On Your Marks
Chapter 9:
Caroline turned to Stefan, Faith and Damon after she hung up on her phone call with her mother. Stefan and Damon were too busy to notice Caroline's worried expression, instead they busied themselves on thoughts and ideas on where Elena could be and who she could be with. Meanwhile, Faith still stood with her arms crossed and her stare down. Time was running out. Initially she couldn't wait to be rid of the lot of them. To square things with Damon and to get back to jail with minimal increase on her sentance. However, this hope went out the window now that she knew Kakistos was alive. She didn't care how long it took or however much more time she had to serve, she was going to kill him and this time it was going to stick.
"Incoming," Caroline said loud enough for all to hear.
"What?" Stefan asked.
"The police are coming," she announced, "they know you're here," she added turning to Faith. Faith looked up and swished her hair behind her shoulders.
"How?" Damon asked suspiciously.
"Rebekah, she's with some fishy FBI guy and a few local police, she's leading them here right now," Caroline explained.
"Guess I better change," Faith breathed as she unfolded her arms.
"Wait, what're you guys going to do?" Caroline stammered. Faith ignored the question and headed up to her room alone. Caroline shot a mixture of expressions at the Salvatore brothers. Damon flexed his knuckles and clenched his fists in reply. He was completely stumped.
"Get yourself out of harm's way," Stefan advised the blonde.
"But-" she began to object but he cut her off with a look.
"Go. Now," he ordered. In seconds she was out the back door, out of sight and out of mind. Stefan tuned to his brother who's eyes were subtly and slowly darkening.
"Ready to get your hands dirty little brother?" Damon grinned.
"We can't fight our way out of this, Damon. You have to take the fall," his little brother spoke.
Faith dressed in her leather jacket and a pair of stretchy skinny jeans from the Elena pile. She managed to skulk her way into the Salvatore weapons vault and picked up a few stakes, some holy water and vervain. Vervain was something new to her, in her years of vampire slayage she'd never used it before. The reason being that it doesn't grow just anywhere. For whatever reason however, Mystic Fall's was full of it. She placed all of it in a conveniently sized overnight bag, again from the Elena pile, and she listened out for any rumblings downstairs. She was confident there was no way she was being taken down...at least not today.
"Why the hell not?" Damon scoffed.
"Because you got us into this mess. You brought Faith here and no matter if we run or if we fight, the police are only just going to keep coming for you both," Stefan explained.
"Screw that, we'll just compel this FBI guy into thinking Faithy and I are already well and truly locked away and he can go home job done. Either that or we could just kill him," Damon argued tirelessly.
"You're forgetting the 1000 year old original who wants nothing more but to find the cure before we do, plus killing him would only bring more suspicion knocking on the door," Stefan deflected.
"But I-" Damon was interrupted by the blurring of police sirens and the screeching of multiple cars out front.
"Guess we're out of time," Stefan announced.
"You don't get it! This face, will not do well in the big house!" Damon said with flailing angry hand gestures.
"Chin up and er...keep your back against the wall...just in case," Stefan smiled with a patronising hand placed on his brothers shoulder.
"That is so not funny," Damon replied throwing daggers with his bright eyes. Stefan's grin widened, no longer concerned with concealing his enjoyment in the downfall of his brother's plan. "What about Elena?" Damon asked urgently as the front door was kicked open.
"I'll handle it," Stefan replied just as Detective Shaw, Rebekah and five officers of the Mystic Falls P.D entered the kitchen.
"Problem officers?" Damon turned and grinned at the new arrivals.
"Damon Salvatore?" Shaw asked. Damon flared his brow and eyes in acknowledgement. "Was wondering if you've seen this woman around?" he asked holding up her mugshot. Damon's tongue stayed fixed in his mouth as he simply shrugged with a smile in reply.
"Where is she, Damon?" Rebekah added sharply. Again he said nothing, although his gaze at Rebekah turned sinister and venomous.
"Mr Salvatore you are under arrest for suspicion of aiding, abetting and harbouring a known criminal," Shaw said as he pulled handcuffs from his trench coat and locked Damon's hands in them. The officers led him to the front door and continued the reading of his civil rights. Soon only Rebekah, Stefan and Detective Shaw remained in the kitchen. "And who might you be?" Shaw asked Stefan.
"Er, Stefan Sal-Salvatore. I'm Damon's younger brother," Stefan replied, playing up the frightened younger brother role.
"Have you seen this woman around by any chance?" Shaw asked again holding up the image.
"Sorry no, I only just got back from a camping trip with some friends this morning," he lied.
"Is there anybody who can confirm this story?" Shaw quizzed.
"Yeah er...Matt Donovan, he works over at the Mystic Grill," he lied again. Rebekah shot him a threatening look, one that screamed leave Matt out of this. When Shaw's gaze turned, Stefan shot a smug look back at her.
"Well if you see her, call me as soon as possible do you understand?" Shaw asked more in the way of an order.
"Of course, sir," Stefan replied.
And then there was one. He was surprised Rebekah didn't insist on searching the whole house looking for Faith but he thought his involvement of Matt may be the reason behind this. She'd pushed too far and didn't expect him to push back with the only thing she cared about other than family and the cure.
Quickly, he shot from the kitchen, up the stairs and to Faith's room. He opened the door to find the window wide open and the thin white drapes billowing in the afternoon breeze. She was gone. And Stefan feared the worst.
Rebekah returned to her mansion shortly after compelling Detective Shaw into forgetting about her. She was so furious that the black veins around her eyes were turning a shade of dark purple. She slammed her front door shut so hard that the many square glass fixtures shattered into pieces all over the marble tiles beneath her feet. She grabbed a vase from a table and launched it at a wall shattering it like glimmering rainfall. She didn't stop there though; she flipped the centre table the vase was on and smashed it into matchsticks. Elena burst into the hall in confusion, a bottle of malt liquor in her hand. "What the hell are you doing?" she blurted out loudly. Rebekah's gaze met Elena's and she ran at her with such force that the bottle dropped from Elena's grip and Rebekah hoisted her by the neck up the south wall, her feet off the ground. "Okay, I'm getting the feeling I'm missing something here," Elena groaned through the Original's grip.
"Your two gargoyle boy toys didn't exactly keep with the plan," Rebekah replied, letting Elena drop to the floor. Her hands raised to soothe her neck.
"Still struggling with a bigger picture here," Elena spoke as she got to her feet and glanced at the destruction in the hallway; there wasn't a single tile clean of wooden or glass shards.
"Damon's in jail, for now, but Stefan, Nick's fancy piece and the Vampire Slayer weren't there," Rebekah stated as her eyes returned to ocean blue. Elena exhaled heavily at the news. She hoped somehow that both Salvatore's and their Slayer mutt would've been taken down together, meaning less of a cavalry after hers and Rebekah's race for the cure. "We should get going," Rebekah announced as she began trudging over the broken glass.
"Where?" Elena called after her.
"Well plan A backfired, so plan B will just have to do," Rebekah called back.
"And what exactly is plan b?" Elena asked as Rebekah got to the remains of her front door. Rebekah craned her neck and head back, meeting Elena's gaze through her flow of angelic blonde hair.
"We go after Katherine. Guns blazing."
Yesterday, Sunnydale California.
The three still didn't agree on Buffy's decision (to go after Faith...again) but her friends had known her long enough to know that there's no convincing her otherwise when her minds settled. Plus her bags were already packed, all that was left was transport. Xander called Anya lots of times until the scoobies realised she may be out of dimensional calling range. This meant Willow had to summon her to them using Anya's pendent.
She appeared to them in a puff of smoke in full vengeance demon attire...including the face. She looked at them through furrowed brow as they got to their feet as the mystical smoke cleared. "Anya," Willow opened. Anya's gaze shot to her fiercely.
"What d'you guys want," Anya asked stubbornly.
"Anya we need your help, Buffy needs your help," uttered Willow.
"No," Anya said bluntly; turning her head away dramatically.
"C'mon Anya you owe us!" Xander put in.
"For what?" Anya scoffed back.
"Remember your little worm problem?" Xander replied.
"Yeah and the world of trouble it caused reversing it with D'Hoffryn," she argued. "Besides it's you guys who owe me for helping little miss veiny over here get away from Gnarl before she was kibble n' bits!"
"Hey!" Willow called in offence.
"You guys enough!" Buffy ordered. Anya, Xander and Willow shot glances before contemplating their shoes. "Anya...I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important," she added. Anya exhaled and discarded the face of a vengeance demon and claimed the face of the woman Xander loved.
"What is it?" she said through rolled eyes.
"I need you to teleport me to Virginia."
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