I'm sorry! I knew that it has been five months but don't feel abandoned. This story is always on my mind and I've always known its direction and had a plan written out for myself. My college exams start tomorrow and I have been so eager to upload that my proofreading has really been half arsed (again sorry)
Enjoy what I've done though!
"It makes sense in a way"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she'd been wearing scarves a lot."
"He must've been feeding from her for a while before he turned her."
"He might not've turned her on purpose" Stefan said, walking into Elena's kitchen and interrupting Elena and Cliona's conversation about Cordelia. Damon didn't want Cliona on her own in the house when he went to talk to Liz, as Katherine was still about and had easy access to the Salvatore Boarding House. Cliona was still under strict watch. She had ended up at Elena's house, as Katherine had lost her invitation to Elena's house and was no longer able to enter.
Cliona didn't mind though, she enjoyed finally being able to talk to a human girl about all of the craziness in the town. She felt sorry that Elena had to deal with it all on her own at first, before her other friends were either revealed as witches or were turned themselves.
She actually saw quite a bit of Cordelia in Caroline; blonde, outgoing, confident, new vampire.
That was still odd her her. The word seemed foreign on her tongue and was being passed around so easily. The only time she had ever been in a setting where she passed it around naturally was when she was discussing the movie she had gone to see.
It was actually as if Caroline and Cordelia were on a team of their own. The Blonde Sassy Vampire Team, while Elena and Cliona were on the other side, on the Brunette Quiet Human Team.
"What do you mean?" Elena asked.
"If he had been feeding from her, he could have taken it too far or perhaps he had wanted to hide the evidence and used his blood to heal her-"
"But she had an accident" Elena finished for him, following his thought process.
"Exactly"
"So you think she didn't have a choice? She was turned against her will?" Cliona asked.
"I do" Stefan replied.
"It makes sense, when I was with her she was talking about how he annoyed her and she had some sort of falling out with him, so maybe that's what she meant"
"Either way she's new and won't know how to handle herself. That's obvious since what happened with you at the Grill"
"So we've both agreed that you aren't to be alone. I'm going to go with you to the store today and keep you company. You won't be alone at all."
Cliona didn't bother trying to protest, she knew why they were doing what they were doing and she didn't want to be attacked or to be caught up in an argument either, so instead she asked, "What about you and Damon?"
Stefan exhaled before looking her in the eye, "Damon has to go to a meeting, and I'm staying at the Boarding House, in case something happens."
Cliona wanted to ask more, she wanted to know about Damon's meeting and why he couldn't be with her. She had admitted to herself that she had feelings for him, and it angered her that they couldn't spend more time together because Cordelia was out there, and the guy that turned her could turn up looking for Cordelia. If that happened, he could easily pick up Cordelia's scent on Cliona and end up attacking her. If he was the type to keep Cordelia as a play toy, he was definitely capable of killing anyone without batting an eye.
She wished that she could just go back to the Boarding House and talk to Damon about unimportant things and curl up to him by the fire. It wasn't fair. She didn't ask for it. As if running a business and being left to it on her own wasn't bad enough. Things between her and Damon had just begun to take off, and now there was not just one, but two (or three including Katherine) dangerous vampires that were likely to kill not just her, but any other human in town. No one usually planned or thought that any of this would happen, when moving to a new town in the hopes of starting a new life. What a lovely thing to have happen.
000
Elena and Cliona had left to go to the shop an hour ago, leaving Stefan to return to the Boarding House and wait for information from Damon. Stefan looked around the forest on the way home, in the hopes of picking up a scent of some sort, but was unable to find anything. He didn't like not doing anything, but then again, neither did Damon. Damon was liable to get frustrated over this and lash out, so it was up to Stefan to keep the peace, which was why Damon was hoping for information by going to a Council meeting, and Stefan was currently pacing around the living room of the Boarding House.
Stefan wished that this was some scenario that demanded them to read, in other to gain information, but it wasn't. They couldn't do anything until something else happened. They had to wait everything out.
It was in that moment that the door was flung open and a familiar brunette in heels strided in.
"Give me vervain and I'm gone. I'm tired of waiting. I need it. Everywhere else is short and it can't be picked freely in Mystic Falls because of your ,oh so precious, Council. I know you have it, give it to me"
"Hello to you too, Katherine"
Well at least Katherine's appearance was something to keep his mind off of things.
"Give it to me, now"
"Getting a little impatient, aren't we?"
Katherine looked about ready to stomp her foot in patience and stick out her tongue. She was clad in her usual heeled boots, black skinny jeans, leather jacket and expensive looking purple top, which had been accessorised with bangles and a simple gold chain. She always had been about dressing to impress and intimidate others. Her arms were crossed and there was a crease between her eyebrows. There was more than just impatience in her eyes, there was also fear.
"And why should I give you vervaine?"
"Because I need it?"
"Why?"
"Because I do"
"Why? Who's after you"
"Because I need it for something I'm working on"
"You? Working on something? Who are you trying to annoy now?"
Katherine pulled a sarcastic smile before dropping it and looking at Stefan with an annoyed expression. She wanted something and he was refusing her. Stupid Stefan and his perfect ways, always trying to be careful, always trying to please everyone, except me.
"I don't trust you with vervaine"
"If you don't give it to me, I'll kill someone"
"Someone else you mean? How many more bodies would you be dumping in the forest for attention?" Stefan said, believing that the vampire with Cordelia had been a coincidence and that Katherine was to be held liable for the recent deaths in Mystic Falls.
"For the last time that wasn't me! You Salvatores just love to point fingers and lay blame on everyone. For the last time, it wasn't me!"
"No Katherine. The answer is no"
"I'd love to meet this guy going around and killing people. I'd buy him a drink to say thanks for giving you so much to worry about, right before I kill him for stopping me from getting what I want...You shouldn't even care about those dead people. They're food!"
"How do I know you won't use it on us?"
"Would I really be that stupid? What if I was desperate for a refill?"
"You're talking as if I've decided to give it to you"
"Well then hurry up and do it"
"I don't trust you"
"No one trusts me"
"And there's a reason for that"
000
There had been a blonde girl that had been obviously in it for the cash so she could spend it on clothes, gum and night outs with friends. It had been obvious that she would have been an unsociable lay about, and wouldn't have understood any of the band merchandise on sale in the shop. In fact, Cliona had remembered her as one of the girls that hadn't understood the joke when they had seen the rubber ducks displayed upon the shelf.
Then there had been the guy with paranoid eyes that could never keep them trained on the one thing. He looked ready to jump up and snap at someones at any second. He would have scared people in the shop, and even though Cliona was all for accepting people, he kind of scared her a little bit. He wasn't someone she would trust with the keys to the shop, or to be alone with when locking up at night.
On and on it had gone. Lucy had applied for a job, but had later called in the day to say that she couldn't make it, some form of religious thing that she had to attend. She promised to come for an interview later on in the week before hanging up. Right before the connection died, Cliona could have sworn that she had heard some chanting in the background but she'd brushed that aside, it didn't concern her and it was Lucy's business.
There had also been a blonde haired man that had turned up. Cliona hadn't read his application form so she had never learned his name, in fact she later wondered he had even admitted an application for in the first place. He had sat outside of the office, waiting for his turn like the others. But when his turn had come, he disappeared. It had probably been due to an emergency phone call or something, but his vanishing had made Cliona uneasy.
After him, it was some woman that was obviously in her forties, looking as if she had just gotten back from Woodstock with a dark purple flowing gypsy skirt and hundred of beads hanging from her neck. In fact, she looked like she should have been a member of Fleetwood Mac. She had had long dyed black hair that was messy and looked unbrushed and had seemed very interested in the herbal part of the job. Cliona had told her that they just sold the herbs and didn't exactly look up their meanings for customers, after the woman had told her and Elena about the properties of sage. At first she seemed shocked, but it was quickly replaced by patience and acceptance. Cliona told her that she would be in touch, and that had been the end of that woman, leaving them to interview the last few people that were left.
"I think that girl with the dreadlocks was eyeing up the merchandise too much on her way in. She's probably just after the discount. This place is cheap enough, I don't know why she'd bother" Elena commented, turning to Cliona as she fiddled with the blue pen in her hand. Poor Elena had just sat there, bored out of her mind. After Cliona had told her that she could talk after the third person, Elena had began to ask a few questions herself and within half an hour she was obviously enjoying herself and putting effort into finding the right person to work for Cliona.
"Yeah, about that. I might be forced to raise prices soon. This place isn't doing as well as I thought it would. We've been building up debt. I was looking at the books last night, trying to catch up with it, but our income is smaller than the expenditure" Cliona replied, looking down, ashamed of herself. She had been carrying the burden of the establishment on her own for months, she had worked hard to open it with Cordelia and everyone had been so happy when they'd first seen it and seen the low prices, it had made people want to return. But if she really raised costs, no one would want to see her, they'd think that she was a money grabber. She could always stop buying guitars, or clothes to sell, but that would still leave her with the ones that she already had, and that still left her with the money she owed to the distributors. The debt was accumulating and there was no denying it.
One of Kyle's friends had applied for a position as a shelf stacker and seemed to really want the job. Hiring one of Kyle's friends wasn't a bad move, after all, if he screwed up he'd be risking Kyle's job too. The kid seemed to be good, his close were a bit scraggy but he didn't smell of beer or smoke and he was polite enough. He would be a smart one, he wouldn't risk Kyle's job like that.
The new kid was needed in the store, it couldn't be denied, especially with all of the paperwork that had been building up, inventory, profit and loss accounts, it had all been ignored lately with all that had been going on in Cliona's life. When Cordelia had returned, Cliona had hoped to return to it, but things hadn't exactly gone to plan afterwards. But if she was going to be dealing with all of the papers, she would need someone to help Kyle during the day. She hated asking him to work extra shifts anyway.
Cliona made a mental note to contact Kyle's friend soon to let him know that she wanted him to have the job, but for now she just wanted to leave for the night. She felt guilty making Elena sit through all of the interviewees. It wasn't how a seventeen year old should be spending their day off from school, but she was glad to have her there all the same.
The girl didn't know how much of a God send she was. Cliona wouldn't have been able to cope if it hadn't been for Elena, and for that she was eternally grateful. I probably would have given up after the first two and gone home sick, Cliona thought to herself, then again, I wouldn't be able to go to my own home because it's in both my and Cordelia's names and she could be there.
Mentally sighing, the business woman put down her pen and looked to Elena with a look of desperation in her voice, "I need a drink".
000
The shrieking of a phone echoed throughout the house, demanding to be answered by someone. As he was the only one present, much to his annoyance, Stefan was forced to answer it. Damon had been informed of a Council meeting an hour earlier. He hadn't been to happy about Katherine's appearance the last time he had left the house with only Stefan to hold the fort. Expecting an update on the vampire attacks, Damon was just about ready to tear out the throats of the Council when he learned that the meeting was just about Carol running for election. Once there, he couldn't leave, forcing him to sit through the meeting, to discuss colours for flyers and public talks.
"Hello?"
"Damon?" the other voice asked. It had seemed calm and collected, not anxiously worried if it were Damon who answered the phone or not. A man's voice definitely, but there was something in it, impatience perhaps?
"He's not here at the moment. You'll have to leave a message, I'm afraid" Stefan didn't recognise the voice of the speaker on the other end of the phone, but it sounded like it belonged to a man, definitely. An American man, judging by the accent.
"Tell him to meet me on the bridge, near the cemetery. Ryan needs to see him"
"Hey, but aren't you meant to be with him at the meeting?"
And with that the line went dead.
000
"That was the single most boring thing I've ever had to sit in on"
"I know, but it had to be done. I'm sorry" growned a sincerely apologetic Cliona, as she dumped her bag on the bar and sat on the stool next to Elena, looking forward to a drink and an end to the day she had just had, with all thoughts of job applicants, disappearing men, herb obsessed women and unavailable religious teenage girls, clearing from her mind.
"It's okay. At least it got me out of the house. I think your store is something I'm actually beginning to like" Elena replied with a reassuring smile on her face.
"We met in the shop actually, before we spoke at the Lockwood's"
"I remember, who would of thought back then that we would've ended up here"
"It's mad to think that you'd already been caught in this world, known everything, I mean, it's surreal to think actually. So when you were buying those herbs….."
"It was all for Bonnie. She was working on a spell to repel Katherine."
"Any luck?"
"Apparently it's meant to take a while, so she's still working on it" Elena frowned, scooping up some peanuts and throwing some into her mouth. "I've barely been able to see her, she's become obsessed with it now more than ever since she turned up that night at the Boarding House"
"What will it do to her?"
"I don't know, ward her off I guess. We don't know anything about details. We're all just hoping that Bonnie doesn't tap into any family magic again, it never fairs well."
"How long has she been doing all of this kind of stuff?"
"Since I started seeing Stefan, her Gran let her in on it all, began to teach her, until she died"
"Sounds like they were close"
"In the beginning she didn't believe her Grams whenever she started talking about being a witch, she thought she just drank too much, but towards the end they got really close, she's all Bonnie ever had of her mother's side really, after her mother disappeared"
"That's so sad"
"Trust me, Mystic Falls seems like the perfect happy place, but we've all gone through some form of loss, and we've all got problems"
"Seems like the central place for problems really" Cliona pointed out, I've been here for around 6 months now and I've got vampires after me, lost my best friend, been accused of murder and witchcraft, and some people just hate me in general"
"Sucks"
"Sucks" Cliona repeated, before taking a swig of beer.
"So how have things been going with you and Damon?" Elena asked, changing the conversation topic and putting a few more peanuts into her mouth, before looking over to Cliona.
"We were good, I mean we are, I think. I know I like him, and I know he likes me. I don't want to start throwing lovey dovey words around just yet. We were in a good place before Cordelia turned up, but ever since, he's been out doing whatever it is that he does, and I've been at your house. We haven't had time for ourselves before it's so dangerous"
"I know that feeling" Elena commented, looking down, before taking a sip of her drink, and looking back to Cliona, who continued on as if Elena hadn't said a word.
"I mean. I'm glad she's back. I'm relieved Cordelia is alive, regardless of everything. People thought that I'd killed her and now they know that I didn't. Her mother is finally gone. I don't know she was all I had and if she were to leave now, at least I'd have you and the others, but part of me is angry that she came back and brought all of this trouble with her. But I feel so guilty when I admit that to myself"
"Why?"
"Because I feel as if I've said the equivalent to wanting her dead"
"You can't feel guilty like that. It isn't your fault that this happened to her, you said it yourself, she had a tendency to run off flippantly with all of these random men" Elena tried to reason.
"I know, but what if I'd stopped her that one time. That's all it took. That one time, and I wasn't there. I was with Damon being selfish"
"You weren't. You've always been with her, you're many things, sometimes your lack of confidence can be annoying, sometimes you mumble which is also annoying, but you're not selfish"
"I'm annoying though" Cliona joked.
"Ugh, so annoying, I don't know how you manage" Elena played along. Cliona merely shouldered her in response and the girls laughed.
"Do you think this will all work out?" Cliona asked, turning to look at Elena, hope in her eyes. Elena started back, wishing that that hope would never die. She really did want her new friend to be happy.
"Yeah. This will all fix itself. The boys know what they're doing. Plus, we've got Bonnie and Caroline. And you like Damon and he likes you, so you can have your time together."
"Like the time you've got with Stefan?"
"Trust me, we have to fight to get some time together too. When we first met there were mystery deaths too, except I thought it was him, so you can imagine how that turned out. And then there was the new vampire that ran around and targeted my brother" Elena began to rattle off, not knowing that what she was saying had not only shocked Cliona at first, but was now beginning to frighten her. She didn't want that happening to her and Damon, and the whole concept of new vampires in Mystic Falls seemed to be a common theme within the town. Did that meant that everyone was constantly in danger? Why were the vampires in Mystic Falls exclusively? Or had they been everywhere else she'd lived as she had grown up?
Elena stopped and finally took notice of Cliona's silence. She looked at her silently, before trying to apologize, which Cliona just brushed off.
"It's okay really" came the response, right before the green eyes woman took a big swig of beer.
"No. It's not. No one said these things to me when I started off and I can only imagine what you're feeling. I sometimes forget what it was like at first" Elena pleaded, desperately tried to make an amends.
"Seriously. It's fine"
Their night turned into one of idle chat and two more drinks. For the next few hours, they forgot of their worries and troubles, enjoying themselves and acting normally as if there were no such things as vampires or witches. People came and went into the bar, and it wasn't until around ten o'clock that things began to, unfortunately, return to normal again. The place was really beginning to fill up with young people and tourists taking up all of the chairs they could find. Elena had been accidently pushed in the shoulder by one of the waiters trying to get through and give o order of onion rings to a group men at the other end of the room. He apologised profusely, looking terrifiedly back at her, most likely fearing for his job, before finally heading over to the men with their order.
Elena had given him a little smile and assured him that everything was fine. The noise levels had begin to make it more and more difficult for the two women to talk to each other which annoyed them a bit.
"I'll be right back, I need to go to the bathroom" Elena declared loudly and pointing in the direction of the bathroom, as they stood up getting ready to leave."No problem, I'll wait for you outside" Cliona responded, picking up her handbag and swinging it onto her shoulder, before heading out the door of the Grill and into the cool night.
As Elena walked out of her bathroom stall and went to wash her hands, she kept her head down, as she adjusted her dark purple tank top and straightened herself up. She felt a cool breeze behind her, yet the bathroom door hadn't sounded as if it had been opened. Elena looked up into the mirror in horror seeing her own face looking back at her, twice.
"Hi Elena" purred one of the faces in the mirror.
"Katherine"
Cliona looked down at her watch as she waited outside of the, now empty, car park at the Grill.
"I don't think she's coming"
Cliona turned around sharply and met the eyes of Cordelia. She was wearing her trademark heels and her blonde hair was perfectly curled, contrasting her black skinny jeans and dark blue shirt. Her face was emotionless and gave nothing away
"What are you doing here?"
"Isn't this what friends are supposed to do? Visit each other?" she said the word 'friends' in disdain, as if it physically hurt her to use the word when discussing them. Damon was right, Cliona thought to herself as she edged away slowly, she really is a fucking nutjob.
"Usually whenever friends visit they don't attack each other like the last time we met" Cliona responded.
"Aw and I'd tried my best to be so good. But you smelled so good, and after your boyfriend saved you, I realised all of the bad things about you that I'd overlooked because I was so blind. Blinded by 'friendship'" she created the quotation marks with her fingers.
She swayed from side to side, her head cocked to her left as she stepped closer to Cliona, the more that she moved away from her.
"What do you want me to do? Give you a cliche 'love conquers all' speech? Tell you that our years of friendship can overcome everything?" Cliona rebuked.
Cordelia threw her head back and laughed, and that's when it happened, without warning.
Cliona was flung back by the force of Cordelia's punch.
Cliona was flung against the wall, kicked, punched, scratched. It was only when she was thrown against the dumpster and she heard a snap and felt a pain in her chest. A rib had most likely been broken.
Her head burned, and she could feel something warm covering her face. It was too dark to see, but she knew it was blood. If Cordelia hadn't already begun to try to drain Cliona, then that must've meant that there was something else on her mind overpowering it, Cliona remembered what Elena had said about vampires sometimes having one-track minds. It was evident that anger was what Cordelia had her mind focused on, it was anger that was being directed to the brunette on the ground of the parking lot.
"Oh Cliona, perfect Cliona that does all of the work. Cliona, that went to college and did a fancy degree and did well in it. Cliona that's oh I'm not pretty at all when she obviously has great boobs. You're so great aren't you? So perfect! Everyone just loves you! And you can do whatever you want and bend any rule you like. Ryan loves you because you were great to his kid. His kid's girlfriend even likes you! Well you're not as great as you think you are. You're always thinking about your own problems, but never anyone elses. You think you're selfless, but you're the most selfish of them all! And they still love you! I'm the one that raised most of the money to open the shop. You go around saying you do all the work, but I covered most of my shifts at the store,you were just convinced I'd fuck up and followed me anyway. You never gave me the chance! I'm the one that said we were to go to America! If it weren't for me deciding that, you wouldn't have that old vampire guy following you about like a lost puppy. But he doesn't love you. Not really. He's using you"
"Stop, please" Cliona barely mumbled, she was in so much pain and didn't how much longer she could stay conscious.
"At least, my guy likes me. We're not together, but we are nice to each other and we tolerate each other. He knew all about our aging problems, so he turned me. He didn't exactly do it on purpose. But he was kind. He gave me something. He gave me my youth. Your guy says he loves you and he leaves you vulnerable" Cordelia kicked Cliona in the stomach after each word, "and pathetic",another kick "and human", the last kick delivered knocked Cliona out completely.
"Fucking human"
000
"Well well"
Damon turned around to see the person who owned the voice, a voice which wasn't that of Ryan Sterling, but a Ryan all the same, his face giving away nothing as he finally got to lay his eyes on the person who had been terrorising his town and friends.
"Ryan"
"Long time"
"It has been, when was the last time we saw each other…..seventies?"
"I have to admit, it's odd seeing you with short hair and no denim"
"And I have to admit, it annoys me seeing you haven't changed a bit"
"Oh come on, I'm only having fun. I'm an adult. I can do what I want" he teased, his blue eyes showing how mischievous he was truly feeling. "And I must say, the blonde was a lot of fun...She's probably going to be having plenty of fun herself."
"That phone call, it was you."
"I know, I must say. It is quite handy sharing a name with a human sometimes, even if he is annoying. I have to give him credit though, he had one hell of a tasty wife"
"Well, it's nice catching up and all. We should do it again sometimes, trade numbers. But I've got stuff I need to take care of, people to see" Damon said, before turning to leave. Unfortunately Ryan was faster, having and age advantage, and appeared in front of Damon, catching his throat in an iron-like grip. "Afraid I can't have you doing that Damon. After all, Cordelia is having quite a bit of fun herself."
The next chapter will have more Damon and Cliona I promise! Or at least some form of fight! Also, I haven't gotten a review since around 4 chapters ago, so it would be lovely to get one now, even if it is advice or something you would like to see.
Thank you for all the alerts and reviews!
p.s, for any Hobbit fans there, I've started one and I'm 3 chapters in but none have been uploaded yet, if you want me to upload them a review would be a nice kick or motivation :)
Skitz ;)