Hey ya'll! If anyone is still with me, I urge you to go back to chapter 8, and reread that. Because I made a few minor changes, but I can't remember what they were so it's probably still very similar... Well whatevs. I'm changing it as soon as I post this one. Enjoy!
After leaving work for the night, I walked to my apartment, with every intention of heading back out to follow Damon and thwart his sure to be idiotic - and painful for Stefan - plan. So after I took a shower to clean the dirt and grime that seemed to hover behind the bar, I changed into some clothes that would help me blend in with the crowd that normally frequented the bar, since, according to Damon, whatever that he planned was going to happen there.
I made my way back to the bar and Grille, casting my patented notice-me-not illusion like a cloak around me, and slinked into a back corner of the bar, where I could watch all the going-ons in the large room. Soon enough, I saw Stefan Salvatore and his merry band of teenagers come into the building, accompanied by a pretty blonde I was not acquainted with, with whom he was chatting animatedly with. Well, as animated as his brooding forehead would let him be.
I assumed that this was the Lexi, Stefan's vampire best friend that Damon was gunning for in his plot tonight. Stefan looked so happy with her being here. The best birthday surprise I suppose, were the reunions between family and friends, not that I'd known that pleasure for quite some time. I already decided that I was going to interfere with Damon's plan, but the pure contentedness that radiated off of Stefan, and by extension Elena and Lexi, I was definitely going to make sure no one had a bad ending, at least for tonight. It was the least I could do. I may not have been all buddy-buddy with Stefan, but if he ever found out that I was behind saving Lexi, I would make sure it counted towards all his birthday presents for the rest of his existence. I mean, friends are forever, unless they're killed...permanently.
I watched as the group of friends gathered around a large table created bu smaller tables being pushed together. They were singing happy birthday to Stefan and everyone's attention was on him. Except Lexi, she moved toward the bar, I was guessing that she had the intent of buying shots for the birthday celebrators. No one noticed her absence. I tracked her to the bar, and saw her waiting for the bartender to finish up with the other customers in order to serve her. I watched as Damon slinked in and leaned against the bar-top next to her, whispering something in her ear. I looked around again, trying to see if anyone had noticed this little interaction. The party-goers were still in their own little world, but I saw the Sheriff peek in through the entrance door, watch Damon interact with Lexi with what seemed to be thinly veiled worry, before heading back out. Seems like Damon did have a friend other than myself.
I watched as Lexi sassed something back, I could tell that it was good by the curve of her lips and the slight frown on Damon's face. She was still waiting for the bartender to notice her. All of the sudden, Damon took syringe filled with some type of liquid and stabbed it into Lexi, making her groan in pain then pass out. He caught her, and maneuvered her to the back hallway of the Grille. I got up, following them to the alley behind the Grille seeing that the Sheriff and one of the deputies was waiting for him there.
"Are you sure she's a vampire?"
"Of course." Damon responded, in his usual exasperated tone. "She's new to town, only comes out during the night, seems extremely shady, and if she were human, the vervain wouldn't have affected her like this. She's the one that's been doing the killings. I'm sure of it." I watched as his eyes gleamed in the excitement of having one of his plans work out. He held his hand out to Sheriff Forbes, waiting, I assumed, for her to hand over a stake. Realizing that this plan was about to come to an end and I still wasn't sure how to interfere without making myself known, I started thinking of what I knew about vampires.
They were the undead, the resurrected. They had hearts and heartbeats, just much slower than human beings. I assumed that they could be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, which seemed to be the direction Damon was taking... It was magic that kept them alive in the first place, and I had a bunch of that. If I could channel my power into creating her a new heart, and keeping her body in a state of stasis after she was staked, that would keep the her 'life force' in her body so when her new heart was reunited, she would be as good as new, and I wouldn't have to worry about staging the death of a vampire when I knew nothing of what happened when they died.
Sheriff Forbes handed over the stake, and we watched as Damon plunged the sharpened end into Lexi chest. If she hadn't been such an innocent party, watching him embrace his darker side to finish her off might have been attractive. Alas, this was not the case. Lexi's eyes shot open and her mouth opened in a silent scream. Her back arched up in a painful looking move, well, I guess no more painful that getting a stake through the heart, and black veins started to rippled outwards from the wound on her chest, up her neck, down her arms, anywhere really. Her skin lost all color, other than these impressive veins, and she fell back down against the concrete, dead, her new heart thumps slow and strong in my fist.
Sheriff Forbes looked on in utter revulsion. I guess she had never seen anything as grotesque as supernatural death. Tell me about it, there were few things more terrifying. Damon gave a wicked grin, tossing the stake back to her fumbling hand, dusting off his own as if he'd just done something labor intensive.
"Have one of your guys bury her somewhere in the woods. She won't be anymore trouble." He said, walking away. "I've got myself a ginger to find and celebrate with." That's what you think. I thought. But you're so wrong. On both counts. My sights were now set on the deputies that looked upon the body in slightly less disgust than the female Sheriff. After receiving the orders from her, they packed Lexi's body in their trunk, and drove off. I followed. We ended up in the woods, not far from were I assumed Vicki had been first attacked by Damon. My how cyclic life was. They began to dig, and I pondered the merits of making them forget what they were doing and go on with their lives, or to let them finish. I decided to let them finish, because although I was confident in my powers, I wasn't sure what other sort of supes were out there and whether or not they'd be able to unravel the glamour I had put on the men. Besides, what was a little dirt between friends? When the men finished, they left, not without throwing a suspicious gaze around the surrounding area. I couldn't blame them, I mean, there were dangerous things out in the woods at night.
I moved the freshly disturbed soil out of the way, and jumped into Lexi's shallow grave, straddling her was the only thing I could do in such a small area, so I did, and then I thrust her heart back into her chest, triggering her essence to attach to it and start working again. She choked on her first intake of air and coughed, bringing her hand up to feel at her chest, which was still wounded.
"What happened?" She rasped. "Who are you?" Not even commenting on my strange position atop her.
"What do you remember happening?" I asked. Her brow furrowed.
"It's Stefan's birthday, I was at the bar..." she thought on it for a second. "Damon," she growled, a fierce expression overtaking the confusion. "He staked me!" He expression then turned to wonder, she was feeling at her chest more fervently. "He staked me, it went through, I was dead, how...?" She said looking at me, wincing and she explored the deep wound in her chest.
"I brought you back." I said, nonchalantly.
"Black magic?" She asked, seeming afraid of my answer.
"Nah, only witches are constrained by the lines of black and white magic...and pulling power from nature..." I replied. It confused her, but the fear was gone.
"So..." she was trying to get an answer about my affinity for magic out of me. Not going to happen. I got off of her, jumping out of the hole. I put my hand out for her to grab.
"I didn't just save you for you to get killed again." I said, as she gingerly made her way out of her grave with my helping hand.
"Damon.." She growled his name.
"Damon thinks you're dead, he thinks it was a good idea to kill you, but I have a feeling that it's much better for everyone involved for you to be alive."
"I've got a score to settle with him." She said, moving to leave the woods. I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Listen, he already staked you once. In front of the Sheriff, she knows your face. This town's council is ready for vampires, they have stores of vervain and I'm sure the numbers for a few more vampire hunters when they decide that Damon is ineffective. You go back, still injured," I eyed her wound, "and you bring trouble from higher up, not just on yourself, but on Stefan. And I'm sure you don't want that, right?" She sighed and shook her head. "And Damon, I'm sure you've known him way longer than me, so you have to know that he has issues. He thinks he hates his brother, we know that's not true at all. They've been the only constant in each other's lives... ever. He's just lost, confused, and angry at the wrong person. I can see him levelling out soon. Something big's about to happen."
"What are you, the Damon fan club?"
"No, I'm more like his maid. It's seems like every week I'm cleaning up more of his messes. But, someone has to do it, or else his bad karma would swell to epic proportions affecting everyone around him. I for one, do not want to be a recipient of bad karma."
"I get that."
"So what do I do now then?"
"Well, I'm assuming that Damon's either looking for me now to gloat, or if he's realized that he's not going to find me, he went to Stefan to tell him all about his day. Stefan will be broken-hearted, and Damon will feel like he's winning. But Lexi, for the greater good, you cannot contact Stefan. Really, not anyone from this town. Don't even go to the house to pick up your stuff. As of an hour ago, you were dead You need to go home, and when you're there and you see any friends, make sure they know to keep on with this charade of your death. Damon psyche is really delicate at this moment, and if anything changes, several heads are going to roll."
"What you're saying makes sense, but..."
"To tell you the truth, this could be a really good thing. Your hiding." I clarified. "The less people that know about your alive status, the more helpful you are to Stefan if he ever gets in a jam."
"Ok, I get it. I'll leave and stay underground for a while." She looked up to the sky. "I better get a move on before the sun comes out. That would suck after all I've been through." She gave a bitter chuckle. She started to walk away, pausing for a moment. "I never got your name stranger." She said.
"Gemma." I replied.
"Well, Gemma," said, "thank you for saving my life. It seems I owe to you a life-debt." Then she sped off.
I put the 'crime scene' back in order, in case a certain dark-haired, sadistic vampire came around looking for proof, then flickered out of existence in the woods, and back into existence in my bathroom. I turned on the faucet, get the water to a slightly hotter-than-perfect-temperature, before starting to fill the tub with it. I added in a light lavender bubble mixture, and left the room to gather the things I needed to salvage my relaxing night in. A book, a full bathtub, and chilled bottle of champagne later, I stepped out of my clothes and into the water, shivering as the warmth from the water clashed with the chill from the air. I was halfway done with the champagne and the bestselling mystery-thriller when I got a visitor.
"Honey! I'm home!" He yelled from what I assumed was the front door. So it starts. I took a sip of the champagne straight from the bottle, rolling my eyes. I blur of black and the offender was standing in front of me. Had I not been so old, and completely covered my the mass of bubbles in my bath water, I might have blushed.
"Well, well, well," he said, running his eyes over the parts of my body that were exposed, such as my arms, upper chest, neck - which I guess was kind of important for his kind - head, tips of my toes, not much really, but he still made it seem quite dirty. "That's a large enough tub to fit two comfortably." He waggled his eyebrows and moved to take off his leather jacket.
"Hold it right there, mister. I don't know what about me trying to enjoy a bath alone, makes you think I want to share or have company. Because I can assure you, if I wanted company, I would have it."
"Fiesty Gemma. I like it. Well, if you won't share you're bath with me, the least you can do is hand over the booze. I feel like celebrating!" He grabbed the bottle out of my hand and took a generous swig. And this was my life now.
"So what are we celebrating." I asked, although I already knew.
"The death of a thorn in my side."
"You finally got rid of Stefan." I joked. He laughed heartily, the most uplifted I'd ever seen him.
"Gemma, you're the best. You know that? But no, unfortunately he's phase three, and what happened tonight was phase one. Tonight, I succeeded in killing Stefan's best friend, and securing a permanent spot on the council." He sighed. "Today was a good day. Too bad you missed out. It was a rush." He took another swig.
"Damon, will you ever tire of creating enemies?"
"Father always said you weren't a great man until you had made enemies." His eyes flashed with a dark emotion I didn't have enough time to name.
"Mmmhmm." I replied, noncommittally.
"Besides, it's just Lexi. She was a nobody."
"Unless you are the person, or have done extensive recon on the person, you never know exactly what ties they have to others. She could have left a mate behind. I'd like to think that you've at least had some experience with them, they're quite bothersome no matter the species."
"Seriously, you are harshing my mellow."
"So sorry." I rolled my eyes, gesturing for my bottle back.
"It wasn't strong enough anyway." He groused giving it back, quickly leaving and reappearing with some Scotch and a tumbler I didn't even know I owned. "It's been a good week." He grinned. "And next week, I know for a fact that it'll be even better." I highly doubted that.
"Damon, promise me something."
"What's with the pensive attitude? This is supposed to be happy time." I just gave him a look. "Fine, what?"
"When all this is over. And you find, maybe not what you've been looking for, but when you find what's there waiting for you, will you promise to take a long hard look at yourself and think of ways to get your good karma levels up?" He burst out laughing.
"I didn't know supernatural creatures believe in karma." He said, still laughing.
"How could I not? It is a form of balance, is it not? And everything in this world has a balancing factor. This is what this witches are most adamant about. And you, sir, have accrued a massive amount of karmic dust around your soul."
"Karmic dust, soul?!" He spluttered. "You're serious, aren't you?" He said, evaluating me. I only nodded.
"Why is it always the crazy ones that are hot?" He whined to himself. "Or maybe she hot, because she's crazy?" He mused.
"I could say the same about you Damon Salvatore." I smirked.
"Well, you got me there." He chuckled. "But seriously? I'm dead, I have no soul, and by extension, no karmic dust. Whatever that is."
"That's just like saying a caterpillar is not a butterfly, or vice versa. Humans have souls, yes? So why would a vampire, which is just an upgraded, evolved human, not have a soul as well? If you were soulless, your mind would be vacant as well. That is clearly not the case here, in fact, I think you think, and plan, and scheme a little too much."
"You think I'm a butterfly?" He said, half-joking, half-pleadingly serious.
"That was the only thing you caught from that?" He nodded.
"Well then Damon, I truly think that you are the most beautiful, disturbed, damaged, strong, courageous butterfly that ever used to be a caterpillar."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. All the other butterflies have to flutter away when faced with the potential power that is you."
"You know," he said, quietly, "I think I'll keep you around for a little while longer."
"Like you could ever get rid of me anyway. And we're not done talking about the karmic dust." I grumbled, taking a swig of the now room temperature champagne and leaning back in my tub to finish my book, ignoring Damon as he leaned back against my sink contemplating my words.
Okay, that might have been slightly OCC on Damon's part, because while he does fish for compliments and gloat about the horrible things he's done, he's not so forward with his vulnerability, at least at this timeframe in TVD. We definitely see it later on in the show, but I like to think that if Damon had a friend like Gemma, where the relationship was full of shared secrets, he wouldn't mind giving her another secret to keep. Besides, this isn't called That Wicked and Needy Type of Love for no reason. He's just being both the Wicked and Needy portions of the relationship right now. What can I say, Gemma's mostly got her emotional shit taken care of already.
And this is what I do in my free time, psychoanalyze doubly fake relationships, between fake people.
Thanks for the continued support! If anyone's actually reading this on purpose because I seriously don't even know anymore...
Ren!