Chapter four
Stefan's POV
"Brrrr." I shivered in the cold winter's night, feeling the frosty bite to it. Being stood outside Rick's house in it wasn't helping with my weakening strength; I hadn't fed in a while. "I can't believe you are doing this." I said to Damon who was stood next to me on the small porch. His face blank and shielded as he once again banged his fist on the thick wooden door.
"Don't judge me, Stefan. You know if it was Elena, you would do the same." He said, and then added through his teeth, "I'm just trying to protect her."
"I wouldn't do it if it were Elena's choice." I said and Damon turned to glare at me.
"Don't start me, Stefan." He snapped. "Don't try to play with my feelings because you really don't want me to play with yours."
The door opened and a droopy eyed Alaric showed his face. "Damon? Stefan? What's wrong?"
"Can we come in?" Damon asked.
Rick looked wary and unsure as he looked at us both, Damon; determined in his black leather jacket, his black hair disheveled. Me; serious with my hands in my jacket pockets and my green eyes weary, then his shoulders slumped, the tenseness leaving his muscles. "Okay. Come in, Stefan, Damon."
Damon stepped over the doorframe and continued into Rick's hallway. I looked to Rick, who was holding the door ajar and looking at me and waiting.
I smiled at him slightly and stepped inside, taking a glance around at his cream colored walls with the old pictures of his family and himself when he was younger. A table near the door held an empty vase and unopened letters. His keys sprawled across the table from where he had dumped them. The hall floor was made of laminated flooring that was a deep coffee color and a door mat was under the doors entrance. The rest of the hall was bare as if it had been stripped of memories. And I was guessing that was exactly what had been done.
I turned to watch Rick shut the door and turn to me. "What's wrong?" He asked again.
Before I could speak Damon was talking, "It's not every day I ask for this and it's not really something I like asking for." He said. "But, we" – he glanced at me – "I, need your help with something."
"And it was so urgent that you had to come banging on my door at what?" Rick glanced at his watch, pulling his thick sweater shirt arm out of the way. "Oooh, three in the morning?"
Damon sighed impatiently. "Yes."
Alaric snorted, annoyed and tired. Then he looked down and shook his head slightly, then glanced up. "What do you want, Damon?"
"You have those tranquilizer darts, right?" Damon asked.
I couldn't believe he was actually going through with this; actually going to do this to Lily. But in the back of my mind, I got what he meant, what he was thinking; what he was feeling.
"Yes, why?" Alaric frowned.
Damon ignored Alaric's question and asked one himself. "Can you mix wolfsbane and Vervain together in one of those things?"
"Yes. Damon . . . what's going on?"
"I'll need quite a strong dose of each to keep her down." Damon said, half to himself.
"Her?" Something in Rick's mind clicked and his head snapped up to Damon. "Lily?"
"Yes, Alaric. Lily." Damon snapped.
"Why?" Alaric's face was a mixture of anger and worry.
"Bonnie's spell had a few hiccups along the way and if Lily doesn't leave here, her and everyone who lives here in Fell's Church will have to face the consequences."
"What . . . consequences?" Rick's eyes flickered to me in concern then back to Damon.
"The underworld dimension has come back."
"Back to what? Life?"
"Yes."
"Oh, my God." I heard his heart beat begin to pick up its pace and his breath speed. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"We're leaving town. Lily doesn't want to, she wants to stay and fight, so I need to take her down." Damon said. "Nicely."
"So, you'll get her out of here and what? Fell's Church dies anyway?" Rick said nastily.
"No. If Lily lives the next four days out then they die. Alaric, if she dies. They live . . . forever."
Alaric nodded, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "I'll get you the shot."
He headed into the living room, Damon behind him and I followed silently.
Once at the desk that was in the corner of the small room, he twisted the handle of the draw to unlock it, pulling the draw out he then lifted out one single tranquilizer dart and placed it on the table, then he ducked his hand into the deep draw again and pulled out two little clear jars, both full of liquid. One had a very clear, transparent liquid in it, which smelled sour and slightly spicy; that one was Vervain. The other contained a transparent brown liquid which smelled woodsy, if that was even a type of smell. It reminded me of dead leaves, but it also smelt sort of spicy as well, like cinnamon; that one was wolfsbane.
Alaric glanced up and hesitated as he burst the lid of the first jar with the needle, then he sighed and pushed the syringe end down, causing the clear liquid to bubble, then he pulled it back up again, slowly. The jar draining of its contents, he then repeated it with the second jar.
When the dart was full he shook it gently and the liquids mixed to make a clear but thick red color. He passed it to Damon.
"Be careful with this. This is straight Wolfsvain. (Wolfsbane – Vervain) If this breaks it will hurt. This should keep Lily under for at least, say . . . 6 – 7 hours."
Damon took the dart and nodded in a thank you, then turned to leave.
"Thank you." I said to Rick, I turned to leave as well and heard Alaric's voice behind me quietly.
"Be careful with this plan, Stefan." He said. "Lily will get angry at Damon for this."
I narrowed my eyes, my back still facing Alaric. Then I nodded slightly and walked towards the door, "Goodbye, Alaric." I said before I shut the door. I got into the car next to Damon who turned the key and lifted the handbrake. He leaned over to me and handed me the dart. "Remember, Stefan, be careful, if it breaks. It will hurt." He said in a mocking voice.
"Funny." I said sarcastically, holding the dart carefully so not to break the glass with my grip.
There was a question that had been bothering me ever since I knew what Damon was up to and I knew I had to ask it, I had just been waiting for the right time. Now seemed appropriate since we had the dart and was already heading home to un-expecting people who had no idea what we were doing. Or what we were planning.
"So what's the plan?" I asked.
"In the morning you'll have to keep Elena and the others out of the kitchen. I'm going to make Lily breakfast for when she wakes up and I'll do it then." He said, his voice full of skepticism, as if he had only just asked himself the same question.
"So we're leaving in the morning?"
"Yes, all of us are. I don't really care if we leave Katherine behind and I'm sure Lily wouldn't either. But as for the rest . . . Lily is going to be pissed with me as it is taking her away from here, so I can't afford to have anyone she cares about die."
I nodded as I thought for a moment. "But, what about Alice?"
"She dies with the others, she knows that." He said.
"We can't just take Lily and go, without telling Alice." I said.
"I did tell her." He snapped. "When she left . . . after Lily told us she wanted to stay, I sent Alice a thought. She knows we're taking her away from here."
"So . . . you're just going to stab her with it?" I asked.
"Yes. Then we'll get her in the car. We'll have to tell the others, though."
"We'll tell them when we get back. Discuss it." I sighed.
The rest of the ride home was quiet.
We – Damon was doing this to save Lily. He was going against her wishes and stabbing her in the back – literally.
I couldn't stand the thought of hurting Lily like that. But on the other hand, I was scared of what she would do, how she would react to it; to Damon, to me, afterwards. After we poisoned her with something she was nearly immune to, and after we took her away from her new found home against her own free will and allowed her sister to die.
But we were saving lives, saving Fell's church, saving Lily.
Saving Damon.
Damon's POV
We were just near the house now.
I could sense Stefan brooding in his own head whilst he gripped the dart carefully and I ignored him.
I was doing this because I loved Lily.
I'd lost her before, she had already left me, and I'd even lost her all those years ago back when we were both human.
Even though Katherine had compelled me to love her and to forget Lily, I had still felt that loneliness, the emptiness of her missing presence. Mine and Katherine's love had not been real like mine and Lily's.
I pulled up outside the boarding house and for out, Stefan stepped out of the other side wrapping the dart in a thick black handkerchief out of my glove-box.
I walked into the house and into the living room to find Elena asleep on the sofa her leg over the edge of the chair arm, Caroline was next to her with Demetri. Bonnie was on the other sofa with Jeremy her legs wrapped underneath her – a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Katherine was upstairs in her room.
"Katherine." I said. And I sensed her head come up from her desk, she sighed and got up, opening her door and walking down the stairs, her feet bare of her signature heels.
"What?" She said walking into the room.
"Sit down." I said.
She slid into the loveseat just as Stefan walked in behind me holding the wrapped dart.
"Wake Elena up, Caroline." Caroline frowned but leaned over to the sleeping Elena and shook her gently. "Elena." She said. "Wake up."
Elena's eyes opened and she groaned, "You're back." She said with a rough voice when she spotted Stefan. Stefan smiled at Elena but stayed stood next to me.
I listened in upstairs and heard Lily stir in her sleep. I concentrated my Power towards her so she wouldn't subconsciously wake up from the sound of our voices.
"What's going on?" Caroline asked.
"I'm sure many of you hear what happened earlier with Alice, Lily's sister?" I started.
"Yes." They mumbled in response.
"Good. Lily has her mind set on staying here to fight. I, on the other hand, don't – "
"Since when has the mighty Damon Salvatore ran from a fight?"
"Shut up, Katherine." I snapped.
"So what are you thinking?" Caroline asked.
"We need to get Lily away from here, and we can't get her to change her mind. So we're using this."
I held my hand out to Stefan and he handed me the cloth wrapped object. I unraveled it to produce the dart.
"What's that?" Bonnie asked looking at the red liquid.
"It's Wolfsvain. A mixture of pure Wolfsbane and Vervain, it'll keep Lily down for a few hours."
"We can't do that!" Caroline said.
"Yes, we can, if we are going to save her life. And if any of you disagree and try to tell Lily, I'm sure there is enough of this to go around. Wolfsbane is poisonous to humans as well." I threatened.
"I'm in." Elena said and I frowned.
"Just like that?"
"Yes. She's one of my best friends; I'm not going to let her die again."
I nodded.
"I'm in. Bringing her back again will be tiring." Bonnie smiled and so did Jeremy.
"I'm definitely in. And so is Demetri." Caroline said and Demetri laughed quietly, going along with it.
I looked at Katherine who just looked back at me, bored. "Oh, whatever," she mumbled. "I'm sure I'd be first on the list to be killed if Lily died."
"Yes, I'm sure you would." I said. "Okay. We'll wait till she wakes up." I released my power on Lily and heard her breaths become long and deep again.
Lily's POV
I woke up to the bright sun shining into the room; illuminating the place. I stretched, groaned and reluctantly threw my legs over the side of the bed. Damon was downstairs, I could smell him. Smell eggs and fresh orange juice.
I frowned and walked into the hallway. Where was everyone? I padded down the stairs and into the huge kitchen to find Damon cooking sausage and eggs. Toast popped up in the toaster and Damon grabbed it and threw it onto two plates whilst still stirring the pan, moving the eggs around.
"Since when did Damon Salvatore cook?" I said and saw him jump slightly in return. I grinned and Damon turned around to reveal his signature smirk that I hadn't seen in a while.
"Since I don't do apologizing very often. This is my apology." He said.
"Apology . . . for what?" I said, pulling out a seat and sitting down.
"For last night." He said, dishing out the sausages and eggs onto the plates with the toast. He pushed a plate over to me. "You made your decision, I shouldn't have argued with you."
I took a bite out of the toast. "You have your own opinion; there is nothing to be sorry for."
He didn't say anything; he just took a bite out of his own toast.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"Out. I think."
"Mmm." I finished my toast and egg and cut into my sausage taking a bite.
"Damon." I said. "I don't know how we're going to do this." I said, my face collapsing of any mask that hid my feelings.
"I know, I know." Damon whispered. "Come here."
I stood and went over to him; he wrapped his arm around me and hugged me. "I'm sorry." He said
"For what?" I whispered.
"Because, I know what to do, how to save you." He said, then after a moment. "And I'm sorry about this."
I gasped as I felt metal pierce my skin and a burning liquid seeped into my veins.
"Damon! What are you doing?" I gasped.
"I'm sorry," He whispered.
He kissed my forehead and I felt his tears stream down his face onto my skin. And I blackened out from the pain.
Damon's POV
"Stefan!" I shouted and he burst through the door as I pulled out the empty dart and put it on the table. "Get the others."
Stefan blurred out and I heard car doors open and Caroline and Elena dragging everybody's suitcases down the stairs.
I lifted Lily into my arms and carried her outside. "The door." I said through my car window to Caroline, she opened the back door and I placed Lily gently in the back, her head on Caroline's knee. Demetri was in the front of the car in the passenger seat. I walked around the other side of the car probing the forest with my mind as I got in the car. "Let's go!" I called. Stefan, Elena, Bonnie and Jeremy were in the other car. Katherine in her own.
We started down the drive, Caroline keeping Lily steady in the back. This was going to be a long drive to Richmond.
Alice's POV
"Now!" Klaus roared as we charged at the Boarding house.
Alex and I knew what we would find. Nothing. But they didn't.
We burst through the doors of the house, searching through it. And found exactly what I thought.
They'd gone. I looked to Alex and I saw a glint of humor in his eyes.
"No!" Klaus roared. "They're not here!" He threw a side table over. "They knew." He said turning to Bradley. "You. You were wrong."
"I'm sorry, Niklaus."
Klaus gripped him by the neck and stabbed him with the broken table leg. I watched as Bradley gasped and fell to the floor, blood pouring everywhere. Bradley was human and now he was in pain. I left the room and heard Klaus say, "We're leaving. We can follow the car tracks."
No you can't, I thought.
And we left . . .
Lily's POV
"Spencer? Is that you?"
"Hello, Lily."
"Why are you here?"
"I have something to tell you. Something you need to know."
Klaus and the others can get into the house because they aren't really back yet, they're half ghost so they don't need to be invited in. If you were wondering :D
Kellie xx