Disclaimer: I do not own the vampire diaries/the originals or any quotes used/borrowed.
i wanna taste the way that you bleed, oh you're my kill of the night
"Hey brother, there's an endless road to re-discover.
Hey sister, know the water's sweet but blood is thicker.
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do."
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The sky was clear, the temperature moderate. The sun glinted off the pond that sat to the left of the farmhouse and to the right of the big red barn. It was the perfect day, theoretically. However, the greying body lying detached from its head in the living room of the antique farmhouse told a far different story.
"So you're a vampire who feeds on other vampires. We can work around this, pal."
Damon gave Enzo a caustic smile. "And the vicious urges to feed every eight hours will just go away, huh? Why are you even still here?" He stride was long and purposeful; Damon had to find Steph before Wes performed any permanently damaging experiments. Enzo tagging along had not been in the original plan, but his once-friend had come down with a sudden case of Jiminy Cricket and decided to help him.
"Listen, Damon." Enzo sounded surprisingly as he caught Damon's elbow. "I'm here because I consider it my fault that we were there for Wes to infect you. If I hadn't brought Wes' brat to you, none of this would have occurred." Enzo lifted his hand and patted Damon on the shoulder. He gave him a crooked grin. "Besides, I don't leave friends behind."
"I didn't think I was your friend," Damon said warily. He didn't have a great many of those anymore. Losing Enzo the first time had been hell. Seeing him again had been both a blessing and a curse in the feelings it had brought back.
"Course you are," Enzo said. "Now, enough of this, I say. We've got to find your darling little sister." A dull thudded knock interrupted the otherwise silent property, silencing their stilted banter. Damon and Enzo's eyes met. "Do you think . . . ?"
"Only one way to find out." Damon strode to the front door of the farmhouse and threw it open.
Wes' smug appearance was instantly recognizable. "Glad you were available to get the door, Damon. I wasn't sure if you'd be, ah, tied up."
"Where are your witch friends?" Damon drawled. "Oh yeah, wait, you said they were travelers, whatever the hell that is. Where'd you find them, Wes? Did you shop around on craigslist?"
"They approached me. Their leader, Sloane, came to with a . . . compelling offer."
"Aren't you like a scientist though? I thought you guys hated magic." Damon crossed his arms irritably.
Wes smirked. "Well, yes, generally I consider magic cheating . . . but it just so happens that I like to cheat." A low buzzing registered in Damon's ears, making him frown. "You hear it yet? My friends are enchanting this house to make sure that you and your friend are unable to step foot off of the premises as we speak."
"Why? What's your agenda here?" Damon curled his lip.
"You couldn't possibly think that I'd let you ride off into the sunset, did you? You're my patient zero and I have a few tests to run."
"A few tests?" Enzo growled; the sound was a low hum that reverberated in his chest. He stood over Damon's shoulder as an imposing shadow.
"Well, just one actually." Wes said, "Here's my scientific question; now that you're trapped in a house with your friend, how long can you go without feeding?" He pursed lips.
"Okay, ignoring that for a minute, here's another question for you," Damon said. "Where's my sister?"
"Safe." Wes smiled. "Because we have a few hours at least until your hunger begins to become debilitating, I'm going to leave you to the traveler's for a bit; I have another patient to attend to."
Damon's fangs dropped and he rammed his shoulder into the invisible barrier trapping him inside the farmhouse. "Let her go," he growled.
"Science can't be rushed," Wes admonished. "I've barely even started experimentation." He gave Damon a thoughtful look. In a move to purposefully rile him up, Wes asked, "Say, do you suppose if I extracted the fetus it would still survive at this stage, considering it has to be at least fifty percent vampire?"
Anger made Damon vision turn red. "Leave them alone."
"This is a scientific marvel, Damon," Wes said, sounding unapologetic. "I'll be back this evening to check on your progress. Until then, good luck." He gave Damon and nod and turned on his heel.
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"Ugh, whoever said vampires don't get hangovers was exaggerating. I feel squicky," Caroline moaned. She plopped down at the kitchen table and made a mournful noise when she realized she'd forgotten to grab a cup of coffee. Next to her, Elena was sipping a white mug filled with thick, coagulating blood. Caroline wrinkled his nose. "How old is that?"
Elena made a face as the blood slid down her throat. "Too old," She muttered and set the mug back onto the table.
"How did we get to the Boarding House?" Caroline mused thoughtfully. Her memories of the night before were rather unfocused and a bit out of reach.
"I brought you here," Bonnie said dryly as she took a seat across from her friends. "You were both out of your heads," she admonished. "After I helped Liv locate Wes for Damon, Steph and Enzo, I brought you home."
"They went after Wes?" Elena's brows furrowed.
"I think I remember that," Caroline said definitely. Then she frowned. "They should have been back by now, though, don't you think?"
"They're probably fine," Bonnie grumbled and stuffed her nose into her steaming cup of coffee. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply, as if she could absorb the caffeine through osmosis. Caroline was worried though, and a quick glance at Elena told her that she wasn't alone in her fear.
"I don't know, Bonnie . . . they would have called at least." Elena mused. Bonnie shrugged doubtfully.
"I think we should check on them. Where did Liv say Wes was last night?" Caroline's concern was waking her up and that coffee was feeling more unnecessary as the seconds ticked by.
"A sanatorium in West Virginia I think," Bonnie said slowly. "But-" The shrill ringing of Elena's phone made the girls startle.
"It's Damon," She breathed and the relief in her voice was palpable. "Hello?" Caroline sat straight in her chair and leaned forward in her eagerness to hear about her best friend.
Instead of Damon's reassurance of their safety, it was Enzo's cultured tones that spilled out through the receiver. "We have a bit of problem . . ."
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Her head felt heavy with fog when she woke up and her bleary eyes felt crusted shut. When she lifted an arm to rub them, Stephanie found it restricted down to a table. Her ears worked fine though, and she could hear every word Dr. Wes Maxfield uttered. "This is fascinating; you appear to be in your eighteenth or nineteenth week of pregnancy. Which should obviously be impossible . . . this is a medical marvel."
When Steph was finally able to open her eyes, she saw Wes standing next to an ultrasound machine that was focused on her womb. Her dress was gone and she lay on the examination table in nothing but her under things, strapped down like Elena was when Steph had gone to rescue her. Blinking, she saw wires attached to her . . . everywhere. There were test tubes of dark blood just lined up on the counter, waiting to be taken away and picked apart, analyzed strand by strand.
She swallowed thickly and her light eyes darted around the medical lab and to the second man in the room. He stood stiffly at the door, and was dressed in casual day clothes and looked generally uninterested. But when his gaze locked onto hers, Stephanie saw a quiet irritation and frustration simmering below the surface. Interesting. She look stock of where she was and decided it was an expensively funded lab with marble counters and pristine white floors. The tools gleamed in the fluorescents. And her phone sat in a glass cabinet over the sink.
"This, Stephanie, is perhaps the most perplexing thing I've ever witnessed," Wes continued and lifted up a vial for her to see. "This is some of the amniotic fluid that I extracted and I looked at a tissue sample . . . . Your child exhibits extremely accelerated healing capabilities already."
"You stuck a needle in my baby?" She would have been shocked at the unethical form of experimentation if she hadn't already known what he and the Augustines had already done to countless other vampires before her.
"Of course," Wes said easily. "I'm going to examine this more closely to see if there are any other properties I might be able reverse engineer for use in the medical field." He gave her a serene smile. "I think we're going to be working together for a long time, Miss Salvatore. You're going to help me with some of my lifelong research. And don't worry," he added, "after Damon starts infecting others with the Ripper Virus – as Elena so eloquently dubbed it – I'll make sure you and your son are spared. There are far too many discoveries to be had before you both perish."
Stephanie licked her lips and rattled her chains as Wes picked up his samples to cross examine. As he disappeared out the door, she pressed her lips firmly together to keep from screaming in frustration. She sagged back in her restraints and glowered at the ceiling. When a hand skimmed the skin around her ankles, Stephanie snarled.
"Do not bite the hand that feeds you," a voice rumbled. "Or is this case, frees you."
Stephanie's jaw tightened as the traveler murmured several phrases under his breath that made her shackles pop open, unlocked. "Why?" She asked as she immediately too to her unsteady feet.
The traveler met her eyes with that same irritation behind them. "My leader hired Doctor Maxfield to analyze samples for her. Sloane does not want him getting sidetracked by strange vampires like you; you were not part of the original deal. So you are being released to keep Doctor Maxfield from distraction."
Stephanie kept her eyes on the traveler, making sure she never had her back to him, and she took the time to smash the vials of blood Wes had collected. She grabbed a lab coat off of a rack and her cell phone from its glass cabinet, and wrapping the coat tightly around herself, flashed out of the laboratory. The sun was setting, making shadows stretch yards ahead. Some other time she'd had admired the view.
Dialing Damon with one hand and keeping the lab coat closed with her other, Steph kept aware of her surroundings in case more travelers showed up or Wes came careening around a corner in some kind of car.
"Stephanie?" Damon's voice was shrill.
"Where the hell are you?" Steph asked.
"Where am I? Where are you?" He sounded pained. She could hear the thud of something heavy resembling chains in the background.
"Naked and in the middle of nowhere," Steph replied tightly. "Were those chains I heard?"
"Enzo has to tie me up because if he doesn't, I'm going to rip his head off," Damon explained.
"Isn't that my shtick?"
"Not anymore, sister. Thanks to Wes, now it's our shtick. Listen, get call Elena and let her know you're okay and then go back to the Boarding House. She's coming out here to get me with Caroline – against my wishes, of course, because Enzo called them – but you should stay safe."
"You must be joking," Steph said flatly. As she made her way into town, she garnered a number of stars and quite a few dirty looks from protective mothers who were covering their children's eyes. She slipped into a corner store and into their tourist section to grab some clothes. The cashier's eyes bugged out and then he pointed at the sign at the front window: NO SHIRTS/SHOES, NO SERVICE.
Stephanie deliberately turned her back on him and snatched up a pair of jeans.
"I'm not joking; I'm looking out for you," he argued.
"In that case, I'll see you soon, right after I get the address from Elena. Bye Damon." Stephanie hung of the phone.
"Excuse me, miss, you have to be wearing clothes to get service –" The cashier put a hand on her shoulder.
"You're going to leave me alone and let me have these clothes free of charge." He blinked and stepped back toward the cash register.
"Thank you," Stephanie huffed and took an oversized shirt, some panties, jeans and sneakers. "Now, where's the bathroom?"
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"You're going to be alright, mate. They're going to come and we'll sort something out," Enzo soothed.
Damon shook the chains he was wrapped up in and gave him a dirty glare. "Or, they'll come and I'll feed off of them."
"Well, those are also options. As long as I'm okay . . ." He smirked. "Kidding. Sort of."
A loud shot boomed in the front yard then, shattering the glass from the windows and a bullet buried itself into Enzo's shoulder. He grunted in surprise and pain, and Damon jerked in his chair. Enzo looked up and found Wes leading the way with a pistol in hand with travelers chanting behind him like some sort of bizarre army.
"If you were aiming for my heart, you missed," Enzo snarled.
"Don't worry," Wes said, "I wasn't. Chains were a good idea, you know, because now I can see just how strong he becomes when enraged." Damon, eager to please, let the veins across his face appear and his fangs drop in anticipation as he strained against his restraints. Seconds later, he found the strength inside of him to rip them off. Wes seemed surprised. Good. "Conclusion: very strong."
But the scent of Enzo's blood was tantalizing and his freedom was gone, replaced by a noose around his neck named bloodlust. He dove at his friend and latched onto his neck, tearing in the artery there.
"Damon, stop!" Enzo pleaded. "Please, Damon stop! Damon, Damon, stop it!" Enzo shoved Damon's chest and he stumbled to his knees, choking. Enzo stepped back and stared as Damon spluttered out blood and spit as his hands ringed his neck. Enzo spun around and demanded, "What did you do to him?"
"My friends here raised the acidity of your blood, though I'm on sure about the particulars," and he raised his voice, "I suggest you leave before the spell wears off."
"And go where, with you?" Enzo growled.
"I need one more favor from you and then I'll let you go, for good. Of course, your other option is to stay in here with your cannibal friend and you'll die." Wes tilted his head. "The travelers have raised the spell on the house temporarily . . ."
"Go, Enzo," Damon hissed. "Go!"
Enzo licked his lips indecisively. Then he flashed out of the farmhouse, disappearing out of Damon's sight.
"Hey, Wes," Damon choked after his friend had gone. "You know what I found out a bit ago?"
"Hm?" Wes hummed quizzically.
"Stephanie got out of whatever prison you had her in." He smirked when Wes' face tightened.
"And how would you know this?"
"She called me, asshole." Damon spat at Wes' feet. "Looks like your friends didn't do such a good job guarding her cell."
Wes pressed his lips together and forcefully shrugged. "I got some samples to look at. And of course, I have no doubt that she'll be by to rescue you sorry hide."
Damon threw back his head and forced loud laughter. "Man, you are dumb. She's not coming here because I never told her where I am. Looks like you're out of luck, buddy."
"I still have you, Damon."
Damon's nostrils flared. "That you do," he quietly agreed. "That you do."
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Stephanie found the farmhouse easily enough with Caroline's rapid fire speech in her ear, directing her there. She met up with her two friends on a hill that was less than a quarter of a mile away from Damon's location.
"Steph!" Caroline threw her arms around her and Stephanie returned the embrace. "We were worried! How'd you escape?"
"A traveler let me loose," Steph said into Caroline's shoulder.
"What?" Caroline sounded stupefied and Elena's face scrunched up in confusion.
"He said I was distracting Wes from his deal with Sloane, the leader of the travelers," Stephanie explained with arched brows. "It was a stroke of luck." Elena reached out her hand, which Steph took and squeezed in her own for reassurance. "But enough of that mess. Let's get Damon out of this."
"How do we do that?" Caroline asked thoughtfully. "Enzo said that these guys have some kind of spell on the house so that they can't leave."
"If we kill the spell casters, then the spell should disintegrate," Elena said quietly. Caroline gasped and Steph fixed Elena with a surprised look.
"You'd be okay with murdering them?" Stephanie asked with pursed lips.
Elena clenched her fists. "If it means Damon's safety, then yes. I am." She radiated hostility.
Steph didn't let her gaze waver. "How about we knock them out if possible and leave killing as a last resort. For now."
"Okay." She led the other two girls down the hill and they split up; Caroline went around the back, and Steph the front. Elena walked right up to the front door and stepped over the threshold. Two travelers stepped in after her. "Quickly, Care," Steph whispered. She wrapped deft hands around a man's head and bashed it into the ground.
When he went down, the nearest woman turned to his defense and raised her hands and began to chant. Steph darted in and ripped her heart from her chest. The travelers caught on then, and pulled in tight around the farmhouse, around Damon and Elena inside.
"Damon! Elena!" She shouted. A man and two women raised their voices and turned their attention to Steph; a pounding headache built up in her temples that sent her to her knees. Through the pain, Stephanie heard Elena and Damon talking.
"We're here to help you."
"You can't help me, Elena. I feed on vampires now and you're a vampire. Do yourself a favor and leave."
"I am not afraid of you."
"Get out!"
"No."
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
The pain brought a roaring to her ears and made any further conversation drown out. She curled up on the ground and squeezed her eyes shut. For what felt like an eternity, she lay there.
And then
And then the pain just . . . stopped.
Hesitantly, Steph looked up. The travelers were gone; they had disappeared into the night. She slowly uncurled her body and struggled to her feet, which was made difficult because of her belly. Her son fluttered inside of her, reminding Steph of his presence. She put a soothing hand where the baby had moved. Then she strode to the farmhouse, where she found Caroline hovering around a dazed looking Elena, and Damon.
"What happened over here?"
"The travelers . . . took a bucket of blood from Damon and me." Elena sounded puzzled.
"It's true," Caroline added nervously. "I knocked out a few of them and then some others froze me in place and I watched as they kept Damon and Elena over by the fireplace and just drained blood from both of them. They didn't say anything either; it was so weird!"
"Yeah," Elena murmured. "Weird."
"How are you feeling?" Stephanie directed at her brother. His and Elena's hands were clasped tightly together; they'd apparently made up in between shouting at each other and being held hostage by blood thieving travelers. "And where did Wes go?"
"I only need to feed every eight hours," Damon muttered. "So after I fed off of both Enzo and Elena before I was forcibly removed, I think I got my fix for the next few hours. Of course, I still think it is way too dangerous for any of you to be around me, ever."
Caroline sent him a firm look. "Don't even think about a midnight snack, okay?"
"Alright, enough," Stephanie interrupted. "Wes?" She prompted.
"He just disappeared," Elena told her. "The travelers must have taken him with them after they took our blood."
"So we don't need to worry about him for a bit, then," Stephanie muttered to herself. She heaved a heavy sigh and put a hand on the small of her aching back.
"Let's go home," Caroline suggested when she saw. "Everyone's had a very trying day and I think we could all use some rest. I'll go over to my mom's. Bonnie's at her house. So you three will have the Boarding House to yourself." She put an arm around Steph's shoulders and pulled her along toward the hill they'd stood on so recently. "My car's over here," Caroline added for Damon's benefit.
"Wonderful; we get to ride in Barbie's BMW."
"First of all, it's not a BMW, and second of all, I hate when you call me Barbie . . ."
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"So you and Elena?"
Damon threw back his bourbon and relished the burn of it in his throat. The fire was bright in front of him and his sister as they sat together in the love seat. Elena was curled up on the couch, an afghan blanket thrown over her as she slept.
"What about us?"
"Did you work things out?" Stephanie probed.
Damon turned away. "As much as we can with me now jonesing for vampire blood."
"We'll figure it out, Damon," Stephanie reassured. "I know what it feels like to be out of control because the mere presence of a beating heart . . . I can help you. I can teach you to control it."
"Vampire blood isn't exactly as readily available as human blood you know," Damon snapped. "Even if you could help me, which I doubt."
"Don't be a dick," Steph said. "I'll try as best as I can to get your thirst under control. And Elena and I can donate blood for you to have every eight hours. This isn't going to be as horrible as you think it is."
He snorted contemptuously. "Right." His gaze wandered over Elena again and he felt a pang in his heart. "I'm going to go up to bed." Damon stood and turned to his sister. "I'm glad you're okay. I was worried for a minute there that something would happen to you and . . ." his gaze dropped.
"Nah," Stephanie said. "You know me."
"Yes. Yes I do." He dropped a kiss on her forehead and then swept Elena up into his arms. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Damon."
He took the steps one at a time and was a careful as he could be as he laid Elena down in his bed. Then he began to methodically trip down, taking off his shoes and socks first, and then his shirt.
"Damon?" Elena's voice was a little drowsy.
"Go back to sleep," he murmured. He dropped his pants to the floor and crawled into bed next to Elena. Damon snuffled into her neck and kissed the junction there. She reached her hand back and clasped his, twining their fingers together. Then Elena let go of his hand and Damon prepared to give her space, but instead she slipped into his lap and put her hands on his shoulders. He blinked in surprise.
"Let me make love to you," she whispered.
"Elena . . ."
"Damon." Elena kissed him.
He slid his hands around her, resting them on the curve of her hips. "Okay," he said.
Elena smiled. "Okay."
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When Stephanie heard the telltale signs of her friend and her brother making up, she slipped out of the Boarding House – now dressed – and made her way back to the lab where Wes had held her captive hours before. Just as she had guessed, he was there, fiddling with something in a needle.
"Hello, doctor," she drawled.
Wes spun around. "You."
"Me," Steph said softly. "Nice place you've got here. Buy this with the money Sloane gave you?"
"How do you know about that?"
"One of your traveler friends set me free and told me." She shrugged. "Listen, Doc, I have a problem. You infected my brother with that insane virus you created. Now, you need to give me the antidote."
"What, so he can go back to feeding on innocent people?"
"Let's not pretend that's why you infected him," Stephanie said. "Give me the antidote."
Wes laughed. "Do you not understand? There is no antidote. I didn't make one and I wouldn't know how to start even if I wanted to."
"Then you're of no further use to me or anyone else," Stephanie said flatly. She put her hands on either side of his head and twisted. The doctor fell to the ground, dead. "That's for trying to hurt my baby and for torturing Damon, you sick bastard."
She turned on her heel and left his remains on the cold ground, lifeless eyes staring emptily into space.
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tbc.