Stefan lifted his head from the sofa when he heard the door open, and an unfamiliar lilting voice call out, "Hello there, anyone home?"
He unsteadily got to his feet and walked out into the hall, leaning against the wall.
He saw a young girl, perhaps woman, with red gold hair, pale skin, and a smattering of freckles across her nose. She would have looked wholesome except for the fact that her spiky hair was tipped with bright purple and her nose was enhanced or ruined depending upon your taste, by a diamond piercing the left nostril. Both eyebrows, the same red gold as her hair, were pierced with metal rings, and both ears had multiple piercings all around the rims.
"Who are you, and why are you in my house?" Stefan queried, his curiosity aroused by her appearance.
"Oh yeah!" she said. "You're as gorgeous as she said." She walked closer, clearly unafraid and peered up at him. "Green eyes," she said triumphantly. "They really are green."
He tried to move forward, but swayed and leaned back against the wall.
She turned and went back to the open door, calling out, "Bring em all in and line em up in the hall."
Two men carried and dragged in a large number of trunks and suitcases. She watched to make sure everything was present. Once she had audibly counted them she nodded her head satisfied, thanked them, and waved them out of the house. She then turned to a stymied Stefan.
"You don't look so good. Let me get you something to eat. Where's the blood kept?"
Stefan blinked at her. Clearly she knew about him, but how was the question. He thought about it and finally said, "You know Sage."
"Oh, you're a quick one, aren't you?" She rolled her eyes at him and asked again, "Where's the blood?"
He considered her request and then decided why not. "Some in the frig."
She picked up one of the bags that were inside the door and headed to the back of the house. He heard her wandering around, thought about following her, and then decided it wasn't worth the effort. He went back to the sofa, closed his eyes, opening them only when the girl returned, holding a glass of blood.
"Drink," she commanded holding it under his nose. The smell was so appetizing, and he felt so bad, he didn't even care that it was human. He couldn't summon the willpower to hold out for animal blood.
There was a funny taste to it, not unpleasant, just something he couldn't identify. He didn't let it worry him because it alleviated the hollow empty feeling in his stomach and eased some of the tension from last night's upsetting events.
"You need a bath." She wrinkled her nose at his still dried blood smeared neck. "Let's take care of that."
Damon and Sage pulled into the driveway to find a contractor's truck just pulling away. The driver rolled down his window. "I checked the place out and should have final plans for your approval by the end of the week. I left a rough copy in the kitchen." Sage leaned across Damon to thank the man. Damon alternated between amusement and resignation, knowing this was just the first of many changes coming with Sage's presence.
He walked in the door to find the hallway filled with trunks and cases. He raised his eyebrows at Sage, who responded, "I told you I was expecting a friend."
"Ah, I kind of assumed it was for a short visit." Damon ventured to say.
"Wrong!" Sage putting her finger on Damon's nose, teasing him.
Both vampires turned their heads towards the upper level at the same time and then looked at each other smiling.
They headed upstairs, following the sounds, and ended up in Damon's bathroom. They stopped short, confronted with a naked Stefan leaning back in a steaming tub, while a slim girl, softly crooning a soothing song, sponged his neck and shoulders. Smoke curled up from a plant burning in a crucible placed on the floor.
"Don't breathe in," Sage warned. "The herb she's using affects vampires."
The girl looked up and dropping the sponge, made a running leap into Sage's arms. "Sage!" She squealed.
The vampire easily held her and swung her around. "Sweetheart!"
Damon leaning against the wall, arms folded, watching with an amused smile, taking in the girl's rather wild appearance.
Sage, after exchanging loving hugs and a kiss, put the girl down, and said, "We need some introductions, but why are you using that combination of herbs in Damon's room?"
"Oh, I softened up my handsome friend in the tub with spiked blood and got him up here to clean him up. He wasn't very cooperative about stripping down in front of me, so I just whipped up one of my special spells. Didn't care this wasn't his room. I just loved this big tub. It's perfect." She wagged an admonitory finger and smirked. "I was wondering why he was so weak until I started washing off the blood smears. That's some very naughty places you took blood from."
Damon snorted and then walked around to look at his silent brother. Stefan's eyes were half closed, his face calm, relaxed arms resting on the edges of the tub. "Hmmm! May I take it that we are going to have a witch living with us?" Damon looked at Sage for confirmation.
The two girls smiled at each other. "Sinead Kearney, may I introduce you to my consort, Damon Salvatore." Sage continued, "By the way, the man you've been washing is his younger brother, Stefan Salvatore, but I think you figured that out."
Damon started to speak, but Sage forestalled him. "Let Sinead finish up with Stefan. We can talk downstairs. If we breathe in the herb combination she used, it can affect us." She turned to the girl. "Can you handle him?"
She smirked and bragged. "Haven't met a vampire yet that I can't. As soon as I get him to his room, I'll be down."
Sometime later Sinead bounced into the kitchen, finding Sage and Damon sitting at the table, plans laid out in front of them. She quickly went through the cabinets and the refrigerator.
"Hey, you don't have any food in the house!" she grumbled.
"Ah, vampires live here." Damon retaliated. "People are the food!"
"He's got quite the mouth, doesn't he?" She directed her remark to Sage as if Damon wasn't present.
Sage paid no attention to either of them. "Damon, Sinead is a very gifted witch. Her family is a very old one with roots in Ireland. She is blood bound to me and will protect our interests."
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Blood bound to you? How does that work with being a servant of nature and all?"
Sinead answered him. "My family doesn't believe in that servant stuff. We work with nature, use nature, but we're more, shall we say, egalitarian. We see nothing wrong with using nature to our advantage. Sage saved my life so I owe her, but it's more than that. We're BFFs and I've thrown my lot in with her for good or bad. " She snickered. "I'd add in sickness and in health too, but I don't want to freak you out."
Damon looked at Sage. "Does she match the Bennett line? I wasn't always that impressed with them," he said disparagingly. "They were okay, mind you. I got a couple of whopper headaches from them and a real bad, shall we say barbecuing, when I pissed one off, but they actually died pretty easily."
Sinead looked interested. "I don't know any of them personally. All the families know something about all the other major families, and the Bennetts have an impressive rep."
"The ones he's talking about had the blood lines, but they didn't embrace their roots. The mother and daughter that aided Esther were conflicted, both denying their heritage at one time or another and not putting any real effort into it until it was too late. The grandmother was a force to be reckoned with, but she died early for a witch," Sage explained.
"Now, that's just plain wrong. If you want something you have to work at it. Not that my family didn't try to strengthen the blood. Me mem and me da married to strengthen the line." Sinead commented while opening and closing the cabinets, hoping against hope she had missed something she could eat. "Any chance of take out?" she asked plaintively.
Damon reached over and threw a phone book at her. "Thanks!" she said sourly.
Sage smiled fondly at her. "Sinead studied and practiced from the time the moon first called forth her womanhood."
Damon scrunched his face up and said, "Will you speak English?"
Sinead explained, "She's talking about my period. You know, the time of the moon."
"Oh God! TMI!" Damon complained. "I don't care and I don't want to hear."
The two women exchanged looks and went off into peals of laughter.
Sage got up and went over to stand behind Damon, wrapping her arms around his shoulder and kissing his head. "My poor, Damon. There are women in the house now. Get used to it."
"Just no whining. I've had enough of that listening to my brother," he ordered.
Sinead rolled her eyes and picked up her cell phone to order Chinese. "Awesome. They deliver."
"While you're waiting, let me fill you in on what's going on and what's at stake." Sage sat back and talked clearly and concisely for quite awhile.
Damon hadn't been impressed with Sinead's appearance, but he soon revised his impression of her. She immediately grasped the situation and outlined what she had done. Damon was informed that his cable and internet service would be upgraded tomorrow, her room was acceptable for now, but would have to be redecorated eventually, and a sixty inch flat screen TV would be delivered in two days. She made suggestions on how she could help get the ripper under control. Sage nodded approvingly at her plans for Stefan.
They heard the door bell ring, and Sinead popped up. "Thank God. I'm starving." She stuck an open hand in front of Damon, pointing to it with a finger of her other hand. "Money, I need money."
Damon sighed and reached into his pocket. "Don't tip big."
"Cheapskate," Sinead called out as she ran to the door.
She opened it to find a beautiful brunette with great big brown eyes. The teenager looked taken aback by the presence of Sinead, but softly said, "I need to talk to Stefan?"
Sinead, expecting the delivery man, was as surprised as Elena.
There was a whoosh and Stefan was down the stairs, only to be intercepted by Sage who pinned him against the wall. Damon was suddenly next to Sinead, moving her aside so he faced Elena.
"Hello, Elena," Damon softly growled.
Sinead gasped and put her hands to her mouth. "Shut up! It's the doppelganger!"
"Elena." Stefan pushed against Sage in a futile attempt to free himself.
"Stefan." Elena attempted to go to him, only to be blocked by Damon's body.
"You don't belong here. Go home." His face was hard, his body stiff.
"Let me talk to him, Damon. That's all I want," she pleaded.
"No." His tone said this was nonnegotiable.
"Damon, please!" Stefan's voice was constricted by Sage's elbow crushing his throat.
"No. It's over. We are out of it." He shot over his shoulder to his brother. Elena attempted to sidestep around him, but he quickly blocked her path, never touching her. She tried to push against him, but he was immovable. "Go home and be a human, Elena. You got what you wanted."
"Damon, how can you be so cruel?" She looked at him like she didn't know him, eyes filling with tears. "At least let me say goodbye!"
"What part of 'no' do you not understand? No is negative, as in Not, as in no way."
"What did I do to you, that you hate me?" She searched his eyes, trying to understand his attitude.
Damon's lips tightened. "The fact that you have to ask, tells it all."
Sinead had backed against the wall, her gaze going from a pleading Elena to a clearly suffering Stefan. Tears slowly tracked down his cheeks, and he appeared oblivious to the fact that his struggles had obviously dislocated one arm.
Elena noticed and put a hand to her mouth. "Don't hurt him. I'll go!" She made one last attempt to reach Damon. "Please help him. Don't let him suffer."
Damon turned to look at his brother.
"Hold him, Damon. I'll escort Elena back to her car." Sage noticing Stefan's alarmed expression reassured him. "I won't hurt her."
She and Damon switched places, and she motioned Elena outside. They walked in silence to Elena's car. "I'm Sage, by the way. I've known Damon for a long time. He and I have, I guess you would call it an understanding."
Elena looked her in the eyes. "I hope you make him happy."
Sage looked at her intently and then tilted her head. "You're not afraid of me."
Elena's smile was lopsided. "If you had any intention of harming me, you would be dead by now. We both know I'm special to Klaus."
Sage smiled. "You are correct. You are off limits, Elena. You will never be harmed." Her smile faded and she said seriously, "But, Stefan is not for you. You two will not be allowed any contact with each other. Accept it. You are guaranteed a human life and from everything I've heard that's what you've always wanted."
Elena stiffened up. "Are you so sure you can keep us away from each other?"
Sage's eyes narrowed. "Don't underestimate me, Elena. You are off limits, but your family and friends are not."
"Klaus won't let you touch my brother!" Elena was angry now.
"You have more family than Jeremy and yes, I know his name. You have cousins and a friend, what was his name? Ah, yes, Alaric." Sage's voice was cold.
"Damon would never let you hurt Alaric." Elena's voice was confident.
Sage threw back her red hair and put her hands on her hips. She was quick to issue a warning. "Don't underestimate my influence with Damon."
Elena glared at her and got in her car without speaking. If Sage didn't have vampire reflexes Elena would have hit her with the car as she pealed out.
Sage laughed and slowly walked back into the house.
When she walked in, Damon took his eyes off Stefan to look at her. Stefan immediately sucker punched his brother. "How could you do that to her?" he shouted.
Sage quickly stepped in and broke his neck. Damon, wiping the blood off his mouth, was pissed. "I can't believe I dropped my guard like that." Sage just laughed at him.
The door bell rang again. "That better be my food," Sinead said.
"I'll get it. Damon, bring Stefan upstairs. Sinead, keep him immobilized for awhile after he wakes up." When Sinead made a face Sage promised, "I'll bring the food right up."
Damon hoisted Stefan over his shoulder and carried him upstairs, Sinead following.
Damon dumped him on his bed while Sinead looked around the room. She walked around picking up some things, running her hands over them, peering at others. She found a bunch of bound books and opened them, looking at the handwriting. "What are these?" She caught Damon just before he walked out.
He rolled his eyes. "That is my brother's boring life story. He writes everything in those diaries. If you can't sleep at night, read them. It will do the trick."
Sinead looked them over and then picked up the current one. She opened a page randomly and read. "Today I met a girl." She settled down in a chair, turned on a light, and started reading. Sage brought up her food and Sinead smiled her thanks. She opened a container, split the chopsticks, and picked up the diary. She read late into the night, so totally absorbed she missed her mouth a couple of times, dumping food in her lap.
