safar-I'm Here, Safetysuit-Anywhere But Here, Breaking Benjamin-I Will Not Bow, White Zombie-More Human Than Human (Meet Bambi in the King's Harem Mix), Pop Evil-Somebody Like You, Shinedown-If You Only Knew, Breaking Benjamin-Give Me A Sign, the YouTube vid "Jeremy and Anna" by Wolfprincess90 (song: Red-Never Be the Same), Lacuna Coil-Our Truth, Mudvayne-Happy?, and Papa Roach-Forever.
Chapter Three: It's Not Over
"To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of
a man who hath not the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying,
when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true
and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valor is
discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my life."
-William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act V, Scene IV
Shafts of moonlight peeking through the dark clouds made Damon's ice blue Camaro gleam as it raced across the main drag back to town, top down with "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers pouring out of the speakers. Slightly off-key singing emanated from the driver while the car's other occupant stared at him in awe; Jeremy couldn't believe his eyes, Damon Salvatore, badass vampire extraordinaire, was actually singing along with the radio…
He shook his head in disbelief, longish brown hair flopping into his eyes. "So I'm gonna have to be invited into my own house?" Jeremy interrupted, continuing his seemingly endless series of questions as he tried and failed to tuck the wayward strands behind his ears.
"Yes, but you're not going back there just yet," Damon replied before resuming his singing, "I'm here to tell ya honey, that I'm bad to the bone. B-b-b-bad, b-b-b-bad, b-b-b-bad. Bad to the bone."
"Why not? All I have with me are the clothes on my back and Jenna's probably called in the National Guard to airlift my ass home by now," the newly minted vampire countered, folding his arms haughtily over his chest.
"Remember that thing I told you about staying away from people who provoke strong emotions? Well that's exactly what Elena is for you right now and frankly I don't trust you to play nice if I send you back there," Damon explained with exaggerated slowness, bobbing his head in time to the music.
"Then where am I gonna stay?" Jeremy demanded, irritation leaking into his tone.
"You can crash at our place until we figure things out." The older vampire shrugged nonchalantly.
"And what about my clothes?"
"We'll make a pit stop at your house and I'll snag you some. How's the hunger, manageable?" Damon asked in a less-than-subtle change of subject.
Jeremy involuntarily licked his lips, hoping there might be a lingering trace of blood left on them and frowning when he found none. He almost smiled at the memory of how incredible the crimson fluid had tasted, but the dull ache in his stomach that was becoming increasingly insistent chased away any pleasant feelings. "I dunno. Not bad, I guess. I'm still pretty thirsty, though. I don't think you let me drink enough," the teen groused, shooting Damon an accusing glare.
"If I'd let you drink much more we'd have had to take her to the hospital afterward," Damon retorted. "Open the glove compartment; I've got something that'll help take the edge off in there."
For the first time ever Jeremy obeyed him without question, expecting to find blood but discovering a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels instead. "This?" he asked incredulously, pulling the whiskey out and sloshing the contents experimentally.
"Alcohol helps numb the thirst, but take it easy. We can still get drunk, we just have a higher tolerance than humans," the elder Salvatore brother cautioned, arching a dark eyebrow to convey that he wasn't joking.
Jeremy nodded and impatiently opened the bottle, rapidly gulping down its contents. The bitter liquid tasted essentially the same as any other time he'd drank it before, but—as Damon had promised—his hunger lessened from an all-encompassing need to feed to a vague inclination with every mouthful.
"Wow, drinking like a fish must be a family trait," Damon chuckled as Jeremy drained the last bit of whiskey from the bottle and immediately discarded the empty container in the floorboard.
"You'd drink too if you lived with us," Jeremy commented with an easy smile, the alcohol already loosening his tongue and improving his mood.
"You live with two beautiful women," the older vampire argued lightly.
"Yeah, and I'm related to both of them," the younger one shot back, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "They're the only ones that can even be remotely safe around me. I should just give up dating altogether," he said abruptly, his good mood suddenly deteriorating into melancholy. "Any girl I go near ends up dead."
"I think my mortality record is just a little worse than yours," Damon joked in an attempt to steer Jeremy back to the happy drunk state of being, but neither vampire's expression indicated anything resembling humor: the teen's dark brown eyes were downcast in acute sadness, the driver's icy blue ones stared ahead at the road with a vaguely haunted look as he guided the Camaro into the deserted town square.
XXX
"I don't believe you," Stefan declared vehemently, voice low and dangerous. "Elena would never do that to me."
"And once upon a time you'd have said that I never would've seen Damon behind your back… Appears that history is repeating itself," Katherine replied evenly, an infuriatingly placid smile curving her lips.
Stefan opened his mouth to continue contesting his former lover's assertions, but no words came out. What evidence did he have that what she said was false? Elena's word? She'd hated Damon with a passion mere weeks ago when she discovered that he'd been the one that turned her mother, Isobel, into a vampire in the first place. He'd also nearly killed her friends Bonnie and Caroline on more than one occasion. Never mind what he'd done to her brother's girlfriend, Vicki. And all of that was forgiven and forgotten with little more than a simple apology from Damon? Stefan had trouble understanding how even the bonds of friendship could garner forgiveness for those actions.
He didn't want to even consider the possibility that Elena could be harboring feelings of a more than friendly nature toward his brother, but could find little concrete basis to deny it. The fact that he loved and trusted her was all he could think of, but suddenly even that didn't seem like enough.
Katherine watched Stefan's inner struggle play out on his face, delighting as the little seed of doubt she'd planted in his mind about Elena took root and began to grow.
Stefan dropped his gaze, unable to stand the sight of Katherine's face, a perfect mimicry of that of the woman he loved, with the confused jumble of emotions fluttering around inside him.
"What are you doing here, Katherine?" he finally sighed dejectedly.
"I already told Elena that. Didn't she tell you?" she responded coolly, intentionally calling the girl's trustworthiness back into question.
"Yes, she did. But I want to hear why from you. I doubt you told her the whole truth," the male vampire muttered, eyes hard as he finally lifted them to meet Katherine's.
Grinning, she sidestepped the question, "You always were the most perceptive one about me. It's a shame I had to use compulsion on you so often." Her voice became almost wistful as she reached out a hand to lightly trace his jawline. He flinched at her touch, an expression of revulsion flickering across the angular planes of his face. Katherine's eyes narrowed slightly at that, but she stubbornly continued trailing her fingers over the smooth skin of his chin.
"I asked you a question, Katherine," Stefan reminded her, fighting to keep his tone even.
She gave an exasperated groan at his persistence, rolling her eyes as she released him and stalked back toward his desk.
"I'd planned on taking Johnathan Gilbert out as soon as he destroyed the tomb vampires from the beginning. Just not personally," Katherine began in a bored voice, cocking a hip and folding her arms just beneath her breasts. "He and Isobel dictated a change in my plans."
"What do you mean?"
"Isobel was how I got Johnathan to do what I wanted. He was still so pathetically in love with her that he'd do anything she asked, so I sent her to him with the task of handling the tomb vampire problem."
"How'd you even know about them escaping?" Stefan inquired, crossing his own arms over his chest.
"Pearl contacted me," Katherine replied simply. "After all this time she still knew how to find me…" Her deep brown eyes warmed at the mention of her former best friend, but then sadness crept into her gaze, turning the usually hard chocolate stare liquid. "Johnathan was only supposed to kill the vampires that were attracting too much attention here; Pearl was never supposed to be hurt, she was leaving Mystic Falls. But he killed her anyway." The momentary grief disappeared from her eyes, replaced by burning hatred.
"He disobeyed me, as did Isobel. All to protect their little girl," she hissed, the words filled with intense disdain.
"That's why you killed Johnathan? Because he killed Pearl?" he pointedly redirected the conversation, keeping Katherine's focus off Elena.
"That's why I killed him myself. He knew that I'd find out what he did sooner or later, so the only way he'd get away with it would be to use the device against me as well. Plus he'd get to play the hero with Isobel and 'rescue' her from me. He had to die, for what he did to Pearl and what he would've done to me."
"And Isobel?" Stefan asked, more for Elena than himself.
"She's being punished for her part," Katherine smirked sadistically.
The younger Salvatore stared at her quizzically, unsure if he wanted to know exactly what she deemed 'punishment.'
Katherine continued without further prodding from him, "She's more valuable to me alive than dead, so she's in a no blood, all vervain 'time out' for awhile. I'm bringing her Johnathan's ring so that she'll understand what'll happen to her if she ever goes against me again. And I'll tell her how lovely it was meeting her precious Elena…" she trailed off, the threat evident in her voice.
"And where did Damon and I fit into your plan, Katherine? Was Johnathan supposed to kill us too?" Stefan questioned, unable to ignore that particular elephant in the room.
Her lips twisted into a grin. "I figured you boys would find a way out somehow. And if you didn't, well…" she shrugged, "call it karmic payback for that piss-poor rescue attempt of yours back in the day."
XXX
Damon slowed the Camaro to a halt before the Salvatore boarding house, gaze immediately drawn to the light pouring out of his brother's window. He knew the confrontation about him helping Elena's brother turn into a vampire was inevitable, but he'd hoped it wouldn't be so soon. He supposed that if things got rough he could just distract Stefan from the transformation by telling him about Katherine's visit. Jeremy obliviously hopped out of the car, grabbing the bag of clothes that Damon had taken from his bedroom and slinging one of the straps onto his shoulder. They both walked toward the door, the older vampire lagging slightly behind.
"I don't have to be invited by you, do I?" Jeremy questioned, tossing him a backwards glance.
"No, that only applies when humans live in the house."
The teen nodded and continued striding up the footpath. Damon allowed Jeremy to enter first, just in case Elena happened to be there also. That way Jeremy would get the brunt of the verbal lashing while he took the bard's advice about discretion being the better part of valor and got the hell out of Dodge.
Jeremy walked into the house without incident—namely Elena and/or Stefan descending on him like a pack of wolves—so Damon followed him inside, sighing slightly in relief. His respite was short-lived as a split-second later Stefan raced down the stairs and slammed him into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. The younger Salvatore planted his forearm roughly across his brother's throat, keeping him pinned in place.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you now," Stefan growled lividly, jet black veins cascading from his eyes.
"There're plenty of reasons not to kill me, my charming personality for starters…" Damon sneered down at his brother only to have his words cut off as the other vampire increased the pressure on his throat.
"Cut the bullshit, Damon! Did you honestly think it'd go any other way when I found out what you did?" Stefan roared, fangs bared.
"That depends on which thing I did that you're talking about," the black-haired vampire shot back, reaching up to pry his brother's arm away from his neck.
"Kissing Elena," Stefan spat, putting all his weight into his hold on Damon.
"Oh," Damon breathed—this subject was far tamer than what he'd anticipated—then chuckled, "Funny story..."
His laugh was rewarded with a hard punch across the cheekbone.
"This isn't a fucking joke, damn you!" the spiky-haired vampire shouted, fist balled in preparation to strike his brother again.
Ice blue eyes flashing in anger, Damon gathered his strength and shoved Stefan clear across the room, splintering the plaster on the opposite wall as he crashed into it. The vampire brothers took on identical fighting postures, bodies crouched and tense as they waited for the other to attack first. Jeremy, who'd instinctively moved out of their way when Stefan had initially appeared, stepped forward, attempting to separate them. Damon shot him a warning glance not to come any closer, and the momentary distraction was all the opportunity necessary for Stefan to jump his brother again.
Just as Stefan reached him, hand clamping around his throat, Damon lashed out and grabbed his younger brother by the jugular as well. They increased the pressure of their chokeholds to the full extent their vampire bodies were capable of, but both quickly realized they were locked in a stalemate.
"I didn't kiss Elena," Damon choked out. "It was Katherine pretending to be her."
"Oh, that's better! It was just a mistake that you didn't kiss Elena!" Stefan hissed.
Feminine laughter accompanied by light applause interrupted the vampire brawl and all eyes turned to the staircase. Katherine leisurely strolled down the steps, clapping and laughing as she went. "I'd forgotten how much fun you boys were," she snickered, regarding Stefan and Damon like they were merely children playing. The brothers immediately relinquished their hold on each other and stepped back, eyeing each other warily, but also forging an uneasy truce—lifelong enemies temporarily united in the face of a far greater threat: Katherine Pierce.
"He's telling the truth, you know," Katherine offered to Stefan. "He thought I was her. At first." She winked knowingly at Damon.
"What do you mean thought you were Elena?" Jeremy asked, brow scrunched up in confusion.
"That's Katherine, she's the vampire that made us. She and Elena are related somehow and the identical thing is a real long story, so just don't ask," Damon replied quickly, not wanting to draw her attention to the teenage vampire.
"But…" Jeremy began.
"I said 'don't ask,'" Damon cut him off.
"You're Jeremy, right? Elena's little brother?" Katherine questioned, turning toward the youngest in the room.
He automatically shrunk backwards from her as her name finally clicked in his mind: he'd read about her in Elena's journal.
"Oh, don't be scared, honey. I've killed my last Gilbert of the evening." She smiled sweetly.
"You killed my uncle?" Jeremy exploded, readying to launch himself at her but before he could even move Damon had sped across the room and secured both arms behind his back. The teen fought to free himself from the other vampire's impenetrable hold, the tell-tale veins on his cheeks flooding his eyes with blood as he bared his fangs and hissed at Katherine in frustration.
"Well, well, Elena's little vampire brother, I see." Katherine laughed maliciously. "You're definitely new to this though," she continued, stepping closer to examine him, but remaining a safe distance away from his snapping teeth. "Not more than a few hours old, I'd say. But you should be happy I axed Johnathan before he found out you were a vampire, too. Something as trivial as being related wouldn't have stopped him from shoving a stake through your heart just like the others."
"Don't toy with him, Katherine," Damon warned coldly, tightening his grip on Jeremy's forearms to keep him from slipping away, but also to combat the urge to let the teen go and attack her. The momentary satisfaction that would bring wouldn't be worth her killing the poor kid, which he knew is exactly what she'd do.
"But who turned you, I wonder…" she went on, ignoring his warning. She rapidly leaned in and placed her face in the crook of Jeremy's neck, inhaling deeply—he stiffened instinctively at her proximity to such a vulnerable place but was unable to move away.
"Anna," Katherine grinned as she stepped back and let the breath whoosh out of her lungs. "Pearl told me she was worried that something might be going on between a Gilbert boy and her little Annabelle, but this is too good. The last male Gilbert falling for the daughter of the vampire his ancestor loved and betrayed, only to become a vampire himself…how progressive of you."
Jeremy had flinched at the mention of Anna but quickly redoubled his efforts to get to Katherine, almost managing to move Damon in his fury. His eyes burned and his vision actually took on a red tinge as he glared at the vampire double of his sister tormenting him. He wanted to tear her apart for not only murdering his uncle but for bringing Anna into this as well.
"Where is Anna anyway?" she asked him with a smile.
The teen dropped his gaze to the floor, momentarily stopping his struggles. Katherine's brows knitted together in confusion comingled with annoyance at his silence. "Where is she?" she repeated the question. "I can still smell her blood in you and you're too young to have gotten that far from her."
"She's dead," Jeremy murmured thickly, saying the words aloud for the first time and fighting back the tears they brought to his eyes.
Katherine's eyes widened in genuine surprise and she looked intently at Damon for confirmation. He nodded slowly, face grim. "Johnathan staked her right in front of me."
A variety of emotions rapidly played across her face: shock, disbelief, sadness, frustration, before finally settling on anger. Dark veins trailed from her eyes as Katherine bit hard on her lower lip. "That son of a bitch!" she hissed, her usually unflappable self-control breaking.
She and Anna had never been anything resembling close, but Pearl had been Katherine's best friend for a long time and losing her had caused an eruption of rage inside her. She'd known that Anna had escaped Pearl's fate—Isobel's interrogation had yielded that bit of information—and had been looking forward to telling the girl that the man who'd killed her mother was dead. Katherine had made a posthumous promise to her lost friend to look after Anna, but had failed in that task before she'd even begun. All because of damned Johnathan Gilbert.
Katherine closed her eyes, taking a deep breath through her nose to compose herself. When she opened them, the veins had melded back into the smooth surface of her skin.
"Nice meeting you, Jeremy." She forced a smile onto her face then turned on her heel and strode toward the door. "Be a dear and tell your sister I said thanks for the jacket."
The female vampire grabbed said garment off the coat rack by the door and shrugged it on over her shoulders. "Damon, Stefan," she nodded at each of them in turn, "try not to kill each other until I'm around to watch."
She opened the door and, in a flurry of movement, disappeared out into the night. None of the three men moved for a moment after her exit, all dealing with a different emotional shock: the loss of Anna, the reappearance of Katherine and the havoc she'd wrought, and the conflict over Elena. Damon was the first to break free of their frozen state, gingerly releasing Jeremy's arms.
The teen stood stock still, arms hanging limply at his sides, and stared blankly at the floor as though all life had been drained from him by what he'd just learned. There was still some lingering anger over Katherine murdering Johnathan and taunting him about that act and his relationship with Anna, but that wasn't what currently dominated his thoughts.
He'd already assumed that his uncle had killed Anna, but now he knew for sure and that was worse. Worse because Johnathan had probably discovered Anna through him. The memory of how interested his uncle had been in his relationship with her, how he'd wanted Jeremy to talk to him about her, tormented him. Jeremy curled his hands into fists, cursing himself. He was a walking plague, infecting everyone and everything he touched, especially those that meant the most to him. His uncle may have actually killed Anna, but Jeremy was the one who sentenced her to death; she was doomed from the very moment they met.
The black veins etched themselves deeply into his face once again as his emotions spiraled out of control, anger and grief blending together and expanding in his chest until he felt like he might physically explode.
"Jeremy?" Stefan broke the silence, regarding him as though he were a wild animal that might unexpectedly attack anything around him. "Are you okay?"
The young vampire glared out from under his overgrown bangs at him and shot back caustically, "Do I look okay?"
"Stupid question," Damon broke in. "Why don't you go upstairs and grab a room? I'll bring you some blood packets in a minute."
Jeremy remained where he was for a moment, chest heaving with his breaths as he fought the instinctive urge to destroy something—or someone. He finally nodded, hitching his bag up higher on his shoulder as he trudged over to the staircase and ascended it in a blur.
"Well, that was fun," the elder Salvatore sighed sarcastically as he started toward the basement to raid the icebox.
"This isn't over, Damon," Stefan warned, the truce between them having clearly expired.
"Can we reschedule the vague death threats for some other time? I've got a pissed off new vampire upstairs to deal with right now on top of Katherine and everything else. Besides, we both know you never mean it," Damon replied with a cocksure smirk.
"You're right. I won't kill you, but I can stop saving you," the younger Salvatore muttered darkly before striding upstairs himself.
Damon watched his brother go, the seriousness of the words creeping over him and into his expression.
He'd overstepped his bounds with Stefan plenty of times over the decades and therefore knew the warning signs of his brother's temper exceedingly well, but he'd never had that cold tone directed at him before. This time he'd finally found that invisible boundary line for the land of no return and gone over it. A sliver of fear seeped into him at the thought; Damon was usually the more dangerous of the Salvatores, but he was nothing compared to that rarely-seen dark side of Stefan.
XXX
Jeremy stalked through the dark halls of the boarding house, choosing a bedroom at the very end of the second floor. It was spartanly decorated—with only a bed, empty nightstand, dresser, and lamp in the room—and the air smelled stale and uncirculated, no trace of Damon or Stefan's scent to be found. He flung his bag of clothes onto the bed and slammed the door shut behind him. He knew he was acting like a bratty teenager, but exerting extra energy helped to keep him from snapping.
Breathing heavily, he allowed his eyes to take in his surroundings. The room was a stark contrast of colors, the furniture a wood stained so dark it appeared black with the bed sheets and curtains providing the opposite end of the spectrum in a creamy, off-white shade. Jeremy momentarily entertained the idea of trashing the whole room to see if that would help calm him down, but quickly decided against it. He needed someone to guide him through being a vampire and causing property damage wouldn't be the best way to stay on the Salvatore brothers' good side.
Jeremy sunk onto the bed and put his head in his hands. The ache of thirst was back in full force, warring with his rage and sorrow to be the first to destroy him. His emotions actually felt amplified now, the exact opposite of what he wanted. He tried to remember if Anna or Damon had ever told him explicitly how to turn his feelings off, but came up empty handed. He should've known this would happen, as if he could just down a vial of blood chased with dozens of pills and make it all go away.
Life was never that simple with him. Every other time Jeremy had found something that even slightly alleviated his suffering it turned around to bite him on the ass. Drugs had left him foggy-brained and uncoordinated, Vicki had only wanted him when Tyler screwed things up or if he could get her drugs, and Anna…
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, immediately followed by Stefan poking his head in and asking, "How you doing?"
"Bad," Jeremy growled through clenched teeth. "Feels like I'm about to explode."
"Try to calm down. Don't think about people or things that upset you," the other vampire offered, cautiously entering the room.
"I've tried that already, it doesn't work for very long."
"Focus on the physical then," Stefan suggested helpfully, folding his wiry arms across his chest.
"What the hell does that mean?" Jeremy demanded, irritation lacing his tone.
"Exercise. Do sit ups and pushups, go running, anything that requires a lot of energy. Focus just on that physical task and use it to exhaust yourself. That usually helps regulate both your hunger and emotions."
"Thanks," the young vampire muttered, regretting his harsh treatment of Stefan when the guy was only trying to help.
"I'm gonna call Elena to let her know you're okay and with us…do you wanna talk to her?" Stefan questioned carefully, not wanting to upset him further.
"Definitely not," Jeremy replied quickly, he didn't feel up to dealing with Elena and his aunt yet.
"Good call," Damon announced, sweeping into the room with two packets of blood in hand. "You've already had enough drama for one night." The elder Salvatore brother pressed a blood packet into the teen's hand. "Drink up, you'll feel a hell of a lot better. Trust me."
Jeremy didn't need to be told twice and immediately brought the clear bag to his mouth and punctured the thick plastic with his fangs, drinking hungrily. He grimaced at the temperature—it'd been so much better warm and pulsing—but didn't stop, his body was practically screaming for the exquisite tasting blood as it poured down his throat. The teen drained the bag in a matter of seconds, barely registering it as the other was placed in his free hand. He let the empty bag drop to the floor and instantly transferred his mouth to the new one, repeating the process of piercing the plastic with his teeth and rapidly consuming the blood contained within.
Panting, he lowered the empty second bag a minute later, reflexively licking his lips to catch any of the dark liquid that may've collected there. Damon regarded him with a pleased expression while Stefan's face was stern, forehead lined with clear disapproval but his eyes were conflicted—hunger tempered by the resolve to only feed on animals as Elena's diary had said, Jeremy supposed.
The ache didn't exactly leave his body with the drinking, it just lessened to the point where he barely noticed it, a pinprick instead of a butcher knife stabbing into him. But his emotions were still roaming around unrestrained inside him.
"How do I turn it off?" Jeremy demanded, eyes fixed determinedly on the Salvatore brothers. There was no need for him to define what the 'it' was, they all knew.
Damon patted his brother on the shoulder with mock-severity saying, "I'll handle this part, since you clearly are not the authority on controlling your emotions. You can call Elena and explain everything to her." He smirked with outright satisfaction that Stefan would be facing the music in his stead.
Stefan glared at Damon, jaw clenching as he restrained himself from going another round of vampire death match, Salvatore brother edition. "Can I talk to you outside for just a second?" he growled then strode out of the room without looking to see if Damon followed.
The black-haired vampire exited the room as well, stopping just a few feet away from the door where Stefan stood rigidly waiting for him. "You realize he'll still hear everything we say," Damon chuckled at the ridiculousness of a private conversation this close to another vampire.
"Why are you being so helpful, Damon? I don't recall you being quite as eager to care and share with Vicki," Stefan inquired shrewdly. His brother's smile faltered and he knew he'd stumbled onto the right track. "You're not just doing this out of the goodness of your heart, are you? You've got an ulterior motive here."
It was Damon's turn to glower now as Stefan began to ferret out his brother's often hidden motivations.
"If this is another 'Stefan's insecure' speech, let's just bypass it. You're jealous that I'm hotter, funnier, and will most likely steal your girl away. If I do, we'll go all Mortal Kombat again. I get it," Damon sneered, evading the question as he attempted to regain his usual unaffected air.
He already knew that telling Jeremy life was easier as a vampire might've played some part in the teenager's decision to turn—and maybe he did regret that—but he'd be damned if he were going to confess that particular sin to Stefan of all people. If he were going to spill his guts to anyone about what he'd said it would be Elena, but Damon had no intention of doing that anytime soon. He preferred the alternative of quietly shepherding Jeremy into life as a vampire. It was better this way for everyone involved; never mind the fact that it spared him from having to see that flash of loathing and hatred in Elena's eyes once again directed at him.
"No, this is another 'what are you up to Damon' speech," Stefan countered, voice dropping to that irritatingly perceptive tone. "Before I call Elena I want to know everything you do, so that she'll have all the facts about Jeremy."
"Elena's been through enough already," Damon replied seriously. "I just want to make this whole Jeremy situation as painless for everyone as possible."
"And giving him human blood is supposed to help do that how?"
"He needs to learn how to control his hunger and your Bugs Bunny diet still has more than a few flaws, so my way seemed like the better tact to take." The elder Salvatore smirked wryly.
"And if he turns out as controlled as Vicki, what happens then? You just apologize to Elena if he kills someone or gets himself killed?" Stefan hissed in a low voice.
"I'll keep an eye on him and make sure he stays out of trouble," Damon retorted, eyes flashing menacingly.
"Which brings me back to my original question: What's in this for you, Damon? You planning on using him to get closer to Elena?"
Damon stepped forward, bringing himself toe-to-toe with Stefan. "I will not stand here and explain myself to you. I'm helping him because I choose to, end of story. I went easy on you downstairs because you saved my life tonight, but I am still stronger than you, Stefan. Challenge me again and I will make you regret it," he whispered calmly and evenly but with a barely restrained undercurrent of malice in his tone.
"Be sure and tell Elena hello for me when you call her," Damon said, mood abruptly shifting as he smiled and thumped his brother on the shoulder before returning to Jeremy's room.
The teen was rapidly pawing through his bag, examining the clothes Damon had brought him, as the elder Salvatore walked in. Jeremy didn't acknowledge his presence, but he knew the young vampire was fully aware of him.
"Heard all that, didn't you?" he questioned, pursing his lips thoughtfully.
"Every word," Jeremy sighed, piling an assortment of shirts and pants on the bed. "Any truth to what he said? That you're just using me to get to my sister?" he asked, eyeing the black-haired vampire suspiciously.
"First off, you came to me for help, remember? And I already told you, I'm doing this because Elena loves you and I don't want to see her hurt," Damon explained firmly, arms folded across his chest.
The teen gave an apologetic nod. "Thanks. For helping me, I mean."
"Don't mention it." Damon waved the comment off. "The hunger should be pretty well restrained by now. You've got around five pints in you, so you'll be good till morning."
"How do I shut the pain off?" Jeremy repeated his earlier question, staring directly at the other vampire.
"It's complicated and not easy to do at first," Damon cautioned.
"I don't care," the teen pressed, dark brown eyes boring into him decidedly. "I wanna learn how to do it."
"You have to let go of your humanity, which is natural for a vampire, but you have to be careful not to lose complete control of yourself along the way," Damon began. "Your new instincts are hard enough to ignore already, but if you don't keep a firm handle on the desire to feed and what lingering human emotions you have left…it won't be pretty."
"How do I do all that?"
"That woman at the bar that you fed on, you hesitated when I offered her to you. Why?"
When Jeremy didn't answer immediately Damon did it for him, "You didn't want to hurt her. You felt sympathy for her."
The young vampire nodded without looking at him.
"That's what you have to let go of," he continued harshly. "They're not people anymore. They're food, playthings, whatever you want them to be. But not all of them are like that, and this is the complicated part: Elena, your aunt, people you cared about in life, don't think of them that way. It'll just cause all of us trouble and make me majorly annoyed if you do anything to them. That's why you have to stay away from certain people for now, you're so new that any heightened emotion or exposure to blood will set you off. Once you're better controlled we can go hunting again, but only for strangers, like that woman at the bar."
"What will I feel if I do it right?" Jeremy asked, eyes wary.
"At first, nothing. Nothing but thirst and then the pleasure of drinking blood," Damon replied honestly.
"That's it?" the teen questioned, visibly deflating as the last shred of hope he'd clung to was unceremoniously ripped away from him.
"What else did you expect? Pain is just the absence of pleasure, like dark is the absence of light. So to feel no pain, you feel no real pleasure, beyond the basic bodily pleasures: feeding, fighting, fucking," Damon shrugged, oblivious to the full effect of his words.
"Then why do you care about Elena?" Jeremy shot back desperately.
The other vampire was silent a moment, seeming to weigh his response carefully. When he finally spoke, it was in the most solemn tone the younger Gilbert had ever heard him use, "I said I turned my emotions off for a long time, Jeremy. Not that I still did."
With that he left the room, leaving Jeremy alone to deal with the consequences of his rash actions: a prolonged, shallow existence as an emotionless parasite or an eternity of emotional agony.
XXX
"Elena, I found him," Stefan said into his cell phone after his girlfriend's breathless voice answered.
"Oh, thank God! Is he okay?" she asked, her panic flowing clearly through the receiver.
"He's fine. He's here at the house with me and Damon."
"Did he…"
"Yes, Damon found him and took care of it," Stefan muttered, fighting to tamp down his anger toward his brother.
"Damon? How'd Damon find out?"
"Jeremy apparently went straight to Damon after he started to transition and Damon helped him feed."
"He didn't kill somebody, did he?" she reluctantly whispered after an apprehensive silence.
"Not as far as I can tell, but Damon's been giving him human blood so we're gonna keep him here just to be safe. You'll need to make up a story for Jenna about why he's not at home."
"Okay…" she sighed and he could almost see her brow furrow with thought. "Can I talk to him, Stefan?"
"I don't think that's a good idea right now," he hedged, not wanting to admit that Jeremy had actually refused to talk to her.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Elena murmured and he could hear the hurt in her voice; it killed him that she was in pain because of the secrets she'd kept from Jeremy for his sake and Damon's. "Um, well, I'll tell Jenna that he's upset because of what happened to Uncle John and that he's staying at your place for a while to calm down. How's that sound?"
"Good. I'll keep you informed on how he's doing, okay? I'll keep him safe, Elena. I promise."
"I know you will. I love you, Stefan. Please tell Damon thanks for me."
Stefan's jaw clenched at the mention of his brother, but he still responded, "I love you too, Elena."
XXX
Jeremy yanked his sweat-soaked shirt off over his head and collapsed backward on the bed, utterly exhausted. He'd stubbornly tried Stefan's advice after hearing Damon's bleak outlook on vampire life to see if it might somehow be a unique experience for each person. The only noticeable difference was that his arms and stomach were now half numb from nearly an hour of pushups and crunches. But the ache in his muscles did temporarily distract from the emotional turmoil continuing to rage inside him, so he supposed it wasn't a total loss.
The teen scrubbed his hands roughly over his face in frustration. Yes, he'd acted impulsively. Yes, he'd been totally selfish. He'd just wanted the pain to go away, but at what cost? Jeremy had no trouble with hurting himself, but shutting out his humanity seemed to almost require him to harm other people. Sure, he'd enjoyed drinking from that woman at the bar, but she'd still been a person and he wouldn't have killed her…he hoped. He didn't think he could view people as just food—had that been all Anna had seen him as? A cheeseburger she wanted to play with a little bit before ruthlessly devouring?
No, Anna had feelings for him, Jeremy was sure of it. The way she'd looked at him, touched him, kissed him, made love to him…that'd all been real. And he didn't want to lose that. He wanted to keep that part of himself intact. It would hurt like hell to do so, but if he let go of his humanity he would truly be a monster, and that wasn't what he wanted.
A humorless chuckle tumbled past his lips, he was freakin' Louis from Interview with the Vampire. The guy wanted to die, but became a vampire instead and then spent the rest of his eternal life in agony because he didn't lose his humanity. Anna had been right, everything he knew about vampires was from Netflix.
Sighing, Jeremy rubbed his closed eyes and repositioned himself on the mattress, tiredly rolling onto his side then propping his head on one of the cream-colored pillows. He hadn't hoped to fall asleep, but the stress of the day seemed to have finally caught up to him as after a few seconds he felt himself begin to slip into unconsciousness.
XXX
Jeremy stirred slightly as he felt his bangs being gently brushed to one side of his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes only to bolt upright in bed, suddenly hyper-awake courtesy of the adrenaline pumping rapidly through his veins.
Anna was lying next to him. Her disheveled black hair curled perfectly over her pale olive skin, a hand still hovering in the air from where she'd been stroking his hair in his sleep.
"Jeremy? Are you okay?" she asked, those gorgeous, dark almond-shaped eyes of hers filling with worry.
Words escaped him as his heart jack hammered wildly in his chest, the organ seemingly intent on beating its way out through his ribs. He shakily sat up, his own deep brown gaze flickering from her to the room. They weren't at the boarding house, instead they were in his own bed, in his room.
"Anna?" he choked out disbelievingly as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
"Yes, something wrong?" She peered curiously at him through the long strands of hair that fell into her eyes.
"No," the words left his mouth in a whoosh of air as he reached out and crushed her against him. "Nothing's wrong."
Jeremy dropped his head to her shoulders, deeply inhaling her scent as he tightened his arms around her, letting the warmth of her body pressing against his convince him this was real. Anna momentarily stiffened with shock at being abruptly pulled into an embrace, but eventually brought her arms up to rub his broad shoulders.
"Not that I'm complaining, but where'd all this enthusiasm come from?" She chuckled, lush lips breaking into that pixie smile he loved.
"I'm just glad to see you, that's all," Jeremy replied, releasing her but he was unable to stop himself from keeping her close, his hands softly stroking her dark hair.
"Glad to see me alive, you mean." She grinned, brown eyes piercing straight through him.
"What?"
"C'mon, Jeremy," Anna murmured, running a hand lightly down his cheek, "I'm dead, remember?"
He nearly leapt off the bed at her words, but she quickly linked her hands behind his neck, keeping him in place.
"I died…because of you," the female vampire accused, crawling into his lap and planting her legs on either side of his hips, consequently hiking up the hem of the pure white nightgown she wore. "I stayed in Mystic Falls because of you. I put my mother and myself in danger for you. And for what? To have you reject me time and time again for some girl that was already dead."
Jeremy merely stared at her in mute horror as Anna laid all his sins bare before him. He wanted to speak, to contradict what she was saying but couldn't find the words.
"Then when you finally decided you did want me," she continued, leaning forward until their noses touched, "you led me and my mother right to the man who would destroy us: your uncle." Her words cut into him like razor blades, but he remained silent as she slid her palms lightly down his arms, stopping at his hands.
Anna slowly brought both his hands up to her face, nuzzling the center of one palm and kissing it lightly before brushing her lips against his own. The feel of her mouth meeting his blocked everything out for a moment, even her previous words. Jeremy fell gratefully into the kiss, cupping her cheeks between his palms and moving his lips along with hers. Anna deepened the kiss, teasing his mouth open with her tongue and stroking his. He was so absorbed with the sensation that he didn't notice her slipping his hands down from her face.
She trailed his palms along her neck, over her collarbones and in between her breasts, bringing them to a stop just beneath her sternum.
Jeremy stared at her in confusion as she broke the kiss.
"He staked me, Jeremy, but you're the one who really killed me," Anna whispered against his lips, curling his fingers around something hard and rough between their bodies—what he realized too late was a wooden stake.
She held her hands over his as she plunged the stake into her chest. Her mouth fell open as she gasped for breath and immediately went limp in his arms.
"Anna!" he shouted, grasping her shoulders and shaking her gently.
Her head lolled lifelessly in time with his motions, finally craning backward and revealing her newly gray skin webbed by black veins. Startled, he released her, watching in shock as she fell back onto the mattress, white gown and raven hair fanning out around her. The stake rose up perfectly straight from her chest, a dark red stain spreading outward from it.
Jeremy glanced down at his hands only to find them coated in that same crimson substance—Anna's blood. Tears welled up in his eyes as a tortured scream tore through his throat.
XXX
Jeremy sprang off the bed, the room spinning around him as he gulped down deep lungfuls of air. Brow furrowing in bewilderment when the familiar black and white color scheme of the bedroom he'd claimed as his at the Salvatore boarding house met his deep brown gaze. He quickly brought his hands up to his face, inspecting the flesh of his palms and finding no trace of blood on them.
He ran his hands roughly through his hair, pushing the dark strands away from his face, only for his fingers to come away damp with sweat.
It was a dream, just a dream, Jeremy told himself as he struggled to calm his body down.
It didn't help matters that he could still feel the warmth of Anna's lips against his own, still see her expressive brown eyes boring accusingly into his. Nor could he escape the harsh reality of her words.
He was to blame for the death of the woman he loved. Again.
Jaw clenching, Jeremy stomped past the heavy drawn curtains and out into the hall. God, he needed a drink.
XXX
The sun had finally climbed over the gigantic trees dotting the horizon line, painting the sky in hues of blue and pink, as a single motorcycle sped down the winding roads of Virginia. A couple were huddled together on the leather seats of the gleaming chrome bike, long brown hair tumbling out from under the passenger's helmet and fluttering in the breeze behind them like a battle flag. The woman tightened her arms around the driver's waist to get his attention as they blazed past a sign. He shot her a backwards glance through the obstructions of the dark brown hair slapping against the dark lenses of his sunglasses, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Mystic Falls: 50 miles," Elyse lifted the visor and shouted to be heard over the howling wind and roaring engine.
Caleb nodded, returning his attention to the road and cranking the gas.
We're almost dere, Anna, she thought, shutting her visor with a snap and burrowing deeper into the leather-clad warmth of her boyfriend's back.
A/N: Okay, first off I'm so sorry it took me this long to update! This chapter was more difficult to get down on paper than the previous ones, but hopefully it's just as good as the others. Secondly, I was hoping to revive Anna this chapter, but I also wanted to update ASAP and with fifteen pages already, it would've been an unimaginably long update if I did shoehorn Anna's resurrection in this time. So sorry again! :-( But not to worry, baring a natural disaster or an unavoidable absence—a long awaited trip to Chicago or getting a job—Anna will be back in the very next update! :-)
I really need some feedback here guys, please, please, PLEASE review! The Katherine and Jeremy confrontation and Stefan vs. Damon scenes were a blast to write, but I wanna know what y'all think. Did they work? Were the characterizations horribly off? Was Katherine's exit too abrupt? Did y'all like Damon's explanation of how turning off emotions works for a vampire? I couldn't think of any other way to describe it, and I wanted it to be harder than it seemed so that Jeremy wouldn't just do it.
What about the dream sequence with Jeremy and Anna? I put that in there mostly because I felt horribly guilty about not reviving her this chapter, but also because I felt that it worked for Jeremy as well. This is what he's feeling, and what better way to visualize that than by having Anna say it to him in a dream?
Thanks again to all the reviewers, alerts, and favorites people! Y'all are what kept me writing through all the writer's block and distractions.
Oh! I wanted to ask y'all something: what do you want Anna's anti-sun talisman to be: the little silver ring she wears on her right ring finger or the black lariat necklace? She wears both a lot, but I can't decide which one it actually is. The one that gets the most votes will be what I write it as. :-)
Thanks for reading! And PLEASE review!
Sassy18